It it was just an amazing uh event. Um and then January 28th, I did attend Savannah High School's open house. Uh with regards to the open house, I love the structures that we're doing, uh where we have, you know, like departments, you know, sharing all their best practices. You know, I'm very very impressed with 99.9% of all the departments that presented. Uh and huge shout out to Mr. Via's Chuco studies class. your students. Y'all did amazing with your I am Waqen uh modern version of the poet poetry. I I promised I'd shout that out because y'all did amazing and all of all of our students did amazing from our performers to our uh student ambassadors. Um I also attended that same day the OC uh SBA legislative budget and seminar. Um February 3rd, I attended Laura High School's basketball versus Bulsa. So congratulations Laura High School's league champions, boys basketball league champions.
Uh I did attend the coffee with principal with uh Cambridge virtual academy on February 3rd and then it was just an honor to march with our AUHSD students and faculty uh and board members at the OC Black History Parade. Uh this last Saturday, February 11th, I did do my like I said every month I will be going to different high school sites throughout the year and then junior high next. I did go to Hope. What a beautiful space. It Thank you so much to the principles for showing me around. They even did a presentation for me. LIKE RIGHT WHEN I got there, they had a full on like I'm all you don't have to do that. I just I just want to be present and see what's going on in sites. But thank you so much. I learned a lot and I even ran into a few old friends that I actually went to church with.
So it was nice to see them uh who still work there. Uh truly a family and community there at Hope. So thank you so much. Um also I did get to uh tour. So thank you Principal Pulley for showing me all around Magnolia High School. Amazing. That new building. Wow. the tech. I got to actually go into um the server >> ROOMS LIKE WOW. OH, MAN. I'm talking about 21st century learning. Um wow. And then of course aggro, >> you didn't touch anything. >> Huh? Oh, I did. >> Sorry. Public. >> Oops. Um and um and then yesterday I attended uh Dale Junior High's open house. Uh amazing job. Uh just just great that we have them spread out so we can go to all the open houses. I love that. And uh that concludes my report. Thank you so much. >> Thank you uh Trusty Hosshi.
>> On the 16th, the day after our board meeting, I went to the boys basketball senior night at Cypress High School. On Saturday, I went to the Pong Pongo language festival or um and actually it's the Tamil language that's in Buena Park. And um um I got to see a lot of my Cypress parents there. They were like, "Were you there last uh on last Saturday?" That same day we had want to give kudos to Mark Levco for the Cypress Athletes Hall of Fame that they had for a lot of people went on to play professional sports. First time they did it. It's like their hall of fame. Um I went to the Kennedy Expo on the 21st. Uh on the 22nd um the ethnic studies class at Cypress High School had author Marie Chan go and my takes a stand. And so um that same day, uh Jiren Duran from the Boston Red Sox um has was was at the school site and I got to meet him and see the work that he's doing.
Um and uh the 22nd we were all at the choir showcase and it's really nice to see that that that we have really high quality. I just was looking at the speaker the speakers alone. Um not even seeing the subwoofers underneath the stage, but um boy, when that thing's fully turned up, boy, I think people are going to feel um some really good music going on in there. But it was truly a nice dedication and thank you to Luka for his generous donation. Um, one of the things that I really like is I always talk to Dr. Freed about this. We don't go to events, we create experiences. >> And the thing is is that I went to a conerto concert. I see this happening in music because it's the Olympics year and we are raising the bar for students. Six students played um like really high level music accompanied by the orchestra for three of the numbers and four band numbers.
And um these things need to be recorded just like our our honor band. um the performances. I think when we raised the bar for students, they they the students that accompanied them raised the bar to accompany them and I just see that going on through the through music and I just think now it's time to raise the bar um in so many areas. So I really want to encourage us to do that. Separate Got Talent on the 29th. Um it was fun seeing teachers also involved in that and singing and having background dancers. Uh the third SRO, SRO or SRO Sebastian Cortez um did a um a talk and about connection before correction and he is trying to get something going on with Sergeant Conklin from the Anaheim PD and um just to align our SRO's to really connect with kids. and he had stated, "Hey, you know, they tell us to connect with kids, but they're they're really not teaching us how to do that." So, I really like the fact that he is stepping up and wants to do that work.
