001Good evening and welcome to tonight's meeting of the board of education. The meeting is called to order at 4:30 p.m. in open session. Roll call, please. >> Miss Armstrong, >> present. >> Mr. Trump, present. Mr. >> President, >> Mrs. Garza, >> Present. Tonight, we do not have requests addressing close session items. At this time, would anyone like to speak? All right. At this time, the board will recess to close session. Open session will resume at approximately 6 pm. Welcome back everyone. Tonight's meeting of the board of education was called to order at 4:30 p.m. in open session. The board then adjourned to close session and will now reconvene the meeting in open session at 6:33 p.m. Board clerk Critzfield will update us on close session topics. >> Thank you, Madam President. Uh topics discussed in
002close session were student matters, anticipated litigation, labor negotiations, public employee discipline, and superintendent evaluation. The board took no action in close session. >> Thank you, Cler Clerk Critzfield. Um tonight's pledge of allegiance is coming from our BUD Foundation President, Miss Allison Castanos. Thank you so much for being here. Go ahead to the podium. United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty andice for all. >> Thank you so much. Do we have any replacement pages tonight? And no amendments to the agenda either. >> Okay. Recognitions. All right. It's time for recognitions. Can we please have BSD Foundation President Miss Allison Castanos come to the deas? Tonight, we are thrilled to celebrate the official launch of the Belfflower Unified School District Education Foundation, an engine for equitable
003opportunities, innovative programs, and enhance learning experiences across our schools. This foundation will help us accelerate what matters most, student success. To jumpstart this important work, I'm proud to announce that Belfar Unified School District is investing $15,000 as a funding as a founding contribution to the BUSD Education Foundation. This seed funding reflects our shared commitment to expanding scholarships, enriching arts and athletics, and scaling classroom innovation. Mrs. Castanos, thank you for your leadership and the standing up of this high impact, communitypowered organization. We also want to recognize our board, district leaders, site administrators, teachers, staff, families, and community partners whose collaboration makes this possible. Together, we're aligning resources with outcomes to deliver sustainable value for every student we serve. At this time, I'd like to invite President Castanos to share a few words about the foundation. After
004Miss Castiano's remarks, we'll com commemorate this moment with a photo and an invitation to join us in building the future of our students that they deserve. Thank you. >> I just wanted to say thank you on behalf of our founding board. The USD foundation will work to connect the community of Beli with its students to provide meaningful. Our actions will be grounded in our integity, transparency, and community. And I would just hope that I can stand up so they can be recognized as well because they can say hi and thank you to everyone. >> And if anybody would like to speak, please go come up and speak. We would love that. You guys are doing us a super solid. Thank you so much. >> Can we introduce them? >> Yes, I would love. Let's do
005it. >> Got Linda Morgan on another committee. I see. treasure. our other board members. >> Can we take a picture with them, please? Can you guys join us for a picture? That would be amazing. Thank you. Is that all we have for recognitions tonight? Yes. Okay. All right. So, moving on to our student board representative reports. Thank you guys for being here. We are going to start with Belfflower. Representing Belfflower is Miss Kayn Vera. Do you play softball? Oh, those are really cute. Okay, go ahead. Sorry. Thank you so much. Can I ask you one question? I've had a lot of alumni asking about the t-shirts and things and I see it online and they say you can buy it at the student store. Can a regular person like me access that student store? Is
006there like a link or how does that work for like us public? >> We have the I'm sorry. >> No, no, no. Go ahead. >> We have obviously our student online website, but I'm pretty sure they will be available for it. It should be in our student store as well. So, they could go on campus. I'm not too sure, but I can ask the people that I know. >> Okay. Thank you. I appreciate it. All right. From Mayfair, we have Gil Freriedman. Welcome. Thank you so much. We do not have a report tonight from Somerset due to them being in intercession, but we do have a report from Los Flores from Josanna Torres. Thank you for being here. Don't feel silly. It's good to prepare. Congratulations. Thank you. See, that was amazing for your first
007time. Thank you guys so much for being here. Obviously, we know you guys have school, family, things to do. So, if you need to leave, we totally understand. You guys can leave. Thank you so much. Okay, moving on to our employee representative reports. Tonight we have one report and that is from BTA. So, can we please welcome BTA President John Young. Thank you so much for being here. Um, will you push the button? Thank you. Thank you so much. >> All right, moving along to superintendent's report. Dr. Simon for all the hard work. >> Thank you, Dr. Simon. All right, so we're moving on to committees. I just want to let the board know that Dr. Simon and I sat down and kind of looked at all of our committees and our purpose and things
008like that. And so, we've updated a lot of this. You should be getting more information on our Friday memo, our links. So, I just wanted to give you guys an update on that. Do we have any um any to report? I know Laxa is tomorrow or 13th or something. >> Yes. On Monday, I'll have a a Laxa meeting >> and it's going to be at LEGO. >> Okay. I know Calaps is this week. Any other All right. Okay. So, moving along to public comments. Um, tonight we do have requests addressing open session agenda items. Um, sorry. While the 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 on each agenda or non-aggenda item. The board will limit the
009total time for public input on each item to 21 minutes as per board bylaw 9322.2. We want the public to know that the board of education and superintendent will be listening 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 guarding guardian and or a community member if the comment may call for followup. Sorry, I just read that out of order. My bad. All right, I'll get it better next time. I promise. Okay. So, our speaker today um we have one Mr. John Paul Dreer and welcome brainstorming together. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. We do not have any public hearings tonight. So, we're moving along to our discussion items. We have one discussion item tonight. Um the safety
010survey results. Dr. Simon Dr. Smith, can you hold on one second? Board member Centron, >> sorry to interrupt. I'm getting text messages from community members saying that they're usbodying. Okay. As long as you're already addressing it. I'm just saying I was getting a >> Thank you. Um, Dr. Ryan, Dr. Smith, sorry. I don't know why I said Dr. Ryan. Good evening. Thank you very much, Board President Stewart, members of the board, uh, Dr. Simon, and our community. Uh, it is with pleasure that I share with you the results of a school safety survey that we provided our students over the course of three weeks in September. First slide, please. As you can see, we had a number of participants, 2,622 to be exact. Most of them from Mayfair and Belfflower Middle School. And then we
