001As an added bonus, I have this here. It's going to be right here. And if anybody can tell me what it is, I have another little gift for you right there. Anyway, I'll call the meeting to order at 6.02. Okay. Good evening, everybody. I want to report out that during closed session, the Board of Education approved the following administrator assignments for the 25-26. We're thrilled to announce that Jennifer Lopez who is currently the assistant principal at Granada middle school will be the principal at La Colima Is back there? Yes, I know Oh, she's standing Okay. We are also excited to announce that since Julie Gonzalez will be leaving her role as principal at Ceres Elementary for a director position in Fullerton Joint, the board has approved the appointment of Gabriela Aldana, who is the current
002director of secondary education and former principal at East Whittier, to serve as the next principal at Ceres Elementary. And with Dr. Aldana moving to series, we are pleased to remove the interim title from Peter Moore and announce his status as the official principal at East Whittier Middle School. Additionally, Veronica Ruiz will have her interim title removed and will now be serving as the assistant principal at East Whittier Middle School. Congratulations, everybody. Okay, on to the flag salute. And we need to have come up Sophia Woodhead, Gavin Bishop, Mateo Sedana, William Conroy, Matthew Sanchez, and Kiara Felix. Everyone please rise and place your right hand over your heart. Ready, begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with
003liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Come up here. Tell us a little bit about yourselves. Introduce yourselves and tell us a little bit about yourself. Go ahead. Okay, employee recognition, Ocean View. There she is. I saw that look on your face. I am thrilled to recognize Ms. Sandra Vasquez, our amazing school office coordinator, as the Ocean View Elementary School's Classified Employee of the Month. Come on up. I know this is not something we love to do, but I'm going to make her be up here. Sandra, your hard work, organization, and kindness keep our school running smoothly every single day. Whether you're managing the chaos behind the scenes or warmly welcoming families at the front desk your positive presence makes a huge difference Thank you for helping parents feel at home supporting our staff with
004grace and keeping everything in perfect order Sandra has worked for EWCSD since 2005. She worked as a parent liaison at Laurel for five years, a parent liaison at Mulberry, and a sub-supervising assistant for two years, the school office coordinator at Granada for 10 years, until 2022, where she joined her OV family and is about to finish her third year as our amazing office coordinator. We appreciate you, and we're so lucky to have you as part of the Ocean View family. Congratulations. Thank you. I know Sandra has family here today. I think this whole entire row is part of her family. Everyone with the camera up is a family member. If you'd like to say a couple words. Sorry, I wrote something down. Thank you. Just a little bit. Good evening, and thank you everyone for
005being here today. I began this journey back in 2001 as a parent. And I kind of started inquiring on how students or the kinder students would be able to have an awning for their lunch area. And when I asked, I was told, well, fundraising. So I was excited to join the PTA back in 2001. We successfully were able to build that awning for our kinder students. And then we didn't stop there. We were in a really good group of motivated parents who continued to provide a multimedia library back then too. And so being there so many hours, I was approached by Mary Wright. a principal back then and she said, well, it's so many hours of volunteering. Are you interested in a part-time job? She said, of course, you'd have to pass all the district
006requirements. So that was nice. So then I started that in 2005 and as Kim already explained, my journey throughout the district. So I'm just very thankful and appreciative of my families that I've made both at Granada and Ocean View. They've been very welcoming and loving to me and I'm appreciative of that. proud that our sons have both come through this district and my nieces as well and they have a very successful and positive Outlook as well, so we're not only employees, but we're vested families in this district and for that I'm very thankful And lastly I'd like to thank all my friends my father and my mother my family my sons and most importantly my husband who's been through this journey with me for 30 years and supported all my Outrageous requests for volunteering or
007voluntold to help me and everything so I'm very thankful And thank you for allowing me to have this platform All right. Joining her in this honor. You know, we elected these people last year, and we have a very late school board meeting in the school year, so we've been celebrating them for like almost a year, or more than a year. So I am finally excited to be able to be here tonight to actually let the whole community know, and I'd like to congratulate our Employee of the Month for Certificated, Ms. Misty Rapp. Come on up. Today she said, do I have to talk? I'm all, yes. We are thrilled to recognize Misty Rapp, an extraordinary teacher and a true champion for kids. Her dedication, hard work, and unwavering heart for children inspire everyone around her.
008Misty is not only a compassionate and loving educator, but also a collaborative team member who I count on a lot for advice and just for sanity. She lifts us up and she does that with grace and positivity. As Rita Pearson once said in her powerful TED Talk, which is also quoted in front of all of you tonight, every child deserves a champion, an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection and insists that they become the best that they can possibly be. Misty, you are that champion. Misty has worked in East Whittier since 2011. I taught her sister. She was at Leffingwell with me. Her mom was my buddy, next-door neighbor. I remember Brianna jumping on a trampoline at the talent show. I'm not sure why we let you
009do that, but she brought a whole trampoline onto the campus. She worked part-time at Leffingwell for five years. She's worked at Evergreen. She's been a substitute teacher. She's been an aide. And she is currently a Learning Center teacher, and she finally found her way home to Ocean View. I know she is the core of her amazing family. If you're family to her, raise your hand. She holds you all together. She has five kids and stepkids and a husband that literally got out of the hospital today, and she's still here tonight. He's fine, but he shouldn't be home yet to drive her crazy. Thank you for supporting her. Thank you, Misty, for all you do. Your impact goes far beyond the classroom, and we are so grateful for you. I just want to say thank you
010very much for this award. I feel very humbled by it, and I appreciate it very much. And I just wanted to say thank you to my amazing family, my husband who's not here, my kids, my parents, my sister, my nieces. all just very supportive of me and being a teacher is hard. It takes a village and I really appreciate my village. I just wanted to also recognize Steph Sermon who was my mentor teacher for five years at Leffingwell and learned so many things from her. And I just also wanted to acknowledge that it takes a team to be a special ed teacher and I have a great team. Amazing social worker, principal. coworkers and instructional assistants who make me look great behind the scenes. And some of them are here tonight on their time off,
