001Thank you so much for being here. My name is Lisa Michelle Dabbs. I am honored to be the president of the East Winter City School District Board of Education along with my honored colleagues here and we are calling the meeting to order at 6.04 p.m. We thank you for your patience. This was a long meeting prior. I want to make some announcements that occurred during closed session in the order in which they occurred. The Board of Education approved to uphold the AR 4030 Coordinator's Finding Report on the appeal to the Board of Education. Action item 24 has been pulled from the agenda. We are excited to announce that the Board of Education approved the following administrator assignments for the 26-27 school year. First, is Johnny Castro who will serve as technology supervisor. Is Johnny here?
002Okay, that's right. Okay, forgive me. And also, additionally, Dr. Ishelle Sanchez who will serve as the principal of East Whittier Middle School. Additionally, we would like to recognize Rebecca Mayernick who will serve as the MTSS coordinator. Is Rebecca here? Rebecca are you here with any family? Okay, thank you so much. All right, congratulations. Jolene Robles who will serve as a special education coordinator at STEP. Is she here? Jolene, any family with you tonight? Okay, all right. Okay. Oh, yeah. Okay, family. Okay. And Elisa White. Elisa, am I pronouncing your name correctly? I hope if you're here. All right. Who will serve as a Scott Avenue principal. That's right. Yes, we can see you. Do you have any family with you, Elisa? Oh, welcome, welcome. Thank you so much. We're very excited. All right. Thank you
003so much, everybody. I have the mic. Oh. Okay, okay, of course all right. We are going to begin with our flag salute, and that's going to be led by Thank you Oliver. Thank you so much Oliver for stepping in for us All right. Are we moving now, Dr. Patterson, to the approval of the minutes? All right. Moving on. Backwards, friends. Thank you for being patient with us. Approval of the May 8th Board of Education meeting minutes. This is an action item. Can I get a motion to approve? I move the recommendation that the Board of Education approve the Board of Education meeting minutes for May 11, 2026. Thank you. Can I get a second? A second. It's been moved by Mr. Aparicio, seconded by Mrs. Carrera. Any discussion or changes, Board, in terms of the
004minutes? All right, hearing none, Mrs. Palenzuela. Mr. Palenzuela, would you please call for the vote? Mr. Thomas Baird? Yes. Ms. Chacon-Kennedy? Yes. Mr. Aparicio? Yes. Mrs. Dabbs? Yes. Mr. Oliver Baird? Yes. Mrs. Carrera? Motion passes. Thank you. All right, and we now are moving to Board Member Cummings? Okay. All right, so board we're moving to comments. Everything is flowing now, we hope in the correct order. So are there any board members that would like to make comments? And if so, let me know. Board members, would you like to make comments tonight? Mr. Baird, would you like to begin? Would you like to make a comment? Yeah. I want to make sure that... Thank you. I attended Hillview's promotion this past week. It was all a blur. And I also got to attend the series promotion.
005And I immediately went to work the day after the Hillview promotion. I said, if you ever want to feel really, really good, go to a... graduation, a promotion, and look out at all the parents. It just, it felt great and I don't even like crowds, but it was, it was lovely to celebrate with all those parents. That's it. And I was there with Thomas at Hillview and at Ceres. And I went to a lot of other places. I went to Iowa, but I was all over the place. I can't remember what day. I couldn't remember what day it was half the time. But yeah, and I want to really thank everybody that was there, Mr. Baird. I know Dr. Gonzalez was there. And it was funny to see because she was, you need to have
006this one. You need to go over here. And she goes, I have to step out of my principal mode. She wanted to take over everything. But it was really nice. And I really did appreciate the band playing. at Hillview. They were really good and all the kids were so well behaved. Anyway, there was a lot of things I went to. I got a really new best friend at Orchardale when they had their fifth grade promotion, Mateo, and he was sweet as could be. But like I said, I've just been out there. I won't tell you where else, but I've been out. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Kennedy. Mr. Aparicio? Good evening, everyone. So hopefully everyone's having a great summer so far. I know it's only been less than a week, but hopefully everyone's enjoying it
007so far. I was able to attend the East Ritter Middle School promotion, and that was definitely great. Mr. Morey made it in 45 minutes, so it was definitely a record right there. So I'm pretty sure the parents definitely appreciate it, and we got some good weather, too, as well, too, so it was nice and overcast. But just overall, like I said, I definitely enjoy attending these promotions. Like Mr. Baird said, the parents are having a great time. The kids enjoy it. It just seems that, you know, everyone's enjoying it, and plus it's the last day of school, too, right? so everyone truly enjoys that day. So like I said, overall, I had a great time there with Mr. Moore and the rest of the Eastwater staff. And just lastly, I just wanna say, Oliver, and
008this is your last meeting, just wanna say thank you very much for everything you've done. You've been a great leader. Like I said, it's been fun, entertaining, having you up here with us. And I wish you definitely the best of luck next year. And I'm looking forward to the next board member that we have coming up. But Oliver, thank you very much for being a great, great leader. Thank you. Mr. Allup-Rabird, would you like to make a comment? One of your last comments? I would like to make a small comment. Just like everything was nice. I was not able to go to any promotions due to the last day of school being the same day that I had to go to school. But it was still nice to hear all the stories about all the
009promotion ceremonies and how nice it must have been. I heard some of the stuff coming from Hillview due to me being in one of the classrooms close to it. And it was nice hearing all the like cheering from the crowds. And it was just nice hearing everything there. Thank you all over mrs. Carrera, would you like to make a comment? I just want to say thank you everybody for being here today Congratulations to everyone who was who's new I know the mayor nix I will I will I know you as the Scott as a Scott hit principal I don't know who else was mentioned. I can't say I can't see and then I can't read my comments Just a quick update. I did attend Granada's promotion Oh, that was, that was nice. I'll be attending
010some master in governance, uh, virtually, of course, uh, over the summer. So that, uh, that'll be my summer. I hope you guys have a much better summer than, than I will. All right. And that's about it. Thank you, Mrs. Carrera. I also want to be able to share just a few things. I went to the East Wheeler Middle School promotion. I was there with Mr. Aparicio. It was quite beautiful, and the 45 minutes was shocking, but seeing all the students, seeing all their parents, seeing all the family, it was very, very heartwarming, and it always is, and so it was just a beautiful thing to see. I was also able to see the play Oliver, which was so beautifully done and just absolutely exquisite. The children... the students, rather, were just outstanding in their roles
011and how they presented it, and it's Oliver Jr., but just amazing the way they transformed the space there at East Whittier Middle School in light of the fact that Emma Wicker is being remodeled. But it was just also so heartwarming, so beautiful, and the voices of our children are just so amazing. So it just warms my heart because you know my passion for the arts here in our district. I also was able to attend the Ocean View Chorus production. at Whittier Area Community Church, which is amazingly also outstanding, as they did a Disney Dream sequence. It was an hour that seemed like it lasted much longer. Absolutely incredible talents on the part of our Ocean View Chorus. Absolutely incredible. If you were there, you know. But it was just such a joy to be there.
012And then lastly, I was able to scoot over to, after the East Winter Middle School promotion, go to the Ocean View Clap Out. I'd never been to a Clap Out, so I wanted to go to a Clap Out. And their clap out was amazing. And it was so heartwarming, again, to see our fifth graders from Ocean View go through the canopy and walk through their parents and grandparents, some that had been waiting there since two or three in the morning, to be able to have a front row seat as their fifth grader walked through. And it is just, if you've never been to a clap out, you need to try to get to a clap out sometime. Because... As many of you know, I have two sons, and it brought me back to the time
013when they... not only left, say, eighth grade, but also when they moved on from their elementary school. And you just never forget that. You never forget the joy of the future, looking into the eyes of our fifth graders, knowing that this is their last time at the elementary school, and they're moving into a brave new world right at the middle school. So it was really, really just a beautiful thing to experience. And then lastly, I also want to extend my thanks to Oliver. Oliver has grown much taller since he's been here with us. And his input, his sharing, his ability to share in such a powerful intellectual level but still make it fun and funny has been something that has really touched my heart. And Oliver, I will definitely miss you as I've missed every
014single one of our student school board members. But I want to wish you on behalf of our board just so much luck and so much success going forward. And we hope that we see you. Doing just great things as we know we will going forward. So thank you so much. Can we give him another round of applause? Thank you so much. All right. We're gonna move on to CSE a comments Do we have anyone representing CSE a that would like to join us? Thank you so much Good evening members of the board and dr. Patterson So usually I'm gonna give you a little peek behind the scenes at what happens back at the desk Normally, I'm writing my comments while they're giving out the school award So today is gonna be it's gonna be a
015little bit of a journey So first off, congratulations to all the administrators who got promoted tonight. Lots of good stuff. CSCA, we're obviously especially proud of our friend, Mr. Castro. I look forward to it. He's going to be my boss. I look forward to continuing to work with him. It's a great decision. Also, Mr. Oliver, thank you for spending a year with us. You guys get so much bigger over that year, right? Ever since the first day I feel like you've grown a couple inches so it was great having you as part of the team for this year and I look forward to seeing you around Hillview. So moving on. So on tonight's agenda, item 19 is the memorandum of understanding for class and comp effects for CSEA. This is an agreement that we have
016worked very hard with the district on. We're very proud of where it ended up and we're grateful to working, being able to work hand in hand with the district in an area of cooperation. And we look forward to it be, we look forward to finishing the second half of everyone next year. And I strongly urge the board to vote yes. One of the best things about this MOU is that we were able to. get the lowest paid among us, our supervising assistants, a nice little raise. So I think that's the part of it that I'm most proud of. So definitely we're a strong yes on that. And then I also briefly wanted to address item 12 on the agenda tonight, termination of streaming. So a little bit about me is I started at the school
017district about five years ago. And ever since we started streaming YouTube, I've been here, streaming on YouTube. Now, I'm not going to lie, maybe the money had just a small little bit to do with it, but one of the appreciations I've garnered is, especially in these times in America, is the effect of local government, right? The effect of representation and kind of like what local government looks like in real life. Now obviously being a tech guy, I know there's a lot of challenges that AI brings to the table. There are things to be afraid of, but I really hope the board's decision tonight is not to cut off outside access to this process. I was looking through our views for the last six months and we're averaging about 500 views a video. We started at
018about eight. So it's really taken on in the community. And like I said, you know, it's just, I think it's really important for folks in the community to be able to see obviously how our property tax dollars and our state tax dollars are spent. And I just think it would be a real shame if we lost some transparency with the community. Just over some nebulous fears over what's gonna happen in the future like I'm sure if we work on a plan We can find other options there can be other things that can happen But I really hopes the board decision tonight is not to reduce transparency with our community Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much next comments from eewee Good evening everybody happy summer you noticed I'm in shorts and flip-flops. It's one
019of my favorite board meetings because of that Also, my back's not out like it was last year, so already a good start to summer. So I'm on the right track. Congratulations to the people that got promotions or were hired in as administrators or supervisors or managers. Congratulations on that. Personal interest was who was going to be announced as our principal. So we shall change the shell Sanchez looking forward to meeting her and working with her I'm under the impression that she'll be here on Wednesday night so we can meet her in person. So that'll be Hope it's a start to a beautiful relationship The May revise of the governor's budget came out a couple weeks ago. There was a large allocation of money given for parental leave, which is a huge win for everybody across
