Anthony Guzman I was going to talk briefly about his experiences here at Sierra I've gotten involved with multiple school aid activities that probably wouldn't have in my original school because of the family like environment teachers have more time to spend with individual students and provide insight into their academic struggles when I first arrived this year I didn't realize all the opportunities available I participated in the ELL caps in the L cap student committee school sight Council and government Advanced Placement due to the teachers student support that's year I've improved in my demyx I now see College and my future and expect ik so I did have the opportunity to return to my home high school but decides here was where I belonged next up I would like to introduce Alessandra Macias who is our lead student for the El Cap student representatives here at Sierra so breeding school council I'm honest honest and I'm a proud student here and does the Unified School District I'm a proud Spartan here at here Sierra high school we're all about future goals and spending honestly one thing I'd like to get off is like with the Sierra I feel like I wouldn't be able to get the credit eyes officially needed and you know we'll probably have to be sgt to go through all that again but now I'm also you know I'll cap member and one thing focus on is how we can better the school community throughout the years yeah [Applause] our final students this has provided me many chests as an opportunity last year I was here and I didn't I didn't think I was gonna be able to graduate and then I came here and they provided me an AP class which I'm really grateful because I really loved drawing and I I think later on in life that's that's one of my focuses and I feel really happy because I the teachers helped me out a lot and they basically made my talents grow even more and mrs.
senator Mitchell took that out and we'll see what happened in this big a lot of you are confused by AK just because it's a per tile increase but that is not traditional public schools so just something to paint it to do enrollment changes we're watching this information because of the way the formula works the more did you have with more money you have but is not a speak secret Indiana however bottom line with education well that you can see where we're at 157 out of 289 districts are defining an enrollment that's a problem then we look at our town it was 37 out of the 92 are declining in population there is a correlation and we're watching it closely so we keep an eye on because not tell you who's going to be in trouble and in two five ten years we can look at that trend and it's not a big secret I can also tell you that they cast people who are they're going to be okay for a while okay it's just the way the formulas set up I know it's meeting with diets being review but this is something that we don't really keeping our eyes on right now this is where we are the population at night will tell you having been across this day you are so fortunate to have a green you are so fortunate to have very that means you are increasing you are growth so for everything to be on County population and again on a 1617 day of it to be increasing there are people who would love to be this I guess the south and I find it hot this I would have been a lot of places it doesn't look like this so try to go to Delaware County Madison County does not look like this so kudos to all of you but keep in mind as you are reviewing policy and I know and then the moment you are reviewing it from your lens from our lady's apartment we have to look at it holistically this is not the norm that we see but it really does help in any ways for some of our schools in this area so that's a good day and you can also at least one roll windows so there's a lot of different movement going almost student enrollment that we are also paying attention to but again I know some no one wants to see any red or any decline but boy when I do a comparison of slightest slide this is one that you should be appreciative of it really does make a difference the voucher impact so as we go across the state and talk to folks about the voucher program there's a lot of misunderstanding so whether you buy a program or not that is completely your business here's what I want you to see the fiscal impact that is happening and I know the superintendent to the CFO's in this room are particular in well aware that this is the impact when I am out and about people ask me there's still confusion on all those kids never to do that are they were in schools they were at schools and it got backed now Mike that was the initial intent that was an initial story but when you start pulling data whether you like the data or not you're just pulling data with no record of you it is a white suburban program that's what it is at this point so if you want the data you want to call it something else so I had but if you look at the data that's what it is so a big 8% of the students who are utilizing and have never been in a public school so when I go out for Mike it's a great way to get kids out in failing schools they not leave any school that's not gonna bid at this point you also have 50% using it that all right followed by 21 Hispanic you have 59% you are using it that have an income of over $50,000 so when I hear people saying well that only helps students of the poverty I'm not sure your definition of poverty but when there's 50 90 percent using $50,000 or maybe $50,000 or more that using the program I think it's just good for us to be aware of that information we have an increase in the voucher program I know today you have a lot of people stop by our office that were upset if they do something okay I mean that that's outside of my authority but we didn't we didn't share the information eighty thousand dollars for the voucher expansion that you have to remember the other monies that are coming off the top so again some of you may think that is a great program we like it in others like it's very problematic regardless of where you stand is just good to be informed it's good to be informed so as you're looking at programs you can talk intelligently about truly what's happening with that impact referendums crystal clear every day I'm told this probably multiple times a day right now is we're meeting with General Assembly members if they don't have the money they have a mechanism tell them to run a referendum and some of you in here have done it's a mere year enough to do it some of your we're all over the place but if when you get upset with their little schools because you're like records indicating your beef is not with your superintendent they have to generate dollars to operate so the referendum game is real it is real interestingly when you look at their to going to be three now as far as to referendum options if things go through the general fund revenue anthem is interesting out of the 66 that have been attempted so out of the 66 that have attempted with declining enrollment to argh sorry 26 of the 66 had declining enrollment so when you talk about the school's most oppressed and who needs the funding and who probably needs to be looking at a referendum those are your tools who some of the time aren't even attempting it when we talk to them it's a lot of we know our communities that's never going to go up too much farmland to be retirees we just know our folks that's not going to work so is it an option for everybody I mean that's the conversation we're having aren't we creating the house we have an honest you try to run this trade-off counter you try to run run in Cass County you try to right line up the key area I mean it really does send another picture and another message the construction we're having us with as well I don't tell me over all these percentages aren't impressive because I know we talked about this earlier referendum targets fun time of work for everybody there for the community for the students for families for administrators it's a lot of work Indiana's been pretty successful with that then again I'm worried about those are like there's no way I'm trying out cuz there's no black and passing the other piece is going to be interesting is if the safety referendum language stays true that's going to be interesting because I think it's a different dynamic when you come to your community and say I need to build versus I want to keep your kids safer so that's going to be interesting on where that lands I know really and we've had some other districts that have used some of that don't fund referendum for safety purposes but when you can say they're doing it for the purpose of safety period that's that could be a different conversation will be interesting to see what happens with that the government structure we share this because it is unique and people will argue this is at night week you make up your own line that I will tell you the cross the nation I've had some possible and you people I've watched your mind so this is the government structure currently Indiana's is designed that our state board is very heavy with government governor appointees now when they agree or disagree that that's what it is it's the governor's board period then you move over to the Department of Education my office the commission of higher ed gwtp which are at the developer so the governor's sent three out of the four classes which I understand I did I gave the position I understand the authority of the power and I understand it what's interesting is post-2020 when my position becomes a appointed position this structure is what's not known so we will have the State Board still by the governor you will have a departmental Commission than Department of Education all controlled by one office that is not the norm we have found one other state that plays in that arena and it's not little so this is just interesting to watch the dynamics we have said if you want - is that a state superintendent position to be appointed okay I get it I get it we don't have to debate on whether we agree with it so there's no people voice there so where's the people's voice we say confirm that person so I have a federal level where it goes to the Senate to get confirmation we've said at least let the power would be in the people's voice in those confirmations or you look at the State Board which many many states have state boards that are elected so they're regionally elected so that you have some other mechanism for your local voice in this dynamic if not you have a tremendous amount of power in one office it's just what you may be like yeah that's awesome and others maybe like a comma so depending on where you stand on that it's just good for you to have that information so you can think about it because it's just an interesting governance structure in 2020 I have told the people and I'm sure it's going to the press again because we talked about it yesterday today we keep telling people in 2020 shame on us as k12 educators if we don't start pushing on officials who are running for offices at the local level at the state level at the national level that we 12 conversation needs to be alive and in the forefront we need to start asking some questions but sometimes on the campaign trail which I think I own I would say those education questions and I watched everybody else trying to skirt around I thought but at the time I knew that was my charge and I in fact I mean I knew what I was writing for it'll be interesting but there's no meaning when there's no blender running but there's no one running for that office but the governor are we going to the whoever the people may need are we going to push on those issues are we going to give them a pass shame on us that we give them a pass what is the philosophy of education where is your plan who are you running a superintendent who you on point we need to know your philosophy we need to know where you stand if we don't ask I promise you no one's going to tell so we need to start making some really concerted efforts to start being educated and start asking questions it doesn't matter if it's a Republican Democrat independent where I'm going with it I don't care who's running for governor on any side we need to start asking some questions because of this there's so much power in that office this is just an area that we need to pay attention to this is where we are at strategic plans as a state we're watching literacy stem science technology engineering math and CTE this is not a seizure its districts a lot of districts are on the same path interestingly the bottom two pretty much aligned to that it stays as a whole where we get a little off and I get a lot of questions needle is that all of you in this room no you don't get a good solid foundational start and literacy it doesn't matter what happens on the other two because it's pretty darn hard I think it comes to high school after high school principals I like the kids reading at fourth-grade level I got to get him through your psyche good luck good luck so we are still made to be meaning that emphasis on literacy in that a to space and time to add some really good framers and really good tools I thought early literacy people are trying to go in front of it it is a tough lift and I know many of our districts have focused through multi-tiered systems of support and some of your programming and your staffing and you I have faith in our districts to get this area done but I will tell you this is one area that we get a lot push push back on what would you like well you can't take your eyes off that you can not now the next probably well that you will not so Sten and then that College of career-tech Adam these are just some tools that we have provided for your districts and the reason I show you this is because we have a really really good team with the Department and I super proud of them they don't like then our philosophy at the department is more of guidance and support it is not top-down control and we went through that it does not work so R cross P is followers and our followers have to be very dangerous and I will tell you I am really really really impressed by a leadership across our state do we have some work to do absolutely that we have customer really great leaders across our state that are doing some really really great work and that's leadership that the central almost level building level in the classroom just really solid work so some of them may be proud of the SEL I'm going to take a moment for non-educators of people were like unity snack that's that social-emotional learning which we all know is extremely important beyond just the academic piece we are struggling to get that push through with school safety it's the oddest thing I've ever been part of so we thought we had it through the house then we had some pushback in the Senate we're going back and forth as far as is it too soft and I'm like really I mean educator to know how much emphasis right now and how important the social emotional learning pieces if we can figure that piece out as any piece would be so much easier that that is a piece that we're all struggling I don't care if you're coming from a district of poverty or a district of wealth we are all struggling with I see how it is expensive so the partnerships were trying to develop the staffing we're trying to lose that is an expensive adventurer ask your superintendents they will tell you it is not cheap it is necessary but that SEO piece we are still having conversations on it I don't even know how to react to mine I'm told it's just soft it's too hard to define well you tell that to an estate that has second in the nation on suicide a tennis for high school students like are we going to have the conversation are we going to say too soft so those are the areas that we are still hammering into really see some movement in you've got to address this we have too many volatile parts again a lot going on in stem one piece of care I want to bring your attention to is the cyber course interestingly when we open that up I was like we get 10 I'm super excited we start a sign of course for high school we also started a cyber campaign for the district level to help employees I think it is going that's awesome we're now at 60 high schools and that is a very very short amount of time now sends me over yet we thought okay that's great but your team is closed so we're trying to give some of that out but I will tell you that site our piece is moving enough up and thank you to the districts you are saying you will download that opportunity for students but these might not completely make a difference now our Simmons based on our Sun council based on the governor's request came up of the stem way we have a lot of people to take that Lily we have a beautiful we had educators we had legislators we have a lot of people to take you for the steps on its side it is solid but we need twenty million dollars to even just start pushing the envelope so we put our twenty million dollar apps right now it's sitting out of million dollars now if you want to push them in the state of Indiana less than a dollar per child is not going to get it done so at a title we're saying no those chocolates got a million to fill over the next ten years and oh by the way and many of them are high-wage high-demand STEM jobs but we're going to give you a dollar less than a dollar per student per year in addition to what you get out of your funding it becomes an issue of priorities and I know twenty million dollars won't even scratch the surface I did we have labs they don't have equipment we have labs that are modifies we have curriculum that needs serious work I mean I'm across the state I am look