001Mhm. >> Mhm. >> Okay, thank you. Good evening and welcome to the 18 the April 16th, 2026 meeting of the Laguna Beach Unified School District Board of Education. Open session is called to order at 6:04. If you are a student and wish to speak on an item on the agenda, please write student at the top of your card, and that will put you at the front of the line for every topic as we go through the agenda. We will have a public comment on non-agenda items at the beginning of the session, and if we still have cards from there, we will carry those over to the end of the meeting. Okay, I just want to remind everyone this is a board meeting. As you would prefer in your classrooms, your boardrooms, your offices, we ask
002you to um uphold civil behavior. Please, no booing, no hissing. Make sure that we respect the speaker, and if you're speaking, please speak into the microphone so that we can capture all that. Okay? Thank you. Um Ivy, can you please lead us in the or Pledge of Allegiance or Logan, whichever prefers. >> Ready, begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Terrific, thank you. Okay, our report out of closed session is that we approved the insurance claim number that motion passed 5-0. Okay, now we're going to move on to item five, public comment on non-agenda items. I trust that we have some cards. Okay. I'll let you begin. And if
003you could call a couple names at a time so that we can move through the list. Please, if we could have a few things Just make sure the aisles are clear so people can get out up and move around safely, that would be terrific. Just make sure your personal items are tucked away, including make sure the aisles are clear, please. Okay, please continue. >> Okay, first um a student, Piper Halpern, and after Piper, Cat Brown, and then Don Honeycutt. For this group. >> My name is Piper Halpern, and I'm a senior at LBHS. I'm involved across campus from ASB to MUN in athletics, and I care deeply about the school and the people that are in it. I'm here on a Thursday night when I could be studying for my test tomorrow because I felt
004like I needed to use my voice and speak out about what's happening. We are taught throughout our education that our voices matter and that we should speak up, think critically, and stand up for what we believe in. Yet, time and time again, student and teacher voices are being blatantly ignored. There's a disconnect between what we are taught in the classroom and what we're experiencing first hand from the school board. The United States was built on the foundation of free speech. The idea that people have the right to speak openly, to question authority, and to advocate for change. That principle goes beyond what we read or study in class. It's something we should be able to practice. But, when students and teachers speak out, it feels like no one is truly listening. I'm an educated senior
005who has sat in on these meetings and seen first hand what goes on. I've watched teachers I respect and care about being dismissed and disrespected. These people who support us every day, who shape our education and our futures, deserve so much better. Recently, a social media account went after Fuel and board representatives, staff board representatives, claiming that students are being used as political pawns. That accusation alone should concern everyone. Students should never feel like they're being used or manipulated. We deserve to feel valued, heard, and respected. I personally sent information to our senior group chat about a rally in support of our staff and students. I'm not afraid to speak up for what I believe in because I'm informed and aware. The decisions made by the school board directly affect my experience here and will
006impact students for years to come. We have already felt disregarded in decisions like moving graduation to the Irvine Bowl. It sends a message that student input input is not being prioritized and that's not okay. I don't want to see more decisions and policies being made that harm the staff and students I care so much about. I don't want future students to feel the same frustration and lack of voice that we are feeling now. And also, I want to be clear. I'm looking forward to the day that I can vote in the upcoming elections that directly affect the school board, which is the next election. THANK YOU. >> WOO! WOO! >> I DON'T THINK I'M ON. OKAY. THANK YOU. I THINK I had requested no cheering, no booing, no hissing. I this is a board meeting,
007a business meeting, and we would like you to conduct yourselves accordingly, please. Thank you. >> Good evening. I'm looking forward to seeing the board resolution to extend the bond on the agenda soon. Please don't screw this up. And still no report out of closed on the employee discipline, dismissal, and release. I thought we decided that wasn't a a placeholder. >> Point of order. >> Yes, please. >> If the cheering and comments continue to disrupt the meeting, then you would need to warn those individuals, and if they continue that, then they need to be removed from the meeting. But, you've said it now twice. >> I have said it twice. >> And it needs to be followed by the public. >> Okay. So, is that clear? This would be the last warning, otherwise we're going to
008ask you to remove yourself. Okay. That's true. We do have a procedure that we've done in the past. If you'd like to If you want to clap instead of clapping or cheering, just do jazz hands. >> Can I do a jazz routine? >> Please. Yes. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Hang on. Um Miss Honeycutt, if you could please wait. Um so, I just want to make sure that's clear. So, we have issued two warnings. So, we will ask people to remove themselves. That would be respectful. Um I know all of you in here um have a passionate interest in teachers. You run business meetings. You run a classroom. I cannot imagine that you would want this to come into your classroom and and be continue on like this. So, I would like to ask that
009we collaborate here and work together. >> Okay. I can go. >> Please continue. >> My name is Mrs. Honeycutt and I'm a retired LBHS English teacher as of 2022. Ivy and Logan, you have been impressive to say the least and your growth over this past academic year has been astounding. Choosing your moments carefully, speaking intentionally when moved, and fighting for yourselves and your fellow students when necessary in a variety of capacities, I have worked with hundreds of students on the college essay, whether in the classroom or post-retirement as an arm of a private college counselor. I no longer charge for my services, but I have found more enjoyment in working with one or two students pro bono each year to number one, help students who deserve a break, and number two, to keep me in
010the game because I'm super competitive. About this time next year, you will be thinking about these essays and with supplementals, there will be many and I want to offer my help to you if and when you are ready. I did this work for a former board rep whom you know. See Mrs. Gregory for my email. Happy to meet with your parents. Everything is via Zoom since I am in Idaho. You have been of great service to this district, so it's the least I can do. As for the March today, something I flew out to be a part of, I can only say that it was a reminder of the district I retired from. One that was cohesive and focused on what is best for students who are the district, I might add. She's not even
011paying attention. Um everything we did was centered around their well-being, ensuring at every turn that we provided academic and extracurricular opportunities in abundance. So much growth happened during my tenure and I cannot even count the number of task forces I participated in or deep and meaningful conversations. Sometimes fierce debates happened based on the latest research, the pulse of a campus, a pressing need, or a central question. All I can say is is that when I was here the district was vibrant collectively steeped in a shared love and concern for the whole child at every level. Today as I marched it I was reminded of this era and I know that the community as well as the board minority wants to return to this kind of work desperately. I will say with conviction that work is
012not possible with this board majority not possible at all. The three of you do not listen and you are doubling down on your grievances and reckless behavior proving that you are not capable of having collegial discussions about student development. So maybe it's best you're steeped in bylaw and governance minutia. However, this community needs to rally in November so this district can get back to substantive conversations and meaningful measures that benefit students rather than personal agendas. And for my remaining time I want to say to Dr. Kelly and Dr. Malchesky, thank you for standing up for our teachers and students. It does not go unnoticed. I am grateful from afar for your work and for staying in the game when your voices are not being heard at all, but you are amazing and I am just
013so thankful on behalf of the staff and students. Thank you so much. >> Do you have more speakers? Is there somebody coming up? While we wait for that, I really encourage all of you to stay for the whole meeting. We have fabulous presentations today on our environmental program, our what the work that our arts committee is doing, which are deep and meaningful conversations and it's all about students and supporting our staff. So I really look forward to having you all join us at that time. >> How many minutes have we used up? 5.5 for the three speakers? Okay. Um next, Jeb Brown. Um Nola Berry Lila Liss, and Erin Berryman. >> Good evening. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. Tonight, when you were closed session, hundreds of teachers, uh parents, community
014members assembled in the district parking lot, walked down Park Avenue, and then met on Main Beach to support the teachers and administrators and protest the actions of Mr. Hills, Ms. Morgan, and Ms. Perry. I strongly encourage you to stop settling grievances by your seat on the dais and enhance education in Laguna Beach. Thank you. >> Thank you. Jazz hands. >> Hello. My name is Isla. >> My name is Isla and I'm third grade. >> Hi, my name is Nola and I'm in second grade. >> We love our teachers. THANK YOU. >> I MEAN, MIC DROP FOR LILA AND NORA. They are saying everything that we want to say. First of all, is it illegal to actually clap? Is there a bylaw that says we cannot clap and cannot bring food into the meetings because there's
015food here for y'all, but not for us back here, the more majority of the room. So, if it's illegal to actually clap, I'd love to see that. If you want to make a bylaw or create one that says fat, fine. Um Sherry, as a former middle school teacher, what I would I would have loved to have had this in the classroom as I was teaching as opposed to many of quiet, blank stare, crickets from middle school students. I would happily take clapping in the middle of my instruction because that's engagement, and those are people excited about what is being said and what is happening, and so it should just be welcomed. Um I want to double down on what Catta said. Please share your your questions or concerns at the last meeting about the bond.
016Um I'm concerned a little bit about it, but please um please just make sure it gets on the ballot. You can vote later, but just make sure it gets on the ballot. You're welcome to have those concerns, but let's get that on the ballot. And lastly, um again as a as a former alum, I cannot um state enough how incredible the LBUSD staff is, and um it was very evident by all the honks today down at Main Beach. Um even just standing with teachers, but particularly this staff. This staff is special and unique, and it's competitive to work here. And the current board majority, by your decisions and what you have done, as I said before, you are provoking incredible staff members to leave, retire early, and you are putting the health of the district
017in peril, and you are negatively impacting students like Layla and Nora, and it's not okay. Please, enough. You've had Sorry, I am spitting. You've had You have had well over a year to air your grievances and to talk about things in the past. I understand being informed by the past, but this is now the time to pivot in the direction towards the future. There's so many things that are different that didn't happen in the past. AI and everything that comes with it, you cannot be so nostalgic and grieve it and just airing grievances about the past. You're not doing anything to benefit students. So please go in a positive direction. We will all support you. We will do Don Honeycutt will come back and do a jazz routine and we will clap for you and
018bring you snacks if you start going in a positive direction. It's There's still time. I Why not? But, please be positive and support the staff because that means you're supporting the students. Thank you. THAT'S ALL. >> OKAY, THANK YOU VERY MUCH. >> OKAY. >> CAN I do a point of inquiry, please? >> I'm sorry? >> Can I do a point of inquiry, please? >> Okay. >> I I know we're not allowed to respond to the public comments. So, I just wanted to get clarification from my end as well. Is there a a bylaw that like is directly against cheering and clapping? >> Yes, there's a bylaw for um meeting be meeting um there's a state law and we have a board policy. I'd have to look it up and see which one it is, but
019there is under meetings it does say that there is no disruptive behavior. >> Yeah, I just was wondering if I'm not trying to be confrontational. I'm literally just curious. I Does cheering Is that specifically mentioned as something that is labeled as disruptive behavior? >> Again, please. The question you're asking uh Logan is is a good one. What the What the legal standard is is actual disruption. And if there's cheering and lengthy applause and it delays the meeting and the business that the board needs to do, then that is an actual disruption. That's why the um the suggestion of doing jazz hands is not disruptive. It's recognized when people raise their hands that that's support for whoever the speaker is, but the business of the board can continue. >> And whose determination is >> Please. Again.
020>> And um whose determination is it whether the cheering is to be considered disruptive or not? >> The board chair. >> Got it. >> The board president, who whoever's chairing the meeting. And that's exactly what the Brown Act says. I don't remember the exact section, but that's where you would find it. I'm happy to share it with you and the board. >> Okay. Thank >> Can I ask a question on that, please? >> Who said that? >> No. No, okay. All right, so moving on. Um, we're moving on to You said no? >> I did say no. >> No, okay. We're moving on to reports the bargaining units. Uh, our first up on our report Got to figure out how these work. Um, so today was an incredible and inspiring afternoon for our staff and
021students. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to the more than 400 people who came out to show their support for our schools. CSEA members from other chapters and leaders from our field office, thank you. CTA leaders, thank you. Orange County Labor Federation, thank you. We have not marched in 40 years, so it meant a lot for us to have you all there. A special thank you to our retired staff, those who flew in from out of state, drove in from across California, and those who took time out of their retirement to be with us. That speaks volumes. You understand how special this district is and what it truly is at stake. This has always been a magical place to work, and that is what we are fighting to protect. We are rallying to
022bring the focus back where it belongs, on the students we serve and the dedicated professionals who give their whole hearts to this work every single day. We are also calling for trust in our leadership. Let the superintendent you hired do his job. You are not the district. You are not the educators, and you are not the ones who understand what needs to be done. We you need to support the people here who were moving this district forward. Today was about unity, purpose, and standing up for what matters most. Our students. >> Um as you guys have heard me speak over the last uh few months, I was getting very burned out. I've lost a ton of joy for the job that I have. And I want to thank all of you that are here and
023the 400 people that were on the march at at the beach. You guys have brought my joy back. And I feel so incredible because of all of you. >> Point of order. Thank you. >> I I just the outpouring of support and love from the community, from the staff, from both unions, from the students that showed up, was absolutely unbelievable. I could not wipe the smile off my face when I was down at Main Beach with you, and I am so proud to stand with you, and I'm so proud to be the president of LBUFA, and I'm proud to teach the students that I have. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Okay. Um moving on to item B, our SRO Officer Danny Lopez, do you have a report today? We have a full agenda.
024>> I cheated this time. I actually preempted and said do my long walk, so Ladies and gentlemen, Danny Lopez, school resource officer, one of two. Uh first and foremost, we've been really busy, but I am really excited to share some amazing programs we've been working with. We've breathed new life into our explorer program. I've been uh shamelessly plugging that every time I come up here. We've had our second meeting, and we are already have made leaps and bounds. Some of our explorers from our high school have actually tracked me down on campus to say, "Officer Danny, I learned the phonetic alphabet." Oh, cool. Let me hear it. So, it's just showing the drive, the excitement, and the potential future for law enforcement, or at least the opportunity for these students to explore it. The next
025meeting's going to be on Tuesday, April 28th, if I'm not not miscorrected. But, the best thing about it though is that they're getting an inside look a peek behind the curtain of what it means to be a law enforcement officer, a police dispatcher, jailer, so on and so forth. So, we're very excited to see that going on. We also have about 13 other students who are interested in the program. Once the program's been established, we'll bring that next wave in. That way we can grow the explorer post all together. Coming up, we have our shop class partners coming in to our station to help redesign our investigative bureau. If you're not familiar, I also work as a police detective, kind of double in as a school resource officer, and work with juvenile cases. The bullpen,
026or the detective bureau as we call it, as we call it, is kind of stark. Not a lot on the walls. So, our students have volunteered to come visit our station, and spruce it up a little bit. Some of those kids are actually some of our explorers. So, it's going to be an amazing thing to see this mural on our wall for as long as we can keep it up there. Fun fact, some of our previous explorers became police detectives themselves. So, it's amazing to see that come full circle. Coming up, we'll also be attending the high school honors convocation, where Chief Calvert will be presenting the Gucci scholarship award for a student who is interested in pursuing an education and a career in law enforcement. And last but not least, our Teen Leadership Academy
027dates have finally been finalized for June 23rd to the 26th. So, we'll have just a few days to spend with our students exploring different career routes uh without spilling the beans and secrets. It's going to be an amazing opportunity. They get to do things that most adults don't get to see or do. So, very excited to see that happen, and I'll take any questions if you have any. Are there any questions from the board? Okay. Well, I know your summer program is fantastic. We've participated and we are grateful. So, thank you very much. >> Thanks so much. >> Okay, moving on to our executive Let's see. No, moving on, I'm sorry, to our principal report. Joe Vidal, is he's up this this uh meeting to report on Thurston. Thank you for Thank you for being
028here. >> Uh good evening, board, and thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight. Um as the principal of Thurston Middle School, I'm incredibly proud to share highlights around this year's goals, especially because they reflect years of collaboration and fine-tuning among a truly exceptional staff. One that is willing to openly share ideas, take creative risks to improve the culture of our campus. I feel fortunate to be in this role at Thurston and under district leadership that provides the trust, autonomy, and resources that allow us to innovate on behalf of our students. Something that I will never take for granted. Tonight, I'm especially proud to stand before you and share some profound metrics that reflect the systems that we've built as a school and alongside one another. Outcomes that have come from the heart and
029soul of extraordinary experts and highly qualified people we are accustomed to seeing here and around our district. But none of this happens in isolation. It takes a village. An alignment of resources to make this happen for every student every day. And the anchor of this work is our learner profile. It grounds our decisions, shapes our instruction, reminds adults what to model for our students, and directly influences our community-driven and formalized plans. In the early stages of our learner profile implementation, we took an inventory of all of our instructional practices on our campus, including student goal setting, peer-to-peer collaboration, and a variety of student projects. And it strengthened each of those skills. Then last year, as we do, we further helped students reflect on their learning experiences to help them identify the growth they've made in
030these particular areas. We piloted a beautiful idea called Celebrations of Our Learning, or as our students call it, COOL. And for those of you who've attended, you know exactly how special it truly is. Students spent time reflecting on their projects, on the skills they developed, and even on the relationships with meaning adults that they've had in their lives. You can immediately see how that moment was special for our students, our families, and our staff. And with that one creative idea, a tradition was born. This year, we are now implementing COOL presentations and portfolios for our entire eighth grade class, which is a beautiful capstone at Thurston and a stepping stone toward the high school. As we transition into our goals and look closely at goal one, we were reminded of the positive momentum we have
031in this particular area. As of now, over 80% of our students report participating in challenging learning environments. And similarly, high percentages report that their learning is relevant and meaningful, with a vast majority of our students, 85% or higher, also reporting having access to effective and timely academic support. May I remind you, these are middle schoolers, and it's cool to say things that are uncool. So, these results are truly extraordinary. So, when we look at this collectively, what it tells us is that our students are not only being challenged, they're engaged in what they're learning, and they're supported every step of the way. As we think about goal one at Thurston, it really comes to life through these areas. And at the center of all All it is our professional learning communities. Everything we do within
032our multi-tiered systems support is driven by a solid structure and guided by protocols that frame our thinking and our guide for our actions. Whether we're looking at academic achievement, social-emotional learning, behavioral supports, or even shifts in the instructional practice, those decisions are not made in isolation. They're made collectively through a variety of professional learning communities and great people. Our teams frequently come together using improvement science to identify problems of practice and take action based on student needs. And then through a design team and design thinking process, we work together to develop and test solutions. It requires lots of ongoing feedback loops with students, with staff, and families to continuously improve our collective work. You also see that the same mindset is reflected in our intervention systems. Our ELA math interventions are targeted, responsive, and built
033around student need. And then finally, our tutorial model has evolved into a flexible system both for support and enrichment to enable us to respond in real time. Here is a brief snapshot of our universal screening data for our ELA and math over the last 2 years. Starting with ELA, we're seeing some very encouraging trends. Last year we saw growth from 62% to 77% of students by the end of the year, which is a significant increase. This year we're starting in a very similar place and already seeing growth from 61% to 70%. So based on that trajectory, we're feeling confident in our ability to meet our end-of-the-year goal. Does that make sense? >> Hey Joe, can you hold on just a second? Um there's we're getting a lot of um Yeah. Wait just a minute. >>
034Thank you, thank you Jeff for waiting. Thank you. >> Okay. >> We're also seeing stability and and a gradual reduction on our tier three population, which is especially meaningful because it reflects the impact of our targeted supports for students who need it the most. In math, we're seeing a very similar pattern. Last year, we grew from 55% to 80%, and this year we're seeing strong movement from 54% to 64% thus far, which is a similar trend that we saw last year. Overall, this tells us that our systems, particularly our intervention model and our use of our instructional time, are very effective. And I do want to pause for a moment and connect this to our state assessment data. The I-Ready we saw last year gave us a very strong indication of how we would perform
035on CASP testing. And those outcomes not only placed us among the top performers in California, but also the highest in Orange County. And that is truly something we're celebrating. It's a reflection of the incredible work of our teachers, our numerous support staff, and the effort of our students every single day. Looking at the California dashboard, Thurston is performing in the blue category in both ELA and math, with students performing well above standard. So, when we look at this year's I-Ready trends, seeing similar starting points and growth patterns, it gives us confidence that we'll continue to see very strong state testing results. Something I'm excited to share a bit more when I talk a little bit about our recent California Distinguished School recognition. I also think it's really important to provide some context behind these remarkable
036numbers. Among our student population, we currently have 42 students with IEPs and an additional 45 students with 504 plans. So, in total, about 16% of our students require varying levels of additional support to meet these targets and goals. And while we're proud of the overall growth, we're also very mindful that these numbers represent real students with diverse needs. This slide highlights the highest level of support we provide for our general education students. At Thurston, this identification is very intentional. Our ELA teachers and intervention lead work collaboratively to analyze multiple data points, everything from classroom performance, grades to diagnostic and state assessment data. What they're really looking for are patterns over time. So, we're not just reacting to a particular moment, but responding to a student's overall learning trajectory. From there, students are recommended for targeted
037intervention. And whether that be an ELA booster and ELA Academy class, where we use evidence-based curriculum and instructional practices to accelerate their growth. And the results, as you can see, are very powerful. In just over a semester's amount of time, these students in these classes average over a year and a half of growth. And what's exciting is nearly half of these students in these cohorts exit altogether. Demonstrating that these supports are not only effective, but truly helping students get back on track and into the groove of their schooling. As we transition to math, what's encouraging to see is that we're seeing the same level of intentionality and the same strong outcomes. Our math team follows the same procedures when analyzing data, and the results are the same, significant growth over the course of the semester
038and a similar exit pattern for our students. And again, these results are something worthy of celebrating. Another great example of systems work it is our tutorial model. This has been one of the most exciting areas of growth as a school. Over the past few years this model has continued to evolve and addressed a historical question that we face in our previous schedule. How do we provide the supports that students need and the enrichment and balance that they deserve without taking away from core instructional time or the electives they love? Today our tutorial model is a structured highly responsive system that provides both academic support and enrichment throughout the school day. What you see here is a visual representation of all of the options that are available to us and our middle school students. On one
039side you'll see structured academic supports, things like targeted intervention, reteaching, and opportunities to make up work. This includes what we call directed studies, which provides students with a quiet structured environment to stay on top of their work, something that's especially valuable for our student athletes and students with busy schedules outside of school. A key tenant of our ongoing partnership with Challenge Success and Stanford University. We also offer more targeted supports such as our mandatorial classes, where students with D's and F's receive the time, structure, and direct guidance to get back on track during the school day, rather than having to attend after school programs like our homework club. And what is important about these is that they're timely. They happen before the challenges become long-term gaps. So at the same time, we're being very intentional
040about building the enrichment side of this model. Students have access to a wide range of opportunities from performing arts, clubs, leadership opportunities, to real-world learning experiences as you know as our career talks. We've also incorporated wellness activities, recognizing that supporting the whole child means creating a space for balance, connection, and well-being. And what I'm most proud about is this definitely didn't happen overnight. This model is a result of years of collaboration, reflection, and continuous improvement from staff constantly asking, "How can we meet the needs of our students?" And even now that work continues. We currently have an academic committee that has been working since the beginning of this year, creating multiple touch points for both staff and students, gathering feedback, conducting empathy interviews, and ensuring that voices are directly informing our next steps. So, when
041we look ahead, we're just not maintaining this model, we're continuing to refine it, test new ideas, and build on what's already working. And ultimately, this is how we ensure that every student gets what they need when they need it while balancing their extracurricular lifestyle. As we shift into our second LCAP goal, the focus is on fostering social-emotional competencies and helping students develop a strong sense of self. According to our LCAP data, 88% of students report having at least one trusted adult on campus, and around 85% indicate that social-emotional supports are available to them. So, what this tells us is that we've built a strong foundation of trust, connection, and support for our students. As we look at that LCAP goal at Thurston, these are the three areas that have the strongest impact on our school
042culture. And at the center of this work is our counseling team, who provide proactive supports like teaching self-regulation and relationship-building skills before challenges escalate. As you can see from the AI-generated pictures, our counselors truly embrace a middle school mindset. I want to recognize that these outstanding individuals, and I also want to thank the board for your continued support given our student to counselor ratio of 1 to 177. It allows us to give the kind of individualized support reflected in our outcomes. Our counseling program is built on a balance of direct and indirect services that are aligned to the ASCA National Model that we're working toward. Direct services include individual counseling, small group work, classroom lessons, and restorative practices. And indirect services happen behind the scenes through collaboration with staff, communication with families, and coordinating supports
043so that students are cared from every single angle. Currently, this work totals more than 6,300 contacts, demonstrating the access and support our students have on our campus. And we look at this information from a variety of student data, we see that impact reflected. A high percentage of students reporting having trusted adults on campus, feeling safe, and having access to social emotional supports. And this team is a big reason why. A major focus for our counselors has been the ongoing expansion of classroom lessons, covering foundational topics such as coping skills, grade level academic success strategies, empathy, which we need, and career exploration. We also incorporate mindful moments and restorative circles, focusing on self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, responsible decision-making. So again, we're not just responding to challenges, we're proactively teaching these skills. Other impactful work led by
044our counselors is our student success panels. These are restorative student-centered alternatives to traditional discipline where students meet with trained peers and staff to reflect on their actions, understand the impact, and develop a plan to repair harm in the community. What makes this powerful is that it builds accountability without removing students from the learning environment. And we've seen the impact of this clearly work in our data. Our suspensions have dropped over the last couple of years from 7.2% to 3.3% to now an all-time low of 1%. And while those numbers are important, what matters most is what's behind them. Students are learning how to reflect, take ownership, and make better decisions on behalf of their community. Ultimately, that's the goal, not just behavioral management, but student growth. One of the most important things to highlight here
045is that every student at Thurston has access to one-to-one counseling conferences each year. And it's really this consistency of support that drives the outcomes we're seeing. For example, our Panorama data shows that students reported supportive relationships at 90%, placing us in the top percentile nationally, with a small percentage of neutral responses. From our LCAP data, we see that over 91% of our students report that counseling services are available to support them, and 9% of those feel are feeling neutral neutral, meaning only 1% are unsure that counseling services at our site are available for their social emotional needs, which is incredible. About 87% of students report experiencing a positive learning environment, with another 9% feeling neutral about this. We also see that 84% of students that report that teachers care about them, with 11% feeling neutral.
