EWCSD Board of Education Meeting - Monday, November 17th, 2025

001I'd like to call the meeting to order at 6 p.m. even though I'm having a lot of fun watching these little robots that's really way cool. OK. OK. On to the flag salute. I'd like to recognize Bella Avalos Andy Cermino Avery Eichel Joseph Urza Zua Denise Calderon Hope Wajohanek I hope I got it right and Ashley Zidrums. Hello everybody. As we were already introduced, we're going to already start. I have no idea. Okay. My deepest apologies. Okay, everyone please stand. Please face the flag and put your right hand over your heart. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God and invisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. You may be seated. Yes. Could you introduce yourselves? Just

002introduce yourselves. Yeah. My name is Joseph Razua, and I am the second social chair for National Junior Honor Society. My name is Hope Warhowance, and I am a member of NJHS. Hello, my name is Avery Eichel and I am the first social chair for NJHS. My name is Ashley Zidrums and I'm a member of NJHS. I'm Andy Sermeno and I'm the social media manager of Granada's NJHS. Hi, I'm Denise Calderon and I'm a member of NJHS. Thank you all very much. Can I get one more round of applause for everyone here? Come on, I know you can do better than that. Eh, close enough. DIRECTOR HARRIS Okay. On to employee recognition. Dr. Pena. DIRECTOR PENA All right. Well good evening board president Christine Chacon Kennedy board members Superintendent Dr. Patterson cabinet members and the entire

003East Whittier City School District and of course our Granada community. My name is Samuel Pena and I'm the proud principal of Granada Middle School and we are so excited to welcome you here to Granada. Let's welcome everybody by a nice round of applause. This is my fourth year serving our incredible school community and I feel truly blessed to work alongside such dedicated staff, supportive families and inspiring students. Tonight, I am honored to recognize Granada's Employees of the Year, individuals whose commitment and heart have shaped our school in meaningful ways. I'll begin first with our Certificated Employee of the Year, Mrs. Almeda Powers. You can clap to that. Now, Mrs. Powers recently retired after an extraordinary 38-year career at Granada Middle School. She's not able to be here this evening because she's currently enjoying a trip

004into the state of Maine, well-deserved after nearly four decades of service. It is difficult to capture the impact of an educator like Mrs. Powers in just a few moments. She brought passion, expertise, and an unwavering commitment to her students. Her classroom was a place where literature came alive, where students learned to think deeply, write with confidence, and feel truly seen. She pushed students academically while wrapping them with encouragement and care. And outside the classroom, she brought joy, humor, and plenty of personality to our staff. And she also loved fruit snacks. In fact, whenever we had fruit snacks at staff meetings, they would disappear quickly, especially when Mrs. Powers was around. So I had to hide the fruit snacks from Mrs. Powers. But we are grateful for her legacy and hope she's enjoying every minute of

005her retirement. Once again, congratulations to Mrs. Powers. Next up is our Classified Employee of the Year. who is Miss Cindy Herrera. For three years, she served as our school office coordinator before transitioning to the district office as an HR specialist. Cindy was truly the heartbeat of our front office. She greeted every challenge with calmness, every student with kindness, and every staff member with unwavering support. Cindy was selfless in the truest sense of the word. And no matter how busy she was, she always made time for others. Not because it was her job, but because it was who she was. She consistently gave her very best, whether she was comforting a worried student, supporting a parent with a last-minute need, or helping our staff navigate the day-to-day demands of a busy middle school. She was steady,

006dependable, and deeply caring, and she made an undeniable impact on our campus. Cindy, you made Granada better because you showed up every day ready to serve, ready to help, and ready to give your whole heart. Now you're doing the same for our entire district. Congratulations. You truly deserve this honor. Come on out, Ms. Cindy Herrera. Thank you, everyone. I just have a few words, and I need to put my eyes on. Thank you, Dr. Pena, for those kind words. Thank you so much for this recognition. I am truly honored. I'm grateful for the incredible people I've had the privilege to work with who have supported me and helped me grow every day. I'm also thankful for the meaningful interactions I've shared with our students and our families, some who I see here. Happy to see

007you all. Each conversation, each challenge, and each moment of connection has shaped me both personally and professionally. Those experiences prepared me for my transition into human resources where I'm fortunate to continue serving our community in a different capacity. Although the work looks a little bit different now, my goal remains the same, to approach every interaction with kindness, empathy, and a sincere desire to help. So thank you again for this honor and for allowing me to be part of such a wonderful community. It's been a gift. Thank you so much. She's excited about her apple. She got her apple. So this year at Granada our school theme is Built for Success. We believe every student has the potential to grow, achieve, and lead. Built for Success is more than a theme, it's a mindset that guides

008our work together as students, staff, and families. A key part of that vision is the launch of our new AVID program. We now have two seventh grade classes taught by Mrs. Peterson and Mrs. Rubio and our AVID coordinator, Mrs. French, has done an outstanding job in ensuring a strong, successful start. AVID, advancement via individual determination, gives students the skills, mindset, and support that open doors to future opportunities. And to give you just a small glimpse into AVID culture, our students engage in AVID claps to promote a positive classroom environment and build community. The power whoosh, which consists of two claps to the table, two claps to your hands, and a big whoosh like an ocean wave. I'm actually going to model it once, and you guys are going to participate with me. You guys ready?

009So this is how it's going to work. I'm going to go one, two, three, two claps at table. One, two, clap. Whoosh. Easy enough. You guys ready? Cabinet, you ready? Board members? All right, ready. Audience, you ready? All right. One, two, three. Whoosh. Not bad. Not bad. So that's just an example of what our students do during AVID. It really does promote community and positivity, and it just kind of pushes that energy of making sure that students are seen, valued, and heard. Again, these strategies, they help build community, connect emotion to learning, and send positive energy across the classroom. We also recently held our second National Junior Honor Society induction ceremony. welcoming 39 students into this distinguished program. Under the leadership of our NJHS advisor, Ms. Hong, the program continues to grow and offer our

010students opportunities for leadership, service, and academic excellence. We're incredibly proud of our dedicated teachers and staff who work tirelessly to support, inspire, and guide our students each day. Their commitment to creating a safe, inclusive, and engaging learning environment is a cornerstone of what makes Granada such a special place. Again, thank you for your continued support and believing in our students and our school. It truly is an honor to serve our Granada community because together we are truly built for success. So before we transition, we have our wonderful wind ensemble. We're going to lift up the screen. Under the direction of Mr. Silva. And since you are coming to our home here at Granada, we want to make sure that you feel comfortable and that you also get a taste of our music department and all

011the amazing work that Mr. Silva and our students are doing. So with us, Mr. Silva and our Granada Wind Ensemble. Thank you so much Mr. Silva and Wynn Ensemble students. Once again board members cabinet and community we are so excited to be able to host this board meeting here in November. We know that our students are continuing to be challenged every single day and we truly are living that theme. We are built for success. We are Granada. Have a great evening. Thank you Dr. Pena. Thank you Mr. Silva. Just in case anybody wants to sit the first two rows here they're reserved but nobody wants to sit there so they're free to anybody who wants to sit down. Come on over. Okay we will wait just a couple minutes for people to sit down. Okay

012on to employee recognition. Dr. Vargas. Good evening, Granada Community Board of Education and cabinet members. I am Lilia Vargas and I am the proud assistant superintendent of human resources and it is my pleasure tonight to celebrate some very special employees of ours. And we're going to start off with a celebration that is a very special milestone for our teachers. So as a teacher, when you begin your career, you begin as a probationary teacher. And in essence, you have two years to really demonstrate that you possess the skills and the competencies to be. effective teacher and we do have two amazing teachers tonight that will be receiving that recognition tonight give them a big round of applause and we will be giving them the 10-year recognition to start off with I would like to call up

013mr. Ronald Castillo please come on up our next teacher receiving tenure tonight is miss Estelle Hong let's give her a big round of applause And she was not able to be with us today, but we'll make sure that she gets this certificate tomorrow. Now, the next recognition is really a recognition to honor all of our employees for their commitment and dedication to our district. So a couple years ago, we decided to bring this tradition back, and that is... the tradition of service pins. And what we realized in our journey in trying to figure out how many years our employees had served is a realization that a lot of employees have really served their entire career here at East Whittier City School District. And not only... here with the district, but a lot of these employees

014have only been at one particular school, which is amazing because we do know that research shows that consistency and those strong relationships with teachers and other school employees really does contribute to the success of our students. So tonight we are excited because we will be recognizing. Some pretty significant milestones. So as I call your name, please come up to receive your pin of service and we're going to start with Mr. Mark Sonata with 30 years of service. With 25 years of service, let's welcome Miss Sarah Ansich. With also 25 years of service, let's recognize Miss Tanya Gunderson. With 25 years of service, let's welcome Ms. Rachel Perez. With 20 years of service, let's welcome Ms. Leslie Smolenski. With 15 years of service, let's welcome Ms. Michelle Tamayo. With 10 years of service, let's welcome Antoinette

015Miller. With also 10 years of service, let's welcome Mr. Mario Rodriguez. With also 10 years of service, let's welcome Mr. Rudy Silva. And he might be back there with our students. So we'll make sure he gets it. And also, I think it's definitely worth mentioning, we did have some employees who have already met another milestone, not this year, but in the past. And I would like to recognize for 25 years of service, Ms. Catherine Puentes, Mr. Tim Strand, Ms. Cecilia Turing, and for celebrating 15 years, Ms. Gloria Lara. Let's give them all a big round of applause. And another pretty amazing realization as we were doing, oh, and I think I see, here we go. Let's give them a big round of applause. A wonderful job, Mr. Silva. That was amazing. So as we were

