December 3, 2024 - 10am Committee of the Whole

001Good morning, my friends. The time is now 10.01, and as we are wont to be timely, we'll be starting shortly. So I appreciate your patience, and we'll be starting shortly. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. We'll be starting in about 30 seconds. So find your seat, please. Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the last Committee of the Whole meeting for the calendar year 2024. There'll be more Committee of the Wholes, but this is the last one for 2024. I'm Scott Schmurlson. I am the Board Vice President and the Chair of the Committee of the Whole. Today, we have a presentation, just one presentation, on Extended Learning Opportunities Program Funds, ELOP. Very important meeting. Now I have a few announcements and housekeeping information for you to share. As usual, we will be taking public comment

002towards the end of the meeting. And additionally, to comply with the Brown Act, we will not discuss any items that have not been properly agendized for today's meeting. And before we start our presentation, we will turn to any labor partners that wish to address the board. And that doesn't include labor partners who wish to speak on Jackie's part of the program, but any labor partners who would like to speak now who wish to address the board. Any labor partners for today? Not that I'm aware of, so we can move forward. Okay. So before our presentation, we have a very special recognition on today's agenda, and I wonder what that possibly could be. We must take the time to celebrate Jackie Goldberg. Who is Jackie Goldberg? Well, she's an educator and she's a legend in Los

003Angeles and in fact in the entire state of California. President Goldberg has a lifetime record of service standing up for students, for staff, and for communities everywhere. She is standing up for the most marginalized communities. President Goldberg stuck to her principles even when those around her had voiced opposition. We could always count on Jackie Goldberg to fight against injustice in Los Angeles and beyond. And Jackie, it is truly have been an honor really to serve with you on this school board. You will always be remembered as someone who stood up for our most vulnerable communities. And with us, we have several special guests in person and on Zoom who would like to honor President Goldberg. And before we get started with them, I'm going to hand it over to Mr. McLean to get us started.

004Okay, my part is very short. Is Mr. Kent Wong here, the MC, Master of Ceremonies here? You're going to use that mic right there, and let's just do a level test. And it's on that stand so that you can face both the deist and the audience at your convenience. That sounds great. Sound check. So we are all gathered this morning. to celebrate Jackie Goldberg. And coming into this room is like a family reunion. It is like a gathering of people who have worked with Jackie in so many different capacities over the years. Jackie Goldberg worked as a high school teacher at Centennial and Dominguez High School for 18 years. She was first elected to the LA Unified School Board more than 40 years ago. in 1983, where she advanced bilingual education that became a national

005model and ended corporal punishment in the schools of Los Angeles. In 1993, Jackie was elected to represent LA City Council District 13 and was reelected without opposition four years later. She authored the Living Wage Ordinance and Domestic Partner Benefits for City Employees and Landmark Tenants' Rights legislation. Jackie served, yes, applaud for that. He served for six years in the California State Assembly and authored legislation for LGBTQ couples as well as two state education bonds to relieve half-day sessions and multi-track overcrowded year-round schools. as the Los Angeles Airport Commissioner and came back and was elected twice to the LA Unified School District Board of Education. instruction committee. And this Friday, December 6th, 2024 is being declared Jackie Goldberg Day by the city of Los Angeles. Today is the first of a series of celebrations. Jackie is

006being honored by the LA Alliance for a new economy. Tomorrow evening she's being honored by the LA City Council on Friday and she is being honored by the LA Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. On a personal note, it has been so wonderful, Jackie, having you as a good friend, as a mentor, as someone who has emerged as a moral compass for our city, for our county, for our state, and indeed for our nation. That you have represented the interests of our students. You have led the fight for quality public education. You have led the fight for women's rights, for the LGBT community. for working people and for worker justice. And your contributions will continue to be felt for generations to come. And we have a long list of people who want to share in celebrating

007this day with you. Each alone could. have a long introduction, but I'm not going to do that so that we can maximize the time for them to share a few select words honoring you today. So with that, I wanted to call up someone who you may know. His name is David Goldberg. He happens to be your nephew and the... Oh, I'm sorry. And Sharon, you're... wonderful Chief of Staff who has been by your side and corrects us regularly. But we're going to lead off with a video by Congresswoman Maxine Waters. Thank you, Sharon. Hello, everyone. Today you're going to hear from many friends and associates of Jackie Goldstein. I'm Congresswoman Maxine Waters and I'm a dear friend of Jackie Goldberg. My friend Jackie Goldberg was first elected to the Los Angeles Unified School District in

0081983. Jackie was a blessing for the school board because Jackie understood everything about the classroom. She'd been a classroom teacher and she knew the problems and challenges of the Los Angeles public school system. Among many of her accomplishments as a school board member, Jackie instituted bilingual education that became a national model and ended corporal punishment in schools. Jackie is one of the most profound educators this country has ever known. Jackie happened to serve on many other boards and at other levels of government, including working, on the LA County Board of Supervisors for our friend Supervisor Gloria Molina, where she served as the Children and Ethics Deputy. Furthermore, Jackie was elected to serve on the Los Angeles City Council in 1993, from which she led the struggle for a living wage and equal benefits for LGBTQ

009plus domestic partners. Jackie went on to serve in the California State Assembly starting in the year 2000 where she negotiated two major school construction bonds that carved out money for the districts that were most overcrowded. And she was appointed by Mayor Garcetti to the Los Angeles Commission that is LAWA. where she was responsible for thousands of LA City residents from low-income neighborhoods being hired as permanent employees for the very first time. In 2019, Jacka was re-elected to serve on the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education and was elected to serve as the President of the Board in 2023. Oh, I wish I had time to cite to you all of Jackie Goldberg's accomplishments. She has had a stellar career of service, but she has especially been a champion for children and education. I

010love Jackie Goldberg and everything she stands for and everything she's fought for. She is indeed a very, very special human being. There are very few others. that I've ever known or I've ever met that can compare to my good friend Jackie Goldberg. Best wishes for everything in your future. No, seriously. She's the only one who encouraged me to run. Thank you. Thank you, Jackie. Our first speaker is David Goldberg, president of the California Teachers Association and nephew of Jackie Goldberg. David. And thank you for saying nephew because I spent the last 30 years everyone saying, say hi to your mom. Even yesterday, I was in Sacramento. Say hi to your mom. I can't make it today. So that's my aunt, Jackie. And I stopped correcting people years ago because it didn't matter. Because frankly, it

011was a community that raised me and you were part of it, along with a lot of people who are here today. And you have always been just a champion in a way that I, even if you, whoever you were to me, I loved you. And, you know, I remember. I was at Mitchell-Torino Elementary School in fourth grade when you first got elected. And then my kids have graduated high school when you were on the school board again. And just what a decades and decades of commitment. And I always was so proud and honored to say you were my aunt. And I think what you have, and I was just thinking about what you have, an incredible ability to get angry and to punch up. and punch up hard. And by the way, my daughter's, all

012her friends, especially her LGBTQ plus friends, saw your viral TikTok video. They're like, God, who is this woman? She's like, that's my aunt. That's my great aunt. An ability to punch up with a touch, a nerve of anger, which is beautiful, but what makes it even so much more powerful is your ability to do it out of love and really also connect. And everywhere you went, especially with young people. Whether you know all the work you'd even laser when you were in the City Council you continue to work around school and young people after school programs Being the chair of the Assembly Education Committee always about the future Always about supporting the next generation. So as we are now in some crazy times, it's scary to think of you not being here But as I

013also as Kent said it's also you've really your way of fighting all these years and modeling anger and love both at the same time is something I think we can all carry on and we will carry on in these next crazy times we're all going through. So I love you. Thank you for always being such a great example for us all and for me. Thank you. Thank you, David Goldberg. Our next speaker is the president of the United Teachers Los Angeles, Cecily Mayard Cruz. Jackie, friends, family. I'm really thankful to be here. I'm very honored to be amongst colleagues, friends. I don't even know if I told you, you know, David and Carla and I met. way back in the 90s. They were my camp counselors at the National Conference of Christians and Jews, a

014racial justice camp. So you could see where that energy and fire comes from from me. And it's because of people like David and Carla who saw me. and embrace me and they've been a part of my family for a long time. So I wanted to just put that in the room. I was looking through my garage and I found my high school diploma. And whose name is on my high school diploma? Jackie Goldberg as the president in 1990 when I graduated from the Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies and a full circle moment that I get to speak on your behalf for our organization of 38,000 members and to honor you so A couple of things that I want to say is that you have been a champion and a warrior for working class people,

015but for our babies. Whether they're LGBTQIA+, whether they are on the spectrum, whether they are non-binary, or our black students. and of course our ESL and bilingual students. You have made it possible to dream. The resolution that comes to mind is the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Resolution. I thank you for doing that because that affirmed our Deaf and Hard of Hearing community. I also want to affirm the charter co-location resolution because it was necessary to actually say why are we doing this and why is it encroaching upon our public schools? And lastly, I want to bring up what is near and dear to my heart is the community schools resolution and the one that we just affirmed not too long ago. I hope that we will continue on a path of trailblazing that you

016have set forth for us as a model and that we will stop looking so much at test scores and actually look at communities, parents, families, our babies, of what they need and what they deserve. And you have been a stalwart in this fight for racial justice, social justice, freedom. And that it is my hope that this board and all of us as a community continue to ride those waves of brilliance. that you've set forth. So on behalf of United Teachers Los Angeles, 38,000 strong, I want to congratulate you and we want to give you this special token that says, UTLA is proud to honor Dr. Jackie Goldberg for a lifetime. But we're going to give it to you today because you have been honored by us for a lifetime of leading with hope and truth

017in the fight for social, racial, and educational justice. Again, thank you. Indeed fortunate to have with us two of the most extraordinary education union leaders in the country in Cecily Mayotte Cruz and David Goldberg. Our next speaker is former LA Unified School District President Steve Zimmer. I'm not becoming a regular, I promise. Two of my closest friends. I just want to tell one story. I met Jackie Goldberg one day after the Northridge earthquake. David Tchaikovsky came banging on my door, Jackie Goldberg needs volunteers. I had no idea who Jackie Goldberg was. We show up at the Hollywood Recreation Center Park, and there was a line of folks and volunteers. And we'll remember forever what happened in Northridge and in and around Northridge around the earthquake. What a lot of folks forget was the devastation in

018Hollywood. and all of the resources went to the Valley appropriately, and tons of volunteers were needed in Hollywood. So we're in line, and this woman with a clipboard comes up, who I later learned was Sharon DeLugage, and she says, whatever Jackie asks you, just say yes. But we get in line and Sharon introduced it. Oh, you know David and this guy is Steve Pete somebody some kind of day anyway, it doesn't matter And you looked at me and you said do you think you could tell the difference? between a foundation crack and a surface crack And I paused and Sharon elbowed me for the first of dozens and dozens of times. I said yes She said, good. Jackie said, good. I hereby deputize you as city building inspector. And we spent the day going around

019District 13. And I learned more that day than I had in my life to that point about how families, many of them were my own, the families that we taught, how they lived and the conditions. We red-tagged two buildings, yellow-tagged. Seven, the rest we green-tagged. Those two buildings were in grave danger. Thank God we did red-tag them. Came back the next day so excited to be a building inspector again. Came back to Hollywood Park, and Jackie looked at me, and she said, Do you have an absolutely perfect driving record, Sharon? Elbowed me again, Yes, Jackie. A hereby deputized U.S. City van driver. And our job was to liberate. the school lunches from all of the schools. that were closed that week, and bring them to the Red Cross shelters, bring all the food to the

020Red Cross shelters. And so we went to, we actually went to Belmont, was the first place we went, got all the food out of there, got to the Red Cross shelter in Hollywood, and then we were about to go to LeConte, we were about to go to LeConte, and may she rest in peace, Christina Riegos flags me down. And she says, you know, are you Pete or some guy? I said, yes, that's me. She says, Jackie, Jackie needs us to do something else. And what you needed us to do was find a one-day-old baby whose parents were so scared. And we have to remember that in Hollywood, there were three huge immigrant communities. Salvadoran, Mexican, and Armenian, all of whom had endured devastating earthquakes in the last 10 years previous, many of whom fled to

021this country because of the devastation of those earthquakes. And this family was so terrified that after... Let's take this out. That after... the baby was born, they checked themselves out of the hospital and were living in the encampments somewhere in Hollywood. And we spent the next three hours going through the encampments and we found that baby. And the sun was setting. And Christina said, we have to get to this building downtown. Jackie's going to meet us, but we have to be there by six o'clock. And And Christina had this enormous cell phone, I mean, just this brick, and it rings, and we're driving on the freeway. And with the baby and his mom and dad are in the car covered with a blanket. We're driving down the freeway and the phone rings and Christina picks

022up and she says, well, look, we're in this traffic. And Jackie says, here in the background, Jackie says, you tell him to drive. on the edge of the fruit, do whatever he has to do. I'm Jackie Expletive Goldberg, and he needs to get here by 6 o'clock. I looked at Christine, and she said, I said, yes, Jackie. We got there by 5.57 in the evening. What I later learned was Jackie went personally herself to work with the developers, and you remember this. and personally signed that lease. They broke a market rate lease because it was Jackie to get that newborn baby and her family into that safe apartment. And that's why I stayed in Los Angeles. That's why I learned that day the many, many things that I learned from Jackie. Not only to always

023say yes when Jackie asks, no matter what it is. A rule I rarely broke. But I learned that teaching is justice. That leadership matters and it matters deeply. When we are able to take that trust and that power that is entrusted to us and in ways, little ways, that one day old baby. And in huge ways, living wage ordinance, all the different things that you have done. That day changed my life. You have changed my life. Thank you. I love you. And everything that you have done will continue. Thank you, Jackie. You know, it was a virtual army of volunteers. that came to that park. It was so amazing. It blew me away because I really didn't know about two-thirds of them at all. And they just simply did everything we needed to do because

024what people didn't realize is that Hollywood is on water, literally, on underground water. And when that earthquake came, the earth just fell into that water. And so all these buildings were a problem and all these people had to be moved and everybody was in Northridge. And that army saved a whole lot of folks that day and for the few weeks ahead. And I just remember you in particular because I really could ask him to do anything. And he always said yes. And I had no idea it was Delugich that made that happen. Thank you, Steve Zimmer. Our next speaker is the founding member of Padres Unidos, Yvonne Lucelle. So for the folks in the audience if you the speaker is going to speak in Spanish if you'd like to hear what she's saying in English

025as she's speaking in Spanish please put your hands up and we'll get you these headsets for simultaneous translation just like the UN Good morning to all Good morning to all board members. It's good to see you. My name is Yvonne Lucille I'm one of the founders from the committee Padres Unidos of Southgate Today I am here to tell you a story. In 1999, we were here. We were fighting for, and we were advocating so that we can have many schools in our city because we were suffering from overpopulation, student overpopulation, and we fought for that so that schools from our communities can enjoy a safe environment and have a healthy learning for our students. Today, we are here for a reason that is totally different. We are here because today, a big person from our

026district is retiring, an admirable person, a champion within our education, the best president in LAUSD, and I'm referring to Ms. Jackie Goldberg. And it's good to see you once again and say hello to you once again. In the name of Padres Unidos and my whole team that's with me, we want to thank you. For your collaboration that began in 2017 when no one, none of the board members wanted to support us and help us with the issues that were causing the charter schools, that were being caused by the charter schools from low-income students. But nevertheless, you offered your voluntary help to us so that we can resolve these serious issues that were caused. by the charter schools. Thank you or thanks to your value, to your rigor, to your strong, your strength. This is how

027we were able to obtain the correct answer to what empty classroom meant based on Proposition 39. And we will never forget this. We also want to thank you because you always supported us. We had a big dream where all schools had green zones. I want to inform you that Southgate Middle School looks amazing. Thank you for that. And we hope that this continues and the schools continue to become green zones so other schools can benefit. On the other side, we want to thank you because you raised this back then in 2019 where... where our district superintendent was empty for many months. Unfortunately, the board members didn't give you the opportunity for you to represent us temporarily, but nevertheless, you continued helping us. We want to extend our gratitude to Ms. Sharon, your wife, because she

028is who opened the doors of your home so that we can also speak with you directly and convince you to represent us and for you to run. To be part of the board members. Thank you for that. We recognize that this meant many hours of separation and sacrifice for her and also for your grandchildren. It was a lot of time that we absorbed from you and the support of your wife was valuable so that you can work and fight again for inequality and education for our children. Ms. Goldberg. We admire you for being a leader and a model, and you are brilliant and have the fear and adversity, and you know how to deal with difficult peoples in our community. Also, Padres Unidos wants to thank you because in the name of Padres Unidos of

029South Kuwait, you will. Your name will be imprinted in one of our schools. To be specific, International School. That is where your name will be. And this will be an example of the achievement that was made by the parents of our Southgate families. Well, I leave you now with a lot of love, with much respect. I want you to know that even though you're being, you will retire from the district, we... will keep you in our hearts. And the day that you want to visit us in our meetings from Padres Unidos, we will receive you with open arms. With none more, not much to say, many thanks, and we wish you a well retirement and full of happiness. When I was first contemplating running, because I had tried to get the appointment and I promised

030I wouldn't run again if I got the appointment. So, you know, it's all that board's fault that I'm here this long. The first group I went to, because I never had a district that was in the southeast, was all north of the Santa Monica Freeway. And I first met with this group, and it was really their embracing the things that I wanted to do and that they were already doing that was a big part of my decision to run. was, you know, I had a whole new community, communities, Huntington Park, South Cape, Cudahy, Bell, and I knew nobody there, to be honest with you, and they were my guides. They were my guides. Padre Unidos were my guides and helped me meet people and understand better the issues, and I can't thank them enough for

031their friendship and their love. I return it completely. He is the founder and executive director of LACER, Literacy, Arts, Culture, Education, Recreation, Afterschool program. Please welcome Will Seymour. Good morning. I'm not nervous, you're nervous. I'm Will Seymour, and I'm a founding member and the executive director of the LACER After School Programs, co-founded by Jackie Goldberg and the wonderful Sharon Stricker. And I'm here to bring you some flowers, some imaginary flowers. I moved to L.A. 30 years ago, looking to connect with my community, and I found the city council office. And you held space and made it possible for artists and volunteers, people in the community that wanted to get connected, to find a place to get connected to, to meet Sharon Stricker and become a part of the LACER after-school program that was just starting.

