001Good afternoon and welcome to this afternoon's regular meeting of the Board of Education. This meeting is called to order at 4:00 p.m. Roll call, please. Student Member Ms. Armstrong, present. Ms. Cintron, present. Mr. Crisfield, present. Ms. Garza, present. Excuse me, Ms. Garza is not present. Ma'am, this afternoon we have no requests to discuss items on the agenda. Closed session at this time. The board will now adjourn. Session closed. Open session will resume at approximately 6:00 p.m. [ Music] Open session. After the board adjourned at 4:10 p.m., we will now reconvene for an open session at 6:16 p.m. Secretary Kveld will bring us up to date on the items from the closed session. The items mentioned were litigation, negotiations, and employee discipline. The board took no action in the closed session. Today we will have our
002Vice President, Ms. Garza. Ms. Garza, she will... If everyone can stand, place your hand over the flag, right hand over heart. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, justice for all. Thank you, ma'am. We know we have replacement pages today. We have some replacement pages. We have items 13.7 and 13.13 on the back table. We have agenda modifications. Yes, we have a modification. We have a correction. We have an error in 13.8. The resolution by the certified administrators in the first paragraph issued is misspelled with an extra 's'. We have that correction. I know we have recognitions because I see all the students who went to Buaro High School, and Mrs. Saaveda can take the recognitions. Yes, I'm going to
003have Mrs. Carter lead the recognitions this afternoon. If the Directors are coming down this afternoon, the Board of Education wants to recognize the district teams that won the winter sports championships. The staff and students, please come forward while your names are called and stand here for a picture. Representing Bellflower High School boys' basketball, the coaches Zach Carter, Stanley Hollis, Marvin Brag, Angel CNA Vasquez, and now for the students, please come forward: E.G. Andrews from BS Carter, Jason Harris, Jayen Hatch, Stanley Hall, Elijah Thompson, Lorenzo Urena, Kenneth Bright Christian Martinez Delgado, thanks to the training and guidance of the coaches and staff, along with the hard work and efforts of the students, has been a top-performing basketball team since 1978. The boys' basketball team has not had a single loss, and that's why they won the
004Mid City League championship title. Congratulations to all the students! There is someone in the audience who wants to acknowledge the parents. If you could stand at our feet, thank you to the parents and coaches for your dedication to the team. What a great victory! Congratulations to everyone. That concludes the recognitions. This was the last recognition. Thank you very much and congratulations. Now we must continue. We will go to the presentations of the students, the staff, and the community. We will go to the reports of the employee representatives. Hello, good afternoon, President St., Mrs. Acedo, and the invited board members. It has been a while since I have been here. There was an article recently published in the Signal, which is the newspaper in Santa Clarita where I live. As the board, I wanted to mention
005the behavior competitions in the classroom. I realized that behavior is a challenge everywhere, but I I'd like you to see the ways we can support students and teachers in the classroom. I think we realize that ERCO challenges us to be creative with discipline. Let me tell you about some concerns that elementary school teachers have. Students with certain behaviors are sent to the office. That school might not have a counselor that day, the principal might not be at school—it depends on the school. What does the teacher do? I told many teachers this year to make sure they document the behaviors and email them to the administration. But that leaves a paper trail. What 's the plan for behaviors? How do we know next year will be better because we're implementing the processes? This is just elementary
006school; we need to talk about high school. We decided to go to Blog because they promised us smaller classrooms to provide intervention in classes, build relationships, and offer more elective options and make-up credits during the school day, instead of anticipating that they'll do it in zero, seventh, and eighth periods. The district said it was going to keep it at 175 to support Blog's schedule next year and to provide those opportunities for the Opportunities: Negotiation continued after a long break. The last date was before winter break, and we're regrouping. The alliance: Last year we mentioned transportation reorganization. I hope we can get back to the transportation department. We saw a much better atmosphere this year, and I hope that continues. The committee meets with special education. We meet every month. They continue to talk and hope
007to make some changes to the special education department that will benefit students and help teachers succeed. Last month, I attended the Schooler Service Center with many of you here. It was a lovely evening. The food was good, and I went home and asked my husband what the title of his book would be. I would say it depends on the day, and every day is the same. Yesterday, I attended the GBQ Professional Development Middle School with the high school teachers. I love what you're doing with our history teachers, and I hope the district will consider expanding it to other teachers as well. I'm also very excited about the transparent process that decides who will be the teacher of the year. The applications that have been submitted were... there was a lot of competition. We have many