020the state from seven weeks to 14 weeks now. So we're hoping that people that are on parental leave can take advantage of that. Another thing where there's a larger allocation of money than we expected was for SPED services. As someone who's visited all 13 sites across the district and has one of those posters that I put up would talk about SPED issues, the biggest thing was lower caseloads. So I'm hoping that allocation of money towards SPED is a way that we can lower the caseloads of our SPED teachers to... give each student the best services they possibly can get because that gives each case carrier more time with the students when those case loads are lower. Discussion item 12, just as Joe brought up, it's quote, there have been a number of instances where live
021streaming data has manipulated. Well, it has not happened to any of our live stream videos. Out of abundance of caution, staff is recommending that we no longer utilize YouTube. As a middle school teacher I cannot tell you how many fake social media accounts are made in our names. I've come across a couple of my own. There's really no control over that. And it would behoove us to keep the YouTube stream because if these fake videos come out, you still have the YouTube stream, which is authentic. I'm just going to run off some numbers. On March 9th, 607 views. On April 7th, 906 views. On May 11th, that's 571 views. That is a lot of people in our community that are watching these videos. Maybe not live, but... Afterwards so they're going back and they're watching
022to see what's happening in our local government. So we think that a No vote on discussion item 12 would be the prudent thing to do This is excluding people with disabilities that can't get here. This is excluding people that are immunocompromised There is the norovirus going around that's really nasty and there's some people that would not be able to be in a public setting like this and that YouTube feed helps them to be able to participate in local government. Also down the road, actually a couple weeks away, is SB 707, which says that word meetings need to be not televised, but streamed with comments available. So maybe this is a step to get there, but it doesn't feel like it with the way it's worded. So we're hoping that we can get a no vote
023on discussion item 12. So please consider that. And my last two things. Engage East Whittier happened a couple weeks ago, and it is an excellent event. The food is terrific. It's good to see our local partners. But Jen and I noticed, because we were the only ones there, where were all the teachers? I noticed that last year. where were any teachers? It was always just me and either the band coordinator or the choir coordinator. So I think we should invite the teachers, maybe the certificate of the year to the Engage East Whittier to get them to celebrate them on that. So I really hope in the future for Engage East Whittier that we're inviting some teachers to celebrate them because without teachers, there's no classrooms. And finally, I just want to thank my wife for
024putting up with me this last year. If you're watching, honey, I don't know why, but you'll probably see this later. There's better things to do on a Monday night. But this job as president has taken up a lot of time, and I just want to give my appreciation to you for being supportive the last year. So thank you. Thank you very much on to superintendent comments. Dr. Patterson. I just wanted to mention two things and one of them goes along with what mr Volkmann said, you know, the engage East Whittier event is an amazing event an opportunity for us to celebrate but one of the things that we did talk about when we debriefed and We introduced people who were in the audience the only person that we had in in attendance That was an
025employee of the year was mr. Marinick and while mr. Marinick can fill a room You know We did notice that neither the classified or the certificated person was in the room, so that is a change that we're going to be making. So each year, the three individuals who are recognized as Employees of the Year are going to be present at that meeting. But it was a huge event. People once again said how amazing it is and how much they love it. You know we did make a lot of tweaks to it And we even debrief to talk about some more tweaks that we can make but a lot of time and effort goes into that So we're especially grateful to our nutrition services team and the planning team that goes on and then finally on
026you know another wonderful year full of joy and celebrations across the district and we're just so proud of our teachers and our classified staff, our administrators and especially our students as we wrap up another year and we hit the ground running today with summer school and ESY and that fun continues for the next several weeks. So that's my thought. Thank you, Dr. Patterson. We are now on citizen communication period guidelines for community guidelines for citizen communication and Dr. Patterson will lead that. I'll get to the podium and it's your turn. Please introduce yourself. So first up is Jennifer Stanfill, then Tracy Ross, then Laura Sullivan, then Nicole Darnwhite, and then Emily Eden Murphy. All right, good evening, board. My name is Jennifer Stample. I'm a teacher at Hillview Middle School. This is my 25th year
027teaching. Oliver, it's been a pleasure watching you up here just mature over the year, and it's been awesome. Tonight, I'm here to oppose the proposal to eliminate live streaming of board meetings. This recommendation reduces transparency and public access at a time when California is moving in the opposite direction. The Brown Act exists to ensure that the public's business is conducted openly and that citizens have meaningful access to their government. Eliminating live streaming creates a barrier for working parents, employees, seniors, individuals with disabilities, and others who cannot attend board meetings in person. What is particularly concerning is that the agenda item acknowledges that the district has never experienced the problems cited as justification for ending the live streaming. We are being asked to eliminate a valuable public service to address a problem that does not exist
028here. The timing is also troubling. Beginning July 1st, 2026, SB 707 expands public access requirements for local government meetings. The law recognizes the importance of remote participation, requires opportunities for remote public comment, and includes accessibility measures for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, as well as accommodations that improve access for non-English speaking community members. The clear direction of California law is toward greater accessibility, greater participation, greater transparency. Yet this proposal moves our district backward. I ask the board to reject this recommendation and continue live streaming board meetings. The public deserves more opportunities to observe and participate in the decisions that affect our schools, not fewer. Thank you. And I just want to say something before you start. I want to make sure that I share this at every meeting, that although we do
029not comment, it is not our general situation that we comment during public comments, but we want you to know that we are listening and that if there is something that we want to give clarification of, Dr. Patterson will share something or sometimes a member of the board will do that. So thank you for your comments. Good evening board. My name is Tracy Ross. I'm currently at La Clema Elementary School room 13 First I was gonna tell well I was gonna wear all three shirts as And then I had thoughts of Michael Stipe REM at the MTV Music Awards and I thought and it would be really hot and And then trying to strip off all three shirts two shirts. Sorry, that would be Awkward for you and in forfeiting any dignity that I might have.
030But first, this was last weekend, well, two weekends ago. First, I wanted to say, as the president of cause. collaboration collaborative action in special education and on behalf of Jenny Gray who's not here tonight wanted to express to Dr. Patterson and our maintenance and operations immense gratitude for your help and and generosity in allowing us to hold our first annual resource fair right across the field here. So thank you very much for that. It was a success. We had, and as Mrs. Chacon-Kennedy can attest, thank you for your presence. We were small but mighty and we learned a lot from that. So thank you for that. Okay, stripping off that. Number two, La Colima is in, trustee area four and in addition to series and other schools we haven't seen mr. Baird we're we're a
031loving hard-working community and to be honest when board members come around it's like hi how you doing but when you're not there it's noted we have lots of great things going on we've missed you we had open house and missed you. And we have lots of parking. And we don't bite. So please take time to visit us. Lastly, keep the cameras on, please. That is if you were to cut YouTube without, I mean, we would prefer that you'd have something as a backup in the meantime that you would institute if you were to cut YouTube. But. That nothing was proposed in the agenda item description so that's as you can see I don't think we've had this many people at one of the last School board meetings of the year so obviously it's a it's
032a very sensitive issue Keep the cameras on and But we totally agree need to we need to secure tighten up some internet stuff. Thank you Hi, my name is Laura Sullivan. I'm a teacher at Ocean View and a registered voter that lives in Area 5, which is represented by Mrs. Carrera. Hi. I'm here more as a registered voter than as a teacher tonight. I wasn't planning to come in person to this board meeting because today is my daughter's birthday. Happy birthday, Erica. I think the camera's back there. However, when I saw on the agenda that you will be discussing ending live streaming of these meetings, I knew that I needed to come in person. Live streaming gives all constituents access to board meetings. There are streaming services other than YouTube that can be used. Ending
033live streaming because of something that might happen, I feel is ridiculous. I'm concerned that these plans may violate at least the spirit of the Brown Act. In a time when we need more transparency from our elected leaders, this plan seems ill-advised, if not ill-intentioned. Bringing this to the board at this meeting. right after summer break has begun, when there are traditionally fewer constituents paying attention, is extremely troubling. Three of you are up for reelection in November. We voters are paying attention to this discussion, and if it's brought to a vote, we will remember how each of you votes. Thank you. Good evening. I am Dr. Duran White. I am a National Board Certified Teacher, and most importantly, I am the parent of a dual-language student at Ceres Elementary. I'm here to share my disappointment in
034the way the board has been handling its dual language program. The district had five years to prepare for an expanding program from elementary to middle school, yet seems to be scrambling during this transition. I say this because the district has yet to hire a dual language or biliteracy expert to oversee this program through this specific lens. Instead, parents are being shown the same presentation with different backgrounds, being told our students are doing great as we are not consistently being shown English and Spanish test scores for a biliteracy program. Because the district has not been proactive, families have had to muddle through vague responses and last-minute presentations. I say vague because responses that we've heard from the board include that they're data-driven decisions and student-centered decisions. This is what's being made without sources being named. If
035I were to take those responses and grade them with a performance task or an SBAC rubric, they would not meet standard. So as the adults in the room, let's please hold ourselves to higher standards than what we are asking of our children. Let's please really make student-centered decisions. We have many experts in the room, enough doctorates to know that every data set has its limitations and that our children are more than quantitative numbers. This is why this district is so lucky to be hearing from teachers and families to get that qualitative data needed to meet student needs, something researchers wished they had access to. Last meeting, we heard from the teachers union representative and a special education teacher. They're asking for smaller class sizes and support to reduce caseloads. We've heard from parents telling their
036elected representatives to provide essential resources for dual language students. We've heard from the people interacting with students on a daily basis. We know what it takes for them to succeed and are communicating with you what is needed for our students to be successful. Please listen to the community and recognize it as the valuable qualitative data that it is as you're making your data-driven decisions. Hello, I'm Emily Iden Murphy, a parent here in the district. I'm here to speak in favor of keeping your board meetings online and available to home viewers. I note that the agenda says you're considering termination of live streaming with no explicit mention of terminating access to the recordings posted after the meeting. So I'm not sure if both are on the chopping block. I can't tell. So that's why I'm here.