046And 82% of students believing that school concerns like bullying are taken seriously, with 11% feeling neutral on that. Both strong indicators of trust and safety on our campus. So, when we connect all of this back to the work on this slide, what it tells us is that these touch points, these supports, and these amazing people matter. I'd now like to highlight another impactful support, our well space, and our special school social worker, Miranda. This space is really designed to support students in the moments they need it the most, whether that's proactively or responsively. And the Cove is being used consistently throughout the day and serves multiple purposes. For some students, it's a place to reset and regulate where they can return and get ready for class. For others, it's becomes a safe space, welcoming environment
047where they choose to spend time connecting with peers, participating in activities, or just taking a moment for themselves during breaks, lunches, or class time. Beyond the space itself, our school social worker plays a critical role in building up a comprehensive system of support from classroom lessons to high-level individualized support. As we shift into our third LCAP goal, ensuring safe, equitable, and inclusive schools, there are several areas that support this work. But one of our primary areas of focus at Thurston has been chronic absenteeism. This continues to be a challenge not just at our site, but also uh districts statewide. That said, I'm really proud of the work that of our attendance team, who have taken a very proactive and collaborative approach to addressing this. Through consistent monitoring, outreach, and support, we've steadily reduced our rate
048year after year. With a strong team-based approach, we're starting to see results like these. Real and measurable progress over time. In 2023-24, we reduced our rate from 11.2% to 7.2% and the year after, 6.6% the following year. And now sustaining at a 6.5 this far. So, what that's telling us is that just this isn't just a one-time improvement. It's becoming a consistent trend for all of us. Through consistent communication and several hundred touch points with families, we've remained proactive rather than reactive. And that's a big thank you out there to our attendance team. And now, if I may just have one last boast, I would like to close by acknowledging our collective effort and our recent award. At Thurston, we've been incredibly fortunate to recruit and retain highly qualified staff. And equally important, to place
049them in positions where they can have the greatest impact on students. When you combine that level of talent with the systems that we've built together, we're able to not only maintain high levels of performance, but also to continue to close achievement gaps of certain subgroups within. And that's exactly what this recognition represents. Being named a California Distinguished School and specifically an achievement gap closer closer is not something that we apply for, unlike our numerous Schools to Watch awards. The state continuously reviews school performance data across multiple measures and identifies schools based on those findings. So, this recognition is truly earned through monitored outcomes. The growth and the consistency of the work happening across our campus. But more than anything, this is not an individual accomplishment. This reflects our teachers, support staff, counselors, and families who
050support us each and every day. It speaks to the strength of this community, the partnerships that we've all built, and the shared commitment to supporting every student every day. And I couldn't be prouder to be a part of it. Thank you. >> Thank you. Excuse me. Thank you, Mr. Vidal. That was a great report. I love that cool program. It was the neatest thing I think I saw last year. I'm sorry that I missed it this year. >> It's still It's going to be happening. >> Oh, it hasn't happened. Oh, good. I would love for us all to know cuz it's I'd love for everyone to see it. It was fabulous. Um I want to move to questions. Does anyone have any questions or comments for Mr. Vidal? Ken? Howard? >> I just like to
051say that it's always a joy and a pleasure to come up to your campus, and what you do with us, keeping us informed, and participating in our work with us, and supporting us so that we can support you. It's really appreciated, and so thanks very much. >> Thank you, Howard. Dee? I really appreciate all of the support for our students that you have at Thurston. My question is, so if a student is in your EL program and getting extra help, and you have had great results, but the next year they need help again, are they allowed to go back into the program? Or if you exit, are you exited forever? >> That's a good question, Sharon. >> Yeah, if a student is proficient in two languages, at least two languages at that point, right? When
052they're exited from the program, we still monitor them for four more years. And state requires that. Um but we obviously do it as well and our team continues to meet with them. >> Thank you. Um I'm going to go over to our student board members. Uh Logan and Ivy, do either of you have questions or comments for Mr. Vidal? >> Um I have I have no questions. >> Ivy? No, just thank you for your wonderful presentation and it's nice to see you. >> Nice to see you, too. >> So, are we allowed to do comments also? You You just said for me to do questions. >> Well, it's board reports, so yeah. It's not It's There's no motion, so it's not questions and then a motion and then comments. So, if you have questions or
053comments, you can ask them at the same time. So, I'll come back to you guys. Okay. I'll go over back here to Joe and then I'll circle back to you all. >> So, as a board member, I have to say that um as always, like the numbers and the outcomes are just fantastic, particularly the California Distinguished School Award and I'm just very grateful for all of that. As a parent, many of the teachers are in the room, I just have to say how grateful I am every day when Eli leaves and goes to school and has a great day and all the things you're talking about are really meaningful and thank you and thank all of you who are in the room. So, I appreciate it. >> Thank you. Okay, I'll circle back over here.
054>> Thank you. Um I want to congratulate you on the California's Distinguished School Award, not you, but I mean all of the teachers, the faculty, the staff, the crew that have made this happen. Uh I think we're very, very proud of you. It's real cool is what I think. Um I also like that we're doing the capstone. I think that's such a great thing to do in eighth grade. Uh I don't know where I've been as far as my education was so limited. Um the the statistics are impressive. Uh the improvement shows the hard work that everyone's doing. I love the social emotional stuff that you're doing and that the school social work is being used very appropriately. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um Thank you, member Kelly. Member Hills. Did you have Did you
055have further comments? Okay, yeah, we're not going to keep going around. It's all at once. So, sorry about that. >> I just wanted to I didn't understand the question comment thing. So, just wanted to add uh uh elaborate a little bit by saying that um your work with us on the facilities committee, uh where we're trying to look at all the campuses, um uh has been it really instrumental to us and we um again, your your campus is the one that is in the best shape in many many respects. >> Thank you. >> And um and I also want to comment that I'm really glad tonight we're going to be getting a little bit later uh report on the arts ad hoc committee and just want to say that your school has an amazing legacy
056of theater arts and I hope that we can help rebuild, restore, and strengthen the theater arts at of your school because I happen to think that middle school students benefit in their health and their well-being and their emotional lives by being able to participate in drama and theater. It's a therapeutic thing for them and that's one of the things we're looking at, but we really appreciate the fact that both um fixing what's needs to be fixed on your in your facilities, which is manageable, um and then at these the other programs that you're supporting and and the and the faculty is supporting to enrich the program, we're going I think tonight when you hear the reports from the ad hoc committees, you'll know that we're really committed to that. >> Great, thank you. >> Thank
057you, Howard. Um Joe, thank you so much. Mr. Vidal, thank you so much. That was a wonderful report. I just had a couple real quick questions. Um, I I love the cool program. I thought it was one of the neatest things that I've seen, and I think it really empowered the students to really get in touch with not only themselves, but as you had identified, those that have made a difference in their life, and that helps teach them some gratitude and empathy, which I appreciate. So, thank you so much for that. I was curious about the homework club, cuz I appreciate that we have opportunities to do homework during tutorial. Is homework club still also offered after school? >> It is. Yes. Yes. >> And is that facilitated with Is there one teacher? What's the
058ratio? Is there a need for more, less, and what subjects do they focus on? >> Um, so, it's Monday through Thursday. It's an hour after school. We have a a late bus that also uh provides support for students who want to access it. Um, there's certain periods in the year where there's an influx in students that come in and utilize that space. Um, typically, we see an influx after I send out a communication about um, your students might might be doing so well in their classes, and therefore, here are the supports that we have available to them. And then we see this massive influx of students utilizing that space, maybe with some parental support. Um, we do have um, rotating teachers and classified staff that are made available in that particular space. Um, it rotates
059on, you know, the the subject area, but we also have some ed specialists that are in that are know a little bit about everything to be dangerous. Um, but for the most part, I think that uh we have enough staffing to support the needs that are the current trends and needs that we see um, happening in the homework club. So, thank you. >> Excellent. Thank you. I know, just as a point of reference, we used homework club as a spot just to get the homework done. So, once they got home, they didn't have to worry about it. And and then if they needed help with something, there was somebody there, and then we were that second level. So, it really helped keep them engaged with the teachers. So, I do appreciate that program. >> Yeah,
060the staff goes from providing direct tutoring or just kind of giving a gentle nudge so that people don't get distracted by their devices or gaming. >> So easy these days. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. >> Madam Chair, if if I might just um quickly um Joe, I just want to thank you. Building on what member Malchesky says said as a parent here, we have two kids that are in this school and we're incredibly grateful for you and the staff here and the education that they are receiving. I know that my kids are challenging cuz they have my DNA, but you all do a fantastic job with them. Um I always want to underscore uh some of our data. Uh and so if you could go back on your slides to the chronic
061absenteeism and this is um I'll sound like a broken record on this um in every presentation we do. We don't often benchmark or show where we compare to national averages. So people don't know how good it is. So you see here chronic absenteeism reduced to 7.2% and then and the next year down to 6.6 and then 6.5 so far. National numbers on this, the latest data is around 20%. So that tells you that you all are doing something really good about making kids want to come to school here. Which is um uh it that's inspiring as an educator that you've created an environment that kids really want to be. So thank you. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. >> Thank you so much. Okay. Thank you so much. We really appreciate your time. Uh that's
062a great update. I'm very happy. Um okay. So moving on to our executive cabinet reports. Um Mr. Coleman. >> Thank you, President Norman. Um so we held day three of negotiations with CSEA today and continue our collaborative approach as we hope to reach a mutually agreeable tentative agreement utilizing the interest-based bargaining process. Uh spring recruiting is in full swing. We're currently recruiting for our district athletic administrator, assistant principal at TMS, speech and language pathologist, and a TK uh, temporary teacher position. All those postings can be found on edjoin.org, and we encourage you to share those with with colleagues as we shared uh, Laguna Beach is an amazing place to work. We We value our staff. We look forward to adding a few a few more folks to the the LBUSD family, and we will be
063celebrating all of our retirees at a June recognition board meetings. We look forward to celebrating all of you at that time. So, that's all I have for tonight. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, Minos. >> Thank you. Good evening, board president, members of the board, superintendent, and members of the cabinet, and audience. So, the school district, we had our fourth meeting on the ad hoc committee facilities master planning committee. I think Mr. Hills board member Hills kind of shared a little bit about how we are bringing in the staff, the community members, uh, the board members, including um, some of the facility staff as to how we define the facilities master plan that will govern uh, what if the board wants to present a bond uh, in November 2026. So, that being said, uh, we
064will be wrapping out the facility master planning committee in about two more meetings, and we'll be able to present it to the board, the facility master plan. Thank you. >> Thank you. I Excuse me. Sorry. I apologize. I was remiss. Are there any questions for Mr. Coleman or um, Mr. Rudatower? >> I wanted to know about the bond that are we doing them parallel, or are we waiting for your report to be done after two more meetings? >> So, uh we want to finish the facility master plan to identify the needs of uh the districts before we want to have the board decide on the ballot measure on the bond. >> And what would the date be? >> So, uh the tentative presentation to the board is scheduled for the June 4th meeting. >> I
065think that's too late. >> We will bring in a consultant also. We are working on some of the folks that we will present a little more cohesive data on the bond as we go along in future. >> Member Kelly, um I I'll just add to what Mr. Roy Choudhury said. Um we want to be thoughtful in the creation of the updating of the facilities master plan. It's common that boards make decisions on ballot measures in the summer. I really appreciate that there's a lot of a lot of excitement about it. We had reason to be with the um bond feasibility report that we had last time, but we are right on right on track. >> Thank you. Thank you for your question. Thank you for the response. Are there any other um questions or comments
066for either um Mr. Conlon or Mr. Roy Choudhury? Did I say that right again? Roy Choudhury. Okay. Um Dr. Mayberry. >> Thank you. Uh yeah, this week we had our fourth annual uh LBUSD celebration of the arts. Uh as you know, uh it was just a wonderful event this evening earlier this week with 12 performances and pieces of art from kindergarteners through 12th grade. Uh we had a flow art show that that combined with that where students did oats to waste uh reduction, which included artwork uh as well as a presentation and industry expert panel uh at the end. Uh I want to thank the partners that were there. We had 12 of our our VAPA partners there and then we have over 30 different partnerships with uh different organizations for visual performing arts, but
06712 of them were able to make it uh and be there in the in the the courtyard, as well. Um and a special thank you to those who organized that. Uh our VAPA TOSAs, who spent part of their time doing this and really kind of stopped their teaching at this time. Uh Sarah Wolsey, Kim Stevens, Steve Wade, they just they've organized this this year, and it just was a really wonderful event. Um we also this week uh had three more students qualify for our state Seal of Civic Engagement. Uh we Some students are awarded this uh civic award, the state civic award, through projects they do within their classes. If they do it outside their classes, we have a small panel uh that reviews their presentations uh or work. Uh with three more this week,
068that's up to 81 students for the class of 2026 that will receive this award on their diploma. And then lastly, uh recently the high school was officially recognized as a Green School Award, uh which our coordinator of environmental literacy, Glo Hardwood, will mention again later this evening. That That state uh ceremony was down in National City. Uh they took a team down there to accept the award on behalf of the high school and the district. Uh uh Glo and I will be presenting at the National Science Teachers Association Conference this weekend around part of the work we're doing here in the district in this area. Uh and we're also excited that Alana Hartford and Steve Sogo are also presenting at this National Science Teachers Conference, as well. Uh that's going on today, tomorrow, and Saturday
069in Anaheim. So. Um good stuff going on. And if you didn't if you missed the Celebration of Arts, please know that there are all those performing arts groups are have their individual performances coming up in the next 6 to 8 weeks before the end of the school year. This week, we have a jazz concert. Next week is the concert the dance concert. And then a plethora of of music uh concerts and theater performances uh later in May. Thank you. >> Thank you so much for your report. I'll come in on the arts night when I um when it's my turn. Um are there any questions or comments for um, Dr. Dr. Mayberry or I guess it's just Dr. Mayberry at this point. Anyone? Yeah. Okay. Dr. Glass. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, since the
070last board meeting last week, uh, I've had a number of meetings within the district, also regionally, and attended a national conference in San Diego, as well as one right here in Laguna Beach that I'll talk about in just a minute. This past week included a number of meaningful moments across the district. Monday, I was at Top of the World to see their multicultural celebration springing into our roots, a student-centered event showcasing the range of cultures that are represented in our community. And they had a breads of the world table that offered a bounty of international carbohydrates, uh, that I resisted, I'm proud to tell you. Uh, the parents and volunteers there put on a great event, and the kids had a lot of fun, and they learned a lot. Uh, also Monday, we held our
071regular CSA round table as part of our ongoing relationship building with our classified staff, and I appreciate that time with them. Tuesday, I traveled to San Diego, John's hometown, uh, to participate as a panelist in the ASU GSB Summit, one of the nation's largest education innovation conferences, and I was presenting with uh, alongside district and national leaders on competency-based education, something that I'm very interested in, and uh, I think that there's promise for here in Laguna Beach. That evening, I returned to LBUSD to the celebration of the arts that Dr. Mayberry said, um, already mentioned, and I'll just say it was a terrific and well-attended event and that showed ca- that showcased the talent of our students and the hard work of our tremendous VAPA educators. Uh, yesterday, uh, the ad hoc arts committee held
072its fourth session, and we'll be presenting their revised recommendations later tonight, uh, along with those of the ad hoc transportation committee. I'll save my, uh, reports on them as we'll hear more about them later. And finally, I started the day at the School Research Nexus Conference, which takes place, I found out, right here in Laguna Beach. And so, it was wonderful to reconnect with educators that I know around the country when I discovered this conference comes here every year at the Surf & Sand Hotel. Uh looking ahead, I want to make sure that everyone has on their calendar the LBUSD Community Convening that is part of our LCAP process. And that will take place on Thursday, April 30th, from 4:00 to 5:30 at Laguna Beach High School. And it's a real opportunity to review the
073district's progress and share input that will help inform where we go from here. Everyone, your participation supports a collaborative process that reflects the priorities and perspectives of our school community, and I really encourage everyone interested to attend. So, again, that's Thursday, April 30th, from 4:00 to 5:30 at LBHS. Thank you, Madam Chair, and I'll turn things back to you. >> Thank you. Can you repeat that's a 4:00 to 5:30, correct? >> 4:00 to 5:30. >> Okay, sorry. I thought I heard 4:30. Will there be a second opportunity for later in the evening for those that work or are running kids around or anything like that? Although, I know there's been a lot of outreach to our parent community. >> uh Dr. Cannefax to come up and talk about that. Um Betsy, uh for all our
074thousands of listeners at home, you've got to speak through the microphone. >> We are providing child care for those who need it. We have an um a registration form, so it's really helpful for us for planning purposes if anyone who wishes to come fills out the registration form, which is on our website. And then, of course, we have a public hearing at the board meeting that is in May that as obviously starts at 6:00 p.m., so anybody who's not able to make it to that can come. We will have the draft posted online ahead of time. We will come, we will present all of the findings, all of the data again. And during the public hearing is really the opportunity for anybody, any members of the public to come and give meaningful input for the
075board to consider. >> Thank you. So, that May 6th we're we're hearing the first we're hearing the draft of it or are you seeking final approval that night? >> You will be hearing the draft and we will receive direction from the board following the closing of the public hearing so that you've had the opportunity to receive meaningful input from the public and then you will approve the final draft in June. >> That's the time and I thought, okay, thank you so much. I appreciate the information. So, child care is available. That's a great so that everybody can participate. Okay. Moving on to board member reports. We do have a full agenda so if we can keep our reports focused on our board as per board protocol the work that we've done as board members committees
076LBS do LBUS D events or meetings and we'll start with Logan and Ivy. >> Um so, in terms of I know this is already Sorry, I'm getting used to these new microphones. I know this has already been mentioned but the LBUSD celebration of the arts was on April 14th, 2026 where our amazing students got to show off the art that they've been working on. There was the community service fair on April 13th. And then I'd like to take the rest of this time just to talk about how proud I am of the students for all coming and expressing their opinions today. Um and expressing their love and support for all of our staff and our students and our teachers. I am so grateful to be able to represent all of the kind amazing smart students
077that we have in our community as a whole and I just I just couldn't be prouder of any of our students right now. So, thank you. >> Uh yeah, so Ivy covered everything that I was wanted to say about the district but one one of the things I wanted to share um was the reason for my absence of the last board meeting. Was um unfo- I I made a decision about this time about last this time last year to move in with um my grandparents. And recently my uh grandmother who had been in ongoing battle with metastatic breast cancer, uh she passed away on uh Saturday night. So, I that the night of the board meeting I was in the hospital all day with her, but she was able to pass peacefully and in the
078home and she was an English teacher of 20 years. She never actually did end up teaching our district. She taught at Woodbridge, but she was a community member since 1963 and a very valuable of member of the community who who loved art and she collected art uh locally from the Festival of Arts and just the local artists. So, I just wanted to take the the moment to commemorate her and she was a very valuable member of the community who loved education and loved Laguna. >> Logan, thank you. I know I speak on behalf of the board I I I I don't need to, but I'm sure um we all send our condolences and um being by her side is really special. Sorry. Okay, let's move on to D. Miss uh Clerk Perry. >> Okay, thank
079you. Um I had eye surgery, hence my lovely glasses. Um I attended the Lahaina event um for the safety of our students to get fire chips. And I I met at Thurston with Congressman Min. And he was giving out certificates to the students who did so well on their Constitution test and he actually asked them some questions about the amendments, which was fun. I was able to also attend the South Laguna Civic Association meeting with a number of with our city manager Dave Kiff and a couple of our council members to I was kind of talking to people about the bond. People, of course, have lots of different issues and it was all kind of brought together with one of our students, Rusty Hunter, who was the main speaker at the end. I think he's
08024 and he went through all our schools and he just talked about how wonderful his life was here in Laguna except for when he went to college and um between the schools and the beach and the neighborhood and it everybody just felt wonderful after hearing from him. I attended the celebration of the arts and I really enjoyed all everything. All of the middle school different using different mediums. The elementary schools have beautiful art. The high school was unbelievable. I I think it maybe had to do with the flow program, all the odes and I love the um ode to a makeup wipe. What what the handles felt. Um and the toothpaste one, I never I didn't don't really think about all the toothpaste tubes we throw away and I wonder maybe students can help me