011also had really strong participation at both our uh continuation high school, Somerset, as well as Los Flores home independent study academy. We also had some participants from Bay. Next slide, please. This gives you a breakdown of what grades the students were in who participated. We gave the survey to secondary students only. And as you can see, we had pretty good participation across all grade levels. Interestingly, it was our juniors and seniors that participated the least. However, still good representation amongst all grades. Next slide, please. The first question that we asked was overall how safe do you feel at school? 17.7% said very safe, 54% said mostly safe. And then you can see the breakdown for the rest. So well over 70% indicated either very or mostly safe. Next slide please. We also asked our survey
012participants, how safe do you feel in the following areas of campus? And we asked about various spots: classrooms, restrooms, hallways, outdoor areas, cafeteria, and pickup and drop off. In the area of classrooms, for example, for the most part, students indicated mostly or very safe in large numbers. Restrooms is where we received quite a bit of feedback. will share some of the feedback on the open-ended questions with most students reporting either somewhat safe or rarely safe and mostly safe. Beyond that, when you look at hallways, outdoor areas, cafeteria, and pickup and drop off areas, the overall sentiment was that those areas are mostly safe. However, there are some students that reported either somewhat safe and rarely safe. Next slide, please. We also asked our students, "How would you rate the amount of safety presence in the
013following areas at your school?" The first area that we asked about was campus safety staff and safety officers. About 75% of the respondents indicated that we had about the right amount of campus safety staff and safety officers. We also asked about teachers and school staff supervi supervision in common areas. About 73% felt that we had about the right amount of supervision. We also asked about administration being visible on campus. About 72% felt that their level of visibility was about right. We also asked about security cameras and security camera coverage. about 60% indicated that our security camera coverage was about right, indicating that that's an area we should further look into and see if we can improve. We also asked about lighting in outdoor areas. Again, an area we can probably improve. 70% of students indicated
014that current levels or current amount of lighting in outdoor areas is about right. And finally, we asked about monitoring during arrival and dismissal. And about 66% indicated that the amount of monitoring at those times is about right. Again, indicating there are some areas we can strengthen and improve. Next slide. We also ask our students, how comfortable are you reporting a safety concern to your teacher, counselor, or administrator? 28% of respondents indicated that they were very comfortable. 54.7% indicated that they were somewhat comfortable for a total of about 83% or so indicating either somewhat or very comfortable reporting. It is important to note that we did have a percentage of students that indicated either being not very comfortable or not comfortable at all. something again that we want to continue to improve upon. Next slide, please.
015We also asked our students, do you believe adults at your school take student safety concerns seriously? 35.5% indicated always. 44.1% indicated most of the time for a total of Hold on. Sorry, lost my notes. Almost 80% of students saying that their safety concerns are taken seriously. Next slide, please. We also asked, "How much does feeling safe at school affect your ability to learn and participate?" 28% indicated a lot, 41% indicated some with 16% indicating a little, and 14.3% indicating not at all. However, the majority of our students definitely feel that being feeling safe at school affects their ability to learn and participate. Next slide, please. We also asked a few open-ended questions and we received some substantial responses to the various questions. The first question that we asked, are there specific areas of campus where
016you think safety needs more attention? We received about 2200 responses to this of which you can see the summary. the top areas of concern and I think this is will not be a surprise to anyone restrooms in particular vaping, smoking and occasional fights. Students also indicated an area of concern being traffic pickup and drop off congestion and unsafe crossings in particular hallways, wings and locker rooms, fights, isolated areas and lack of supervision and gates and access points. concerns about open entry and exit. It is worth noting that of the 2,200 responses, about half of them reported no safety concerns at all. Now, that doesn't mean that they didn't have safety concerns. They just didn't indicate them in their responses. Next, we asked, "What changes or improvements would make your school feel like a safer and
017more supportive place for students?" We received the following suggestions from our students. First, increase security and supervision. More guards, cameras, and checks, especially locker rooms, restrooms, gates, and parking. Improve restrooms. Again, restrooms are a common theme. Cleaner, safer, fully supplied and better monitored to stop vaping in fights. Enhance campus safety, better lighting, emergency communication, lockdown fire drill procedures and facility upkeep. Strengthen student support, positive staff interactions, mental health resources, anti-bullying efforts, and access to wellness center. And also phone access and policy. Students want the ability to keep and use phones, citing both emergencies and general access. The last open-ended question we asked, what is one thing the school could do to better support student safety and positive school climate? A summary of those suggestions included increase supervision and security, improve restrooms, strengthen support systems, and
018foster a positive school climate. Dr. Simon and I had the opportunity to review some of these results with our student advisory committee and in particular we shared the open-ended questions and the feedback from the students was that these summaries did really capture the student perception of the various safety issues and their perceptions of them. That concludes our summary of the results. Board President Stewart um kick it back to you for any discussion. >> Thank you. Board colleagues, any questions, comments, student board member? Thank you. >> So, I just like to say that this is I was I was at the student advisor meeting and I saw a little bit of his presentation, but I just want to reiterate that this is an amazing step that's being taken to student. I've actually seen the the detectors
