001It's my pleasure to bring the Tuesday, May 13, 2025 Elsa Unified School District regular board of education meeting to order at 6 pm. Um, do we do public comments first? Oh, no, that's not. Sorry, I'm looking at the wrong. So, at this time, I would like to invite our director of fiscal services, Kitty Lynn, to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. So, we have uh no action taken in close session. And now we move on to the agenda p hearing period public communications and I'm going to read a preamble. Thank you for taking the time to address the board of education during the public comment time. Individuals who have submitted a speaker card may address address the
002board on any topic within the board's jurisdiction regardless of whether it is listed on the agenda. However, the board may only discuss agendaized items in the order shown in the posted agenda. Topics not on the agenda that are brought to the board's attention may be investigated by the administration and may be reported to the board either publicly or privately at a future meeting. Comments shall not exceed three minutes per individual speaker for non-aggenda items and five minutes for agenda items. Thank you to the members of the public for your comments tonight. We value your input. And we do have uh one speaker card from Melissa McCaffy. Um it's a three three minute, huh? Non-aggenda. Hi. Hi, President Clinton and members of the school board. Um, I had no idea this was going to be going
003on behind me when I ran up here in my pink sweatuit. Um, but after the Ed Gala on Friday, I was talking to several teachers and one of them who I'd never met and said, "I know who you are because you spoke at the school board." And it just made me realize how important it is to come up here and tell you all when things are going great in the district. Um, I know you all know me, but my uh twins are about to finish 8th grade at the middle school and we've been there for 5 years. When we entered in 2020 during COVID, there was a completely different principal, completely different um regime other than obviously the fantastic teachers who are there and are still there. Um, so I just wanted to let you
004know how impressed I've been with Sarah Devontes and now her bringing in Andrea Burke is amazing and just Yeah. And there's so many so so many middle schoolers here. And I know you don't hear enough good things about the middle school. Um so and people tend to look at it like it's this they do they tend to think of it's like a drag period of schools. And I'm here to tell you that you know the the gym that was built is like such a game changer over there because when my daughter was there it was under construction and there was just the big field. Having the middle school sports really dialed in right now has changed the trajectory of some of my kids and what they're going to do in high school. So middle school
005is never to be forgotten. It is an amazing place for our Elsagundo students to go to school. And I've told Sarah and I've told Andrea how great they are as are their front office staff as are there's I think some of the absolute best teachers in the district are there. And I've told those teachers I think that. So I felt it was only fitting to come tell all of you what an amazing place and what an amazing job has been done in the five years that I've been there. It's unrecognizable from when we entered to when we're leaving. So anyway, thank you. Go Bulldogs. Yes, Miss Burke is here. All right, special presentations. We have our student representative report Grady Lubes full house too. Good evening everyone. Everyone uh it's been a busy and exciting
006few weeks at Elsand Ohio. So let's dive into all that has been happening. Uh first the run for education went very well even in the rain. Despite the weather, we had a great turnout and it was as always a great way to bring the community together. Prom is coming up this Saturday and our junior officers have been working hard this whole year to make sure that it is a night to remember and so we're all super super excited for the big day. Moving on to scholar quiz. The competition was intense, let me tell you. My team got bounced in the third round unfortunately. Uh but congrats to Towns Potter, Zachary Cummings, Alexander Donahghue, and Kaden Hawkins for clinching the win. Look at that. Love that. I love the audience. A big thank you to all
007the teachers and staff that made it possible to do uh tournaments like that. It's really all hands- on deck, especially in the first round when there's 16 games going at once. They're all in teachers classrooms. So, it's a production and it takes a village. So, thank you to all the staff that help out. Um, speaking of tournaments, the Hits for Huntington's tournament is also coming up soon. This dodgeball tournament raises money for Huntington's disease and all team fees go directly to the cause. It's a fun way to get involved and also make a difference. A few weekends ago, the hometown fair was a blast once again, rain or shine. Uh our classes and clubs raised a lot of money and it was a great way to support the school community. In sports, our baseball and
008softball teams are still grow going strong in CIF. Uh they also both won their leagues along with track, beach volleyball, and boys golf. Boys golf also got all five spots in CIF from their league. So, that's pretty awesome. A special shout out to girls lacrosse who are in the CIF semi-finals. Let's keep the energy up for them. Oh, finals. Look at that. Yeah. For senior activities, we have a ton of fun lined up. Grad night at Disneyland is coming soon and we'll also be having our senior barbecue to celebrate. And of course, graduation is right around the corner on June 13th. Actually, one month. That's crazy. With APs in full swing, the year is definitely coming to a close. I personally have my last ever AP exam tomorrow. So excited for that. Uh it's been
009a long time, but we are almost there. A few weeks ago, choir had their final concert of the year, and it was an emotional one, especially for the seniors. Orchestra has their final concert of the year tomorrow, which I'm sure will be a beautiful and emotional performance as well. Thank you. And that is the end of my report. Thank you, Grady. So, now we have a special student recognition of the Western States Cup championship with AYSO and we have Rose Arenss and Carrie Oashian. Thank you. Right. So tonight's special rec recognition is being given to a remarkable young group of athletes from our Elsa Gundo community. The ASO U10 Allstar boys soccer team who have accomplished something truly extraordinary. This team recently captured the Western States Cup championship, officially earning the title of best among
010all U10 ASO All-Star teams from Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, and or Arizona. [Music] Yeah. According to the ASO commissioner who awarded them their medals and trophies, these nine players represent the top nine out of more than 200,000 participants. Yeah. Did you guys know that? So to reach this championship, the team first triumphed in area 1D, then advanced to win section one, the largest section in the nation before going on to claim the Western States title. Each victory along the way was a testament to their skill, determination, and most importantly, their unity as a team. Throughout their journey, they have embodied the very best of sportsmanship, resilience, and character. Their accomplishment speaks not only to their athletic talent, but also to the powerful support they've received from dedicated coaches, families, and our broader community. They
011are an inspiration to us all and a shining example of what's possible when talent meets dedication and young people are encouraged to pursue their dreams with passion and purpose. So the the Elsa Gundo Unified School District Board of Education proudly recognizes the AYSO U10 Elsagundo All-Star Team Western States Cup champions. Cameron Bips. Cameron Bips, come on up. Cameron, Will [Applause] Boer, Kelly Crouch, Rayan Fennel, Riker, Frankie, Weston Keelman, Ryder Osborne, and Connor [Applause] Stewart. Special thanks to head coach Jordan Stewart and on the other side and assistant coach Greg Boer Boer. Okay, we're just going to stand up in the back. Here we go. One, two, three. Parents, get in there if you want to. [Music] I want to have another party. Okay. Um, moving along, we have another student recognition of uh Elsa Gundo
012High School student AI presenters, Marica Janisk. I'm a little taller. Sorry. Uh, good evening, President Glenn, members of the board, Dr. Johnson, and everyone everyone that is here. Tonight is my absolute privilege to recognize a truly exceptional group of students from Elsagundo High School, the members of the AI club, whose vision, innovation, and leadership have not only elevated our district, but have made an impact far beyond our local community. These students made history. This year, they organized their very first ever studentled conference in Elsagundo High School. Their focus on artificial intelligence brought together educators and community leaders to explore the role of AI in the future of learning. Their commitment to fostering meaningful dialogue across generations exemplifies the graduate profile in action. Students leading with purpose, empathy, and forwardthinking collaboration. And if you heard any
013of these students speak, you would want to hire them tomorrow. Not only did they lead their very first studentled conference, they didn't stop there. Over spring break, their spring break, this remarkable group of individuals took their work to the international stage at the air show in San Diego, where they presented alongside global educational leaders. These incredible high school students volunteered their time outside of their schoolwork, athletics, and all extracurriculars to create and share AI integrated lesson plans and videos that exceeded all expectations. These future leaders brought creativity, professionalism, and insight to a packed room of educators and edtech leaders who are still emailing us and asking for their contacts. Their work was not only technically impressive, it was deeply thoughtful. It brought the human to AI. As one student reflected, AI is the bridge and