011which is really impactful. So thank you, beautiful ladies in the back. And thank you for this award. And I appreciate everybody. Thank you. All right, so our presentation every year is a little different. So this year they've asked us to speak about our theme for the year, and as you can tell, it's kind of everywhere and a little obnoxious. But we are working to be a champion this year. So not only are our kids working to be champions, but we are working as adults to be champions for kids. And I could talk about this forever if you know me, but I thought it would come best from kids. So these students wrote a little essay, and we combined their essay, and I'm asking them. to tell us what it means to be a champion. It's
012more important that they get it than I get it. So come on up, kiddos. Everyone at Oceanview is a champion, but what does being a champion mean to me? Being a champion to me means to have self-control and integrity. I was a champion when I took the 50 states and capitals test and got 100%. Being a champion is about working hard and not giving up, even when things are tough. Whether I win or lose, what really makes me feel like a champion is the effort I put into it. It's all about doing my best. Being a champion to me means being able to balance school with other activities. It also means being nice. Being a champion to me also means being a role model to others. And if you are a good role model others
013will do the same as you and if everybody does this not only our schools will be affected but the world can be affected too. Thank you for letting us present tonight. Thank you. On to District Employee Recognition East Whittier. Mr. Moore. I can't top kids. Oh my goodness. Well done Ocean View. Good evening, school board, Dr. Patterson, everyone here tonight. My name is Peter Moore. I'm the principal at East Whittier Middle School. I have the pleasure of honoring one of our most valuable classified employees from our school. Jessica Torres, come on up. All right. Jessica is one of our devoted cafeteria workers at East Whittier Middle School. She has been keeping our kids fed and sustained both physically and mentally for the past 25 years. Awesome. Yeah, that's a lot of sandwiches. Livia, her supervisor,
014has this to say about her. Jessica is extremely reliable and punctual each and every day. She's a pleasure to work with, works hard each day, and has an authentic, joyful spirit about her. Christy Gonzalez states that Jessica is a wonderful co-worker and the most reliable person she has ever worked with. There's not a day that goes by that she has not made her laugh at work. She loves her job, and the cafeteria would not be the same without her. One of my favorite things to do as principal is supervise the nutrition line. It is a magical time when the energy... My cafeteria worker's here tonight. When the energy of an F5 tornado blows through and close to 1,000 kids are fed in 15 minutes. Afterwards, Jessica and her crew quickly change food items out and
015do it all over again for lunch. For some of these students, this is a very important time, and nutrition and lunch is not just a luxury, but a necessity. Jessica truly is an important cog in the wheel of educating our students. Congratulations, Jessica. You are very deserving of this honor. I wasn't prepared for this, but I didn't know I was going to have to say something. But thank you guys, my family, my friends, my daughters here today. I don't know what to say, but thank you guys for everything you guys do. All right, Miss Brittany Alejandre, come on up. All right. Congratulations to Brittany Alejandre. She is our all-knowing, all-powerful academic counselor. She is small, but very, very mighty. I personally feel the most meaningful awards in life are when you are honored and recognized
016by your peers who you work with. Ms. Alejandre is finishing up her third year at East Weter Middle School and being selected in that third year is a testament to her hard work, ethic, and impact that she makes on our campus. Ms. Alejandra works tirelessly to support our students. Here are some of the things she's responsible for. She's our Avid Psych Coordinator and responsible for all the great events including all the college field trips. She sets up our SST and 504 meetings, coordinates our Tier 2 and Tier 3 meetings, run academic support groups and Friday after-school intervention. She counsels our newcomer ELA students and the growth that they have made is both palpable and inspiring. What makes her invaluable to me personally is I can ask her for any data point or any spreadsheet and
017like magic, she'll have it to me before I can even log into my Google account. I could go on and on, but we need to get out of here at a decent time. She does this all with a gracious attitude and servant's heart. She truly is an invaluable resource to our school community. Now, in the words of Miss Leigh Hunter's favorite American poet, Taylor Swift, I'd like to quote, long live all the mountains we move. I have the time of life fighting dragons with you. Congratulations, Ms. Alejandra. Thank you so much, Mr. Moore, and thank you, board members, for this opportunity to address my East Whittier family. I would like to start off by first acknowledging that I could not be standing here today without the support of the teachers at East Whittier Middle School.
018Since I started at East Switter, I have felt the support of our staff. And when I began, I had just graduated from grad school, and I've learned so much from the amazing teachers and support staff at our school. I would also like to thank my admin team, Mr. Moore, Mrs. Ruiz, Mr. Sanchez. And their leadership has helped me grow as a counselor. And I know I can always turn to them for support. I would also like to thank Dr. Aldana. who hired me and guided me through during my first year as a counselor when she was my principal and she continues to be someone that I turn to all the time for support. This award means so much to me because it demonstrates how much our teachers value the work that I do as an
019academic counselor and they recognize the importance of providing students with more individualized support. The best part of my job is seeing the growth in my students not only academically, but seeing their confidence grow when they do succeed in overcoming whatever challenges they face. And for me, that challenge is public speaking. So if I could do it, they can do it. As an academic counselor, I have the opportunity to work with many students beyond just academic counseling. I am lucky to be able to reach students by being the coordinator of AVID, Rio Hondo College Courses, and the National Junior Honor Society. I am privileged to support so many of our students on campus and I am beyond thankful for all the relationships that I have built with my students, their families, and our staff. I truly
020have such a rewarding job and I am thankful to our teachers for advocating for my position last year and highlighting just how important it is for students to have an academic counselor at the middle school level. And lastly, I would like to give a special thank you to my parents. We're here. My brother, Jordy, who was my first teacher, he taught me everything I know, and he's actually also a teacher. And to my boyfriend for always supporting me. Those people in my life at home really are the reason I'm here today. And I want to say thank you to my mom in Spanish. Gracias, mom, por todo lo que has hecho por mí. Te quiero mucho. And thank you again to my East Whittier family. I'm so lucky to work with you all. Okay. Our
021school theme, it's empowered to achieve, grow, and learn, eagles will soar. It's the first thing our students hear every morning, and the last thing they will tell our promoting eighth grade class. Middle school is truly a unique time in a child's life, and school connectivity is always at the forefront in planning how we support our students. And we have a lot of programs at East Whittier, and I want to highlight one in particular at the end about that connectivity. The music program led by Debbie Carnahan is unmatched tradition of excellence. Carnegie Hall and Disney World are just two of the different venues they have played, always achieving the highest honors. Our AVID program has grown exponentially over the past five years. We now have close to 200 students, and we have seen our first AVID