037I want the live streams to continue, but I especially... do not want you to eliminate public access to the posted recordings of the meetings. Now, I just checked, and you have 48 viewers right now watching this live stream, which if they were all in here would fill this room, they'd have to stand. So that's a lot of people watching right now, and then people have already mentioned how many views you've had in May and over 900 on your April meeting. So clearly you have an at-home audience. Members of our school community who rely on the live streams and recordings to protect participate in district business and stay informed. Work, childcare, basketball practice, all those things get in the way, especially of parents being here in person. Personally, I'm rarely able to attend in person. Tonight
038required a lot of negotiation and childcare coordination. So the recordings of board meetings on your YouTube channel have been really great for me. I appreciate being able to attend to all the business of my life while also catching up on school board business when I have time, which is usually at midnight. I acknowledge there are bad online actors out there, people who manipulate media content to spread disinformation. and advance polarizing issues, but cutting off access to the actual recordings, the true record of what really happened in the board meeting, could help spread misinformation in a way I don't think you would want. I believe this board wants to be inclusive and transparent, so choosing to maintain access to the recordings of the board meetings is the best way I think you can honor a commitment
039to those values. While we're on the subject of including as many people as possible in the board meetings, please add board meeting notifications with an attached agenda to your regular ParentSquare notifications. We get a lot of notifications as parents. Thank you. On ParentSquare, and it seems like a no-brainer that it would be, you know, a regular communication, but for some reason the district doesn't send them. They are posted to the district's Instagram, but you have. fewer than 2,400 followers. So that's not really spreading the word very effectively to the families each month. So please post to ParentSquare as well with an agenda. Thank you. Have a nice summer. Good evening. My name is Jennifer Lee. I'm a teacher at Scott, and I'm also here to ask the board to keep the live stream and the
040recordings. I understand the concern that in other districts people have edited and manipulated the meeting footage. That's a real thing, but ending the live stream is a wrong fix because it doesn't actually solve that problem. It makes it worse. Here's why. Anyone in this room right now can record this meeting on their phone. That's their legally protected right. Cutting the official stream won't stop a single person from making a clip. What it will do is eliminate the one complete, unedited official record that everyone can check those clips against. The live stream isn't what enables manipulation. It's the best defense against it. If someone posts a misleading clip, the public can pull up the real footage and see the full context. Take it away, and you've removed the cure, not the disease. And the people who
041lose the most are the ones who depend on the stream to take part at all. Parents working nights, parents dealing with child care, residents without transportation, people with disabilities, anyone who can't sit in this room for hours on a weeknight. Public access shouldn't require showing up in person. One more thing honestly engagement is high right now and people are paying close attention Reducing public access this exact moment Whatever the intent is going to look to a lot of people in this community like a step backwards I don't think that's the message this board wants to send please keep the live stream and the recordings. Thank you Good evening, my name is Erica Corcoran and I'm a parent at Ceres Elementary School. First, I would like to thank Board Member Baer for attending our Dia del
042Niño and the recent graduations. It meant a great deal to our school community to have your presence and support. And also, as always, to Board Member Chacon-Kennedy for your continued commitment to our students and families at Ceres Elementary. Second, I do want to express my appreciation for our school leadership, our DLI teachers, Dr. Aldana for the recent DLI parent meeting on May 6th and the follow-up letter on May 29th. These were positive and important steps towards strengthening the DLI program at our school. We're especially grateful for Dr. Aldana's commitment to DLI during her first year at our school. That said, there are still areas where clarity and transparency are needed. We continue to receive inconsistent information from the district, and several key questions remain unanswered. For example, on May 12th, the district referenced the program
043having both a site DLI leadership team and a district DLI leadership team. However, there has been little clarity regarding how these teams function, who serves on these teams, or how they support the program. This really has left parents more confused. We understand that a new site-based DLI team will be formed next academic year, and we look forward to learning more about that. At the same time, it is equally important for families to understand who is leading and representing the district DLI leadership team and how decisions are being made. As we have shared previously, we value and support the DLI program and are committed to working collaboratively with the district. Moving forward, we respectfully ask that transparency and clear communication remain a priority so that trust can continue to grow between our school and the district.
044On a separate matter, I would like to also express, as you heard today, concern regarding the decision to eliminate live streaming of board meetings. Families will appreciate greater clarity on the rationale behind this change. With appropriate data governance policies and strong cybersecurity measures, this is a challenge that can be easily addressed. The proposed technology supervisor and data system specialist positions that you will discuss later today could play a key role in implementing secure solutions that allow continued success. As a district here in East Quaker, we should strive to model innovation, accessibility, and forward progress, not taking steps backwards. Ensuring that families can remain engaged by assessing board meetings aligned with all of those values. Thank you for your time. Good evening. My name is Esmeralda de Avila, and I am the Coats and Mentor at
045Ceres Elementary School. I want to begin by thanking board members Chacon, Kennedy, and Baird for attending all of our events last month. Your presence was truly encouraging. I also want to thank Dr. Gonzalez, Dr. Roman, and Dr. Vargas for attending our fifth grade DLI awards night. I cried the entire time. And Dr. Aceves for attending our fifth grade promotion, and Dr. Patterson for attending our kindergarten graduation. Last month, I was able to meet with Dr. Patterson and Mr. Volgeman. In that meeting, Dr. Patterson told me something that really affected me. He said, the decision to move Liz, our interventionist, has been made, and as a leader, I, me, am making it uncomfortable for the next person. I should be working on welcoming her. That comment made me feel really guilty. First of all, I don't
046consider myself a leader. And second of all, because making our new interventionists feel uncomfortable was never my intention. That's not who I am. And that's not who we are at CERES. However, I know how harmful that I didn't mean that is because it centers me and not the person being harmed. I understand that my intention does not erase my impact. So to the new interventionist, I want to publicly tell you that from the bottom of my heart, you will be received with open arms and an open hearted series. You will be supported and we want you to succeed. Having said that, two things can be true at the same time. I realize that this uncomfortable situation, it's not my burden to carry because I'm not the one who created it. I am just the one
047naming the consequences of not hiring a bilingual interventionist. My logistical questions like, how will dual students be assessed? How will their intervention be planned? How will instruction be adjusted to meet their needs? When answered. Dr. Patterson said it would be discussed at the DLA leadership meeting, but several people said it was not. The message was that this is happening now, so figure out a way to move forward and find solutions. Once again, the problems have been placed on school staff and our principal, a problem we did not create and a problem that we foresaw and we tried to warn about, but we weren't listened to. I don't come here to speak to you because I like to. I actually would rather not be up here talking. We're not trying to be difficult. It's not a
048gotcha the district made a poor decision. We're looking for an authentic partnership to better serve our community. We don't have a DLI coordinator at the district level. We do not have someone with a catch all of these gaps and advocate for them to be filled. When the DLI leadership team was formed three years ago, I think, the promise, and I was a part of that original team, the promise was that every district member would make sure that whatever needs fell into their category would be taken care of. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Lisa Ferguson. I teach third grade dual immersion at Ceres. First off, online live streaming. I think it's one of the good things that was left over about COVID in that time. And then I did a little bit of research.
049Looks like most districts still have live streaming. So I really hope that does continue as I know like a lot of my families aren't able to make it, but really. appreciated being able to stay involved and watch the live streaming. And it really just seems shady getting rid of it. It seems like on purpose removing transparency that is expected and you don't need it this time in this day and age. The other thing is the need for Spanish intervention for our dual immersion student set series. Recently, the district answered questions that we had over. concerns in the dual immersion program and their evidence included test scores, but they were English test scores, which were great. That's not where the concern is. We want to produce bilingual and biliterate students. And as a teacher always submitting
050my test scores, it always feels like the Spanish isn't even looked at, you know, whether it be, you know, math, reading, comprehension. It's just like, oh, all the... worry and care about is the English test scores, but that's not where the need is. We want to make sure we are a successful program producing bilingual and biliterate students. So Ceres will be getting a new intervention specialist next year, and of course, like with any new family member, team member, we're going to welcome her with open arms, but it really does feel like the district set her up to fail half our students. Half our students learn in Spanish. And it's just really disappointing that, you know. They hired a person for our dual immersion school who has zero knowledge of bilingual education, dual immersion teaching. It's
051just, it's still, I can't get over it. It just blows my mind that that was the decision that was made. So they were recently informed that, you know, Spanish intervention will be looked at and considered for series. But now it's probably going to cost our school more money, more money that is going to be taken from other students and other needs. Maybe some students do need. English intervention and now we have to provide the Spanish intervention which could have already been taken care of. A two for one, hiring a bilingual intervention specialist. So there's that. So it's one of those things. Of course we will help out and pull together but that's yet another thing I'll probably have to do. Help with planning, intervention, testing and you know there's more things to worry about and
052I really hope that the district pays more attention to the Spanish. Really. any attention. So thank you. Hi, I'm Emma Narv. That's good enough. My name is Emma Narváez, and I am an alumni of East Whittier Middle School and also a parent of an alum and a parent of a current student. And I'm here. I've been here for a couple of board meetings this year and I would also add that if the 48 people who are live streaming were in this room it would be as crowded as it was at the last meeting and I can't imagine what the last meeting would be like if the people who are online were in this room too you'd be capacity and the meeting couldn't happen and I'm hoping that's not the intent because it kind of feels
053when this type of thing gets put on the last meeting of the year where you typically don't have a lot of participation it feels To a lot of us, like that was the intent, that it was not to be noticed. For me, one of the good things that came out of COVID was a lot of access, that all of a sudden I can have doctor appointments online. And yes, there are some things that shouldn't be done online, but there are a lot that can be. And instead of it taking all day to do things or half a day to take off a meeting, I can have a quick appointment. And access is one of those things. And leveling the playing board, playing field, and allowing more people to be able to participate and allowing greater
054transparency is another thing that happened. Please don't take that away. Please leave this. And the last thing I want to say is there's an election coming. The last Whittier election pretty well proved that when we don't listen and the people are not being transparent, the voters vote. Good evening, Dr. Patterson and board. My name is Gemma Guerrero-Lopez, and I'm a third grade dual language teacher and founding teacher in our district's DLI program. For the past three years, I've had the privilege of sharing something powerful with our families, and that's their children's independent reading level in two languages. Some of our students have grown one grade level in English, almost two, and as we transition to 40% English instruction in third grade, this is very important, and we need the data. I was really excited to
055be part of the assessment committee, but I left the committee feeling very uneasy, and I feel like I owe it to our students and families to tell you why. The vendor under consideration I already did not provide our committee with complete Spanish language assessment samples or data reports For a dual language district that is not a minor gap that is a foundation of the decision We cannot evaluate what we were never shown I also want to be transparent about cost. We currently use Star Reading, a standalone assessment tool built specifically for what we need. Early research suggests a comparable math screener through the same platform could be significantly more cost effective than the alternative being considered. The platform under consideration is built around instructional lessons that the district will not be purchasing. It would be
056just the assessment tool. It was noted that the additional lessons, if we wanted them at an extra price, would be a site-based decision. We already don't have extra funds. So I'm not here because I'm against something new. I'm here because this decision is significant. It's not going to be a one year, two years. It's going to be here for a while. And it affects our bilingual students directly. And I feel like without the information in both languages before, I don't know if it's on the agenda tonight or on the budget, but without full information on how it's going to support our bilingual students, I feel like it should be tabled and further research needs to be done. I just want full transparency and I was there and I did not get it. Thank you. All
057right. Thank you everyone for your comments tonight. We're going to continue with discussion items. Number one, presentation of the annual report for bond measure C by bond citizens oversight committee. Good evening. I have the pleasure tonight to introduce our two measure C oversight committee Members who are here tonight to provide the annual report to the board first. We have mr. Alan Murphy Who is here tonight and miss Kathy Warner to present the annual report. I will turn it over to them Thank you very much, and it was really interesting listening to everyone's comments I appreciated being right there in the front row to be able to listen It's been a pleasure to serve on the bond oversight committee and as many of you know including our board This is a legal requirement of the bond
058however On a personal note, I want to let you know that my category on the committee is that of a representative from a community business. My husband and I have had a small business in East Whittier for many, many years. And not only as a parent and a grandparent, but also as a business owner, I want you to know how important it is to not only have excellent schools in our community, but have schools that are utilizing the funds that the taxpayers vote for in a careful and thoughtful manner. And I will tell you that it is a pleasure for me when I'm out and about to not only tout the greatness of every single school in this district, but also to be very, very careful and to be hopefully a good member of this
059oversight committee. On a personal note, I'm invested in this district to a great degree, having graduated from East Whittier in the Emma Wicker Auditorium, but I will not tell you what year. And also to have my seven children as graduates of this district. My husband and I are grateful to have had an unexpected turn in our life of being able to co-parent a grandson who we've had since birth, and he is now 10 years old, and he attends Ocean View, as did his aunts and uncles. And I think, for me, that is representative of the greatness of this district, and his teachers have always been wonderful. And I cannot thank you all enough who are teachers and administrators. And this year, he had Ms. Laura Sullivan, whom you heard speak earlier, and she had just
