001Testing one, two. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you and welcome to, I apologize for my tardiness from the 15 freeway. I appreciate you guys being here and I definitely appreciate your time. Welcome to the regular board meeting, informational meeting for Atalanta Elementary School District. Today is Tuesday, August the 27th, 2024. Call to order. Mrs. LeVay, will you please take roll? Madam President, the time is 5.34 p.m. I'll take roll. Trustee Stewart? Present. Trustee Turner? Turner, present. Trustee Soto? Soto, present. Trustee Webster? Webster, present. Trustee LaFrench? LaFrench, present. The quorum has been established. Section 104, Pledge of Allegiance. Will you all please stand and place your right hand over your heart? Ready, begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God,
002indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Section 2, adoption of the agenda. Ms. LeVay, do we have any proposed additions, deletions, and adjustment in the order of business? Madam President, we do not. Oh, thank you. Adoption of the agenda. Trustees, I need a motion to adopt the agenda. Trustee Webster, I motion to adopt the agenda. Trustee Turner, I second. Thank you, Ms. LaVey. Will you please take the vote? Trustee Soto? Soto, aye. Trustee Webster? Webster, aye. Trustee Turner? Turner, aye. Trustee Stewart? Stewart, aye. Trustee LaFrench? LaFrench, aye. Moving right along to Section 3, Cabinet Reports. Thank you. We're going to turn it over to Dr. Dwizon to kick us off and then I'll be doing my report at the end of the meeting today. Thank you, Dr. Albert. Good evening, President Lefrenche, Board of Trustees,
003AESD staff and community. I am honored to share a brief update on behalf of our Academic Services Division. So our new cohort of 39 teachers for our letters professional development kicks off this Thursday. So all together we have 74 teachers that are near completion or halfway through this two-year professional development opportunity for early literacy. And altogether we have 113 teachers if we add our new cohort who will be positively impacted by this professional development. So we look forward and seven administrators, but we do look forward to seeing all the positive things in the classroom from this professional development. We are in the midst of William's walkthrough visit. So we have passed. Four, five, four, as of yet, five. Thank you. We had one today. We have passed five Williams walkthrough visits, and we have four
004more to go over the next two weeks. So two more, I think two of them are surprise visits, so we don't know when they're coming. Our average daily attendance for August 18 through 23 was 93.5% for the district. We want to continue to stress the importance of attending school every single day. This Friday closes our first iReady assessment window for grades 1 through 8. Our kindergarten students will begin their diagnostic assessment next week. Due to an influx of TK students, we were able to add one more additional TK classroom for a total of 11 TK classes in our district now. This is an expansion of five classrooms in just a year. So as we support our youngest learners, they will in turn have a solid and successful start to their school year. So we are
005excited to have them all. Our team attended the CWA-SARB County Region Meeting on August 21st to hear the updates and the new federal, state, and county expectations. ELPAC is our other testing window and that closes next Friday. Those are the initial ELPAC for students who are entering school. And so that window closes next Friday. We are also in preparation for the NNAT3, which is our GATE testing. And we're going to do that window a little earlier this year. We're going to start in the end of October. So we're looking forward to those results earlier. And then we have completed the Prop 28 Art and Music Grant. That was a huge lift from the team, the board, our community. We thank you all. We look forward to presenting that at the next board meeting and bringing
006it forward for approval. At this time, that concludes comments from Academic Services. Thank you, Dr. Dwizon. And from Business Services, Ms. Gonzalez. Hi, and thank you. Good evening, President LaFrench, Board of Trustees, Cabinet, community members. It's a pleasure to serve our district. I just have a couple of updates I'd like to share. As we kick off the new year, we are excited to pursue new goals and achievements with a strong focus on connectedness, engagement, communication, safety, and equity. These priorities are at the heart of our operational team's efforts. We invite our families to help us grow our schools by completing our survey. It's a great opportunity to share your feedback on our programs. You might even qualify for some bucks from the state if your family income meets the criteria. Keep an eye out for
007the notification on our parent square or visit our website to participate. I'm also happy to share a few other updates this week. We've successfully completed the installation of a new fire water line. at the district complex. The outdated faulty line from the 1970s has been replaced and we've upgraded two hydrants. With these improvements, the district complex is now fully operational again. Thank you to our team being patient when we had construction. On a tasty note, we get ready to savor the season. Our Child Nutrition Services are shining a spotlight on fresh fruits and vegetables this year. So don't be surprised when you see those colorful, crunchy, and oh-so-delicious options popping up on the menu. It's a part of our mission to keep things healthy, tasty, and fun. Last week, I had the pleasure of attending
008several back-to-school nights where I was surrounded by excited parents and students. Walking through the classrooms, I had the chance to listen to our teachers engaging with families. It was a joy to see the new connections being made and older students staying connected with our teachers through their siblings. Offer reassurance for an amazing year ahead. My hope is that we can keep this wonderful momentum staying focused and driven as we move forward. We have an exciting work ahead and it takes every one of us to help our students thrive. As always, thank you and it's a pleasure serving our district. Thank you, Ms. Gonzalez. From our human resources, Dr. Walker. Good evening esteemed President LaFrench, Board of Trustees, Acting Superintendent Dr. Albert, Cabinet, AESD staff, and the community. The last couple of weeks have been engaging.
009I was able to attend four back-to-school nights where I had the opportunity to see turnouts at each of the sites. In addition, seeing parents extremely engaged in what the sites were offering. I also had an opportunity to see the families being welcomed in such a way that you could see that they were pleased with what the principals were offering based upon their responses in the audience. My team has also worked very hard to hire new staff to our AESD family. Human Resources is here to support the district, to bring in people that have the same mindsets that we have in supporting our students. And so that is my report for the evening. Thank you so much. That concludes our Cabinet Reports. Thank you, Trustee LaFrench. Moving on to staff reports and presentations. Right it is
010our pleasure to welcome to the podium Trustee Webster as well as our teachers that attended the Freedom Riders Celebration and training to be able to give a presentation about the Freedom Riders. Thank you Hey, Mr. Sinatra, could we get a microphone? Thank you so much. Alrighty, and here's my clicker Alrighty, good evening, Board President LaFrench, trustees, Dr. Albert and cabinet. I want to take a moment to briefly just express our gratitude to be in front of you tonight. This is our team. We all attended the Freedom Rider Institute down in Long Beach this summer, and we got to learn some really amazing techniques to bring back to our district. Awesome. Alrighty, as you can see, we had multiple sites attend this institute together. Everything from Mesa Linda to Columbia to Gus Franklin to George. Does
011everyone want to say hi? Hi! Alrighty, this is not your average everyday institute or conference. We had a very packed schedule. Most mornings we started between 7.30 and 8 and we went most nights to 8, anywhere to 10. We had some amazing experiences together. Everything from riding a big red bus to creating PSAs. and watching it on the big screen. One thing I do want to say is that attending the Institute brings you back to being a kid, walking into class, and having the expectations of Ms. Gruelle. I know it's true. Alrighty, on our first day we had the pleasure of attending the Museum of Tolerance together. Recapping. the atrocious events of the Holocaust and then also getting the pleasure of listening and witnessing to Miss Renee Firestone. She is a 100-year-old Holocaust survivor who
012spoke on the... horrible nature of what the Holocaust stood for, the division, the hate, and more importantly, how society got to where it was. I do think that this was an exceptional experience for all of us to share, as it reminds us that life is hard and unpredictable, and you never know at the end of the day what you will lose. As I stated before, we had the pleasure of riding on a big red bus straight from London. It was an amazing experience. It did not have a top. And it was a little clinky. But we had a lot of fun. We did arrive. We got to dress up and watch our PSAs that we had to create in 90 minutes. Very interesting videos if you ever tap in. we would love to share them.
013As you can see, we enjoyed a night with Freedom Riders and Ms. Grewell's team. Some that we have with us tonight, if we could introduce them. This is Mr. Becerra and this is Joshua. Come on up, guys. Come join us. And then we got to screen the Freedom Riders documentary. Not the movie, but the documentary. Kind of giving backstory on what these students went through, learned, and then grew from. Many of which still work for the foundation today, participate, and witness to those who come and attend. Mr. Becerra is actually one of the original Freedom Riders joining us tonight to support our presentation. Alrighty, one thing that we all participated greatly in are workshops. Ms. Gruel keeps you very busy, definitely hands-on and intrigued. As you can see on here, we do have some of
014the workshops that we as a team participated in, from coat of arms to walking the line you may have seen in the original film. In the middle of our screen, you do have Ms. G's secret sauce. If you ever get a chance to stop and read it, I found it inspirational, to say the least. All righty. And so this, at this time, I want to take a moment and let our team speak on some of the amazing things that we've brought to the district already, as many of these workshops have been implemented within our classrooms since the beginning of school, as you can see. So I will start at the bottom. Hi, good evening. So Roma and I run the Hope Scholars Program. And so we've... been doing these things since we attended the institute.
015I was in 2019 and you were in 2022. So we've been using these skills in our classroom. So one of the pictures we have is shields. It's at that top left corner and then the bottom right corner are shields. So that's something you had talked about, we had talked about earlier. So the kids make these shields and they talk about who they admire, what makes them unique, their goals, their favorite things. And their motto. And their motto. So each of them have a motto that they live by. So it's a project to really kind of deepen finding about themselves. It's something that the kids really like. I could speak for hours on end. We have a whole bunch of people now, so I'm going to let you. Do you want to say anything? Well, another
016thing that we use at Hope Scholars a lot is journaling, taken straight from the Freedom Riders. kind of start off with a prompt for those who maybe don't feel as confident to just kind of journaling on their own, but we are also kind of teaching them to reflect on their day, reflect on their week, and start just kind of expressing themselves on paper. Okay, so I took this, Freedom Riders is just. Amazing. I just get chills. I actually branded myself. I'm a lifer now. Sorry, I had to because that's how strongly I believe in it. I've been teaching for over 20 years. And to be honest with you, I was losing it, not losing it, losing it, but just losing my passion. And so when they said, let's go to Freedom Riders, I was like.