008amazing teachers who are... Doing very nice things for our students, I shared the administration survey data. I gave it to SEEDO. I hope the COM participation committee received it. Let's see if they get feedback from the teachers. The representatives from LOSITOS will give them the data at the next meeting in March so they can have conversations with their members. I'm going to attend the EAE conference in Anahim and the BTH leaders, and I'm looking forward to sharing what I learned in class. Finally, on Tuesday I was listening to the radio and it reminded me of those who made a cell phone ban and that all students had to pay for their phones. I thought it was a cool thing to do, but tutors and parents also hear it on the radio, and sometimes hearing it
009from a different source makes a difference. I'm not sure what the plan for the cell phone policy will be, but I urge you to use it. How to reach the community. Thank you and have a nice afternoon. Thank you. Science doesn't have a report today, and neither does the PTA. We'll continue with the superintendent's report. Thank you. Good afternoon to everyone. I hope everyone enjoyed a long weekend. Friday and Monday were my pleasure. I visited Ernie twice this week and received a special invitation to attend the Q&U wedding, and I have some pictures for you. This was presented this morning by Miss Ashen's transitional kindergarten class. The presentation was very cute and creative. They dressed up as letters of the alphabet and were like guests at the wedding. They invited the parents and school staff
010to a wedding that included songs and a ceremony between the two letters Q and U. Miss Ashen explained that Q's creative way of showing that U is almost always followed by Q in words was fun, and everyone participated. I think Ernie Pile for that invitation was very nice. I would also like to congratulate the CT teachers and students. We celebrated CT programs this past February. We had CT students competing in various USA Schools at the regional level, and we have 48 students from Bellflower Major Summerset and CS Program who qualified to compete at the state level in April. Congratulations to the students and staff for their efforts. We know it's a difficult thing to participate in. I also want to congratulate Summerset High School for once again being recognized as A model high school, they
011said that the recipients yesterday, Summerset, will be recognized in April at the California Continuing Education gala for providing comprehensive services to at- risk youth. Some staff will meet us for the recognition after the gala, and finally this afternoon I would like to introduce you to our new PD team member, Mr. Cal. I believe he is with us this afternoon. Welcome, sir. He is serving as a principal in high school. He has been with the L district for 13 years. He began his career as a special education teacher. He was an instructional leader and has a bachelor's degree in science and zoology and in special education from Loyola Marymount and National University. Welcome. That's my update for this afternoon. Thank you. We will continue with the committee updates. Thank you, Chair. The Facilities and Enrollment Committee
012will be visiting the Learning Center in San Diego from March 16th onwards. Thank you for organizing that, Ryan. A group of us will be visiting numerous sites, doing unique things at their respective schools. I am looking forward to going. We will meet on the 25th. The committee has a report. This, I, this, my Armstrong, yes, this unified school district, is going to invite you to an event on February 24th from 5 to 7 pm in a meeting talking about math adoptions, the role of school board members, instructional materials adoptions, state board governance processes, and all of this to close achievement gaps. All members and cabinet members are welcome, you just have to register. Any other committee obligations? Well, one thing I would like to say to my colleagues: at the next meeting, on the agenda,
013there will be an addition of a legislative action committee to stay current with legislation. We're going to go from cost to cost to housing for students. I'm going to start the committee if we can put it on the agenda at the next meeting. Moving on, we don't have any public comments tonight, right? Okay, great. Let's move on to discussion topics. 12.1 The mid-year presentation of the Accountability Plan. Well, Mr. Car is going to give a presentation this afternoon. It's the Accountability Plan with local control. It's the accountability plan. We're going to open it. Public comments. Sorry, this is in case anyone wants to talk about some topics, some points. You have to ask. There are public comments. Well, closing the public comments. Thank you. Tonight, in collaboration with business services, I will give the mid-year
014update of the ELC. It is the Locally Controlled Accountability Plan. It is the district's plan that supports student achievement. It is a 3-year plan. We are in the first year of implementation. Annually, we review the plan with educational partners to see if any changes need to be made. In February, every year, we give an update and the current status of the implementation of each action and the expenditures to this point. And the results data in the available metrics, expenditures, implementation information will be presented, such as those that have not started, those that are in progress, and those that have been completed. Some metrics are in progress because the information is being collected and is not available or complete, such as certain data metrics. And results that are not yet there, but then we will finalize