And so, I applaud him for that. And um um coffee with the principal, I went um on the 5th at Lexington. And I one of my favorite days is when we get to taste test the food. And I want to just give kudos to Orlando um our director of food services. I mean you guys the food I mean I mean it I mean I'd pay a lot of money for this food. I mean like gosh, you know what I mean? I'm uh it's and it's free. This is free and they're following nutrition guidelines. He and Tiffany and then he's and then we the parents and myself we got to be the first taste testers of the new P so recipe. >> So they they are serving that now. So Orlando, >> thank you so much >> to share. >> I mean you guys with lime and with lime and onions.
I mean I I' I'd order that. I I'll tell you what. Okay. >> But I don't know. Orlando's favorite food is unquestable. So I, you know, I don't know, you know, but >> um >> LCAP meeting too. I was privy to be one of the board members to go to that. And again, I just really give kudos to the people um that are doing the hard work and so forth and enlisting more voices from our community, our students, and our parents. And I think again, that's something we can always just keep on improving on. Okay. uh coffee with the principal at Savannah. We had SRO Williams there and then Lena, our our um DAC um representative, parent ambassador. She gave a little um talk about Ramadan, which I thought was enlightening because um you know um a lot of our students uh celebrate that. And then again, another example of raising the bar was our honor band.
The people that went to that, I have never heard such difficult music played amongst our students in the 40 years I've been in this district. The musicianship, um, the artistry, I mean, um, from from the directors and they were both inspired. They were not just only good directors but really and got music out of the kids but they were very inspiring human beings and I just really appreciated that. Black History Parade we had we had fun dancing in the streets, >> you know, and um Brad Jackson was even dancing a little bit too. >> So um show choir preview night for Cypress High School. I'm really excited about their upcoming uh competition that which I'm going to go to and I'm just really um excited about that. Uh Cypress High School also had a re had a coffee with the principal and a whole hour talking about redesign and I sat there just engaged the entire hour.
I couldn't believe an hour went by because um I think we fielded questions or I didn't I just listen uh principal Brown did that. Um today I was invited to celebrate um the counselor's week. Catella did something different. They celebrated it a week later. So I was they invited me to come and just celebrate with them. So it was a a lot of fun just going there today. I want to invite all of you on February 24th to Cypress High School's social justice day. Oh yeah. >> Um I know a lot of you are invited, but it is just a a schoolwide thing going on in both gyms in the theater, in the media center. We're going to have elected officials there um giving some panel talks and so forth and and just sharing um with students their journey and how they got interested in serving their communities.
So, thank you so much. >> Thank you, uh Trusty Reno Trijo. >> All right. Um I echo the sentiments of all uh my colleagues um when they're talking about the wonderful experiences with our our VAPA groups. Um the the choir concert and of course opening up Cook again uh was a was a delight. um the honor band concert uh the experience that the students had with those uh conductors was extremely meaningful and um it really showed uh with the audience too. Um and those kids only had four four rehearsals. I it's just they were just uh out of sight. Um yesterday at our uh RO meeting um they highlighted their uh employees of the year. So shout out to Denise Foster. Um she's been with RO for 40 years. She's at Magnolia now. She was previously at um Savannah uh on the medical uh pathways.
Uh Tom Medcaf um who is administrator. Um, Gregory Beers is a substitute and I thought that was so cool that they uh they honored him. Um, I'm sure he's been at all of our sites, but to have somebody that would be so dedicated uh to come in and he he helps with I think four different pathways. He's that talent that talented. So, I thought that was really great to to honor to honor him. I also went to their uh spring um uh in service uh uh development, professional learning development and I took part um in the uh the process for all of our AUHSD um uh instructors uh very uh meaningful work. Um OCSBA legislative analyst budget meeting. Uh I wish we had better news with that. Um let's see. Uh I also attended um along with the uh the black cultural parade, I attended um the affinity meeting uh with our black parents.
It was a small but mighty um group. Uh we discussed the upcoming performance, but we also discussed um uh some talk about uh maybe bringing this to our students about um uh and another school has curriculum and they've done this work, but um not using the n-word and hate speech. Um we all need, I think, to um really, I think, invest in our students again. Um, you know, we talk about what's happening now and um and you know, we're trying to be polite um in in our verbiage when people are getting up and speaking and um what's happening now is absolutely unacceptable. the hate speech, the um the memes, um this division. Uh we we can't even watch a Super Bowl and have people just watch it. Just watch it or don't watch it. Um we're getting uh offended at the the most ridiculous thing.
