001[Music] um [Music] [Music] um [Music] [Music] um [Music] now called to order the september 1st 2022 board of education meeting we acknowledge taking it this evening we acknowledge the traditional ancestral unceded territory of the chumas tongva fernandinho and first nations on which we are learning educating and living tonight we will have um shoshanna petrossian almost will lead us in the pledge of allegiance toshana was our past student board rep from burbank high school please stand for the pledge of allegiance place your right hand over your heart ready begin i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you very much uh miss ramirez adams would you please take the rope call member
002frittner present remember agakonyan present clerk weisberg president vice president ferguson president president tabit president thank you thank you six uh excuse me five reporting on closed uh session it was for informational purposes only no action items were taken during closed session adjustments to the agenda president tabit mr ferguson i will move that we consolidate items 15a 15 b and 15 c which is the last period of public comment with items 11 a 11 b and 11 c which is the first period of public communication so one period of public communication for five minutes second on any items related to business pertaining to the school district and putting in a colored card or a card yeah second awesome thank you for the motion the second uh any discussion okay all in favor please say aye aye
003aye opposed okay motion carries and we will hear all public speakers at the beginning of the meeting uh items for future agendas oh president if we could move comments up so we can introduce a new principle sure and then do you want us to go backwards uh okay then we'll go to the normal public okay all right okay if i could have dr knappick come to the podium to introduce the new principal at walt disney elementary good evening board president tabit vice president ferguson board member superintendent hill senior leadership and the burbank school community and especially the disney school community this evening it's my pleasure to go ahead and announce our newest principal joining our team so with that i'd like to go ahead and invite miss rebecca raunchy harris to the podium with me
004as i introduce her miss harris [Applause] the riverbank unified school district is proud to announce the selection of our new principal at walt disney elementary school miss rebecca roundtree harris miss harris has served in public education in the los angeles area for more than 20 years she became sorry she began as a classroom teacher in 2001 with a bachelor's degree in african-american studies in spanish and a master's degree in african-american studies upon completion of graduate school she joined teach for america and completed her multiple subject clear credential and clad certification she taught fourth and fifth grade just like me until 2015 and then became a district-level curriculum specialist with a particular focus on english language arts throughout the years she has provided extensive professional development to teachers in a variety of areas including classroom management
005reading and writing instruction arts education and supporting english language learners ms harris served as an assistant principal for one year and then became the principal of an elementary dual language immersion school she has served in that role since 2018 she has begun her work on her doctorate in educational leadership at the university of southern california fight on [Laughter] and she grew up as the youngest of 12 children in iowa and is a burbank resident so please join me in welcoming and congratulating rebecca as the new principal at walt disney elementary school [Applause] good evening buenos noches i'm so happy to be here and thankful to be here with you all thank you so much for having me it is an honor to be here in burbank i have a couple of notes that i would
006like to share first of all just that it is an honor to be here i was really excited when i learned about this opening because i feel like my values as an educator and honestly as a human being are really well aligned with what burbank unified seems to be all about i really have strong a strong belief in teaching the whole child educating the whole child maintaining high expectations for both our teachers and the children finding that providing that social emotional learning that they need i'm a big lover of the arts i was a dancer in theater and music background myself valuing valuing diversity in all areas and of course i love the language of spanish because i grew up learning it and had the opportunity to study abroad and strengthen it over the years
007and having been at a dual immersion school over the last few years has just increased my love for building and nurturing by literate children to grow up to do whatever they want in their future so thank you so much [Applause] well thank you and welcome to burbank well you've been a resident i've i heard in this thing so i welcome you to walt disney and burbank unified since you've already been a resident and oh my gosh everything we just heard hit so many wonderful marks that you're like perfect for walt disney so i hope it's a wonderful wonderful experience for you and um we see lots of you so my colleagues wish to say anything please feel free welcome thank you and i hope that you'll look at us as assets and resources and um
008i look forward to getting to know you and also seeing the new campus which i haven't seen yet so all this new exciting stuff at disney so welcome and we look forward to hearing about all the wonderful things that you'll accomplish thank you disney is an amazing campus community and it sounds like we found a very good pick so and and really looking forward to your tenure there and um you know just welcome welcome to this part of the family so uh you're a neighbor but uh now you're entrusted with one of our amazing institutions and uh i can tell you as a fellow neighbor there's nothing better than it so looking forward to working with you thank you so much um i just want to welcome you and i love the energy and and
009i know that disney it's it's going to be wonderful i i just want to let you know that we're also here for you if you ever need us you know where to find us and i'm looking forward to you know coming to our office soon and talking to you thank you so thank you and welcome thank you gracias well my colleagues have pretty much said it all but um uh the resume sounds fantastic and as was mentioned you sound like just a perfect fit for disney and we are uh glad to have you and and welcome and yes i hope to stop by the campus and see you soon thank you so much and we have one more new administrator if i could have dr peramo introduce the new assistant principal at john burroughs high
010school good evening board president tabit distinguished board members superintendent dr hill district staff and members of the audience uh i have been trying to make this introduction for a couple weeks now we finally get to do it i'm very excited we have a new principal at assistant principal at john burroughs high school alex potopinko and i'm going to invite him to come up right now alex alex the cleveland ohio native has been in los angeles for over 10 years while living in la alex worked as a high school science teacher at jordan high school in long beach and eula girls high school in los angeles his administrative career began five years ago when he jordan joined the harkam halil hebrew academy in beverly hills to lead their steam program or stem program however alex's journey
011as an educator started long before he was born he comes from a long line of educators his biggest inspiration being his mother alex's mother has taught special education for 44 years and is still going and she's instilled in him a passion for helping students regardless of the obstacles they may face while attending high school alex was a varsity athlete lettering in volleyball and diving he was involved in the arts programs including marching band orchestra and being a show choir member alex was also a fellow thespian is eager to see the productions john burroughs high school will be putting on this year alex's journey in education continued through college where he majored in biology and minor in education at wittenberg university in springfield ohio in january alex completed his master's in education specializing in school leadership
012from capella university alex has an empathetic and caring approach to working with students and teachers alex extensive teaching experience and trainings in classroom management such as responsive classroom and restorative justice have equipped him with the strategies and tools to help support and lead a thriving learning environment for all students in his most recent role as the director of middle school alex worked closely with the school's support team to ensure all students needs were met as a lifelong learner alex is excited to be part of a diverse and inclusive school and community that focuses on academic excellence in creating a positive learning environment alex's experience in using data to drive decisions selecting and implementing research-based curriculums and creating a positive school culture has prepared him to continue john burroughs mission of promoting a learner-centered environment where
013every student can succeed it's my honor to introduce alex thank you [Applause] thank you so much for having me i really i'm i can't thank the board enough and all the administration that uh saw that i'd be a great fit for the district um the first thing i want to address is uh what i consider an elephant in the room and that's my outfit um um i'll i'm gonna give a little anecdotal story of of why i think it's important to address this is because um you know in education it's really important to have consistency and reliability and a routine and uh my routine was um uprooted yesterday when um i was planning on taking my car to um have it serviced this morning and i was gonna switch with my brother and right after
014work i was gonna drop it off and then john texted me that are you gonna come to the board meeting tomorrow so normally i like have my clothes in the car ready to go so this morning i still did that but i did it my brother's car everything still was going great and then my brother went on and we switched the cars and then he left with my clothes in the car so so um you know that kind of comes back to talking about you know when things are consistent reliable and actually um another piece of that reliability is that in my coat pocket was my speech that i was going to talk about so there went that so i'm thankfully um a student actually interviewed me last week so i'm kind of copying um
015what she talked to me about so i have a little bit of it it um definitely talks about that um but as um john had said that you know really my biggest inspiration has been my mother um she has been a special education in for 44 years in the same school same classroom for 44 years she's really going for that 100 percent pension so she has uh two more years left so she's almost there um and you know i think that i'm i really became an educator because i think that was kind of what was expected of me but i have stayed an educator because of the change that i saw that i um was and am destined to make an education so um as you mentioned you know i have a degree in biology
016and education is my uh my background i'm and i've been working as the middle school director for the past year where we really focused on on positive discipline and that's really my perspective of coming into this is really approaching this with an empathetic and understanding approach just as i go back to talking about consistency reliability and accountability a lot of times people in my position don't realize that we are dealing with children and that consistency and reliability and is extremely crucial to the success of those students and i as an adult can reflect on that and utilize that to really approach in this role as the student services i'm the assistant principal of that i think that's extremely crucial of that um you know one of my passions um is always creating positive and successful
017relationships with students and i believe that someone in my role needs to be able to create those positive and successful relationships in order to promote a positive school on culture and i also like to talk about that one of the one of the negatives about being a teacher is that you have to be okay with delayed gratification and i think that as a teacher you have to be okay with not knowing what the end product is going to look like and i think that's also the beauty of it as well is that we have the ability to change so many lives and i don't know too many other careers that can do that so um again that's why i am an educator um i think that um and i just leave you with mom what
018my goals are really for this year is that i really want to promote a safe and inclusive learning environment where all students can be successful and and i'm really thankful that i'm here and really excited to be a part of the district so thank you thank you alex and welcome and by the sound of it it seems like you're gonna be a great fit for our district so welcome and uh yeah please reach out anytime you need anything and all of us stop by the high schools or attend you know different activities there be at the choir performances or sporting events so you will see us and we'll see you and i'm looking forward to it so my colleagues welcome thank you um i work with harkem hillel and eulog quite a bit when i
019was facing history i know it's weird because it's like who's worked with yula and arkham hillow um but but welcome um it's so exciting to uh have two new members of our admin team with so much enthusiasm uh as a fellow theater nerd i salute you um but but like i said um our fabulous new principal at disney i hope you'll look to the board as partners and an asset and that we can support you because transitions are always challenging but um you're in a fantastic place with a fantastic team and wonderful students and so i just look forward to to seeing you mesh into that new family at burroughs thank you welcome thank you uh sorry about the mix-up on the shirt having said that looking forward to suits and things like that in
020the future having said that um welcome and and i love the energy appreciate the energy and really i'm excited to see you know um what two generations of influence look like uh and and how you make it your own so uh looking forward to your service and and it's a wonderful school that you're at uh all of our schools are great um but uh in particular you know our high school students are going through some of the most challenging times um and and as upbeat as it is it's heavy as heck too and so uh people who get that uh i think will be successful and those who are overwhelmed by that will very quickly be overwhelmed in this moment in history but um it sounds like you have an eye on it so i
021really appreciate it and good luck with his your first year thank you welcome we're happy to have you here finally that's great um as my colleagues mentioned your energy your enthusiasm i love your description of what you would like to accomplish and and your background and clearly you also are very adaptable so that which is a is a good thing to be when you're dealing with the high school students so uh and you know your shirt is probably based on the weather we've been having the one that's most appropriate here tonight so i would actually why i'm wearing that today is because it was so hot yesterday i was like i can't go through 80 and lunch with my full suit on again so that's why i'm talking today good move so uh but uh
022we'll um undoubtedly hopefully we'll see you soon at uh at jbhs and welcome thank you so uh alex uh i love your story you know people sometimes ask me why i ran for a school board you know just like you my mother was a teacher i thought theater actually and i was a part of reason i got involved early in theater as well so thank you for sharing that it's always good to know that you have that person that you can always look up to but also go for go to for advice which always helps second word i heard that really made me happy was that you're a data person i'm a data person i love the letter p probability you know so so i look forward to working with you and yeah i'm jealous
023what you're wearing because this is what i've been wearing all day so so thank you and welcome to burbank and burroughs high school thank you and we'll be seeing you thank you [Applause] anything else matt dr hill okay item we're still on items for future agendas anyone um i would like to bring up the discussion just for the the our policy on um school overnight trips uh and and the outdoor science school specifically uh just so that the board can have a discussion on it so that if our thoughts and policies are going to stay the same that the public is aware of our thoughts and feelings and why those things are taking place so can yes can we can we ensure that also includes you know vaccination requirements for chaperones things like that as
024part of that discussion i'm fine with that thank you yes future agenda item um i like us to uh i like us to visit the whole blue and white card thing if we can try to come back and see maybe we're going to combine it all into one public comment instead of doing the blue and the white card i'm just i think okay although i did you have anyone to say i i just think i just think that um as we go through each meeting and we see that there's only one white card or one blue card that we could adjust but if you want to discuss it that's fine you certainly the right if i can introduce at least a concept that during our organizational meeting each year we discuss how we want to