015them when we adopt the general tax. Last year's projected revenue was $185 million, as shown on this slide. Projected revenues $204 million will be the total, and these funds are added even though they haven't been spent yet. The plan has four goals and 27 actions. The actions included in goal one state that a safe learning environment will be provided for students. Actions on the quality of educators include instructional support, reducing blended learning, infrastructure maintenance, cleaning, security, mental health services, and programs to ensure students participate in a broad course of study. Many of these are complete, but some are in progress. These goals—just a moment, I appreciate your patience. For goal one, there are 45 key points and five state priorities: basic conditions, student conditions (e.g., student performance), access to the curriculum, hiring qualified teachers, maintaining
016facilities in good condition, student conditions areas, student expulsion rates, and data on school safety. Eight of the 18 results are in progress, 70 percent of the remaining results have improved. Data measuring student engagement are several metrics that are in progress, but 90 percent of the metrics have improved or have... Four important points have been measured to assess the student environment: teachers' feelings about how to improve schools, parents' feelings about how they feel about being at school, whether they are welcomed, enrollment in arts and fine arts programs, and second-grade students being able to read by third grade. Other reading improvement goals have also been addressed. However, the dropout rate has increased; 8% of students were considered to have dropped out of school. This includes fifth-grade students who are studying for a special education certificate, other students
017who want to go to adult school, and all of them. Goal 2 includes 10 actions that support academic programs and student achievement. These services include plan-aligned materials, supporting teachers, supporting supplemental academic systems such as early childhood education, college opportunities, and dual-language immersion. Certain implementations are still in progress. There are 57 metrics that measure progress on three state priorities for Goal 2, including implementation of state standards, student achievement, and other outcomes, including participation in college opportunities. Other metrics also measure this. How are the state standards implemented in math science and English language and literature? These metrics and collected data showed progress, but there were some declines. English learners progressed in math and language arts, and there was a need to improve proficiency among elementary through third grade students and others learning English. The 14 outcomes collected
018to measure improvements are still progressing, and 11 of the 19 metrics to measure student success in other programs have improved, including 11th-grade students. Their college readiness and Advanced Education exam scores have improved, and we have also seen improvements in bilingual students. The three metrics that measure parental involvement and educational strategies are perception data: whether teachers feel part of the decision-making process and whether parents feel their involvement is being promoted. Three parent workshops are also being used to collect this data, as well as other website publications. All of this information and these programs have improved. There are actions to support three schools receiving specialized funding this year due to stabilization. Regarding the student body for academic support and for information on universities, that is being implemented. More than 40% of the 28 metrics that are used
019to measure those achievements are still in progress. But there has been improvement. In the coming months, the plan will continue to be monitored, and metrics and information will be collected to ensure student success and measure it. This should be distributed in March. In May, the final analysis of the local monitoring will be done, and information and review will be requested from other experts. The final plan will then be brought to you for your review and approval. Thank you, Ms. Carter. Do you have any questions or comments? I only have one question about the points that are in progress. We believe we will meet the goal and complete it. There are quite a few measures, but there are some that you think we might not be able to meet. There will be some that we probably
020won't meet because, remember, this is a 3-year monitoring plan. We want to meet the final goal in the third year. So, the surveys are released, and the responses to those surveys depend on it. We 're already collecting, Mr. KFI, thank you, Madam President. I appreciate you taking the time to answer this question earlier, but for our information, the budget impact elimination increases all federal funds up to 18 percent. I believe it's money from previous years' budgets. Excuse me, can you explain that? Well, let's show this page, the impact of the general budget for parents, so we can see what I'm going to explain. It's common when we develop the budget—I explained to the board again about the budget—we're going to start now and bring it to you in June, but we haven't closed the previous
021year, so we have to give a budget for next year. So when we adopt a budget, sometimes we don't have the numbers we have from the previous year, programs or resources that are still in process. So it's very common that we bring changes to the board when we bring the previous year's funds to spend in the year. That's why you can see that the adopted budget plan doesn't have those numbers until we determine how much we'll have left from last year; that's when we include it. Well, thank you. I think it's something that sometimes This comes up, I just want to clarify this or shed some light on the subject, and there are quite a few of these people who say that half-year expenses... I know that many expenses aren't the same all year, right?