019in the bathroom activated. I'm not sure how they work yet, but I just seeing it just made me kind of excited because I told me that the board and the district. >> Thank you for your input. Uh, Vice President Garza. Thank you, Madam President. Um, I have a question as far as strengthen student support. I believe it's on page 121. What changes or improvements would make your school feel like a safer and more supportive place for students? Um, it says access to wellness centers. So, do we know if all of our students have access to wellness centers at this moment or is there a way that they need to request access to the wellness centers? What what was the thought behind this um statement? What I can say is our students do have access to
020the wellness and I'll just make sure that there's no limitations. I know we have it access and it's like drop in or do they need to actually like request the time to go in? >> I believe it's a drop in. >> Okay. And just to confirm these access these centers are on every one of our campuses. >> Yes. Perfect. Thank you so much. Anybody else? I had just a few. Um, one I just wanted to say thank you because I thought I was talking with Dr. Simon. We got a lot of good responses. That's a really good number. And so I was really excited to see that. So that was pretty cool. Um, the one question I had Mine I don't know but mine's not numbered but it's the survey findings where it says do
021you believe adults at your school take student safety concerns seriously and I know we said that 79% said yes but in my teacher mind thinking about MTSS that's 20% that said no. So when they say that it's 20% we should be looking at our structure. So, I'm just wondering what are our thoughts on putting in anything else or any thoughts that we're expanding on to make students feel like they can, you know, are we're taking their concern seriously. around that information and every site may be different based on how students feel in their perspectives around student safety as well. So that's something I will ask my secondary principles to have a deeper conversation around this question in particular. >> Okay. Thank you. That was my only question. Board member Armstrong. >> Um, I'm sorry. I
022did you have yours on? >> Okay, Renee, please come in. Renee, save me right now. Please. Renee, take it away. >> I'm sorry. I I don't want it to. >> No, it's okay. It's just there's a lot of confusion what this is and it's not my fault. So, I want you to help me out. Please help me. >> I'll just be really brief. We reached out to the company to see if they could take them from the top to the bottom. And unfortunately, this is the way the system works. So, it's hard for Miss Stewart to see who was next. So, she is doing her she's putting her best effort to look. >> It's really hard to see. >> Okay. I know she is. I just want want it to be said that she's not
023overlooking anyone purposely. >> I'm not. And even like right now it says seat one like your names have all disappeared too. >> I think is in relation to what we're trying to deal with tonight. So, I don't >> Okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Cuz I'm like all your names are gone. Okay. So, so thank you. Thank you, President Stewart. >> Whoever wants to just jump in. Let's just jump in. >> She just told me to go. I'll go. So, I I just I have one one question. Um and it it's uh the uh how much does feeling safe at school affect your ability to learn and participate. You know, I I I strongly believe that, you know, when you feel safe and and loved and cared for, then that just put puts our students in
024the best position to learn. So we have about 30 kids that says that this is affecting them are. So with this I'm sure we're working on what we can do to make this make these 30% of kids feel safe at school because a lot of times that correlates with uh absenteeism, you know, whether they come to school or not, attend class or not. So, we got to get to the bottom of this. So, thank you so much. That's all I have. >> I'm gonna go with board member Cron. I'll try to watch visually, you guys. I'm sorry. >> I figured it was the the IT thing, so I'm not joking. Um, so my question, mine aren't uh my pages aren't numbered, so forgive me. It's the survey findings, but how comfortable are you reporting a
025safety concern to teachers, counselors, and administrators? Um, the not at all. Uh, there was a that percent in green isn't identified. Do we have a percentage for that? Um and then a follow up to that when this was presented to the students student advisory council, did we ask for feedback on some of these green some of these uh not at all not comfortable? Did we ask and and not saying that they have you know all all the answers but did we ask for any additional feedback on why they think that is so that we can then make a plan moving forward or what what was the thinking behind or what is the thinking behind collecting the >> Thank you for your question I have member as well there weren't really a lot of additions to
026the open question. It was mostly just commentary on them to where students who either affirmed many of those things or some of our student council who said they don't see some of those things happening maybe a different perspective but I would also ask me to make sure I honor what was said there's that you >> it was pretty much just the it was pretty much just any extra commentary on the open-ended questions like Dr. Simon said seeing if uh students would uh students agree with what said or if they wanted to add on to anything else too I think our student council these are leadersite who are advocates who also speak up as well but we know that we to those students who may not be able to voice their perspective openly. So those are
027the students that we have to find. >> Okay. Thank you for that. Um I think my follow question is um is there going to be a followup survey done or something in like towards the end of the year or like something just to see from the I don't want to say the beginning because I feel like we survey all the time but I think this one in particular um not saying to change any of the questions but at least to have some kind of track if anything has approved or is is that being considered or is that something that we as the board have to agree on or how does this nature for us continue the surveys that we do have some of these questions are similar I'm Not sure if you know Dr. do
028another one like this. But in looking at these questions, some things are very similar to the healthy kids survey. >> So we'll continue to do that survey and we do continue to do the panorama. So we'll have that as well. >> And the that's yearly, correct? >> Yeah, both of them are just double check. Thank you so much. >> Just for clarification, healthy killed survey is every single grade or can you remind us of the grades, please? >> No, it's 571. >> Okay. 7. Okay. Uh, clerkfield. >> Thank you, Madam President. Um, just a few questions. Uh, one with the, uh, in the same graph that was the comfortable reporting safety concerns. We're still using the Sandy Hook uh, tip line, correct? >> Yeah, >> you're correct. For sure. >> And do do students uh,