022class show highest success rates in high school, sparked by their middle school AVID experience. Thanks to our robust ELOP support, we have clubs and activities for virtually every student. Our after-school sports continue to grow, and this year we fielded our very first girls flag football team. We just need more games, so I'm issuing an open challenge to any middle school. Anytime, anyplace, our girls will show up, play you, and probably beat you. Anytime. Dr. Payne, I see you in the back. One club I want to highlight tonight is our 3D printing club. This is a passion project led by Mr. Vermilier. These students meet after school and design and print everything from hall passes to Christmas ornaments. Everything is student-led from the design to the finished product. The club approached me and would like to
023offer the school board a token of appreciation for the support you have provided over the years. Thank you. This is so nice. Thank you. Thank you school board. Thank you. Dr. Patterson. Thank you all attendance. Have a nice night. Thank you Before I introduce dr. Vargas. I just want to remind anybody who's been recognized tonight stay after we have our break so we can take pictures Okay, Dr. Vargas. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. I am Dr. Lilia Vargas, and I am the proud assistant superintendent of human resources. And tonight, I am excited to honor our employees who are meeting a memorable milestone for being with us here at East Whittier City School District. So I would like to call our employees. We'll be recognizing from two schools. We have some significant milestones being reached today,
024so I would like to call up Jenny, is it Scro? Scro, thank you. 30 years of service. Congratulations. Let's give her a big round of applause. Now, in addition to that, we have a lot more members of our Ocean View community that we will be recognizing very soon at their own staff meeting. But we do have employees who have met past milestones. This is our list from 20 to 40 years. And we have Ms. Songer on there as well with 34 years. And we look at that list. So let's give them all a big round of applause. We look forward to celebrating at Ocean View a little later. We also have our little babies. 10 years. We have our two teachers and then we also have our 10 to 15 years with our list being
025a little bit longer, but let's give them all a big round of applause for meeting those past milestones. And now we also have a 30 year old veteran here with us at East Witter City School District from East Witter Middle School. We would like to welcome Melinda Hidalgo Carrillo, 30 years. I was going to say, oh my gosh, she must have been 10 when she started. Well, I do want to say thank you so much. This is a really special recognition that we have embraced this year. And it really just speaks volumes to all of our employees. They come to East Whittier and they stay here. They're part of our community. It's always nice to hear all of the wonderful comments out in the community. Just speaking so... nicely about all of our employees and
026the difference that they make every single day in the lives of our students. So let's give them a big round of applause. We have our 15 year group, 10 years, and then our 10 to 15, and we have 20 to 50 years that we will be recognizing as well at our next staff meeting. So thank you so much to all of you and congratulations. It's not break time yet. Okay. Okay. On to the student recognition, the truck wrap contest recognition. Dr. Patterson? It's not a break yet. Not break yet. Okay. They're going up. She's coming up. Is it Marianne? No, not yet. Not letting you go yet. Sorry, I thought I had two more seconds for a break, but I don't. To improve the look of the nutrition services delivery trucks, we had an art
027competition this year. And this allowed the students to express their creativity and spruce the old, ugly trucks up quite a bit. So you may have noticed when you walked in, there's a truck that got wrapped this week out in the parking lot. And it's my pleasure to introduce Elizabeth Mendez, a fourth grader from Murphy Ranch. And this is her artwork and design. Elizabeth, would you like to introduce who brought you? No? Are you here with your parents? Yes. By the way, I love it. I absolutely love it. It's really, really cute. Love it. Anybody want to comment on anything? Any board members? Great job. We really thank you. Even though you might be a little shy, we still are happy to recognize you. Very, very nice. Yes. Okay. Quickly, approval of the minutes. I need
028a motion. I'll move. I'm sorry, did I get a motion? Yeah, I did. Okay, Ms. Carrera? Okay, are there any corrections to the minutes? No? Okay, I'll call for the question. Mr. Urtiaga? Abstain, I wasn't there. Oh, that's right. Okay, abstain. Mrs. Dabbs? Yes. Ms. Rapparizio? Ms. Carrera? Abstain. Ms. Hernandez? Yes. And I vote yes. So it's two abstentions, two yes. We're good. We're good. We're good. OK. On to board member reports and comments. Ms. Carrera, would you like to start? All righty. OK. Congratulations to all. I'd like to express my gratitude and my mic is on. My mic is on. Can you hear me? You're talking into it. Hold on. Pause. Sorry. I wasn't sure. That's why. All right. So I'd like to express my gratitude and praise to all who helped make Orchard
029Dale a California Distinguished School this year. Your vision, your hard work, it's been noticed. And please enjoy when you go to your dinner. Have fun. Okay, who cares if there's board members there? We're there to have fun too. So just enjoy it because it's a once in a lifetime thing. Maybe not for our district, but just have fun. So let me see. I lost my part here. But anyway, I'll be attending East Whittier Middle School tomorrow for the sixth grade. What is it? Is it parent orientation? I'll be there. I don't know where I'll park, but I'll be there. I'll also be attending the Whittier Chamber annual meeting and installation dinner on the 10th. And I'd also, I also like to share a message from a local parent that was sent to me. I know
030Ms. Chacon-Kennedy always teases me, you know, she's like, I've been on the board for I don't know how long and no parent ever contacts me. So, so I received this message and I, I thought I would share it and give kudos to Dr. Patterson's board and our board members as well. It says, I thought it was pretty awesome that the school district was putting out all the information on immigration these past few months. It's really helped. Well done. So thank you for continuing to keeping our motto alive of opening the door to every child's future and providing them all the proper resources. All right. And with that, I cease my comments. Thank you, Ms. Coram. Ms. Traparicio? I just want to say welcome everyone and thank you for joining us tonight. Thank you first of
031all to the students from Ocean View and also from East Winter Middle School for leading us in the pledge and for being leaders in your school. So thank you very much for that. Also congrats to all the employees of the year from both Ocean View and East Winter Middle School. We definitely truly appreciate everything you do for our students, our staff, our community. So thank you very much for everything you guys do. Also just congrats to all the employees with all the years of service. We saw a lot of 30 year, members with 30 years. We even saw Ms. Carnahan with 40 years. So that's just incredible and amazing. So just, I'm gonna say thank you very much for all your years of service to our school district. Also thank you to Elizabeth. That was