014the support to more engaging learning, not a tool to cheat with or finish assignments quicker. Another said,"I now understand what our teachers do every day in making learning exciting and my respect for them is so much greater under the mentor me mentorship of our incredible AI instructional coach Dr. Fong [Applause] Us and the support of Elsagendo High School sponsorship from Chevron. These students are showing the world what future ready leadership looks like. On behalf of the board of education, we offer our heartfelt congratulations to the ESHS AI club for representing Elsagundo with distinction and for inspiring every single one of us to imagine what's possible when students lead the way. Thank you. I'm gonna call it first names if that's okay. So aravouch not here either. Okay. Two for this is AP testing week and
015a lot of other activities. Aditcha ata. Sorry. I do. Behind the board. Yeah, behind the board. That's a great idea. Thank you. He's running the world. Alex here. Congratulations. Thank you Anya. [Applause] Aven Bennett. [Applause] Brandon, [Music] Braden, Burke, Camden [Applause] also our club president Chase Dylan [Applause] EMTT a [Applause] Stephanie, Ethan and Ethan. Is Sean Jack Capich I'm sorry. Luke Maxwell Nolan. Thank you. The other club president Odin, Michelle, Theo, congratulations. Suffer. No, she's more important. She's more important. But don't forget this. Thank you. Great job, Skyler. Vitka and the mentor Dr. Yuzaf. Give it a hug. Come on. And if you don't know it, you are looking at our bright future in front of you right now. Can you guys really scrunch in like shoulderto-shoulder? You should get there. Can everybody go? All
016right, here we go. [Music] Congratulations. [Music] I need you all. [Music] Thank you. Okay. Um, continuing on in a celebratory manner, we have an update from the Elsagundo Education Foundation with Christa Kaban. [Music] Wow, I never get so many cheers when I come up here. This is exciting. Um, I thought we were going to celebrate some more youngsters before me. There's a lot of people in the audience. It's really cool. Um, but anyway, hi President Glenn, members of the board, Dr. Johnson, so happy to be here. I want to thank all of you that were able to attend the EDG gayla this past Friday evening. It was a success and uh I was so happy to see so many new faces there and recurring faces and everybody coming out to support the kids in our
017district. So, thank you to everyone here and everyone at home. Um we found it to be pretty profitable. Um so I think we're going to make that number for you this year. So um yeah, but that doesn't mean people have to stop giving. we need to um but aside from Gayla, so put that to bed for now. Um and we'll bring it back again next year, I promise. Uh we do have the summer academy still and plenty of signups um left open. I think the cooking class might be full, but there's lots of other offerings this year. Also, we have our elections for our um our board and our um executive board and board in June. So, we should have some new members to announce by the June meeting. Also, Ed wanted to remind everyone
018that when you do attend your spring sings coming up and all those the summer concerts and things like that that that the high school does and has already done and and newsies and the play at the middle school Annie and all of that. Just remember all of that is sponsored by ED and supported by Ed. So, please keep that in mind when you're thinking, what should I do with those extra five dollars this week? Um, also, um, oh, I wanted to make a mention that we do have a lot of Edboard members that attend all of these events and we're so happy to see everyone enjoying them and being part of it. So, thank you all so much. Any questions? Thank you, Christa. I do have one question, of course. Or comment. Yes, ma'am. So,
019love the summer academy. If you are looking for judges for the cooking class, I know you had lunch with them at least once or twice last year and so did Tracy. I know I did. So, yes, I I will let uh I will let the office staff know that we have some judges up here on the panel. Thank you. And now we And now we have a presentation and update on the Elsagundo PTA council, Miss Cheryl Smith. [Applause] Yeah, there you are. Excellent. Hi, my name is Cheryl. I'm the president of the council PTA. What? Hey, there's no music this time. Case, I didn't want to embarrass my president. Sh. Oh, no. We don't do that with other presidents here. Um, so I am here. You all know me. Um, but uh you may not
020know my amazing team. So, we have Christina from Center Street from Center Street. We have Mariah from Richmond Street. Woohoo. We have two presidents tonight from Joyce and uh Wendy and they're from the middle school. Woohoo. And we have Laura in the back. She's our president from the high school. So, without further ado, they're each going to take just a couple minutes to talk about all the great stuff that's going on at their at their units or their schools. And just press the button. Yeah, you got Hello. Um, my name is Christina and I am your center street PTA president. That's me. Um, in the month of February, we did a lot. We uh had our talent show. The bottom left, our teachers actually participated. Um and it was amazing. Uh we did honorary service
021awards. Those were the winners. Uh we had read across America. We did uh readathon and penny wars. Penny Wars was the first time in a very long time. Um we raised about $8500 which was amazing. About 5,000 of it was coins. Um and then the school actually combined it with our read across our readathon. So our kids on that week actually read over 33,000 minutes combined. Um in the month of April we celebrated uh daughter night out. It was Gundo Giddy Up. Richmond and center both joined forces. Um the garden was um back in the swing of things with after all the rain and everything. Um the benches were actually a gift. Uh the money that we used from Run for Education was the gift for the benches. So thank you for that. Um we
022had Teacher Scoop, Earth Day, uh Run for Education. If you saw all the red tutus, those were all teacher staff from Center Street. Great. Um May we celebrated our teachers with teacher and staff appreciation. Um we man we got so much donated from the community. Everybody reached out and helped us. Um the sweatshirts were donated by a uh Rachel Okconor um up in the top left. We the teachers made hats. Um, simplified planners donated teacher planners to every teacher and uh, stuffed pizza donated. It was just a great um, great month. That's it. Hello, I'm Mariah Kulie, your RSS PTA president. And let's see what I have. Um, what we've been up to. We finished convent. We got to go to convention, the statewide PTA convention. Learned a lot. Um, slightly overwhelmed by some of
023the information and excitement level that is happening there, but it was great, very informative. We wrapped DNO like Christina was saying, which is daughter's night out. Both elementary schools pair up to host that event. Super successful. We also had our teacher scoop at Coldstone. Um, building relationships with the community is a big goal for us this year. And next, so that was a big part of that. Just wrapped teacher appreciation. Fabulous event. One of our favorite things to do for our teachers um each year. Love that. And we are ramping up some beautifification projects at Richmond Street, mostly the cafeteria and some outside big walls. Coming up next, we are also joining forces once again with Center to host Sun's Night Out. It'll be hosted at Richmond Street this Sunday. This Sunday already coming up
024quickly. Um PTA puts on a glow party for our students at lunch. That's happening in the month of May. We get to present our scholarships to the high school seniors from PTA each school gifts um towards some scholarships. We get to present those. Our all school yearbook just went to publication two nights ago at about 11:55 p.m. right before the deadline wrapped. And oh, here's some details of our um teacher appreciation. We had a coffee cart one day. We had special hats made. We had tacos one day. We had um parents hosting lunches for a few days in the middle and then got big giant beach bags full of a lot of goodies and that's about it. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Come on up. Okay, so let's see here. So, oops, I
025missed. Did you one more? Okay, I can read that one. Uh, so I'm Joyce. Um I'm the current PTA president um for Elsagunda Middle School and this is Wendy Turk and she's going to be our incoming president and uh we've been busy. We are not just you know we are great bulldogs. We're not just the little pathway in between you know elementary school um and I thank Michelle um you know for pointing that out. But we've been really busy. Uh let's see. So, we had our formal popup shop um back in January and then PTA also helped with our scholar quiz um where we um sponsored the student prizes as well as parent volunteers. Um we had um a very nice program with um S Rebecca Smith um about understanding anxiety and thriving under pressure
026um with a parent companion um uh lecture and talk about raising champions for life. Um we also helped this year with um the CASP testing um providing keyboards and headphones. Um we also are anticipating another um PTSA student member donut day. And then under there um that's not included is also our scholarships that we'll be presenting to the Elsagundo high school students. So we give five of those away at $1,000 each. So excited. Um I was on that committee and I can tell you our Elsagundo High School students are amazing and they are incredible. Uh it m makes me scared for my son a little bit. It's anxietyprovoking. So uh so anyways uh so we finished up some of our fundraising. So um we have one big fundraiser every year. It's called Step It Up.