029do we track how many tips we get from that? >> There's a dashboard. >> Yeah, there is a dashboard. We get notifications every time a tip is submitted and we do track those and monitor the end response. >> Is is there a way the board could get just uh see how many we're getting maybe compared to last year to this year? Just I feel like that's good data. >> Of course. Yeah, I already have myself. >> Cool. Um also the anti I think there was something uh about the anti-bullying. Uh, can you just briefly what are we doing with our anti-bullying messaging on on sites? >> I'll have to gather specifics by site and get back to you with that in the Friday memo. >> Okay. But we have have we added anything new this
030year? >> You know what? I don't think of anything right off the top of my head. >> Okay. Sorry. I know I threw that just randomly. Sorry. I didn't don't mean to. Um and then our our sped population are they they're included in the survey? >> Absolutely. >> And do we ever uh to to f I mean each each student population might feel slightly differently. Is there a way to disagregate the the right word there to to see how uh different student populations are feeling as far as safety goes? I know um a lot of time when we talk about inclusion, safety is a big part of that. It'd be I think I I would like to see like how they're feeling on campus. >> Thank you. Uh Clarkfield, so this survey specifically, I don't
031think we captured any student information or data. >> Okay. >> Um I can, you know, just throw that back to Dr. Smith, but for our other surveys, like there may be ways that we just aggregate that here, our in-house surveys. So we can definitely do that for you all in the future. >> Awesome. Thank you. That's all. >> Um Dr. Smith, for clarification, can it not be um created like by grade level? Is that not possible? >> Can you clarify that question? Uh, board president Richville was asking if we could get this survey broken down by like maybe grade level or just to look at more specific students and where there may be more fear like maybe it's really high in seventh grade but it's not in 10th or something to that extent. Can we
032do that with this survey? Is that possible? >> Well, as far as with with respect to demographics, no. The survey was anonymous and we didn't collect uh participant demographics through this survey. Um, the best we could do with this particular survey is break things down by grade or at least by grade span might even be better. We could look at 7th and 8th versus 9th through 12th. >> Did you want to add anything else to that? >> Um, no, but I think the maybe the healthy kids survey we can disagregate that a little bit more, right? >> The healthy kids survey remember it is certain grade levels and then there are some demographics in there. there's not as many as if we're creating our own survey and asking them to self-identify. Um that's difficult sometimes
033too. >> Yeah. >> The only way to really get a true um demographic is to connect it by their student number and then that anonymity goes away. >> Okay. I I think I'm I'm more concerned with our our sped population, especially on our high school campuses, but all of our campuses. uh I don't know if there's a way to tap into their sense of belonging and because uh again when it comes to inclusion I I think that we have done some really great stuff and I I think we're we're still doing it but I I think that that is a really important uh data point to keep track of. >> I mean we could look doing something specifically like I was even thinking of adapting some of the questions so that they could be more
034accessible to some of our students so we can look at that as well. >> Vice President Garza, >> thank you. Um, I'm sorry. I after I asked my question, um, I'm still a little, um, curious. Um, is there a way that we can con confirm or ensure that these wellness centers are accessible? Because it it just doesn't make any sense to me that we're getting um, you know, strength student support. it they want access to the wellness center but I'm we're being told by you know you tonight that they do have access so I'm wondering what is the miscommunication and so can we kind of dig a little deeper maybe there is some procedures that maybe need to be looked at again so that way this comes back if we do this again much better
035thank you >> and Mrs. Garza on that front. One of the things that's possible from the answers or from that particular theme is that we might have an issue that we need to address with respect to making sure that students are aware there is a wellness center. Sometimes students might be thinking or wanting or having a desire for something like that and they might not necessarily know that it's in place. So that's definitely another area, another way we can look at that and try to make sure that we shore that up. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. Um, two comments. Dr. Simon, I'm not sure if you know, but I know last year at the end of the year, the counselor that is in charge of the wellness center at Belfower, she sent me an
036email and it had every single student that went, it had every, you know what I'm talking about, it had it broken down. It was amazing. So, you might want to look at that. Um, it was really good. Um, and then just the one last thing, I had talked to Dr. Simon and I just wanted to talk publicly like we did talk about like this areas on campus and like bathrooms and things like that and um about needing extra security but we did talk about having administrators go out counselors go out some of our own staff going out to help with some of those times too. So when I'm looking at some of these places where um they might not feel as safe I know Dr. Simon is working on that as far as working with
037to have more people out just more eyes out there. >> Yeah. Are there any other questions? >> All right. Okay. So, moving along to major action. Um 13.1 election of members to the Los Angeles County Committee and School District Organization. County Committee. Is that me? What is Okay. So, do we have any questions or comments from the board? Okay. So, I move that the board of education cast its ballot for second super is how do you say that? Sorry, that's out of my pay grade. Um, a Stephanie Castanada and Ralph Mature. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Any questions, comments? Roll call, please. >> I did it on the sheet for you. You're welcome. All right, moving on to consent agenda. Do we have any items to withhold from the consent agenda this
038evening? Vice President Garza, >> um I have a couple um items, well, three, as a matter of fact. Uh 14.3, 14.8, and 14.19. Are there any others? Okay. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda withholding items 14.3, 14.8, and 14.19? >> You have that motion. >> Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Roll call, please. I >> I All right, moving to item 14.3 revision of Cal App's joint powers authority agreement to include middle school services. Vice President Garza, >> thank you. Uh my question there is the contract mentions that the JPA will provide services to middle school students but does not clearly define the extent of these services. Um this could could this lead to disputes over what is covered under the agreement? If I sure um so uh over