025move about public comment it also you know for nights where we're not impacted obviously we can consolidate but for nights where we are impacted it does allow us to move those who are speaking on agenda items up further so happy to discuss but if if we could wait until december potentially to have that conversation in depth i can wait till this time okay going back to my request for the agenda item could we have it in the either the next meeting or the meeting thereafter since it's a timely and relative leasing we're all good with that thank you so much okay moving on to a very exciting part 8a the oath of office the administration of the oath of office for student board members burbank unified board of education is one of the few boards
026in the state that has student board members and so we're always very excited when our student board members get to join us um i think it's a very special thing that we offer that really shows what we're about in burbank we are student centered student focused and so it's important to have student board members in my opinion i'm sure my colleagues would agree and offer much better examples of that but that's those are my those are my thoughts so uh if our two new student board members would meet us from burbank and burroughs meet me down in the front we will administer the oath of office do you want to take a minute and introduce yourselves real quick okay yeah here actually i thought for a second they could introduce themselves and tell us who
027they are and their name and what high school they're from and then we're going to see you every meeting so yeah hi my name is sedynator petrossian sorry my voice is a little gone but i promise i'm fine um i'm from burbank high school i'm the asp president there i'm honored to be a part of the board uh you might recognize my last name or a name from siblings we've done this before i'm really excited to be here i have a real passion for school and like student concerns so i'm really excited to be able to come and voice that and share with you guys what burbank high has been up to and i can't wait for the rest of the year good evening school board as many of you may know me i love
028coming to school board meetings um now i'm part of the board and i have the great honor my name is ever huerta you may recognize my last name because of a school name that happened recently which i'm proud to brag about having the same last name i'm an asb president at john burroughs high school as a serenae spoke i'm i'm honestly fabricated that i'm here tonight i have i'm thankful to all the students that elected me to be their president i never thought i'd be here i'll go more in depth about myself at my school board report but just to be quick and short it i'm here as well to voice the concerns of my students i share the exciting stuff that's happening here at burrows i just i can't wait to work with all
029of you so thank you thank you both of you appreciate it okay the oath of office so you will say your name i do someone solemnly swear we can repeat it raise your right hand sorry do solemnly swear that i will support and defend the constitution of the united states that i will support and defend the constitution of the united states and the constitution of the state of california and the constitution of the state of california against all enemies foreign and domestic against all enemies foreign and domestic that i will bear true faith and allegiance to the constitution of the united states and the constitution of the state of california that i will bear true faith and allegiance to the constitution of the united states and the constitution of the state of california that i
030take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion that i take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and that i will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which i'm about to enter and then i will end that i will and faithfully discharge the duties upon which i'm about to enter subscribed and sworn to before me this first day of september 2022 you are sworn in thank you congratulations and i just want to make a note that monterey high school is in the process of selecting their student board members so they will be sworn in at a future meeting wonderful thank you very much for sharing that with us um so now we move right to nine reports from the board serenae from burbank high school we're
031going to have you go first good evening board president tabit distinguished board members superint superintendent dr hill and the bourbon community my name as i said is serenity terpentrosis and i'm a senior at bourbon high and i as well as the asb president and i'm honored to be here and to be representing burbank high for the board tonight so to start off the school year asp met in the summer to prepare by making posters and to collaborate on different ideas to ensure that the school year would start off right with the beginning of the school year as many know it comes with the beginning of fundraising asp sold our asb cards in our student store for 45 dollars each and with the purchase of an asp card students got a multitude of discounts on different
032merchandise and yearbooks they also get to enter multitude of sports games for free yearbooks for the school year were also sold and are still currently being sold alongside our asp cards in the student store this school year at burbank high there have been a lot of changes we introduced some new faces specifically in our admin team julie markuson who is here is our lovely new principal we also introduced robert muhammadi who joined our admin team as a new assistant principal of student services another change that we've had this year is a completely new bell schedule this is quite different for burbank high so now burbank has three different belt schedules during one week so on mondays we have our typical early release schedule and on tuesdays and thursdays every student's third period class is much
033longer than the other periods which allows for teachers to have time to play our form of announcements called bhs tv so that all students can stay up to date on activities and events and lastly on wednesdays and fridays our bell schedule follows a simple routine where every period is approximately 50 minutes long another change in the bell schedule is the discontinuation of the minute bell which a couple of students haven't been happy about but it's much more effective to help our students get to class on time also to continue this year our sro officer rodriguez is back on campus and there's been an overwhelming amount of positive feedback from students who expressed that they are very glad that he is back during the first week of school asp held activities during lunch in the quad
034to increase spirit and promote bhs pride those activities included a guest that lyric challenge and a water balloon toss even though the school year has just started our sports are in full swing with already having two football games since school started each game has had a theme our previous themes were blackout and burbank pride and asp is planning on incorporating many more themes onto the future football games as students extremely enjoyed dressing up and participating adding on today bourbon high hosted its first blood drive of the year with ucla there was amazing turnout with over 118 students signing up burbank heights unleashed and advanced teams are also currently right now next to amc hosting their amc night until 8pm where they're holding performances outside of asp amc tomorrow at 6 a.m is our senior sunrise
035for all our seniors our seniors are invited to come out to our football field at 6am to watch the sunrise before class starts next week our asp is hosting its first official spirit week of the year tuesday is adam sandler day for us where students get to mimic an iconic adam sandler outfit wednesday is rock your crocs day where students wear crocs or comfortable shoes to school such as slippers or sandals thursday is throwback thursday where students are encouraged to dress like the 70s and since national suicide awareness week is also next week we are dedicating friday as a mental health awareness day where students are encouraged to either wear purple or blue to support next friday is also club rush so at lunch students can come out to the quad to see all the
036multitude of clubs we have to offer and can choose which ones are interested in and which ones they want to join also that night on the same day next friday is our football senior night and it's on memorial field and the theme is red white and blue in remembrance of september 11th also all throughout next week there will also be different activities every day in the quad to honor in honor of national suicide awareness week on tuesday asp will be selling ribbons on wednesday and thursday there will be poster signing and on friday there will be bracelet making in upcoming events asp will be having a phone party this year so the form party is planned to occur on september 23rd there will be a special shirt required to get in these shirts will be
037given out for free to students with an asb card but sadly only bhs students are allowed this year due to safety factors overall our students are settling in quite well and i can't wait for what this amazing year holds any questions anyone yes welcome to the board thank you um you represent an amazing school uh and i am and i say this every year but i'm a proud former student board member from burbank high and i want to acknowledge the history that you and your family have made now as tic tac toe three in a row basically somewhat but three different uh generations of student board members in your family so thank you for your service to the district to the students of burbank high school and i understand some folks are involved at gcc
038as well and all sorts of things so um the legacy of service continues and it's so good to see our former student board member but i'm really excited to see all that you have to offer uh and you're already a class act and making jokes and it's all great so really uh looking forward to working with you thank you most importantly i want to know what adam sandler character you're going to dress up as this is like very important to me um you could report back at the next meeting too i don't want to point i mean i have it planned out what is it so i'm going to go on pinterest and find an exact replica photo and mimic it exactly so probably like really long like shorts i have a really long t-shirt
039perfect and i have a burbank high one so i'll probably wear that perfectly and wear some sandals and look like him every day of the week yeah that's awesome that's the most important thing obviously additionally i also wanted to welcome you and and say i mean i'll say the same thing to uh mr huerta when he comes up but that i hope you also come to us with concerns and questions it's fantastic to hear about all the i don't know how you have time to do anything other than asb but i hope you'll come to us with things you want us to think about we don't want to just hear all the amazing things we do of course but also we're here to serve you so i hope you feel comfortable coming to us with
040with issues that are frustrating or confusing or you want to engage more with all of us so i just want to let you know that we welcome that as well and welcome you um it was great to have your sister and it is wonderful to have you um and i look forward to many more reports from bhs thank you so much i i just i i just wanted to say one thing your principal looked a little nervous when you mentioned the foam party it's gonna be great it's gonna be fine it looks crazy but it's the best thing the kids love it and i'm so glad you've brought it back oh wait do you see pictures now nice i didn't mention but i found out we're one of like probably one of three schools in
041southern california that do it in our asp advisor mr wells had to actually drive like two hours away to a different school to teach them how to run it because we're one of the only schools that know how to oh my gosh it's a big night it's it's it is so congratulations on getting that back thank you for supporting the kids and that um and have a good but very safe time madam president yes thank you um mr petrossian congratulations um i'm going to start calling you the burbank high school kennedys or something you know but i also want to thank your parents because people uh you know forget that you spend a lot of time here and i want to thank your mom and dad for you know supporting you we saw it with
042your brother your sister and i you so thank you very much and i look forward to working with you thank you thank you all right welcome to the board we're happy to have you here uh great uh first report so much for just the first couple weeks of school and that's fantastic um you've got a great legacy in front of you you know from your siblings but i have no doubt you will not only fulfill their you know what they've done but leave your individual mark here as well so we look forward to having you with us on the board all year and and look forward to your reports thanks thank you so much and now mr evuerta from john burroughs high school you are up next good evening president abbott vice president ferguson and
043distinguished school board members superintendent dr matt hill and amazing district staff uh firstly i would like to do a more in-depth introduction of myself my name is eber huerta and i currently am a senior at john burroughs high school and i serve as the asb president firstly i would like to give a big thanks to all the students of john bros high school for giving me this amazing opportunity to serve as their asb president this year i would also like to give a little background and introduction of myself i'm born and raised here in burbank i attended walt disney elementary then jordan middle school which now is dolores huerta middle school which i will brag about the last name until the day i die and now i'm here at the amazing john bros high school
044go bears i i speak spanish and i'm currently taking asl spanish is my first language so i'm just firstly about the new principal at walt disney i am amazed and i am so excited as especially myself as i am i used to be an eld kid and now here i am and i'm proud to brag about that and to anybody who's watching who currently doesn't speak english and is learning you got this you establish a position i'd also like to give a big shout out to my family i have four siblings who are currently attending busd and attended busd i'd also like to give a big shout out to both my parents who emigrated from mexico who have shown me the values of hard work and have established this trust in that i am here
045now now going into our fantastic report at burroughs so over the summer asb had planned out amazing activities for our asp we had our asb retreat where all new asp members came around and get to know each other we also have started on working on fundraising we did have a bob's fundraiser which was amazing to see all of you and some of you there we have as well started with our asb cards which are selling 45 and as well have discounts on school merchandise free entrance to all the home of games for basketball and football and just so many so many things so if you go to burrows and you're watching make sure to buy your asb card then moving on into the first month a busy month for us we had picture day this
046week monday and tuesday not to brag but my picture turned out really good and now we also worked on welcoming on the first day of school all our new bears and former bears that are coming our asp was out in the entrance greeting everybody and helping everybody however we could guiding them to their classes or just helping to answer their general questions a fun tradition that we have at burroughs is now with the mascot change we have little bear paws and each bearpaw has the name of every student that is attending a burroughs and we put him around campus and like a little scavenger hunt i found mine pretty easily so my asp didn't give me too much of a challenge so that was also exciting sorry i'm like reading on my phone because my
047printer loves giving me problems when i need to print stuff so if i lose track it's because my phone and i'm not used to that um also we are having our first blood drive of the year which our sign up started august 29th and which our blood drive will take on place september 23rd we are excited to work again with ucla as they have shown an amazing partnership and we can't wait for another amazing successful blood drive this we are also excited next week we are having our club rush it was supposed to be today and tomorrow but myself and my executive cabinet decided that it was best to reschedule just due to the heat advisory and the air quality we always want to make sure that our students have the best conditions or their
048safety is always put first so we decided to postpone and move it to next week now moving on to our amazing senior news our senior sweatshirt design contest has commenced today comments next week on monday and the last week will be on friday to cement all the seniors will be able to vote on the design so we're excited to see all the designs that are going to be coming in our senior sunrise will also be september 9th at 6 a.m at memorial field and then our annual talent show hosted by our amazing sophomore class will be september 23rd the theme will be 70 so i hope to see some of you there and your 70s swag this will be open to attend to all borough students so we can't wait to see all the amazing