060the right amount of kindness and caring and strictness, and it was perfect. And we are so grateful for that. So with all those reasons being said, we're going to move forward with our report. Hopefully on the slide you do see the members of the committee and again the law requires that we fill specific spots that are set by law to monitor the bond, the financials on the bond. The next slide we have a Measure C overview and I'm so pleased to see the bond language right next to this. This is a particular interest of mine to see bond language and or measure language right next to a pie chart where you can actually see what those funds are, what you actually have and what's going to be remaining. The next slide, the revenue and expenditures,
061and thank you to Dr. Aceva's office for preparing all of this. We did not do it. They are great. And you see the actual revenues here and the interest. Thank you for showing the interest. We'll always take a little bit more money. and then for what's been expended thus far, and then you also see the chart for the bonds that have been not utilized at this point in time. An example on the next slide is that of Orcharddale Elementary School, and you can see what the, I think we're one slide off here. You're ahead of me one more forward, and hopefully we'll see Orcharddale. There we go You'll see the projects that have been completed there And I'm not going to read them for you that drives me crazy when people read what's on a
062slide and then Our next slide you will see the plan measure C projects our bond committee May have an opinion in regards to what should and can happen however We are not the decision makers the board are the decision makers and we appreciate the decisions that they consider with your input And at this point, I'm going to turn it over to my colleague and ask him to introduce you and tell you a little bit about his children and where they go to school. Hi, everybody. I'm Alan Murphy. I actually live. Thanks. This is my first time. Go easy. All right. I live right across the street from Orcharddale, and I am the proud parent of soon to be proud parent of two little wildcats. six and four. So yeah, we love living there. We love
063being part of the community and it's nice. It's my first meeting so it's nice to see like passion and how involved everyone is and I don't think it'll be my last meeting. So thanks everybody. Yeah, so let's continue with this. This is for East Whittier Middle School Modernization. I'll kind of follow your lead. I won't read the slide to everybody. You can see all of the details below. And then this one is really exciting, the Emma Wicker Auditorium renovation. So some of the monies from the bond will be going to this project. And yeah, I've only lived in Whittier a short time, but I already understand how important this building is. And so it's really exciting to see it get renovated. And then this is probably the most important slide. This is the measure see
064website where you can kind of track all the information that we're talking about here tonight. You can track it throughout the year and follow along with us as we get informed too as the projects start to get underway. So we're still really early on. A lot of things are going to start happening in the next few years with all the renovations and upgrades, and it's going to be exciting to follow. There is one thing I have to read verbatim here down at the bottom. On behalf of the Measure C Citizens Bond Oversight Committee, I am pleased to inform all of you that the district is in compliance with Article... 13 a section 1 B 3 of the California Constitution and the current projects are authorized under measure C Thanks everybody We'll finish up with any
065questions if there are any we direct you to dr. Aceves and If you have any questions, but aren't ready to ask them tonight Please give her office a call later and thank you for the being able to present So, Board, before we wrap up, are there any questions for Dr. Aceves regarding Measure C and the information that was shared? No? Okay, hearing none. Is there something else that Dr. Aceves wants to say? All right. Thank you, Dr. Aceves, and thank you to our committee members. We really appreciate it. We're especially excited about the progress that we're experiencing at Emma Wicker, so we thank you so much for overseeing that as well. Our next item on the agenda is the public hearing on local control and accountability plan. So I'm assuming, Dr. Patterson, am I opening
066and closing a public hearing? All right. Public hearing on discussion item for local control accountability is still open. And if there is anyone in the public that would like to speak on the LCAP, please let us know and you may come to the podium and speak. Anybody? All right. Hearing none, I close the public hearing. at 7.02. The next step in this discussion is for the local accountability section three, number three, local control and accountability plan presentation, correct? All right, thank you. Good evening, President Dabbs. Cabinet members and board members. My name is Trina Gonzalez and I'm very excited to be here with you this evening We have a great presentation for you today in regards to our upcoming LCAP plan for the school year It's basically our roadmap on where we're headed in the
067upcoming year that really focuses on our two main goals which is academic excellence and positive school culture in every single classroom and so we're excited to tell you that we shared and Received lots of input and feedback from all of our community members and tonight. We have the pleasure of introducing Dr. Dr. Andrea Roman to share those details with you. Thank you. Good evening board, community members. Thank you so much for being here. I think this is my first time doing a full LCAP presentation in front of a great room. So thank you so much. So just the purpose of today's presentation is really to share with you and our community the process that we took. that took place in regards to the LCAP process. So I do want to always give a thank you
068to CSEA and IWI for being a part of that group and consultation with us. So thank you so much for the feedback. Just really quickly, these are the collaborative. partnerships and meetings that we held and committees that we held during the year. We started off with our staff surveys, community surveys, as well as our student surveys. And we did have three community meetings throughout the year, throughout the process. And they're noted there where our community was invited to participate and engage in the process. What you're going to see coming up are just snippets of part of the survey. Obviously it's not the entire survey, but we wanted to highlight some points from our students. As you can see here, a majority of our survey questions coming up here are pretty positive. As you notice, you
069might notice that there's a 40% in the restrooms at school. So our students are feeling that perhaps our restrooms need a little bit more attention than they're given. But as you can see here, what really stands out is that 91% and then 95% where students feel that they have positive encouragement for academics and behavior and again that they feel that their school embraces and appreciates the family strengths and culture and language. Here you will see when we asked a question of our students what types of interventions or extra supports are available to them during the school year. These were the ones that were noted as the highest being after-school tutoring, access to school counselors or academic counselors as well. But if you notice there, they put parent and teacher conferences so they know when... There's
070a parent-teacher conference. That means business. So they were really aware that that means that they need to be talking about academics and maybe they need a little bit more support. And here are just some comments from our students. Again, there were over 1,000. comments from our students, so it was really hard to choose. So I tried to pick a few that I think would resonate across. What really resonated for us, and I put them down here at the bottom as a star, our students really wanted those connections with adults at their school. They were craving that. Understanding was also a word that came up a lot. And they focused on mental health and really wanting those supports there. and also support with dealing with bullying, but they also wanted more fun lunchtime activities and expanding
071clubs and sports. And by fun time, lunchtime activities, I'll be honest, they really wanted teachers to be involved in there. They really wanted, somehow or another, they wanted like a staff, students, soccer, I don't know, they want to go hand in hand. They want to go up against staff. So that was one of them that came up. For parents and families, again, just snippets of the percentages that we have here. Again, our parents are feeling that they're getting enough engagement or being communicated enough where they feel that they're part of the community and are being engaged. They feel that their children are being cared for and supported by their wonderful staff at their school sites, and their children look forward to coming to school. So again, and then the culture embraces my... family strength and
072cultures and language was at 89%. So overwhelmingly positive feedback from our families. And then for the family comments, again, if you notice, I picked, there were several comments, a really great one, so I just picked a few. Again, there was a lot of recognition of inclusion of cultures. That one came up a lot. District competitions, the math perennial came up a lot, spelling bees. So they wanted to see, there were... considerations around robotics competition, Lego competition. So our parents really want to see more of that as part of our initiatives in our district. They want to see more learning around art, music, Spanish or a different language across our district. Some of them mentioned not necessarily in just a DLI classroom, but can we make that just like a club or an elective of some
073sort? So they're really interested in... expanding that and of course after school tutoring and math they really appreciated the extra support that our teachers and staff are providing to ensure that their children are getting the support that they need. And here we move on to our staff highlights. Again overwhelmingly positive. 77% was probably between the textbooks and participating in meaningful professional development. Those were the ones that probably found the lowest along with the 76, but still overwhelmingly positive. During our consultation with EWE, there was interest in... working with them and collaboration with them in regards to other professional developments that might be of interest to them. So we look forward to working with them on that conversation and what that might look like. But 90% said they felt safe to work at their school site.
074Students at my school site look forward to coming to school. So again, overwhelmingly positive, but obviously some areas that we can continue to work on. And here were some interests when looking at the staff development, there was a question that we did give our staff, what were some interests with regards to professional development? And I tried to put them in categories the best way that I could because there were quite so many. But if you notice here, the top one was time for planning and collaboration, which is embedded in our LCAP, and you will notice that in a minute. Behavior management and student support, literacy and subject-specific content, technology and AI. integration as well as special education and inclusion. So those were the top of interest. And so what I tried to do again, I
075tried to put these in categories. These were the common themes across. All our educational partners, academic targeted support was on there, cultural inclusion, social emotional wellness and mental health, focused on professional development, safety behavior, adult to student connections. Again, it goes on and on, but these were the six, sorry, the nine that came up predominantly across all the educational partner feedback that we received. And for those of you that haven't had the privilege of looking at the LCAP, I invite you to do that. It's still posted on our website. But what I try to do is I pulled out some... some major themes that you will notice in our goal one under conditions of learning. We will continue to support class size ratios for TK through third grade and that's under action one in our
076LCAP. We will continue to focus on instruction, really focusing on that MTSS tier one high leverage practices, PLCs, really building that up, continue our focus on writing and classroom environments and early literacy. We have our wonderful new multi-tier system of support coordinator. MTSS coordinator that we look forward to working with to help us create those systems so that we can continue to provide supports for our students. I won't read all of them. We're gonna continue to focus on our full day transitional kindergarten new this year. We're going to provide each school site with funding to support those TK classrooms that really need it. And then expansion of our dual language immersion program. As you've heard, we're really excited about expanding our sixth grade program at Hillview Middle School. So we're excited to have them and
077welcome them there. So we're also going to be providing Hillview with professional development to get their DLI program developed and off the ground. And then last but not least, continue to support our DLI program. and their program support through specific allocations to those sites. Under goal two, under student achievement, we have there our instructional coaches, and we did expand that this year. So we look forward to inviting those coaches at the elementary sites and then the two for middle school. We will continue with our intervention specialists and our intervention instructional assistants. You notice that I put ELOP in our LCAP. You will notice them as a line, but they aren't being funded out of the S&C funds that we get, but because we knew that was really important for our community. we wanted to be
078transparent and keep it on there. We just noted that it's coming out of our ELOP funds. And we'll continue with our middle school academic counselors. And then for tier one and tier two instruction, what you will notice is we're gonna continue with our multi-tier system of supports, after school interventions with ELOP, summer academy and enrichment programs, along with reflection meetings at middle school. So our middle schools get an allocation to be able to pull teachers or grade levels or content areas together to reflect on data and to talk about instruction. And then we're going to increase our academic support for English learners and long-term English learners. And that is, first of all, we are required to have a line for our long-term English learners as part of our LCAP. But most importantly, they are the
079group that are showing significant needs, academic needs, and just extra support. So these are some of the things that we're doing to support our English learners coming out from the LCAP. One of them that is new, if you notice at that last bullet is LTEL and... EL supplemental programs and support. So we did allocate specific funds to ensure that we're targeting that specific group of students. And then goal three, engagement. This one is really tied to the feedback that we got from our community as far as social, emotional, and mental health and connections. We're going to focus on full-time school social workers, so we'll continue that at our school sites, focusing on social, emotional wellness. And then this year new will be campus climate and safety monitors in the middle schools. For continued implementation of
080PBIS, we will continue with our PBIS leadership planning and collaboration and ensuring that our sites have the funds needed in order for their teams to be able to collaborate and plan, but also providing their teams with PBIS. professional development and that's going to be offered by our district PBI social worker who meets with the teams and trains them but also as a resource to all our social workers who are supporting with the PBIS implementation and then last but not least And our student, Mr. Baird, your testament to this. Student leadership opportunities, student voice and students. Oh, it cut off. It was supposed to say student connections. Student advisory committees, we're going to continue to support with that. Student leadership and the student summit. Speech contests, district spelling bee and perennial math. And again, there were
081so many other things that they wanted to see for next year. And then our parent engagement, we're going to continue with all our parent liaisons at our sites and our parent connection workshops and conferences for our families. And then we're going to continue to support middle school sports clubs through ELOP and then our AVID and Puente program in the middle schools. And as part of our LCAP, we do have a document that's called, they call it the BOP, short for Budget Overview for Parents. So it outlines all the amounts of money that we get from different funding streams. And this was shared with our LCAP community. And we were trying to be very transparent because there were a lot of great questions about, well, how do we get funded? Where is the different funding sources?