032So here's your first flower. Thank you, Jackie Goldberg. After I met you, you gave me a box of brownie mix. Please make these before you volunteer shift tomorrow. That'll be the snack for the kids. The kids didn't like my brownies, but they liked my class. I'm here today speaking on behalf of the thousands of teaching artists, musicians, tutors, sports coaches, volunteers, cooking instructors, dancers, our small staff, our volunteers, and our board. of directors to say thank you, Jackie. Here's another flower for you. From the over 40,000 students we have served, thanks to your vision and Sharon's vision, from 26 countries all over the world, thank you, Jackie. From the thousands of parents that knew their kids had a safe, productive, and outrageously creative place to be every day after school for free. Thank you, Jackie.

033There you go. Thank you for your leadership, your mentorship, for making great steps forward for students. And here are just two, three highlights. Lift buses. for students with disabilities so they could participate in after school activities just like everyone else. Late buses so magnet students could participate in activities not available on their campus every day after school for free. And lastly, moving forward, LACER Skate Park at LeConte Middle School. We just got across the finish line. Thank you. There you go. Sorry. That's like three flowers. I am so honored, Jackie, to have learned from you to get to be a part of your vision and to continue that vision for you and to be just a small part of your legacy. And I have a short film that I brought with a few more people

034who would like to say thank you. And they also have flowers for you, Jackie. Thank you, dear. I promise there's a video on the way. What a beautiful idea to have a program for kids that's free, that offers such a variety of things for kids to do. I knew that if we did the right kind of program with the right kind of people, if we did hands-on stuff, if we gave kids choice, kids would come. We decided we would open the doors on April 5th, 1995 and sure enough 60 to 75 kids showed up that very day and once that happened I knew we could make this program happen. I'm Sharon Stricker. I co-founded the LASER after-school programs along with Jackie Goldberg. Well it's always true that if you start something and it's successful other

035people say me too. I want one of those at my school. A school is not just what happens from the beginning of the day till 3 o'clock. Without LASER, I would say both of my kids would just be at home playing games and with LASER they could concentrate on doing drill, concentrate on doing art. LACER have provided that safety net of exposure to the arts and other cultural elements to all of our students. We're going to write a play together. We're going to do a play together. My name is Ever Ryan O'Neal Cain. I started in seventh grade. I was just a curious kid with a bunch of friends. LACER was a way for us to stay out of trouble and stay out of the streets. When our parents couldn't pick us up, if I

036wasn't in LACER, I'd probably be doing some really bad things. I would have been a gangbanger. I would have been rolling with the wrong people and I wouldn't be doing what I want to do which is my love of music. LASER gives us kids structure and it teaches us more than what the classrooms could teach us and what any math or English or any science or history could teach you. It teaches you about people skills. It gives you confidence and I'm a walking testimony of that. LASER changed my life and I'm going to be LASER until I'm not here on this earth anymore. LACER has played a big role in the notion that there should be after-school programs at every school. They aren't just to keep kids safe, although they do that, but there are

037also ways to engage them, connect them to their communities, to their schools. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank

038you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you when we began getting government grants because even though we were not allowed to be married, we considered ourselves to be married and we wanted no conflict of interest. So she donated her time for years. We could not cover her on my health care. So we had to pay separate healthcare. But the thing that I'm the most proud of is that the fact that the artists in Southern California, many of them got their start as LACER instructors because, you know, nobody pays artists in this town. You know, it's just, so when we were giving them part-time jobs that paid them at least $15

039an hour long before it was necessary because we don't believe in people working for free. And I just want to say that Sharon Stricker really did this. I get credit because I help raise money. But she did the work. And she made that possible. And she's still on the board. And it's an extraordinary experience. And if you ever want to visit a LACER school, we'll arrange it for you to do so. Thank you. Let's give a big hand to Sharon Stricker. We now have another short video presentation from Jackie Goldberg's good friend, Supervisor Hilda Solis. Hello, everyone. I'm Hilda L. Solis, Supervisor for the 1st District of Los Angeles County. And on behalf of the residents I represent, I want to wish... A heartfelt congratulations to my dear friend Jackie Goldberg on her well-earned retirement.

040When I think of people who have dedicated their lifetimes to public service, Jackie, your name immediately comes to mind. From the LAUSD School Board to the Los Angeles City Council to the State Assembly and back to the School Board, I've been so fortunate to have you in both a friend and a thought partner. It has been such an honor to work with you to uplift the needs of our most vulnerable residents and especially our students. In you, our educators, our students, our families have had a champion in protecting and preserving public education. I have been proud to be at your side fighting to protect our public schools and to ensure all students, regardless of who they are, where they live, or their family income, have access to a quality education. Because you know all too

041well that it is our public schools that are serving our primarily low-income students and young people of color, as well as immigrants, English learners, and children with disabilities. Our schools are the key in helping create a level playing field later in life, ensuring everyone is set up for success for that life. But beyond the classroom, you also recognize the importance of ensuring the holistic needs of our students and those needs were being met. I have admired your drive and dedication to ensuring our students have access to the necessary mental health supports and it's been an honor working with you on that effort. And I know this has been a lifelong fight for you. I have long appreciated your priority in emphasizing racial and social justice back when you yourself were a teacher. Under your leadership,

042we saw greater equity in school funding coming from the state to our communities that was most needed. This drive and dedication to residents that need it most have been the defining hallmark of your public career. And now, as you finally head up to retirement, you won't stop. I know you. I so appreciated the actions you took to reaffirm that across LAUSD, all students are welcome and will find a home regardless of who they love, their gender identity, and where their family comes from. You are an absolute giant in this field and I know your voice will be sorely missed on the board. That being said, I know this retirement is well earned and richly deserved. So again, mi amiga, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I want to thank you for your decades

043of service and friendship and congratulate you on everything that you have been able to accomplish. Thank you, Jackie. Our next speaker is President of the Network for Public Education, Diane Ravitch. Thank you so much. I flew in from New York City yesterday because I didn't want to miss this event, and it brought back a lot of memories. First of all, I remember the first time I heard your name. I was in L.A. and California to talk about a book that I wrote in 2010, and there was a very young man, a very, very tall young man assigned to drive me. His name was David Goldberg. And he said to me, have you met my aunt Jackie Goldberg? I said, no. He said, have you heard of her? I said, no. And it took a while.

044And a few years ago, I was honored by Lane, which is honoring you tomorrow night. And Jackie Goldberg was there. And I said, we have to talk. Well, we were going to talk for 10 minutes, and I think we talked for an hour and a half. And at the end of it, Jackie said, I think we're sisters by a different mother. And that was probably the greatest compliment I've ever had in my life. Jackie, you are just an amazing dynamo. And I am only sad about one thing, and that is that your energy, your intellect, your vigor, all those things you have are so needed in the next four years. And we need to find a way to clone you. All the things that have been talked about today in terms of... diversity, equity, inclusion,

045marginalized groups, taking care of the kids who are left behind, those kids are all going to be neglected over the next four years. The funding for them will be cut if Congress allows it to happen. All the things that you have devoted your life to are under threat now. Public education is under threat as it has never been before. We have a man elected to be president who has declared war on public schools. He wants all the public dollars to be spent in religious schools, private schools, homeschooling, vouchers, to allow children to segregate themselves, to allow children with the greatest needs to be neglected. We're in for a terrible four years and I don't want to add a sour note because this is such an uplifting occasion. But I think that we need you as

046a spokesperson, as the person who continues to rally us and to remind us of a better world that has to be. So I thank you, Jackie, from the bottom of my heart. You've meant so much to me since I've gotten to know you. And it's so wonderful to know that you're leading here in California. And I think you will inspire others across the country to keep speaking up, standing up, and speaking out on behalf of the most marginalized groups who will be stepped on for the next four years. And let it be no more than that. Thank you, Jackie. Thank you so much. Diane, before you leave, would you tell people how to get your blog? If you don't read her blog, you're missing something. I blog daily, usually three times a day, no matter

047what day it is, at dianeravitch.net. and I've written many books. The one that brought me here in 2010 is called The Death and Life of the Great American School System, how school choice and testing are undermining education. But there have been several since then, and my memoirs come out next year. All right. Thank you. But do yourself a favor. Sign up for that blog. It just inspires you every time you read it. Thank you, Diane Ravitch. Our next speaker is Eagle Rock High School parent Virginia Escamilla. I saw the updated agenda and I said, I'm following who? My goodness, you know, I am nervous. This is not my usual thing to do, but I had to be here in honor of Jackie. I'm just a neighborhood mom who is so grateful for the impact and

048legacy that you have left in our schools and our communities. I am an Egerach Elementary and Egerach High School alum. One is an alum now and one will graduate in June. And as a parent of students and being a public school student myself, it's something that I'm very proud of. You know, I was never one to get super involved or vocal about politics or elections, but my background is in education, and I've learned along the way that sometimes it is necessary to speak up. Selecting our school board member is one of those times. Now, Jackie, I have to apologize because when you first ran for LAUSD board member, I didn't speak up for you. I was in the third grade. I didn't know better yet. But since then, I have devoted my career to working

049with very young children and their families, and I'm currently serving marginalized communities in the central LA area. And as our families get ready to leave our centers, I see firsthand I see firsthand the need to support our local public schools in ways that make them not only accessible but equitable. And you have been such a big part of that. For the past decade or two, our enormous school district has had a school board that I feel and have feared has teetered on ways to support our public schools. and what public schools mean. I've seen the effects in my own community with its history of charter schools coming in and then leaving, and its effects on my own children's schools and the people I personally know. So supporting you to be on the board again was

050necessary. You have never teetered. You are a proven champion not only for our district, but for true public education in general. And you have inspired our newest board members like Rocio and Shirley and Carla who will be coming in and parents and community members like myself to speak up because it is necessary. You know, if anyone ever feels the need for a boost or add a pep to your step or just encouragement for standing up for something that you believe in, watch some of Jackie's videos where she so eloquently and powerfully and passionately and resolutely speak for what is right to do in our public schools and our communities. So last night in prepping to say a few words here, I needed a little encouragement because this is not my thing to be a public

051speaker. So I pulled up the video of you responding last year to folks that were protesting about a children's book that had one or two lines in it that referenced having two moms or two dads. The video was titled by our online community, School Board President Destroys Homophobic Protesters. And the word destroys was in all caps, so it was loud. I have to say, though, that as a parent of a gay student whom I have witnessed cope with and process all sorts of fears, your voice put so many of my thoughts and feelings into the words, that I couldn't express. So I couldn't help but to send that video link to my little family thread last night and tell them this is who I get to say thank you to tomorrow. Jackie, thank you for

052representing us in all your different capacities and for being a voice for so many of us students and parents and just regular community members. Please know that it is heartfelt, sincere gratitude that we extend to you today. Thank you, Virginia Escamilla. Our next speaker is the Director of Bilingual Education for the United Teachers of Los Angeles. Please welcome Cheryl Ortega. Wow, thank you. Good morning. As he said, my name is Cheryl Ortega, and I'm the Director of Bilingual Education for UTLA. It is my great honor and privilege to recognize Jackie for her decades of support and advocacy for particular groups of students who are often left behind. Approximately 20% or 92,000 of LAUSD students are English learners or, as we now say, emergent bilinguals. We thank Jackie for supporting these students. There are 230 dual

053language schools in LAUSD where students are taught in English with Spanish, Korean, Mandarin, Arabic, Armenian, Japanese, French, and American Sign Language. We thank Jackie for supporting these students and these programs. There are more than 27,000 immigrant students in grades UTK through 12, and we thank Jackie for supporting these students. The recently passed resolution making LAUSD a sanctuary district is a magnificent action that will aid students and families, protect their life decisions, and perhaps their actual lives. Jackie has continued her commitment and advocacy for bilingual education in good years and bad years. Those years when California chose to suppress bilingual programs that would have aided our emergent bilinguals. Those years are over and our programs have soared. Thanks in great part to the efforts and advocacy of Jackie Goldberg. We also acknowledge Jackie for supporting not

054only the students, but the teachers who have given their lives and their careers to make the lives of those students better. For all of these categories of students and families and teachers, we thank Jackie for her support. Students' lives are forever better, and we thank you for more than 40 years of advocacy. We wish you a happy, long life, knowing that you have accomplished all, and you will be remembered, honored, and blessed. And we say gracias, merci, arigato, sheshe. Here's the hard one. Shnor hakalut yun, gam sahab nida, ushkan lak. Thank you. We have a certificate of appreciation for you. And stay at the microphone for a second because I want to talk a little bit about Cheryl. Certificate of appreciation presented to Jackie Goldberg for her 41 years of advocacy and support for bilingual

055education presented today, December 3rd, 2024, and a quote that says, to have a second language is to possess a second soul. All right. Cheryl Ortega I met in my first time on the board in 1983 or 84 85 she was a group of teachers who came to my office we had no staff in those days didn't we and they said we need to do something about the second language learners in this district because right now it's just not being done They were the ones that invented bilingual education. Sitting on the floor at 450 North Grand in my office and came back week after week after week and discussed what it needed to have, what kind of teachers needed to be able to do this, that the Spanish of the Teachers had to be excellent Spanish,

056not terrible Spanish, because then you're teaching them the wrong of their own primary language. And they put this together, and it later became a national model. I get credit for it, but they did it. And Cheryl Ortega was one of the chief people who came to that office and brought other teachers who were worried about this and made it happen, and she deserves a lot of credit for that. Thank you, Cheryl Ortega. Our next speaker is the principal of Irving Steem Magnet Middle School, Kirk Roskam. Jack. Granddaughter goes to school. And we're gracious that you do that. Before I get started on this, I just want to say I'm so grateful for everything that you've done for Irving. And I've written it down, but I'm feeling I'm going to be a little bit nervous and

057I might not bring it all out. But everything that you've done for Irving has been just amazing. I love the district. And I want to say it's a... It's an organization I think is actually underrated. It outperforms the state when you look at the data disaggregated. It's been doing this for a long time. I know we had a great year this year. It extended all of that. And for the most part, generally things work in LAUSD. If something breaks in your principal, there's a problem, if you do a trouble call, people come out and fix the problem. My director is wonderful. He's responsive. He knows a lot. He's helpful. I have an operations coordinator that's helpful and responsive, and they provide great advice. And there's a great deal of expertise in the district that's really

058helpful for principals. Things do sometimes go, sometimes things just go off the rails. Sometimes things happen on a campus and there's an acute problem that can't be fixed or it's going to be delayed infinitely. That's the wonderful thing about your office that you do so well is that when we've tried to fix the problem in different ways, you always, you come, you listen, and you try to solve the problem. For example, we had a soccer field that was condemned. And, you know, and I totally understand it was a lot of money. And the city, unfortunately, both the city and the district own the property. So there was a conflict about... who's going to pay for it and how are they going to fix it. And we waited for about six months. And when we finally

059talked to Goldberg's office, they basically, instead of getting the field in one or two years, we got that field in about eight months. And I don't know what she said, what her office did, but it was amazing. We got that field in. And our kids were so happy and our parents. So these are the kind of things you've been doing. Another thing. Our parents, our community, there's a lot of poverty there, and we were trying to get a food distribution service for our parents there, but there was a problem because it's a safety issue to some extent. But Ms. Goldberg's office was able to get the city and the district to work together to come with a compromise so that they could... distribute this food to my parents every week. They provide two tons of

060food to my parents every week. And I was there the day before Thanksgiving. We gave out 600, 600. free turkeys with all of the trimmings and everything like that. So these are things that Jackie Goldberg's office has done on our campus. Now, there's a myriad of list of things that you've done for our school, but probably the most important thing is... Irving was a low-performing school about 10 years ago when I first came there, and although I tried and struggled to try to improve it, it was not even a popular school. We were losing enrollment, and we had to come up with a new concept for the school. We had to completely... come up with a brand new concept for a school. And at the time, STEAM was a new concept. And we went full

061in on this concept. And we built our school around the STEAM model with an eight-period block schedule. two blocks of math and English history core, but the most important thing we put in is a double elective structure for the students to have an art-based elective and a science and technology-based elective at the same time to make the school popular and interesting and engaging and a place where the kids really wanted to go. And although the district let me do it, They let me facilitate this. I never really felt like I had an advocate to really bring the program to its fullest. And Ms. Goldberg's office, when I spoke to them about it, they became this amazing advocate for our school. We had the concept, the idea, but if it hadn't been for her office, that

062school wouldn't be the school that it is right now. Irving is a top performing academic school. We're not the top, but we're pretty much probably in the top five in the district for academic achievement. But moreover, it's a school that... Love, the parents love, and now a lot of fluent people are putting their children in our school. But it's a credit to her office that they could see over the horizon to help us make our school what it was. So I'm very grateful. I'm sorry I'm getting teary-eyed about it, but I want to thank you so much. Always when teachers retire there we always give them a big go bears so from Irving I want to give you a big go bears! It was a school even before my granddaughter went there that was in

063my heart because I knew Mr. Roskam as he came there the school began to change. It began to change. His leadership absolutely magnificent. Absolutely magnificent. Thank you Kirk Roskam and our final speaker is Mallory Evans the LA Unified School District Deaf Education Program Educational Audiologist. Please welcome Mallory Evans. To wrap this up is quite a quite a task, but I'm not nervous about it because everything that I'm saying is coming from the heart and I'm looking right at you Jackie because We've all heard all morning long about the contributions that you've made. As I was listening to everybody, it just kept coming back to me, what a full circle moment this is. One of the biggest impacts that you've had on me personally, as well as the field that I'm in, deaf education. is the

064resolution that Cecily mentioned earlier regarding deaf education and the restructuring of it in this district. I don't know if, I'm not even sure you're quite sure how this came about, but it happened because your nephew was substituting one day at Marlton School, for those who don't know, that's the district's only school for the deaf, and he looked around, he's very familiar with the school, noticed it wasn't quite what he had remembered it to be, and had a conversation with some of us and we explained some of the struggles that had been happening over a long period of time, along with Carla, who had been the psychiatric social worker at Marlton. And we said, what do we do? And he said, well, have you talked to Jackie? Right. We hadn't. So that was where we started.