016looking for all of our records and determining our years of service, we were visiting campuses to celebrate those benchmarks and milestones. And the one thing that we kept on hearing over and over again as we marveled on the decades of service was like, oh, guess what? Not only have I worked here for this long, but I also... came to the East Whittier schools. So this is where the homegrown pin recognition came to life. And then of course, Dr. Patterson wanted to make it fun. So he did send out a survey where we were able to collect just some fun facts about some of the memories that our employees remember closely as a student here at East Whittier Middle School. I'm sorry, at Granada. Middle School and East Witter City School District and our first employee

017that we're going to recognize for the second time tonight is Miss Rachel Perez. Let's give her a big round of applause. So Miss Rachel Perez attended Granada eighth grade and her fun fact was my mom taught at East Witter Middle School for 31 years and I worked alongside my sister at Granada Middle School. There were one flockers for eighth grade students at Granada. They were taken out in 1990. So congratulations, Rachel. And thank you so much. She has her student of the month award. That is awesome. I love it. Okay, our next employee. Catch up on my notes. Is, again, for the second time, we're recognizing Ms. Leslie Smolenski. So come on up. She attended Granada 6th through 8th grade. Fun fact, my old principal and vice principal, Mr. Royce and Mr. Jordan, actually hired

018me to work at my alma mater, Granada. I beat out about eight other candidates, even though I was probably the least experienced. Straight out of college, I hadn't even done my student teaching yet. They explained after I was hired that my inexperience didn't matter because they knew the type of student and person I was. I had maintained my straight A's through high school and college, and my excitement, enthusiasm, and passion for anything I do shines through right away. I use that story to tell my students that what they do every day in my classroom matters. That is wonderful. Congratulations. And just to double check, is Miss Erica Gonzalez with us tonight? Okay, just wanted to make sure I didn't miss her. Okay. And our next award that we would like to recognize is our Whittier

019Area School Administrators Community Service Award. So every year, every school has the opportunity to recognize an outstanding volunteer that has made a significant impact in their school community. And what we do is we honor them at the board meeting, but they also enter a competition. district-wide to then represent the district in the Whittier Area School Administrators Community Service Breakfast. And this is a wonderful award just because we know that we would not be able to do everything that we do on our school campuses without our amazing volunteers. So tonight we want to recognize our Granada Middle School WASA recipient and that is Miss Stephanie Dickinson. All right so I have the privilege of reading Her bio, Ms. Stephanie Dickinson. who is our dedicated PTSA president. She has made an extraordinary impact on the Granada Middle

020School community through her selfless service, leadership, and compassion. She goes above and beyond to support our students, staff, and families in countless ways. Stephanie's compassion shines brightest in her service to our most vulnerable students. She organized special graduation ceremonies for special education students in the hospital. who are often overlooked. But Stephanie makes sure these students are seen, celebrated, and loved. She personally decorated and made the hospital rooms extra special for students and their families. Her thoughtfulness even extends to our custodial team, whom she honors each year with special meals and recognition during National Custodian Week. Stephanie's kindness, creativity, and dedication exemplify the true spirit of community service. We are proud to honor her as our 2025 Wausau Community Service Award recipient. Congratulations, Stephanie Dickinson. She had a long speech span, but she left it at

021home. Let's give them all a big round of applause. And I do want to take this moment to thank our Granada staff for this amazing looking awards night. I mean, I love the decorations, all of the personalized gifts. So thank you so much. It was really special. Thank you. And I might remind anybody who was recognized that we take pictures right at the break. So stick around. OK on to we're going to the next item I believe we're going to pull. I would request that we pull this to the next board meeting. I inadvertently left out one of our board members comments and I'd like to bring the full record of the minutes back to the December 15th meeting. OK. Is that OK board. OK. OK. On to board member reports and comments. Mr. Baird.

022Oh gosh, I'm not used to that. The ASB meeting that was held, the student advisory meeting that was held on Wednesday last week was very nice because we got to test all the food and see what was going to be on the menu now. And it was just nice seeing all the ASBs and all the student councils all together trying stuff to help the entire district. Another thing that I'd just like to pull up is the fact that I have, like, the board has a CSBA meeting that's coming up next December, and it's going to be nice to represent all the students of UW-CSD and go to Sacramento for the conference. That's it. Thank you. Okay. I think I'll change it up a little. Ms. Stapps, would you like to go? Good evening, everyone. I

023just want to say a few comments and not make it too lengthy, but I want to thank you for joining us tonight here at Gordana Middle School. When you come to events like this, to our board meetings, it really shows that you care and that you have a commitment not only to your school but to our district community. And I'm very grateful to be here this evening with our students and at this meeting together. Just a quick mention that it is American Education Week and with so many challenges that we've seen in the media regarding education, we feel very proud to be in a district that has amazing students and families. And in spite of some of the challenges that we see, we're going to press forward and our district does that in a very

024caring and passionate way. So thank you so much. I want to thank our Granada students for leading our flag salute. I want to congratulate the Granada Employees of the Year, Cindy Herrera, who I met when I first became a school board member. And she greeted me so warmly in 2018 when I first became a member and I met her daughter. And I've always I've watched her career with with great enjoyment and congratulations to you. Cindy well deserved you work so hard for that so congratulations and congratulations to Almeda I hope she's having a wonderful time in Maine I also want to congratulate Granada for their beautiful theme and most importantly and especially I want to congratulate the fact that you have an avid program when I first joined the board in 2018 there was no

025avid program anywhere in our district so it is so beautiful to see that our avid programs are growing and thriving and benefiting our students that are here. So thank you so much for everything you do here with the AVID program and all of those that are a part of that. It means so much to the students in the community. So thank you so much. I also want to just quickly congratulate, but not by name, everybody that received their tenure award, their longevity award, their WASA recipient award, and their homegrown staff award. Everything that you've done to collectively receive that award is so important, not only to the school but to the students to the families to everybody we recognize the hard work that you put in the heart and soul that you give to your

026school every single day and big congratulations to you for that i also want to say that um When I first joined the district, I met Mr. Silva, and he was this very young and very excited young man looking forward to taking on the role of being the director of the music program. And I just want to congratulate you, Rudy, because, oh, there you are, because we had this long conversation when I first was elected. And I said, Rudy, no matter what, I want you to persevere. I want you to keep going because your gifts and talents are going to benefit the students here. And so I just want to congratulate you, Rudy. The students are absolutely extraordinary. The things you do outside of the school, the performances that you do, the opening at the Christmas

027holidays down at the Whitwood, just absolutely extraordinary. So thank you so much for the heart and soul and the passion that you have. given not only to the students at Granada but to our district and made those students shine. So thank you, thank you so very much. And as always, I want to thank everyone, every teacher, every staff member, and every family who pours their heart into the East Weider City School District because together we are working to create places where children can learn. and thrive and dream big and i am very grateful to serve alongside my colleagues and serve in this community thank you thank you mr tiafoe well good evening everyone i want to again echo a lot of the same things ms dabs has mentioned about Thank you to the Granada staff

028for providing an area for us to be able to have this meeting. It's nice to be able to come to the school sites and see the different areas of the district. And we know the hard work it takes to put on a show like this, a board meeting like this. I know our district staff has a big hand. on that too and i want to welcome thank them for that service but dr pena and the staff great job and we're glad to be here tonight celebrating with the matadors and the great things that you guys got going on here at granada congratulations to our employee years our teacher tenure years of service homegrown those are again recognitions that our community has shown that we value our staff and we want to recognize them and great

029job continue service and it shows that The people want to stay in our district to help support our students and a great place for them to work. So congratulations to those employees. I do want to give a special shout out and congratulations to Miss Dickinson Dickinson Dickerson. Dickerson sorry Stephanie. Congratulations for your nomination and being selected as the WASO recipient. Great job for the community efforts that you do and if I think I heard right that you also participate in the decorating of the of the rooms of the children in the hospital. Was that correct. Correct. I want to really thank you for that because. I have personal experience with one of my children being in the hospital during the holidays. It goes a long way and sometimes where they can't celebrate the holidays. And

030so thank you very much. It means a lot to the students. More importantly, I bet it means a lot more to the parents because they feel bad enough that their children are in the hospital. So thank you for taking that time and recognizing that even though they're in the hospital, they still should be able to celebrate. So thank you very much for that. Couple things I was able to go to the Halloween costume and it's been a while. I wasn't at the last board meeting but I do want to say that I did meet Mr. Baird there at Hillview during the Halloween. He wasn't dressed or what was the costume you were wearing. No, he had yeah, he had an authentic shirt that said this is his costume so But it was nice to see

031I went to the middle school and typically, you know Elementary school all out and the students are pretty much everyone's dressed, but the middle school It was nice to see that we had a lot, you know more than look like 80% of the students were dressed and the parade So congratulations to to them Congratulations to Granada Being recognized as a U.S. News great school and I know that we had a lot of our schools but I didn't get a chance at the last boarding board meeting to state that. So congratulations we're here celebrating here with you. And like the rest of my colleagues we are going to up to Sacramento to advocate for our district as a school board to advocate for the things that we need here in our district and to really get

032some training and here's some speakers that help. better prepare us as a board member. So to end it thank you again Granada community parents thank you for showing up and celebrating with us and great job to our wind ensemble. That was you know like high school maybe even college level music there and Mr. Silva you do a great job. I hear a lot of great things about what you do with the program here and it's evident of how well the students were performing. So great job and great job students. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Aparicio. So I just want to say good evening to the Granada community. Thank you to Dr. Pena and his staff for the hospitality and of course the gifts as well too. We definitely appreciate it. Just thank you to the

033students from Granada who led us in the Pledge of Allegiance and also for being leaders at your middle school. And hopefully you guys could go on beyond and be leaders at the high school and beyond that as well too. So just thank you. for leading us. Congratulations to Almeida and Cindy for being Employees of the Year. Like we said, Almeida, hopefully you're enjoying your vacation and your retirement. So just congratulations to both of you. Thank you to Mr. Silva and his one ensemble for that was a great performance. Like Mr. Artelia said, it was just great just hearing him. And I just love the enthusiasm of Mr. Silva, just the way he was doing it. And I was like, man, I'm very, very impressed by not just him, but by his students as well, too.

