001Good evening and welcome to tonight's regular meeting of the board of education. This meeting is called to order at 5:00 pm. Roll call, please. >> Student member Chik. >> Miss Armstrong, >> present. >> Miss Stewart, >> present. >> Miss Cron, >> present. >> Mr. Critfield, >> present. >> Mrs. Garza, >> present. Tonight, we do not have requests to address close session agenda items. At this time, the board will adjourn to close session. Open session will resume approximately 6:30 p.m. >> Good evening everyone and welcome. We will reconvene to open session now at 6:34 p.m. and resume the regular order of business. They replace um any replacement pages. >> We have one in the Thank you. We have one in the back table. President Garza, >> thank you. Um, is it for item 13.1? >> You
002are correct, President Garza. 13.1. >> Thank you. Mayfair High School principal Dr. Morgan will lead us in the flag salute this evening. >> Over your heart. Ready, begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. one day. >> Are there any amendments to the agenda? >> President Garza, no amendments this evening. Thank you. >> Thank you. This time we go to presentations. Uh student spotlight. Dr. Morgan. Hi, good evening. I would like to introduce our student, Lennox Scott. And um and I've only had a year to spend with Lennox. And he by far is one of the most involved students that I have ever seen. He's a huge leader, yet he's the
003most humblest leader and really well respected by his peers. But first, I'd like to introduce Miss Amanda McAnnandrews, who's had the pleasure to work with him the last six years. Good evening. It is with great pleasure that tonight I get to introduce to you one of my favorite people. Lenn Scott is ASB president of Mayfair and has been involved in Mayfair's leadership program since the seventh grade. He is the voice of the monsoons. He starts off our days with the morning announcements and I am truly blessed to have this young man as a leader of the class of 2026. He has changed the culture at Mayfair. Um, and for that I am forever grateful. He shows maturity beyond his years. I said I wasn't going to cry. He is extremely talented. He is funny. And
004he is one of the most reliable human beings that I know. When I fill out a recommendation for him, he is the person that I get to mark top 1%. How I will carry on without him is beyond me. Lennox exemplifies everything that BUSD stands for. And therefore, it is my extreme pleasure to introduce to you Mayfair's spotlight student, Mr. Lennox Scott. Good evening, President Garza, Superintendent Dr. Simon, members of the board, cabinet, and all in attendance. I want to start off by just um giving thanks for your guys' time and also thanking my Mayfair family for presenting me with this award. I'm just so filled with gratitude to now, you know, give you guys a glimpse of my time at VUSD. So now to start off, if you guys didn't already know, I started
005my time here at BUSD as an ILC Eagle sore. And not only was I at this elementary school from kindergarten to six to sixth grade, I was also part of the first ever dual immersion class implemented at the campus. Now, if you guys don't already know what dual immersion is, I'm going to use this as a little promo. Dual The dual immersion program is a program that makes you both proficient in English and Spanish by splitting your regular kindergarten through sixth grade curriculum in both languages. So, for example, when I was in kindergarten, our regular kindergarten curriculum was split into 90% Spanish and 10% English. Now, I know many of you guys might think, well, how is he going to learn English? You know, my mom thought that, too. But as you advance through your
006grade levels, the margin between what you learn in English and Spanish grows smaller until it gets to 50/50. And if you think about it, most kids in this program are going home speaking English and are surrounded by English-speaking people. So they're constantly hearing this language. Therefore, this program is intended to quickly get you acclimated to this new language so that once you grow older, you will become proficient. And you know, these are just a couple pictures of my time as an Eagle and a couple teachers that I grew fond of. of Miss Louis Yansen Garcia. And now I didn't reach the bulk of my education until I became a Sunoon. Now I've been at Mayfair since 7th grade all the way up to now my senior year. And I just want to say being a
007part of Mayfair Middle School has given me a great stepping stool to success. It allowed me to get acclimated to the new campus as well as make connections before I stepped into the world of high school. In middle school, I was a part of middle school ASB and I was also part of the first class to continue the dual immersion program to the campus. So with this, I think when I did get to high school, it would be easier to get involved and eventually build my repertoire, which leads me to all my extracurriculars. So something I think that has made school way more enjoyable is just being involved. and I'm very grateful to Mayfair for offering such amazing programs. So these are just a couple that, you know, have kept me going when times got
008rough. So I've been a part of ASB all my four years here at Mayfair. I've also been class president each year and this year I am grateful to be ASV president. I've been a part of Mayfair soccer since my freshman year and I played throughout all my four years. I also played volleyball all four years and was named captain my senior year. I've been a part of link crew helping develop our new freshmen and getting them acclimated to the campus and I've also been a part of showtime our show choir here at Mayfair and since my junior year I have was named vice president this year I was also um one of the leaders who led us to first place in our competition at Los Alamos and I was also named best soloist of our
009division I also dabbled in monsoon theater being part of the mean girls musical and just to name a couple of the clubs that I'm in I'm in Red Cross club, YBS, our Young Black Scholars Club, where I am 12th grade representative, and NHS, our National Honor Society. Now, outside of the campus, I've been involved in things like the superintendent student council, and I was board reporter my freshman and um sophomore year. So, all my years from freshman to junior year have been great, but you know, nothing hits nothing hits like your senior year. You know, senior year has been all that I could already ever ask for. It has been filled with such amazing memories and it is already coming to a close. So, here are just a couple events that I would like to
010highlight. You know, you can see my last first day as a senior. Also, my last ASB camp uh at Mayfair. We go uh to ASB camp at Newport Dunes every year just to get acclimated with the new ASB students and to plan for the future year. I was also a part of our homecoming court where I did win homecoming king at our dance. Hey, and then there's senior seminar, you know, a couple wins and yeah, but you know, this May for a journey, even though I've been so involved, I've met so many new people, could be nothing without it. Stop. So, these are just a couple people I would like to shout out who, you know, really helped me throughout my years. Miss Brown, she's been an English teacher throughout my years. She's just one
011of the most intelligent people I'll ever meet. So articulate. Mr. Hedley, he is one of our AP US history teachers. And when you already hear of AP US history, you would think boring, but Mr. Hedley knew the curriculum like the back of his hand. So when he taught it was just so much more, you know, engaging. Um, this year we also got a new soccer coach, coach Juan Mahes. And, you know, our soccer program has gone through some dips, but this year, you know, his first year he came and he built culture and he, you know, you know, rebuilt the program, I I would say, and I think he's just done a great job. Um, a lot of you know of Mr. Saunders, just a man of many talents, so creative, and it really shows
012in everything that he puts on at the school. One being our newly implemented jazz renaissance for Black History Month. Um, also, Miss Campbell, our show choir teacher, probably one of the most emotionally intelligent people I'll ever meet. She is a woman of many talents. She can sing, she can teach, and she can also be your therapist on the side. Now, there's so many more people I would like to, you know, shout out, but I would just end it off with a woman who needs no introduction, Miss McAndrew. Miss McAndrew is probably one of the most caring teachers I've I've ever met in my life. And I think, you know, the first time that I met her, she just exuded this warmth. And I think it was because she cares so much for these students. She
013cares so much for, you know, this program and Mayfair in general. And I think it really shows, you know, in students like me, students like Gil who's also a part of ASB. And yeah, so I think, you know, my time here at BUSD was just something that I will probably never experience again. And then, you know, since that is the case, it kind of does get me sad, but it also fills me with gratitude that I know that this district has prepared me for life after high school. So, I will be going to Cal State Fullerton Gold Titans, and I will be majoring in public health and hopefully pursue medicine. So, you know, I can't say thank you enough to this district, to its people, to its staff, to my friends, and I just think
014I would not be here today with all the amazing people that I've met. I would not be the person that I am without, you know, everybody who has taught me things about myself and about, you know, everything else. And with that, I just want to say thank you so much and farewell B USD. >> Thank you, Lennux. Um, we will miss you greatly. Um, so now we go ahead and can we um take a picture with Lennox and families send teacher All right. Now, um, next is our student board reports. Representing Belfare High School is Steven Martinez. Good evening, board president, board president Garza, members of the board, superintendent Dr. Simons, staff, and fellow students. I'm S Martinez and this is Belfflar High School's April board report. So starting off with our Belfflar beautifification. Recently
015we got new um posters in our cafeteria on the gym and honestly it's such a great addition as now the campus feels lively again as we lost it I believe last year so it now fills a void. And our Mr. Buck pageant which included our boys from our senior class, which was a honestly this was a tradition that lasted for a very long time and ended probably about a decade ago, but we're glad to bring it back for our 75th anniversary. So, these boys performed and honestly showed like leadership skills and a bunch of different skills to attempt to impress our judges such as Miss Amy Stewart. Thank you for being a judge. Um, and thank you for the lovely words. And our Mr. Buck of 2026 was Angel Bazison. He's such a love student.
016He's part of our volleyball and soccer programs. Next is our senior seminar. Our senior seminar um was last week and and honestly it was such a great way to have the entire class as a whole once again as one of our last events together where students were able to talk with old friends and just come together as a community and do different activities and it was led by Mr. Keith Hawkins and he's such a great speaker. So um yeah, it really brought us all together as a community. Next is SOA Senior. SOA Senior is one of our senior fundraising events where we were able to raise over $1,000 um this week where students and staff would go out and students were able to soak them with water and honestly Miss Cummings had a great time.
017All our staff had a great time alongside our students. Um yeah, so Truthfully Lee, thank you for everyone who supported this. So next is our spring trips. First, we had our ensemble which went to Epcot, Disney World, and performed at the Imagination Campus and was also able to go to the Florida Space Coast and visit Cocoa Beach as long as the Kennedy Space Center. Next is our Japan trip. The World Language Club and students and staff were able to visit Japan's landmarks to view the country's beauty and culture, food, and honestly, just it's it's so different than America. So they were able to just see such a different culture that you wouldn't see otherwise. Next is Castle. So the California Association of Student Leadership Conference which was held in Ontario this year. Uh myself along
018with 17 other no 16 other ASB students were able to go to this conference and just learn more about ASB from throughout the state as there was over a thousand different students there and over 50 other schools. So just being able to connect, get new ideas to bring back to a back to Belfflower is was nice. And we received our ninth outstanding leadership program award uh for the ninth year in a row. So yeah. And then for Skills USA, um the compet the the state competition for Skills USA was good as quite a few of our students went, but notably three of our students are going to nationals in George to in June to Georgia. This includes for commercial drones and pinm. So congrats to Julian Luna, Dylan Basera, and Basel Wad. And then our
019early college academy. This is our second cohort of students who have completed this program. And last night was the recognition night where students from four different schools were able to go and receive certificate of completion alongside this medal. Um so yeah, it was really great just being able to see all the different students that completed this program from all the different schools. Next is our sports. Our tennis team won leaked tile for the first time in 36 years where at league final students took first and third in doubles alongside second and third place in singles. Next is our upcoming events. So tomorrow we have our prom at the CRO Center for the Performing Arts where it's masquerade themed. In addition, next week we have our decision day. So, we'll see where all our seniors go,
020whether it's a trade school, four-year university, a two-year college, the workforce, or the military. Next week, we also have our thespians production, 12 jurors, which I've heard great things about, so I hope that goes well. In addition, um our 75th anniversary um event is going to be next Wednesday from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at Bethlar High School. So, I encourage you all to go alongside board members and Dr. Simon. There's a little um pin on your guys' desk that from ASB. So, thank you guys for all you do and we hope to see you there. And if there's any alumni, please scan that QR code so we can give you guys a little something. And then congrats, Lennox. I mean, I knew you since I was since I was younger in elementary. Obviously, we're good.
021We're friends to a point. So, um congrats on everything you do and I hope that you do very well. and um this is Belair High School's April board report. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Um Mr. Martinez, uh representing Mayfair High School is Gil Freriedman. >> Good evening board members, President Garza, Superintendent Dr. Simon, district colleagues. My name is Gil and here is April's board report. Our Red Cross club hosted a blood donation drive where students were given a gift card in return for some blood. So pretty worth it. Pretty pretty I would say pretty worth it. I heard they got snacks, too, so I lowkey regret not doing it. But yeah, raised a lot of blood. So very good day. Power 106 came to our campus for the backyard barbecue. Music was great.
022It wasn't much of a barbecue. It was cafeteria food, but it was still it was still it was still fun. Vibes were up. Yeah. Unified kickball tournament was held at Bellflower. These are always a great time. Our unified Sooons got to play with the unified Bucks and those kids are athletes. Let me tell you that. They they have so much energy. Wish I got to go. Our choir went on tour to Orlando this year. We did tons of things. We performed at Disney Springs and did a Broadway workshop at Disney World. And we actually got to tour Orlando City Hall where we got to sit up on the podiums and look like you guys. So, that was pretty that was pretty cool. That was interesting up there. Seriously, such a great trip. I mean, so
023many memories and so many experiences. For Skills USA, at the state competition, we had five gold medalists, six silver medalists, and four students going on to nationals in Atlanta. Congratulations. The Japan trip, they got to do many things. I heard they got to make sushi and they got to ride those super super fast bullet trains. So overall an amazing experience for the students, all the language students. Our prom theme has been revealed. We will be flying into the sunset Saturday, May 2nd at the Fullerton Hanger. And here are some flyers for some upcoming events. Monday, May 4th, we have our Star Wars celebration where students can dress up and win some prizes. And bear with me. We have our AsianAmerican, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Luau on May 8th, which I'm actually very excited
024for. I believe we're going to be performing there. So, if you guys can come out, that's going to be a cool time. Coming up tomorrow, we have our spring sports assembly. Band festival is on the 27th at Bellflower. on the on May 1st, senior college celebration will be happening as well as the middle school dance. Prom will be held on May 2nd. Star Wars day is on May 4th. Asian-American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Heritage Luau is on the 8th and Teacher Appreciation Week is coming up from May 4th to May 8th. So, thank you. That's Mayfair's board report. Thank you, Mr. Freriedman. Now we have representing Somerset High School. It's Liz Hernandez. >> Yes. Good evening, pres president Garza, members of the board, superintendent, Dr. Simon, Cabinet G, and guest. My name is Lz Hernandez.
025Thank you for this opportunity and sharing a quick update about some activities happening at Somerset High School. Somerset students R sorry shines at a skills USA state competition after winning the regal competi competition. Aureli Cervante Cervantes and Anthony Santos competed for the state title in Ontario over spring break. We are proud to announce that senior Anthony Santos earns a bronze medal on the award tele of telecommunications. Summer students enjoyed our second furo assembly on March 24th. We were fortunate to learn about the life of Dr. Sandra Cassandra Ria who encouraged us to use our personal stories as a source of empowerment in our future. Senior Sean Collins designed and created a plaque of for Congress women. Miss Baranda Bennett. Um, he used his knowledge of woodworking and graphic design to create the plaque that was
026presented on the Congress. Woman during their recent visit to Washington DC. We were super excited to see our guest Ranger last week was a Somerset graduate. Ranger Samantha graduated from Somerset High School in 2021 and she said she felt honored to be back as a teacher. She wish she had awesome programs when she was a student in BUSD. We are grateful for this partnership with Enrich LA. Two awesome members of the Somerset staff were recognized at Star Awards on Monday night. Mrs. Stephanie Gotaway was recognized for being the person who kept everything together behind the scenes as our sec school secretary. And Miss Mary Vitali, our intervention ELD and dual enrollment teacher, was acknowledged for her dedication to education and care for students. We are very fortunate to have them both at Somerset. Andreas Melgar
027was recognized this afternoon by the city of Belfflower as a Bravo Award winner for this essay about making the community safe. He received a $500 scholarship award for this academic achievement. Congratulations, Andre. Coming soon, we will start our final block of the year on May 4th and we will be celebrating celebrating the achievements of our students at the spring awards on May 6th. Everyone is invited to join us on May 26 at 12:20 p.m. in a Kijijana Halls for our second annual student films festival. We will be presenting students created films made by this year with support of creating creations. Thank you for your support of Somerset and have a great evening. >> Thank you, Miss Hernandez. Representing Las Flores Home Education Independent Study Academy is Josanna Torres. Um, good evening board president Myra Garza,
028board members, Dr. Simon, teachers and students. Um, I'm once again glad to be back and inform you all on some of the things that have been happening at Los Flores since the last board meeting. Okay, so on April 2nd, the Los Flores community as well as fellow members from the board and our superintendent gathered to honor Los Flores being named a 2026 California and National Schools to Watch campus. It was a proud moment for our entire community and we want to give a special thanks to our dedicated staff and families as well as our amazing students who made this recognition possible for us as well as all the members of the board and our superintendent who was in attendance to celebrate with us. So on that same day, we had our openhouse showcase where parents
029were able to visit each classroom that were filled and decorated with student work and creativity. All the teachers had engaging displays and students were able to share their growth and accomplishments happening um around the campus. We also had um like a taco truck which was really good and I think that was another highlight of the event. Um, okay. So, as you can see in this slide here, the these are some of our extended learning opportunities classes. Um, students from elementary to high school really enjoy getting to learn um like different subjects that range from, as you can see here, chess to woodwork. Okay, the titles are switched, but I'm pretty sure you could tell the difference. Um uh these these classes are a great way students are able to engage in extracurricular activities in a
030fun yet educational way. So back in March, our high school girls were able to go on a field trip to the Metro Girls Summit event. This event focused on empowering young women and highlighting careers in transportation and public safety. Students were able to hear from amazing speakers that include council council member Elda Padia and exploring future pathways that they might not have considered before. So we're proud of all the students who decided to join and represent Los Flores as well as taking steps towards a bright future. So on Tuesday, we had our ESPback rally for our elementary and high school students to just encourage them to try their best on the ESPback test because they are really intense and they want them to take it seriously to try and do their best. So as for
031the first week of testing, I think everybody's doing great, but yeah, hopefully hopefully you'll be surprised with their scores. You'll be impressed. Okay. Um coming up uh of course to end our month we have parent conferences and work collection tomorrow. Um to start May we have our physical fitness test for the fifth, 7th and 9th graders. We also have our walk the theme event which will include our TK through 12 creating projects and they will create almost like a gallery where parents can walk through and kind of guess the theme of these different projects that they have. And then we also have our sixth, 8th, and ASB high school knots trip on the 14th as well as sixth grade camp on the 19th. So that is all. Thank you so much for your time. Thank
032you all for keeping us informed with your reports. You are welcome to remain for the rest of the meeting. However, we understand you may have other obligations and are free to leave At this time, I'd like to invite BTA President John Young to come forward, please. Uh good evening, President Garza and board, Dr. Simon and cabinet, colleagues, and community gathered tonight. Uh this month's work continues to reflect a real reality uh we know well. BTA remains willing to collaborate with the district on important long-term efforts and collaboration uh must also be matched by timely action. We know this on the issues that uh most directly affect our members and our students. We continue to participate in meaningful district uh discussions including facility master plans uh interviewing new school leaders, guiding coalition work around a graduate
033profile, the development of an AI framework, and conversations about new high school graduation requirements tied to college and career pathways to name just a few. These efforts matter for our students, but if they are going to mean anything in practice, they require more than conversation. They required a continued shared vision, clear expectations, and genuine follow-through. We also appreciate recent progress in other areas. The move toward a single district message regarding staff deescalation strategies with students exhibiting aggressive, dangerous behavior along with Dr. for almost inclusion of BTA and CSEA in developing the workplace violence prevention plan. These are both very positive steps. These are serious issues and they deserve clarity, consistency, and practical training for all staff. No employee should be left to navigate highstakes situations without clear guidance and support. At the same time, we
034would be remiss if we did not speak plainly about bargaining. There is growing frustration among our members over the district's slow response to salary proposals. Members are paying attention and they can tell the difference between careful consideration and unnecessary delay. The district has historically pointed to the governor's may revise as a reason not to move forward on composition on compensation, but that explanation is becoming harder to justify. The 2026 2027 May revise is a year behind the negotiations currently in front of us. Initially sunshined in the spring of 2025. At some point, waiting for the next reason to wait is not interpreted as fiscal caution. It's postponement. We also continue to hear from members affected by the district's res recent payroll and tax reporting discrepancies. Although the district has indicated that corrections were made, and
035I appreciate Mrs. Arcus' clarity about the security of tax documents by reviewing the timeline for a chain of custody. Members continue to deserve updated communication as more evidence is confirmed, confidence in remedy processes, and assurance that this truth issue is truly resolved. In other words, closure. BTA remains committed to good faith Collaboration works best when it's timely, transparent, and connected to action. Our students and members deserve to be included in conversations about the future, and they also deserve real movement on the issues affecting them right now. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Young. Next, next I'd like to invite PTA President Alexandra Cortez to come forward, please. Good evening, everyone. All right. So, good evening, Madame President. Carvin Scarza uh esteemed school board members, superintendent, deputy superintendent, assistant superintendent, BUSD cabinet, staff members, and our amazing
036community. Um, I'm here to represent BCPTA and report to you April 23rd, 2026, our report for April. So, we're going to start off with HSA awards. This is a really great event. It's where we honor all our volunteers that go above and beyond. It represents teachers. It has volunteers from PTA, uh, from the community as well. They get recognized for all of the work that they do, not just in front of everyone, but behind the scenes as well. So, it's all the support that they give to our students, to our communities, and to our PTAs. And there's some additional photos. We had photo booths. Uh, the picture right in the middle, that's a lot of the people that put together the whole event. Right at the top, that's our executive board. And then there's another
037slide. You'll see some faces you recognize different elementary schools all over their units and their winners as well. And then we also had Mayfair pres uh there. They were uh performing for us. They did a amazing job. It was beautiful. They had dancing. It was a great time. Um you'll see our superintendent. She gave a great motivational speech for everyone. It was beautiful. And then this is actually earlier today. So we won a award from 33rd district. They are uh think of them like a a little bit above us. We go and get um like they are the ones that like send us out information to councils, right? So they gave us our social media award of the year. So our social media was one of the ones that impacted the most this year. Reached
038out across not just our district, not just our uh city, but it got all the way over to like Beverly Hills, Roondo. they were resharing a lot of our stuff. So, we were able to make a great impact on social media. So, we're super proud of that one. Our upcoming events, volunteer appreciation is going on this week. So, if you know any volunteers, just give them a quick hi. Thank you for your service. A big hug and just let them know how much you appreciate them. And then the great Gatsby historian, Mixer. So, we've got a new historian and she's all about the themes. So, come dressed May 12th at 6 PM. It should be a great time. Thank you all very much. >> Thank you, Miss Cortez. Um, it's time for superintendent report. Dr.