039at Calabs as one of the things when uh President Stewart and I are on that board um one of the things I noticed when we're over there we currently have uh some of the staff actually doing some middle school work and I'm totally supportive of them uh doing more. But when I looked at the original agreement, the agreement with Lynwood and us was that we'd start at the ninth grade. So, this was part of uh not cleaning up, but just updating getting our uh official agreements with Lynwood in alignment so we can start offering uh more in middle school and at the very least, you know, uh because we already do have some staff in the middle school, making sure that we're um just in alignment with it. But that but I that I think
040that would be the you know for for me on that board I I think doing more in the middle school and even younger sometime in the future uh getting them in the CTE pathways is going to be really big for us. It's one of our focuses over there. >> Thank you. >> And just to clarify was a question regarding the types of services. So his intention left opened to allow to decide which programs they provide at first grade levels. Um, and basically that's a decision based on their staffing and the programs that they thank you. >> Is that it? >> No more questions. >> Any other questions? All right. Can I get a motion to approve item 14.3? >> So moved. >> Can I get a second? >> Second. Roll call, please. I >> I
041>> All right, moving along to our next consent agenda item 14.8, establishment of position substitute elementary school counselor. Vice President Garza, >> thank you. I have uh quite a bit of questions on this one. Um for my first question, how is the budget currently allocated for the counseling services? And um are we able to identify the areas that we can kind of optimize the spending without compromising the student support? Is that going to be part of like maybe our ongoing budget um talks for counselors? >> Yes. >> I want to say as far as ongoing talks, I think for us the purposes because we do have a very limited pool of of our current um probationary or permanent counselors and so if one counselor goes out it does leave a school site right without someone
042to provide wellness and academic support. So the goal for temporary substitute position was to ensure that we always have someone to provide those tiered academic supports tiered mental health supports in case a counselor goes out. In this case in particular we do have one counselor who will be going out of attorney leave soon and so we do need to find ways to that position and the subsing pool will allow us like to do that until our counselor returns back to the job. >> Okay. And so I did see that on the um posting it said the type so it was for fulltime but it's full-time for uh just the amount of time that that counselor is out on maternity leave. >> You are correct. or anyone else who um is out maybe on leave or
043something transpires and maybe a resation or retirement until we're able to fill that position. Then we can use our sub list to fill in those positions. >> Okay. And so when they are rendering those services, that's the only time we would be issuing a check. >> Absolutely. >> Okay. Just wanted to make sure and clarify that. Um let's see. So how are we measuring um you know the success of our counseling programs on our campuses right now? Do we have something in place? >> Um I don't have anything in place that I can tell you right now, but I can follow up with the counselors. Um, I know they have check-in logs and a lot of like service reports of what they do, but I can gather that site by sight to see how they're
044measuring their progress. They have services they provide, check-ins, um, and they keep lots of all of that, but I can get you more information on specifically how they measure by site. Every site has a little bit of a different focus. Obviously, their population may be a little different, their needs may be a little different, so they may do things a little bit different by sight, but I can get that information for you. >> Okay, that would be great. Thank you. So are we is it the is the thought that the amount of students that come in and see the counselors is a measure of success or do we have that already set? >> I think there are other aspects. I don't know if we have a specific tool, but I give an example for Somerset
045or continuation school. It may be based on the amount of credits, right, that a student may earn conversations, right, that are had between that counselor and that student and other aspects of that work at a comprehensive more traditional high school that may be based on credit. other aspects and I'll have >> um in terms of like I can tell you for example like at the elementary school they do a lot of different things. So they may have um social skills groups or family nights or other other parent engagement types of activities. So they are heavily involved with all of that. Um so it again like I said it'll look different by site. Uh but I can get you a little bit more on that. >> Okay. Thank you. Um yeah, that would be wonderful. Um
046the reason I I'm asking is because I know that a lot of times we get our students who kind of present these issues early on and as we are looking as they progress through our programs and our school system, we want to make sure and I I know it's not the first time that we've discussed this a little bit. Um you know, what are we doing for those students? You know, I know U. President Stewart has mentioned that several times. We could catch them before. So, how do we measure that success rate and maybe I don't want to say track students, but at least have some check-ins with them as we're seeing them move through our educational system. So, that way we can put those, you know, supports in place. >> So, Vice President Bar,
047I know at our high schools, we have intervention counselors. >> I was share that. Um I think the conversation because you sparked a memory of conversations that we've had before. >> Um we're working with our comprehensive high schools this year to pull that DNF uh information, attach it to attendance, attach it to discipline. So this year we actually just met it was first progress report and now we're having quarter coming up and looked at all of that to see is there a correlation between that and what supports can we provide? So, we are looking into how our counselors and how our schools because it's a joint effort >> are helping out our students. So, that's something that we uh started up this year. Our goal is to pull that data at each of the reporting
048periods so that the schools can have it and then work towards uh supporting our kids. >> Okay. Look forward to seeing that. Um and then also uh like do we still give our counselors training? What types of training are we kind of giving them yearly or as they are joining our our educational system? >> So I we do give them ongoing training. I know one of the ones that they've been uh heavily involved with is hatching results. Um so they did go through a series of training last year and they will continue through this year as well. And just to build on that, so that hatching results is where our counselors are actually looking at what their tiered supports are and that. So that's going to um help with um the effectiveness that you're talking