034So thank you very much, Mr. Silva, for that. Congrats to the teachers receiving tenure also to those who receive their service pins and homegrown pins. Just thank you very much for everything that you guys do and for coming back and being great to our Granada community as well too. And then I also want to say congrats and thank you to Ms. Dickinson for being the WASA award recipient. All those long hours and everything you do hopefully went known. So just thank you very much for everything that you do. And then just lastly, I just hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving and a restful Thanksgiving break as well too to the parents, the staff, and everybody involved. So just happy holidays already. Okay, thank you. Ms. Carrera? Sure, I just want to start off. You know,

035everybody said what I wanted to say, so thank you. Thank you. I'll just echo everything that you all said. Cindy, Stephanie, you know, Ms. Ansage, I saw you a minute. There you are. Yeah, you're real. I have to tell you, I stalk you because they are just amazing. I do show them. I'm like, look, this is fun. Granada's fun. So yes, Mr. Silva, you reminded me of Mr. Garcia, which was my band teacher. He was quite the gem. So you are quite the gem to the students. Robotics teacher, I don't know who you are. I apologize, but what? Ms. Salcedo? Ms. Salcedo? phenomenal work. My son was in robotics. He competed underwater robotics. So to see all of that is just amazing. I also want to chime in and say, you know, Stephanie, you made

036me really think of something else because, you know, I haven't spent a Christmas with my family. I am hoping that I will this year. So I do know the decorations and Mr. Urteaga, we can relate when it comes to that. I attended coffee with the principal on Friday here at Granada. As some of you may know, it can be a difficult role while navigating a new disability. and requesting accommodations. But I'm glad that, I'm also glad you all have been willing to learn and take steps to address and end ableism in all areas of Old School District. Dr. Pena, thank you for welcoming me unannounced on Friday, where I kinda just sneaked in towards the end. Just to be honest with you, I was within the area feeling healthy, and I just sneaked in, wanted

037to say hello, and show my support. I cannot guarantee an accurate commitment to site visits given my current condition, but know that I am always going to try and show up for all of you. Even though life throws things at you, you learn to overcome and sometimes overachieve. Stephanie can attest to this when she sees those children, our students. To go from able to disabled is no easy feat, but I have Ms. Ansage to make me laugh. So I just want to thank everybody, especially the person that has been putting up this guard up for me for the past, I don't know, since I've been elected in 2020. I'm sure you're tired of it. But I want you to know I'm far more tired than you are. Thank you very much and have a great

038Thanksgiving. Thank you, Ms. Cabrera. Okay. And I just want to say I'd like to thank Dr. Pena and everybody at Granada who made this possible because it's really just phenomenal. I love it. It's just so nice for others to come in and see all the beautiful things here at Granada. And I was talking to Dr. Patterson. I can't remember the lady who was I was talking to about your smokestack. I'm going to keep talking about that smokestack. It needs to be decorated. It's just sitting there. But anyway aside from that I just everything that my colleagues say thank congratulations to everybody. Thank you to everybody. But yes and we thank you very much for the gifts. I can't tell you how much I need mugs because I break them all the time. So thank you.

039I'd like to call up Adeline Bickerstaff, if she's here, Emily Carpenter, and Leo Salguero. Are you all here? Come on up. Ladies and gentlemen, I want to introduce you to our student photographers. Well, maybe you could tell us a little bit, how's it going for all of you? It's going good. Oh, good. Yeah, it's good. I know. We were trying to pose when I think it was, the first one, what's your name? Yeah trying to take a picture of Dr. Patterson so I made him pose. But anyway thank you very much and I hope you have fun doing this. Thank you very much. And aside from all the thank yous and congratulations which I really wholeheartedly mean we're going to take a break and we're going to have pictures back here for all those who

040received an award or were recognized. Thank you. But 10 minutes. Okay. Okay on to the next item. CSEA comments. Good evening, board members and Dr. Patterson. I am Joe Riley from the IT department, and I am the new president of CSEA Chapter 87. I just wanted to briefly say that I look forward to working with all of you in my new role, supporting everyone in our bargaining unit. Thank you very much. Thank you. EWEA? Good evening, everybody. Just start. Congratulations, Joe. CSEA president, that's awesome. Congrats. Also, thank you. to Granada for hosting the event today. Congratulations to Almeda and Cindy. I actually texted Almeda, took a picture of the photo you guys had up here and told her congrats and she sent back a thanks with a big smiley face. So she appreciates that. Cindy

041I worked with at East Whittier. She was great and congratulations for that for her. For the tenures, Ronald and Estelle, congratulations. Big deal that you got that. So awesome. I want to share the survey results that we as EWE sent out a few weeks ago for the TTD on October 10th. Out of a scale of five being the highest, one being the lowest, the average from our respondents was 3.02, which is a 60.4%, which if that was my class, that would be on the verge of getting an F. the most common thing said about the survey with the survey was that there should be training in the morning and collaboration in the afternoon especially for the elementary schools because that collaboration time is very few and far between a past practice that we have had

042in the district was a workshop model where you might go to say like three different workshops but it involved choice you could choose one thing or another thing what best interests you we did that in the past where the people that were training that were other teachers I think LAUSD in their contract has something that says that they they collaborate with the district to work on those tcds and half of those tcds are run by the teachers because there is a fountain of knowledge from the 400 plus members that we have and they can share that knowledge to make this district a better place Another thing in regards to TTDs has to relate to the kids since COVID. They are different. They are very different. They lost developmental years because of the time that they

043had away from being in a social setting. And I think not just here, but everywhere, society in general tried way too fast to rush back to a new normal. And that wasn't the way to go about it. So I think we need support. And what I mean by support is how do we deal with the tough behavior students that we have that are taking away the learning opportunities from the other students in our classroom? Because it might have been five out of 100 kids, about 5% of the kids that were behavior problems, it's up. And I'm not giving data that says what it is, but there are more behavior problems and more severe behavior problems that we're dealing with. We need support. And a TTD is one way to do that. We could have training

044on how to deal with these escalating behaviors and whatnot. I'm going to read you an email. I'm going to leave out names to protect the innocent. I'm emailing you about a student's behavior today to have documentation of what happened during fourth period today. This student came into class and immediately put her head down and had to be prompted to log into her Chromebook to read today's material. She later asked to use the restroom and was told she had five minutes as is standard with all students. Upon leaving, she slammed the gate loudly at the end of the hallway to my room. She returned 10 minutes later, but before returning, she slammed the gate again. When I asked if she did that, she denied it. She tried to put on headphones when they were not required,

045so I told her to put them away. She slammed them down. She then proceeded to pout and not work on any classwork. When I attempted to redirect, she then questioned why she was in my class. She tried to get up and throw away a crushed water bottle. I told her to sit down and she can take care of it at the end of class. She pulled her arm back to throw it, and I told her not to do that. She did not, but not without protesting. She continued to stew the rest of the period. When the bell rang, she tried to leave without permission, for which I intervened and told her to wait. I then told her I was taking her to counseling and again she made snide comments. As we approached counseling she had

046to drag her wheeled backpack down to every step as loudly as possible. When we arrived at the counseling door I tried to explain to the counselor what had happened and she picked up a chair, not the counselor, the student, the student picked up a chair and slammed it which the counselor witnessed. Then as I walked off she told me to piss off which once again the counselor witnessed. I did not respond. I get a lot of emails from throughout the district. That's part of my role as president of the union. This is an email that I sent to the counselor at my school. I don't have behavior problems and this student's only on a 504 and I follow that to the T with her, but I have not had all these behaviors happen with one

047student at the same time. I've had it happen in bits from different students, but not at the same time. And then this student proceeded to tear up the counselor's office and make threats towards the counselor in her office. This is just a behavior from a student that's in my class Like I say I get a lot of emails about things the reason why I wrote this email to the counselor was to cover myself for fear of retribution and what I mean by that is students have the have actually done this on our campus for substitute teachers who we cannot protect by going out and making claims of them doing something that might lose them their job or has lost them their job the people that are interviewed are other students that are friends with that

048student and these students making the accusations have lengthy, lengthy discipline records. What I'm afraid of is what's going to happen is those students will start picking on our first-year teachers, our second-year teachers, and then eventually our experienced teachers because on my campus word is going around that these students got a sub fired and they're getting more brazen and it's scary. And this is not just isolated to my campus, it's on other campuses. We need support. But who needs support the most are our SPED teachers. I have gotten countless emails describing worse than what I experienced the other day. They are hit, they are pushed, they are pinched, they are spit on, they are tackled, they are assaulted with objects. When we bring this up, we have been told this happens all the time and this

049is what they signed up for. If every interaction matters, that says a whole lot. ESN teachers are not receiving their breaks or their lunch. We do not have enough aides. I have had phone calls or in-person conversations with teachers that are in tears because of the lack of support that they are receiving as SPED teachers. These are our most vulnerable populations, and I think we need to be doing our best to support them. And sped teachers without support, it extends to all teachers because we're trying to mainstream more kids to create a least restrictive environment for them. So when these students are being put into the mainstream classes, we need to be able to, as a mainstream teacher, to focus on our curriculum so all the students are getting it, including those sped students, without