032a great truck design. So every time you see that truck rolling by, you know that was your design. So that's amazing. So thank you very much for that. And then also just, I missed my first board meeting unofficially last time. So, but thanks to Zoom, I was able to attend. So that was my first one missing in 18 years. And just real briefly, as you guys can see, I got my bandaid on my face. Unfortunately, I did come down. I had skin cancer, but I was able to kind of go through with it. And, you know, I'm here now. So everything kind of worked out. So just, you know, thank you to everybody for all the well wishes. I definitely appreciate it. Yeah, like I said, unfortunately, something I didn't want to, you know, miss
033even during COVID time, I was still attending here at the board meetings with Dr. Patterson and I. But like I said, unfortunately, you know, I did come down with that. But I think, you know, everything's good now I'm here. I wanted to be here. That's why I still wanted to attend through Zoom. So this is something I definitely truly appreciate and I enjoy doing and I definitely owe it to the community to be here, even in a time like this too. So I just want to say thank you all. And that's it. Thank you. Mr. Tirta. Good and Mr.. Parisa. We are glad that it worked out, and we're glad to have you here and Pray that it continues to have no lingering effects and that you are don't miss any more board meetings Thank
034you. We're glad we're glad to have you back with us. I just want a couple things Last meeting I also wasn't available As you all know, I work also in the school district, and so it's busy time of the year. And so it was the first time in a long time that we had board meetings at the same night, they switched. So I had to be over there because of my role over there. So I missed last board meeting. And I wasn't perfect like his, but that's like the second or third over the years that we take pride of being here because we serve the community to be a part of this and either through Zoom or be here because we know how important our roles are. Sorry for missing out at the last board
035meeting. And I think if I read the correct agenda, the student speeches were last week. Did they come back to speak? So I always look forward to that. So I'm sure at some point I'll be able to hear their speeches. I know I did hear it on the video, but seeing them live and the great job every year, I look forward to that. I do want to congratulate, again, Ocean View for the great job you're doing and students for not only the pledge, but for the Be a Champion. Words that you had shared with us, so congratulations on that. You did a great job. And congratulations to Ms. Vasquez and Ms. Rapp on your recognitions there. East Winter Middle School, congratulations, Mr. Moore. Now you are officially, that means officially you get all the... all
036the stuff that comes along with it so congratulations on that well miss torres and miss alejandra you got a great great job representing your school congratulations for being recognized and again longevity recognitions i said time and time again being in the district where you are enjoy and love and when you feel appreciated you want to stay and so thank you you see a lot of those years that are up we're up on the board so it's nice to be able to recognize you too as well Lastly, a couple things. Thank you for the gift. It's a nice gift. It definitely will be used for me and I'm sure my colleagues, too. It's great. So our East Whittier staff, middle school staff, for providing that to us. Elizabeth, I know you're a little shy, but not
037only is it for you, but your parents are very proud of you. And we all know how hard, even though you're a little shy. I know that mom and dad are very proud of you, and maybe there's a time, maybe if you really want that special prize or gift, this is the day to ask for it, okay? They can get that to you. But mom and dad, congratulations. And we see that van rolling around. You'll see that your daughter's there. Make sure you get pictures with her in front of it if you haven't already. But great job. And congratulations. I know we're going to talk about Orchardale on the distinguished school recognition along with our other schools that do great things. We're very proud of another accomplishment that our school sites are doing. Congratulations to
038our classified and our certificated staff there at the site, our principal, and the parents and students. It's all the teamwork to make that happen. So I know they're going to be recognized coming up next month, and we look forward to seeing all the celebrations that come along with that. Otherwise, and I'll thank the board and the community for allowing me. I just recently came back from the NSBA conference and being able to connect nationally with our school board members throughout the country and to hear all the latest news. And there was an immigration piece that was being talked about. Safety was a big conversation topic there in the classrooms and how we're addressing that. So a lot of things that we're dealing with here in California, a lot of the other states are. We take
039the lead because California is so big. A lot of the smaller states kind of look at what the bigger states are doing. And so having those conversations piece. But it was nice to be able to make conversations with my colleagues from other states to see how they are doing things and being able to grab some resources that potentially that if it's something that we can use here in East Whittier, I'll share those things with Dr. Patterson to see if that's anything that they would be interested in looking into. Otherwise, Nat? Thank you very much and congratulations to everybody. Thank you. Mrs. Debs? Thank you. Good evening to everybody and thank you so much for being here with us. There's so many of you I want to try to make my remarks as quick as possible.
040I want to thank our YouTube audience for always joining us. I first want to thank our OV and East Whittier students Sophia Woodward, Gavin Bishop, Matteo Sedano, William Conroe, Matthew Sanchez, and Kiara Felix for leading us in the flag salute. I want to congratulate our OV employees of the year Sandra Vasquez and Misty Rupp. Thank you so much again for everything you've done for everything you will continue to do and the impact that you have every day on the students and the staff and the community. I also want to say the same congratulations to the East Whittier Middle School Employees of the Year, Jessica Torres and Brittany Alejandra. My youngest son attended East Whittier, and it's a beautiful school. It's a wonderful school. And thank you so much again for all your commitment being at
041the middle school. is really, really hard. I was an elementary school principal for 15 years, and I never really wanted to go into the middle school. So being and working at the middle school is such a challenge, but it's a beautiful one. So thank you so much for doing that. And thank you so much for your themes, both of you. I always enjoy hearing the themes and knowing about the themes. I think it's always exciting to be. driven by those themes and it's so helpful for the community to do that. I want to congratulate also all our longevity award recipients from Ocean View and East Reuter Middle School as well. I also want to As my board knows, but congratulate all our new administrators as they prepare to enter this new career journey. As a
042former school principal, as I shared, it is a very, very challenging time to be a school principal, leaving whatever job or whatever role you're in. And many of them are going to come from the classroom and move into the principalship or from the assistant principalship into the principalship. These are big shoes to fill, but we know that you're going to do it in an amazing way. And we know that you're going to be just great parts of your community as you begin to serve as a principal. So congratulations to all of you. I also want to add my congratulations to Orchard Dale on their achievement as a California Distinguished School. And I need to give a shout out to my friend Renee McKay. She and I served as principals together in a neighboring school district.