065And so we got ourselves together. We wanted to make sure that when we came to you, we came to you with something. We did our own homework and our own research and we came to you and you were the one who said, we need a resolution about this. That idea didn't come from us. That came from you. We came to you asking for help and you said, let's do a resolution. And you knew. from a personal standpoint, how important deaf education is because of your own niece Maxie, who I have the honor of working alongside, a colleague of mine at Marlton, the current preschool teacher. Everywhere I look, front, side, center, I have a Goldberg. And that's amazing to me. I love that. But you understood it on such... instinctive level that when we were

066explaining to you what the issues were we didn't have to convince you. You had seen it yourself. You had seen what Maxie had gone through as a deaf student in this district and you had seen the barriers, you had seen the struggles, you've seen so much and so this was this was a no-brainer to you and because of your assurance and your strength and your commitment, it really energized us and it really helped us to understand that the fight that we already knew that we had and that we were doing, that it wasn't just us and we didn't need to do it by ourselves. And because of you empowering us, it's not that you did everything for us. You gave us the agency to know that we could take this on and we could do

067this and we could make a life, a change in the lives of our deaf students. the education that they deserve, the respect, the recognition of their culture, their language, and their community. Until this resolution, and I love that Cheryl mentioned that ASL is one of the programs that we have, until this resolution, it wasn't. Even though we've had ASL English bilingual programs in this district for decades and decades, it was never, ever recognized as a bilingual program until this resolution and I think that elevating and uplifting a community of students who has been so overlooked and so marginalized and so misunderstood really touched off something that goes beyond the borders of LA Unified. You were honored by the California Educators of the Deaf as the contributor of the year for Deaf education throughout the state

068of California. We had so many people that reached out. I know people reached out to you, reached out to us saying, how can we do the same thing in our districts? And you extended an invitation to school districts, county offices of education, whoever was looking for this kind of support, that you would be somebody who could guide and support them into making similar changes in their deaf education programs. your reach has reverberated not only across the state but across the country. I'm currently a student, a doctoral student at Gallaudet University in deaf education. In large part because of the work that we did together on the resolution. It made me realize that understanding how to effect change is powerful and I wanted to understand it more and I wanted to go deeper and do more

069and touch more lives in a way that you have. Now Gallaudet University is in Washington, D.C. When I had my interview for the program, They were asking me questions about the resolution and they were asking me this Jackie Goldberg like she just gets it like most school board members don't get it I'm like, yeah, you don't know Jackie Goldberg Jackie Goldberg really really does get this and so when I say nationwide I mean that you are respected within the deaf community and the deaf education community Nationwide and the ripples that you have have started are just getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And the change that we've seen, even in the last two years since the resolution has passed, gives us hope. Of course we have more work to do, right? The work never ends.

070And there's always going to be something that's going to present itself as a barrier in a system that wasn't meant for everybody. But that's okay, right? We know that the system wasn't meant for everybody. And it's because of your leadership and your strength and people like you who tell us that's okay that the system wasn't made for us, we're here and we still deserve everything that the system has to offer and we will continue to fight. So on behalf of the Deaf Education Program, by the way, one of the best things that came out of that is for the first time in this district's history, the coordinator of the Deaf Education Program is a deaf woman who is a graduate of LAUSD. The pipeline is here. We have it. It's our time to really foster

071that pipeline and continue to bring our deaf students into this space. Our deaf students felt empowered from that school board meeting when they came and saw all the people that were speaking on their behalf. right? They were signing. My two students that came from Cortina's VAPA that came and gave their stories, their whole class came to support them. They felt empowered. They felt strong. And I have you to thank for giving the space and the platform for that to happen. And it will continue to happen. So congratulations, Jackie, on a most well-deserved and well-earned retirement. We are so grateful for the impact that you've had on every single life in every single corner of this city. Thank you so much, Jackie. Thank you, Mallory Evans. And to conclude today's celebration of Jackie Goldberg, we're going

072to end with a Si Se Puede chant. Everybody, please stand up. Thank you, Jackie, for your vision, for your leadership, for your passion, and for your friendship. Se puede! Se puede! Si se puede! Si se puede! Si se puede! Didn't tell everybody what you do at UCLA. What do you do at UCLA, Mr. Wong? I've been at UCLA 33 years with the UCLA Labor Center. I teach labor studies, and I'm a union attorney. And his parents were very important for me understanding the importance of the elementary school in Chinatown when I first came to office. And I loved them dearly, and they produced you, so you know they were wonderful people. Thank you very much. My parents, Judge Delbert and Dolores Wong, were very proud members of Council District 13, and we're so proud that

073you were their city council member. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Wong, for being a fantastic emcee. And I'd like to give a chance for the board members to also say something about Jackie. And I'd like to start to my right with Dr. McKenna. Thank you. Well, fellow retiree, here we are. We lasted long enough to get old, but we're still here. I want to say to all of you who spoke and those who are not here to speak, those who at least sent something in to speak. I do know the importance of being aware of when you're in the presence of greatness. I want to say something about the presentations, just for a moment. I have been given a lot of accolades, more than most people. And I prided myself, I don't think that any

074of those persons were sycophants, because they had nothing to give back. They were not looking for something. I didn't see any sycophantic behavior here today. This was true authenticity of experience and caring. And one of the things I do know about you, you're authentically passionate about many things. There's nothing phony about you. You wouldn't know how to do that. I can relate to that. I've gotten in trouble myself, and it was good trouble. because there's some things I just can't tolerate and I don't mind speaking it. I am going to miss you. You're probably going to miss me too. But we have to say goodbye at the same time, which I think is fitting. Give new people, at least younger people, a chance to do this. You've been on the board longer than I have

075in two different sections. I was only on the board for one term, one continued term for 10 years. I know you spent more than 10 years on this board because you were here before. This was a new experience for me in the politics of education rather than the actual practice of it, and I learned a lot from you. So I thank you for having passed this way. I'm glad I lived and served. in the time of Jackie Goldberg. There are people who say they were happy to live in the time of Achilles, in the time of Plato, in the time of other legendary figures in our history and literature. But the time of Jackie Goldberg was partially referenced here today with the testimony of these people who were all sincere in what they said. I

076can't say anything to add to that. So I will say, see you again, if not on this side, then the other side. Okay, let's move to my left with Kelly. Thank you. Well, I echo just all of the love and appreciation that's been shared for you, Jackie. I feel like you're truly a one-of-a-kind person. And like Dr. McCann, I feel lucky to be on the earth at the same time as you. And it's been really a privilege to serve together for the last five years. I think of many moments where I think your public moments, it's been clear what a... what a fighter you are for inclusivity and for our schools to be places that lift up and love all of our students. But in quiet moments as well, that's work that you do. And

077you lift up issues that really matter to our families. I remember back when the pandemic began, you lifting up the issue of childcare and the fact that we needed to prioritize providing childcare and meals for our families. I think of recently when we've been talking about the learning outcomes of our students and how we can support them and you raising from your experience as a secondary teacher, our middle school students, they're struggling with reading and we need to do something to support them. And of course, your work around community schools, I'm grateful to have done some of that work with you, getting more funding for our community schools and even amidst some pressure, really standing up for the proposition that learning is more than just assessments. and tests and that our kids' brilliance can be

078measured in a lot of different ways. And I think your fearlessness and your courage in the face of many crises, I mean, for many years in your time as a public servant, and I've witnessed up close the last several years where, you know, there are these right-wing takeovers of school boards. You have just been the antithesis and the antidote to all of that. And I've just been so grateful for your sturdy leadership. I wanted to also raise your intellectual curiosity because you are just such a bright and brilliant person. You ask hard questions, good questions, and that's a part of being an effective public servant is asking those difficult questions and doing so in the moments when it really matters. And your effectiveness. I think that it's easy for public officials to make proclamations and

079statements, but to actually get something done to make people's lives better, to make... freedom more real for communities, you not only stand for that, but you actually make it happen. You get it done. And just the last thing I wanted to mention is, you know, the incident at Saticoy was raised. Saticoy is in my district, and for those who may not know, this was a moment where there was, you know, right-wing-led hatred against our LGBTQ community simply for reading a book about families. more of which pages were devoted to holidays and pets than were to anything else. And I too loved and admired your speech at the board meeting afterwards. I think it was just such an incredible statement. about what we stand for in this district. But there was a lot of attention on

080what was happening outside of the school. I wanted to just uplift what happened inside of the school because we were there together inside the school library. And I think back to those kids and I'm certain, you know, they didn't know who the school board members were. They maybe weren't familiar with Jackie Goldberg as this legend and public servant. But... you could see on their faces just what they felt when you spoke to them, when you spoke as an educator and as a grandma. And I just remember you sharing about your own family's experience with that type of hate. And, you know, it's not always being loud, but also in those quiet moments that you can be really, really powerful. So I'm just really grateful for that. Thank you so much. Oh Jackie, if someone had

081told me years ago when you were in my office asking us to appoint you to the board that I would be sad to see you go, I would probably have rolled my eyes if I'm being honest. But here we are and not only am I sad to see you go, but I have to admit that I too will miss you. Your righteous indignation, your, as David said, your anger and love. your passion, your intellect, your brilliance. And I guess I only take comfort in the fact that you have a bad track record when it comes to retiring from this place. So maybe this won't be the end. You know, you and I have not always agreed. In fact, a lot of the time I feel like I disappoint Jackie because she expects so much better

082of me, which is kind of flattering in its own right. But I always learn from you. I've learned how to ask the right questions and when to be satisfied with an answer and when not to be. I've learned how not to shy away from a fight. You know, the state often follows Jackie's lead and the legislature is currently in special session right now on how to Trump-proof the state. But we started that process a few weeks ago thanks to you and your important resolutions and I agree with what's been said. about how we need your voice now. And please, I hope everyone in this room knows that her voice will continue to be heard in this room, in this head, in all of our heads in the months and years to come. I've learned how

083to count to four. And when you're not one of the four, I usually don't get things passed. And so I thank you for everything from critical media literacy to more coherence in our after school programs, to protections for our most vulnerable students, to cell phone free schools and beyond. I've learned about courage. I appreciate Kelly. kind of giving those anecdotes, sitting next to you at this dais when you not only spoke about your experience but also read from that book of families was one of the proudest moments I had as a board member in my seven and a half years. I've learned about legacy. I'm so proud to represent schools that have LACER and many schools that have names, your name's big on the wall like Hollywood High School. I've learned about commitment to a

084district, well, to two districts actually, to a city. to a state, to a cause. And it's not just the last time that Jackie didn't have the easiest time getting back in LUSD when she wasn't appointed. If I'm correct, the first time you tried to get a job in LUSD, you couldn't because of a prior arrest for a nonviolent protest. So yeah, here's to that. And she showed us. You have spent a lifetime fighting for our school communities. And I mean that literally. You were on the board before a few of us up here were born and have been fighting our entire lifetimes, and we're all better for it. The cleric John Wesley used to preach, do all the good you can by all the means you can and all the ways you can and all

085the places you can to all the people you can as long as ever you can. And I think there are a few people I've met who exemplify that better than you, Jackie. So thank you. And just know that while I'll continue to disappoint you at times, I will never stop trying to follow your example. So thank you. Thank you. And Jackie, I was, all these memories came back. What's that? Oh, she wants to go last. I'm the board vice president. Thank you very much. You got it. You got it. Such memories. Such memories. You know, Kelly, I was with you and Jackie at Santa Coy Street. Those people outside were so mean and so nasty, just screaming and yelling at us. And I was wondering, what's going to happen when we go into the library?

086And my main focus, as usual, was on the kids. And I was watching their faces as the person read the story. Not one of them had anything unusual. It was just a story, and that's what the people outside should have seen, too. It was just a story about what life is like in this day and age. It was a great, great experience, and I appreciate that very much. And another memory, Steve Zimmer, you're not the only building inspector. When I was at Virgil Middle School, where Mr. Fulbright there, standing there, was also there, I was promoted to building inspector at Virgil Middle School. The earthquake was the Whittier earthquake. If anybody even remembers the Whittier earthquake, I was there. That really shook us up. And then when I became assistant principal at Griffith, there was

087another earthquake, the Northridge, and I was inexperienced. building inspector at that time. So I really knew what to look for, so that brought back memories. I just wanted to mention, Ms. Escamilla, you here, you were speaking about, yes, you said something, which I'm going to correct you. You said, I'm just a mom. Nobody's just a. And Jackie and I both agree on that. Everybody, everybody in school matters. You're a mom. You're not just a mom. I just want you to know that, okay? I want you to know that. Lastly, Jackie, I have never met anyone. who can be as hard as nails, as hard as nails, but as sweet as sugar at the same time. So that is Jackie Goldberg. Hard as nails, sweet as sugar. When she says something, I listen. And I am

088going to miss you. I really am going to miss you. She's told me off plenty of times, but it's okay. It was for a good reason, and it's okay. And I appreciate that, Jackie. Thank you so much. I'll remind you. Go ahead, Rocio. I wanted to be last because I wanted to control my emotions, which is not going to succeed in that. But where do I start? You know, when life brings you angels to get you to where you need to be, I just want to say that you have been my angel. Throughout the years, our relationship since we met has transformed in so many ways. The first time I met you, we're running for Board District 5, but I never felt like I was running against you. I felt like we were running together.

089We're running because we both love public education. We both love children. We both love our communities. And I got to know you, we got to know each other, and I think that was the moment that I didn't know at the time that my life was going to change. And then you won beautifully, and I was so grateful for that, but then you hired me. You hired me to work with you as your research and policy deputy, and that was just the happiest moment of my life. As far as I'm concerned, I made it. I wanted to be in a place where I can be of some service to LAUSD and our communities. And then we had such an amazing staff. We had Sharon, who was leading us, and Danny, and Fidencio, and Josh, Noonie, and

090Alejandra Leon. And I just loved working there, and I loved your stories. I always look forward to staff meetings, because I knew you were always going to tell us a story, which Sharon didn't like, because it digressed our meeting. It was like, hurry, hurry. But I didn't care. I loved your stories. And I learned so much. I just felt like, wow, I'm learning about history, you know, but such an amazing human being. And that's when I learned how to be the public servant that I wanted to be. You showed me your heart. The people don't know that, yes, she's strong and she bangs and she's angry. But from all of that, you have such a huge heart. And I saw that. And I just loved how you, you know, no matter what was thrown at

091you, you kept focused. And when people wanted to meet with you, you met with them. You never said no to anybody. And I was taking notes on everything because I knew that I wanted to be just like you, a person with heart, with integrity and dignity and strength and courage. and someone who really was there for the real reasons of what a public servant is about. And so I remember, you know, at our staff meetings, I was just so happy and I was just so connected to all of us. And when Josh and me left, I was devastated because I was like, no, Josh, don't leave. And then when it was my turn to leave, it was very bittersweet. But you believed in me and you supported me throughout the whole time and I think

092The moment that you left retirement because you hadn't, I don't think I would be here. I don't think I would have the opportunities you offered me to be here, sitting here, representing Board District 2. And I want to thank you for that. I want to thank you for being my angel. I want to thank you for showing me what a real public servant is about. And I will try my best to follow in your footsteps. It will be very hard, but I know that I've had a great mentor, a great teacher, and a great friend. And I just want to thank you for everything, for being you. I want to thank Sharon Strecker for, you know, opening her home as well, as I got to know you as well. And just two amazing, amazing women.