081is how can we not do that? Is there a place we can take something to recycle and use over and over to get more toothpaste? I attended the Art Museum Educational Committee meeting and the Art Committee ad hoc meeting. Today I had lunch with um our supervisor Katrina Foley who did a fabulous is doing a lot of amazing things. I also have been looking into kind of unusual careers that our students might be interested in and I was invited with a friend to go with a woman who works with National Geographic. She's a community scientist and conservationist and she studies native bees. So, we went out to the desert and boy, opened my eyes and I love insects, but I had not studied these little bees before. Some of them get flower petals and put
082their little babies in the flower petals to keep them soft and safe before they put them in their in their holes. Most of these native bees have their nests in the ground. So, that was eye-opening of somebody who loves something and figured out a way to make a living and make it work in her life. Um That's it. I'll just >> Thank you, Dee. You are busy. Um um Dr. Mancheski. >> So, first of all, congratulations to everyone who participated in the Festival of Arts, one of my favorite events every year. And I want to congratulate and thank Arthur S. Social Studies teachers for um all their work preparing students to receive the Constitutional Scholar Award from Dave Min which was 53 of our eighth graders who scored a 98 or 100 um on the
083Constitutional Scholar exam, which is a real impressive accomplishment and a reflection of the strength of instruction in our classrooms. I also spent time um in the last few meet weeks meeting with a colleague who works with organizations that focus on school board governance um especially school board governance problems. I also met with an attorney who specializes in K-12 district governance and state education law and policy so I could better understand and respond to concerns that I'm hearing about current governance issues. Um as part of that work, I sent a letter to Dr. Glass and President Morna- Morgan outlining concerns related to open meeting laws, including how closed session items are agendized and reported out, and concerns about whether we're in full compliance with meeting the demands of the California Public Records Act. Um with all
084due respect to Mr. Pearl, who I know is a very capable attorney, I also followed up with the request that we get a an attorney who's disinterested and independent from the current board work to look at that those concerns. My goal is just to ensure that we are operating with clarity, transparency, and full compliance with laws that govern public institutions. Um over the past 2 weeks, I also met with many parents who had questions about um uh what's going on, particularly around these advertise- ments they were getting for this march today. I'm not in a position to speak for any employee groups, but I do encourage parents and community members to pay close attention to the staff listening session report, which has been posted on the district website um as part of the public records
085act request. Um some of the comments in report uh in the report, as I discussed with parents, and you know, I wasn't at the listening sessions, um was concerns by staff about fear of speaking openly uh and uh reprisals uh and uh and professional consequences, um concerns about psychological safety, um and governance and board conduct as a significant barrier to their their ability to work effectively, which is how I ended up contacting a colleague of mine who works on these issues. Um I also uh got a bunch of questions about why we agendized the class discussion class size discussion last week, um and spent 45 minutes on it. Some of the parents thought it was an effort to make a case that our teachers had easier jobs because they had lower class sizes. And I
086reassured them that we're all aware of the um educational research that demonstrates that teaching smaller classes isn't easier, it's different. Teachers in smaller classes have more time to focus on individual student needs, and that includes greater attention to social emotional issues and academic outcomes. And I'm really glad that we had that discussion and everyone in the district showed their support for that. Um I will continue to hold uh formal community listening sessions. Um the next one I'm thinking about will be on May 6th at 4:00, but if anyone uh is interested, you can email me at my board email address, and I can let you know um where we'll be meeting depending on whether there's uh you know, how much interest there is. That's it. >> Thank you, member Malchesky. Dr. Kelly. >> I went
087to numerous events, but I'm going to concentrate on uh something that two people talked about earlier. They are great police officer and Mrs. Linker. Um our honors convocation is coming up, and I consider it to be one of the nicest events that we hold uh here um it but be before uh graduation. Uh my spouse and I support two uh of two scholarships. Uh one is the LGBT Social Justice Award, and the other is the anti-semitism prevention scholarship. I've reviewed hundreds of applications uh this week or before, and uh we've come up with four students who who each receive a thousand dollars for each of these award categories. Uh we're also um lucky to tell you that the MC who will be presenting the eight awards is our own Carter McKenzie who's coming back from
088Columbia University to provide this great service to us. I know the board members will all be happy to this cuz he was such a great board member when he was here. I'm sorry that I will be missing the awards event because I'm transitioning back into the real world from my my time on the school board and so I'm going to go back start going back to work and so I have a lot of the country job to do and uh I think a lot of you know that at one time I oversaw MBA programs in Hong Kong, Singapore, Moscow, Beijing, Vienna and a CPA program in Tokyo and so I'm looking forward to getting back into travel and I'm doing other types of things and spending all my life on the Laguna Beach Unified School
089District. If you I want to just say something about the Laguna Beach Scholarship Fund. It's a private foundation. It's a non-profit. It's you know we have school power they're two different entities. The main goal of the scholarship foundation is to raise money for students by from various groups to give scholarships to graduating students. Last year we raised 457,000 and we gave we distributed to 245 awards to 91 recipients. That's graduating students. And uh the scholarships were sponsored by various groups in the county in the school district. The Ebell Club is was a group of women who started this uh wonderful event 47 years in in 1947. And we have participants from the police department give awards. The lifeguards give awards. New I the arts the the teachers give awards, the union gives awards, and it's
090just a really wonderful thing to go to. It's one of the most rewarding things I I think that we we we do for the kids going on to any type of post-secondary education. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Kelly. Member health? >> First of all, um, where's Logan? Where did he go? >> I believe he went to the restroom. >> Okay, well, I'll wait till he gets back. I want to talk comment on him. Uh, something he said. Um, well, I want to I also joined, um, the superintendent and, uh, my fellow board members for the presentation of the award by Congressman Men uh, up at Thurston uh, for what they achieved in the testing on the Constitution. And I had an opportunity to spend a little bit of time with the congressman because I
091worked for him uh, when I was uh, at the um, at the White House in 2022. Um, and I was seconded by the White House up to the House Natural Resources Committee where he's a member, and um, I worked with him and he was uh, one of the members who uh, voted with the committee there on the treaties we negotiated. So, it was good to see him again. And, um, he did a great job interacting with the students, and it was a it was a good event, and uh, uh, Dr. Melcheskey, I congratulate you and your son on uh, the reward that he uh, received for being one of the students, and cuz of my emphasis on civics in the schools, I was really really proud to see what the students accomplished. And, um, also
092had the had the honor of, um, presenting uh, through the superintendent uh, a book that I wrote with the former Attorney General of the United States, Dick Thornburg, and um, uh, presented it's a it was a it's a book about how each of the territories what is was admitted to the Union and the students seem to have a lot of interest in it and so that I donated to the library there. Logan now that you're back I just wanted to say to you thank you very much for sharing about your grandmother and telling us a little bit about her and I certainly want to offer my condolences and and my grandma was a Laguna grandma and was on the on the PTA at Laguna Beach High School in 1936. So I like to I think
093it's good that we honor our grandparents and I really want to honor your grandma and I'm glad she had you and I'm glad you had her. >> Sorry this kind of a non sequitur. I don't know if you remember this but my um grandfather actually talks about the time one of the times he met you and had a conversation with you and he he he's talked about how it has really helped him shape some of his his views about stuff in the district so >> Yeah. >> Um Yeah. >> Well I was I was a bit incorrigible but I also wanted to say that um uh you know we've had some discussion about the students on the board and one thing that I'm a little bit different about than maybe some of my colleagues on
094that issue is that I believe that the students have a right to have cell phones and I believe the students have a right to communicate on their cell phones with whoever they want anytime they want and it's part of the free speech that we all have and I don't think we should be monitoring others private communications. If there's a if there's a some kind of disruption problem or something but I also I agreed very strongly with President Morgan that the communications that went to her from I received communications from people in the community complaining about it and complaining about what theories they thought about it or whatever. I just said I believe students can do whatever can do whatever adults can do or anybody else can do. And um but I I was concerned about
095the fact that when people from the community came and talked to me and when um they came and talked to um the board president that that may have been communicated to you all in a way that wasn't accurate and/or that wasn't appropriate. So, um we got to find a balance in there, but I just wanted you to know I'm on the side of your civil rights and your your rights to have phones and communicate with anybody in the audience. Members of Congress sit there with their phones and communicate with people during congressional hearings. So, I think those are your rights. Um I also wanted to say that um I uh during this week um I attended a um I first of all, I went down to the American Legion and I stuffed Easter eggs for
096the Easter egg hunt at the high school on on Easter. And that was a lot of fun. I sat with Doug Miller who I used to live with back in when I was a high school student. Um and um I also um I also saw went and saw a documentary down at the Laguna Beach Cultural Center um that was very interesting. It was a movie about um the the clash between MAGA, anti-trans, anti-LBG um QT um parents at a high school in Chino um California and in Los Angeles and in Dana Point. It was a a film that's been done trying to um sort out what happened there in those situations where um there was a lot of use of cyber bullying and there was a lot of use of use of uh character assassination
097and um uh attacks on people for their beliefs and for who they were and and um it it illustrated what goes on in school board politics in the United States, but particularly in California. Again, Chino, Los Angeles, and Dana Point. And a lot of the tactics that were demonstrated were the MAGA, anti-trans, anti-LGBTQ the the tactics they used included um one of the one of the moms who was a a trans mother um said that among other things there was a cyber attack on her that accused her of being a pedophile. And um uh I sort of could relate pretty well to her concern. And a lot of the tactics that get used sometimes in these in the school board politics are the ugliest politics in America. Uh and um that's that I got that
098from a superintendent of uh another a nearby school district. And so, I just think the the the the film was excellent. Uh and I saw that um uh person I really admire a lot um uh Shaheen Sheikh Seddall was there, and um I thought it was good for us to see what goes wrong when there's cyberbullying and and attacks on people in the context of school board politics. So, I wanted to share that. And um I'm going to talk later cuz I'm out of time right now cuz I can tell Sherry is about to cut me off. Um but I want to talk a lot about what uh board member Melchalski said about psychological safety and about board council, but I think I'm going to save that for when we get later on here on
099the agenda. We're going to have an opportunity to talk about board council, and I've got a lot to say about that. >> Thank you, Howard. It's not a surprise to anyone in the room that there's a lot to be discussed for Howard. I have one council topics. >> I have one more point. Uh native bees, um be cautious of them. They build their nests in the ground. I had a sister that died this year from being multiple stung because she was cutting the grass and went over one of their hives. And so, I just encourage you to watch out for native bees who live in the ground that most people don't know about them. >> Thank you for that. And again, I'm extending my condolences to your family as well. That must have been um
100It's very unfortunate. I'm really sorry. Um Okay, I'm going to keep mine brief because there's a lot of overlap here. Um I also attended the Congressman Men's presentation honoring our middle school students. Um it was wonderful to watch him interacting with the students and to see the kids feeling so important because somebody took the time to recognize them. And I think that's um something we all can appreciate. Um I also attended the Line of Fire event at the Rivian. Um it was a such a great space. I love seeing events there. One of the biggest messages that I took away from that was preparation. And that it's important to be prepared to have a plan and to look within your neighborhood and your community on who you can rely on because while we have our
101first responders and they are there to respond, at the end of the day to it to our to the needs of those involved, but their bigger concern at that time is going to be the fire or the incident. And so, if you can prepare yourself and those around you and work together as a team so that it frees them up to address the emergency. Um that was the biggest takeaway that I took from that. Um I also attended the ad hoc facilities meeting where we're starting to discuss the priorities of each site. I'm delighted that we have site leaders in the conversation from each location. We've had I understand there's a student council student group at the high school that's also talking about it. Um and we've had the leaders and and staff from each
102of the sites that we're talking about participate and share their concerns or their needs or what their dreams are as far as prioritizing. And that was really that was really fun to go through. Um We um I attended the LBUSD Family Arts Night. That's one of my favorite nights. Not only as a parent to to see the kids my kids participating, but also to see all of the arts the art goodness, to see all of the art that the students produce. We have incredibly talented artists in our community and I was blown away at a lot of the things that I saw. Um there's also permanent art. If you don't If you haven't been to the high school recently, they did an installation that I attended. I think I mentioned it at the last meeting.
103There was um black and white sketches or full life-size huge portraits of several students that were done in 1984 and they used to be in the library, what is now the library at the high school that used to be the cafeteria. And they installed these images and when they went to remodel the cafeteria, they cut them out of the walls and preserved them and they are now encased in plexiglass on the wall at the high school in the hallways around the government classes um and across the back and the English is on the side but they're also across the back. It's really really cool and when they did the presentation, I think you remember I said they had the subjects of the art at the at the event. So, that was really cool. Um I
104also attended the fourth uh meeting of the arts committee and I'm super excited. I'm starting to see some people arrive. I'm very excited for us to share or for them to share uh the work that the committee's done. We've brought together some very well-respected community members. Um they were not handpicked, they had to apply. Uh Laguna Dance or no, this the transportation they applied. I think this one facilities. One of them they applied. I think the facilities they applied, the ad hoc we identified a lot of different um uh artists in our community. We have uh very well-respected community members from Laguna Dance, Third Street Writers, musicians, various art alliances in town all coming together to discuss the art programs in our communities. We have two teachers from the middle school, I think that were
105there. We've had staff come through. Um our art docents have been a part of it and we have students that have rotated as well to share their experiences and their perspectives on on the strengths, where they'd like to see improvements. So, it's going to be a great report. I'm really excited for you guys to hear it. Um I've also spoken to um Actually, I went to the Moms Group document. Let me switch here. I went to the moms' group documentary as well. I did find that fascinating also. Um the premise of the film was focused on LGBTQ rights and afterwards I I spoke to subjects of the film and the producer and we all agreed how fortunate our students are to live in our community that is so open and welcoming and embracing this. Um
106as PTA president it was one of in 2021 it is one of the things that we focused on with our breaker club of all the students coming together and discussing and exploring what their concerns were and looking for more support in that program in that community was something that they were asking for and we were able to respond, which was really which was really great. Um I did find it really interesting cuz what they did talk about I think to Howard's point of the film when after I got done speaking we got done speaking about how our students are we are so supportive of our students here. I said I just don't think that's the issue. I said I'm struggling. I said no actually really if you follow it it's more of a top-down political
107system it's not a right or a left. It's really the process and it's top-down and you really need to follow the money. So I thought that was kind of an interesting perspective to look at it. So as you start following things and start looking at what it's about maybe follow the money. I thought that was an interesting message to come out of the film. Um lastly I too have spoken to several staff, parents, spent a lot of time on the phone in the last couple weeks expressing their appreciation for our small class sizes asking how we are going to as we are over enrollment declines how we are going to be addressing that. I said that's you know not a conversation that we had but I'm hoping that conversation comes forward so that we can
108support our staff as we come up with new needs, new solutions to answer some of these forthcoming challenges. We talked about the bond their concern and their concerns with recent communications including the the cap and gowns. Several families received cards inside their gowns that talked about graduation being at Geyer Field so there was a lot of confusion and divisiveness yet again. So we talked through that. I I think everybody's settling down on that so that's good. They also expressed their concern which I find it really interesting cuz there was a lot of concern about speaking openly, and they had their concerns as well that their views were not being respected. They expressed their concerns also on recent posts on social media that were contradictory to the wonderful status of our schools and the work of
109this board. Um, lastly, I want to apologize for not making the celebration of Roots event. That was something I was really looking forward to, and I had some things come up for work that I had to take care of, and so I missed that, but I hear it was fabulous, and I look forward to attending it next year. And that's the end of my report. So, we're going to move on to, um, is there anything else by anyone? Otherwise, we're going to move on to the report on the environmental and sustainability education in Laguna in, uh, Laguna Beach at LBUSD. Uh, Dr. Mayberry. And glove. >> Thank you. Um, this, as you know, environmental and sustainability education is a part of the school district's in the city's fabric. Uh, LBUSD, uh, as mentioned earlier, has
110been recognized as one of the top green school districts in California. As has the city of Laguna. Um, city has been recognized for water conservation, improving tree care, and its climate action plans. So, tonight, uh, our coordinator of environmental literacy, Leisa Harwood, is going to provide an update on the district's actions within our three goal areas. >> Thank you so much, and I just want to wish everyone a happy Earth Month. It is a busy month, uh, in this realm of work, and we have a lot of great things to talk about, um, over our strategic plan, and I just want to thank the members of the board of always seeing the vision of this work. Dr. Glass, for your leadership, uh, Dr. Mayberry and Ryan Zeta, um, for really being the part thought partners
111in all of this work. Huge shout-out to our teachers connecting with students and our staff and our M&O team and our business team. There's just it's not a siloed, uh, effort. It is very collaborative. So, our vision and commitment with environmental literacy and sustainability goes back to our board resolution 2204, our Earth Day resolution. We're now in 3 years of doing this, and we've made so much growth. That Northern Star of how we design our environmental literacy connections that really catalyzes this work is through our learner profile. You won't see the term environment in the outcomes and in the experiences on the on the circle, the wave, but it's everywhere. You can find it in every learning experience. And then those measurable outcomes that we use are through the Green Ribbon strategic planning, which is
112through the California Department of Ed, which I'll talk about later in my presentation. But, to bring it back on how we select different environmental impacts within our district to focus on in the instructional lens is using CalEnviroScreen data. And this is a tool that a lot of cities, organizations use to identify those key issues that we need to problem solve with. And in Laguna, we have a 32% of a pollution burden. And what that is is it layers pollution burdens like hazardous waste, air quality, water quality, and then and other topics, but it layers it with population characteristics as well, education, income, things like that. And it's a great tool to use if you really want to know what's going on within your census tract. So, with that, we identify in our community we have
113issues in air quality with wildfire smoke and obviously wildfire risk. So, that is a learning connection, which we'll hear about in a moment. Our water and coastal impacts, whether that's water quality, our our watersheds, and our marine protected areas. And then also our infrastructure and waste systems. So, if we think about geological movement of our community and tourism with the impact of waste, which I'll get to in a moment. Uh Those are all different key factors. And our three goals, our action goals, are mirrored towards the green ribbon. The first goal is reducing environmental impacts and costs. The second goal is improving health and wellness of students and staff. And the third goal is providing effective environmental education. And with that, it's the all-encompassing meeting carbon neutrality and zero waste. And zero waste in our
114district means a 90% diversion from the landfill. And a fun fact, one of our landfills in Orange County is going to be closing soon. So, it's it's a a a topic of conversation with a lot of our haulers. And when we design, I always use the four C's when we design the work. We're connecting campus, those operational systems, and then curriculum to community and culture. And I always say community and culture is can you walk the walk, can you talk the the talk? And in Laguna, this is who we are. We are environmentally literate people in Laguna. This is why we're here. And there's so many different learning experiences tied back to that. So, touching upon goal one, I want to just start out with the student advocacy piece reducing environmental impacts and costs. And
115when we look at the lens of that, we really develop this based on a system. And the system, depending on who I'm talking to, if it's a group of elementary students or if it's a group of high school students, we look at the system as nature, economy, well-being, and society. How are those four components connected? If I'm working with elementary students, people, profit, planet, and play. How does that impact all of those different connections? I want to give a big shout out to our green teams. Our green teams are our leadership groups on every single campus. Those are led by our our advisors. El Morro, that's Nicole Stewart. TOW, Jackie Cohen. And at the high school, Moya Mitchell and Thurston, Emily Couch. And she partnered with Nicole King while she was on baby bonding. And
116this next week we have so many Earth Week events. EMS, they're doing trash trash kickball on Monday and they're speaking at a nation nationwide virtual conference with I think I don't quote me, I think there's like 20 25 schools that are speaking at this national conference. And and it's called Green Spark and they're going to be speaking on their October clothing costume drive to reduce the impacts of costume waste that are typically a one-time used item. At TOW, we have our Earth Night on Wednesday. That's sponsored or not sponsored, that's led by our amazing garden coordinators. That's from 5:00 to 7:00. And we're going to have an astronomer, Dr. Gray, who's going to bring his telescopes, which will be super cool. And we're going to have some climate-focused potlucks. And at Thurston, we have Earth