017Okay, I'm a workshop junkie anyway. I'm like, what can it hurt? I came back, my passion's back on fire. So it's good for new teachers. It's good for all teachers, basically, and old fogies like myself. What I've been doing, and I actually have the students that need this the most, which are the students that are cutters, ditchers. I'm at Mesa Linda. I have eighth grade. I call it the workshop, not a support class. Just so you know, if you hear that, it's the sport class. So in my workshop, I created Freedom Rider Wednesday, and we've already gone through. I just finished the coat of arms. I already did the line game. Tomorrow I'm doing another activity, the crayon, which is up here. I think you can see it with the sun. My students, I will
018tell you right now. And I was telling them, I'm getting chills just thinking about this. I've had two students that don't ever go to class. And they told me, and I didn't know this. I really, brand new in this, they're brand new a couple weeks. I'm like, okay. They came to me and they said, you're the only class I come to. Thank you, but why? Why am I the only class? I wanted to know. They said something very simple to me, which is something simple that everyone can do. You're nice to me. And it almost made me cry. I said, oh, my God, you got my heart. I was like, I almost died right there. And then a second kid in another period said something very similar. And they're like, we just, it's because Freedom
019Riders gives you that way of connecting with them on their level. It's not cheesy like a lot of the others because I'm a cheesy teacher and they know already I'll do cheesy stuff but when they saw me bring up the freedom I'm like that's my street cred my freedom writers I'm not gonna lie I'm like hey remember last year when we did that assembly and we had the freedom writers come out remember Tony oh yeah yeah well that's where this oh we'll do it we're all right That's the thing. It was really important to have that assembly, and then you bring it into the classroom. So that's my input. I really want to see this go further because there's more connections that we can create. And I'm honestly having a better time with my students
020this year than I have ever before. And I usually have a good rapport, but this is even better. It's actually brought me to another level. Sorry to talk so long. I just want to say that I feel so blessed and it was such a reward to be able to participate. I was trying to find out what it was. What am I going to learn? What are we going to do? And no one had an answer for me. And even upon asking when speaking with Brian for the first time, it was just kind of a, you'll find out when you get here. And I'm so glad that. It is something that is truly unexplainable. You have to experience it. I think it's one of the best things that I've ever done. I thought I was going
021in and I was going to be learning something to take back to my kiddos. And we're going to be writing. And yeah, just like any other workshop. And I learned a lot about myself. I learned a lot of how. connected I am to the people that I think I would not be connected to. And it gave me, as much as I would like to think that I'm great at connection, it made me realize how much more I need to connect and how alike we all are and how much love our kiddos need. And when I think of words, you know, you think of resiliency. You gain that. And hope and perseverance and what Vanessa is saying, kind of feeling at your end with teaching. I came in with just a whole new... spirit about education
022that I want to pass on even on those really hard days and this the five days with not only these amazing people standing here but everyone else that I met some people I already kind of knew it was just amazing they're there we're family now yes we have a text chain already started we support everything Somebody's having a bad day. I never had that before. I don't have family left alive. I'm going to cry. I'm so thankful for this experience. You have no idea how much this means to me. I just wanted to share that it's not only. I'm no longer going to stay in my room. I'm going to come out and hang out with people. It's just been so much. And then when we saw Ms. Stanton. Yes. That was so awesome to
023see a board member at one of our. Your turn's next. Your turn's next. You get to go. You all need to go. It's good for all of our souls. It really, really is. I think it, did it go? I'm sorry. I think you just got to talk up louder. I was just going to say that you have to talk on the mic because those online, you cannot hear unless you have a mic. Okay. So I was just going to say that it's not, I'm utilizing the strategies in my science class right now. And again, I've already seen a major increase in success rates with my students. And it's freed me to bring in all kinds of crazy innovations, but it's working. And again, same thing. I found my passion. My why is back. I'm really
024excited to be here, and I'm very grateful to have been able to go. Hi, adding on to what they've said, I've had the privilege of teaching middle school most of my teaching career since the 90s, and now I'm with the littles in second grade. And middle school, you see crushed human beings at 11, 12, 13 years old. And now I've got the littles, and I know that I can get them built up. and I can get their self-esteem and I can get them to recognize the value that they have in themselves, their strengths, their potential, give them hope and let them see themselves the way we see them, not the way anybody else, but the people that love them every single day. And the lessons are a little bit more older. kids centered but this
025one is an affirmation type of activity that I've been able to rewrite and I'm the person giving the affirmations to my students. We're making a coat of arms this week because our curriculum covers the family so it folds in with our standards and the curriculum that we have in second grade and my kids are already different and we've only had like two weeks together but they'll come up and say you know I'm really good at math. You are really good at math. I mean they're starting to have positive conversations with each other and in their own mind. They talk to themselves now and we just started journaling real small, I like, and I give them two things to choose from, but they're starting to form opinions and they're trusting what they think and what they
026know and to give it to them young and then to back it up when they're older, I think we're going to have less crushed people. in middle school and high school. I think we're going to have them strong enough to deal with the stuff that they have to deal with and that we can't protect them from, but we can get them ready. First of all, I want to say thank you for having me. Our story took place in Long Beach. I don't live in Long Beach anymore. Right? We can't afford to live in Long Beach anymore. We all move up here to the high desert. Right? I'm here. I live here now. This is my home. I've lived here for 10 years. My parents have been up here for 20 years. I have a house
027in Asperia. And I drive to Long Beach three or four times a week. And whenever people ask me why do I do this, I say because I live in a house on a plot of land and I have a big old truck in the back. Right? And that's high desert living, baby. I love it up here. And that's what I tell the kids. We went to Columbia. and to end my cylinder and I told the kids um you know I asked them what kind of cars they wanted to be or what kind of cars they want and of course they all wanted Lamborghinis and Ferraris and I tell them a lot of us we are Lamborghinis and Ferraris right down the hill that's what they think they are I go but what happens when you
028put a Lamborghini and a Ferrari on a dirt road it breaks down right We're not Lamborghinis or Ferraris, baby. We're four by fours. We're lifted four by fours. We'll build different. We're from the desert. Like this is our home. So this means a lot to me. It really does. I am your kids grown up. Just so you know, I am your kids. I had this crazy lady come into the classroom who didn't look like me, who didn't talk like me. And I work with a lot of teachers. We do teacher trainings. I do classroom visits on almost on a daily basis. And a lot of the teachers say. I tell them how amazing the kids are and then the teachers will say, oh, well, you know, you look like them. You come from where they
029come from. And I say, my teacher didn't come from where I come from. You know, my teacher came from Belmont Shore. Like her dad has has has two World Series rings. Like she all she did was care. And all she did was like just be there for us like every single day. And she saved my life. So now I work for this nonprofit that we started. And we are a nonprofit. We do teacher trainings. We do scholarships. We do all this stuff. And now I have the beautiful burden of. paying that forward, right? So, and we've worked in LA, we worked all over the IE, we've done stuff all over the country, and we had never done anything up here in the high desert, right? So when Deborah and Roma started, like, getting the ball
030rolling and doing something up here, like, it just, you know, it hit my heart. And now that we have, like, a team of Freedom Riders teachers, a family, and you see these shirts? Oh my god, they make these shirts, like. Who does this? These are crazy ladies. I love it. And just the fact that we can be up here now and we have such an amazing team, working with our kids up here, it's amazing. I love it. So thank you so much for inviting me, for having me here. I am honored. So thank you so much. I appreciate it. Alrighty, bringing this back to our presentation, execution, application, and enactment. We did get many supplies at this institute, many of which I am passing along to our academic services. Dr. Tasha Doizan. It comes with
031three books and a teacher's guide. I do hope you enjoy our materials. We love them. We did. He really is. All righty. I do want to take a short minute for all of us to provide maybe a sentence or two of the reflections that we brought back. My biggest reflection that I brought back is we always have to remember our students and what happens between when their alarm clock goes off to their butt touching our seats. A lot of life can happen in just a few short hours or can't happen, such as breakfast, loving parents to say goodbye. getting brothers and sisters ready for school, and doing it by yourself with no support. So that was one thing that really reflected with me walking away and remembering why we work so hard to change our
032students. Here. Oh, give it to the big mouth, why don't you? Okay. You know what? I was just thinking about that. And I'm learning. I remembered I care a lot about my kids, but I cared on surface level, if that makes sense. And what I'm reflecting on is I'm going deeper, especially if I have a student that's struggling. I'm going to dive a little deeper. And that's what I got out of it. Although I'm not a teacher yet with our school district, I hope to be soon. I'm almost done with my program. But what I learned in this institute was that we have to listen. A lot of our kids will tell us what they need and how they need it. We just have to listen. For me, it's remembering that. A lot of our
033kiddos are living a life that led me to want to be a teacher to begin with. So as Stephanie said, just remembering that, you know, there may be no breakfast, there may be no bed, there may not be a home that they come from in the morning to us. And just keeping that in mind with everything that they experience through the school day. I think one of the biggest takeaways for me was never sending a student away. Always working to make it work. Always making the effort to make sure that we know what's really going on. Yeah, for me, one of the takeaways is that I need to have them trust me, to trust that I care about them. Because I'm asking them to do things they don't want to do and that they don't
034understand and that are scary. And that can lessen the fear. make them more comfortable to be brave when they know I care and that they can trust me to be there for them. Even if I don't know what to do, to just sit there and listen and tell them that I love them and I trust them and I care about them. And sometimes that does more than all the teaching I've done all day. All righty, as we close tonight, we would like to offer or open it up to any cabinet trustees if you have any questions in regards to our program. Well, I'll speak first. I don't have any questions, but I do remember recently talking with Stephanie. And let me tell you, she was all over the place. She was talking, da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da, and
035we did this, and we learned that. We were up 9, 10 o'clock at night. We did this. I had so much fun. I enjoyed myself. I learned so much. And she talked about people's light being. relit. She talked about motivation. She talked about teachers that maybe had sizzled and now this flame was there. But it did you guys really no justice compared to all the stuff. And she was just but to see you. To see you guys in person and to hear the stories that, you know, I wish that, you know, this is something that we could videotape and that we could play, you know, for our new teachers or for all of our teachers, really, not just the new teachers, so they understand that how important it is, like I told Stephanie, it's so
036important to make sure, you know, me coming from a Head Start background, we have breakfast in the morning, we have talk at the table. children sit there because you don't know whether or not if the child is going to eat. They have snacks. They have, because you allow them to eat as much as they want because you don't know when they go home if they're going to have something to eat. You don't know what kind of household that they're coming from and how important it is to, I always say this, how important it is to smile. You know, I said I always hear people say, I tell myself every morning, I already know I have a million dollar smile. No one has to tell me. But I work with young children that that could be
037the first smile that they see in the morning. It's not just for my children. It's for my parents as well. Everybody's shuffling. I know in the morning when I'm shuffling, I'm like, get it, get it, get it. We got to go. We got to go. Right. And sometimes I have to stop and say, hey, are you giving her the same smile that you're going to go to work and to give another child? Everyone needs that in the morning. But I am just ecstatic. You know, I'm like, OK, it's so nice. And Vanessa, OK, you got tatted in. You know, okay. That's how good it was. That's how good it was. And I am very happy and grateful that you guys were able to experience that. And you had Stephanie there with you because she spoke
038very highly of everything that you guys went through, the workshops, the timeless efforts, seven, eight, nine, ten. It didn't stop. And you guys were just, everybody created this family. I heard about your T-shirts. And you guys are, you're awesome. Got to put you on the billboard. Would anyone else like to make a comment? I concur. I mean with everything that President LaFrench just said I want to thank our trustee Webster for bringing this to the board. This presentation was fantastic. I look forward getting to learn more about the program. When do you guys have a do you guys have a regular scheduled program or how does that look like? So we do have monthly meetings that we are invited to as a family. And then I believe Ms. Gruelle and the foundation is open for
039support anytime a teacher is in need or requests it as well. we can reach out to New York and wherever we need the support. We're lucky that the Freedom Riders are located in Long Beach, so they do a lot of events. So once you become part of the family, then you're invited to all the events. So everything they do at Long Beach or they'll do events, we get invited to. So you constantly have this refresh. It's kind of like going to church in a way. You know, you get refreshed. And so there's this constant stuff that goes on with them. And then we do our monthly meetings on Zoom. And then we have our own thing that we've kind of started as a family because Roma and I realized that this work is tough. And