at those things because you have those who are like man this is this could go up against any college the facilities are just amazing and lab equipment the modernization and I walk into some and there's a back at dirt and appeal now my blood is going on because they're like we don't have the funding for the equipment or the clientele it doesn't necessarily take care of some of the equipment and so they've got this non-stop battle with trying to fund it so the stem piece is something that we're paying attention to that all of you know the importance of that we have got to fund it I can find the money today I can find it it's just you gotta prioritize so that funding piece is interesting we do have our framework out that I know many of our districts are looking at but we will continue with the stem plan we're just going to struggle with the funding CTE as a state we're doing really really well something to pay attention to 88% of our high school graduates already take at least one career-tech many course now where some of you like you like that career tech ed we talk about you to be like vocational education some of us out depending on them when you went through school but that career-tech penny piece is very much more modernized we have districts that work and really learn in this arena but I know it got a lot in a ways this session something to pay into to hook to all this if our educators are getting license renewal with PD PD points so you can either go traditional to a problem or you can get it pointing at night and reading their races so most educators are like I get back now it's reading license it's the language stage you have traffic 15 hours is industry so ready for a kindergarten teacher especially teacher shocked to hear you know CTE welding whatever the case may be we'd have to have those 15 hours so we've already had people call note how are we used to scale that like what does that look like I don't know I mean we'll see if the language those throat sticks you will have to have no error we are gearing up to help we're going to have to have some districts help us I met with the South 18 when I brought it up and they looked at me I got ten hats and I like to have a bigger back so when you think about 75,000 teachers who may know that about where is the capacity for that so I know we also had teachers going is that really appropriate for the kindergarten teacher and we can have that things regarding I can get good for us to know what's going on in the workplace we have programs that allow that now but that pgp piece is going to be interesting some districts don't have a problem at all there are the other districts or we're really going to have to assist so we're trying to gear up to figure out that's going to go through externships we have put a lot of hard money or state money toward allowing educators to go into that business arena and work for two weeks he exposed for three weeks one week whatever the case may be toward their interest so if they're like I'm a physics teacher and I want to see how Lily works we're going to say okay here's your money to go into Lily for one week two week three week whatever maybe if they agree to take you as an extern so we are doing a lot of that partnering so I'm not going to tell you that my concern is scaling it and making sure it's of quality and also listening to the educators on interest I think that's going to be an interesting dynamic a lot of things happening obviously in the State House we talked about most of the something of the importance that's kind of coming in and kind of coming out so if a school principal it's heads up in that virtual bill you saw that many surgeons of code 20 which is when this kids are in your school and they say I'm going to meet you and they'll get home-schooled there's some caveats now I believe you can and cannot count them so that I got the last hour I don't know it's in there now honestly it could be out it's a moving target but just something to pay attention to school safety letting me know sixty million dollars a year in Indiana for assessment sixty million dollars of what we say on assessment school safety were making for 14 so will you have school C referendums probably probably that's going to be a mechanism all of us are trying to re-roofing and some of our districts has done a really great job others are trying to figure out the funding a piece of it so the schools a piece they still out there it just even in perspective when we react to this number so that people who are not educators understand the working of the priority on the millions of dollars it's just I think something important to know any questions I found a new trick you guys got thanks for coming tonight actually for me I don't really have a question I just want to give you a couple of comments one to confirm what you said earlier about House bill 1404 we ended up today was what they call third reading deadline which basically means if it doesn't pass today it's dead and senator rocks was that the Senate sponsor and did not call it so that bill has cease to exist as a Senate session one other thing I was just going to say just to affirm what dr.
strick and she's one of the teachers that helped me out the most she she took me to museos to see more about art and I was able to experiment many kinds of art like oil pastel water for coloring and I went to a lot of art shows too and I was able to see different kind of artists because I didn't know many of those and I passed this class with a three and I feel really proud because you know not many students get that chance to pass an AP class and so when I go to college I must be able to get an advance because I already passed course and I feel really really inspirational book to other people I want other people to do the same thing I did [Applause] as I said students they're just amazing so thank you very much for this opportunity I have a certificates for both of you so come on down ladies in general and this is for the Azusa Unified School District certificate of recognition is proud to present is probably presented to Sierra high school for promoting student achievement through rigorous instruction and community engagement [Applause] here we go it pretty much says add isuzu Unified School District certificate of recognition proudly presented to Azusa Adult Education Center for promoting student achievement through rigorous instruction and community engagement and we're all gonna take a picture all right okay and I'd like to tell you gentleman my son graduated from the likes your high school yes yeah continuation I was trying to think of the alternative high school and he now makes $75,000 a year doing computers so you guys have a future thank you thank you [Applause] alright next moving on to item 5.2 and that's recognition of that the L cap the local control accountability plan Student Advisory Committee okay I'm gonna ask all of our members to come up and just stand behind me right now well they're coming up I'll start president says Gonzales board members dr.
McCormick is saying she will be for the first time in Indiana history the last publicly elected Superintendent of Public Instruction and I have been one of those that's been consistently against that for exactly the reasons you described and that is that this was at least one way in which the people of our state could have a voice in this process my very first year very first session everything's new and this one came down the pike and sent me to the principal's office a few times where I had conversations with the governor about it and so I remember sitting in his office and he was feeling me out on this thing and I said well here's here's my feeling should more power be in the hands of more people or less people which is exactly the point you're making here I said based on our system of government in our Constitution and power should be in the hands of more people and this is a mechanism by which the people can speak he said well if that's the case then in theory every position in the administration should be elected I said yeah you could make that point but they aren't this one still is and that he and then also said that also assumes that people should be informed and who they elect I said exactly right and that's their responsibility to be informed my responsibilities to protect their ability to have that voice at the ballot well as you no that has passed and then based on dr.
Kaminsky cabinet just super excited and honored to be here this evening to introduce you to an amazing group of young men and women and they make up our L cap Student Advisory Committee and just a little background the L cap the local control and accountability plan is a document that we are required by law to do and it's a three year document and every year we update it and part of the requirement for developing a districts L cap is to involve stakeholders to really hear the voices of all of the stakeholders in our district as we make decisions and set goals and measure those the progress towards those goals and one of our very important groups of stakeholders are our students and so this L cap student Advisory Committee meets three times a year for a full day which is really unusual for most districts and that allows us to not only help them fully understand lcff the funding formula for California and the El Cap but also to have deep authentic input and kind of analysis of what we need to do in our district and how we can continue to grow so I don't want to spend too much time talking I have a couple of students who will share a little bit with you about what we've done this year and then I will let them each introduce themselves hello my name is Jackie and I was actually given the opportunity to be the L cap advisor for my high school Gladstone High School and so my role as the advisor was to organize a group of ten students who were either involved in like school activities are just academically involved or even if they were just interested and wanted to be a part of the team so thanks to the L cap committee we were able to learn about how the district budget is usual utilized through the lcff and L cap another big part of our meetings were dedicating a portion of the time to the district's annual student survey in the first meeting we analyzed the 2017 to 2018 survey by going through every question and discussing why students may have felt that way or even why they answer to those questions a certain way this survey was discussed through our other meetings as well and then we at our last meeting we were able to analyze the 2018 and 2019 survey and we use the same process as before so we went through every question and we act and actually we were able to compare it to the previous year's survey and we also saw like Oh like why did this answer change why did students like decided like answer this way instead and something interesting that we did notice this year was that we received a higher number in participation so thanks to these surveys the district is able to meet the needs and student meet the needs of students required thank you [Applause] hello again I'm Alessandro and I'm a member of the okay up committee and one part like I said earlier is Sousa is all about a continuous cycle of renewing our how we go our rules and our ball wasn't you know basic stuff not trying to get too little and I feel like participating will be able to get not just my voice but others out there who feel like oh we need to change this or we can improve on these needs and I feel like oh not just I above many others have participated well and I'm just proud proud to uh let's just stay I'm hearing the Sousa do what I like you know just speak to a crowd who actually cares I have to tell it a quick story because on the very first trip I ride a bus and I pick up each group at their school bring them back to the district office and the first first stop of the first meeting I don't we don't know each other so I'm trying to make small talk and I said oh welcome thank you I'm so excited to meet you you know the future leaders and I got back on the bus and continued to ride and pick up the other students and when I got off the bus I realized I really needed to apologize to them and I first thing I said I said I need to apologize to you because as you sit in front of me you are not the Future leader is in Azusa you are the leaders right now and that's what's so exciting about the Oh cap Student Advisory Committee these are our community leaders helping to impact our schools right now so I'm gonna let them introduce themselves and what school they're from and what grade they're in [Applause] hi my name is Cathy Cortez I'm sorry I'm sure my name is Cathy Cortez I'm in ninth grade I come from glass stone high school and elk have taught me how to show my voice without being shy and how to make other people's voices feel mattered instead of being silenced because of what the majority thinks so that's what I love about El Cap and being here [Applause] hi I'm Jung Jin Zhen from Azusa High and I'm a sophomore and I'm really got to be part of the L cup community because I get to voice not will only and what I think but on my fellow students think and I think this is a really great way to find the best way to help not just the students but the teachers improve and the district improve as a whole my name is Michelle keener and I'm in 10th grade high school I think that the L cap meetings were very important because I get to like put my in I am my impact and like quite being where I'm when you should go and then also help like other students I don't know like help like their voice be heard like what they need whether it's fizzing educational wise or classrooms or just like I don't know like whatever they need you know because like a lot of my friends would be like oh much in the sky meeting so I would and then I just like it could be helped to be heard and I just felt like the test I'd like the result of the comparison will like helpful because we get to see what needs to be fixed and like where our next step should be we have some certificates for you yeah so we have a an incredible kind of problem this evening because we have a stack this size of certificates to give out to young people who participated so I just want to say to you to you all your your voice is so valuable your voices is so much needed and so I wanna I want to thank you for for exercising that your that privilege and using your voice to not only represent yourself but also your your your peers and classmates that's that's extremely valuable for us and I want to echo Jennifer what you said that y'all are not Future Leaders you guys are leaders here and now today so so thank you for being those leaders and it says here Azusa Unified School District certificate of recognition is proudly presented to you all for contributions to the a USD through participation in the 1819 L cap Student Advisory Committee [Applause] come on up thank you moving on we have five point three recognition of the Gladstone High School sonic boom choir good evening I have the honor to introduce the director of our award-winning sonnet requires this Jade Clovis via evening to the board I wasn't expecting to speak but um thank you so much for having us tonight I have been in the district I think this is going on my seventh or eighth year and I work at both Lawson and Gladstone and this group of kids this is not the first year that Gladstone has won awards when we've attended competitions but this is the culmination of eight years of me teaching in the district and these kids who are now seniors I have had a lot of them since they were in sixth grade or seventh grade or ninth grade so this is a really long time and these kids and dedicate they dedicate so much time to their craft not just six extra hours a week outside of class but weekends and weeknights and fundraisers and I'm not only proud of their musical accomplishments because they are very competent and to musicians but I'm so proud of the individuals that they are because they represent such a wide spectrum of the zoo community we have students who are involved in the medical program in JROTC in art classes AP classes on student leadership are avid program and they make time to dedicate time to this program and we have a saying in might that's up in my classroom that says make the family proud and I'm incredibly proud of them and it's one of my favorite things about working in Azusa is that we are really a family district I've had so many kids who I've had their little brothers and sisters or their cousins so we really build from the ground up and these kids are a really great representation of what it means to have a dedicated music program in schools that focuses not only on understanding and appreciating talent but working on it and learning what it means to be a responsible student and future member of the community so thank you so much for having us and they're talking about my mic I'm really I'm very honored to present this award I'm number one fan I'm at every event my kids yes I sit right in the front and I'm always there and these students they are leaders but they're also our future singers and dancers you're gonna see them somewhere after soon actresses they're fantastic I'm so impressed when I see them singing and I see them dancing and they sing songs away from the 40s 50s they go all the way up and it's they're fantastic so I'm proud to present this award this is Unified School District certificate of recognition is probably to present Grafton High School sonic boom chorus for placing third place and winning best show in Naviance mixed division and Burbank blasts April 16 2019 signed by dr.