049talent i'm honestly waiting for the amazing guitar players that we have at burroughs because they always astonish me and blow me away i would also like to recognize an amazing group on campus our link crew who have hosted their freshman orientation which took place august 4th and august 5th where each day they hosted around 300 freshmen each day where they held a fun activities they also had costco pizza which personally i'm jealous that i didn't get a slice but our link crew leaders act as mentors to our freshmen our link crew is made up of seniors and juniors so they have a idea of how it's going so each link crew leader two link crews are paired up with a group of freshmen and they are there to help with however they can i personally
050have stolen some of my friends freshmen because i am not a lingua leader but i am here to help however i can to them they all our linker leaders have also helped throughout their high school experience they meet during our a period which is our academic excellence where students have the time to work during um school work homework or anything that they'd like to get done our linker leaders meet with them every thursday and deliver lessons on how to work together and get familiar and get to know more of their freshman members of their grades i would also like to report on our sports last week burroughs took the win against fillmore tomorrow we were supposed to have our second game but due to the heat advisory again we decided to postpone that and decide
051that it was best that we just move on and look for the safety of our students now i would also like something new that i'm bringing this year is tuning concerns to the board i think it's important that we have us as an asp and advocacy for the student groups and myself as an asb president that is something that i really want to work towards so i do have some student concerns one on our water fountains we do have some of our water fountains that are the color orange and green many students have been freaked out by that and they say it's forbidden gatorade so i just suggest them to stay away from that and just bring their own bottled waters and then second some of our classrooms such as our wood shop don't have
052ac in them and especially in this heat wave it is definitely not the best place you want to be as well uh we have a concern brought that to our new asb advisor who i'd like to shout out miss caitlyn moriali who is uh taking in position of uh one of my favorite teachers miss jessica pulaski who was on maternity leave she had her baby so he's adorable um but she as was the dance coach team she was a team she was the coach for the dance team and she brought to me that the dance room ac has been broken for a while now and that they would like to see how they could get that fix especially since right now we are all experiencing this terrible heat wave just to make sure that students
053are safe i know our wood shop students have been moved to different classrooms because of the heat so they are not suffering of any heat exhaustion or heat except for any heat stroke so they are in different classrooms and that will be all for my school board report i can't wait to work with all of you for this exciting year i can take questions now if you have any questions anyone go ahead welcome so proud and excited to see you thank you so much for this update and and for both of our student board members you also don't have to wait until board meetings to let dr hill or any of us know if there's a concern especially with something like for example the ac um if there's a facilities issue and you hear about
054it let us know right away let dr hill know anybody right away so that we can deal with that and you don't have to wait you know one week or two weeks that's really important to us but i really appreciate that you found this important mix of concerns and also celebratory moments um it's going to be a really wonderful year learning about both burroughs and burbank high and monterey from whoever their representative is but i'm just really happy that you're here i'm really proud that you're here and really excited that you're here thank you um so what like first of all you are a known quantity a bit at these meetings so uh what is kind of fantastic about it this is kind of uh you're going to have a very similar experience i think
055to many of us um many of us started as advocates for different programs different things uh different constituency groups you name it and so now you're coming to the other side of this bar and to this diocese and and now you go from just pointing out things to being responsible for them and and for understanding how and what it takes to get things done uh you name it so it's a really fulfilling uh experience as an activist uh to to be able to come to this side of the bar and to come to this side of the diocese and and i have seen your values and i have seen your passion be demonstrated so to see that operationalized uh you know in a way that serves others is just going to be truly uh something
056i think that will be a privilege to witness so looking forward to working with you thank you i love your story and i love how we can connect through our stories as a former eld student i can tell you that i'm very proud to see individuals like you who've overcome all the difficulties when it comes to language and also the fact that you remember your parents that is very important to remind people that some of us their parents made sacrifice to leave everything behind so we can live a better life here so i appreciate what you just said um but also again i'm very happy that to see both you and sarah individuals that we've known and continue working with so i'm i'm very excited because i know that you've already done so much and
057only good things are coming so i'm very happy for your team um and for not only burroughs high school but also burbank as a district congratulations and go bears thank you um welcome mr huerta it's um you may have been surprised that the student body voted you as president but it doesn't surprise me at all or any of us you have uh already been as as mr ferguson pointed out you've been here before this is you know nothing new that you've um you know been advocating on behalf of the students there and we've all got to know you through uh many of your other uh volunteer activities as well and seeing you around you know at different things around town so um we know how much you uh care and how hard you work at
058you know first in this instance representing the student body at burroughs and that's great and we will look forward to working with you and continuing that throughout the year and happy to have you as a student board member thank you i for one am very excited to have you uh and to get to know you better and to hear about all the exciting things that are going on as at burroughs as well um just i i know people will ask you things i'll take this to the board and and it it's nice to have some kind of answer or some kind of response and so as dr weisberg says make sure that um those requests are getting to dr hill or to somebody at that level so that they can help you get through those
059but also know that we've been having a lot of issues with air conditioning this week and facilities is working really hard above and beyond to get those things uh air conditioning especially is a top priority so hopefully they'll see a change sooner rather than later it the the wood shop we could probably get some fans in there if they need to be in there but in the mean were you gonna say that in the meantime um hopefully we'll find a way to get that air conditioned it'll take some time yeah and just a quick update because i know dr chambers emailed ms cochta and i about the water fountains the facilities team is doing a review of every single one and there's also a new grant that we're investigating through burbank water and power that
060we get the bottle filling stations so we're looking at that for our secondary schools and then i believe there should be fans in the dance room i was at facilities yesterday checking with mr ogawa and he said that they're they're working on the the wood shop i mean there's just not a lot of we don't the way it's designed that's the challenge so they are looking at one of those jumbo fans for that as well but we'll make sure there's an update but as the board member said anytime you can email us and we will follow up if the board could get a notification when those problems are resolved also if we can look at those classrooms where we intend to use fans to ensure that if there are students with auditory processing disorders that
061we're not subjecting them to a classroom where they're unable to learn thank you so thank you thank you guys again thank you okay [Applause] so moving on to number 10 presentations and recognitions tonight we have the burbank high school speech and debate team who are national champions so honored to have them here dr bramo so it's a great night to be a bulldog particularly if you are one of the champions of the speech and debate team it is my honor and privilege to introduce the leader of the bulldog nation our proud principal julie marcusen [Applause] thank you so much it is my pleasure to introduce our burbank high school's impressive and award-winning speech and debate team they are led by their very skilled and generous coach brandon batham who i just met a little bit
062ago and so i'm really excited that he is here with our team tonight he's providing our students with opportunities and tools that will benefit them for a lifetime and he is so generous because he is a 100 volunteer coach so we are very very lucky to have him at burbank high school and i look forward to celebrating many future accomplishments with him and the team so i'd like you to please help me welcome brandon batham and the bhs speech and debate team [Applause] yeah let's let's get the uh where is it yeah put it smack dab right president tabbett vice president ferguson members of the board dr hill um i uh am a proud product of burbank schools uh very lucky to live in the house that i grew up in here in burbank um
063i am incredibly proud of the work that these students have done um [Music] there's a this activity has one of the most significant impacts on students long term demonstrable talk about data when college admissions counselors look at at applications and they see something an extracurricular activity like speech and debate they understand the level of determination that it takes and beyond that to have what i believe to be burbank high school's first ever national champion is a big deal um sungju here um i i should actually introduce all five of the students here we have um seongju yoon who is a now senior we have um alexis bell who is now a junior um delia sowatsky who is i always butcher some of the last names but uh is a sophomore um and mihika chechi here
064who is uh also a senior and another officer who couldn't be here uh tonight casey uh fee field fifa again last names um to paint a picture of what this team has accomplished just in the last year um delia in her first ever appearance at the state tournament did exceptionally well is the only student at burbank high school to double qualify to the state championship tournament in an event known as extemporaneous speaking where she's given her topic 30 minutes prior to the speech and gives a seven minute speech on in her case international and national current event issues as a freshman phenomenal alexis as a sophomore last year took third place in the state in the congressional debate presiding officer competition um again another phenomenal performance casey and mexica who are debate partners both qualified
065and competed at the state championship tournament and also qualified and competed at the national championship tournament this year as well and of course seongju who for the second year in a row and we like to joke he's going for number three uh was the state runner-up in congressional debate at the state championship tournament uh last year and uh is california was part of california's first national championship team uh in world schools debate which is uh an international competition event that varies from prepared debate to spontaneous debate where again the students are given the topics an hour ahead of time and are giving speeches north of eight minutes uh on topics of pretty significant substance the final round topic which i'm very proud the students affirmed uh was this house believes housing is a fundamental a
066human right they won every coin toss in the elimination rounds which is a statistical improbability and seongju competed on the national final stage again i think the first time any burbank student has ever done so um and uh i i um i'm i'm blown away at the achievements of these students another piece of news today that i would forget to just announce today the national speech and debate association puts together four world schools debate a national team that represents the united states in international competitions across the globe seongju last year was on the team usa development team this year he has been brought on to the team usa maine team so he will represent the united states and of course burbank across the globe in debate competitions we're very excited um i i'll just say
067um i do this because i was able to do so and i know the impact that it had on me as a student and and as an adult um and at a time when it can be very hard to be motivated by public discourse i find inspiration in these students and hope that they're going to do a lot better of a job than i could at making the world better and if you are ever in a moment where you're having frustrations or concerns come to a high school debate tournament watch these students who are assigned sides on a wide range of topics and they have to be able to understand how to debate and speak about any any topic on any particular side which is i think we all would do we all would be
068better if we were able to do that um burbank high school is actually hosting as it has for years um the individual event qualifying tournament to the state championship in march uh would love for any of you all to attend that uh yeah we will be sure to let you know and uh we hope to send an even larger uh group to the state tournament this year last year we sent seven and again larger to the national tournament next year in phoenix hot in june but we'll do it and we sent three this year so we're hoping we're hoping to uh to keep keep on building as this team which is uh impressively student led and run um has done uh i will pass it off to the students um and uh yeah take it
069away me yeah you champion i i wasn't prepared to speak tonight i had no idea but i suppose those are the skills that speech and debate ends up teaching you right uh so i'm honored to be here tonight thank you so much for having me the last time i was at one of these meetings it was because of a profound disagreement that i had with this board and superintendent hill um so i'm glad that we're not at odds tonight that being said i suppose i'll just say a few words on my experiences with debate and what it's meant to me um like dr kanyon and board member huerta i too am an eld kid and it's taught me debate has taught me specifically how to articulate my thoughts in an eloquent and verbose manner and
070how to get my ideas across concisely in that regard i think the debate is so valuable to teach children and students all around the world what it means to be a member of your community the issues that are going on and what and how to solve those issues that being said the biggest takeaway from debate is that we can have profound disagreements and how to articulate those disagreements while still being a community and i think that's what i've taken away from it aside from the college applications aside from everything great that this has to offer you materially i think what it offers you is a place to be yourself and a family and i'm very grateful to everyone who's made that possible from brandon who dedicates hundreds of hours to all the members of our
071team that show up week in and week out this doesn't happen often in public schools it doesn't for a debate team to bring home a national championship or to do well at the state tournament in an event that is often dominated by incredibly wealthy schools incredibly wealthy students and incredibly wealthy programs is something that i take tremendous pride in not only for myself but the rest of my team and every single hour that we've put in to do this so for anyone listening out there and everyone at the schools inside of burbank we'd love to help you get started if possible we'd love to be a jumping point in a base frame and i just wanted to thank you all again for having me tonight thank you so much [Applause] um the the last thing
072uh i will say and i will say um i i am so grateful to ms markusson um and the new administrative team at burbank high school who have really helped us hit the ground running i mean just today we have a brand new wrestling team in burbank at burbank high fantastic they are in our new meet our regular what used to be our meeting space at our regular meeting time so we were in the middle of this heat wave trying to find a quick room uh found one immediately thanks to mr wells asb advisor and uh it just i'm really we're really thankful for the administrative team and ms markinson i think we're we're already very we feel very supported and i will say the one achievement that i did leave off the national speech