093And, you know, David Goldberg and all the Goldbergs have just been so wonderful to me. And I'm so grateful for all the Goldbergs and all the beautiful people that I've met, and Sharon and Danny and Fidencio and Alejandra and Josh. And now I'm here. And like I said, thank you for being my angel. Thank you for just everything. And I will miss you dearly. But I know that you will be calling me. I know that we're still going to be connected. And yes, and our relationship will be transformed in another way. And so thank you. Thank you for being the person that I needed to just be the person I've always wanted to be. Thank you. Now we're going to have some words from our superintendent. Thank you very much. One of the great benefits

094of listening before you speak is you have a chance and opportunity to relive someone's life experience. I think this is the third time that I provide some remarks about Jackie Goldberg. One time at a school, one time at the last board meeting, and again today. Today, Jackie will preside over her last official board meeting. In five days, she will retire. So we think. She failed her first attempt at retirement. And I have a pretty good feeling that Jackie is just not going to walk away from the struggle, from the fight, from the belief that one's voice matters and one's actions matter even more. I will not say this about many people. Actually, I would only say this of very few people. Jackie has never wasted one of my minutes. She treats minutes with a mindful

095meaning. that a serious intellectual fighter would treat. Every word matters. Every moment matters. One of the things that has impressed me the most about Jackie is the fact that all of us can gather and celebrate success, moments of happiness, of blissful joy. Very few of us lead with humanity during difficult, trying times, even in the face of disappointment. And remarkably, Jackie does not separate her heart from her mind when it comes to the humane treatment of individuals, even when there is disagreement. I, too, as your colleagues have so eloquently spoken of, stood with you, with Kelly, and others at Sadekoy. It was a proud moment. I remember being by Jackie's side and actually... asking the team, don't let Jackie go out onto the street. It did not work. Jacqueline actually politely but sternly said, I

096got this. I need to speak. And she stepped down onto the street from the school side into the no man's land because we knew what was on the other side. And Jackie spoke her mind, spoke her heart in a courageous way. and in the process elevated all of us. And then she did it even better at the next board meeting, not standing down, not cowering to the voice of insanity and the voice of criticism, the voice of dehumanization that we saw play out in our community and beyond. We've stood together in great times, celebrating successes. We've stood together. when we launched LUSD 2025, knowing the possibility. We stood together in approving Measure US. You'll retire as the board president that approved the single largest bond measure in the history of this country because people believe

097when something right is being done. I have never really worked side by side with someone. who so deeply knows herself. Therefore, there is no fear about the words or the actions she will take. I've never worked side by side with someone who is so passionate, but simultaneously so compassionate, who is so brilliant, but so humane, who is so strong, but always, always takes the time to acknowledge the least amongst us. I've seen it in schools, with the workforce, with children, in the community. I've never met an educator who so embodies public education like Jackie does. I believe public education and democracy are two sides of the same American coin, and Jackie represents both in a beautiful, seamless way. Usually when somebody retires, everybody wants the research to highlight the things that that individual has done.

098My question is, what haven't you done? You've been so many firsts. You have done so much for so many, so often, without ever asking for anything in return. I've been at this for a long time and I can say, Jackie, I am proud to be your superintendent. I am proud to be a fellow educator side by side with you. I am proud of the fact that the past two and a half years They have not been easy, but they have been amazing in terms of doing the right thing at the right time for the right reason by the right people. You lead in an extraordinary way. I am proud not only to work with you and for you, but I'm proud of the learnings that you have allowed me to absorb, and I am proud

099of the meals we shared together up the hill when no one was looking. Until such time as she says, listen, you got to go to work and I got to go and bring Sharon lunch. And that's when the meeting would end. I love you. I love our friendship. I love the legacy, the memories. And this district and this state and this nation love the impact you've had on all of us. Thank you. Now for Jackie Goldberg. I'm a little overwhelmed to say the very least. But I did want to say a few things. First of all, I want to thank the two Sharons in my life. And Sharon Stricker, my wife of only 45 years, you know, this has been a terrible sacrifice for her. This job, as all of these people up here in

100Frontenove, is a seven-day-a-week job. And that means a lot of things that you should have done and wanted to do and could have done with your wife and your family, you didn't do. And yet Sharon supported me doing it. And she was my first and my best political advisor. Whenever I'm going to take on something really tough, I have to first say to her, is this okay? Do you think this is something we should do? And always the answer was, yeah, that's something you should do. Go ahead and do it. I knew that it meant more time away from her. I knew it meant more time away from our family. And yet, she's always been my best political advisor. And then only about 40 years ago, I met my other Sharon, Sharon DeLugich. So I

101have a work, Sharon. And you know, I have to say something that's very important. I get credit, being an elected official has one really big advantage. And that is you get credit for what all your staff does. Okay? So for example, I have 151 schools. in Board District 5. Okay? I've been to all of them. But I'm going to ask my staff to stand up right now. All of you, please. Standing before you have been organized to help me to select and have been empowered by Sharon DeLugage. If you want to know what the essence is of getting stuff done, it's having a chief of staff who knows how to organize the rest of the staff to be the best they can be. And that is Sharon DeLugich. She did it here at the board.

102And this amazing staff here. Each had a group of schools that they then took care of because I could get to them once, maybe twice in five years, 151 of them, but they went every week. They found out everything that was going on. They kept me informed. They helped me understand when a resolution was necessary. They helped all of my constituents have someone to call upon. because there were too many of them to call upon me directly. And I want you to know that I get credit for a whole bunch of things I didn't even know, quote, I did, because I really didn't do them, they did. And it's important for people to understand that if you don't have staff, and by the way, I didn't in the first four years I was on this

103board. We got a person that was an executive assistant like Danny is, and that was it. Also, we didn't get paid. We didn't get paid. We got $1,000 a month if we made every meeting, and my back went out and I missed three meetings. I got $250 total that month, another sacrifice our family made. No, no, no, no, don't sit down yet. Don't sit down yet. I'm not done with you. So it's important for everyone to understand who came here and thanked me that really what you're thanking is my team and me because it's the team that gets something done. Before I finish, I just want to say to Sharon DeLugich, my other Sharon. Oh, yeah. No, that it does make a difference if you have someone who can provide that kind of leadership to

104the staff. It makes an enormous amount of difference. And I want to thank each and every one of you for taking care of our schools, for taking care of my constituents, for helping me write messages, for helping me learn to say them well in Spanish, or at least pretty well in Spanish. And I want to thank each and every one of you for all of the things you did for Board District 5 these last five years. Now, some of you weren't here all five of them, and Rocio was one of them, and Josh Nooney, and Alejandra. But that makes the difference in the world. Now you can sit down. Okay. The other thing I want to say is, first of all, how many of you, just raise your hand, have ever worked on a campaign

105of mine? Okay, you get the idea. Ace, I see you here. They were always on my side. They were always pushing me too. I mean, Ace doesn't come and say, thank you very much. They say, thank you very much. And here's the next five things you got to do. But that's important because when you get pushed by the people who have only one thing in mind, the care of the folks they aren't cared for in this society, you are being pushed in the right direction, the correct directions. I want to thank also my entire family who has always been supportive of me in all of the wild and weird things that I've done. I want to also thank everybody here who makes these meetings possible and translated, and I'm thrilled that we are now signing

106them. I'm thrilled that we are now signing them, but most of all I want to say that the things I was able to accomplish and get credit for happened because we created a movement about them. We didn't say, oh, that person, that elected official will get it done. No, we said, what do you need us to do to make sure this gets done? Okay? That's what I want to tell you is, you don't come into public office and get things done. If you're lucky, and I was lucky, you create a movement of people who care about these issues, whether it's union leadership or whether it's community organization leadership or whether it's just their own personal concerns. They joined this movement to say we were going to make changes in this state and whether it was

107at City Hall or whether it was up and you know we Worked nine months on the bill that did the living wage ordinance and almost every but every meeting that we had to change and tweak that Ordinance to make it possible for people not to earn a minimum wage, but a living wage in the city of Los Angeles People came and testified every single time, every single time, every single time. Lane was the key to that. They weren't even called Lane yet. I don't remember. It was some odd name. But they were the key, and they are the kinds of organizations that build a movement. And if we're going to fight this fight against you-know-who, if we're going to build this fight, it's going to take a movement. So, yes, I'm not going away from

108the movement. I'm just going away from being an elected official. But I want to thank everyone in this room for playing a part in all of the things that I get credit for. Because you know, nobody does this alone and gets anything done. If you create a movement, you've created something that continues beyond what you do personally. And that's how we get things done. So I want to, from the bottom of my heart, thank all of you who came and spoke, and for the videos of people who couldn't be here, who were an important part of my political life. But I mostly want to say to all of us, do not despair. Despair is what the right wing expects and hopes for. And instead, gird it up, raise the fist, and say, if you win

109anything, it will not be without a fight because this movement will not silently stand and let you take over. So I want to thank all of you very much. I have to say, this was not something of my desire of doing. But I thank my staff for doing it because this has been a very moving day for me and I want to tell you that this has been a very moving day for me. So thank all of you who have been a participant of it. One of my heroes came all the way from New York to speak. All of these things put together are how we get things done. And I hope all of you will now decide that you're going to find some way to defend the immigrants in our community from the onslaught

110of a man who knows no humanity at all. Thank you very much. So we are still not finished. We are not finished. Jackie, if you would join us down there for a presentation of the bill and other board members. Okay, we'll continue with our meeting at 1215, about three minutes, and we'll continue with our Committee of the Whole, one topic, 1215. Okay, we're going to start our board meeting, Committee of the Whole. Do we have to have a full house for Committee of the Whole? Thank you. No, they're coming back. Okay, so we'll start. Mr. McLean, whenever you're ready to come up, we'll start the meeting. Okay everyone, for today's presentation we will be discussing the Expanded Learning Opportunity Program known as ELOP, E-L-O-P at LAUSD. For those unaware, ELOP provides funding in critical areas

111such as after school, summer programs, arts programs, and certain facilities programs. The district budgets hundreds of millions of dollars to ensure our students grow academically and socially. So now I would like to invite Chief Academic Officer Dr. Francis Baez. Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Christopher Mount, and Chief Facilities Executive, Ms. Christina Toks, who will present on LAUSD's priorities concerning ELOP funds. Whenever you're ready, Francis. Thank you. Good afternoon, board members. Good afternoon. Superintendent and Deputy Superintendents, my name is Dr. Frances Weiss. I'm the Chief Academic Officer at LAUSD, and I will be sharing with you the Expanded Learning Opportunity programs that we've offered our students here in LAUSD. So I'll present the highlights of the Expanded Learning Opportunity Program and I will be also presenting with Chris Mount, the Chief Financial Officer. The purpose of the

112Expanded Learning Opportunity Programs is to provide student-centered enriching activities that complement but do not replicate learning activities in the regular school day. So I'll provide an update on that and Chris will provide a budget update. So the program is meant to expand learning beyond the school day. Note that once the minimum requirement for after-school programming is met, districts may proceed with providing additional grade services. So in our case, we've provided, we've offered programs to all K through 8th grade students. So therefore, we're able to offer it now to UTK through 12th grade. So now you'll see that we'll be providing different kinds of programs to all of our students, all of our populations in LAUSD. The California Department of Education allocates funds based on the average daily attendance for students in grades TK through 6

113and the classification. There will be an ongoing allocation of approximately $470 million per year, and the district has two years to spend the funds. And now I will explain the program structure. The base program for after-school enrichment is the Beyond the Bell program. So if you see this house here and you see that foundation, that is the base. It's the programs that are offered from Beyond the Bell. The Expanded Learning Opportunity programs provide students experiences above and beyond the base. So the above and beyond the base is what you'll see, those rectangles above that foundation. We offer all students intersession through summer school, winter and spring academies, high dosage tutoring, cultural arts passport, expanded learning field trips, extended school year, and after school interscholastic programs. And those are the programs that we offer all of

114our students. The numerous divisions in the district collaborated to develop a robust offering of programs that schools can implement in language arts, math, and science, and I'll speak more about those momentarily. So if you see that roof of that, what appears to be a house, that is the additional programs that we've developed that are very diverse and that schools have an opportunity to opt into. We provide the schools information about programs that we're offering, and they can opt into offering those additional programs. foundation, then we have those additional programs in the rectangles that show all of the programs that students can attend to. And now I'm going to pass over the mic to Chris Mount who's going to provide us an update on ELOP. Actually, let me just go ahead and... Yes. Thank you Dr.

115Baez. Good afternoon board. Just a brief update on the budget of ELOP which was promised for first interim. We're actually delivering it prior to the first interim report. The entire ELOP budget has been rebudgeted to align with the strategies and processes that Dr. Baez is going to identify and go through with you today. It had not been rebudgeted since its initial notice of allocation over three and a half years ago. So then now the budget is 100% aligned with the priorities that we're spending on. You can see that the current budget status, what it says up at the top, the thing to pay attention to here is the entitlement and the carryover. The entitlement is our annual allocation from the state. That's what it is for this fiscal year, fiscal year 25. The fiscal year

11624 carryover of $364 million, that means money that was allocated last year that had not been spent. And what this indicates is that we weren't spending the money allocation for that year as quickly as it needed to be. And so this year's budget will cover that full allocation for the core ELOP programs as well as the additional programs that are being supported. The goal is to eventually, this year or next year, catch up so that we are spending the allocation that we're given in that year rather than rushing to spend the allocation from the prior year in a hurried fashion to better budget as well as have better... spending plan. So the minimum that we need to spend this year is that $364.1 million that was last year's allocation which much must be expended by

117July 30th of this year as well as as much of this allocation that we can planfully spend. So the lines here that you're seeing are the actual lines and their cost updated with a true update in other words the true cost of the program that we can see for this fiscal year. This slide just shows the core programs identified by a division of instruction that they want to spend on this year and the actual projected cost this year. These are the programs that Dr. Baez is going to go through in more detail. The second budgetary slide shows the additional ELOP programs. These are programs that are going to be spent on this year as well as next year to try to spend down that carry forward balance because of course we want to use those

118funds for our students and not return that money to the state. We want to fully utilize them to the benefit of our students. The third Excuse me the third slide just shows you the totals that are currently on the books in the school district as well as the the totals of the expenditure plan so you can see that there is also an allocation there for our independent our affiliated charter schools of 8.9 million we do not have a plan for that money they get to spend that money under the program regulations in the way that they see fit We have our indirect costs which are about between four and five percent for all of our restricted programs that pays for all staff to supervise and monitor these programs whether it's Dr. Baez's staff, my staff,

119HR, support, whichever staff is involved and that brings you the total for the total budget. You can see it's about $200,000 of a margin there that has not been budgeted, but that's a very good margin. Thank you, Chris. And now I'm going to continue. And I'm going to highlight the programs that we've offered and those that are underway from ELOP. LAUSD's funding areas are based on the California Department of Education guidelines. So the first one that you see is academic excellence, expanded opportunities in that area, which focuses on academic skills and mastery. The second one is expanded enrichment opportunities, which primarily focus on providing students with expanded learning opportunities infused with physical play and wellness. And then the last one is expanded implementation support. So this comprises the support from staff, support from infrastructure facilities

120that help us operate an after-school program. And so LAUSD has aligned our programs according to the CDE guidelines. One of the California Department of Education guidelines is to provide expanded academic opportunities. Therefore, we have focused on providing students with academic support after school, on weekends, during the summer, and during intersession. We fund high dosage tutoring out of ELOP, both in person and virtual, on the campus after school. We also offer winter academy, spring academy, and summer school. In addition, we offer many programs after school that support academic achievement through enrichment. In English Language Arts, we collaborate with Springboard, which is an expanded tutoring for K-3 students. This unique program offers a strong parent engagement component, and teachers from the schools offer instruction. The parents receive training on how to work with the parents and also

121how to extend the learning at home when it comes to literacy. In math, students receive intervention support using building fact fluency materials, and teachers receive the kits and training was provided for the teachers to provide intervention using those materials. The STEAM STEM Robotics and Climate Literacy programs consisted of clubs, science, gardening, robotics, environmental engineering, botany, astronomy, and much more. STEAM nights were also offered to showcase student work, and regions also offered STEAM events for families and communities. Robotics competitions expanded to more schools to participate in both FIRST and the VEX Robotics Leagues. In these competitions, students engineer robots to tackle challenges and showcase their efforts in an engineering portfolio during interviews at qualifying tournaments. Through robotics, students master problem-solving using 21st century skills and, of course, creativity, collaboration, communication, and critical thinking. Schools with climate

122literacy champions receive the opportunity to receive a class set of climate action kits that integrates robotics and coding into climate literacy. Computer Science and Esports for Good Club consists of instructional materials, supplies, and teacher compensation. These programs are in the process of being implemented. We have trained 227 schools and more underway with a target of 500 schools. We've purchased the materials, we've conducted the training, so we'll be distributing those materials to our schools so that they can begin. Many of them have already started, and there's a list that's itemized of what materials schools are receiving. The Computer Science for Good clubs offer students a virtual reality experience and consists of robots and physical computing and eSports is designed for gaming and competition. The iDream mobile lab was a pilot for 11 schools for 10 weeks.