050having to deal with extreme behaviors. In other words, we need support. But I have optimism because we don't need to accept the status quo or worse. We're not acting as the leaders that we are capable of being. Why are we not the district at the forefront of showing how we've done the things to make sure that we're getting the support that we need and SPED students are getting the best education they possibly can, that all students are getting the best education that they possibly can. And finally, I know that the fiscal stabilization plan and deficit spending is talked about a lot in this room but 15 million dollars is a healthy amount of funds to not be spending as I said last time people have taken a pay cut due to the rising cost of

051benefits and failing to offer an on-schedule raise does not help either but certificate and management positions had raises approved last time in the upper teen percentages at the last board meeting local districts Lowell joint just got a 2.75 percent on schedule race Whittier City just got a 2.5% on-schedule raise. Why are we not? If we're not going to get support in the classroom, we need to get support financially. We need support. Thank you. Okay, on to superintendent comments. We have a lot of public comments tonight, so I'm going to keep mine short. I just want to thank our student photographers who are here. It was actually one of our board members' ideas to engage our students in the process of documenting the amazing things that we have going on throughout our campuses. So I just

052wanted to recognize them a second time. Okay, on to citizen communication. so I did want to make it known to the board that one of our topics around special education does have nine speakers which exceeds our time limit so our recommendation based upon past practice would be to let everyone speak but make those comments two minutes So our first speaker actually is on a different topic. I'm going to ask our first five speakers to come up and line up in order of being called. First, we have Christine Rosales, Claudia Padilla, Tracy Ross, Jeannie DeLeon, and Brooke Peach. So please come up. Ms. Rosales, you actually have three minutes. Please go ahead. I do? Yes. Sorry, does it start when I start talking? Yes. Okay. Good evening my name is Christine Rosales and while I wear

053several hats at East Whittier tonight I come before you as a parent a very concerned parent. Well I know tonight the board is going to address the reading intervention specialist topic I want to talk about being fiscally responsible. The issue to me is that the district is not being fiscally responsible to the people it serves which is our children. The board along with our superintendent have over the last few years made several cuts to all of our schools. We've lost critical staff like you guys have all talked about support staff. We lost a math intervention specialist which we really needed. Our school has lost a teacher and our kids are getting crammed into classrooms. The PTA is picking up the cost of paper. The actual paper that our kids and our teachers are printing materials

054on because our schools don't have enough. They're also paying for computer programs the district has stopped paying for. One PTA, who I'm not going to say whom, has spent over $7,000 this year alone on computer programs that the teachers were getting previously from the district. Our PTA alone has spent over $2,000 year to date. Having the PTA pay for these programs is not fiscally responsible. Our money is not being well managed, and it needs to be looked at better. I did a study with Transparent California and I looked at salaries and I'm sorry to say but I don't understand how MARC is making 7% more than ABC Unified and 2% more than Noroc La Mirada which are both unified school districts and we're not a unified school district. We're a lot smaller, number one. Number

055two, teachers are talking about raises and they haven't gotten raises. Mark, you've gotten a raise since 2021, 2022, and 2023. 3%, 9%, and now 20%. I can show you my numbers if you guys want to see them. No, not even the car. This is without benefits. Sorry. While keeping the Reading Intervention Specialist is one step in the right direction, it's a very small step, and certainly not enough. The spending on the district on items that are not directly for our children needs to be evaluated and we need to be properly supported in all schools. The board needs to do the job that it was elected to do, which is ensure that our children are getting the best education possible, making sure that our district is being fiscally responsible. There needs to be more than just

056a board. There needs to be parents, there needs to be other members looking at how our spending is going. We're presented with things after the fact, things that have already been decided, positions that are being hired, money that's being spent without proper approval. You were elected by us, the parents, correct? Our next four speakers, you have two minutes each. Good evening. My name is Claudia Padilla and I come to you today not just as a parent but as a former employee. Up until late October, I was a level four ESN instructional aide. This year was one of the most stressful and chaotic times that I have spent at the East Whittier School District. Somehow, we have allowed our ESN students to fall through the cracks and as a result, they aren't receiving the care and

057attention that they need and deserve to grow and thrive. We spent the beginning of the year consistently out of ratio and therefore out of compliance with IEPs. Students were unable to mainstream in their respective classes or at recess. The worst part is that it is known to those in charge that we were in desperate need of help and our cries fell on deaf ears. We spent every day in fight or flight just trying to keep students safe with no instruction being done. We are hit, kicked, and bitten daily on top of being ignored by those whose help we seeked. When we asked who outside of the classroom was qualified to assist, we received no answers. I come here today to ask that you put our students' success and safety above all else and help our

058most vulnerable students thrive. If we want true inclusion for ESN, then we need to make sure that we are doing everything possible to help them and not just have bare minimum of what can be seen on the surface. Thank you. Good evening board members. I would like to comment on the unmet needs of our special education population as well as the proposed changes to our intervention specialist positions. Our extensive support needs classes require some of the most qualified specialized personnel to meet the needs of our students. Unfortunately these positions go unfilled and the classes remain understaffed for months creating an inequitable and dangerous learning environment. Subs are irregular and those classified and certificated staff that do show up risk burnout. The problem is not a lack of subs from which to draw, nor can we

059blame our students. The problem is a lack of immediate responsive support from our special ed department to address severe behaviors in the classroom and the district's refusal to make these open positions more attractive to potential new hires. I've seen our aides leave for higher paying positions in other districts offering longer hours and better benefits. When our neediest students don't have consistent support for qualified and highly trained staff, we see a regression in behaviors which increases the risk of burnout for those that remain. If every interaction matters, how do these interactions remain safe and positive when there's a new sub every week, if at all? You can solve this problem by increasing the starting pay for our aides and providing the entire staff with the behavioral strategies and training these students need. Secondly, as a Learning

060Center teacher of 20 years, I am worried and dismayed by the proposed changes to our intervention specialist positions. If this proposal is put into place next year, our schools will see Learning Center teachers inundated with parent requests for assessments. We'd be moving backwards when trying to address our department's initiative to increase the percent of our SPED students in the regular setting. Tier 2 interventions on a pull-out basis are effective at La Colima. Have you seen our data? Where has this proposed model been proven to be effective? I respectfully ask that this proposal be shelved until next year and more collaboration and coordination with our SPED department. Good evening members of the board. Thank you for taking the time to listen tonight. I'm going to cut to the chase. My name is Brooke Peach, a special

061education teacher here in our district. I am up here to speak for literally most of our ESN teachers, most of which cannot speak for themselves because they are not tenured and fear for their jobs if they speak out. In the ESN classrooms, negative student behavior are at an all-time high while conversely staff morale is at an all-time low. On any given day, most of us are getting physically abused as well as emotionally traumatized by our students, ending each day physically and emotionally exhausted and despondent. Some of us go home literally with new bruises, scratches, or bite marks, reminders of the daily challenges we face, just trying to keep everyone safe and learning. And while we are giving everything we have and then some, decisions are being made about our classrooms. Decisions about ratios of students

062to staff, staffing and lack thereof, about curricular expectations, ignoring the behavioral roadblocks in the class, and decisions about what support looks like, without those decisions being informed by the people actually in the classrooms. We are being asked... to do more with less while the individuals making these decisions have not stepped into our classrooms to ask, what do you need? What is working? What isn't? How can we help you and your students succeed? Instead, we are being told we aren't doing our job to the best of our abilities. We are being treated as if we are replaceable and we are not being respected as the professionals that we are. We are hearing statements that like, this is what you signed up for. We are not asking for control, we are asking to be heard, to be

063partners in the decisions that directly impact our students and everyone's safety. I ask you to think honestly for a moment. Would you want to come to work every day knowing you might leave with a new scratch or bruise from physical aggression? Would you want your own child or grandchild or any of the children we serve to be in an environment where learning is constantly disrupted by behaviors that we don't have the resources to address? We are not asking for perfection, we're asking for support. for understanding and for the resources training and staffing necessary to make our classroom safe stable and truly inclusive i invite each of you to come visit my classroom thank you Good evening board members and thank you for listening My name is Jeannie de Leon and I'm a veteran elementary school

064teacher in this district and I'm with your resident For over three decades a little bit more I have always been proud to work here for years The district has been known at for its strong sense of community one that valued the voices expertise and experience of its teachers and staff We have long believed that the people working directly with the students and parents every day from the form the foundation of the district and that their insights matter but today many educators feel that spirit is slipping away I'm here tonight speaking on behalf of our special education teachers and support staff who are carrying tremendous weight in their classrooms these are top-notch educators who pour their hearts into their work They are deeply committed to the academic, emotional, and social growth of their students. Families trust

065them to teach and care for their children like their own, and they do. Yet despite their dedication, they're struggling. Challenging behaviors in the Maya-Yultimata classes have increased significantly and all over the school, and staff morale has suffered. Many special education teachers end their day physically, emotionally drained, as you heard, bite, bruises, and scratches. Real evidence of challenges they face trying to keep learning safe and consistent for every student. This daily situation should concern all of us. What makes this even harder is that decisions about staffing ratios, expectations, and levels of support are being made without meaningful teacher input. Those who work in the classrooms every day, those who understand the students' needs and realities are not being asked for their perspective. This is not how East Whittier has historically operated. This is not the collaborative

066community we are proud to be a part of. Teachers and staff should not feel unheard, unsupported, and left out of decisions that are directly affecting them. They are not asking for... control they are asking for partnership to be included in decisions that impact students safety learning conditions and their own well-being more importantly you should want to hear from the teachers as they are the ones in classrooms every single day they're the ones supporting the students through behaviors learning challenges and emotional needs they hold essential information that can help you make wiser decisions informed decisions decisions that directly influence the success and safety of our students I'm going to finish because I didn't get my pin and I've been here 33 years. Please, please. I just want to say that I love to work in this