McCormick's announcement of not running they've moved that date up and so I just want to affirm what you're saying and that that call to all of you to make sure you stay on top of these things because it will be up to you to make sure that you're vetting whoever the potential candidates are for whoever it's going to be the next Superintendent of Public Instruction but this one to give you a couple of days there and thank you very much for being here speciated sure it's alright Patel look your name on you mentioned is social-emotional learning and the money that you're spending on that did you define which eg by social-emotional learning and also here in Avon be kind of a successful program called leader in me and too little entry schools that were aware of my son actually 10sec great and it's an amazing program and just wondering if you've had any comments about that was specific without that program in the state yeah I would say we got a large federal grant then it allowed us to select three districts a only one of them we try to get a large midsize small to really have districts try different models that would be useful to scale collect data on to say is it good or why and how we make sure that we are in an territory and that even how to measure it is being questioned and so we're looking at our districts who are piloting many many different programs we try to make sure that those were some vetted programs so that we are servicing our kids using multiple mechanisms through our model value multi-tiered systems of support different districts are using different things for the behavioral piece and I know there's debate whether the social learning in the mental health piece which is more diagnostic it has been an interesting conversation but many of our districts in if I go to see very video of the exact definition no but I'm going to tell you there are a lot of students through that social-emotional learning piece through the need a lot of assistance so we're trying to develop some of those to learn from achievement each other I don't have all the answers we'll look at working with a lot of the university folks our healthcare professions and them say other agencies that helped us with this what I will say though is we have a lot of schools that tell us we need more school counselors we need more social workers we need more behavioral type of contracts to help us with some of the social emotional pieces so the other piece of it is we're looking at some of the coursework that universities are doing in that arena to be more purposeful about it in the middle school high school arena so we are doing some of that work again it is not perfect but there is enough people who are sending signals from us from the local level to say we need assistance in this arena look totally buried in the question I have from your point of view is while I realize the state funding for education is a large piece of that pie and I know it's I know it's intricate and I know that there's something to watch them watch there that's fairly respecting for that step the buildings themselves of the teachers in your opinion is the amount of funding that the state gives to education sufficient or is it possible in Kent and maybe she's not being managed directly or do we need more allocated and you know so it's a great question so a couple of things one we are expensive we're we're having a state budget so we do get a lot of attention because we're super expensive I get that I also hear conversations from folks saying I live in X district and they're not fiscally efficient or they're not fiscally responsible or they're not transparent so I've heard all that - I've also seen districts that are doing a magnificent job with balancing that being very fiscally prudent but making sure that you are partnering that a lot of great works going on in that in that arena so you've seen it kind of all over the place here's what I will tell you when you start comparing at the national level when we are dead last 50 about a 50 on the amount of teacher increase in pay from 2002 to now were dead last you have to have a conversation is it enough I would argue it's not enough I know it is extremely expensive to educate a child and I know that one does any way to every single child because there are a lot of different needs but that amount of money has become problematic with inflation with some of our programs going through with the way our formula works there are a lot of layers to it but can we get better at the physical piece we always have room for improvement we always have a front ruin but I would say the majority of our districts are doing a really good job with the resources they have but they it's at that point where we have got to invest more in that Quito arena we have to a lot of our do you got attack in the pre-k area that were woefully under spending in that dream a piece many of our districts are doing a great job but we still have counties that are void of quality programs that is going to catch up with us it's already caught up with us so it's never enough there's no and people say what is that dollar amount it really want depends on district but it also it's just when you start looking nationally and making those comparisons we are we're not what we need to be doctor buds supertunia [Applause] [Music] couple of times if you hit on obviously we are over happy but we need not forget that in 2007 we as voters made the conscious decision in two consecutive years to put in place at that same time our General Assembly crops to feed upon our schools inflation and our property taxes have been capped so the assumption that 50% is high is true however it is a result of the state saying we're going to take this burden off little taxpayers and then put a backlog in this referendum which we are today that being said there have been many opportunities in many discussions this session on how to fix the teacher page all of that falls flat because it's a terribly complex issue is one that is part of globally the exclusive representation competition obviously so it's a complex question I appreciate the question and it can be quite frustrating every binder the governor came out and saying he's gonna develop a committee and he's gonna study this the concern came because there was really no educator on the committee except for on the committee that was for informing purposes only so there was a superintendent I believe in maybe a teacher a CFO sorry but there's a committee being formed to help study that we've also said now that I am looking at the lens of the state level we have provided some suggestions for cost savings so a lot of us have do a lot of good cost sharing right now a lot of us are really good at purchasing right now at the local level that ia would argue there are some more cost savings to that there are also programs some shifts that are being built at the state level but there is no intention to sell that shift and innovations for that so where I'm like we don't need that where we have it that's five million dollars we may not have the cataract but we have a Volkswagen and it's running why are why are we not looking at all those pieces and putting it toward that fun ways to get dollars back into the classroom there are some other ways to look at some things differently as far as there are some ideas being floated that just because we weren't asked to be part of that committee the department was carved out of that we're not going to be quiet we will develop our own committee and there's some folks in here that are on that to generate some ideas to say what are we going to take to that committee we just can't sit back and be quiet we have to look at the big picture but it goes wrong anything from purchasing tax generation there are just a lot of pieces to it so there's no easy answer to that you also are sitting on a huge surplus and I know people who are consistent conservative fiscally are like leaving a lovely no love there are other people like spend that sector now so you've got both sides of that coming into state level but that's another piece of this Indiana is very heavy on some of their tax forgiveness tips districts are getting very interesting for some of our districts so there are a lot of pieces to it that we are looking at there's no one answer to this but it's going to take money to operate you cannot operate expensive schools without putting toward the money it has to have to operate there just have to look at it through a lot of lenses there's no point answer but I know there are a lot of people trying to look at it for this biennium we're out of time I mean that's the reality of it here's what's frustrating there were a lot of promises made a lot of promises made out of the gate for instance the 85/15 I listened to state leadership saying and we do this your teachers are going to get a 5% increase you know that was that was a big false promise no way there is no way that's when you weight into a fighter separates and if you're in a district where you can get one you should celebrate and stay put for a while that is not the norm but to come out I go across the state and teachers are now telling me but I read the article and there's a 5% increase coming that is a false promise and what that's going to create is promise at the bargaining table so we have a superintendent a CFO going not really and the way that I read the article based on the news clip I'm watching social media and they said it would equate to a 5% raise then you have local infighting versus your energy should be spent at the state level but those are the kind of thing is going through now we did appreciate the turf option buying down that turf get that percentage down for our districts that is a good solution and we went to the governor's office it's a good solution I mean that was a good thing there were other parts of it that we're not super happy with but those are the type of conversations you have to have but I don't agree with is carving people out of that conversation that is not healthy for a state you got a lot of smart people who have been in school finance for a long time there's some really really good ideas but there hasn't been time but you start asking them they're like you could look at this without way and you could look at this you can look back you could mean they just are traveling on things that make real the common common sense but you have to have that conversation so we are looking at that super complex issue there no easy solution but for this biennium that ship is safe I mean there that we are out of time with that budget dr.
Linda Kaminski superintendent and our board president children in Cruz Gonzalez and I think that Jade followed me because I knew her since garvin school before she got here first of you're here I don't know okay so and she does a fantastic job she did a fantastic job at Garvey School District and she's doing a fantastic job here for us [Applause] are we gonna get an improv is anyone have anything to say I know you're all see all I knew you would are you gonna sing class you're gonna sing or dance for us quick attachments that would like to say thank you to the community and to the board and twelve educators in the room for acknowledging our success in treatment as I humble show choir having done this program for four years I can tell you it's not always plaques and trophies that keep us going with the recognition of hard work and determination for our community thank you very much all right my name is Amanda Espinosa and I am one of the captains for sonicboom I just want to say I'm very grateful for us thing with all of you wonderful talented you know classmates of mine for four years sonic boom does not only teach us how to perform or sing but it also gives us insight of how to take leadership it also gives us inside on you know communicating you know so I'm very grateful for the lessons that you've taught me yeah thank you I have been taking this class sixth grade and I am very proud to say that I'm still one of her students my senior year and I'm so happy to have been in this group and in this class this class has taught me how to become a better performer a better musician how to be confident in myself more and I'm very thankful for that [Applause] no no song one more this gentleman sings Amy Winehouse love that song hi my name is roba I'm a captain of sonic booms choir I just uh I'm very thankful to be here today with all of my fellow classmates and not only my classmates but my teammates and my family sonic boom has really become a second home to me and the kids standing up here today and what my fellow musicians and dancers are means so much to me and it's been truly the best you know four years of my life being able to be a part of something and say that I'm a part of a choir at Gladstone high school and be a part of a show choir and be a part of a team it showed me a lot it's taught me a lot and it's it's given me a lot so I'm just really thankful if you if you want I'm gonna sing for us alright I'm not a singer [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you thank you all right that was great thank you so much I know we put you on the spot so really appreciate that you sang for us and so now we'll move on to item five point four and that's employee recognition program the cube award so we'll start good evening everyone I certainly have a tough act to follow well join students but I do have the distinct pleasure of talking about our employee recognition program this is a school district has an employee recognition program that it's had in place since 1990 and 522 employees have been honored in the 29 years of its existence some phenomenal names that I was reading through as I was combing through the list recognize employees receive a cube and I have one here for their first time receiving the award and if they receive the recognition a second time they were receiving encore award some phenomenal phenomenal recognition that we do here this award is involves the for labor groups are a partner's classified CSCA a PHA at the Duskull and management they all meet together to determine who the recipients are the criteria to receive this award is employees have to make a significant contribution to the organization over an extended period of time contributions which is recognized as a significant accomplishment or recognition to the district and contributes to the health and welfare of others as well as staff morale which promotes a positive working environment so that's the overview of this award at this time I'd like for Mary Pollard to come up on behalf of Miss Kramer I like to present miss Pollard with this award I have a couple words I like to share regarding miss Pollard if you were to make your way around the Sousa Unified you will run into many wonderful and interesting people you will meet students families teachers office staff custodians volunteers and many more folks who are a part of our wonderful community however many will not necessarily wander to the special education Resource Center nestled in the hallways of the special education local plan area otherwise known as the Selva building just a block away on arrow Highway in that office you will have the pleasure of meeting Mary Pollard for over 18 years Mary has worked in the isuzu unified program for the visually impaired she started off her time in the program as a support provider for a student enrolled in the VI program she then pursued certification as a prayer Braille transcribers she is described by her colleagues as one of the hardest-working people they have met they share what an incredibly positive person she is who brings joy to anyone she works with her work is close to her heart because she knows that she is a key for providing students to access their education you know program she takes seriously her role in transcribing anything from a story like Charlotte's Web for a third grade student to a textbook on precalculus for his student taking at a vast placement course she does this tireless tirelessly day in and day out for it so that as she says students are able to participate in the classroom and at home in their studies right alongside their sighted peers that's what I enjoy she also cites how much she likes working with a supportive group of professionals who serve many of the districts in the st.