027It's really great. Um we have a day of awesomeness and um we also for certain donation levels um some kids get to go on an In-N-Out party bus um for lunch. And so unfortunately it got rescheduled because of the fires and then rain and then we finally did it. But it was a fantastic time um and the kids all really had fun and then run for education. So we had a great um kickoff day um for that and I want to uh thank all of the Elsaundo parents and students who um registered because we were number one uh with registration. We worked really hard with our posters and our kickoff and you know um with everybody um you know basically volunteering for that or or registering for that. And then we also had our honorary
028service awards um and you can see um those are the winners there. And then we also had our TSAW our teacher appreciation week. Um I know that Dr. Johnson was there and participated but we had lots of donations again. So, we um our theme was uh you mean the world to us. So, we had lots of international cuisines from uh let's see, Argentina. We had a taco cart. We had Italian food. Um gosh, we had oh, American food. So, we did Britz barbecue um that night. We had uh French baguettes and and so on. So, it was really fun. We also support our teachers every year. Um, every single one of our teachers receives $258 um for classroom supplies and um we also support the counselors that way. Um and then PTSA also supports our
029teacher training and then oh our gifting this year. So with all the funds that we raised um we are able to provide another science classroom with those stools that are over there. So these stools are sort of a big deal. Everybody really likes them. Um we are going to get 36 new microscopes um for all the the science classes. Um also document cameras um those are for the science classes as well. Um we are supporting our bulldog den which is our um sort of uh resource center with like emotional support and so on. Again the scholar quiz um and you can't see them there but we are buying new quad tables and umbrellas and school benches. Oh, and also art supplies for Miss Casai, who is here as well. All right, I think we're good,
030Laura. All right, I'm Laura. I'm the high school president um of PTSA. No, there it goes. All right. So, we had a bunch of workshops um this past year. Um freshman and sophomore chats, the junior talks, CPR um Saturdays, which were well attended, the substance abuse parent talk. Um, a lot of parents wanted to continue on and do more of those talks, the new drivers training workshops. Um, we supported our teachers and staff through the college and career days with supplies. Um, the teacher supplies for the classrooms. We had 100% participation um, as far as teachers go for PTA memberships. Um, every teacher signed up. We were able to put Chromebook chargers in the classrooms and then celebrate our teachers with the Hollywood Superstar Staff and Teacher Appreciation Week. And then we partnered with ASB
031to celebrate our students. Just like Grady said, a whole bunch of things that you touched base on the Gundas Got Talent Quiz Bowl, Eagle Elite. Um, we had our first coin wars and raised about a couple thousand dollars which was able to help with some of the stuff. Um, and that's kind of it. So, we are made up of the four schools and the council oversees all of that. And what we do is we work in partnership with the community. One of the things that we do is we help with the young entrepreneur fair which is put on by one of our chairs. And here we give the opportunity for uh middle elementary school and middle school students mostly to come out and make something and then share it with the community. The chair this
032year actually tied it in with the high school students by having them come out and be mentors especially those in the business pathway. And in addition to that, all the funds that were raised to for an entry fee into the young entrepreneur fair went towards a scholarship that's going to be presented at scholarship night for our seniors. We also brought the community together with the run for education. This was at the finish line. We had so much fun even in the rain and we raised a lot of money. the even the students were excited about it when they ran the when 200 of them ran in the little um five the halfk and the 1k around Richmond Street school or the park um so then that way they could um get the little medals at
033the at the finish line and I do want to give a huge shout out something that we learned this year having the teachers there to greet the little students as they come across was amazing they thought it was so wonderful to see their teacher there so it will be something that we reach out to the elementary schools and hopefully get some more teacher participation on. So, thank you to Miss Montrose for that. Um, we in the spirit of community partnership, we also um partnered this year with the ESFD and ESPD. They had a South Bay hockey game. It was phenomenal and they chose us as the receiving charity for it. We got over $4,500 which we split equally to all four. Thank you. which we split equally to all four schools. So there's another bump.
034So where's this all going? Oh, and then also we love to support our schools. We celebrated excellence with honorary service award. We had over 120 nominations and it was amazing to have all those people up on the stage and just be able to celebrate them that day. In addition, um I wanted to highlight as some of our uh schools already have, we celebrate 27 local seniors with $26,000 in scholarships. We hit the high school as well as arena. So, this comes from every single one of our units or schools, sorry. Um and they they support and and give up. And that's so important that there's that giving all the way from elementary school. It's just touches my heart, especially now that I have a senior. So, where's this all going? Volunteer hours. We put in
035over 60,000 hours of service. If you take the independent sector value of time, that's $34.79 per hour. That's over $2 million that the PTA at four units gives back to our school system. In addition to that, you heard all these great gifts that they're giving. We raise almost a half a million dollars to invest back into our schools. Why are we all silent? There we go. This is amazing work. This is amazing work that's being done by these four presidents soon to be Wendy's joining this team. This is amazing work and it's really hard work and I really want all of them to stand up and be recognized and get an applause. Thank you. Thank you. They are amazing and that's how amazing they are. They all get gold stars. Thank you very much. Okay.