049about because they're really talking about okay, what are we doing tier one and it's not just our secondary counselors, it's our elementary and secondary in those meetings. So we are looking at like the continuum, what's happening in elementary and secondary. >> So um we're working a little bit more on the plan of it this year. Last year was uh you know building and coming together and this year they're looking at well what are the tiered supports that we're doing and what do we need to do to help our students be most efficient and successful. >> Sounds exciting. I'm I'm really looking forward to seeing this, you know, the process. >> I was at their last training. It was great. They're they're a great group. Uh really collaborative and it's nice to see the elementary and
050secondary together. >> Yes. Thank you so much. No more questions. I'm really excited to hear about that too because I just did a safe and civil training with my district and I'm going to talk about it in my border board and it gives a lot of just different specific ideas on systems and how to improve them. So, I'm excited to hear about that, too. Anything else from anyone else? >> All right. Can I get a motion to approve item 14.8? >> So moved. >> Can I get a second? >> Second. Roll call, please. I >> Mr. >> I >> Mrs. >> I >> Stewart >> I All right. Um item 14.19 award recommendation for bid for the facilities master plan. Vice President Garza. >> Thank you. Um my first question is for PBK architects experience
051u with similar do they have experience with similar projects um particularly in school facilities uh can they provide some provide some examples of maybe past work? >> Well they have over 40 years experience with most of that being in school facilities and they've completed over 100 uh facilities master plans projects. So, we were incredibly impressed with the amount of depth of their experience in all over California, but a lot in Southern California. >> Perfect. Okay. So, they come with a lot of experience. >> They do. And when we call references, we've got really good references as well. >> Great. Thank you. Looks positive. >> Yes. >> Um my next question is unless someone else has it. No. Okay. uh what is their uh proposed approach to the facilities master plan like what are they going
052to be tackling first? >> Sure. They're going to uh tackle looking at enrollment demographics, facilities conditions and the educational adequacy of what we have right now and then they're going to involve community input and figure out the priorities and values from those particular things. Those are the big components that they're going to bring in. They follow a five-step process of collecting data, evaluating the the data, checking the conditions and assessment, analyzing and development, and then coming forth with a integrated master plan. >> And I'm assuming they're going to be able to address the very specific needs of our school district. Correct. >> That's that's exactly what they're going to do. All of that information is focused on our school district. >> Okay. Um, who is the who will be on that project team exactly? Just
053to confirm, >> we will have a director of planning as our point in contact. We will also have a principal in charge, a planning project manager and um those are the three main uh personnel that will be involved in the process. >> Thank you. Um, and how does uh PBK architects plan to manage the budget once they're they've got it going? Are they going to be um like giving us some updates on it regularly? How is there like a timeline set for that? >> Yeah, the project um timeline is set at about six months is what they they proposed when we talked to them with some flexibility depending on how long it takes for some of the little aspects of community involvement, those pieces. Um, and then as far as the budget, they'll be able
054to provide information on regards to how much these things cost and and in a roundabout way so that when we start looking for other funding sources such as bonds, state funding, how we may fund them with district or any strategic initiatives that we want to look at with those things. Um, they'll provide that information so that we can do that. >> Okay, perfect. So that'll feed right into if the board decides to go out for the bond. >> Yes. Safety. >> Yes. Compiled together. >> Okay. Thank you. Um I think those are all my questions for now. Thank you, >> Clerkshield. >> Thank you, Madam President. Um, so what would be the biggest difference between this facility's master plan and the previous one that I think everybody kind of agreed like could be a lot
055better. Uh there's some new um they were probably in place at the at the time of the last ones but new requirements of facilities masters plans where they have to delve uh deeper into like areas of education and pieces such as that. Um we feel that this company has offered a comprehensive plan that will cover all of our bases. So, as we go forward in planning, whether it be with bond, state funding, or other resources, we'll have a very knowledgeable base about where our district stands. >> Cool. And one of one of the things I heard about our previous master plan that I don't think was was great was I don't think our staff was very included in that process. From what I understand, they just kind of showed up and like didn't really collaborate
056with, you know, our staff. So they were kind of looking in areas that uh our staff could have identified as you know problematic. Uh so is that something we're going to do this time of >> Absolutely. The contractors already indicated that they will be holding stakeholder interviews which includes staff and community and they'll be doing on-site assessments where our staff especially like our maintenance staff will be heavily involved in areas of showing them where things exist on the campus and that's going to make a big difference too. Cool. Thank you for bringing that up. >> Thank you. aspect of this is something that was very ster Anything else? All right. Can I get a motion to approve item 14.19? >> So moved. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> I
057All right. So going along to board communications. Student board members should be Can I ask a clarifying question? When you say taking stocks, what does that mean for someone who doesn't understand like me? >> So, taking stocks just means lives and each person starts out with three. Each person starts out with three stocks and there are four players per team. And the way it played was a crew battle. So, If you take, let's say game one, um, I play and against another player, they took one of my stocks, but I took all three of theirs. When I face the next person, they will start with three stocks, but I'll start with two that I have left, and I'll just keep going till all the teammates lose their stocks. >> Got it. Thank you. Thank you
058for clarifying that for me. Board member Centron. Well, I'll leave it there. Thank you so much. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Sorry, President Stewart. I I am looking forward to Saturday. I have my shirt and um I know a few parents that signed up for some workshops and I know they are really excited and I'm uh I'm gonna need a couple more flyers because they handed me before I got to the meeting today so I can run down the block and give it to them please. Thank you so much. >> Thank you board member Centron. Board member Armstrong. >> Thank you uh President Stewart. Um well um I um I attended the um our retreat also. I didn't get there till about 12:30, but that was because I co-hosted um my capstone water my water education