And I say, um, this is all in an attempt to dehumanize people. And that has to stop. It's unacceptable. Uh, if you know people that are doing it and speaking it, now is the time to say, "Uh-uh, not around me." Now is the time to speak to your children and say, "No, we are not going to be a family that does this. It has to stop. We got to call it out for what it is. We can't really be polite about it and we can't excuse it anymore. It's harmful. It's hurting people. People are dying. So, um I am so glad that I serve in a district that um honors differences and honors um diversity. I am not ashamed to say that word because that is our strength because um we are we are building spaces where we are listening to each other and that makes me so proud.
Um, and so honored to have uh been in the parade and honored to uh look forward to going to our TET parade um coming up and um you and I are going to see a former student next week. You didn't mention that. I'm I mean that's so proud. I mean, an alum that has um uh gone through our schools and uh >> Kennedy alumni Martinez from Kennedy High School. Yeah. He um is going to be playing one of the leads in Man of Lancha with Musical Theater West. >> Yeah. So, there's lots to celebrate um in our district, lots of work to do. Um but again we we really have to I think um when we know better we do better and when you see something say something please. Thank you. Um I also had the opportunity to attend a few events uh including the Cypress High School inaugural hall of fame.
I want to give a shout out to the athletic directors uh for organizing that and to uh alumni of Cypress High School, Max uh Resza who donated shoes to the basketball team uh that night. So they're looking very nice in their new shoes. Uh attended the LCAP kickoff open house at Kennedy High School, Savannah High School, and Dale Junior High School. Also attended the beautiful opening of Cook Auditorium. Uh very excited for that. I hadn't been there since I was a high school student. Uh so it was great to see its new and renovation. Uh I want to uh thank again uh Congresswoman Luca for this earmark um and the voters for passing measure K. Also attended the ribbon cutting at Orangeyry Western 72 school for their community school center wellness room and pio patio. Um and then I had the opportunity to attend the Catella South community resource fair that the community schools team organized along with uh Anaheim council members Kristen Mos and Norma Campbell Curts.
Um and I want to thank uh assembly member Valina Valencia uh for making a donation to the athletics program uh during the event. Appreciate the support. Also had the opportunity to uh attend the excellent AHC honor uh honor concert band uh beautifully done and also join my colleagues with for the Orange County Black History Parade. Want to give a shout out to all of our black student unions that joined us and the AUHSD social justice collective made up of uh students and staff. Um it was a great day. Hey, I want to thank John for the playlist uh that we all danced to uh throughout the parade. Um really lots of fun in celebration for black history. And then I had the opportunity to attend the 20th anniversary of the Tiger Woods Learning Lab. Um I was alumni of the uh Tiger Woods Learning Lab uh when I was a student in elementary and high school.
So it was great to see um it's 20 years and still making an impact in the community. And then lastly, yesterday Trusty Hos and I attended the health insurance committee meeting. Uh it was a long but very productive meeting. I want to thank everyone um in the entire committee for being part of that and making sure that we continue to provide uh the best healthcare that we can for uh staff. And then uh just a shout out as was mentioned earlier by Dr. Freed, we are hosting a meet and greet on Tuesdays, February 17th from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. right here in the district office la palma room. Um we hope to see you all there. Um it will also be recorded um if you're not able to make it. So thank you. And with that, I will >> happy Valentine's Day. Happy Valentine's Day tomorrow.
Yes. Or Saturday. Saturday. Saturday. Valentine's Day. >> Thank you for that. And then our next meeting will be March 5th, 2026. And with that, do I have any suggested agenda items? Seeing none, um >> Oh, trust. I would like to have a discussion about community service hours >> and bringing that back maybe just to have a discussion and find out if we could bring or just a suggestion. >> Yeah, if we can maybe um >> pros and cons of that for a graduation requirement. >> I think a healthy discussion. Yeah, if we can provide a background maybe in a Friday letter um and then we can uh work with our staff. >> Thank you. >> Anything Anything else? Do I have a motion for judgment? >> Second. All >> in favor?
Good afternoon. I'd like to call the committee on education and waterland culture and the arts to come to order. Today is Friday, February 13th, day before Valentine's Day. Don't forget if you have a loved one, don't forget to get them something. We are meeting in conference room 229. This hearing is being streamed live on YouTube. And if we must end this hearing due to technical issues, the committee will reconvene on Wednesday, February 18th at 100 p.m. in conference room 229. And a public notice will be posted on the Hawaii Legislaturator's website. And due to the number of people, as you can see, standing outside waiting to come in here for other issues. And because of the shutdown we had on Monday, we're really have to had to move a lot of the uh bills and I'm sorry uh you guys were scheduled for Monday and uh because of this uh we have part of you today and part of you on Wednesday.