051922 Regular Meeting Board of Education

001[Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] good evening now calling to order the board of education meeting for may 19 2022 the board met in closed session no actions were taken it was a discussion period only can i have i don't mean to call on you out of without speaking to you first but the coach of the swim team do you want to come up and lead us in the flag salute please thank you 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 so much we acknowledge the traditional ancestral and seated territory of the chumash tongva fernandinho tatevian and first nations on which we are learning educating and living since my colleague dr

002weisberg is not here miss clark could you please take the role at this time member friender present member khanian present clerk wiseberg vice president ferguson president and president thank you thank you um moving on well i already said number five so we'll move on to number six uh anyone have any adjustments to the agenda okay uh oh yes we're gonna pull 12e from the agenda and it will be brought back june 2nd yes thank you and i'll also ask that we pull item 11b okay everyone okay all right so 12e and 11b thank you so much um also at this time we're going to move up superintendent's comments as part of the adjustment to the board let me let me do future agenda items and then we'll we'll move it up um any items for

003future agendas okay that was easy scene none then we'll we'll adjust if my colleagues are good and we'll move to superintendent's comments thank you president tabit we have two important announcements tonight that we wanted to highlight first we'd like to announce the new principal at monterey high school so i would ask that dr paramo please come to the microphone good evening president tabit distinguished board members superintendent dr hill district staff and community it is my honor and pleasure to announce the new principal at monterey high school mrs april weaver april if you can come up please [Applause] april started working in burbank in 2002 at luther burbank middle school she spent 10 years there teaching english social studies and science in the special education program after teaching april moved to the special education department at

004the district office where she was the program specialist of secondary education and helped create strong special education programs throughout the district including monterey magnolia park and cds after working at the district office april became the assistant principal at dolores huerta middle school and currently is at monterey high school in her time with burbank unified april has always been an advocate for all students and families her goal is that every student in burbank has the opportunity to support to earn a diploma and have the education and skills needed in order to achieve their personal success i am so excited to have april be part of our principal team and i know she's going to do amazing april if you'd like to say a few words thank you uh good evening pres board president tabit distinguished members

005of the board superintendent hill district staff and everybody in the audience i am so thankful that i have the opportunity to be the principal of monterey high school i've been at monterey high school for three years and i realized that every day the students walk under a sign on the front door that says second chance for success as principal i want every student to know that they do have a second chance but they also have a third a fourth a fifth and however too many chances it's gonna take in order to have success um we will keep supporting them and helping them achieve their goals um but it's not this sign i don't think is just for students i think that sign is for all of us in this room as well the next time

006you're at monterey i hope that sign reminds you that we now have a second chance to show all these students that school can be a positive and wonderful place and that we have a second chance to help each one of them learn that learning is fun and that when life knocks you down you can get back up and keep moving towards your goals even if you're taking a different path thank you again for giving me this chance and to lead monterey and the amazing work that they do [Applause] thank you dr promo and welcome or it's not a welcome it's just returning back and moving to a different office and you know a few extra duties added to your list i'm sure but monterey is an outstanding place the leadership there under um david guyer

007was amazing and as his teammate i'm sure that same pathway of success will continue so best of luck to you and you know we're all here supporting you and whatever pathway leads us down we're here so thank you to my colleagues wish to speak i know just a a major congratulations when i started on the board you were at huerta oh please stay you know you've had a long day working please stay seated um when i started on the board you were at huerta and you know there was a a great deal of buzz oh well you got to talk to april april weaver she's going to she's going to help you out when it comes to um especially our sped parent community always she's such a resource you need to connect with her what

008is she doing that's right and and since then i've seen your kind of fingerprints move on and seen them really taken root at monterey and you know mr guyer brought uh his flavor and his uh his leadership style too and without a doubt that is there and that's been serving kids very very well but i am so excited to see what you're bringing to the role um without a doubt two major institutions just left that role through retirement and through moving but uh again i i think you not only have a campus community behind you you have the community as a whole who has seen your tenure and who appreciates how hard you fight for kids so really excited to see you in this new role and wishing you the very very best thank you

009mr frittner yes um i just i'll second what my colleague said uh just congratulations we're really happy to have you moving into that role i um when you started monterey and uh and you know david uh was starting his principal it was uh i thought just a really perfect fit what you said about the school is absolutely correct at our last meeting we had some students you know speaking and we talked then about what a real jewel uh this school is for our district and and i think you will help uh you know maintain and and expand on that going forward and we're so excited to have you there so congratulations dr agar khan thank you madam president um congratulations and you know i think you should change that sign and add a third or

010fourth and i mean it because i am one of those students i had not given a second or third chance i had not be where i am today so i appreciate all your hard work and looking forward to working with you congratulations thank you well thank you uh and you said um dr hill you had two the second exciting announcement well it's not an announcement but a recognition for the john burroughs high school swim team who are cif champion so if we could have coach cook and the entire team and coaching staff come up and be recognized [Applause] hey thank you all for having us here today sorry i don't know the individual introductions but thank you all um my name is jacob cook i'm the head coach of the burroughs aquatics programs i'm just

011here to introduce the girls swim team and to acknowledge their recent division four cif championship um they did an absolutely phenomenal job and we're so proud of what they achieved um the girls scored 199 points to win the meet uh besting the second place team by 58 points um and to put that into perspective the girls got first place uh in their division outscoring the 51 other teams competing at the meet so pretty impressive um and there have only been two other cif championships at of any sport in the borough school history so with these girls now being one of them so a great job to them [Applause] and then just a quick introduction we have our two seniors liliana and kelly long uh liliana noriega and kelly long and then our junior nancy baylor

012and then our two freshmen uh camila guillermo and abigail chatalian so and then this is also my uh the other coach at burroughs is martin ortega jennison so thank you [Applause] and thank you again for having us well thank you coach for coming and bringing your team we're awfully proud of our teams and student athletes in the district and it's really nice when we can come in with a big plaque like that and show off a little bit all these ladies hard work and yours as well so thank you so much i'm sure my colleagues have something to say as well um just congratulations i i really know the uh the time uh and effort that needs to be put into succeeding on that level in any athletic pursuit as you mentioned we it's very

013rare for either of our high schools to one cif championship so rising that level is incredible and i know swimmers are usually uh swimming at the crack of dawn and you know and and working you know just you know throughout the day and hours and hours so uh it just shows an incredible amount of dedication so congratulations thank you mr ferguson yes please uh 40 million people in this state and we bring home the trophy so that is because of you and that's pretty incredible and pretty amazing but also uh as your coach mentioned we've brought home cif's before but probably not with this mascot so uh you know way to make history way to represent our community well and we're very proud of you but this clearly is just the beginning for a bunch

014of talented athletes so uh wishing you good luck and keep representing burbank as you continue to climb thank you um i i also want to congratulate our team and i hope that if the scouts are watching this there are some future scholarship opportunities here for some of the major universities so congratulations this is a big deal so hats off to all of you thank you thank you um moving on and thank you again everyone for coming number eight reports from the board 8a is a new board agenda item brought to us by dr weisberg in which a board of education member will provide a highlight from one of the burbank unified school district school sites so i get the honor of being first and i want to thank again dr weisberg for her work on

015this it's appreciated so the first one goes to and we're doing these in alphabetical order so don't there's not a priority list it's just alphabetical bret hart elementary one of our 11 phenomenal elementary schools which is led by the skilled leadership of principal martha walter curriculum specialist nicole cody at-risk interventionist michael jones eld specialist kirsten jackson rsp specialist sarah matsui von goatsau and i'm sorry if i mispronounced that and the amazing teachers some of their programs include read across america tech talk night their annual book fair and their gardening rotation which includes garden basics garden creatures edible garden native plants composting and waste management they also hold their red ribbon week which focuses on taking a visible stand against drugs the school also infuses steam instruction such as art and photography which helps build community

016on april 29th the school held its third annual magic show some exciting upcoming events include the fifth grade party on may 20th and the 5th grade commencement ceremony on may 24th so thank you thank you to dr weisberg and that was our everyday excellence of bret hart elementary moving on to 8b student representative um reports we'll start with owen vivado from monterey high school are you heroin hi good evening [Applause] good evening board president habit distinguished members of the board superintendent hill district staff and our lovely audience in monterey we are now finishing up the last week of school only five four and a half days left honestly it feels like forever ago that i started there and i would like to congratulate miss otis who is in the audience for finishing our yearbook in

017less than a quarter and it looks phenomenal [Applause] and this week we have also started our spirit week and our first annual uh field day will be held tomorrow at nutrition from i believe like like 10 30 to 11 or 12 a.m p.m sorry but we'll be having a whole bunch of activities like volleyball uh relay race and different little challenges and the winners will be getting a free pie in the face ticket to pi one of our amazing staff in the face hopefully it's not personal and next week's tomorrow's spirit week will be gym war day and they'll have to wear just anything sportsy or what they would wear to the gym uh last week we also had a holocaust survivor come to our school and it was an amazing experience and honestly i

018feel like it's a one in some lifetime experience to have this sort of thing and it was really wonderful to have them come to our school and the name was joseph alexander they are nearly 100 years old and he survived about 17 concentration camps which is amazing and it's really a feat of humanity to go through that sort of trauma and i really it's amazing and i honestly don't know what else to say for him it's just amazing i use amazing a lot and i would also like to congratulate miss weaver wherever she is and wherever she left to um i've been with her since loris huerta when we were cougars and she was amazing and honestly i'm really happy for her that she's now the principal and we also have another special member of

019our staff who is taking some cte classes for child development to help our district and other schools in burbank which is amazing i'm sure whoever that is knows who they are so congratulations and i would like to close out the announcement by saying thank you all for having me here for a wonderful school year and it's been amazing and i would like any questions can i just say i think you're amazing thank you i try my best we know and we appreciate it and i love that you brought your own fan club tonight that's awesome i didn't plan this so oh and roll with it it's okay you got it any questions okay okay all right thank you you're welcome take care you too we will next to have miss jewel reader from john burroughs

020high school hello everybody good evening um first i'll start off by reporting on recent events that have happened this month first we had our college week this week which was hosted by cpms cultural mentors on monday a student shred shredded their stress by shredding college rejection letters bad grades etc on tuesday seniors got donuts for reporting their post jbhs plans whether that be four-year college community college the military etc on wednesdays senior painted handprints and wrote what their future plans are going to be on a piece of paper on thursday there was a tailgate with games and root beer floats in the front of school and friday seniors are invited to put small items into our class of 2022 time capsule also this week was the senior class had their senior brunch where seniors were

021excused from periods one through three department awards were given grad night and graduation procedures were explained the senior slideshow was shown breakfast burritos were served there were games there was yearbook signing and cap and gown pickup we also want to congratulate yearbook for finishing their yearbook it looks amazing and we had not only we not only had jbhs students but also monterey and ila students in attendance last friday the mental health board hosted green day where students were green in support of mental health awareness and the club sold green ribbons to donate to a teen mental health nonprofit the student outreach committee hosted red day today on thursday in support of asian american heritage month our senior awards night was this monday where students and families were invited to recognize their student successes inside and

022out of outside of the classroom student students received scholarships and recognition awards from countless community members we had our last signing day for athletes on may 4th earlier this month gunner nicholls signed to play baseball at pepperdine university gigi garcia signed to csu dominguez hill softball mesa medina to csu san marcos baseball clarissa robles to siena college water polo and abby dixon to pace university volleyball many seniors are also being recognized on the marquis in front of school for their college decision and we are so proud of all of our amazing seniors upcoming tomorrow is grad night bus lists were posted online in front of school all seniors attending grad night are required to get kova tested before going on the bus and mass will be required on all the buses all students are meeting

023at jbhs at 4 pm for best pickup and will be back at school around 3 to 4 am for bus drop off unfortunately yet very fortunately at the same time our boys baseball team will not be attending grad night because they will be playing their division five championship game on the cal state fullerton field we're so proud of our baseball team and how far they have gone this season and also our girls softball team had a spectacular season making it to semifinals and of course our girl swim team which we heard from won their the division league champ title for the third time in bros history also upcoming is graduation of course all seniors were given five graduation tickets each and gates for the event will open at 4 pm and the ceremony will start

024at 6 pm we also want to congratulate our black student union for their assembly that was given on wednesday this assembly was really great and showed block excellence and black joy which we hope to see in the coming years and lastly our student faculty luncheon is this friday and it is picnic themed there will be food and treats for faculty and students and their student guests in order to thank them for all the work they have done throughout this year thank you to all in attendance it's been an honor serving on the sport i really appreciate the opportunity and i can answer any questions or comments at this time thank you thank you jewel our next speaker is shashana terpetrosian from burbank high school good evening board president tabit members of the board superintendent hill

025and senior staff today may 19th 20th and 21st our vocal music association will present feel it this is the first live pop concert in three years at the wilson auditorium at 7 pm this is the last show of the school year so you do not want to miss it we hope to see support from our bourbon community ribbon kai's creative writing club and art club have collaborated on another issue of poultry vhs's literary magazine attached to an announcement in each grade level google classroom is a pdf of the magazine where you can read the original works of our student authors and view artwork made by our student artists the senior class members of animate of the animation program were celebrated at a badge that was held at the new nickelodeon studios last night the screening

026included the best animated short films of the year and a special project created within the animation program congratulations to mrs pickett and her students for another outstanding year on the 17th there was a signing day at our lunch at lunch in the quad where we congratulated graduating seniors who will continue to play their sports in college with the school year coming to a close there are many senior activities faculty excellence awards will be shown on bhs tv at 6 pm on the 23rd graduation practice and walkthrough will be on the 24th and 25th top dog and senior award night will be on the 24th at 6 pm in the quad grand i will be on the 25th where buses will depart at 9 30 a.m and senior slideshow will be on the 26th in the

