001you're meeting an open session at 504 PM we have a forum present with all board members in attendance please note that this meeting is a board meeting and being live streamed to uh the public with camera I'd like to welcome the community members in attendance it's great to see the room filled and the hallways as well it's nice to see public participation no matter which side you represent as a reminder the governing board meetings are a business meeting of the board held in public and although public participation is encouraged it is not the Public's meeting um I'll forgot forego the rest of this stuff to say let's have an orderly meeting let's be nice to each other if you can't be nice be civil we can do this it's just like a classroom there are
002a lot of people with different your classroom doesn't do it okay everybody has a different opinion a different viewpoint on things we can listen to each other without exploding and getting upset I'd like to see that tonight and I will hold the the board and the public to that level I'm sure you can do it at the appropriate time on the agenda individuals wishing to provide public comment will be called upon one at a time to do so in accordance with board by law 9323 the board cannot unfortunately and will not respond to your two non-agendized items but a staff member will reach out to you um in the coming week on matters that may need to be reviewed as appropriate the board met in closed session to discuss student discipline and the board's superintendents
003evaluation no action was taken uh Pledge of Allegiance Riley gehagen either one of the United States of America D3 approval of agenda may have a motion and a second so moved back ocean in a second any comments hearing none all in favor aye aye any opposed hearing none motion carries five to zero special recognitions Dr Anders so we have we have quite a few recognitions like to um to take care of tonight but we're going to start actually with our student Representatives um and um oh I apologize we're in this other recognition I'm in the wrong spot so we have we have a few we like to recognize tonight and just call attention to them I wonder if they're here represented to us tonight um Dorothy mcelhinney Middle School we have some folks yes come
004on oh yeah everyone called on the spot he did not know this but so I'll read this and you'll you'll know hey just give us a quick comment off that we're going to recognize um the work that's happening at uh Dorothy mcmahaney Middle School uh they're a purple star school award so just briefly again the California Department of public education formally recognized Dorothy mcelhaney Middle School it's a purple star school a purple star designation recognized school that showed major commitment to students and families connected to our nation's militaries California is approximately 10 300 schools and only 90 of them have been awarded the purple star designation uh Rita value infinite school district is the only District in Riverside County with a purple star school additionally Dorothy mcilany was awarded a fully funded military family counselor
005that's funded by the Department of Defense for the next school year I don't know where they're gonna sit but you got them this means a counselor from the Department of Defense will be present on campus and able to provide resources counseling staff development and interventions to support our military students and families so thank you Mr container if you want to share a couple of comments yes I would like to call up danine Harrison if if I may yes um danine is a former teacher at Dorothy mcelhaney and former military uh she's the one who really got the ball rolling on this she started the military Club at Dorothy mcelhaney and it's since past been passed on to Naomi Hoffman who's currently our our military chair and the work that she's done for our military families
006um just melt making them feel welcome at our school and what she does for the students during these this club she's done a lot and I think it's Janine who really deserves this recognition uh we're really excited to get this life counselor and you're right we don't have any empty offices but we'll find a place because it's it's that important um we're very honored to receive this recognition and we look forward to moving forward I just want to thank you guys for your continued support and supporting our military families we have over almost 4 000 military connected families here in our district and I just really appreciate your support and all of the um uh just energy from our military reps at all of our different sites and thank you thank you also we have
007another exciting opportunity to recognize a student I hope she's here tonight um our fourth 48th District Congressional Art competition so Senator uh Congressman Daryl Isa recognized one of our students for their art and uh there it is on display you can see it there this student is Haley maronde at primary Valley high school and she attends studio art at Murrieta Canyon Academy are you here come on up come on up thank you all right so I'm going to read a little bit about this all right so I'm gonna borrow this so uh you are named the 2023 Congressional Art Competition winner by Congressman Daryl Ice's office you're a student at the high school but you come over to Meredith Canyon for the art class this is pretty fabulous I've been in that room uh is
008your teacher here I've been in Miss in Chris's classroom it's phenomenal I've seen what you guys do it's a terrific place to learn okay so you've worked on this program all year long this is very well deserved along with this I do know there's there's more to come your art will be on display in the Capitol Building uh you'll receive two tickets to DC so you and a family member someone I don't know who that's going to be can go and attend that reception ceremony with them so congratulations so they'll be on display all year long and that's the proof items because you're going to want to share enough to look at that we can really want to share like how what was your inspiration I know it just sounded fun um but thank you
009Mr Knapp for everything this year's been really awesome great and um yeah I don't really ever think this would happen not really but what a great opportunity good we're excited some of us just recently came back from DC it's quite the town yeah so okay congratulations not only is she talented but she she's very talented she works really hard she puts a lot of thought and effort into her projects so if anybody was going to win this I'm I'm happy Mr Napolitano isn't this your second student to have won this last year we had artwork in Ken Calvert's office so that's true that's awesome yeah we have terrific opportunities for our students um last recognition is Dr Johna Preston where are you I know you're in the audience come on up Zhang so Dr Preston
010is being recognized as the special education administrator of the Year by AXA Region 19 and that's the association of California school administrators and our part of Southern California so uh she was honored last Monday we're proud of her and all the work she's done she's been our member of our district family for 24 years I've started as a program specialist and now is the executive director to no John is certainly a privilege to her efforts have gained a reputation as a school district who meets the needs of special education students with care compassion expertise with her support and guidance in our District Individual schools have been recognized of special Olympic Unified Schools we also have fully embraced the concept of inclusion at all grade levels and are becoming known in the Forefront of inclusion in
011our community so and and much broader than just here locally so congratulations thank you make sure because I'm quite interested in the Visual and Performing Arts um we'll make sure that a copy of your artwork will be reproduced and hung in the hallway out here so that people can enjoy it throughout the year it's exciting trip to Washington wow okay this is the sad part we're not this is the last time we call on our student Reps for their reports and there's such interesting reports I'd like to see it go on during the summer but that's okay I'm sure you have better things to do in the summer then first Marietta Canyon academy uh Lily Carmichael welcome hello everyone welcome back for the last time or at least for the last time you'll be seeing
012me um okay so starting off with Phoenix soar this week we had spirit days preparing for prom and they're all based off of our theme which is out of this world we had Monday which was dream big day or PJ day we had Tuesday which was Stars aligned or twins day we have two pictures from there there's me and miss gemppler and then there's a couple of our um teachers in Ms demetrienne's classroom and then on Wednesday we had peace out where Good Vibes day so that one was 70s theme and then there's also a picture from that um Thursday today that was Planet Rock day or a band t-shirt day and tomorrow is going to be out of this World Star Wars Day academics MCA had a large group of students participate in the
013in the Marietta Valley job fair at the library students dressed professionally distributed resumes and interacted with possible employers that's all the pictures that you see up there and the 36 of our students took the ASVAB military placement test on April 27th the Army provided a detailed score interpretation session today to help the students better understand their scores we also finished our cast testing this week guidance and Leadership academic incentive fun Friday I've talked a little bit about this before but this is when um students can participate in clubs and events if they do not have any failing grades so music Club is always popular I've got three pictures from that and we had another school-wide game of dodgeball which was very fun our last fun Friday activities MCA promised this Saturday we are very excited
01475 students are planning to attend from our school and Via guest passes seniors are also preparing for their graduation events such as Six Flags grad night our senior recognition breakfast on May 24th our senior checkout is May 26th our grad walk in elementary schools is May 30th which is the same day as our graduation practice and MCA graduation is May 31st there is one more so you guys already stole most of this information from me but that's all right so um as you said this is our second Congressional Art Competition winner consecutively that's amazing um I have a picture of her and her artwork up there uh she is in our studio arts class at MCA and that's about all I have there and then MCA students participated in an interactive field trip to the
015Ben Clark Training Facility to learn about careers in law enforcement and fire science I've got two pictures from that right there and that was just yesterday okay that's all I have thank you guys it's been amazing talking to you and I hope you had a great time listening um thank you to my fellow Representatives as well for being here I know my principal is here somewhere too so thanks Mr Bean for picking me yeah thank you yeah I think we're going to excuse Lily she has another event to get to tonight so thank you for being here tonight next uh from Marietta Mesa High School uh Riley gehagen Gahagan all right how is that tell me the correct pronunciation um you've gotten it right a couple but it's good again welcome thank you well again
016thank you guys so much for having me this year it's been fun and I'll I'm just only a sophomore so hopefully we'll get to see each other soon okay speaking of sad we are so sad to see this school year coming to a close but right now is all the time to get our last minute activities in this month Senate which is our community based Outreach leadership class they held a children's clothing drive with Miss Laurie in um in May and we also had a staff cornhole tournament because it's May is Staff appreciation month our biggest project right now is Mr Mesa our senior boys are working so hard to put on a fun and scary show for us I don't know if any of you guys have seen the ad we it's yeah it's
017really it's gonna be definitely a little frightening but that's the point for academics we are in the midst of AP testing actually this morning our AP World kids took their test this morning and we can you can feel the relaxation across campus decision Day breakfast is next Wednesday we are so sad to see them to see our seniors go but we are so happy to see and excited to see what they will become and with that our graduation is June 2nd and there's a picture from last year our Arts drama right now is working on their shows for next year and they already have them out and it's gonna be very exciting and fun our band actually is having a concert tonight which I'll be heading off to after I'm done concert um choir is
018performing concerts around the corner dance is also a very big we try to include them as much as possible in our activities around campus they're a very big part of our rallies and they're going to do a good job for Mr Mason so we're excited our Athletics we are so very proud of everyone in all of our programs volleyball got secondly for boys so you have playoffs girls lacrosse got their league title they're playing a CF Championship yesterday and they won two championship game for the CIF will be this Saturday her track Elijah green is fifth in state broke a School record of 110 hurdles Chase Eisenhower PR in his event 100 meter at Mount SAC Softball third year in a row claiming League champions undefeated in league and currently second in state their CAF
019semi-final game is tomorrow versus Norco and we're very excited Sun this is their first um they became a CAF sanctioned sport this year so and our girls are already doing great they're second in League swim we sent boys and girls relating to cityf we also won three individuals to compete at state finals for their event are culture so this week was um May is mental health awareness month so we did a mental health week to get kids in the mind calm and ready for finals which will look vastly approaching um our Juniors won for our rampage this is a picture on the bottom middle is a picture of our Senate class for their Miss Laurie's clothing exchange is on the left is Riley Walsh one of our Senate members with one of the kids there
020we also had a prom fashion show um showcasing dresses from Windsor to get um kids in the mind of prom season and also we had boys showing off tuxes from a vendor which they get discounts from so yes and I'm so very um excited to present Haven actually she will be your guys's next year Mesa forward representative again thank you we'll next hear from Vista Marietta High School rep Luke files welcome Lou thank you okay so there's some pictures from the past past few weeks um on the left is the pair that won prom king and queen there's a picture from our softball and it goes across uh there's a picture from one of our BSU events and then uh the middle right bottom um was a live photography uh demonstration we did during our
021original Performing Arts rally and then on the right is our Arc presentation okay for academics we've been holding our AP tests and our students have been working hard to finish strong our CTE engineering program took a field trip to the Air and Space Museum and a marine biology class has visited the Birch Aquarium those are more activities uh we're actually top five finalists for the most spirited School in the nation which I think is pretty cool and then we find out if we won on June 7th um our Juniors hosted this year prom a night on Mount Olympus including a variety of spirit days to help build up anticipation for the amazing night in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week each of our leadership programs and groups have held their breakfast snack or lunch for our
022teachers to hang out while we provide some treats um along with the acts honoring our teachers we're holding a three week full of dress-up days this week to show our support and appreciation um our dance Department held their last dance Spring Showcase and then we also held our visual Performing Arts rally for athletics our baseball finished strong at 12-3 in League ending the season first in Southwestern League our softball is continuing to push in playoffs finishing the regular season nine and five and 27 overall boys across ended a great season 8 and 5 and 16 and five overall uh girls across also made it to the second round of playoffs and ended their season and two in league and 16-5 overall our boys volleyball ended off 25 overall in undefeated unique and our track and