123The lab consists of equipment used at schools after school with students focused on lessons where students develop a solution to a real-world problem using coding. And this was the basis and the inspiration for the Computer Science for Good clubs after school and the eSports after school clubs as well. And so we used many of the materials that have already been purchased through the iDream mobile lab. The Cultural Arts Passport offers all students the opportunity and funding to provide supplemental in-person arts experience such as field trips, on-campus performances, events, and workshops beyond the regular school day. Arts Acceleration offers instructional music summits which provide students direct instruction from musical professionals and instructors which not only aids them in their development but also to stimulate students interest by working and receiving direct direction and they also receive

124feedback on the performance that they're actually conducting. So ensembles of grade level grade levels are encouraged to participate most music festivals require a registration fee along with the cost of transportation for the event but through ELOP there are no fees that our students have to pay and our students participate in these performances they receive feedback from professional judges and this is how students get stronger and better at their performances. The Arts Education Branch has hosted six music summits, four instrumental music, and two choral music summits. The program was expanded by two events this year to include a mariachi summit and a rock band summit. The district-wide arts festival will expand with performances, visual arts, film festival workshops, vendors for students, and parents and community members. Approximately 20,000 people attended the Arts Fest last year. And

125the non-personnel costs were approximately $850,000, including materials, venue, vendors, booth stages, and security. We will offer this event again, so please save the date for May the 3rd at LA City College, where we'll bring our communities again together for our arts festival. High-dose tutoring is an option for all schools. 450 schools have provided services to 54,732 students. That was in the 23-24 school year. As of today, 39,036 students have participated in high-dose tutoring for the 24-25 school year. This consists of tutoring paid out of ELOP, but other tutoring is also funded out of Title I and is locally designed and teacher-facilitated. In spring and winter academy, students received additional days of instruction to deepen their learning. Students participated in small group instruction in language arts, math, social-emotional learning, and arts lessons. Students received transportation, meals,

126and beyond the bell services were provided. Spring and winter academies were offered to students across the district. As a result of these academies, 8,228 high school students improved their grade after winter academy. 147 high school students improved their grades after participating in spring academy. This is possible with the academic course extension, which is the district's program for implementing the California Ed Code 48071, which states that students need to be offered multiple ways to improve their grade when they are at risk of failing. This demonstrates the importance of having this Winter Academy, and we will have Winter Academy again in December. So I'm really encouraging all families to sign up their students, their children, to attend these Winter Academy courses because they really make a difference. In summer school, students had an opportunity to accelerate learning

127through multiple program offerings such as the California Science Center, UTK-8 programs that focus on language arts, math, and science with a social-emotional learning integration. And this was the first year we offered students a bridge program for students going from elementary to middle and middle to high school. And we're planning to expand this even further this upcoming school year. We also offered high school summer term for students to make up a class or to accelerate in a course sequence. We piloted a math camp in which teachers received training at Stanford on material developed by Dr. Joe Bowler, a well-recognized math scholar. Students attended a full day of math camp, and this happened at all of the regions, and we had a number of students that have participated, and we had very high attendance during that entire

128time. Beyond the Bell offered programming to students at 525 schools and students also had an opportunity to attend outdoor education. All of these programs are available for all of our students. All of our populations have access to all of these programs. It really just depends on which ones they want to participate in. Additional programs offered through ELOP consisted of parent literacy workshops and book giveaways, FAFSA clinics during spring break to help students complete the applications, that is FAFSA and CATA, extended library hours after school so that students can stay after school and librarians can... helped the students with checking out books of interest to them. College trips were also part of this. Enrichment field trips, so these are trips that are to museums, to different kinds of venues that our students are interested in, sports

129camps and different types of camps that schools have already piloted and explored. They get an opportunity to continue to attend. And students participated in internships. We are launching a robust list of middle and high school enrichment courses as well, such as drafting, engineering, speech, forensic science, performing arts, pentathlon, foreign language, and much more. And that's coming for our middle and our high school students that is underway in the fall semester. And next I will share more about these enrichment experiences. The Multilingual Multicultural Education Department conducted a pilot that provided English learners with expanded learning opportunities to support the linguistic, cultural, and social-emotional needs. As a result, there was an increase of 53% of our students, that is 173 out of 328 students, who advanced in their English learner progress indicator level. And of course, this

130was a pilot, so this appears to be a promising program that we can expand. Internships were offered to students to explore different career pathways and help them make more informed decisions about their future. Students participated in internships for external organizations that created internship opportunities in collaboration with CTE pathways at high schools. Others participated in internships within the district, like offices, school sites, early education sites, where students were able to also get additional experiences. As you know, in our district, there's a lot of diversity. We have meal services, we have finance, we have OGC. So students could actually intern in any one of those offices in our district. To offer students additional ways to meet the criteria under gifted identification, the Access and Equity and Acceleration Unit of LAUSD created the Access to Equity and Leadership

131Program. Students developed a leadership e-portfolio consisting of projects to address a real-world problem solution. Guidance for the course was from the California Association of Student Councils. As a result, more students have been identified as gifted under the leadership category. Again, as you know, there's many ways that students can be identified as gifted. So leadership is one that is underused. And so we wanted to create opportunities for students to learn and deepen their leadership skills so that they can be. identified and we have students that have been identified in 18 portfolios still in review for possible gifted identification. Next I will present the expanded enrichment opportunities that Beyond the Branch offers as you know again that is the foundation that's the base. We offer Before and after school enrichment programs are available to all students in

132grades UTK 12 from the close of the school day until 6 p.m. through beyond the bell. The four categories are academic, physical, creative, and social engagement. We offer homework support, STEAM, physical fitness, and team sports, music and dance, and social emotional learning. The Day of Discovery provides field study opportunities in outdoor spaces. Partner venues such as the USS Iowa, Cabrillo Aquarium, Heal the Bay Aquarium, Friends of the LA River, the Marine Mammal Center, and the Los Angeles Zoo welcome UTK through 12th grade students to explore, learn, and immerse themselves in the scientific inquiry process. Beyond the Bell program also provides expanded learning programs during summer school and winter and spring academies. So once those programs ended, students had the opportunity to participate after school and stay on the campus until 6 p.m. This is very

133helpful for our parents who want to be able to have a safe place for their children during intersession and summer. Expanded learning opportunity programs could not run without the dedicated support staff and adequate facilities that cultivate the conditions for students to have an enriching learning experience. And so I'll share more about that implementation support. Here you see greening of campuses. These support after school learning where students participate in science and climate literacy lessons. These are some of the improvements that have been completed. Ball boxes have been replaced, portable misters have been installed, PA systems have been installed as well, and seven green schools for all projects have been completed. The programs underway include the green schools for all projects, Canyon Creek camp upgrades, kitchen cooling, playground restoration projects, campus lighting, baseball field obstacle course, and

134the ongoing costs associated with after school programs on utility and custodial supplies. This is what is next. We will continue to develop innovative programs with ELOP and ensure quality programming for our students. We look forward to showcasing student work throughout the year. And with respect to compliance, we hold regular meetings with each one of the sponsors that lead these programs to ensure that we're following all of the district guidelines and also state guidelines with respect to ELOP. We've instituted a new timeline to monitor the rate of spend of ELOP and redirect funds as needed and we've just recently gone through that exercise and will continue to go through that as well so that if the spend is not going the way it was projected by a sponsor of a program that we redirect those funds

135to ensure that we maximize the resources for the students that are in our school. So that concludes my presentation on the ELOP. I hope that you were able to understand what our foundation is, our base, what all students have access to, and of course, the additional menu of robust programming that we're piloting and that we're also seeing lots of interest and engagement from our schools. So we're open to questions at this time. Okay, time for questions. Who would like to go first? Okay, Kelly, go ahead. Thank you so much. I know this is a presentation I've been really looking forward to because we see the long list of ELOP programs and expenditures, but not a lot of details necessarily. So just a few questions. I think a couple general ones. One is, across these programs,

136which initiatives are new or newly expanded and which are existing but are now funded through ELOP? So the programs that I just presented, they're all funded out of ELOP. We began many of them in the spring, and the new ones, like the middle and the high school courses that I just mentioned, the forensics and the science, those are launching this fall. They're new, and they're paid out of ELOP. So everything that you saw in the presentation is paid out of ELOP. The new ones are those. Others will be astronomy nights that's going to be starting in January, and those will... we'll be offering those to schools who want to participate in astronomy nights. But most of our programs have already launched. Yeah, sorry. I think my question was more around our initiatives being funded through

137ELOP that were previously funded by other funding streams and now we're utilizing ELOP. So it's not a new program necessarily. It's an existing program that we're utilizing different funding to pay for. We do. So the ESY, for example, is an example of what we're funding out of ELOP because those are summer programs for our students with an IEP. And that's what ELOP was intended for. It was intended for that additional learning. So that's an example of how we're using our ELOP dollars instead of our general fund. Thanks, Dr. Rice. I don't know, Mr. Brown, if you wanted to add. The reason that Dr. Bias, her staff, and my staff just went through a rebudgeting exercise was that the ELOP budget was not matching with expenditures. And so we just went through an exercise to say,

138what are all the things that you want to do that serve the purposes of ELOP? And then let's budget for them appropriately instead of waiting until midway or towards the end of the year to find out. whether we budgeted appropriately and whether we've spent appropriately, which then potentially creates the situation where you have to spend down money before you give it back quickly. So that's the exercise that we just went through. And there were a number of programs that we actually, because we hadn't spent all the allocation from last year, we realized we can fund a lot of the programs. some of which are new or that are existing that could really be funded out of this because the intent is to serve students before and after school. And so that's where that list of

139priorities came from, from Dr. Bias' departments. And then we made sure they were reflected accurately in the budget system. And board member Gones, we can get you a list of the activities. So the superintendent asked us to be very clear on what the different programs are. So we can get you a list with what was existing and then what's new. So that way you can see clearly what was existing, what was new. That would be helpful to clarify. We have that, so we'll be happy to provide that to you. Okay, thank you, Dr. Estrada. And I think in general, I think I would take no issue with any particular item on the list. It's a lot of really wonderful programs. I think we hear positive things about a number of them. I think what's lacking

140a little for me is, like, what is the strategic direction that is leading this initiative? What are the outcomes that we're hoping to see? Not just what... programs do we want to provide access to but what do we want to change for students as a result of this investment because it is a very significant amount of money and it's great to see schools the number of schools being served the number of students being served but it doesn't tell us did we meet the goals that we had necessarily Precisely. Absolutely. And so they're all based on the strategic plan. So academic excellence is the foundation of all of those. So we knew that we needed to help our students with science. We saw the cast results last year. That's why you see so many of those

141programs in science and STEAM, because it was to deepen the students' learning through enriching and real-world experiences that will make science meaningful when they get back into the classroom. Because the LLP is intended to go above and beyond and not to replicate what they get during the instructional day, teachers don't always... have the time to do all these experiences or all these activities that we do after school. So that's where we provide that enrichment. So our science programs are based on academic excellence. Our tutoring are all based on academic excellence. We have a projected number of students that we've all enrolled. We have goals for them. We have a pre and a post. We have pre and a post data for our winter academy, our summer school. We saw that in summer school, our students,

142all of our students increased except in eighth grade. So we found that We needed to go back to the drawing board and see what do we need to do differently for middle school. So we have data for. programs those programs such as even with respect to the field trips and enrichment and outdoor education what is the capacity that our campsites offer and are we maximizing those experiences for students those support with our SEL goals so all of our strategic plan initiatives are reflected in our ELOP and perhaps that might be a future update for you is to demonstrate how they're connected and what our goals are. But please know that we're tracking them very, very carefully and it's all based on performance data. Gotcha. That's really, really helpful. And yeah, I think it's just getting

143that additional level of thinking and explanation around, you know, we know science is an area need. spelled out clearly. We see that students are lacking when it comes to access to hands-on science learning opportunities. Therefore, we're investing this amount in the discovery days or this amount in science-based field trips, and we're providing kits at which schools. So I think that's just the level of information that I'm hoping for to better situate what the context is for these programs. Also, general question is just across the different programs, how are schools selected? Is there opt-in or were we selecting particular schools for a particular reason? It's all been opt-in. So when you saw the structure there and you saw the rectangles, those all had to do with the programs that are offered to all of the students.

144Like Winter Academy, we're currently conducting those registration and enrollment, so that's open to everybody. The additional programs that we saw on the roof of that structure, the diverse list of programs, it's all been an IOC, a memo, information meetings that we provide our schools, and they can sign up for those. We have cohorts of schools that have signed up for particular programs that we've conducted training on, so it's all opt-in. Nothing has been for specific schools. It's all been an opt-in. Okay, and then just generally it sounds like we are We're making some adjustments based on Expenditures so far. I wonder though like substantively as the funding continues How are we evolving to ensure we're funding what has the greatest impact what what actually again works and moves the needle? So based on the data

145that we've been evaluating, we've been evaluating the tutoring programs, our winter academy, our summer programs, our professional development, we know that research says that what yields the highest results is professional development for teachers and the programs that they're offering them that, so for example, the building fluency for math. That required professional development. And now they're using it after school, but guess what? That's also going to impact the day program because now the teachers are using those skills during the day and those materials can also be during the day. Of course, the investment is made for after school. So we know what research says. We see it impacted in the classroom. It's what we've used, and it's been our strategy for how we were able to increase outcomes for students recently. And so we know what

146works. We know which programs have been yielding those results. And so when it comes down to if we have to make decisions about what needs to change and pivot, we're going to go based on what the research says and what the data is telling us. That's helpful and it's good to know we're utilizing that evaluation data. I mean I think about the We've had numerous conversations about tutoring, for example, but I think about the example of Springboard that's highlighted. I know several of my schools utilize Springboard, like see that as a very impactful intervention for students and that it's the teachers at the school who are providing the, you know, you compare that to maybe virtual tutoring options. And I think that that might help guide our investments moving forward. So it's good to know

147that we're on the same page on that front. I have more, but I'll wait. for another turn, thank you. Okay, I'd like to jump in the middle then I'll go to my right. Just so you know, the ELOP program has generated more questions from Board District 3 than I can think of any other subject constantly, constantly. So let me ask a question. And this has to do with crying principals. And they cried, and I'll tell you why they cried. At the start of the 24-25 school year. Schools were informed that already planned and paid for field trips using ELOP money under the CAP program could no longer be planned and paid for the trips if they were not related to the arts. Now these are principals who worked to contact leasing and every other hoop

148that you have to jump through to do this and then they find out the trips are canceled. So I'd like to know why that was done, number one. And if ELAP funding is to be used for all sorts of enriching experiences for students, including sciences, math, history, and language arts, why have these limits been imposed on schools? And can you tell us if the CDE directive... What is it that instructed schools to only use ELAP for the arts? Okay, so the first question about trips being canceled. Trips were not canceled. In fact, there was a funding line that was created under ELOP. It's a program that is a non-culture arts passport. program funding and our schools were not canceled. As a matter of fact, we had multiple office hours. We have sent allocations to schools.