027auditorium but last but not least graduation is on the 27th at 6 pm where seniors will be walking on a stage and i hope to see you all there to end off my report thank you all for giving me the opportunity to report on bourbon kai every other thursday i've learned and grown so much from this opportunity and commend you all for doing such an amazing job this year especially with the hardship like kovid to be honest i wouldn't be able to handle it thank you thank you all for your support and constant interest in our school and student body can you answer any questions thank you thank you [Applause] okay uh moving on to presentations and recognitions we will now recognize the 2021-2022 student board members um jewel reader from john burroughs owen vovato

028from monterey high and shoshanna to petrossian from burbank high school so can you all meet me at the podium okay i really want to take a minute to thank our student board members it is such an honor and a privilege to be able to have students on our board and get your perspective and hear what's going on at your prospective campuses you're amazing thank you for that word you're amazing um all that you do the work you put in your own classwork your own lives and then how much more you put into making our schools a place where students want to come to every day part of that reason but thank you for that and i mean i love hearing about all the fun activities and how creative you all are so the board um

029gives you a plaque that will live in perpetuity forever it needs to go on every wall and every home you live in because um yes because you know there's only three student board members per year and as jules said as shashana said as owen said it's an honor and it's an honor for us to have you so thank you i'm sure my other board members one two three okay let me get a couple just in case all right thank you thank you okay all the fun stuff so far comments yes let's have some board comments mr ferguson please thank you um i feel like these student board members are coming faster and faster and rotating through so as as i've been on the board now for a bit of time so first i want to

030welcome you all to the burbank unified school district student board member alumni association uh because you have successfully made it uh we are proud not just to present you with these plaques but to also inscribe your name on the plaque at the district office which has a record of all of our dis our student former student board members um to sushana's point a little bit this is not an easy time to lead and whether or not you're dealing with public education or graduation stages or places to sit at lunch or schedules um it's a hard time people are all sorts of places right now and so whether you're up here or whether you are doing the work in the ground like you all i can't tell you how much i appreciate it and personally and

031and how uh wonderful it's been hearing your feedback and your spin and really the way you see your school not the way i see it or the way that most people but your paradigm and your perspective on on school you are leaving school after some really hard years and that makes you a unique class of individual that can choose to take that experience and build with it or get distracted with it frankly because there's a lot of pain right we see that pain all the time we're running into it all the time but i know uh after working with you guys this year how much you care and how much you are invested in the future and doing it right and coming out of this stronger we may not always have the tools and to

032figure it out in the moment but education is about giving you the basics and when it comes to what burbank unified has done for all of you mission accomplished um you go forward and just like the swim team right you will represent us in new ways um i have that plaque still at home too and it reminds me of just um how leadership even when we rotate out of these positions still remains a responsibility um so welcome to the club i am so excited to celebrate you as you continue to grow and climb we say this all the time nobody takes advantage of it i don't know why nobody wants to hang out with us but if you ever want to come back and hang out we're here uh every other thursday you know where

033we are but also don't hesitate to reach out if we can help you keep climbing because that is our job as a community not to just get you up and over and get you your diploma but to continue to celebrate you as you represent the very best of our investments here at home so love you all and have a great graduation you you'll still be around so i'll harass you a little bit more but otherwise welcome to the family thank you mr frittner um as mr ferguson touched on we've had a really great tradition of uh with student board members over the years and all three of you have really fulfilled that uh that lineage so to speak um uh we were talking a little bit uh early before the start of the meeting that

034this was really another challenging year and uh even to be a student board member uh during this time was was very tough but um and again as mr ferguson touched on you were all still you know active you were representing your schools while you were you were dealing with the issues at your schools and bringing them here so we could hear it as well and that i think just points out that the kind of people you are and i i i fully expect you to continue on as leaders as you move through the rest of your life no matter which path you take um we do always invite board members have come back shocking that none of them want to come to a meeting uh but we do see them sometimes again i was just

035mentioning um one of our former board members student board members just graduated from george washington university yesterday i run into him during the summer sometimes much better to see you then but you know but but you are always welcome back here and yes and please feel free to connect with us anytime if you you know you obviously have great support systems already i'm sure at home but if there's something that a board member perspective might help with don't be afraid to reach out so congratulations on your year and we look forward to hearing more about uh more about you in the years to come thank you dr khanian thank you madam president so um you know i think my colleagues covered some of the areas but i also want to remind everyone at least for

036me you know being during these difficult times having that glimmer of hope having seeing you there giving this positive news positive feedbacks really really made me more hopeful because it's been very difficult for all of us and i understand how difficult it's been for you but every time that you come and give these reports you know for me at least personally you know i can not only it gives me that little light because at the end of the tunnel because it's been difficult but also i think it really reassures what the reason why we're here working and making sure that you finish your education and move on to better endeavors i am so proud of you know all of our current and past board president board members from the schools you know but also more

037important that's all i want to remind you that you know we're going to be here for all your future endeavors you know and i know again as my colleague said uh both of them you know this is sometimes you know we won't see you but i we know that you're out there and you know i want to make sure that you understand that you know your all your hard work and all your hard work is what makes this district so wonderful this is what makes this our school so wonderful because hopefully one day you will be sitting here and maybe my son or our son will be representing his school and that to me you know no matter how difficult our time has been that glimmer of hope is what makes you know our district

038so wonderful so thank you for all your hard work and just know that no matter what you can always call us email us we'll be there for you and please keep us updated we want to know where you are and how things are and love to see you back once in a while so thank you for all you do and i wish you the best in your future endeavors thank you dr agrikanyan okay i i do i did thank you profusely down there but um i i one thing that really tickled me today and i think oh and you mentioned your yearbook advisor and how she put together a yearbook in a short amount of time both of you you know talked about your yearbook advisors at your high school it has to be one

039of the most difficult jobs in the world to be the yearbook advisor and put together a book this thick that's supposed to commemorate the year and get everyone's name right and get everybody's photo attached you know correctly to their name so on and so forth so that those advisors and those students who work on that book i mean big kudos to them it's hours upon hours upon hours as a old retired yearbook advisor it's a lot of work so thank you for what you do thank you to your yearbook advisors at your schools because that is a piece of history that goes home with students and lives forever i i am 57 years old and i still pull out my high school yearbook to say wait i know that name or i remember this person

040and and you you jog your memory from a long time ago so those books live on forever so thank you for all of those who do that very difficult work it's appreciated and usually not no one's usually thanking them so it's about time right so thank you for remembering that you three you were great all right moving on um more good things presentation on burbank arts and education foundation spring 2022 grant cycle mrs cassell thank you president tabit i'd like to introduce alexander helfrich the grants and giving chair for the bart burbank arts and education foundation she's going to report on the spring grant cycle and we also have the co-chairs of the foundation with anaconda and brenda ederbeek thank you good evening members of the board of education and busd administration i'm welcoming our

041co-chairs as well as joining us in the audience i believe quite possibly i haven't met some of these people personally so i'm guessing are sarah heder representing the roosevelt elementary library and terry williamson the curriculum specialist from roosevelt patricia val enciana and jackie jackie hackbarth are here from emerson and luther art teacher deborah zessena rubio and burroughs high school photography teacher kara clark today the burbank arts in education is delighted to announce funding of almost 50 thousand dollars in the spring 2022 grants and giving cycle thank you this really is one of our two favorite days of the year highlights of elementary grant investments include art supplies and materials including a kiln diverse classroom and library book collections critical math interventions for at-risk students school site safety and social emotional support and mindful and adaptive

042seating options middle schools will benefit from block printing art supplies and materials safety tools for busy drop-off and pick-up times and site-wide professional development and curriculum in social and emotional learning the high schools received funding for art studio seating instruments and sheet music and technology support for an athletic program for a total amount in grant giving of 29 681 dollars and 22 cents but this spring the foundation is especially excited to give funding of up to twenty thousand dollars to provide class sets of ukuleles to the seven elementary schools that currently do not have instrumental music instruction this gift was inspired by a grant application from emerson elementary school asking for ukuleles for their site after discussing this needed emerson we were encouraged by our busd advisors to consider all of the seven elementary schools

043who also needed instruments in response we're really proud to be able to partner with the burbank unified school district for the purchase of ukuleles strings and tuners for the seven elementary schools that currently don't have the instruments beginning in fall 2022 every fourth and fifth grader will have instrumental music instruction district-wide for the first time in decades we hope this is the beginning of an equity model that we may be able to follow in the future as needs are identified and funding is available the burbank arts education foundation strongly believes that every child deserves a high quality public education and one of the key markers of that is elementary music instruction for every student our mission is to help fill the gaps in education funding and site by site-based parent fundraising and we're grateful for

044the guidance from our busd administration advisors and stressing the need to provide equity during our grant review price process we're inspired by the creativity excellence and passion from educators who continue to support our children during the most challenging times and please join me in supporting their work by donating to the foundation at burbankartsanded.org thank you all very much thank you alexandra for for your the foundation's generosity for seeing the big picture looking for what needs are and remembering um that equity is important for our students to understand and now this opportunity for everyone is outstanding so for me personally thank you i'm sure there's some board members who would like to say thank you as well dr agukani thank you very much um i do want to thank you and all the members for their

045hard work and for our viewers who don't know i just want to comment about how professional your services are i do the monthly deduction and as someone who runs another foundation i can tell you the level of professionalism how consistent you are the letters you know and i want to encourage all of our viewers you know if you can't afford you know a big donation you can go five dollars a month ten dollars that's less than a cup of coffee right but people forget that those numbers when they accumulate they you know generate some of the needs that our students really have there and people forget you know grants out there necessarily don't cover some of these areas and people have to remember it's more difficult to get unrestricted funds when it comes to doing

046some programs because there are certain grants are just very specific i still have my lawn sign thank you it's getting old but it's there you know it's been there almost for a year so i think maybe a second cycle you know i see you've got the hint yeah but but yeah thank you but i also want to remind everyone that this organization is volunteer driven you know and that's very important and then i think people have to realize that more we do more of these programs we can have when it comes to our students so i want to thank you from bottom my heart because i know how difficult it is to raise money especially in today's environment especially what's happening with the markets hopefully they'll bounce back but you know and but i want

047to thank you and and i want to see more of this and i want to see more people donating if you can announce your website again to people where they can donate that'll be fantastic our website is burbankartsanded.org thank you go ahead thank you very much uh first things first to to pile on a little bit with what dr ayakonian said um first just thank you for the work um so first uh i do uh want to acknowledge ms ederby who i think this is the first time you may be coming to a board meeting as a co-chair a new co-chair of the foundation so [Applause] so i want to thank you for taking on that responsibility uh miss uh connell continues on with her responsibility here um and to miss helfrick who you know

048frankly was there uh with a different foundation in the beginning who was a part of this grant cycle and creating and bringing this grant cycle to us that has really sustained programming provided seed funding frankly and transformed how we deliver education uh specifically in the arts area um ukuleles as as fun as the word is to say as as fun and uh it's huge in this moment to be able to still uh to have partners who are able to go there's a hole let's fill it are you guys good we're game you game okay let's move forward and let's accomplish this together and and that happened um i cannot thank you enough for for looking at the grant opportunities identifying an opportunity that existed beyond just the grant cycle and and seizing the moment to

049deliver for kids that's huge and that's the kind of partnership we need again absolutely foundations are volunteer run um and doing it again in a in a time of pandemic and raising funds right now as people are stabilizing their lives again or attempting to uh is hard uh it's also a hard time to determine where you're going and vision as everybody's priorities are piling on in a world that is pulling for attention in a million different ways um so again to the citizen leadership and the volunteers that are making baa ef deliver and continue to deliver for kids uh my sincerest thanks as an elected representative of this community uh for your hard work for the tears and the stress i know it exists um thank you thank you thank you and and i hope

050uh that whether you are a donor like dr aguikanian who gives five dollars and has old lawn signs uh out to support or if you um are a board member who are in kind of the the weeds of this decision making when you go by a classroom if you happen to hear ukuleles i want you to remember that was your part i want you to remember that you enriched an experience of a young person in this community and we get one shot at that so thank you for being a part of that mr freitner thank you um thank you again um i'll be echoing a little bit of what my colleagues have already said but it needs to be said again uh baef has uh continued to show their generosity in supporting programs the district

051everything you'd mentioned you know tonight are fantastic um you know things that are happening on our campuses that you are enabling and supporting but uh i do have to also touch back on on the uh the fact that when a suggestion came up instead of just fulfilling that one need the discussions took place and the the realization that there was a need beyond the initial ask within the district that could bring equity to our elementary schools and you were there to provide it uh and and and miss connell and senator beacon your entire board that's really the kind of partnership that we've been talking about all along with that with you know with our foundation partners and this is really fulfilling that that need in a very direct uh and uh oh excuse me a

052very direct way um so that's just fantastic and uh so i we again can't thank you enough and look forward to continuing and expanding on this going forward thank you just quick for the record i do give more than five dollars a month we know we know i just did my taxes so you know it is all right thank you for that i want to remind you and the community of something to how you especially have immersed yourself in the arts in burbank it was about 16 maybe 17 years ago when i was pta president at jefferson ruth bainen martinez was the booster club president and you came to our boards and you said i want to go for this art grant and i need i think you needed five thousand dollars from each of

053us and this art grant it was all you you pushed this through and was the beginning of the type of foundation work where we are now and you've you're still here and you and you haven't left and it takes really that kind of dedication uh and the rest of your board that has dedicated themselves as well but it was you that that started this and i just really want to thank you for that and thank you for still being here even though your children are long since great well not long but have since graduated and i appreciate that on behalf of all our students in burbank unified so thanks i haven't forgotten alexandra you're all too kind and thank you very very much we would this would not have happened without the collaboration and the