082With the help of Carlos Viña, we were able to provide an outline of where the federal funds lie, what's coming from that, state funds, and then local funds, just for clarity purposes. And here is the projected revenue fund by source. So if you notice here, where we have to write our plan for LCAP is under this little 12%. The state requires us that if we are receiving supplemental and concentration grant funds, we have to write a plan for it. So that's where the LCAP comes in. So we're writing to a plan for those funds of those $16,372,960. So this counts as our public hearing. What will happen next is we have another board meeting on June 10th where we will bring it back up to the board for adoption. Thank you. Any questions? Thank you
083so much, Dr. Roman. And I do want to share something with all of you. There was a time where Mrs. Garan and I were able to attend several LCAP meetings, and I believe other board members have as well. But I just want to publicly acknowledge that. Mrs. Ramon, Dr. Ramon, she does such an amazing job when she leads these meetings. And the way that she's able to lead staff and teachers and parents is quite extraordinary. It takes a tremendous amount of patience to hear everybody's comments and to be able to synthesize everybody's comments. And I just really want to give her her flowers and really thank her for all the hard work. I second that. I have some members here that sat through those community meetings, so I thank them too for that. Thank you.
084I have a question. So on the surveys, any of them, it would really help me personally if I could have numbers, like this is how many were sent out, this is how many responded. I could definitely. Because, I mean, it could be 90% of I don't know what. Yes. It would just help me. I might have put it on one of the slides. I think the student one had like 1250. Yeah. Okay. I noticed that. We could do that. Okay. Any other questions? All right. Thank you again so very much. I appreciate it so much. We all appreciate it. All right. This is our second public hearing for this evening. It is on Proposition 30, Education Protection Account Funds Use for the Fiscal Year 2026-2027. I will open the public hearing at... If there is
085anybody in the audience who would like to speak on this particular matter, we invite you to come to the podium and have an opportunity to speak. Anyone? All right, hearing none, I will close this public hearing at 7.18. We will continue with discussion item, and I believe that Dr. Aceves is going to share. No? Oh, I'm sorry. Oh! Oh, I apologize. There's another public hearing. Apologies. Second public hearing, approval of the 2026-27 budget of the district. Let me open that public hearing at 718. Once again, if there is anybody in the audience that wishes to speak on this matter, please feel free to come to the podium, and we will give you that opportunity to speak. Is there anybody that would like to? I can ask my questions afterwards. Dr. Patterson? Yes. All right. Hearing
086none, I close this public hearing at... 719. Thank you so much. Now we will continue with a presentation by Dr. Aceves regarding the approval of the 2026-27 budget for the district. Thank you, Dr. Aceves. Absolutely. Tonight I will begin my presentation with our fiscal stabilization plan, which continues to be a requirement as part of our regular budget adoption. Included in each budget cycle letter from LACO is a section on our fiscal stabilization plan. I've included their statement about our fiscal stabilization plan included in the second interim letter that was sent to us in the spring. And that is the language that outlines our need to continue to provide a fiscal stabilization plan along with our budget. This year we have worked in collaboration with our departments and our teams to identify necessary reductions as part
087of our FSP. You can see all of what has been decided. This has been presented in previous board meetings. and what we have made the decisions to implement in the 26-27 school year. I do want to highlight how we were able to reallocate several positions into more restricted funding sources to be able to continue to offer those critical services for our students. For instance, our intervention specialists and our intervention specialist aides, we were able to move those into ELOP to be able then to free up our general fund. And then our plan also includes the out years. Again, these have been presented in the past, but it is required that we continue to plan and continue to think about reductions that we need to make in the 27-28 school year and the 28-29 school year.
088So you can see what we have already collaborated on and will continue to collaborate on in the coming school years. So now I will transition to our adopted budget presentation for the 26-27 school year. I do want to take a quick moment to thank our Director of Fiscal Services, Carlos Pena, who's here with me tonight, and our entire fiscal team, which includes our payroll, purchasing department, our benefits as well, just all the work that goes on behind the scenes to support the work of the budget all year long. I do thank them very much. Here's some general information for you about this phase of the budget cycle. Tonight's adopted budget includes projected budget for the next three years and our estimated actuals for the 25-26 school years. It includes some of the information from the
089Governor's May revise and also is required for us to submit this by June 30th to LACO. We always always strive for a positive budget certification, but just for your information districts can receive a positive and qualified or a negative budget certification by their County Office of Education and we do anticipate a positive budget certification as a result of tonight's presentation this just outlines for you again that most of our budget our resources our revenue come from our LCFS revenue as Dr. Roman presented a little bit earlier tonight on the work that we have in supplemental concentration but most of our revenue almost 75 percent of our revenue comes from the LCFS revenue and you can see the other revenue sources that generate our income for our district in that pie chart. Our next slide is
090how we spend our money in East Whittier. And you can see, again, we continue to spend the most amount of our resources, 83%, on our salary and benefits for our amazing employees. So as we built the budget this year, I wanted to share with you first the general fund assumptions that were made as we built those budgets. First, we built this budget. I'm sorry. First, we assumed full implementation of the fiscal stabilization plan that I presented to you a few slides ago. Next, we included our 26-27 labor agreements with EWI Management and Confidential. And then we also included the COLA changes that were announced in the May revision. So you can see the changes from the January proposal to the May revise and those percent changes in each one of those years and out years.
091Next, we assumed our average ADA of 95.34%, which is based on our P2 attendance reporting. Just so you remember, we average around 95% ADA over the last three years. And then again, our ELOP rate one funding is what we use to build this budget, as well as those lottery rates up there. for unrestricted and restricted. Some things that were not assumed in the budget quite yet. We know and we are very pleased to hear of the special education funding increase by the governor. That is very positive news for the districts throughout California. However, because it has not yet passed legislation, that is not for sure. We still have some questions about that. We did not include that rate increase from $999 to $1,340. per ADA. So our budget, this right now that we're presenting to
092you tonight, is based on that 999 ADA. On the next slide. But could you reiterate, you know, since we had comments about the extra special education funding and the actual general fund contribution to support our special education programs? Yes. So on the next slide, I just also want to know that's OK, Dr. Patterson. On the next slide, I just want to remind our community again about our special education funding. Again, this is really positive information for us as we look at the difference and how much the impact will have. About two million dollars. of an increase to help cover the cost of special education funding, but you can continue to see how much we do need to make a contribution from our general fund in order to cover the cost of special education expenses. So
093it is really good news. We do not want to, we do not, we're grateful for the increase. We also want to be transparent that we are considering, we're thinking about that and its implications for our budget. However, we didn't include it in the adopted budget because it has not yet been voted on and passed in Sacramento. Okay, the other thing that we are still waiting to hear more about is the PD discretionary block grant again This is very positive news for our district We know if the amount of resources that the governor is saying we will receive as a whole is it is an increase from the last year's PD block grant however the methodology and how it will be allocated per school district is still fairly unknown, so we want to wait until after
094June 30th when the legislature does vote on that, and we have the opportunity to know how to build it into our budget. So this is our proposed budget for you. You can see that with this, we continue to deficit spend in the 26-27 school year. Throughout the next three school years in 26 27. It's 6.3 million dollar deficit spending 27 28 1.8 million and 28 29 and 2.5 million this will change in the event that we do receive the PD block grant as reported and that special education increase in a DA funding this will change of course of When we know that, we will bring all of those budget revisions back to you before the first interim presentation, probably at our September board meeting. We continue to have... Help we continue to have sorry help
095there just one more thing. Dr. Patterson. I apologize I won't take too much more time, but we continue to have healthy reserves We can see that with our 3% minimum we are able to meet that but again I do want to outline that we continue to deficit spend and so therefore we want to be sure that we are Addressing that in out years so that we continue to have those healthy reserves So that we're we're prepared for any challenges that may be ahead I did want to jump in for just a moment. You know, this was a very positive budget, very positive budget news. You know, we were very grateful that we were able to come to a two-year agreement with EWI with our contract. However, given the fact that we are anticipating a significant
096amount of money from both the special education and the PD block grant, in closed session today, we did talk to the board about... proposing to EWI to reopen the 2627 contract to discuss health and welfare benefits only because some of the information that we did want the community to know is that the healthcare benefits are gonna go up, our healthcare plans are gonna go up significantly. And since open enrollment is approaching very quickly, we wanted to propose the idea of reopening only for that specific purpose as a show of good faith since there was a healthy budget. So that is something that Dr. Vargas will be working with Mr. Volkman and his team on. Thank you. And so lastly, this slide provides information about our other revenue sources, our other funds. Most notably, you can
097see Fund 13 there. Yeah, I'm ready. I'm sorry, Dr. Patterson. Fund 13 again has healthy reserves and healthy balances that allows us really to continue to expand our menus be able to offer innovative items for our students and then also Potentially hire on the additional staff needed to expand our lunch breakfast And an ops and supper program that we offer throughout our schools and also our bond fund 21 You can see there the reserves for our measure C funding of course you heard our COC present tonight, but we look forward to all the coming projects that we will begin. It's very exciting in the 26-27 school year. Thank you, Dr. Aceves. Board, are there any questions that you have for Dr. Aceves that she might be able to answer based on what she shared this
098evening? I know it shows a healthy reserve, but... I just want everybody to know, and I like to see a healthy reserve. Okay, so we live in earthquake country. We have fires. We have floods. I mean, we have everything known to man here. So if we did have a really bad disaster, how long could we survive on what we have? So just to put some perspective into it if you go back to that slide dr Patterson the slide before this one It takes that minute that reserved for economic uncertainty that four million that we are required is about one month of payroll and operating expenses So it is really important to have that perspective as we consider what we spend what we need to continue to reserve But it doesn't take long for us. We're
099you know fairly you know Fairly not not large, but we have a lot of employees. We have a lot of financial obligations to me every month So that does give some perspective. I hope yes. Thank you Thank You dr. Sebas I was just gonna ask when you spoke about ongoing deficit spending and Using reserves to balance, you know kind of future budgets. What is a long-term plan to preserve? reserves while maintaining programs and staffing like Ms. Chikung Kennedy just said you know they could be an earthquake you know That's a really good question. You know, in the first slides, I was able to share with you the progress that we're making with our fiscal stabilization plan. So every year we meet, we look at our enrollment, we look at all of our expenses, we look
100at where we do need to right size our staffing, perhaps, because our staffing is the majority of how we spend our resources in any school district, but especially here in East Whittier. So we want to be sure that we're always mindful of our enrollment versus our staffing. And then some of the other things that are ancillary expenses. So we work together in collaboration with our departments, with our sites to make the best decisions. And we do that carefully, thoughtfully throughout the year. And then we're required to do it in the three years outward as well. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Seves. And I also just want to share with everyone that's here tonight, we as a board have options to attend fiscal responsibility kinds of recommendations and workshops that are given by the California
101School Board Association. And I sat through one most recently. And according to the California School Board Association, they're not overjoyed. It's still a bit of a grim outlook. They're still very concerned. And we are going to get to item number 14, which is an SOS for student achievement. And we have advocates at the state level that are advocating for all of our students, for all of you, because what might look okay on paper is not exactly what. is the case and so it's always important for you all to know that we do attend these budget sessions. Most of them are now online. They used to be the kind of meeting that we could attend in person but I want to assure you that many of our board members do listen to those, attend online to
102be able to get the cutting edge or have our finger on the pulse of what is being shared by our state. Lobbyists on behalf of all the school districts in the state of California having said that I want to thank you Dr. Savas and your team for all the hard work. I just have one more question on the pie chart where you showed the money that was being sent on salad What is services? What does that what is that so that will incorporate anything that isn't necessarily part of our employee expenses so busing perhaps or Additional maybe substitute support things contract support Thank you again, Dr. Seves. Next item board is item number seven. This is an action item. Can I get a motion to approve? I move the recommendation that the Board of Education
103approve the consolidated application for spring 2026. Thank you. Can I get a second? Second. Thank you. It's been moved by Mr. Aparicio, seconded by Mrs. Carrera. This is an item that our board may have some questions about regarding Title I, Title II, Title III, Title IV. Are there any questions, board, with regard to this particular item? Consolidated application. Anyone? All right, hearing none, Mrs. Valenzuela, would you please call for the vote? Mr. Thomas Baird? Yes. Mrs. Chacon-Kennedy? Yes. Mr. Aparicio? Yes. Mrs. Dabbs? Yes. Mr. Oliver Baird? Yes. Mrs. Carrera? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Next is item number eight. This is also an action item. Can I get a motion to approve? I move the recommendation that the Board of Education approve the school plans for student achievement submitted for Ceres, Evergreen, La Colima, Laurel,
104Leffingwell, Mulberry, Murphy Ranch, Ocean View, Orcharddale, Scott Avenue, East Whittier, Granada, and Hillview Middle Schools. Thank you. Can I get a motion to approve? Can I get a second? Second. Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Board, are there any questions or any comments? This is something that we do regularly. I do want to make a comment that, and don't get tired of hearing this, but as a former school principal, I know the time and energy that it takes to put into the school plan. and I know that it takes time with community, with staff, with teachers, even with students at times, so I just want to thank all of our schools for their diligent work on preparing the school plans. I know it sometimes feels like, well, it's just a flimsy piece of paper, but
105it's really not. It's something that is representative of what the school's intentions are in terms of what they're going to do to support every single student that is at that school. So I just want to thank all our schools for their hard work. Having said that, are there any questions? All right, hearing none, Mrs. Bonsola, would you please call for the vote? Mr. Thomas Baird? Yes. Mrs. Chacon-Kennedy? Yes. Mr. Aparicio? Yes. Mrs. Dabbs? Yes. Mr. Oliver Baird? Mrs. Carrera? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. We move on to item number nine, dual language immersion in Spanish language. Can I get a motion to approve? I move the recommendation that the Board of Education approve benchmark education, adelanta and advance textbooks for purchase of 2026 school year until the next state mandated language arts curriculum adoption cycle.