039Simon, >> sorry, President Garza, we have our Ed Foundation. President, >> I'm sorry I did skip over our foundation. Sorry about that, Alison. >> Everyone, good evening. especially to President Garza, the board member, Superintendent Simon, and all of the community members. I want to begin by thanking you for the invitation to share here and for your continued support. Opportunities like this matter. They give students, families, and educators a real voice, and they show that this board values the efforts of our foundation. After a brief hiatus in our board's activity, we have regrouped with a new five member board that is a better fit for our beginning stages of development. This smaller focused team has allowed us to be more intentional, collaborative, and responsive as we work to build a strong foundation. We had the pleasure
040of meeting our foundation's new council, Adrienne Connean Mlin, at our regular board meeting last night. She definitely feels like a great fit for our team and mission as she provides both a vast knowledge of the law and extensive experience launching successful school foundations. Immediately on the horizon under her guidance, we will come up with a board retreat and the creation of a firstear blueprint for our board's success. It's encouraging to be moving forward with renewed clarity and purpose and we're grateful for the space you've created to share updates like this and to stay connected with the broader community. We have already begun the process of getting to know our schools and their needs by attending a few important district events such as the groundbreaking at Mayfair Sportsfield, Los Flores's school to watch celebration, both Mayfair's
041and Belfflower High School's open houses, and by surveying every principal from every school in the district for beginning ideas on how we can best be of assistance. We cannot wait to visit all of the campuses and dig deeper into the feedback we have already received. Thank you again for your leadership, your time, and your continued commitment to our foundation and students. A couple of quick things. Sorry about my voice. I'm a teacher and this time of night, every day my voice starts going. So, my apologies. And secondly, we look forward to having super cute fancy presentations. Those are in the works. Thank you. Sorry about that. Um, thank you, Miss Casayanos. Now, it is time for superintendent's report. Dr. Simon, >> thank you. Uh, President Garza, warm appreciation for our students who uh presented tonight.
042I know they left and their families, but always wanted to to lead to them. Um, they're the reason why we're here and why we do what we do. But good evening board president Garza, esteemed board members, cabinet colleagues, dedicated staff, and valued community members. As always, it is a pleasure to be with you this evening. Um, this month, members of of cabinet and I had the opportunity and the honor of attending the California Teachers Association. We honors we honor our own awards which recognize outstanding service, leadership, and advocacy. It was especially meaningful to celebrate Bellflower Teachers Association President Mr. John Young last night who was recognized at this event for his leadership and commitment to our educators. I was also grateful for the opportunity to visit several school sites this month. these v these visits
043continue to be one of my most meaningful parts um of this work. I am always energized by my conversations with our scholars and our staff members and I remain impressed by the talent, dedication and heart I see through Belfflower Unified. We also have many bright spots to celebrate across our district. As President Cortez mentioned, at our PTA honorary service awards, we recognize u many of our community members and our teachers who give back to this district. And the star awards uh which we had just past Monday. Uh we recognize the extraordinary contributions of of our staff members um who make a difference in our students lives every day. I want to especially send out another shout out and congratulate um Kay Pettit um who was also considered um as a state level classified member of
044the year. So please give her a round of applause. And Shandraali Hill, our teacher of the year who was at Ernie Pal, please give her a round of applause as well. And for that night, a special thank you to our talented BUSD Elementary Choir. If you've never heard them, you you need to check them out. They are amazing. The Long Beach Blues Society, ourformational technology department, um Dr. Ryan Smith, Dr. Frank Omos, and Dr. Shante Knox, our human resources team, uh for making this event possible. These recognitions reflect the excellence and the commitment that define this district. Furthermore, as was mentioned by one of our students, our students continue to excel in their career pathways and leadership roles at the Skills USA, we had students from our district earned three gold medals, two silver medals,
045and one bronze medal. Um, the gold medal winners will advance to the national skills USA competition, which will be held in Atlanta, Georgia from June 1st to June 5th. Those who are going out there, just know it's going to be very hot and humid, so please dress accordingly. Notably, students Julian and Dylan will compete in the commercial drone competition out there. I would also like to acknowledge Mayfair for receiving the silver chapter of distinction, an honor that showcases strong student leadership, service, and also program excellence. Additionally, the Cow Apps Skills USA chapter achieved the gold chapter of distinction, demonstrating its commitment to leadership, service, and dedication to our student, staff, and adviserss. These accomplishments are a powerful reminder of the talent throughout our district, and the importance of continuing to highlight bright spots, strengthen school,
046and community connections, and expand college and career opportunities for our students. That emphasis is consistent with the district's current board goals and our 100 day priorities around visibility, community engagement, and expanding student pathways. Last thing, I encourage our school communities to celebrate school lunch hero day, which is on Friday, May 1st, 2026. School lunch hero day is an opportunity to recognize and thank our nutrition professionals. And here are some ideas and how you can honor our nutrition professionals during school lunch heroes. Be thankful. Encourage students to create a homemade thank you card or to write notes for appreciation to share with their school lunch heroes. Get creative. Celebrate the day by creating posters or banners to display in common areas. Share a story. Have students and staff write or record short stories or testimonials about
047their favorite school lunch heroes highlighting how these professionals make a difference in their lives. And then lastly, share a favorite meal. Have students vote on their favorite school breakfast or lunch of the year. Then create a top five favorites poster highlighting the most beloved items for a cafeteria display. The last thing I want to read is our uniform complaint report summary u for January through March 2026. Our quarterly report as required by the county under the William settlement legislation. No complaints were received during this quarter regarding instructional materials, facilities, or teacher assignments. That concludes my report. President Garza, >> thank you. Uh Dr. Simon, now uh does the board have any ad hoc committee updates this evening? >> I would just like to add two very quickly. One, I think Dr. Simon spoke very eloquently
048about the Cal Apps program, but we are very proud of them. We had some in drones and also in pin making. So, we're excited to support them going to Georgia. And then climate and culture. We consider uh we continue to work on doing research and surveys so that we can create an equity plan and we're hoping to have an equity plan coming out soon. So, thank you to that committee as well. And this week we had our alliance meeting which is a meeting with uh district leadership, our CSEA and our BTA leadership as well and uh productive conversation. Uh President Young mentioned it earlier but the workforce violence prevention plan uh was talked about and also uh our annual reorganization and having conversations around that uh in terms of communication and and what we can
049always do better. So I appreciate those conversations. It was a great meeting. >> Okay. Go ahead. Um so I attended the the locka meeting and CSBA they came out and they shared a tool kit addressing um student achievement and it says SOS for student achievements and it's an effort to close the state account um the the state accountability gap. So, it's a campaign to transform California's governance, budgeting, operations, and practices to end decades of stagnant outcomes and help school districts and county offices of education boost overall student performance and close um the persistent achievement gaps. And um so you know they say the the problem with um some any anyway I I have the uh the toolkit here and um and it's it's just going to tell you about some of the problems or issues
050that they collectively kind of like said that they had and some of the supports and suggestions for uh to help close those gaps. So anyway, I have the toolkit here and I'll share that with you. >> Thank you. Anyone else? >> Good. Um, so now tonight we do have requests addressing agenda non-aggenda items. We want the public to know that the board and superintendent will listen carefully to each public comment. However, we will not be providing responses during the meeting. The superintendent or a designated representative will contact the parent, guardian, and or community member if the comment may call for follow-up. While meetings of the governing board are not public meetings, they are open to the public. Individual speakers will be allowed three minutes to address the board and the board will limit the total
051time for public input to 21 minutes as per board bylaw 9322.2 unless otherwise waved by the board. May I please have Kim Ashton? Good evening, President Garza, board member, Superintendent Dr. Simon, and esteemed district personnel. Good evening. My name is Kim Ashton, and I have been in the district for over 30 years in elementary education. I'm here to bring to your attention what is happening with our behavior support aids in the elementary schools. Our district adopted capturing kids hearts to help build relationships, but we are being told that the behavior aids will now be moved every six months from their campuses starting June 1st. Wondering why teachers weren't asked, aids weren't asked. So where is the communication? How is this benefiting students and staff? How is this going to be effective in establishing relationships with
052students and staff? Students who are disregulated need consistency and stability. The current aids have established the relationships necessary to deregulate, prevent issues from escalating, and they are front-loaded with issues to know which students may need support. Moving them is not what is best for anyone. Please let them establish the relationships with the students and staff and keep them at one site for at least a year if not years to come. We were also told that those aids are required to work in summer. Teachers can work in the summer if they want to apply. So why aren't the aids given this option? This was never a stipulation before. So why is their contract language changing all of a sudden? Personally, there was a a recent SPED meeting where they were not allowed to give input and
053district leadership had told them that if they weren't in a grants, they could leave. If every voice is heard, as in our motto, why are behavior aids not being heard? Personally at my site, the behavior aid is very present, always running and going above and beyond, works through breaks and lunches to support and does so with a positive attitude and a smile. He is committed to helping our students every day, and it makes the staff and myself sad to see that he and the others are not being valued. Teachers were told last year that each site would have a behavior aid on campus to support the students who are disregulated as the number of students needing behavioral support has increased every year. This is supported by the data collected by the National Center for Education
054Statistics. We related to have the support. However, with the current increase in ESN and sped classes, the behavior aids are now supporting those students even more and are spread so thin that the others are not being able to be attended to. More support is needed. I have been told about students jumping fences, destroying rooms, and nobody can come to support. What about the safety of the other students in the class? Some sites have no AP, and with the increase in behaviors, teachers state that they call the office for support and nobody is there. We need more support in the ESN classes where behaviors are escalating and we also need a more support for the gened TK through sixth grade students at the bare minimum. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Session. Now, Valerie Navaro, would
055you please come to the podium? Is this okay? Good evening, President Garza, board members, Superintendent Simon, and ex esteemed district personnel. My name is Valerie Navaro, and I have been in the district for 36 years. I've witnessed the changes that have occurred with COVID and technology, and it hasn't all been for the better. I am here to address the recent LUSD's adoption of a resolution to limit student screen time. I encourage the board to consider adopting a similar resolution as the same problems that plague LU LUSD students harm our students as well. We cannot control what happens at home. However, we can control and limit screen time at school. As a reminder, data from the National Institute of Health reports that early screen exposure leads to negative consequences, negative outcomes later in life, such as
056a lower academic performance and lessened cognitive abilities. I am currently a third grade teacher and was formerly a kindergarten teacher. And although there is a place and benefit for technology, considering a limit in schools and having more paper pencil work helps memory, fine motor skills, and attention. The younger they are, the less screen time they should have. I understand that the upper grades it's fine, but for the little ones, they should not. Please consider discussing and adopting these limitations. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Navaro. Uh, Dr. Robinson, I believe you have two items that you will be speaking on. Yes, that's correct. Or do I touch a button? Got it. Good evening, board president, esteemed board, valued superintendent and cabinet and all the members in the room. The first thing I want to address is
057I was sitting at a DAG meeting last week and because we're an advisory committee, we can hear other things beyond just the LCAP. And what came in was the thing you're going to hear the report on tonight. And that was the change in college. And what I have to tell you is uh we barely said career before. We say college and career, but when I look at the changes that are being made, it looks like more college. We're above what's going what the state requires. And now, and we're at a 96% graduation rate. So now what we're going to do is require another math, which kids can already take. That's already an option. They have to take an additional a third year of math or science. But now we're going to require them a third
058year of math. We're going to take away health, which I asked my own son, how you feel about that? He said, 'Well, that's stupid. I said, why? He said because that's the only class that actually applies to your real life now and later. And then the third thing is they're going to take away a social science. And I'm not sure whether it's history or whether it's political science, but we're living in an economy right now where our kids need to know where we came from because that's going to set where we're going. Or they need to know how government structure works because if they don't, we're all in a lot of trouble. So I don't want that class taken away either. I'm concerned that we're not looking at trade. When you look at Here's what
059I'd like to just some points. Why aren't we the Renaissance in career and tech education? Why aren't we trailblazing that? We just keep chasing everyone else on the college track. Tra, if we look at trades, those are skilled, highwage jobs for our students. Since 2015, California has invested more than $3 billion in tech and career education, making us, our state, the nationwide leader. That spurs the economy and it offers options for our students futures. Options. They can buy a house. Our teachers can't buy a house in this community, but our students could. Native American, homeless, and low-income students across the nation have had the highest rates of enrollment among the students groups in trades. Since two in 2019 and 2020, 18% of all students were enrolled. That's risen to 23% and we had COVID in
060between there. So, it'll probably would have risen at a higher rate. In 2025, Newsome signed the master plan for career education. So, what I'd like you to look at is instead of making it harder for kids to get out of the system we already have, why don't we start looking at an option for them to go further? The second thing I want to address, and I'm going to have to do it really, really quickly, is as a board, as a member of the community, I'm I'm I wanted you guys to have a higher stipen, but more than a higher stipen, I want you guys to have safety. And March 15th, one of our schoolboard members launched his reelection campaign. And 16 days later, a member of this audience who's a member of the community, not
061a teacher, not a parent, not anybody in the 26 years that I've been here who has ever stood at this podium and voiced the concerns that they have posted that you're just killing your kid. You're having your child, your child is deteriorating in the last four years and everyone is seeing it. When our school board members are not safe, none of us are safe. Mr. Peter Herzi sits in here week after week after week and then he goes home and posts things. He's posted them about me. A year ago, he did this. And when he posts them about you, you guys are lowhanging fruit. So, I would like this to be looked at as a smear campaign. That's a launch of a smear campaign for one of our schoolboard members. I understand you can't get
062a restraining order because he's not made an actual threat. So, what do we do? Wait till somebody actually gets hurt and then the laws changed. Nobody asked me to speak. I'm speaking because I'm concerned. We talk about safety for our kids and our teachers. You're the gatekeepers. If it's not safe for you, it's not safe for anyone. So, I'd ask I'd like to you to ask legal how we go about handling this. Because in a classroom, if kids bully other kids, we separate them in the room. If they do it on the playground, we separate them. If they keep doing it, we put them in two different rooms. And if they keep doing it, we put them at two different schools. And if they keep doing it, we remove them from our district. But that
063doesn't apply to our schoolboard members. And when they're vulnerable and share their personal lives, so we relate to them, they now become a target in our community. I'm sorry, but that's not okay. And I'd like it addressed by you with our legal counsel because if you guys aren't safe, none of us are. >> Thank you, Dr. Robinson. >> Um, next is John Paul Dreer. >> Good evening. Uh, John Paul Dreer, Belfar High, class of 1980. Um, we've had a discussion about why our enrollment dropped so much, 3%. We did not expect that much of a drop. And so we said, we need to have like focus groups. We need to ask people why are they leaving to other districts? And so I was doing my community walk in North Balf where I live. And I
064asked a parent, oh, do your kids go to our local schools? Oh, my son went to Mayfair until yesterday. Yesterday? What happened? Well, he said, you know, he likes three different sports in, you know, seventh and eighth grade, and he wants to be prepared for high school varsity sports. And Mayfair is not offering junior high students or middle school students the opportunity to play other schools competitively. So, when I attended junior high in Balthlau district, like the tennis team, the golf team, we would go to Catalina to play Catalina Middle and High School. we'd go for the whole weekend and stay in the gym and and we'd play different sports. We'd play other uh local middle schools, junior highs to give us experience. And so he is going to Orange County's public charter school in
065the city of Orange. And the mother says, "Oh, it's only like 30 minutes, but he really enjoys it. He we we need to engage our students." Uh especially guys really love sports. I love sports. I I was a athlete of the year finalist at Belfire. We need to find out why the, you know, that's just one reason. What are other reasons people are not, you know, having their kids go to the middle school? Another parent told me it's safety issues. They want it completely separated from the high school students. They're sending their kids to Downey schools. They have these signs, uh, Downey, uh, 2038 future graduate. Um, we really need to address enrollment to balance our three-year budget. It's really important. That's a key element. I know the marketing. I saw the what you've done.
