Jan 13, 2026 AESD Regular Board of Education Meeting

001[music] Testing one, two. [music] Test one. Two. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] >> That's nice. [music] [music] >> [music] >> And you check this one. >> [music] [music] >> Hey. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] Hey. Hey, hey. Test. Test. One. Two. >> [music] [music] >> Hey. Hey. Hey. [music] [music] Heat. Heat. [music] [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Hey. Hey. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Fair enough. Fair enough. We're going to do a recess. So, I'm going to call the meeting to order. >> Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the Analto Elementary School District. Can you

002guys hear me? Barely. Yeah. You guys, we are going to take a fivem minute recess so that we can allow the members of the public who are outside running through security to participate in tonight's meeting. The board wants to hear from you and we want to hear from everyone. So, we're going to take a actually a 10-minute recess. The line is pretty long and then we'll recommend in 10 minutes so that we can allow everyone to speak and to participate. Sound good? Thank you guys. We're adjourned at 5:32. Recess, excuse me. Hey, >> [music] [music] >> Hey. [music] Hey. Hey. >> [music] [music] >> down. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music]

003>> [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. N. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] >> 542. You ready? Where's >> Ste? >> Oh, I didn't see the timer. All right. We're getting started with the meeting. Anyone, if everyone can please just start to quiet down, please. >> Thank you. We're getting started, you guys. The time is 5:43. I'm going to call to order the regular board meeting of the Otalanto Elementary School District. We're going to go ahead and do the roll call. Miss >> Leave 543. >> Trusty Krauss. >> Krauss here. >> Trissy Webster. >> Sorry, >> Kyer. I'm sorry that

004was not changed on tonight's Tricy Leaf French >> Le French present. >> Trusty Stewart >> Stewart pre present. >> Trusty Sodto >> STO present. Moving on to number two. Adoption of the agenda. Are there any proposed additions, deletions, and adjustments in the order of business? >> President the time. Did you say the time? >> 5:43. Yes. >> Thank you. Uh yes, we're pulling item 36 from the consent items. 36. >> That is correct. >> Anything else? >> That is all. >> What about Ton's presentation? >> Yes, we'll be pulling the presentation. >> So, two and three as well. Four three. Okay. All right, moving on to moving on to the adoption of the agenda. At this time, trustees, I entertain a motion. >> Um, >> where's the pledge of allegiance? >> Oh, I'm I apologize.

005Um, the pledge of allegiance, Vice President Kaire, would you lead us? >> If I could please have everyone stand, place their right hand over their heart. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you, Vice President Kyer. Moving on to the adoption of the agenda. At this time, trustees are entertain a motion. Kyer, I motion to adopt the agenda with the adjustments in the order of business. >> Is there a second? >> Stewart, I sec second. >> And and any discussion? I'll take the vote. Miss Le >> Trusty Krauss. >> Krauss I. >> Trusty Ker >> Ker I. >> Trusty Lef French. >> Le French I. >> Trusty Stewart. >>

006Stewart I. >> Trusty Stoodto. >> Sodto I. Motion passes. 5 Z. Moving on to staff reports and presentations. Dr. Walker. >> Thank you, President Subtle. At this time, we will have educational services. Good evening, everyone. It is our pleasure to present Morgan Concincaid Preparatory School Principal Kristen Cooper and her assistant principal Macheco Norwood as they lead their school presentation on showcasing their school site. So, let's give them all a big welcome as they come up to the podium. [applause and cheering] >> [applause] >> Thank you board. Um, President Sodto and I'm sorry, did we just did we do the >> and Dr. Walker, cabinet trustees. Um, we're happy to be here tonight. Sorry, we thought we were going second, so we got a little thrown off. So, but I do want to invite up all