106Thank you. Can I get a second? I'll second. Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Board, are there any questions regarding... this benchmark education of adelante and advance. I have a question. Yes. How will we know this curriculum is making a positive difference for our students' academic success by literacy skills? So we currently do have Spanish assessments to assess our students in Spanish as well, and we do share that with Ceres Elementary School. We are also looking at potential, depending on the adoptions that happen this evening, getting assessments that will also continue to rate them on how well they do in Spanish as well. Yeah, I'm sorry. Are you done? Okay. Were the DLI teachers included in picking these books out? They were. The committee members are listed on your page. I see that, yeah. I
107was just letting sure. Thank you. I just have another question, though, Dr. Gonzalez. I really appreciate the intention of making sure that it's a well-rounded committee that represented. Are there any staff? Are there any CSCA? Are there any assistants that would be pertinent? I mean, they would have knowledge and be pertinent. Were they a part of that, or was it just not something that was an option? Site and also some were speaking here this oh, I see yes. Yes. Okay. Okay. Great. Thank you. Thank you so much All right. I have one last question. I know leave it to me. Sorry And is this the vendor that was mentioned during? Okay. Thank you Okay, thank you miss gotta any questions. All right hearing none. Mr. Valenzuela. Would you please call for the vote? Mr. Thomas
108Baird? Yes, mrs. Chacon Kennedy. Yes Mr. Aparicio. Yes Mrs. Dabbs? Yes. Mr. Oliver-Baird? Yes. Mrs. Carrera? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Item number 10, first reading of board bylaw 9320, meetings and notices. This is an action item. Can I get a motion to approve? I so move. Thank you. Can I get a second? Second. All right. It's been moved and seconded. Are there any questions, board, or anything that you want to comment on? I just want to add that basically the change to this is moving the huge section on teleconferencing into the newly formed CSBA board policy of 9320.1, which does not currently exist. Okay. And can you give us a little clarification? We heard some very important comments regarding that, but what exactly does it entail? Does it add anything well right now? It's
109chopping everything out, so that would be a more appropriate discussion under the next item okay? Okay? Thank you all right if there isn't any other questions or other questions Mrs.. Bonasura, would you please call for the vote mr.. Thomas Baird? Yes, mrs.. Chacon Kennedy yes, mr.. Aparicio yes, mrs.. Dabbs yes, mr.. Oliver Baird yes, mrs.. Carrera yes motion passes Thank you. All right. Now we come to First reading of board by a lot remote meetings and attendance. Can I get a motion to approve? I so move. It's gonna get a second. Okay, I'm just gonna it's been moved and seconded board Do we have some discussion or dr. Patterson? Do you want to share first? So this is like I said, this is basically taking the teleconferencing and remote participation for board members in the
110previous board policy 93 to board bylaw 9320 and moving it into a separate standalone policy which is titled 9320.1. And as you can see, it goes through and talks about the different circumstances as to when it would be appropriate for a board member to participate outside of an in-person attendance. It talks about posting requirements. It also talks about... As you can see, it just goes on and on and on about what a proclaimed state of emergency is, and it just codifies all of the pieces of what it means for a board member to participate. Okay, so this, just to be clear, this is now something that's very important for all of us to know, and if I'm not mistaken, Dr. Patterson, it does stipulate. that a board member can only miss two meetings by joining
111online. Is that correct? It does. It specifies specifically. I don't know. I don't remember off the top of my head if it's two. I wouldn't fall within that realm, but yes. But we also have the other caveat within board policy that does excuse a board member from missing when it was related to the stipend. So those are things that people are all fleshing out when it comes to this. But the intent of it is that a board member is not obfuscating their responsibilities to attend. But if there are medical accommodations, those are the things that we have discussed in the past of seeking legal counsel around this particular subject. Thank you, dr. Patterson any questions board all right hearing none. This is one solid. Would you please call for the vote? Mr.. Thomas Baird yes,
112mrs.. Chacon Kennedy yes, mr.. Paris yo mrs.. Dabs yes, mr.. Oliver Baird yes, mrs.. Carrera yes motion passes Thank you. I remember 12 termination of live streaming. Can I get a motion to approve? Also, can I get a second a second? All right. Board, I think this is an opportunity for us to ask some questions. I know that I have some questions that I want to share. So is there anybody that would like to get started? I think, Madam President, I think you should address the issue before all of us. Okay. All right. I want to make sure that our board understands, and I know that they do, but that our community understands that... This came as a result of no intention of lack of transparency or accessibility. What has transpired is that at the
113California School Board Association, now more than twice it has been shared that YouTube as a platform is not considered safe for streaming a meeting. YouTube has been found... not just in California, but across the country when used by school boards to be one of the most easily manipulated platforms via AI. First of all, manipulating the images of students that come to speak. that come to perform, and then placing those images on the dark web. Secondly, manipulating the statements shared by students and or by board and or by anyone speaking, be it a CSCA or an Iwi representative or a community member, manipulating those comments, and that was shared by some of you. and making them be actually untrue. So our concern is not about closing off accessibility or transparency. It is that YouTube as an
114application is now considered to be very unsafe. And to the point that some of you shared, there are other options that are not 100% foolproof, but they are a bit more safe. than YouTube. So that is the discussion that we want to have this evening. And so we appreciate that all of you brought forward your comments as well. So having said that, I want to hear comments from our board because I believe that some others had. input that they want to share, a very important input. So did CSBA give another platform or a recommendation of using a different platform? Because I know they said not YouTube, but they didn't give you another option? No, they did not. Pardon? No, they did not. Right. They did not. So it's up to us to decide, thank you,
115Mr. Tukwunkini, where we think the safer streaming platform would be. And so... That's part of our discussion that I would like to have this evening. And I do appreciate staff for sharing this concern on behalf of the board. So I want to thank staff again. So Mrs. Kennedy, did you want to share something? It just makes me a little sad to think that we weren't fully transparent until after we got on YouTube because I've been in this board a long time. And I feel like I've been fully transparent. I mean, you could probably look through this year and not this year. I'm an open book. I don't lie. And I don't think that I've ever said we're not fully transparent. I think we are. But it just makes me sad to think that people think
116we're not fully transparent. It does. Until, wait, until we've got YouTube. For all the rest of the years I've been on this board, I guess we've been lying or hiding something. If we have, it's not to my knowledge. But I'm listening to everything that you all have to say. Thank you. And again, it was YouTube as a platform. That is a concern from the California School Board Association. If you look around in our districts, our local districts, there are many districts that are doing different options. For example, Whittier Union High School District does not live stream. What they do is a CSEA rep films the meeting and posts a copy of that meeting. onto YouTube the next day. There is no live stream. Other districts, though, are doing live stream, but they are not using
117YouTube simply because it's not considered, at least if they heard the same message that Mrs. Chuckle and Kennedy and I heard, YouTube is not considered a platform that's safe. First of all, I'm going to reiterate, in terms of the potential AI manipulation of students, And then secondly, of the AI manipulation of statements and comments being made. So Mr. Baird, is there any comment that you would like to make? Because I have some suggestions that I discussed with Dr. Patterson, but I want to make sure our board has an opportunity to share. No, I'd like to hear the suggestions. I think that the subject matter on the agenda is misleading, number one. Madam President, I don't think that that should have been on there. Because then it gives our community the wrong message Number two I
118I'm sorry I want to take ownership over that one that was the language that I chose because we were trying to be Vague because we were not talking about we were talking about YouTube specifically so that's that's my fault Okay, I appreciate your honesty I I don't talk about myself. I don't say what I do or what I know. What I do know is that YouTube is safe. YouTube is not inconsistent. YouTube houses. It's just like when you live in your house and you can lock a key. It archives it. And there was a public comment when somebody, a young woman went up there and said that you can always extract the original. You can. So if anybody is afraid of any type of manipulation, we can always extract the truth. The truth lives on
119the web forever. As far as manipulation, when it comes to AI and imaging, that is a fact. And if you follow me, I do not post children. I will only post posters because you can manipulate students. And if you are familiar, not my favorite person, but Paris Hilton is a big advocate for children being put out in adult content videos. It is for that reason that I oppose. any type of photos of students being posted, but that is my opinion. The comment here is terminating live streaming and I am against it. I also wanted to say there was a comment about we shouldn't terminate something based on something that might happen. I think all our board policies are based on something that might happen. Every one of our board policies. I've gotten into heated arguments
120with somebody, won't say who, about a board policy. Well, this might happen. Okay. So I'm just saying, all our board policies are just in case something happens. We can also talk about fiscally if we're going to bring a board policy. We just said it right now. What if there's an earthquake? How long will we be able to sustain? We can play the what if card all the time. Well, I want to thank our board for the comments. And now I'd like to share with you that I had a conversation with Dr. Patterson where I shared some options that we thought might be best going forward. I do disagree with Mrs. Carrera. CSBA has mentioned it more than once at a massive conference how unsafe YouTube is for school, for housing. school board meetings. I will
121just state that again. So in conversation with Dr. Patterson that I've had over the last few days, we talked about the option of using Zoom webinar, meaning that we would live stream via Zoom, meaning that we control the platform, not Google, not anybody else. Could somebody take our Zoom and potentially manipulate? Of course, I'm sharing again. There is no foolproof way to protect our children that come here to present. There's no foolproof way to protect you or me or any board member speaking and having that audible be misinterpreted or manipulated by a. AI, it's something that we now live with every single day. However, in discussion with Dr. Patterson, I want him to speak a little bit about this as well, it would seem to be the safer option and one that would still allow
122for, obviously, accessibility, but that would not put ourselves in a situation where YouTube is really not being recommended by our California School Board Association, which we look to frequently, we look to every day. to guide our work? Do we do everything that they tell us to do? Of course not. They don't expect that from us, but they do provide guidelines and that it's up to us all across the state of California. to look at those guidelines and then to decide accordingly. So could you speak, Dr. Patterson, a little bit to what we talked about with regard to Zoom webinar? Well, I mean, with regard to the various options that would be available to still allow for public participation and public to view our proceedings, Zoom would be the recommendation that we would put forward because...