073and debate association recognizes a handful of programs every year based on their both ability to attract and retain member competitors but also the performance of those competitors so burbank high school was one of 22 schools across the country last year who were granted the nsda's highest individual institution organization honor which is the charter status and sent us this lovely plaque which i'm going to send back home with ms marcusen and hope that this will not be the last time we're here to tell you about some of the amazing stuff that these students are doing so thank you again [Applause] um if if it is okay i want can the rest of the team also don't leave don't be shy she may have to i might have to go somewhere if it is okay if you
074can also introduce yourself quickly as well and you know if you want to give a little debate speech that's fine so hello everyone my name is mihika chachi and i'm a senior and i'm also the vice captain of our speech and debate team at burbank i joined in our freshman year and the team has changed a lot since then we've lost members gained members i've gotten a new advisor but i do want to say that i also was originally an english language learner in elementary school i came to america when i was six years old and i remember that the only word i knew how to say was egg for some reason that was like the only meal i would order because it was genuinely the only thing i knew and i hope my vocabulary
075has improved somewhat since then and i think this activity has been incredible because it's allowed me not only to improve my public speaking ability but the memories i've gotten have been genuinely the highlight of my high school experience and especially i want to thank brandon for coming in last year as our advisor because without brandon we really wouldn't have been able to go to nationals at all we had a lot of issues with figuring out um funding transportation all these things so thanks to brandon we really were able to get that life-changing experience and i hope in the future we continue to have the support of the school board and the administrators to help us continue funding these activities and including growing our program so thank you so much for your support of our team
076thank you hi i'm delia sowatsky um i believe you are a friend of my mother's she's part of ceo oh yeah i was i was in there texting her like do you know this woman her voice i recognize it i must have been from all those zoo meetings more like a christmas party oh yeah yeah yes um i am a wise fool i'm a sophomore i believe i am the only sophomore who is still in the debate team who joined freshman year um i double qualified in international x-stem and national extemp and i was only able to do that with the help and support of my coach and my team who got a lot of texts from me last minute etc etc i am happy to be part of this team which provides a great
077community and i am happy to um be at this meeting it was very interesting to hear the um concerns of students i know that i also know a lot of concerns of students so this is a good aid to go to for those concerns so thank you guys hello i'm alexis bell and uh today i just wanted to say like wow speech and debate i initially joined i thought it was going to be should we put pineapple on pizza right and i too like delia did international debate where i learned about countries i hadn't even known existed and um really experienced much wider than what i had been like exposed to in burbank so that's one of the beauties is learning about the politics not just in the nation but like internationally and all the
078i guess things you aren't necessarily exposed to when you're growing up in the suburb of burbank but then also you learn communication skills and that's not just being able to create a speech on the fly that's being able to structure a speech and using rhetoric but also it's a little bit difficult because my first two years have been on zoom but even that in and of itself has been a learning experience on how to best communicate via zoom and now entering my junior year i'm very excited to start competing in person where i know i'll be able to enhance my community communication skills um face to face with people and you get the experience of having different judges with different morals and being able to i guess apply to different groups and that is such
079a beauty in itself and i really wish that more people bhs students specifically would join and like know about this program because it's so much more than what i initially thought of minor debates there's speech opportunities and you get to express yourself and as i know i can talk for all the members of this group we've had a chance to voice what we feel is important um because specifically at bhs there aren't a lot of opportunities where we can talk about what we feel is important we feel limited in the change that we can make specifically i'm very passionate about environmental change and i wrote my own individual 10-minute speech on that about plastic pollution and there's very limited spaces that you're able to do that and then lastly i wanted to conclude with a
080special thank you to um seongju and brandon first off that brandon just joined to simply volunteer as he stated speech and debate has done so much more for him and thus we can see how important that is in how he's returned and then sangju one of the most intriguing individuals i guess i would know um just really puts sweats and tears into this yes debate includes late nights early mornings even if it's on zoom but he's always there to offer a helping hand and i can speak for our whole team when i say i know all of us would stay up rereading each speech practicing over and over again whether that's in zoom or in person um and yeah just to thank the board and everything for supporting us in our efforts thank you all
081right madam chair president before you leave um first of all i just found out about this i would like a uh is there a transcript of your final debate or not uh there there is a um there is a recording on youtube of the final round um also i believe a vlog exists i don't know about it choices uh found out about after the fact but there is a there is a final round video uh if you google uh or search on youtube uh 2022 world schools debate nsda final round that should so the reason i ask is that not only i would like to get the copy make it available to the rest of the district but also even if we can get it in words i like to immortalize the words and keep
082it as a records because we are not your national champions it's a big deal you know um so if we can do that even i'm thinking at one point putting some of your your your boards on print and so the students can see it and be inspired that'd be wonderful second one is that madame president i would like you to come back if you can next time so we can present you also with certificates from the board but also asking our elected officials to be here i know we have a representative from our senator right here so next time maybe if you come back uh hopefully you will we can give you certificates on behalf of the maybe the supervisor senator the assembly and the school board and the reason i say this again it's
083it's it's a it's a big deal to win nationals but also your inspiring stories if i'm an eld student then i see two of you being the champions or you know these students that would make that will help me see i don't have to debate because i look angry all the time so people are like i'm not going to debate with this guy but but i'm very proud of you because this is a very big accomplishment so uh if that is okay madame president we'll maybe ask him to come back maybe with the presentation of certificates and then acknowledging them and um congratulations again and then i like how many of you are going to be are going to become attorneys just out of curiosity have you thought about it yet no yeah there you
084go see it good for you thank you congratulations and uh you know and i think and then the young lady said the pineapple on pizza right that's never a good idea but it was thank you everybody thank you for coming out this evening tonight yes thank you um they want to take a picture well we'll we'll get the photo op in okay go ahead yep so we can post it right ready one two three nice [Applause] i'm sorry i'm sorry who did you beat in finals i'm just curious uh they beat a team from colorado ohio ohio sorry you beat a team from colorado in the semi-finals they beat a um a very very wealthy team from new york and quarterfinals um uh yeah they did very well western ohio i believe well uh thank
085you i'm gonna i meant are you good okay uh critical part about speech and debate is taking turns uh so first things first uh there's a very familiar face in the audience and that is our coach mr brandon batham uh i had the privilege of attending burbank high school uh with mr batham um and we had uh the same advisor uh when this program was uh brought back um uh from non-existent uh or from just oblivion frankly and and um the year i participated was a very basic basic year we were getting out uh waking up in the morning waiting through rounds constantly um disagreeing with judges when uh you know uh arguing bias at times based off of the arguments we were making but we were also we qualified for state uh and to
086see where this is now is so fulfilling and to see mr batham who was the year after me right yeah yeah um because you guys kept it going and made it take off and and to see you now after all these years after coming back from vermont um and now coming home uh one it's great to see you two in these new roles it's amazing uh growing up growing older is as fulfilling as heck but when you get to pass down the things you're passionate about and we've been always passionate about politics always passionate about public policy but to see you doing it in this way is such a testament to you so i just want to recognize you for doing this i'll volunteer that's huge it's a lot of work and a lot of
087and thank you for thanking him because i know exactly what that is and how long it is um but so proud so proud way to represent the institution way to represent this community way to represent your own story in a way that that really delivered dividends so just congratulations please ever let's report that there we go um first i'd like just to say congratulations um i've known sanju for a while mr chairman of the youth board i've had the great honor of working with sun ju and also on his articles in the new york times as well right um but i would just want to say how proud i am of you guys um it's truly amazing what you guys are doing and i definitely want to get a picture with you guys if i
088can because that trophy is impressive i think you guys deserve all the props that you that you have been doing the hard work is being recognized keep up all the work that you guys do i'm honestly just so impressed myself being a political junkie as well just keep on doing what you're doing i can't wait to see all the successful things that you guys do and i definitely want a picture with all of you and just again congratulations from myself and i bet all the people from burroughs will be amazed at the things that you are doing representing burbank and especially send you going to the usa team and representing us in burbank and going to the united states and just debating i just congrats to all of you guys i'm just blown away and
089i'm so amazed thank you mr huerta thank you for coming this evening thank you for your email um because these are these are the types of programs that we need to know about and celebrate and bring forward and i i i think bhs tv needs to do a segment and showcase you i'll mention it to miss win that because you represented your school and the students at burbank high need to know what you've accomplished and then that's also a way of hopefully bringing what you've done to light and gaining more members so that as mr ferguson said and if you said this perpetuates and keeps on going so i think that would be a big honor uh and your fellow students need to know how hard you've worked and what you've accomplished in you know
090burbank high school's name so thank you for coming out i am also a bulldog and very very very impressed and proud of what you've done and brought to uh our high school so thank you today good everybody okay good thank you i apologize you you've heard us i don't want to keep it although it's worth saying over and over again how incredibly impressed we are with you um you know um mr belton the way you speak about your students and the passion that you put into this is incredibly impressive and i know that's how much this really means to you and to them so thank you for that and thank you for being with them for that and the students anything you have to compete in ao2 against you know someone else takes an incredible
091amount of time uh and dedication to whatever it is you're working on to your craft to to learning how to do what you do in a way that's going to stand out and clearly you've all put in that kind of amount of time and learned i think it was mentioned at a time that there isn't really great debate in our country right now that it is a skill that's clearly being lost uh so this is a a really impressive thing and a great thing for you to be able to learn and excel in and and i i yes i'm incredibly impressed as someone who like all of us has had to learn to speak in public and sometimes without very much preparation it's not an easy thing to do um and you guys have just
092blown it away and done such fantastic job and you will always be welcome here we don't always have to agree we don't always ever agree but we love as we've said before love that you are passionate want to speak about what's important to you and that goes for all of you so you're always going to be welcome back here because you have represented us also well and and yourself and and will continue to do so so congratulations to all of you [Applause] okay moving on to number 11 request to address the board an individual or group representative present this evening may address the board of education on any agenda item by completing a white request card or blue in this case today and turning to mrs ramirez adams speakers are requested to state their name
093prior to speaking to the board not more than five minutes may be allotted to each speaker except by unanimous consent of the board of education the superintendent may refer the matter to the proper department for review we're also providing alternatives to in-person attendance for viewing and participating any individual group representative may address the board of education on any agenda item or subject within its jurisdiction during one of the three public comments but we're doing one tonight um miss adam miss ramirez adams do we have any virtual speakers we that are still we do we have two two okay i'm gonna start with our in-person ones um with that we're going to start with roberta reynolds and dave kemp followed by arda takachaka good evening president tabit members of the board superintendent hill district staffs community
094members who are here with us and those who are listening at home my name is roberta reynolds i'm a lifetime resident of burbank and i'm here with my friend dave kemp who is also a very long time member of this community and we are here this evening to simply say thank you to miss cocta and if you'll all indulge me i would like to speak directly to miss cocktail and y'all can listen while i do that okay miss cockta i first met you when our children were attending jefferson you were the pta president at that time there was some strain and lack of understanding between the parents who worked outside the home and those who did not work outside the home to keep this brief and not belabor the details you navigated those waters to
095bridge understanding with grace compassion and dignity over time those are the words that i use to describe you and your approach to life grace compassion and dignity fast forward we're at burbank high while i continue to be one of those parents who was working and also trying to volunteer for schools and support my children you supported me and encouraged me to take on leadership roles that i did not believe i could perform most specifically burbank high ptsa president you encouraged me to just say yes i'll give it a try and then you did the same thing to encourage me to take on the role of council pta president and then from their circumstances repeated and you encouraged me to run for the board of education and i did not believe i could do that however
096we were able to accomplish a lot of things you have given yourself at every level in this community from preschool parent education leader at council pta through all the schools on to board of education city treasurer and finally chief business officer for the burbank unified school district all while serving in volunteer organizations to numerous dimension at every step you have operated with grace compassion and dignity you've been a role model for all parents particularly those trying to navigate both the professional and the volunteer world mr frittner has also been a benefactor of your model that it really is possible to do it all with that the glass ceiling so to speak was broken for fathers to serve as pta presidents and as well as mothers who were working and working professionals mr frittner went on