040so we've kind of just done it with ourselves. So we have like a bigger family. So you need that support system. So it's not just a one and done. It's an institute, really. It's not necessarily a conference. And it's an institute you're learning. And it is. a for life thing. Like there are people, you're rehab family for life. I will tell you one thing. You brought up the New York. I was going to tell you one of my goals that I wrote down on my coat of arms at the Institute, um, just happened to be in an article in a newspaper pen pals. And I'm like, New York, Michigan. My students, I said, you can pick locally. You can pick a school in Michigan and learn about them or even some college students. Because one
041teacher was from New York that teaches college. And they're so excited. They're like, oh, we're going to email. I said, oh, no, we're going old school. We're going to write a letter. You're going to get a letter. They're like, what's that? So we're going to be introducing them how to write a letter again. So I'm excited about that. You're fine. So there definitely is follow-up for the program for those that did attend the institute. Awesome. Thank you. I would just like to say that this presentation was absolutely incredible. I was introduced, well, I first learned about the Freedom Riders when I watched the movie back in 2008, and I reached out to Aaron Grewal, who was the organization, and I mentioned that when they were here. But it was too expensive, and the district was
042going through a budget crisis. But to see them, to have this evolve. When they came a couple months ago to Mesa Linda in Columbia, I think everyone in the room was crying. The passion that she has for children. She could see a child struggling. As teachers, I know you see that as well. It's so important to just rekindle that passion to teach, to hear you. and to see your smiles and to hear your statements and what you've been bringing back, what you've already brought back. I wasn't able to go, but I'm glad that Stephanie was able to go back and bring it back to us. And I appreciate you. I appreciate what you've learned. And, you know, I did happen to go to the Ron Clarks Academy with... Yes, and it was incredible, too. So
043these experiences that you're getting contact with and bringing it back to your students is just amazing. It's just priceless. So keep up the good work to see your passion coming back. No, no. One of the things I have to say, when you mention some kids when they get up in the morning and you don't know if they had eaten, you know, that's one of the things. My passion was to bring breakfast to all students, and that happened. It happened. All students. Because I know when I worked, my husband and I worked, it was hard to get up and make breakfast and get kids ready and get to work on time. You know, even the kids that could afford it, they need breakfast in the morning. And so I really appreciate, I really appreciate what you're
044doing. So keep up the good work. Maybe more of that family can grow. I'm looking for that family to grow. That's our hope as well. Thank you. Any additional questions? I just want to say that the energy that is coming from there makes me want to go. And I really do hope that more teachers choose because that fire is why we teach. We teach to touch, to touch the kids' heart, not just... their minds and I always love to see Deb, Debbie and Roma, Roma they're tearing up no matter what it is. Love, love, love it but it's truly inspiring all the things you're saying like I know there's more you want to share but we're on a time so I just want to you know please. Please encourage back at your school sites. You
045got to go. You're not going to regret it. And make the family grow. Thank you. Thank you. One last. One last thing. I did want to thank all of my Freedom Rider family for showing up tonight, supporting this presentation, and showing the district how amazing this was. I do have one request, President Lovefrench. Is there any way we could take a picture as like a whole? Thank you. Of course you can. Did you want us to or just them? There we go. Yeah, there it is. We just have them around. Thank you. Yeah, go. All right up next we have academic services or health education presentation with Ms. Colburn and also Dr. Doizon. I'm a little sad I have to follow that presentation okay but we'll be we'll be as exciting as we can. Good
046evening President Love-French, Board of Trustees, AESD staff. community. Tonight we will present on the California Healthy Youth Act sexual health education where our district currently stands in our recommended timeline moving forward. So we will cover the background and goals of the California Healthy Youth Act and then discuss instructional materials, clarifications from the CDE, parent rights, required teacher training, and the recommended timeline and action steps. This will be taught this spring in our eighth grade classes. So the purpose of the California Healthy Youth Act, which are Ed Codes 51390 through 51939, is to provide pupils grades 7 through 12 with the knowledge and skills necessary to protect their sexual and reproductive health from HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases and unintended pregnancy. Ed code 51934 was amended to include information about adolescent relationship abuse, intimate partner
047violence, and human trafficking. Students may also learn about the potential risk and consequences of creating and sharing sexually suggestive or explicit materials through cell phones, social networking, internet websites, computer networks, or other digital media. At this time I'll turn it over to Mrs. Coburn. All right, thank you. The California Healthy Youth Act has five primary purposes. The first is to provide our pupils with knowledge and skills necessary to protect their sexual and reproductive health from HIV and other sexually transmitted infections and from unintended pregnancies. The second purpose is so that our pupils will have the knowledge and the skills that they need to develop a healthy attitude concerning adolescent growth and development, body image, gender, sexual orientation, relationships, marriage, and family. The third purpose is we want to promote an understanding of sexuality as a
048normal part of human development. The fourth purpose is to ensure that all of our pupils receive integrated, comprehensive, accurate, and unbiased sex health and HIV prevention instruction and provide our educators with clear tools and guidance to accomplish the task. The fifth primary purpose is to provide our pupils with the knowledge and skills necessary to have a healthy, positive, and safe relationships and behaviors. The law does require instruction and materials meet a number of guidelines. And so I'm going to go through a few of those with you now. Among them, they must be age appropriate, medically accurate and objective, and appropriate use for pupils of all races, genders, sexual orientations, and ethnic and cultural backgrounds. They must also affirmatively recognize different sexual orientations and be inclusive of same-sex relationships in discussions. Teach about gender, gender expression,
049gender identity, and the harm of negative gender stereotypes, and teach the value of committed relationships such as marriage. So we did look at a couple of the instructional materials and the one that we really selected to recommend is called Positive Prevention Plus. It is a comprehensive curriculum for grades 7 through 12, which is middle and high school editions, including lessons with marginal notes, pre and post tests, family home assignments, and PowerPoints with images and other features. It was written specifically for use in California and this curriculum involves 13 lessons of 45 minutes each and is available in both English and Spanish. There is also a version that we can purchase for our special education students. This same comprehensive curriculum is also used in Victor High School Union District which is where we feed into. There
050were some clarifications made about the California Healthy Youth Act, and it was put out by Superintendent Tony Thurman in December of 2020. I believe you do have the handout that we gave to you that have those clarifications. The first one is that this prohibits active consent for any part of the comprehensive sexual health education or HIV prevention education. So what this means is that we have to let the parents know that we're teaching this information and they have to opt their students out. So we don't have to have written parent permission for the students to participate. And in fact, it prohibits that. So we are going to have things available so that the parents can opt their students out if they choose to for this curriculum. The second clarification is that this is needs to
051be a comprehensive sexual health education and HIV prevention education that they're both mandated instruction that shall occur once in middle school and once in high school. The third clarification is that abstinence may be not discussed in isolation. The Ed Code requires that instruction and materials include that abstinence is the only certain way to prevent HIV, other STIs, and unintended pregnancies. The fourth clarification is instruction shall affirmatively recognize that people have different sexual orientations and when discussing or providing examples of relationships with couples must be inclusive of same-sex relationships. It must teach about gender, gender expression, and gender identity and explore the harm of negative gender stereotypes. This means that schools must teach about all sexual orientations and what being lesbian gay bisexual transgender and lb LGBTQ plus means The fifth clarification is that all instruction
052and materials must support and align with the purposes of the California Healthy Youth Act and with each other Instruction and materials may not be in conflict with or undermine each other or any purposes of the law. So at this time we want to make sure that we go over what are the rights of our parents in this required curriculum for our eighth grade students. So parents or guardians may and have the right to inspect the written and audio-visual educational materials used for this curriculum. They have the right to request in writing that their child does not receive comprehensive sexual health or HIV prevention education. This form can be obtained in the school's office. Parents also have the right to request a copy of Ed Code's 51930 through 51939. They have the right to request in
053writing that their child does not participate in any anonymous, voluntary, and confidential research and evaluation tools to measure pupils' health risk behaviors, including tests, questionnaires, and surveys containing age-appropriate questions about the pupil's attitudes, or practices related to sex may be administered to any pupil in grades seven through 12. Parents also have the right to be informed whether the comprehensive sexual health or HIV prevention education will be taught by district personnel or outside consultants. We are using our own teachers. And also parents have the right to, I'm sorry, all teachers, Sorry next slide. So all teachers teaching this unit must complete a total of 14.5 hours of training to earn their certificate of completion. So once they have that then we're cleared and that teacher is cleared to teach. This slide shows previous board action. But
054I'd like to focus on the timeline, suggest the recommended timeline moving forward. So today we are having our board meeting. So this is August, September on the recommended curriculum and what the California Youth Act Sexual Health Education is. We recommend that the Board of Trustees approve the recommended curriculum between August and September. We begin training for teachers from September to October so that they can obtain their 14.5 hours. We begin mailing one the first set of parent letters home both paper copy and through ParentSquare for our eighth grade students. The next is that we would have a parent guardian review of the curriculum. These will be housed at the school site so parents are able to come into the school site and review the curriculum. And also at this time is where parents also have
055the right to opt their children out should they need to. Before, two weeks prior to delivery of instruction, we're going to mail out another letter to parents letting them know a second time, again, through paper and also through ParentSquare. And then delivery of instructions to students will be from April and May. There's a total of 13 lessons, about 45 minutes each lesson. So at this time. That does conclude the presentation. Thank you. Thank you for that update. We greatly appreciate that. We've been looking forward to this. It's so interesting because it says on here, like, in 2019, something was moved and second. So what year was that? It seemed like it was so long ago. I do remember the gingerbread man, I do. Would anyone? Have any discussion I do have a question The curriculum
056was given to the trustees a few months ago that it was the original packages and then Pack it with all the information and I did request that you know Those packages were the information the complete package went through and pulled out the pages that the board had approved and So far I didn't heard anything about that So what what is going to be adopted the complete package or what the board approved? What the board approved so you you should have received if you didn't I can make sure you get it You should have received two separate you had one that was all together like straight from the publisher and there was another one that the board had um gone through previously so there were two copies okay because when i went through my packet i
057went through it in its entirety and um it was all mixed up the pages the paragraphs were just all in disarray so i tried to put it all back together but it just some of it just didn't make sense so i'm i'm asking did the rest of the trustees were there your packages like that I had like what Dr. Durarizan said, I had two packets. One was like edited, which means the previous board had made some edits on it. And I had another one that was just the curriculum that we need, the formal curriculum. So what are we adopting? Are we adopting this tonight? Or we've already adopted it? No, this is not. This is purely informational. And we are asking the board for next steps from here. I'd like to have a workshop so
058we can go back through that material again. I mean, because like I said, what I got was all in disarray and then I got a complete packet and, you know, I see here, you know, I knew it was brought back and I know that the board approved it and it was taught in 2019, but I don't know why it stopped. So, you know, I would like, that's what I would like to see, another workshop on this. All right. Just one thing quickly. I think that when we did receive them, one was in a sealed packet, so it's all together. The second one was not in a sealed packet. It was actually like in a notebook. But in that notebook, it went from one page to another page, skipped a page. So I don't know if
059that's how it was put together, but it wasn't a complete packet because the numbers weren't the same. The one that was all saran wrapped, right? I think that's... what it was it was closed so it was all of course intact but the one i don't know if that's because that's how it was pulled out when we went through it right and so then this is how we wanted it the layout because some pictures were taken out remember i can recall that or this wording this page no don't use this page i don't know if it's that how it ended and so that's what we agreed upon just so you know all right thank you for that clarification Just to kind of follow up with Trustee Turner and President LaFrench, it sounds, based on what I'm