066I've seen on social media. I appreciate that. But we really got to find out what are the things the students need to keep them there. And what is it the middle school, the high school, the elementary school? Where are we losing students the most so we can target that area? Also to contact uh three-year-old the parents of three-year-olds to tell them, "Hey, we have a great TK program. Parents have asked me, um, which elementary school will my kid go to TK? We need to have a map that's clear, like where is your local TK school for parents of three-year-olds so they're ready for next year. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Dreer. Could we please have Jay um, Shu, did I say that correctly? Thank you. Good evening, President Garza, members of the board, Dr.
067Simon, and the district administration. My name is J. Shu, and I have served as a proud music educator in this district for 28 years. I am here tonight to express my deep concern regarding the proposal to restructure graduation requirements, specifically the lumping of visual performing arts, foreign language, AP, dual enrollment, and CTE courses into a single category. While I am a strong supporter of CTE and other career and college readiness programs, this proposal creates a false choice for our students. By forcing these distinct dis disciplines to compete for the same pathway, we aren't just changing a requirement. We are diminishing the richness of our students education. Four years. There are only four years in high school. In this brief window, we ask our students to prepare for the rest of their lives. We focus so
068heavily on what comes after college and career that we forget these four years are the fun foundational human experience in their own right. Athletic teaches teamwork. Visual arts teach us how to see. And performing arts teach us how to move people's souls. As adults, we can pivot pivot careers or return to university at 30, 40, even 50 or 60. But you can't never go you can never go back to high school. Think about that for a second. You cannot reclaim the time spent discover discovering a passion for the canvas or the stage. Why are we pushing our children to be many adults before they have the chance to be scholars? At Belfflower Unified, we have in invested heavily in the arts at Mayfair and Belfflower high schools. Our VAPA teachers cultivate environments where students find
069meaning, social, emotional growth, and academic excellence. By forcing these programs to compete under one umbrella, we risk hollowing them out. We risk telling our students that their artistic development is a secondary pursuit, just another box to check. I urge the board to reconsider this lumping of categories. Let us protect our curriculum so every student has the space to be an artist, a linguist, and a scholar without having to sacrifice one for the other. I ask you to choose the richness of complete education over the simplicity of a checklist. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Shu. Could we please have uh Miss Ramirez? Is that correct? Good evening, members of the ward, superintendent, and cabinet. My name is Marissa Ramirez. I stand before you on behalf of so many parents from Steven Foster. Um, not
070just to speak to you, but to advocate wholeheartedly for the retention of Christa Jackson at Steven Foster Elementary School. As a registered nurse, I've dedicated my life to caring for others. One of the most important lessons in healthcare in is this. Continuity matters. Healing happens when there is trust. When relationships are built over time, and when someone truly knows you. not just your name, but your story. That same kind of care is exactly what Christa Jackson provides to our students every single day. She doesn't just see the students in passing, she knows them. She knows their struggles, their strengths, their families. She notices when something is wrong, often before anyone else does, and she steps in, not just as an administrator, but as a steady, caring presence in their lives. For many of our children,
071school is where they find safety, stability, and encouragement. Christa Jackson is a big part of why that environment exists. The programs that she is a part of, such as our morning welcome rallies, if you've ever been a part of it, it's amazing. Um the afterchool um opportunities, our PBIS gold, and the unified champions. These aren't just activities, they're expressions of her caring. They are how she builds connections, belonging, and trust across the entire school community. And that trust matters because when a child feels seen, they show up differently. When a child feels supported, they learn differently. When a child feels safe, they thrive. In nursing, we say trust and consistency saves lives. In education, they also shape futures. Removing Christa Jackson would not just be a staffing change. It would be a loss of stability,
072a loss of connection, and a loss of someone who has become a cornerstone of this school community. I urge you, please, to consider not just the position, but the person, not just the role, but the relationships, and not just the decision, but a lasting impact it will have on the children who depend on that consistency every single day. Please keep Christa Jackson as the principal at Steven Foster. Thank you for your time and your heart in this decision. Thank you, Mr. Can we please have Miss Baker? Good evening B USD board superintendent and members. My name is Amy Barker and I am here to express my strong support for our assistant principal of two years, Mrs. Christa Jackson to respectfully urge the district to reconsider her resignation for the end of this year. I am
073both a parent and a five-year employee with Think Together, where I serve as a student supervisor associate during lunch hours, um, working lunch and two recesses daily. So, I can tell you that Mrs. Jackson is truly one of the best things to have happened to our elementary school. Within her first month with us, she already learned the names of nearly every student enrolled. She made it a point to be visible and present on campus, greeting students, interacting with families and staff rather than hiding behind an office door. That level of dedication and accessibility makes an enormous difference in the culture of our school. Mrs. Jackson has contributed so much to our campus, including helping start the AVID program, launching the Steven Foster Instagram account to connect with families, creating welcoming drop offs and pickups out
074front with music from a speaker and bubbles with enthusiasm, as well as consistently handling the day-to-day discipline and student support whenever the principal is unavailable. I have been a parent at Foster the past eight years. As a mom of three with one who has promoted up to Mayfair, I have seen firsthand how approachable, dedicated, and supportive Mrs. Jackson is. At the same time, it's been very disheartening to see the high level of administrative turnover within our district. In the last eight years my kids have attended Foster, we have had six principles. I ask you, why is there so much inconsistency? How is this the best interest for our students? How is this helping to improve student test scores? With so much inconsistency in leadership over the years, BUSD is starting to develop a bad reputation.
075I'm simply asking the board to examine whether this approach is helping or hurting morale, recruitment, and student outcomes. As a school staff member on campus, I believe our community deeply needs consistency and leadership. It's discouraging for students, staff, and families to start over again with new admin every year or two. It's bad for student and staff morale. With a new principal expected, maintaining Mrs. Jackson's leadership and campus knowledge, it would provide a much needed stability for our school. Lastly, I'd like to just leave you with this. Mrs. Jackson is a rare gem in education. Steven Foster Elementary would be incredibly fortunate to continue benefiting from her dedication and leadership and genuine care for this community. I sincerely hope the district will reconsider this decision for the sake of our students, staff, and continued success for
076our school. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Miss Barker. Can we please uh have Amy Mustafa? Good evening, President Garza, um board members, Dr. Simon, cabinet, colleagues, and community. Um, I want to address the current state of negotiations and the district's proposal to delay salary discussions until the end of May. BTA sunshine the bargaining in May of 2025 in good faith with the intent of beginning a timely and productive process. Waiting for the district to assemble its negotiation team delayed the start of bargaining until January. Despite that delay, BTA came prepared. On day one, we presented a reasonable salary proposal and signaled our readiness to engage in meaningful discussions. Since that time, the district has not provided a counter proposal. Now, we're being told that a salary proposal will not be available until the
077end of May. Respectfully, this is not acceptable. By that point, the school year will be nearly over, leaving little time for thoughtful negotiation, agreement, and implementation. Under a normal timeline, bargaining for the following school year should have begun in March. Instead, we're now operating roughly a year behind where we should be. At this stage in the school year, the district should have a very clear understanding of its financial position. Our educators, like all professionals, deserve timely, transparent, and serious engagement on compensation. Delaying salary discussions further only prolongs the uncertainty and undermines the trust in this bargaining process. We urge the district to come to the table with the salary proposal immediately so that we can engage in good faith negotiations and reach an agreement that reflects the value of the educators who serve this community
078every day. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Mustafa. Can we please have Jennifer Campbell? Good evening, President Garza, members of the board, Superintendent Simon, and our district administration. I'm mainly speaking on behalf of the VAPA department in regards to the new graduation requirements. My name is Jennifer Campbell and I've been teaching at Mayfair as a choir director for six years. In that time, I've experienced so many changes from bell schedules to administration, from new policies and procedures and now new graduation requirements. In the brief discussion that we as a vapid department were able to have regarding the changes, um our understanding is that A throughG requires one year of VAPA and two years of a foreign language and our proposed changes will require now three years of college and career readiness classes and one year in
079either V uh VAPA, CTE or foreign language. Our collective question was why are we further deviating our uh deviating from our BUSD re requirements from A throughG requirements. If our intention is to improve college and career readiness metrics on the California dashboard, why not follow the A throughg requirements and add a separate category for CTE APD and state seals or some other solution? Our collective opinion is that we still require at least one year of VAPA because we know what these programs provide students. Not just a place for self-expression and social emotional learning, but also a place where many lifelong skills such as discipline, cooperation, citizenship, and being a good human are cultivated. Additionally, our programs do so much for our school district. We support our sports teams. We get out into the community providing
080entertainment, joy, escape, um, and so many other things for our audiences. What other programs have students whose lives are changed after performing for, sharing stories with, and shedding tears with a group of retired veterans, or creating art that pushes boundaries and moves young minds that live in our school displays for years to come. Unfortunately, as a VAP department, every year we are reminded that our student numbers play a major role in our legitimacy as a department. And despite all of the good that we do for our students, school, and community, despite all the numerous studies that prove how invaluable the arts are to society, and education, every year it feels like that weight of justifying our programs and building those numbers gets heavier and falls solely on us as teachers instead of getting the kind
081of support that is necessary to cultivate and build these amazingly resilient and powerful programs that we already have. Um, we already compete with so many amazing programs on our campus, programs that our school already has a difficult time trying to support equitably. These new requirements would continue to further hurt and/or compete with our VAPA programs and limit student access. We ask that you please take more time to consider these changes and invite more teacher representatives of all programs across the district to have their voices heard in this conversation. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Campbell. Can we please have um Heidi Gamboa? Good evening, board president Gara, members of BUSD board, superintendent, and district administration. I have uh I'm actually one of the VAPA teachers here in in our wonderful BSU uh B USD district which
082I love. Um and I'm also here to speak in behalf of um the category that was just spoken about. As we look at graduation requirements, it is important that we don't dilute um the role of the visual and performing arts by placing it into a broader college and career readiness category. By adding college and career readiness category and grouping the world language VAPA and CTE into one already complex requirement, we unintentionally create a system where students can bypass VAPA altogether. If our goal is truly to uh truly college and uh career readiness, we should be aligning it a little bit more closely with the A3G requirements, not creating a completely or competing competing structure within it. A3G is clear. One year of VAPA and two years of the same world language are required for admissions
083into the CSU and UC systems. that cl clarifies and protects the access and ensures that each of our students have a well-rounded education by the time they graduate high school. Fine arts also supports emotional expression, mental health, mental health well-being. And for many of our students here in our district, art provides a safe space to process experiences, reduces stress, and communicates ideas that are difficult to express in words. They contribute to confidence and identity development. Fine arts further enhances cultural awareness and empathy, exposing students to diverse perspectives and histories that deepen their understanding of the world. Fine arts not only are electives, but they are critically they're critically part of a well-rounded high school education that supports both personal growth and long-term success. I urge the board to continue supporting the visual arts programs and
084not just to have a checkbox to meet a certain requirement, but to provide students with a well well-rounded education. Visual and performing arts matter. Hasharts matter. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Miss Gamboa. Can we please have Gabby Gutierrez come to the podium? >> Good evening board member uh President Garza uh members of the board, superintendent Simon and district ad uh administrators. My name is Gabby Gutierrez. I am a teacher at Mayfair. I teach art and I've been there for 21 years. Um I am also here regarding the um BUSD graduation requirements. Um specifically the way like was mentioned CCR is being structured within the world and VAPA requirements. Um as you have heard uh we support um the improvement of the CCR uh requirements. Um that matters for our students. It matters for
085our students, community, and for our district is and also represented in our California dashboard. By the way, this was uh this proposal is designed, it raises concerns amongst the VAPA teachers both at Bellflower and Mayfair. It basically uh unintentionally creates a system where we're all competing. Um, as a result, many students will graduate high school to discover that they must take a VAPA course at a community college to meet a CSU and a UC admissions requirements. There is a more balanced path forward. We can keep the C uh the threeear three-year CCR goal but the CCR should stand on its own as a category. At the time we should remain clear uh standalone requirement of at least one year of VAPA and one year of world language like Downey High School or Downey District. This
086approach does two things. It strengthens our CCR outcome while also protecting equitable access to a well-rounded education, one that includes the arts. Because at the end of the day, this isn't just about the minimum requirement on paper. It's about what we value for every student who walks through our doors. Our belief is simple. Every student that graduates from BUSD should experience at least one year of AVAPA as part of their high school experience, not as an option buried in another requirement, but as a commitment to make to their education. We as a VAPA uh um group, we have come with solutions, not just a complaint. So, thank you for your time and vap from bothflower and Mayfair. Miss Gutierrez, did you want to turn in your recommendations to one of please? Thank you. Um, can
087we please have uh Melissa M I'm not sure if I'm going to say this correctly. M Kachchan. Thank you. Um, sorry. No. Good evening board member um President Garza um and esteemed um board members um Dr. Simon, our superintendent and our um personnel and our amazing community. As you can see, we all came out for a reason and our president um BTA president um John Young has already spoken to it. I just wanted to again emphasize we have these new buttons and our buttons say um there's two of them student first. Our working conditions are our students learning conditions and the other one it comes directly from what we're seeing on our um coming from um Dr. Simon and B USD is every voice valued. Um and that's what we want. We the BTA bargaining
088has come prepared now for over a year wanting to get this current um bargaining process completed because we're already it's time for the next one. So we just want on the like in May at the end of May as was um requested please come with salary because some of us not when we do not have um clarity it creates unnecessary stress and our teachers in BC we are truly this button students first we are working hard um and we just don't need the stress we need to just move on get this you know kind of um put it bed so we can move on. The other thing that's been brought up is um in bargaining that we found out is that the USD administration would like to increase our Wednesday um PDS. So to um
089we right now have 12 um Wednesdays that are taken up with necessary PDS and the request from BD has been to add three more. So now it's going to um be 12 + 3 15. Currently, not all our sites are even using the 12 that are that the B USD is has available. They're only using 10. So instead of taking an additional three days away from our teachers, that's such a valuable planning time. It's collaboration time. Um use what we currently have. Use our 12 days. Um we are there's the um we heard that it was for data um uh collection and data analysis. We are having a lot of that happening already on our Tuesdays um um PLC's as well as the Wednesday the 12 Wednesdays that BSD has available. So please we ask
090um that you consider not taking away additional planning time as an elementary teacher. I'm work at TJ. We really don't have enough. We're um that that time is sacrificed a lot. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you Miss McCutchen. Could we please have uh Laya Brands come up? >> Did I say that correctly? Last name. >> Laya Brandis. >> Brandis. Sorry about that. >> Good evening. My name is Llaya Brandes. I am a former student um of Steven Foster. I promoted last year. I had the honor to be here to be there during Miss Jackson's first year. She is an amazing uh assistant principal. She's like a best friend to everybody at school. From everybody I've ever heard talked talk about her at school. It's always been positive things saying how she's worked hard
091to do anything and everything for everyone. She is always there for kids who need support and brings kids together. Every Every time I see her, she greets me with the biggest hug. She has the brightest personality and brings so much fun energy to the school. She always finds a fun way to greet students when coming into school to enlighten their morning. She means a lot to a lot of people. It would be devastating to see her go. This would be like losing a best friend. The constant change of staff was very hard on me when I went to Steven Foster. I would grow bonds with staff. then one day they would be gone. It's hard to see staff leave, especially after they make strong bonds with students. Please reconsider your decision. Thank you for your
092time. Have a good evening. Thank you, Miss Brandice. Um could we please have about a five minute recess? We'll come back at um 8:08. Thank you. Thank you for your patience everyone. We will now reconvene the meeting at 8:17. We're on to discussion items. We have two discussion items this evening. We'll begin with item 10.1, high school graduation requirements. Dr. Simon. >> Thank you, President Garz. I'm now going to hand it over to our assistant superintendent of educational services, Mrs. Bonnie Carter. >> Thank you, Dr. Simon. This evening, our director of secondary will be sharing information regarding proposed graduation requirement updates with the addition of new state mandates, specifically ethnic studies and personal finance. It's necessary for us to review our current requirements and revise them to ensure that our students are graduating competitive for
093college enrollment with students in surrounding districts and have career skills postgraduation. We have already begun the dialogue with advisory groups, admin counselors, teachers, and students and will continue to collect feedback over the next couple of weeks. Tonight, Mr. Castanada will share the information that has been presented to our educational partners and provide information regarding the initial feedback that we are receiving from these groups. Mr. Castanada. Good evening, board president Garza, members of the board, Superintendent Dr. Simon, cabinet members, and community. It gives me great pleasure to be here this evening to share proposed updates to our Belfflower Unified School District graduation requirements. These changes are designed to better prepare students for opportunities beyond high school, aligning with college entrance and workforce needs to help them qualify for college and career opportunities. These updates also include
094additional requirements that are on the horizon for students. By adapting these requirements, we ensure that every graduate is not just finishing high school, but instead stepping into the world equipped with the skills and confidence they need to succeed. Every student should graduate from high school not just with a diploma, but also ready to be globally competitive. This requires aligning our curriculum with college expectations and workforce demands to prepare confident students for life after high school, making them future ready. Emphasizing STEM subjects and real world career pathways is crucial for equipping students with essential skills. These updates aim to create a strong educational framework for graduate success. Our purpose in updating the requirements are to strengthen student pathways to academic and career success. By doing so, we expect to increase A throughG rates so that students
095meet California University admission qualifications as well as expand AP, CTE, and dual enrollment, positively impacting our college and career indicator on the dashboard and ultimately providing students with greater access and opportunities. The data show that we have a strong graduation rate for students. However, the rate at which seniors graduate a graduate A throughG ready or complete a CTE pathway is lower than we would like. These proposed changes are designed to focus not only on graduating students but on better preparing students for life after graduation. To measure the impact of these efforts, the college and career indicator will allow us to determine whether students are meeting established college and career readiness benchmarks, including A throughG completion, CTE pathway completion, dual enrollment, and other indicators tied to post-secary access and success. These updates are intended to close
096the gap between graduation and college and career readiness by increasing access to and participation in aligned coursework by engaging students in more relevant purposeful learning experiences connected to their future goals. The expectation is that this will not only strengthen readiness outcomes but also support continued student engagement and persistence through graduation. This slide compares the state graduation requirements with CSU and UC requirements which impacted the suggested updates to our graduation requirements. This slide shows the current requirements in comparison to the proposed updates and the outcome or reason for the proposal. Current math and science requirements include a two-year path with one additional year of math or science. The proposal is to require three years of math and science requiring the IM1 and IM2 sequence but allowing for choice in the third year as is similar in
097science requiring bio and chem while the third year would be up to the student to choose. These requirements will help make our students more competitive with other students enrolling in college. Although there is flexibility in the additional math course students can take, our counseling team will ensure that our students are aware that if they would like to attend a UC or CSU, they will need to complete IM3. It has been a practice at both BHS and MHS to schedule students for a third year of math and science in 11th grade and either an additional year of math or science in 12th grade. Essentially, the proposed changes codify our current practices. Current social science requirements include a full year of government and a semester of geography, pushing our social science requirement to four years. The proposal
098is to reduce the requirement to three years of social science in alignment with state graduation requirements and most school districts. Integrating health into the science curriculum will enhance realworld connections and open up the schedule for students to have access to more elective choices. and a mandatory college and career readiness requirement will include options like AP, dual enrollment, or CTE, ensuring students graduate with a solid academic foundation and or industry certifications to allow for students who may not be interested in advanced coursework. Included in this requirement is the ability to take other A throughG courses to meet this requirement of which the vast majority of our course offerings are A throughG approved including visual and performing arts, world languages, CTE, AVID, and other electives. This allows for choices like a second and third year in one
099of those passion subject areas and further impacts college and career readiness. Since introducing the proposed graduation requirements uh updates, we have gathered feedback from a range of stakeholder groups including site leadership teams, counselors, administrators, students, and families. Overall, there is strong alignment around the direction of this work. stakeholders highlighted strengths such as the increased rigor, stronger alignment to A throughG and college and career readiness expectations and the inclusion of more relevant real world learning opportunities for students. At the same time, stakeholders identified areas for refinement. These primarily center around the need for greater clarity, particularly in how in how requirements are structured, how courses are sequenced, and how students and families will understand and navigate these changes. In terms of potential challenges, the most common themes include master scheduling complexities, ensuring balanced course offerings across
100semesters to ensure students are scheduled properly, and considerations around staffing and implementation at the site level. Staff also emphasized the importance of having adequate time to develop courses, align the curriculum, and prepare for implementation to ensure a smooth roll out and avoid placing that work on teachers while simultaneously launching new courses. Additionally, questions have been raised about how health will continue to be meaningfully included in the curriculum. This underscores the importance of bringing teachers together next year to identify essential health standards and review the science standards to determine where natural alignments exist, ensuring that key topics are addressed in a comprehensive and intentional way through thoughtful integration and course design. As we move forward, we are continuing to gather additional feedback. We are still awaiting input from our broader teacher groups and student groups, which