023field as well as swim have multiple athletes continuing their Seasons at CIF and in playoffs and then for our culture and climate for mental health we're Mental Health Awareness Month our plus program has been hosting a variety of encouraging events and acts to raise awareness for mental health especially while we end this year strong and then actually wrote up a little thank you for you guys uh for uh this honor so as my final board meeting that I serve as a Vista Murrieta student representative ends I want to thank you all for this amazing opportunity I've learned so much and grown immensely from this experience I've been a product of the school starting off with Lisa J Mills as a kinder to now being here with you I've Loved this district and everything that has
024given an offer to me the reputation that it holds has grown this town to be exactly what it is and it's the reason that people move here just to be a part of this amazing group of schools I learned to think critically about the world around me and know how prepared I am to move on to the next stage of my life because of the amazing teachers I've had as I head to college next year I hope that those values of empathy and kindness that were taught to me in school don't get lost in the muck of everything going on in the world right now I sat here and listened to people discuss what they think is happening in our classrooms and I hope you all can continue to always remember the diverse and amazing
025students you serve we all need to be represented what we think and feel matters thank you thank you it's so refreshing to be able to hear and see what's going on at each high school every time we meet because we don't get a chance to see everything in every campus it's great good for the students and good for us uh superintendent report Dr Andis thank you um we we do excuse Miss Anna Pham from Murrieta Valley High School tonight she had a conflict and was able to join us tonight so that's why we didn't have the other High School Brothers um as part of my report tonight actually we're going to take a minute to rep recognize a few of our administrators who've recently been uh promoted and they were uh their purse their promotion
026was approved in April and a few of them will be on tonight's agenda as well so we're going to start with miss Lynn Nord from rail Ranch Miss Norton if you're here if you'd come oh you just want to stand back there okay unless you want to say something we're delighted to have Miss Noor join us she's been the assistant principal there for quite some time under the leadership of our retiring principal Miss weathers and so we're glad to have Miss Lenny join us in that role so thank you very much thank you uh next is Mr Jason Hamm Jason if you want to stand there Jason uh was selected to lead Chevella Middle School actually he we made that move mid-year uh whereas Miss North starts in July but Jason stopped over there right
027after spring break and he's over at chevala he comes to us from a different assignments but most recently at Mesa as an assistant principal so we're excited to have him there thank you and so we'll be approving three others to tonight on the agenda uh Mr Phil Norton a feed stands Phil uh Phil's accepted responsibility to return to Buchanan but this time as principal and he's been working in our district office for a little bit as a coordinator doing Lots with attendance and how our students are doing so we're glad to have him return to his last previous assignment and I'll lead the group so we're looking forward to having joining you thank you uh shifting gears a little bit from our schools um Andrea miltenberger if you'd stand okay Andrew's been in our HR
028department for some time and is now going to be the I think the title's coordinator correct classified Personnel so ah okay that's easy so we're delighted to have her join the team there so that now you know who that role is okay Carrie's retiring after many years in the district uh so those that'll be fun to step into that room thank you and lastly Mr Jose Contreras feed Stan please thank you we'll see I see you brought some family members with you thank you um Mr Contreras is joining us he'll be our new director of facilities replacing this new Regan who's retiring he comes to us from Riverside County department Office of Education and prior to that Tustin Unified we've done facilities for quite some time so we're delighted to have you and your many
029years of experience join us in that role so thank you so this is one of those months where we have lots of celebrations and uh weeks of or days of celebrating different employees there's been the day of the principal the day of the teacher we have classified employees week coming up at some point in time there was something for counselors and bus drivers and there's just lots of days there's too many to try and list we just recognize that month is a great time to appreciate those people that really make education go and work in our schools and it's everything from the teachers as I saw today who it was a French class and the kids had clothes pins on them and they were all going around and if they spoke in English you lost
030a clothespin and when you didn't have any you were out but they had to go around and speak in French buying clothes from the different vendors in the classroom to make a paper doll yeah who does we do that right so those are the types of things that um and that's just one little example in one classroom today I saw for just one well about three or four minutes today and I speak Spanish not English so I heard not French so I was lost um I know that one of our board members can do that but it was those are the types of events that we see time and time again um I attended a Kinder TK orientation or excuse me uh open house one of our schools and there was this Ensemble of little
031people dancing in costume and it was terrific to see and I know that it wasn't just Mom and Dad putting on costumes it was teachers also organizing that but then mom's dad's making sure it happened because there was about 600 people there watching about a hundred kids do their thing it was rather remarkable but we see that time and time again it takes all of us to make these things happen to make these rich experiences occur so we appreciate that um lastly uh I've just two more comments as we know this graduation and promotion ceremonies are just three short weeks away the year is coming to a quick close and so we appreciate the terrific work that's occurred this school year this is pandemic year plus one like this is the first real year out
032of it it's been delightful to feel schools return to a much more normal pattern staff we all know those of us in the classrooms and some parents know too we're still dealing with some of the effects of not having been in school regularly the way we were in the past but we're making great progress and things are recovering well and it's great to feel of that energy and spirit about what is important to us as we educate kids and at the same time there's tremendous student achievement as demonstrated here with all the accolades that continue to come forward um happy Mother's Day if it's Mexican Mother's Day on the on the 10th uh Felicia De los Madres but on the you know for Sunday for everyone else happy Mother's Day lastly just a reminder as
033Mr diffley reported earlier because the next section is public comment um our community is not immune to the larger political conflicts and those have come to Murrieta uh conflict is inevitable but contention really is a choice if you choose to be contentious about what you disagree upon so please choose to be a contributor and not simply a Critic I wish to remind those making public comments there are many watching and we hope that individuals will Express themselves with stability but the common good and betterment of our school students and District as a whole president at least concludes my comments thank you and now we'll open it for public comment so Mr diffley we have quite a stack of public comments there's quite a few here um there's no one item that goes beyond where we'd
034have to reduce minutes so I'll set the clock for three minutes on each one there's a variety of topics here and they're all we've tried to group them together as best as we can so there's somewhat of a collection of theme but they're not necessarily all the same so well starting thank you this is exciting and this would we'll first hear from uh Pastor Brian have it Hawkins I'm sorry followed by followed by David Barrett that's good I was actually hoping to get to speak first welcome welcome um how much time I have three three minutes okay good um about two years ago we decided to drive to DC my family and we went on a 13 colony tour and as we were driving to DC and we got there we drove up the road
035and when we got to New Hampshire something was a little different than the history that I have been taught in school I was taught that it was Paul Revere who had got up early in the morning and rode and yelled uh the British are coming until when I got to New Hampshire there was this big plaque that went red Wentworth cheswell and my daughter said Mom Dad who is this who's this black guy I thought it was Paul Revere and come to find it when you look it up you'll realize that there was another gentleman who rode to wake up the the Revolutionary War and I asked myself well why isn't he written in history why did they erase the black guy along with Paul Revere I would love to hear both stories and then
036we went down to Yorktown in Virginia and I found out that there was a gentleman by the name of James Armstead Lafayette who was responsible for being what they call back then a double spy who pretended to be a a slave he's ultimately one of the reason why Benedict Arnold was was found out to be a traitor why am I bringing this up because it seems as though throughout history the representation of blacks and Hispanics minorities seem to be written out of History that seems to be a problem and in 2023 I'm seeing that's the same thing that's happening across the country so I want to share with you guys this amazing story because I know that I would love to see the books that represent all people be written don't don't you race it's
037ugly American history is ugly but it's also beautiful at the same time because as Horton Hears of who says we are here so I'm gonna share with you guys the the thought of doing the right thing when you decide what books to ban and what books to accept because I hope we don't get into that place but there was a kid by the name of Charlie Charlie have found a nickel on the floor and he went and bought a chocolate bar and got a ticket to the Willy Wonka Factory and if you remember in the story Charlie at the end was getting disqualified he was the last kid because he had drunk the fizzy lifting drink and him and Papa Joe had went all the way up to the roof and touched it and they
038were about to be picked out of the Chocolate Factory until he reached in his pocket and put the Everlasting Gobstopper on Gene Wilder's desk who was Willy Wonka and he won that prize the reason why he run that prize because he did the right thing I wanted to remind you of your childhood because when we were children we had innocence and we didn't let anybody Rob us of that and I hope the decision that you make don't Rob the future generation of our children God bless you thank you um Eric Douglas oh this one yeah okay all right hi my name is Eric Douglas I live here in Murrieta and I attended the last meeting and I wanted to speak about the textbook Give me liberty because it was rejected at the last meeting while
039a bunch of the other books were approved and some things were said here in the meeting about why some people had a problem with the book uh some of the comments were op-ed or mini op-eds in the textbook left-wing bias bias like The View uh that there was a broken trust maybe that's related to other things but and then I'm not a board member but a public speaker uh felt the book was garbage that was a word one person used so since I'm uh retired AP World History teacher I went ahead and came in the next Monday and sat down for three hours with the book and I looked at it and I I really don't think it's garbage I don't think it can be fairly categorized as garbage but of course everyone has a
040subjective opinion um and then I contacted every member of the board via email and um I I did ask to kind of find out what part of the book was objectionable was it a page number or a certain chapter or section or something like that okay um so I spent about three hours reviewing it and I did find some interesting things but I I did find instances where there were opinions of historical figures but they were balanced by someone with an appointed opposing point of view like on page 976 and 977 Dr Martin Luther King wrote a letter from a Birmingham Jail and that was published and then there was something called the southern Manifesto that was included in this textbook on page 1082 and three there is a pro NAFTA message from then President
041Bill Clinton and then there was a critique of globalization the pro nap there was 1993 the anti-globalization is 1999. and then there were some other ones that only had one point of view uh where a Civil War General named William Bernie wrote about a situation where some in 1897 some mohabbatans were deported and he had mentioned that that was contrary to law anyway um I I did not get any feedback from any of the board members about any chapter or section or page number in the book and I would like if a book is going to be rejected I would like a little more specific reason so I I think it's a bad idea to reject the book and it's possible that you know the people who voted against it have not even seen the
042book or looked it over or reviewed it and so I would urge you to change your vote to a yes and thank you thank you David Barrett followed by Chris Ms Chris tomasian welcome hi thank you classes on Dr Andrus and board members our family moved to Murrieta 32 years ago in fact we actually witnessed the unveiling of murrieta's first light signal on that day however tonight I want to thank you for the opportunity to raise my concerns about the textbook adoption process undertaken by the district thus far my wife and I have both retired from a combined 60 plus years in education and have been involved in the process numerous times but first let me read Ed code 60002 each District board shall provide for substantial teacher involvement in the selection of instructional materials
043and shall promote the involvement of parents and other members of the community in the selection of instructional materials next I'd like to highlight the discrepancy in the district's adoption process in regards to community involvement stated in the Ed code it looks like the parents and Community have been greatly shortchanged by your recent efforts I have the utmost respect for the evaluation of the teachers involved but the input of the community namely parents grandparents residents and taxpayers is necessary according to the Ed code in my opinion the district has extremely disrespected the stakeholders by severely cutting them out of the process except for a few weeks to view only the teacher's choice and not the complete list of textbooks on California's approved list in addition Dr Andrus I feel was a slap in the face to
044the community members who chose to speak at the last board meeting when you at the last moment cut their public remarks to two minutes after leaving them virtually out of the process the least you could have done is give community members who cared enough to evaluate the textbooks and communicate their thoughts in public their full three minutes finally more than 25 years ago when the district was exploding with the growth of the area the community was extended much more respect in the process when it came time to recruit volunteers to campaign and support school bond measures for the badly needed facilities the community was ready and willing Dr Andrus something to think about for the upcoming special board meeting next week thank you for your time thank you this is Mrs tomasi and it will
045be followed by Terry wellis welcome thank you I want to follow up with you on the discussion about the AP history textbook there were questions about the why the new textbooks were not adopted sooner the answer is the budget in California each district receives the base amount of money from the state based on how many students they have districts receive extra money for each student who is socioeconomically disadvantaged or meets other requirements the result is that districts like Murrieta and Temecula receive very little extra money and districts like Paris High School District where Mr Perdue teaches receive a thousand dollars or more per pupil or per year extra these higher funded districts obviously have that extra money to spend on materials and teacher salaries I also want to discuss the role of the school board