007of our students from Morgan King who came to perform tonight. [applause] >> [applause] >> I do want to give a special thank you to Miss Simons, Miss Rder, and Miss Tig's class who make up the majority of our performers along with some of their siblings. So, the majority of our students up here are first graders. And um board, we would like to in cabinet invite you to come sit up front to enjoy our performance, please. We want you to see their beautiful faces as they perform. Is my screen on? [snorts] >> And while they're coming down, I do want to thank all the parents who have been supporting us and who brought their kids out to perform tonight. We do have something special to give the kids before they leave tonight. So, if you could

008either see myself or their teacher to get that before you go. Um, I do I am going to have Josiah Porter, one of our first grade students from Miss Porter's class, Miss Raiders's class, I'm just stumbling all over the place tonight, go ahead and explain to you what we are performing tonight and introduce us. So, the ever so excited Josiah, I know you're enthralled by the fact that you could see yourself on the TV, but I want you to look this way and go ahead and read to them what you have here with you. >> This song is about inclusion and kindness. It teaches that each one of us is special and that it's okay to be different. It also reminds us that no matter how we look, feel, act, or dress, we all belong

009together. The song also helps students feel happy, safe, and accepted. Whether it's at home, at school, in our community, or with our friends, we need to try to always be kind, help others, and make everyone feel welcome. [applause] Thank you, Dr. Walker, for all of the ways in which you have made our voices feel heard and made us all feel as though we belong. Tonight, we dedicate the song to you. We hope you enjoy it. >> Isn't he a [applause] great writer? Let's give him a round of applause. [cheering] >> You want to go join them and sing? [applause] >> Go join them and sing. Okay. We'll stand next to any of them. We'll see. No matter [music] your hair, your voice, your name, you're special and loved, just the same. [singing] Whether you're [music]

010quiet or full of cheer, we're so glad to [singing] have you here [music] tonight. You belong. Yes, it's true. There's a special place [music] for you in this world, in this heart. [music] You've had a place here from the start. You shine [music] bright. You are strong. You are loved. [singing] You belong. [music] You don't have to change to fit in line. Just be yourself. [music] You're one of a kind. Every smile, every song makes this world [music] where we all belong. You belong. Yes, it's true. There's a special [music] place for you. [singing] In this world, in this heart, you had a place here from the [music] start. You shine bright. You are [singing] strong. You are loved. [music] You belong. Yes, it's true. [music] There's a special place for you. In this [music]

011world, in this heart, you've had a place here from the [music] start. You shine bright. You are strong. You are loved. [music] You [singing] belong. We're all [music] different. That's the key. That's what makes [music and singing] our world so free. Every voice and [singing] every face brings [music] more joy to every space. You belong and there's a [music] place for one and all. Hand in hand, [music] side by side. Let's walk together with hearts open wide. [music] You belong. Don't forget this song. You are [music and singing] loved. You belong. [cheering] [applause] So fun. >> Thank you. Thank you, Dominic and Desmond, our sign holders. Thank you to all our singers. Uh this is a theme that we're carrying throughout the year. We'll be having it in the spring at our literacy night, carrying

012on the multicultural theme. Our Black History Month Assembly will be February 26. So we invite you all to join us for that as we continue to celebrate diversity all year long at Warren King. Thank you for the opportunity to share with you our beautiful students tonight. Thank you. [cheering and applause] [applause] >> Wow, Mrs. Cooper. What a tough act to follow. One more round of applause for Morgan [applause] Concaid. Nice job. So, thank you board of trustees cabinet for allowing us to be here tonight. I'm Kathy Yuskovich, proud principal at Melba Davis Academy of Excellence. And I brought with me tonight Miss Johnson, one of our teachers who's doing Yes. [applause] Let's give her a round of applause. Who's doing one of our electives and she's brought some students and some of their projects. So,

013without any further ado, I'm going to turn it over to her. >> [applause and cheering] >> Okay. Yeah. >> All right. Hello everyone. I'm Miss Johnson. I teach animatronics as one of my electives at Melba Davis. Um, so go ahead. Oh, it's right here. Do you guys see it? Is it There we go. Okay. Next. Okay. So, this is my why. My goal is to empower students to become the next generation of dreamers and doers by providing them the tools and inspiration to imagine, design, and build the future of interactive technology and art. So, I have some students that are going to explain, you got this, are going to explain some of the things we do in the classroom. So, go ahead. Hi, my name is Samuel. I'm a sixth grade student at Melva Davis