067space. I love students. I'm standing here because I believe we can return. And I just want to say, just like PBIS, I see emergencies just like the kids. I say that when you can say something, you should say something. You should say something when you see it, just like the kids. Thank you. Next speakers are Donna Smith. Amanda Manley, Jennifer Munoz, Ileana Davila, and Shannon Stroh. You each have two minutes. Good evening. My name is Amanda, and I'm a special education teacher. I chose this field because of my cousin, who was born with Down syndrome and autism. I spent much of my youth with my aunt and uncle, watching them raise him, and I even volunteered in his classroom at Murphy Ranch. All of this inspired me to devote my life to supporting students like

068him. I love what I do, and my students mean everything to me. Every day my staff and I return to school despite experiencing hair pulling, kicking, scratching, pinching, screaming, biting, head butting, spitting, punching, and even chasing after students. All because we care deeply for them and believe in their potential. But our dedication alone isn't enough. Special education isn't a one-size-fits-all. Every child brings unique needs and supporting them means looking far beyond enrollment numbers. It means considering their behavior plans, academic goals, communication modalities, sensory needs, and mainstreaming schedules, just to name a few things. When classrooms are staffed based solely on numbers, current staffing levels simply cannot meet the intensive needs of multiple high support students all at the same time. This isn't due to a lack of effort. It's because the level of support far

069exceeds the level of support. and the delays and barriers in getting the additional help keep students from receiving timely, essential support that they need to grow, regulate, and thrive. I'm asking today on behalf of my students for more support and timely action when teachers request assistance. Our children deserve safe, supportive learning environments that allow them to access their education with dignity. Thank you for your time and for listening on behalf of my students who depend on me to be their voice. Hello, my name is Jennifer Munoz and I am a special education teacher at East Whittier Middle School. I am here to ask you for your support and consideration with the special education department as a whole. Quite honestly, I think we are failing our special education students. I have been a special education teacher

070for over 18 years and year over year it feels like more and more is being dumped on us special education teachers. We do the job of two individuals. We are not only a special education teacher, but we are also case managers. That means that we are not only lesson planning, grading, and teaching like other general education teachers, but we are also coordinating and holding IEP meetings, writing IEPs, writing reports, doing data collection, individually assessing students for triennials, initials, and at least twice a year for their IEP goals. Mind you, each individual assessment is a minimum of three hours per student. My point in saying all of this is that we need to be allotted more time in order to appropriately complete all of the necessary tasks for both of our roles. If a general education

071teacher has one prep, wouldn't it make sense that as a special education teacher that holds two separate roles to have two prep periods, one for our tasks as a classroom teacher and another as a case manager? If ELD teachers once had two preps, why have special education teachers not been considered for two preps as well? The current lack of time is not only hurting us, the teachers, but it is mostly hurting the students. At the end of the day, they are the ones who are hurting the most because we, their teachers, are torn between our legal paperwork and being more than just adequate educators for our students. Our special education students are the population that require the most support, but are often the ones that receive the least. In other words, special education teachers need

072more time to complete our tasks as case managers so that we can be more present for our students in the classroom. Good evening. Thank you for allowing me to speak today. Being a special education teacher has been incredibly rewarding. However, over the years that I've been working for the district, I've noticed that my responsibilities as a case manager have significantly increased. When I was first hired, my caseload began with 16 students, and slowly it increased. Now this year, I started with 21 students in my caseload, and it's only growing because of the initials that I need to begin doing. between lesson planning, writing IEPs, testing students for triannuals and initials, observing students, supporting those in consult model, my workload has grown considerably. One prep period is often not enough time to manage all these tasks

073effectively. I would like to ask if the district can consider additional support to help alleviate this workload. For example, at Whittier High, I just learned this. The special education teachers have two prep periods which allows for dedicated time to complete paperwork, plan lessons, and manage case responsibilities. Being a special education teacher is more than teaching. It's managing a full caseload and supporting students in multiple ways. Providing additional prep time and or providing us supports will allow us to do our jobs more effectively and serve our students better. Thank you. Hello. Good evening. My name is Shannon Stroh and this is my 19th year teaching as a special education teacher at Hillview Middle School. I'm here tonight because I care deeply about this community. It's our community. I care deeply about my students and their right

074to an education that meets their needs. Right now we don't have the resources to meet those needs effectively. Case loads are growing. Behaviors and student needs are increasing. complexity and our instructional assistants are stretched so thin that many students and teachers are not receiving the consistent support that they require. Most recently instructional assistant support for our students have been determined by numbers not necessarily by the unique and diverse needs of our population This has led special ed teachers to push out our aid support into general education classes, which yes is needed It is a need. However, this should not come as Come as a cost to the support. There are mild moderate and other special education classrooms require In addition to my case load responsibilities, I teach five full class periods with five different curriculums

075to prep. The time required to write, teach, and implement legally compliant IEPs is simply not built into our workday. Without enough staffing or adequate time, we are forced to choose between meeting deadlines and providing the thoughtful, individualized support our students and our community deserves, and that is not a choice we should have to make. I strongly believe in the power of education to transform communities. Many of us who teach here grew up in this community or now have our own families here. I have a two-year-old and I hope that she'll come here. We are deeply invested because this is our home. Whittier has always been a family and I think we really pride ourselves on that. I don't know if I'm exactly homegrown. I went to Little Lake School District but I did graduate from

076Whittier High School District. So I'm so proud to be serving back to our community and I just hope that we remember that every interaction however small starts in our classrooms. Thank you. And our final speakers please line up in this order please. Beth Miller. Julie Alessio, Melissa Perez, Lilia Mata, Caroline Zambrano, and Veronica Islas. You all have three minutes to speak. Hi, good evening. My name is Beth Miller, and I have been a speech and language pathologist in East Whittier for 25 years. I am standing here to formally and respectfully request the reinstatement of the annual stipend for the SLP, Certificate of Clinical Competence, which is referred to as our SEAS, which was removed from our pay scale this school year without our knowledge, without any questions to anyone in our professional group or our

077agreement. Above and beyond our credential and license, the clinical nature of our profession requires that each SLP pay between $500 and $1,000 extra per year to renew and maintain our SEAS and also to obtain the required continuing ed units. Decades ago, the $500 SEAS stipend was created by East Whittier to offset this cost and to incentivize SLPs to maintain their SEAS because having SLPs who are fully vetted with their SEAS is very important for our school district. The SEAS offer a powerful legal defense against liability claims, particularly regarding IDEA. While state licensure meets minimum requirements, the ASHA SEAS establish a demonstrably higher standard of professional and ethical practice, meeting rigorous national requirements. Employing SLPs with their SEAS establishes a legal position of due diligence, effectively insulating the district against claims of providing substandard or negligent

078care. Twice, when I have testified for our district, opposing counsel, the very first question they ask me is, do you have your C's, your clinical competence, and are they current? Because every year they get renewed. And thankfully, I have been able to answer yes, protecting our district. Please consider our request to reinstate the C's stipend. Good evening. My name is Julie Alicio. I've been an SLP with East Whittier for 17 years. I'd like to share the speech pathologist concern about the recent removal of our annual stipend for maintaining our Cs. Last year, our speech team generated over $243,000 in revenue for Medi-Cal billing for speech services. This was by no means considered a banner year and is often the typical revenue generated yearly. The stipend represents a very small fraction, less than 5% of that

079revenue. Yet it helps offset the personal cost of certification, including a $250 annual renewal fee and the ever-growing cost and continuing education required to maintain competency. In short, this modest stipend recognizes the professionalism, legal protection, expertise, and financial contribution that our SLPs bring to the district every day. We respectfully ask the board to continue supporting the highly qualified clinicians who serve our students. If the board is not at liberty to reinstate the stipend at this time due to ongoing negotiations, we respectfully request that the board allocate sufficient funds to the special education department to reimburse SLPs for the costs incurred in renewing our SEAS and completing the required continuing education needed to maintain them. Thank you. Good evening, board members, and thank you for hearing me tonight. I'm asking for the reinstatement of the $500

080Certificate of Clinical Competence, or SEAS, stipend for our speech-language pathologists. My name is Melissa Perez, and I've been a speech-language pathologist for 18 years. I've been with EWCSD for the past six years. I applied to this district based on its superb special education reputation at the time. SLPs, give students a voice. Help, food, water, a voice many of us take for granted. But members of our most vulnerable population don't all have a means of communication. SLPs work to give them a means of communication. Communication is the process of exchanging information, ideas, or feelings through speaking, writing, or using symbols. What the district has done by removing the $500 SEAS stipend is communicate that the work SLPs do for our district is not valued. This small investment makes a tremendous difference. It signals that our district

081values highly trained clinicians and wants to keep them here. SLPs are in critical shortage across the state. Neighboring districts offer this stipend, and without it, we lose talented staff, people who already know our students, our families, and our systems. We have faced turnover year after year that is far more costly than this stipend, both in the budget and more importantly, with the disruption it creates for students who depend on consistent support. Reinstating this stipend strengthens recruitment, strengthens retention, and strengthens the services we provide. It helps us keep the clinicians our students deserve. Thank you for considering this request and for your ongoing commitment to student success. Good evening board members, cabinet, and audience. Thank you for coming to support us. My name is Lilia Mata. In 2003, I left a nearby district to join the

082community of East Whittier City School District, a highly respectable district at the time. I want to shortly recap the previous email that I emailed each of you members. I'm asking for reinstatement of our C-stipend on behalf of myself and the other SLPs that support our students throughout our district. The highly valued certification not only serves for retention of our SLPs, as has been previously mentioned by my colleagues, but supports the ongoing professional development necessary for growth and compliance with ASHA, American Speech and Hearing Association, our governing board. Our governing board supervisory guidelines states that only licensed SLPs who hold their Cs are qualified to supervise. We supervise clinical fellows who are first-year clinicians completing their supervised professional experience and our SLPAs, our paraprofessionals, who provide support services under the direction and supervision of a qualified