054suggestions and the support of everybody here so we're really grateful to all of you this is a true partnership thank you okay now request yes enjoy your your week 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 and turning into miss clark speakers are requested to state their name prior 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 the district is providing alternatives to in-person attendance for viewing and participating any individual or group representative may address the board of education on any agenda item or subject within its

055jurisdiction during one of the three public comment sections do we have any virtual speakers this evening we do not we do not okay i'm going to skip for the virtual parts so the first speaker that i have this evening is linda walmsley followed by our mine our mine zargoyan evening i have some prepared remarks tonight but i i just quickly want to say i haven't been here for a while and this turned out to be just a joyful experience for me first kelly long former student of mine is a swimmer so that was joyful jennifer fagnani sitting in the audience is going to speak later and the last year watching turning in you know i don't think a lot of people say thursday night oh goodness board meeting i do and one of the reasons

056i've done that is that guy right there he started with me in roommate and he is speaking and speaking and speaking a lot in kindergarten and he still does it today so seeing owen vivato every thursday night has just been joyful for me and seeing what he has done with his life just lets me know that learning to read in kindergarten was a good thing you can go now i'll let you go now okay so good evening one of the items on your agenda tonight is the approval of the administrative regulation regarding advanced placement classes and testing as you know last year i worked to raise funds for ap testing for students that faced economic challenges thanks to many generous stone age donors i was able to have some success i've got to take my

057glasses off so i can see this i have heard from those students that benefited from these funds they were grateful and the support is helping them to fulfill their goals for an education that will lead them to become productive citizens well i'm here tonight to let you know that i'm going to give it the old college try once again this year i am hopeful that i can not only match but maybe succeed what was donated last year letters to all of those that contributed last year will go in the mail tomorrow and i am also sending out emails to over 100 contacts the best news is thanks to dr paramo and alyssa lowe there is now a specific donate button on the district's website for this purpose it's easy to access all you do is

058go to the busd home page click on community then fundraising committees and scroll down to the ap testing section i am happy to report that burroughs alumni shawn dugan made the first online donation this week and checks payable to usd are still a viable way to donate in fact miss katta here's my donation once again ruthie defonzo is going to account for these donations and i will personally thank all donors so wish me luck thank you for your time in my apologies the next speaker is armanei zargarian followed by catherine fagnani good evening my name is armane zargarian i'm a mother of three children i have a bachelor's and a masters of science degree in early childhood education and adolescence development i would like to know what item number 12b adopting the adoption of the

059resolution 44 in support of pride month june 2022 is going is going to mean for our students for our children what are our children going to be exposed to i would like some clarity and some transparency as to what that means for young children for our adolescents and for our high school students majority of parents want their children's childhood and in a sense protected children should focus on academics children and adolescents needs to be busy with school work academic projects events such as robotic competitions playing the ukulele concerts sports etc parents who feel like their voices are not heard for instance during the pandemic and the push for the vaccination of children we felt like our voices weren't being heard so we we demonstrated it by hitting your bottom line we i remember there were

060three days i didn't send my kids to school and the majority of the people who sighed on social media kept their kids at home and it hit your bottom line we didn't hear about vaccinating kids anymore so if need be you know just listen to us be transparent and you know keep things school related the lgbtq community keeps promoting the sexualization of children and teens and claims all content under the lgbtq umbrella is gender related but l g b think about what that means is not gender related it's actually sexual orientation they also claim that children are being are committing suicide because they are not represented according to the national library of medicine children who have been exposed to sexuality have been consistently associated with suicidal behavior this statistic refers to studies of suicide attempt

061featured in depressed individuals who were sexualized as children the lgbtq community claims that queer kids are bullied unfortunately lots of children on our campuses are bullied as long as we have war on earth there will be bullying in our campuses so the question is how are we going to help these children our students need quality counselors and therapists to help them help the bullies understand how to cope and communicate with their problems the bullied to how to know how to stand up for themselves and to be able to cope with difficult life situations sexualizing children is not the answer to these problems and single subject high school and middle school teachers are not licensed are not trained to counsel children we need real counselors and real therapists young children have one thing on their mind

062and i've spent many years observing children i've worked in lab schools where one two-way mirrors people were watching me work with children they have one thing on their mind play they like to play ask any child on the playground in an elementary school what do you like to do what's your favorite part of the recess they like to play that's the one thing on their mind allow them to be children and play on behalf of all the mothers who will protect their children's innocence i have a message for you for all the educators at burbank unified do not sexualize our children i repeat do not dare sexualize our children thank you speaker is catherine fagnani followed by rosemary morrison good evening busd board of education my name is catherine fignani and i am a junior

063at monterey high school i'm here once again to talk about the potential schedule change at monterey i would like to extend a personal thank you to each and every member for truly listening to me at a couple weeks ago meeting i i really have never felt more heard and it felt amazing just to hear all the great feedback you had today i have brought with me a petition created by me and my amazing teachers who have come to support me uh this petition states that anyone who signs does not agree to a schedule of 8 30 a.m to 3 30 p.m and would instead prefer to keep our current schedule of 8 45 to 1 40 pm i have 100 of the returning student signatures including both 10th and 11th graders of this year on

064top of that i have 97 percent of the senior student body signature as well we don't want this change no student teacher or parent at monterey supports this change we want our schedule to stay the same monterey provides an important and valuable alternative to those who cannot succeed with a normal schedule this school is a tool that the board can provide to students who need extra support as i said before at the last meeting the attendance and grades are up and in turn so is our graduation rate this year alone 50 percent of monterey senior class graduated by the second quarter making the schedule change will lead to a decrease of attendance grades and overall student attendance this change will create absolutely no difference between burroughs and burbank my experience at monterey has changed my

065life and will continue to benefit my overall success this school is unique and changing a program that everyone on campus loves is a horrible mistake i don't know how else to fight and defend my school but i won't go down without a fight although monterey has only 90 students that does not mean we can be brushed off and we will make sure that we are heard all we are asking is to stop the change and to stop the train that has been set in motion i hope you can see the damage this will happen to the students thank you for listening and i hope that you can see the true joy and passion that the school has given not only to me but to the hundreds of students who got a second chance at monterey

066thank you catherine and our last speaker rosemary morrison it's been so long since i've seen you all hi i'm rosemary morrison and so long since we've seen in person that's true because i just who did i just see yes um i came to talk about one thing but i just i'm sorry i got really heated a little while ago our lbgtq community is not sexualizing children and i hate that you came up here you said that you are wrong and your research wherever that came from is wrong so do not tell people that they are doing that because you know what sexualizes children the things you let them do parenting but children who are born that way no i'm going to address you because people who are born that way do not sexualize children thank

067you sorry i know but you don't dress up and to have her say that really upsets me on so many levels and i just sorry i'm sorry i will go back to my preferred my reason why i'm up here i've come to talk about walt disney's building we are so excited we are in our new building but there is a butt i the last two weeks have been really hard moving last two weeks of school has been stressful for our staff our teachers and i'm still shaking because i'm angry but um and i just wanted to come up here and tell you that i feel like every email we get from the district says if you have mental health if you have stress issues please reach out and this move has been really hard and

068i don't know if you all understand that we were told different moving dates we were told we would move on saturday we did not move on half of us did not move on saturday you had people moving their own rooms peter god love you and molly were on there on sunday moving teachers so that they can be ready to start the day and i just want you to acknowledge that i want you to acknowledge that our building is not perfect i mean i joked with one of the guys today i was like all these things are still wrong with my building he's like i was customized for you and i was like oh so i'm back in another falling down building thanks so it really ups it didn't upset me i'm joking it did upset

069me because i'm like my room is not completely done so that's another thing and when we come back in the fall and the asphalt isn't done the playground isn't up it's another thing our children have to go through the staff has to go through and i just i think i saw that we were going to talk about our building and the dirt path that we walk on and i'm like i don't want you all congratulating yourselves on this move when we cut the ribbon when you talk about walk-throughs all of that talk to the teachers thank them for what they have gone through think the staff who some of them moved themselves this week i had to move some of my own boxes this week the rest i wasn't get paid for that but there's

070some things i needed to move i know that there are things that happen that we don't have control over i still don't understand why we did it this late and it's very frustrating and i know some of the teachers and staff aren't going to come up here that's all right i will um i just what else sorry i just um still want assurances i did talk to larry cross on saturday maybe i wasn't the kindest when i heard about all the things that happened on saturday but i just want assurances that in the fall we are going to get all the things that were promised to us as a school so that not only my child but the rest of the children at disney are well taken care of and if you have a ribbon

071cut ribbon cutting have molly cut the ribbon have the teachers and the staff behind her because molly has been very much a part of every part and hearing a lot of us grumble and complain and i just want to give that shout out so i think that's it do i have more time i've got 45 seconds so i'm just going to say this and address the board um we should have a pride day we should have a black lives matter day we should have any marginalized marginalized community day because we have students that are represented in those areas and for people come up here and say that those students are sexualizing people is very wrong and i hope that this board calls it out and i hope that people who are listening at home call

072their friends and families out for this kind of rhetoric thank you [Applause] thank you [Applause] okay um sorry staff responses dr hill thank you president tabit and thank you to the speakers um regarding item 12b in pride month ms morrison you you said it so passionately so well uh ms zargarian we do disagree uh i do disagree with your comments uh the resolution is very clear our work is very clear when we talk about diversity equity and inclusion it's about understanding and respecting all humans and focus on humanity you see clearly in the policy it talks about supporting policies practices curriculum that respect it's about respect it's about love it's about inclusion it's not about sexualization of students so if there's concerns about our curriculum a concern about our policies i'm happy to have those

073conversations but i i respect your opinion but i disagree with your opinion and for all of our students and faculty and parents like please know the usd is always focused on respect inclusion and focusing on how we can elevate every human in this district in this community and make sure that we are a unified district thank you for uh ms wansley thank you so much for all your your dedication hard work and not just on the ap fundraising as you highlighted today just a legacy you've left in this district and community and you see it every day of how many people how many souls you've touched and helped develop into amazing young men and women in this entire community so thank you uh and i do encourage everyone to visit the website and donate for

074the ap fundraising you'll see at the item later tonight we are codifying a policy we have for open access for ap and honors courses and we're including students that may have struggled in other courses they get a d but they have an opportunity to still access the higher level uh courses uh oh my goodness i i wrote down your name miss mc bikini and yachty i.e i had it and now i can't even read my own writing sorry thank you it's not the agenda item again but i just want to acknowledge your advocacy your organization i know there's been conversations continuing with the administration at monterey high school around the schedule so i i appreciate you coming down here and sharing that eventually it's going to be an item on the board meeting so tonight

075i won't comment on it but i just want to say continue to have that conversation with your teachers and the administration at monterey high school uh mr guyer he's still there as well as our your new principal miss weaver i know dr piramo and ms nieman have been there and miss casey was available to support we want to continue to hear about the options that monterey is considering and we'll make sure that that process has been inclusive before it comes to a board meeting and all those questions have been addressed so thank you for coming down here tonight and ms morrison yes i know miss cuckda and mr cross have been keeping me up to date i do want to thank uh everyone for coming this weekend and helping out dr knoppic what i were

076talking about he's amazed he's not sore i heard about all the moving dust moving boxes everybody wants to help support the the teachers and the entire staff to have disney move successful just on the timing they need to make sure they got it done so that the day after school they can start the demolition so that we don't have the challenges in the fall so the timing is compressed and on this cucta and the facility subcommittee we're continuing to have conversations to make sure that we are being updated on any challenges obstacles and pushing through those you're absolutely right we need to thank and acknowledge and recognize the disruption that construction is having on our staff especially this time of the year so anything that we can do i know mr cross is committed to

077supporting and making sure this goes as smoothly as possible thank you thank you board members dr roger kanye thank you madam chair to our speaker ms zargarian i don't think you read the resolution first of all and i don't know where you got your bachelor or undergrad or masters from um you know back in 2000 i was fighting against proposition 22. i'm aging myself but some of you may recall 22 was the the proposition which passed but fortunately it was overturned later that a marriage is between a man and woman and i was out there along people like paul krikorian who's a council member now in l.a fighting against proposition 22. because for me and i don't know where you're coming with this interpretation of sexualization this is about equality and treating others with respect

078as a founder of the di committee this is a conversation that we've been having from the beginning and if you read the resolution and if you read it which i don't think you did it says at the end support of policies practices and curriculum that honors and respects lgbtq students staff and their families and for me what upsets me is this interpretation of what it is we're doing i have lost friends who committed suicide because they were too afraid to come out and it's very difficult yet you know this is a district that also passes the same resolution protecting communities like the armenian community last year when we were talking about the karabakh and the uh resolution and how the family should be treated respectfully because it is difficult for them i don't think you

079really understand what this resolution is about um where this is not a this is not a debate this is not a debate okay all right you need to stop both of you thank you thank you very much absolutely and excuse me absolutely you do and we let you speak and now it is our turn and just like we listen to you you will have to listen to us and or you don't have to stay to listen to us either but we have the right to respond thank you is that a professional board member and you're not going to address that continue yes thank you and again for me i think you should do a little more research and you should understand this is this has nothing to do with what your interpretation is it looks

080very good on paper i'm just telling teachers that this does not mean they can do whatever they want it looks very good on paper i've read it we've heard thank you thank you thank you and for all of our listeners out there also i want to remind everyone this is not a representation of certain communities as much as people like to sometimes you know talk about it as just yes it's not and it's unfortunate that we're having this conversation today and nowadays and it's unfortunate that's even a national conversation let me remind everyone at least as long as this board members here is here we're going to honor our lgbtqi members we're going to celebrate who they are we should not only have a pride day a month we should also have a black lives