149We ensured that they understood that we were going through a transition. We wanted to preserve the cultural arts passport initiative and vision to just arts. But we also knew that schools were being very creative and also taking their students to some kind of astro camp and different kinds of activities are very, very important for students and we wanted for the students to connect. to attend those trips. So instead we created a program under ELOP that provides a wider, more of an ability for them to attend these field trips. Students students were able to go to their camps. They were able to go to everything that was programmed They were able to attend we did not hear of one program that was canceled we know there was a transition and it was what we quickly had

150a pivot to ensure that everyone had the information about the program and the funding and and We did not hear that about any schools that did not go on their trips Okay, I will follow through and the second part to the question before I go to my right. I didn't forget you guys in 2223 The California legislature tied ELOP use only for grades TK to six. And why did high schools not get this money too? It was the one time March 2023 dump where every single school got $98,000 and then had to scramble to use it and that's the 2223 but I can tell you about and I'll invite our budget friends to come up as well, but what I can tell you is that our we are responsible for providing our TK through sixth

151grades a program and in the beginning of my presentation I said once we've provided them that that programming, after that we can provide it to all the other students. So we then provided it to UTK 12. And so that's why now we have programming for all of our students in all of our grades because our first responsibility and priority was to offer it to our TK through sixth grade students. And we met that obligation, we met that requirement, and so that's why we're able to expand it to more schools. Okay, thank you. I will investigate further. To my right, Nick. Sure, excuse me. Thank you. And thank you for this. I know I've been asking for it for months and it's helpful to see it. A lot of the discrete components, like what my colleagues

152have said, are things I support. And I think the biggest question I had, and Ms. Ghosn has already asked, which is just what's the overarching strategy pushing this new half a billion dollars a year? And I think even so much as like on that, I think it's slide six, but the priority structure, like understanding... What our goals are for high dosage tutoring cap how many students what is the academic outcomes what I don't you know What do we mean by athletics? Do we mean investing in elementary school athletics in a way that I think we should be in middle school in particular So I guess I'm just asking I understand that broadly speaking inside a strategic plan But how are we like when we look back at this plan in six months and try to

153evaluate its efficacy? For each of those six buckets. How is the district monitoring and like what are those discrete goals? And the way that we've been monitoring this is through participation through pre and post assessments, professional development for teachers so there is consistency in the delivery of instruction when it comes to locally designed intervention, when it comes to summer school, having ongoing meetings with the tutoring providers, ensuring that we're calibrated on our expectation for what they provide our students. The cultural arts passports is ensuring that our students have access to cultural arts and expanded learning field trips, again, that is also tracked through We have data that shows how many students are attending. We're seeing where the gaps are, where we are not getting participation, and then reaching out to those that are not participating.

154So we have data for all of these to help us make informed decisions and also to assess, to evaluate, to progress monitor and ensure that our students are getting quality programming. For those additional programs, literacy, numeracy, science, and so forth, those will also require a pre and a post and an evaluation at the end to see if those are going to continue or not. if i may too uh dr bias is there not also a plan that is on the elop website and we'll make sure to I WANT TO GET THAT IN YOUR HANDS, BOARD MEMBERS. EACH OF THE DIFFERENT PROJECTS WITH HOW THEY ARE ALIGNED TO THE STRATEGIC PLAN AND ELOP REQUIREMENTS AND IT ALSO ARTICULATES CLEAR PARAMETERS ABOUT THE PROGRAMS BUT ALSO MORE IMPORTANTLY TO THE BOARD MEMBERS QUESTION OF THE ACTUAL MEASURES

155OF SUCCESS THAT WE ARE USING FOR EACH OF THE PROJECTS. IS THAT ACTUALLY ON THE WEBSITE? WE CAN DOWNLOAD THAT AND GET THAT TO YOU. YES. Okay, so there is an actual measures of success for each one and clear indicators to alignment to the strategic plan as well. So we'll make sure to get that to you. Okay, so just to clarify, so for each discrete program that's been mentioned, there lives a document that will share of... connection to this alignment strategic plan how we're measuring it because some you mentioned just participation which for a field trip could be fine but others like tutoring we obviously want to see academic success and then it would also be helpful if that's not already living on that document how the schools are selected or students are selected for

156each discrete program too and then I guess one other follow-up to maybe for Mr. Mount would be the budget There are a few buckets that are in the budget that aren't in this presentation. When we just did a back of the envelope, there are things like acceleration days, art residency programs, evaluations, portable pools, transportation for outdoor education that were in the budget under ELOP but not in the plan. So I don't know if we can have an updated crosswalk to those things. Hi everybody, I'm Sarah Chevalier, Deputy Budget Director. Yes, we can get that to you. The categories from the budget book are still in existence, of course. We just tried to streamline it for the sake of the presentation, but we can put together that crosswalk. Got it. That would be helpful, as would

157this follow-up document. So thank you, Ms. Chevalier. And I guess before, and then I know we'll do another round, one of the questions I know that was brought up at the board meeting two weeks ago when we were approving some allocations. and maybe this is a question for you Dr. Baez or the superintendent, but now that measure U.S. has passed, what is the district's thinking on using ELOP for any facilities projects? I think there was some allusion to like maybe there are different regulations versus bond dollars, but now that we have this historic bond dollar, bond issuance or I guess approval, just curious like whether there's still benefits to spending and how the district's thinking about that. Yes, so we are currently in a process of creating a presentation for the board's view that will

158detail existing liabilities that can legally be shifted over to Measure U.S. and certainly top of mind at this point are those associated with... with liabilities currently being paid out of general fund that we believe to liberate the general fund, they can find a financial home with the measure U.S. I'm speaking specifically about some... some liability specific to telecommunications technology that the board recently approved. And we were clear when the board was taking that vote that we would be looking at opportunities to shift that liability away from general fund payments. Secondly, you're correct, there are some areas that are currently... under ELOP, because that was the funding stream that was available at that time, that may be able to be transferred. We are testing, examining the legality of some of these liability transfers. So we need

159a little bit more time to finalize that. What I can tell you is that under Measure US, it is my goal to bring to the board a plan that envisions an accelerated delivery of services by dividing... LAUSD, the geography of LAUSD into quadrants for procurement purpose so that we have multiple parallel paths across the entire school system to deliver contracts in a faster way than we've done in the past and in the process create additional competition, simultaneous competition that may actually at least maybe not reduce cost but at least freeze cost escalation. And some of our priorities are, in fact, consistent with some of the utilization of ELOP money. So when we're talking about greening projects, because kids benefit from those spaces, outdoor classroom spaces before, after school, et cetera, in the summer, during the

160Saturday, you know, during weekends. Some of those currently reside under ELOP. It is our plan, and I've spoken to a few of you, to... prioritize at least $600 million of those types of projects, greening, shading projects into the fiscal year 2026, which begins September 1 of 2025. I suspect at this point, based on what we know, that some of the liabilities currently reflect an ELOP will find a new home in the Measure U.S. Helpful. Thank you. And if I may, to the question that I think both Kelly and you touched on this. So single causality effect is very, very difficult to determine. So, for example, you want to say, you know, we've made remarkable improvements to our average daily attendance. True. The question could be, well, what caused that? If you ask me, I'm going

161to say, I attend. It was the fact that we knocked on 43,000 doors. Not true. It was probably a contributing factor, but not a sole factor, right? The same is true for English language arts, mathematics, you know, reduction, chronic absenteeism. Single cause identification is very, very, very tough. What we do know is that something worked. So for some of the investments under ELOP, We try our best and I understand I too am driven by what is the theory of action here? What are we solving for right then? Can we tie the investment to outcomes? And we follow that Sometimes it is very, very difficult to get to what was the fact that it really led to that. More often than not, as you recognize, it's probably more than one factor, right? Probably more than one

162factor. But what we will do is we'll produce for the board. We already have it. We will package it in the way that will be beneficial for the board to see, but also the community to see. why we're making these investments, the totality of these investments under specific pillars under the strategic plan with very discrete, very, very clear outcomes that we're seeking, and to the extent possible, the relationship between cause and effect. We are investing this much into this arena because we have seen over the past couple of years, right, this type of result, and we believe. that that result is at least in part driven by this investment. We'll specify the activities. Understood. And I guess last question for this round for Dr. Baez. Can we use ELOP money for, you know, some schools

163will have an extended school day where they build in like a zero period, so students can take an elective or language, and it is part of the school day, but it's an extended day. And can ELOP funds be used for that? If it's for credit, then no. If it's intended for like a high school graduation diploma, then we wouldn't be able to. So we would just need to look into it a little bit further and see what the design is. And for every program and every innovation you've seen on this presentation has been highly vetted with OGC and others to ensure that we're meeting program guidelines because they're so unconventional. So we are open to many different ideas, ensuring that as long as we're checking off the boxes, then we're absolutely. I'd love a follow-up

164on that because I think especially as we have new graduation requirements both from the district from the state and it's getting harder and harder like what you know the after-school programs are of course great but seeing about that extended school day with a class and whether there's a possibility to use this funding for that. Thank you. Jackie? Yes thank you just a few things. You have 4.6 million dollars listed as internships. What are those internships? The internships vary. Some are external and some are internal. So our goal was to ensure that students had an opportunity to have an experience in a workplace setting. A need for us is to grow our external internships, but while we're growing those, curating a list and inviting more people to welcome our students onto their workplaces, our offices have

165been those spaces. And so they've learned some skills in our offices as well, and so that we've paid for their salaries in the summer to participate in internships. I would just urge us to do so. We have a couple of schools, one in Dr. Rivas' district, a Highland Park continuation school that does an internship literally for every one of their students. I hope that we can call upon those who have already done it to help us expand it. I do believe that whether a kid is a student, a scholar is going to college or not, having experience in the work world helps them figure out what they want to do with their life. Yes. Sometimes they go to an internship and they say, boy, I'm never going to do that. That was still useful. It

166was as useful of, I think I want to do that for a living. So I would, that's when I saw only $4.6 million, I hope that number keeps growing and growing and growing because they're invaluable. They're invaluable. Even unpaid internships, but the paid internships have young people understanding that you work and you get paid for the work. Right. And that's an important skill. On the issue of, hold on, here we go. The tutoring. I know that Kelly gonna started with that, but I just wanna say, I hope that by the time we get to the first interim and we're beginning to talk about budget, that we're beginning to talk about the things that we want to continue or even expand in that and the things that are barely used or when they're used, they don't

167produce the results we're hoping for, because that's a good time to begin thinking about how to shift some money from ELOP. into those kinds of programs. But the question I have that's most important to me is that we have such a large carryover amount. And we have mercenary districts in front of us and behind us who want to get the state to give them that money. And my question is, are we going to be able to spend it effectively and usefully in our schools and after school programs or before school programs or winter or summer programs so that that money goes to our students? It was granted to. and that we don't lose it, not because we wanna hold on to money, but because we wanna make sure that we're spending money that we have,

168because that's the way to make sure that the programs get reapproved in Sacramento. So what plans do we have to bring down that carry over? So just so you know, the reason why we're in this position is because we had ESSER dollars at the same time. ESSER was paying for a lot of those programs that are now. that we're now paying out of ELOP. And so we're very confident that we're going to be able to, based on the program that we've developed, that we'll be able to spend all the dollars that have been issued to the district so our students benefit from it. That's why we have such a long list of different opportunities that school students can participate in. All of these are all out of ELOP, but prior to this, or when we

169first received ELOP, it was ESSER, and that is the reason why we have been behind and we've had the carryover. We don't anticipate that carryover. Finally, I would like us to expand dramatically wherever we can the opportunities for enrichment and fun. And the reason I say that is because we have a large number of students who don't need to improve a grade, but whose parents are working every day during the summer. They don't get the summer school off, you know. They would like a place where their kids go that the kids want to be instead of the parents saying, you got to go because I got nothing else. And I would like us to see that we expand dramatically. Robotics, guitar, any things that involve kids in doing things. Because even if they're getting academic

170support, most of them have a second. that they could do during that winter or summer. I think we definitely need to drastically improve the number of fun things that are educational or arts or whatever so that kids wanna go to summer school. Also, I would say keyboarding should be available in every summer school. I learned to type in summer school. My high school counselor would not let me take typing. None of you remember that. But they wouldn't let me take typing. And I had to type. And so I went to summer school for typing. Well, things like that should be available in our winter and summer programs because they're really useful. And keyboarding is something that literally every young person in the world is going to have to get better at. although I will say

171that my 15-year-old grandson does most of my technology since I don't get it at all. But those are the things I think that ELOP could really be useful for is looking at skills that you could learn in a summer and that you want to learn but you don't have room for in your current schedule. Elective types of courses shortened. because they have two math classes and so they don't get an elective at all. Those kids feel very much unhappy that they don't get any electives. Can we provide, even if it's a shortened term elective in the summer school? So those are things I think that will encourage young people to see that education and learning, A, can be fun, can be year round and doesn't always have to be pencil and paperwork. Thank you. I

172just wanted to add that that is our goal. We've been in the process and that is our goal to create more programs for our students that are above and beyond. They're not just remediation. They're acceleration programs. Students are learning to play different instruments after school. They're in drama. They're in play. They're in eSports. They're in robotics. It is fun. This is what's eSports. The reason why we're really investing a lot in eSports is because research says that is what's engaging our high school students and that's what's helping them want to come to school. And we're already seeing that change happen. So definitely have those programs underway so that it is. fun. We don't want our students to have rote experiences. They should be fun, absolutely. Okay. Well, I am glad to see the money invested

173in so many ways. So I do, I know it's a lot of hard work to make sure that the money is spent in different ways, but I also had, I was looking through this presentation. I also had a question, well, what is overarching thread? What is it that we're trying to achieve with this money? It just seemed like we're spending money here and there and there. And, you know, I saw the house and I understood that, right? But I also had... a question or wondering about what is the overarching goal with how we're using ELAP. And I saw academics, after school, social, mental wellness, also making sure that those students are able to accelerate through the summer and winter and spring breaks. So, but I think what I feel is missing is a little bit

174more detail. in understanding the different organizations and how our schools are actually expanding it. So I think I felt like there was, I needed more information into all of this. So I think for me that was sort of my, the thing that stood out for me the most. So on to my questions. So for students with special needs, I know that we're using the funds for extended school year. Are there any other ways that That our students with special needs or neurodivergent students are really benefiting from ELOP. They are All of our students can participate in all of our programs. So it because it's enrichment. It's tactile. It's social. It's interactive. It's These programs are suited for our students with an IEP. So all of our programs are for them. So we don't have a

175specific program for them. These programs are just right for them. That's where they're going to come out and blossom in different ways that we don't get to see during the instructional day. And so these programs are for them. So ESY, yes, is part of that, but all of the other programs as well. With respect to... What is our structure and program and goal for this ELOP? It's what the Department of Ed is indicating, academic opportunities and enrichment. So what I shared with everyone today was this is what we do for academics and this is what we do for enrichment. But we know that there's so many other kinds of, you know, they want a variety. And so that's what we try to do, provide a variety. But the through line is ensuring that everyone had

176that academic opportunity. I understand what the goal was for CDE, right? But what is the vision, right, for the district? And I think that's where we create that. Yes, a strategic plan, yeah. Strategic plan. So going back to students with special needs, I think it would be great to track it. I know it's available for everybody, but I think it's more tangible to really say, oh, these are the programs, these are the percentage, because you have percentage of students overall, but I think disaggregately it would be great to see the benefit for students with special needs, also our English learners. So, you know, it's sort of to disaggregate. the impact that all of these programs are making for our different students, for foster youth. However we can to track it, I think that's important to

177see, and then that's how we can really connect with the outcomes, right? And then kind of understand what, and then we can also see the gaps. We can say, oh, we have some students, whatever category, whatever they can benefit are not receiving these funds. So I think that's... what I really would like to see more, you know, this is great to see where the money is going in all these different buckets, but more disaggregately, you know, how is it impacting our students? I do see, you know, a springboard, which is, you know, for tutoring, but I know it's an organization that comes from Philadelphia. So my question is, how is ELAB leveraging partnerships in community organizations here in L.A. and using local resources to enhance program offerings and provide diverse learning for all of our

178students? So what organizations, and I think we're not... Not all the organizations are here, but I would love to see what are the organizations from L.A. that are also benefiting from these funds, apart from L.A.'s Best or Beyond the Bell. There's many in the arts, and we're happy to provide you the list, but definitely in the arts there's lots of arts collaborators and lots of... local organizations that help with expanding arts. And then of course we have our tutoring bench. So many of the organizations, as you know, we go through the RFP process to curate a list of these providers. And so many of them are local. And so we can provide that list to you. And you mentioned that this is an opt-in. Why is it opt-in? Shouldn't this be mandatory so that every

179school has... Is using these funds or does every school receive ELAP funds? Every school receives ELAP funds. So what is the part that is opting in? The additional program. So if we're having an e-sports program or a STEM program, maybe it's something the principal doesn't need and they wanted to use something else. Maybe they have a climate literacy program already and they don't want to opt into that. So it just depends on the principal and the school site decision on whether that's something that's tailored for them and it's, you know, meets their needs, their local needs. But apart from those needs, they are. using these ELOP funds in their own sort of... For enrichment, yes, for locally designed or for other types of programs. Great. Have we invested any of the ELOP funds in school

180bands? You mentioned the music summits, orchestra, mariachi, and rock band, but what about our bands? Because I know that a lot of our school bands are using the, you know, they use their own funds, so are we providing them in specifically, you know... Connecting these funds to bands that need these funds so bands if they're during the instructional day it wouldn't be but if it's an after-school program and I know we have we're starting an instrumental program at schools after school but with respect to the band that occurs during the day it wouldn't be but if it's a Music program after school then yes, we are and that's going to grow and you'll see more. They'll be more visible There'll be more visibility in that program starting in January. That's when we're going to launch

181our instrumental music program for our schools. But with respect to band and during the day, we wouldn't be able to use ELOP because it's a daytime program. No, I know, for instance, Burbank Middle School, they have a wonderful drum line. I know it's only after school. And so, yeah, I wonder if we could be more creative, and particularly in focusing on middle schools, because I know a lot of our high schools, their bands have a struggle in getting those students because they didn't have that option or, you know, that opportunity in middle school to, you know, engage in different drum line or, you know, the wind, you know, I don't know much about. instruments, my son is the one who's teaching me about all the musical instruments. But yeah, so I think from what I've