101we expect to receive in the coming weeks. and that feedback will continue to inform our next steps. In this slide, we compare local high school graduation requirements across districts. Key points include that most districts require three years of math to align with state standards for college and career readiness. Long Beach is considering changing its requirement of four years of math to three. In the area of social science, the proposed updates bring the requirement into alignment with state graduation expectations while also ensuring consistency with surrounding school districts. When looking specifically at world language and visual and performing arts, there is more variation across local districts. The state requires one year of world language, visual and performing art, or career technical education. And that was kept in mind as a proposal was developed. Building from that foundation,
102the proposed college and career readiness requirement expands opportunities by calling for a total of three years of coursework. One of those years must be in world language, visual and performing arts or CTE, while the remaining two years can be fulfilled through additional A throughG courses, AP, CTE, or dual enrollment courses. These proposed changes are for all students. Students who are English learners and students with disabilities will continue to have access to a wide range of elective options including CTE, visual arts, and performing arts just as they do now. These courses are all A throughG approved and continue to support both graduation and college eligibility. The inclusion of college and career readiness is intentional as it reflects the district's focus on strengthening pathways for students to achieve both academic and career success. Updating the requirements supports
103graduate success. However, does it fit in their schedule? This slide shows how these requirements may fit into the A period schedule that we currently use at the high schools. It also notes the total amount of periods students are required to take depending on their grade level as students are required to take the minimum course load but have the opportunity to take eight classes. The A period schedule also provides flexibility for students who need additional support, allowing them to complete graduation requirements while receiving intervention through support courses and credit recovery opportunities during the school day. This schedule meets state requirements and aligns with college and career readiness standards, ensuring students can customize their education, including ELD support if needed, based on a sixth period day. All requirements are able to be completed in four years on
104a six- period schedule. However, there is potential for competition between electives and programs, and the timing of some classes may be delayed until later years when the student has more openings to take electives. To support implementation, an FAQ section for the school websites has been developed to address questions that students or parents may have regarding how the change impacts them or their child. The goal was to phase in the requirements beginning with next year's 9th grade students to ensure no student has their graduation plan disrupted. However, based on feedback from staff regarding the need for adequate time to develop and refine courses, address logistical considerations, and ensure clear communication, an adjusted timeline would allow for a more thoughtful implementation. This would result in phasing in requirements with the incoming 9th grade class in the 2728
105school year. Next year, teacher teams and the director of secondary will need to work together to develop courses that integrate health standards into science or other pertinent subjects. update social science courses to include geography and condense government from a one-year course to a semester and build the financial literacy courses. The FAQ also shares that even though a student may not be planning to attend college after high school, the changes being proposed will help students with the technical skills they will need to be competitive in the workforce workforce. Overall, the proposed changes will help ensure that our students are graduating with a competitive edge, have access to opportunities and programs, can take highlevel coursework that may result in college credit or industry certifications, and have more elective choices. Here's the path we are taking to engage
106our educational partners so that the board policy and administrative regulation we present to the board are informed by a variety of stakeholders. We started with administrators, counselors, and teacher leaders to leverage their insights. Then educational partners and advisory groups, specifically our DAG, PAC, DAC, and superintendent student advisory had an opportunity to share their perspectives. As mentioned earlier, we are still awaiting input from our broader teacher groups and student groups, which we expect to receive in the coming weeks, and that feedback will continue to inform our next steps. There will be a policy and admin regulation review on May 15th and board approval is targeted for June. And over the summer, any updates to the course matrix will be made. This timeline underscores our commitment to inclusivity and the effective implementation of changes. These changes help
107us to empower students by building a strong educational foundation that prepares them to be future ready. Thank you so much for that great presentation. Any questions, comments? I have a few. First off, what is this? Did someone else put this on or what is this paper? >> Oh, that came from the teachers. Oh, okay. Okay. Um, I'm going to start with a few. Um, first you said that you talked with or you guys were doing a broader reach for our teachers and you said you talked to some of our teacher leaders. Who were the teacher leaders and where did they come from? >> So, Belflower Mayfair High School, both of their depart school leadership teams which are made up of their uh department chairs at each of their sites for each of the departments, both
108middle school and high school uh as well as counselors um and any other key leaders that are on the instructional on the school leadership team. Both schools sometimes have other individuals that are part of those teams like community schools individuals or other uh partners. >> Okay, so they came from the leadership teams. Do the teachers choose those teams or do the admins choose those teams? >> Uh teachers have the ability to uh apply for department chair status and they submit applications at the end of every year. Uh they submit an application and u the administration reviews uh the applications and then if there's more than one person I believe that there's some type of ballot. That part I'm unclear but I don't think we've at least in my experience there hasn't been more than one
109individual. Uh but most of the time it's one individual who applies for the pos for the department chair position. >> So admin picks them. >> Uh I believe so. Yeah. >> Thank you. Okay. Um I guess I was in favor of a lot of the things that I'm seeing. Obviously health was my concern. My biggest question was are graduation rates are very high. Are they going to go down? Can you talk a little bit to that? I was told that some of the science courses would be kind of more like an elective, maybe like a marine biology or things like that. But that was my biggest concern in our our first meeting talking about this. Can you talk about that? >> Sure. Um this if anything should enhance graduation uh rates. Um I the the
110purpose of the graduation the updates in the graduation requirement is really to bridge the gap between the A throughG completion rate and the CTE completion rate. I think you know there's clearly a large gap between our graduation rate and those other rates and we want to ensure that our students are truly competitive that they're college ready that they're career ready. Uh and so ultimately these requirements do help bridge that gap. I think additionally it if anything it ends up enhancing graduation rates because then students will connect they will engage with certain uh passion subject areas or career pathways that maybe originally they would have not uh intended to take and so essentially it should uh also increase and uh their at least their persistence but also increase our graduation rate. >> I have a bunch
111and I see lights on too. I'm going to maybe ask one more and then move on or do you want to round robin? How do you want? Cuz I have a lot. >> She's asking a lot of questions. >> Okay. So, I guess my next question is if you could explain just the biggest differences between the requirements and because we're hearing from a lot of teachers and just the biggest obviously the health and the VAPA and putting them together. Can you explain the biggest differences between the two current versus what we're looking at? So I think one of the biggest uh changes is is social science. One of them currently we require a full year of government which pushes our um our graduation requirement for social science to four years. So right now it's a
112full year of US history, a full year of world history, a full year of government, a semester of econ, and a semester of geography. Um and so uh the traditional model in a senior year is for a semester of government and a semester of econ. Um so currently we go beyond that. um geography was embedded into the world history um and US history standards uh several years ago and so that course has remained as one of our requirements but technically the world history it's world history and geography US history and geography and so those are areas where those standards have been embedded uh but we have continued to uh keep the geography requirement uh in terms of math uh it uh one of the changes or updates would be requiring a third year of math.
113But as mentioned, u it's been a practice similar for science. It's also requiring a third year of science, but it's been a practice to schedule our students into an additional year of math and science in the 11th grade. Um for a very long-standing practice, uh so counselors have always uh added a student into those courses in the 11th grade. This would be formalizing codifying that requirement to require students to take a third year of math and to take a third year of uh of science. Um and then the other change is um is the health is reducing uh the health requirement embedding those standards into science courses. And then lastly the um the incorporation or the addition of uh the college and career uh readiness requirement. And so that is an effort to really highlight
114and focus on uh ensuring that students are prepared for life after high school and that they uh take CTE pathways that they take dual enrollment opportunities that they take AP courses so that way they challenge themselves. Um essentially uh right now our requirements um allow for students to take 50 uh electives and it's just a big open bucket. And so essentially the college and career readiness requirement is categorizing uh an opportunity for students to take courses in that area that meet that requirement. And so we highlighted obviously the courses that would meet that which are again a throughg prep electives and all those that I listed. >> So for social science, do we anticipate then them not taking government and econ or what are the two classes those will be eliminated? >> So no uh
115>> sorry you shook your head. >> Sorry. No. Um >> what classes would be eliminated if they've been taking four and they're going to three? What are the two classes that we typically we would see eliminated? >> Uh geography would be uh the course uh which is currently taken in nth grade and then uh government would be reduced from one full year to a semester. So which is the traditional senior model. You want me to keep going? Um health that one's a big one for me as well. There's a lot of different standards. We've gotten a lot of emails tonight. I actually printed some of the emails out, but I'm just I'll be honest. Until you can show me where you're going to plug in all of these different things into bio, I have a
116problem with it. So just when you I know it's a discussion so we're just discussing it but please when you come back I need you to show me where the vaping where all of those different components are going to fit into bio cuz we've all taken bio and I don't see how that all works together. So I need that from you guys to understand because health is very important. Do you guys want to speak onto that a little bit or where you guys plan on chunking in all of these different >> uh well parts? First off, I think that's uh some of the work that will need to happen next school year. I think bringing to teachers together to identify uh to review obviously both standards, health standards, biology standards and ensure that those are
117integrated meaningfully to see where there are um you know connections so that way those are uh integrated. Um but a lot of that will have to happen next school year when they come together to do that work to ensure that it's being uh that all of those essential topics are being addressed. >> Okay. Because yeah, I'm looking at, you know, emotional intelligence, managing difficult emotions. How does that go with bio? Stress management, mental illness awareness, suicide prevention, vaping, drugs, alcohol, steroids. There's a lot. And I know some of it, I'm a PE teacher. I get we might be able to put some of that into PE, but I really want to see where all of these standards are going to fit as far as PE bio or where we're going to put it. Um, one
118more quick question and then I'll I'll let them please ask. And then financial literacy, where is that going to fit in? >> So financial literacy right now, uh there's two subject areas where that can uh where that can go. Um that would be uh in math and also social science. So, um they right now currently both schools offer business math and that's a course that really could be um made more robust. And so this is an opportunity for us to look at financial literacy uh to be able to uh create a new updated course that meets all the updated standards that are in that financial literacy or personal finance model curriculum. Uh so that will be an area and then the other area would be in social science. So students are able to be exempted
119from taking economics if they take the semester of uh personal finance or financial literacy. And so that'll be an opportunity for students to also take that course there. >> And one more really quickly, can you explain um something that I honestly didn't recognize and I've heard a lot from, you know, our community tonight is the combination of CTE, VAPA, the dual or the duel in the foreign languages. Can you explain a little bit more about that? >> Sure. So, I think um if anything, we're enhancing it. It's providing opportunity for students to take additional visual and performing arts or CTE or world language. So, the requirement calls for three years of of uh in that college and career career readiness requirement, but one year must be in world language, visual and performing art or CTE,
120which is basically the the same as the requirement that we currently have. And so we did call that out within the college and career readiness requirement that students would still need to take that. Um and so that second and third year essentially would allow students to take a second or third year of CTE or of visual and performing arts because we we know that we have plenty of students who take sometimes four years of band or four years of choir you or different uh or art. And so it really provides that opportunity to do that. But I think with emphasizing and for students to see that those courses are are gearing them to be college and career ready. >> So if I am in band, I can take four years of band and I can
121still do and complete a pathway in CTE. >> Technically, yes. Yeah. >> Okay. >> Students have the ability to they still have their elective uh bucket that I was talking about earlier. So they still would have 40 other elective credits that they can take. And so they have the ability to take all of those other courses as well. And >> just playing devil's advocate, this all sounds so amazing. Why are so many people frustrated and coming and talking about all of this being lumped together? What do you think their concerns are? If you could answer that. >> Yeah, I think part of the concerns is clarity. I think this is the first time that we share uh I think this in a public venue. We've obviously gone out to speak to the um to the
122different groups and so you know, individuals are talking. I think it's good that we're we're talking, we're engaging in this dialogue, and that we're getting this feedback. And so, I think a lot of the information that was shared today, especially by our visual and performing art teachers, you know, it's a lot of great feedback that we can incorporate into, you know, what the what the ultimately what the update will, uh, look like. And so, um, I think that's mainly the reason why I think it's provide it's it is creating the opportunity for us to talk about and we haven't talked about graduation requirements as a district in a in a while. We've always talked about, you know, why do we have a full year of government? Why do we still have geography? And so, this
123is really the opportunity to engage in that conversation and to really ensure that uh we're preparing students for for life after high school. >> Thank you. Um, I just have one one question and you probably answered, but I still want to hear it. What was lacking before? And I know I have all the papers, but just in your mind, what what needed to be fixed? So, why are why aren't these changes happening anyway? >> Well, I think there's long been, you know, a desire, I think, to require a pathway for students to complete. I think it's things like requiring students to be a throughg ready, requirements for students to complete a pathway. However, this creates flexibility instead of uh requiring uh one specific pathway. Uh this allows for flexibility for students who are on different
124pathways. And so if a student decides to be on a dual enrollment or AP pathway, they have that ability to do that. If they want to complete a CTE pathway, they also have the ability to do that. or if uh they just want to continue just taking the minimum entrance requirements just to be eligible for college, then they also have the ability to do that. And so I think that's really what was missing. Additionally, we also had the additional requirements that sometimes put us in challenges. Uh you know, I as we were going around, I kept talking about um government, for example, when a student uh transfers into our schools in the senior year. um you know uh and especially if they come in midway during senior year and if a student uh attended a
125school district uh that obviously had the traditional model and did not take government in the first semester then they would technically be credit deficient um when they enroll with us. And so uh then we had to figure out how to support that student. And so the updated requirements would put us in alignment. Uh so that way students are taking uh the the the aligned state requirements. Um okay. I'm I'm I'm going to have to study some more. That's that's all. First time getting all this information. Um, I mean I I I had five children graduate no problem. And again, having and it it does seem kind of rash to have everything like the world language and the visual and perform performing arts all in one category. You know, why is it why can it not
126be split? and and health. I I remember when we um adopted that mandated state curriculum or whatever. I mean the you know we had to we had to do it. >> You know I'm afraid it's going to get lost. Um like we need to have it like defined >> especially you know you know if we were to ever get audit well where is health? Oh it's in biology. you know, is the is the syllabus going to reflect that? It would be so much easier if it was just kept separate. And again, if if the children have the options of what is it called electives? I mean, shouldn't I mean, I'm just I'm just thinking I'm I'm trying. I'm trying. >> Yeah. >> I'm just saying it I'll I'll look at it more. We all will.
127The other um feedback that came if require if um if health were to be removed as a requirement could it still be offered as an elective choice and that is also a viable opportunity. Students can sign up and register for the course that is something that they can still elect to do. Um we're looking at allowing that to to still continue. So if students want to take health and they totally can. I think the other area that we could potentially, you know, look at in growing is, you know, to just some of the areas that have been addressed in terms of uh mental health and things of that nature. Um, you know, there's currently at one school there's a counseling mental health uh pathway that is under it's a CTE pathway. It's under the medical
128sector. And so that's an area that we could potentially expand um in our schools and that could be a course and a pathway that we could expand there. Uh but again, I think that the timing um allowing the time to be able to work out those uh iron out those details and be able to get teachers together to develop uh the courses to integrate the standards and uh build the curriculum is going to be important. >> Okay. Um Okay. Because I I mean I I went to school and everything and biology was different than health. That's all I'm just trying, you know, I'm being simple, but it's the it's the truth. But I guess we're trying. I don't know what we're trying to do. We're trying to get better. >> We're trying >> always. We
129are trying to get better. >> Okay. We We just got We We have work to do. That's all. >> Thank you for the presentation, all the information. Um couple questions. Uh I know with the financial literacy, I believe the state was going to create a curriculum where we could adopt our own. Which are we doing? So, we're uh we're still waiting for that model curriculum to be finalized, which should be by May, the end of May. Um, and so, as soon as we have that uh model curriculum in the standards, then we will be able to proceed with the the next steps for that. So, next school year will be the year that the courses will be built. >> How does that work? When they give us a model curriculum, do we like add our
130own like flavor on top, see where take it? Yeah, usually what it is, it's guidelines to on on what the course should um basically contain. Uh so what are the elements that the course should cover, what units, all all of those elements and then uh teachers just thinking back to the ethnic studies requirement, there was an ethnic studies model curriculum that was published. We utilized that with the teachers who then developed the courses and the course outlines. Um what we ended up doing in that situation, we modeled courses that were already established and then uh adapted them to meet our needs. Uh a similar process can be done next school year for personal finance. >> Okay, great. Uh, and uh, what board member Steuart said, like I'm I'm really big on on health and I'll
131be honest, like the figuring out next year how it fits together with everything seems like kind of trying to build the uh, plane on the way down. I'm I'm not too comfortable with that. So, I mean, if we can get more details on how we're actually going to do it because I don't want a full year going by while we're kind of like, you know, playing with it. So I think there needs to be more planning ahead of time for that >> and I think that feedback clearly has come through and I think that that's the reason why I think if we were to hold off for a year for a year to be able to do that work iron out those details bring the bring teachers and staff together to work those things out
132and then implement with the 9th grade class of that starts in 2728 that allows us for time to be able to transition and address those questions and and concerns. >> Awesome. uh and uh when it comes to aligning courses with uh our our partners in Cal Apps, uh what kind of collaboration is happening there to make sure that we're the offerings are there and everything's smooth? >> Are you talking about just CTE courses in general or what's uh happening after school? >> Is our our Calabs partners a part of uh this conversation collaboration as we kind of change requirements and what what we need from them? So uh there informally we I meet with uh Mrs. Whitney uh our Kellap CEO about just require about CTE programming. Uh and so we do meet about uh
133what that looks like between BUSD and Kellaps and how we support each other the afterchool offerings and what we offer during the school day. Um and so ultimately anything that's going to enhance CTE enrollment you know that's something that we want. Um, and this essentially does uh this helps uh do that with the college and career readiness requirement. Ultimately, what we've also discovered um with uh just in in terms of the conversations that we have we've had with counselors is that students are taking CTE classes but they still see the CTE classes as just electives. And so what is happening is there's a lot of students that are just taking one core like the first level course but then don't complete the path pathway. And so what we're trying to do by calling out this
134college and career readiness requirement is ensuring that students do complete a two-year pathway um and that counselors also shift their conversations while they're programming to allow uh to have that conversation. So if a student already took four level one courses, hey maybe one of those four level one courses you can complete a pathway. Which one did we like? Or maybe there should be a different pathway that we pursue. And so I think a lot of this, you know, to the to the question is are we trying to get better? I think it's to improve uh complete CTE completion rates essentially to also help students in, you know, get them back on track for A throughG and to be able to to be able to complete those requirements ultimately so that they can graduate with options
135to be able to make a decision at the end of their senior year. So that way, whether it's for them to enter the workforce, to enter a career uh program at Cerritos or some other trade program, or to go to a 4-year university, uh we want them essentially to have options. >> Great. Thank you. And thank you again for the presentation. >> You sure you don't want to go? >> Oh, my bad. >> Okay. So my first question would have been how long y'all were going to talk about it, but I heard 27 28. So that eases my worries because I thought it was going to be 26 27 and I'm thinking three months is not a lot of not a lot of time for us to >> to talk about such a big change
136like this. So I'm going skip that one. >> Um my first question is when it comes to the uh college and career uh readiness like new path, what do we want to emphasize with that? Because I'm thinking whether we want to emphasize specific pathways which I feel might put a little bit of bias towards certain pathways or do we want to emphasize more broad like soft skills that are going to be applicable regardless of whatever pathway a student chooses. >> I think the intention is to be broad for for that requirement specifically because uh and that's the reason why I think it's the opportunity for students to really to take any one of those courses. But I think with us underscoring that college and career readiness is a district focus. We want to ensure that
137students are ready with these skills after they leave our our schools especially as we're doing the work with learner profile and what you know students should have uh leaving our schools. Um but I think as you said uh you know we want to ensure that we're not steering students into one specific pathway because the reality is we have students who have multiple pathways. We also have our ESN students who uh have the potential to do an alt diploma pathway. And so um you know we want to ensure that everybody really has an opportunity. And so the college and career readiness requirement allows for that flexibility for students to either take visual and performing arts to take the the courses that meet their A3G requirements or the courses that allow them to complete a CTE pathway.