083SLP. A fully staffed district with SLPs and their Cs is essential for sourcing channels for long-term candidates, supporting new clinicians who are employed by our district. Planning for appropriate supervisory capacity is therefore necessary to remain aligned with ASHA standards and to maintain compliance while supporting the district's ongoing service needs. And finally, maintaining uninterrupted services for the students who we are here to serve, particularly during periods of staffing shortages, which are unfortunately far too often. I emphasize this point because I have constantly been affected by these shortages, as many of our SPED staff have, often taking additional hours of sacrificing personal and family time to keep up with the pace with the demanding workload. East Whittier currently employs five clinical fellows who currently require supervision from SLPs. Although this may not seem as a hefty endeavor,

084providing resources, making myself available for questions, and supporting these coworkers in important instances like IEP meetings requires significant commitment. It is my hope that through your respect of your SLPs and consideration, we are able to retain our five CFs at the end of their completion of their professional hours. In hopes of a fully staffed department, something we have lacked for decades, as you all have already known. Thank you for your time and for your thoughtful consideration to reinstate RC's stipend. Good night. Good evening, board members, and thank you for taking the time to listen to what we are talking about and needs of the speech department. My name is Caroline Sembrano. This is my 11th year at East Whittier City School District. I'm a speech-language pathologist, and I maintain specialized certification in assistive technology and

085augmentative alternative communication devices. In my role as the assistive technology specialist for East Whittier, I provide evaluations for students with IEPs in general education classrooms, as well as mild-mod classrooms and extensive needs classrooms. Some of our students need access to text readers and voice typing options, others need writing organization support, and still others need augmentative alternative communication devices to help them communicate their basic wants and needs. I also provide assistive technology training and resources to our teachers and families working with and caring for our students. I was surprised to find that the district decided to cut our stipend for our C's. Removing a small stipend signals a devaluation of advanced certification, which can harm morale and make recruitment harder when surrounding districts continue to recognize SEAS financially. In addition, losing experienced staff costs the district

086much more than the $500 annual certificate in recruitment, training, and service disruption. We are also aware that the stipend for special education credential was recently increased. While this increase is extremely, extremely well deserved and much needed, it has not resulted in equitable gains across roles. Special education teachers see a full increase of $1,000, but SLPs receive only $500 net gain. This is because the district removed our $500 stipend for RCs as part of that bargaining. We believe this does not reflect the equitable advancement that the district claims to support. I'm asking you all to reinstate the $500 stipend to maintain our certificate of clinical competence. Thank you. Good evening, board members. I have a little bit of a change in topic here. My name is Veronica Islas and I'm a board member with Whittier Area

087Youth Soccer, better known as Waze, the largest youth sports organization in the whole city, serving over 1,200 children. Hillview has been our home from the start and we truly value our partnership with the school and with the district. Recently, comments about ways at board meetings have put us in a difficult position. So we felt it was important to be here to clarify the facts. Ms. Harris has said that the fields feel like they're just for ways when it comes to maintenance and a mowing schedule. But we understand the district only has one mower and must plan carefully. We appreciate Thursday mowing for our Saturday games. And while we would help if allowed, we respect the rules. It was also suggested that we use other schools, which we have at Ceres and Mulberry, but without lights,

088we have to return to Hillview once it gets dark. A system that had worked well for years has now changed. Hillview is no longer allowing us to use their trash cans during the week. Trash cans which, by the way, Waze purchased and donated to the school. When we arrive for practice, we frequently find garbage on the fields and trash cans overflowing, something that we are being blamed for. But trash removal during the week is the day janitor's responsibility, not Waze. And yet our families often end up cleaning the fields just to make them usable. This change feels unfair and does not reflect the spirit of a true partnership. Amid these challenges, we want to highlight Waze contributions to Hillview and other EWCSD schools. In the past two years, we have provided Supplies and goodies for

089back to school, state testing, end of year celebrations at Hillview. Numerous appreciation day lunches and treats for teachers, staff, and custodians at Hillview. Drinks and snacks plus field painting for last year's middle school soccer tournament at Hillview. Socks for all the soccer teams at Hillview, Granada, and East Whittier. At Hillview's first ever trunk or treat event last month, we donated $2,000 in candy. An additional $1,000 in candy donations were given to Scott Avenue and Ceres for their Trunk or Treat events. And this summer, we donated $5,000 to help reseed Hillview's fields. Lastly, we are about to donate a $300 gift card to help purchase food baskets for the Hillview families in need. We want to clarify that we don't use registration fees for this support. We keep those lows so all kids can participate. Instead,

090our volunteer board fund-raises tirelessly so that we can give back. We are disappointed by how Waze has been portrayed. These fields are a community resource meant for all, including many Hillview students and hundreds of EWCST kids who play at Waze, including our very own Oliver Baird. The removal of garbage cans and repeated negative comments about us just don't reflect our contributions or our goodwill. We respectfully ask what more is expected of us. We respond promptly to concerns. We welcome open communication. We provide support whenever needed. And yet each board meeting helps us unsure what's next. It feels unfair. We thank you for this partnership. Thank you. Oh, it's okay. They were clapping, so I couldn't hear at all. Okay, thank you very much. My name is Donna Smith. I'm a special education teacher here at

091Granada and my question for the board is how many mistakes are acceptable? Special education teachers in middle school have all the responsibilities of our general education counterparts plus IEPs, testing, and case management. Our prep periods are typically not used to prepare materials, grade papers, or even write IEPs and reports. Our prep periods are used for testing. We are required to test students individually for their IEP. That task alone takes up most of our prep time. So when do we actually work on the legal mandates of each student's IEP? When do we review the IEPs and ensure that accommodations are being made? When do we check in with individual students? When do we measure goals and write progress reports? When do we check in and collaborate with general education teachers? When do we collaborate and consult

092with speech and occupational therapy? When do we contact parents? When do we create all of the curriculum for the five different subjects that we teach? Personally, I am always, always behind. I make mistakes. I forget to do things. I am forced to choose between the needs of my students and the time it takes to complete the tasks that I am expected to complete. It's common practice in other districts to provide a prep period and a case management period for special education to give us the flexibility that we need and the time required to do our jobs. If the board and the district want accurate, compliant IEPs, then teachers need time to develop and implement those IEPs with fidelity. So I'm asking the board to please consider adding a case management period for special education teachers.

093I did want to take a moment just to clarify the comments regarding the speech and language pathologist sees that is a negotiated item that needs to come to the table with the bargaining unit and the district. Thank you. Two discussion items. Number one that Dr. Good evening President Chacon-Kennedy, Board Members, Dr. Patterson, fellow cabinet members, and community members. My name is Dr. Trina Gonzalez and I'm serving as the new assistant superintendent of educational support services. The focus for tonight's presentation is to share our proposal on how we can leverage and enhance our current district-wide systems of support to impact student learning and to invest in our teachers through teacher growth and support in the 26-27 school year. It's important to begin by anchoring our purpose for this enhanced model. I wanted you to reflect for

094a moment on our vision that's been established for quite some time in our district. Our focus has been on the conditions of learning, student achievement, and engagement. Now we've expanded that to include a mission statement, which includes providing a clear explanation of our district's expectations and how we will accomplish it. For East Whittier, our goal is to enhance high-quality Tier 1 instruction that emphasizes instructional excellence, positive school culture. With that in mind at the forefront of our decision-making our cabinet brainstormed collaborated and worked with all of our partners including our administrative leadership and both our classified and certificated unions to look at and maximize our monetary resources to come up with a new instructional support plan. In this restructuring we'll have two key positions to enhance student and teacher support. The intervention specialist position is

095something that we're all familiar with, and a new site-based instructional coach position will be added. Each have an important and distinct role that I'd like to take a few minutes to share. The intervention specialist position will work directly to support students, and the instructional coach position will focus on teacher growth and Tier 1 improvement. The role of the intervention specialist is to provide instruction and intervention for our students to improve student growth. Our instructional coach will partner and collaborate with teachers to focus on teacher growth and system-wide instructional improvement. Although one group is working with students... students, our intervention specialists, it's equally important to provide that same structure and support to our teachers in the classrooms that are in site-based instructional coach positions. Now that we've delineated between the two roles, I would like to

096share the proposal for each. For our site-based instructional coaches, we would like to propose seven instructional coaches at our Title I school sites and one instructional coach for our non-Title I school sites. two middle school coaches, and one special education coach. Our rationale behind that is that site-based instructional coaching is proven to make the greatest impact on student achievement than any other professional learning model. Coaching also drives stronger tier one instruction, accelerates teacher growth, and directly improves classroom practices. Our ELOP intervention specialists will work directly to support students We ask for ten intervention specialists one being at each elementary site and ten instructional aides to support our intervention specialists. We're asking for ELOP funding and moving over in that direction because the schedule will really help us to ensure that students receive extended support in

097the afternoon rather than taking them out through core instruction during the daytime. It also will provide a structured, cohesive way to provide intervention for our students across any school setting. And it also aligns directly to the purpose of ELOP, which is for academic recovery, enrichment, and extended learning. We do believe that every interaction matters and we believe that this restructuring model creates a coherent system for all of our schools that really focuses on students, our coaches that strengthen our tier one instruction, intervention specialists that will extend and deliver direct services to our students, and finally it will build capacity, support teacher excellence, and create consistency across all 13 schools. So we felt that since there was so much conversation around the intervention specialist at the previous board meeting we wanted to just bring back what