McCormick thanks for being here and thank you for being a rebel rouser I appreciate appreciate you standing up for our teachers and our kids well you said I believe you said sixty million dollars we are spending on assessments can you talk a little bit about how we get a handle on these assessments and we do what's right for the kids so some of that is a necessity out of the federal requirement not all of it now interestingly there are people who are hearing from the feds he created do this do that good luck admit through so it looks good in an article it looks good for the one districts which are the state he tries it and they're back to square one so careful what you read and read out that the lintons it's more accurate so that testing piece a lot of that comes from the federal government the requirement now we can say is to say we don't want to do that any longer out of our nine million dollar budget 1 million is federal money so we're willing to forget 1 million dollars we can say hasta to the testing which is interesting we've also approached some of our state leaders and say we have a solution here's how we can save money so we're throwing all kinds of solutions out for instance I read it would not take a huge lift to turn with the two questions in I learned three to do the exact same thing and give you some good data that would be a big cost savings time savings prep savings the list goes on for third grade but you have to have an appetite to change that so until that happens we will continue to spend an enormous amount of money on testing I would also argue although there are parts of grad pathway that I think people can get behind we are already getting calls going who's funding that tag got it I don't have the money to fund it so I have districts that are saying some of these credential tests are extremely expensive and we've not given it because X Y Z II although we do have the money we would put toward it but who's going to ensure access to different pathways that students can now take to graduate and some of them are assessments some are free some are just pricey and so who's going to pick that that love so when we win it with our numbers that suddenly that sixty million dollars is it going to get us there because some of our districts do not have the families that they can't say will take the SAT we'll take a CT we'll take it a couple times and if that doesn't work I'm gonna pay for the welding certification good for you and that your district but that is not the norm so we are trying to figure out what that looks like what do we need to do but my fear is that expensive testing is continuing to climb or like I said already any calls we're saying how is this going to work and it's not what they're saying we don't want to do it it's how is it going to actually work and so the fiscal piece that we were saying from the beginning pump the brakes innocent to figure out the physical piece because we knew the biennium was coming up no not going to pump the brakes here we are today and we have about 1% of our schools use it so I think that that I don't think it will pick up especially with some ice I stepped in issues that will pick up but I do not receive a cost of assessment going down anytime soon I also don't see the time going down that was our low light and at that time you never get the tight down that mr.
Gabriel Valley providing be ice services she is proud of how greatly dedicated she and her colleagues are a special group of students as Mary says they are the heart of our program it is a pleasure to highlight Mary Pollard and the wonderful work she brings to our community and students congratulations Mary bars [Applause] mary mary pollard we recommend that the board the Board of Education recognizes you for your excellence and your employment your dedication your passion every day that you come to work that you put everybody else first and you do an excellent job thank you Mary not this time I like to invite miss long who will be presenting our next recipient good evening I am honored to present this next recipient to Mississippi Crawford [Applause] mrs. cropper was nominated by our counselor dr. Cora and so I'm gonna read a few thoughts but I jotted down a few extra things on my own I'm not a man nominating Cindy Crawford because of her dedication to our students Cindy has taught Spanish at GHS for many years however also during this time she's taught other courses including our apex credit recovery classes and oversees our advisory program Cindy takes her craft seriously if she sees that a student is not completing his or her homework she encourages that student to see her at lunch or after school to receive assistance she ensures that her students have the foundation needed in order to be successful in higher-level Spanish classes she's also very diligent about calling parents she calls parents every day many times the call will not just be about their Spanish class but about all their classes parents are grateful for the communication and help from their child for the 2017-18 school year 102 students pass an apex class under her leadership approximately 50 seniors would not have graduated without her constant communication and encouragement to students and their parents although the class was online and she stayed after school many days for seniors to work in her room in order for them to finish their classes she currently oversees the afternoon apex program for the last couple years cindy has overseen our advisory program this program is designed for our students to receive an additional 25 minutes a day of homework help Cindy reviews students data every tribe to determine who needs advisory and which class would be the most beneficial for them she coordinates who earns the incentive which is the early lunch and the stickers for their IDs lastly she's available for students to get a pass if they need to see a different teacher for advisory she's an outstanding mother friend colleague and teacher for these reasons and more I hope you recognize Cindy Crawford for her debt commitment and I'm gonna add since December we have had for Saturday academies at Gladstone high school and within those forests Saturday academies we've had over a thousand students come to school on Saturday actually had a parent roll down his window just this past Saturday and say what exactly do you do on Saturday my son has never wanted to come to school on Saturday but begged me to bring him so this is what we've done we've had history DBQ class we've had an English essay class we've had field trips to several museums downtown we've had sports tournaments and competitions in the gym and outside we've had art class for the last two Saturday academies we've had math reteaching and retesting for the last three Saturday academies and we've had biology makeup labs and makeup tests over the last three Saturday economies so over a thousand students coordinated by mrs.
got pathways for our high school kids I'm assuming that's going to go up I'm already hearing a lot of stories about a lot of testing so we'll see what that takes us that's recording thank you so much for coming to talk with us I would like to talk more about teacher compensation but unfortunately it raises my blood pressure before in Phoenix I think I think that was on my radar until just recently I come in to go to the National School Board Association meeting the convention in Philadelphia where there was a lot of talk in some of very dense population states about the effect of the 2020 census accuracy on educational funding unfortunately there are a lot of illegal as we can see it reflected in the PLL that also homeless population that will have profound impact if not counted in the funding for school corporations that enjoy a great deal of those types of populations on Indiana School Board Association is really working hard in the next 12 months because the census will hit us in 12 months to assist with getting more accuracy and reflected so that every student counts and the funding can follow those students I would just appeal to you and then ideally to partner with us along with other collaborative partnerships in order to make sure that we do everything possible for educational funding to make the census of Factory is are there any things that your office is presently doing to ensure that yes and I appreciate that question our team depending on the area they serve we've been on a DC quite a bit having conversations about just this will it in Indiana you bet so the debris is the decor is the question so yes given some of our counts are very dependent upon that data and if that data is skewed in a negative manner we're gonna feel it we're gonna feel it again it's 1 billion dollars so we are watching that issue we've been having conversations it's interesting I'm just to be honest regardless of your political affiliation you have to have a willingness to have that conversation on the impact is going to have and that risk versus reward of what's happening and there are some folks at the federal level that when those numbers suppress and that does not help us and so we are having those conversations it's just odd because of the situation that that's in but but we are aware of that I know a lot of people we have some time not a ton of time but it will impact our schools so we have teams that go out in different areas trying to just bring back information talking about the situation trying to educate ourselves and others and so it's been quite interesting that we're worried yeah she's not a plant that is Holley software our communications director so she reads all our communication that goes out I appreciate the hobby yes so we're one of two states that has an SEO person who is specifically obligated to that work we are watching a lot of the other states so hopefully not to reinvent the wheel but we are watching a lot of programs for watching a lot of the results we're watching some of the assessments that are connected to that area so we're trying to get a good handle on what's out there what is worked what is that doing across the board to some of the data putting attention to discipline and it goes on so our team is working on that again we're are in really early stages and we rely a lot on outside partners so we're doing a lot of partnering in that area to try to move that work it's not perfect I'm not going to stand up here and say it's perfect but we're hearing about over there from our schools that they need a lot of assistance we've had people call about curriculums we've had people call about assessment pieces the privacy tied to that or having just a lot of interesting conversations and that was space this is school safety conversation regarding shared data that's getting a lot of noise in Indiana because Indiana we really love our privacy I'm not saying I don't love money too however when you're trying to share some of that data that's playing into some of that maybe that's across agency that's linked to one individual that that could get a little dicey so we're trying to work it's just can't be the department coming up with some of these solutions we're trying to learn with a mole to talk to to state level health care and the list goes on so it's complex again we're not exactly where we need to be but we are looking at everything that we can potentially look at if you have anybody in this room has information to share or some expertise in that area we are always willing to to listen and take feedback more astonishing and I'm a Mormon [Music] so three question how do you wish that conversation what makes sure people are educated in your district on that number people who push back on that say well yeah that districts still spend a lot more out of their operation or education fund yes they do but they're also spending more money on an assessment as well so that argument doesn't wipe out the other so I understand that piece of it but districts are still spending money out of their operation and education fund for both of those items so it's extremely expensive districts have done a really good job of trying to balance that school safety piece it is expensive so there are some districts that have total East Apartments somehow my necks are others have multiple SRO some don't have any suddenly have a heavy in school counselors others are like one school counselor I have social workers I mean it's all over the place school safety is expensive and it depends a lot on the need and community and there's just a lot of pieces to it so making sure people are aware of some of those numbers I just don't want you to feel like that's the only money going to school safety is like I said schools are putting a great deal there their funds that are current accessible ones toward school safety and we'll continue to do that with that 14 million interestingly that stayed from the special session and now given where we are more people will be eligible for that money so more density so private schools more charter schools will be so before the maid let's say we're under smells around number we had a hundred schools that were eligible to receive that grant you now still probably have a hundred schools that are eligible and run a number up to receive that grant but your potential applicants has sort so you have more people needing the money and less money so that's gonna bring an interesting dynamic to or some of our districts and somewhere in here say you rely on that money or half of our SRO or drug dogs or whatever the case may be ER acts our bus cameras you name it now you're like now what now what would it do because you've been relying on that money I know I heard from a lot of people those grants are moving slow the grants that come that's another issue so if you apply for a grant and you're expecting the grant and it's super slowly we're trying to be a good partner that that's not our office I will take units for a lot of things not that one and but they'll try to be a good partner on trying to help get those out because I know some schools are quite frustrated with the pace of that money is going out we're trying really hard to to help with that it is like Chris is right in my eyes I know that from downtown and a place where they're not close to the public schools and things like that it'd be really easy not to people they aware of the challenges facing teachers challenges facing the students and all of this do you know what it is that our legislators are doing to stay closely in touch with the needs of our teachers in the k-12 schools it's a great question we have some legislators that attend events and listen and make comments and question we have some that are not going to go to their school and everything in between so you need to Iowa's still challenge our legislators invite them into your schools I've always had our lawmakers into our school invite them in educate them get them in front of teachers that it shouldn't be a situation that's hostile I've seen that go back that's not the best way to handle that if you bring a legislator in you need to make sure that it's a professional conversation so there are different ways that handle that but it's all over the place we've had something that you know will attend those teacher