036All right. We're going to recognition of the 2025 certificated and classified employees of the year. And we've got uh Miss V going to present. All right, let's keep the celebration going. Good evening, Board President Glenn, members of the board, Dr. Johnson and Tracy. Uh this is a special time of the year when we get to recognize and appreciate our amazing and dedicated employees for all that they do for our students and their families. Known for its commitment to excellence, Elsagundo Unified is widely respected across the South Bay and state as a district where students flourish in a supportive and inclusive community. Our students success is a result of the collective efforts of our incredible staff. From our teachers to our classified employees to our administrators, each plays a vital role in creating the conditions for
037students to learn, grow, and succeed. Tonight, we get to honor the best of the best. It is my honor and privilege to recognize our classified and certificated 2025 employees of the year. As we recognize these dedicated individuals, our administrators will be joining me at the podium to share why they are so deserving of this recognition. I'd like to invite our first principal uh Rose Erenss, there she is, to join me as we begin this recognition. And I would also like to invite and I'm a roll as our first rec person to be recognized. Please come on up. [Music] Okay, Annie. So proud to recognize Annie Ammeral as our Center Street Classified employee of the year. Annie supports students with special needs in our bridge program where she brings a rare and beautiful combination of patience,
038expertise, and heart to her work each and every day. With a calm, steady presence, she helps students feel safe, seen, and supported no matter the challenge. She meets each child exactly where they are emotionally and instructionally, and gently guides them forward. Her warmth is genuine and it radiates in everything she does. Annie isn't just a valued support to students. She is the glue in her team. A true collaborator, she steps in wherever she's needed with grace and a deep commitment to our shared work. Her ability to connect, uplift, and truly make a difference is something our entire community recognizes and deeply appreciates. We are so lucky to have her. Congratulations. Yeah. Next, Y, I want to invite Joy Pamfield up as [Music] [Applause] our vacated employee. Yes. All right. Okay, Joy, your turn. It's with
039great pride and deep admiration that we recognize Center Street's teacher of the year, Joy Pamphill. From the moment you meet her, you know you're in the presence of someone special. She exudes warmth, compassion, and authenticity. And students and families and colleagues feel instantly at ease in her presence. Joy engenders trust, not just through her kind words and open heart, but through the consistency of her actions. Her classroom is a safe haven where children feel seen, valued, and heard. She embodies the heart of a true teacher, someone who lifts others, leads with empathy, and leaves a lasting imprint on every child she teaches. She is an inspiration. Joy reminds us all of why we do this work and we are incredibly proud to honor her this evening. Congratulations, [Music] [Applause] Joy. I would like to invite
040our next principal up. All right, come on up. Principal Lushian. And then we're going to ask the first classified member to come up, Julia Dunlap. Please join us. Sure. I am thrilled to recognize RSS's classified employee of the year, Miss Julia Dunlap, our phenomenal occupational therapist. Miss Dunlap consistently goes above and beyond in every aspect of her work, all with a smile and a positive attitude. While her role focuses on supporting students with IEPs, her impact reaches far beyond. Teachers regularly seek her out to informally observe students and offer expert insights to help them better meet individual needs. She has also led professional development teams to our entire staff on handwriting instruction, occupational therapy, and the sensory needs of all learners, helping build our collective capacity. She's a collaborative team member whose contributions have been
041instrumental in shaping key initiatives at Richmond Street, including the design of our bridge program, our sensory room, and the development of our MTSS and SST process. She is a valued resource to all students and staff at Richmond Street. Not only respected for her expertise, but truly adored by all. Congratulations, Miss Dunlap. All [Applause] [Music] [Laughter] right, don't leave yet. Don't leave. All right, we have a special announcement. Julia is also the Elsa Gundo classified employee of the year for the district. So, we want to congratulate her. Welld deserved. Congratulations again. Welld deserved. Thank you. It is now my privilege to recognize Miss Carolyn Dah, fourth grade [Music] teacher at Richmond Street School for receiving two distinguished honors. She was recognized by the Southwest SULPA for her outstanding contributions to the academic, social, and emotional growth
042of students with special needs, which is significant as a general education teacher because that says that she has created an inclusive and supportive classroom environment for all learners. Miss Daws was also selected by her peers as our teacher of the year, which is a reflection of the respect and admiration that she's earned from her colleagues for her professionalism, dedication, and passion for teaching. Here are some of their comments as to why they chose her. Caroline Caroline Daw is one of the most genuine, positive, and caring people I've gotten to work with. She believes in every one of her students. truly adores her job and this role and she is a model for other teachers to follow. I hope to one day be just like Mrs. Daw. And from another colleague, Caroline Daw is a passionate
043person who so thought who is so thoughtful about all she says and does. She works tirelessly to support her students academically and social emotionally. She gets along with every person on campus and has this unique gift for making everyone feel seen, heard, and valued. We are so lucky to have her as part of our RSS family. Congratulations to Mrs. Daws. [Applause] Next, I would like to invite assistant principal Burke up and she will recognize the middle school. Susie is not here tonight, but there she is. Oh, she's gonna hate this. Okay, Susie, sorry. Susie Flores, who could not be here tonight because she is supporting her daughter, her daughter-in-law, is being honored as ESMS's classified I'm sorry, EMS's classified employee of the year. She always looks out for others and strives to make things the
044best they can be. Anyone who has the pleasure of working with Susie knows that she wants things done nicely, efficiently, and most of all, whatever is best for kids. Susie has served as at ESMS for many years, starting as a health aid, and now as a senior office assistant. Through the years, she has trained all of us administrators in the most effective ways to serve the school and community. We are all so appreciative and grateful for all she does. Congratulations, Susie. Yay. Insa Casai. [Applause] Insa Casai, who her peers selected as the ESMS teacher of the year, is is in her third year at ESMS, but has been a teacher in Los Angeles and Germany for some years prior. Insa has completely revitalized our art programming at ESMS, making it consistently the most requested elective.
045Insa instills a passion for her art into students, often pushing them to produce brilliant and beautiful pieces and celebrating them in every way she can. Insa also serves on committees on campus and in the district, striving to learn as much as she can and make our campus even better. Insa is a compassionate, caring, and excellent colleague, too. It is my honor to celebrate her along with her beautiful children and husband here tonight. Congratulations, Insa. It is my great honor to work with you each day. We have one more special announcement. Kim Corales. Kim was awarded a community advisory award by the Southwest SULPA for her work in serving the needs of our special education community specifically. We have been fortunate to have Kim Corales as our health aid for over 5 years. She is able
046to serve children when they are at their most vulnerable in the health office. Kim strives to make kids all kids feel safe and supported at ESMS ensuring that they have what they need to learn their best. We are proud and overjoyed to see her honored for this award and feel fortunate to work with her each day. Congratulations, Kim. And now for the high school. If we can have Principal Gart please join me at the podium. All right. Thank you, Miss V, Dr. Johnson, President Glenn. It is my honor and I knew I I shouldn't have followed the middle school because I also have an an absent classified employee of the year but I didn't bring a picture so I don't just I well I'm taking notes back there though. Um our classified employee of the
047year is Joseph Moronis. I will just say some brief comments about him. In his first year at Elsagundo High School, Joseph was voted classified employee of the year because of what he has done to that meant to that campus meant to the staff but most importantly meant to the students. Um Joe is our health office clerk, but he's so much more than what he does in the health office. You can't walk past a health office without seeing him in there with students who feel safe, who feel protected. And when you're in the health office, you never feel your best. And so that's a really important characteristic for him. But Joe goes beyond the health office. Joe also helps out in the wellness center, helps out in supervising games, he helps out with testing. He does
048whatever is needed to become an integral part of the campus. And that's what makes him so critical to our campus, to our entire school community. And Joe comes by it honestly. He had a father who was an administrator up in Bakersfield. His mom is actually a college administrator. And Joe being in our health office, we are extremely pleased and honored to have him there because he could not be here tonight because he's currently enrolled in an MD program at the USC KEK School of Medicine and he has class tonight. He is going to be a neonatlogist and we wish him the best. So if Joe was here, I'd say a little bit more, but join me in congratulating Joseph. [Applause] But someone who is here this evening like to call up Miss Terresa McDorman who