117Day spirit week. There's going to be ASB quad event and we're going to do some or they're also going to do Green Spark where they're going to be presenting on that national level. They're going to be presenting on their work last year on energy is everything. And then at the high school, they are busy with their Sustain SoCal work. And so I will touch on that later in the presentation, but they'll also be presenting at Green Spark next Friday and they're going to be speaking on their work with Sustain SoCal. Another highlight that we focus on for goal one is our waste audits. This year we jazzed it up by adding a GIS component. And GIS stands for a geographic information systems. It's a data-driven visualization tool where students can collect data and it places
118it on a map. And so what this did for our waste audits is we were seeing what zones of the campuses had more waste than others. And at El Moro, we were noticing, "Oh, those kindergarten classrooms had more waste. We need to go in and teach those kindergarteners how to separate the waste." And so the green team went in and helped the kindergarteners. And it's such a cool learning experience. For goal two, this is focused on uh improving health and wellness of students and staff. One key partnership that we had this year was the Green Amer- Green Schoolyards America, which is a national uh organization, but they also have a California um focused group. And we were part of a group of, I think, eight districts. Um Long Beach Unified, which we always get mistaken
119for Long Beach, um Palos Verdes, Hacienda La Puente, and many more. And this is to really uh revision or not set a vision of how our schoolyards can be a laboratory of learning and increasing shade and having more nature-based uh play systems. So it's been a really cool think tank to collaborate with some really awesome partners um and explore our data points within our district. We also have our garden literacy, which is um expanding throughout the district. Uh at the elementary level, we have our six lessons with Roots and Wings, and we added a harvest of the month um where we had, I think, 14 teachers at each site or seven-ish teachers at each site participate in that. And then um we also added a Junior Master Gardeners program at all um at all elementary
120and middle school. And we've been having garden literacy lessons at Thurston as well. We also been embedding nature stations. These uh are organized by our social workers. And all of our social workers have been designing these spaces that are student-centered. So they grab a group of students, then they hand-select these students, and they look at what are we going to use this space for? How can we get those student connections outside and collaborating? And there's some really cool ideas. Um, we are in the final stages at the high school with Mrs. Humphreys, and they want to add a pergola with uh more seating, so it's great work. And then um our field experiences have it been expanding with the ecology center and food connections and nutrition. Our green teams have been meeting with Mrs. McCabe
121um and we created a young chefs club at Thorson that went to the ecology center. And also we have our sixth grade camp that will be happening uh in October, which we're already planning for that and collecting uh all the fifth grade permission slips for that. Now, this is the meat and potatoes of environmental literacy, and that's goal three, providing effective environmental education to all students. Um, how we really connect with teachers is looking at our um current systems and student or teachers really thrive with lunch and learns. And so we do green gatherings where I buy the teachers lunch and we talk about some different strategies. And this year I met with over 85 teachers and we had 16 across the district. Um, some of those topics were about GIS, civic voices in action,
122systems thinking and for a sustainable future, green time versus screen time, and then looking at revisiting and refreshing our um current uh climate literacy standards in the state. Speaking of climate literacy standards, we have AB 285 which was adopted and um in place in 2023. And what that did is amended a a previous ed code that requires climate change education in the classroom. We are already doing this. We were doing this before the bill was passed. Um, this is just really highlighted in our NGSS standards, our history standards, but what it does is it gives us a vision of how we can connect with our PLC groups to um really focus on those four components of climate change, uh cause and effect, and adaptation mitigation. We also have our unit design um added within our
123sustainability or within our um uh our structure of unit design, we added a sustainability component. And it's been really successful. A lot of teachers have been designing uh their units with that environmental literacy or sustainability focus. And then I'm going to touch on civics in just a moment when we talk about the high school. So, I really want to give a shout-out to our high school for having the first year of the Green Ribbon application. In that first year, they scored an astounding 85% and I know if you're a student, you're like, "That's a B. It's not an A." An 85% is major. So, this application is probably one of the most comprehensive applications that the state offers. The reason why it's so comprehensive is it covers not just the learning experiences in at the
124school or the district, it also covers um uh facilities and mental and physical health. So, it's a lot of information to compile in 45 pages and it took a lot of work to do that. Um we went to National City last week to accept the award and that's a snapshot of the application sections that you could see there. So, some highlights for goal one for the high school. Focus around energy, water, grounds, waste, alternative transportation. Again, I want to shout out our M&O team. But, I'm going to focus on our student leadership group uh that has led the auditing of all of those different modules uh with Sustain SoCal. So, Sustain SoCal is a organization in Orange County that is a think tank for sustainability initiatives for private organizations and public organizations and they have
125an uh a non-profit attached to that and they created this challenge where different high schools can compete across the county. And last year we competed at Epson and unfortunately we were we came in second to Brea Olinda High School, but the students have to go into our utility data, our bills, and they have to look at what's going on with energy, health, waste, water, transportation. I think I hit all of them, students. And it's a really It's very detailed and so they're like hard at work when when they meet in tutorial, they're on their computers plugging away. I also want to shout out our LSU trash study. We did a GIS trash study at the Pocket Beaches and Main Beach and we're working with Dr. Brand at LSU and that data is actually being presented
126in Vienna, Austria Vienna, Austria? Yeah. In May and it is all student work. It's them just going to the beach and collecting that data and the his team is analyzing all that work. We also have the California climate policy team that the applications are open right now. We had a couple students last cohort participate and it's probably one of the most competitive climate groups in California. Goal two at the high school, we have a lot of great work happening with our garden which I I'm going to have a student come up and share her civic seal in just a moment. We established a garden and it was all student-led. She wrote the grant. It was amazing and I just want to shout out School Power for helping us find a lot of our garden literacy
127initiatives and also the Laguna Beach Garden Club. It's just a sustained group of support and I'm just so happy that we can have that that help with our outdoor spaces. We had our student support collective speak at the Rivian on on mental health and the connection to environmental empathy. And then we also have our uh nature therapy stations that we're designing. We also partnered with Laguna Canyon Foundation for hikes and uh in PE and other student groups. So, now I'm going to talk about goal three. And I'm really going to focus on interdisciplinary learning and civic engagement student advocacy. So, I want to highlight the work of Sarah Sarah Benson and Shelly Jewell Bryan and um and talk about FLOW. FLOW stands for fire, land, ocean, water. It's a cross-curricular program at the high school
128that's unlike any other. Uh a lot of high schools come to us and say, "How can we implement this in our program?" Like, well, it's very Laguna specific and we work with a lot of key partnerships and the projects are designed with teachers in mind and the FLOW team and they look at how can we get the students engaged in our community and partnerships and with um uh different organizations. And so, the freshmen they create fire tote bags. Um those are just distributed to the community. I brought some for you so that you can get grab them as you leave today. The sophomores did the Ode to Waste at the Celebration of Arts. The juniors have their ocean film showcase uh at the Rivian. And then this year we had the FLOW talk at our
129high school and it was probably one of the best FLOW talks. Uh they get to choose a civic action uh project to speak on and we had I think 12 different partners there um listening to their presentations. And then the last bit that I'm going to share is our California State Seal of Civic Engagement. This is something that we started at the high school last year um as a pilot. We had 37 seniors graduate with this on their high school diploma. It's one of two seals currently offered on the high school diploma. So, it holds a lot of weight for our students because it looks great for college applications and also just shows what you're doing for your community, what good you're bringing back to the community. And um it's recognized by the California Department
130of Education. We just wrapped our last bit of panels and essays for um student applications, but there's two ways that students can apply for the state seal. So, when they graduate, they'll have the seal affixed on their diploma. They also earn a medallion, and either they earn it through pathway A, which is embedded instruction. That means that those PLC teams have coordinated with our instructional team to see how we can create this project into a civics-based project. And some examples of that would be the top flow showcases, AER. We just added AP Human Geo's theme park project, and we also have APUSH. They're doing a project at the end of the year that has a civic connection to it. But, I'm also going to just going to pass it along to our students to share
131how they earn the civic seal, and that will wrap up my presentation. >> Hi, everyone. I'm so thankful to be able to speak and present to all of you today. So, thank you so much for having me. My name is Zoe Bartels, and I'm a junior, and I'm really proud to say that I've earned the state seal of civic engagement through my work in spearheading the creation of the Break and Bloom Garden at Laguna Beach High School, and also in my role in participating in the Sustain SoCal Sustainability Campus Challenge with the LBHS Green Team. >> Hi, my name is Hadley Mallow, and I'm a sophomore at Laguna Beach High School. I earned my state seal of civic engagement during my freshman year through our school-wide flow project that Miss Harwood just touched on. And
132for freshman, our particular environmental category study was fire, and we were given the task of drafting a fire safety press release made to inform our local community on ways to be better protected from the threat of wildfires. My press release was picked to be published in our local city newspaper, Stu News, and and I was granted the state seal of civic engagement. >> Hi, my name is Marlo Johnson. I'm a current sophomore, and I'm also proud to have been honored uh, by the state seal of civic Engagement officially on Tuesday during the celebration of the arts ode to waste poem recitation. Beyond that, my participation in the green team Sustain SoCal Audit Challenge, my efforts in congressional climate lobbying in DC through the nonprofit organization Citizens Climate Lobby, my reflection of it in my Laguna
133Beach Independent articles, and the planning of an upcoming greed green day CCL uh, walk. I encourage everyone's participation, too, would also all earn me the credit of the seal and acknowledge my progress in becoming a more active member in my community, something I'm always striving to become. >> They inspire me so much because I wish I had this in high school, and I'm just so proud of them cuz they've been working so hard. Um, and I wanted to also recognize I think I mentioned that there is the pathway B, so if students don't have the opportunity to earn the seal in one of those uh, pathway A courses, then they can apply on their own, but there that's the juniors and seniors, and there's two rounds of applications. There's one in the fall in September,
134and then we just uh, finished uh, the second round. The deadline was April 10th. Um, it's been a great progress, so we went from 37 seals last year, and this year we have 81, and it's projected to go even higher because there are so many awesome projects on our campus that students can get engaged in, and it really empowers them to be change makers. So, I thank you for your support in all of it. And with that, I'm going to end for questions. Any feedback? >> Thank you. That was a great report. It's such a great program. I know there's we've eyed it from the arts community. That will be come up later. Um, opening up for questions. Uh, que- Yep. Uh, member Perry. >> Okay. Uh, >> Yes, fabulous. I can't believe how much
135you do glow. From K to 12, all the projects, it's so impressive and the curricular ties. Um this might have been before you were here, but just last Friday, I was at a talk by Ed Altman Alt Monza about uh Aliso Creek and he showed a film that was made by a former art teacher. They're still showing it to about cleaning up the water coming into the ocean from the creek, so the ocean is cleaner, everything is better. So, a lot of the work that your students are doing, it goes on. I mean, it goes on for years. Groups are using them. I just uh I was um really excited about the students that came before about the trees on the campuses and I just wondered how that project was going. >> So, that was
136with the California Youth Climate Policy Group um and Hadley was one of our students um and they wrote a draft resolution to increase tree canopy. So, when we're whenever we're ready to increase the tree we're ready to go. So, we >> You're ready, what do we have to get ready for you? >> Well, there would need to be um funding and support for increasing trees um and I would love to get feedback from not just our staff members, but also students um cuz it would be a collaborative effort, but we have those systems ready to go. The Green Schoolyards um organization really helped us with that as well. Um and yeah, it's just exciting work. And thank you again for sharing about the connection with art and climate because storytelling is probably one of the
137most important tools for climate advocacy. >> Thank you. I'm going to jump over to the student board members. >> I have no questions. >> Thank you. Remember Montesquieu, Dr. Montesquieu? >> That was fantastic. You're just doing so much. I'm always blown away by all by all the programs. Um, I have a question for parents who are now having their kids enter high school, which is a process I've just gone through. And this is all so integrated into the high school curriculum, but it's not really visible, right? When you look at picking classes, for example. So, how is it that students get involved in the flow program? And how do you um kind of integrate this into Is it just part of integrated sciences or >> That's a great question. So, our flow the the key
138flow projects that I referenced in my presentation, those are all in our English classes. So, every single student on our campus during the month of January does these one of these projects. Yeah, and so they all have an opportunity. We also have other classes that do flow projects, but it really is the cornerstone of our ELA program for those big projects. Um, but as far as the climate change connections, that's just within our all of our scopes of all different classes. And with AB 285, like I mentioned before, you really see those highlighted in state testing. You'll see questions that are, you know, those real world authentic questions that are geared towards looking at data literacy. Try and pick apart a graph that shows climate change or sea level rise, whatever that might be. So,
139it's highlighted there. It's highlighted in our state standards. So, it's it's everywhere. It's just we always show it as real world learning. And Yeah. >> Yeah, that's great. >> just I can also add the other other way is through our student clubs. Our high school has over 100 student clubs and and there's always something that kids can find that connects to their interests. And what a lot of the clubs do for the state seal civic engagement are really starting to do more of is they're finding that project or that impact beyond the school and that kids that are doing that where they're going out to an authentic audience outside the school, like they would earn they would more than likely earn the state seal civic engagement. And so it's another way it may it may
140be around climate science, but it could be around totally different non-environmental issue, too. >> Right. Um thank you and thanks that was helpful. Um the the part of my interest is that when I go to see the flow presentations which are fantastic and I'm not just focusing on that, but even um a lot of these other programs, they're very interdisciplinary, which is often hard to achieve, right? Because of the way schools function. So, is that something that you try to coordinate or is this something that just kind of is generative and happens or do teachers actually work together across the curriculum? >> I think that goes back to that one slide I have. Let's see if I can find it. Oh, there it is. That community and culture piece. That's just we we we love
141to plan together. We we design together and speaking on the high school, they are constantly having those conversations. So, it's just part of who we are in the district. >> Thank you. >> Dr. Kelly. >> I want to thank you for getting involved with Dr. Matthew Brown brand at Louisiana State. I did the contact for you and I picked up the garbage on pollution on Woods Cove all summer and so it was really exciting. I was wondering the device that you're using on Main Beach, if you could to about that and maybe if you have any any research back on what what the students found. >> I'm looking at Dr. Mayberry cuz he you can cut me off whenever cuz I love GIS and I can talk about maps all day long. So, GIS is
142geographic information system. So, the tool that they're using specifically is through the software S3 and S3 is a actually a very just comprehensive tool that like one license costs $5,000 but for K through 12 institutions it's free. And so, we're really lucky to have this tech tool at our hands. And so, one of the applications in S3 is called Survey 123. And you're making similar to a Google Form and there is a component where you can add like a geo map where if you take an observation it'll automatically geo tag exactly where you are. And so, if you look at a piece of trash you you know, you embed your questions into your survey and the the survey takes maybe 10 seconds for the students to complete and then it auto refreshes and then it
143tags where that piece of trash was. But we always want to pick up the trash when we're done tagging it. >> Thank you, Dr. Thank you, Dr. Kelly. Uh member Hills. >> Yeah, I just um Am I on? Um I just wanted to tell I'd like to mention to your students I'd like to congratulate you all including for your certificates for citizenship or for civics. And I I think I've read some of your articles in the newspaper. Um I uh prefer your articles over a lot of the other articles I see in the newspaper. And uh I think you do great work and I I wanted to say to you um that I I really appreciate the fact that in addition to the science and the uh you know, the environmental uh at you know,
144tasks that you take on uh that you have a civic engagement um component of what you're doing that uh is very important uh for in terms of the where the students are going to take this when they go forward into the world. And I I just wanted to say just as member Kelly has done a great job down at Wood's Cove and involved students in in dealing with the the the trash that is down on the beach down there. Um uh I I like to mention the fact that and maybe I could just suggest this to you that part of the civic engagement would be to work with the city and get some students involved in addressing particularly the the issue of flooding downtown. Something that I've been talking about for a long time and
145so I'm going to just take a few seconds more to say you know, um it would be interesting to research what is a 25-year flood going to do? What's a 50-year flood? We're overdue by that several decades for a 100-year flood. Um and there's a lot of talk about climate change. And so I think it would be very relevant to like focus on what are we looking at if there's a serious 25, 50, 100-year flood because um every time there is a flood, even if it's a 5-year flood or a 10-year flood the amount of chemicals and toxins that get put out into the um into the bay. Um every time that happens, we see the tractors scooping up the mud and stuff, but what's already out there is killing wildlife and it sort of
146it sort of defeats all the work that we do on beach cleanups and everything if we don't get this under control. So I I'll I won't ramble on any more than I already have, but I I would just really suggest that maybe that's an area of civic engagement where you work with the city staff and look at the studies they've done on what it would take and we could have solved the problem back in uh two, but we waved off a uh Army Corps of Engineers uh project and so we need to re-engage on that and I think it would be great if students got involved in just addressing that issue. >> Yeah, that's great. We have two students on the uh City Council's Sustainability Committee. Um one was actually going to uh present that
147as well, but she had a um a family uh engagement she needed to go to, but yeah, that definitely and part of sustaining SoCal we we did some drain auditing, right? On GIS. That wasn't your guys' group, but we took some photos of our drains on campus, so it was fun. >> Well, again, I commend you for the civic engagement part of your program. I think it's really it's a really strength of your curriculum. >> Thank you, Member Hills. Um I thought it was an awesome presentation. I'd love to hear that the garden programs are are continuing and to grow and are connected cuz I know for a long time we had great gardens at the at the elementary school, but we weren't connecting those dots. So, I love seeing that these dots are connected
148and how robust the program is, so thank you for that. I have a The only I mean, everybody asked great questions, so they answered a lot of my questions and um thank you for the handout cuz I think I was missing a couple pieces in my binder. So, I appreciate the full picture. Um is the When you're mapping trash and stuff on campus, is that the same That's the GIS program that you're talking about that goes out into the city as well? So, is that are you Then is that data are they using that not only of where and how to solve that problem, but also is it being used for other disciplines like math and um are they writing anything on it? I'm just I'm cuz I'm all of this cross platform, which every
149I know we do so well and we've had a lot of presentations on I'm just curious as to how it all if it all integrates and do they pick a topic or is it >> Yeah. Yeah, so um the waste audit specifically, um those are in the hands of our green team leads. We have access to it, but they use it with their team to strategically plan, but we can definitely share it out with teachers. It's such a great learning component. We had students in AER use the survey in as well. We had a couple students add that into their data and it's something that we introduced earlier in the year. So, we have a lot of growth and a lot of practice. We need a lot of practice with it because it is a
150very robust tool. But it's a very exciting tool. >> It's also part of what we will integrate into our unit design, our signature professional development for teachers. So, when teachers are designing their different units, so we come across a new tool that we feel like we can access, we integrate it into that training. Which is why that PD none of this is never the same. If someone repeats it, we're always adding new tools to help make the learning experiences more engaging and more authentic. >> That's wonderful. Thank you. I know like I said we that we've we're excited to look as we move forward with a couple of these other things that we're working on for our staff and students on modeling some of the things that you've done. So, it's wonderful. So, thank you.
151Are there any other questions or comments? If not, we'll move on. Oh, public comment. Sorry, my my apologies. >> Just very quickly. I just want to say to Glow and the students and to you Glow, you're the the passion that you bring to this is what makes it special, what makes it magic. You're a delight to work with and the energy that you bring into it really carries us forward. And students always you all are super impressive. Thank you. >> Thank you. If we have no more questions from the board, we'll move to public comment. >> Yes. Kelly Osborne, please. >> All righty, good evening members of the board. I'm here to speak in support of environmental literacy, no surprise there. But in particular, I want to highlight board resolution 22-04, which Ms. Harwood referenced.
152Uh this resolution was adopted by the district and set a clear and ambitious goal achieving carbon neutrality by 2030. That resolution wasn't just symbolic. It established a direction and gave us an 8-year runway. Following that resolution, the district invested in a comprehensive energy master plan that gave us the technical roadmap to carbon neutrality. By investing in energy efficient upgrades, we can significantly reduce energy use across campuses. Pairing those efforts with on-site renewable energy such as solar and battery allows the district to stabilize energy costs and reduce exposure to rising utility rates. Over time, these savings can be redirected into our classrooms supporting students and staff rather than paying escalating utility bills. As we all know, there are also educational benefits. It looks like we have a fantastic structure to carry those out uh with Ms.