meetings that go to staff these but to our schools are very involved they go to events in others you just really have to push and if you can't get them to come in if they're not involved if they're not interested that's where it becomes I don't stop the emails you don't stop the phone calls you don't stop the testimonies on the floor you still have to be a voice you know we get it we are who we are and we get what we get by who we move it into office and I am a firm believer usual people including myself and you hold us accountable I am your voice I am an extension of the public education focus in Indiana so you need to make sure you're holding people accountable you need to do a deep dive into asking questions ask them that goes back to the 20/20 you ask them whatever what is your philosophy in public education we'll miss a lot of you were in their schools that you represent when have you talked to your superintendent what did you talk to your school business official when did you talk to teachers wouldn't you talk to community folks we need to start ask the better questions we let them would help they looked and then they're in office and were like oh it's not going so well really so that's on us to be better voters more educated and also hold people accountable we have to do that it's a great question Dunsparce a wonder we rely on the kids I want to thank you for your time today and I also wanted to recognize senator crane for being here but also representative Thompson representives der waals you have been very professional and very willing to meet with us as a group hear our concerns and respond to them in a very tiny ways I wanted to recognize them for that as well I have someone who we worked with the local group trying to get a referendum passed and so glad that it did and I see a 1.5 million dollar hit that we're taking because of the voucher program and with the information you shared today as well as some that I've learned prior really changed my view about the purpose of the voucher program school choice because I the impression is many are that it was that wait for people to escape failing school but and it's not seem to be that way that being said there seems to be quite a bit of momentum around without your program and I don't believe it's going to be reversed but I'm curious if you have any kind of thoughts about how a group of parent advocates and others might work to at least slow down on that drain or get a point where perhaps the impact is capped so it doesn't continually eat away so again we are who we look for that you have to educate people you have to get the information out social media is a beautiful thing facts are stubborn so people are upset because you're sharing the fact that your school system loses that amount of money that's a result of a policy that's not that you're making it up you're not even telling them what to think about it it's just you are sharing information people are this you have busy lives things get moving and you are trusting the system will work as school people we are pretty resilient so we're like in or not gonna like that what we're gonna figure it out like at work at some point we have to stop that at some point we have to start asking questions but our chart is trying to educate our communities and it is tough we have one of the lowest states voting percentages across the nation our youth voting percentage is with the only state thirty-six states and we were like number twenty-nine so that's not great so there are a lot of pieces to that in addition to educating families and community members we have to encourage people to voice voices through vote and so there are a lot of pieces to it which is big pieces sedative to deal with but I would just encourage you to share that information and again I think there are a lot of ways to do that but we have out the data I will give a shout out to dr.
Crawford she has been an outstanding help to me with Saturday Academy but this is really mostly her thank you so much I appreciate everything you do for our students this is well-deserved [Applause] I am actually gonna take this time to say a few things myself I actually have known Cindy for actually what I think yes and she started teaching I think I graduated from Gladstone High School and of course at that time I I really didn't know her but when I truly got to know her was when I was an aide in her classroom first special education and the way that I would see her just be on it and call those parents and and sometimes you know she would say okay is the way that I want these things and they need to be organized she's still organized and I actually learned her and we worked so well together that there you know there was a senior class one time that half of the class was going to fail and I remembered the worried look on her face she got on that phone and she called every single parent and she didn't go home that day until she called every parent and she made sure that all the parents knew what was happening and how they could help their child their teenager be able to accomplish what they needed to do to to graduate and to pass her class but most important to graduate and so I have the honor tonight to recognize this amazing woman teacher colleague on this excellence award that you know what there's been five hundred in that company 522 and now she's [Applause] when I got a phone call from her about two months ago late in the evening I guess when I said oh I have a son that goes to Gladstone High School [Applause] [Music] all right thank you and again thank you to Cindy and Mary for all your dedication to our district so we're going to move on to the right to the rest of our agenda and so the next so we [Laughter] there's no public it's not on the agenda so we're gonna at this point do public comment and because we're required by a lot of public comment on open session so we have one speaker and that is Jorge Rosales speaking on nine point four ten point nine thirteen point three and thirteen point four so if you'd like to come up and you'll have three minutes to address the board before I make my comments and I would like to ask the board of question and maybe it's one of the meetings that I missed about six months ago the board was supposed to have adopted a communication patience and engagement plan was that ever adopted by this board that's question with respect ninety nine point four my first question is how was this consultants collected I mean there's nothing on the on the air on the agenda or the attachments to address that and the gender indicates that it's an eighty eight hundred dollar contract but the the contract attachment itself it's only forty four hundred dollars does that mean that the rest is for travel transportation meals lodging I looked up Snyder associates and I don't know if at the same company that this is from Boston Massachusetts I mean I'm sure there's no call companies that do this type of work so why would you know who D the district who is struggling with funding you know pay forty four hundred dollars in travel lodging etc 10.9 the same question just what is tournament tournament in I'm sure it's not a consultant I looked up again like Google and it's what I found it it's a commercial internet-based service used by universities in high schools I'm sure you don't clarify that again there's nothing on the agenda what testing so they take what what this is just is a procurement in thirteen point three phase three fencing I'm a little concerned about the wolf is the big spread the bits here the low one being 1 million 478 the high one being 1 million 887 that's a 20 almost 30 percent difference in cost I'm sure the documents are not that complex it's fancy so why the big spreading and babe it's it's questionable and then that's the same thing for 30.4 at the end this spread it's about anywhere between 27 and 30 percent so I don't understand why the big spread on bit so maybe somebody can explain it now to see wired here tonight so hopefully I'll get some answers you know that's one of the problems that I faced with this board and staff is that a public trust ask questions and we never did answer as a courtesy I think the public your time is up you know provided with a response we make the time to come to the meetings that courtesy should be extended to the public thank you thank you so moving on we have item 6.1 common requests by the board we shot with Gabriella I wanted to to thank everyone who came out tonight for all the recognitions these are these are really neat to see to see you know all the the secondary school students come and be part of this El Cap and to to feel empowered by being part of this committee and for them you know but by what you just said to kind of pick me up piggyback off what what someone else said was that because Adrienne it's very important to empower our youth and to to just even you know give them that label of hey you're leader now it's not in the future it's now that's that's just grand it's it's great and I just loved hearing them and and also the the es the e el el eel I don't know honey es el ESO es el I love it she was fully on I did my resume and I went to that's amazing I mean she she is so much more confident empowered by acquiring that her second language and it's just amazing to see what our our Knight school has been able to provide for our community I really really appreciate the work that the teachers and that the students also have been able to you know put in their part to to be able to learn and the Cuba words I you know I it's really exciting to see how these extra you know extra awards just given to they're not extra that I mean you have to be like really really you know out there and shining for someone to recommend you so thank you guys for for allowing me to distribute that this evening I did want to let you guys know I went to the Citrus College K through 14 forum this last Friday it was a very informative I appreciate learning about the programs and the assembly bills that have been put in place for these programs to be carried out and for our students to benefit from these these exciting programs they have a brand new I believe it's computer science certificate that students can attain they have a like over 25 certificates and within those 25 certificates they can go ahead and also get some transfer credits if they want to continue with their education so I really appreciate that partnership with such as college and I also wanted to let you guys know into the Parks and Recreation Junior Olympics at APU two weeks ago and it's always nice to see the kids partake that and the parents and it's just a big event and if you haven't been before please join us next year it's very hot but it's well worth it to see the kids compete and just have a great time so thank you well welcome everybody and I'm in a second fist seeing all of the awards that were given out to everybody and it's just amazing I love that because I think that everybody deserves an award anybody who works in school districts deserves an award because that's our future and the children who attend this you know at Sierra high school like I said my son Wayne and it's such an opportunity when they learned how to when they learn differently and it's a better environment and he is he ended up in high school an extra year but he like I said he's designing the security systems at major hotels and was traveling all over the country and that through what he was encouraged to do when he went to continuation school or alternative school so I think that's really great and I actually had the opportunity this week or last week to go to Slauson I saw your daughter there and they had it was for history lesson and it was for the Civil War and they had different spots and students show here at Sierra were leading that and just watching them giving the history lessons and how well-prepared and how the kids just really dug into it and having hands-on history I know having kids that grew up on the East Coast so they could go in they would come home with musket balls and mom what's this and it just kind of encourages more want for history suddenly its history isn't this boring things that happened years ago that we have to all memorize so I really really really appreciated okay I want to congratulate everyone that received an award today but I did go to Paul elementary school to see the play Little Mermaid I was so impressed with this young I mean they so young you know they're I want to say maybe they were second grade like all grades were there and they all participated in some way and the actors the the singers the girls did a beautiful job and I want to thank the principal Jennifer Wiebe and her staff the stage was beautiful the props were done by Dorothy which is the school clerk and all the costumes were made by a parent support of Martinez so I want to give kudos to that school the arts they're gonna be where these seniors are next because to memorize the line I don't know I don't know how they do that but I think they're fantastic I was very impressed with those kids and Azusa beautiful on Saturday March 28th we planted 928 snapdragons in front of the veterans walk in front of City Hall and it was really beautiful we had Cambridge Academy students from Moses Unified School District we had parents we had employees like Melissa remand I pray in the back over there and Cecilia was here and she left with her Sunday goes to Slauson and you know and we even even even a Kevin newness and his son that goes to APU so it's great to get the community getting together and I seen it yesterday and it's blooming beautiful so that's that whereas he's a beautiful I I did go to the Garvey conference to the California Association bilingual education this is the first time I attended the GABAA conference I really like that they included their parents classified employees certificated administrators and school board members so we all had input the the workshop that really interested me was prop 38 or the support all the students learning and being successful academically in English and in other languages and I'm glad that we have the dormers and already here this is Unified School District and we will be having our Mandarin and you know and our high school seniors that they're already receiving those gold seals for being by literate where you know they need to read and write the language you know clearly so I'm really glad we some of the things they were speaking about or showing us that our the school said we have it here at a USD and I think it's important that we do attend workshops because it was my first time attending a workshop that workshop I should say because this is how we learn our so we also have to educate ourselves about programs that other districts have and how they work in their districts and I'm talking about propositions and policies there's a lot of things that you know we have to keep up here but I'm an on hands person so I enjoy going and seeing how it's done and in Miss Komachi I did a fantastic job I was in her class too and and it was it's really good so I hope to go next year I want to send her middle school into their open house and I love their new entrance their interest is to the side and mr.