138Um and assuming that um the wait let me see assuming we don't get rid of health or doesn't or that part doesn't get implemented and we keep it separate. Um I think it would be best to and granted this from personal experience. I think it would be best to keep health as something you could do in the summer. I don't know how bellflower does. I don't know if Somerset does it, but Mayfair when I was a freshman, we had health uh for summer school because I did APGO and I couldn't do health during the semester. So, we had that uh that option to kind of get it out of the way. And I think that that's an important thing to have especially for AP students because I know I mentioned it at the student advisory
139council meeting and you said that we got rid of it in order to because there's space in the year. Excuse me. But I think keeping it as a summer class, just that condensed period gives that space that you're already looking for um after that class is over because >> um one thing I've noticed or not I've noticed but like I've seen um APGO students or students that took APGO have to go back and take health and it feels to me that they're being held back when they have they could have that space open for other classes. >> Got it. And so um I think what uh what Chibi is explaining is so um students back when we were not on an AP period schedule students had the ability to take health during the summer for
140original credit because there was no room during the six during the sixth period schedule especially if they took AP human geography during their freshman year. And so, uh, students would then have, uh, would have to take the course during the summer, uh, if not take it during their senior year, which then took up a space during their senior year to be able to take other courses. And that's under the sixth period schedule. So, when we moved to the A period schedule, there was more opportunities for students to take additional classes. And so, uh, health then stopped to being offered during summer school because now essentially we were offering health during the summer because students didn't have space in their schedule during the year. And so now that students had the ability to take health during
141the school year uh because of the a period schedule, that's the reason why it was no longer offered during summer school. But that could be something that could be revisited uh, you know, in terms of future programming for summer. And then same with econ if that's also a thing because I think I would it'd be nice to get that out of the way as well so I have more space in senior year. Um what else? What else? I have a few things here. Where's Oh, when it comes to the additional year of math, what type of math changes are you proposing? Because I heard about the the beefing up business math thing and I think that's very important especially like to change it to personal finance because that's something that would help in the long
142run. So what type of what type of change are you proposing other than that? >> So presently there's a lot of uh advanced there's some advanced and college prep math courses in our high schools. So um you know different at both high schools uh they offer um computer science. Uh there's also statistics and then there's also all of the advanced coursework. So like AP calculus, AP pre-calculus, uh math analysis and so there's a a host of uh third-year elective options. I think the area that we also need to uh look at and so that's uh I called that out briefly in the presentation is work needs to be done also with teachers and developing um additional third-year math courses uh that are elective math courses and so you know there has been uh conversations about
143creating courses that are aligned to career pathways um that way uh essentially students are are prepared for some of those advanced technical uh CTE path pathways and so that's an opportunity for us to create those courses so students can take them in the third as a third year or as a fourth year because they can always take them as well during their senior year. >> Um and then in terms of the CCR block because that's another thing I was focusing on and that's something clearly a lot of people have voiced. Um let me see. I think the main thing I want to say because when I look at the CCR block and how we dumped VAPA, we dumped foreign language and uh CT all in one uh one box, the main word that comes to
144my mind is loophole because I think there's people that are just going to have that like checkbox mindset of like, oh, let me do this class just to get out of the way. Oh, let me do this, let me do that. And even though we have um the requirement that one needs to be foreign language or VAP or CTE, I feel like just bunching them together just enforces that kind of checkbox mindset like let me do this to get out of the way versus let me do this to actually um to actually enjoy the class. So I feel that's another that I just wanted to voice my um opinion on keeping it separate like >> and I think that's val valuable feedback for us to take and and really look at that requirement and see
145you know if we split it up and what that looks like. And then yeah, that's b that's basically all I want to say because even though um I'm an AP kid myself, I've taken a bunch of APs, I've taken dual enrollment, I feel like one important thing we have to look at is um appealing to the every man because we want to we want to appeal to the moder. Obviously, there's going to be people that going to be ahead, some people going to be a few behind, but it's nice to start at that middle line and see where we can build or maybe come back to get those that need support. >> Yeah, absolutely. Do you want I'm gonna ask a few quick ones. First, financial literacy. Is that supposed to be year-long or semester?
146>> The requirement is a semester. >> So, then it sounds like we would need a lot of math classes that are semester classes because they're going to have to take that eventually. Correct. >> Yes. So the requirement is it calls for at least a semester of uh uh at least a semester of personal finance. Uh but when it comes to and so there will be a semester long electives so that students are able to take that course. However, there will potentially also be year-long offerings. So uh because uh sometimes when we've we when we create semester electives, sometimes it makes it difficult on the schedule because we have to create other semester electives to be able to match them up. And so uh that is uh one of the challenges when when we're looking at
147scheduling and the master schedule. And so uh we will have a mix. We we will also have the opportunity to build a year-long course which that's what the business math uh the current business math model is. And so we're looking at creating that uh that course as a year-long course but then also having the uh semester course so that way students who just want to take the requirement uh have the ability to complete that requirement within the semester. ethnic study, will that be year-long or semester? >> Uh, so currently we have both options and so uh the only ones that are being offered presently though are the year-long offerings uh because the semester course was uh being built still and so that course has since been approved by uh the A throughG the UC uh
148course management portal and so teachers this year were developing the curriculum for that semester elective. And so, uh, currently we offer a year-long of English 10 ethnic studies, a year-long, uh, US history ethnic studies. Um, there's the year-long AP African-American studies course, uh, which counts as, uh, ethnic studies, and then the, uh, semester course, which is the foundations of ethnic studies. And so, similarly, uh, we created a semester course since the requirement calls for a semester of ethnic studies. And so, uh, that way for students who may not necessarily want, uh, who may not want to take a full year of English 10 or US history, they have the ability to take the semester long course and meet the requirement. >> Thank you. >> Um, thank you so much for your presentation and answering all
149the questions so far. I know this is rather lengthy. Um, but I do have a few questions myself just to kind of wrap my head around everything because this is the first time where we see everything all put together to understand it better. Um, so understanding that this bucket is going to grow a opportunity for students to be able to choose and pick and um, and I think that's great. But I could also see the difficulties for students to be a and counselors for the amount of students that they have to do this with how difficult this might actually be in the long run. So I know this is our first discussion. I don't expect to have all the answers right now. >> Um so let me just get to a couple of my questions.
150Um so keeping in mind this transition, this cha this possible change and things like that, um what supports will be in place to ensure that all students, especially our English learners, our students with disabilities, and those that already need additional supports um can successfully meet the increased math, science, and college career readiness requirements. experiments. Could you have you all have been discussing that or has that been in the mix? Has or is that something that still needs to be addressed? Because I I would hate we're always talking about our high achievers. Um, and a and you know, my hat tips to to those overachievers and loving life and loving school and and all these things, right? But when it comes to the kids that need support already with the challenges, our students with disabilities and
151our English learners, there's gaps already that we've seen. How are we going to address that knowing that these are going to affect them as well? >> So, um, currently, uh, just as mentioned, the practice, we're not deviating from the practice. So, our English learners, um, you know, our students with disabilities, they've all been they have all been scheduled into a third year of math and science. And so, uh, right now our juniors are taking, um, so they take their math and science in fresh their ninth grade year, their 10th grade year, and they're also taking, uh, those courses in the 11th grade year. And then they also take either a year uh, an additional math or science in their senior year currently. And so this requirement really again is formalizing that practice um because we're
152uh calling out and requiring now the third year of math and the third year of science. So it's essentially uh those students are already taking those courses um in our uh with our students with disabilities depending on the pathway that they're taking. specifically uh are students uh who are receiving um SAI. Those students right now take uh like their IM1 over two years and so that uh they take it over their ninth and tth grade. They also take IM2 and so they're able to take those courses and then they also take they have the ability to take additional math if that's what they do. And a lot of at both schools they take business math as an option. And so that going back to that's been the practice. And so this requirement really is formalizing
153that practice. Um with regard and that that speaks that's the same for our English learners. Our English learners are also scheduled similarly uh with the 9th 10th grade and in the 11th grade they take math and science and their senior year they take either math or science. Um when it comes to supports really the uh new bell schedule that the schools are oper operating on currently allows them the opportunity to have the support classes that they require. So the EL uh course and still be able to complete uh all of the um other opportunities that they can take part in like visual and performing arts, CTE and any other uh electives. Um and so as mentioned uh if we if on a sixth period students do have the ability to do that as well. However,
154the the the uh the schedule really creates competition and students will have uh less opportunities to take those additional support courses, but currently they're able to take those courses and credit recovery as well as uh additional support during the day. Uh and so we're looking at continuing that practice as well. So, is it up to the the counselor to inform the student that the support is there or is this something that the students are is this already solidified and what we have currently? So, if we're thinking of solidifying these new changes, are we going to solidify the supports that go along with these changes is what I'm asking essentially. >> So, schools are doing a lot of work with identifying students for interventions that they may need. So whether that's math, uh our ELD students
155have an ELD course that they take during uh the school day and so those students are required to take those courses and so those students are already identified for anybody who needs additional support. So like our students who maybe need additional support in math uh for example they are identified at the site this year. uh one of the sites uh at Mayfair they developed a pilot during the second semester to provide math support and so uh they identified students who needed additional math support and so they were able to embed that course uh in their schedule during uh the school day. They're looking at embedding and continuing that practice next year by identifying student students who need the additional support and including that course in their schedule for next school year. And so it allows
156them to be able to get that that help uh and address the needs that they have. Okay, thank you. Um, I think also, you know, we're talking about all these changes and then we're trying to blend in, remove, make, shorten from a year to a semester and things like that, right? These courses. So, I guess have There been discussion of how we're truly measuring whether this change is going to be effective for students or not in the long term. So, we're always changing, right? We, you said it yourself, we went from six periods to eight periods, but are we going to truly improve if we're truly talking about student readiness and not just graduation rates and not just college access, career paths, and and long team um long-term success? How are we as a district
157going to measure the success of our students if we make this change again? because I just feel like and I know everybody's bombarded with data already, but I think for me when we make a change, there should be a visual way to capture if this is effective or not for our students because if it's not, we should be ready to pivot. And I feel like in other choices and other programs that we have made, we haven't been so ready. So I think understanding this is just the beginning and we still have a lot to go. Um and this won't be effective like instantaneously. I understand that. But I would hate for all of our teachers to make a change. I would hate for all these groups and people to sit and really try to iron
158out certain curriculum and how to piece together other curriculum and then to find out it's just not effective for our students and it's not effective for our teachers having to needle in or blend in other topics to what is already a in in a lot of cases a robust syllabus during the year. So how are we as a district preparing to measure when we make these changes? >> So I think uh currently I think the data as it stands speaks for itself right now in terms of just that data slide that we looked at where there's a gap uh between graduation and a throughg completion and CTE completion. And so I think that's a key metric that we will continue to monitor um you know I think to ensure that we to to ensure that
159we're meeting these metrics. I think additionally we've done a we've done a lot of uh investment in counseling practices and in counseling professional development uh to develop s systems to be able to monitor student progress and uh and if they're on target for graduation for A throughG for CT things like that. I think this uh really calls for us to be able to do that to be able to continue building those systems and monitoring to ensure that students are on track. Um as mentioned before, ideally this is the the changes are to bridge that gap between graduation rate and the A throughG or CTE and CTE completion and ideally we should see um the all of those rates really increase and rise. Um, but again it goes back to I think just being intentional programming
160with counselors, intentional conversations with counselors and then the monitoring uh uh you know monitoring and making sure that we're acting on that data uh to ensure that students are meeting those metrics. >> Thank you. I have more questions but I'm comfortable letting those go if because this is our first discussion on the topic and so I'm going to assume we're going to have more. Um, I just had one quick question. Um, where is it? Oh, actually, um, since we have or since we're trying to lower some of our year-long requirements to semester classes, how would that affect the pacing of the AP students that want to do yearlongs, especially Gov? The one I'm looking at is gov because AP gov is already a year long but we want to move back up to a semester.
161So how would that change things? >> So uh for AP gov AP courses are unique where they're able to be offered for the full year. So similarly earlier you were uh uh talking about AP human geography. So even though our requirement calls for a semester that course is a year-long course and so uh we still we offer the year-long AP human geography course. So similarly, AP government can continue to be offered for a full year so that students who are taking that course can still take it over the full year to ensure that they're successful for the AP exam. >> Yes, I get that. But how would that affect the students schedulewise? in terms of taking the full course. Yeah. >> Um essentially it well obviously the course would be they would be programmed and
162so in it actually would not change anything uh drastically from what the current practice is because students take have to take the semester of econ as well. And so they have that course that they also need to take. Uh and then eventually they will have to also you know potentially either fill that gap with um ethnic studies uh as the additional requirement if they need to take that still uh or any other courses um like the personal finance which can be embedded instead of the econ. So there's still opportunities for for students to be able to take two courses that are, you know, together. And I think that's one of the challenges with the semester courses that we always have to ensure that there's a second semester course that students can take so that way
163there aren't any gaps uh in schedules. >> Thank you, board me uh board president Garza. So for for example um we're going to do three years of math. That's what's proposed, right? So uh a kid can do a student can do um um the integrated math one and two and then we the additional math that we want to propose that would cover what? Personal finance and business math >> potentially. Those could be courses that they can take or any other new courses that do get developed and uh incorporated >> and that would be a semester >> or or a full year >> full year >> a full year of personal finance or a full year of business math. >> So we're looking at uh upgrading the business math into the personal finance. So right now
164business math is basically an older model of personal finance. So now we're looking at making that course more robust. And so you'll have you'll you'll you'll combine the two to make it a third year. >> Correct. So that would be an a third-year elective math option that's that students have the ability to take. >> Okay. And then for science that you want to put health in. So you have one year biology, one year biology, one year chemistry, >> and an additional year of science, which would be a semester of health, right? I mean, one semester of health because you want to put it in science. >> So, it would be incorporating the health standards into the year-long biology course. And that's what the current proposal is is to incorporate the elements of the health course
165and the health standards into the biology curriculum. >> Okay. I am okay. You just work with me cuz biology I biology and health y'all it was different for me. I I mean I I'm not that I'm not that old. But anyway, anyway, well, I I did good with the math, but I'm trying to I'm so I I I don't you for additional courses in science. So, students currently have multiple opportunities in science. So, they have criminalistic, forensic science, um environmental science, anatomy, honors anatomy. They also have all the suite of AP courses. So AP environmental science, AP biology, AP physics, they also have the ability to take college prep physics. So science is actually well equipped with third-year science courses. Again, going back to because it's been a practice, students have been scheduled into a
166third year of science already. And so the schools already have those courses uh created and it's being being implemented. So again, we're just formalizing that as a requirement. >> But could those courses also be an elective? >> Yes. Yes. But health is is mandatory. We we we we have to have a health class, right? >> So according to the state >> and and you and you want to integrate. I'm just I'm just trying to keep it separate. I'm just saying. But anyway, I know we got to go down that path. >> Yeah. >> So I'm just saying if those other ones I mean I just want it to be clear and defined. >> That's that's what I'm working on. >> But I'll go down that road and we'll have more discussions. Okay. and ethnic studies.