059capstone project. It was in Compton, so it wasn't too far. So after I did my my spill, my section, I let them know I'm on my way and I came in and I joined my colleagues and I just um I'm I was actually happy that we were able I was able to log in virtually and and then come and and join them in in in the last hour. So and I appreciate that uh that schedule conflict it was it was it was okay. So thank you. Um uh and in the future though I would really like to bring u a water capstone project here in Belfflower too because it was really really successful. Um so water education. Um I met with our superintendent and um we also I also uh attended the evening of unity
060at Mayfair and you know our our superintendent she did she put herself in a very vulnerable position. Um it it got even emotional uh for some for some members of the community. Um our Skills USA students were were suited and booted. They were looking good in their red jackets and you know and of course they were like hey they they they really want to garner even more support in in their efforts. So you know let's let's keep up the good work for our kids who are participating in that program and and and and grow it more and and provide them even more opportunities. So um kudos to our kids in Skills USA. Um um yeah uh during during the um the the evening of unity, the community at large shared concerns. They had questions and
061and some even um shared emotional statements and and and they really really appreciated um the superintendent putting herself out there and and and our board was sitting there strong right behind her. So, um that was that lots of appreciation during that time. Um I do want to share that um I was nominated for a candidacy uh for uh CSBA's AfricanAmerican director at large and uh and I was encouraged to accept the nomination. And although I received the nomination and courage and everything, I I wanted to garner support uh of my board before I moved forward with that decision because it is another commitment that I must take seriously because it is on that state level. And I just wanted to want to want my um board to know that I really really appreciate your support
062and I am going to do my best. No, I'm not going to do my best. I am going to represent Bellflower as best as I can. So, thank you again for your support. I feel so much better going into this with you guys behind my behind me. And uh voting will be taking place at CSBA in December. So, I I have to go through the voting. So, if I'm successful, that's a another another thing that I'll Yeah. But it's going to be good for us if if it happens. If it's for me, I'll get the candidacy. I'll get that seat. And um and that's about it. I don't know what else I was supposed to say, but thank you all for being out here. Thank you. >> Thank you, board member Armstrong, Clerk Crutchfield. >>
063Thank you, Madam President. Um I was able to attend the Lakewood Celebrates uh event with Dr. Simon uh and celebrate our two new principles into the community. Uh the evening of unity uh event as well. I want to say thank you again, Dr. Simon and board president Stewart. I think that uh event was very uh I think it was important and I think um there is that battle in my head where I'm like man we should have been doing this all along but then you quickly snap at all it's about going forward and we're doing it and I'm I'm excited about it. and even uh the upcoming event. Uh I think uh and I want to thank you sincerely the efforts to engage our community. Uh they're they're just there and they're authentic and uh
064I I really appreciate that. Um so it was a great event. Uh I also went to the bubble run at Lindstöm and and I got to say that that's always fun. Um I think they were able to raise first of all shout out to our PTAs. They do amazing work at our sites. And I think they were able to raise with just that one fundraiser, I think $35,000 for their site. And when I was asking about it, I learned only three of our schools uh participated in this partnership with this company to and and they give a huge percentage. Uh and that money goes to all of our PTA activities. And all three schools are in the south side of our our uh district. And I think it's, you know, I know all of our
065PTAs do a lot of work. Um, but I think it's really important for our PTAs uh across our district to really engage in that. Um, I I think it really uh puts a spotlight on the equity in our schools as far as which schools are are willing to participate and reach out to the community and get support from parents. I think we got to do more work across our district uh to support our students. So, whatever we can do to support our PTAs uh across our district, I think we we should definitely be doing and I think I think we do. Um, but more of um I do want to just clarify one thing. At the last board meeting, and I'm bringing up because I I was stopped by a couple parents who were asking
066about it, uh, I was asking some questions with our architect about, uh, just kind of the boundaries, uh, of of the project because, uh, of the safety concerns along Kanehill. Uh, and what I will say is I I know we're going to have some meetings, uh, uh, coming up to kind of clarify that. So hopefully at the next board meeting, we can have some clarification on some of those things. I think it there was a miscommunication going on at the last board meeting as far as what the actual uh facts were. So hopefully at the next meeting we can be a little bit more clear uh on that. So um other than that, thank you all for being here and thank you to our staff and cabinet for all the hard work you're doing. Thank
067you. >> Thank you, Clerk Critzfield, Vice President GarcA. >> Thank you, President Stewart. Um good evening every good evening everyone. Um I was able to attend the board retreat on September 20th. It was very insightful and fruitful. Um you will be soon be seeing the products of that labor uh from all of us and we're excited to move forward with our superintendent um support and guidance as we move our district board. So, uh, I also attended the night of unity town hall a little late. Um, but I was there. Um, so it was really nice to see our community be able to actually have a forum in which they can express their concerns and have their questions answered in the moment that they are asking them. They didn't have to wait around to get an
068answer a, you know, a week, two days later. it was right there and then. So, I want to say thank you so much for to our superintendent to be, you know, again, like everyone else has voiced, um, putting yourself out there and being able to answer those questions kind of under fire is something that we really wanted to see in a superintendent that you embody for us. Now um to our cabinet as well, thank you for helping you know us all become um part of a you know a larger community and we see that the work that you are doing every day is helping our student students. Um and we really look forward to working you know seeing this again to some fruition in a larger arena. Um and like you said, the small wins