downs in Allen County he's done an extensive amount of work he knows it inside now and he will be happy to come to any community that asks him for information he's done presentations for General Assembly he's given presentations to communities it's just to educate folks on how those programs actually work and then you make up your own mind whether you like it or you don't like it it's a matter of staying educated but we have all that information that's how you get it out how do you share in a way people can understand it perfect thank you for coming we're very very grateful the mission of the oral advocates that started 5 years ago was to learn communicate and advocate and I know who have experience that they do so in a manner that is very civil and very respectful we appreciate that listening to you speak tonight reminds me of just prior to your election when you were gracious enough to come to Hendricks County to meet with the Henderson County superintendents and I'll never forget did not you are not lusting after this job but you are not dying to be in this elected position and yet you ran you got elected and you have served remarkably well and on behalf of all of us I just want to say we are so glad that you are our state superintendent and that you are advocating for our children and for our teachers and for all Hoosiers and that we're going to continue until 2020 so thank you very much [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yeah I tried to make my strong I'll be the short straw but it didn't work out no it was really a moment of service and I would encourage you some of you folks who are in here we need new people to run for office we need them to get your like create X interface for a lady no we need people to do it we need the good people to run for office look what's happening across the nation with educators who are running for office with smart business folks who are running for office who people who serve in different capacities running for office we need people to run it is super hard and it is not super fun but we need good people so if anyone out there has a thing to do something about that we're happy to help as some of it figured out I appreciate all of you being here I know you're busy thank you a lot thank you other districts who took the time to come out Thank You community members if you need something please contact our department we do not have all the answers it is not a pride issue for us let us know how we can get better so we can continue to search the case again thank you for having us we appreciate it [Music] [Applause] [Music] amazing so where do we go from here let's take this energy and keep it up so lowly we make several shameless plugs to the Lord advocates I want to thank all of them for hosting this event for our administration's or facilities promise or helping us with the technology thank you you to all of you for taking time out educated on this topic so check us out for oral advocates on Facebook another shameless plug twitter our handle is at a lot advocates you have dr.
gopher I was going his art class because he has amazing projects in there but I'm still wondering where is the bell the bell that was in front I heard it's in storage but I'll have to check on that I thought they were gonna put it back sometimes I want to know when I know so I went to Foothill Middle School the California ed partners they visited in they had dialogue between the assistant superintendent mr. Ortega and his team and they did a fantastic job they got a really good report card and I was very impressed also what's they had students and other school sites come and talk about how the program affected them there was some young ladies I happen to sit at the table where students were and I like to hear the input on how they like working together distinct pair share that they work together and they have the opportunity to to express themselves and still the girl says you know I I didn't like math what I really really really really like math now because you know I couldn't express myself you know and I get ideas from other people and she mentioned even some of the shy kids or assuming the boys that don't want to talk they're in there because then they also have to do a video so they're all partnering together and I think this is working good and that's why you got a good report mr.
performance information up there as well don't let up continue those emails interview handwritten letters continuing conversations talk to a small group of us prior to her speaking in front of all of us was don't just limit your communication to our representative and our senator reach out to the Ways and Means Committee Education Committee and I know that's intimidating because I know for us a lot of us attention a lot of quick catch-up on governments that govern human lives our state site actually is really helpful you know what it's a great PowerPoint and don't let that intimidate you they're very approachable and they get personal let them know how it affects your family little you they're not going to attack you they're easy especially what you call that fountain tip they're easy to talk to do as well so again thank you everyone dr. McCormick you have flowers please take them yeah [Applause] [Music]
Ortega and your crew and also the golden days theme it was is selected every year I'm the representative from the go to lose a unified word to sit it on the golden days committee and every year we select the theme by a fifth-grade class that is a Unified School District so we had five elementary schools participate and 62 entries so I'm proud to announce the winning theme for 2009 was from mrs. Feeney rose class opinion a royal and mrs. barrows classroom Mountain View Elementary the theme this year is the golden hearts of as is the golden heart of Azusa the students will have a pizza party and some of them will be able to ride in the golden days parade and I just want to thank air scusa participated thank you so first Thank You Sierra high school and this Adult Education Center for hosting us and having us it's great to see the things that you've highly highlighted but it also has been incredible to be able to see it firsthand and see you guys in action so justjust thank you keep up the great work same same thing I'm Ahmad it's an incredible night when we have moments like like we have tonight to have so many people come and receive awards that are just just so warranted and do and so to the to the choir you know Bravo and and Mary Pollard I don't I don't have a pleasure of knowing you very well or at all yet but look forward to but to mrs.
Crawford who's not here kind of a little special signer she was my high school Spanish teacher and so some will have to relay this message to her that that I hated it then but I am extremely grateful for the many hours spent conjugating verbs it has it definitely it definitely paid off and so no but but it's beautiful to see having been in her class as a student seeing a well deserved award so it's just incredible I was also able to visit slawsa middle school and to see the Civil War experience and that's the best way to describe it is the Civil War experience because of the the many different things from what amputations look like to the the packs that and the equipment that was carried by it by the soldiers and what the camps it was just an incredible hands-on experience and so my hat is off to to Maher Jamieson and her crew that put that together and then also I was I was also able to go to Lela mentary school because they did something similar but for the colonial times and they brought in fifth grade students to have a similar type of experience and so I was actually able to be there as a parent to help volunteer teaching kids how to make rope which was incredible but they were also learning how to churn butter and tie knots it was just an incredible hands-on learning experience and I'm grateful that that we have such creativity and creative programs in our district lastly I want to I want to propose that we we talk about something as a school board here somewhere in the near future where we evaluate the role of our of our student board member and what that looks like even when we when we see tonight where we have our the the the students that are on the elk okay a committee that L PEC committee they're coming and looking and sharing their their perspectives and how valuable their voices their voices I think that that we have a tremendous opportunity one to have a student that's here but how do we empower our students to really have a greater voice to represent their their peers I got an email from from a student at glass on high school Casandra where she just kind of said hey she had some things that she that she wanted to share I wanted to share some ideas some thoughts some suggestions and so I met with her and a group of her friends and just talked about some of the some of this I mean incredible ideas and suggestions that she had and I talked to her about the role of a student school board member and she's definitely interested in that and I think that there's just a lot of room to create more space for for a voice and so that's something I'd love for us to look at at a future school board meeting right and then I'll go I'll go next obviously I mean last one and so I have a quite a few things to talk about tonight so I was able to attend the Slauson open house I ran into governor in love with her family we were having fun in the in one of the science rooms playing with some of the equipment in their room and it was really nice going there as was mentioned earlier I you know I I was there just to visit as a board member but I brought my son a little son along and there were some kids from his preschool class at Longfellow there because they had siblings that he lost them so that was just really great experience and just seeing some of the work at the quality of the work on the walls in the classrooms in the video in studio 30 26 yeah 2026 I just just so I I really appreciate all the work that's being had that it's happening and especially its Lawson but in all of our schools I also attended the National School Board Association conference and I was able to go to a couple really great sessions I'm one that I just want to mention tonight though I went to one that that was put on by Dearborn which Dearborn yeah school district in Michigan and I'll be sharing with you the the PowerPoint but they um over years have very have developed a very developed process where they take teams out to school sites to do visits and they have a rubric to look at certain specific things but it's all focused on continuous improvement so it's not about the individual classroom it's not about pointing things out it's really about taking it and all that data that's collected at this visit with with multiple administrators and actually they bring along parents or other classified employees and and certificate boys to use that for feedback for the school site the principals would be able to take back to their staff and look at what they're doing and sort of help build strength in what they're doing I'm sorry I really want to share that with it because it seemed like a very a very good process I also was able to attend one of the Dual Immersion informational meetings and so there was it seemed to me like there was some there was some interest in the Mandarin program that we're thinking about starting and it's look it's looking pretty exciting I think more than half the parents in the room that's what they were there for so that's that's exciting to see and and so it's always great to see that that we're expanding these just like these up these opportunities to to be to learn more more than one language for all of our students because I mean I would love to see every single of our students graduate literate in more than one language I think that would be that would be amazing and so yes I'm very excited about that the next thing I want to talk about I was just happening I just happened to be looking on donors to some of you may know it's a website where teachers can put projects that they want to get funded I mean people can can donate money towards them but I just want the reason I mentioned it is because I noticed a trend among quite a few of the teachers in azusa what they were posting there were some doing many different things but one of the ones that I I saw over and over again was about trying to find and it's mostly for elementary but wanting to get order order seats and other things that are that are that are and are describing so it would equal mobile right so that so likely you know like the bouncy like this balls that the kids would sit on so I just think I mean seeing and I know it was a handful but seeing that there is this desire and seeing that they're trying these teachers are trying to go outside of the district to get funded I really think that if we're going to be looking at what in terms of what teachers need to be able to create this engaging interactive environment with students that we think about what kind of seating arrangements we're what kind of what kind of facilities and like the seats in the classroom that we're providing to our teachers right because if that's what that's sort of a growing desire and then teachers are seeing great responses and I know through research you they say that's it really helps the kids get their energy alright because they're sitting in different ways that we should really be looking at that and seeing how we can be supporting that and not expecting them to go out and try to find money from the community to be able to do that I think that's great I think I think it's great to do that but I but I also think that we need to be responsive to the needs that are that we see in our schools I also wanted to mention that I was able to attend the the first reading of a very intensive long it's going to be a 15 month process where our preschool and a handful of TK transitional kindergarten teachers are going to be going through professional development training with the Sobrato early academic learning and so it was really exciting to see sort of the deep engagement and folk and really I was really excited to see what kind of things that the kids and these programs do and I'm especially grateful because does the work of our district we're actually we got we were part of a grant program from the state so we have our teachers going through this training for free and the state is actually paying paying for it but I think it's I hope I hope it's going to open a door to us because the just the approach that they have is is pretty amazing and it's really focused on it I really think it takes it takes Common Core it takes this 21st century thought and it really applies it to our classrooms right so I'm really excited to see where that goes and it was it was great sit there I actually intended just to go for 20 minutes right to see what it was like and I ended up staying most of the day because it was just so so engaging I next I know Arthur don't want me to talk about this but I was really excited to be able just to quickly say hello at the beginning of a meeting that happened at the end of the end of last month where the Gates Foundation came to visit our school to see the work that we're doing in partnership with the California Kelly what edie partners right he's based out of Stanford so it was really odd that when I wasn't able to stay all day long but I'm sure you guys did a fabulous job showing showing the Gates Foundation what we're doing in this district and then finally and a much more serious note I just want to I want I want us as a board to recognize that we that we lost the student excuse me we lost a student over over spring break at the end of high school Haley Don Reyes and I think I think well I'm Melina I guess I'm it's very hard to speak to but IIIi felt we as a board need to recognize that it happened and recognize that that we need to make sure that we're providing the the resources that we need for our students so that we can address any mental health issues that they have ordered and I'm not that's not what I'm saying with the student but I but I just think that we need to make sure that we're creating this safe and supportive environment so every one of our students feels connected to us and so I'm saying that we're we're going to close the the meeting at the end of this day in honor of Haley and and I just I didn't want to make I wanted to make sure that that didn't pass and that we'd that we that we as a board rec recognize and and and at least took that opportunity so with that we'll we'll do that at the end of the meeting and so we'll move on to the next item on the agenda and that is comments reports and then requests by the student board member cabinet superintendent our student board member was not able to make get tonight and he had he had another obligation he couldn't be here so so he has an excused absence although he's not docked for that anyway but so we'll move on to our cabinet so we'll start with for that thank you madam president on I'm happy to hear that you are really into the recognition season because at our next board meeting we will be recognizing all of our site districts I'm sorry site teachers of the year last Thursday I was able to interact and interview 18 of our 20 different sites of Department Teachers of the year and it was just an exhilarating day of listening to the genuine excitement and joy that comes with serving our students as a teacher and I look forward to you hearing those presentations at our next board meeting and part of this the work of this committee is to identify our district Teacher of the Year which was a very very difficult process because how do you pick a district Teacher of the Year from such excellent excellent educators but I'm proud to share with you that our district Teacher of the Year is none other than our caffee Hendricks from Murray Elementary phenomenal woman and I'm super excited to have her move on to the next level which would be the County Teacher of the Year so more to come on this front and I wanted us to be able to share that wonderful news with with all of you thank you all right thank you thank you for the introduction just wanted to share about our gates visit we were honored to have the president of the u.s.