043And I just know the commitment that she has and the work that she does for the entire community and only for. the teachers and the classified staff, but for all the students in the family. So big congratulations to all of Orcharddale, but just a special shout out to Renee. I know her passion having served with her in the past. I also want to mention that I had an opportunity to visit with Dr. Patterson La Colima. It was a wonderful opportunity to see La Colima and be in some of the classrooms and see the amazing things that they're doing, especially at the kinder and the TK level. It was really, really. wonderful. And I'm also looking forward to attending the open houses over the next two weeks. Those are a big point for all of us
044as board members when we do that. It's a really beautiful time for us to do that, to get into the classrooms, talk to the teachers and students and staff, and interact with some of the parents when we are there. And I'm really going to look forward to doing that. So thank you so much, everyone, for being here again this evening. And thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Japs. Okay, I'm going to keep mine really short, but yes, again, thank you to everybody. Congratulations to everybody. And I just want to say one thing. I did run this by Dr. Patterson a couple of weeks ago, but I was on the campus of Granada, and they're probably one of the few, if not the only school that has an incinerator, that big, huge, tall thing that you see.
045And I thought, you know, wouldn't it be nice to have that be like... Decorated in some way or something I'm not saying the students do it But you know if you could if the kids want to give it as a gift at the PTA wants to get involved It would be so nice because it's so it would be so visible. You know it would be really Something for anybody to consider. I just that's all I wanted to say and with that Think about it and and again Anybody knows what this is tell me well. We're ready for a break, but oh, sorry Miss Hernandez. Sorry, I forgot you. Best for last. Best for last. Oh, there you go. Right. Thank you, everyone, for coming tonight. We have a really big turnout today. I think this
046might be the biggest of all. Pretty close. Pretty close. But thank you all for coming. Thank you to our YouTube viewers. And thank you all for just taking that time out of your day. Thank you for leading us in the pledge, Ocean View and East Whittier. You guys are leaders in your communities, in your schools, and it's just wonderful to see you guys come up and speak. And I love that little, what's it called? The little speech that you guys kind of presented, I thought that was really cute. So thank you guys all for being leaders and growing in that aspect. Congratulations and thank you to all of our employees for working so hard. Every single time that we see our longevity presentation, I am amazed by the amount of years that you guys can
047go through. I'm amazed. I'm amazed. And I thank you guys for staying with our district. I just, I'm in awe of you guys. And I just thank you guys so much for being so strong and just staying with us and believing in our students. Orchardale Elementary School, the spring musical, I'm not sure if it has already happened or if it's about to happen. I don't know if anyone knows the answer to that. It happened. All right. All right. Cool. Cool. So the Orchardale Elementary School spring musical was Annie Jr. And I talked to Orchardale's principal and. I was emailed a photo and the cast, they all just look so happy. And I am a thespian myself. So it's just wonderful to see our elementary schools kind of involved in that aspect of arts. So that's
048something that I just wanted to share. Ocean View Elementary School had a ceremony and recognized their top readers in fifth grade. I think that this is very important. to just recognize not only, oh, sorry, to not only recognize. are strong readers, but are top readers, especially in fifth grade as they are about to transition into that middle school era of their life. So shout out to Oceanview for that. And at Mulberry, not Mulberry, I'm so sorry, at Murphy Ranch, one of their kindergarten classes celebrated the 101st day of school by dressing up as the 101 Dalmatians. I saw the photo and I just thought it was so adorable. I love that movie so much. So I just. My heart broke. I thought it was adorable. So yeah, that's just all I really had to share
049today. I hope I'm not forgetting anything. I kind of... just jotted notes down. But yeah, so thank you guys all for being here. Oh, there we go. Congratulations to Mr. Ruiz and Mr. Moore. That's what I was going to say. Congratulations. Mr. Ruiz, Mr. Moore, you guys have made such a wonderful impact on, I'm an East Whittier student, so you guys have made such a wonderful impact on our school. And I just, I love seeing you guys around campus. So thank you guys for being there and congratulations. And thank you for the reminder. I did go see Annie Jr. at a director deal, and it was fantastic. If you missed it, too bad, but it was great. Anyway, with that, we'll have a break, about five, six minutes. And can we get all of the
050administrators and Elizabeth and all of the recipients to come up to the step and repeat, please? For the communications coordinator to take the pictures? Where's your picture of the whole family here in a bit? I wonder why I'm gonna tell you what you guys hear when you guys come in. Oh, they let us? Oh, okay. I thought it was a little bit better. Because you're next. You're gonna go. I am? You gotta get in there, yeah. Oh, okay. Because Peter got in there. You're next. Will they just let me in? Yeah. After her, I think you're next. With my flowers? So do I leave my flowers here? I guess I'll go with my flowers. Yeah, go there with the flowers. Go, go, go, go. Get in there. Who did that? Lower. Mrs. Lopez. Get in
051there, Suzanne. Okay, ready? We're going to be back in session in 10 seconds. Mr. Sanchez? Mr. Sanchez? He's not even listening to me. Mr. Harper, could you get the door for me, please? Andy, the door. Okay, everybody. Somebody took it. They're jimmying the lock. I'm going to take my piece of metal. Oh, okay. No guesses? No guesses? 10 bucks. Okay, on to CSEA comments. Just making a dramatic entrance. Good evening, members of the board and Dr. Patterson. I just have a couple quick comments from CSEA tonight. I am Joe. I work at IT, and I am the vice president for our chapter. First, there's a lot of congratulations to go around, so congratulations to all the administrators who... got new positions or got to keep their existing positions today. So to Ms. Aldana and Ms.