081matter just like you know we have an armenian genocide day holocaust day this is about humanity this is about treating one another with respect thank you thank you mr frittner thank you to all our speakers for coming out tonight excuse me um ms swamsey thank you again for um both for your uh recognition of of the the effect you have had on our community over the years just seeing people here uh who you have taught uh but also for your um for your promotion of the donations for the ap testing um uh as uh doctor who mentioned we do have that on the agenda um as far as being able to expand that so this may come in even more handy uh in the coming year but uh we appreciate the efforts you have made

082consistently over the years to support the district um uh miss fignani as uh we mentioned it's not on the agenda but thank you again for representing we it was said at the last meeting that we want to make sure we're hearing from the entire community and you have made that effort and and that's you know the entire student community certainly and and you know hearing from parents and staff is great um uh i uh i'm trying to arrange to um it's as miss elliott had reached out and i'm trying to arrange you know time to uh be able to um interact a little more on this subject so uh as we mentioned before we have nothing but the greatest respect for monterey and that includes the you know the schedule that that i think is

083a difference maker in you know the way that that school operates so we'll continue uh to you know this debate going forward um miss morrison thank you for coming out thank you for your passion uh in every way because you always have been very passionate in all subjects and not it's not always easy for us to hear but it's it it shows the kind of person you are the kind of educator you are um uh as dr hill pointed out part of the rush was as soon as the um the new building was allowed to be occupied we wanted to be able to move so that the day after school uh ends they will start uh you know taking down the old building and trying to get everything done for the fall it was it's

084an unfortunate bit of timing uh i you know when i first heard that i thought really we're moving the last two weeks of the year but we do want to try and make sure that you know it's at at the beginning of the next school year that it's a you know we're moving along to hopefully have the asphalt done and and then playground um but thank you to the staff i i know that was an incredible ask and i know there was just a lot of work that had to be done at a difficult time of year and we we do appreciate that and recognize the efforts it takes uh and as far as anything that might not be um a hundred percent yet on the new building i'm sure we will continue following up

085on that there are uh punchless items i'm sure that they still haven't got to it was you know it could be occupied so we wanted to get you know move forward uh but you know we'll sure we'll make certain that that is followed up on as well um to our speaker who decided not to face the music um i as dr aganian pointed out for one thing the the the recognition of what the um resolution where we'll be having come up and 12 be um i i doubt that it was read and if it was it was completely misunderstood um i i i took it as a measure of pride last year when for the first time the district flew pride flags the entire month of june at all of our schools and at the

086district office people and and it can be just a symbol sometimes but it's more than that especially in the times we are in now where we continue to see across the country more and more bills that are that are being signed into law by state governments around the country trying to restrict what can be taught what can be referenced trying to eliminate even recognizing people for who they are and by the way this is who they are and they are it is a community that is in during their teenage years in high school who are bullied more consistently who face uh more depression more suicide uh she can throw out what statistics she wants but those are documented that those and have been for years i i don't recognizing and honoring i i think you

087put it very well we we should you know try and recognize all underrepresented groups uh and this that's the effort we are making here this isn't changing our curriculum and by the way i too many people when it comes to when they hear lgbtq that sexualization automatically comes their mind this is not what it's about that's certainly not worth teaching on a regular basis on any basis on a regular basis i misspoke but we do need to make sure our students are learning and understanding about everyone and that there are there are people from in all different with backgrounds and all different types and in and in elementary schools yeah some students have two mothers or two fathers and they shouldn't be embarrassed about that fact they shouldn't be made to feel that that there's

088something wrong that they can't talk about that i've considered myself an ally for a long time now and i've been challenged at times that maybe i'm not doing enough um and that's tough for me to hear but maybe i have to here sometimes um i will continue to fight for recognition and support of our students and staff uh and make sure that we are fighting uh discrimination against them in any way and recognizing pride month is a step in that direction and frankly it's a small step this is a very small thing we can do and we and we can do it as a district but we we'll have to continue to strive to do more and educate people like our speaker about what what it really means and what we're talking about and and

089the harm they do when they try to misrepresent it and the reason we need to talk about it talk about these subjects sometimes is because students may not may hear all that at home and so maybe we need to expose them to other ideas stu parents are always going to have the most influence on their children and nothing should change that and i'm not trying to change that but we also need to make them aware and try and educate them about everyone and and hopefully that will lead to acceptance of everyone thank you mr ferguson thank you uh deep cleansing breaths okay so first things first uh to miss wamsley i have known you i feel like forever um last year you raised single-handedly nearly ten thousand dollars [Applause] and it's as if decades in

090the classroom wasn't enough uh she's back and now she's raising money and she's taking credit cards um thank you um i will get my donation in tonight um but more than anything um way to be that one woman army you know that just gets it done and delivers for kids there was a time uh where because of budget cuts we weren't able to extend additional uh supports for those who struggled to pay for psats and they you know a bunch of different ap tests you name it and and again sometimes budgets can be stretched to accommodate and sometimes it really does take initiative from the community and i want to thank not just you but many of the business partners who not just wrote checks to you but also continue to write checks to the

091foundation and others uh throughout the year as a part of their sustained giving so as you begin this adventure again um first of all just my sincerest gratitude um but really truly um that volume of money and that volume of commitment is just rarely seen so just a thank you again um catherine it is good to see you i'm glad that you felt heard uh you know uh we still have to vote so you know you know what we're going to get there having said that um you know hinting to the administrators when we have almost 100 percent uh uh of folks signing on board of students signing on board at a minimum uh we are going to need to communicate at a different level with students there is an expectation and there is an

092opposition to what is being seen so no matter what we are going to need to do um i think some real engagement to make sure there's buy-in with whatever model is going to come from this so um i again appreciate your activism uh you know petitions uh it's all fun and games until somebody brings a petition and says i've got everybody um so uh i have no doubt i have no doubt uh this is why monterey also is another special place because you really do you know people you are able to engage with them and yeah on issues like this you can build community so way to go uh and again just a hint hint to administrators and and let's see how this process goes um to ms morrison um i'm going to start on

093the building i want to thank you for consistently communicating with us when when there are pitfalls or shortfalls in in in our efforts to communicate in our efforts to move um mr canape dr cannapic wow thank you uh and thank you to all everybody who stepped up and helped uh to make that possible uh i i don't love hearing the stress that it causes i don't i don't love hearing that um i think some of that is inevitable but again where it's preventable i think again we should continue to strive to do what we can there um give miss miss wong the the scissors i you know what i i'm more than happy with that uh having said that when it comes to summer construction and hearing a bit of the feedback from ms morrison

094about um we want to return to a campus where things that were promised are delivered upon um i think if we can get a summation of what work is expected to be done over the summer and this may already been done i'm just saying um and what we can really expect uh and be very clear to the parent community to the staff uh and to the students what they can expect when they come back in the summer or what the goal is uh for them to and again if we don't meet that that bar that's fine we're communicating we're working our you know and demonstrating sincerity and our commitment to move that and to communicate um through the disruption so uh for the facility subcommittee if we could figure that out and bring that back

095and offer that to the campus community so that they have something to look forward to so that they can hold us to account to that i think that would be important um so again thank you for that um miss sargarian um first to miss morrison wow no well ten years ago that would not have happened um it just wouldn't have uh and that if you are a member of the lgbt community in burbank you live in an incredibly special community who who loves you and i am living breathing proof of it because as an openly gay man without children and you know me um i wouldn't be up here if this community wasn't capable and not just a small majority of this community a big majority of this community uh and by the way i

096got reelected so it wasn't an oops um and to all my opponents who said it i love you but we all try and be allies when we can when we believe in causes when we know communities when we know friends and loved ones uh are being left behind consistently by this world uh we all try and sometimes yes we fall short because it takes moments of courage to stand up and to say when it's clear and when it's visible and when it's in the room like it was but also when it's not when it's not so clear when an environment has become toxic our ability to stand up in that moment show up counts you showing up miss morrison in that way showed kids and showed this community what you do when you see it

097and thank you i had to learn that and i think you were the one who called that out with me and we're all human we learn and i want to thank you for teaching me that for modeling that for me and for modeling that for our kids but again this is a district and every single person up here at one point or time has worked hard to grow personally to build greater capacity to love on kids and i'm so proud to be a part of that team and a part of that district that did that and when those flags went up by the way those flags went up at a time of school year where no kid was distracted by it because there was no kid in the dang classroom so there's that you have

098no idea what it meant to see those colors i can speak for my slice of the pie you know and i hope we have a black lives matter day i hope we celebrate our latino students i hope we celebrate the diversity that makes this district so dang great i think every day we should give everybody a day you know where we can but as a student who was consistently called the f-word on campus as a student who knew teachers who said it too it mattered to see those colors up in front and to miss sargarian i don't question the hard work it took for you to get it your degrees i don't question the knowledge that you have but in a time in this world where there's so much pain why you would choose to

099take the time that god has given you with your life and to come in this moment and to speak in a way that is so alienating i guess i just don't want to spend my life that way and so to you my deepest prayer is that one day you will understand and that one day the change hopefully in your heart will bring a better life to somebody you know thanks thank you vice president ferguson i do want to just again i know that a speaker walked out but you know someone who's in the world of higher education academia if you come forward starting your conversation with your credentials and you being an expert then i will question that because i've you know to me that was no insult directly to that person but to me

100i know people work very hard here working four jobs to get my education and masters but if you start your conversation that i have this degree and i'm an expert and then you bring you know this kind of a conversation forward as a defender of the world of academia and everyone out there who's really worked hard to get their degree i will disagree with it and that's the beauty of also education you know don't start your conversation with your credentials and saying you're an expert in the area if your understanding does not demonstrate what you have learned thank you [Applause] well miss morrison i'm going to start with you and apologize to you my my role up here is to run a meeting keep things flowing and it was really hard to slam that gavel

101and say please address us i know but i wanted to say it to you because i wanted to say what you were saying and do what you were doing but i can't do that either everybody fortunately you're fortune unfortunately depending on their opinion has the right to come up and speak and even when the words hurt hurt our ears just for listening to it and hurt our hearts and our souls because you just know you just know that what she was saying was was wrong and while she was speaking i was having this argument with myself with i said well i'm just going to not even respond to her because it's not worth it it's not worth my time and then i went no you can't let somebody get away with that kind of thought

102you have to speak up and you have to say something because that's gonna that is what is going to make the difference and and mr ferguson i'm probably the person on the board who's had to work the hardest and grow to understand you know you think you you get it and then something happens and you're like oh whoa i didn't even think of that i didn't even and you're it's a constant challenge to grow and understand where people of all walks of life come from we don't we don't we're we we're not all in the same boat so to speak but we need to understand and hopefully get the flow of the water that all the boats are on going in the same direction and i think that um [Music] hopefully with whatever we all

103have inside of us folks like this will one day learn that it's just the the ugliness doesn't need to continue it's just the there's only one thing you can that we all need to be in this world and that is kind and um [Music] and that's that's all so thank you for your words now let's talk about your building and i'm really hoping um mrs kutka that at the next facilities meeting we kind of get a serious rundown for those of us that weren't participating on saturday so we know what happened i i do know that um there was a push to get things done so that we could move everybody and so that the rest of the work could begin to take place monday uh so that we do get it done in time

104for school to start that is definitely the plan i've heard it multiple times in committee meetings but you know best laid plans sometimes especially when you're dealing with construction so i make no promises but i will listen and hear and thank you so much dr kinnapping i'm i hear from elementary principals employee all the time that they'll think that you wear some kind of superhero cape underneath that suit you wear because you do amazing things for them all the time and they appreciate you as as do i and they and they really know that they can count on you not just to show up and shake your head and you know but you're in there physically moving deaths helping load kids do whatever it takes when somebody needs something and and that's appreciated fight on

105that's right i wanted to tell her where i went to school but anyway uh no uh katherine thank you once again for all your diligent hard work it does make us feel good to hear you feel you've been heard um and thank you for coming back and thank you for sunday because i had a wardrobe malfunction that catherine took care of so thank you for having my back appreciate it um mrs wamsley when you were talking and like you know i had i had um oh my gosh getting old stinks i had uh owen thank you thank you owen in my classroom and katherine and and mr ferguson's known you forever and i can think of all my friends who have said oh i had mrs wamsley i had mrs wamsley i love what you're

106doing and i think we need to call on those folks i'm thinking of a few friends of mine that we've talked about that and i'm willing to help you let's sit down and figure out who all those folks are and let's send let's add to that hundred people list and and get them to say you know thank you for my great education here's x amount of dollars to help another student do the same thing so i'm in with you let's get together in the next month or so whenever you have time and make that happen if you don't mind um [Music] i had so many i was so excited about this meeting as we were going forward it was so positive and you know new principals and and swim team cif champions and anything i

107want to talk about now just seems like so i may save it i have um for the for the second it'll still be worthwhile we did do some celebrating this week some of us went to the kiwanas teacher of the year luncheon they do a fabulous job of recognizing the teacher of the year from every single school site and they give them a lovely certificate and a hundred dollar gift card to barnes and noble which is extraordinary and very very kind bta yesterday celebrated our teachers who had 25 years in the district and the retirees always always well we haven't had it for in a couple years but definitely had a wonderful time celebrating them in a fantastic venue with amazing food and i mean doesn't that always add to a wonderful celebration of people

108so thank you for bta for putting on an extraordinary event and then last night we had the adult school graduation which there we are back again till we talked you know celebrating folks human beings adults who had a tough time for whatever reason there's a whole bunch of not successfully graduating the first time around but didn't give up got back up did whatever they had to do and chose the adult school to get their their high school diploma and i'm i'm so proud um 50 wonderful human beings yesterday and all of them were so excited as were their families and that's just so much fun to participate in and you know what i'm not going to let that ruin my fun i'm going to tell you about another thing that i'm very excited about you