049is our certificated teacher of the year. I brought the English department. So, uh, we are so lucky to have Miss McDorman on our campus. Anybody who has interacted with her will definitely tell you that's the truth. She teaches advanced class. She's AP language and composition. However, there is not a single student in that class that feels it is too advanced for them. She truly embodies the concept of inclusion and acceptance, making her advanced classroom a place that is safe and accessible to all students who enter that classroom environment. You can't be in that classroom without feeling the love, respect, and acceptance that she feels towards her students and they in turn feel back towards her. But in addition to her classroom role, we're lucky to have Miss McDorman because she is the chairperson of our
050ESHS leadership team which is the conduit between Exactly. She's a great leader that is a conduit between the staff and administration. And in chairing that team, she coordinates professional development. She leads school initiatives, including our SEAL initiatives, our professional development initiatives, our grad profile implementation, those amazing AI students you saw up here earlier. All of those things are founded under her leadership as our as our leadership chair. And I just want to say, Miss McDorman, going off script just a little bit, that I personally just appreciate the partnership that I have with you and the way that we can work together. Look forward to that continuing. So, thank you. Um, as was mentioned by Miss Burke, um, Miss McDorman is welcomed by her or is joined to celebration by her husband, Joseph, and her two
051daughters, Sarah, who's an eighth grader in a couple months will be at our high school, as well as Grace, who is going to be joining going to middle school pretty soon. So good luck there, Grace. But Miss McDorman, it is with great honor and pleasure that I congratulate you. Thank you. So, are you making that announce? Yes. And let's not forget that Miss McDorman is a Elsa Gundo educator of the year as well. So, congratulations for that as well. Welld deserved. Welld deserved. Thank you. Thank you. All right. And then I would like to invite Dr. Platkin up and he's going to recognize our classified district um employee of the year. Thank you. Um I want to start by saying the principles did not follow directions because this was supposed to be four to five
052sentences. I can't capture Sarah Chester in four to five sentences. This is my best attempt in four to five rambling sentences. There's lots of clauses. Um, but I'll say that I could not think of a more deserving individual for district classified employee of the year than Miss Sarah Chester. Above and beyond is how I'd characterize everything she does, which is a lot. It's far too much to name. It includes things like careful special education data input and analysis, supporting our arena students, endless vendor billing, and providing caring customer service with our new families. On top of this, she is well- loved by everyone who interacts with her given her sense of humor, her kindness and compassion, and those hilarious tales of life on the farm growing back in growing up back in Kansas. Um, Miss
053Chzer, we are so grateful for you. You are beyond deserving of this. I could not do my job without you. Congratulations. Sarah is joined by her third grader, Stone Chester. Say hi, Stone. And then it's my understanding we're going to invite them all up to take a picture. So please awardees come back up. We want them in here or along the back. Please come up. Please come up. Well, maybe we'll take one with them. Without principles first. Without Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. You're beautiful. You want families? Are you families? Have the families join or no? No. Thank you. [Applause] [Music] One more. Pause. [Music] It's true. [Music] Oh my god. Hi, John. I know. [Music] So welld deserved. All right. Um, so item H was incorporated into item G. And now, um, we're going to have
054somebody who's probably thinking, "What the hell did I get myself into? So here an introduction of the new Elsagundo High School assistant principal uh Miss [Applause] V. Yes. Good evening. It is my pleasure to introduce Mr. Randy Boykins as the new assistant principal of Elsagundo High School. Mr. Boykins, if you could join us at the um [Applause] podium. All right. Mr. Boykins holds a bachelor's of arts degree in afroamerican studies and international development as well as a master's degree in teaching from UCLA. He brings over six years of experience as a high school administrator and is known for leading initiatives that promote equity, academic achievement, and a strong school culture. I had the pleasure of serving on his interview panel and we were all impressed with his student centered approach and the positive energy he
055brought to the process. Um Randy, please tell us a little bit about yourself. Uh well, first and foremost, thank you to the board, uh board president Glenn, uh Dr. Johnson, and the rest of the board as well as uh Mr. Grady here. Uh it's my honor to have the opportunity to speak to you all. Um, the room in the back uh disappeared a little bit, but u I know the cameras are still on me. Um, I think it's a little bit of serendipity and uh I couldn't have had a better opportunity to present myself um and to see all the beautiful things and the beautiful things that everyone has to say um about everybody in this community. Uh I I'm excited. Um this was a very rigorous process and I think it speaks to all
056the um accomplishments that the students are doing uh that the teachers are doing that the community members are doing. I think for me outside of the In-N-Out truck uh some of the most exciting pieces are uh the recognition of the classified staff as well as the teachers. Um because for me they do a lot of the work and they are a lot of times the heart and soul of our schools and community. So I just want the opportunity and uh to become a part of the community and to get to know everybody and um leave the mark that I can as well. But thank you all. Thank you very much and we very much look forward to working with you. So, moving along to the consent agenda. Um, do we have a motion? I'll move
057approval on consent, sorry, consent agenda items 5A through 5F. Second. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, uh, Grady, your preferential vote. I. All board members in favor, please say I. I. I. Passes 5. Section six. Item A, Miss Field. Yes. This is a new job description for a certificated educator, either a teacher or a counselor with a strong background in student support services, datadriven instructional practices, and multi-tered systems of supports. This person will support the implementation of school-based intervention, coordinate resources and supports, and collaborate with staff to monitor progress to improve student outcomes. I recommend approval of the new job description for the high school intervention navigator, TOSA. Do we have a motion? I move to approve action item 6A. Second. Have any discussion or questions? Seeing none, uh, Grady, your preferential vote. I. All
058board members in favor, please say I. I. I. Passes 5-0. On to item B. Miss V. This new job description is for a middle school elective dance teacher. This position will be funded under Proposition 28. This teacher will be responsible for providing instruction in the various forms of dance um choreographing and directing student performances and supporting schoolwide arts initiatives. I recommend approval of a new job description for middle school dance teacher. I'll move approval. Second. Is there any discussion or questions? Just want to know if there's an audition process. Is there like we're going to see like, you know, dance moves in advance. Can we watch that? I don't know. Okay. Model a lesson. I have a question. Tracy, is that the reason why you've been practicing dance? I should, you know, think about these
059things. Any further comments or questions? No, I just think it's an exciting new elective for the middle school. Absolutely. Absolutely. Really excited about it. Yeah. Grady, your preferential vote. I. All board members in favor, please say I. I. Uh, passes 5-0. And on to item C, Miss Fle. Uh, this last new job description is for elementary counselor. This position is designed to serve both Richmond Street and Center Street Schools, providing dedicated counseling services to all students at the elementary level. This person will support the academic, social, emotional, and behavioral development of students with a focus on social emotional health, behavioral and intervention services, and group counseling. I recommend approval of the new job description for elementary counselor. I move for approval action item 6 C. Second. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, Grady, your preferential
060vote. I. All board members in favor, please say I. I. I passes 50. And item 6D again, Miss V. The district is preparing to post the director of maintenance and operations operations position due to a recent resignation. In preparation, we conducted a salary comparison with similar positions in neighboring and comparable districts. Based on that analysis, we are recommending that the position be moved from range 21 to range 21 22 on a salary schedule Z. This adjustment will ensure we remain competitive in the market and can attract and retain highly qualifi qualified candidates. I recommend approval of this updated salary schedule. I'll move approval. Second. Is there any discussions or questions? Seeing none, Grady, your preferential vote. I. All board members in favor, please say I. I. I. Passes 5. on to section seven. Miss Janisk.