052Lopez, we look forward to working with you in your new roles. And to Mr. Moore and Ms. Ruiz, congratulations on dropping the interim. And also just wanted to give a quick shout out to our two classified employees of the month, Ms. Sandra at Ocean View and Ms. Torres at East Whittier. I have had the experience. of being at East Whittier for lunchtime. And it was accurately described earlier. It's definitely a whirlwind. So doing that for a long time. It's all the appreciation in the world. So just a couple quick comments today. So we just wanted to share with our board members that our classified retiree luncheon is going to be this April 30th. And if y'all could make it even for a little bit, that'd be fantastic. We've got some wonderful folks being recognized this
053year. And item number two is regarding the class and comp study. There's a lot of folks in our chapter that are interested in the class and comp study, and we haven't had an update in a little bit. So any comments on that or a quick update on the progress of that or what the future of that looks like would be greatly appreciated by many folks in our chapter. And lastly, we have the unfortunate mention of the layoffs that are going to be likely approved tonight. You know, the folks that work on this classification of ISBA, right, those are the folks that work with the, you know, with some of our most challenged and difficult students. And we just hope that we can continue to work with the district to get all these folks placed and
054work towards some cost savings for next year. So hopefully we can minimize any future impact during these, I guess, times that could only be described as turbulent. So with that, that is all my comments. Thank you very much. Thank you. On to EWEA. My name is Missy Michaud and I am the president of the East Whittier Education Association and it's a pleasure to be here with you all today. Excuse me, hairball. I wanted to thank the board members for getting back to me regarding that board member training. It's in a couple weeks and I hope you get the opportunity to check it out. So thank you for those of you who sent me messages too. I appreciate it. Thanks. The EWI Retirement Tea, the party that we do with the district, is on May 1st.
055It is a Thursday. It is at 3.30, and it is here. And we would love it if you would all come to celebrate our six retirees who have accumulated 200 years of service for those six folks. That's pretty scary. Roundtable. I want to bring this up because it's kind of old. At Roundtable, we meet with the district, and it's fabulous that we get the opportunity to meet, but we're doing everything on documents now. And there's a column all the way to the right, and business is the only department who is actually going through and responding to our stuff. It's not just one month, not just two months. We don't know how else to do it. This is the first time that we've been doing roundtable on a Google Doc, so we can definitely keep track
056of everything that we're doing, which is fantastic. But we need to get responses to the questions that we're asking. So maybe you can help that, please. And then I'm going to throw back the whole behavior thing. Bringing that back up because I know we've talked about it at the middle school. This is an issue that is not just at the middle school. We have elementary kids who are confronting teachers in very similar ways that middle school kids are. And people are tired, but people are uncomfortable with it. They're not feeling the love to go to work, and that hurts because I'm one of the people who have been here for more than half of my life. I did not go to school here. I have dedicated my professional career here. And it's disheartening to talk
057with people, and they just don't want to continue in this profession. And I know that we're better than that, and I know that we can do better than this. And we need your help. So please. help us to get some control of stuff. And I know I have talked with you guys about dress code, but the sun's out again. Talked to some of you and invited you to come over and we'll go take a tour of some of these middle schools on one of these nice sunny days. I invite you. You got my number. Text me. Mondays are great because I'm at school sites and so I have a lot of opportunity that I can work with you and we can go visit places. Just so you can see what we're talking about, our male
058teachers should not be afraid to be in their classrooms because of what is in front of them. So please help us. Help us with that. And 39 student contact wake-up days left. Just saying. You guys have a great night. Thank you. Okay, on to Dr. Patterson. Just a couple of things. I'll start off with just, you know, I try not to respond sometimes when one side is presented that might not necessarily capture the whole essence of what goes on. So I would say, Ms. Michaud, I would love for you to be able to have that conversation in the appropriate venue with Dr. Vargas and our team about Google Docs and how all teams need to be prepared and put things in in a timely manner. Also, on a positive note, Orcharddale Trucks. Orcharddale recognition is
059amazing. We are going to have our nutrition services team come and provide a barbecue for our Orcharddale community to be able to celebrate that. We are also going to, after we have a conversation about our Measure C work, and it is going to be that we are going to be recommending Orcharddale to be one of those first recipients. We are talking about putting a mural on the campus just like we did with Leffingwell and Oceanview. As you saw, we're very excited about our second truck. We are going to have another contest next year because we still have a couple of more trucks. So give our next group of students an opportunity to submit now that they have an actual representation and a picture of what we're looking for. It'll be another opportunity for our students
060to submit those. and just wanted to celebrate our administrators who just got their new positions. So we're really excited to start the 25-26 school year with them in place. That's it. Okay, thank you. On to citizen communication. We have none. How about that? Okay, on to discussion items. First item is the Williams quarterly report. Nobody that submitted a card. There was one individual who came up and addressed staff. We'll take care of that. Okay, so there was nothing on the Williams quarterly report. No complaints filed? No, we're not. Okay, great. On to item two. I'm with the recommendation that resolution 23 slash 24 dash 25 be adopted by the Board of Education declaring May 18th through the 24th, 2025 as classified employees week. Second. Okay, it's been first and seconded. Any discussion? Okay, I'll call
061for the question. Ms. Carrera? Yes. Ms. Hernandez? Yes. Mrs. Stabbs? Yes. Mr. Aparicio? Yes. Mr. Tiaga? Yes. And I vote yes, so that passes 5-0. On to item three, approval of resolution. I move the recommendation that resolution 22-24-25 be adopted by the Board of Education declaring May 6, 2025 as Day of the Teacher. Second. It's been moved by Mr. Aparicio, seconded by Ms. Carrera. Any discussion? Okay, I'll call for the question. Mr. Aparicio? Yes. Ms. Carrera? Yes. Ms. Hernandez? Yes. Mr. Tiaga? Yes. Ms. Dabbs? Yes. And I vote yes. So that passes 5-0. On to a public hearing. So I call that public hearing call to order at 7-10. Is there anybody that wishes to speak to this? Seeing none, we'll, it's over at 7.10. On to item five. I move the recommendation that the