109know i know i underst i do understand this all of our students from whatever pathway they're on work very hard to go down that pathway jewel reader talked about senior plans some plans are to go to college a four-year community college some plans are to work after after high school some plans are to go into the military whatever it is the important part is having a plan and every student works hard at that plan and there's a group of students that work very hard and they work very hard on their academics and then they also work on top of that in in some on some sport there are student athletes and it's not easy to get a college scholarship you do have to have grades i've had so many students when i was a teacher

110who thought just because they excelled at whatever sport that some university was going to hand them money to come to their college and that's not the case yes you have to excel at your sport but you also have to excel academically and to to get a spot and and so these students um from burbank and burroughs these are the borough students uh lincoln melcher who will be playing golf at ucla jose alvarez who'll be playing football at southwest minnesota megan lynch volleyball at fresno braden silby ackerman baseball at norfolk state university bella lomette volleyball bates college charlotte hobson volleyball bucknell university devin mcgivern baseball morningside university gigi garcia softball cal state dominguez hills gunner nichols baseball pepperdine clarissa robles water polo sienna college mason medina baseball at cal state university san marcos those are the

111the boroughs students the burbank high students bear with me two seconds jacob zuniga university of redlands football steinlin varga wisconsin lutheran college football kiara hernandez shorter university girls golf or i guess in college it's women's golf daniel neria california state university san marcos baseball and jackseptia um biola university i believe in track it's not here but i happen to know jack's family so congratulations to all of them for their hard work and dedication it's not easy and then it's even more difficult i'm speaking from experience whose son had a college uh athletic scholarship and and dr agakanyan i'm gonna change your words it's not just major universities there are thousands of d1s d2s d3s that help our student athletes either with money or worm and board and these students get the extra help but that

112university owns them and so their life will be very different from what they know now and i hope they enjoy every single moment and are successful at it as i wish for all of our students whatever their choices are so that's that's my report for tonight thank you very much yes dr aguikani is asking for a five-minute break um i'm okay with that you okay with that okay five minute break [Laughter] i didn't okay let's resume our meeting thank you we still got thank you for coming staff members thank you okay moving on to uh reports to the board starting with 11a report on addressing gaps in learning academic growth and support mrs cassell thank you president tabit i'd like to introduce dr robin anders who's going to give our presentation tonight uh good evening

113president tabit vice president ferguson members of the board superintendent hill members of cabinet usd staff and community i'm here tonight to discuss addressing our work and addressing gaps in learning and our academic support support and growth first of all just a little background on the work that we've been doing legislation during the pandemic required that we use some of those funds through grant monies uh to address some of the gaps in learning that were that had occurred during distance learning or because of the pandemic and so this is some of the work that we've been doing to address that but also monitor and look at the data um to identify where needs are and provide interventions was for students that need them critical to this work have been to coordinators at the district that were

114funded through these grant monies that are one-time covet monies and they are uh lucia bowers and laura kubler who are here tonight so i just want to recognize them because they've made critic critical contributions to the work that we've been doing but also to this presentation tonight also i'd just like to recognize that laura has worked directly with our elementary pro sites and programs and lucia has worked directly with our secondary sites and programs and i believe are my presentations okay thank you so there's been three primary areas that we've focused on for this work and those areas have been in the air in data and identification of our k-12 students and i'll touch on each of these more in subsequent slides another area of focus has been independent study and our students that have

115continued in that program or started in that program this year so they were of grave considerable concern to us because for many of these students this isn't it wasn't just one year of distance learning they're continuing into a second year of distance learning so we sort of pre-identified them as students that were going to need support so that they didn't fall below grade level and then our third area of focus has been tier two interventions that can be a support net for all of our students especially in cape 8 and the reason why we focused on k8 is that data and um and research shows early interventions are best so we wanted we wanted to work with our younger students and students that were going to be with the district for a long period of

116time and also students that may have had the most learning apps occur during the distance learning and that would be our lower grades so digging into the k-12 performance data and identification we wanted to provide actionable data to our sites so they could use some of the existing interventions and practices that they already had in place and also identify trends we also worked with them to provide data or analysis of data as requested so if they were concerned about something that they were seeing then we worked on our end of the district to provide them the data that they needed we also provided case studies and these were sort of individual students but also trends that we saw at sites where we wanted to have a conversation or the sites to have a conversation about

117what supports would they utilize to to move that student towards success depending on their unique needs we also looked at grade level uh progress monitoring by subject and course so what that specifically looked at is making sure we're making progress that through a through g and we didn't identify specific courses or subjects where students were having more difficulty than others and then lastly and probably most important to the legislation was identification of students that were below grade level and making sure that we were providing supports to all of those students our next slide digs into the independent study program so again these are students that we felt were critical in need of support because they were entering a second year of distance learning many of them so we we provided a lot of professional development

118to our teachers who signed on as independent study teachers um to bolster not not only the practices they had done had used during distance learning but to utilize the model as it was going to exist this year for independent study and how best to teach in that model we also provided and when i say with us it was a lot of the work that lucy and laura did is communicate with independent study students students and families because there was a increased role for the for the family and the parents when students are on independent study so we really wanted to be a liaison for those families and support them in helping their students learn at home additional additionally we supported students by that were transitioning so that was part of the law with independent study

119was the students were able to our families were able to transition at any given time and and we were needing we needed to respond to that within five days to provide that transition so um they were critical in making those transition transitions smooth into independent study or when families chose to return back to in-person learning making sure that they were transitioned back to the classroom without a lot of distress to the student and then lastly is was additional monitoring for student engagement and attendance which is always an issue in distance learning and making sure they're engaged in attending classes and doing the work that was required our third area of focus was academic growth and support and this was primarily through a program that was purchased also with grant money one time covet funds and

120that was an i-ready diagnostic program the reason why we chose that program was because it met some of the requirements of the law to assess students at the beginning of the year and at the end of the year and measure their progress throughout the throughout that but in addition to that i already was one of the few programs that provided tailored or prescriptive lessons for students based on a needs analysis from those assessments so iready was to us not just an assessment tool but it was also an intervention tool that we used and that was used k through eight and there's a lot you can do with iready and so some of our elementary sites are familiar with it but about half of our elementary sites this was new and we extended that to our

121middle schools to include them in this process and so they were really implementing a new program this year at the middle schools with with quite a bit of success um the last piece to the irate program is it does provide additional data and opportunities for teachers to do small group instruction with students based on the diagnostic results and in the readouts and we'll look at that data in just a few slides i do also want to mention in addition to iready before i move on that many of our especially our elementary sites had programmed existing programs that are very similar with providing tier 2 interventions and those would be rti teachers that many of our sites already have and that also looks very similar to instructional aids in um collaboration classes that support students on

122ieps or eld students um in the gen ed sections so not just already but there's other programs that we we were already in existence that we supported or helped to provide support to this is uh this is a really interesting slide because it it um there's a lot of work behind what this slide indicates and what it what it does is it identifies the students that we had looked at at the beginning of the year based on the i ready diagnostic tool as well as their initial grades at the beginning of the year and we created an intervention cohort that we wanted to track and monitor throughout the entire year based on how they performed at the very beginning of the year so that's what those numbers are that you can see and and you

123can also see that some students qualified in not only english or math but both areas and then compared to our total enrollment for those grades but specifically the chart to the right which is which is a little small and hard to read um on this in this presentation identifies all of the different interventions that those students were provided and how many students were participating in those and so i ready and i math and reading was a very good tier two intervention to catch a lot of students um and to meet the where their needs were and it wasn't as intrusive as far as removing them from class or or other measures that are a little more tier three in essence uh you can also see the number of students participating in special ed eld services

124um rti programs that already existed sst's and attendance reviews so a lot of different supports i'm trying to make sure every kid was was getting something that needed it this is the same data for secondary uh so you can see our intervention cohort we work directly with our middle schools and in our in our sixth or eight again through the same diagnostic assessment and grades and then the different supports that were given to them in addition to this they have some after school tutoring staff consult consultation intervention courses that were also provided and then monitoring progress which is unique to the middle schools too where they are specifically monitoring a student and how they do each grading period so the the data we just looked at was was for the most part district data district-wide

125we're going to focus a little bit just on elementary and look at some specific data just for them this data set the data sets that we're going to look through for the next handful of slides are from the fall semester primarily and mid-year we did a mid-year assessment in january using the i ready program to see if we could identify some growth we will revisit this again at the end of the year because they're doing end of year assessments right as we speak and end of your grades but this first slide is our i ready diagnostic data which i had referenced earlier and these are our reading diagnostic scores and math diagnostic scores um you can see a spread across each grade level of of where our students are at i would point out when

126we work with ireti that when this is given at the beginning of the year this is really a measurement of of where they should be at the culmination of that grade level so if we have students that are early on or even one grade level behind at the very beginning of the year that's very typical because they've just started that grade so what we wanted to identify and specifically work with were the students that were two grade levels below or three grade levels below so that they didn't that was the group we really targeted to as far as that intervention cohort that we looked at in the previous slides specific to this data i would point out that there was a significant group in first grade that came to us that were one grade level

127below and in math specifically too there was a chunk of students in that in that same designation that we wanted that we were looking at this next year this slide is also i ready data and it's not boys or moyes this is beginning of the year and middle of the year um data and what i wanted to point out with this slide is you can see that uh beginning of the year is the this is the first column followed by the second column is a little is it looks a little bit higher a little bit better and so we're seeing group we saw growth basically in all of our grade levels first second third through fifth uh that from the beginning of the year to the middle year our students are increasing in their abilities

128on the diagnostic um to the right is the number of students that were assessed and then some of our general analysis for for this information but you can see that third grade there was a quite a bit of growth from just the beginning of the year to the middle of the year we'll look at this data again at the end of the year once they've taken the end of year assessment this is the opposite of what we just looked at for reading and these these scores are specific to reading from the previous slide in this slide these are our students that we are in our intervention cohort or tracking and you can see that those numbers go down from the beginning of the year to the middle of the year so we saw a reduced

129number of students that were below significantly below grade level already at the middle of the year and we hope to have these numbers below 10 across the board by the end end of the year this slide is specific to domains within english language arts and so this is one of the neat analysis tools that iready provides as a program is it looks at different domains and where our students need support and you can see at early grade levels there's phonological awareness that is an area that's the blue but then you see that actually disappears and as they increase in grade level there becomes much more demand or much more support needed for comprehension and informational text so what this information tells us is where we can focus our our time and energy in our classrooms

130as far as what our students need or where they're not being as successful now we're going to look at math same type of chart for beginning of the year and middle of the year and each grade level and then you can see that there's an increase in performance at already the middle of the year for those groups and then the opposite of that students below grade level significantly below grade level middle of the year those numbers have diminished already by the instruction and some of the work that we've been doing this is also specific to math similar to the one we looked at english language arts it's not as there's not as much analysis to be done on this but it is an indicator that students need support in all areas in math it's not

131that we have a specific domain that needs attention so now we're going to look at um specifically our intervention cohort so the previous slides have been all students district wide but these these slides are looking and tracking just our intervention students that we identified at the beginning of the year either by grades or their diagnostic assessment and how they were doing mid-year and you can see that there's some there's quite a bit of growth some students that are already back up to grade level that were below grade level at the beginning of the year and diminished a number of students that are two or s especially three years below so we've done some good work as far as just at the mid year catching some students back up that had some serious learning gaps and

132then this is the same data and table for math where you can see that growth that has occurred so they're given the same diagnostic beginning in mid and their performance indicates some some growth there an improvement just in that intervention cohort that we identified behind grade level so now we're going to look at secondary data there's a little bit of a different focus with our secondary students middle schools will look somewhat similar to what we've done with elementary but in high school we did have a special especially a focus for a through g completion and credit recovery so we dive right in with grades um reason we we didn't use grades for elementary is because they grade on um standards-based grades and so it's it's part of the process that they should indicate progress throughout

133the year so it's not as good of an indicator to measure beginning of end of year but for secondary their grades and their courses is a good measure to to look at so you can see these are the great analysis data for first semester ela and we're looking at grades specifically to make sure students aren't falling behind or that our dnf rates have an increased post pandemic or post a year of distance learning um this is the 10 week and false and then the the final semester in fall for english and then this is our intervention cohort just at the middle school so those students that were below grade level to start and i wanted to share this even though there's not a lot of of change in from just the 10 week to the

134semester but it is worth noting that if these students were identified as below grade level they're still being very there's a still a significant number that are being successful in passing their courses and so there's a good distribution in that even within that group of maintaining or sustaining an aab or c in their class work and then this is a similar chart for math looking at the 10 week and semester grades for our students in sixth grade through 12. recall when we were working with our sites on this data that there were discussions especially about our 7th and 11th grade math courses especially with 11th grade students finishing out their math their math career sometimes because that may be the last math course that they take and then again our intervention cohort at the middle

135school these were are below grade level students that we're seeing still a good distribution for those students that they're being successful in their classes as far as passing with about 70 of those students passing their math class this is another data point for our intervention cohort and this is looking at the fall math benchmark so just looking back at grades those those students that were identified below grade level and they're doing well with their grades but they're also doing well on our district benchmarks um in fact they're almost doing better on on those benchmarks so that's a good indicator too that they're we're meeting their standard they're meeting the standards and accomplishing the learning involved we took us a specific look at our special ed students and so this data here represents um six through

136twelfth are students that are in special ed and their their grade distribution and so uh this is a good indicator too that our special ed students aren't any really any different than our gen ed population as far as their grade distribution in fact they have a smaller percentage of students getting and receiving an f in their classes so our split students have done pretty well in their classes as far as earning the grades that they need to move forward next slide is looking just at eld students english learners excuse me and this is our semester data for them as well i chose to use numbers instead of percentages for this because the the the groups are so small that just two or three kids could really sway a percentage um so it's just important to