153Harwood and Dr. Mayberry. We implement visible, real-world sustainability projects, which gives students the opportunity to engage with science, tech, and environmental stewardship in meaningful ways. Our campuses can become living laboratories that reflect the values we teach. In fact, this boardroom was filled with more than 30 students this time last year when we had this presentation all voicing their support for more solar and PV arrays when the energy master plan was last presented. Sadly, it seems to be tabled by this board majority. It's been a year and not has not much has been said on the energy master plan. I know there's been a lot going on in the last 12 months, and I get that. Right? I think we all, all sides of this room can agree on that. But just last week, I think
154it was, the board discussed a potential $80 million bond extension creating a revenue stream for our district, but the energy master plan was completely absent from the dialogue, absent. Surely some of that funding could go to support this work. There was even one board member who referenced not knowing if there were sufficient projects to fill that revenue stream. To conclude, I simply want to remind the board of the importance of our energy master plan, of our 2030 carbon neutrality goal. This is an opportunity to reduce emissions, save money, and model responsible decision-making for our students and community at large. I urge the board to prioritize and sustain this work. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Do we have any further comments from the board? >> I just wanted to thank Kelly for our
155her leadership when she was on the board. If it wasn't for her, we would not be where we're at today. >> Thank you. Member Hills? Okay. Member Maslowski? Member Perry? I just have a couple of real quick things. Um with the solar cuz I do believe when we came on we talked about the solar and I think one of the solutions at the time for funding it because we were a year out from the from even a bond discussion was a COP and it was not recommended by current leadership to take debt for solar and so the solution was to take a step back and figure out how we can incorporate it into what we're working on now. I do know that solar is an integral part of the facilities discussions. Um and it was
156also part of the bond um interviews that were done within the community and then prioritized accordingly. So, thank you for bringing that to our attention. >> President Morgan, I don't recall that the administration recommended not doing a COP. I think the board opted not to do it, right? >> No, actually we've never heard the solar and funding on it, and it was a conversation that we had when we first when Dr. Glass came on board, and one of his one of his comments was is that he didn't recommend a COP to help and take on debt to help pay for the bond. This is not a debate. Thank you. This is not a debate, but thank you so much. And it is in the conversation. Okay. All right, so let's move on. Our next item
157is item nine. Uh information item report action item update on the ad hoc art committee work and the interim budget recommendations, Dr. Glass. >> Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board. Um I have uh two committee reports to um go over with you. I'll do my best to keep my remarks short so that you can hear from the committee members. We have a few of them with us in the audience tonight. I'll start with the art ad hoc arts committee. Do you have the Um the ad hoc arts committee as President Morgan mentioned earlier is a broad and community inclusive group. It consists of um members that were appointed to it through three different ways. One is this group of appointed members. You see their names there. So, those were people that uh President
158Morgan and Clerk Perry and I sat down and thought this is a really important voice in the community. This is a really important perspective. We need to make sure that they are on this committee. So, we reached out and asked them specifically if they would be interested to serve, and all of them did. We then opened a a application process and asked people from all over Laguna Beach that were interested and passionate about arts education to apply. Uh and we used the appointed members to go through what was over 30 applications for those selected spots. Uh we considered uh backgrounds and perspectives and different roles and viewpoints that people would bring and that that brought us the selected members that you see there. And then for this last group, uh we asked the committee to
159step back and ask whose voice is not present. And what was clear to us is that the voices of students were not present. And so we reached out to students at the high school and five of them came together and said we they would like to be part of this. Actually formed a student art committee that they on a rotating basis come to our meetings and participate. So that's the structure of the art committee. The process that the ad hoc art committee has been using is a modified design thinking process. And you see the steps that are listed there. The first is to empathize. Understanding the people you are designing for through interviews, listening, and observing. And this committee has done that by spending an entire session listening to the perspectives of students and dialoguing
160with them. Spending another entire session listening to staff members. We invited all of our BAPA teachers and a number of them attended as well as Scott Whitcomb attended as well and heard the perspectives of our staff members. And just in the meeting that we had this week, we heard from community groups. So we invited some representative groups to speak about their experience working with Laguna Beach Unified School District. So that empathize step is the foundation of the design thinking process. And what it does is it orients you to thinking about solutions that are the right fit for the people who are going to be affected by your decision. So that that's intentional. The second step is to define, synthesize what we've learned into a problem statement. So we we we we worked hard to think
161about what is it we're trying to solve and and clearly state that. We ideated, generated a broad range of possibilities, and that was nothing is off the table, nothing is wrong, but bring forward a bunch of ideas and then synthesize them. And where we are moving towards tonight is the proto-test test prototype test and implement phase. The committee wanted to make a statement to the community and to the staff especially about this process. And so I'm going to take the time to read the statement cuz they felt like it was really important about the recommendations that I'll show you next. The following recommendations were developed through an intensive process of listening to students, staff, and community members, and are grounded in the committee's adopted values, success criteria, and guardrails. The committee recognizes that Laguna Beach
162Unified School District's art programs are strong with highly engaged students, dedicated educators, and meaningful connections to the broader arts community. These recommendations are offered in the spirit of strengthening and sustaining what is working while addressing areas of opportunity to expand access, improve coordination, and deepen connections with community arts organizations. So I just wanted to read that to you because where this is coming from is a recogni- nition that there's a lot going right with arts education in this community and with this school district. And where this committee spirit is is to be of support to that. The recommendations are here, and I'll briefly go through these and then invite our committee members up to speak about their experiences working on the committee. I've highlighted with a different color just some of the key points so
163you can focus on just those elements, and there's a lot of words on the screen, and I realize that can be hard to track. So the first group on the left of the first gray box there on the left are really the priority um uh that the Arts Committee has brought forward. The first of those is to establish a district VAPA coordinator. You've just heard from our incredible environmental coordinator. We have coordinators around things like career technical education, um uh uh family resource connections, um this would be another uh coordinator in the district that would be focused on visual and performing arts education. So, that's the top recommendation from the committee. Uh the second is strengthen professional expert compensation. So, this really came out from hearing with our educators that they sometimes struggle if you
164go to one of our arts performances uh or our art shows, you'll see that there are uh arts and mu- ar- ar- artists and musicians, professionals, that are working alongside and playing alongside our kids. And what our teachers told us is that they're having a hard time recruiting and getting people to do that at the rates that we're offering. So, they asked us to re-examine that and make them more competitive. So, that's the second example, strengthen professional expert compensation. And uh and finally, the the final key action that is strengthen arts communication and outreach. Uh there was a real feeling that there's so much good happening and more people need to know about that and be aware of it. And uh that we could work with our students and perhaps with this art VAPA coordinator
165to really uh enhance the communication and outreach in the community. So, tho- those are the first batch of uh priority investments. I'll quickly go through the other two. The second is around strengthening access, instruction, engagement, expanding arts opportunities during tutorial and lunch periods uh to provide flexible low entry points for students. So, how can we use some of the time that we already have to provide more opportunities to engage in the arts? Second, integrates integrate arts across disciplines through existing professional development. We have that intentionally baked into the way that we've structured elementary education in the district. It's an It's an integrated model. But there's a real thought about how could we do this beyond just elementary and carry that through and how could use our existing professional development structures to have the arts present
166in more of our curricular experience. And finally, on that one, create structured process to identify and connect students who are not currently engaged in the arts. Where this is coming from is there are students who may be feel alone, feel isolated and the arts is a way to connect them socially and to something that they're passionate about and could we get intentional about that effort. And then the last group of recommendations here is around strengthening the community partnerships, really something that we worked on together at our meeting just this week. And that is to expand and activate our community arts partnerships. We have a number of them, but just as we've recently gone through with the Laguna Art Museum to look at that relationship again, think about how it could be expanded and strengthened and
167broadened. Do that with the other arts communities arts partners in the community, think about how we could enhance those. And then finally, a question came up around are we creating barriers around liability requirements, partnership frameworks, some of the legal or bureaucratic steps that are involved with working with the school district, could those be streamlined to make this collaboration easier. So with that, that's a quick flyover of what the arts ad hoc arts committee has been doing. I want to invite the members of the committee that are here. I can see a couple of them, Jody and Morgan, to talk about their experiences working on the committee. >> Well, I think we're Well, we share or I'll go first? Okay. I'm Jody Gates. I'm founder and executive director of Laguna Dance. I've been living in Laguna
168for 21 years. I was professor of dance at UC Irvine and the founding director of the USC Glory Kaufman School of Dance. Uh before that I danced professionally for a long time. I've always loved Laguna. And I believe that Laguna leads as far as an arts colony. The artists, right? Um something that happened a few years ago uh that led me here. First of all, I want to say thank you so much, Jason, for inviting me and for all of you for including me because I'm passionate about education and the arts and the culture in which we live in here in Laguna Beach. A couple years ago, uh I believe it was Sarah Rose Bosley that um presented at the Laguna Beach Arts Alliance. There are about 40 some odd nonprofits here in town and
169we all meet once a month. And I realized when she was speaking and she was talking about all the arts in the school system here that there was um a void for dance. And so we connected and it turned out that indeed there was and I was able to teach the second graders. Which I I have to say I have not done that before and give a second grader a prop and all bets are off. I had so much fun. Um and it was uh eye-opening for me to realize the joy, right, that movement can give, the wellness, the confidence. It's not um it's not unlike teamwork. If you're uh part of a football team, it's the same with dance. It's community. It's building a team at that sort of feeling when you're in the
170arts, whether it's a band or or a drama or dance. Um anyhow, I felt that that was appropriate to be teaching this last uh it was January, February. Uh we aligned with social studies. So we were we aligned with Lunar New Year and uh taught a traditional Chinese ribbon dance, for example, and hula because they were learning about maps and the structure that sort of provided that opportunity was perfect. And then of course street dance, social dance practices, that was the most successful. Anyhow, that was just a dabble into what I think is just the beginning of how we can interact just by saying, "Hey, we are here." There are so many professionals here in town that would love to mentor students, continue the the connection that we have already. You're doing a great job,
171and I think um it's basically just more communication because there's a lot of us that live here and feel very, very passionate about arts and education. So, that's that's about it for me. I think that what I got out of it most importantly was listening to the students and the staff. And also that we all agreed so often. There was very little time for disagreement, and there was a lot of time for disagreement, and we didn't disagree. And the students are all so passionate. They really left themselves vulnerable when they were speaking to us, and I felt like we were all talking about how we can uh help them and support them in any way that's possible. So. >> Um Morrie Lamb, the woman of many hats. Um I've been a what, 40-year resident now.
172I'm a Laguna Beach Unified alum, which is always great. Been through the arts, grew up with a amazing art family, been involved in the arts, been in art activism um for most of my life. Um and now I'm a parent raising artists, which is wonderful. Um who just showed in the celebration of the arts. Super good. Um I think the biggest thing about this um ad hoc committee was definitely, I agree Jody, is listening to the students and the teachers and making sure that the most important pieces are listened to and heard about and the stresses that they have. I agree we didn't really have very many of the disagreements in the way that one would look at a disagreement, but when we had a problem or um differing ideas, they were still listened to
173and then a solution was trying to work around that. Especially with the staff and making sure that we didn't go, "Oh, we want all these things to happen, here staff." and dumped everything on them and made sure that that didn't happen and that was a big key about around things and we tried to, you know, give recommendations that would embrace what the staff is already doing amazingly and that our students are doing. Um maybe give to the students so they can take maybe that communication aspect and really embrace what our district is already so phenomenal at um and just elevate it. Um and that was really I think the key goal of everyone there and that's why things were listened to um in a way that didn't feel like a disagreement. Even though most of
174us a lot of the time had differing ideas of what should happen. Um but it was really I agree that kind of staff the community helped um provide insight of what is out there and what could happen and where they want to be involved, but I think the biggest voices there were definitely the staff and the students. Um and the students were really honest and a lot of them have come up to me afterwards and been like, "Hey, like can you bring this up?" Like if they weren't comfortable talking about that and making sure um that those voices are heard. So I think it's pretty amazing. So thank you. >> Thank you both. Um I'll just also mention before I shift to next steps, um this committee used a consensus-based decision-making process. That means that
175all of the members of the committee that we showed you earlier, all of these recommendations we all stood behind um unanimously. Uh we're all in support of them. So that's a it's not easy to get to consensus, but what you see here is a consensus-based model and proof that a community can come together around something that is important to it. Um for next steps, these are the interim proposals. They were brought forward halfway through this process so they could be included in the budget process. Uh, we will also bring back a final report to present to the board uh, this summer once the work of the committee finishes up. Um, but um, in order to uh, put this their recommendations into the budget process, uh, Manoj uh, Mr. Rocher has advised us that uh, we
176need to refer things into the LCAP process and that's the best way to have things considered uh, for a budgetary process. So, I have a model recommendation for you here and you can uh, read it for yourselves. The total estimated cost of the recommendations are I would say between two and three hundred thousand dollars. Um, and it would it would be referred what the board would be doing is referring that into the um, LCAP process for consideration in the in the budget cycle that we're working on for next school year. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh, let's move to questions from the board. Let's start with Dr. Kelly. No questions? Member Hills? >> Yeah, um, so the um, the memo uh, says that um, Dr. Glass, you said um, the sorting reflects my professional judgment.
177It um, I chan um, and then it says uh, this is where things have landed and for the the committee to consider and the board to consider. Um, and uh, I'm just wondering about how you see the the distinction here between things that are inexpensive but tertiary and things that are more expensive that would be more sustained. I'm I'm concerned about it because I would again, I I'm I'm speaking out of turn because the board president and the clerk are have been very involved in this. So maybe I should just um not get too involved, but I just want to express a concern I have. Yeah, so I'm asking I'm asking um What are your views about the fact that um for $200,000 you get what's in the list here that's most of it's pretty
178tertiary and everything in the parking lot is sort of would be more institutionalized. But it's more expensive, so it's in the parking lot. How And that you you said in your memo this is where things landed. So I just wanted it to ask you to give us an explanation of how you see the the competition between what would be more permanent and what's cheaper. Just your your philosophy on it or whatever. >> Yes, thank you. Thank you for the question. Um the memo that um member Hills is talking about is actually a memo that I wrote to the committee which until when we published the agenda Monday, it was the only document that we had. Um so it reflected um my synthesis and analysis of what I heard uh the committee talk about and trying
179to put that together. Uh what you have here is really the the work of them vetting that, thinking about it and packaging it together in a way that I think is much more coherent than than what the memo that that I presented to the board uh came up with. So this is a this is a version 2.0 uh that you see on the screen. Uh the the memo that you were uh referring to does contain these interim proposals that are considered we need to think about these right now in the course of the budgeting process. And it contains a set of what we call parking lot items, which uh the board which I'm sorry the committee will think more about in including those in the final report. They weren't as urgent or they might be
180uh of larger costs um impact. So, we didn't feel like it was appropriate for the board to consider them in this budget cycle. So, that's that's why the there's the two levels. And I'll let the uh committee members speak to this question as well. >> Yeah, just to add to that um it was kind of the collaboration of the committee that decided or put things in different categories. What was important that after hearing from each of the except for the community group cuz we heard from them after, but hearing from the students and staff, um we kind of came together and made what was important, what felt like the most critical at this moment. Um and then what could be kind of set aside. Um so, that was kind of a the collaborative committee decision
181to kind of put those things as the the direct or and the parking lot um versus directed more on like what was cheaper or not. It was more what do we think would benefit um our staff and students and the community to the fullest that we could do now. >> Thank you. >> Dr. Kelly >> The 2 to 300,000, does that cover the the first ex- Does that exclude the parking lot or or does it >> Yeah, it doesn't include the parking lot items. They aren't really aren't presented tonight. What the committee did again is is sort out things that we recommend for budget consideration now. That's what's on the screen. The parking lot things will be considered further for the final report. Uh the 2 to 300,000, almost all of it is going to
182this Evap coordinator. So, there's some additional dollars that are sprinkled around there, but the thinking from the committee really was if with this position it funded it allows all of these other activities really to be coordinated and to take off. >> It just seems like an awful lot of money as far as to start out with. Um but I I like the coordinator position because I think as I said to Mrs. Mrs. Perry, you know, what more can we do? This is the most uh uh arts friendly school district that I that I know of. And there's so many parts to it that I just think is incredible. But maybe as far as you know someone to do like Mrs. Harwood and to hook us up to the community more but uh it I it
183just seems like an awful lot of money. >> It it um it reflects uh I would also say it's not just the salary, it's the benefits which are substantial in our district and in California. So the two to 300,000 where most of that's going is the VAPA coordinator and increasing the compensation levels to your professional experts. The other things are um uh things that with the VAPA coordinator in place we could really move forward. If they're not funded, we can still consider these other areas and think administratively how can we implement them? >> Thank you, Dr. Matusky. So um thank you uh for for the interim report and I um want to ask a few questions but point out that all my kids are very much into the arts with the older kids doing theater,
184my younger one very involved in music. So this is something I actually feel you know, very enthusiastic about. At the same time um I have a few questions that I want to ask because as an interim report it's not entirely clear to me whether this is something that is addressing a weakness in our arts program or is aspirational. And those are two very different things when you think about funding. You know, significant funding things because there are a lot of things in the district that are aspirational. So, um for example, um when I think about Gloria Harwood's position, one of the things I recognize in that is that we have issues of sustainability, but we don't require a class on sustainability, right? So, you have a coordinator who tries to think about how to do
185interdisciplinary work and incorporate sustainability across all kinds of classes and in that case it's located in English as part of the flow problem. Or flow uh program, I meant to say. Um with this though, we have many different people teaching you know, we have many different people teaching the arts, right? We have music classes, Mr. Wade with the jazz band, all the you know, art and visual culture teachers. So, it's a different kind of need in terms of providing oversight and that for me is what's somewhat un- clear. Um are we suggesting that um we hire a vap uh the coordinator and a lot of these other things on here is what the coordinator would do? And then my question is, is it not possible for us to be doing those now? And does not
186doing this negatively impact any of our programs? Like, I I guess I'm trying to understand what is the need we're trying to fill because that's not clear from the report and um how we balance something that's aspirational against all the other aspirational things since we're doing it in isolation. >> Thank you. Excellent questions. I'll first say and I'll ask the committee members to weigh in on their perspectives. The recommendations come from a place of uh seeing the assets and strengths that we have as a community and as a school district where art is really part of the DNA in this district, more so than any place I've ever had the opportunity to work. It's it's part of this community's identity and the school district's identity. So, it's it comes from supporting a a strength or
187an asset. It's really thinking about how can what what sometimes feels like a lack of connective tissue or bridges or some of the words that our committee has used among the different arts programming, among the different teachers, across the different levels, out into the community, across the different community organizations. There was a sense that they are siloed and separated from each other. And so, this the thinking around this position was you could create someone who could build be that bridge, be that connective tissue. So, it definitely comes from a place of amplifying the good work that's already taking place. It's not an uncommon role. Um I had two of these in Jeffco. Jeffco, of course, is a much larger district than than here, but I had two of these positions. And in my time at
188the Kentucky Department of Education, we actually added an arts coordinator for the state in that role. So, it it's you don't see them in every district, especially a district of this size, but I think it there's a an argument to be made given how um uh embedded the arts is into the culture and the DNA here that it it it it makes some sense. >> Okay, I appreciate that. The second part of my question now is that the second committee also recommends um some significant expenditures. And so, the question is a budgeting one, which is if we're um being asked to approve something to go into the LCAP today on two different committee recommendations, then what does that mean for things that come up in the future? Like, are we funding these cuz they're first?
189Or are we funding these because they're the best? Like, I I'm not I'm unsure of how to evaluate this relative to other costs. >> Yeah, thank you. Um I given you some space on that. Um so, here what what the model motion is is to refer it into the process, which completely gives the board the opportunity to consider it in the context of all of the needs of the district that you have to think about in the budget process. So, this just makes sure that it's considered. And then the board It's It's going to be up to the board to make the hard final decisions around the budgeting. >> We can vote for this to go into the L cap development process along with perhaps other things, and then there's still an opportunity to evaluate
190those things together. >> Yes, the motion refers it into the L cap process and leaves it for consideration in the budget cycle. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> And And Joan, just to add to that, we actually came up with this question, I think our last meeting, too, is just making sure like why we doing it, is there a lack, and and going back to the students, I think you know, there is, I think, in the way of accessibility sometimes or decision-making in the arts or art-focused, um, or appreciation of them or access to them. So, a lot of that is, especially the communication, a lot of our discussion was about that communication part is students not knowing um, about what's going on or what they have access to or, um, just what is out there.
191So, that, you know, kind of that person would be that that movement between that and allowing to We've identified some extra things to maybe the students can take some of that on, um, but really balancing what makes sense to provide our students who love the art one not to have that make that choice. I think a lot of our art students definitely voiced that they had to choose between classes, and that was really difficult for them. So, I think, although we want to say we're like perfect in the arts, there is some problems there in in not so much our art programs, but them having to choose between things and and hopefully expanding and and elevating can help alleviate some of that, especially for our students. >> I think just to add as a community
192partner, I just listening to the students and staff, there seemed to be a a disconnect between what we do here in the community and giving them access. And so that was also part of the a lot of the conversation that we had had to do with, you know, you know, expertise and access and and making sure that they're if they want mentorship outside that it's available to them. And for me that that really resonated for for us moving forward and the recommendations and just observations, frankly. And and with the high school, for example, you know, we've been working with the high school as far as dance since 20 years. And uh and that can continue to grow. So what's already working, we're just saying, oh wow, this can really be richer, even. Yeah. >> Quick,
193Perry, do you have any questions? >> Yes, but I just wanted to add to Dr. Glass's response that I didn't look at all the schools in Orange County, but um Huntington Beach, Fullerton, Saddleback Valley, Capistrano Unified, Irvine, uh Santa Ana all have a arts either an arts coordinator or an arts director or somebody calls it an arts facilitator, but a separate job because um it's very difficult to bring all this together and when we listened, um some of our members were concerned about Dr. Mayberry and all he all he's trying to do, trying to lessen things up for him. But for a for a question um I'll I'll leave that. >> So, we're going to So, I have no questions cuz I get them all answered when I'm in the committee and you guys are
194amazing. So, thank you. Um we're going to move to public comment and then we'll have discussion following that and then the motion if there's a motion. Uh do we have public comment on this item? >> We do. Um Scott Witcoff and Keta Brown. >> Good evening. Um first of all, I was in one of the committee meetings and I thank the community members that were there. It was actually a a really good day of discussion and going on. Um I do want to point out that we actually already have three VAPA coordinators that in my opinion and our teachers' opinion are doing an incredible job. As far as silos, I kind of disagree with that a little bit. We work with our VAPA coordinators and our high school students go to all the elementary schools.