046one of the roles of the board is to set policies the district has been following the board established policy for selecting curriculum for the 21 years I was on the board I like you read through the materials submitted by our teacher and curriculum experts and after board questions and discussions all selections were approved I always judge the result of our vote based on student performance Murrieta students have high test scores our graduate graduation rate is 97 percent one of the highest in the state other metrics Echo the success obviously our teacher and curriculum experts know what they are doing When selecting curriculum I understand that next week you are meeting to again discuss the AP History material based on past evidence I trust are that our teaching and curriculum experts have selected the best textbook
047for our students AP History is a college level class and our staff experts have the expertise to determine the textbooks for this class and I encourage you to support the staff recommendation thank you Mrs wells will be followed by Gia Rue Eda answer good evening members of the school board and Community my name is Terry Wells I am a Murrieta resident I retire from a physician in the Palos Verdes Unified School District where I managed a middle school library for 10 years the reason I am here tonight is because I am angered that at the last school board meeting you rejected the adoption of the excellent AP history textbook give me history Give me liberty give me history one board member claimed the textbook red quote read like an op-ed piece end quote and another
048one of you call this textbook quote garbage end quote I have my hands a letter from Eric fonner the textbook author which takes nine minutes to read I have only three minutes on this Podium but you can read it in its entirety I only summarize here Columbia University Professor Eric fonner is a renowned historian and also a winner of the Pulsar prize Bancroft prize and many other Awards his textbook has been reviewed by writers from the left right and Center in the National Review a Bastion of modern conservatism the reviewer declared that the book The Story of American Freedom upon which Give me liberty is based approaches Brilliance that is a quote in the letter which I hold in my hand which I am also happy to distribute to community members Professor fonner highlights the
049extensive research that has gone into the book as well as this widespread use in high schools community colleges and four-year colleges it is used in red States and blue States and by liberal and conservative teachers this textbook is the top selling history book in the United States fonner States and I quote of course I hold political opinions as does every author of a work of history but the contents of Give me liberty are based on my own extensive research in historical documents and on reading the scholarly books of other historians not simply political Prejudice I strive to be fair-minded to all outlooks indeed the underlying theme of Give me liberty is that the definition of freedom the central idea in our political culture has been debated throughout our history and the book explains how Americans
050of all backgrounds and Persuasions have thought about and attempted to achieve freedom each chapter contains an insert juxtaposing two statements about freedom from its historical time period the point is to enable students to think for themselves about how they and other Americans Define this key idea this is the opposite of attempting to impose a political a particular outlook on students in conclusion the accusations of political bias in this textbook are unfounded I urge the board to reconsider its decision and support the adoption of the Give me liberty textbook wow following uh Gio ruida's comments we'll hear from John Vasquez welcome hi thank you so 250 years ago starting this in this December will be the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party why is that important because representation matters it mattered to our colonies back then
051and it matters to this board and so I want to start by thanking the board for allowing or valuing student representation by having student board members voted in so well done great move so I live in Temecula so why am I here well Mr Pardue said that president when he was front and center of the TV USD anti-crt Workshop where he boisterously discouraged the board president from ejecting a woman who made an inflammatory racist comment to a speaker so thank you Mr Perdue for essentially inviting comments from people who don't live or work here after all what's good for the gander is good for the goose so keeping with the animal analogy Miss Vandergriff I wonder why your school district would allow a fox in the hen house the fact that you homeschooled your kids
052and they weren't even Public School educated makes me believe your reasons for being here may be disingenuous uh it's as if you're here to dismantle the amazing work that the superintendent and the president and the rest of this board I have worked so hard to create furthermore sending out surveys to teachers teacher input on textbooks through email is a common educational practice so there's no need for fear-mongering or causing Havoc the sky isn't falling no Chicken Little needed here perhaps it would be better if um maybe if you just resigned due to your complete lack of knowledge regarding the public education and Make Way for someone who's better qualified to serve the community someone who's actually working for the betterment of students instead of trying to sabotage the district from within finally I wish to
053urge the board to trust the teacher's choice of the book Give me liberty for the AP U.S history text it's a comprehensive coverage of American History has clear and accessible writing style it emphasizes the experiences of marginalized people such as women African-Americans and Native Americans would and truly implements the fair Education Act it's also it also includes primary source documents and critical thinking questions to help students engage in the material so please let the expert Educators guide you on your decision and approve the book thank you and have a good evening following Mr Vasquez we'll hear from Kelly Carrillo hello School Board this is not what I usually do but I'm here on behalf of my daughter and my family my nieces that live in the town my daughter was a student at Cole Canyon
054Elementary when they first started she went first through fifth there she graduated from murder at a Valley high school so we've been here for a while um I like to talk about the transparency of the board and the and the guidelines that you guys have for who's teaching in the classrooms um apparently there was a gentleman dressed as a woman teaching kindergarten children at coal Canyon and when asked to get the information about what was going on there basically you can't tell you know what your guidelines on who it is I feel that the parents should know to have a choice if they would prefer to have that or not and uh being as we're talking about the mental health month and stuff somebody who believes they're a woman but they're actually physically a man
055that just doesn't jive with me so I'm just going to civilly and diligently do my part which to get uh traditional family get the get proper education in the classrooms and also I'm asking for transparency for if that's happening and people don't agree with that parents we should have the right to find out what's going on and basically not uh oh well we can't tell you this or that to give us that choice so I will this is like I said this is not something I do but it's important to me it's important to the community that uh you know we we have a voice that I'm sad that it has to take come in here and bringing it out but I'm just putting it out there that uh I don't agree with that and
056uh I will do my best to campaign to get people that are care about the kids and and the parents our rights and what's going on and and also the transparency of things to hold you accountable for what you guys do because you guys are all responsible for things and I know we have to as you say civil discourse so here I am I'm speaking about it and I ain't happy and I'm not the only one people gotta work right I just I got lucky I would try to attend and I'm trying to learn the processes it's not something I do I'm a construction worker but I'm a proud son of a mother and father who survived World War II and I'm I love my country I love everything that's done for me so here
057I am standing up and letting you know there's other people like me that can't make it here and that aren't all involved but we care and we care about the kids we care about our communities we care about our schools so that's all I got to say following uh Mrs Carrillo uh lucky heritunian good evening my name is Kelly Carrillo chemistry teacher at Vista Murrieta High School I'm here with some of my colleagues from our three different high schools to present to you the concerns that we emailed you about earlier this week the majority of our high school science teachers wanted to bring to your attention the concerns we have regarding the current educational science educational opportunities provided by mbusd and would like to propose some ideas for improvement please consider that every other subject
058including history mathematics English visual performing arts and World languages gives Opera gives students opportunities to accelerate or challenge themselves earlier in a student's career it is not until the second to the last year in our district that science students are allowed to challenge themselves with AP or dual courses unfortunately when talking with our own students about taking AP courses many of them shy away because they think the course is too hard or they do not feel prepared as teachers passionate about science it's personally heartbreaking to hear that students are not confident in their skills and knowledge to challenge themselves in the field of science we'd like to propose three ideas to help improve Science Education taught in our school district since Math and Science are tied together in many ways we propose that the district
059explored the idea of accelerated science pathway that mirrors the already established mathematics pathway for those sixth graders who are either in accelerated math or have the Curiosity and passion to choose a more challenging science pathway let's accelerate science six seven and eight and have 8th graders take biology this will allow students to take chemistry as Freshmen and expand their science opportunities in high school for the last three years they attend another option would be to offer an accelerated science track in high school interested freshmen would take the accelerated biology course that moves through course content at a faster Pace than the regular sections sophomores would do the same in chemistry this acceleration would be at a pace that is more like an AP course with the intention of preparing strong science students to confidently take
060AP courses and succeed in them a third option would allow advanced math science or sorry advanced math students those freshmen who are in advanced math 2 or above to skip biology as a freshman and take chemistry and then take AP biology as sophomores followed by a subsequent AP science courses Junior and Senior year again this would allow students who are strong in math to accelerate in science and take more advanced science classes during high school years acceleration in science is a real need in our district right now on average only six percent of of students district-wide are enrolled in any AP science class this low number needs to be raised science is what took Humanity to the Moon brought medicine and vaccines to defeat diseases and improved our technology if mbusd students want to be
061a part of the future we need to make this change otherwise we risk then uh you know leaving the race so thank you thank you thank you following this is our our attorney in um Jose carreno uh we'll speak welcome thank you a study on June 10th 2022 by the William Institute indicated 1.9 million of our youth between the ages of 12 to 17. 1.4 percent have become lgbtq now according to the CDC it's up to 2.4 million 0.6 percent of our population the center of Disease Control indicate that they are at risk for psychological distress and anxiety at a 75 percent depression at 61 percent suicide at 30 percent substance abuse alcohol at 47 percent a high risk increase on HIV a very high rate of violent radicalization that's encouraged by groups of socialists
062major negative health issues their education is severely affected not by going to school constantly absent affecting affecting their school performances all linked to lowed graduation rates and on and on it goes all created by CRT taught by teams taught by teachers this quasi-neo Marxist ideology to sexually indoctrinate our children is pure child abuse and nothing else the destruction of gender the destruction of the nuclear family that is destroying our civilization and devaluing life this is a demonic position of our children a spiritual warfare and the destruction of our nation if we do nothing we are not just we are okay let me say it again if we do nothing are we not just as guilty as those who started this child's sacrifice it's very evident you saw last board meeting a lot of woke teachers
063you just heard a few of them CRT is Alive and Well in this district and where I was told once before it wasn't here oh yes it is loud and clear and it needs to get out because a lot of these uh children that are well you know they're shooting down schools they are radical at this point and of course they're being encouraged to destroy uh they're becoming very violent and whose fault is that thank you oh I wanted to show you something real quick if you don't believe me thank you I want to remind you again if I hear outbursts from the audience like that I will clear the room I'm not kidding you have to have some respect you may hate what someone else says but it's up to you to be a
064civil person and calm you have a chance to speak every one of you have a chance to speak okay Jose Carino welcome and following Mr Carino is uh Ellen Larson welcome thank you I feel very welcome good evening I'd like to speak about two items tonight mainly relating on about last meeting we had here um the first one is very relatable to what just happened item one audience rules at the last meeting the superintendent sets some clear and fair rules instructing the audience not to be disrupted but a comment made by a board member seems to contradict these instructions she seemed to be making a judgment on the fauna book based on audience reaction towards the end of the meeting I heard on the audio recording because I didn't stay for the whole thing so
065she she obviously by her statements say that based on the audience reaction so that's kind of contradicting what was initial the initial instructions were if you're going to take audience loudness support we need to know and so we can act accordingly because it's not fair that one side gets to be louder not the other item number two there seems to be a heavy bias from some of the board members towards the profont pro final book teachers because of their education I'd like to talk about that in the last part of the last meeting one of you asked what makes us think that we know more than the teachers I will answer that question with a real life example years ago when I pulled my oldest daughter out of the AVID program I was told by
066the expert teachers that because I didn't have a degree and was low income and brown she would probably not get into college without the help of Abbott well I pulled her out she is now an oncology nurse and working on her master's degree my son who is a mechanical engineer and my other daughter who has a master's in education also skipped avid they're from the same disadvantaged household so considering this experience and the record of other government experts lately you may understand my skepticism towards these experts some of the speakers last time played up all their college education titles and letters behind their names and claim more value to their opinion than parents I'd like to add a different perspective After High School I didn't have the privilege of going straight to college instead I