061Yes, thank you. I proudly um bring this item forward as an approval of ESHS English 10 CP English 10 honors modification that was presented at the last board meeting was brought as an item pending action has been available for anyone to come view and ask questions. And this has been um a labor of love from our incredible English department that has put their um their professionalism and thoughtfulness into modification of this curriculum and I highly recommend approval. I'll move approval. Second. Is there any discussion? Yeah, I kind of want to echo what I said when you were here last time, but but now I've read all of the attachments. I didn't watch every video, but I did click through everything I could to try to absorb the massive amount of work that you've put into
062collecting this curriculum and building and crafting this. And I I couldn't be more thrilled. I I wish we could rewind and give it out to all the students we've had before because it's only going to make their lives so much better moving forward. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And everybody after Grady can uh appreciate this. Sorry, Grady. You You can repeat uh high school if you want and come back. No, you have to go back to 10th grade, though. Anyway, thank you. Thank you so much. And then I'll jump in and say that I'm excited that we're here. I'm excited that we're here with you. And it's so beautiful that from start to finish that you're sitting in the audience today just to witness it in person to make sure that we are
063moving forward. I can't think of a more dedicated group and I'm so happy that you have authored and you have your signature and your stamps on this. Thank you so very much from the bottom of my heart for all the students that will get to benefit from all of your hard work. Thank you. I'd also like to thank all the hard work. I know what what goes into this and this has been a labor of love and something that has been going on for a very long time. It's taken a long time for us to get here. And that part of that is because we did it correctly. We did it the right way. We did it very thoughtfully. Um which is why I'm so excited to approve this I'm just going to echo uh
064the comments here. I also read uh the course description and um I learned a lot just reading the course description and I I I look at it and go, I want to do that course. It's just an amazing there's so much um uh history that you're going to bring to the students that's going to fulfill their lives and and um make their place in society more meaningful. So, thank you. Uh Grady, your preferential vote. Idy. Gotcha. All board members in favor, please say I. I. I. Passes 5-0. All [Applause] right, on to the boring stuff. The uhformational calendar and looks like we have a board meeting on the 27th. Anything else? Just the season. Many things many things many things to look forward to. All right. Uh, board member reports starting with Meredith. Okay. Um,
065so just a couple of quick thanks. We already talked a little bit about the run for education, which was other than wet, um, very successful. I didn't get the corner I wanted, but I had a great corner. Um, it was fun to watch y'all run by as I waved. Um, but that was it was incredible. Um, I'd also like to do a couple thanks again to the Ed Foundation. Two amazing events since our last meeting. Uh, we had the superintendent round table uh which was at Connecta which was way cool. Great. Thank you to Connecta for um hosting that. And of course the gayla last Friday which was phenomenal um at Chevron Park. Um I they mentioned it tonight. I saw so many new faces which was really exciting. Um so thank you to everybody
066who came out. We couldn't have had a more perfect evening. The weather was perfect. Uh the food was spectacular. It was just an overall amazing night. um the choir concert which was already mentioned but as usual I left crying. Um it is definitely an emotional um I every year I cry. Um and so I was joined by Tra Tracy and Frank and it just uh blows me away every year. My big news of this whole kind of is SoCal Rock. And I've got a couple kind of big things I'd like to share about SoCal Rock. Um because that is my my baby hair. Um the first one is that for those of you who know Nancy Cobb who um served on this board um and also served on the SoCal Rock board has also been
067serving on the SoCal Rock board for the last four years as an atlarge member representing the adults who attend SoCal Rock. her term is up. And so we um did a reach out to people um asking for people because it is a voluntary position. It's a board position. And I am very proud to say that we will be installing Mike Briney um in June um as our new atlarge member. Um, and Mike also served on this board, but is really passionate about SoCal Rock. He went there. He was on the board. When we walk into our boardroom, the building that we walk into has his name on it because he was there when they passed the bond that built that building. So, he's got a history that probably nobody else on our board has even.
068So, I'm very excited that we're going to be um welcoming Mike onto the team in June. As much as we're going to miss Nancy, it is going to be an honor to to serve with um Mike. And the other thing I'd like to do, um last week we do a um celebration. We call it the the allar um for all of our rock stars. Um and um it's a beautiful evening um where we get to honor some of our students um both high school students and um adult students um with scholarships. And so I think we honored 17 different students and um as president um I I got to attend which was lovely and they put me at a table with two Elsagundo recipients and I am very very I'm going to cry. Dang it.
069I am I am so proud to say that when I sat down they're both my kids. They're both my students who were and it was so fun to see them honored in this way and they were so excited about their time at SoCal Rock. Um and that was it was just really special. So I'd like to congratulate George Cobena and um Jacob Rodriguez who were both honored with SoCal Rock scholarships. George was also honored with a California Tech um scholarship in the amount of $2,500. So that was above and beyond even SoCal Rock. And so um it was an amazing evening. I I cried a little bit then. I a little bit here. Um but it was just so much fun to watch and I will be honoring them again. um when we do the
070the scholarship awards at the high school because I want them to get that res recognition in front of their peers as well. And the last thing I want to mention, um, especially since we had the AI, um, students here tonight, I went to the distinguished speaker, um, last Sunday and it was Emily Chang and her whole speech was on AI and what what people feel about it and how people feel about it. And if if anybody's ever been to the Ronda Beach Distinguished Speaker Series on Sunday, I am one of the younger folks there. Proud to say I'm I but but let's be honest. I there it's Yeah. And the you know she asked a lot of questions like are you afraid? Are you scared of AI? A lot of the same questions that we
071were asking two years ago or a year and a half ago before we set policy. And all I could think of as she kept going through all of these leaders and all of the things that are happening in AI was we're doing that, we're doing that. And it was it was such a proud moment for me to go, we're on it. And so, um, thank you, um, Marica, and to the whole team. But, um, it was fun to listen and know that, um, here in Elsa Gundo, we're ahead of the curve. We're ahead of the curve. And that's it. Well, like Meredith said, a lot of things have already been said. Um, so let's see if things on here that have not been said. Oh, I went to the PTA council inst installation meeting. Um,
072it was nice to see the new board coming in and saying goodbye to the old board and also like Cheryl had said, um, being there when the police and fire were um, presenting the check. Um it was a really awesome thing and just seeing the collaboration that we have in this community is an amazing thing to witness. Um they um there's another u event they're doing and they always like to donate to nonprofits in the community. So they are talking to Cheryl about possibly getting that donation too. So it was a great thing to witness. um Tessaw, we were able to um each of us individually had gone to different school sites to um walk around school and um give coffee and treats to teachers and admitted and that was to kick kick off teacher
073appreciation week. So that was an awesome thing. I always am at Center Street, um, which I love, but it was so nice to walk around Richmond and get to see teachers that I don't get to see all the time, and it was a really big treat for me, too. Um, I personally went with Dr. Johnson to tour um, the middle school and Richmond. As much as I'd gone to the schools, um it was nice to kind of be able to when we're having conversations to visualize different, you know, um places like where the wellness center is in the middle school. So, it was a nice opportunity for me to walk through and see what's going on, um and where things are exactly at at the different schools. Um, and then to finish off my report,
074um, like Grady had said, boys and girls, uh, varsity sports of baseball and softball are in the running for their games. And this Thursday, the girls will be playing at Wreck Park against Cypress at 3:15. And then the boys will be traveling to Fountain Valley on Friday, and they're playing verse Fountain Valley High at 3:15. So come out and cheer for everybody. Um, first round of CIF. And that's all I have. Thank you, Heather. So, happy May. And this month, we highlight mental health awareness. And I ask that everyone please take a moment to go to our district website. We have lots of resources for health and well-being and there are links that will provide an abundance of support in various categories. So I invite everyone to visit the district website. Also this month we
075observe Memorial Day, AAPI, which is Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and Jewish American Heritage Month. We are entered into what can only be coined the busy season. On April 23rd alone, I had the pleasure of visiting four memorable events starting with the high school AP research presentation. I was a panelist and I had a chance to witness wonderful, wonderful topics. To keep it brief, I will just say that the other board member present with me at that time was Vice President Miller Zarnicki. On that same day, we enjoyed the middle school's lunch. Very nice experience. I will say the only thing is I was right there at the end and I didn't get the veggie burger and I was so surprised that Meredith grabbed a veggie burger, but that's where and she enjoyed it.