123We already have an account under me based upon our current subscription that does allow us to have the webinar opportunity. It also allows us the flexibility to consider the implications of SB 707, which talks about potential participation of members in a two-way process. As you know, YouTube really doesn't allow that. back-and-forth exchange so my recommendation would be that we would use zoom and then that sets us up to be in a position to be in adherence with As we unfold SB 707 because there still is some ambiguous language about what that two-way participation looks like With zoom are you going to replay the video afterwards as well, too? They expire after a while. Yeah, so that would be the downside to Zoom. You know, we did use Zoom all through COVID. All of our town
124halls, all of our outreach, our instruction, everything was through Zoom. I would not be able to offer an informed opinion about the safety of either. As a chair of the department in the media department at Rio Hondo College, I can tell you that we use YouTube for our Rio Roundup and we use our students in a public entity. So to say that CSBA is correct, I think that is their opinion. I don't think it's a fact. Zoom expires. Zoom, you cannot extract. Zoom will require us to provide purchase, I should say, external drives so that we can then archive all of our meetings. YouTube is free, and you could archive it there. YouTube will not be in compliance with SBC. And I'm sorry you too it won't because we won't be able to have the
125two-way two-way communication correct So should you guys want to purchase a tower? It's going to cost us money because we do have extensive extensive meetings, however, I want to say that SP 707 does have the accommodation part where it's It's only... There's a very slight, yeah, where if it's somebody with a disability that wants to make a public comment, then perhaps we could zoom them in, but not everybody needs to make a public comment that wants to view or listen in. We just want to have that availability. Yes. Well, again, I want to let everybody know we will always make an attempt... whenever we can to ensure that we are doing everything we can to protect the safety of our students that would come to our board and present. And as Mrs. Chacon-Kennedy has shared,
126it was never an intention not to be accessible or transparent. It was a way to share with our board and to share with those of you that are here as community. that YouTube is just not considered a safe platform according to several conferences and workshops that I have attended as a CSBA member. I believe Mrs. Chacon-Kennedy attended one as well. So that was really a... a major concern and a major alert for us to think that that manipulation of images of our students could be placed on the dark web. So know that it came from a place of a great deal of concern. So going forward, Dr. Patterson, what is the proper way to do this being that we want to be able to look at Zoom as an option, we're not sure we want
127to continue with YouTube, do we need to table this and then... You've had the discussion. It's been agendized. We were talking about YouTube. There could be a secondary motion from a board member to consider an alternative platform. Okay. Is that something that anybody would like to do? Not anybody. Is that something that we would like to do to consider an alternative platform? Or are we willing to... I'm sorry, Mr. Beard, it looks like you want to share something. I feel like I would want... Time to research alternative platforms before making a vote. Okay, I like that. I have researched there are other alternatives also, but this was the one in particular that I spoke with Dr. Patterson about regarding Zoom and how it will connect with the new state regulation. I'm not so sure one's
128safer than the other. I agree. I'd like to see that, but I also agree. I think Ms. Carrera said what she said, and I believe what she says because she's the department chair at Rio Hondo. I don't think it is unsafe, and I know there's guardrails for... you know, for YouTube and AI or whatever else, you know, I don't know that much about it, but, you know, I'm, I'm okay if Ms. Carrera, who's more of an expert than I am, that's for sure. She says it's okay. I'm, I'm willing to, you know, to take her word for it, but like, I'm also willing to wait if you want to do a more, you know, in-depth study. One thing I do want to say is I think it's clear that everyone here is fighting for our
129kids. So we all care deeply about the kids. And I will say the student board member can attest that I hate YouTube. He'll probably say that's true. But I think... I heard a lot of folks say, you know, that's a what if. That makes me nervous because our job is to look out for the what if, to make sure that we're protecting our kids. But at the end of the day, information is everything. And I would never want to turn the cameras off. convene in the dark without people watching. I think that, but I also would like to acknowledge I don't think anybody here wanted to do that either. So I just, I want to say that I would not approve of YouTube being turned off. I would love to hear some research on other
130platforms and other options. So, Board, do we want to table this item and do some research in terms of alternative options? And if after that research we decide to come back and continue with YouTube, we do that going forward? Thoughts on that? I think Mr. Patterson could definitely look into it for us, right? And then just so we could see what kind of other alternatives are out there. But I know like just hearing from a couple of the comments out there is people do go back and watch the replay. And that's a big one. So yeah, we probably have like 40 people only watching right now, but you're going to get about 400 probably afterwards watching this. So I think the replay is the big one for on my end. Okay, so which direction would
131you recommend? Procedurally, we have a first and a second. Okay. So we would need a first and a second to table the motion. Okay. All right. Is that understood by everybody? Okay, so can I get a new motion to table this particular item until further research is done? I so move. Okay, can I get a second? If we table this motion, does this mean that the cameras turn off? No. No. We're going to go into a research phase. And if it turns out after we do our research that YouTube is the best option, then we will continue to move forward. But in the meantime, we're going to honor a board member's request. And I have the same request. I would like to know if there is a safer alternative. And if not, then we just
132move forward. I mean, there's never going to be a 100% safe option. We were just concerned that YouTube is still not considered to be one of the safest. So, but we will not stop doing YouTube until we have decided and brought this motion back for discussion. Is that correct? Correct? That would be correct, yes. So do we vote now to, we take a vote from Mrs. Valenzuela? I'm sorry. We just need a person to second still. Okay, can I get a second on the motion to table this item while research is done? Second. It's been moved and seconded. Mrs. Valenzuela, would you please call for the vote? Sorry, so I'm, We're voting to table. And to do some research. But you'll continue with YouTube. Okay. Mr. Thomas Baird? Yes. Mrs. Chacon-Kennedy? Yes. Mr. Aparicio? Yes.
133Mrs. Dabbs? Yes. Mr. Oliver Baird? Yes. Mrs. Carrera? I will vote yes because I want the cameras on, but I want to say my last comment. YouTube collects data on viewing habits. It does not collect data. to alter it. Yes. Motion passes. All right, moving on to item number 13, approval of budget revisions for 2025-26. This is an action item. Can I get a motion to approve? I move the recommendation that the Board of Education approve budget revisions for the 2025-26 estimated actuals. Thank you. Can I get a second? Anyone? Okay, thank you. It's been moved and seconded. Are there any questions, Board, on this particular item or anything you want to add, Dr. Patterson? You're going to see several items between now and Item 24 that are routine annual items that we have through
134the business department to keep things running during the summer. This particular item is just making sure that we're transparent with the numbers of these different revisions and these different funding sources. Okay. All right. Any questions, board, on any of those items? All right, hearing none, Mrs. Valenzuela, would you please call for the vote? Mr. Thomas Baird? Yes. Mrs. Chacon-Kennedy? Yes. Mr. Aparicio? Yes. Mrs. Dabbs? Yes. Mr. Oliver Baird? Yes. Mrs. Carrera? Yes. Motion passes. All right, thank you. Item number 14, this is an action item. Can I get a motion to approve? I move the recommendation that the Board of Education adopt resolution number 32-25-26, SOS for student achievement. Thank you. Can I get a second? All right, I'll second it. It's been moved and seconded board. I want to make sure that everybody understands
135the importance of the SOS, Student Achievement, calling on the state of California to develop a coherent state-focused plan for supporting local schools and closing achievement gaps. California, this is coming straight out of the proposal. California's legislative administration and state agencies have implemented numerous programs aimed at improving student outcomes, yet The absence of a coherent, comprehensive state-level plan has resulted in a patchwork of disconnected initiatives rather than a unified strategy for success. And whereas California lacks a comprehensive state-level operation and support plan that clearly defines how the state will help, not dictate to local LEAs in their ongoing work to close achievement gaps. This is the reason, this is the... heart and soul of the reason why we brought this forward. So are there any questions, Board, about going through and approving this resolution? How would
136this resolution help improve outcomes for East Whittier students and close achievement gaps locally? I'm not able to answer that question, Mrs. Carrera, but we are looking at proposing. and standing with many, many other districts in the state of California with making our concerns known to the state of California regarding just that couple of sentences that I read. Yeah, it's mostly a unity thing for the whole state. Right. Thank you. Great. Any other questions? Hearing none, Mrs. Valenzuela, can you please call for the vote? Mr. Thomas Baird? Yes. Mrs. Chacon-Kennedy? Yes. Mr. Aparicio? Yes. Mrs. Dabbs? Yes. Mr. Oliver Baird? Yes. Mrs. Carrera? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Item number 15, approval of resolution number 29-2526. Can I get a motion to approve? I so move. Thank you. Can I get a second? I'll second. All
137right, it's been moved and seconded. Are there any questions, board, on this or anything, Dr. Patterson, that you would like to share? No, these next three are what I referenced. Okay, great. Any questions, board? All right, hearing none, Mrs. Valenzuela, would you please call for the vote? Mr. Thomas-Baird? Yes. Mrs. Chacon-Kennedy? Yes. Mr. Aparicio? Yes. Mrs. Dabbs? Yes. Mr. Oliver-Baird? Yes. Mrs. Carrera? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Item number 16, resolution number 30. Can I get a motion to approve? I so move. Thank you. Can I get a second? Second. It's been moved and seconded. Board, are there any questions here on this particular resolution, the annual delegation of administrative authority? Anything? All right, hearing none, Mrs. Valenzuela, would you please call for the vote? Mr. Thomas Baird? Yes. Mrs. Chacon-Kennedy? Yes. Mr. Aparicio? Yes.