022There are more in the final part of the year, but some of us budget 12.5 million if we've only had 4.8 million in high-quality educators with the budget for infrastructure and infrastructure maintenance when it's low. Is there any adjustment made to what's budgeted if we don't think we're going to spend it so we don't end up with so much? Because we budget so much and the numbers come in late, and then we have an additional amount of money. That's why in the reports we bring you, you have the adjustments of what we projected and also of what... We see that these numbers are happening throughout the year, sometimes occurring later, so the numbers can be heavier at the end of the year. Some may have already been spent in the summer, and you may already
023have some high numbers because it's already been used and included in the budget. So our goal is to give you updates on our projections to guide the board in the budgeting process so they know what situation, what position we're in when we develop the budget. Then, for allocation, for control, for the local control plan, we have no idea what the budget is going to be. We have to budget, so some smaller idea, perhaps. Well, again, we develop the April-May budget. You can imagine the expenses that take place in April, May, and June that can impact those budgets, which then take quite a bit away from us. It's a budget title one. We have a finite amount of money, and the amount we have to allocate is exactly what's left of the money we received the
024previous year. We monitor it as best we can, but when we include it in the budget for the following year, it's the amount we have left of the money from the previous year. I see that this is for the first time with us. In this budget cycle, I know it has been adopted, and you would say that I know we are already making changes, but to get closer to what we are going to be budgeting so that there isn't so much of a gap, absolutely, that is what we are trying to do, and what we are doing at this moment is our projections based on what we think, what we think we are going to spend. It is common practice that we then inform the board when we do this, our report. Thank you very
025much, Vice President. Thank you, Madam President. My question is about goal number one of the control plan. Can you give me a definition of high-quality educators? I thought we had high-quality educators. Basically, it's a name for our teachers, our administrators. High-quality educators is... Ah, historically, there was a definition of what a high-quality teacher is, but it's the name we gave to that goal. That is only the area where we are looking at the teachers and administrators in that... in that... in that action to meet the requirements and say that it is completed. What do we have to do to complete one? It would be because the expenses would be completed at the end of the year. And Ms. Ares can correct me, but that is the difference. Okay. Thank you. Going over and moving on
026to goal number two, the goal of Chapter 2, many of you say that these are in progress. Is there a way you can describe how schools are tracking their own progress? Do schools record their budgets similarly to how we record our budgets? We're putting all of this together over a six-month period. We're doing this with school sites as well. For example, in the last few weeks, we've had meetings with administrators about their budgets. We see, okay, they said they were going to project spending this much, and we still see that they have n't done it yet. Is there a reason? Did something else take priority? And we're having conversations with them about reallocating or spending the money that hasn't been spent yet. There's still time for them to use these funds before the end of
027the school year. Absolutely. And what if they don't reach that point? What happens? Ms. Arcas, please correct me if I'm wrong, but that would be leftover funds. It depends on the grant or the type of fund it is. And I think you may have already asked this question, but we lose those funds if we don't use them or allocate them appropriately. We have a timeline for spending on those things. We're fine with those timeframes. Some funds have 2 years, some have 5 years, and some have 18 or 27 months. We have to meet the due date, or we have to return the money. Oh, it doesn't matter, I'm fine. I have a question to add regarding goal 1, one for high-quality teachers. If we have 110, why is 63 halfway? That means we'll be at
028126 because that would be the standard. Why didn't we just budget 110 million and have 126 million? These mid-year expenses are until January 31st; it's not exactly 6 months. It's a little math, like how we pay teachers and when those things happen. Maybe they happen in the summer, as it depends on how we do things. It would be perfect if I could come with a report showing we're at 50%, but I'll never be able to present that based on the school calendar system. That would be a good question. Any other questions, Secretary KCH Field? A few more, Chapter 1, for instructional supports. Those are the aides. That's the article about the aides, yes it is. And when we budget, that's what we want to do, that's the money we're going to allocate. At what point
029do we review or verify or make the necessary corrections to make that possible? Because it seems I understand your question, that 's absolutely correct. We base that on what the conversation was, and the decisions were made by the [unclear/unclear/etc.]. And then we try to make that happen, and we've tried to hire aides and do a variety of certain things to achieve that. There are priorities before this current number, and that's to fill vacancies in other areas like Transition Kindergarten and our special education aides. We're trying to do that before reallocating these funds. But is there a point where if we say, "Yes, okay, there's something else we can do with the funds," but we haven't been able to get to that point because we do want to hire instructional aides? Yes, it can be done.