067joined the Marine Corps and after that I went straight to work as a cable splicer to provide for my family so I don't have fancy letters behind my name but I do have some informal letters and titles that may give me some experience on how to educate children I have a ba and Dad of six and a masters in papa papa of 13. but most relevant title for this meeting I have is the title of Muriel taxpayer for the last 33 years I ask you please be open-minded to all speakers regardless of our educational privileges thank you welcome welcome good to see you good evening president Tiffany board members Dr Andrus I'm going to talk to you tonight a little bit share with you some comments on student voice and engagement um I've been engaged
068in this district for over 30 years for the last 12 plus years I've been a family engagement consultant for the Riverside County Office of Education I'm currently a member of the Marietta Valley Unified School District team of the community engagement initiative part of the California collaborative for excellence in education which is also a part of Statewide the system of support happy to be serving with wonderful people from chevala and the district who are working on a problem of practice that involves our students so I think you can see I have strong support for an understanding of student voice and engagement so I want to thank you as a board and as a district for creating a student board member position and for creating the superintendent student advisory Council because it is through these kinds of
069opportunities for our students that they get to engage in mean of meaningful meaningful opportunities of Engagement for them they are the customer and we need to listen to them I'm going to share with you a quote from Abraham Lincoln he said a child is a person who is going to carry on what you have started he is going to sit where you are sitting and when you are gone he will attend to those things which you think are important you may adopt all the policies you please but how they are carried out depends on him he will assume control of your cities states and Nations all your books are going to be judged praised or condemned by him the fate of humanity is in his hands so it might be well to pay him some
070attention thank you we're going to hear from Francis Burns next and after Mr Burns we'll hear from John Leonard welcome thank you president Tiffany good evening board members hope everybody is well today uh first um board member Alan Sue Stein couldn't be here this evening she wanted to thank you for some of your help but she did send you an email so please uh oh great fantastic um the next thing I want to do is um uh I promise Mr diffley I'm going to be civil um the next thing I want to do is I want to thank the district because for approving a teacher on a special assignment as an assistant principal at Thompson Middle School next year we are a big school and we have a lot of challenges and I'm sure that's
071going to help us very much so thank you all very much at the district level who I'm sure Dr Anderson had something to do with that and whoever else did thank you very much um I also want to publicly thank um Dr Rochelle filer she's um uh terrific um math department leader at our schools a very professional very personable and very helpful and and I'm very grateful for everything she's been doing for us over the years uh now I wanted to speak uh just briefly about uh some of these uh proposals um board legislative proposals specifically ab1078 ab665 and ab659 ab1078 uh this effectively prevents local school board control of books and curriculum in public schools um I I hope that I hope that's enough to get everybody's attention and um and oppose this bill
072another bill ab665 this bill would allow children as young as 12 years old to receive mental health treatment or counseling without parental permission uh people that young are called children for a reason while mental health is very important they do need to get rental support when they're that within that young and the other uh the other um bill I want to bring your to your attention is ab659 uh you know this would add to HPV vaccination to the list of required immunizations for children to attend school I have no idea why this would be considered I'm not aware of students uh dropping left and right uh you know out of uh dying from something of this uh you know from what this is supposed to prevent so uh hopefully uh you'll all join me in
073opposing that as well and the last thing I would say regarding your textbook adoption um there were many instances by people last week they cited references in the book where it was clearly biased and I just urge you when you go to consider this next week ask yourself if bias has a place in or an educational purpose thank you very much thank you and following Mr Leonard as a talk will be Yvette Anthony welcome hello everyone good evening at the last board meeting we heard from the teachers committee that created the new social studies and history curricula and what struck me listening to all the teachers that addressed the board last week and even tonight is the sense of elitism they so casually exhibit when taxpayers objected to Just One of 15 proposed textbooks we
074were dismissed as not being as qualified as the teachers to offer an opinion we were reminded of their qualifications multiple master's degrees I am to assume gives one a better sense of judgment on the contrary I have found that as in the last decade or two in some cases anyway it seems the instruction one gains in the university is equal to the loss of Common Sense not being able or willing to recognize what many Saw as obvious bias in the one rejected textbook was telling elitism is a concept contrary to American political thought we certainly appreciate others opinions but we are very capable of coming to our own conclusions and this segues a bit into my next point which is may I suggest that the the board adopt a robust Civics curriculum to be included
075at all grade levels uh former Secretary of State Michael Pompeo love him or hate him in a November interview claimed the greatest Danger The Nation faces is the lack of civics and American exceptionalism being taught in our Public Schools the single most important decision you make as a board is who you are placing in front of our children the question of do they share the values and beliefs of the community do they love their country is far more important than how many Advanced degrees they possessed and lastly I would I'm sure that you have a no cell phone policy at the school I imagine you do and I I ask that you aggressively pursue the enforcement of that and uh also I would ask you to please ensure that artificial intelligence never makes it into
076our classrooms a Google world view dominates they control search engines internet platform hosting social media advertising virtual reality and state-of-the-art AI technology of every sort and I'm sure your ITT team could tell you and describe what's coming our way I think AI in the classroom is dangerous it needs to be resisted and not something to be welcomed and I wish that I had a little bit more time I would like to say because I've heard this so many times I would like to say that at the Temecula school board meeting where Mr Perdue is always being ridiculed for the woman never made a racist statement to that man never did I was sitting directly in front of her and and I know what she said and it wasn't racist maybe wasn't the smartest thing for
077her to say but it wasn't a racist statement and people are always bringing it up and probably the ones bringing it up are ones who never heard what she said so I have and uh I just felt necessary to say that thank you thank you are you ready um following you will be um Leah Pinelli go ahead thank you okay I didn't see the clock um I want to um concur with some of the other speakers just regarding the curriculum decision or how that all played out that um it was a slap in the face to the community and the parents The Way We Were excluded from the process which I'm still not happy about but um I guess we'll be talking next Thursday about that book again so um hopefully we'll have well it's
078too late I do want to say though I did read the K-5 curriculum I thought it was pretty darn good so I'm pretty happy with that um but this this flyer this got emailed to me last week there is Adriana tune a fourth grade teacher at avaja elementary school she was on tick tock saying when one of your students feels comfortable enough to come out to you so um I mean she would be teaching ninth graders I mean nine-year-olds right so I was really taken back by this I consider this grooming in the elementary pre-pubescent age and I'm wondering she's very excited she's very happy when when her student her nine-year-olds come out to her and um I'm wondering what the school policy is on this as far as she's excited is she excited to
079tell their parents that their nine-year-old is gay um and I'm wondering what the school board policy on this as well are they are they disclosing this to the nine to the parents of the nine-year-olds that at school their kid has come out as gay and this is being disclosed to the parents what is the policy on that I did look through the online through all the board policies I did not find a policy on this but I think one needs to be made there needs to be complete parent disclosure and transparency um and then Mary I didn't bring my glasses up here but um Murrieta teachers union they have a equity and human rights committee they're promoting Julian as a mermaid oh thanks as um are these ones mine no um this this is a
080grooming book um so I can tell you I came to speak on item G1 you want to deal a feasibility study for a bond measure first of all BB money isn't gone yet it may be going soon but I would prefer until we have some policy in place to protect our children from the groomers in this District that I will never support a bond issue and I will walk and talk and spread the word if you even try to put it on the ballot um I will completely oppose it until there's here I'd like you thank you thank you Leah let's see and after Leo will be um now my glasses are not working Steph Stephanie Holloway good evening I am a parent of a third grader in this wonderful District of ours thanks to
081the expertise of our teachers administrators and support staff indeed our great district is one of the reasons my family chose to move to Murrieta I would like to express my deep concern and dissatisfaction regarding the competency and qualifications of board member Julie Vandegrift my purpose is to publicly Lodge a complaint against Mrs Vandergriff regarding her clear lack of Competency and qualifications for the position she is currently holding I have observed several instances where her actions and decision making have raised serious doubts about her ability to fulfill her responsibilities fairly and effectively When Miss Vandergrift was campaigning for her seat my husband and I had the opportunity of having a conversation with her face to face as she was canvassing our neighborhood at the top of her campaign flyer were the words parent choice I asked
082her what that meant to her and she replied this is a quote I think we should keep contractors out of our schools unsure of what she was referring to I asked her to elaborate to which she said in a now hushed tone and I am quoting again you know gay panels not only did this comment reveal that she clearly suffers from homophobia but it also illustrates just how out of touch Miss Vandergriff is with what actually goes on in our Public Schools furthermore she has made numerous statements that have exposed her ineptitude at her current position for example in a previous board meeting earlier this year she had to ask what 21st century learning skills were a term anyone who has spent any time in our Public Schools over the last 25 years would know
083it is my understanding that Miss Vandergrift homeschooled her own children which may explain her lack of experience and knowledge of our schools it is evident that Ms Vandergrift lacks the necessary experience knowledge and expertise required to make an informed and Sound Decision in matters regarding public education for limited understanding of educational policies curriculum development and pedagogical practices will result in detrimental consequences to our students and overall quality of the education within our schools it is essential for board members to possess the requisite qualifications and competency to effectively address the complex challenges facing our education system unfortunately the lack of knowledge and expertise displayed by Miss Vandergrift undermines the Integrity of our board and our reputable district and compromises the quality of our children's my child's education therefore I respectfully request that the board determined whether
084Ms Vandergriff should continue in her current position taking into account her demonstrated lack of Competency and qualifications thank you following Mrs Holloway will be um was that Lori is that Lori Nielsen Laurie Nielsen yeah yes welcome thank you um before I got go into my concerns I just want to um share with you some more exciting news about Vista Marietta um they were among one of the uh schools with the most entries at their track program into CIF Southern section division one prelims and they were featured on um Cal prep Cal track and I'm super excited about that as a track mom so I just wanted to share that with you yay uh go Broncos so um to continue good evening members of the board as a concerned parent I believe that school board members
085should have certain qualifications prospective candidates should have experience in public education this can be as an involved parent who has served on PTA boards School site Council volunteer consistently in the classroom or during extracurricular School related sports or activities a qualified individual may have involvement in one of our many parent packs such as APAC or elpac they could also be a current or former teacher administrator superintendent or leader who understands how School businesses run school board members should not come on board with the expectation to learn basic components of Education on the job such as usual business like plcs and typical education related language trust is essential in this position and trustee Pardue always mentions public trust during the meetings and I wholeheartedly agree with him school districts require knowledgeable individuals who the public can
086trust to make informed decisions about Student Success speaking of trust I want to address you directly Julie Vandergriff how can I trust you to make decisions on behalf of my children and their education when all six of your children are homeschooled and you therefore had no involvement in public schools how can I trust you to make decisions on behalf of my children and their education when you don't understand the basics of public education because you have never been involved at any level I have observed you on the day as since being elected and see how misinformed you are regarding what's happening in our schools how School businesses run our students and their capabilities you don't attend the trainings offered to you and from what I understand you're not visiting schools or meeting with leadership on
087matters beyond your own personal agenda after reviewing public records you are looking for these gotcha moments in regard to policy and trainings and curriculum I urge you to step down you don't have the experience or knowledge to make decisions on behalf of our children and are not fit to be on the board um on a side note for public record uh the next special board meeting date is May 18th and I believe the agenda's on the um the agenda that is the AP history textbook so please show up and support um that is all I have for you thank you so much Nielsen uh following Mrs Nielsen will be Alice Forney welcome good evening good evening uh member of the school board Mr Perdue could you please pay attention every day every time all the
088time these guys do I know you can do it too okay not done all right my children have spent all their years in Marietta District I'm here to express my deep concerns regarding Julie vandergriff's position on this board promoters and qualifications lack she hasn't had the best interest of our students teachers and community in mind she's failing to uphold the values of our distinguished District board members like yourself often have some experience with Public School Systems their children attend or they work or volunteerly in some way they're involved or and in most of all they share they share their love and the great enthusiasm for our public schools which is even more important and she does not Mrs Vandergriff um why are you here do not smile I find it troubling that in fact she