138Mrs. Dabbs? Yes. Mr. Oliver Baird? Yes. Mrs. Carrera? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. I'm 17 is also an action item. Can I get a motion to approve? I so move Thank you. It's it's many Approval of change orders and it's been seconded any questions board on this or anything you want to share dr. Patterson. Dr. Patterson. No, can you explain it? Just a little bit each year when we have significant bond work that's going on throughout the district We want to be able to make sure that the board gives dr. Aceves and myself the authority to process change orders that we would typically bring to the board ahead of time or are in a more timely fashion since we do not meet in july we don't want to slow down any of these projects especially
139when it revolves around restrooms okay any other questions board or clarification All right, hearing none, Ms. Valenzuela, would you please call for the vote? Mr. Thomas Baird? Yes. Mrs. Chacon-Kennedy? Yes. Mr. Aparicio? Yes. Mrs. Dabbs? Yes. Mr. Oliver Baird? Yes. Mrs. Carrera? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Item number 18, approval of resolution 34. Can I get a motion to approve? I so move. Thank you. Can I get a second? I'll second. Thank you. It's been moved and seconded. Board, are there any questions here or anything that you want to share with us, Dr. Patterson? I just wanted to share that this is a good thing. This is a recension of a layoff so that we are restoring the hours to this particular position. Okay. All right. Thank you for the clarification. Anything else, board? Any
140other questions? All right. Hearing none, Mrs. Valenzuela, would you please call for the vote? Mr. Thomas Baird? Yes. Mrs. Chacon-Kennedy? Yes. Mr. Aparicio? Yes. Mrs. Dabbs? Yes. Mr. Oliver Baird? Yes. Mrs. Carrera? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Item 19, memorandum of understanding between EWCSD and CSEA. Can I get a motion to approve? I so move. Okay. Thank you. It's been moved and seconded. Board, are there any questions or anything you want to share with us, Dr. Patterson? That Mr. Riley is referencing during his comments. Any questions? All right. Hearing none, Mrs. Valenzuela, would you please call for the vote? Mr. Thomas Baird? Yes. Mrs. Chacon-Kennedy? Yes. Mr. Aparicio? Yes. Mrs. Dabbs? Yes. Mr. Oliver-Baird? Yes. Mrs. Carrera? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Item 20, approval of job discretion for data systems specialists. Can I get
141a motion to approve? I so move. Thank you. Can I get a second? I'll second. All right. It's been moved and seconded. Board, are there any questions here or any clarification you need from Dr. Patterson? Why do we need a data system? I'm sorry. Why do we need a data data system specialist? I'm just curious Would you ladies like to wait? We don't have one. No, we absolutely already we we have one as part of our technology team restructure Miss Jenny Krieger who is the person who is in charge of our CalPADS data Aries really important critical data for our district as we all know sits in a role right now that it the the actual her title doesn't really match what she does so what we did was we created a confidential position for
142with her type for her job um within the technology team so now it's more accurately depicts what she does on a daily basis which is our data systems specialist no problem thank you very much okay any other questions board hearing done mrs valenzuela would you please call for the vote Mr. Thomas Baird? Yes. Mrs. Chacon-Kennedy? Yes. Mr. Aparicio? Yes. Mrs. Dabbs? Yes. Mr. Oliver Baird? Yes. Mrs. Carrera? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Item 21, approval of job discretion, business services specialist. Can I get a motion to approve? So moved. Thank you. Can I get a second? I'll second. All right. It's been moved and seconded. Board, are there any questions? Or any questions for Dr. Patterson or Dr. Aceves regarding the business services specialist? Any questions? Is this the? Okay, you said you made the
143other one a confidential. Is this the, okay, all right. Got it, got it. Okay, any questions? All right, hearing none, Mrs. Bonsuela, would you please call for the vote? Mr. Thomas Baird? Yes. Mrs. Chacon-Kennedy? Yes. Mr. Aparicio? Yes. Mrs. Dabbs? Yes. Mr. Oliver Baird? Yes. Mrs. Carrera? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Item 22, approval of job description. Tech supervisor, can I get a motion to approve? I so move. Thank you. Can I get a second? I'll second. Thank you. It's been moved and seconded. Board, are there any questions for Dr. Patterson or Dr. Aceves about the tech supervisor job description? Sorry, Mr. Chacon-Kenney, this is the one that you were referring to with the flip-flop. Of which one? This is the one that you just asked about. This is the flop. I see, I see.
144Okay, yeah. Any other comments or questions, Ms. Carrera or Mr. Baird? Any other questions? No? All right, hearing none, Ms. Valenzuela, would you please call for the vote? Mr. Thomas Baird? Yes. Mrs. Chacon-Kennedy? Yes. Mr. Aparicio? Yes. Mrs. Dabbs? Yes. Mr. Oliver Baird? Yes. Mrs. Carrera? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Item 23, approval of Resolution 33. Can I get a motion to approve? I so move. Thank you. Can I get a second? I'll second. All right, it's been moved and seconded. Are there any questions, board, for, I guess it would be Dr. Vargas on this one? This is just the item that we bring every year, that sometimes there are assignments that are not covered based upon a credential, and Dr. Vargas works with team members who have the appropriate coursework to be able to
145do a multiple subject or a single subject accordingly. So is this kind of like an equivalency? Yes, exactly. Thank you. Any further questions? All right, hearing none, Mrs. Valenzuela, would you please call for the vote? Mr. Thomas Baird? Yes. Mrs. Chacon-Kennedy? Yes. Mr. Aparicio? Yes. Mrs. Dabbs? Yes. Mr. Oliver Baird? Yes. Mrs. Carrera? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. On to number 25, approval of pool construction management. Can I get a motion to approve? I so move. Thank you. Can I get a second? I'll second. It's been moved and seconded. Dr. Patterson, is there anything you want to share with us about the approval of a pool of construction management firms? So one of the things that we've discovered with all of the intricacies and nuances that go on with, have just gone on with the
146Emma Wicker restoration and thinking about taking on two other modernizations at the same time. We want to be able to be in a position to where if we need to have additional support, whether it's for compliance, it's for streamlining, it's for making sure that permitting is done or budget projections are accurate. We interviewed 12 firms. It was riveting. And then we are recommending that these three firms be in a pool for us to pull on should we need additional support to facilitate these projects. Did you have to pay them anything to do this or do you know there's nothing we will pay them once we contract right? It cost nothing for us to listen. Okay. Yeah, that was my question. Yeah. Thank you And Dr. Patterson, do they each bring something that the other doesn't
147have, do you think, or not? No, I think it was just the fact that, you know, especially when it comes to just the level of confidence that you have, you know, we had different recommendations, different, you know, and Dr. Seve's checked the references, and a lot of it was just the feel of the people in the room and the services and the commitment that they had. All 12 firms were great. It's just that these were the ones that kind of just stood out to us as... what we were looking for in relationships with a construction management project management firm. And my question is then, for example, if there's a particular construction project, would you then say, oh, we need NEF here? I think what we would do, just like with the architects. You know, it's
148a big commitment to have one architect be selected to do all of your projects. So just like this, we did a pool for our architects. That's why we have three architects. And so they will each have a modernization. And then it goes back to the idea of, you know, what was our experience? How do we feel with the team that was presented to EWCSD? And the same thinking is going to go along this. But what we did learn from that particular process is that. Once we identify, okay, we're looking potentially for additional support to help with the East Whittier Middle School renovation, we would talk to each three of these firms to kind of outline to them what it is that we are looking for to be able to make sure that what they are
149doing and what they are proposing, the services that they would provide, is what we're looking for as well. So it would be almost like a secondary interview based upon a specific set of... Discrete skills that we will want them to be able to provide to us Yeah, I appreciate the the information are there any other questions board Okay, hearing none miss about insuela. Would you please call for the vote? Mr.. Thomas Baird yes, mrs.. Chacon Kennedy yes, mr.. Aparicio yes, mrs.. Dabbs yes, mr.. Oliver Baird yes, mrs.. Carrera yes motion passes Thank you Board we now come to J consent items number one is there any one on the board who wishes to pull a particular item to have a separate vote or discussion on Anybody miss got it up. Mr. Baird anyone all right
150Hearing none. Can I get a motion to approve? I'm with the recommendation of the superintendent at the Board of Education approve the consent agenda items J 3 through J 14 Thank you. Can I get a second? second It's been moved and seconded. Board, are there any discussions about these individual items that you would like to have before we take a vote? Any of the student records, work request, disposal? Oh, there was a previous incident that a student had. Part of the initial intake when we had that discussion with the family about the consequences that were going to be rendered, there was an agreement that was reached at that given the circumstances that we would consider expunging the record should the student meet all of the requirements. Thank you, Dr. Patterson. Any other questions, Board, on
151any other items? Now is the time to ask. All right, hearing none, Mrs. Valenzuela, would you please call for the vote? Mr. Thomas Baird? Yes. Mrs. Chacon-Kennedy? Yes. Mr. Aparicio? Yes. Mrs. Dabbs? Yes. Mr. Oliver Baird? Yes. Mrs. Carrera? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you so much, everyone, for being here this evening. Our next Board of Education meeting will be here on Wednesday, June 10th. Before we leave, I'm going to ask for a motion to approve the adjourning of our meeting, but ask for Board to have any comments if they would like to. So can I get a motion? I so move to adjourn this meeting. I second. I get a second. All right, it's been moved and seconded. Any comments for Mr. Baird, Mrs. Chacon-Kennedy? I have some comments. I want everybody to
152have a nice summer. And if it's not too hot, ride your bike, save water, use your clothesline, everything I always say. I know. During the summer is the perfect time to use your clothesline. I hardly ever use my dryer unless it's raining outside. But really, it's so nice. to use the dryer outside. It really is very nice. So again, shop secondhand, nothing wrong with that. So anyway, save all you can. Don't throw, don't waste food. I'm such a stickler on that. So there's too many people who don't have enough to eat in this country. So like I said, and particularly, save water. It's going to be a hot summer. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Kennedy. Mr. Baird, any comments? Yeah. About a year ago, my son was named to be the student board member. And
153at that time, I never thought that we would sit here together. And I think I would regret not saying that, Oliver, it's been a privilege. I get to brag about this all the time. I'm bummed that I won't get to brag about it, but I do have pictures, despite your wishes. I've taken so many pictures. I mean, they're all on recording. Yeah, and we're recording. It's true. And on Wednesday, you get to take his picture with you. That's right. I'm taking that one, actually. I will be taking it. It'll be in his bedroom. That's my picture. Well, that's it. Yeah, my nameplate. It's been an honor. So, thank you. Thank You mr. Baird mr. Aparicio any comments well continue having a happy summer Thank you. Mrs. Carrera, any comments? Just have a wonderful summer. Stay
154kind, stay weird, stay you. You know, just have fun out there, and accessibility does matter. As a former able being and now disabled, I can tell you accessibility matters, so cameras will stay on as long as I can get that vote going. Mijo, you'll always be my mijo. So I'll miss my little partner. All right? You did a phenomenal job. Oh, I know, but you're going to be over there, so I can't just come up to you and just come there and tap you in the arm and be like, hey, how's it going, you know? All right, so I'll still get you on the top of the head. No, I'm kidding. All right, fair enough. Anyway, have a good night, everybody. Thank you. Thank you. I just want to also say thank you so much
155for coming. Thank you for your sincere comments. Thank you for your passion. Thank you for sharing with us, honestly, and we greatly, greatly appreciate that. If you're not going to join us on Wednesday or the 17th at Cal High, I also want to add have a wonderful summer. Do something fun and come back. I know we say this all the time. Come back refreshed and excited to start with the students. And thank you so much for all the hard work you have put in, whether you're a teacher, a parent, a classified employee, administrator. It's greatly appreciated. And lastly, I think we need another round of applause and thank Mr. Oliver Baird for the amazing work he's done this year. You're welcome. Mrs. Valenzuela, would you please call for the vote so we may adjourn our
156meeting? Mr. Thomas Baird? Yes. Mrs. Chacon-Kennedy? Yes. Mr. Aparicio? Yes. Mrs. Dabbs? Yes. Mr. Oliver Baird? Yes. Mrs. Carrera? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Have a good evening, everyone.