182gathered from my schools, my high schools, is like they really struggle in getting students interested. And the reason for that is because they didn't have those opportunities in middle school. So I think, you know, if we can be more creative in using ELAP funds to at least, you know, after school, really, you know, kind of like... invest some money in there so the students can really have an opportunity. So when they learn in middle school, when they get to high school, they'll be like, oh, I want to join band. Every high school can be represented by an amazing band. Absolutely. Wonderful. Let's see. What other questions? So a lot of these ELAP enrichment opportunities or programs are after school. How do we ensure that there's, and you mentioned, you know, some of this fun is

183going into staff, but how are we ensuring there's sufficient supervision and safety before and after school, including student? staff to student ratio, safety protocols, procedures in handling emergencies. How are we using these funds to train staff, to give them raises, or hire more staff, or how are we using that strategically? That would be part of the piece on the support. Towards the end of the presentation, the support is like your custodians, your campus aides, the supervision support, the bus transportation. There's different types of... you know, security measures that schools have in place and ELOP can be used to fund those programs. And then for the expanded learning with the outdoor spaces, you mentioned that these outdoor spaces are for after school learning and climate literacy. And for that, I would love to have seen which

184schools, are there different providers that are helping with after school to really make sure that these outdoor spaces are being, you know... used in a more inclusive way. And I know it's after school, but how do we know that these outdoor spaces are, there's programming and staffing to make this happen? And you mentioned the kits, the climate literacy kits, but that mentioned more robotics. So how does that interplay with climate literacy and, you know, really reaping the benefits of these expanded learning spaces? So for each of these programs, we have a lead at the district office. And that lead has conducted meetings at the schools, of course, offered it to whoever's interested. They've come. We've created now a connection. We go to those schools to provide them the support. They've had the training. And then

185we go out to see what additional things we could do to increase participation of students. So the oversight is through the leads that are sponsoring these programs. you know, the ongoing monitoring and ensuring that there's quality that's taking place. So that's the current structure that we have in place. And lastly, I guess I wanted to just understand how you are guiding schools to prioritize their e-lab funds. I know it's based on what the needs of the school. I'm wondering if we can access a breakdown of expenditures, including the specific vendors and venues that the schools are utilizing or benefiting from. And just more spending information that wasn't included here in this presentation. We can definitely get that for you. And lastly, I'd like to request a comprehensive list of schools that utilized ELOP or CAP

186funding, their corresponding expenditures. I would love to see, at least for District 2, just to see, you know, which of my schools have which programs and how they're differentiating their use of ELOP and CAP funding. Absolutely. I have one more question. And for Board District 3. I think we all need to have that. Oh, actually, I did remember a question. You listed here that for the arts or extracurricular trips. So I'm wondering, are there any extracurricular trips for math or English that... students can take that benefit, that they can benefit in those areas, or is it just for the arts? With respect to curricular activities, so for the non-CAP, non-culture arts passport experiences, so say they're going to an astro camp or any other kinds of outdoor education or arts or a history museum of

187that nature, the follow-up is that's where we get the language arts integration, the language integration. So before going to that destination... the students should be receiving instruction from the teacher about what they're going to see, so they're learning the vocabulary, they have a discussion about it, what did we learn about it, so that those language skills are embedded within those field trip experiences. So it's not specifically to go and learn math or language arts, but it's what you do with the language skills and integrating them into the trips. And you're providing guidelines to the schools and how to make those connections. And for our international newcomers, how are they also benefiting? from ELAP funds apart from, you mentioned summer school. Are we looking at other ways to meet their needs as well, particularly after school?

188Maybe providing internships. I know that a lot of them, a lot of my students in high school have asked, you know, can you help with a job or internship or something, because they need a bit more guidance. Are we looking how we can use? You'd love funds for them? The Multilingual Multicultural Education Department has piloted a program for them, and I know they're going to be scaling up a program for our international newcomer students. They also had an international newcomer conference where they came together to really motivate, promote, and provide them some workshops and courses. With respect to the internships, we provide guidelines to the schools of who are the students who are eligible to participate. There's certain criteria, so we just follow that criteria to offer it to the new. to our students. But

189those conferences and everything that you mentioned, it's utilizing ELOP funds. ELOP, yes. Okay, ELOP. Okay, thank you, thank you. Okay, Kelly, second round. Yes, thank you. Just to follow up on the the multilingual learner specific programs I was excited to see the 52 schools being served and the the students who participated in that pilot and the progress that they made Just was wondering if there were any details on a planned expansion for that pot since it is a pilot I believe Jose Posada is here who can respond to that question Good afternoon. May you repeat the question, please? Yes, I was excited to learn about the pilot program that you all had offered utilizing ELOP funding. I was curious about plans for expansion and including more of our emergent bilingual students in it. Absolutely. And

190this was a great opportunity provided by the ELOP program to have this pilot. The success is based on how we, as the department, organize the program. We provide direct support to the school with our coaches that are at... the school sites and the opportunity has been granted in this current year. We have expanded it to now 68 schools. That's for the 24-25 school year. Cycle one is going through right now. It would end December 13. We're opening cycle two. which will include another number of schools depending on those that will opt in to participate. We are hoping to have another 68 schools participate and that's based on the pilot, right, and the successes we have. And the 68 schools that it has already expanded to, is that based on kind of the size of their

191multilingual learner population? Thank you. Excellent question. So based on the class size, we have targeted schools that have. over 20 potential long-term English learners and long-term English learners in grades third through sixth grade. So we have identified those schools that have that number of students and we have invited them to participate. And since you're here Dr. Posada I wanted to also ask just of the the 14 million that's currently allocated to multilingual expanded learning are there any specific supports for our immigrant or newcomer students obviously that's been an increased area of focus with our multilingual learner resolution exit promesa and then recent resolutions by the board as well. Yes, so we have targeted our 32 high populated international newcomer elementary schools and they are part of this program as well and that is obviously right

192to make sure that they have the opportunity to gain more access to the curriculum, one that they're actually seeing during the day, but the practice that they need to have in the after-school program. Gotcha. Okay, helpful. And as we look to expand those programs, provide more support for our newcomers, it seems like ELOP is a great place to look for potential revenues to use for those types of programs. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you so much. And then Dr. Baez, I had just a couple more questions for you. I know that there was information on the school and students who participate in high dosage tutoring. I was wondering about the springboard and the building facts fluency tutoring, if you have any. specifics in terms of participation rates for those. For the spring board. For the spring

193board and the building fact fluency. About 14 schools who participated in the spring board and for the building fact fluency we had 340 schools about 30,000 students who participated in the building fact fluency kits. Okay, and then There is a line in the budget items around indirect cost thirty five point four million can can either of you speak to like just What constitutes that amount? So all of our restricted programs charge the same indirect cost. It's this year. It's between four and five percent and those indirect costs provide everything from employee support, HR, PC, fiscal support, site support, anybody that's actually not directly involved in the program cost but that has to support it as a district is an indirect cost to the district. In other words, those people have, those. folks effort has to

194go into it, even though they're not directly paid. So all of our restricted programs are charged that. It's regulated by the state of exactly how much to charge so that the district isn't done harm financially by having people that aren't being paid having to give their effort to the program. Got it. Okay. So it's kind of a cost of administration. Not from direct services, but from those who help manage the administration It could even be administrators support and they just set a percentage because breaking it down by all those individual things is too cumbersome So the state tells us how much to charge for it Okay, helpful. Thank you. And then just to follow up on Board President Goldberg's points around paid internships, I do, I'm excited by that and hope to see more of

195our students benefit. I know access to wage earning opportunities, especially ones that they can learn from, is a big desire for many of our students. I wonder if we thought about like summer jobs. Could we fund summer jobs? very large summer jobs program utilizing ELOP funds? That's what we did. So our internship was during the summer. Oh, got it. Okay. Well, maybe we can just turbocharge it and expand it to many more students. Absolutely. And then just one... further thought for consideration. I know that much of this is opt-in and many of our schools are benefiting from these programs. I wonder if we've thought about like a micro grant or some opportunity for schools to say what they would like to apply for ELOP funding centrally and to be able to use it for something

196that would be directly aligned to an area of interest for them if they're a... dual language school maybe there's something language related they might want to do if they're a steam school so that we could better tailor it to interest i think especially with the budget adjustments of the last year schools are feeling the squeeze and if there were opportunities where they could benefit from these funds in a more tailored way i think that could be helpful i agree okay well great okay thank you okay robotics is uh very big nowadays, and especially in the Valley, very big. Lots of winners in the Valley schools, and they're always going to VEX competitions, and they're always asking me for money. Always, because it's very expensive to travel to Kentucky, and wherever they have these, usually it's

197Kentucky for some reason, these VEX competitions. ELOP money be used for that? Yes, ELOP money has been used for the registration for the tournaments to attend. And we did send an IOC out to the schools letting them know that if there are registration fees that students that needed to be paid for for any of the type of tournaments, that this money could be accessed. And I know many times they'll reach out to you. And so we've also provided the IOC to your offices so that you can redirect them and we'll support them. Not travel, just fees. It's the registration. Okay. Fair enough. I will tell them next time they call me. You got it. You mentioned librarians are used for checking out books during ELAP time. Somebody mentioned that, I heard. Are library aides also

198included in that? Absolutely. So we're paying for the library to stay open after hours. So that could be the librarian, the library aide, whoever is going to be manning the library for students to have access to books. Excellent. Now. We used to be so strict about certain things that could be funded out of certain funds. Like, for example, I saw kitchen cooling can be funded out of ELOP. I just was shocked. I mean, everybody, every worker in the kitchen deserves to have a cool kitchen to work in, but that's paid out of ELOP, and I thought that was an M&O kind of a charge. Same thing for campus lighting. That's also an ELOP. Possibility because I have some more possibilities for you after okay, and I can respond to both the security lighting and kitchen

199cooling just in general and Chris mount can speak to it as well is all of the ELOP Expenditures are run by the office of general counsel to ensure that they are ELOP eligible because we know that this Funding source will be audited So in the case of kitchen cooling and also for campus security lighting, the lighting is really for after school programs, typically when our schools might be darker or after hours. And so the campus security is really to provide lighting when we have kids at school and it's nighttime. And then kitchen cooling, we know that we provide meals both before school and after school. And so the kitchen cooling was deemed eligible because it does support. Meals that are provided throughout the day not only during an instructional hours Okay, I would like to

200consider having our message boards, our marquees, also be included in this, which would feature all of the activities happening at school during the day and after school. Is that a possibility to have marquees? Because I'm always paying for marquees, and they're hundreds of thousands of dollars. Hundreds of thousands of dollars. I'm sure Stephanie is going to do that. Oh, yes, they are. You get the ones that light up? Oh, yes. Yes, they are. So a couple of things very briefly, so there is a nexus so miss Toks is correct, right? So if it if it helps provide the service before and after school then legally we can do so but I'm also hearing the board discuss What can we move to other potential sources? So remember we are now catching up and we're overspending So

201the more we say well, let's add this let's add this we've already Submitted a budget today that is for all of this year's allocation and the spending for last year But we can do anything that meets that requirement of nexus of providing before and after school enrichment. And that's a possibility. We just have to vet it through legal. Okay. Fair enough. Thank you very much. I have more questions, but I'll pass over to Nick. Thank you. I think, I mean, most of my questions have been addressed. Some answered. Some were getting follow-ups. I guess the only thing I'd add to the discussion as we're looking at efficacy is I know we're focused on the... expanded pillars here, but I also and I see Ms. Loxton as well. One of the things we tried to do

202through my resolution a few years ago and continue is bring more coherence and outcome based approach to the core after school programs. And I love that ELOP has also let us expand just making sure that every school in the district has an after school program, some multiple. between Beyond the Bell and some of our partners, but I think bringing more coherence to what's going on during the school day and then also looking at the quality piece. You know, for example, I know in Board District 4 schools, there are schools that have a paid and a free program, and I'm interested in talking to Debbie and others, like, why are parents still choosing a program they're paying for? Is it because they believe the quality is better? Is the quality actually better? If it is, you

203know, why aren't we filling in the gaps with those? So I would just like to add to the discussion or, like, the follow-ups, not just the... strategic plan alignment I know this is for Dr. Baez and also Dr. Estrada but also just more making sure that you know get getting every school to have a program was a huge lift over the last few decades now we're there so now we talk about quality and all that and so that you know it's just one thing I don't think we've discussed but would love to continue going forward Jackie I think okay just have a just a couple of more So I'm wondering about what is the $5 million cost for the, let me tell you the name. It's called the Assessment Management System that costs $5 million.

204What is that? The Assessment Management System is what we use for the pre and the post for all of the programs that I've explained. Summer school, for example, there's a pre and a post. Then there's also the Winter Academy and Spring Academy. It's staff that develop it. There's the development of the program, and then the actual platform of the... in the system, that is what we use to assess the efficiency or the benefit of the program for students. And it costs $5 million and you were worried about my marquees over here. It costs $5 million? I guess things are expensive nowadays. Okay. And I have a compliment for you, Mr. Melvoin, from my constituents. Okay, I'm going to tell you more. My constituents said... that the LAUSD's open data budget sets needs to be backed

205up and running on the website. And they say we are a publicly accountable institution and the disappearance of these data sets is disturbing. Staff and families need to be able to see the budget summaries for each school. And Mr. Melvoin rightfully championed the effort and these need to be brought back online again. Any comment, Mr. Melvoin? I'll second that comment. No, I appreciate it. But it also, and I know we've talked to Mr. Mount and... there's been an effort as we're moving towards our new online platform to make sure that's all there, but I know we've heard it from some school site administrators, definitely parents, about making sure there's transparent, easily accessible information. So I think, and we also have an open data officer that our resolution brought to this district who I don't know

206if he's here today, but might be listening, and so I would just echo that, and we'll make sure to follow up and have a public conversation about. making sure all those data sets are on open data. And you can thank my constituents for that comment to you. I do indeed. You got it. Any other questions from anyone? If not, thank you, Francis and the team. Really appreciate it. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Yes. We have now reached the end. And I'd like to thank my colleagues and our guest speakers for the excellent presentations. I hope everyone found the meeting as enlightening as I did. It was very informative. And before we go, before we go, listen up, Jackie, before we go, I want to say one last thing before we dismiss the

207meeting. Board President Goldberg, we have benefited greatly from your leadership and expertise. And as we embark on the future, we look back to the past and see what we can learn from it. And even when something may seem unpopular, it does not mean it's wrong. And President Goldberg once again stood up for LGBTQ plus rights when society did not even accept it. She stood up for those living in poverty against oppressive landlords. And with her last resolutions, she focused on the communities that have been targeted and how we can protect them. Suffice to say, President Goldberg. May we all adopt this noble mindset to always be in the service of others, and that's you. Thank you for your lifetime of invaluable support, and we will miss you. And this district will enter a new era,

208but we will always fondly remember your time on the board and miss you. So thank you very much, Jackie. How about an applause for her? Yeah. Okay. Our next Committee of the Whole meeting will be on January 28th, 2025, next year at 10 o'clock a.m. And let's move on to public comment, Mr. McLean. Okay, here we go. Thank you, everyone, for being so patient. The first two folks I'm going to call on are Brendan Spears and Catherine Murillo. Brendan Spears, come on up. You'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. And then after that will be Catherine Murillo. Good afternoon. My name is Brendan Spears and I am an Ed and Vade senior at USC Herbert High. Growing up in South Central Los Angeles, I was always faced with significant challenges in school that

209often left me unheard and unsupported. Like many students in unserved communities, I struggled to see opportunities education can offer me, often leaving me feeling lost and uncertain about my future. I joined USC Herbert High Once I joined USC Herbert High, everything changed. The teacher and staff saw my potential and supported me. They gave me tools to succeed. They helped me rediscover my potential and passion for learning. For the first time, I honestly felt seen, heard, and empowered. This year, I am proud to be on the principal's honor roll. I've taken on a multitude of leadership positions, like founding a new honor society called Alliance for Black Student Excellence, serving as vice president for Black Student Union, and mentoring my peers. This school has truly opened doors I never thought were able to be opened. And

210now I'm applying for college with hopes of studying biochemistry at UCLA and pursuing a career in being orthodontist to provide community services to my unserved community. Thank you for your support and approval for our school's renewal at the last board meeting. This shows that more students like myself now have opportunities to reach their fullest potential. I would also like to shift my focus to Mr. McKenna. On behalf of my peers and our parents and my school community, I would like to express my deep gratitude to you. His steadfast commitment to supporting students of color, particularly black youth, throughout his career has worked tirelessly to uplift black students like me, recognize our potential, and ensuring that we have the resources and opportunities to thrive. His leadership serves as a powerful reminder that we matter as well,