167Is that a year or a semester? >> So, currently we have both options. We have year-long courses and then we also have a semester course that will be rolling out next school year. So, currently we're offering English 10 ethnic studies, US history ethnic studies and those are both fullyear uh courses and those are currently being offered at both schools. >> Okay. So, you got you will let us know all about these courses because I want to see them. Mhm. >> So, I need I need I got a lot of eyes. I need I need visual. Okay. Thank you so much. No more questions. >> Please answer quickly to save me from my colleagues getting angry. Okay. Um I know I'm just really quickly though. Um I know you said that you plan to bring teachers
168and staff together. How do you plan to do this and will students be surveyed? uh so teachers and so in terms of like just using the approach that we did uh last year and this year. So brought teachers together who were interested in teaching the courses last year specifically it was ethnic studies. So who was interested in teaching those courses to come together and so uh one of uh the um requirements was that we needed to work together between the schools and so we actually got representatives from Mayfair from Belfower from Somerset and Los Flores. They all came met throughout the year uh looked at various courses and then uh modeled them uh first of all they looked at the model curriculum as mentioned earlier then they modeled the courses adapted them as needed to
169meet obviously our needs uh and what we wanted to cover as a school and then we submitted the courses for approval. Then this school year, uh, we brought them together back. Uh, the English 10 team, uh, English 10 ethnic studies team came, the US history ethnic studies team came, the foundation of ethnic studies team came. And so they worked, they were, uh, given time, uh, released time to be able to develop curriculum. And so we're looking at doing something similar. So for the personal finance course getting a team together from each of the schools uh to come to come together to build those courses. >> You're amazing and you're answering everything perfect but I think I have I'm not >> and then the student part >> I've not answer I know I've not asked I
170don't think it correctly. I understand the curriculum and designing it and bringing teachers that I think I'm asking more like these VAPA teachers that we're hearing from like >> or just input on what teachers think about you know the this presentation or things like that. That's what I'm asking. >> Yes. So what uh at that's actually what we're doing now. So on Monday, this past Monday, presented to the school leadership teams, so met with the department chairs and all those individuals. Then they're going back to their departments and they're having conversations about it. They're also collecting feedback from from their uh from their colleagues, the department members. And so they'll have the opportunity to also share feedback um just about the updated requirements uh strengths that we should continue to consider refinements that are needed
171challenges that are present so that we that so that way it informs our next steps uh similarly uh we'll be talking I will be talking to students so meeting with uh the student advisory groups at each site as well as the ASB cabinets at each site uh to get their input uh on that so that those focus groups and be able to again create a broader uh gather broader feedback uh to inform our next steps. >> How many students are in those groups approximately? I just want to make sure we get a lot of input on this. That's what I'm trying to basically I should just stop asking questions and say how I feel. I want a lot of input. I'd like to see a lot of teachers asked about things like this because I
172mean as a teacher I can sit here and play around with this and say I love whoever made this chart. a world language year, a visual performance arts, maybe a differentiation instead of the three, two and a half and add health for a semester. So I guess my hope is that you bring us options when you guys bring this back. Like if you hear right now that health is like maybe we're very adamant about having a semester of health, bring us an option that includes that or give us a variety and then I think get be feedback from our teachers in our community. That's what I'm hoping for if I haven't said that. Um, and I'm going to just stop there. Thank you. Anyone else? Um, I do have some questions as well. Um, so
173my first question is going to go towards uh dual immersion right now. What is the current um process or courses that are offered to dual immersion students with regards to world languages? So at the high are you talking about they're in the high school 9th through 12th grade? >> They're in the 12th. Yes, they're in high school. They've already taken the sixth, seven years of another language. >> So what is going to be done for them? >> So currently the pathway that our students are taking, they take the additional world language courses to meet the uh seal of biiteracy. So students end up taking um either their a lot of the students the students that are come in from uh ILC for dual immersion take world language during their seventh and eighth grade year and
174so they continue that pathway in high school that way they can complete the third and fourth year and so a lot of them end up taking AP Spanish. Um that allows them to complete the four-year course of study in world language which makes them eligible for the seal of biiteracy. So currently those are the courses that the students take. Um there aren't any other dual immersion courses uh specifically in the 9th and 10th grade uh in other subject areas uh because they go up to uh 8th grade. We are in the process though of having conversations. We've we've had conversations with uh the middle school um dual immersion teachers and with the staff at uh Mayfair and uh making uh the dual immersion program more robust by potentially offering dual enrollment opportunities um similar to
175other districts. And so by incorporating um uh college level Spanish course uh Spanish courses uh from Cerritos College, we've engaged in early conversations with Cerritos about offering those courses and integrating them in middle school, allowing them to be able to take those uh dual dual enual enrollment courses that would fall in line with dual immersion. >> Okay. So currently they still have to take an additional two years to meet that requirement. >> Correct. Yes. So, in order to meet the uh seal of literacy requirement, uh students need to uh complete four a four-year course of study uh in the world language. >> Okay. Um I'm glad that you spoke about the timeline because I was also in confusion confused a little bit about when this was going to take place. Um, but with that, I'm
176going to ask that we please have some detailed um, mock schedules that can be presented to the board so that we understand where are all these courses going to be embedded. I also am very curious to see how we're going to meet all these requirements. um and a little concerned, not fully concerned, but a little concerned that we were that we're going to be embedding all these courses, but maybe not having all these standards also um addressed. Uh so I think that you have a full board who needs to see that. Um so if we can get some type of like mock schedules, please as to how that could be done. >> Sure. um before I'm not sure if it'll be possible to do it before our June deadline because that's when we're going to
177be approving the uh board policy and AR. So >> I we would love to see that before then. >> Sure. >> It would be um you know gives us the ability to get a more informed >> decision. >> Absolutely. We'll work on uh developing some mock schedules. I know that was the intention behind having the one slide and obviously it's going to look different for every student because every student does different path uh you know takes different pathways but we can definitely develop you know mock schedule for dual enrollment for someone who does CTE someone who does AP and and all of those so we can definitely work on those. >> Absolutely. Thank you so much. Um and then also my other question is if we go to a you have an example here of
178an eight period schedule and a six period schedule. So I can you give me some clarity around if we go to a six period schedule would students be able to have the extra supports that they need as board member in throne was requesting? So like go ahead. >> Uh so students would still be able to have the support courses. So specifically like ELD, they would be required to take those ELD courses. So they would have to uh so they they would be a part of their schedule just like they were in the past. Um it would just uh push the ability for students to take additional courses until their later years when their schedule opens up a little bit more. So in the 11th and 12th grade. Um, so the sixth period schedule really does
179create kind of competition and just some tight tightness for students to be able to complete uh their uh their requirements and and gain additional um supports. But there's ways of addressing that uh and still being able to provide supports for students whether it's zero period, seventh period, all of those other options. >> Okay. So, I'm not going to hold you to this, but would you recommend that maybe an eighth period schedule is better fit for our students going forward if we're going to require all these courses? >> I think an alternative bell schedule that allows for opportunities for students to be able to complete uh multiple requirements without uh you know the competition to be able to create access and opportunities for students would be helpful. um that way students are able to remediate grades,
180get the additional support that they need uh within the school day. I think that is uh that's important. And then um I think a lot of my questions were answered with the questions my colleagues asked. But um one other question I do have that I think is really important as we go forward um is do we have currently the teachers on our staff to be able to give these courses? >> Yes, we absolutely have uh staffing that currently can teach these courses. And so I mean just thinking to some of the options that we're on boarding for next school year. So we're incorporating um AP cyber security as a new course at both sites. And so that is being implemented and incorporated into our CTE software and systems development pathway. And so um looking at
181what uh credentials and what strengths our teachers already have and some teachers have also um you know we're also on boarding AP seminar course at Mayfair High School uh next school year and so uh there are teachers who are able to take um or who are able to teach these courses. Additionally, I think tapping into just um you know desire the desire to teach these courses. So like with ethnic studies for example uh rather than just uh selecting someone to teach it we you know asked teachers who's interested in teaching this this course and who's willing to do the work because there's some work behind building these courses and there were people who uh stepped up to to teach the courses and so similarly for any new courses we should have uh teachers that are
182interested and there is a desire to add and create math courses and uh continue teaching the science courses that we have currently. Okay. And do we have enough of the math offerings for our students? >> Uh, we do have um we do have enough math math offerings. However, I think we could do a better job of creating additional math electives and more for um just our general college prep students and just general student population. And so that's some of the work just similar to what science currently has with anatomy, forensic science, criminalistics, and all those other science courses. uh we look to engage uh math teachers in the conversation to be able to uh develop and create those courses as well. >> Okay. And um will the um total number of course offerings on an
183academic year increase this plan? >> Uh sorry can you restate that? Will the number of um course offerings um throughout the academic year will that increase the plan that we have? So will expand it? Will it add on more? >> Are you talking about course offerings like during course registration or like um I'm trying to understand? >> So will it um add on more courses that students have to take? >> Got it. >> No, not necessarily. I think what it is is just recategorizing what students are already taking. So similarly, because students are already taking a third year of math, sometimes a fourth year of math, we're calling out and saying students are required to take three years of math. Similarly for science um and I think for the college and career readiness uh component,
184students are already taking visual and performing arts courses. They're already taking world language courses. They're already taking CTE courses. I think it's just a way for us to categorize and call out that college and career readiness is a focus area for us as a district and we want students to complete courses in that area that ensures that they are college and career ready. >> Okay. And um as far as the students being engaged in these conversations, when are they going to be introduced to this? When are we starting to have their these conversations with them? because as we're going forward um it seems like we need them now. >> So uh presently we're obviously getting feedback from students but I think the feedback is very clear that we need to have that year to be
185able to engage in conversations with uh with multiple people with teachers with staff members with uh students and be able to roll out the communication also to our families. And so, uh, that'll be the work of next school year of when counselors are meeting with students for programming and their scheduling in the spring. They will have the updated graduation requirements will be shared with them in the fall, but then that way they're prepared for those intentional conversations in the spring uh, before they register for their courses uh, next school year. >> Thank you so much for answering all our questions. Absolutely. Anyone else? Go ahead. >> Thank you, Madam President. Uh just one uh question. Uh it sounds like there with all the the planning and kind of figuring this out, having like two different
186drafts for a a sixth period and a eighth period seems like it might split your efforts. I know it's something that the the there's been conversations around. Uh I know I have my feelings uh on it. Uh I like the sixth period, but uh I think it's something that conversation maybe that should move up and we should get some clarity behind that so we can plan better for what we're going to implement. So it's just one comment to the the board and staff. I think maybe that conversation is kind of due to come up because it kind of you know it's it's always like hinted at here and there, but if we can provide some clarity, it might be easier to plan forward. >> Absolutely. Okay, I'm not seeing anyone else um with questions, so
187I'm going to move forward. Um our last discussion item is 10.2 district data progress. Dr. Simon. Thank you, President Garza. I will now hand it back over to Mrs. Bonnie Carter. Thank you. >> Good evening. Tonight I'll be sharing an update highlighting our progress on state and local metrics. Annually we follow a continuous improvement cycle which includes engaging in the LCAP review process at the district level and at the site level. Principles engage in a similar process to review and refine their school achievement and safety plans. Part of this process is to study the outcomes of metrics included within these plans and to collect educational partner input regarding impact and suggestions for improvement. A mid-year update of the LCAP outcomes was provided to the board in February and principles provided the district with their site
188midyear updates in January. This year a guiding coalition was also created to begin the work of developing a strategic plan or a framework for the future which will guide the creation creation of future LCAPS. In essence, the five-year strategic plan is the what and why of the work. Um what educational systems do we want students to experience and um why will creating these systems improve student achievement and success? And the district plan for improvement is the how and how much. What actions will we implement to achieves the achieve the aspirations of the framework and how much will we all allocate to those actions? Currently, we're finalizing our recommendations um as part of this guiding coalition and we are looking at a learner profile as well and um working on definitions of what those attributes of
189a learning profile might be. Tonight's progress will focus on outcomes related to our LCAP. This plan has three goals that focus on safe collaborative schools, college career readiness, and academic achievement, and ongoing communication with parent uh yep, with partners. This year, there was a concerted effort to increase accountability and data center conversations and decision-making by aligning the board and superintendent's goals with the goals developed for principles. These goals are a guidepost for our site leaders from which they develop site goals and evaluate their progress. The accountability system evaluating district improvement are the indicators on the California school dashboard. Based on those results, districts are identified for assistance if student groups are not achieving in two or more areas of the dashboard. This slide shows our progress in exiting this assistance over the course of the
190last four years. You can see that in 232 24 we were identified for assistance based on the outcomes of our English learners and African-American students. However, in later years, these student groups improved and are no longer included as student groups qualifying us for assistance. This means that the work that we have done to ensure that these groups are succeeding and sustaining. As currently on the California school dashboard, neither student group qualifies us for assistance. The idea that we focus on the idea that what we focus on improves can be most clearly seen in this slide showing the total schools qualifying for assistance over the last four years. In 2023, 13 of 15 schools qualified for assistance based on their progress with improving student group achievement. Um most schools were identified in the area of chronic
191absenteeism that year as it was the first year out of precoid. Um as you can see through the rest of the slide. Um focusing on these student groups at the site level um we have no students uh no schools that are in ATSI or in need of assistance as of 2026. As part of our efforts to continue and increase our data centered approach this year, we have developed a data dashboard for sites to review their individual LCAP survey results. As mentioned previously, we annually survey our educational partners to collect perception data on the impact of implementing the actions within our LCAP. In previous years, this data was provided to sites in PDF format. However, this year um we are providing sites with a dynamic dashboard where they will be able to sort data changing the
192charts included in the dashboard based on the survey audience. For example, admin, parents, community, teachers. The dashboard will also provide sites with their anecdotal uh comments. We believe this resource will be very helpful for our site administrators. The remaining slides tonight will focus on outcomes of the LCAP survey and data points that have been shared with educational partners as part of the LCAP process. Um this slide shows that um you can see that we've had quite a bit of an increase in our LCAP survey responses with over uh with 900 more respondents this year. Can you click again? There you go. Thank you. And it also includes CLA uh classified. We had over a 100 classified and over 380 certificated um responses. Our increase in this response was due to our um sharing with our
193school sites what the progress was, but really our school sites um taking the time to be able to make sure that all voices were heard in this um survey. And that is why we have the increase. The first goal of our LCAP is to provide safe collaborative learning environments. And the related principal goal is for students to attend schools that are safe, supportive, and inclusive. The state evaluates this progress through reporting on suspension, attendance, and graduation rates. You'll notice that we have increased our suspension rate. That has caused us to move from green to orange on the California school dashboard. However, our African-American and homeless student groups are no longer in the red. 33% of our sites improve their suspension rate last year. As mentioned previously, this year our goal has been to support sites
194with being more data centered. To help sites, we provided support and how to pull data from areas in order to monitor improvement or areas of need uh more throughout the year. The charts you see here highlight the progress of discipline as an example of what principles can pull. You'll notice that districtwide there are less total suspensions of current students than there were in the past and less in-house suspensions but more incidents of other means of correction. This means that sites are implementing systems to move from so from punitive responses to discipline to more tiered supports for students wherein they may engage in other means of correction such as mediation, restorative practices. Uh this pattern is repeated when we look at data based on the total student offenses as well. This slide uh shows our safe
195and orderly schools and how our LCAP data is showing that we have an increase um across all areas where we're seeing that um in the healthy kids survey slide that is not part of the LCAP survey. Uh we have a comparison between 24 and 25 and in all areas secondary elementary teachers and parents um we have seen an increase in uh the perception of feeling safe at school. Our commitment to developing tiered systems of support through PBIS or positive behavior interventions and supports is being recognized at the state level. This slide shows the awards that we've received and the the schools that have done the work to receive those awards. Another factor that impacts the school environment is student attendance. We have made a slight improvement in this area and the student groups that reported
196as red last year are no longer reported as red based on the 25 dashboard results. You notice that we did move from yellow to orange as we did not improve enough to uh maintain at a yellow. However, overall 53% of our sites improve from last year and the ARIES data shows that we are projecting for that same slight improvement this year. One strategy that has been used this year is to celebrate student attendance and communicate the importance of attending school on our social media platforms. We've also increased our efforts with reaching out to families of students that are absent, including making personal phone calls, reviewing our independent study practices, and holding meetings with families of students that are frequently absent. Schools have also increased their incentive and recognition programs. Our district's graduation rate climbed 4%
197this year, reaching uh 94 uh percent. The most notable improvement is the graduation rate of Somerset High School, who jumped from 65.4% to 83.5. Um it's also important to notice that our English learner and students with disability student groups also saw a large increase in comparison to last year. This can be contributed to the increase in communication and support provided to students by adults on campus, including guidance from counselors and the focus on increasing student connection to schools. This year, we have made school um environment and culture improvement a focus with all staff trained in level one capturing kids hearts practices and their dedication to implementing these practices. We have seen an increase in teacher, staff, and student connection to school. 80% of parents responding to the LCAP survey report that their child feels part
198of the learning environment, which is an increase from 75% last year. I'm also happy to report that we have been informed by the Capturing Kids Hearts organization that we have been named a rising star district and 11 of our 15 schools have earned rising star status. This distinction is earned through receiving positive CKH implementation survey responses that the CKH strategist that works with the school um agrees with that and that evidence that the site submits uh proof of implementation. We're proud of our initial implementation and the impact we are seeing and plan to continue professional development and support next year to continue this um implementation. Goal two of our LCAP focuses on college career readiness and academic achievement. We have remained at the green level on the dashboard in this area as we have increased
199in the percent of students graduating prepared in comparison to last year by 4.3%. Almost all student groups identified in the red level are no longer in the red. Although we have made improvements in this year, it is a continued focus for improvement as our goal is for a 100% of our students to graduate prepared moving forward. This slide also shows that we are moving in the right direction as the district percentage of students earning A throughG completion upon graduation is improving as well as the percent of English learner graduates. Our LCAP survey also shows a high level of student awareness of college opportunities such as the Cerritos and Long Beach promises dual enrollment CTE opportunities and AVID. We've also increased opportunities for our alternative education students to take dual enrollment courses and they're now available
200at Somerset and Los Flores. The LCAP survey data also shows that parents have provided more have been provided with more information in comparison to last year about college career opportunities. A major increase from 59.23 last year to 82.73 this year. We can attribute this to our counselor's increased focus in this area. If you follow the counselor Instagrams, which uh posts frequently at both sites, you can see the variety of opportunities being provided for both parents and students to receive information and support with being college and career ready at graduation. This slide also shows that there is a high interest in continuing steam, calaps, and dual enrollment pro uh programs. This slide shows additional metrics that we are considering to include in future LCAPS that focus on post-graduation success. Shows that 42% of our graduates are
201prepared for UCCCSU opportunities by completing A throughG requirements. However, a decreasing amount of students are enrolling in our four-year institutions. In an effort to continue to improve our understanding of students post-graduation success, we've begun using the national clearing house data with which reports our students enrollment and persistence rates, the UC and CSU enrollment data and this year we're updating our senior survey um so that we can better track student outcomes postgraduation. You can go ahead and go to the next one. Shifting to our academic achievement, we can see that we have increased the percent of students proficient on the state test and continue to earn a yellow status. Um, our goal is to surpass preandemic uh proficiency levels at all schools and for all student groups. In comparison to last year, nine of 15 schools