operation of the Gates Foundation to come in listen participate and understand the impact that their funding is having as I say before California and hit partners works with over 50 districts and we were we were chosen to be the district where they come and see do you want to say that during the visit we as we were working with California had partners and we were tossing ideas to them one of the things that we kept saying is if gates really wants to see you know the real work then let's show them the real work and so we took some non scripting we invited teachers toeses principals and students to come and speak from their experience and what they have had and I just couldn't be prouder I mean the students to be able to articulate in the manner that they articulated to speak about how their writing has improved over the course to talk about finding a voice to have e/l students speaking about reclassification just very very impressive the teachers to speak about their professional growth and their professional learning and what they're doing in their classrooms they were very very impressed we got a very very nice letter from gate thanking us for our participation we have standing ovation at the end from the president in sidebar conversations who was really appreciative of what we were doing in Azusa so I just want to give a a big thank you to to the team that has been going at this for about three years now and for the teachers who took a risk and and a leadership role to come out and speak so I just wanted to just say thank you for that and then did you want to talk about the MCC plla sure so the day after that it was it was quite a week the day after that we had almost an all day interview virtual interview we had thrown our name in the Hat to participate in a new professional leading and Learning Network some organizations CCEE gabon county of san bernardino and families and schools were coming together to identify five districts is that correct five five to six districts that were statewide statewide that were really doing good work in community engagement and identifying these districts what they were they would we would work together that to create models and to create examples of how other districts in the state can can emulate some of those best practices it was it was extremely grueling you heard Jackie today Jackie was part a Jackie the student from class on High School was actually part of the interview process we had parents from Powell elementary school students from parliamentary school community partners it was just a really awesome experience we did hear back that we were selected so we're extremely proud of that because I want to emphasize that that this is this was them seeking districts that were already demonstrating leadership and community engagement this wasn't about which districts and we can we select that need a lot of work not to say that we're perfect but to be recognized as one of our five to six that's going to jump in for the state of California we're very very proud of that we March we launched May 2nd we launched May 2nd and so we're really excited to three year journey now we're about to embark on and so we're very excited we'll keep you posted on how that's going and then mark Barbara Dorris our chief business officer is not able to be here today because he is attending the Pats both the California Association of the school business officers conference so he's absent today so Linda well you know the saying a picture is worth a thousand words so I'm going to show you a million words here in a minute we're going to see a wonderful video of an experience that all of our fourth-grade students get here in Azusa it's a partnership with APU for the Champa program College Haven and mighty proud this is a short preview trailer there's a longer version that's going to be available on PBS on tomorrow we're not yet sure the time 7:00 p.m.
okay and then after that we'll be able to keep a copy for our own records too so take it away [Music] so [Music] really makes this is the fact that is college students or making connections with our students because without that we just want to curriculum just another tour but having that special [Music] whether two-year or four-year university once they hit fourth grade they're more independent they're thinking for themselves more they're taking part of our learning and it's just a perfect time for them to and [Music] thank you would you work it would you agree that it was worth a million words yeah thank you well that's it okay all right moving on we have item 8.1 student matter final settlement for the office of administrative hearing case number two zero one nine zero two zero four seven zero student number 18 - 19 one - 47 is there a motion I make a motion to approve motion by Jerry bubbles logo second by Kavya Audion is any discussion seeing none please place your vote motion passes five-0 moving on we have section 9 general functions item 9.1 approve resolution 18 19 127 declaring May 19 to the 25th 2019 is classified school employee week make the motion to approve 9.1 second motion by Yolanda Rodriguez Pena seconded by Adrienne career any discussion please place your vote motion passes 5-0 moving on we have item 9.2 approve resolution of 1819 128 declaring May 7th 2019 as day of the teacher motion I'll second I think you should say it's okay should buy it by cavity laude on a second by Adrienne Greer any discussion place your vote motion passes five-0 move next we have 9.3 Community Schools Initiative presentation good evening for president superintendent for its audience I'd like to call up Jose Gonzales to the podium and Allen Sanchez we are very excited here in Azusa to be able to participate in a new initiative called the Community Schools and I'm going to turn it over to our guests we're gonna walk you through some of the amazing benefits that are about to come to a Sousa thank you Thank You mr.
daga good evening board members dr. Kaminsky assistant unified school community my name is Jose Gonzalez and I am with lako I am director of Community Schools development and I'm here to give you a brief overview overview initiative that we're launching here in unit as a unified and in particular as a high school it only has one page there we go I always have a bad habit of even though the computers are pointing at the screen alright this slide speaks to our purpose and our mission for our initiative purpose of Community Schools Initiative is to build equity for students by highlighting areas of need and leveraging community resources so the students are healthy prepared for college and career and civic ready that's somewhat of our mission that we're operating under at this Squier and for the next three years as this initiative is underway this model have some challenges here there we go I think I just yeah this motto aligns with our priorities for this school year which is improving student outcomes we've we're in the process of developing professional development for all our our partners in this initiative supporting trauma and resiliency informed practices that has been the big big big push from Lake of the school year we've done five regional trainings throughout the county we've at this point we've trained over 500 educators on just trauma-informed practices we will be developing tailor-made programs for Azusa High School we're gonna have a trauma 101 type of training for our community school staff and then working with the school site leadership team will have tailor-made social emotional learning depending based on their needs they're working with in partnership with Department of Mental Health and UCLA they'll be leading the way based on school needs also a big push behind this is strengthening our community partnerships by building new alliances and networks that's the big that's the big initiative it's really to look at our resources what we have and try to build relationships partnerships in the schools we're well aware of that schools have not been waiting for us to come in and offer services supports schools have been operating and have developed their own programs what we're trying to do is really come in and strengthen those partnerships or fill in the necessary gaps as needed so if there's a void that's missing in the school site that's what we're looking to commend through partnerships through our County agencies or working with our community-based organizations there we go all right that's the operating definition that we're working with the easy definition that I give folks is my 30 second elevator speech and what is a community school I like to clarify there's still some confusion with the term it is not a community day school committee day schools are alternative settings for students that need a different placement Community School it's a model it's a framework where we're looking at bringing all the resources into the school community or as near as possible to the school setting we know that families like to come into school families are comfortable being at school sites so the idea that philosophy behind it is to provide as many of those services for the school community within the school setting so that's kind of what we're looking at is bringing high level wraparound services to the school center for students and Families our aim is to really look at what the barriers are reduce those and increase opportunities for students there are four components to this framework that we're operating under integrated student support speaks to the fact that we want to bring the supports as close as possible to the school setting as I mentioned we also looking to create expanded learning opportunities that speaks to after after-school opportunities beyond the belt type of activities during summer school any type of an enrichment activity where we can partner with agencies that we can support the school that's we're looking at also increasing I'm happy to hear the initiative that your congratulations that it's underway that means that you have a strong parent engagement already we're looking at supporting that and strengthening that and we know that I think everything that I've read around research around parents it's always mentioned that parents the more the parents are involved the more likelihood students are successful the challenge is always at the high school setting they don't always come as much as we want them to as we do at the elementary school I always say at the mention of school setting you have an event and everybody attends at the high school setting it's not always a case because the students are older and my speech is always that's the age that our students need is the most because they may know how to cross the street but they're still going through different challenges that they need help with so our goal is really working with our community partners and really strengthen the school's parent engagement program and also collaborate collaborate I'm sorry collaborative leadership practices it's really looking at the school team and really working with the school's vision and mission and what they're trying to accomplish we're not coming in and trying to do anything new really trying to support whatever the school is working but working with our community-based partners involving the school community involving parents involving law enforcement whoever faith-based organizations whatever groups are working within the school setting coming together as a team and really try to support the school okay obviously this is not this is not a new model it's been around for a while it is it has a successful track record of engagement we know that it's effective in improving student attendance when we reduce those risk for students not being in school we know that students are able to come to school we know that when students are healthy they attend school when they attend school we know that they can do great things and more importantly we want them to be engaged in school settings so that's kind of what we're looking at the measures that were looking at is to lower work on students as schools absenteeism rates improve academic outcomes work in higher enrollment of college prep classes and improve graduation rates so these are what's listed here on this slide are the participating districts districts were selected based on a criteria that you see on the left it had to do with a study that was done the measure of America portrait of Los Angeles Education Health LA County report that was conducted by DPH so we took certain factors from there and there was a determination that was done we looked at education index in the community underrepresented students high school graduation rates graduates with a through G requirements student suspension rates chronic absenteeism rates and violet creams in the community so based on that tear districts were identified and these were the districts that were that have committed to being part of this initiative and the father were district represented from Lake Oh along with Department of Mental Health County CEOs office and met with district leadership teams and presented this model this initiative to the superintendent and her team just to get commitment and buy-in from there the district leaked at their school resources did a similar landscape look and identified at school setting and that being a Sousa High School for the upcoming school year I can mention these are the goals improving graduation as moving absenteeism dropout rates improvement in that area reducing suspensions and increasing family engagement those are the big measures but in reality the one we're really the one that I'm passionate about and making sure is that we have a linkage to services that we really look at what services are out there and we really provide as many resources to the school sites so that's kind of the one that I'm really motivated and working behind because I know we do those things it relate to improve improvement in these areas the big one thing that separates us I think from like I said this is a model that's been around one thing that separates us is that we're really working being Lacko we have the relationship with all the school districts well we're working closely as with the county agencies and I think that's the exciting piece that it's really becoming a grassroots model there's a lot of momentum behind so what we're doing is we're taking this information what we're doing is meeting with county agencies the county agencies our committee to come in to school sites and providing supports we know that the county agencies can meet all the needs so that's what we're looking at with our community-based organizations and grant opportunities and philanthropy and the foundation work that Lakers were in on to help and fill in those gaps at the school setting III think when a one of the strengths also is a strong relationship that we have with the Department of Mental Health and Department of Public Health there was a those of you that follow the County Board of Supervisors meeting this past a week ago there was a motion on the table to approve funding for the Community Schools Initiative for the counties LAUSD as well so it was approved we are looking at a funding a coordinating precision and a parent engagement position that are dedicating to the supports of this model so that was a great great great what is it a initiative that was approved as far as far as I'm bringing the resources to the school site so moving forward we'll be working with the school site leadership team in identifying appropriate members that will be able to fill those decisions to work at the school setting so it's a lot of work to manage the resources we're aware that we don't expect to all of a sudden throw resources at a school site and they'll take care