097to become the first and at this point only male father member of a president of burbank council pta for all those things our community thanks you and i thank you your talents gifts and abilities will most certainly be missed when you depart your current role however i look forward to all the ways that you will continue to serve and make the world and this community a better place with grace compassion and dignity and then hopefully i've left a little time for my friend dave thank you good evening president tabit members the board and the student board members and superintendent hill and district staff i'm here to speak on behalf of debbie cochta who's been a longtime friend i want to thank you for your many years of unwavering loyalty and dedicated service to the city
098of burbank and the burbank unified school district you've been a pillar of excellence in all your year all your endeavors to serve this community as a volunteer a board member a city treasurer and now assistant superintendent you've always gave your very best i joined roberta in thanking you for your years of service your leadership and for your friendship more than anything else and for a career well done may you have a happy and successful future we will miss you thank you very much thank you so very much our next speaker is arda to chuckie followed by tara what way good evening board president tabit and members of the board of education my name is arda chaki and i am a district representative with the office of state senator anthony portentino senator portentino wishes he could
099be here in person this evening to recognize ms cochta's dedicated service to our burbank schools ms cochta on behalf of senator portentino i would like to present you with this certificate of senate recognition thank you for your exceptional dedication to our students your commitment to serving our community in the many leadership roles you have undertaken is truly an inspiration to all those who have worked alongside you we wish you the best of luck in all of your future endeavors of course thank you thank you yes um oh yes sorry thank you tara thank you hi would you say your last name for me because why because i really destroyed it i apologize it's like law gotcha thank you um let me just first say uh congratulations to again the speech and debate team and thank
100you board members thank you dr hill and thank you district staff um i am actually not a product of burbank schools but i am a product of the speech and debate team of plano texas and uc berkeley where i was the captain of the speech team so i hope i don't embarrass myself tonight you guys i have five minutes to get it right all right uh so i am here to discuss item number agenda item number 13e which is the diversity equity and inclusion specialist and i'm here with good news which is that i'm really happy about that which is that you know i don't know miss williams i like her trauma-informed approach i don't know personally whether we can get to see the scope of work and what kind of goals and accountability are
101written into service contracts but if that's something that can be made available that would be great and i'm here to jump off that point because what i really want to talk about tonight is that idea of inclusion you all may remember i visited you guys oh maybe a month ago and i'm back and i'm not used to not being preceded by joel so it's new for me so i'm here to tell you that anytime you guys have anything on the agenda that involves inclusion i'm going to be here and that's because this district doesn't seem to acknowledge that inclusion includes students with disabilities not only is this a general convention in education that when you talk about inclusion that's kind of the subtext of who you're talking about it's actually in the california department of
102education literature right in fact the california department of education publishes a book this is the second version called inclusion works subtitle creating care programs that promote belonging for children with disabilities it's also on the california department excuse me the california teacher association website where they define appropriate inclusion as cta believes appropriate inclusion exists when students with ieps and 504s attend age appropriate general education classes at career and technical education in their home school for the same number of instructional minutes as their peers with appropriate support and funding and yet i should add too that in addition to this kind of very technical policy driven definition inclusion comes out of the civil rights movement when it comes out of brown versus board of the education brand versus board of education it comes out of the 1997
103individuals with disability education act and it even comes out of the affordable care act so it has been institutionally in policy embedded in there and yet nothing on the district's dei website mentions disability there is no visual representation of anyone with disabilities to be fair the slideshow on the dei website only has three slides maybe it could have a few more um and let me say i mean i went extensively through the last year of public presentations that were made by the dei committee and nothing in them really explicitly addressed this in fact in the june summary i'm looking at the inclusion goal the goal is to ensure curriculum and education materials are representative of our students identities and cultural and ethnic heritage there's nothing there that's not to say i believe in marginalizing any
104other aspect of dei in fact disability is intersectional i think you guys probably have already heard there are lots of statistics now about the incredible racial disparities involved in providing supports and services to students of color there is also an incredible surgeons now in education talking to students who consider themselves neurodivergent and autistic that they self-identify as part of the lgbtq community at three to four times the rate of reg of students who are not identified in that way so there's a lot of intersectionalism that includes disability and we don't see it in any of the literature and frankly in any of the policy so i'd really like to ask you guys some very specific things tonight one is that you understand what inclusion is second is that any goal or mention of inclusion by
105this district explicitly articulate that it is in service of the disabled community just as when we talk about diversity we explicitly mentioned race ethnicity culture when we mentioned social justice we mentioned the lgbtq community we need to make it explicit and finally i also want to see it addressed from a policy level at the elementary school level we do a lot for our high schools you guys but this stuff gets planted early by the time students and i'm sure the high school students on the board can agree with me by the time we get to high school i don't want to say it's too late but a lot of the work has been done and needs to be undone and we can use that trauma informed model early i'll just leave you with this i
106don't know if i'm allowed to leave you guys with documentation but here is some documentation on inclusive teaching strategies from yale center for education i encourage the board to go ahead and take a look at this especially the uh the curriculum specifics inclusion is not just a touchy feely term it's action and it's action that this district can take thank you can i give these guys to you yeah send them to miss ramirez adams and she'll pass them out thank you thank you very much miss wah you got it i'll be looking forward to it thank you uh our next in-person speaker is uh michael morgan and then we'll go to our virtual speakers [Music] good evening president tabit and school board distinguished school board as well as staff and burbank and burroughs good to
107see you all here uh i i was treated tonight to an opportunity to see the national championships of the world debate to be here in burbank i did not expect that i thought it was amazing and it brought me back to when i was at john bros high school and i had a teacher named mr piper i don't know if any of you know mr piper but he was a part of the jbhs debate team and i had an amazing time um being a part of that team mr marcos taught government uh chad elwell taught english at the time mrs kaluya taught english at the time we may have been a part of the same generation a little bit across town maybe but it makes me really grateful for teachers who have impacted my life
108specifically through speech and debate i went to gcc as a pipeline for debate for one year and then transferred to washington university in st louis where i continued uh actually did my honors thesis in the political racial history of st louis and participated and won some championships in speech and debate myself so that being said uh hello dr hill uh i just watched the video on my uh iphone of that debate and the very first statement is this house housing is a right that was how burbank won i'm going to spoil it for you all sorry about that and it made me think uh related to i guess it's agenda item 10a why isn't housing a right in burbank for teachers because the teachers who i mentioned never were able to afford living in the
109city of burbank the entire time they taught me mr marcos chad elwell uh mr piper i couldn't afford a home in burbank one man could his name was mr scott i don't know if any of you know mr scott he taught health i saw him at a block party the other day in the rancho he was roaring it up because he just moved to texas but that man owned a home he was he's kind of a funny man if you know mr scott i know you do but anyway he was the one guy he was the one teacher that owned a home in burbank no one else did so here's what i'm suggesting to our our group here why don't we come up with some innovative ways to support alternative housing for teachers in the
110city of burbank now we could go far up or far down however we think about it we could go big brother style we could go hype house style we could go influencer house style tick tock style whatever you want but the idea of having programming around teachers all living in one community one housing area being able to teach in the city of burbank the media entertainment city of the world capital of the world i presented this exact idea to the city council when uh sharon springer and there's another woman who went to harvard do you remember her name she used to be on yes yeah right on so anyway i spoke with her after but i presented her with this idea of alternative housing and it involved teachers this was probably two or three years
111ago closer to three years ago and i never heard back from her she ended up leaving shortly thereafter the city council so i'm now returning to a new group here at the city council chambers but i'm asking you i'm pleading with you help find a way for teachers to be able to support themselves uh it's not always going to be through pay raises right now we have calpers and calstrs they just hit a five percent when they're supposed to be hitting seven percent on pensions so right now it's not exactly the best time to be a teacher in california from a lot of perspectives but we want to attract the top talent we want to attract the best people we need to raise salaries for teachers we need to provide them with better benefits if
112that means an independent study or research for how we can do our own pension here in burbank these are the things that we need but thirdly we need to have housing for teachers housing is anywhere from 2300 to 3500 a month every single month for for teachers for substitute teachers included so let there be hopefully a percolation of thoughts i appreciate mr ferguson's uh interest as i'm speaking that's the one thing you learn in speech and debate you focus on the person who's interested in what you're saying for all of you all else i hope you really think about this and consider it because future generations can't afford to stay in burbank i had a conversation with the burbank realtors association this evening talking about elements involved with the school board races in november and
113one of the things they said is compared to other school districts let's say nevado school district which is up in marion county the way that realtors real estate and the idea of moving to a city and working there in that district is done very very differently than it is in burbank if you look at the novato school district website one of the first tokens on the web page front page is for realtors and it makes realtors think oh great here's all the analysis here's all the research everything i need to know about housing if you look at the busd website no such thing exists and i asked him i said do you think that this website could be improved for realtors and families who are thinking of moving to burbank he said absolutely so i
114guess that would be a second idea is whoever runs your website um just to look into it whoever your webmaster is how can we maybe bring that up to date a little bit and focus on this idea of attracting the absolute top and best talent to burbank with that said i'm very grateful to you all i think having these two members of the board are is amazing john burroughs high school it's a very different place now than it was when i was there but i'm very grateful to see that things are moving progressing uh congratulations to the new principal of burbank high school i think that's fantastic that has been a a slow train but it finally found its location so with that said thank you all for having me i hope to be more
115visible in future events i i'm actually a product of burbank high schools i taught in burbank high schools and i think the homegrown approach to burbank is few and far between these days and so whenever you see people who you know and who know when papua's hot dogs existed and was not a veggie grill although i'm very happy as a vegan that it is uh i think that's awesome the last thing i'm going to say real quick this is off the topic of housing but i did present someone at burroughs high school with a sheet talking about school lunches and i would say i would encourage everyone on this board to look into what's happening right now with school lunches there was a bill that was passed by an assembly member here in the san
116fernando valley to support vegan lunches or what i would call cruelty free lunches and currently those are available for free without any expenditures and so that is something that we can all adopt as a district i haven't seen any adoption i would love to see adoption i think the students would as well the last thing on that would be again just options and how we can eat better and be more healthy i think public safety is something that this board has shown they're committed to and i'm very grateful for that i think the next step is preventative safety measures for health part of that includes school lunches what it is we're eating how we're eating it the last thing i'll say is there have been some changes made in the state of california through legislation
117around breakfasts and free lunch breakfasts we now are able to actually have milk substitutes or dairy substitutes instead of milk so we can have dairy free smoothies and that can be a protein based meal for students in the mornings and everyone's receiving free lunch now in california and i'm very grateful to be able to just share a couple of those progressive ideas with you thank you all right we can move to our two virtual speakers we have aydah kennedy and vida morales meranis is that correct yes i just promoted them uh vita morales can you hear me and i believe you're with ada yes so do you want to go at the same time and just or just take one at a time okay uh i guess i will be going first um she's just
118at my house because we thought it might be fun to perform together in a way so um thank you the whole one let me just sit on my speech oh this is okay good good evening board members i'm vina morales a seventh grader attending luther burbank middle school and today i will be talking about the discrimination in the dress code policy enforcements one of the main reasons i decided to go to luther and not somewhere else was because of how equal and supportive the dress code was a dress code may just seem like a few rules but in reality it shows the school's character empathy and respect august 3rd 2021 before the start of sixth grade i signed my signature proudly on the dress code agreement i could tell when i read the following lines
119luther would treat me fairly as a girl and not discriminate or shame me because of my gender here are a few lines from the dress code students may wear tank tops including spaghetti straps off the shoulder tops and halter pops staff shall not shame a student in front of others which includes calling out students in front of others accusing students of distracting others with their clothing and making critical or judgmental comments about a student's attire no student shall be subjected to dress code enforcement because of sex designed at birth body size or type or body maturity this year things changed before this school year i signed my signature again agreeing to the policies on the dress code nothing changed on it it was the same one i signed in 2021 about a week into the