060hearing, it sounds that we're going to approve the curriculum that the previous board had already approved, which means this board is not going to have any say in the curriculum. Is that correct? It was never finally approved, so at this time it needs to be approved, which would involve all of our board members here. Okay, and I guess what I'm going with that is that we perhaps we will need a workshop where we could all just kind of do the same with the previous board did put our edits if we want to edit some things or whatnot so I just wanted to concur. I also had a question regarding age appropriate. Obviously, we need to make sure that curriculum is age appropriate. Is there an example? Do they provide any case? Is there perhaps samples
061or examples that we can go based off of? which is like age appropriate. Perhaps some districts are more conservative than others, perhaps not. So what kind of, what are we going based off of? Is that referring to the survey portion or the curriculum portion? I think it mentioned it in both spaces. In the materials criteria. Okay, yeah. So the book is the teacher's manual that you received is all the curriculum. We are not. purchasing the student workbooks that go with it. I wanted to verify. So if we had those, you would have been presented with those as well. These are lessons. But we definitely can make sure that we talk about all that if the direction of the board is to have that workshop. We will be very clear and explicit so we know what's
062going in the classrooms. excellent also to just to clarify that these programs were chosen from a list that was given by the state when the state said these were appropriate for those grade levels so Got it. And I just want to finish off just saying excellent presentation. The fact that you guys also included parents' rights is very important, especially considering this is a very controversial topic. So I'm very glad that you guys included that to ease that concern, perhaps. So excellent presentation. I'm very excited that we're going to actually implement this next year. I've already shared my... but I do want to publicly just thank you for pushing this forward. I want to thank our superintendent for spearheading this. We're out of compliance, so we need to be in compliance. So I'm glad that we
063are taking the right steps. Thank you. I have another question. In regards to parent notification, I see that we're going to do parent square. Are we really going to go out and make sure that our parents are aware that this is happening? Are we going to do an all call to parents? Yes. So it's multiple. So ParentSquare allows us to filter so we can pull just our eighth grade parents who this would. would impact and so we'd be able to do an all call and our system allows us to do all call text email and flyers so it's an all system in one so all of those modalities will be utilized to make sure that we're reaching the parents additionally we do have spring conferences and times for parents to drop in and we will
064also make sure that information is there at that as well okay okay thank you Madam President, if I may, I want to thank Trustee Turner as well as Trustee Soto for indicating a desire to have a workshop. Is there any other board members who also equally want to express that as one? I will go ahead and add to the consensus of that. I would like a board workshop as well to kind of review the material as a board and figure out what... you know, how we want to proceed with this. Additionally, I do want to thank both of you ladies for your presentation tonight and how thorough you are in regards to this. When you speak of having the curriculum at each school site that it will be taught at, will the parents have a
065firm understanding of like when and how to review these materials being taught? Yes, so that's a very good question. That information will be included in the parent notification, so that original letter. And then remember, we're going to do all those modalities, but on top of that, we will also do it again, so multiple times. But there will be a two-month window in which that material will be there and available, so we'll be able to do those phone. notifications just really getting the word out there for the parents. Perfect and then additionally the students that end up opting out the parents that decide not to proceed with the program what material or instruction will we be providing to them in the case that they are opted out will there be a additional class offered or? So
066the students that are opted out will be doing a science curriculum that's designed by the teachers. I'm going to see if I can get a couple to maybe put, you know, a series of lessons together so that they can all be doing the same thing. And then it's up to the school site to determine where that student would go. Our recommendation would be to maybe get a substitute teacher to come in that can teach just that group of students. And then I did want to ask, at our workshop, is there any way that the board would consider possibly having some parents join us as well for parent input? That's a good idea. Yeah. Thank you. That's all. Thank you. 5.03. Thank you. Item 4.03, Academic Services, Staff Report for Williams Settlement for the fourth quarter
067report for the 23-24 physical year. Dr. Dwyzon. Thank you. This is required as this information is to update the Board of Trustees on the Williams settlement fourth quarter report for the 23-24 school year. This is a compliance task for the CDE California Ed Code section 1240 requires that the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools annually visit all Williams monitored schools and report the results of any findings every quarter. The attached report includes findings from the fourth quarter of last school year. I'm happy to report there were no findings to report in the required monitored areas of instructional materials, the school accountability report card, school facilities, or teacher assignments. Congratulations. Any questions? Comments? I just want to thank our team, especially our principals who are out there, our teachers who are out there who are helping
068support this, but most importantly, especially for the facilities, our maintenance and operation departments, as well as our custodians that work day in and day out tirelessly to ensure that our campuses are spotless and that they meet all the requirements for the Williams settlement. So thank you so much, Dr. Dwizon, for your team. Thank you so much Ms. Gonzalez for your team and their efforts. Item 4.04, we have a presentation by Braddock Elementary School in regards to the community schools. So we'd like to invite Ms. Valenzuela as well as Dr. Wade up to the front. Good evening Board President, LaFrench, Board of Trustees, Acting Superintendent Dr. Albert, Executive Cabinet, AESD staff, students, families, and community members. My name is Christina Valenzuela and I am the proud principal of Braddock Elementary School. I'm accompanied by my incredible
069AP, Dr. Josephine Wade. Tonight we've been tasked with presenting clarifying information regarding community school as well as our award, our vision, and our next steps. We would like to start off with a brief description of community schools, what they are and what they are not. A community school can be any school serving pre-K through high school students. It uses a whole child approach and it must have an integrated focus. The idea behind community schools was that it was used to improve student outcomes by building a positive school climate that addresses student needs. They are not charter schools. They are not only for urban areas. They are not the same in every community and they are not temporary programs. Before we go into more detail, we would like to present a quick video explaining the in-depth
070of the purpose and value of community schools. What makes a school a great school? Caring for the whole child. Expanding the horizons of learning. Building relationships with families. working together to realize a shared vision. This is the school every student needs. This is a community school. Community schools are public schools that partner with stakeholders to create the conditions students need to thrive. Community schools can be found across the United States, and their numbers are growing fast. But what exactly makes a school a community school? They integrate student supports. Clinics, counselors, and other services ensure each and every student is ready to learn. They expand and enrich learning. Extended school days, summer programs, and real-world experiences help students reach their full potential. They engage families and communities. Partnering with residents to identify and meet community needs
071makes everyone feel safe, welcome, and involved in school. They lead in collaboration. Inclusive decision-making and peer learning builds trust among students, educators, families, and communities. When a school stands on these four pillars, it's a community school. Research supports this four pillar approach, but there's no one-size-fits-all model. Every community school is different because each community is different. Figuring out what it looks like in your community starts by getting actual community members involved. That's the full-time job of community school coordinators. They're the human bridge connecting all the partners and stakeholders that make community schools possible. So that's what makes a school a community school. Now how do you pay for it? Startup costs like hiring a full-time coordinator can be raised from foundations or state and local governments. Tapping into existing funding and partnering with local businesses
072can bring in service providers. Sharing resources and staff with partners can help everyone do more. And as a community school becomes more established, leaders can advocate for budgets that sustain their impact and new funding to expand it. Every community school is different. What will yours be like? Get started at communityschools.futureforlearning.org. The video explains the general idea of community schools, yet California took it a step further by developing the California Community School Partnership Program or the CCSPP. Its intention was to create an initiative to support schools efforts to partner with community agencies and local government. Its purpose was to align communities with resources to improve student outcomes. And its goal was to align these partnerships in a way that would provide an integrated focus on academics, health and social services, youth and community development, and community
073engagement. There has been such an overwhelming support for community schools that leaders such as our Secretary of Education have stated that Community schools expand learning and enrichment opportunities for both students and parents alike and promote family and community engagement in education. Additionally, our governor, Governor Newsom, has stated that the implementation of community schools is the nation's most ambitious proposal to improve student learning, health, and well-being. At this point, we thought we would provide a timeline of our journey. Our journey began in July 2023 at the Southern California Wellness Conference. There we learned of the concepts of community schools and why we so desperately needed this support in our community. From there, we had four meetings outlining our vision, which was centered around the development of a wellness center. On February 9th, 2024, we submitted our
074proposal, competing against small, large, and unified school districts. Grantees were notified on April 24th. Braddock was awarded $1.425 million. Although we were excited, we knew that more work had to be done, so we had three additional meetings discussing next steps. So far, we've also met with San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools, and we will continue to navigate this process with an assigned county coach, coupled with 12 additional meetings. This is just a copy of our award, so you can see some of the districts that were involved in the allocation. Our vision. Our vision was to build a wellness center that would provide services and resources to students and their families, such as, and not limited to, immunizations, breath mobile accessibility, and mental health services. This wellness center would also help us to support district LCAP
075goals, such as improving student achievements by increasing attendance rates, which are often impacted by students' families' inability to get medical services in a timely manner. Second, it would increase parent engagement. Research shows that developing meaningful mechanisms for family and community engagement helps not only strengthen the school community, but helps build positive relationships and school climate and helps improve student outcomes. This would also allow us to extend our reach into the broader community by establishing new and existing partnerships. The parameters of our award are as follows. Our school would become the hub of the community and must be located on school grounds. The Wellness Center will provide services and support to members of the community and the grant would reflect a five-year implementation plan that would allow our total award of $1.425 million to be broken
076down to an allocation of $300,000 each year with a required district match of $100,000. The California, the CCSPP will consider an in-kind match as a match of funds. Finally, the community grantees are able to develop their own logo. We have not only developed a logo, but have also created a slogan. Our logo is an original art piece brought to life by our local artist, Anparo Chee. Miss Chee is also the librarian at George Visual and Performing Arts. Her piece encapsulates our environment as well as our local culture. Our slogan is as follows, community rising, we are what we've imagined. The idea behind the slogan came from another artist, a Native American poet named N. Scott Momaday. He stated, we are what we imagine. Our very existence consists in our imagination of ourselves. Our best destiny
077is to imagine at least completely who we, who and what and that we are. The greatest tragedy that we can befall upon ourselves is to go, and I'm going to insert something, in our life and in our career unimagined. In closing, we hope you can imagine with us the idea of an impossible dream, a dream that will redefine our community and more importantly, shape our legacy as leaders. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions, Bort? I know that you guys are, this is kind of the beginning steps. Do you guys have someone, a coordinator yet? Or is that something that you guys are currently looking at? We would like to, part of our grant was to be able to hire a coordinator, a liaison, if you will, and a secretary to be able to help with
078getting the information out to the community. Awesome. This is excellent. I mean, this is the first here in our district, so thank you for leading the charge. Thank you. I do. So, you know, it says that it is for the whole child. And it said, you know, they offered some things. The district already has after school programs, breakfast, supper in the evening, right? summer school and intersession. How does this go beyond that for our brat? Braddock students. It's not only for Braddock students and families eventually it will be for the whole community. This will be consistently open during regular school hours so it's not just after school it's not just during a certain time of the year it will be available to parents and family members community members throughout the the time that we are
079open if not beyond that. Okay, and then the video was great. What do you see? What do you want to see for Braddock's community goal? What's your goal for this school? To have a wellness center on our campus. that would supply immunization clinics for our students we saw last year that there was a lot of students that we had to put on independent study because they didn't have immunizations and they were unfortunately unable to get the immunizations in a timely manner so they spent most of their time I said most of their time but and a lot of the time out of school interrupting their education and at this point like one of the things that we think would be beneficial is to make sure that they have timely access to those resources okay and
