Berkeley Unified School District School Board President Ka’Dijah Brown called the most recent school board meeting to order on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. In honor of Black History Month, the evening started with a well-received performance by the Young Black and Gifted program. This program supports Black students' academic and personal growth as well as celebrating Black history.
Following this inspiring performance, public speakers, both in person and on Zoom, were allowed to speak to the school board for public comment.
One public speaker talked in support of the board's plans to construct four or more tennis courts on the Berkeley High School campus.
“New tennis courts at Berkeley High School not only support the tennis team, but support the entire student body through PE classes, and they support everyone in the community who will benefit from having accessible tennis courts,” the public speaker said.
Multiple speakers further stepped up to discuss maintaining the budget for the Bridge Program at BHS. Bridge is a skill-building and college preparation program; its main goal is to assist and support students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds.
“Bridge has a long wait list of students who would benefit from the one-on-one support and structure of Bridge.” One of the public speakers stated, stressing the importance of the Bridge Program for incoming students.
Another topic discussed during the public comments was related to a concern regarding traffic and pedestrian safety around Longfellow Middle School. Due to the construction of workforce housing, BUSD switched the drop-off area for Longfellow to Virginia Street, which contains a bike boulevard. The public speaker asked the board to consider working with the city to find a more suitable drop-off location to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety near Longfellow.
Ana Vasudeo, a board director, further contributed to this topic. Vasudeo said, “I have reached out to Alameda County’s transportation commission to request an updated school safety assessment for Longfellow.” A team of transportation staff, school administrators, and safety specialists would conduct this assessment, identifying potential risks and implementing any needed improvements.
Following board member comments, the Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services, Jill Hoogendyk, presented an overview of BUSD’s mid-year Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) update. The district developed its LCAP by determining student needs, establishing goals, implementing the budget, and finally taking action to achieve its goals.
Last year, the district established five goals of the LCAP, focusing on providing high-quality instruction, implementing academic intervention, establishing wellness and belonging, encouraging partnership and engagement, and efficiently using the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) equality multiplier to support the Berkeley Technology Academy.
The slideshow also presented BUSD’s school dashboard data, showing how our district is doing in several different categories. Overall, there was an improvement from 2023-2024, with the district having growth in areas like the English Language Progress Indicator and in Chronic Absenteeism.
“The California state dashboard is important for key reasons: transparency and accountability, and a centralized and publicly accessible platform. It consolidates important data points and identifies student groups that may need extra support, while also highlighting our eight state priorities,” Lena Sweeney said, as she highlighted different aspects of the dashboard.
Additionally, the slideshow provided an overview of BUSD’s expenditures. So far, the district has spent about $6.5 million of the $15.5 million allocated for actions in the LCAP.
A second presentation shown during the meeting outlined the district's commitment to continuous improvement. As part of this effort, the district has set a 3x5 goal, aiming for three percent annual growth for all students with an accelerated five percent growth target for focal student groups.
“Our continuous improvement focuses on three questions so as we do our work in the classroom, at school site, and in the district. We are really asking ourselves what is it that we are trying to improve? What are the changes or actions we might make and why? And how do we know that change led to improvement?” Hoogendyk said, discussing the district’s model for improvement.
The meeting adjourned after the final presentation that covered curriculum adoption. The presenters walked the board members through the BUSD curriculum adoption process, particularly focusing on AP U.S. History, and touched on the importance of curriculum in student learning. Chris Albeck, Director of Curriculum and Instruction said, “A well-designed, high-quality curriculum that is implemented well can ensure that students, regardless of their background, have access to the knowledge and skills they need to thrive.”