120school year an assembly was held discussing the behavioral expectations for this upcoming school year a speaker went into the dress code all of a sudden i hear an adult men stating a new dress code a dress code that does not allow girls to show any part of their bra this includes bra straps any midriff and it was said that these parts of a girl's body were distracting this violates both the dress code agreement and the trust i had in luther this was all announced after many students had already gone back to school shopping for clothes i have personal experience with this and many items of clothing i was not able to get a refund for a lot of money was wasted this is just another way of controlling women i'm by promoting this they are
121promoting a culture of discrimination i want you to understand that i'm not trying to wear a bathing suit to school but they are dress coding girls for wearing tank tops that show a bra strap we can't control for bra straps show we have to do pe making it impossible to wear a strapless bra even if it was possible we should not be expected to change our undergarments for the comfort of male administrators i have personally witnessed a girl getting dressed coated in a tank top with no bra strap showing because she had a larger chest yet another girl with a smaller chest was not dress coated even though she had an almost identical tank top another case was when a girl was dress coded for wearing baggy sweatpants yet countless boys in my classes sagnapants
122which is not allowed and have faced no punishment even after people asked about it i don't understand what they want from us we can't show our bodies because that's distracting but we can't wear baggy clothes because that's also distracting all we want to do is go to school and receive an education we need a dress code that allows girls to be free to wear what they feel comfortable in and not be called a distraction and also personally people love the style of sagging fans but if that's what the boys feel comfortable with what harm would it do to them to allow them to wear what they want thank you for hearing me out i'm vina morales have a lovely evening thank you miss morales are we hearing from ada as well yes okay hello um
123thank you for having me board of education my name is aydah kennedy i'm a seventh grader at luther baby middle school and i'm here to discuss the unfairness within the new enforcement of the dress code policy at luther i came here because at luther the answer to all of our complaints was that they couldn't change it and although they understood they didn't have enough power to do so but i wanted change so here we go i'm sorry are my shoulders showing even in modern day society girls of all different body types are faced with depression for the simple reason of being female when i finally gain enough confidence to be able to be proud of my skin for the first time in years whether that be in a tank top crop top tube top shorts
124etc i feel that i've earned the right to be proud especially in middle school where bodies are changing and insecurities are growing one voice more than the ones in your head saying your 11 or 12 year old body is unacceptable could break you confidence in young women is a rare token that should not be carelessly tested every day at the place where we're supposed to learn i'm sorry are my bra strap showing when i get dressed in the morning my priority is to look good and be comfortable i thought that was what the school cared about too but i guess not how am i supposed to be comfortable walking around school working in class when all i can think about is how i need to cover up my body because it's distracting boys in school
125especially in california summer heat i need to wear a tank top when i wear a tank top my bra strap might show this should not and should never be a reason for me to be sent to the principal's office so are we supposed to wear strapless bras for students with heavier cleavage they would easily ball off and similarly for students without either way no one in luther should have to change their undergarments for the approval of school staff when i spoke about this at luther one of the teachers made the claim that school is a place for learning and therefore we should wear a professional attire if we saw our teachers wearing a tank top to school we would not be able to take them seriously so we shouldn't wear them either she stated there
126are many things wrong with what she said not only the first of them being that if my teacher wouldn't take me seriously because of what i was wearing that would be their problem another thing is that by saying our bodies are unprofessional we're creating an unbalanced environment that is unaccepting of confidence and even destroying it either way we shouldn't it shouldn't be our responsibility to buy a new wardrobe especially when many students may not have the materials or free money to do so when you blame girls for distracting the boys with our clothing you are breaking our willpower if this is the place for professionality that teach the boys not to gawk at our collarbones tell them to focus on their work by pulling girls aside because their skin is distracting other students you're proving
127that the boys education is more important than the girls you're taking out hours from our education to make sure we cover up pieces of slim fabric that keep our bra i'm sorry is my midriff showing last year i was not only fine i was excited to be in this new adventure a main thing i respected about luther's education system was how equally they treated students and how accepting they were of women's bodies i guess i was wrong last year we signed an agreement addressing the school dress code policy it seemed reasonable this year i was greeted with the same one and the same signature was inked on it what we are now being told is not what i signed for luther is enforcing a dress code that is different from the one we all agreed
128to they have added things to the policy that we're not on the boards this injustice in a school that claims to be inclusive and equal instead of making progress even baby steps in the right direction we are rewinding rules that are being enforced unless now were rules i thought were never going to be a problem now i'm actually getting worried as are most students in luther by forcing us to cover up our bodies and be ashamed of our skin we are retreating back in time i think most of the school will agree with me when i say we will not quietly go back to the 1900s by limiting our rights you are limiting us and i don't think that's what this that's what luther should want thank you so much for having me here i'm
129ada kennedy and have a great night thank you so much aydah uh no further speakers not on my list okay thank you so very much we can now hear from staff responses thank you president tabit and thank you to all the speakers i'm going to start with vida and aydah thank you both so much for especially on school night staying with us and advocating so well hopefully you were able to see and hear the debate and speech presentation earlier because i highly encourage you both to try out and start that was very well said i'm going to keep it brief because the solution should be very brief we had student board members a couple years ago raise the same concerns that you just raised and we went through a very long process with them to
130update the the board policy that was really student-led student board member led and driven that worked with our school board and our administration and we revised it and what you signed is exactly what the board policy is around dress code all the concerns that you highlighted tonight were the concerns that were raised and we wanted to address i'm gonna have dr paramo and if need be i'll support him in the conversation at luther and we'll go to all of our schools to make sure the dress code is being enforced the way that you signed it so we want to make sure that all of our students feel respected included uh it should not be a discriminatory dress code so we did change that now we gotta make sure we're enforcing it the correct way so
131thank you for your advocacy for the other speakers thank you so much for uh joining this evening as well uh dr reynolds mr kem thank you for your just your spot on words for miss cocta she has given so much to this district and this community and we're greatly going to miss you and uh you said it's oh so well um uh mr chikaki and thank um senator reporter tina as well for his recognition and honoring as well miss ms wahl thank you for being very specific and detailed we do need to be more explicit around inclusion and that what we mean by all students our neurodiverse students are students with disabilities all of our special education students students on 504 plans so we will continue to review how we talk about the work how
132we promote it and more importantly how we're implementing this work so that we're focused on that so thank you for that those comments mr morgan really appreciate your ideas i'm going to work with staff and look at the ones that we can move on immediately and then some of those are going to require a collaboration with the board and partnership especially around housing but i appreciate your creative suggestions this evening thank you thank you board comments now uh what does that mean let mr fringer go first rock paper scissors okay mr frittner okay thank you uh thank you to all our speakers uh for coming out tonight and those joining us um virtually uh and i will address uh miss kennedy ms morales first um uh i was surprised to uh hear your comments because
133as the superintendent pointed out this was an issue that i thought we had resolved a few years ago we had students at the time i believe it was mr khan was the burroughs high rep and i forget um who was the burbank high rep at that time but you know we went through a process that mr ferguson and i i believe were the board members on that uh committee addressed almost all of the same concerns that you're mentioning and that's why the address policy was written that way and i'm surprised to hear that it's uh that something different is being is being enforced and forced on students and that shouldn't be the case and we can't have a policy written that is not going to be followed um our our female students should not be
134made to feel uncomfortable or ashamed by what they're wearing um even if it doesn't fit the morals of of certain staff members so yes i would hope that we can get this resolved very quickly um ms chakian thank you for representing the senator and for the recognition for miss cochta um incredibly well deserved uh dr reynolds and mr kemp thank you for coming out it's wonderful to see both of you as always when we get the opportunity um we we are second to none in the uh respect uh for miss cochta and the accolades that you keeped on her um and uh i think we still have one meeting to go right you know before we actually have to say goodbye for the for good but or is this it oh okay i was thinking
135we still had one more meeting well um we will greatly miss having you in the in the administration um your service to not just the district but the city of burbank has been pretty much second to none you've covered so many bases and done so many jobs but beyond that the support the friendship that you have provided for myself as well as everyone else is you know something i i uh will be hard to move on from not but not like we won't see you anymore but yeah but not being able to uh work with you in support of the districts will be uh even with my limited time left will be something i won't miss thank you for everything you've done for the district and and the support you provided um and when we
136will miss you um miss wah thank you and and i hope you do continue coming out every time we have uh dei on the agenda um it uh we do need to be more clear uh and more definitive to be totally inclusive it's very easy to think oh we meant it to be for everyone we we want to represent everyone and everyone equally and if you don't state that it doesn't always come out that way and and there are groups that can be missed or not have their needs addressed if you don't spell it out so thank you for pointing that out thank you for the uh information i you know i look forward to having time to read this and read through it um we have had advocates for the uh you know for
137the um disabled uh very specifically janet deal has been very active in our community uh and on sfoc and trying to make sure that we have um had accommodations in place that you know represented them very well so i i welcome your input in that area as well and and we will have to do better and continue to do better mr morgan housing for teachers you're right is is a huge problem thank you for speaking on that it's very easy to say it is a problem but it's not our problem because we don't create housing and we don't you know and and you know we can't we can't do this but that's not going to solve the problem either by just saying well it's it's not our responsibility the city council should be doing more
138to provide housing you know and they are they're working on that as well uh but it it does as i said it doesn't solve the problem and as you mentioned there are other districts in the state who have moved on this issue in different ways creative ways including building you know uh affordable housing for their employees is that something we can do i don't know because certainly it takes an investment of capital which we don't have at the present time but maybe there are partnerships to work uh to work uh you know to create this to make it happen uh both with the city and with you know private developers you know we we need to think creatively to try and find better solutions for that and we'll have to continue working towards that goal
139because we do i i i would love for all of our teachers to live in burbank for one thing i've been living here for you know the 30 years almost 30 years you know there's a reason why i stayed here when we bought a home why we bought it here because it's a great city and we you know wanted to be here uh and we want our employees to feel that ownership also that mr batham talked about how he's you know living in the house he grew up and that's important for people who are interacting to be able to feel part of the community as well so uh we'll have to continue uh thank you you know for bringing the subject forward and it is something that we'll have to uh you know keep looking
140for creative solutions and possibilities so thank you uh and that's it thanks thank you um dr um i do uh concur what my colleague said about the dress code we spend a lot of time on the topic and and thank you for the young ladies you should join the debate team and but more important also um you know i'm certain we're going to address this quickly yeah a lot of people spoke about the topic so i'm kind of surprised but again um i would like an update once we address this but also i think it's great one of my colleagues says to our new members that it's important that you come forward and tell us so thank you for the our students coming forward and being brave enough to come and talk about this and
141i think this board i think has set a really good standard allowing our students to come forward and talk about their topics and concerns so thank you very much and i'm sure we're going to address that miss wabb thank you for bringing this forward um i think it's it's not only important but it's also the law so um i would love to see a copy of how we can bring what you just provided us but also in writing so we can put it into the language and start addressing this as someone who's been active with you know individuals with disabilities unfortunately sometimes people forget and sometimes they don't have the voice they need so thank you for doing this and i am i can tell you that we will make sure that we'll move forward
142with this but also will appreciate your help as well and expertise um dr reynolds and mr kemp it's always good to see you um i will uh keep my uh speech at the end for miss cochta thank her so i will leave that for the end but it's always great to see you and then as far as the housing issue goes i'm not going to get into it much but you know what i always hear these concerns about realtors and you know people always say people come to burbank because of our schools but you know i want us to you really want to solve this problem go repeal prop 13. i'm sorry i mean it's that is the that is the issue here i lived in a country germany which teachers are very highly paid
143housing is very expensive but teachers are paid very well it's a funding issue so unless we start repealing prop 13 which some realtors might not happy about hearing then we're going to have this challenge all the time it's the way we get funded um but it's a housing affordable housing that's a great idea but i want to talk about how we can pay our teachers more so they can afford to live in burbank but also at the same time how we can really look at changing the law we get this band-aid approach one-time funding it's it's not helping our teachers they should be paid well for what they do but also you know people forget the way we get funded it's from the state unless we change the formula cities like burbank are going to
144struggle this is a media this is a middle middle-class community you know and sometimes people forget how we get funded and that's it thank you thank you dr weisberg uh yeah thanks to everybody i'm gonna work backwards a little bit uh mr morgan thank you so much for your comments mr ferguson and i have been talking for the better part of a year about how we can work with the city to provide more affordable housing not only for our teachers but also for our first responders many of whom can also not afford to live in burbank and as a renter i'm getting perisically close to not being able to afford to live in burbank um so there's lots of different things that we could talk about but i think the most important thing is to