080then it says here about how how much you you won and how much that that is per year and then the dis district must then we we also have to put Do you have a plan after the grant is done or will the district have to make up? There is a sustainability piece in there, but we haven't been able to discuss that yet because we don't have, we haven't implemented anything yet. So we have to really identify the costs of what it would be to implement and sustain. And then over time we will be talking about sustainability because the hope is it's not a temporary program. This is something that will have a legacy. will continue beyond the five-year grant. Okay, thank you. I would like to ask a question. Sure. This is a great
081idea. I think all communities need a community school. I know that a lot of research and time will go into creating a solid community school. And when were your expectations to open this? It's very difficult to see. I mean, obviously there's a lot of conversation in regards to facilities, making sure that we have the appropriate personnel in place. So that is definitely a conversation that we've had after the grant was awarded. And so right now we're in talks with district cabinet to be able to determine a timeline for that. but right now even in lieu of having a facilities we do think that it's important to get the resources out to the community so we would like to be able to put the proper personnel into place as soon as possible okay have you held
082a meeting with parents to talk about we have been holding when we have our Yeah, our SSC meetings and our ELAC meetings prior to even submitting the grant there. They have been involved in the process as well Okay. No, I've heard some talk about this but nothing presented to the board About this community school. Like I said, it's a great idea But the board has not been formally introduced to about this until now We've presented before to the board once before and then again when we actually presented for it was our Women's in history presentation. We also mentioned community school and that we were applying for the grant So that was twice before that we did present besides this. Okay. Well, I must have missed that I didn't I don't remember I have to go
083back and look at my notes okay in terms of facilities do you I know that we had talked some about that about what facilities on your campus that you can use you're talking mental health counseling that has to be a private space because it's confidential information and then you're talking about some other Health so you talk about different locations within the campus Or how would you? It will be centrally located. We also want to make sure that we are ensuring the privacy and security of the students that are on our campus as well as our teachers. So it would be. And parents and community. Yes, absolutely. So we want to make sure that it is on our campus, but that the community members don't have direct access to our students and our teachers and anybody
084else on our campus. So it would be centrally located. We have looked at a couple of different areas on our campus that may be appropriate for that. We did do some walkthroughs with Dr. Albert as well as Ms. Gonzalez. And so we're still in talks as to which one would be the most appropriate of the three choices. Okay. Have you reached out to community members for support and to help finance this? We haven't done that so far. We're just waiting to have more direction also from the executive cabinet and the board so that we know exactly what we're doing. We do have all of this information here. We want to make sure that we are acting appropriately on your behalf too because this is an Atalanta Elementary School District accomplishment. It's not just solely a
085Braddock accomplishment. Okay. Well, I would like to hear more as you grow and get all of these ducks in a row. Thank you. Thank you. I will keep my questions very brief. The one that really stuck out to me was you mentioned wellness. You mentioned immunizations, mental health. As this wellness center grows, what are your three main focuses bringing into it? Other than the immunizations, the mental health, is that what we're predominantly focusing on? Or will there be other aspects to it? Well, presently we have a district council that we see one time a week. And we've seen firsthand that our students need more than that. And so we would like to be able to provide more consistent services in terms of mental health to our students as well as our families. So it would
086be one of our primary. motivations to be have those mental health services that are available. Just for us in particular, the immunizations came up and were a very important topic this year because we saw so many students' education interrupted because of a lack of immunizations and we kept on hearing from parents and we were listening to parents' voices that they wish that they could get an appointment in a timely way but unfortunately their hands were tied and so we want to alleviate some of that pressure from parents as well. Sorry, we also sent out a needs assessment to our parents and we found out food insecurity is a major issue in our community. So we also hope to open a food pantry for in our community center as well. Additionally, we just found out, we
087have been partnering with Apple Valley High School, their CTE program, they were helping us to try to develop a community garden. And so, again, extending our reach into the community. But we were given the opportunity to apply for a Spouts community garden grant, and we won. We won $10,000, and we will be provided with the check on September 7th at nine o'clock in the morning. local sprouts in victorville that will also support our community garden vision yes i appreciate that ladies thank you so much for your hard work and dedication to this idea and i do look forward to seeing how this progresses thank you um i'm sorry what was the location again where it's the sprouts in victorville and then what's the time nine o'clock what's the date september 7th awesome I'm doing my
088best to make it. If you'd like to give the three-minute speech, we're more than happy to give it over to you. Thank you. Okay, so was this just a presentation right now? Madam President, we are seeking direction in regards to Braddock being able to move forward with their community school grant, including the matching funds component. I had the impression that this was just a presentation. This is a presentation, and also we need direction on what to do moving forward. The Braddock Elementary School, as you can see in their timelines, there are currently meetings or planning. There's a lot that needs to get done. We have not spent any of the money so far in regards to the grant, but at this point in time, we need direction in regards to whether or not to authorize
089them to move forward. or if it's something that we want to potentially return the money back. But we would like to get direction from you on what our next steps are. Well, definitely not returning the money back. I don't think we're going to do that. We definitely have to move forward, that's for sure. In terms of direction, I feel like we should probably do a trustee committee, two trustees collaborate who can focus full-time, or at least part-time, spearhead and help our principal here to spearhead this project, perhaps. But that's what came to my mind. I'm not sure what other trustees have in mind. I do want to speak up and say that I would like to support it moving forward. I think it's important to remember that we support the school site, their future, their
090visions, what they want for their students. And more importantly, I love the concept of it growing up. you often hear it takes a village to raise a child it doesn't take one it doesn't take a few it takes all so i i do want to go ahead and back the support for this community school moving forward as i think it will be very beneficial to our students in the long run okay so i i agree as well i think we should just go forward forward with it so that and see what what these ladies can do I don't disagree with it. I just wish that I had more information. I do know that when you have plans such as this and it has finance involved with it, it has buildings, it has... A lot. It
091has the community, you know, you have mental health, you have wanting the community to come on our school campuses. I know that the county has like a mental health truck that comes. You have like, I don't know if it's a truck, but a van, I guess you want to call it. They have like the breath mobile. They will come out and give immunizations. And I know that your goal is for it to be. around the clock you know not just you know i'm gonna come on the first thursday of every month or something like that um i know that i did hear about it um i think a couple of meetings ago that was the first time that i actually like kind of like keyed on into it it wasn't something that was presented um
092to where i knew that at this time this was going on there was a timeline this was a date this is when it was going to come out and i think that when we start to have something like this and then we have to sustain it afterwards because you don't want to start something and then take away because it is for the whole community of atalanta i have of resistance because i would like to be able to know more on what it would look like in the long run how is it that we would pay for it where's the money coming from are we needing a new building do we need a bungalow do um Who are these people that we're going to hire? You know, are they people that come, are the county assisting
093us with finding this? I have a lot more questions. I know that this is a presentation on whether or not at the end, if we're going to move forward, I would not say that we would automatically say, okay, we're giving this money back, but I would like to know. how we're, what is this going to look like in the next six months? You know, how many people do we need to hire? What do we need to start? Just the building itself, right? I would have liked to have more involvement to see what the longevity of it is. I agree with all of it. We do not want to give the money back. I mean, because the community need a school like this. I just want solid planning and not to rush into something that we're
094not ready to do yet. And like we talked about facilities and vendors coming in or community partners coming in and what will be the parent involvement. I can't see us doing this anytime soon. within the next couple months. I would like to bring it back, having the process and hearing the development as you go along, what have we accomplished so far, so the board can approve the financial part of it, our portion that the district have to put in. I agree with all of it, especially what President LaFrench mentioned. The planning process has to be solid. We just don't want to create something that we can't sustain it after five years. We want this to continue. So I don't have a timeline as to when I would like to see it, but I would like
095all those parts planned and in place before we can say, yes, we are opening this up. Okay, so with that being said, we just need for... i trust you to give some direction and take a vote on it i'm assuming i just wanted to add this isn't an action item but we do need clear i think a little bit clearer direction because um the grant itself is an implementation grant the grants for community schools no longer provide planning years for it so you know we need direction because in regards to their next steps they would be looking at hiring staff would be their first step to be able to start building around the community school. And facilities, of course, can come at a later date. But the moment that we sign that personnel requisition form,
096we interview and we hire that person on that first paycheck, we're committed to this. So we won't have the answers in regards to what this is completely gonna look like It's gonna be a building this program in the sky as this, you know building the plane in the sky as you go So it is it is leap As soon as this cabinet heard about it and that this board was not informed. We brought this back for a discussion But this is not something that we can POS, you know, unfortunately, this isn't something that we could develop then come back to approve or not we have to look at having a clear direction are we moving forward are we are we not moving forward and moving forward means starting to spend the money and sparse sparse
097spending that money means that we're now committed to this so that's where we need clear direction How can we start spending the money and we don't have a place to house anybody? I mean, is the ground flat? Do we put a building on it? Does somebody have to come in and they have to take out a building? Do you put a fence up? Yeah, absolutely. If you guys wouldn't mind coming back to the podium, I think that would be beneficial. Thank you. So in lieu of having a facility we do think that putting personnel in place to make sure that the community resources are available to members of our community is very important. We recognize that the facility might be a challenging issue at this point, but we can work around that. It's just making
098sure that the proper personnel are in place to make sure that our vision is is alive and well and making it available to our community. So I think that that's our first step. What Dr. Albert was mentioning was making sure that the personnel has been put in place so that we can get that started. That's step one for us. And then I'd love to have Ms. Gonzalez talk a little bit about the facility options as well because that's a big component and would be a large piece of the contributions that the district would be making as well as what funding sources we potentially have identified to be able to fund that. Yes, thank you. So I actually did walk Ms. Valenzuela's site over at Braddock. We identified their initial location and we assessed it and
099then we actually identified two other locations within the school. And so... with the direction that's given by the board, then we're gonna actually move forward with securing an architect to get us the cost estimate as far as what that would look like for each of those pieces. We do have a on-site actual room that would be able to be segregated away from the public. It would need... modifications to the inside of the building. However, with staffing then they would be able to start to build those partnerships and then we can on the facility side begin to develop those pieces. And then without having, you know, an estimated total cost, you know, not adherent, not, you know, at this point going to bid, not at this point locking down that this would be something that we
100would, in essence, hold to a solid estimate. Correct. But what would be a ballpark in regards to our district level's commitment to being able to... upgrade the facilities to be able to house this and then the time to be able to do that. So our estimation right now for the current facilities that we would have was probably roughly about $300,000. Now district contribution over the course of the five years is up to $500,000. So that's also an in-kind donation. So that's definitely something if the cost, depending on the schematics. we look at, we would also take that in consideration. It's not just a one and done. We would look at the overall scope and what our contribution would be for the life of the grant. Great, thank you. And then if we were to start,
101you know, let's say next month to be able to get bids as well as architectural drawings, when would we, a rough, rough, not again, you know, ballpark estimate of when we would be looking at having facilities coming online? So there's a number of different avenues that we would have to take a course since this is on a school site campus. You're talking about DSA approval besides architectural drawings and that process within itself we actually wouldn't be able to bring possibly architectural drawings back to you until possibly the end of this year. as in December, possibly January DSA approval. So you're not actually looking for implementation as far as facility-wise until springtime of next year. And then that's also working with bidding and if we get a contractor to come in and actually do the renovations.