014Academy and I'm here to um to support the robotics. And this is our hummingbird kit that we used to make all of our animatronics. First, we used how to first Miss Johnson taught us how to use the LED lights. Then she taught us how to use the sensors and lastly the servos. These are some of the projects that we did that Miss Johnson taught us how to do. For our first project, it was the stoplight. She taught us she taught us how to make the stoplight and we used the LED lights. Our second one, we used we used servos for our drummer man. Our third one was a feeding animal and we used sensors to make to make the tail move for the feeding animal. And lastly, we used we used servos to make the

015movable mouth. And we made the mouth go up um open and close. >> Good job. [applause] >> Hi, my name is Audrey. I'm a sixth grade student from Melat Academy. >> Move closer. This was our assignments after two months of learning parts of the hummingbird kids. We had to put it all together to make an animal animal to make it mean meaningful to you to us. We had to choose an animal from the desert. It took about us about 3 weeks to put it all together. How it start how how it started. We or we were only allowed to use cardboard and art supplies. We couldn't buy anything from the stores. We only used what was in our classroom. >> Very good. Good job. [applause] Okay. So, they showed you how it started. Now, we're

016going to see how it was all put together. So, this one is a frill dragon. No, they had to start from scratch. They had to code. They had to problem solve to see which way the servos would move. Um, it involved math and creativity. So, this first one is a frill dragon. The next one is an ant. This student uh radiocontrolled her aunt, his aunt. So, he has figured out how to use one micro:bit to connect to another to make it move. So, next is the snake. It's an albino snake. So, if you touch the sensor on top, it moves. Okay. Next one. I'm going stop here. I'mma have two students that actually brought theirs to share. So, go ahead and put them on the table. On the table, picture your heads. Okay. So, we

017have two of them that they brought in. So, Aiden, go ahead and turn yours on first. Okay. Aiden, go ahead. Speak loud. Do you want the microphone or do you want to yell? Okay. >> This is my desert owl that I have constructed. Is made of cardboard and servos as well as a distance sensor. The way it works is once you place your hand in front of it, it turns on causing its wings to flap and its head to spin. [applause] Give it to Hi, my name's Ryan and this is my red myel rabbit animatronic. >> His eyes can move and he can make sound. >> Oh, his eyes move every five seconds back and forth. [laughter] So, there we go. The head >> head can move. [laughter] >> Okay. So that is our presentation.

018[applause] >> Thank you Dr. Walker for inviting us to showcase what we do. [applause] All right. [sighs] Thank you um for coming Melba Davis and Morgan Concaid. We appreciate the presentation. Did we want to make some comments trustees? Uh trust uh cler vice president Kire. >> All righty. I'll make mine short and sweet tonight. I do want to make a shout out to all of the students and parents who were able to attend tonight and bring them out so we can see the amazing work going on within our classrooms. I want to make a shout out to Melva Davis on the amazing electives that they offer within their school. And thank you to the teacher who brought all of her hard work, showcased it for us. That is phenomenal. That kind of robotics is happening

019inside of our classrooms and I am so grateful for it. So, thank you and have a wonderful night. >> Thank you, Clerk or Trustee of French. Thank you. I just want to say that I know to all the students and the parents that took the time to come today, thank you very much for bringing your children to share with us. Um, if I could say to the students, I know that it's um not easy to get up here in front of the board and all these people and sing a song or to speak. Um, we are very grateful for your presentation and I want to thank you for having that um, strength to be up here because it does take a lot to be able to speak in front of a lot of people. And