062Board of Education has set for study the attached 2025-2026 reopen of proposal of the East Whittier Education Association for wages and benefits and other articles to be determined. I second. That's been moved by Ms. Drapresa, seconded by Mrs. Dabbs. Any discussion on this, Board? Can you explain this to me a little bit? Sorry, just, I just, can you just explain this to me? So right now we're actually in negotiations. This is their opportunity to bring items that they want to discuss for our negotiations. We think that's a little unique in negotiations. So they wanted to put in their clause that says that, you know, we have, I believe, so we might already be done with the items that they want to discuss. So Iwi is good with this, right? They submitted it? So this is
063their submission. I'm seeing, yeah, okay. Oh, I see that, okay. The district usually responds in May, so in May you'll see our response. So they get to select what they want to focus on. It's a little different because we're in negotiations, and I think that was one of the things that our negotiations chair was discussing that, you know, word it that way because we might be done. Got you. Thank you very much. Also a public. Right. I saw that, the initial. Thank you. Anybody else? Okay, I'll call for the question. Mrs. Dabbs? Yes. Ms. Hernandez? Yes. I vote yes. Ms. Carrera? Yes. Mr. Aparicio? Yes. Mr. Tiaga? Yes. Okay, that passes 5-0. On to item 6. I move the recommendation that the Board of Education adopt Resolution 20-24-25 regarding the implementation of certificated layoff and
064termination of certificated employees as a result of discontinuation of particular kinds of services as submitted. I'll second. It's been moved by Mr. Apicio. Seconded by Mrs. Carrera. Is that you that seconded? Yeah. Okay. All right. Any discussion on this? This is the one for the ELOP person that knew that this was a part-time position. Yes. One person. Right? Right. Okay. Just wanted to make sure that that was clear. That's who it was, right? Just the one person? Not part-time. Short-term. Just one. It was just the director. Okay. All right. Anybody else have any questions? I'm sorry. For clarification, it's just one person? Okay. All right. No further discussion. I'll call for the question. Mr. Aparicio? Yes. Mr. Urtiaga? Yes. Mrs. Dabbs? Yes. I vote yes. Ms. Hernandez? Yes. Mrs. Carrera? Yes. Okay. It passes 5-0.
065On to item 7. I move the recommendation of the Board of Education, adopt Resolution 21-24-25 regarding the implementation of classified layoff and terminating services of classified employees for lack of work and or lack of funds. Second. Any discussion? Okay, I'll call for the question. Ms. Carrera? Yes. Ms. Hernandez? Yes. Ms. Dabbs? Yes. Ms. Rapparizio? Yes. Mr. Urteaga? Yes. And I vote yes, sadly. Okay, passes 5-0. On to item nine. Item eight. I'm sorry, item eight. I move the recommendation that the Board of Education approve the pool of architects for bond measure C projects as presented. I have a second. I'll second. Moved by Mr. Ruppers, seconded by Mrs. Dabbs. Any discussion? So I just wanted to, just for clarity, you know, we are now in the final phases of. finishing our facilities master plan where
066the company is reviewing all of the work that we have done on measures R and Z and the work that is still needed to be done across the district. Obviously, the work that is needed to be done across the district exceeds the $97 million that we just received in measure C. The first part of this process is to develop a pool of architects to be able to be called upon when the board finalizes what the project list is going to be at the May 12th board meeting. So this is just a group of three architects that we felt met and understood the needs and the goals of our district, especially in this financial time where costs have escalated and could potentially continue to escalate with tariffs and whatnot. So we are just asking the board
067to approve these three architects. techs as people that we would contract when it gets time to actually break ground and design work. Have we ever worked with any of these? One of them. LPA. They are the ones that are designing Emma Wicker. Thank you. Anybody else? I do have a question. Dr. Patterson, you already said LPA, but Huckabee and Runeau, they have experience with school sites and... Absolutely. We only interview people who had experience in the K-12 sector. Okay. Thank you so much. Anybody else? So each one of them will have a specialty area? No, not really. No, they just have different projects they have worked on, and it's always good to have a pool of people to be able to pull from to be able to determine if we want to try out. For
068instance, at Hillview, we are thinking about putting a roof on Hillview, so there might be an opportunity for some of these companies to... walk with us and talk with us about opportunities, but we want to be able to have a pool to be able to figure out who meets our needs. You know, we've gone through a lot of different changes with Measure R and Z to where we use different companies and then we no longer use those companies. So this is an opportunity to make sure that what we see. and heard during an interview and during a proposal matches the work that they actually do when it comes to actually making plans and drawings. So let's say you're doing one of those walks and all three of them are with you. Do the three only
069get the opportunity? Do they have to bid? No, they don't bid. This is under contract services, some professional services. So we would actually, we wouldn't have all three walk with us. We would designate a company. So, for instance, if the board decided that East Whittier would be an area of concern that we wanted to put higher on the priority list for project lists. The natural selection would be LPA because they already have a familiarity with the campus because they are currently doing the Emma Wicker project. Whereas the other two companies don't have that like already exposure over at East Whittier Middle School. We had a couple of architects that we used. We had two different architects that did series and left-wing well. We had a different architect that did our asphalt and concrete. So there's
070just different niches that we looked at to be able to see the work that they would be able to bring to the district. One more question, Ms. Kenney. I apologize. And I'm sure this goes without saying, but they're local, right? Well, no. That was not one of the requirements. They are in Southern California. That's what I meant. But, I mean, there are not architectural firms that deal with. You know what I mean? Because that can happen. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Anybody else? Okay. I will call for the question. I vote yes, Ms. Hernandez. Yes. Ms. Carrera? Yes. Mrs. Dabbs? Yes. Mr. Tiaga? Yes. And Mr. Aparicio? Yes. Okay, that passes 5-0. On to number nine. I move the recommendation that the Board of Education approve the purchase of network switches and Wi-Fi 7 wireless access