195We work directly with them. We work with Flow. Um we work together all the time. Um from all levels. I know from the junior high to the high school. I meet with Andy Crisp all the time and I know JOB meets with I mean, there's constant um collaboration between all the levels. And once again, we believe our VAPA coordinators that we have are amazing and they're doing a great job. And maybe we need to look at it, maybe tweak it a little bit if you guys think we need to do more, but to spend another two or three hundred thousand dollars on that part. Um I just don't see that where we are at our point right now. So, uh we have the people in place um and it's it's being done well. As far
196as Dee's comment of saying that, you know, these other districts have it. That's true, but we're four schools and we have VAPA coordinators already. So, that's just part of it. Um some of the other things I told I completely agree with the you know, the compensation for um getting more professionals and we already do that, but the more the better as far as getting professionals into our classrooms. That's that's great. Um, expand arts at tutorial and lunch. I'm not sure what that means because we all have a tutorial every single day in our art programs across the board. All of our classrooms are open at lunch. If you come down to our classrooms at lunch, students are in our classrooms at lunch. Um, at the high school it's not uncommon for our art classes to
197be open till 4:00, sometimes 5:00 for students just to come in and do their work. Um, and that's something we work with Dr. Marabelli quite a bit on. So, some of that I think is already happening and may in the committee may not have been brought up. I know it wasn't some of those things were not brought up when I was in there when I was in there. So, I just want to do that. And then another thing that comment that I wanted to say real quick, when I was in the meeting somebody there was a couple people that stated about how our students art is not seen in the public very much. Um, so I'm privy once of being the art department chair for eight of the last 10 years and I will be
198it again. I get to see this and also with my daughter being a senior that's going to LCAD. Just in the last year her art has been at Jedidiah Coffee at their um coffee opening, City Hall, Sawdust Festival, Art Affairs, Celebration of the Arts, uh LCAD College actually at the college, um LCAD Gallery. Her piece was just picked for the Pageant of the Masters, Laguna Plain Art Gallery, just to name a few. So, we do have a lot of our art be shown and she's not the only one. There's a lot of students that are right beside her doing that as well. So, I'm very proud of our art art department. I think we do great things. We've even had OSHA come over and see how they can do some of the same things we
199do. So, I think we're right there. I think we're doing a great job, but I do I we can improve as well. Thank you. >> This kind of reads like a laundry list of I want. We have exemplary of our staff and toast us with special specialized knowledge on how to integrate art curriculum throughout the system. And before you dismiss their expertise out of hand, I urge you to rethink the need for an additional FTE and instead looked at the talent we already employ and let them and urge them to grow into this position. >> Thank you. Thank you. We're going to move on to board discussion. Um Dr. Kelly. >> Is there one more public comment? >> Oh, sorry. Were we Were we done with I thought we were done. My apologies. >> Um
200I just want to say thank you for the presentation. I was very grateful to hear it. I had no idea that we had so many organizations in the Laguna Beach Art Alliance. I love the idea of a position to coordinate all of this together to our schools, but after hear- hearing Mr. Whitcomb, if we already have this position in place, perhaps it's possible to bring in a coordinator at a lower salary level more um applicable to a coordination level, maybe in the 50,000 range or something. I also think art is super important and I was looking at the parking lot other ideas and the wonderful thing about art and dance, it is therapy. And I'm so grateful for that. We don't need to bring an art therapist. Just doing art is therapeutic. Dancing is therapeutic
201and we're doing a great job and I just want to thank you for the report and the committee and our dedication. I'm very grateful. >> Thank you. Is that the last speaker, D? Okay, thank you. Um member Dr. Kelly for comments and discussion or just Yeah, comments and discussion. >> I think I agree with Scott that this is what I was trying to say before when I've always asked Mrs. Perry, what else can we do? Uh we have invested so much money in so many levels in so many ways that I can't imagine why would it we invest 300,000 in this position. I can definitely support raising the money that raising the amount of money we pay the artist. I think that's something that there's never enough of, but I think there's enough people in
202the in our district that even if we moved one of them up and gave them release time to have more of a activity of coordination, that that would be a much better way of spending $300,000. >> Thank you. Uh member Hills. >> Um just a couple comments. Um I think that uh member Malchesky's comments about trying to balance what's our differentiate what's aspirational and from what's uh needed is is a good is a good way of looking at this. Um I was I I I wish uh former clerk um Osborne had not left because that analysis sort of applies to her solar energy program in the sense that um you know, you have to do this this trading off. We're doing the swimming pool, we're dealing with lawsuits that could be very expensive. We got
203um uh a lot of competition for dollars and um you know, she set the goal at 2030. Most of the districts are setting the goal for 2045, but combination of that short goal uh the short goal and the the funding that was under demand for the pool and other things and the lawsuits are pending and whatnot, you know, you you have to make the difficult choices that you're talking about and that you were talking about with respect to this. Um on the flip side of it, I just want to say that um you know, when you're an elementary school teacher, I mean I'm an elementary school student, I think particularly when you're a middle school student, um and we're talking about, you know, we we got all this COVID money and we spent it on
204these wellness programs and bringing in staff to deal with wellness issues and whatnot, I I just believe the last person who spoke, I agree um art is therapy for kids. And um you know, when you're when you're that age and you're in that state of development, uh having a place to go for, you know, to feel as you as I said psychologically safe is good, but art really is the place where kids have autonomy in working out their issues creatively. And um so I think that I think this should be given high priority. I haven't got a specific set of uh recommendations. I think I think the integration of art history into the K-through-12 program, I can't believe that we can't do that with people that are already on staff, but art history um can
205be so fun for for students at all ages. Uh and then it the the point up there also that's in the parking lot. Now, I I to see some of these in the parking lot. Uh, the art therapy um, when you're 12 or 13 or 15 or a lot of what we would want to accomplish through having counselors and therapists and wellness experts could actually be accomplished more effectively by having students involved in art and and having the autonomy to choose what they want to express and how they want to express it um, through all the different forms of performing arts and and fine arts. So, um I just want to say that I commend the committee for its work. And I think this is excellent place to work from. And I think we should
206be prepared to put some funding into um strengthening and I really appreciated what the what they said about the fact that this is an art community. Being part of the art community is what makes Laguna Beach different. The beaches make Laguna Beach different than the rest of the county. Our physical environment, the hills that surround us, uh, it all makes Laguna special. But, the art colony is something that's made Laguna special for the last, uh, more than a century. And the schools should reflect that deep um cultural tradition. Uh, and so I I I commend the committee and I'm prepared to support the committee in going forward with what its priorities are and what it decides, but I'd put a plug in for the art history and the art therapists. >> Thank you, Howard. Dr.
207Montazemi. >> So, um I already stated that I am reluctant to vote on something in isolation, especially since there are other items on the agenda. I would be more comfortable thinking about this in its um in terms of its aspirational uh qualities relative to other costs that we have when the final report is out and we see what else comes up for the district and where we stand at that point. So, um I would support a motion to put it into the LCAP, but I would also like um to ensure that when we look at the budget, these items that are being requested for more aspirational reasons are segregated out so we can see what we're looking at and how to measure you know, make decisions against other decisions. Um I one of the things
208I love about our school district is that we have great arts, you know, in every capacity. And I know, you know, even one of these about bringing art to lunch. I mean, when my son was at TOW, the teacher there did just that. He did art with her at lunch. It was amazing. So, we have a lot of amazing things happening and the question is whether or not it's a requirement that we sort of up it when we have all these people who are doing it. I'm not saying it's not, but I'd really like to balance that against other requests that we have. So, I would support the motion to put it into the LCAP, but I want it also segregated out with all the other costs because we have more coming up in this
209agenda so we can evaluate them reasonably. >> Thank you, Dr. Mancusco. Um member Clerk Perry. >> Um I I'm really grateful to the arts committee and everybody who worked on it. Um we we know that the arts are really important in many ways, like Mr. Hiltz talked about, for mental health, creativity, empathy, collaboration, uh self-confidence, mental health. Just this last week I met with parents who are very concerned about AI. And they you know, we're saying please, please bring more art into our schools. We think that that will give our our our kids connections. We're worried that they're on screen so much and the empathy that they get from drama is really important. Or even if it's not a drama class to just be able to speak with confidence for a minute or so. Um
210and hearing from the students, they they were saying that they wished there there was more art in the elementary grades, especially dance and not a specific play, but kind of drama things, little skits, things they could do so that they would have a background when they got to middle school and high school. They they truly didn't think we had enough. And then the other issue uh or one of the other ones was like they talked about the scheduling, kids who wanted to play a sport and maybe be in the band, it just is almost impossible for them. And I don't I don't know how we solve that. I don't know that a coordinator solves that, but I think a coordinator um would go a long ways towards that and our wonderful community has so many
211artists that are willing to help and it to bring them all in, whether they're going to mentor or give us ideas for is really crucial for our students. Um and I think this well, even just talking to some of the art teachers, and our art teachers do a fabulous job. We're not saying that they they aren't in any way, but they were talking about how much time they spent actually on the computer trying to um coordinate with different arts in town, and this would take all that away from them. So, they could just concentrate on being with students and working on their lesson plans, not doing all the coordination part. And in other districts, it has been very successful. When we went on the um with Dr. Glass when he was doing his talks in
212each area, the arts came out over and over and over. And, you know, people some people in the community think we aren't doing as much in the arts. We're doing wonderful things, but like Mr. Whitcoff said, maybe we're not um communicating as well about those. Maybe people don't know all the things that are going on, so they think there's a a big gap, and maybe it isn't as big as we thought. But, we did hear from the students were very compelling as as well as faculty and staff that this would benefit all. >> Madam Chair. We're not going to go back and forth. It's 9:00, and we have to keep moving. Go ahead, Dr. Glass. >> Uh quickly, um a couple of points uh building on what uh Clerk Perry said, I want to just
213again underscore that the recommendations come forward in a place of appreciation and support uh for the work that's here. Um when it comes to the art coordinator role, there uh was a recognition of the different uh school level, site level art coordinators. In fact, they were part of our meetings, so we heard directly from them. Um the art to differentiate this role from those, this is a district level coordinator, which we do not have. Uh and the the components that um led the committee to recommending it are that they are around district level coordination, community-wide connection, integration with um outside organizations, uh working across schools, across grade levels, uh coordinating uh communication, coordinating uh professional development. So, the the position really arose from the list of needs that came up, and it was not in
214any way meant as to cast an aspersion on the tremendous art coordinators that we have. The committee I just want to make sure that I clearly communicated their perspective on that. The committee did talk about the structure of it the role some kind of what Dr. Kelly you were saying about could this be done this way or could this be structured differently. I really I think um successfully, at least in the short term, talked them out of doing that uh to say that their role is really to bring forward you, here's the need. It's your role then as the board to say, are we going to do this and how we go what level of funding does it have? And then it's my job and the administration's role to execute these things. So, there's there
215is a there is different roles that we all play in this process. The committee has brought to you its interim recommendations and said these are needs that they uh surfaced. >> Thank you for that clarification. Um I'm going to be brief because we do it is getting late and we have several topics still to go and including another committee that's been waiting patiently. Um I just want to you know the great thing about this committee is that I think that um for those of you that are a little questioning of it um the the arts committee gave everyone a perspective that they didn't have going in, right? Um whether it was we have lots of art. Yes, we do. But when you have community members sitting in the room saying I didn't get any applications
216for my scholarship. I don't even And then when I did finally talk to a student, they said they didn't know it was there. To nobody's fault other than everybody's busy. Everybody has things that they're doing and that was kind of one of the things that came out, especially in talking to staff when they came in, is that they didn't think that having more responsibility of the art coordination was in their bandwidth cuz they had spent so much time already, as Dee pointed out, um trying to get those coordinating things done. So, the whole point of this position at the district level is to be that point person so that we can take some of that workload off of our teachers that are teaching art and they can focus more on working with the students, which
217is an idea that's generated out of listening to the students, listening to the staff, and now here we are executing. And so, I think it's really important to to keep that in mind. Um this committee was able to have a different perspective on what the district needs because we had outside influence looking at it that is in the arts community and and the and they shared their experience on what they were seeing being interacted with with the with the district and with the students. And also, again, wanting to push in and help with more of the art programming and support our staff and offer a more varied um program. We talked about the uh Steve Wade is on the committee and he talked about how great it is to have different experts coming in, but
218one of the underlying problems was how much we fund how much we pay them. Um and so, all of these parts are all relevant to this. And so, while I appreciate the questions on if we should or if we shouldn't and um and I had challenged Dr. Glass on if it should be considered in the LCAP because I think the whole point of this committee was to look at this issue as a whole and how can we improve it and this is what they've come forward. And we have people in this community that have volunteered their time, as does the board, to this work and it would be a disservice to their commitment to our students and their art experience in the arts if we don't move this motion forward and to call it a
219consideration of the LCAP the board you know the board makes the is is that ultimate decision on the LCAP and so I would hate to see it out as a isolated item or a separate item that isn't considered when this is all about the students it's all about the staff and I would hate to see us not approve something because of that so because of time I'm not going to circle back on more comments I'm going to ask for a motion as it's read I move that the board direct staff to incorporate the ad hoc the ad hoc arts committee interim recommendations into the LCAP development process for um I didn't like in consideration I'd like to say for incorporation into the 26-27 budget cycle. No it's listed as an information action item. Do I
220have a second on that motion? Thank you. on No the process for integration into the No in recommendation into the LCAP development process for integration into the budget cycle. >> No you said integration not consideration. >> Yes I changed it integration into the budget cycle. >> saying we should just agree to spend this money. >> No I said put it in the LCAP. Well no we have a motion excuse me we have a motion on the floor. The motion is integration into the 26-27 budget cycle. So because at the end of the day if we're going to go through all this work so that it can be challenged again later that's disrespectful to the community and the people that have volunteered their time this is for the students and the staff we have a motion
221on the floor excuse me point of order. Mr. Pearl can you please give us some guidance here? >> Is there a second yet? >> Yes there's a second. >> Okay so now it's discussion. >> We know we've already discussed. We we had but we had Oh, we didn't do the motion on the floor. We discussed and then we made the motion. >> Right. You can discuss the motion cuz it's been amended. It's been changed. >> we need to move forward though. I'm sorry. I miss I misspoke. We did not do the motion before we had the discussion. We had what I thought was the discussion and now we're making the motion. >> No, the motion. >> The motion has been on the wall on the board that Dr. Glass had >> Well, but it didn't
222the motion was changed. >> The motion was changed. >> Okay, fine. Then we can keep it back to consideration. Does that mean we need to consider the discussion? >> If if it's kept as it's been presented from the beginning, then there's no need for further discussion. >> then let's then I can I amend my motion to include the motion to >> To just state that we will consider it later. >> Yes. >> As it's written on the screen. Okay. >> Great. Thank you. So I'm going to reread the motion. I move that the board direct staff to incorporate the ad hoc arts committee interim recommendations into the L cap development process for consideration in the budget 2016-2017 Do I have a motion? Do I have a second? Thank you. All in favor, roll call vote.
223Dr. Kelly. >> Dr. Kelly. >> Member Hills. >> Yes. >> Member Malcheski. Clerk Perry. President Morgan. >> Yes, thank you. >> Okay. >> Logan. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Sorry. >> Thank you, Logan. Thank you, Victoria. Thank you, Mr. Glass. Mr. Pearl. Okay, moving on to the report to the board action update on the ad hoc transportation committee work and budget recommendations. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Again, I'll do my best to keep my remarks brief so you can hear from the committee members. The ad hoc transportation committee is structured a little bit differently. It was made up of community members that President at that time President Perry and member Morgan and I sat down and tried to identify people in the community from different geographic regions representing Laguna that had an interest in transportation
224in the district and we felt it was important that we bring in a couple of students and so we recruited a couple of LBHS students so you see the list that's up there as the community committee got going we also felt it was important that we had our main transportation vendor Durham Transportation involved and so we've had two of their representatives with us throughout the meetings as as well as our Laguna specific Durham employees have participated. I initially was the lead facilitator on this as we have hired Mr. Roychoudhury and then he's brought in Ryan Zeta they've taken over more of the facilitation in it and Victoria has helped us a lot with structure and keeping us moving. So that's the that's what the committee membership looks like. The committee had identified its own priorities
225so these were not staff determined they were determined by the committee members. They identified safety and monitoring, tracking and communication, student comfort and belonging and expanded routes and services the areas of priority. And then similar structure to what you saw earlier and the the coloring on these is just to make it a little bit easier to read as you go from one to the next so blue isn't more important than black isn't isn't more important than red it's just to make it a little easier to look at. On the completed list as we went through the committee's recommendations we identified several things that especially as Mr. Roychoudhury came into the work we thought we can just do this. We have the resources or we have the structure or with some just changes to how we're
226currently operating we could implement several of these recommendations. So you see those listed there changing the TK Audubon pickup for the TK students, drivers getting certified around fog safety protocols, bus camera systems upgraded, CHP inspection reports Durham maintenance logs are now all posted to the district website. We changed and improved our incident and delay communication protocols. We verified and have inspections on all the district HVAC and preventive maintenance. We added additional service for high school students in the Audubon area that just started just last week after spring break. And then we looked at this must be met element and evaluated that. Those are all solved. So those are all things that we implemented based on the conversations with the committees with the committee. The three items that are there are still in progress. So we're
227still working on these and again just like the ad hoc arts committee, this committee is interim bringing you interim present interim recommendations. It will bring back a full report this summer. So the things that we're still working on looking at there were lots of concerns around the app that parents use to track where the bus is and so we've worked with Durham to actually identify a different and better highly rated app that intersects interfaces with the Samsara GPS system. We think that's going to be an improvement so we'll be rolling that out. We're working on a student transportation bill of rights. Mr. Pearl's been looped looped in on that. There are several things around we want to make sure students know they have the rights to certain experiences and expectations on the bus and what
228parents can expect as well. So we're we're working on that. And we're looking at expanded coverage in the Audubon area even beyond what we've talked about so far. For your consideration and and thinking about again referring these into the L cap process and having it under consideration for your budget. These last two items are really where that comes in. The committee has recommended adding a bus monitor. We we recommend doing one of those this year and it would be an AM PM position or maybe two roles. So someone that works three and a half hours in the morning, someone that that works three and a half hours in the afternoon. That might be the same person and it might be two different people. We'll have to see how it's structured and who applies for it.