102So there is a larger timeline. However, that kind of has already been explained to Ms. Valenzuela. But if she is already looking to implement this, then it's kind of coinciding with her building the program and building the network connections through her staffing. And then in the background, we're still working on that facilities piece. And who would be supporting her? So she has her school to run. Who's supporting her with making sure? I heard that you have like 12 meetings or something with the county. So 12 meetings with the county. I haven't even been to a school that has one. These are certain things that I have as a question, not saying that I participate in the daily operations of the. the school district right that's the superintendent but I would think that I would know
103more than what I know tonight or what I've seen tonight and I know that we have had presentations right and we have presentations and then I heard it and I was like hmm okay that's something that we might be working towards not knowing that there was actually a grant that was applied for who's gonna give you the support does that come from academic who's gonna give academics hope who's gonna give the extra support that you're going to need to go out and find these people? Who's gonna hire these people? HR gonna hire them? I have so many questions that to say that we're gonna take this money and then we're gonna start implementing because we're gonna hire someone. So a couple of things in particular. So we do have a committee that has been formulated
104that brings in a variety of different people within the district office. So they're representing us to be able to help. in our process of making sure that this is done with efficiency. The second part is in terms of like who we're hiring, it would be considered a community liaison and would be somebody within our district. We are- I'm sorry, just for clarification, you said that there's already a committee from AESD from this district. Who are those people on the committee? Do you want to, I don't know if you have this, but Dr. Doizan's on the committee. Ms. Gonzalez is on the committee. Mrs. Coburn is on the committee. We have invited Dr. Ochoa to the committee. We have a couple of teachers within the district that are not at our site on our committee. We've
105met with our teachers. They know what's going on in terms of community school. I can submit the list to you of all the people that we had that formulated that committee and have been on our committee. Okay, and how often do you guys meet? How often have you guys been meeting? In total we've had seven meetings. Have they have attended all seven meetings? No. The last three meetings? Yes, they've attended the last three meetings. Okay. Right. Is that once a month? We try to do once a month, but it just depends on everyone's schedule. Right now we have the next one to be determined for September. Okay. So going back to the actual positions, there would be a community liaison that would be with... that would be helping us out. And so that would be
106a position that we'd hire. It is a job description that already exists. So it wouldn't be something that would be new. And so it wouldn't be somebody coming outside of the district. It would be within our own district, as well as a secretary to be able to help that community liaison. Both are existing. And we made sure to look at the contract to see if the job descriptions exist. When was the committee established? The committee was established September 2023. Over a year ago. Oh yeah, yeah, we attended the wellness conference in July Okay, and so as soon as we got back from the wellness conference is when all of this started So I know that Miss Gonzalez just came to the district in February, right? So she attended the last three meetings. I think it
107was I Actually attended only the last two meetings Okay. Thank you. I wanted to add something as well scab Perhaps address some of the concerns that we're hearing a community school to me is exactly what it says where it involves the city it involves other government agencies Municipalities to come together to support that school the reason why I feel there's because this is my first time really going into that death into community school to death lit and So I think it's it's new and that's why we're there's not so much that we hear about it However, I'm super, super interested in this. I want to be heavily invested in this in any way that I can, whether it's coming to the committees. I think that's going to help build some trust with the trustees because
108there are some, it's brand new. There's not much known about the community schools. The concerns are valid. How are we going to sustain if we do decide to move forward? And I kind of have a vision for that, which does include reaching out to, our assembly members, state senators, reaching out to a congressman and making sure that we're getting those grants. One of the pillars was reaching out to those government agencies. So there's a big opportunity here to, as what you said, to leave a legacy here in ASD. I'm very interested. I'll be in touch after the meeting, making sure that however I can support to move this project forward. And to your point, Ted Alejandre, as well as Tony Thurman, were at the wellness conferences last time. And the talk is all about community
109schools. And so it is very well supported by local legislation, as well as leaders. So again, I think it's just a great opportunity for us to build the partnerships and not necessarily exist in kind of isolation. One of the things that when we went to the wellness conference the first time, we asked, well, is anyone at ASD out of... to doing this and they said not really this is the first time that anybody's ever approached us and we we said why not us so thank you thank you Alrighty, so it's my understanding that Dr. Albert is looking for direction, correct, in whether or not to proceed. I do support proceeding in this community school and the support to the school site to further develop this idea and concept for our community. And so I would
110like to push that forward again. I am in full support. Thank you. I'll second that motion. No motion. Oh, no motion? Oh, okay. Well, I agree. Okay. And I also support Brad, Baranek in this, and that I think this will be good for the community as well. So Braddock, I just want to say that it's not that I'm not supporting Braddock. I support Braddock. I just need a lot of information, you know, like, can I go visit one or, you know, just come and, you know, and see what the vision is. Okay. I concur. Thank you board. I think we do have then consensus to move moving forward just to be clear then it would be to authorize Braddock to then start moving forward and spending this grant money also exploring facilities and I'm also
111hearing the need to come back and give updates in regards to the progress in regards to the community schools and how they go I also hear that we do have an active committee that is meeting and there is a want or desire for two board members to potentially attend. So Ms. Balins-Will, is that something that is also amenable for the committee in the structure of it to be able to have two members participate as well? And then I would just ask the board. um to work internally to identify those two members and then we could have those two members also give regular updates in regards to um the work that's being done for the community schools we can we can draw straws because you can best believe we all want to participate now so instead
112of us saying i want to do it i want to do it we'll draw some straws and we'll let you know what two are going to participate But I would say that, you know, if we could have an update, it doesn't have to be here at the board meeting, maybe something written at least, you know, once a month on the progress of the meetings that you guys are having, it would sure enough help. Great. Thank you so much, Madam President, and thank you so much to our trustees for giving us direction. I want to thank also Ms. Benswell and Dr. Wade for their efforts to bring this to our community, and we are very excited to see where this is going to develop in the future. You know, they say once you visited one community
113school, you visited one community school because they're all different. So we are very excited to see how our community school is going to develop at Braddock. So thank you. Okay, thank you. Okay, before we go on to Section 5, I'd like to ask Mrs. Turner's assistance with having a moment of silence for Diane Lynn's husband. If you'd like to start us off, please. I appreciate it. Let's take a moment of silence for Diane Lynn. She's a CSEA president. Her husband passed away a few weeks ago. His name is Joseph. Is it Joseph? Joseph Lynn. So if we could take a few moments of silence to thank you. Thank you. Section 5, closed session declarations will be taken items 5.02 through 5.05 into closed sessions. Public testimony before closed session. The public comment period is administrated
114by state law and is the point in the meeting set aside for members of the public to share their opinions with the board. Open meeting laws do not permit the board to engage in dialogue or answer questions. Any person who wishes to address the governing board on closed session agenda items only must complete and submit an AESD speaker request form five minutes before the meeting is called to order. Public comments will only be taken on agenda items during the discussion of those items. The board values public comment and although the Board of Trustees cannot take action or discuss items not on the agenda, The Board of Trustees listens carefully and appreciate input from the public. Additionally, a public speaker can be cut off for exceeding the allotted time or for willfully causing an actual disruption
115to the meeting. Before cutting a person off or removing someone, the Board will give at least one clear warning. If you were cut off or warned last time, please consider that your warning. Individual speakers are allowed three minutes to address the board on each closed session agenda item. The board limits the total time for public input on each item to 20 minutes. With board consent, the president may increase or decrease the time allowed for public presentations depending on the topic and the number of persons wishing to be heard. The president may take a poll of speakers for or against a particular issue and may ask that additional person speak only if they have something new to add. Ms. LeVay, do we have any speaker for ADTA? Madam President, the board calls for Jennifer Rader. Thank
116you. Hi, good evening. As you know, the tentative agreement between AESD and ADTA failed to ratify, with 75% of our teachers voting no. That is definitely a mandate and also an indictment. When districts around us settled for 5% and 9.22% in a year with 8.22% COLA and health care costs increased, this district, under your direction, offered us 0% month after month after month. Nothing to offset health care costs. Stolen got 500 a month toward that. Nothing off schedule. Victor L. got 9%. Just zero. I stood up here repeatedly showing you in the simplest terms possible where the increase could easily be afforded and it fell on deaf ears. So the failure to ratify is an indictment of you and your oversight of the district's resources. Tonight over five million dollars in purchase orders will be
117approved and the report listing is normal course of business in AESD. Giving us our lowest paid HMO fully funded would cost less than $1 million, but $5 million is routinely spent as a matter of course. At the last board meeting, a training consultant was approved for $74,000. We pay over a million for our cabinet. You should be the experts. You're the consultants. Tonight there's a consent agenda item 13.14 for dynamic education services, tutoring and support for $36,000. And when I clicked on the link, it was tutoring and other services billed at $100 an hour up to $150 an hour. Our teachers hourly rate is 55. If you're going to pay tutors this kind of money, pay the teachers who know the kids. They know their students. They work with them every day. We have a
118wealth of experience among our teachers. We should keep the money in-house and utilize our decades, even hundreds of years of combined experience. Why are we not maximizing the expertise on our cabinet and in our classrooms? This is a question I have. I have other questions and concerns about the agenda items, but I'm going to be emailing you, the cabinet, and you, the board, these questions in an effort to be respectful and professional. I hope you'll engage those questions as a show of transparency and accountability. Otherwise, you can count on me standing here at this podium in a couple weeks and asking those questions publicly. My final remark is more of an observation. How sad that during a summer with record high temperatures, the kiddos in this Atalanta community couldn't swim in the million-dollar pool that
119is beautifully refurbished and perfectly maintained just because we can't find lifeguards. Perhaps we should pay them more. They're safeguarding the lives of our children. And it really is a shame that people from this community aren't represented and honored in the name of the facility. Robert Smalls was amazing, it's true. I even saw a display about his life when I was in Philadelphia this past summer. But we have local heroes that deserve to be honored, people who mean something to Atalanto. Thank you for your time. Ms. LeVay, do we have anyone for CSEA? Madam President, I do know that Diane Lynn is not here, but I don't know if she had a representative speaking tonight. So if she does, they're more than willing to come up. I don't see anyone at this time. Thank you. Do
120we have any audience members? No, we do not. Moving on to Section 7. Thank you. Governing Board Members' Reports and Announcements. Does any board member like to make a report or have an announcement? I'm in the in the interest of time I'm going to waive my comments. Trustee Soto? Same as well. Trustee Webster? I will try to keep my comments short, but I do have some to share. I want to start by saying that our campuses look great. Thank you to MNO for their hard work over the summer for grooming our plants, getting some projects that really needed to be finished tied up. And it, to be honest, has looked amazing. I did have the... ability to go out and visit atlanta elementary school along with our gust site touching down on atlanta elementary school
121they will be having their annual 9 11 day of remembrance Mr. Rizzo goes out above and beyond for the students for this event, often inviting local and state representatives to come in and speak. If anybody has the chance, I do definitely encourage you to go by and check it out as it is memorable. And it is something that I think brings community closer together. I do want to say congratulations to the 113 teachers and the letters trainings. As I've heard, this training is phenomenal. It's really giving our teachers some great support. And I want to say thank you to Dr. Dwoizon because it's my understanding that you were a massive push for this letters training. And that is just, I cannot express my gratitude for the push for this. want to say thank you to
122cabinet for this amazing present that i found on my desk coming in i do appreciate each and every one of you for the thought for me and then i will close my comments tonight again thanking my board for the time to present with my freedom rider family and i do hope to see this foundation come in to atlanto even more so to support teachers different sites moving forward so thank you and that concludes my comments I had the opportunity to visit schools last Thursday with Dr. Albert. We visited Eagle Ranch, Mesa Linda, and Morgan Kincaid. And I was very impressed with the instruction and student engagement. The school grounds were very clean, and the students had permission slips to be outside the classroom. We went into the cafeteria. The food looked good. And as mentioned
123earlier, I was happy to see lots of fruits and vegetables and the children actually eating them. That was amazing. I've been a board member in the district for a long time, for many, many years, and dedicated to enhancing the district and ensuring positive outcomes for our students, faculty, and staff. My primary goal is to lead the district towards success, even in the face of criticism. Throughout our journey, we have experienced both joyful moments and difficult challenges. But nevertheless, the well-being of our students have always been our top priority. As board members, we strive to provide strong leadership to maintain stability in the district, which has been a significant challenge. Over the years, I think they made decisions aiming at improving the district in various areas such as academics, alternative education, formerly the Opportunity Program, and
124now HOPE. And, you know, the presentation of the HOPE teachers with the Freedom Riders is amazing and incredible. Also, facilities, governance, and meal programs, which I mentioned earlier, while maintaining financial stability. I believe in using funds for the benefit of our students and teachers rather than returning them unnecessarily to the state. I want our teachers and students to strive with a financially secure district. Unfortunately, there have been many baseless rumors circulating about my character and integrity. While I cannot disclose certain details due to confidentiality reasons, my dedication to the district best interest has always guided my actions. So if you have any doubts, I'd encourage you to speak with me or others can provide an honest assessment of my character. I remain committed to leading the district towards success despite facing obstacles. Some individuals are
125spreading information, misinformation, and lies. But if you have doubt, I encourage you to review our financial audits and timelines. It is regrettable that I cannot share all information, but I trust that God understand our district needs and see our efforts for our children. I will continue to serve the district and our students to the best of my abilities. Let's collaborate, stay resilient, and maintain our commitment and focus on the work at hand. Thank you. Thank you. Section 8 recess to close session trustees. I need a motion to recess to close Trustee Webster. I motion to recess to closed. So do I'll second Miss LaVey, please take the vote. Trustee Soto. So do I. Trustee Webster. Webster aye. Trustee Turner. Turner aye. Trustee Stewart. Stewart aye. Trustee LaFrench. LaFrench aye. Motion passed. The time is 736.