071points from Rightleo LLC. A second. Any discussion? I have a question about the quote that's attached. Go ahead. Just for clarification, this quote comes directly from Bright Leo and it's given to Andy Harper. Yes? Or Andy Harper is our contact person that gave us this quote. Andy Harper is here. Yeah, I know. So Andy Harper is the one that's working with Bright Leo. The district is working with Bright Leo. And Mr. Harper is the one that is organizing this. He's a contact person. So that's why his name is here, right? It's not his company. I just want to make that. Yes, that is correct. I just want that clarity. Yeah, okay. This is cabling, and tell me exactly what it is. You're paying all this money for it. What is it? In a short, non-technical,
072Andy way. That I can understand. Yes, yes. No graphics, no pictures, no flow charts. No, simple. Remember, I've talked about four steps, right? The first two were the cabling that you approved last meeting. This is the equipment that plugs into that cabling. So it's the switches. It's the Wi-Fi 7 access points. So it's steps three and four of that four-step process to build that network. Okay, I just quick. Is this something that is new or is it something that's replacing something? Upgrading or what will this do for our district? Better to classify it as upgrade. Okay. It's upgrading the current. It's replacing the current infrastructure with upgraded equipment. Okay. Now, a quick question I have. So the last meeting was upgrading the wires to improve the flow of Internet service speeds. Because I know a
073couple of meetings, every once in a while we have staff coming up saying that the Wi-Fi access points or the Internet is really horrible at their site or location. Will this help improve? Does it address that issue? Yes, this does. All four steps address that issue. We eliminate a bottleneck with replacing the wiring. We eliminate other bottlenecks with increasing the capacity of the wireless. That's what the equipment does. Anybody else? Okay, I'll call for the question. Ms. Hernandez? Yes. Mr. Aparicio? Yes. Mr. Tiaga? Yes. Dabbs? Yes. I vote yes. Ms. Carrera? Yes. Passes 5-0. On to item 10. I move the recommendation that the board appoint the initial members to the District Citizens Oversight Committee for measure C. I'll second. Okay. Any discussion? These are the people who have been. Correct. Did they apply? So
074just like we did with Measure R and Z, we have a Citizens Oversight Committee who looks at all of our financials and makes sure that the work that we are doing is in alignment with the ballot measure. And Ms. Sorrell had put out an application and a call for applications, and we went through those lists because there are certain categories that need to be. represented in the COC and this is a list of people that we are asking the board to approve. Okay. Any discussion on this board? So we have parents and PTA members and all this stuff. The majority of them are parents. Okay. Okay. Anything else? Okay. I'll call for the question. Ms. Carrera? Yes. Hernandez? Yes. Ms. Raparicio? Yes. Ms. Dabbs? Yes. Mr. Tiaga? Yes. And I vote yes, so it passes
0755-0. Okay, on to consent items. Does anybody have anything they want to remove from the consent agenda? Okay, I need a motion. I move the recommendation of the superintendent, the Board of Education, approve consent agenda items K-3 through K-10. I'll second. Okay, any discussion? I have just one thing to say, a comment, as a matter of fact, on the staff development on A. 0-1-2-1, dyslexia, best targeted interventions for greater literacy service, and it's virtual. So I see that we're doing one private school assistant principal, and I believe this is St. Gregory's, but let me get this straight. So we're doing this for them so they can target dyslexia, and then they're just going to send those students back to us? Is that what happens? Well, this funding, I'm not going to comment on the other
076part, but this funding is a requirement when you receive title funding to give that apportionment to the private schools. Maybe you can explain why we need to pay that. Why we have to pay this. Because that's part of the title legislation. So it's a law. Correct. Okay. I just want to make sure everybody understands that. So I just thought it was just a little odd. We're paying them, and then they're just going to turn right around and say, here. Take them back. Anyway, that's just my opinion. Anybody have anything else? Yes, go ahead. Because I know it's happened before, right? It's just a law we have to provide. But it doesn't include tuition or anything like that. It only includes... Title II funds for professional development. So let me ask you this. So at the
077end of the school year when... Anybody wants to get their kid or whenever want to get their child tested. It doesn't matter if they go to public or private. Is that correct? It doesn't matter if it's public or private. It doesn't matter. You still have, we still have to do it. Anybody have any other questions? Okay. I'll call for the question. Mrs. Dabbs. Yes. Ms. Hernandez. Yes. Ms. Carrera. Yes. I vote yes. Mr. Aparicio. Yes. Mr. Tiaga. Yes. Okay. Passes 5-0. Okay. It looks like that's it. I need a, does anybody, before we make motion, anybody have any comments they want to say before the end of the meeting? I do. I just want to say to anyone that's on YouTube or anyone that's here that does celebrate and recognize an Easter, I hope that
078you will have a time that's joyous as you do celebrate Easter. It's a very important holiday for many, many millions of Christians around the world. So many... Many good wishes to all of you who do celebrate Easter. Anybody else? I hope the Whittier Union High School District buses, I hope they have seatbelts because they're paying them a pretty penny. Okay. Anybody else? I will get on my little bandwagon again. So I just want everybody to really be aware of saving food. Please don't waste. Because if you look at statistics on how many people go without a meal or go hungry or die from starvation, like every minute of the day practically. So please be aware of that. And also, I want to tell you a funny story here. So I'm really big on not... If
079I don't have to use my dryer or whatever, I won't use it. So I have what's called an umbrella dryer. It's an umbrella dryer. I have it out in my backyard. So I had my exterminator come one time and he said, what's that? I'm like, it's a clothesline. But anyway, let me tell you, saves you a lot of money. If you hang your, get some of the little wood clothespins, put your clothes out there, and they are dry in no time, especially when it's warm weather. It smells fantastic. I will say beware of birds, but other than that, it's a great way to save money. So do that, ride your bike, save water. And with that, I think I need a motion to adjourn. I'll motion to adjourn. I'll second it. Okay. I'll call for
080the question. Remember, if anybody has a guess. Okay, Ms. Trapricio. Yes. Ms. Hernandez? Yes. Ms. Carrera? Yes. Mr. Tiaga? Yes. Mrs. Dabbs? Yes. And I vote yes. We are adjourned at 727. Somebody has to guess. And if no one remembers? I'll bring it back next week. Yeah, bring it back. It's a lock pick. No, he's going to use AI. No, he's using AI. No, he's not. This looks to me like it's part of our work. A what? Anybody else guess?