098the plan is for 26 27 and recognizing that all along we felt that the intervention specialist model was very Important there were just some communication pieces that got away With some conversations that were supposed to have remained kind of confidential and then that got out so that forced us to kind of get ahead of this in a different way. So we are very grateful for our collaboration with EWE to go ahead and approve the job description for ELOP intervention specialists as well as CSCA's agreement to have the aides work that non-traditional schedule. Could you go back to the first couple slides that gives that one right there? So the instructional coaches, is that for all? That's not seven per school. That's seven for the district. So seven instructional coaches would be placed at each one

099of our seven Title I schools. So that means one at each site or seven at each site? One at each site. Okay. And then the middle school coach is just two for the three middle schools? Yes. Okay. And then for the special ed, just one for the entire district. And then the next slide if you can go into the next right forward the ELOP one there you go. So one at each elementary school and an instruction is that TANEC. It's basically our current model except that we are shifting the hours due to the funding source of extended learning opportunity. Yeah. And is any of that ELOP instruction after school hours at all during the school day. So it's partially during the school day but will extend to the after after school hours which will enable

100us to use ELOP funding. Do we have what's our current model is that what it is right now? The 10 and 10 and 10 so this is 10 and 10 correct now and if you recall the conversations that happened at the last board meeting because the fiscal stabilization plan had called for a Reduction of five of those positions on both the certificated and the classified side however you know, we were in conversations around ELOP being the possible solution to that to be able to save those five positions by shifting the entire program to the after school piece. So they have to be eliminated because they're being paid out of the general fund, but they're going to be picked up from ELOP funds. So by picking it up out of ELOP, it allows us to keep

101those ten positions fully intact at each one of the schools. And also, like Dr. Gonzales mentioned, it does also... Solve two different issues we have typically a lot. You know, we have so many students going to intervention That students are pulled out of the general education classroom there for creating this cycle of Students missing core instruction in order to see remediation So this allows us to shift that opportunity to the afternoon as well to be able to have that instruction in Non-traditional times. We also have had some difficulty, you know as many people mentioned, you know, our teachers are very retired and there's a lot of things going on with family commitments and whatnot. So it's been difficult for us to get intervention across the district in a consistent manner. So this creates a systematized

102structured support from 2 30 to 3 30 to 4 where we can absolutely provide that with a dedicated person who will be supported through the ESS department. So compared to what we have current model right today and after this proposed model are we plus or minus or exactly the same? So we are exactly the same on the intervention specialist side. We are increasing an additional so right now in the coaching realm we currently have three coaches. We have a math coach, an English language arts coach, and a tech coach. Okay. So I saw 10 ISs, but at the last slide it says we have a total of 13. Does that mean that our... Where do you see that? So see how it says 10? No. It says 10, right? Intervention specialists. But the last slide

103at the very bottom says we can help all 13 schools. Does this mean that the three middle schools will also have an IS? No, that's the culminating of the two different supports. So this is a summary slide that it's talking about the entire restructuring program, the coaches and the intervention specialists. So the two coaches that are only going to go to the two middle schools means that one middle school will be left without a coach? No, they're going to be rotate. Yes, correct. With the special ed supports, what would that role be with a coach? Is that support for the teachers, instructional, design, lesson planning? Yes. But this so just just to be clear this is a early intervention model So this is a particular grant that we receive funding for so the student population

104that is going to be served is going to be our preschool TK potentially kindergarten ish But that particular funding source is to provide support to be able to identify Concerns that we might have with the students progress to be able to intervene prior to a student being assessed for special education services. Is there support for... It's a limited funding that we believe will be around for about two years. Is there additional support for the older students? So right now this is the only model that we have. The comments that were made today, that's all things that are being discussed with every member of our cabinet team and our special education department as well as ESS to be able to figure out what those supports do look like in many of the areas that were addressed

105today. Yeah, I do. I do. You know, hopefully we could create a plan because we know it's difficulties in all schools, not just here in East Whittier. I mean, it's there's the difficulties, but I do know there is there is a need. And, you know, hopefully we can come up with a plan to address that. I mean, it's definitely a need and we're hearing the voice and we want to be able to come up with a plan for something to address that. Why do we not have ISs at middle schools? We tried about, if you recall, about four years ago, we had intervention specialists in both ELA and math in the middle school program, and it just did not, the data did not support that it was making an impact, and it was very difficult

106with the scheduling, so that was something that we all agreed was not something that was supported in that program. I have a question, Dr. Gonzalez. So all of these individuals will be under your supervision? So we are hiring them at the district level, yes. Okay, and the ones that are currently in those positions, do they have to reapply? Yes, they will be reapplying. Okay, and then as you indicated, Dr. Patterson, this is only for all the work that has been put in, and we appreciate that, I appreciate that, this is a program that can only be sustained for two years? Well, we are saying that this is a three-year commitment. The problem is we do not know, given the fact that this is an ELOP-funded program. This ELOP, as well as TK, is something that

107is very near and dear to our current governor's heart, but that does not necessarily mean that that is something that is going to be near and dear to the next governor's heart. So we'll learn more once that candidate field kind of... stabilizes to be able to know what the particular political platforms especially around education look like but our hope is that this would be able to be at a minimum of three-year opportunity to be able to provide those supports and the current folks that are in these positions they have been made aware prior to this meeting that they will if we approve this that they will need to reapply Absolutely. Yeah, they've been aware of that. We've also done some crosswalks on the two positions to explain to them what the instructional coach was. That

108might be something that their why has shifted and they would like to work and support teachers or remain in an IS role. They would then reapply. And Dr. Gonzalez, part of my career as, you know, having been a principal for 15 years and Mr. Tiago as well, but working with coaches. It's important that there be a very structured, sustainable, focused program, if you will, for the coaches because I have had experience in the past as a school principal where if you were not very focused with the coaches, sometimes those folks would not be able to be used as they should be. and that created issues with teachers feeling that the coaches were there not doing what they should be doing. So my question is, is there in this program a very strategic plan for how

109every single one of those coaches will be working with every single one of the teachers that they are going to be involved with? And that teachers can say and put a finger on it and say, oh yes, so this year, 26, my coach met with me five times and we worked through this and this is really a great, you know, program, this is really a great strategy that was approved by our district. And so that's my concern, that the input execution creates the output. In other words, our teachers feel supported. by these coaches because they're able to try the strategies, do the strategies, follow up with the strategies, and then feel like this is successful. Because to place this money, of course, to do this, we want to be able to see that, right? We

110want to see into, through, and beyond. We want our teachers to feel that they are being supported. So again, I'm assuming that you have this in place, correct? We do have an implementation plan. It actually starts in the springtime where we're looking at bringing in training and intensive five-day through gym night, focusing on the coaching cycle. We also know that it's going to be focusing on all of our district initiatives. For example, when we think of things like UFLY, that's one of the new initiatives that we are working on with teachers in the classroom that will directly impact Tier 1 instruction in the area of reading. So that will be one of the initiatives that we focus on. It really will be teacher-led. It could be grade-level support or it can be teacher-initiated support. particular

111area one might be you fly one might be a grade level working on a particular standard that they want to focus on like the theme of a story they'd have the instructional coach there to be able to direct their learning provide resources and be able to be another thought partner for them but i think like this steps like you're like you're saying basically with your experience the whole idea is that even though these are directly supporting the sites, either in the intervention specialist model or in the instructional coach model, the need to have those clear parameters about what the expectations are, what data are we looking at, what supports are we looking at, how are we supporting our principals to have those conversations with staff, whether there's a grade level need, whether there's a curriculum

112need, to be able to be very, very... clear about what those expectations are and then coming back to the table during our principal PLC conversations that we have every every week every month to be able to start refining those programs, but it's exactly what you said to be able to make sure So to piggyback on your very clear comment really quick, that means we have student learning outcomes, program learning outcomes, and institutional learning outcomes already in place. And what I mean by institutional, I mean district-wide outcomes, right, with this program. Those are the things that we are going to co-create as well. So they're not created yet? Those are not created yet. Now, when they are created, will those be provided to us, and will the data also be provided? Just like we do with

113everything else, yes. Thank you. Question. Right now we currently have intervention specialists, correct? Correct. So are the job descriptions or requirements changing at all for the new ones they're interviewing or it's the exact same position? The job descriptions have changed for both and they've both been approved. But the requirements, the same thing. just automatically qualifies who's in that position now still got an interview but that the requirement the minimal requirement right they have a great pre-disposition to get the job to do their experience and skills okay good and i know these particular ones we're talking about is for our younger the younger intervention and at some point hopefully we'll get it for our older students special ed any of the other positions for our older students but i do think it's important and you may

114be doing this already is that when we're talking about the coaches I think it's important to also talk to the school site and the teachers to ask what kind of coaching what kind of supports they need because I think it's. coming straight from the top there is definitely there but you also need to make sure we're hearing from the school sites I think that's that's important too because that's where you're gonna build that bond on that trust so I highly recommend with that needs to be in place there too it's a team effort it's a together a model but I do think it's important to hear from the principal that the site and and the teachers as well YES THEY WILL DEFINITELY BE INVOLVED IN ALL OF THAT AND I ALSO WANTED TO KIND OF

115JUST ELABORATE A BIT SO WHEN WE HAVE THESE POSITIONS IT'S INCLUSIVE OF SPED STUDENTS AS WELL SO WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT AN INSTRUCTIONAL COACH THEY CAN SUPPORT SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHERS AS WELL WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT AN INTERVENTION SPECIAL THEY SHOULD ABSOLUTELY BE PULLING SPECIAL EDUCATION KIDS THAT ARE IN NEED OF ACADEMIC SUPPORT AS WELL SO I DON'T WANT YOU TO THINK IT'S SOMETHING SEPARATE IT ACTUALLY INCLUDES THOSE THAT DEMOGRAPHIC OF STUDENTS AS WELL AND Reason why Jim Knight's program was selected. I am NOT a fan of Jim Knight He has been embroiled in some issues if you're not familiar I can share Separately, so can you speak a little more as to why he his program was chosen? Did we go and throw a bit of a wider net and look at different opportunities for?