030Especially with the job fair and in Chapter 2, when I did supplemental school, when we're beyond the budget, how do we reconcile that when the half-year amount is higher than certain points? We do that, we adjust the The budget, or that's done with more reports, what happens here is that we make the budget based on the funds we have, and then when there's a surplus, our sites decide there's a need in certain areas, and they're going to distribute the funds in that area. That's what happened with this; you're seeing 2.9, and then they put more funds in, they put it at 1.6, and that's why it's already matching because we anticipate that it will continue to be more than 1.6 because we already reviewed the budget, which has more funds in that area, so we
031just adjust it to what's there. But we wait for the surplus funds before making the adjustments. Typically, we're going to make the proposal in April, and in October we do that review, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, Ms. Ares, but when the state verifies it, and everything, so that we know what we're going to have left over that we can distribute to the sites. And I want to add regarding that, and you're absolutely correct, but what the state is asking for is a mid-year update of the budget, that's why we need those numbers to be on track, and that's why we do n't do so many Garlic, because this is what the state is asking us to do: how we've progressed. And this is when we have the opportunity to see and see
032how we're going to adjust and figure out how we're going to change it or how much will be left over next year. We do it in two ways: if there are certain things that weren't close to the budget, we decrease them to make more room so that there's definitely more space. We can do the goal, chapter 3, communication with parents, is beyond the budget. But that came up, it was at the midpoint, but it's not. We're over the limit. Can you explain? That's similar to 2.9. So the budget was at 12.2, and then the sites had leftover funds. They decided they wanted more in that area, so they spent that. Now it has increased, and we adjust the budget. As in the last one, the numbers were the same. They adjusted the budget for expenses.
033We didn't adjust anything. Those numbers, the number that you have in the first one is what was in the budget, and the second one is what they've spent to date. So it's off by just a little. And lastly, many of these have amounts attached to the goals, but with the social media one, Instagram, at some point we talked about The enrollment campaign and the LC, we didn't put a dollar amount from the enrollment campaign, or that would be in other, other spaces now, because in that position it started after we did this control plan. All of that is in the superintendent's office, the public information officer. All of that was developed after this control plan started in June. I have a question, can I add that to this, the parent communication, we only distributed Cent
0342 and we are trying to improve communication with the parents. That's what was distributed. What are those brochures, or what are those social media posts, or what? What do they give us for those 100, those 10,000? I would say that our... In fact, I know it says 4,000, 1,003, but we have spent more. But what do we receive with those funds? I think what we are talking about with parent communication is, in another line, that parent communication is our websites, online, the signs, that kind of thing. But I would say that these are... these are a technology fund instead of this line, in one, 1.7, which the other... go ahead, secretary kf that was all thank you very much are there any other questions continuing to the agenda consent we have agenda withdrawal items Yes
035ma'am president Let me find it I want to stop 13.3 and 13.5 does anyone have another one No, you already covered them can make a motion to approve the agenda consent and withhold items 13.3 and 13.5 one second second roll call I me I me ma'am and on 13.3 the selection of members to the board the association to the assembly of delegates I want to open I know there are five names here one two three four five there are cco names here I would like to approve four of the names and I think those two qualify but I do n't think the others want a talk I agree with you anyone else I would like to make a motion to approve item 13.3 Robert Kennedy and one second second roll call Yes yes yes sir
036Yes ma'am Gar Yes on 13.5 the reading the second reading of the student member laws act secretary churchfield one thing from the last talk of the first reading there is a part At the top, where it again says that student board members can receive credit, I think it should be changed from "can" to "will." I know we had discussions about this, but I wanted to see if it's a possibility and how we can update that. Also, I think it should be moved to the second paragraph. I think so because it's stated twice in one sentence. I'd like to make it very clear whether it's yes or no. The second paragraph says that student board members, in the description, can receive credit for elective courses by completing the daily minutes of service provided by the member,
037and at the end it says students can receive credit at the conclusion of each semester. So it's a little repetitive. We want to clean everything up. I agree. To test it, we need you to tell us specifically, Secretary Herfeld, that student board members will receive service credit based on the number of minutes in the instruction. How would that be done? Because I know there are certain things we have to consider. I'd like to say that they will receive credit for their courses, and I want that in the second paragraph and remove the last sentence at the bottom of the page, which would be the final paragraph. The request, yes, correct, we don't need to have it twice. Okay, understood. Any further discussion? A motion to approve 13.5 with the corrections that the secretary indicated. Of
038course, a motion. A second one. Roll call, member Jose. Yes, Mrs. Armstrong. Yes, Mrs. Garza. Yes, Mrs. Stuart. Yes. Okay, now to board communications. The members. Okay, can we begin? Good afternoon, everyone. I don't have much to talk about today, but today I attended a principal's meeting with Mr. Diaz and my colleagues. I felt it was good to present because we talked about the bell schedule and how certain middle schools should have seventh and eighth grade instead of leaving early, and also student opinions. I think it's extremely necessary, and that's what I did, and these are also things I'm going to present at the superintendent's counseling meeting. Also, yesterday we had our first elective fair, and it's an opportunity for students to see the elective subjects that they might not know about, like caring for