089lacks trust in our district and has never sent any of her six children to Public Schools plus she believes in censorship of many library books and textbooks why censor so many books she has 1950s type of mindset that students aren't capable thinkers and must be sheltered even our high schoolers who are ready to graduate the voters elected you to be a positive influence but I'm sorry I'm disappointed thank you very much following Ms Forney will be Kelly Swanson welcome good evening my husband and I have lived on the west side of Murrieta for 31 years the last time I spoke at a school board meeting I was nine months pregnant with my fourth child Lois Shumway some of you may remember her she had just been arrested handcuffed on the campus of myriad Elementary School
090for giving lunch money from the lost and found to a five-year-old who had lost her lunch money that was a bad decision made by the school Personnel it didn't benefit students or parents I'm here to say that the people who have come here to call Nick Pardue a racist shout out interjections While others speak an attempt to intimidate anyone who has opinions that differ from his or her own are not the majority being loud and rude doesn't make you the majority when those of us who did not agree with past school board members views we voted we didn't shout racist in the 80s I taught high school biology and all the physical sciences for 23 years up until last year I taught second grade and fourth grade at Marietta Elementary School I feel I have
091a pulse on parents opinions parents didn't want common core or anti-science masks on their children the school board voted for these measures to be eligible for federal funds not because parents wanted them parents don't want their kids taught their race will limit his or her potential they don't want restroom confusion another decision made to obtain Federal lunch money parents want the right to teach their children about social issues like homosexuality and transvestite behavior when and where they choose not in the classroom social emotional learning known as SEL and Pandora they asked Prime questions about a child's family and details about their feelings these are geared at gaining a child's trust from people outside the nuclear family many of the questions use vocabulary behind beyond the child's understanding parents want schools to stick to teaching academic
092disciplines most parents don't want restorative behavior modification in school this appears to mean that the child who has broken rules disrespected staff members or has caused disruption in classes aren't punished but get to participate in circle time with their friends go for a walk with an administrator and choose a prize from the treasure box before returning to the class they disrupted victims of bad behavior and their parents want the naughty child to be punished with consequences for their behavior I retired a year earlier than I planned to because for teachers and well-behaved students the classroom has become a hostile environment my own children graduated from mvhs the oldest in 2005 was number 10 out of a thousand the second was number two out of 600 the third was number eight out of 650 and that
093fourth child after receiving his FDA approved CDC recommended vaccine died there are 70 of such vaccines now Nick Perdue is our representative of whom we are well pleased following Mrs Swanson uh Lisa Murray welcome Hey Y'all thank you I am a teacher in this district for 17 years I also have a child in the district in second grade and I love and appreciate my administrators my teachers that I work with and our bargaining unit and I would like to say to you guys that I have some very serious concerns with members on the board and social media and I do feel that that Pastor Tim Thompson is making our schools a Target and in the vein of protecting all of our students I would like to ask that we close our campuses so that our
094students and staff can stay safe I know at my site it is open to all parents they can walk on campus there's not a sweep done at the end of it so anybody can be on our campus at any part of the day and I think this is something that both sides can agree on if we all want children to be safe in our in our schools so with that being said I would that's all I would like to propose for the board thank you thank you Jennifer rippert who will be followed by Rachel fish oh Lisa Murray is next oh my at least I'm sorry you're welcome hello good evening Dr Andrus president diffley and members of the board my name is Lisa Murray I am the Myriad Educators association association vice president and
095Lead negotiator I stand before you this evening on behalf of the mea executive board and negotiations team to ask you to vote to approve the tentative contract agreement we recently reached with the district I'm happy to announce that of the 73 percent of our membership who voted a few weeks back an overwhelming 94 percent of those members voted to ratify the Senate of agreement this year thanks to mea's positive working relationship with the district and our collective bargaining efforts we were able to make additional much needed and well-deserved progress toward improving salary compensation for our members this year in addition to negotiating a seven percent salary increase for all our bargaining unit members mea's Focus was on improving extra Duty compensation as well as adding and or increasing compensation for class size and caseload overages
096we also successfully reduced overall case load ratios for our nurses and psychologists we began we began our efforts earlier than usual this year with both sides focused on the goal of reaching a settlement in a timely manner and despite a few hiccups along the way we were able to accomplish that goal I'm proud to say that with our combined efforts we were successful in reaching a tentative agreement with the district sooner than we ever have before in addition to our regular bargaining agreement negotiations we have recently signed updated mous for improving our elementary PE program increasing compensation for summer school teachers and SLP and psychologist coverage compensation just signed today as well we are still actively working on mous for co-teaching transitional kindergarten learn at home and Elementary class size overage compensation all these additional
097mousse will serve to improve both working conditions for our members and learning conditions for our students while there is no doubt that we are extremely pleased with the progress that was made this year there's still plenty of work to be done and mea does not plan to stop advocating for continuous positive change anytime soon our class sizes at all levels remain too large to effectively meet the multitude of needs for our student population school safety and student discipline continue to be a major concern that must be addressed promptly improving School culture staff morale and teacher retention are all areas in dire need of attention well together we have made tremendous positive change over the course of the last few years our work is not finished we must keep the forward momentum and continue to walk
098alongside one another in building a district that outshines all others finally I'd like to thank both the mea and District negotiations teams and especially Lee Lockwood Lee it's been a pleasure sitting across the table from you these past couple of years we will miss you and we wish you all the best in your retirement and Mr write out my team looks forward to initiating you into the wonderful and exciting world of mbusd negotiations hopefully you've been fully prepared prepped for the fun you are about to have thank you this is Ripa Rupert Rupert I'm sorry that's okay I wasn't going to speak tonight I was hoping to follow up a couple parents at my school but I'm before them so but please listen to them hi welcome oh thanks sorry I am so beyond tired
099hi I'm Jennifer Rupert third grade teacher at Buchanan I'm exhausted so I'll probably stumble over my words I wasn't going to speak but lucky you I decide to share a couple of thoughts that I've had running through my brain all year um my class of 29 students is just one of many classes in our school that has needs that are too vast to explain I feel inadequate at the end of every day because I can't hit the very needy social emotional needs of my most of most of my class as well as their academic needs my kids who are on target seem to be put on the backboard while my attention goes to my 17 behaviors and needy kids and my seven rrsp kids all while balancing and a daily schedule of students coming and
100going to get supports outside of my class I have only 30 minutes scattered throughout the day where I have all my class at the same time all of our resources are going to those in need and very little to the kids who want to stretch their thinking this is not an internal problem at my school but rather not enough staff to support all the children's needs next we have become too soft on attendance I have one child with 82 tardies 82 tardies and one child who's only been in my class 70 of the year I actually had one that was worse last year both of these kids are extremely capable of meeting grade level standards we tried starving or we tried counseling with parents mom won't show up but what's happening these kids don't get
101started or starved anymore and these very capable kids are going to fall through the cracks finally I respectfully sorry asked the board not not to ask us to avoid Thursday nights for school events if you are not going to show last night my school had its open house and you guys didn't show nobody showed and that's okay but then let us have it when we want um so having two days left in this week where we are still finishing up cast teaching and Mother's Day gifts is like walking through sludge to finish the week with any pep in our step we're extremely tired today after just hearing that Thompson got another AP I mystified couldn't that we couldn't get another first grade teacher for Buchanan next year so our classes our first grade classes will
102be packed again or drive us into another combo class which is ludicrous for one two it's ludicrous at any we have too many Combos and it it they think it's the solution and it's not um sorry is Bill still here oh good he's gone he's my future principal yes I just don't want to cause anything for him anyways I do want to thank Mia for all their continued hard work for us and our support and trying to get our class sizes lowered but um sometimes it's not just about money I would me personally I'm not speaking for everybody I'd rather have my same pay but fewer students so I could feel more effective in my classroom however money does help thank you facial fish yes we have one more then I'll talk about class size
103With No Name Is there someone who want to talk about class size and it put their name on it okay we just don't have a name okay thanks Shannon all right welcome thank you hello my name is Rachel fish and I'm here tonight as a parent of an almost third grader and almost kidner Gardener at Buchanan Elementary the last time I was here I spoke as one of the only parents who willingly volunteered my son for the combo first second grade class tonight I am here to express my concern as to what a mistake it will be to continue the combo classes next year I have spent this year on and off campus helping with class needs as well as being a board member of our PTA doing everything I can to not help only
104my child but all of them I feel my child's education however has suffered this year not because of his teacher but because of the lack of support she has received as a first year teacher in our school district taking on two grades that she had never taught before she has been doing the best she could with what she was given but I can tell you firsthand these kids are learning the bare minimum I have been in class at least one day each week since this switch happened and the majority of the kids that are in there should not be the children who need more help or attention are not able to get it and on the flip side of that the children who could be challenged and should be challenged aren't able to be they
105are learning what they need to know for next year and that is it I think most of us can agree that this year's current second grade class is still one of the grades most affected by covid and the shutdown they had virtual kindergarten and are still trying to catch up on so many levels three years later they need a teacher who can give them the dedicated attention they require and someone who is trying to teach two grades with no help is not able to provide that the purpose of the combo class was to help decrease the class sizes but even by removing three kids from each class the remaining teachers are still overwhelmed and overworked 28 plus students is still too many we are now making arrangements for the TK change which means hiring or
106reassigning staff from different grades but what is being done for your existing students how are they going to learn and grow to the best of their ability when it's hard to even walk between desks because their classes are so crowded our class sizes are not going to decrease so we need a plan to accommodate these children and combo classes isn't it smaller class sizes need to be planned for by adding more teachers and the only way we can do that is with additional funding myself and everyone I've spoken to are so excited for Mr Norton to come back as our principal next year but we want to know what your plan is to do to set him up to help our school succeed we would love to see our rating go back up from the
107six that it currently is we have a group of amazing teachers that are doing the best they can but without your help their best isn't enough Buchanan needs the funding to provide the education that our children deserve and setting art instead of letting our children's education continue to suffer thank you again and after Shannon will be Claire boloski welcome good evening Ward my name is Shannon Saliba and I've come to speak to you in continuation of my last speech given in October of last year I'm a mother of two children at Buchanan Elementary Emily who's about to finish second in Oliver who's in first when I was here last time I I came to discuss our full class sizes and my concern of all kids for Buchanan I spent the last year in both of
108my kids classrooms while my son's classroom is now at a 24 to 1 ratio my daughter's classroom is still out of 28 to 1. after spending time in both of the kids classroom I have come to express that we have to find a way to continue to reduce the class sizes and my daughter's larger class I have seen firsthand that average students will probably get what they need from this class but the higher needs students are not getting the one-on-one that they need with the teachers to be able to Excel and the higher achieving students are sitting around and not being challenged to their full potential while I was working to set up the PTA a fair in April I had the pleasure of speaking with you and we discussed about how Marietta school districts
109should be the one to set the bar as we are a California distinguished School District however when I see 28 to 1 ratios in second grade class a combo class that many parents are not happy with being extended into the next year fourth and fifth grade classes that have 32 to 34 children in them and parents who volunteer and have to go sit on the floor outside because they cannot fit into the class that they are in I ask are we really setting any bars here our school our great school rating has fallen to six out of a ten I see the most amazing teachers at our school trying to give it all their all but the district has to give them more funding so they can obtain smaller class sizes I'm taking over as
110the PTA president for our school because I love the kids at our school and I'm very passionate about the staff but when I see money being put into the extending the pre-k program for and I am all for this I have to wonder why the pre-k program is getting money but we're telling the rest of the students that are there that they just need to make do with what you have we will do we have to do better at Buchanan we need it for lower class sizes I hope the board will give thought to what the school needs in the future in reducing the class sizes I am willing to sacrifice my personal money my personal time but what is the board willing to do to help us also Good Year so again I'm Claire
111balaski I'm at the high school I'm a resource teacher I wanted to thank you for allowing me this opportunity to appreciate a member of this District um but before I do that I'd like to say thank you in advance for the pay increase so thank you if you guys do vote for that I'm going to tell you now um and I also want you to think about um I'm lost because I've been sitting so long um the cost when you think about the equity the cost between the high schools the cost between the high schools who employed employ a large number of staff and staff Appreciation Week um maybe the district could put some funds aside so that every staff member could receive a free lunch um you'll hear about that down the line of