076It was good, right? It it what? It wasn't green. That That's it. But I will say I had the teriyak chicken. It was delicious. So other board members present were Vice President Miller Zarnicki and member Beichley. On that same day, we were able to visit the high school bell tower. Now, that was a unique experience. And I took a picture of the there was a baseball that was there. And the comments alone on the baseball versus being in the tower and the steps and I was like the question was was it a planted baseball? Was it new? Was it old? I don't know. It was there when I got there. So if it had been planted, it was planted before I got there. So that's that. Other board members present were President Glenn, Vice President
077Miller Zarnicki. And then on that day as well, I had a chance to visit the retired teachers Cold Stone Scoop Night and we had our very own Meredith Beley scooping and not very much. Well, that's because she was with Miss Moot. And I don't know if Miss Moot personally sent out a message because there was a line. It was like Disneyland and everyone I have never seen so many kids patiently waiting for ice cream. So Merit was like I'm available. They're like we we want. So I'm sure I'm sure Miss Moot is still like nursing her arms from all of that scooping, chopping, all of that. Fortunately, I'm able to move to other days. On 4:24 we had the April 24th we had the Ed hosted the superintendent roundt mixer. I want to say a
078huge thank you to connector for hosting the mixer at their corporate space. And lastly I want to say to Miss Janisk and Dr. Usoft thank you for that engaging AI presentation. So thank you so much and thank you to the man of the hour Dr. Johnson for providing a comprehensive overview of our district goals that evening. Other board members present were President Glenn, Vice President Miller Zarnicki, and member Beechley. On 426 was the run for education. We talked about that. I will say that I am usually a brisk walker, but that rain motivated me to run, run, and run because it started off, it wasn't raining, then it started raining a little bit and then it rained. Oh, did I? I'm sure I was trying to sprint by everyone cuz I was done. But that's
079a whole I made it. Okay. On 5:28 we had the Richmond Street School lunch visit. That was a very special experience. I want to thank Miss Listister for allowing us to sit with her class and just the students in the class. Now, I should have held hands with Frank and walked out when Frank left because the kids asked me to stay on the playground and play with them for a little bit and I thought I could do that. When I say they play, they play to the tune where I needed to go home and take a disco nap so that I could finish my day. So, it was very nice, a very nice experience. So happy I had that. And other board members present was President Glenn. And we get to the Gayla on 510.
080Everyone says it's a magical experience and it is. I really want to thank the ED Foundation just for the event as a whole, but most importantly, thank you to the volunteers who they work so hard. And here's the key. Not only do they work all night and they're present before and after, but they actually purchase a ticket to attend to work all night and make the event special for everyone that is there. As a board, we had the opportunity to show up hour for, excuse me, show up an hour early for the pre-event festivities, and I had the pleasure of serving with Chevron staff Byron and Jeff and ED board member Rupesh. Other board members present, everyone, and 57. I had the high school PTSA meeting. Their next installation meeting will be June 4th. And
081if you are interested in purchasing a brick for the high school, Cheryl Smith has extended that through 522, so May 22nd, simply reach out to her if you are interested in purchasing a brick. A highlight from that meeting is that they have exceeded their membership goal. They had a goal of 540 and they reached 581 members. And for the Richmond Street School meeting, which was last night, their PTA installation meeting will be on May 20th. Sun's night out, they mentioned, is this weekend, 4:18. Their spring sing is next week, May 20th. And they have their lunchtime glow party, which apparently is a really big deal, May 23rd. And I'll round this all off by saying a very special hello and thank you to my rock, Andrew Wheaten, my husband. We celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary.
082I love you. All right, let's see. Um, things we didn't talk about yet. The green schools symposium hosted by LEO was a great day out that I was glad I was able to join in with teachers and staff from all levels of our schools here. Uh especially good to have a carpool buddy and Miss Janisk. We had good quality time together carpooling which is green by the way. Um, we also uh basically heard what we already knew and and it just reinforced things like as much as we can bring nature into our staff and our students or bring them out to nature more. So, we should do that. Um, you know, it's a reminder that that like doing outdoor PD is an option. We could do that. Um, we could have natural elements in our
083in our playgrounds with graduated challenges. I learned all kinds of fun things about cognitive engagement um in kinesthetic play spaces and all these great things that was like yes we know all this let's do this let's do more of this so hopefully we can file it away and when we have opportunities to improve our facilities and do the PD and all the things we can do outside let's do that so uh it was a great day out of learning and and um I had someone ask me about this and and if you're wondering I did also inquire about the library park tree that was taken And where did that go? And could we use some of that somewhere in town? And I will tell you, um, I know that part of it, it's already at
084the mill, so it's already being processed, so we can't just take the big chunk of tree and put it somewhere and play on it. That's not a thing. But I do know part of it is going to go to the uh library, the city library in the form of a bench. And we should think about like in the future. I don't know if there's any more of that tree to be had right now or that we could move that quickly to do something, but we should think about that in the future where something like this comes down. Can we incorporate it into our lives going forward in a different way and appreciate it? So, I think that would be lovely. Um, the South Bay Community Coalition Against Hate, uh, is starting to organize themselves, ourselves,
085uh, for Unite Against Hate Week, which is October 19th through 25th this year, which hopefully doesn't go on top of other things that we do here in the district. Uh, I think we we're we're all trying to watch out for that as we had last year. A little overlap of things. Um, I know you're going to also be jealous when I tell you I'm also working on the bylaws for that organization. I know you guys really want to do that. So, it's all me. I love that stuff. So, yeah. Um I I'm happy to say I spent a lot of time on campuses in this last few weeks that were already invents mentioned already. I feel left out though. I didn't get to go to Richmond for anything. So, I'm like, "Oh, it's not they
086don't love you Richmond. Some things didn't work on my schedule." But, but Center Street, we had a great lunch date there enjoying uh I think it was chili uh hot potatoes, right? Baked potatoes with chili. That was that was that was the the meal duour that not chili for some people but um yes so it was it was a lovely lunch there too. Um at the middle school we had lunch date. We um I also went to open house there. Um the performance of Annie was amazing. Annie Jr. rather was amazing. Sitting there with Dr. Johnson and Heather was was amaz I mean I was like how old are these kids? Like this is really really great. So kudos to the middle school on their drama performance. Um, I'll add that the teacher treats outing
087that this board member had there was eventful with um an exploding coffee container, which Kim would attest to. If she were here, she also probably still smells like coffee as as I and some of the office members do there. But anyway, it was still fun. We still made the rounds and had a great time visiting with all the staff. So, that was a good day out um at the high school. Yes, AP capstones, choir performance, PTSA meeting. I was just a parent in that. And yes, I bought my brick and I encouraged I think seven other people were like, "Oh, yeah, I should do that." So, yes, I I think I was um like, "Hi, I forgot to do that." So, there will be a ziki brick now, Grady. So, did your mom buy one