202or 60% increased performance with four schools showing um large growth increasing proficiency by more than 9%. You'll also see on this slide that our African-American students are also no longer in the red and the percent of this student group's proficiency improved in comparison to last year by 3%. The grade level chart shows grade level trends and postcoid rebound for third, fourth, sixth, and eighth grade proficiency rates that have surpassed pre-COVID rates. When looking at this data by student group, we see the English learners and students with disabilities have surpassed their pre-COVID percentages. However, the percent proficient in these student groups is still a focus for improvement. When looking at the data by cohort, um we're seeing a different story, either a negative trend or no trend. This speaks to our need to be targeted in
203our approach in meeting student needs. One investment we had made uh in the end of 2324 school year was to pilot NextGen math at a few of our schools. This platform provides teachers with supplemental skill-based supports for students. It's not a platform that students access 30 minutes a day. Um, but it's a platform that supports teachers with selecting additional practice for students on content standards being addressed during their lessons as well as provides access to spiral review of previously learned content. We're seeing success at the school site that piloted with the highest implementation. When looking at whether and we are looking to expand that when looking at whether we are meeting our goal of surpassing pre-COVID rates, English learners have surpassed their pre-COVID proficiency score. 43% of our schools have achieved this goal and 14%
204of our schools have reached the goal of achieving greater than 50%. When reviewing the benchmark data for this year, we're seeing improved achievement of students across almost all schools. And when looking at growth from fall to winter, we're seeing increased growth at most schools as well. This year, we spent time working with site administrators to help them better understand the goal for growth achievement. Specifically, that um students will continue to grow. However, to close that achievement gap, we're looking for a 50%age rate in growth in both math and in ELA. Our goal for achievement for English language arts is to also surpass the prepandemic proficiency at all schools for all student groups. This slide shows that we have moved from orange to yellow as we increased by 8.4 points and our students with disabilities are
205no longer in the red. We have increased the percent of student proficiency districtwide by 4% and all grades have seen an increase in proficiency with our 11th grade students surpassing their precoid proficiency rate. Four schools have surpassed pre-COVID rates. 29% have earned greater than 50% proficiency and 7% or one school has achieved 70% or higher. Um also um something to note when we uh disagregate our ELA data to um isolate our dual immersion students, we see that um although they had a slight decline this year of 1%, their overall student proficiency remains high at 58.65%. 65% um above the district percentage and that is not on that slide so don't look for it. I apologize. Um when we look at this data by student group we see that socially e economically disadvantaged students African-American and
206students with disabilities have s surpassed pre-COVID percentages. Um when looking at the data by cohort we see a positive trend for grades four, five, and six. And just of note, it's difficult to show cohort data for our secondary schools because there's a gap in the testing grades. When reviewing the benchmark data from this year, we are seeing improved achievement of students across all schools. And when looking at growth from fall to winter, we are seeing an increased growth in all schools as well. To continue to achieve these goals, continue professional learning is important. The LCAP survey shows that overall there is an increase in all areas of providing teachers with professional learning opportunities. The area with the most growth is uh schools monitoring highly effective instructional practices. This data can also be seen in the
207amount of visits administrators are making to the classrooms. We're currently over 1,600 visits districtwide. Um and this is an increase in what we have accomplished in the past which um relates to an increase in feedback and collaboration at our school sites. The survey also notes that students report at a high level that they have opportunities to learn critical content. Teachers have adequate materials and curriculum is focused enough for the time they have to teach. However, that is the lowest percentage on this slide and so that is still a focus moving forward. looking at pacing guides, common assessments, and vertical alignment opportunities and continuing those. The LCAP survey also shows an increase in teacher collaboration and data monitoring. This year, there's a high percentage of agreement that professional learning communities, which is where teachers come together
208to review data to make curriculum and intervention decision decisions, are in place at our schools. Moving forward, um the focus will be on increasing that progress monitoring and continued data analysis through, as I mentioned before, looking at our common assessments and developing those. The survey data also shows that there has been an increase in agreement that schools have clear goals for student achievement and students agree they know whether they are meeting their achievement goals. Although all areas are improved, there will be continued focus on rein refining intervention supports and processes as these are still needed. Our continued efforts have resulted in some celebrations and accolades for our schools, including the highest uh six-year accreditation across all secondary schools. Belfflower High earning the AP honor role achievement. We also have four schools that earned the um
209ed partners honor role and we're happy uh to share that Los Flores is the first to earn the um schools to watch recognition which is a great honor. Goal three of the LCAP focuses on ongoing communication. This slide shows an increase in our social media presence, website views, average YouTube views, and archived YouTube views. Most growth in this area is seen in our Instagram presence with the addition of over 740 followers and um a high uh percentage of organic views and an increase in views from ads. Our LCAP results also show that there's been an increase in perception that school provides information and resources to parents. Um areas for continued uh focus are the perception of whether schools provide workshops for families. That is a decrease. Um when we look at our other data, the
210self-reported data from our school sites, it is showing that um there is an increase in participation. However, there's a perception that uh workshops are not being offered. Um, so we are having a conversation about that as we are um providing factor districtwide and we have more parents that have graduated than have in the past. Um, we think that there might be um maybe confusion around that or there might be that we need to advertise at the school site a little bit differently. So we've talked with our principles and we're starting to look at what that might mean. The other area that is low on this slide is um our interactive websites. Um and what we're looking at to address that is that our PIO department is looking to provide more professional development to our administrators
211to help them with the knowledge of how to continue to update their websites and provide um parent work um principal workshops to be able to do that work together. Our public information office has also been hard at work this year increasing our presence online and on TV, creating a variety of videos or spots highlighting our programs here in BUSD as part of their enrollment campaign. This year, we also increased our community outreach through providing a district-wide college career fair, special ed conference, and community resource fair, elementary showcase, and second annual career expo resource fair. Promotional videos for our dual immersion and independent study programs were created to highlight our programs and studentled promotional video for the district was created and posted to share why families should bring their students to BUSD. We are also leading
212learning outside of our district through spotlighting the great work being done in our district and sharing our ideas at conferences such as AXA and Kelsa. Um this year we've presented at the AXA equity conference leadership summit and later in the summer we'll be presenting at the summer institute and that brings an end to our progress update for tonight. >> Thank you so much for your presentation um Miss Carter. Questions comments colleagues >> um I just have two things. So my first question is not about the data at all. I just want some clarification. What exactly is capturing kids' hearts? Because I've heard that u I've heard that like I've heard that like uh that name just said a bunch of times, but I don't exactly know what it is. So maybe >> you're hurting my
213heart to be gay. I'm glad you've heard it. So that's a positive. Um in the classrooms, uh the social contracts that were created this year, do you recognize those? Absolutely. So, Capturing Kids Hearts is an organization that we brought in to provide us professional development on how we can um engage our students and make them more part of the classroom. So, that social contract that you see in all of your classes, um that's part of it. It's part of engaging you to be um more involved in the classroom environment and hold yourself and your um your fellow students accountable in the classroom. >> Okay. And then one final note, I just want to say that um I'm going to assume that the data that we gathered from this is eventually going to have us thinking
214like, oh, what do we need to change in our district? What do we need to add? We need to remove, what do we need to modify? And I just want to say that I think it's important to have more student positions when it comes to things like this because I know we are uh our community is very diverse. We have teachers, uh, counselors, classified staff, parents, students. But at the end of the day, most of this stuff is going to impact students. So, I feel like, well, let me quote Hamilton for a little bit. I want I'd it'd be nice to have more students in the room where it happens. That way, we know we have the right ideas in mind with policy changes. And the main thing that I look at is the the
215social media and the advertising. We grew up with social media. We have that. And I'm not saying you don't have that literacy, but we have we have that literacy to where we know what the students would want. We know like what would catch our eye and then we also would implement what you the message you want to point across in our message. So I just think it's be nice to have more student positions. >> Thank you for your feedback, JBK. Appreciate it. >> So what I'm hearing is you're volunteering to help with social media. Anyone else have questions, comments? Um, I do have a question myself. Um, you spoke about how we no longer have African-American students and eels that no that um don't help us to qualify for the extra assistance. Can you speak
216a little bit more about that, please? Can you clarify that for me? Is it that we we still have a percentage but it's not large enough for us to qualify for it or we are at zero? So when you're looking at assistance for uh district, it's going to be that student group in two different areas. So when you look at that slide, I don't know if they can go back to it, but the English learners um the two areas were college career and then ELA and math. and then following year for African-Americans it was suspensions and then it was ELA and math. Right? So that means that they've made improvements in those areas. So for example, I spoke tonight about how our English learners are continuing to show improvement in graduation rate and how our
217African-American um students there has been a decline in the amount of suspensions for them. If one of those is taken out, then they um are no longer in two areas and they don't qualify us for assistance. So, we still continue to look at all of our student groups. It's just that they're not qualifying us for assistance. But that's why our goals are to make sure that all of our schools and all of our student groups are passing that precoid rate. And then you heard me talk about they passed the precoid but this percent of schools was above 50%. So then we just continue to increase that goal for them. >> Okay. >> And so those goal increases are being given how often? Like year by year or >> Well, we'll analyze the data every year
218and look at its comparison and then set those goals to try to achieve. So, Daniel >> Daniel to answer your question. >> Okay. Thank you. Um I do have a maybe you know this answer, maybe you don't. Um how do we know for sure that we are using other options when it comes to um suspensions with our African-American students or students of color? I can tell you it what we look at for other means of correction is going to be what's in the Aries screen. So when a discipline happens at the school site, there's a determination of whether a student is going to be suspended in-house suspended or an other means of correction is going to happen and that's a determination based on the severity of what has happened. So, what we do is we'll
219look at the data and pull um those codes to see um like I said tonight there was there's been a decrease in suspension and an increase in other means of correction. So, at the school site they would pull that and uh look at it based off their student groups and then they can dig in even even further into that and look to see are there patterns? are there um students that have multiple um incidents? And then what is it that we're doing as a school system to help support that? >> And this is what all schools on our um in our district are engaging these conversations. They're looking deeper. They're d making sure that they're looking at those nuances. >> They're pulling that data. Uh for example, I shared with you this year that we
220had our principles provide a mid-year update in January to the cabinet. As part of that, we pro previous to that time, we provided them um Aries queries so that they could pull their own data and then present their data to us. So that's the concerted effort with the addition of um Dr. Simon's goals and the addition of our principal goals um that we've become more data centered in that way. Right, perfect. Thank you. Um, I did have one more question, uh, but I lost it right now, but anyway, >> um, member Kitchell, >> thank you, Madam President. Um, the enrollment campaign, do we know, this might be more of a, um, somebody's question, uh, what budget we set for the enrollment campaign? You mentioned uh, paying for ads. Was that specifically outlined? >> I do
221not know what I would assume that it's out of the general budget because the PIO is out of the superintendent department. So, I don't know the number of how much was used in that campaign. >> Can we find that just how much we spent on the enrollment campaign as well? >> And are you specifically talking about the ads the the increase that we've had in our our Instagram as well? Yeah. So, it looks like the enrollment campaign is doing well across platforms. I'm just curious what uh what we invested in for that for that item. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> And then one more question. Help me out because I know there's like so much lag with some some data. What what is this uh data reflective of? >> It depends on what chart and what
222slide. But if you're talking about the dashboard, that's going to be uh last year's data. CASP is also last year's data, but when you look at um Aries information, that would be current and that's what we're working to continue to improve is pulling that on a a more quarterly basis. >> Okay. So, some of the data is from last year, some of it's current. Mhm. >> Um I have a comment and a question. Is there a way to get um or even in our Friday memo hopefully tomorrow to get the full presentation because there was a slide or two that we missed that you presented on. >> Did you notice that I hesitated and looked up to the the slide? Yeah, there's transitions in this and so I think the uh printout missed one of
223those transitions that had an overlay. So yeah, I'll figure that out and get it to you. >> Thank you so much. And then I just kind of want to echo uh student uh representative Chuprique maybe having students involved with the social media on school campuses more officially in a way of um or mirroring some kind of internship that they can get credit for maybe um to help you know with all the other things that they have to do and they have to you required and things like that. I think um that's skill-based but that's also fun and that will engage a lot of the other students but um on top of that gearing them more to how to advertise to the broader audience not just students but for the community as a whole. I think
224the balance, I'm just saying this with the experience that I've had so far, they have really great ideas and they understand the trends. Um, but it's also focusing on um the messaging that goes behind it. And I think those two groups like teachers or IPO can come together and like create something really robust for them to like latch on to and have some credit behind. Um I think will also help with um how the culture is taken on the campus as well. That's just an idea. Just throwing it out there. I'm also giving kudos to Chapek. Um so that's all I had. Thank you. >> Thank you. remember that question. Um, so on slide 25 you spoke about the professional learning communities. Um, as a teacher I know that in kindergarten I'm going to have
225maybe about six to eight kids who are probably going to come out maybe low. Hopefully none, but you know um some of them do. How are our schools and our teachers tracking these kids? Because it's year after year after year these kids appear in in you know in our data. what is being done to follow these students and really dig down deep in those professional learning communities about what are the support systems that as we are giving to them as a school system. >> I love that you asked that question. Um that's something that I've been talking with principles about. So um thinking about our intervention process and program that we have currently and what refinements might need to be made. Um, I have visited each school site just recently to talk with principles about
226what that progress monitoring um, looks like at the school site and so I understand where you're heading and what you're thinking. Um, I think that still needs to be developed a little bit more. Um, but the conversation is happening and that's part of what I was saying in part of the presentation where we need to continue to focus on our common assessments and what those common assessments are going to be so that they can be part of that progress monitoring sheet. Right? when we're doing your assessments as you talk about in kindergarten and you notice that these eight students are not meeting the mark on these assessments, how frequently are we monitoring that and are we continuing that through the year? That needs to be improved and it's something that we're talking about right now
227and uh my goal is to continue that for next year. >> I look forward to hearing your ideas about it. Thank you. Any other questions, comments? Okay, perfect. Thank you. Um, now we will go ahead and um do we have any items to withhold from the consent agenda this evening? >> Okay, they're going to hate me, but I'm going to pull 11.20, please. Okay. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda with the exception of items 11.20? >> You have that motion. >> Second. Roll call, please. >> Student member Chibique. >> I. >> Miss Armstrong. >> I. >> Miss Stewart. >> I. >> Miss Cron. >> I. >> Mr. Critzfield. >> I. >> Mrs. Garza. >> I Okay. Um, the first um only item withheld 11.20. 20 is the believe see our contract
228listings and amendments for 2025 20226 fiscal year. I have a couple of questions on these contracts coming up. Um we have some requests from St. Joseph's Private School. I do understand that there are um part of our money has to be given to them. My question to our staff is is there a cap and how often do these things come up? >> There is a cap. There's a percentage that our private schools are allotted and it is um it's part of all of our title funding. So there is a cap. And when you say how often do these things come up, do you mean contracts like this? >> Yes. contracts like this that I I don't real I mean I we've seen some before but this is the one that we've seen two actually at
229this same time >> it's pretty infrequent that you're seeing a contract um but that that speaks to the private schools and their needs um so we have had an increase in our private schools uh utilizing their funds and so you may see more things like this coming forward >> and if they don't use those funds because I'm I'm assuming we already have those set aside. >> Do they roll over? What happens to those funds? >> Um, those funds would be similar to how we use our title funds. So, they'll get a new aotment every year. >> So, if they don't use the full fund, what happens to the extra? >> Well, there could So, for example, title funds go for about 27 months. So they will be utilized within that time period and then um
230we get another allotment for title two. So they continue to have an aotment every year. Um it will not continue to grow and grow and grow if they don't use it. >> Okay. All right. Um thank you. >> My ne Do you want to go? >> Oh, sorry. >> Thank you. Um, my next question is with Paper Education America. Um, I see we have it for $167,424. Um, here it says 2025 2027, but maybe it was a typo in the contract. I read that it was from June to July. Yeah. So, it crosses um fiscal years because it's for summer school. So, we're using um paper grow tutoring. So it's different from the paper tutoring online that we have. This is um high dosage tutoring. So basically there will be tutors online working with our
231students during summer academy. >> So in addition to having to go to summer school, they're also given this support system during summers. >> Absolutely. So they'll have their summer school teacher, but um remember our summer school teachers teach multiple grades during that time. And so they'll be um teaching one grade while uh grow is teaching the other and then they can sort of swap. >> So then the timeline um 2025 2027 that's only for summers 2025 2026 2027 not during school years. >> Uh it's not during the school year currently. There may be a renewal for but this is not that renewal. This is for summer school. >> Okay. Thank you. that >> didn't make sense. It >> years. Yeah. >> Yes. Thank you. Um and with regards to the contract with Los Angeles County
232Sheriff's Department security safety and security schools functions. Um there says under the amount rate, what is the rate? Do we know? >> Yeah, I'll have to look it up. We added it back into the file. The original contract should have the rates in it, and they didn't update the rates. So, in the board file, we added both the original contract and the amended. And if you go back and look at the original, but I I can try and look it up really quick. >> So, it's the same amount as the original contract, >> right? They didn't ask for any rate raises. They asked just for an extension of the time. >> Okay. And then um we we used them only for our special events. Correct. Like for graduation. >> That's correct. >> Okay. Uh several
233years ago we used them for football games. We haven't used them in the most recent years, but we went back three or four years just to see what we use them for and it was mostly graduation. And then several years ago there was a span of like two or three football games. >> Okay. Um in the contract it also states that if they require a physical space on our campuses then they can make the request. So and we have to provide the space the uh furniture the um paper um is that normal? I I don't know about you know these contracts >> that might be a common practice for them and they might be the contract might be a little dated back to when a lot of the time they would serve on the campuses
234and so now that we only utilize the rates of the contract for special events that that they could make the request but they'd have no reason to. >> So do we still my question would be then do we still need that part in the contract? >> We wouldn't need it based on the services we use but Um so that's just standard language that they include in there in case the situation were ever to arise. Um there could also be certain situations where they would have to deploy um large amount of units. So they basically having it in the contract it would allow them to very expeditiously uh deploy those assets to whatever site is needed. Um it is a bit antiquated um but it does serve a purpose because it covers situations that might come
235up that aren't expected and so you generally want to have you know that language in there so it clearly lays out what the responsibilities are they have to ask us and then they can proceed. Do we have a let me rephrase my question. Um, if that were to ever happen, is there a designated spa designated space already or would we have to just come up with one at that moment? >> We would likely have to come up with one in that moment. I mean, there's spaces on all of our campuses. We know the decline in enrollment and that we've got space. So, we're likely not going to go around and designate spaces right now because it's not a necessity, but I think it could easily be done if there was a situation that required it.
236Is it um and this is kind of maybe aside from the contract, could we possibly look at as we're looking at safety and protocols? Um, and maybe it would go to our safety committee. I'm not sure. We have segments of our district where if anything happens, maybe we could already have a designated space. Thinking forward and making sure that we utilize that spec, you know, very limited time in emergencies to just maybe designate a space where that could happen. I would hate for us to lose precious minutes if there is an emergency of that kind. I think that could be a great thing for our school safety manager that's coming on board shortly and we'll make sure that we add that to our list. >> Okay, perfect. The ever growing list. All right, thank you
237so much. No more questions. >> I have one question. Sorry, Bonnie, but this got brought up. What grades and what teachers are teaching multiple grade levels during summer school? Typically it is uh sort of like a rising first and second, a rising third and fourth, a rising fifth, and then a rising sixth. >> So it's our elementary schools. >> Oh yeah, it's elementary schools. And I can get the specifics for you on what it is this year. >> I'm curious, are we I know some districts they kind of they don't make it mandatory, but they kind of make it mandatory or they make it optional. How is summer school chosen >> for our elementary schools? Uh we look at their test scores, so their NWA test scores and we look for students that are um
238needing that extra support. We start there and th those are the students that are offered the opportunity first. I'd like to see more on that because if we're looking at that as kind of an intervention strategy and we're trying to jump bands teaching co-taught or not co-taught but numerous grade levels I don't know how that would be advantageous. >> Yeah. And let me look into it because I might be mistaken on on what it looks like for this year. Okay. >> So let me grab it and I'll pull I'll put it on the update for y'all. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Anyone else? Okay. Perfect. Um, do I have a motion to approve this item? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Student member Chab. >> I. >> Miss Armstrong. >> I.