126Thank you very much. We can reconvene to open session please Call to order the time is 929 roll call Miss LaVey, will you please take the roll trustee Stewart present trustee Turner Turner present trustee Soto Soto present trustee Webster Webster present trustee the French love French present the quorum has been established trustees I need a motion to extend the meeting to 1030 yeah um trusty stored I motion motion that we extend the meet meeting to 1030 30 sort of all second on motion thank you miss LeVay please take the vote trusty Soto so do I trusty Webster Webster I trusty Turner Turner I trusty Stewart Stewart I trusty LaFrench LaFrench I meeting has been extended Moving along to section 10 closed session report announcements reportable actions during closed session gave counsel direction to proceed and
127And there's no no report portable action. Thank you section 11 public testimony Before I read the blurb do we have any? Speakers for open session? Madam President, we do not. Oh, and I like reading it. Okay. Section 12, adoption of the minutes. Trustees, I need a motion to adopt the board meeting minutes as written and order filled the regular board meeting of July the 16th, 2024 and regular board meeting of August the 13th, 2024. So do I motion that we approve the minutes? Stewart, I second. Ms. LeVay, please take the vote. Trustee Soto? Soto, aye. Trustee Webster? Webster, aye. Trustee Turner? Turner, aye. Trustee Stewart? Stewart, aye. Trustee LaFrench? LaFrench, aye. Motion passed 5-0. Section 13, the consent agenda. We're taking items 13.02. Through thirteen point three zero does any trustees want to pull an
128item? Trustee Webster, I'd like to pull thirteen point fourteen and thirteen point twenty one Just see Turner. I would like to pull one. I'm trying to figure out. It's the one of the filter to arrowhead Which one is it? I didn't bring my notes. Which one is that? Oh science can't computer please. It's 1305 Let's keep going though Trustee Turner, do you know which one you would like to pull? 13.05, Madam President. May I get a motion to approve the rest of the consent agenda with the exception of 13.05, 13.14, and 13.21, please? Trustee Webster, I motion to approve the remainder of the consent agenda with the exclusion of 13.05, 13.14, and 13.21. May I have a second, please? Soto, I'll second. Ms. LeVay, will you please take the vote? Trustee Soto? Soto, aye. Trustee
129Webster? Webster, aye. Trustee Turner? Turner, aye. Trustee Stewart? Stewart, aye. Trustee LaFrench? LaFrench, aye. Motion passed. 5-0 can I get a motion to approve section 13 no I'm sorry can I get a motion to approve consent item 13.05 trustee Webster I motion to approve 13.05 Stewart I second we're open for discussion okay I pulled this item This is a science camp for fifth graders taking place on Tuesday, April 8th through Friday, April 11th. This was on the agenda, the previous agenda, and I wanted to talk about the chaperone. There's 90 students and two teachers. two adults, even though the camp maintains a 2.15 ratio for students. But this is a week's camp for fifth graders. And I'm bringing it to the board to see if that's enough, just two adults for 90 kids, an overnight
130trip. I don't see our chaperone policy on here or anything. So I'm concerned about this. I think it's a beautiful trip, but I don't think that there's enough parent supervision. for this number of students, fifth graders. Does the camp have guides or? I don't know anything about the people, but they did say that they do extensive research, I mean, background, but it's not enough for me. It's not enough information for me. I don't know if there's enough information for the parents to let your fifth grader go on a trip like this. I agree. Dr. Albert, is there any way you could take a moment and speak on this? It was my understanding. I know I inquired about this agenda item at the last board meeting, and it was explained to me that there's additional camp
131volunteers slash chaperones that take a hands-on approach with the students as well. Is there any way you could speak to that for us? Absolutely. So this item was pulled at the last board meeting because the clarity in regards to the number of chaperones was unspecified. And so we were able to then go back and do extensive research to ensure that the fact is that it does comply with our board policy in regards to overall supervision levels. We have the camp maintaining a 2 to 15 ratio with students at all times. And in addition to that, there is indication that there's additional support in the evening times as well. So it does meet the requirements for board policy. Now, whether or not we want to approve that, that's up for discussion. But the question at the
132time was... Does this meet our board policy and requirements? And it does. I'd also like to ask Dr. Dwizon if there's anything that I missed that she would like to add. Great. Thank you. I still have questions on that. Our board policy, we basically, just a few months ago, approved our field trip and overnight policy, chaperone policy. And, you know, even though do we have... Can they submit the names of these people? I mean, I'm just overcautious of children of that age being at a camp in the woods without some parents there, you know. I know they're saying it's a two-to-one, two-to-what did they say? A two-to-one-five ratio with students for supervision at all times. But are they going to ensure that female? students stay in a room with a female person or could you
133could you elaborate on that because our policy is specific and it talks about that So, you know, this is not giving me enough information to approve this. I would love our children to go, but I want our children taken care of. So we have a couple options here because their requirements that they do do meet the requirements in relationship to our board policy, including segregation. What does that board policy state, Dr. Allen? So the board policy indicates a minimum threshold of the total number of supervision levels in which this exceeds. So we have a couple of options here. What we can do, we have plenty of time. This is in the spring. You know, if there are concerns in regards to this, we can, at this particular time, you know... identify, you know, I think
134procedurally, Ms. LeVay, they would need to turn this down, right? Vote it down because it wasn't pulled. So at this time, what would happen is that you would have to vote it down and then give us clarity and direction in regards to additional information that you would want brought back for further consideration. That is correct. And we're happy to do that. And then I just ask that within that clarity and direction that you're very specific in regards to the questions that you would like answered so that our team can then research that and bring it back at another date. I'm sorry. I have a question. Dr. Dwison, how has this trip been taken in the past and wasn't... Aren't these weren't these exact same things has it changed or? When they took this trip in
135the past were there the same condition? Ditions as this one Yes, they were the same conditions this particular group just went I believe don't quote me on it April spring right around in that area and Yeah, and as far as the items if they were exactly the same I'd have to go back and research that but this particular trip Yes, they did take the the astute student to shop Chaperone ratio was was that the same as this one is yes the camp itself maintains a to two adults for every 15 students so but the teachers that went with the student student there were two four nine Ninety student students. Yes. Okay. Thank you. I Want to understand kind of a concern here, but having a hard time time understanding what I'm hearing is that we've
136already brought this we've already pulled this item before for the concerns that are being brought up again so I'm still not sure if I'm understanding that right in addition I'm also hearing that we are following the board policy so what I'm still trying to understand What we're trying to fix here? What is the concern here? Absolutely. So I appreciate that question. And it is a very good question because it can, you know, looking at this, why exactly was this pulled previously? And this item was pulled voluntarily by us and cabinet because it did not specify how specifically we were meeting the... the board policy with ratios so um you know at that point in time we pulled the item because it just said that there was going to be two chaperones it didn't indicate that
137there was going to be supplemental chaperones available through the camp that lowered the ratio down to a 2 to 15 ratio which is complying with our board policy so for clarity we then brought that back at this board meeting so that we can indicate within the rationale that it does meet the criteria. Now, that being said, as a board, you have the authority and options to, if there are still concerns and there are more questions that you want answered, we're happy to go back to the camp and get clarification and more information. And to do that, you would have to... you know be very clear on what it is that you would like us to specifically ask and what those questions are and the concerns are vote that down and then we'd be happy to
138get those answers and bring it back and we could even put it in our friday updates as well Thank you, you're welcome. Thank you. Okay, I The last board meeting before the last board meeting, you know, I I question this with dr Albert in regards to this I board policy our state said there's a shop one for every ten children and then it's it's very specific overnight trips And we were very specific on that when we adopted that policy. And that chaperone handbook, there's a chaperone handbook that addressed overnight stay. And I'm looking at their bill. The only thing they have is a bill. They're not explaining that they have chaperones for our children. So it just talked about how many kids the discount teacher cost cost fees So it does not state that our
139children would be taken care of that's our language that we put here We'd rock broke this without without follow-up without substantial clarification from the campus health We changed our policy on field trips and chaperones specifically for this reason, that there were not enough chaperones for our children. And so that's why, you know, I brought up what does our board policy say, because our handbook and our policy should go hand in hand on that. So again, what I'm hearing us say that the initial concern was over ratios and that's what we were asked to do to bring back the aspects of clarity for those ratios is what you see here in the rationale. And if I'm hearing us say that they're still continued concerns, you know, what I'd recommend is then if there are continued concerns
140and there's consensus about those concerns to vote this item down and then... clarify specifically what areas that you would like us to answer from from this group and then we could bring that back at a future date actually i would like the writing to be from the camp itself um because there's nothing from the camp clarifying that that's what i would like to see i would like for the camp to put this in writing that this is how they're going to protect our children overnight for five days that's my concern Dr. Dwizon, I know that San Bernardino City sends their fifth graders on a science camp. Well, they used to because my daughter went to one. Is this the same camp or is this a different camp? They actually have many of them. So at
141one time I was a fifth grade teacher too and I went on camp. So there's actually many of them and they're located in the mountains. And so usually once a district finds several that are trusted and we've done business with them before and we didn't have incidents, that's a camp that's trusted and we would keep going too. I don't know if I answered all of them. No, that house, because I didn't think that there were many. I thought there was just like one main one, because it's like how many camps can there be up there? But I guess there is a lot. Okay, thank you. You're welcome. And then, Dr. Doizan, just for reiteration purposes, you did clarify that we took this trip last year. And then over at Gus Franklin, we have one male
142teacher, one female for fifth grade, correct? I would need to research that as far as the teachers. I can definitely bring that information back. Okay. But overall, we have used this company in the past. This is the same exact camp we went to in the spring. This Gus Franklin went to in the spring. Yes. Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Okay. So I will speak my part of this discussion. This camp may have been used in the springtime before, and it may have been used last year and the year before that, and we may have missed it. When you talk about taking 90 children into the woods or the mountains, wherever they're going, and then they will be supervised by people that they don't even know. I don't see what the harm is inviting volunteers to go.
143And I think that's just what we're discussing right now. So it may have been done in the past. It's nothing wrong with having more people, 90 of our children with two teachers, 90. I don't know how many people fit in this room, but 90 is quite a few children to be supervised by people that they don't know. So if you happen to have a couple other people that somebody might know or, you know, something like that, then the children, it could be, you know, nothing wrong with if we wanted to add more volunteers to this. With that being said, we've explained it quite a few times. Thank you, Dr. Albert. Zee, can we call for the vote? I got, I'm sorry. So can we bring this back and get one more teacher volunteer? Is that
144what we need? We'll need to vote it down because we didn't pull it. and then we'll need to give direction to bring it back. Is that what's clear, Z? That is correct. Thank you. To give direction to bring it back to get more. We'll have to vote on it right now, and then if it passed, then the two teachers and the 90 children will go to the mountains, or we're able to say no and then give direction to bring it back. Can we make a substitute motion to bring it back if we're going to turn it down or is that not appropriate? So you're going to do the motion if your motion is not to pass this board agenda then you can actually state what you would like. to do. So you're turning it down
145and you would like to bring it back with specifications or you can vote on it and say that you do want it. That's up to the board. So whoever makes that first motion to not accept needs to put the conditions of what you want the cabinet to bring back. Okay. Now Quick clarification if we pass it are we able to request additional information or chaperones be added to this agenda item moving that would be direction to the Superintendent and that he could do that. Yes. Okay, so it wouldn't stagnate or prolong this process So it sounds like we can pass it and we can still get what we want which is more shock more teachers for the chaperone and we don't have to Correct. Okay, great. I support that. Or follow our policy, our handbook.