137know when we're talking about these students that it's just a few students in some cases so i read we did incorporate it into our middle schools and this was like i said earlier a new program for our middle school students and so this uh there's a lot on this slide i apologize for that but it's similar to what we looked at uh earlier with the elementary where we can identify specific domains where our students need more support and other domains where they're doing really quite well so you can see in english language arts phonics and and some other high frequency words for example our students are doing very very well and it's other areas like vocabulary comprehension and informational text and that validates some of the elementary data too that as we move up into

138the grade levels those other skills become more important to focus on and then on the other side is math that's on the right side where we're looking at the beginning of the results for our students number sense uh and operations our students are doing very well in uh on on the diagnostic it's other areas that we may need to look at first for continuing support like geometry measurement and data or algebraic so now that we get to our high school focus and with high school we're looking at a through g courses with 10 plus fails this is something that we monitor as far as our credit recovery programming and opportunities for students to to recoup those grades and move forward with their academic career and so this is some of the data that we collected

139and looked at in the fall and also to plan for our summer school offerings as well i would like to point out especially when it comes to this slide that traditionally algebra has been one of our courses with a high number of failure and that of course has dropped significantly due to some work that's been done with in collaboration amongst the two high schools in that specific course so i would like to replicate that in some other courses going forward and then this is fall a through g courses with 10 plus d's and so these were students that we are looking at a creating a new program for this summer and going forward next year with grant money specific to a through g completion to provide great improvement so that they can remain um a3g

140eligible for csu or uc enrollment and then this last slide is just a comparison because i think one of the topics involved with this is looking at learning loss and our students performing worse than they have in previous years and so this is looking by at school and by grade level on previous gpas the average gpa across our schools and what you can see is in 2019 and 20 and fall semester just for that one semester looking at that fall the average gpa for our students was 3.09 overall and this fall after coming off of distance learning and pandemic that average gpa has remained exactly the same uh you can see some variance within the grade levels but just just a good point to reference as far as um our students still meeting the demands

141of the coursework to to move forward and then there's appendix slides and as i just kind of click through these these are just an idea of some of the slides that we've shared throughout the year with our sites and our and our site conversations with their teams about the work that they're doing and now analyzing the data that they were able to pull to help make decisions and support students so we highlighted bret hart elementary and we also highlighted luther burbank middle school for the work that they've done and these specifically are slides that our our two coordinators have put together so i'd like to just end by recognizing the work that they've done uh this year they've worn many hats throughout the year including you know teaching independent study classes covering at sites when

142we've had cert covert surges not just days but weeks at sometimes and then also implementing new programs like the irate program at sites that this was new to they've also provided a lot of validation and cheerleading to sites for this was a lot of difficult work coming off a pandemic and all the obstacles that we face this year to really work to support the students that needed this help so this is where we are today and we'd like to revisit this again once we have our end-of-year data so that we can compare from beginning to end of year so i appreciate your time today and wanted to share where we're at with this work thank you very much do any colleagues have any comments mr ferguson thank you um first things first uh this clearly

143took a lot of work so thank you and thank you uh for creating and pulling this data um this is uh to me a good snapshot of semester one um my biggest concern frankly though is semester two where we had about 10 weeks where a third of our school district was not in school and so what i want to do is first you know take the lessons i think from this when we have kind of a stable learning environment and see you know across the board it looked like one in four elementary about one and four consistently elementary were two or more grade levels behind um and and i'm not trying to say this critically i'm just trying to say it in terms of wrapping our heads around where the intervention should be focused um

144and again this is based off of data that ends semester one so um also about one in two uh elementary students around math are two or grade levels below uh or behind so i think more than anything one i would like to see basically this same presentation but with semester two data as soon as possible especially because the state budget and the way it's being allocated that we are going to see a lot of one-time money and to me that one-time money should be operationalized with these specific populations in mind i think if we can pull from this data demographic information to see if there's consistency within the population that is falling within that top or in that 25 to 50 threshold um so we can start uh moving resources there i none of this

145is rocket science i and i know staff is doing this on some level but in terms of what we're presenting to the public i just want to be clear this is one snapshot one view and i think we need to continue to track and and to think with that in mind especially as we talk about and plan with one time dollars so i really um i don't think we're obviously going to be able to get enough data back and the presentation back before budget adoption having said that i think it's pretty clear that in stable times there's a lot of work to do to catch students up um and so i think that we really just need to i think i ready sounds like a good tool um i i also particularly like the component

146of your presentation where you discussed that you know as a result of this intervention we don't have to do uh more disruptive interventions that you know require pulling out additional staff time so working smart i think is really brilliant using technology and deploying that uh i think also is brilliant but um you know i i think uh this paints a good picture um it you know but it still leaves some room for concern um and and i know we're all committed to not leaving any of these kiddos behind um so with that again i i just would like to see this back as soon as possible with the updated spring semester data um this helps again i think with an initial snapshot i think the other component again we're going to continue to talk about

147is the social emotional component of this right it's one side uh to see the the the data and the numbers um it's another side to see um what it took to do that homework and i think teachers will tell that story and and aids will tell that story uh that getting folks to do the work getting folks to turn in um has been extremely difficult this year as well so um thank you again for all the work and to all the sites who clearly contributed to the appendix i think this is good uh this equips us with some awareness of i think where we need to push but i think it would be clearer with spring data and once we can get that uh let's attach boosters but again thank you to everybody for for

148hearing the urgency behind identifying these populations and and for working so hard to to identify so quickly so we can get those interventions in place and get them back on track thank you go ahead thank you so i do agree with my colleague but also you know i want to know when it comes to intervention and addressing some of these concerns and questions there's also the question of funding what's out there you know it's one thing to put out studies the other one is can we afford them if we want to address some of these concerns and i think that's to me that's also important because what i'm seeing now in higher education now is that there we're seeing a lot of you know students having challenges even coming from especially the students who went

149to the pandemic to high school not going to college even if they go you you're seeing the some of the challenges especially in mathematics and english it's i mean i can tell you at least at my college there's a tremendous drop of students taking english classes or mathematics or even qualifying to you know pass or not and these are new students you know so my first question is and wonderful data you know i love i love this stuff but my question also is is there funding and is this something we need to be ready for because if we're going to have to address this as part of the bigger solution especially the transition to colleges and some of the challenges they're having is there a conversation about you know any additional funding so we've been

150utilizing the covet relief funding and we've been allocating that for the tier one two and three interventions that we've we highlighted earlier in the presentation as board member ferguson highlighted the state proposal in the may revise has a an allocation of one-time funding they haven't provided the details it seems it's going to be pretty flexible but then we can align that to the interventions we put in place and you start off with ireti then you get into expanding our rti and our intervention sections and then we go deeper with expanded summer school and other options that we've highlighted anything else you looked at in this case is it is it possible thank you dr hill is there is it possible that we attach potentially trigger language to the one-time money you know if if threshold

151x is then we allocate x numbers to interventions um that way we can appropriate the money and then as the data comes back we're ready to deploy um i i just i i want i would rather the one-time money be earmarked to address these core concerns um because i think it is going to be expensive um you know i would rather be you know and the board meetings during the summer during the summer frankly are inconsistent so to me it would be helpful at least for us to at least identify potential thresholds hey if it's worse than these numbers the semester numbers and i leave that to staff to determine but if it's worse than these numbers then we're going to trigger automatically additional spending in these areas is that an approach at least we

152that could be deployed and we can talk about in the june budget meetings we'll come back with a framework the framework we've been using as we've been working with the school sites and and the staff here is what you see is moving into those higher level tiers is that we need more funding for more intervention sections or more rti hours that's the variable that we've been focusing on the foundation that we put in place to address these interventions are already there so you're concerned about more students because of second semester would just increase that higher level intervention which is just more hours more sections so that could be a pot of money that could be we can come back with this is what we may need to do that but we've been working very closely

153with the school side school site's been reviewing this data so i think we have a pretty good handle on the interventions we have the biggest intervention we're doing clearly right now is getting students enrolled into summer school based on grades so it's not like we're just sitting waiting for new data to come here to present we've already been doing that work so i don't i don't see a dramatic oh no we don't have enough resources to address where our students are there may be some additional sections we need but we can present that in june when we talk about the budget okay i my concern i and i hear that and and i also trust that intention i absolutely um what i do see though is consistently about 20 of the population not changing no

154matter the the interventions that we're currently deploying so that tells me that potentially we may need different interventions or to explore different interventions to target that core 20 or to target that core 25 and if that problem becomes more than 20 as we bring in the spring fall semester data that to me says that more of the same won't do so that to me is where i'm trying to say if there is some creative so not to be critical of it but again if this problem is bigger than this more of the same i don't think is the is the solution how do we uh create enough budget flexibilities for you to respond to that by thinking outside the box a little bit that's more where i'm trying to go and if if you don't

155have that mechanism tonight which i get uh then we can bring then then what i hope is you can bring that back in future budget discussions before we get to a last minute august kind of thing thank you any further questions from my colleagues i'm also just curious when it comes to eld students you know you know i last time i don't know who mentioned it but i heard that there has been an increase or right it was you right let's go and and and so to me also is you know that becomes a more challenging sometimes with the lce students as well and again do we have the mechanism to even address the increase because i spoke with in a class last week with the ld students and i saw a very large number

156the largest i've ever spoken to in a while um but also you know i love their you know drive to really be successful but at the same time i also noticed there was only like one person two people one assistant one you know what i mean like as a former eld student i can tell you it takes a little more than that my question is do we have the funds if needed to even add to those programs because we're seeing this increased trend obviously that will be the conversation that will come back in june about the one-time funds how much do we allocate for english learners we know there's a need in special education as we've talked about these interventions so we're have categories where we can uh spend it good and are you expecting

157any federal funding one i have not heard any new uh federal funding right yeah mr freightener thank you um i don't want to take too much time because my colleagues have covered a lot of what i had made a few notes on anyways um thank you first of all because there really is a lot of data here and i'm sure an incredible amount of work uh that's gone into it i do look forward uh to seeing where that data goes when we when we bring the second semester um information in uh because as and i do like look through this like three times you know what i was trying to you know bring it all in and most of the data looks great uh actually because you see improvements in a lot of areas but

158there is a point that mr ferguson brought forward that there still seems to be a core that you know that we are either not reaching or or you know that um you know just it has not been able to respond thus far now maybe we'll see in the second semester data that you know that does change i also notice that there's a few areas like on the uh the 2020 intervention cohort for both the um the math and the ela where the uh between the 10 week grades and the and the semester grades the d's and f's actually went up rather than now that was one of the few uh things that that wasn't uh tracking as well so i i i don't know if that um showed something that you know that was addressed

159right away if there was a reason why we might have thought that that was happening um but you know it just seemed to go against the grain of what most of the data was showing so that's that's the only other comment that i've had may i respond to that president tabit question that i probably shouldn't have been having yes no problem i just wanted to say that for secondary that's actually typical for grades because students start out with a higher grade and it steadily declines by the end of the semester so what we're trying to do is decrease that decline and save credits but that is typical grade behavior for secondary and the discussion we were having was to see a multi-year projection going back going forward you know so that because my comment was

160well there there always seems to be some group that doesn't quite manage to do what we hope they do and so mr ferguson's point was okay well let's let's dig at those kids and get them up higher but it'd be good to see because then we i mean there's many factors into learning and so and and we only have uh ability to access some parts of their learning abilities it doesn't all happen in the classroom at a school site so it'd be good to see yeah and and to the point we were making a little bit also was it's really hard to look at benchmark data or to try and have benchmark data in this moment in time right so and and well yes there's always a core group of students who may not meet

161expectations on every every academic expectation of them or demonstrate at a bc or a level uh their mastery of a course or subject area i completely get that but i think um i think as we start building data frankly from this school year onward to try and understand and triage a bit you know again like i think the answer could also be that it's not about an intervention program that is academically based but also it's social emotional right and it's like okay this core group of 20 is so traumatized and worried about going back to school or being on time or okay that and and that's what i mean by it gets expensive that's what i mean by that kind of planning that kind of response and reactiveness so and if we do that and

162if that's necessary we have to build budgets for three years at a time now right so that's also again so while we have one-time money now do we do seed money do we do grants how are we going to do this to be sustainable so that way when the one-time money disappears the interventions don't dry up and abandon these kids too because that too uh is is planning we're responsible for anything further all right thank you very much very very good thank you okay moving on we polled 11b we'll move on to 11c report on facilities and technology projects this is kudka good evening president tabit board members staff and community so we have one item on the consent agenda today that is related to bond funding of facilities and technology meetings if we can

163get the powerpoint so it's item 3v on the agenda is with the walt disney elementary two-story building uh project is the demolition earthwork and uh paving for the two-story building the contractor is chalmers the amount was not to exceed uh the change order is not to exceed fourteen thousand seven twenty five fifteen which brings a total of five hundred and twenty two thousand seven twenty five and this was to lay uh a pathway of decomposed granite uh which would not have otherwise been necessary except for this uh silver creek delays so this allows the ingress and egress of the students across the the playground to get to the building so and i did want to address i don't know if you have any questions about this item i did want to address there was a

164question about what would major things would not be done when the kids returned to school and we opened up the buildings so we've got blacktop that will be down it will not have the lines painted on it though because it's it's having to cure and then also the grass field will i we're leaning towards sod but that sod does need time for the roots to establish so it'll be beautiful but untouchable for a period so and i know that'll be very hard to do but and and we do apologize i think when i was here two weeks ago we talked about the stress of the construction and the moving very bad timing um you know and we can blame silver creek for part of it because of the delays it was not our intent to