112the different in what happened at the different high schools so also I want to take a quick moment to give a shout out for my assistant Amy Davis who's a major reason why I run such an effective program and my kids are as successful I'm hoping that the high school all the aides will receive a revision to their classification so those that are in the algebra class will receive the pay that they deserve for what they have to do and help my students finally I want to thank the zap member I've known for almost 20 years and she is one of my seven people who changed my life I don't know if she knows that but she started in our district as a vice principal little awkward please remember once that you were an alligator
113and you will always remain an allocator thank you now we'll have the employee organization reports uh Kimberly uh shevlin president MEA welcome uh good evening members of the board Dr Andrus and guests May is Asian American Pacific Islander and native Hawaiian Heritage Month it is important we include these cultures and heritages in our classrooms because representation matters to our children and I'm going to add right here that that is why mea continues to have an equity and human rights committee we also this month are celebrating teacher school nurse appreciation in the month of May while teacher appreciation week is a wonderful opportunity to express gratitude towards Educators it is important to realize that a single week dedicated to appreciation is not enough to truly acknowledge the immense contributions of teachers and School nurses teaching is
114a demanding profession and nursing that requires ongoing commitment continuous professional development and emotional investment teachers go above and beyond their duties working tirelessly to create engaging lessons Provide individualized support and nurture the social and emotional well-being of their students they often spend countless hours outside of school grading assignments preparing materials and attending to their administrative tasks teacher appreciation should be an ongoing effort with consistent recognition and support throughout the year this could include providing resources for professional development improving working conditions and valuing their expertise and input in educational policies by recognizing their year-round efforts of teachers and School nurses we can truly demonstrate our appreciation for their dedication and hard work on May 2nd we celebrated Dorothy mcelhaney Middle School's teacher of the year teacher Heather Hanlon as she was awarded the 2023 Riverside County
115teacher of the year I've had the pleasure of observing in her classroom and she truly is an amazing teacher on Friday May 5th e hill Kearns Elementary School teacher Sherry grudel was celebrated for being chosen by the Walt Disney Company as one of the 100 most inspiring teachers teachers from Across the Nation were chosen because of their extraordinary creativity and Imagination on May 1st we celebrate the retirement of over we celebrated the retirement of over 70 mvusd Educators and staff we wish them well wherever their travels take them that includes Lee and I'd like to say happy Mother's Day to those celebrating this weekend we're we are nearing the finish line for this school year thank you I'll have board member reports uh Mrs Young okay I get to go first okay um well um
116four of us went to the federal advocacy trip to Washington DC and um the called Coast to Coast and the way that started is we were all pulled on what we thought the most important issues were uh connected to the federal end of education and when we got there we spent an entire day being trained by experts on these issues um at the end of the day we were organized by Assembly District our group was grouped with both representative Isis district and Ken calverts so I'm thinking part of Murrieta might be in Calvert's district and they set us up with meetings with either people met with either the representatives themselves or possibly with their aides in our case we did meet with both um representative Calvert's aide and Isis aide um so they uh decided
117who was going to talk about which topic I was asked to talk about Labor shortages and education and also the Social Security wish issue which does contribute to our labor shortages because people there are a lot of people that would become Austin teachers who are working in other professions but they can't really afford it because uh if they work you know if they're under the stirs system they will drastically cut their social security and they can never catch up on stirs so it is an issue contributing to this and you know I talked about what California is doing to alleviate the shortages and ask you know what you know the federal government could do the social security issue actually it is they are working on it so I think there's a good chance of passing
118it so uh people aren't getting punished for switching careers and uh I won't delve into the other topics because maybe others want to but we talked about special education cyber security nutrition and uh I just thought it was really a worthwhile trip you know we learned to Advocate and I think that's part of our job is to advocate for public education along with the school district and yeah I learned a lot from that um I also this was already mentioned I did get to go to the celebrating Educators luncheon at the Riverside Convention Center there were several people from this District nominated and I'm going to read the names so we had Anne-Marie Lopez Nadia Zia and Robert lurkins Sean McCarthy Donora Mendoza Montoya Craig frame faith munchnick and of course I especially want to
119congratulate Heather Hanlon from Dorothy mcelhenney Middle School they made a really great video they made really great videos on all the people that won and her video actually brought tears to my eyes so now I want to go back to Middle school and take her class so I'm going to go back in a bit one next when the school year starts up again um but yeah I think there's a way you can see the video so I highly recommend that um I was also invited to the CTE engineering field trip by the Vista Murrieta teachers that happened last Wednesday I really appreciated the experience first the group went to the air and space museum we got there a little late because our bus had a tire issue but you know we still had a decent
120amount of time there after that um there was the uh senior design day at San Diego State it was cute it was a huge all it was mostly a senior engineering students from San Diego State but there were also groups from UCSD with all different types of engineering products uh uh projects and one thing that really impressed me and this didn't only happen with me but I know some of the others in our groups we got compliments from the students there on the intelligent questions the Murrieta students were asking and I thought that was really the ultimate compliment but um anyway yeah so yeah I'll stop with that thank you um this is Vandergriff thank you um okay so I'm coming up on the end of the year here um I would like to highlight
121one of the events I attended that Illustrated how rewarding it is to be committed to the happiness and well-being of another person the event was the Vista Murrieta peer mentoring celebration and as I made my way around to the various displays students related the growth and the friendship they experienced even though one student was designated as Mentor I heard student after student relate how much they valued and enjoyed the friendship that developed in the course of the year whether it was in the context of a Ceramics class a Spanish class A leadership class or a math class this is such an important life lesson that I hope the seniors will take with them as they Venture into the wider world I hope they are able to keep sight of how important and rewarding personal relationships
122are the give and take the patience the struggle involved and ultimately the joy and to fight the ever-raging Battle of technological immersion we have an epidemic of Technology addiction today and while we continually hear warnings of its devastating effects on youth particularly we seem paralyzed even in light of the terrifying Fallout the California school boards Association March 2023 newsletter reports that suicide is the third leading cause of death for youth ages 15 to 19 and one in four adolescents ages 12 to 17 report having recently experienced a substance use disorder or a major depressive episode the topic of cell phones has come up repeatedly here in this district and we as a district and as a board have not done anything yet despite the link of Technology addiction to the immense suffering we see in
123our society so what is technology addiction technology addiction is defined as frequent and obsessive Behavior despite negative consequences from dependency on technology it can significantly impact students lives depending on its severity technology addiction can be socially devastating people who are addicted to technology might suffer withdrawal symptoms ranging from feelings of annoyance to feelings of extreme anxiety and depression so what makes technology addictive technology often fulfills our natural human needs for stimulation interaction and changes in environment with great efficiency when teenagers experience difficult phases in their lives from social rejection to the stress of exams technology can become a quick and easy way to fulfill basic needs and as such can become addictive technology impacts the pleasure systems of the brain in ways similar to substances and provide some of the same rewards that Alcohol and
124Other Drugs might it can be a boredom Buster a social lubricant and an escape from reality video and computer games smartphones and tablets social media and the internet provide a variety of access points that can promote different sources of dependence and negative consequences for youth technology addiction can give students a false sense of relational security as they communicate with unseen individuals around the world the speed with which technology moves makes everything available within seconds encouraging an unhealthy desire for instant gratification that can promote irritability and anxiety throughout daily life maybe that is a reference to some of the things we're seeing in the classroom even as healthy teens are challenged by increasing life responsibilities hormonal changes and the stress of new Social and academic worlds like dating and applying to colleges these life transitions become
125even harder for those absorbed in technology within a technology-addicted individual the Mind becomes increasingly unable to distinguish between the lived and the alternate realities that produce instant stimulation pleasure and reward as such the extreme use of Technology can disrupt normal patterns of mood and socialization in teens dependency upon social media gaming or other platforms to function can become the new and unhealthy normal researchers have found that people who abuse technology May develop similar brain chemistry to those who abuse substances another concern is that those who are addicted to technology are actually more likely to abuse substances than their peers with healthy relationships to Tech providing the Insight that technology addiction may be a risk factor for substance abuse teens who hypertext or send more than 120 messages per school day are 40 percent more likely
126to have tried cigarettes two times more likely to have tried alcohol 43 more likely to be binge drinkers 41 more likely to have used illegal drugs and 55 percent more likely to have been in a physical fight on top of that the same research noted that young adults who spent more than three hours per school day on social networking sites were at higher risk for depression suicide and substance abuse thus if we prevent technology addiction we may prevent many other risks as well and that information comes from the um Betty Ford Hazelton Hazelden Center so um I believe we have a moral imperative to address this and a great way to start would be to take a serious look at the cell phones on campus and so I'm looking forward to having this on the
127agenda as soon as possible and then one one last thing I just want to pass this to my fellow board members um as a concern about um uh the how we don't want the community's process to be subverted when they're asked for input anyway thank you and pass it back to me when you're done please thank you Mrs Lund all right well welcome everybody it's great to see you all here and to hear everything that you have to say we do appreciate it um big thing that happened this week or this past month was that we did go to the coast to coast uh conference out in Washington DC and um I'll tell you it was um it was awesome it was morning till night back-to-back meetings that we attended to get prepared so that
128we understood what we were talking about so we understood the issues um they've already been listed out so I won't do that and um we had tons of reading that we had to do ahead of time which I was very happy to do so that we were best prepared to participate and contribute and to be constructed productive members of the conference um we had one single morning free so we did get to run up and down the mall to see the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument which was really neat I'd never seen any of that in person before and it's even better than it is in movies I would encourage anyone who hasn't done it to do it I've seen a lot of nodding here um probably the Highlight for me was attending a reception
129in the Capitol building to say I was honored to be walking the hallways where our country was built and founded as the same people who built it um it gave me goosebumps and I was so honored to be there uh it's been it was constructed in 1793 and our American government has worked to ensure that all of us are equal and we have the right and the freedom to pursue happiness according to our own personal beliefs it was deeply moving and I'm so glad I got the opportunity to be there and really made me proud to be American to be in that building so it's a great opportunity immediately following that I came home from the airport and drove straight back up to Burbank because I know I've talked to you guys before about I
130helped coordinate Army educator tours with our district and we send administrators and teachers and counselors on these tours to um army forts that it's run by the Army it's paid for by the Army and they're really fun and this time I got to go on one and I got to ride in a Blackhawk helicopter up to Fort Irwin it was so awesome I got all tangled up in the headphones and stuff they had to help me but um but it was fun and one of the reasons why I have been a proponent of this is because we do have three jrotcs Marine Air Force and navy but we don't have Army here because we don't have that fourth high school and so that relationship has been really important to me and this helps us and
131what what this does for our administrators and teachers that go there it really opens up the doors that for us shows us the doors that are open for students and the opportunities that our army has to offer our young people from college to Technical Training from officer to enlisted positions there really are no limits so if anybody wants to talk to me about that it was a great trip and I've had some experience at other places as well um I also attended the rcoe celebrating Educators we did have 10 finalists from mvusd who are recognized and of course Mrs Hanlon a couple people have already talked about her one of the things that she talked about and one of the reasons why she was recognized was for her efforts in relationship building through an inclusive
132culture in her classroom she has students that are reluctant dancers she has students to have extraordinary needs but she includes them all in a safe space to come together in her classroom to express themselves creatively through dance so Brava Mrs Hanlon so proud of you about that um I too was invited to chaperone with the Vista CTE engineering pathway students on their SDSU field trip and I heard the same comments from not only from staff members but from the senior students there who were doing this is our culminating project four years worth who we're saying oh you're from Vista those kids really know what they're talking about they ask such intelligent questions so it's made me so proud of our students to hear that especially in engineering because I spent most of the day not