211and his advocacy has paved the way of students like our, oh, my bad, ours to create spaces where all students can succeed. We wish you all the best in your retirement. And we have a few gifts, as you see. I'll come up and grab that and give it to him. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Brendan. Okay, and come on up, Catherine Murillo. Brendan, thank you very much. No problem. Good afternoon board members. My name is Catherine Murillo and I'm a proud daughter of immigrants and a senior at Brio College Prep, a California distinguished school located here in downtown LA. I'm honored to serve as president of our LGBTQ plus club. The LGBTQ plus club has been essential in supporting students like me, offering a safe and welcoming space to be ourselves and

212find a community. Through the support of our teachers, school leaderships, and our partnerships with organizations such as Reach LA and Care Crafts Project, we've brought resources to my fellow classmates and allies, holding workshops and events that empower us to navigate challenges, understand our rights, and advocate for inclusion. In the midst of so much uncertainty about the potential negative impacts that the changes in the U.S. presidency will bring, we are grateful that here in LAUSD, we have the Board Presidents, past and present, who stand firmly for equality, inclusion, and the protection of all students, regardless of background or identity. On behalf of the students and family at Brio, we thank you for your continued support and approving our school renewal. I'd also like to extend my heartfelt appreciation to the board president, Goldberg, for her support

213of the LGBTQ plus community. and for her recent resolution reaffirming her commitment to protect the dignity and rights of all students, including immigrants, disabled students, and LGBTQ plus students. We are essentially grateful for your leadership in expanding protections for transgender and non-binary students, ensuring that they, too, are tended with dignity and respect and the compassion they deserve. We hope that all board members will continue championing this essential cause. From one president to another, thank you for standing with us, for uplifting our voices, and helping create a community where everyone can thrive. And I wish you the best in your retirement. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Okay, the next two speakers in person are Eloisa Galindo and Juan Magandi. Eloisa, are you here? I think I saw you here earlier. Okay, and Ms. Galindo

214is going to speak in Spanish, so if you'd like to hear what she's saying in English as she's speaking in Spanish, please put your hands up and we'll give you these translation headsets. And then after Ms. Galindo is Mr. Magandi. ¿Uno más? Puedo compartir mi tiempo con mi amigo. Okay. Okay, listos. Buenas tardes. Good afternoon, members of the board. My name is Eloisa Galindo. I'm a mother of Garfield High School. I am here today especially to give thank you. Thank you. Thanks to Miss Jackie Goldberg. One of the things that happened to me as a mother, as a Latina mother, as an immigrant, is that one day Monica Garcia was around and she wanted to bring me down in front of her executives. And Jackie Goldberg... Took the mic and said Monica Garcia stopped saying

215things and I appreciate that Miss Goldberg because you've always had the voice that all politicians should have to defend Democracy and the injustice and the respect for all our communities and you know from who from the capitalism that's embedded in our communities so that they can buy it politicians that serve them thank you jackie goldberg for having that voice and because you once gave me the trust and you showed me that there is democracy by defending me and you are the responsible one for the private the privatization the responsible one is monica garcia thank you ms goldberg the support you have given our communities where we have black and brown communities and you know the minority our schools really thank you for all the support you have given us and You know, this is on

216behalf of all the ACE members on the education chapter. You said it very right. We always endorse and support, but we always going to push what matters for communities. Thank you. And we do want to also say that, you know, the funds that are, you know, you guys are talking about, these resources are really helpful for our students. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Mr. Juan Magandhi. Are you here in the room, Mr. Magandhi? I don't see you online. Maria Luisa Palma, I think I saw you out there. Come on up. You have two minutes to speak once you begin. And then Diana Guillen will follow Ms. Palma. Good afternoon. My name is Maria Luisa Palma. Safety. The people of California have spoken. Now that we live in the post-November 5th of 2024 world,

217the state measured 36, 68% approval. District Attorney George Gascon, out, booted out at 60% in LA County. Why? Because the people of California have voted for safety. Now the defund the police pretense is over. Hugs don't create public safety. We are no longer in 2020. That experiment of defund the police has been proven to be a failure. In 2020, you performed a survey that asked parents, students, and staff what they thought about the school police, but you didn't act in accordance with the results. Over 6,000 parents said, 64% of them said yes, school police makes schools safe on campus, school police on campus. 2,300 staff. 59% of them said yes to that question. We brought you a petition from parents in the community where my estimation, because I've been out in the street taking signatures,

218about 90% of Latinos sign. White people, about 50-50. Black folks, 60-70% that I spoke to. Do we matter? How many numbers does it take? We have over 4,000, about 5,000 signatures. Do those matter? You had over 6,000 respondents of parents in that survey. Do you see us? Do we matter? You are willfully ignoring the adult opinion. You are taking the wishes of a privileged few, some students. You are acting only on their behalf. What about Elijah McGinnis, Melanie Ramos? What about the 15-year-old girl that was recently raped in an Uber outside of Southgate High School? Would this have happened if we had school police, sufficient numbers patrolling the neighborhoods? The 171 incidents of burglaries this semester and vandalism that Mr. Carvalho brought to the media, would those have happened? Is this what you want your

219legacy to be? Miss Jackie Goldberg because I want mr. McKenna's legacy to be to allow all schools to choose if they want school police on campus That's what I want to hear come out of his retirement. Please help us with that. Please help Jackie Goldberg The on again, you'd have two minutes to speak once you be in miss again is gonna speak in Spanish So if you'd like to hear what she's gonna say in English Please put your hand up and we'll get you headsets if you don't already have them. Okay, Lisa's gracias Buenas tardes, miembros. Good afternoon, members of the board. I am here to represent the Parent Network for School Safety, and also I am president of the PAC committee. And I want to say to Ms. Goldberg, from president to president, or

220chairperson to person, that in 2019, we parents supported the teacher walkout. protests, but in meeting their demands. But once you won, you forgot the parents and also the teachers forgot that parents supported them in the demands that they had for a better salary, for better benefits, and to support students. Today, or today, we are here as parents wanting to have school police back because that is a service that we need. Just like the speaker said before me, the students. need safety and with all the things that have happened you are blind so many things happen there's so many reports but you do not move a finger to do anything including miss gones who was number one that wanted to take away the school police and now all of you say that you want to defend

221our community immigrant community and here the only one that supported the police has been mr mckenna that come that is of african-american descent but all of you are against it mr mckenna is african-american is he the only one that wants the school police it's cd and the only one that will not be heard in this Board of Education. You think that you know more than him about this topic, and that African Americans all feel abused by the police. Remember that the school police is not the city police. It's something very different, and I feel that they're better prepared to deal with these kinds of situations. I am very, I feel very bad for the 15-year-old student that was abused outside. of the high school this would have not happened if you did not have this

222type of policy so please miss goldberg don't leave without doing something for our children that truly need safety and that also we need transparency in the funds and also that you said something today that you do not believe and that people work for free well let me tell you all of the parents that come here we are in the committees thank you for your time and you never have been able to give an stipend and not even the child care. You give us $5.99 for an hour. Who in this city charges $5.99 for child care? This is a great injustice to parents who provide their time. Okay, Maria Daisy Ortiz, I see you're out there. Come on up. You'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Ms. Ortiz is going to speak in Spanish,

223so if you'd like to hear what she's saying in English, please continue to use the headsets. You'll have two minutes to speak once you begin, Ms. Ortiz. And after Ms. Ortiz will be Dr. Angelique Sims, and then Emily Vlasic, and then Nellie Mendez. Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Maria Daisy Ortiz. And just like last time, I was censored, right? That's the way that you treat parents. You are fearful of two minutes to hear a parent that has knowledge. First of all... Each one of you will receive a complaint, but look how the form was given to me in English so that you see that the things that you have are not for parents. And there's another bulletin that still says Michelle King. How terrible. How embarrassing. Now, what I wanted to talk about is

224that you cannot, the superintendent cannot supplant the LCAP, the district LCAP, because that's the one that comes to review from the state. And Mr. Superintendent and you are in the same game and you are accomplices to that game using the strategic plan that he has to get the funds, to spend the funds, saying that it is increasing and here you bring here from ELOP. And putting a bunch of amounts, but you don't know who it will serve or how it's comparable to others. So they're just superficial reports. And what's most sad of all is that you use a strategic plan to supplant the LCAP because it is supplanting. And you took away the original goals without consulting PAC, DLAC, or CAC. Because here I have the original goals, 100% graduation, proficiency for all. excellent attendance,

225parent and family engagement, parent-student family engagement, safety and school environment, and basic services. If I see your strategic plan, that's not what it says, but I have your executive summary where it says that the attendance of teachers in 2022 was at 72%. at 96 percent but in 2023 it was 55 percent of 96 percent so where was the other 45 percent and things that i'm reviewing as well so please be more transparent and this is supplanting so many things there's no interpretation much for your time we appreciate your time And I wanted it written, how did you base or do you have any, be more brave for superintendent that took away my right to speak. Thank you and have a nice day. Okay, Dr. Angelique Sims, are you here? Dr. Sims? Okay, let's see. Emily

226Vlasic, are you here? Emily V, Emily Vlasic? And Nelly Mendez, are you here? Nelly Mendez, come on up. You have two minutes to speak. Why don't you begin? Ms. Mendez is going to speak in Spanish, so if you'd like to hear what she's going to say in English, please either use the headsets you've been using or ask for a set if you don't have them. Buenas tardes. Good afternoon. Again, I am here. And we did a beautiful plan of action with Ms. Lopez. And she swore on her dead son that she would take care that this child would not suffer bullying. She said that she pledged on something that was sacred. But we went today to speak to her, and she was denied. And she denied it for me. The student received more bullying yesterday.

227And so, Mr. Superintendent. What is going on? Just like I told you, you have the face of a bad person, but please pay attention. Put the police. Because you do have like 50 policemen just to get into the car to take you to the restroom. And the students are victims of bullying. Superintendent, that's not right. The lady hid. And so, can the child say what happened? The bullying that happened to you. The kid, Carver. I have been, yesterday, I've been recently bullied by the kid again called Nathan. It happened at fourth period, P.E. He, I was going to get a ball, then he tried to front me with his words that if I threw it at him, he would sock me in my face. And I didn't tell no one because I knew that if

228I told someone. It'll affect the LUSD district by its problems and all. So that's why I'm here today, to stop bullying. I want to make a right that no one or no child should be bullied for what they look like or what they've been or where they're from. I want to make children's rights equal. for all. Thank you very much for your time. We have a couple folks calling in. We have Karina Lopez. I see you're on the line. Karina Lopez, please press star six to unmute yourself. And you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Karina Lopez. Karina Lopez, por favor, oprime estrella seis para hablar. Hello? Hi. Hola, ¿cuánto tiempo tengo? Dos minutos. So good afternoon everybody and I want to indicate the Justice Department and what's related to education and the

229public meeting about the Brown Act about Miss Stacy Ortiz. She was mistreated in that way. Negating the ability because the time was given to her. She did not request that time. I think that it's something that's very serious. It's a delicate matter. And if it happens before you that you are doing it, you are practicing it. I can't even imagine what happens in the schools. And with all the knowledge that you have. Another one of the reasons about safety is why the families are not taking their students to school due to the lack of safety. Safety, school, school police is so necessary. It is an urgent matter. They said that the parents are equal partners, but when it comes to action, you don't see that. We are not your servants. We are parents who need

230and who demand respect in every single matter, in all matters, in all measures. You need to learn to implement those rights that we have as parents, but I'm talking... As an advocate, I'm not talking as a parent, but I'm doing so due to the parents that cannot be there today. It's very important that you start to recognize because we can then start a process, paperwork of a lawsuit due to all this abuse and negligence due to lack of safety. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Marcela Garcia, I see you're online. Marcela Garcia, please press star six to unmute yourself, and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Marcela Garcia. Buenos dias. Mi nombre es Marcela Garcia. Good morning. My name is Marcela Garcia. Good afternoon. It's very late. Thank you for listening

231to me. My name is Marcela Garcia, and I am here because... Miss Jackie Goldberg represented us this whole time. I remember when she was promoting and trying to gain votes. And there was a time where she was with us with the protests, with the teachers, for the teachers. And even in the rain, we were there. And we were there too, taking our kids with us. And when we got to this place and the board and we say, some kind of a complaint. Everyone gets surprised and no one says anything. No one does anything. I have a pending case. And they even said, I even said how many times I talked about it with contact information and no one ever got back to me. Ms. Moreno, who is in Burbank, also I have a pending matter

232where I... where I was writing all the situations where my son was being hit. And over the phone, they told me a bunch of lies. And she wanted everything in writing. And to this date, no one has ever responded to my call. I don't know where to go. And I don't even know if I have to go to Sacramento just to expose this case because I have paperwork. I have emails. And no one has ever gotten back to me, ever. Ms. Goldberg, thank you. Thank you for being in this position. But you never represented us because if our parents were there continuously. The last meeting, I saw my two minutes from Ms. Daisy Ortiz. And why are you so afraid of her? Why? I've seen, I gave her my minutes because I've seen that other

233people give their minutes to other people. Why those of us that are there? Because it's discriminatory. We were discriminated against, like the previous mother said. It's almost like we're, just so that you can say, yes, it's public comments of parents. Are you in the room? You're listed as speaking remotely, but are you in the room, Araceli? Okay, Maria Torres are you here Maria Torres? Okay. Come on up. Miss Torres. You'll have two minutes to speak when she begin Good afternoon again. So here I am for the third time. I know that I've gotten nowhere yet, but we're going to get there. I feel like I've gotten more help from the teachers and the actual staff, principals, etc. They made a safety plan for my grandson here that I have it in writing. They said that

234the bullying was going to stop, that he was going to get protected. It wasn't going to happen. It happened again. As you could see, my grandson is scared to speak with all these people in schools. He does not feel safe in schools. Now, also speaking about my granddaughter, she's here. She's getting ready to be assessed. I asked for the assessment last year. As you could see, she needs to be. a bit monitored closely because she could get herself in a lot of trouble. She already started having a lot of panic attacks. I've had to call 911 on Sunday knowing that she was going to return to school. I had to call 911 because she was having an anxiety attack stating that she didn't want to go back to school. Yesterday was her first day from

235Thanksgiving vacation. She called me stating she couldn't breathe again. So I took her to her pediatrician. The pediatrician, I have a certified letter from the pediatrician stating that she has a lot of scarring from being bullied from last year to this year. And I did not sign to the consent or to the plan that Sally Wright gave me because why should I have to sign a paper that no one is going to... Go by it. No one is going by any documents. The only reason is why you guys are doing it is because you guys are trying to cover up for yourselves. You guys are not in it for the student. You guys are in it for liability reasons. And I feel that my grandson and my granddaughter are not safe in your school. I

236need you guys, Mr. Carvajal, I'm holding you responsible for this because this is my third time that I come here. It shouldn't be that I'm coming here three times. I went to the school this morning. Ms. Lopez told me and Val again that... because of her dead son. Life is not gonna bring her dead son back, just like life is not gonna bring all the emotional damage that my gun has suffered in all the USD schools. I demand that you have an impress in meeting with me, because before I'm getting ready to call attorneys, I'm getting ready to go further to Sacramento, wherever I gotta go, my word will be heard. You guys need to stand and practice what you preach. Say something. Say something now. I want you guys all to do something. All

237of you guys. This is the third time. We appreciate your time. Okay. Isabel Aguirre. I see you're signed up to speak remotely, but are you in the room? Isabel Aguirre. Isabel Aguirre. Okay. Mr. David Tokofsky. Come on up. You have two minutes to speak. Why don't you begin? Thank you very much. I want to thank the board members who agendized this topic today. It's very important that you've touched on it very lightly today on some of the topics, and hopefully you will, in private and in public, continue to dig in, because it is $1 billion. $1 billion. I'm not sure if I said it, but it's $1 billion with an ongoing half a billion dollars. That is four times Title I. This is massive, massive efforts on top of the efforts of ESSER to try

238to do something about engaging kids in their learning. It's an exciting moment. It should not be, what did I get at the convention and buy some of this and buy a little bit of that and a little bit of that. This should be moving the needle of kids being excited about learning and coming to school. moving five points from distance from standard. There should be not just an increase in, decrease in chronic absenteeism. There should be like a real revolution, an opportunity. And you guys, all eight of you are poised to do the right thing. You have to drill down and you have to get the data because the categories in the buckets you got today are so vague and ambiguous. And hopefully you got something and it wasn't censored beforehand. I mean, we got

239about eight or 10 high dosage tutoring. How are they doing? How many kids are they reaching? What's the movement? They have the data. Get it. Literacy, numeracy, science, opportunities. All I wrote down was WTF. I don't know what that is. I hope you know what it is. Pardon my language, but it is outrageous when you're talking about a billion dollars. It's a billion dollars. And then another half billion coming just ahead. And okay, we'll have a fiscal cliff in a couple days. A fiscal cliff and a strategic imbalance. With the money you're losing on Medi-Cal. And this money, if you put it all together, you guys are smart board and you've got staff. Put it together and really move it in the legacy of these two icons who brought the voice of urban education to

240the nation's attention. Thank you. Thank you for your time. That concludes general public comment for the Committee of the Whole. And that, I do believe, concludes the Committee of the Whole. The time is now 2 10. So for those in the audience, we're about to begin a special meeting in probably about five minutes.