165have this happen but you know if we want to get done and have the kids start in the in the new building and have everything together was just was kind of our hands were tied so we greatly apologize for all the inconvenience and no the timing wasn't good so it's a very hard project you you need teachers out and into their new spots so the old spot can you know be demoed and work move forward i mean it's all timing it's uh it's it's a difficult job and when you get it done right it's uh it's amazing it's almost a miracle so i think we've we've done fairly okay there's gonna be glitches it happens yes sir all right first of all thank you for the report and for tracking with us because i think

166we've highlighted different concerns throughout this construction process and i think you've done a good job reaching for it and attempting to answer those when we've thrown those out so realizing [Music] construction is challenging and not perfect also being a former student who has moved around from bungalows to renovated classrooms back i get how disruptive it is in all of that um but again um one i'm happy that we are moving towards completion on this which will bring to a close i think a very long uh standing promise and commitment that we've been trying to make uh and two it's really helpful on the grass and the blacktop component so i you know if we can get uh work with uh the principal to get information out that hey these are going to be the things

167that uh may not be completely done when they get back having said that they will look great um you know uh that would be helpful but in the meantime for everybody who was working so hard to make this happen including the volunteers who were helping to move in and the staff that were helping to move thank you all right you know what and a couple other things i should probably add so on april 29th they did walk do a walk through with silver creek and came up with a punch list of items and i want to say there were about 40 items none structural in any means so and you know throughout the process we've had the department of state architects there so dsa has been there and there you know usually when you build

168a residence or a building within the city you follow city code but we we answer to a higher authority which is tsa so i mean throughout the entire process they've they've been involved so i want to make that clear the building is safe and occupible and it was ready to go with minor items so thank you i know you have a lot on your plate now too who knew you would be in uh construction as well as all the other things you do for us so thank you thank you okay moving on to to new and or unfinished business uh 12a adoption of resolution 43 proclaiming may 22nd 2022 as harvey milk day president tabit mr ferguson i will gladly move that the board of education adopt resolution 43 proclaiming may 22nd 2022 as harvey

169milk day second thank you for the motion and the second dr ogakanian do we have any discussion all right all those in favor please say aye aye aye opposed motion carries four zero one absent do i need to say that every single time great okay 12b adoption of resolution 44. oh my goodness okay can i read it yes you may thank you uh resolution 43 proclaiming may 22 2022 as harvey milk day whereas today we honor the life and legacy of harvey milk the first openly gay politician in california let's call it an openly gay politician in california there were other openly gay politicians but he was elected to major office in california and the leader of the american civil rights movement and whereas time magazine included harvey milk on a list titled the 100

170most important people of the 20th century and whereas harvey milk was not only an advocate for lgbt the lgbtq plus community but for all minorities he believed in safe strong neighborhoods in support of public education affordable child care and equal rights for all and whereas harvey milk was elected to the position of city supervisor county supervisor in san francisco where he held office one year before his life was tragically cut short in 1978 by a political rival who opposed milk's liberal views and whereas harvey milk's contributions to the cause for of equality for all people has been recognized in a number of ways including the issuance of a stamp with his picture on it the posthumous awarding of the medal of freedom and whereas harvey milk's work continues today through the work of the milk

171foundation founded by his nephew stewart milk in honor of his uncle whereas we honor harvey milk today let us remember the words hope will never be silent members of the lgbt plus community in the united states and around the world still face discrimination and violence rooted in the same hatred that milk died fighting they deserve hope and they cannot abide our silence now therefore it is proclaimed by the burbank unified school district board of education on behalf of the citizens of the city of burbank that we proclaim may 22nd as harvey milk day you know harvey milk's life and legacy certainly is something that is is one example of lgbt leadership to look to but i will remind everybody at home who doesn't know the history that it was a colleague who was radicalized by

172hate um it was a colleague who allowed an environment of toxicity to exist that ended up going after uh and eliminating the life of one so it's not just our friends and loved ones we have to have conversations with it's it's those who we call friends and loved ones who struggle uh and and in order to build a greater world in a more successful world it involves everybody talking so thank you uh to harvey milk for his legacy of service that certainly opened the door for people like me uh and for many others uh in this world thank you mr ferguson um moving on okay anyone else okay 12 b adoption of resolution 44 in support of pride month june yes dr kanye i moved at the board of education adopt resolution 44 in the

173support of pride month june 20 2002 as presented thank you and thank you for the second mr frittner um any discussion okay all those in favor please say aye aye opposed motion carries four zero please go thank you resolution 44 proclaiming june 2022 as the burbank unified school district districts lesbian gay bisexual transgender and queer questioning lgbtq pride month whereas the burbank unified school district models advocates a active actively supports and promotes the inclusive and respectful treatment of all students staff family members and community members whereas the district believes that all students should be able to attend school in a safe and an inclusive environment free from discrimination whereas the district is firmly committed to providing a safe nurturing and tolerant environment in our schools whereas the districts is firmly committed to to school safety

174for all students staff and family members including the lesbian gay bisexual transgender queer questioning lgbtq community or those that may be perceived as such whereas the district believes that sexual orientation and gender expression bias bullying are among the most common forms of harassment in schools and let the lack of awareness and understanding of those issues have contributed to a higher rate of isolation depression suicide i am suicidal ideations or attempts whereas sorry whereas that significantly higher rate of school dropouts academic failure and school disengagement among lgbtq youth across the country are attributed to peer harassment and bullying whereas children who do not confirm to gender stereotypes are more likely to be targets of harassment and bullying and whereas all this and where all district schools must strive to ensure that burbank schools are consistently safe

175and affirming spaces for all students staff and their families whereas pursuit of education code section 200 it is the policy of california to forward all persons in public schools regardless of their disability gender gender identity gender expression nationality race or ethnicity religion sexual orientation or any other protector characteristics equal rights and appointments in the education institution of california whereas the pursuit of education code section 201 all the california public schools have an affirmative obligation to combat racism sexism and other forms of bias and a responsibility to provide equal education on opportunity and whereas pursued to the education code of section 51933 california hell to you to act and board policy 614 6142.1 all california's public schools must provide comprehensive sexual health education to encourage the development of healthy attitudes of adolescent growth and development body

176image gender sexual orientation and relationships and should ensure that sexual health education does not promote outdated gender norms and whereas the student success and opportunity act of 2013 strengthens protection of transgender students and affirmed that all students should be recognized and participate in activities by their gender of identity whereas the districts endorses training for educators and other school-related professionals to support all students dealing with the issue of sexual orientation gender identity and gender expression whereas the district recognizes lgbtq as a protected group and addresses discrimination based upon sexual orientation gender identity and gender expression whereas the district recognizes that education regarding lgbtq issues increases understanding and cultivates acceptance of and respect for lgbtq students and whereas the month of june provides an opportunity to celebrate and value the identities and the contributions of the lgbtq

177community and whereas the knowledge of lgbtql history for all students enables lgbt lgbtq students families and educators to be supported by the district community and to uphold affirmative lives with dignity and respect whereas by recognizing pridemount the district demonstrates support of policies practices and curriculum that honors and respects lgbtq students staff and their family now therefore be it resolved the burbank unified school district board of education hereby designates june 2022 as pride month and the districts the superintendent and all district staff to support policies practices curriculum that respects lgbtq students and their families throughout the school thank year thank you troops thank you very much okay moving on to 12c adoption of resolution 45 ordering a governing board member election president tabit mr ferguson i'll move the board of education adopt resolution 45 ordering a

178governing board member election and waive the reading of the resolution as presented second thank you for that and thank you for the second mr frittner uh all those in favor say aye aye opposed motion carries 4-0 12-d approval of extension of the temporary substitute employee salary compensation increase president habit mr ferguson i'll move the board of education approved the extension of the temporary substitute employee salary compensation increase effective july 1 2022 through june 30th 2023 as presented second thank you for the motion the second dr agakanian any discussion um just as as the budget comes back like you know this is great that we're extending it a year but again trying to see where we can what the long term i you get everybody's not so thank you thank you for that um all in

179favors please say aye aye opposed great motion carries 4-0 we have pulled 12-e move on to 12-f approval of administrative regulation 6141. advanced placement president habit yes sir it is my privilege to move uh board approval of the proposed revision of administrative regulation 6145.5 advanced placement as presented second thank you for the motion in the second doctor again you might have just been louder than mr frittner but i did hear you so um thank you any discussion can we go okay reading for those who haven't read the so um what i'd like to say is that this is there has been a lot of work done on this and i know it took a little longer than um maybe we expected but our group in the policy subcommittee um really wanted to be thoughtful about

180this uh to a large extent what is presented in this language is the practice we have held for well over five years so the the caveat and the addition to the language is allowing for opportunities for students that may have received d grades and prerequisite courses to still access honors and ap with some remediation during the summer so if you look at item three it specifically talks about uh students who may have a dna prerequisite course and and the counseling they need to receive and and the work they need to do during the summer in order to be able to move forward in the fall to access an honors or ap course that has not been our practice before but we wanted to provide those opportunities so um this this is really meaningful for me

181because i i feel like what it does is codify what we've been doing already in practice and it's kind of secures it by having it in a policy and having language around it i do want to share with the board that just today and this morning i did have some emails from our counselors at the secondary asking that we consider in the language we refer to our counselors as academic advisors they prefer the word counselor and i i made a promise that i would bring that forward uh as a potential amendment to what is presented in front of you okay and i'd be happy to answer any questions does the maker of the motion are you absolutely find a i'm fine to accommodate that language in the motion in our second okay okay he agrees

182so yes please um i this is a long time coming um but not easy not an easy policy um but this looks out for kids in a real way and i really respect teachers and and uh those involved in instruction who worry about kids getting in above their in over their heads um but as a student who was turned away from rigor because i got a b plus instead of an a that changed my relationship with academics and i am so proud of the educational leadership that is at this dice right now who pushed to expand opportunities in this moment uh and through this way so i am wholeheartedly behind this i want to thank uh miss guseo dr brahmo dr hill and everybody who played a role in moving this forward because this takes

183care of kids this is the educational leadership that takes guts to do um and and i just couldn't be more proud to support this i know it's an admin reg i know it's not on our side of the books but you know what like this gets an extra extra gusto with this one so thanks for taking care of our kids well said yep agreed thank you so all in favor you're good all in favor please say aye aye opposed great motion carries 4-0 thank you yep that is a big moment uh 12g second reading and approval of elementary school social science textbook president tabit mr ferguson i will move that the board of education adopt the teachers curriculum curriculum institute social science textbook series to include grade k uh me and my world isbn 978-1583-710-340

184grade one my school and my family isbn eight nine 978-1583-710-890 grade two my community isbn 978. uh one five eight three seven one zero nine six eight grade three california's communities isbn oh 978-1583-714-805 grade four california's promise isbn 978-153714-829 grade five america's past isbn 978-1583-719947 not to exceed eight hundred and seventy nine thousand two hundred and seventy two dollars and twenty twenty and twenty two cents out of the lottery textbook fund account strings as presented thank you and thank you for the second and too bad we don't get paid by saying numbers right there we gotta be all right we'd have another budget crisis yes most definitely all right thank you so much to have any discussion fabulous all in favor please say aye aye opposed say no thank you motion carries 4-0 12-h adoption

185a middle school science textbook president tabit mr ferguson i will move that the board of education oh by the way previous item thank you dr knoppic and everybody involved in that that process it was a long one so just thank you i will move that the board of education approved the proposed science textbook for adoption as presented thank you and thank you for the second doctorate coming in any discussion it's really exciting to be adopting textbooks again it seems like forever for everybody who asks where's the lottery money there it is thank you so much uh any further discussion thank you all in favor please say aye aye opposed motion carries 5-0 12i ratification of contract with hop skip drive for busd youth in transition president habit yes sir mr jackson i'll move the board

186of education ratify the agreement between the burbank unified school district and hopskip drive to provide the occasional transportation to school for youth in transition this agreement is effective from april 13th 2022 to june 30th 2022 and not to exceed 5 000 invoices will be paid out of the american rescue plan funding um as presented second thank you for the motion and the second any discussion do you want um do we need an explanation dr hill a little bit so typically we provide metro passes and other forms of transportation for families we do have some families that are residing outside of a near metro hub so they do need this hopskip drive transportation there is dedicated funding from the federal government for uh the stimulus funding that's dedicated for homeless families or families um in transition

187uh that need these services right now okay thank you any further discussion all in favor please say aye aye opposed promotion carries 4-0 and now 12-j acceptance of gifts president tabit mr ferguson i'll move 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 thank you thank you for the motion in a second all in favor of uh approving the gift report please say aye aye and opposed motion carries 4-0 thank you so very much to our donors uh tonight we'll i shouldn't say only we have three um blackbaud giving fund wishes to donate to the district 60 to be used for materials and supplies at thomas edison elementary peter lars inc also cornerstone photography wishes to donate to the

188district 602.67 to be used as needed at providence at providencia elementary school and the third one an anonymous donor wishes to donate to the district 200 for the purchase of a prom dress for a student in transition in the student services department thank you all very much for your generous and kind donations it's greatly appreciated consent agenda president tabit oh we did we did good 4-0 that's okay um at least i remembered that we did it so consent agenda present habit mr ferguson i'll move items 13 uh consent calendar items thirteen a through thirteen v exec for which items board members wish to pull thank you for the motion the second doctor on the con khanian any items need to be pulled awesome all those in favor please say aye of approving the consent agenda