069are the ones that we are going for at this moment. So, um was really happy to see that as well. Thank you so much. Uh have a nice night. >> Thank you, Vice President Garza. Um good evening. The last few weeks have been pretty light, but first I want to give a shout out to our translators. If you can't see them, they're sitting in the audience with microphones because of our tech problems. So, I just want to say thank you to them. Say your names on the the thing the feed. All right. Um September 30th, I attended the Unity Town Hall introduction of Dr. Simon, which went very well. I appreciated the community feedback and questions because sometimes as board members, we see things from afar and we need to hear our community voices. So,
070I really appreciated that. The more input, in my opinion, the better. So, I appreciate the students, parents, and the community members who showed up that night. I attended the Bellflower State of the City with Dr. Smith and Mrs. Cummings. It was nice to see other leaders and to hear the latest statistics on crime and safety, new projects that were being built here in Belfower, what properties the city has purchased, um how many taxes we generate and how we use them. And so I just enjoyed attending this um to see the strides and the gains that we are making. And I always tell um everybody that I know I'm biased, but the ensemble sang the national anthem from Buffalo High School and they're so amazing. They were just so great. I just when they do the
071national anthem, I feel like they should be on a national stage because they are so good and the variation that they use, it's just amazing. So, thank you to them as well for being there and singing that national anthem. On Monday, I attended an event hosted by Assembly Member Josh Thenthal. It was beautiful. It was on the rooftop of the Fairmont Breakers Hotel in Long Beach, and I just got to spend a few hours with some of our local leaders. I spoke at at a I spent a lot of time talking with Diane Martinez, schoolboard member from Paramount, with Mark Paleo from Crito City Council, our local assembly member, Jose Salacee, Robert Garcia was there. There was a lot of people there and it was just really nice to be able to sit down with
072some elected officials and have conversations where we could talk about education and things going on in our world. Um there were a lot of school board members in attendance too that I got to collaborate with from all over Orange County, Tustin, Los Alamos, a lot of um junior college, Long Beach City, um different places. So it was just really nice to be able to um talk about partnerships and things that we can help with, support with, and do things together. So I really appreciate their energy and their positivity for our students. Um and then last, I attended a workshop I was just talking about earlier for safe and civil. Um, we call it the culture and climate in our uh, district paramount. And I know we've talked about implementing the safe and civil program here
073in Belfflower. So, I just wanted to share a few takeaways that I took from this. Um, one, school climate, if you don't understand climate and culture, school climate is how do I feel where I'm at? And the school culture is a set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterize an institution or an organization. So, these are actionable items and they should support the mission and the vision statement of the district. Um, studies show that absent student percentages often mirror teacher absence percentages, which I thought was interesting. Um, they talked about if you really want change in your district or your systems that you need to have six major things: trust, vision, skills, resources, payoffs, and action plan plans. And they talked about if you do not have trust that you'll get um you'll
074get sabotage. If you don't have a vision, you'll get confusion. If you don't have skills, you'll get anxiety. If you don't have resources, you'll get angry. If you don't have payoffs, you'll get sporadic changes. And if you don't have action plans, you'll get false starts. So, one thing they talked about was turnover and leadership is highly important and is a big factor. And so, teachers and staff, they won't buy into it if they think that it's temporary or if it's not going to last. So, it just reminded me that we need leadership in place for several years. And I love that we're focusing on hiring and our leaders that we want to um have at our schools because that's really important. A few other reminders. We should treat all students as if they are fully
075capable of hitting their academic benchmarks. We should analyze, especially at each site, office referrals, suspension, injuries, attendance, sped referrals, tier 2 support referrals, ADA, and tardies. When looking at our behavior strategies, um there was an eight-year study that shows that, and I was talking with Miss Carter about this earlier, that the spikes in behavior of students typically happen in October or February. So, if you're a teacher right now, it's October. Have a plan right now. Um they talked about documenting behavior and that you really should use data from three different things: perception, observations, and quantitive data. So I hope that when we're looking at our behavior that we're looking at those things and you cannot effectively address a change a system change through individual in individual intervention if 20% or more of the students are
076not hitting a benchmark. So when you get to that high of a place you really need to look at the system in place and not the individuals. And we should never develop final procedures or policies without actively involving the entire staff. So, one last thing, um, our policies should match our procedures. And so, one example they gave that really hit home with me was a tardy. So, we had about, I think there was five tables of eight different eight to 10 teachers of each um different site, middle schools in our school, and they asked us what was a tardy. And they asked teachers, and you can imagine teachers are very opinionated. They love to talk about their ideas, but everyone had different things. And you're thinking, it's just a tardy. Why would we be so
077far off? So, some teachers their um identifying a tardy was if the kid was or the student was in the seat at the time. Another teacher said it was when the bell rang. Another teacher said, "I don't have time for that. I open the door and I just look and see if there's anybody in the hall and if they are, I just bring them in." But what it showed was that it needs to be consistent. It needs to be agreed upon in definition and the staff needs to be included to define protocols. And it talked about different things, restroom passes, hallways, tardies. And so I hope that as we're looking at some of these things and our behavior intervention and systems in place that we keep in mind that if we don't pass these down
078to the teachers and get buy in and all have an understanding of what that means, it's never going to be successful. So I just wanted to bring that back just I thought they gave really good strategies. Um, and that was it for tonight. Are there any questions onformational items? All right. Hearing none, if there is no objection, this meeting will be adjourned at 8:16 p.m. until the regular board meeting to be held on October 26, 2025. Thank you.