145really be working with our elected city officials to figure out ways we know that there's a commitment they've made to build a set amount of housing in burbank what i have already asked for and we'll hopefully hear back from and know other people other constituents have as well is what portion of that will be affordable housing what level of affordable housing how big will the units be we know that there's some micro housing right now but it's 600 square feet so if you're a person who has anything other than a goldfish that is not a reasonable solution for you so i do think it is solvable i know that council has been thinking about it i think it is something that we as board members need to continue to push whether that's in the joint
146meetings that we're now having multiple times a year or just through continued advocacy but um you know even something like our hopefully proposed new new central library there's talk again about it being mixed use and there might be housing there as well so the good news is i mean it's not great news because we don't have answers but the good news is this has been at the forefront of many people's minds because of what we're not able to pay our teachers due to budgeting one of the things we want to figure out is what are the other incentives we can offer because of course people want to live in burbank it's a great place to live so if we can't pay you what glendale unified can pay you as we're trying to work that out
147maybe we can incentivize your housing so i'm really happy to hear you bring it up know that it is something that we have been talking about and are going to continue to move on and i hope other community members will continue to weigh in on the importance of making sure that our teachers and first responders can live in the place that they work and invest in that community um tara thank you a thousand times i'd love to sit down and talk with you further something that i've talked with dr hill about for probably the better part of a year as well as is really making sure that when we talk about dei we're talking about big tent dei that it is neurodiverse it is our differently abled students that we are not eliminating certain groups
148that everybody is included that doesn't mean that you know when we think about equity certain groups need different things and different amounts at different times i don't hear you saying you're asking for you know equality you're asking for equity which every group deserves and so i i know that for all of us i'll take personal responsibility just for me the way that i often talk about dei does omit student groups and i need to do a better job of not only the way i talk about it but also the way i think about it so i'm thankful for your continual advocacy advocacy it's really important i will definitely read um what you gave us and i hope you know maybe we can hop on the phone or grab a coffee and just talk further because
149it isn't for me my dei background that's not my area of expertise i've been i mean i have an enormous amount to learn about everything but this is an area that i specifically you know would love to be directed towards things i can be reading and looking at so that we can make this you know not only something that we say but something that we authentically do so thank you and and i think like mr frittner said i hope you will come back and continue to remind us and and educate us because i know i need it um thank you miss reynolds and mr kemp for uh your phenomenal words about ms kupka i'm gonna say more things offline but i do want to say that you know as as the newest board member starting
150on school board is really difficult um there's no kind of manual to help you get started and um you were endlessly and continue to be patient with me and sat through what i know were stupid questions and never made me feel stupid when i asked them so um i'm just you know endlessly grateful to you for just your generosity and your patience and your kindness and your willingness to go over things with me that you've already gone over before um so i just know that i would not have been able to navigate my first year and change without your support and i will be forever grateful more to follow but i don't want to you know um to ada and vida who i think i think they disappeared off zoom yes i didn't see them
151anymore they're watching as attendees great um if if it was appropriate to give you a standing ovation i would do so um it is really disappointing to me to hear that after all of that time and effort went into crafting a dress code that students and faculty and admin and district staff all agreed upon that people would feel it appropriate to circumvent that and make other choices um because i know that's not you know i thought dr hill expressed it excellent it's not what we want it's not what i want for sure and as a teacher um i'm constantly having conversations with my female students about the sort of inherent sexism of dress code and how we often tell girls to cover up as opposed to talking to um cisgender men about not uh objectifying
152women for what they wear you said a lot of really powerful things that um that i wrote down just about how important confidence is and how easily you can get cut down when somebody calls you out for what you may or may not be wearing it takes a lot of bravery to stand up and speak out especially because i'm sure it felt like a lonely thing to do tonight the two of you choosing to speak on zoom i know there was some conversation on campus i can't remember the cool name for the group i tried to find it in my email but it was a cool name for the the group of um young ladies who were speaking out against this um i'm sorry that you had to advocate in this way and that you
153signed something that wasn't um respected but i am a hundred percent sure that the dress code will be honored the way that it was written and that what you signed will be what you follow um i know dr promo you know agrees dr hill agrees i think the board agrees um and i want you to i want to encourage you to continue to speak up and speak out and advocate in december i think mr ferguson and i will be kicking off our student advisory council which is intended to bring students together in middle and high school to advocate for issues so i hope you'll consider being involved in that and i hope you'll come back if there are other issues but i am really sort of shocked and saddened to hear this um i teach
154middle school and i know i know how hard it can be it's not about me but i just empathize because i have these conversations with my female male students self-identified every day and i just want you to know that that we hear you and that this this situation is going to be fixed and addressed immediately um so so thank you and i think i think that's all i have but um thank you to all the speakers tonight it's greatly appreciated thank you dr uh mr ferguson i apologize it's a heck of a promotion for me so thank you congratulations not really um uh first to uh thank you to all of our speakers who came down this evening uh first to our students vita anita um not okay um and if there was an employer
155who said that to an employee we wouldn't tell them to join the speech and debate team so i think it's highly inappropriate and i think more than just a check in on policies needs to occur because we have students coming to a board meeting confessing they don't feel safe that's the underlying subtext here and it's not okay and maybe because we have eight new principles we need to read talk about this again at a principal's meeting both at the secondary and the primary level to re-establish norms in this district because there is history but that history is not understood because there is such a high volume of turnover and now it's impacting students not okay they don't feel safe that is our first responsibility so i would like an update with information as appropriate as
156to what steps had been taken what we have done before the end of business tomorrow and certainly with a game plan of what's happening next week to address this not okay to our students you are amazing i am so sorry that you had to come to us to have something that just makes sense be implemented correctly not okay i mean come on middle school yikes to mr kemp to dr reynolds honorable the honorables who used to serve in these chairs thank you so much it's great to see both of you um it was a privilege serving with you as a student board member and it certainly has been a privilege to serve with miss cochta i said my comments last week last meeting a little bit but it's absolutely devastating but i'm happy for her
157uh more time with grandkids come on um i i there's nothing that replaces that um but you all left a legacy here and it's a legacy i certainly still strive to live up to in many different ways one of which is ongoing education dr reynolds in many a late night phone call when i was running for this office to begin with said if you're ever going to get in this you're going to go to masters in governance and you're going to learn because the education the issues education faces evolve and it's important to keep to it i got my masters in governance certificate was very very proud of that but also want to tell you that that legacy continues as i've just graduated from the la county school trustees association ongoing training for board members
158these jobs aren't passive we have to work actively to refine our skill sets so we know what to advocate for so we know how to advocate and we know how to change policy locally to adapt to the needs that education needs to rise to and so i want to thank you for for recognizing miss cuckda i know there's a long love in history here um for ms kakta and uh let's be real this cocktail has changed this city forever and for the good so thank you very much uh it's great to see both of you um and and thank you for your service uh to our community um to ms thank you uh for your advocacy again i remembered you from the joint meeting i was like great fantastic i i appreciate your your participation
159and it's not for a lack of asking uh but we we need to stay on it uh and we need to follow up and be more proactive in in how this is being implemented i i you know uh hear from dr weisberg an emphasized focus on this i i agree and support that and and as we continue to continue first of all also thank you for the resources um resources are critical uh on this front i feel like i'll do a ton of reading and then frankly you know something else comes up that i i just feel ignorant on and i i need to do the work so when we have something like this and and you distributed it for us thank you for preparing it for us it really helps us to continue to
160move just like this training we need training on this front as well dei is an increased focus but really understanding what that fully means the more inclusive i think dr weisberg called it the big tent approach to it absolutely uh and and i am learning more every day but i appreciate a part a partner in that learning so um thank you for that and i will make sure to read this and i would like to book some time with you um really to to hear more because i think between your contributions at the joint meeting and now i i hear it and and um you will hear me from time to time and you know worked extensively with dr reynolds about twice exceptional student you name it um the today issue with the fans being
161deployed in classes how we think about that how we break that down those are simple decisions and simple fixes in our minds but if we don't think about those impacts if we don't understand how students are learning differently in their schools we're not going to anticipate that and and that's not a compassionate model for education that's a subjective model so i just i really appreciate the partnership and we'll continue to learn and thanks for this um to mr morgan uh i really um i appreciate your energy i appreciate your thinking um and your creativity because um i think that education does a phenomenal job of reminding us of all the things we can't do um and by the way i'm very proud to work for the man who introduced ab558 which brought subsidies to plant-based
162meals uh in in california and there is a great amount of funding to not only help uh uh fund uh the cost of those foods but also to improve kitchens uh and to uh rent and you know enter into renovation so that healthier plant-based meals can be offered uh to students and to parents across uh across the state um that's money that's also available potentially for burbank unified and so if if that's a part of our uh i i certainly hope we would take advantage of that um and and really again love the innovative thinking i went to miss cochta a week or a few weeks ago and said hey let's think outside the box a little bit tell me no but if if anything is a yes maybe right maybe we improve the quality
163of experience maybe we improve engagement housing without a doubt uh you speak to our teachers you speak to our classified right um they're struggling and exhausted right and and i used to my mom used to work in porter ranch and i remember how exhausted she was when she drove home and i think about that when i think about our employees because i hear about how many of them are driving that far and even further i think about the time away from their families and i also think about um just just the what that day looks like and how much of that day disappears so i i definitely see it as a priority i think there are innovative ways we can address this problem collaborate partner you name it to do that housing is one component
164compensation certainly as dr aguikanyan illustrated certainly another but but really it is a comprehensive approach it is also about education right and and educating people so that they're aware of just how serious it is um we're all struggling a little bit with inflation but when you haven't gotten raises or received raises year after year after year and just got a raise it doesn't help you're still gasping financially for air i am i also am a renter uh in this community and i will tell you it's exhausting when an entire paycheck is obliterated uh by rent but uh as you said uh we are people who grew up here and there's a certain level of roodiness that has been established that i just will never um i love this community and and i will fight like
165heck to stay here for as long as i can afford it but i have to be honest i'm doing better than a lot of my peers and i worry about them um and i worry about them with young families right who are trying to make this and again maybe long commutes right so it all feeds into it um but i want you to know that you have a partner in innovation with this congratulations on your own candidacy um be an idea person uh help elevate the conversation and dialogue here we need it we're losing folks to compensation to a number of issues and we need to be the innovative district to draw people in when i go to these meetings with the l.a county school trustees association we have a great reputation but we have
166a great representation because of a lot of people in this room who served before us who worked really hard who thought outside the box who updated policies who thought things through we've got to maintain that for future generations and that requires again a commitment to new ideas not staying in the same rut and yes educating ourselves so thanks for being a part of that conversation and good luck last but not least i i do want to take a moment um to thank um uh arda from uh senator portentino's office and and truthfully um you know i i do i'm very proud uh of of what i do for a living but in that process i have learned so much more about our state government and in the state legislature the state legislature just went through
167a marathon voterama where all bills basically die on august 31st they died all last night so if they weren't passed and headed to the governor they're done and we have two very big champions representing burbank assemblywoman friedman who won and put tons of points on the board as it related to transportation improvements and a number of other fronts but senator portentino when it comes to school funding when it comes to a number of frankly reforms that he's able to implement especially as chair uh of budget um it it is truly tremendous to see what he has been able to deliver for burbank unified for burbank uh and for the region so i want to thank our assembly member i want to thank our state senators who were up late last night fighting for bills senator
168portentino actually had the last bill that was heard in the the assembly and it missed it by one vote but really truly thank you for your representation i i have a unique perspective because i'm able to see it firsthand uh and and from the gallery in the senate on tuesday i waved and i just said thank you uh because i know he fought for kids and you know i know he fought for our kids so um thank you and uh our best your boss thank you it's sometimes the difficult position to be fifth and think of something that one of my amazing colleagues hasn't already said um miss first of all thank you very much for the information um there's been several um issues come to light regarding exactly what you've brought to us in