039patients or being a tutor. There are many paths that students can explore, and we think it's very important at MAYF, and that's why we started the fair. Optional subjects also tomorrow we're going to have a disability awareness session for students and staff, and I think it's important to talk about it. That's all, thank you. Thank you very much, Board Member Armstrong. Yes, thank you, Chairwoman Stuart. Good evening, good afternoon everyone. Thank you all for being here tonight. You know, February is a pretty short month, yet many things are celebrated and remembered. This is Heart Month in America, making sure to take time to check your heart, make sure your heart is healthy. I'm telling myself I have to do more exercise because I really have to take care of myself and make the time to
040do it because we are all very busy people, but taking care of yourself is quite important. We also have Valentine's Day. You know, some friends told me, well, it's a seagull day, they say, but I don't know who told me, I laughed. But it's also National Cancer Prevention Month. Early detection is best, they say, and I don't know how many of you have been touched by cancer, or have family members or friends with cancer, or have had it yourselves, but do the best you can by taking care of yourselves. Go get checked out if there's anything we can prevent, and seeing it in its early stages is better. Another thing I'm very proud of is doing a lot of activities with my students, National Dental Health for the children. The kids really like it, the
041parents like it too. As for teeth, well, some will fall out, but the permanent ones will come in. I'm always referring to my children's dentists because it was one of the dentists who made it mandatory for kindergarten children to be checked and examined before they started school. Dr. Cortés Santos Cortés was very instrumental in passing that measure. And of course, the history of Black History Month... I do n't know if I didn't notice all the advertising, but the Luther King parade... I would think it was in January, but we had one on Cressaw Street celebrating Black History Month. It's a short month, but I can't say everything, but many things happened and continue to happen in this short month. I'm also a little annoyed about this because I'm going to miss it at high school.
042They're going to have an informational assembly; it's very important. I have to go to work, I can't go, so it's going to be quite fun, quite participatory. I've participated before, I have a lot of fun. Have fun, have fun, and tell me how much I missed it. If you go, tell me about it. I also want to take another opportunity to say that as members of this board, we get a lot of information that comes through our desks, and I want to congratulate and honor Hackon Burns, Robert Fer, Ariana Perez, and Alfredo Martinez. They are all May Fair students. They were awarded this gold medal for a Leadership and Leadership Skills Conference and have advanced to the State competition. I am very proud. I couldn't, I don't have that technological mindset like they do, but
043I wanted to be there. This topic, and well, thank you for being here tonight. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you very much to you, board member Centron. I'm also going to talk about what Mr. Nita said about the skills assembly. My daughter also participated in her twelfth year. I felt like it was 11th and 12th grade, but I also wanted to say that she was a student. From Mayir, I also want to say that the Mayir students are doing a great job. They are all doing it in high school, all the eighth graders. Some were here tonight, but yes, it takes quite a lot of work to get to Skills USA, to that competition, as a young woman, to move on to the state competition. I mean, they are really accomplishing a lot. They are
044making a lot of noise. I mean, especially. Well, I wish them good luck to those who are competing next year. That's all. Thank you very much, Churchfield. Thank you, President. I am very happy. I am really looking forward to the assembly in Mayir. It always moves me because it is a very moving assembly, and I want to announce it again at the Expo and Resource Center on February 22nd at 9 a.m. in Bellflower at Bellflower High School. I want to thank everyone for doing this, for organizing this event. It's the first time it's been done in our district. We really want to hire the people we have the budget for to get the best people possible. Thank you very much for organizing it. Last week, I did a podcast for President Stuart, and he is
045very funny. He is my favorite guest on my podcast, and congratulations to him. Fighting team for a great season in Mayf as the girls and boys did very well, a very good season for them. I mentioned earlier that the committee, the safety committee meeting for Tuesday, I want to say thank you to President Stuber for starting that, that ongoing committee. A continuing committee means that it will continue, it's something we will continually address. Thank you for starting that. Thank you for thinking it's very important and I appreciate your leadership in doing it and I know that we are, I would say, very committed as board members to communicating, to being as transparent as possible. I would say that when there are issues that occur, when problems happen, I am always open to listening to concerns
046from the community, I always will be. I want to urge parents who have problems to address those problems on-site because it will be more effective on the same site where they are having them. But know that I will always speak for myself, I am always open and want to listen, but never do that instead of trying to address the issue on-site locally first. That is my public message for today, for tonight. I think the budget is our most important duty besides hiring our leader, Superintendent. Yes I think we have some practices from the past that can be replaced by better ones. It's practical, and I want to thank the staff for doing their part and committing to cleaning things up, making things better, and working clearly. Clearer, better, and more trust is what this builds.