146A chaperone for every 10 children. That's what we wrote. That's what we agreed upon. I understand that if it's a chaperone like a parent who has had minimal training, but if you have people who are trained to work with the kids, to me that's different. Because these are chaperones at the camp. This is what they do. They work with the kids. And 15 kids is doable. If it were we're going to get a bunch of parents, then yes. Because they really don't know how to handle the kids. They can only do small groups. So that's where I've... I'm stuck there. You know, we, I think we, well, I just don't want to have to turn it down and bring it back. That's me. I just, we could ask that more. How many fifth grade teachers
147are at Gus? Maybe just two. Just two? We need parents. We need parents. Teacher can volunteer from someplace else. I think that we need to pass it and we really need to move on Okay, that sounds good to go through okay, I don't want to stagnate anyone's discussion, but I'd like to move this Okay, okay Does anyone we want to change this? motion do we I motion that we Well, we could add on that we want more so it is a substitute motion because you already had a first and already had a second so your substitute motion would be to require more chaperones to meet our board policy I Second that can I interject if that's okay? Yes, because right now With the number of chaperones, the board policy doesn't indicate that they have to
148be district employees. So we are meeting the requirements right now. And more could be one in one board member's eyes, or it could be 10 for us to ensure that as a group that we are meeting the needs of the majority of the board. If I could please request more specification, please. We would need maybe, well, I'm bad at math. Julie, could I interject? Yeah, because I don't think we don't need nine. Our thing says one to ten, right? We don't need nine because we have other people too. One or two, you know. Okay, let's do one or two. One, two, two. Let's do two. Julie, I got this. Let's do two. And move forward, please. Okay, so we want to with two additional. chaperones chaperones okay so we have a first by Benz as
149Stewart second all day long I'll second please take the vote trustee Soto Soto I trustee Webster Webster I trustee Turner Turner nay trustee Stewart Stewart I trustee LaFrench LaFrench I motion passed 4-1 Trustees can I get a motion to approve 13.21? 1314. Did you know? I mean to skip 14. Oh I did skip 14. It's getting late. It's getting late. 13.14 please. So do I motion that we approve? Can I get a second? Stewart I second. We're open for discussion. Okay, so I have a question since this was brought up and it was brought up at the at the podium of why didn't we ask teachers to do this? Now, wouldn't that mean we'd have to do like special contracts or how would it work? So if teachers wanted to, what's the process and why
150are we going outside of the district? Thank you so much for that question. I'm going to refer this over to Dr. Dwizon. This one actually is a little bit more complex because it involves our special needs students. And anytime we're involving our special needs students, we're also looking at special qualifications. We're looking at special services specifically to meet criteria of those IEPs. So I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Dwizon to get a little bit more in the specificity to be able to. help us understand this a little bit better. Dr. Dwison. You did a very good job. I know you can do even more. This is as a result of typically our special education when we have compensatory services, additional tutoring or their IEP calls for additional tutoring. This is a specific agency
151in which our SELPA works with and is validated. So it is a higher amount, unfortunately, but... The outside agencies, they do. Okay, thank you so much for clearing that up. Thank you. Any further discussion? Hearing none, Mrs. LeVay, please take the vote. Trustee Soto? Soto, aye. Trustee Webster? Webster, aye. Trustee Turner? Turner, aye. Trustee Stewart? Stewart, aye. Trustee LaFrench? LaFrench, aye. Motion passed 5-0. Section 13.21. Trustees, can I get a motion to approve 13.21? Trustee Turner, I motion to approve 13.21. Stewart, I second. We're open for discussion. Hearing none, Ms. LeVay, please take the vote. Trustee Soto? Soto, aye. Trustee Webster. Webster, nay. Trustee Turner. Turner, aye. Trustee Stewart. Stewart, aye. Trustee LaFrench. LaFrench, aye. Motion passed 4-1. Section 15, new business. Trustees, I need a motion to approve the adoption and resolution number 24.25.06
152for the annual education protection account revenues for fiscal year 20. 24-25. Trustee Turner, I motion to approve. Stewart, I second. Ms. LeVay, please take the vote. Do you have discussion? Oh, I'm sorry. We're open for discussion. Hearing none, please take the vote. Trustee Soto? Soto, aye. Trustee Webster? Webster, aye. Trustee Turner? Turner, aye. Trustee Stewart? Stewart, aye. Trustee LaFrench? LaFrench, aye. Motion passed 5-0. Section 15.02. Trustees, I need a motion to approve the agreement with Lerner Center Collaborative LCC for strategic consulting services. Trustee Turner, motion to approve. Stewart, I second. We're open for discussion. I'm very aware of the cost of this program. We went and we looked over two different. potential organizations that we can partner with. This was the best option for me. The cost is pretty high, but however, with that cost
153comes with what the district needs and that's right now we need some assistance with the direction of where we're going as a district. So I'm glad that we're... taking the right steps to ensure that we're moving in the right direction and so I will be supporting this. Ms. LeVay, please take the vote. No further discussion. Trustee Soto? Soto, aye. Trustee Webster? Webster, nay. Trustee Turner? Turner, aye. Trustee Stewart? Stewart, aye. Trustee LaFrench? LaFrench, nay. Motion passed 3-2. Section 15.03, trustees, I need a motion to approve the fiscal crisis and management assistant team. Trustee Webster, I motion. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You paused. I did. I did. I was trying to say a fact mat or something. A study agreement for management assistance. Trustee Webster, I motion to approve the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team,
154also known as FCMAT, for a study agreement for management assistance. Steward, I second. We're open for discussion. I am pleased that this is being brought on board. I think that our justices... district needs basically to be you know help with our processes so that we can keep things aligned and see where the things are and being transparent parent so I look forward to it I don't know I look forward forward to to the end when it's done Any further discussion? Yes, I also agree with Trustee Stewart. FITMAC is a very thorough and comprehensive, they do a very thorough report, a forensic report, and I think that that's needed at this time to look at our finances to make sure that we're on the right track. So this couldn't come at a better time for me.
155I do have a question about how long is the process? Ms. Gonzalez, I'd like to refer to you because the scope of this one actually is pretty extensive. So from start to end, my understanding is it can go anywhere from two to three months, but I wanted to defer to your expertise. So as they're coming in and they're reviewing all of our processes, like Dr. Alvarez said, it could be anywhere from two, three, and just depending on the level of processes that we're going to be reviewing could be up to a little bit longer. So in essence, before our December meeting, we should have their actual report. All right. Thank you. I just want to make a quick comment. I do want to thank our cabinet for bringing FICMAT in. It's my understanding earlier this
156year we brought additional consultants in that left us with very little answers. So I am glad to see somebody with the background and the credibility as FICMAT coming in. Thank you. I concur with all my colleagues and what the statements the statements that have been made I completely support this and I'm glad that again we're taking the right step to ensure that we are financially responsible. No further discussion. Ms. LeVay, will you please take the vote? Trustee Soto? Soto, aye. Trustee Webster? Webster, aye. Trustee Turner? Turner, aye. Trustee Stewart? Stewart, aye. Trustee LaFrench? LaFrench, aye. Motion passed 5-0. Moving along to section 16 superintendent reports and announcements Thank you very much Madam president. Thank you Good evening esteemed board members and members of the community as I sit before you today I'm filled with a
157deep sense of gratitude and reflection Serving the district during this time of crisis has been one of the most meaningful and challenging experiences of my career and I'm truly honored for this opportunity to work alongside such a dedicated and passionate individuals. When I was first asked by the board to step into this role, I knew the challenges we faced were significant. I'm proud of what we have accomplished together in this short time from making a commitment to work on school governance as a board, setting a direction to work with all our educational partners to creating a strategic plan with the Lerner Center Collaborative, committing to physical solvency by bringing FCMAT in to create a new era of transparency, as well as starting a year extremely smoothly. The times come for me to embrace a new
158chapter in my career, and I leave Atalanto Elementary School. This decision was not made lightly. It comes from a deep reflection on what's best for the well-being of my family. I want to express my heartfelt thanks to the Board of Trustees for their support. Your commitment to the students, staff, and community is unwavering, and I know you will continue to lead this district with a vision and integrity. To the staff and teachers, I cannot thank you enough for your dedication and hard work. You're the backbone of this district. and it's been a privilege to work alongside you. To our labor partners with ADTA and CSEA, your passion for education and your unwavering commitment to our students is inspiring. And to the parents, students, and community members, thank you for your support and partnership. Together we've
159established key components to build a strong foundation for the future, and I'm confident that this district will continue to flourish. I want to thank you for allowing me to be a part of this incredible district. And I wish each of you the very best as you continue the important work in education and supporting our students. Also wanted to send a special thanks to the cabinet for your unwavering commitment to work together as a team. And in the short time, every accomplishment we have has been a team effort. Dr. Dwizon, it's been a privilege to serve with you. Ms. Gonzales, it's been an honor. Dr. Walker, it's my pleasure to have known you. Thank you, everyone. Thank you. Section 17, adjournment. The time is now 10.07. I need a motion to adjourn. So do I motion
160that we adjourn? Madam President, before we do that, can I make a comment? Sure. Okay. You know, Dr. Walker, I mean, Dr. Albert, you came in in February and, you know, as... Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources. And you stepped in immediately and there were a lot of changes that were taking place in this district. And you stepped up to the plate. And I really appreciate the hard work and the dedication and the leadership that you gave our district. I know it's been tough these past few months. And I commend you for giving your all, even some time having to stay late. Like it is right now, you know, and it didn't matter to you because that was one of your job responsibilities. I hate to see you leave, but I understand. But I'm really disappointed
161because I felt that what you have given us in the past few months was a great service. And I just wish you the best. in your future endeavors and just want to let you know that your work did not go unappreciated. I thank you so much. Thank you. Okay, so I was going to bypass this part because question now, I don't want to, I've done enough crying, right? I do want to, I do want to say thank you for all that you've done for us. I do. You came in here and I know I've said several times, when did you start? When did you come? It was February. I know that this was not an easy decision for you to make. I know that you have set in the place goals and pathways for us
162to try. You brought new ideas here, and you have been standing strong and walking with us. When this was not your assignment. And I always would tell you that God puts you where he wants you to be. And I know that you will be successful wherever it is that you are going. Okay? You're welcome. No tears. I'm happy for you. And your family comes first. With that being said. Well, that's not fair. Can I say something too? Okay, okay, okay, okay. Yes, you can. Yeah, too, you know, I don't want to reiterate what's already been said, but this district is very challenging. The fact that you came in here and gave us a chance, it's very commendable. So the district and the board cannot thank you enough for stepping up to the plate. Very unfortunate
163to see you go. But like Trustee President LaFrench had mentioned, family is important. The well-being of your family is important. So I just wish you the best. I really do. And the board will always be here to support you in your future endeavors. I will make my comments brief, but I do want to thank you for your service to AASD, your dedicated hours and hard work within. And I do wish you the very best on whatever endeavor and life takes you. If there is anything you need from this board, letter of rec, et cetera, please let me know. I'll be more than happy, okay? And I do wish you and your family a very blessed future. Thank you. No, I'm being selfish. Don't don't go don't go Okay. Well, we don't want Ben's To come
164out. So um Z. Could you please call for the vote? I do. Can I get a motion? We have a first by Soto. Can I second? Adjournment I'll take the vote trustee Soto. So do I trustee Webster Webster? I trustee Turner Aye. Tracey Stewart? Stewart, aye. Tracey LaFrench? LaFrench, aye. The time is 10-12. Meeting is adjourned. Thank you very much.