189and opposed consent agenda is approved thank you very much okay request to address the board 14 um again any group or individual representative president this evening may address the board of education on any subject within the jurisdiction of the school board by completing a blue card request card entering into miss clark speakers are requested to state their name prior 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 no virtual speakers this evening great our first speaker is james morrison followed by linda besson good evening i didn't know i was going um before the 40th um caught me off guard there how's everyone tonight great um i just want to extend a uh heartfelt um warm uh gesture of gratitude

190towards the dei program of the dei committee and uh for all of their hard work and um i just wanted to uh start this off by saying that stephanie mccoy is a um a true champion of that movement i know firsthand simply because um about a month ago at walt disney elementary school my son who's eight was standing on the uh in a the playground or that at the play area or whatever and um one of his friends was there with him and he uttered the n word around him i know this because he came home that night and asked me what is the n word so what is a black father to do right um i gather my thoughts try to stay away from the realm of anger and i try to explain to

191him the toxicity and the hatred that that word derives from and i also grieve his innocence because at this point a line has been crossed there was innocence and now welcome to the the world of which this world this inward exists so i have to explain this to my son with great anger so fast forward uh to i guess the next day i talked to um molly over at walt disney elementary and um to to my surprise she had a a learners a learner's heart uh she was a student in that moment um she didn't uh buckle under the pressure of white fragility uh she actually in fact she wanted to learn more of how she could help and she initiated a meeting between um me and uh the parent of the boy who uttered

192this word because not only did i grieve the end of the loss of innocence from my son but i also grieved the loss of innocence for the boy who uttered that word you know we're at a critical time in history where uh lines are being drawn and the visions are being made right sides of being chosen and hatred um is being acted upon um from heinous acts based on um falsehoods brought brought by um critical race theory falsehoods or uh replacement theory things of that nature so i have the meeting with the parent and we come to a resolution and you know all is well it ends well right but i just want to say that um the importance of stephanie mccoy for her to be still being stalled and for her to be renewed

193her contract to be renewed um i can't speak highly enough of that simply because she gives voices of voiceless and defense to the defenseless and anyone who is a part of a movement that needs a champion would know the importance of a person like stephanie mccoy and i'm just here tonight to testify on her behalf and i i'm here as a sort of a preemptive preemptive notion to have her extended if that's at all possible if you can find some way whether by magic or voodoo to dig into the budget to extend her contract i would appreciate that because it would be naive and almost idiotically think that this will be the last time that uh a word like the n word would be uttered in school grounds or perhaps to f word or whatever

194word you know spawns hatred would be spoken on our school grounds so that's all i have thank you for your time next speaker is linda bessen followed by polly stenberg good evening this past sunday i read a tweet by reverend dr jackie lewis she had a message for the world about what happened the day before she wrote 18 years old and writing about white genocide before he went out to massacre black folks buying groceries but tell me again how we don't need anti-racism education in our schools we are seeing a massive campaign funded by incomprehensible amount of money pushing hate and rage on young minds this is a war that we must fight daily against racism and violence and hate because the loss of even one soul in this war could result in mass murder

195this is a war over hearts and minds and right now all of you need to choose a side because this war must also be fought in our classrooms our kids are being bombarded with messaging on youtube in chat rooms on social media and so on but where do children spend the most time where do they receive the most instruction and where do we have the best chance to teach them that we are all the same at school so let's stop and think about the message we are sending by considering the removal of our district dei coordinator when kids are told by forces that we can't control that white is superior and white genocide is real and those who are not like you are to be feared and hated and killed do you really think the

196way to fight this to fight against all of this is to remove dei from our schools what are we telling white children and bipac children about what we value and who we value how can we fight this war when we tell them explicitly tell them that diversity equity and inclusion don't matter you need to choose a side when we choose to teach them books that don't expand their hearts and minds that don't reveal to them the experiences of others not their color and not like them we lose this war when we demand to teach a book that is over 60 years old and was written by a white woman and centers a white male savior and we say this is enough to teach the black experience in america we lose this war when we refuse

197to expand our curriculum to include modern and diverse voices that center and amplify the black voice the brown voice the gay voice the asian voice and a chorus of other voices when we silence those voices we lose this war why do you think the same destructive forces are now focused with a fierce hatred on our public schools because we are the main line of defense against them you may say but we want to be neutral we want to support everyone we don't want to take sides on this well even sweden after 200 years of neutrality has now realized you have to take a side so you need to choose a side let's talk about how certain teachers insist that it is just fine to make students read aloud from books that contain the n-word because

198i have a story that relates to that last week i went hiking in griffith park as i do a few times a week above the old zoo area someone had painted on a wall an obscenity and racial slur f n word i immediately contacted those i knew who could take action sure enough the words were painted over within hours but when a teacher forces children to read the n-word aloud in class it normalizes that word they have permission from an authority figure to say that word they and their peers can now say that word to each other and it builds and it builds and it becomes part of the vocabulary and it goes out into the world and then someone feels they are empowered enough to paint it on a hiking trail do not continue

199to give ammunition to the enemy do not normalize what should never be normal because it will escalate and there will be graffiti and it will show up in our schools in our neighborhoods at your door and all over burbank and then it won't be just words it will be our worst nightmare come true can anyone here today assure me guarantee to me and everyone here and everyone watching that not one of the students in our school system is being fed ideology that has the potential to cause them to do what was done in buffalo if the answer to that is no then you need to be concerned you need to fund dei and other anti-racism efforts and you need to support the staff who is trying for the first time in the history of this

200district to initiate these efforts you need to take action serious and consequential action you need to choose a side thank you thank you next speaker is polly stenberg followed by carmenita heliger good evening i'm polly stemberg my pronouns are she here saturday may 14 was one of the deadliest racist massacres in american history ten lives were stolen by an 18 year old white supremacist terrorist i am angry and i am heartbroken we need to say the names of the lives stolen aaron salter jr age 55 celestine chaney age 65 roberta a drury age 32 andre mcneil age 53 catherine massey age 72 margus morrison age 52 hayward patterson age 67 geraldine talley age 62 ruth whitfield age 86 pearl young age 77. these were 10 beautiful human lives with families partners children people who care

201for their community may we join in community and do the necessary work to end white supremacy all government entities federal state and city need a current plan staff list and budget assigned to confront white supremacy that includes this governing body and the governing body of the city of burbank for this governing body you must immediately take the necessary steps to renew the contract of our dei consultant stephanie mccoy next you must work with all stakeholders involved in the budget process before budget adoption to determine where to find the budget to provide ms mccoy the staff she needs the destiny education project has follow-up meetings scheduled next week with both senator portentino and assembly member laura friedman to receive support for this issue both of whom have thanked us for our efforts thus far statements are

202important and i am so grateful for the statement made tonight in favor of ending hate and discrimination of all types including for our lgbtq community who are incredibly vulnerable as well and the cross sections especially of race and gender identity are highly vulnerable but the statements and speaking is not enough lip service is not enough we need a steady stream of substantive budget explicitly dedicated to anti-racism and dei the destiny education project looks forward to supporting this work every step of the way including with the members of the bta executive board and bta at large members of csea and pta anyone who has clarity and is ready to provide leadership on this issue we have to work towards it thank you and our last speaker is carmonida helger good evening board members dr hill miss

203caseo as we can see tonight dei is important i have children who are part of the lgbtqia community but i can't support them because i'm always protecting them from racism i am furious and i'm exhausted i could not get my child out of bed to go to school this week after the shooting she does not feel safe in the past i have tried and came here and and i've tried asking educating you and pleading for the correct and safe education of my children and what has been the result our dei consultant has no guarantee of a contract renewal tonight i am drawing a line in the sand as deep and as read as the redlining scheme that created this racist chaotic city that was once a sundown town called burbank sunday congressman eric swalwell said

204you either choose chaos or you choose community i've come over and over again and what i have seen from our bta president diana basta she wants to militarize and have militarized police officers back in our schools to scare children into submission under the same white woman lie that they don't feel safe around black and brown children instead of hiring psychologists to help them i need for this board to push back on her divisive and chaotic causing words the same way you just did when pushing back on anti-lgbtqia rhetoric when given the chance to move anti-racism and dei forward how will you vote i cannot keep my children safe this world is on a mission to terrorize black and brown children and people as a whole if you don't stand up for my children now and

205vote to renew miss mccoy's contract to keep this district pushing towards dei i will spend my every waking hour removing all of you and you will feel as scared as my daughter is every day when she goes to school she's called a you will feel it i'm tired and i'm exhausted you will do it is necessary to make sure every child is safe in your schools you will push back on all of these teachers who are not there to provide a safe haven for all of our children and you would amplify the positions that have been there for our children and amplify those teachers who fight and make sure our children are safe there you have to choose between chaos and community this is the last time i'm going to say that thank you that

206was our last speaker superintendent comments thank you president tabit and thank you to the speakers i want to thank you all for your passion and testimony and your advocacy for the work on dei i know that we are all committed as a school district to continue looking at the work we're doing around diversity equity and inclusion i want to reassure you that we all are committed that this is an ongoing process as far as specifically on how we're investing in the budget in dei uh that's conversation we're going to be having over the next month we've been analyzing the survey data from parents students and staff and we're going to be coming back with a strategic plan on how we can continue this work and moving it forward now that's going to happen in parallel

207with the budget process since it came up a couple times we did allocate one-time funding this year for dei consultant to help guide us through this work that has just begun but the key outcome of that work is a strategic plan so that we know how we can prioritize what we're going to do moving forward and that's what that budget conversation will focus on there's a lot we need to do it's just starting but there's also going to be limited resources so we're going to have to make those decisions on how we allocate those resources going forward and we will be doing that in june thank you thank you colleagues who either one of you go right ahead if you're okay just going out of order i just wanna make sure they're okay let me

208go first okay um because a specific name was mentioned it becomes a personnel issue so i'm going to stay out of that but i do want to thank everybody for contributing uh and for saying for specifically stating you know what priorities you want to see funded in the budget i appreciate that um i i look forward to the conversation ahead but beyond that uh because we're tying it to one specific name it's a personnel issue and i'd prefer not to go there um i'll agree with my colleague i was going to reference the same thing that you know that is personnel issue and a budget issue that will be continuing um thank you all for sharing your thoughts especially mr morrison for testifying your experience um and i think we have shown that we are

209uh committed and i realize i i forgot who said the statements are one thing action's another um i'll reflect on the comment i made earlier regarding lgbtq while i've been an ally i you know i may have more to do i and we will always continue to look to to that um and you know and continue working on the dei plan we thank all of you for your participation in that um and you know we'll try and move that you know continue making progress on that i i think the the shooting that happened in buffalo affected all of us i i don't know how it couldn't affect you if you were paying any attention at all um and the fact that it was an 18 year old who did it and you and your yes

210you have to wonder you know what drove him to this ideology and we can only continue to try and make progress to make sure that doesn't happen uh in our district and keep working on that and and we will i have every confidence that everyone here expects to continue doing that so i do want to thank all of our speakers and you know when we started the i committee i told people this is going to take years but at the same time it's also going to take experts and people who understand and have done this before but also have been affected individually i'm getting tired of people just coming forward because they've read two books or articles and all of a sudden they're the experts i wouldn't and i'm someone who's been discriminated against consistently

211and i wouldn't even talk about some of these issues when it comes to remedying it because it's a long it's an issue that's that's that's going to take time and that's why we're still seeing you know what we're seeing and to me it's very common sense if someone is the expert we should continue to work with them i had did have the privilege of meeting miss mccoy for breakfast and really talking to her about who she is and her understanding of what my struggles have been assured me that experts like her are needed because i don't want my son to be where your son is and he's at that tender age too and i'm not going to be the person nor do i think that because this person has done a little bit of work

212and all of a sudden we have a guidance that's enough for us no this is something that we worked very hard we're not even getting started yet and i think we need the experts to be there and i'm gonna fight very hard to make sure that we keep this individual i think we need this person and then we need to continue or else we're just wasted a year of funding because this is not easy people look at this they look at surveys they look at data it's not that simple you have not been discriminated against because of your color ethnicity sexual orientation religion it's difficult and it takes more than just you know surveys and a little bit of studies to do address this concern i'm tired of people just coming and saying well you

213know we've started this and here it is and here's the solution it is not easy because as you can see what's happening in our country now we're kind of going backwards again and part of the reason is because experts were not allowed to come forward and address these concerns because at one point we just did a little study and everything is fine now it doesn't work that way so i hear what some of you are saying i think we need to have a bigger conversation and and there is funding out there for this there is funding and i hope that our assembly member and our own senator who's the chair of the appropriation we have 100 billion dollar surplus in our budget and this issue if you don't address this issue that means you don't

214care about our children thank you this is a very important issue and i think we can get funding for it if we fight hard for it thank you did you tonight you you did sorry i'm tired okay um well thank you for our speakers tonight for staying and giving us your your thoughts and opinions i do want to add to well let me find it you know it's interesting when i spoke about student athletes earlier a parent brought to my attention that there are many students who are going to move on after high school and play at the community college level and they're not included in signing day dr promo can we make sure going forward that those students i know they don't officially sign a letter of intent but that they can participate and

215be recognized as well so um let me make sure i get these these names right so uh heidi collins will be playing volleyball at santa barbara city college next year and her um i don't have liliana's last name was part of the uh the swim team from john burroughs and she'll be uh going to valley and participating in swim there so thank you to both those young ladies and i also know there's a there's um because i happen to know again the family um um beckon spends from burbank high who's going to pasadena city college to play football so same thing anyway thank you and uh we have some retiring folks that i need to announce their name uh sally ann cottrell is retiring pamela cohen christine tuteck dorothy margave and kim anderson and on

216the csea side we have michael dicaro nina menichikan indian i'm sorry for that i think i did the best i could seema nazeem thank you for your years of service and we wish you the best of luck uh in your retirement thank you so very much and i think that's all i have and so meeting is adjourned you