047And that trust affects how we do things in collaboration with our partners. And thank you for the communication and your work on the topic. Thank you to all the colleagues for being so great, for being here. It's a pleasure to be at this meeting with you all. And thank you, and thank you all for being here today. Thank you, Mr. President Garza. You're going to have me continue. After that, well, I just want to say Happy Black History Month. But we also want to raise voices in our classrooms that we sometimes overlook. Let's do it for everyone too, because you never know when a student will be able to come in and will need help, or they don't see themselves. Let's definitely celebrate those students who need this raising of their voice within our curriculum.
048And I want to thank the staff for their hard work with our job fair. They organized this. I can't wait to participate. I know they've been planning it for a long time to see it. This, uh, in getting to the end, well, I really love it, it's all I have. I don't have much tonight either. I don't think there were that many events these last few weeks, but the only thing I did was meet with President Linda Morgan. We had a really great conversation last week. I'm going to take a chance and create my own... well, based on how I feel. The community knows that I'm going to say how I feel most of the time. Tonight, I'm going to talk a little bit about negotiations. There isn't much we're going to say about negotiations
049because a lot is confidential, but there are things I can say, and I'm going to. First, I want to remind everyone that the only way negotiations work is if both sides respect each other. That's mandatory; otherwise, nothing gets accomplished. We have to agree that what we do must focus on the students. And what 's best for the students? I'm a teacher, but I also believe that we have to do what's best for the students, and what's best for the students is best for the teachers. I truly believe that in my heart. The following is that I feel that if we're not willing to work together, we're not going to accomplish anything. Nothing, any good prayer, your husband, family, your relationships, if they're not willing to work on things, then what are we going to accomplish?
050Right? So I want to say that, the last thing I want to say is that I am, I strongly propose block scheduling, if it's done correctly. The reason I do this is because there have been studies that we all researched about block scheduling and how it benefits students. Again, students can have intervention, credit recovery, all those things. And I'm a person who didn't want to go to block scheduling as a teacher. I didn't want to do it, I didn't like it. We did it, and I think it's helping my students and my school. But we do it right. We have eight periods, you have to go to eight periods, and I tell you, sometimes we have different schedules in Bellflower. I drive by that school, they get out at 1:45 every day, and it doesn't
051make sense. There's no way in my mind that they get out at 1:45. I think it's not good for the students. We're going to block scheduling next year, and really, I can't stand it. I think it's going to make a difference. Our test scores aren't going anywhere. This is what we've decided to do: we're going to move to block scheduling. And that's how it's going to be. I want to remind everyone that we talked about our current student contract. 175 students on average, that's 35 students per class. In block scheduling, over six periods, that's 29 per classroom. 29 students in a high school classroom, minus the sixth, which is 34. Think about that, put that into perspective. We want to do what's best for the students. With that said, thank you very much to everyone.
052I support the District, my colleagues, the unions—I always have. But I want you to know my opinions on these issues, and I hope we can work together for all employees and students in our District. Thank you very much. Information topics. Do you have any questions? Anyone on the board about information topics? Without hearing any, there aren't any. The meeting adjourns at 7:21 pm. The next meeting... I never write it down. Sorry, the next one will be a special meeting on February 27th at 5 pm. Thank you for improvising for me. Thank you.