133really understanding anything that was going on and an absolute shout out to our transportation we did have a flat tire and they got a bus out to us lickety-split but what that allowed me to do actually was to have great conversation conversations with our CTE teachers these are the boots on the ground people and the way what they see is the pathway forward for us was CT and it was Illuminating and they've got some great ideas I got to talk with Joe Ramer Andy Rucker and Cameron Larkin about that and just got some great insight I'm immediately following that I went to the APAC rights of Passage and that's their promotion ceremony for Fifth and 8th graders and record names recognizing their graduates and once again I'm just blown away by our students and their
134accomplishments there were students who are College Bound with four-year full rides all the way to a student who has developed his own line of clothing and is starting his own business in that immediately following graduation this year it's just awesome meeting these accomplished students I too attended the Bronco Buddies uh exhibit at Vista these These are students who two types of students students one are peer leadership students and they are trained and um asked to work with a sped student and they go to classes with them they go to regular classes these are not sped classes and they work together and it's just been awesome and listening to these students both as fed students and the Gen Ed peer leader students listening to what they have learned about themselves about each other it was it
135was a wonderful experience and I would really encourage anyone if you have a chance to go to one of our inclusion activities our Unified sports please do we are doing great work and these students are articulate they're accomplished and they're leaving our high schools with a full skill set of understanding collaborative working relationships Leadership Learning from everyone around them and most importantly empathy for others it was really heartening I did get to go to the CTE and JROTC Awards tonight which again so awesome to see those kids completing their Pathways typically it's a three year a couple or four years um I was interested to hear from Richard Slocum who's our teacher of automotive technology that's one of our oldest CTE Pathways and he mentioned that a lot of his students actually don't do the
136third year completer because they are hired straight out of having two years in his classroom and they have so many certifications and Licensing from nationally recognized like companies like Snap-on and stuff they're getting hired straight out under us so it's awesome uh let's see I was very happy because I was paired with John Lavelle he's one of our city council members that night at the CTE Awards and he also serves as a business development director at Loma Linda and now he's part of our CTE Pathways Team Planning team we always have a um a member from the community and he we just we just voted him in our last meeting and he let me know that the KTM motocross you know the building out there on Winchester that I told you about last week last
137meeting um Reagan heightened I think that's how you say her name who attends Antelope Hills in the just last weekend in the junior Supercross in Denver placed first the first girl to ever do that so awesome right way to represent Marietta um finally I will be meeting with Kate Sanchez next week um advocating again for public education K-12 through csba and I just want to say every single student I meet and every parent I meet and I you know I go to a lot of events and all of our staff members that I meet these are the people this is my paycheck doing that these people inspire me they are my heroes and they remind me to focus on what really matters and that supporting student learning and achievement thank you thank you Mr Pardue
138I also happen to attend the csba DC advocacy trip and uh when I was struck by was how many young people actually are involved in the process so all the AIDS that we saw when we visited our our Representatives those were young people and pretty knowledgeable and I thought that was really impressive when I went to go uh to Nancy Pelosi not Nancy Pelosi sorry no Dianne Feinstein's office because I wanted to see the senate floor again in awe of just being at the Capitol and getting to you know taking the history um I was greeted by a young college student uh who would fill out the pass and do all this stuff and so I took a break and went down and had lunch in their little lunch break area and uh again it's
139just amazing and I went back and told my students because for those who don't know I'm also a teacher and and and talk to him about how important it is uh to get engaged to get involved sooner um so that you can participate in some of these things and having spoken with Kate uh Sanchez before and and hearing from her representative about how she needs um oh shoot now I'm drawing a blank on what that's called when they're um the AIDS in the office and they're helping answering phone calls and interns appreciate that um looking for interns and trying to find students and I think it would be a good way for our students here at mvusd to link up with our representatives and get involved that they know that that opportunity exists I thought
140that was really neat um I was also on that trip really excited I got invited by Congressman Jay obernoldi to uh go to his house and hang out and listen to what was being said and my big question was kind of why are we only talking to AIDS uh why is education not like a higher priority especially with Republicans right uh I didn't understand that I know Nancy Pelosi and Mark tecano showed up they were focused on more social issues mostly trans issues it sounded like but I missed them so I don't know for sure I guess our other two members would be able to tell us what they had to say about that um but the biggest issue and just like we're talking about teacher pay and you know how Paris Union High School
141District gets paid one way versus how we get paid you know a lot of that does have to do with you know people don't like talking about CRT but that's a big part of it right under uh underperforming students in communities and they get more money they get more funding and for us we have to come up with more creative ways to keep our our teachers paid and happy and and wanting to be engaged we have less resources we have to be we have to be more creative it just is what it is uh in this case the congressman's uh expressing the fact that we well I already know this is an economics teacher we don't have enough money we're always deficit spending we don't have enough money to fund everything and right now when
142they're trying to to cut spending uh there's different priorities and that's kind of what we're up against there I also had the chance to talk and this is a little bit before our meeting over textbooks um about our um our Pathways for different students which was just brought up by the two science teachers uh Kelly Carrillo Michelle Cote came up to to address we got a letter from numerous teachers discussing this issue um we I know that's a big big issue with me I've said this a number of times I I think that students need to be able to choose a path there should be Freedom there should be some choice in terms of what they do I don't think everyone should be funneled through biology chemistry and physics I think is a huge mistake
143and even when we heard from our elementary school teachers from Buchanan and I'm sorry for the name I was writing by the way I write down a lot of notes because I've thank you but one of the issues was like a big class we have lots of kids with lots of different needs we have some kids that need a little bit more attention we have some kids that aren't quite being challenged because we're we're not necessarily meeting everybody's needs and how we're addressing the students and this gets down to the nuts and bolts of education and and everybody kind of agrees with that we want our students to be as successful as possible to have the skills necessary to be successful in the in the real world and I would say that's more important in
144high school I shared with Dr Andrews how I came across my and I think I said that in the last meeting my 1984 I think there was a lot of there was a ton of different options for us and to think that we've Advanced so far that we've actually kind of I think we've lost something and I think we should just be able to take some time and get this on the agenda re-evaluate that and with that being said to discuss the textbook adoption which was a big concern I always dis I didn't like coming up here and then the board never really responded my concerns I want to respond to some of those um the textbook adoption and no one's Banning book I didn't really like how people put that the issue was are
145we responding to the community if the community has a concern then we have a duty to look at it a little closer and ask a few more questions and that's all we're doing so I I don't like this jump and rush to judgment about what we're trying to do as a history teacher in someone as we talked about how long it's been since I know they need these resources and I did speak to a couple of people on this issue on uh since the last meeting and the reality is the AP test is what it is so we need resources that are going to help the kids be successful in AP test and whether we like what the curriculum's in there or not you know that doesn't really matter too much I I do understand
146there's bias but I think it's really important as someone pointed out I I speak about broken trust we serve a community and we have to have the cons we have to listen to what the community is concerned about that's our job that's what the board's job is and uh furthermore which is is really always disheartening for a social studies teacher a lot to say on this um you know our government it's it's for the People by the people okay that means that the people are our boss and they decide what happens with government and government policies that's why we have elections so in terms of being qualified to be here we represent the parents and the constituents everyone's qualified any one of the parents I was so proud of the people who really aren't because
147there's some people are politically motivated they come here all the time and they they say the same thing over and over again but when someone has the courage to come up here and speak their mind as a parent you need to be able to hear what those people are saying because that really matters because that does take a lot of courage to come up here and publicly speak we have teachers that are afraid to come up here and publicly speak and so I think we should be respectful of them and make sure we hear what they have to say regardless of what their degrees are and that the teachers have great degrees and they have a lot of expertise but they we still have to be responsive to our stakeholders which is the community Murrieta
148and and that's what we're trying to do as a board and every single citizen in this city is qualified to sit on this board and to attack one of our board members is completely unacceptable as far as I'm concerned it's disrespectful to the 60 of muriettica's uh Miss Vandergrift had a huge margin and that is disrespectful to those constituents to to denigrate her like that and I think we should have more civility especially if you're an educator you need to understand what the positions are what the roles are in terms of schools there's some things that are our responsibility and there's some that are Dr andrus's responsibility when it comes to some of the programs that you're concerned out that's going to fall on Dr Andrus in terms of policy that's us I do know
149that the teachers need need stuff you need to know that this is a form for us to discuss the issues that are concerning the community and be respectful of everybody in their opinions so I appreciate everybody and uh thank you so much for giving me that I'm done thank you thank you well here's the fun part you'll love this this is the results of the 2022-23 second interim financial report oh okay the good news is yes the good news is that we have uh passed well uh everything and uh the Riverside County Board of Education folks say that our Department uh is doing a great job and that's exciting to hear now for fun I'll tell you a little bit about some other things um I had a chance to see Annie the musical over
150at chevala it is an interesting thing this was for me an interesting couple of three weeks in the past middle school programs and presentations have been sort of you go there and you kind of grit your teeth and pray that everything's all right this time I thought I was in high school I was just astonished um what happened with Annie and the president stage presence that those kids had and this is singing a lot of singing and uh it's one thing to get up and stay to speak I've done that have been in place and so forth but when you have to get up and sing a little bit different and uh they just carried it all the way through it was very exciting then I got to go to the Vista art show which
151was interesting to see uh the kinds of things and I'm an artist to see the kind of things that the kids subject matter and so forth were doing and there's some terrific things that I photographed and going to put up a few of a few of them in the hallway and replace some of the other pictures because we've got some really good ones ah then I got to go see Willie that's Willy Wonka uh it it was astonishing when I walked in first of all the way the multi-purpose room was set up gave me some ideas about what we can do with future mpr's inexpensively to create more of a theater atmosphere and Better Sound they had curtains 10 foot high curtains on rollers and I thought boy they got the Bucks how did they
152do that well the church was very kind and let them use those and so they had lined the hallway uh the hall I'm sorry with these big curtains and it made such a difference in sound and also it blocked the fact that this is an MPR you were in a different kind atmosphere the sound system had been upgraded somewhat uh the lighting system had been upgraded so much but the show was astonishing because um they had an orchestra they had a cello and uh well I won't go into the instruments but but it was really something I thought oh boy this is going to be watch out it was incredible when that uh Mr Merlin picked up the Baton and started I was astonished and very very thrilled that there was such a cohesive sound
153coming from that Orchestra and they followed all the way through they stayed up with the beat they cued the uh actors and actresses it was a wonderful performance uh there was a girl who played the part of Willy Wonka and she was perfect couldn't have picked a better actor to do it she was a little reticent played a little bit shy a little bit withdrawn and all the other kids of course they're obnoxious Beyond The Pale but she was terrific and Willie himself singing that he did was was superb um this is just a fun time um had a chance to spend some time with a an outside consultant on a Dr andrus's uh evaluation he passed that's not public information yes no that's not what I would give me I'd I'll tell you what
154really happened later um we're still studying the the books and we'll have a meeting on the 18th about that and and your comment was quite correct um Mr Pardo we're not interested in Banning books we're interested in getting the best book that is the most balanced that we possibly can now balanced means of something to everybody in here maybe a little bit different but we're trying our darndest to get one that that will work so we're studying that and um I hope that you get to attend some of these performances next year there's one tonight that's happening at Thompson uh James and the Giant Peach I think it is that is equally supposed to be very good I've enlisted my wife to go and give me a full report uh she didn't uh back out
155at all she thought that was great all right thank you all for your comments by the way audience thank you for your comments I was I was pleased to hear some things that I had not heard before and I hope that we can follow up on them uh we should yes sir that's something about the curtains you were talking about absolutely um we as because our buildings are public buildings built with public dollars Community groups can um if they won't use the word rent they can use our um buildings our facilities for a nominal fee just what it costs to bring the um custodial crew in or something that night afterwards or to set up and so many of our buildings are used by churches for church services if they don't have a building and