of themselves so we will have a dedicated coordinator at the school site they ever really work on the linkage of the services and really have a parent engagement liaison helping parents navigate the resources or the County portals that we have in place and really trying to support the school and bringing parents on board can you clarify something so is that at each school site we'll have that or that's for the ten districts it is for the ten districts say that one correct No so just for clarity the question who said let me so there's ten districts so Zuza High School will get one of each of these people so two staff members full-time in Azusa High School that's correct yeah and these are the districts have been identified like I said there is a lot of momentum they're requesting we identified additional districts as well because this come from Board of Supervisors they really want this modern be at schools well we're always happy to have more than one high school so so instead I guess it you just just right right now you just said that you're looking for other districts to to bring this program to have you guys considered for example of a district has two high schools being able to provide those services for both of the high schools within the community so we've had those conversations I think as we are at right now we're in the implementation phase and in all honesty we really want to start in one school setting and really I think that's the direction that we will be talking with your leadership teams as to the growth of it because that's kind of the direction we want to go all the model will be different at every district does you can you know the some districts are larger than others we're looking at that's an option of going to another a neighboring school also looking at going into the feeder schools as well the middle school that are meant to schools so we can kind of serve a whole pipeline so we're we are definitely looking at different models as growing in how we can bring those models to the district yes that's kind of the next space after we launch in one location at this point I'm going to introduce Allen Sanchez he is with Department of Public Health and there's an additional component that she'll be speaking to regarding the this initiative okay good evening thank you for inviting me through tagging I have to say it was really a pleasure to see to get a glimpse of all the great programs that you have and to see some of your students who are so involved in the leadership programs because that's something that's very dear to my heart and I know just how it turns people's lives around so I'm really glad to see that you're investing so much in that arena anyhow I wanted to introduce you to the program that the Department of Public Health is commencing this year which is the student well-being initiative and this is something that we are hoping to put in place on at Gladstone high school this year this initiative is the goal of the initiative is to bring preventative health care to the students on-site because what we do know what all the research shows is that teenagers are very likely to not have had any medical care have not seen to see have seen a medical provider anytime in the last year and referrals to when they need to go elsewhere when they when we refer them to go to someplace that's not where we're standing with them don't usually come to pass so the goal is to bring the the services similar to the program Jose was was describing to you to bring the services on to campus for the students and the services that that will be involved in in those well-being centers will be mental health services sexual health services and and drug use harm reduction and prevention and so the partners that we have for the initiative are Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles and the Department of Mental Health so we're doing this on at 50 sites throughout the county 32 of them are in USD and we're going to 18 in the independent districts throughout the country throughout the county so in your district the one that mr.
Ortega has asked us to look at is Gladstone high school that way we kind of share the wealth you have you have Jose's program at Azusa and you have this one at Gladstone so there are services available to both sets of students one difference between the program but there are many differences between the programs but this one is really going to be solely for the students of the campus it's not a community community members family members are not going to be reserve degrees receiving services at the student well-being centers they will be they will be staffed by two health educators and a clinical health educator and the Department of Public Health will I'm an apartment of mental health will be coming in ten hours a week to do groups with with the students as well but they're really meant to be kind of drop-in centers where students can come you know around their classes at lunchtime after school before school drop in ask a question ask to sit down with someone spend there a little hangout time if they want to and make it we're going to make it a comfortable place for them to be so that they can really develop relationships with the staff and be able to really get that kind of support from the adults in the I'm hoping it will also be a place where they'll they'll get supports from other students as well there is a strong leadership component to each of the centers as well we will be training students to be health advocates and to do work throughout the school community as part of their service there is also going to be a Promotora lay health educator assigned to to the campus so that she will be working with the parents and there and really providing a curriculum of education to the parents on how to communicate with your student around health issues the sensitive issues that we'll be addressing in the center and to kind of really serve as partners to the parents in guiding their students through this period social and emotional there is I'm sorry to hear about your student this is something that so many campuses are dealing with and it's going to be a real strong focus of the center's work is dealing with depression and anxiety and suicide prevention then with the sexual health services will be doing education in the center will also be doing a supplemental education in the classrooms to assist the health teachers with more in-depth education around all the issues that we're addressing we're going to have limited contraceptive services emergency contraception and screening and treatment for the common sexually transmitted infections that occur among young people so can I ask you a question on that yes so do the parents need to give permission to or it's a parent does not want their child to all just need to listen just to the contraceptives what what what happens to you they have to talk to their their student about it this is all of the services that were providing our services that young people have the ability to consent for for themselves sexual health mental health services what if they're under 18 Nick what's Thursday okay the law provides for that so if we get an angry parent saying so it's this is confidential this services yes okay and so if you have an angry parent you can our staff will be very well trained in okay help them understand why this is important and for and with to try to get them to see that we're really there to partner with them well thank you thank you for raising their children III think it's absolutely wonderful seeing the whole sex IDI sexual health I was a parent who would hear about Planned Parenthood on the radio and turn around to the 11 year olds and the car listen yeah okay start early with you but with the self-image in relationships it's also going to delve into abusive relationships and you have my heart so that's really really important the early this is when they're just entering into more serious relationships and really need to have some sounding boards for getting an understanding of what makes a healthy relationship and what what is a red flag for like I said you just you just stole my heart thank you is there a is there a means to which to communicate this in line with what you're asking Yolanda to communicate this to parents ahead of time to let them know that these yes absolutely one of the things that we're trying to do trying to get the staff the health educators are gonna be supervised by senior staff at each side and they this well the senior staff are gonna be supervising four sites so they won't be at the site full time but they will be I'm hoping that they will be on board the senior staff at least they'll be hired before the end of the school year and what I'd like them to do is to have an opportunity I've been asking each of the principles as I meet with them if they could arrange for a chance to briefly meet with the staff and to briefly meet with parents to let them know proactively that this is coming and and and this is why and this is how we could be supportive of what we're trying to do with your children if worse comes to worse and we don't get them on board before the school year ends we will be meeting with them at you know in August as early as the school can provide the opportunity I I have the question how how do you propose to to be able to engage the students and to let them know of these services well for one thing the health educators will be going into class not only to deliver the the health education curricula but also they'll belly working with the site staff just and we'll go into advisory or to see where they can plug in a number of the principles have suggested being present at the grade level orientations at the beginning of the year but then we're also going to be doing some fun outreach activities you know urban art activities music things to kind of bring attention to that to the opening of the center and to and then they'll have they will have the student leaders that will be involved with the center you know kind of being that lays on campus I think it's really great you know inking to them with just what you said those those activities I understand that these services are just strictly for our students however with those activities do you guys plan to engage the parents as well to be able to you know for them to attend would they be welcomed the activities that we have for the students will be done during the school day so wouldn't be open to the parents but there will be other activities and presentations to the parents absolutely right from the beginning they'll be working with the parent coordinator um on us on-site to to do outreach to parents to bring them in and they haven't an eight-week curriculum that they would like to involve parents in about team health issues and to be educating them about that they'll also be available what I wanted to hear well thank you so much this this is great I can't wait to see what it looks like and to see you know how our students and our community will be able to be able to take the opportunity of a opportunity to be able to I got ten toasted be able to take the opportunity in these services the Rapinoe wraparound services that are needed so much with like you just said with this age group of high schoolers mental health and just I'm really excited to see what what this when this takes place in search thank you become next steps on our end it will be two we're developing our implementation plan based on the team did a nice job on really laying out strengthen assets of the school site so just meeting with the county agencies and see how we can support the school I will be sharing that implementation plan for input from the school sites and also we're having a kickoff meeting sometime early May late June well with my district or percentages was loose I leadership team so we're also very excited to be working with Azusa Unified and this is a high school and thank you all very much for your time I like to add a couple of things number one Thank You Jose and Alan they are extremely responsive with email and contacts we have already sat down with both principals of the high schools and have have have face-to-face meetings with them if I missed it I apologize but I do want to point out that this is and at least through your commitment that they're that they're giving to to Azusa and so we can we can be confident that at least for the next three years beginning with next school year these are services that will be that will be granted additionally because of being part of the Community Schools Initiative there are other things that are springing up that that we are that we are benefiting from I'll just give you two quick examples Dalton elementary school is going to be receiving professional two-day professional development from the Department of Public Health on a mild Club initiative and we are in talks with pink together to submit a grant for after-school services for our high school and so these are things that are being born out of us being part of the Community Schools Initiative and so I'm excited about the things that are that are yet to come from this partnership thank you in terms of I want to really appreciate that there's so many districts in the Sankyo Valley identified so I think it helps because it will help build sort of like relationship between those districts but how do you just in terms of how it's going to be rolled out is it going to be district by district or how are the districts going to collaborate with I mean is it going to be like each district is going to do their own thing yes or no we're gonna have we're working on having someone networks based on regions and coming together so our coordinators will have definitely meetings with our coordinators or site coordinators and our site teams withing where they were going to receive the training and come together and share best practices so that's the idea because it is kind of you know if you saw the screen we're from a dull Valley all the way to Pomona are the district so it's kind of a large area the recovery so we're looking at coming together in regions as having these collaborative kind of like a network approach working together great and then the just the other thing I wanted to say to you I'm sorry what was your name again Ellen yeah I just want to say I really appreciate this partnership I think I just want you to convey this back to the department I think there's always been a frustration from school districts around how do we partner and how do we especially access a lot of those dollars that have been sitting in the Department of Health in terms of getting them into the schools where they were intended to be so I and hearing from other counties about what they're doing in terms of partnership so I really appreciate this and I really I hope that we can find ways to do them more things together because I think it's we need to get beyond our silos so I really I think this is a great opening I actually have a question Ellen the wraparound services at a GHS does that include homelessness yes is there any measure age money has the wraparound services if from a primary public oh it's really working through our initiative really then yes the community sometimes it's really making that foster homeless students are the big sub special populations that we're looking at supporting them so yeah we're working with those units closely to bring supports and we're developing kind of like a data piece where we can really track the services better for those students are you working with any agencies from any of the spa spots three we're working with their own internal aleyko foster agent and foster group and homeless departments I don't know if that answered theirs you know I think just one piece you had to it mr.