116instructional coaching models can you speak a little bit about that so we did but what we really emphasized was the coaching cycles that jim knight offers his five-day intensive program that he offers as well that goes into the questioning part and actually looking into what you had shared about getting teachers interests and actually having them lead the conversations about what they'll be doing so we did look into that we also have other opportunities that we can look to if we so choose to we can still pivot from that but it would be helpful for you to share whatever you have with us yeah thank you thank you On to item two. I move the recommendation that the Board of Education approve the incentive intended to provide the district with timely information to better forecast staffing

117needs. Second. I have a first. Mr. Abrecio and Mr. Urtiaga. Discussion? I saw a list of names that are already on their retirement this year and one principal. Anybody else? Any questions? Okay. I will call for the question. Mr. Baird. Yes. Ms. Carrera. Yes, mr. Oparicio. Yes, yes Yes This is just an informational item that we bring every year to kind of capture retentions and promotions across the district. As you can see, just historically, given the fact that we have 7,400 students on our rosters, it is very rare for a student to be accelerated or retained. Mr. Baird, when we were having our pre-meeting like we do before every meeting, said that it was highly unusual that... a seventh grader would be accelerated. So I agreed that that was, that is an unusual time to

118accelerate a student's learning. Yeah, go ahead. I have a question. So I went in to look at, everyone, our administrative reg and our policy on retention. I am not a fan of retention. AT ALL. AND THIS POLICY WAS CREATED LONG BEFORE I WAS HERE AND MS. CARRETA WAS HERE, JUST FOR A POINT OF INFORMATION. WHEN YOU PULL THE DATA ON RETENTION, IT IS ABSOLUTELY INCONCLUSIVE THAT IT DOES ANYTHING TO SUPPORT STUDENTS. In our reg, however, it indicates that this will only be done if there is an assurance that that child that is retained is going to receive A, B, C, D, E, F. So I'm not sure whose responsibility it is to tell me a little bit more, maybe you, Dr. Patterson. Are we ensuring that those students that we're retaining are going to receive...

119the structured, emotional, and cognitive and instructional support that is necessary for them to succeed, given that we know now that retaining a child is not a good strategy. Well, as you noted, if you look at those numbers, we've gotten better and better over the years of trying to be able to have those important conversations with parents about the struggles that students who are retained typically... struggle with both academically as well as socially so you can see now that in 24-25 we only had two students and that's because our ESS department works very collaboratively with our principals to be able to have those conversations we've shored up our student study team processes you know so we really do have those conversations with parents and there are just some unique circumstances I mean two two kids out

120of 7400 you know is quite a very as a testimonial to the conversations that we have at the teacher level, the principal level, and at the district level to be able to guide parents in a more... I'm just concerned, though, that they're going to receive what we say in our policy that they're supposed to receive. Yes, we follow the... Okay, I appreciate that. Thank you. Do most of the retention requests or the retention of students' grades... District initiated or parent initiated. What do you think? I mean, I really don't have that. Dr. Seve's in your experience over the last four years. What would you say? I would say it's both equal. Anything else? Okay. On to the next item. Item four. I move the recommendation that the Board of Education approve the change order number

121one for BYR 25-23, installation of portable restrooms at Ocean View and Scott Avenue, submitted by DC Integrate Incorporation. I second. So I did have a conversation with Mr. Kennedy about this very very high number our M&O team and our business services team does everything that they can in order to be able to make sure that we suss out all known items there are just some things like when you break into a wall when you break into plumbing when you dig there are just some unforeseen circumstances as you know we've put these restrooms in at four of our other schools where we have had no problem one of the things that we ran into you know last year was liquefaction and the inability to be able to have a strong enough soil so we had to

122bring in an excessive amount of soil in one of our other programs so this particular instance was when we when we broke ground and we were getting ready to do reuse and compact that soil. It was just unusable soil. So unfortunately we had to remove that soil, take it away, and then we had to bring new soil in. So this really was nothing that could have been perceived and we are confident that this is not just a change order that was for the sake of a change order. Silly question, but when they extract the soil is that sellable? Do we get... You said they had to extract the... But normally that's why the cost is cheaper because we are reusing that soil. Oh, so they're like... This was their inability to do that so they

123had to haul this unusable soil away. Okay, so it was unusable at all, but does anyone... I don't know if anybody else could use it, but we didn't make any money off of it. We didn't make any money. Dr. Patterson you're correct. We didn't make any money but we do still have it so we can repurpose it for other materials. So our M&O team was able to take the soil out ourselves and we've stored it so that we can use it for other purposes at other times. Well it's not like contaminated or anything. It's just whatever. It's just not usable for the weight of this project. Anything else? No other comments, okay call for the question. Mr. Baird. Yes, mr. Tiago. Yes, this is Dabbs. Yes, mr. Yes, miss Carrera. Yes, and I vote yes

124so that passes on to consent items Anybody have anybody want to anything they want to pull and then the consent it up. I need a motion I move the recommendations of the superintendent the Board of Education approved consent agenda items j3 through j11 Second. Second. Discussion. On number four, agreement number 121, 131. Which one? Number four under administrative content, consent item four, exceeding 10,000 and reporting. Okay, we're on number four. Uh-huh. Under where it says administrative content. We paid or we're paying out 50,000 to Robert half. Okay. Wait, that's that's on that's a different that's a different number I'm in consent items, right? Number three Oh, it pops up on Okay, I am three okay, so we hired this agency for To support our accounting department? So there's an error in the date. So it

125is not on 1-1-25. It's supposed to be 12-1-25. So that is an error, but the date is correct on the contract, which is essentially what the board is approving. This is just a summary of those contracts. So there's no bearing on the execution of the contract from our business services team. This is an individual who is going out on maternity leave. So we do not have a staff member on site who has cross trained to be able to carry out the functions of the purchasing agent. So this company provides a temp, basically it's a temp company. Thank you. So do we need to on the readout state correct that error? No, we do not. Okay, does anybody have anything else? I just had a comment on all the charges for, before I say anything, I

126really feel that our, we have a. Our special ed department, like I said, it's fantastic. And we really need money for that department. And we really, I can't tell you how important I think it is. But I just want everybody to know how much money was just on this one agenda for special ed. And every year when I go to Washington, you see I've been going for three, this will be my third year. When I first, first in 2021, our special ed budget was 70 point 17.9 million, 2022, 21 million, 2024, it's 24 million. And I want you to know that out of that, we get some from the state and the feds. The feds are supposed to fund us at like a hundred percent. We're lucky. We're lucky if we get 20 or 30%.

127So out of the 24 million. that for this year, 6.8, I think we got from, did we get that from the Feds? From the state, and then 1.5 from the Feds. So the difference between 24 and those is what comes out of our general fund. So that's why it's important that we go and really, I feel it's important to go to Washington, D.C. That trip is not a trip of luxury, I'll tell you right now. It's hard. When we go there, We are constantly, constantly doing something. There's never anywhere to sit. It's hot. We're busy all day long. Sometimes we don't even leave the building. And then we go and meet with our congresswoman, Melinda Sanchez, and try and get her to understand how important it is for us. And it's a battle. It really

128is a battle. Now, I don't know about the current administration how much worse or better it's going to be, but I will tell you, that's a big hit to us. The 24 million minus what we get from them, we're paying like 16 or 17 million out of our general fund for that, that they're supposed to pay. So I just want everybody to know how important that is and how strongly I feel about it. We need it. We need to fight for it. And if anybody else besides me can go, I'd really appreciate it because it's important. So anyway, that's all I'm going to say about that. Yeah, I know. I'd like to say thank you, Mr. Conkenity, for going and advocating for that because, yeah, you're right. Every district, again, has those encroachment of those

129special ed funds because the numbers are growing and the needs are growing, and so it's there. And so thank you for doing that. And, you know, hopefully you mentioned the current administration does not believe in. education right now and so I know that it is gonna be tough and I see all the good even with what the compass see all the good that's coming out of the district with our special ed teachers and it's just amazing to me so I I really feel like it's important to fight for this and like if anybody else wanted to join me it'd be great but it's a lot of work yeah thank you okay anybody else have anything that we need to talk about on this just again the happy retirement or we're already getting them coming in

130so Congratulations on their decision. Okay, anything else? I'll call for the question. Ms. Carrera? Yes. Mr. Baird? Yes. Mrs. Dabbs? Yes. Mr. Aparicio? Yes. Mr. Chaga? Yes. And I vote yes, so that passes. On to the next item. I so move to adjourn this meeting. Second. Okay, before we vote, does anybody have any closing comments? Happy Thanksgiving. I want to add my, for any of you that, for all of you or any of you that celebrate Thanksgiving, may it be a really beautiful time to reflect and be grateful for what we have, even though it might seem challenging. We have a lot. Thank you. And thanks again to Granada for hosting this meeting. We appreciate all the hard work. Just thank you to Granada. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Yeah, and just thank you to Granada

131for everything they did here. The music was great. Okay, I'd like to thank everybody everybody at Granada for everything they did and I hope everybody has a happy hall a happy Thanksgiving Happy Thanksgiving Okay, now I call for the question Mrs. Dabbs Yes, mr. Baird. Yes, miss Carrera. Yes, mr. Aparicio. Yes, mr. Tiago. Yes, and I vote yes, so we are adjourned at 818 oh, sorry I second it. Yeah. Miss Carrera. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. OK. We're adjourned. Adjourned at 818. We need to stay. Thank you all very much.