156so I'm so sorry I don't know which church this was but they have services in mcelhaney and they loaned us those use of those buffering curtains for that and it just illustrates our terrific relationship with our Rover again every month uh do I have a motion and a second to approve the consent calendar items F1 through f for f13 is presented so moved oh second been moved and seconded any comments appearing none all in favor opposed none uh passes five to nothing let's go on to G1 which is approval of an agreement with Clifford Moss LLC for Professional Services Dr Andrus could you Enlighten us sure just briefly um having met with board members and in general discussion with the board at our Retreat there was discussion about exploring the potential of a future bond
157this is the this is just an item to approve a contract for a feasibility study so just to be clear this is not us going out for a bond we need to study the feasibility of of the likelihood is passing the size of the bond and projects that the interest of the community so this is part of a a process to solicit that information and and why is that is our current Bond expiring there's only a certain remaining amount of funds in measure BBD and those were dedicated for certain projects primarily technology and that's coming to an end of its life um and we've discovered or we recognize we have other facility needs in the district Murrieta Valley High School is 35 years old old ish and there's lots of needs there if you know
158someone who teaches science in that building it's it's of particular interest to me um in talking with the principal there's also needs around where they serve students food and where they eat kind of some of those challenges along with the fact that we've got a couple of gymnasiums the Middle School don't have heating and air conditioning and uh in the gyms because the way they're constructed and then furthermore there's other needs uh around like Murrieta Canyon Academy is a school of Portable Buildings there's not any um it's not it's it's been functional it's greatly improved but there's just ongoing needs in the district so we just need to explore what that is and be prepared this is not a and this is not a contract to move forward in any way this is simply to
159study thank you for that is that a discussion item or me so the process would be uh emotion and then comments yeah um I have a motion a second so moved second Ed the comments I think what we uh it was brought up in public comments actually uh one of the one of the challenges is as a as a school district we need to be responsible to the community if we want support and this is especially hard because of what we mentioned with the teachers concerned about their pay and in comparison to districts near us and there's a perception that we have so much money given to us that we have all this money in the state is going to you know and how are we managing this money and just like we're kind of
160confused about everyone's role uh and and in in government in local government um the public is going to be very confused hearing the state giving away money for ridiculous things and wondering hey you have all this money and you're going to start handing it out here and there and there but then you're going to ask me for more money to take care of the schools that the state should be taking care of so I think we need to be very careful if we're asking for money from our constituents one how they're treated when they come in here and say they have a concern that's kind of important the other one is paying attention to the larger debates in the state of California where they are throwing money around like they don't know what to do
161with it and I would highly especially the people who are politically active on both sides of the aisle talk to your people and let them know they need to be responsible with that money because you can't keep asking the taxpayers of Murrieta for Bond measure Bond measure Bond measure when the state of California has the funds to fully fund us to pay all of our teachers well to give us enough so we could lower class sizes to do all of these things but they're the ones holding the money from us right and so the I'm just going to say our constituents are going to be frustrated this is going to be a very difficult poll in this climate unless as a board and as a community we get together and start thinking clearly about what
162we're asking for and what the re what resources the state has and if they're being responsible with their with their resources so I just I wanted to say that out loud and get off my chest because it is a very frustrating uh issue as we sit in different meetings talking about funding and all the things we want to do we'd love to help the teachers we'd love to have all this stuff but it the state really does hamper what we can do with the money in this pool and that pool in the next so I had to say that any other comments hearing none um all in favor aye any opposed hearing none motion carries G2 approval of personnel report call for a motion in a second so moved second moved and seconded any comments
163hearing none all in favor aye aye any opposed hearing done motion passed five to zero G3 this is the public disclosure of a tentative agreement with the California School Employees Association and its Marietta Valley Chapter 223 for the 2023-24 school year it's an information item then we move on to G4 which is approval of the tentative agreement with the California School Employees Association and its Marietta chapter 223 I call for a motion and a second okay second moved and second any comments I'll come out he'll say hooray okay all in favor aye any opposable none of motion carries five to zero G5 approval of approval of classified employee salary schedules affected July 1st 2023. call for a motion and a second so moved second moved and seconded any comments hearing none I believe this one
164requires a roll call them nope okay we will do it you're right Mrs Lund aye Mr Pardue aye Mrs Amanda Griff aye Mrs Young aye Mr doofley I motion carries five to zero G2 attempts G2 sound like it's a spy story G6 a public disclosure of tentative agreement with the Marietta Educators Association for the 2023-24 school year in information items we go to G7 which is approval of the tentative agreement with the Murrieta Educators Association which calls for a motion and a second so moved second it's been moved and seconded any any comments hearing none all in favor aye aye aye any opposed hearing none motion carries five to zero g eight approval of certificated employee salary schedules effective July 1st 2023 this calls for a motion and a second so moved second moved and
165seconded any comments I think it's exciting that uh where this is up for a vote um all in favor all right any opposed hearing none motion carries five to zero G9 approval of certificated and classified management slash confidential employee salary schedules effective July 1st 2023 this calls for a motion and a second so moved second it's been moved and seconded and he comments hearing none all in favor aye aye any opposed hearing none motion carries five to zero G10 approval of seven percent salary increase for all Senior Management employees effective July 1st 2023 calls for a motion in a second so moved second it's been moved and seconded comments hearing none all in favor any opposed hearing none motion carries five to zero G11 approval of compensation increase for the Board of Education calls for
166a motion and a second been moved and seconded any comments the other five bucks won't hurt right okay hearing none success yes call for a vote all in favor aye any opposed motion carries five to zero g12 approval of the revised 2023-20 apologies approval of the revised 2022-23 certificated and classified Staffing plans this calls for a motion and second so moved I'll second it been moved and seconded any comments hearing none all in favor aye opposed hearing none motion carries G13 approval of a declaration of Need for fully qualified educators for the 2023-24 school year this is a call for a motion and a second so moved second moved and seconded any comments hearing none all in favor aye uh any opposed hearing none motion carries five to zero G14 approval of proposed new social
167science curriculum for grades A through five call for a motion and second Summit I'll second it food and seconded any comments do you have comment okay um social studies seems to be on our our radar this year and everyone's paying attention to it one of the comments that I had had earlier was this idea of um the teacher training and because the teacher in the classroom is ultimately um who's going to determine how this material is presented because sometimes they pay attention to the book sometimes they don't um if there if if we could have either something put on the agenda or some kind of study session with this because this is uh approval is there another step in this process no this is the one for the elementary school for just the purchase of
168those materials that were on display okay so um yeah I I was and the other uh part to this too is there seem to be a lot of people who are interested in the curriculum just generally and I know that there's a parent groups for a lot of you know other uh interests um uh it would be worth looking into as a board at some point have a discussion maybe with staff of having a parent group that's just if they have concerns or they can talk and meet as just a parent group so that they can discuss some of the issues or concerns right so without going too far down a rabbit hole on that one um let me address two of those things actually ask Faith a question about implementation training on that if
169you could address that secondly I think that that what you're referring to really is the the board policy on uh curriculum curriculum adoptions and that's that deserves a revisit because that also doesn't have an Associated administrative regulation and um there's a there's a I'm sending some information to the board tomorrow on that particular topic specifically about the future or potential adjustments in policy about how we include more specifically with better or more specific language around that our policy is rather Broad and it's not as scripted as I think I'm hearing that there may be interest so that's and that becomes the lane of the board as policy I would really like to support that because that's something I've been talking about for years is having more Community stakeholder involvement prior to the recommendation yeah so
170that becomes it's a policy change board right that becomes a policy right that becomes a policy adjustment maybe the writing or development of an AR with more scripted or more specificity um around adoption process because we do not currently have one so I think I would address that in the future options all right specifically around the training Faith could you address that yeah um whenever we do an adoption there follows some um model of training um usually it's choices for teachers a lot want to do it in the summer you know so we usually give an option to do it in the summer and then in the fall based on what works for them and either pay extra Duty or sub out for them a lot of the times that training is specifically and it's
171through the curriculum they provide trainers you've probably been through some yourself where they share how to use the curriculum what are the resources that come with it I think what you're referring to though is a little more nuanced that whole concept of you know how do we present topics so that they're presented in a way that's very neutral and I think that's something that we can we can go there I guarantee you that this is something on our teachers mind anyway I mean I think that a lot of them are concerned to make sure that they are doing that because they know the implications for not so but I think it's something that we can um if you're feeling the the sense that there's two camps that are really concerned about this and then just
172being able to make them aware maybe through some process PLC or otherwise about you know hey we need to be aware of this this is a concern the community has as a teacher in the classroom I don't know I'm sure there's a process by which you guys could make that happen because I think that'd be important and we can let you know when we do and how that goes I do think there is more awareness than you might think in terms of just people you know understand but um I think there would be eager for some direction on that as well so we can definitely accomplish that thank you um it's been moved and seconded yes all in favor aye aye any opposed hearing done motion carries five to zero g15 student discipline stipulated expulsion
173case number 2022 -2023-119 this calls for a motion and a second I move that the Board of Education of the Murrieta Valley Unified School District expel the student referenced in case number 2022 2023 119 for the violation of California Education Code 48900c for the remainder of the second semester of the 2022-2023 school year and first semester of the 2023-2024 school year I have a second I second that the Board of Education of the Murrieta Valley Unified School District expel student reference in case number 2022-2023-119 for the violation of California Education Code 48900c for the remainder of the second semester of the 2022-2023 school year and the first semester of the 2023-2024 school year thank you call for the vote all in favor aye any opposed hearing none motion carries five zeros g16 second reading and
174Adoption of proposed new and proposed revisions to board policy and administrative regulations this is in regard to bids uniform public construction costs admission etc etc a call for a motion and a second so moved I'll second it's been moved and seconded any comments hearing none all in favor aye aye aye any opposed hearing none motion carries five to zero g17 approval of the appointment of members to the citizens oversight committee for the measure BB General obligation Bond Paul Parker and Angela Villanueva is calls for a motion and a second so moved I'll second it moved and seconded any comments I would like to thank Mr Parker and Mrs Villanueva for just dedicating their time to this they meet several times a year and they they're allocating money for really important things so I'm very very
175happy that they're part of that thank you for joining us I second that the vote all in favor any opposed hearing none motion carries five to zero the G18 adoption or resolution number 22-23-19 a resolution to adopt revised standard questionnaire for pre-qualification of construction contractors pursuant to public contract code section 2011.6 this calls for a motion and a second so moved second any comments all in favor aye any opposed hearing none motion carries five to zero g nineteen approval to award a contract to Ben's asphalt Inc in the amount of 392 995 dollars for the Murrieta Valley Unified School District asphalt replacement project bid number 2023-03 this calls for a motion and a second so moved second moved and seconded any comments hearing none all in favor aye any opposed hearing none motion carries five
176to zero G20 approval to award a contract to dalkey and Sons Construction Inc in the amount of 1 million 890 dollars for the Alta Marietta lab conversion product a project sorry bid number 2023-08 this calls for a motion and a second cell moved second it's been moved and seconded any comments I think that's exciting a new lab conversion all in favor aye any opposed hearing none motion carries five to zero g21 adoption of resolution number 22 23-20 authorizing the temporary transfer of funds between various District funds for fiscal year 2023-24 this calls for a motion and a second so moved second it it's been moved and seconded any comments hearing none all in favor opposed hearing none of motion carries five to zero G22 adoption of resolution number 22-23-21 authorizing the annual delegation of administrative
177authority to process routine budget revisions adjustments and transfers for fiscal year 2023-24 this calls for a motion in a second still moved second moved and seconded any comments hearing none all in favor aye opposed hearing none motion carries five to zero G23 approval of addition to certification of signatures form 3350 t call for a motion and a second I'll second moved and seconded any comments hearing none all in favor aye opposed hearing none motion carries five to zero let's see yeah uh uh J adjournment I call for a motion and a second so moved second I'm not sure in the board of education at uh 7 45 all in favor ah thank you hold on