229But the bus monitor would ride on different routes on different days, work to establish relationships with students on the bus, monitor behavior, but also work from that proactive standpoint to build connection and relationships with students and reinforce good behavior and supportive behavior of other students on the bus. And then the second budget impact item is the CTE transportation pilot. We initially had looked at what would it cost for us to transport students from our schools high school in specifically to CTE options in the region. That initial proposal was over half a million dollars. Really made it prohibitive in terms of cost. We've kept working on it and come up with another option through a secondary transportation vendor that we have that uses it's kind of like an Uber or Lyft service for students that transports
230them in smaller groups to the sites. We think we can run a pilot on this and see how it goes before we expand it out. So those two recommendations together, the bus monitor we think maybe around 50-75,000 dollars for that position. The transportation pilot will have to look and see what it is. We haven't fully vetted that out yet, but we think it it may be less than 120,000 dollars. We're looking at different providers on that. So with that I similarly have a motion that is closely aligned to the one that you just heard. What this does is it takes the ad hoc transportation committee's recommendations, refers them into the process, and leaves it open for the board's later consideration as you think about all of the other priorities that you have to evaluate. We
231do have a couple of members of the transportation committee here, so I'm going to turn things over to them and let them talk about their experiences. >> Hello, I'm Payal Avalon. Thank you for having us here today. As a member of the transportation committee, I am so proud of the amazing progress that we've made, especially the improvements in publishing safety logs, upgrading cameras, clearly labeling students are being recorded, and adding more usable bus access to the high schoolers in the Laguna Audubon 1 area. I also especially love working with the fantastic students on the committee. I do want to emphasize reliable access to transportation for students across all areas of the district, including Laguna Audubon 2, so students can consistently get to and from school without unnecessary barriers, so they can access their basic right
232to education. I also feel bus monitors deserve prioritization. Adult supervision on buses is an important safety measure, especially for elementary and middle school students. I feel almost every parent has heard from their students about behavior challenges on the bus because they're kids, and they're going to test boundaries when not being supervised. I encourage the board to treat this as a safety investment, so drivers can focus on driving. Overall, I'm so proud to serve on this committee, and I look forward to making more progress on our goals, including the bus riders bill of rights. Thank you. >> Good evening. My name is Leslie Bruce Amine, and I want to thank the committee for their time, their thoughtfulness, and their willingness to hear our perspectives over the past 10 months. Um as quite a few people in
233this room know, transportation has been something I've been talking about and advocating around for well over a year and a half now and um I mean, honest of all of the issues that for me to latch on to, this is like the least glamorous, but at the end of the day, this really isn't about transportation for me, it's about our kids. Um from the beginning, my focus has been simple, right? It's the safety and the well-being of our students. Um the school day starts from the moment our kids step onto the bus because from that point on, they are the responsibility of the district. Which means clear communication, strong systems, and accountability around what happens on that bus are essential. Through this process, I've been encouraged by several meaningful improvements as noted in the presentation,
234including greater transparency, like access to the maintenance and CHP logs, um and the intentional rotation of buses on our more topographically challenging routes to support long-term safety and performance. It was something I was like really keen on and I'm I'm excited that that that's happening. Um in terms of what's happening on the buses, one of the biggest advancements is the shift to a modern cloud-based video system, a massive improvement from um the previous system in terms of quality and accessibility and just for all sorts of reasons. Um and I've been a huge advocate of this because it allows appropriate staff access footage in real-time or near real-time and helps ensure that drivers can stay focused on the road as Pale said, while also increasing visibility, safety, and accountability for students and a bit more peace
235of mind for parents. Um we've also heard the community clearly and I've had so many families reach out to me over the last year and a half and I've myself brought those voices um directly into this process. And one example is the bus tracking system. I think we've all heard from parents. And as noted, we are now piloting a more accurate and reliable GPS platform, which should greatly improve consistency and communication. And cuz I'm I'm excited to see how these improvements are going to be communi- communicated to the larger um LBUSD community, so parents are aware that they have access to all of this information. Um I've also been very encouraged by the improvements in communication both internally and with families. There is now a clearer structure for how information is shared when issues arise,
236helping ensure parents are notified in a timely and consistent way. Um and continued support and accountability from the district. Um and for me, it was really important, another priority was making sure we weren't just talking about like the rules the students need to abide by, but also what their rights are while they're on this bus. Our children deserve to feel safe, supported, and respected while riding the bus. That includes clear expectations around communications, especially in situations where there are delays or disruptions. If a child is on a bus that is stopped or significantly delayed, they should know what their rights are regarding their ability to communicate with their family, so they never feel uncertain or without a way to connect. This is particularly important for our younger students. It's critical that both the rules and
237rights are clearly communicated, so every child understands what is expected of them and what they can expect in return. And I also look forward to seeing how this is implemented and communicated across our schools in the coming year. Um and then finally, I want to strongly support the recommendation for a bus monitor. I believe this is one of the most impactful steps we can take. A bus monitor would enhance safety, support um positive student behavior, and provide an additional layer of oversight on the bus, and accountability for all. And I think further would allow our staff, our administrators, our teachers to spend less of the day dealing with bus drama, and more time focused on our kids. Um, and I believe that all of these improvements together and the proposed improvements um can help restore
238confidence in the system. And when families feel confident using the bus, it doesn't just benefit individual students, it also helps increase ridership, keeping more cars off the roads, and reducing the congestion around the campuses at pick up and drop off, which we all experience directly and indirectly. Um, I'm grateful to have been a part of this process, and I appreciate your consideration of these recommendations. Thank you, guys. >> Hi, everyone. My name is Erica Hennonrule. Um, to give some background cuz uh a lot of people don't know this, I actually have 17 years of experience in transportation UC Irvine. So, this is why I'm a part of this committee. And so, I have a big passion for sustainable transportation, trip reduction, emission reductions, and all of that. I want to kind of share a few
239numbers that are definitely rounded, so please don't quote me directly on these. But, uh in comparison of our school district to say a large one like Irvine, Irvine has 38,000 kids. They only have about 1,400 kids on the buses. We have 2,500 kids, and we have almost 1,000 kids on the buses. So, you can imagine the impact of transportation that exists um for our district. A lot of you guys were saying earlier that we're like an arts district. Uh I'd like to say we're like a transportation district, right? So, um just that we have we are very, very lucky to have these services. And the other part too I wanted uh thank is uh Durham for being part of this process. They definitely did not have to be part of this process. Their staff took
240a lot of um suggestions, they took a a lot of critiques, and they were able to turn around, and like what we were able to do is actually implement a lot of these things throughout the time. And as someone who has a TK kid on a bus where the poor bus driver was driving him and a bunch of other TK students and they she had to pull over three times because he was misbehaving and it's something that I was so one embarrassed cuz I'm on this committee and then two wanted to really emphasize the need for safety and that's something that as much as trip reduction and emission reduction is all fantastic and part of our overall health the safety of our kids are also important. So I do think that what this group was
241able to do was expand routing and expand adding more kids into this district. I do know a TK student that enrolled later and was able to use that bus route right away in the Autobahn which was helpful. Um and then I also though want to emphasize the safety aspects all the video cameras monitoring. I can't even imagine what it's like to be a bus driver for middle school but you know it's one of those things that it a lot of parents are hesitant in my Autobahn community because of the fact that there are these concerns that there isn't an adult helping kind of watch and oversee. So and also just to kind of point out the CTE transportation pilot in my world we kind of call it micro transit and so kind of on demand
242transit and that's something that we see in Laguna Beach ourselves right? We have Laguna locals. So that's something that will be really interesting to see the results of for when it comes to that. So thank you for having us. I'm really looking forward to closing out. I cannot believe it's been A year and a half? I don't know. A long time I All right, a long I don't know. It's been like but um yeah, it's been really great work. So, thank you. >> Thank you so much for being here. Can we Should we move to questions? Okay. Um Member Kelly, Dr. Kelly. >> Thank you for the committee. It's It's excellent and I'm all for health and safety as number one priority of being on this board. Um how many students are we transporting from
243the Audubon area? >> I don't have that data in front of me. Anyone? >> Okay. Um what I would say is the buses are almost full. So, I I think there's about 60-70 students on a school bus. And the middle school bus is full, the Audubon 2 bus and the Audubon 1 bus in the morning are full. So, we probably I mean, we probably have about 200 students. >> that's interesting. I never knew there were that many students there. >> It's It's definitely growing. We're definitely a community a community that is growing in the number of students, which is exciting. It's a great neighborhood. >> I think you for the question. Any more? No, okay. Member Hulse. >> The uh there's part of the Laguna Woods retirement community that is in the school district, but
244I don't think they're going to the they're going to be increasing the population of bus riders. Um uh I just wanted to ask a couple questions. Are all the buses um diesel? >> You all keep looking to the new guy to answer these questions. Uh I don't know. Uh Mr. Rochat, do you do you know the configuration of the >> out of there are about eight buses that are diesel and then the rest are gasoline. >> Yeah. You know, there's no uh safe level of exposure to diesel and uh I always worry about the kids. I had one kid from um from um El Moro tell me that uh he doesn't feel good after he rides the bus because of fumes and whatnot. I'm just wondering um do we have any air quality monitoring on
245the buses? >> Um there may be in California um I'll I'll let Mr. Roychoudhury speak to that. >> So uh AQMD, which is the air quality monitoring districts, uh actually regulate the diesel buses. So even the diesel buses that operate in California, what we call are clean diesel. So there are special filters on those buses that uh reduce the amount of emission that uh they can spill out. Uh but definitely, I mean, that's one of our concern and we have uh plans to at some point of time transition the diesel buses to all electric vehicles. So we are working on infrastructure to have the electric charger in our warehouse, I mean, in the bus station at some point of time. So the next round of uh bid that we do transportation, if we have the
246electric chargers, we will specify electric buses uh from the vendors. >> We need the infrastructure first before we can think about the >> Any other questions? >> Okay, thank you. Dr. Malchesky. >> So can you tell me, do the bus drivers from Durham um consistently take the same route? So when the kids get on the bus, do that does the bus driver know them? Great. And then on the um CTE issue, um to what extent was that part of the transportation meeting? like we're student student surveyed. This comes up every year and I've always been somewhat confused about whether or not there are actually kids who can't take CTE courses because of transportation in part because the high school has been a lot of time trying to connect students with drivers so that they could
247carpool. So I'm just wondering were there additional surveys or what what is the information basis for making this recommendation? >> I think it's been a long standing goal for the district to try and expand that those routes. The students have been solving the problem on their own those that want want to get there. But we the committee didn't talk to CTE students specifically. I don't think unless you know. >> So thank you Dr. Glass. So I had Dr. Mayberry connect with Katie Treat. I think that's the CTE coordinator that we have. >> I'm sorry. I misspoke. So you're right. Go ahead. >> So that's okay. So we did not get many survey responses. There are about 30 kids that go out and I think six responses to the survey and three of them responded that
248if there is a bus available they will be able to avail the buses. >> There was also the idea that if we have offered the service we might have more participation just just like the other buses. So it's that's why it's a pilot and these the micro transportation was one of the solutions because then it's more situational based on the number of kids rather than a whole bus that's halfway empty. >> Yeah, I think that that's a definitely a factor that we we don't know until you know, right? And so as far as I can tell there's I think there's we have 19 or 20 students that are taking CCA courses off campus. And the survey had 14 responses. Uh eight of which uh drive themselves and then six that get a ride with parents
249or guardians or carpool. >> Yeah, the other thing that has been an issue in previous years. Um I mean I think high school kids like to be able to drive themselves. So, it was always questionable how many students really were going to jump on a bus if they could find another route. The other thing was that the CTE classes are all over the place. It's not like we're taking kids to just or students to one school, you know, in Alamo or whatever. It's in in a you know, it's it's geographically very um is spaced out. So, you know, I also wonder if there's three students in going to multiple sites all over the place. You know, it's >> We're focusing on questions. >> What what is What is the cost-benefit? I'm getting to my question.
250What is the cost-benefit of doing that? And >> Yeah, I think it's uh building on some things that Mr. Rochat already said. Um the the concept is around the CTE transportation is a pilot. So, we don't know if this will be taken up and used extensively. So, we're going to try something small and see about it. And uh switching um uh to the sort of micro transit, I think Erica, that's the right term uh to use for it. Um so, it's an Uber or uh Laguna local type um system lowers the cost, allows us to transport small groups of students to um uh spread out areas, which is that is actually a much better solution than where we started, which was to, you know, get a 30-passenger bus and run them on a cycle. This
251is This seems like a better solution for the problem that we're trying to solve. But, I think we're coming at it with some humility with saying we don't know how this will be used or if it will be successful. So, we want to try it on a small level first. >> I I'd like to just debunk that, too. It isn't um we wouldn't spend $120,000 for three students. What's happened is CTE is adding more and more classes. And when we didn't have transportation, most were juniors and seniors. Now many freshmen and sophomores that don't drive um need transportation. And sometimes it it is just a a couple of students, but it's often our the students who don't have transportation are often our most vulnerable kids. So we're we're just looking at it. Thank you. Qu-
252ques- question? >> I'm I'm sorry that I interrupted uh Clerk Perry at the end of her comments. I'm sorry about that, but I I wanted to uh add that the $120,000 we think would be the cost of the full implementation. So the pilot is is much smaller uh starting point. The $120,000 we think will be the cost of the whole implementation. So the pilot is a much smaller number. We started one route to one CTE provider and see how that goes. So again, it's it limits the exposure that the district has at least in the pilot process. >> So we would just we're not going to implement the we're not going to use the $120,000 this year. >> I I um I'll hedge and say that all of these numbers are a little fluid cuz
253we're still de- but we have two proposals from two different vendors that we're working through, but uh no, we would not intend to use $120,000 uh on this pilot this year. Or next year. >> Thank you. Clerk Perry, do you have any questions? >> No. >> Okay, thank you. Um I need a motion. Oh, no. We have to public comment, then motion, then discussion. Sorry. Do we have public comment on this item? >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Keta Brown. >> The worst nightmare. >> Um the CTE bussing options need to be fully vetted and a real need needs to be identified before moving forward in any meaningful way toward that. >> Thank you. Do we have any other comments? Okay. So, can we have a motion? Where did that motion go? There it is.
254I move can we Yes, I need a motion to um direct staff to incorporate the ad hoc transportation committee's recommendations, specifically the bus monitor monitor position and CTE transportation pilot into the LCAP development process for consideration in the 2026-2027 budget cycle. Thank you. >> Second. >> Thank you. All in favor? Yes, sir. Oh, we can't devote. We have to have discussion. Getting tired, sorry. >> You've already had discussion. >> We we had questions. >> Oh, that was questions? My apologies. >> Well, we're trying I yeah, they do a lot of discussion. That's why I remind people for questions. Okay, so we have a motion on the floor. It's been seconded. Is there any further discussion by the board? >> Thank you. I uh just want to underscore that what you have with both of these
255committees are interim recommendations. And so there's more work to do. We'll bring back final reports on both of these, but uh given the timing of the budget process, uh we intentionally designed in bringing forward these interim recommendations for your consideration. >> Thank you. Member Mancheski, discussion? Any further discussion or comments? Thank you. Member Hills, any further comments or discussion? >> Very quickly, just like to say that I hope the committee will put together uh whether it's uh out of touch or unreachable or what, I'd like to know what a conversion to electric buses would look like financially and otherwise because the kids are young, their lungs are young, and they're getting exposed to the dirtiest technology and the dirtiest uh um uh exhaust uh the diesel fuel. There's no safe level of exposure. It can
256cause cancer with one exposure. And so um I just would like to know I'd like the committee to tell us what we're what we would be looking at on a conversion to electric buses. >> Last year, we should look at >> No, the solar in this bus yard was incorporated into that, but I don't think the cost of the buses were. Right. Yeah. Okay. Um Member Hills, are you done? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Member Member Perry, do you have further discussion? >> Yeah, I'm having trouble with this for comment. I really want to thank Payal and and Leslie and Erica. They've been so valuable and we have gotten a lot done in a short amount of time. I also uh I know some people say this is oh, your little pet project. Give it up.
257Yeah, it has been for many years and and nothing was done. But as I said before, I had two students who could not get from the Audubon here and dropped out and didn't graduate from high school. I had another student who had muscular problems and would just be rolled kind of shoved and rolled out the bus to roll down the street. And that was very upsetting to me. I know it's only a few kids, as people say, but we care about every kid. And I uh had many parents, but also students talk to me about not feeling safe on the bus because of what goes on when kids are kids. And not all kids can have their parents drive them. So, I'm very excited and hope that we will okay to have a bus monitor.
258And um so there will be everyone will feel more safe, both parents and students. It will also, like you mentioned, be part of our sustainability. Our air will be cleaner if more parents and kids feel safe taking the bus. So, I really hope people will agree to do this. And maybe not. >> Thank you. Logan, do you have any comments or questions? Or comments, I guess, cuz we've had questions. Okay. Um I also want to um mirror what um Clerk Perry has said. I'm grateful for all of you for being on the committee. We've done really great work. I think it's really important to point out that um this whole list of You've thrown me off because you have a couple things in these things together. I don't know where it went. But the whole
259list of things that we've accomplished have all been done at no cost. So, what it took was a group of people that had different perspectives to come together and identify the problems. And I don't think that this bus safety was even the beginning of what we expected. We thought it was really just providing access for our students in the Audubon. And where the conversation went was we have safety issues on our buses that we need to address. And with a little strong-arming at times with Durham, um we were able to incorporate all of these items that are completed at no cost, but it's happened because there was an awareness, we brought it to their attention, we collaborated and worked together and to find a solution. Um we talk about every student every day. And I
260cannot believe that it is challenged to fund something that is for every student, every day. So, we have a motion on the floor. If there's no further discussion, we'll call vote. Logan? >> Yes. >> Thank you. Quickberry? Thank you. Dr. Mantusky? >> Yes. >> Thank you. Dr. Kelly? >> Yes. >> Thank you. Howard? >> Yes. >> Thank you. Yes. Thank you. 5-0 with a provisional vote. Okay. So, we have two more items on the agenda and um public comment. Typically, we try and wrap up right around now for public so we can get to public comment, but I think we have two items that are important. Um the with that contract. Um So, Dr. Glass wrote item C, review and discussion of enrollment criteria and potential to further define enrollment options. >> Uh thank you,
261Madam Chair. Um I presented or or put in the board packet uh lengthy not so lengthy four-page-long proposal around this. And so, my presentation uh will just be a an overview of that. I won't go into the detail that um the uh memo memorandum that I provided to you has. Uh I'll also acknowledge that um Dr. Betsy Cannonburg uh helped uh tremendously with this presentation and the thinking through this. Dr. Cannonburg is the one who uh manages our inter-district transfer process. Um and what we are bringing to you is a proposal or a concept. We're not asking for board action tonight. Um we're asking for your feedback on an idea. Um but for some background, um we are experiencing sustained enrollment decline. Uh, it's it's happening across, um, California, across the United States, and Laguna
262Beach is uh no exception to that. Uh, it's most acutely uh felt it will be felt at the high school level. Uh, enrollment is currently at 818. Uh, that's down from 883 just a couple of years ago. And if we look into the future around the demographic projections in the district, we may have a high school with 600 students. What that will create when you Yes. >> I'm so sorry to interrupt, Dr. Glass. I just want to have a a point of information. I did not have any of this information in my binder, so I'm wondering did we get this all did this all came forward at the meeting, correct? But I didn't have any information in my binder on this. So, I haven't been able to review this. Presentation is not in the binder.
263>> What you have is uh this presentation uh I created over the course of this week. What you have is the memo that this presentation is based on. >> Great. Thank you. Please continue. >> Yeah. So, again, I didn't want to present the whole memo to you again. I'm doing a presentation that covers the points of the memo. A a high school with 600 students is going to experience these kinds of impacts. One is that it will be more difficult to field full rosters in multiple sports. Uh, so think about a football program with 20% fewer athletes or a basketball program with 20% fewer athletes. Uh, you also may see less participation in group performing arts activities such as band, choir, uh, some visual arts, um, that will limit uh production quality student opportunity as
264the number of students falls. Um, we will experience fewer participants in clubs and in leadership uh positions at the schools. And then this is sort of a paradoxical one, but we'll you will have some sections that are really small. Uh uh five to 10 students. And while low class size is is an advantage, when you reach that level, you start to really impact uh peer-to-peer learning, academic diversity, quality of conversation that can happen. So, all these will be effects that the district may feel in the future as we um become a 600 uh student high school. Um for some background information on the transfers, this is what our transfer in transfer out summary looks at across several years. You see that the district has been a net positive and continues to be a net positive
265in the number of students that transfer into the district versus transfer out. So, we just presented that quickly. Um from a policy perspective, I want to orient you to how the policies are constructed. Um the board policy on this is 5117. It is a very broad framework. Um what it all it touches on is that the board uh may enter into interdistrict agreements with other districts. Uh it touches on the approval or denial of transfer uh requests, and those are delegated to the administrative regulation, which I'll touch on in just a second. And it notes that the district doesn't provide transportation for interdistrict students. So, that's it. That's all the board policy touches on. So, the main point there is the second one. All the details about how interdistrict transfer works are in your administrative
266regulation. They are not in your policy. So, we'll go to that next. So, the the administrative regulation, as you see, has a lot more of these orange points. Uh so, those are the elements within it. And so, I'm not I won't belabor it, um but it touches on who is eligible to apply for an interdistrict transfer. You see that it's open to all out-of-district families, but bullying victims and uh military dependents receive priority. Uh there are some automatic approvals, so students that automatically receive an inter-district transfer where allow them in. So, the mid-year moves means that if you're a student here and your family moves out of the district, but you want to continue going to school here, they are approved. Juniors and seniors that have been in the district in the past get to
267continue. Employees' children school um What is the acronym, Betsy? SARB. School Attendance Review Board, thank you. Referrals. Those are automatic approvals. There's also a section in the administrative regulation around what the terms and conditions, so what supporting documents are required that we revoke the inter-district transfer if someone provides us false information, some misconduct. Sometimes if you aren't eligible in one of those eligible categories and you fall out of it, that that's covered in there. Continued enrollment and school assignment, so we've recently changed this to say we were asking every student that's on an inter-district transfer to apply to continue every year. We've changed that to say it every grade span, so the transition from elementary to middle school, middle school to high school. That's just to reduce some of the burden that we put on
268families in having to reapply for this every year. Make it more manageable. There's an appeal criteria that has been put into this administrative regulation in in my time here where if if a student is denied inter-district transfer into the district, they can appeal to me. There are some criteria around that that are written into the um administrative regulation. You see it contains how the permits for inter-district transfers can be revoked. Um and then transfers out of the district. Military families, bullying victims cannot be blocked from transferring out of the district. So, again from a policy standpoint, your board policy is really broad. Your administrative regulations have all of the detail about how this works. Okay. Okay. Um how the process works, and this is Betsy's world. And Betsy, um why don't you come up and
269talk the board through this uh process? >> Hi. Good evening. So, our inter-district transfer process always begins with the district of residence. So, the first step families need to do is go to their home district and get approval to um be released from the district. And it's important to note that funding does not follow the student. So, the funding, if they're coming from Capistrano, the funding remains with in Capistrano. And so, typically, the administrators in the home school district will write a note, um ADA does not convey, and that's what that means. It means funding does not follow the student. So, once the home district has approved the transfer, it then comes through our office to process. And we adhere to the administrative regulation to determine whether or not we approve that transfer. Dr. Glass
270just went over all of the criteria and conditions. Typically, the transfers that we see coming through are staff students, but occasionally, we do see um students who are not affiliated with our district. So, students who are not requesting junior or senior privilege due to a move, but rather families that would be new to our district, but do not have current affiliation with us. So, um if the district uh approves the transfer, we then send that information to the home district for the final approval. We notify the families that their students are going to be attending the LBUSD school for the next year. If the inter-district permit is denied because it does not meet the conditions outlined in the administrative regulation, we send a letter to the families informing them that they do not meet the
271criteria for approval and we let them know of their right to appeal. There are two appeal processes in place. The first is a direct appeal to Dr. Glass that he has put into place this year. Families who have moved out of the district, so do have affiliation, i.e. are asking to be a continuing student, are eligible to appeal to Dr. Glass. The third layer of appeal if an appeal to the superintendent is denied is to go to the Orange County School Board. To make you all aware, the Orange County School Board does have the authority to override local district policies where and administrative regulations when it comes to inter-district transfers. So, if a family decides they want to appeal to the Orange County Board of Education, there's a very formal process. They need to complete
272a packet. That process entails a formal hearing in a closed session where the district states their case, the family states their case, and then the board votes on whether or not that family's inter-district appeal will be approved. So, thus overriding the local board policies. >> Thank you, Betsy. Just a quick point to underscore on the slide or the box 3B there. I have underscored appeal to the County Board of Education. Betsy rightfully said that the County Board of Education has the authority to override the local district's determination. And what she didn't say that I will say is they do that 90% of the time. When we deny an appeal, it goes to the Orange County Board of Education, they approve it, and then the student is admitted. So, that's part of our consideration is we
273have a lot of steps and consideration in our process that will if the family is willing to follow through to the Orange County Board of Ed, they'll overturn us. >> Can I ask a quick question, Betsy? Um I misunderstood what you said about how the funding works. If a student comes into our district, transfers in, >> We do not receive funding for our transfer students. So >> So even with Yeah, so >> It stays with their home district. Okay. >> Exactly. So the ADA funding, if they're an ADA funded district, that stays with that district. So we do not receive revenue from those students. >> a really important point. So we're going to hang on to that one and come back to it cuz that's part of this story. >> Sorry, Dr. Dr. Glass, I'm
274looking at the time and in 10 minutes we're going to need to extend, but we only have 30 minutes. We have the the consent calendar and one more item that needs to be discussed and I and questioned. Um and I do think that this is a very robust conversation that we need to have and I can see this conversation being an hour in and of itself. Um so I'm wondering if we can finish the presentation and if we can table questions and comment and discussion for the next meeting and then I can ask um John Mr. Pearl, if we table the questions and the discussion, do we table the public comment also or can we take public comment and then table questions and and board discussion cuz it's really a discussion item. It's not question
275It's there's no motion. So we could do questions and and discussion all at the same time. >> I would allow for public comment. Um just Okay. Especially if member if members of the public are here. >> And we do, so that would be great. So Would that be okay if we finish the conversation and then we table the conversation the the cuz I know it's really important. I know um member Perry has been talking to you about this and so um I I know that it's an important conversation, but I honestly think it would be way too rushed or we'll >> I I appreciate that and uh we'll of course um uh do as you're asking. And yeah, so we'll move quickly through this and with the understanding that the board may discuss it later.