169the last year or two specifically so i too would love to talk with you offline and um see some of the hear about some of the experiences that you and your family have been through um and see where we can go with this it's it's i had to i i followed dr weisberg um in her thoughts about sometimes when we think of dei i don't always think about these students that you're talking about as well and and we are and promote being lifelong learners and so there's a constant need to learn and grow and add to what you already are thinking or have learned so thank you thank you and please come as often as you like and bring whatever information you have i'm happy to hear it so um arda i missed you the
170other night um there was a new guy in your place because you've gone back to school and so congratulations on that i know that takes a lot of time and effort when you're working full-time to also put school in but it's important and thank you for that i was at an event with the chamber that focused on our program at the adult school where we're working with the west coast customs and they provided a program for our students to learn how to redo custom cars from new ones to old ones and they've taken them all the way through the process and the beautiful part about this is the project will end and they'll graduate and they'll be marketable job marketable and so we're very excited about this it's been a while since we've had a
171fantastic new program at the adult school and because of kovid not because we're not interested in promoting things of course we are but it's a great program where the adults that participate in that will come out at the end with a marketable skill and i just think that's an amazing thing so i miss seeing you there and thank you for all you do to support the senator and everything he does because we are lucky to have him as a partner he's done a lot of amazing things in this community and i see that coming up he'll continue to do that so we're appreciative thank you and thank you for coming out arda senator portentino mr kemp dr reynolds all of you to celebrate and thank the amazing mrs kutka i think dr reynolds said it
172beautifully when she talked about your grace your presence your patience dr reynolds talked about being a new board member and how you were easily able to explain to her uh what this meant and what that meant and i as a seasoned older board member i've been around a couple of terms i still come and you're still able to be patient with me oh let me explain this or let me get back to you on this and let's see what we can do it's never just an automatic no which i appreciate but more of a well let me see the answer might be no but let's see if we can work on this and i've always appreciated that with you so thank you and i hope as you say we're going to see you around i've
173got plans for you so hopefully we get to continue with those so thank you and i you've just been amazing this entire time and it's there's great things uh down the road for all of us but grandchildren grandchildren so i can say that now because i have one coming along too so wow okay mr morgan uh great to meet you some great thoughts and ideas you have thank you for sharing them with us i'm sure we'll be hearing lots more from you um young ladies uh aydah and vida um you know what mr ferguson was was incorrect the principal there has been there for 22 years or not there he's been in the district for 22 years and he should know better he should know the amount of work that we put into writing that
174policy on undress code and i don't know the behind-the-scenes story with it and i'm sure you know he was doing what he thought was best at the time at that moment um but we'll give him the benefit of the doubt and hopefully that dr piramo we'll get behind this and make sure that the policy that was written and voted on and that you signed the agreement to will be um in i don't want to say enforced but uh focused and continued with so thank you for coming out and speaking and i totally understood uh dr hill's comments about joining the speed debate team it wasn't about necessarily the what you were talking about but your eloquence and your ability to speak uh was well done and and greatly appreciated good job ladies thank you very
175much uh for representing so well um and i think that's it thank you all for coming and speaking and we'll continue on with the rest of the meeting yes thank you we actually have a public hearing number 12 at approximately 7 30 sort of works so dr weisberg i'm going to gavel in you're welcome public hearing for item 12a is now open would anyone like to provide a public comment on 12a we're waving at people as they're leaving thank you all right see no one the public comment section is now closed again and uh 12a oh that was the yeah thank you we can move on to 13. new and or unfinished business um 13a adoption of resolution 2 proclaiming september 15th through october 15th as bird of burbank unified school districts of spanish heritage
176month oh madam president yes i move that we adopt resolution two proclaiming september 15th through october 15th is burbank unified school district's hispanic heritage month second thank you for the motion in the second mr ferguson discussion please anybody that i'm happy to see this yeah yeah it's a good thing thank you very much thank you uh so all in favor please say aye aye all opposed okay motion carries five zero is it something you would like to reach dr weisberg resolution two proclaiming september 15 to october 15 2022 the burbank unified school district's hispanic heritage month whereas the state of california is home to over 3 million hispanic students from kindergarten through grade 12 and whereas the diversity of this group includes persons who have their origin in mexico central and south america europe africa
177and the spanish-speaking caribbean islands and whereas since the inception of european contact with our continent hispanics have always been an integral part of the nation's early exploration and california's discovery and early settlement and whereas while the impact of the hispanic culture and traditions are manifested in our state's customs traditions and laws and whereas hispanic americans continue to make important contributions to our society in american government business agriculture commerce armed forces education the arts science and sports and whereas the history social science framework for california public schools kindergarten through 12 states the history curriculum of the community state religion nation and the world must reflect the experiences of men and women of different racial religious and ethnic groups and must be integrated at every level and now be it resolved that the burbank unified school district
178board of education proclaims the month of september as hispanic heritage month and encourages all schools in the burbank unified school district to commemorate this occasion with appropriate instructional activities thank you you're quite welcome okay it seems kind of well i was just saying just to moving on but the next one is very exciting as well 13b adoption of resolution three proclaiming the month of september 2022 as pta membership month madam president yes i move that the board of education adopt resolution 3 proclaiming the month of september 2022 as pta membership month as presented second thank you and thank you for the second we have um tonight with us charlene walters and kelly dunkle who oh okay she's staying so we just have charlene walters um i'm going to take you on my speech should we
179vote first or should we hear you out first so let's take the vote all in favor please say aye aye opposed motion carried september 2022 is pta membership month yay yes i have to say i was very intimidated being here with the speech and debate team because this is like something i'm not very good at but it was uh it was motivational so good evening uh president tabit board members dr hill bsd staff and our attendees um this is kelly dunkel and i'm charlene walters burbank council uh pta's first vp of leadership and i'm here to on behalf of berman council pta's president laurie little and our fellow executive members to talk about pta membership thank you for designating the month of september as pta membership month our mission is to positively impact the lives
180of children and families pta is part of the fabric of the united states public education system and a trusted partner to parents families educators community members and its advocates for education welfare health safety for all children pta has been instrumental in establishing programs and services to improve children's lives having a robust membership helps pta achieve its goals if you're not a part of pta i recommend that you become one until actually have these little qr codes for you to use we did it thank you membership is open to everyone without discrimination there is no limit to the number of ptas that you can join and support so we have our community membership and i've handed out our qr codes to you to use a burbank unified school district has 16 units if you join all
181that's 135 dollars for community members um so far we have 11 community members does that include you yes oh yay be a part of a powerful association that advocates on behalf of children at local state and national levels please visit burbankcounselpta.org and you can sign up community of burbank thank you all right thank you for listening to me tonight thank you thanks for coming and staying [Music] no now no and staying up until now yeah i don't mean to stay like you need to stay till the end of the meeting no it doesn't mean that i meant for staying up until this point yes thank you it was good it was interesting it was a good meeting yeah thank you read the resolution sure i did pay my i did pay my dues too so
182yeah uh resolution number three proclaiming the month of september 2022 is pta membership month whereas burbank council pta consisting of 16 unit pta associations has a long tradition of seeking the highest possible education advantages for all children and youth so they can realize their full potential and whereas burbank council pta assists parents in developing the skills they need to raise and protect their children encourages parent and public involvement in public schools in our community and speaks on behalf of children and schools in the community in organizations and before public governing bodies and whereas during the month of september special activities will be held to promote parent involvement expand the membership of burbank council pta and broaden the pta's base of support so it becomes a stronger and more effective voice for children and education and
183whereas it is the role of burbank council pta to encourage parent involvement by promoting an educational environment in which parents are valued as primary influences in their children's lives and essential partners in their children's education and development therefore be it resolved that the the board of education of the burbank unified school district certifies the month of september 2022 as pta membership month in burbank california and encourages our citizens to expand their involvement in issues affecting the education health and safety of our children lovely thank you thank you very much 13 c [Music] acceptance of the burbank teachers association cta nea 2022 2023 proposal for bargaining and amendment to the current agreement with the burbank unified school district president yes sir a move that the board of education accept the burbank teachers association cta nea initial
184proposal for bargaining uh an amendment uh to the current agreement with the burbank unified school district as presented second thank you for the motion and the second dr khanian i think i heard first i apologize if i missed that um any discussion it's great seeing none uh all those in favor please say aye aye those opposed please say no motion carries five zero thank you thirteen d approval of the district's initial proposal for the 2022-2023 amendment to the current collective bargaining agreement with the burbank teachers association president tabit yes sir i'll move the board of education approve the district's initial proposal for the 2022-2023 amendment to the current collective bargaining agreement with the burbank teachers association is presented thank you and thank you for the second doctor connie and this time for sure um all
185those oh any discussion here thank you all those in favor please say hi hi opposed great motion carries 5-0 13e approval of agreement for the diversity equity and inclusion consultant madam president yes ma'am i move that we approve the agreement for the diversity equity and inclusion consultant not to exceed sorry uh 20 000 effective september 1st 2022 through may 31st 2023 as presented second thank you for the motion the second you need to read all those numbers too i'm just kidding don't use me please i know that was terrible all right any discussion here i just want to say that i'm really excited about it i don't know if people had a chance to review the proposal but i could not be more excited about the direction that we're going i think it's going to
186provide our teachers with really practical important tools that they can use in the classroom regarding trauma-informed education so i i just over the moon about miss williams and her expertise and what she's going to be bringing to our faculty um and i you know i think this is an exciting year miss williams along with our teacher leaders i'm i'm very hopeful and excited and optimistic about the capacity building and the expansion of dei so i want to thank dr hill and ms couseo and dr piramo for i know looking around quite a bit to find somebody who is really going to meet the needs that our teachers and admin have expressed good to hear thank you okay all in favor then please say aye aye opposed motion carries five zero uh thirteen f sec acceptance
187of gifts madam president okay how are you i moved to the board of education take formal action accepting the following gifts to the district and that the board president convey appreciation to the donors as presented and then second i flourish that mr ferguson usually sorry you'll never do the floor you're absolutely right thank you for the flourish-less motion thank you it's our status yes do i have did i get a second second sorry emily okay dr iceberg thank you with much florida thank you uh all those in favor please say aye aye opposed thank you so now uh thank you so much to our donors uh it's greatly appreciated all that we receive from everyone for everything that they do our first is pinch 2022 series s1 warner brothers television who wishes to donate to
188the district six thousand dollars to be used as needed at dolores huerta middle school and second biscuit film works llc wishes to donate to the district a thousand dollars to be used as needed at dolores huerta middle school and those are our gifts for this evening thank you to the donors greatly greatly appreciated now moves us to consent agenda president abbott yes sir mr ferguson i will move we uh the board approve items 14a through 14r of the consent calendar unless there are items which board members wish to pull second thank you for motion the second any items that need to be pulled board members none okay um then all those in favor of approving consent agenda a 14 a through r 14 r thank you gentlemen uh please say hi hi hi that was
189with some foreign anyone opposed please say no great consent agenda is a motion carries to approve the consent agenda great um can i can i make a request yes sir that instead of um instead of adjourning in memory that we instead adjourn in celebration of miss cocktail's long tenure of service uh to the board and to the burbank unified school district yes yes yes perfectly said before you do that this is the get end okay go two things but i also want to remind everyone sorry i just want to remind everyone that august 31st is how the people all around the world celebrated the 22nd international overdose awareness day um the day is about remembering the loved ones we have lost acknowledging the grief and all the friends we've lost this is a you know
190an epidemic um i'm certain that some of you have been reading about all the overdoses that's been happening in burbank some of our anyways i i think it is important that people are aware of this and this is an issue we start really talking about because the fentanyl and these overdoses are really devastating our communities so again august 31st everyone just remember it was the international overdose awareness day um so miss cookta i do i did want to keep my comments to the end i apologize maybe i didn't go early but i just want to thank you i know you're not going anywhere but important more important also as my colleague said you know when i was first running also one of the first people i met and we you know talking about the district
191talking about the you know the issues but also you know com kind of coming from like-minded areas when it comes to business understanding how you know things work but i want to thank you for all your services i'm going to miss you but i know you're not going anywhere but also i think it's important that people understand that when you have all these people coming and talking about you it's something that you've worked so hard for the admiration level the understanding of how important it is and the sacrifices you've made for our children i will always remember that and something i would keep in my heart so thank you very much for your service and um and we're gonna miss you thank you do you want to say your part again or are we good
192to okay meeting adjourned in celebration of your time spent with us here at burbank unified thank you gently