239>> Miss Stewart. >> I. >> Miss Cron. >> I. >> Mr. Critzfield. >> I. >> Mrs. Garza. >> I. It's now time for board of education members communications and reports. Let's begin with student member Chibique. >> Okay. I'm just going to keep it short and sweet because I know we've all had a long day and everyone wants to go home. So, um I just want to start by highlighting Skills USA once again. I know uh a bunch of people today have already done it, but as a competitor, I just want to highlight the work that students and adviserss put in to this year's competition. It was a great time even though many of us didn't get to sleep. Um, we got Mayfair specifically got gold in Exemprania speaking, middle school team engineering challenge and CO2
240dragsters. So, they'll be going to Ontario in June. And we got silver in engineering technologies and promotional bulletin board. And once again, just a huge shout out to all of our competitors. Whether whether we placed or not, I know they all tried hard. And then sadly for our esports team, our run in CIF was cut short, but by um uh internet our internet went out for a little bit and that messed up our that messed up our communication with the other team and then as per CIF rules, we did have to drop games and then our mental just shattered right after that. But the way I see it is that we were just so good that at the end of the day it took God to take us out. We were as our team has
241worked so hard and I just want to shout out all of them. Um other than myself, uh for varsity we have Darien Heler, a junior, Jonathan Verula, sophomore and then for our JB1 team, we had Benjamin Samra, Xavier Wilkins, Josh Terona. All of them have worked super hard. And I also want to shout out Whiz because without him none of this would be possible. He's worked he's worked himself to the bone trying to support us and I don't know where I would be as a person without him. So I just wanted to do a quick shout out. >> Thank you board member Chibik. Um board member Armstrong. >> Thank you President Garza. Um well, from the last board meeting until now, um I uh attended the water education for Latino leaders. Uh we had our
242annual conference in Fryant, California. We visited the dam and fielded questions to the employees related to factors that are driving up the cost of water. Uh I'll name a few such as like rising labor, uh insurance and energy costs, aging infrastructure replacement and inflation and construction materials, and more stringent water quality and operations regulations. That's just a few. We discuss problems and solutions regarding lowering the cost of service, providing rate assistance to lowincome families, and securing state and federal funding. Uh we now have Senate Bill 1125 and Assembly Bill 2739. If that pass, it will help alleviate some of our issues. Um our public and and safety really depends on the investments. Um we discussed how consumers rely on bottled water because they simply do not trust tap water or even water coming from fountains,
243you know, sometimes. Uh we discussed ways to improve uh trust in our tap water by increasing awareness and transparency and reporting on the quality of tap water and by building stronger customer relationships and by using surveys to get customer insight and feedback. Um I attended coast to coast with my board members and uh and board members from across the state. uh CSBA briefed us on the core issues and federal actions that are in motion. After all the briefings we received, it resulted in in four talking points for what is called the meeting on the on the heel. And uh so our talking points was support responsible AI in education, strengthen career technical education and federal appropriations and funding especially in full funding for um special education and protect student online safety and mental health. After
244all of this, you know, we we I we are tasked with building and maintaining relationships with our congressional members and their staff. Uh strengthening our partnership with pertinent organizations and watching for the updates and help in whichever way we can, even if if that's writing letters, if it's showing up in Sacramento, whatever it takes for our students. I attended the Bellflower Unified School District's second annual Star Awards and the venue was set up beautifully. Entertainment was provided by the Long Beach Blues Society and our very own Bellflower Elementary Singers. Uh flawless re performance by both the food and uh the appetizers were delicious. I had to control myself and limit myself to only one serving. Um, I'm glad I wasn't too hungry, but the food was really delicious. Um, so, um, as, uh, our superintendent,
245um, Dr. Simon already um um you know mentioned that a teacher and a classified employee was were they were recognized from each site and and the only thing that was probably uh most difficult is select was selecting the teacher of the year and the classified employee of the year and again congratulations to Mrs. Hill and from Ernie Pile for being awarded the Belfflowers teacher of the year and Mrs. Pettit uh from the district office on being awarded the classified employee of the year. Um and lastly, I attended the WHO Awards. Uh boy, which was a party. I contained myself. I did not dance. I did not dance. And I I was I was okay with not dancing for it for a change. Um and I got a chance to see a lot of my colleagues
246that I used to work with. Um and and even my own district in which I work, you know, of course I sit with Bellflower. I didn't sit with my district that I work for. But um again, they they call it the WHO awards uh in in short. And uh this award is for those who uh for those who are not aware, the award is presented to outstanding members of local chapters in recognition of their service to colleagues and to the profession through volunteer appointive and elective activities. Um like we're getting ready to go to the RA and that's totally volunteer. We don't have to do that but we're doing it. So again, congratulations to Mr. John Young on being awarded awarded the 2026 Logo who award recipient for Bell Flowers teachers association. Yay. So, you
247know, I don't remember who won the state award though. Did Did they announce it? Yeah, cuz see they would have had of of all of all the WHO award winners, they would have had to announce it. I didn't I didn't My goodness, the first year they haven't done that. Okay. But anyway, um that's it. That's it for me. But congratulations, Mr. John Young again. Okay. Thank you. That's it. >> Thank you, Bo Marstrom. Board member Stewart. You guys need to wake up because you guys get to leave soon and we get to go back to close session. So, March 27th, um I attended the Lake Women's Leadership and Empowerment Conference. It's such a powerful one-day conference. The keynote speaker, Mrs. Mariana Atensio was inspiring, motivational, and I appreciate her positive outlook on life and just
248reminding us to make the best out of each day we have with our families and our students. March 28th, Vice President Critfield and I were judges for the Lions Club debate contest and the topic was community. This year, we did not have one student from BUSD apply. So, I hope that we can promote some of these small scholarship opportunities to our students. Um, one thing staff I'm wondering is if we have someone in the district that puts all of these scholarships and contest opportunities together to push out information to all of our sites and students. So, if you guys could let me know if we do have that on our Friday memo, I'd appreciate it. From um April 11th to April 16th, I attended the CSBA conference in Washington DC. Um, as said, the main
249advocacy points this year when we met with our congressmen and women were IDA, online safety, AI, and CTE. There's a rising concern with student mental health and social media. We need to focus on data exploitation, default safety settings, expanding privacy rights, limiting targeted advertising, and addressing cyber bullying. Um, the most the kids online safety act, KOSA and the children and teen online privacy acts, Kappa 2.0, gives Congress a clear bipartisan path to meaningful protections so that they can work together to make this happen. With AI, we advocated for increase in transparency, oversight to student data practices, safeguard students personal information, provide funding for cyber security infrastructure, and for staff training, and establishing clear tools for students and staff in K12 classrooms. CTE focused on expanding the Perkins CTE funding, supporting strategies to recruit and retain
250CTA educators. We get about a 100,000 to 120,000 per year in funding for our Perkins grant. um which we use for supplies, supplemental materials, etc. So, we just want to advocate and make sure that those um funds are still available. IDA is pretty simple. We've talked about it. We're supposed to get 40% funding. We don't. So, we continue to push for that full 40% or even we've advocated for small increases each year so that we can build back up and get more money for our special ed students. Um one session I attended had some very sad and concerning statistics and surveys. First, they showed highlights of the president's K12 education budget. Um, 2.2 billion in title 2 funds, which support teacher development instruction are not listed. $890 million in cuts to title three funds, which
251is used for EL and immigrant funding. $376 million in cuts to migrant education. 1.4 billion in cuts to Title 4 funding, which is academic support and enrichment. The biggest aha that I think I took away was polling shows that whether you're a Democrat or Republican or an independent, education is supported and our priorities across parties are almost identical. So why is it so difficult? I don't understand that. This is a nonpartisan topic. And so as a teacher and a board member, it's frustrating to see the cuts being suggested when we all agree education funding should be there and we need more of it. So, it's important to have this discussion to call and write your local and state elected officials as well as your federal congressmen and women senators when it comes to our children.
252Um, all in all, I really enjoyed spending time with my colleagues and networking with the other California school board members and the superintendent. Friday, I attended the PTA honorary service awards. As always, thank you to PTA and what they do for our community and our families. It was a beautiful ceremony to pay tribute and celebrate the amazing volunteers, teachers, and administrators that truly make a difference in our district. The teachers honored were Irma Medina from ILC. Marisol Duran from Belfflair High School, Heather Lden, Jerie Klyber, and Amy Rother, oh sorry, Amy Rothri and Jillian Schwarz from Lindstöm, Katherine Agiri and Elaine Springer from Woodruff, Michael Headley from Mayfair, and John Young from Ramona, as well as Ann Marie Sharp and Stacy Frizzle from Foster. The admin honored um were Jessica Cummings from Belair High School,
253Christian Gastelon Bayas from ILC, Joshua Stern and Sue Curtis from Lindström, Dr. Tranni from Mayfair, and Christa Jackson from Foster. I just want to thank PTA. I was deeply honored and humbled to receive the first ever elected official honorary service award. The importance of PTA was instilled in me as soon as I entered school because my mom always had um a big she had a big thing with the PTA. She always was a member and involved in the organization and I appreciate their hard work in everything they do and you can still join PTA if you haven't. It's never too late. Last night I attended the WHO awards. We honor our own. I am thankful for the partnerships and relationships I have with the Belfflower Teachers Association. A huge congrats to John Young for being
254the WHO award winner for 2026. Also, for the past three years, um board members receive questions regarding permits both inner and intra district. And I would like to get the numbers over the last few years. Staff, if I could get information on our Friday memo, how many incoming permits we have approved and denied and how many outgoing permits we have approved and denied and the outgoing permits, where did they go. Um, lastly, I attended a safe and civil cohort the past two days and looking at data to improve climate and culture and safety on the campus on the campus was highly suggested. So, I know this board's main priority is safety. President Garza, I'm going to email you this list, but I would like to ask that I think it would be a good idea
255that we get consistent data either monthly or quarterly on the following items. Average daily attendance and absence rates, tardiness rates, expulsions and referrals to alternative education placements, suspension rates, and reasons for suspension. The number infractions that resulted in the students being sent to the office. Referrals to special education. Number of students referred to special education who did not qualify. Instances of vandalism and graffiti. Instances of other illegal activities. Injury reports that differentiate between playground injuries and other common area injuries. Student focus groups. Social emotional support information from so social workers, counselors, and school psychologists. and a summary of students identified with having a GPA of less than 2.0. And I know it sounds like a lot, but I see a lot of the sites doing it. And each site can do that and they can
256continue to present um data and they can use it for their site and we can see it because we should be looking at data all the time. Incident referrals could be collected by each site. They could generate year-to-date reports by total numbers, grade, type of infraction, location, gender, race, ethnicity, and special education status. And suspensions can be generated by total numbers, grade, gender, special education status, race, ethnicity, and frequent flyers, which are individuals um individual students with two or more suspensions. I think that would keep our sites, our district leaders and the board more informed when we make decisions and I think it would hold our sites more accountable. So I will send you this list and I think that that's something that we should ask for. Lastly, in listening tonight, I would like to
257request that the discussion of a resolution to limit time on our screens. I would like to request that be on a future agenda for discussion, please. Thank you, board member um Stewart. Board member Christ. Thank you. Um just based on all the presentations from the students and our PTA and our BTA. Uh everybody knows where I've been, what events I've gone to, so I won't go down the list. Um, I'd just like to thank our students, staff, and community for their continued engagement and partnership in the important work happening across our district. Uh, this evening's presentations reflect a clear focus on preparing our students not just to graduate, but to truly be ready for college, a career, and life, or all or one or another. Um, I'm especially encouraged by the progress we're seeing and
258the intentional steps that we're taking to straighten students outcomes and to expand opportunities. Um, as we move forward, I look forward to continuing this work together as a board, but also handinhand with our um, lovely cabinet. um to ensure that every decision we make keeps our students at the center and support their success, which I know that is all of our focus. But keeping in mind that having input from our teachers, our parents, and our community as a whole very early in the process is more effective overall and helps reduce um repeated steps in the future so that we don't have to keep going back and making adjustments. we can have, you know, everything front-loaded in the beginning I think is more effective for our time. Um, and also I'd like to speak on coast
259to coast. Um, I'm not going to repeat already what uh my colleagues have shared because um that's not necessary. What I'd like to reflect on mostly is this is the second year I've attended Coast to Coast and one of the things that I thought um again bear with me it's just really long night guys um is the fact that for this particular conference I do think that we need to be better prepared if we have a special meeting maybe or something um or like an input put session to be able to strategize better as a group because to do it in that environment gets kind of hard. Like we all understand the flow. We've all been there as a group. But there is necessary tangibles that would be more effective if we had it in
260the room instead of trying to scramble for the numbers and asking for things to be designed. if we had that prior to going just for this particular conference because we are meeting with our legislation uh legislators on the hill. Um we are taking the time and I think it's more effective to have and to hear especially from our cabinet what input they would like to give us to take with us. Um, that's one of the things that when we're collaborating with other districts is everybody had a specific story to tell and we have our own story to tell. And I think it would be valuable for us to understand that and to figure out how we're going to tell that story when we're on the hill so that we're not just grasping at numbers and
261not just focusing on coast to coast talking points that we add genuinely ours which we have but I think it needs to be more intentional. Um, and so if I could request that that happen for next year, because this is a once a year, um, it would be really effective. And I know costwise it would be hard, but having one or two members of the cabinet to join us because their voices need to be heard in the room as well with our legislators. We're here to speak on the behalf of our district, but if we don't have everybody in the room to be effective, we're really losing the idea of being there. Um, I think for me personally, a lot of the wind was taken out of my sail when I heard that to to
262to uh Miss Stewart's comment of just seeing the presentations and knowing that our numbers and our department of education is dismantled and to just see that on a board is really just disheartening. but to find the gas to go up and still advocate is what drives us because we're always f students focused. Um, so and I hope our teachers hear us when I say that we're doing and being as intentional and focused as possible when it comes to making these requests. Some of them do sound like demands and we don't mean for it to sound like a demand, but we are understanding more and more what both sides look like. Not just how it affects our district as a singular space, but what that really does to California as a whole. And I know we
263all live in our bubble, but Coast to Coast really pops that bubble for a lot of us when we're over there because we understand that we're there. And it is a it's just hard. >> That's all I'll say. Thank you. >> Thank you, board member Cynthron, board member Critfield. >> Thank you, Madam President. Uh, a lot of the events uh were already covered, so I won't go through those, but there were some really amazing events. Um, uh, and a lot of really cool celebrations. Um, I want to say thank you, uh, to Ryan and team for the Star Awards. I thought that was really awesome. Uh, I really like the venue, the band, uh, the celebration as a whole. I I feel like it was a really good night. So, thank you for that. Uh,
264Miss Carter and Gil, thank you for the very thoughtful and robust presentations tonight. Really do appreciate them. Uh, thank you. It was great. um and staff for staying up late with us tonight. I I really do appreciate it. And uh to our our our teacher partners, um I I feel like we've we've all done a lot of work to to build a good relationship and a collaborative one. So, I'm very optimistic uh that we're going to keep building on that going forward. So, I'm I'm looking forward to how conversations unfold uh and how we can continue to work together. So, thank you for being here tonight as well. Uh that's all. Thank you, Bar Member Critzfield. >> Oh, wait. There was one more thing. Sorry. I did I did want to um echo the uh
265I mean, I'm all for tech and AI, but I I do think a lot of districts are moving towards uh restricting screen time for our youngest ones. So, I I I'm just going to echo uh board member Stewart in maybe looking into that and seeing what we can do here to kind of uh get ahead of that because I think that that data is pretty clear that it it it's uh is not good. Uh and also uh a lot of school districts are looking at uh banning ebikes on uh on their uh middle school and high school campuses. Um and I don't know if we have a problem with that. I mean, I see uh I see them, but uh just kind of floating out. I when I see a school district doing something that's,
266you know, maybe novel or getting ahead of things, I want us to be the district that gets ahead of things and addresses things and doesn't just follow suit after other districts do it. Um so that I'd say those two things uh top of mind right now maybe we could look into. And I'm not saying uh you know we have to do both but uh as an option we can uh address those two things. Thank you. >> Thank you board member Critfield. Um as for myself I same things I did attend um the PTA HSA awards. Wonderful time star awards as well. Thank you so much to um Ryan Ryan and your staff and you know um Miss Knox and Mr. Omos. So it was a you know team effort. It went really well. It was
267wellreceived. So I know that we're going to continue to do this. I'm so happy that we are doing this now. Um also thank you for those presentations. Amazing. a lot of information and a lot of things to uh for us to follow up on and look forward to. Thank you so much. Uh as for Coast to Coast, uh this was my first time going. So for myself, I wonder if maybe um getting a little bit more ahead of it as well, like u you know, board member Cynthron is saying, uh preparing a little bit better for that if we decide to go another year. Um but also perhaps looking into um when appropriations committees are meeting and making sure that we are giving an update as to where does Balflower Unified School District um vote
268on what are we passionate about? What are we saying? This is not is not helpful for us. We need to start making ourselves heard. Um, so that way there is some type of information going out from us to those representatives so that way they can go ahead and quickly give that information to assembly members and Congress um, men and women. Um, and then also I like to look at maybe going to Sacramento. I know that um, we can do something there and it's more local for us. it's not um maybe you know this is where we need to spend most of our time in especially because it's you know our own state. So if we can look into that as well please and um maybe um I think general counsel you have some information on
269and background on that for us. So if you can work with our staff please to kind of guide them and let them know is this a worthwhile time to actually advocate in Sacramento. Um thank you. And then um as well for agendaizing the screen time for co um you know for what we're doing in our schools. And um my request is going to be um board member Stewart and board member um Critfield if you can kind of help us look at that. And um I think at this point it's very broad. My I kind of have some questions around that. Does that mean screen time on our campuses? Does that mean screen time like what? Because we do need some of that technology. We don't want to um as far as I'm looking at it
270for now, we don't want to set us back. You know, if everybody is moving forward in technology, how do we balance that? So, if you can kind of work with u maybe our staff, um Dr. assignment, please, and see and maybe general counsel can help us out whenever needed um to have some information on the legalities of that as well. Um maybe we can develop a really good board policy that addresses and finds a compromise between what we want our kids to be able to do in the future and what we are requesting them to be able to do as younger, you know, learners. and then just uh maybe bring it up to the board to you know for us to kind of have that discussion that is needed. Um and as well for for
271ebikes I think we're looking into that a little bit more. So if we can get some discussion with um um board member Critfield I think is the one that was interested in that as well. Dr. Simon please um so that way we can make some you know better informed decisions to that. Anyone else have uh questions, requests? Thank you. Um item 13.1 will require um board action. So 13.1 is the request for secondary extended field learning experience. This item is being presented for board approval. Do I have a motion to approve the request for secondary extended field learning experience? >> We have a motion. >> Second. Roll call, please. Student member Chbique >> I >> Miss Armstrong >> I >> Miss Stewart >> I >> Miss Cron >> I >> Mr. Critchfield >> I >>
272Mrs. Garza >> I at this time the board will recess to close session. There will be no further action taken in open session. Thank you. And our next regular board meeting will be Thursday, May 14, 2026. Have a nice night. We didn't The board is now reconvening to open session at 11:57 p.m. Board Clerk St. Throne will provide an update on close session topics. The topics discussed in close session were student matters, anticipated litigation, pending litigation, public employee discipline, dismissal release, labor negotiation, superintendence evaluation. The board took action in close session to approve a settlement on a student matter. Thank you. If there is no objection, this meeting is now adjourned at 11:57 p.m. until the next regular board meeting on Thursday, May 14th.