088now? Yeah. Seriously. Seriously. I was like, "Oh." So, anyway, buy your bricks. Cheryl will be grateful if we sell even more. Um one that's it. There must be loops bricks all over. Yeah, I think so. has to go on to Anna. Yes. So, buy bricks now through the 22nd. Um, what else is going on there? Oh, yes. The hometown fair. I love going to visit all the student clubs and try to I can't eat everything from every club. I have to say it's a lot. But I had a nice variety of of things uh in the rain. They were troopers. It was amazing. So, some grilling going on by someone sitting up here. That uh was impressive. But are you I Yep. It was it was a well-rounded experience. So, so great job again to
089everybody who was out there doing that in the rain. Um, I do want to add one last thing on the high school was I had the privilege of working with some of the high school interns for the Elsandu Blue Butterfly Conservancy that I mentioned. They were going to be out at the Elsagundo City booth during uh the Earth week at the farmers market. They were there doing games with kids trying to teach them about native plantings. Um they were talking about you know the the nurturing environment that we need to create for the blue butterfly. They were great. They were engaged with littles and adults alike. It was impressive. And then the next week they came in and presented. All five of the interns came and presented at the city environmental committee meeting and you
090know did a lovely PowerPoint. Each spoke apart. It was really really impressive to see how something that you know was brand new to this town they fully engaged in. They'll butterfly is not brand new but this conservancy is they engage in so many ways with that it it's quite quite amazing and also grateful to the mentorship they're getting from the adults who run the conservancy. It's it's a wonderful opportunity. So yes please we'll keep that going with next year's class. Um, let's see. Last couple things I want to mention is uh again kudos to the EB Foundation for the both the round table and the gala and thank you mother nature for making that a dry night as opposed to all these other wet things we were having. It was beautiful dry dry weatherwise, not
091dry otherwise. I'll just say we know the galas. Yeah. Um, but it was a fabulous time out and and I I do hope that they're pleased with their fundraising because it was a lot of work and well worth it. Um, I'm going to just add this next week we have the LAXA last meeting of the year and I'm going to thank Meredith for already volunteering to be a carpool buddy with me to go out there for the uh awards and elections meeting. We have more car space if anybody else wants to make the trip to Downey. Just saying. Let us know. But also RSVP by tomorrow. Uh lastly, yes, it's in the home stretch. It is a month from today that certain people will be graduating from our our schools. Um, so I'll just say
092power through it everybody. Good luck to the last AP testing some of you will ever take. And the rest of you that are still just starting that journey, you're you're almost halfway done. Well, you're more than halfway done by Tuesday. You're you're halfway done. So, keep going, keep strong. Uh, and we'll see you in two weeks. That's it. Thank you all for your very concise reports. I don't have much to add. Except uh you know someone always leaves a little opening and it was you this time Murd. I tried. You forgot about the city school subcommittee. Did Oh. So I got those I have one thing to report on that no one's mentioned. So we had a very nice meeting with um the the city school subcommittee. Meredith joined by phone because she was there
093because well anyway she she was uh great on the phone. Uh yeah Dr. Johnson and I were in attendance and um I just like to thank our mayor uh Pyanthal our mayor prom JRO and Daryl George our um what's that? Councilman George. Councilman. Oh, Council. Oh, sorry. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Um, and Daryl George because they they really are engaging with us and um they they're even making suggestions about, you know, ways we can improve the school and they're it's not like personal agenda kind of suggestions. They're really like putting thought into how we and the city work better together and how we can help each other. So, yeah. So, anyway, that's my report. Thank you, President Glenn. Uh enjoyed the run for education. Uh Frank cleaned the floor with me. Um Frank's jog is my
094sprint. Um and then uh the uh I one thing I just will share I share with I shared this with Cheryl as well too. You mean like I I I you my wife and I do like to run, you know, 510ks uh on a monthly basis. It was a good run like just from like how it's run the organization like I've seen other versions of this as I'm sure you have and it's it's it's a very well done run just as a straightforward much less the great cause that it is. Uh Ed Foundation Gala awesome. I just just a big big shout out to all those people that are just working the event, you know, like there's a lot of people having a good time, which super grateful for, and there's a lot of people
095that are working the event, including Chevron staff. Um, so just big shout out to them. Uh, I want to give a shout out to Miss Anderson who, um, uh, you know, directed was the teacher of Annie. Uh, Annie was great. Jack's kids stole the show. Um, uh, really, really, really good. Everyone was awesome. But um and it was a big turnout for like weekend shows for a middle school too. It was there wasn't an NPC and that was Sunday. That was the last show. So just you know a lot of work goes into that. So just kudos to to kids and staff and parents. Um got to spend a couple hours with the robotics club and the cyber patriot club together. Um just two things on this. One, there's so much overlap with the kids
096that are in the AI club and my joke with them is that you're all going to be rich one day. Don't forget us. Um, and I I just uh Grady and I were talking about this too is just um they work so there's so many hours that these you know young men and women have to put into this. Um it's kind of it's kind of crazy. You mean like and I mean that in a good way. Uh but uh the other aspect too is that you mean like you know you have these teams of four and five and these you know kids are working together for hours and hours at a time where they're like you know talking on weekends about code to how to make the arm move and and so I actually like
097really enjoyed I stay there way longer than I thought I was but I I really got to enjoy seeing the insides of what this like extracurricular activity is. Um you mean like and just kudos to Mr. Horvath. You mean like um and Miss Robinson who does cyber patriot um and then another thing uh is that cyber patriot which I'm I'm a big believer in as a program which is cyber security uh is run by a female teacher and has a lot of females in the program. You mean like that's always like a program that like they're trying to attract more females. So I talked to them for a while too about like you know what can we do to attract and one of the things they brought up is female mentorship. Um so just food
098for thought for us. Uh uh kudos to city council. I try to attend a city council meeting on a quarterly basis. I you know I had a little uh gift for them. Um but I will say like you when you sit in on a city council meeting which I know all of you have had the opportunity to watch. You know like there's a lot of work you know like that they do for our city. So I got to watch like just one aspect was zoning you mean like for resident residential and just all that goes into that. you know, it's an important subject for us as well, too, because, you know, that's that's enrollment for our students. And just the incredible level of detail and work. Um, you know, like I I always, you know,
099tell folks if you know, they're ever like, you know, why is my, you know, trash not picked up on time or something, you know, I I always encourage people watch one city council meeting. You mean like and just the level of scope that people are involved in. So, I just a big shout out to city council. Um, and then elementary open house is on May 15th, uh, Richmond and Center Street. So looking forward to that. And then to compliment a colleague on compliment TMZ, board member TMZ, um that we submitted a workshop proposal together with Hermosa. And so we'll see if we get accepted. But um it's it was all credit goes to her for the idea, but about um you know developing uh district goals with a new superintendent and a new board because
100this is a new board. Um and Hermosa is going through the exact same thing. And so what a what a great opportunity to share and I you know I think it's a compliment to all of us as well too that we have something that we're proud of and that's still in process too. And that thus ends my report. Thank you. Thank you Dr. Johnson. Um we are not recessing to close session. So at 7:47 it's my pleasure to call this meeting adjourned.