276Um, and so just to kind of uh jump to the main point of this. Um I would direct your a I direct your attention to the unbiased admission process which is going to be important as we consider the option coming forward. We can we do not consider is someone a great athlete or not. Um, their financial status or or are they a student who's learning English or any personal characteristics of a student when it comes to these inter-district transfers and that would absolutely be the case going forward. So, to the proposed expansion and to Dr. Melchesky's question or or point around funding. We are basic aid district. So, the funding that we have is generated from local property taxes. If we increase students or we decrease students, that that basic aid funding doesn't adjust. That's
277different than most other districts in California and really across the rest of the country where their funding is directly tied to their enrollment levels. So, if we lose students, our funding will stay the same. If we bring students in, our funding will stay the same. Um, the reason that we're bringing this forward is not for a financial or budget consideration. It's purely thinking about how can we stabilize enrollment and allow our programs to remain robust and vibrant. The proposal that we're bringing forward for you to consider tonight is um, one part of that. It does not solve the larger problem. Um, but what you see here is is the concept of can we reach out to some of our major employers, the city, the college of art and design, our water districts, other nonprofits that
278we work with and allow their their employees to open enroll into Laguna Beach. As we looked at our data of students who leave Laguna Beach, the top reason that they told us was because their parent works in another district and the school a school for their child is convenient to the parents place of work. And so that's the same thing we would be doing in reverse is allow allowing people who live outside of Laguna Beach but work in this community to bring their their students in and go to school here. I also think it's a terrific support for all of these organizations and others that we might consider. Um and and um Madam Chair, I'm trying to move quickly as I know that you've got some other items to get to. Uh just some considerations
279uh for you to think about. We've talked about the revenue neutrality. I won't belabor it but more students or fewer students don't equate to more or less dollars uh for us. On this employer equity considerations, if we think about which employers we would want to extend this to, we probably should put in place a process or a formal vetting procedure. So, if there are other employers who wish to be considered, we have some way to do that that's fair and transparent. Um we also would consider capacity. We would not want to get ourselves in a condition where we would need to hire or add staff uh to uh as we added uh enroll enrollment where there are spaces available in the school, we would open up open enrollment for that. And then there there is
280a couple of other uh concepts to think about as just as considerations. One is this legacy enrollment. Could we look at, for example, someone who is um a graduate of Laguna Beach High School and could their grandchildren go to school here? Other concepts that have been brought forward are things like um coaches, uh people who are coaches in the district, could we allow their uh students to go to to go to school here? All of these are uh possibilities for uh consideration. Um so, our our request and we'll get to this next time. Um actually, I'll I'll stop here cuz I think this this gets into the things that the the board really needs to deliberate on. We really just wanted to bring you this idea and have you think about it. We're not recommending
281anything. We're not We're not changing the administrative regulation to allow this. Um but we do think it's an important discussion for the for our future and one that the board is represented as representatives of the community should weigh in on. Betsy, have I left anything out that we need to make sure we touch on? >> No, just that this is a very complex topic and there's many considerations and many um layers to discuss and so our recommendation is to have a lot of dialogue, of course, with our school leaders, our school teams, and of course, our parent community, as well, and all of our stakeholder groups because um you know, there's many different ways of looking at this topic. It is, you know, not something that's simple and easy, as Dr. Glass said, to throw
282a change into the AR, and you need to think about the long-term considerations uh as well as the short-term. So, our be our recommendation would be to really engage the stakeholders in meaningful dialogue. >> Thank you. Um I appreciate that, and I'd like to um move to suspend the rules and consider having public comment on this item and tabling the rest of the conversation for a future meeting. Thank you. Sec- Um I had a I think I made the motion, you moved it, so second. Okay, great. Getting late. Uh all in favor? Thank you. Um Okay. Thank you very much. All right, we're going to move on to item 10. >> We're going to do one public comment at >> Thank you. >> Erica Rule. >> Um I'll be fast. Uh my name is Erica
283Henault, and I just want to share I come from a school district that also saw a steep decline in enrollment to the point where the middle school and high school were combined. And there are a lot of different strategies to expand enrollment um more than just potential city start strategies, like affordable housing, but like what uh Dr. Glass is saying, grandchildren, Uh at expanding it to more than just maybe nonprofit employers, but any employer that has, you know, some sort of certification. Um but in general, it's definitely an important topic to me. I have a young young child in this, so I'm here for the long haul. So, I'm really want to make sure that enrollment stability does continue to exist. Thank you. >> Thank you, Erica. Do we have any additional public comments? Okay.
284Thank you so much. Um again, my apologies. Okay. Moving on to our final item item 10, business services or not our final item. Consent. >> Mrs. Morgan, may I have a motion to extend? >> Yes. Good. Start stumbling over your words like I am. Perfect. Um do I have a second? Thank you. All in favor? I. Thank you. Okay, moving on. Item 10, approval of agreement for legal services with Morgan Lewis and Bockius. Uh Mr. Registrar, where did he go? Oh, there he >> The legal services is to be used for the AB 218 claim uh reimbursement from the um insurance at that point of time from 1970. So, uh this legal firm specializes in that kind of claim reimbursement from um insurance because the first thing the insurance was denying the our claim. So,
285we need, uh, uh, an expert, uh, legal firm to pursue the claim. >> Point of order. >> Yes. >> Madam Chair, um, so, the legal services agreement is required to be approved in open session, but obviously the board has discussed and there've been conversations in closed session about the merits, about, you know, different options not relative to the selection of the firm. So, I would just advise the board to be careful about what's said, um, in open session relative to the litigation at issue. >> Thank you for that reminder. I appreciate that. I'm going to move to board questions. Um, Dr. Kelly, no questions? Member Ellis? >> Yeah, um, well, actually, thank you for making that, uh, clarification because I'd like to find out what's on the public record on some of these cases. Uh,
286you know, this whole subject of legal legal services, um, there's been a lot of comments made in this meeting tonight and in previous meetings about, uh, legal counsel. And there needs to be a really thorough discussion about this because, um, uh, I I I think every member should be able to say whatever a member wants to say, but we're in a situation now where the current board counsel, um, has been accused of having a conflict of interest. And the current board counsel has been accused of of unethical behavior. And, um, uh, at least implicitly, it Well, no, yes, you did say that. You said You said that the >> Point of order. >> Point Point of order, just to defend myself. I I do not believe that you accused me of having a conflict of
287interest. I believe you used the word that it it was your recommendation to have a disinterested attorney. Whether I agree with you or not, that's that's what I heard you say. So, I and I didn't think you were accusing me of any unethical conduct at all. >> No, it it it is very >> pejorative. >> Thank you. Okay, this is not a debate. >> Council does not have a disinterested >> Can you ask a question, please, so we can move into then we can move to >> is You know, this this requires more of a discussion than is going to be possible here. And this isn't the first time this has happened. But I just want to say for the record that from December of 2024 until December 2000 >> We are going to come
288back to discussion. We're just asking questions. >> Yeah, okay. So, what is on the public record about this case? That's what I'd like to know. Cuz you're you're telling us that we can't talk about the case or we got to be careful what we say about the case. I'd like to know what's on the public record about this guy. I'm concerned about the fact that for a whole series of litigation cases a lot of them involving both um the liability issues. Um I'm not sure the public knows what the public should know about these cases. On one hand, you're saying, "Let's be careful about what we say about the case." >> Hey. >> But what what I want to >> Point of order, you've asked your question. >> What's on public record about this case?
289>> Thank you. >> That's that's your question. What's on public record? I'm sorry to interrupt, but I I want to make sure we keep questions as questions and discussion as discussion, and I think we vacillate on that a little bit. >> Full full disclosure, I am not representing the board or the district in this litigation. My caution to you or advice to you is just just to be careful that you're not revealing something. So, I can't I can't answer definitively as to what is and what is not um you know, on the public record relative to this case. I I just can't answer it. >> Thank you. We'll come back for discussion, Howard. Member Montusky, Dr. Montusky. >> Since we can't talk about the case and there is um I think we've established the need
290for using this attorney, it strikes me that it doesn't make sense to even move to discussion. Because what are you going to discuss publicly? So, is it possible for us to just go to a motion to approve this? Because otherwise we risk getting into a discussion about the case, which we can't have, and about legal bills in general, which is not what this is this motion is about. So, we could just finish this and >> have a question? >> I'm asking Mr. Pearl if it if you can suspend discussion because we can't discuss the case. Can we just move to a motion? >> You always have the right to move to a motion to call the question if you have the support of um three other members in addition to yourself. You would need four
291members. But so that would be one option. Um I think the board could speak to the contract that was proposed. Um >> to ask a question. >> And that and that is certainly fair game and and the public that's been attached to this agenda. And if there are questions about the contract or the board doesn't feel like they're ready to make a decision about the contract or it needs more information, um you know, there are there are different firms, not my firm, so I'm not plugging away for for but there are other firms that provide these kinds of services for you know what's called like insurance an insurance archaeologist is is I think the proper art term. Um so, I think those kinds of things could be discussed um rather than getting into the merits
292and I I appreciate the concern that that that's being expressed. >> Thank you. Do you have any member um Okay. Logan, do you have any questions? Okay. I have a question. Why is the total Why is the requested amount per hour $2,095? That seems outrageous. >> So, the it's actually like I reached out to the attorney. It's he's his rate of pay is a $1,730 with a 10% discount. So, for his work it's going to be 1,550. But again, as we shared this is a very kind of maybe niche uh area for in in the in you know, in in in like for for lawyers I I would say. Um so, it's kind of a unique service he provides and and ultimately again our our goal is to I we are we've we've already used
293a insurance archaeologist and they they hit a dead end on on this case. So, in one last ditch effort to attempt to find coverage for the the liability that have that so that so we can get reimbursed from coming out of our our reserves. This was this was the recommendation from our attorney who's currently handling this case. >> May I ask a question? >> I was going to ask you a question. Is this a typical rate for an insurance for a um attorney of a >> I I don't know the answer. I know I know that there are less expensive insurance archaeologist. Do you know Mike who who who the board and district retained previously? >> We use Arsena. >> Okay. There's there are other firms that I'm aware of, but I'm not saying anything
294to disparage the attorney or the firm. Um both are reputable, but and that's not what I'm speaking to, but if the board is concerned about cost, there are other options. >> How many um how many um bids were subject were submitted for this um need? >> Thank you. Um this firm was brought to us by the council on the 2B 18 AB 218 case. It's who that council recommended that we use to pursue given the um specialization and factors of the case. >> That and that attorney firm is the McCune firm. Is that right? Or Dana McCune is the attorney What's the direct attorney? What's the firm? >> Uh Dana McCune. >> No, it's the McCune and Harbor. >> McCune and Harbor. Thank you. Um okay. I have no further questions. Are there any? Uh
295we need a public comment first. >> Yes. Um Aaron Berryman. >> She is not She left. Thank you. >> Thank you. Go Kelly. Okay. Um for so discussion Any further discussion? >> Yes. >> Please be brief. >> Um there have been statements made by board members and by union representatives and um in writing and in in meetings uh and some of the comments that have been made include statements such as "You finally found a lawyer who would give you the opinion you want." And that's those are references um to Mr. Pearl. Mr. Pearl's a really nice guy and um but I'm not on this subject. And um I'm very concerned about what's been said. When you say a lawyer cannot be disinterested, you are saying that that lawyer has bias. And um so I want
296to make and and the comment is that we finally found a lawyer that would say what we want. I want to give a little bit of history here real quick. Um from I'm sorry. I don't want to be interrupted >> has the floor. >> Um >> Member Hills has the floor. He's just starting. >> We we are in a situation right now where we're being told that since there may be some things that we can't say about this, that we can say nothing about this case. And that's not right. That's wrong. That's what this district has done for too many years is the public does not have any idea what's going on in litigation. A lot of the litigation never has been revealed. And so um I just want to make one thing clear given
297some of the things that have been said. Um first of all, on the governance issues, for the last 16 months >> to keep you focused on this contract specifically. >> this contract. For the last 16 months, the council that has advised us on governance issues is the council that was employed by Jan Vickers and Jason Valoria when they ran the school district. And so um the suggestion that we finally got that we uh finally got a lawyer that would give us the opinion we want, we actually Mr. Pearl has said no to me and disagreed with me more than the the Vickers Valoria lawyer did, who we worked with actually very well for 16 months. Because I respected the lawyers who worked for Jan Vickers and Valoria uh because in all their dealings with me,
298uh they had integrity and they did a good job. Um so the suggestion and then we've got two other law firms that are on the books that we didn't hire, that they hired, that are still on the books. And um the problem that we got into, instead of us instead of us lawyer shopping, the problem we got into is that the lawyers that we were dealing with that were holdovers from the last administration, they had conflicts of interest. And so we needed new counsel. Excuse me, when we're hiring new counsel, the subject of our practices in dealing with legal services is relevant. I should not having to be arguing with a member if I want to make a statement. >> I >> Um so >> I'm moving the previous question. >> The point is here
299now, um I'm not going to get the answers, but the fact of the matter is we've got the Aliso property case, we've got this case that involves 218, and that's a you know, we get a lot of talk about here. Why are we going into past grievances? Well, why are we spending money to deal with a past grievance that involves um somebody that was an employee of the district who is now a liability. Um and also I want to ask this, if we've already been told if we've already been told that if we've already settled this case, and the subject is whether or not we're insured, then what's the rush? If we've already settled it, why are we rushing to do this? So, we've got a big problem in what's being said about our counsel.
300Um the I just want to last thing I want to say is this. We worked with the counsel that we inherited. So, the idea that we're lawyer shopping is is just a lie is what it is. Number one, number two, um the way we found the DDK the DWK firm is that the administration, in fact, um Superintendent Valoria asked us to go up to a CAB CBSA um uh conference, and this DWK firm is recruited by California School Board Association to make feature presentations at the big conferences. And so, this wasn't some kind of backroom deal or something. Um that law firm is one of the most respected firms in the state of California and is featured as a speaker at the big annual conferences. So, the idea that we went shopping to find a
301lawyer who would give us our opinion, I will just say this, Mr. Pearl has said more no to me more often than the other lawyers ever did. So, >> Thank you. >> I'm going to oppose this tonight. I don't see there's any reason to do this tonight. If we've already settled the case, then the question of whether we are insured or not is something we can deal with on our own time cuz it deals with an old grievance. And so, you know, we're pretty selective about what we call, "Oh, let's not deal with old grievances. Well, well, let's not appropriate any money for this. Let's not settle the case." You know, the fact of the matter is we take responsibility for old problems and old grievances, and that's what we need to do here. But,
302there's no reason to hurry through this tonight. I'm going to vote against it. >> Thank you, Howard. I need a um is there's no further comment, I need a motion on the floor to either ex- You You move You The motion is to move the contract forward? Okay. Okay. Uh all in favor? To um let's do a roll call vote. Um member Kelly. >> Yes. >> Howard. >> No. >> Member Malchesky. >> Yes. >> This Clerk Perry. >> Yes, but I wish we could have a time limit on the amount of time we're going to give them. It's a $1,500 an hour company. >> Logan. >> Uh yes. >> So, I vote no, but the motion has passed to accept this contract the way it is. >> Can we get an update about the hours
303and overtime since we approved the contract? Is there a way to get an update or get more information as the work is carried out? >> May I make a suggestion? >> Yes. >> Direct superintendent, your chief business official, as I think they would in most cases, if not all cases, to work closely with counsel to manage and and minimize costs. >> Great. Thank you. >> Okay, so the motion passes three to two. Okay, consent calendar is next. Does anyone have um Um are there any board members that have uh questions on the consent on items B through P that require pulling any item? Okay. Yes. Mhm. >> Um as we're talking about this, my question is um if we're no longer using Atkinson Adelson AALR, um why are why are in January did we pay
304that are we being charged $39,000 when we already moved to DWK? >> We still have some uh historical uh cases and issues um that were from prior to changing over to DWK and Mr. Pearl as uh board counsel that we're still being invoiced for uh and a couple of those are still continuing forward. And so, as to not disrupt the support that the district receives, we continued with the council that was with AALRR. You have uh multiple law firms uh that you can work with, and so we continued with those because those lawyers had expertise and background knowledge on the issues we were working on. >> Howard. >> Um is there any reason we can't transfer those to at F3 Law Firm or some We've got law firms that we've had on retainer for years
305and are doing other work. Um I I would suggest we get an inventory of what we still got going with with uh Atkinson and that we figure out um what the pending items are um and assign them to another law firm. I think there's conflict of interest issues and that doesn't have anything to do with the integrity or the ethics of the lawyers involved. It It's a matter that they advise the district when um issues that are now being discussed. Um uh and I think they need a clean break and we need a clean break. And um it'll be good for them and good for us. So, is there any reason why we can't just get an inventory of what those items are and um and transfer them to one of the other law firms?
306>> In the last week's board update, that question was asked and answered. So, it is that information is in there. What >> I saw that. But, the point is are we going to do it? >> Well, we're we are doing it. So, we have um as I mentioned, some limited issues that were from before the change to the current board council that um uh we felt it was appropriate to continue forward so as not to disrupt the legal services that we were getting on those issues. So, when they're resolved, uh any future items have been moved over to DWK. That's happened. >> Do you have any >> Do we have any other items that need to be questioned or pulled? No. Okay. We have a resolution on the consent calendar, so we need to take
307a roll call vote. May I have a motion to approve the consent calendar items B through P. Thank you. All roll call vote, Logan. >> Uh yes. >> Thank you. Quickberry? >> Yes. >> Thank you. Remember Malchesky? Thank you. Quick uh remember Hills? This is consent calendar. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Thank you. I vote yes. Motion passes 5-0 and I we have our last item, but I do have a point of point of information. Back on the the contract, um I I respect that it was approved by my um fellow board members, but I really have a hard time with it. So, I guess my question is um we can put we can direct staff to put a limit on it. Do we do that now? Should we have done that when we had
308the contract? But we didn't No, we didn't put we we mentioned that we wanted to put limits on it. We didn't actually establish limits because I think that at the end of the day, my concern is that this could be a goose chase down a rabbit hole that can cost us a bajillion dollars if we don't manage it. And if we've already looked into it once and this is a last ditch effort to throw a thousand dollars on a last ditch effort, I have a real problem with. I know it's approved, but I'm just curious how we can really put that in a narrow lane. >> So, this this is not an area of my expertise, um this particular niche, but certainly if if the attorney has a strategy as to how he will go
309about doing this, that's actually something that could be explained to the board in closed session >> Okay. >> cuz that will be giving away sharing, you know, his his thoughts, his insights, his strategies. And then um then the board could provide that direction to him directly, and again, Dr. Glass um is already prepared to speak directly to the attorney. >> because we've approved the contract doesn't need mean it needs to be executed until perhaps we have that close session. >> doesn't mean it's wide open that the attorney can spend as many hours as they want. You can put parameters on that. >> Okay, so we can bring it up in close session at the next agenda. Great. Thank you for that clarification. Okay. >> I have a suggestion. Um >> And I need to get
310to public comment. We have And we only have three, so >> My suggestion is that we direct the to prepare an inventory >> But we don't have a motion to do that, so we have So, I I hear what you're saying, Howard. We're going to move on to public comment. We can ask for that information. Um Dr. Glass has said that it's in a weekly report, um and we can ask for a direction on where it is if in the document um to help, and then we can ask further questions from there, but I would like to move on to public comment. >> Yeah. All I All I'm asking for is that we >> Okay. I know what >> I would No, you don't know what I'm asking for. What I'm asking for is that
311we get a statement about each lawsuit that's out there. Get a statement from the staff about what the publicly available information is >> Okay, point of order. Okay, thank you, Howard. Point of order. I'm going to move on to public comment on non-agenda items. Do we have any additional cards? >> Yes. Um Shaheen Sheikh Sadul? >> Good evening. Um my name is Shaheen Sheikh Sadul, and I'm a parent of two kiddos in the district. Um this one's a little bit emotional for me tonight. There is a Substack piece circulating in the community right now that goes well beyond critique. It is personal, demeaning, and trades in tropes that women, especially women of color, are expected to absorb if they choose to lead. This image was created and circulated by individuals aligned with this current board
312majority. It is an AI-generated depiction of me holding an axe covered in blood. Let's not pretend that this exists in a vacuum. This is the environment surrounding this board. And whether it's authored directly or amplified indirectly, it reflects on leadership. I also want to acknowledge something else. There are people in this community, my community, who are hurting tonight. Not because of politics, but because of what this kind of discourse says about who belongs and how we're allowed to show up. I see you. And I am grateful for you. We are not going to shrink in response to this. We are going to keep showing up, including like we did 400 strong on Main Beach today. We are going to keep asking hard questions and we are going to keep on better. For our schools, for
313our kids, and for each other. That is what real leadership looks like. >> Secretary, do we have any other cards? Any public speakers? Okay. Okay. All right. So, that wraps up our meeting. I don't know where my I need um our next meeting is we have a governance meeting next Thursday. That's April April 23rd. We need to I need a motion to adjourn. >> So moved. >> Thank you. Second? Okay. Uh our next meeting is scheduled for April 23rd. It's a governance board meeting and then the next regularly scheduled meeting is May 14th. Can I have a um All in favor? I I I 5-0.