020I want to say that your um, teachers and your parents that have supported you along with your uh, principles that thank you all for um, having that um, cohesiveness together. Thank you. >> Thank you, Cler. Clerk Stewart. >> Um, I don't have much to to add that that was wasn't said, but I really do do enjoy joy to see the kids in action. Thank Thank you. >> Thank you, Trustee Krauss. >> Yes. I just want to echo the sentiments of my fellow trustees and say thank you for the parents for bringing out the students tonight and thank you to the staff at the school sites that really uh work with our students on a daily basis to ensure that they get one of the best educations in the state of California. So, thank you. >>

021Excellent. Thank you guys. Moving on to special education presentation. Dr. Walker. >> Thank you, President Stole. At this time, we will have um Dr. Best come and do a presentation on Epic staffing utilization overview. And that this presentation is due to quite a few questions that came to me um after um the board meeting at the last board meeting and um over the past two weeks. So I wanted to give um the community an opportunity to hear what Epic is being used for and um a few other pertinent information. Dr. best. >> Good evening community, our amazing students, our staff, Dr. Walker, our cabinet members, and board of education. I would like to thank you all for the opportunity tonight to go over the company that we currently use, the agency um called Epic. And

022um I am grateful that I have the opportunity to enlighten everyone with how it is utilized. So the when we had our board meeting um in December, we had to ask for more money for Epic. So what we did was we had currently asked for $1 million and the cost of these agencies has risen and it's risen across the board. So we had originally asked for $1 million. So what we did was we went back and asked for $ 1.5 to finish the rest of the year. So right here on the slide, it shows what the cost was from July to December and our future amount that will not exceed that and um the total cost. Also for uh the board of education, you are you have slides in front of you that are paper.

023I minimized a few of them to add them together. So this wasn't 20 pages long for you. So we have had Epic since 2017. We previously had presence learning that gave us our speech pathologist. Um the purpose of using them is because as uh our speech language pathologist around the entire state are hard to find and so we had to utilize going on to online services for that and have virtual um virtual therapy given to our students. And we are always looking and it is always running on Edjoin that we are trying to find these positions for our district for in-person people. So I need you to know that. So what a speech language pathologist does is they give therapy for speech and language to our students. They assess them and they also go to

024IEP meetings. So that is their role. what we've utilized to help with this because we brought students back from our county programs because we opened more programs. We needed more uh speech language pathologist assistance and the ones we have some are in person and some are virtually. They are also very very hard to find. And so the ones that we have we utilize for our most severe students with speech and language impairment and that is our mod severe students. So we do have at certain sites um inperson uh speech language uh pathologist assistants that give that therapy but they are overseen by a speech language pathologist. We like I said our population is growing. Uh we have opened up 10 programs and we have filled them already. So this is a good thing. But with

025that being said, as my background is in speech language pathology, it's something I worry about for our most severe need students because they need that in-person person to show them. And it's so imperative that we have it. But a lot of our students, we have more students that have speech and language as a disability than other things. And so we need to make sure that these services are held. If we do not honor this due to their IEP, which is our individual educational plan, we are in violation and that leads to litigation. These students are very important to us and making sure that they get these services is mandatory. It's mandatory from the state and the federal government. [snorts] So with that, our compliance with this is that we currently serve service 658 students that

026have speech and language impairments. Um it's across 14 schools. There is uh a cap for our speech language pathologists and it's they're not to go over 55. It's mandated. So it's something that we have to watch. Even though they are not our direct employees because they are virtual, they still have that cap and I still have to abide by the law. So it's made it kind of hard because we keep getting students that move up here. We have all those houses going in and it's very hard to make sure that we can find enough people to serve our students needs because our students are why we're here [snorts] and it is my duty to make sure that my students get what they need and I mean the students of Adalanta Elementary School District. So I

027have to constantly look and discuss with Mr. Shifflet every week what this looks like. What am I doing to help? what are we doing as a community to help find these um speech language pathologists to help service our students? Um we have to follow compliance. When we do not follow compliance, we get litigation and that's not okay because it cost the district money because we failed to do our due diligence, which is not okay with me or my team. Another thing that we utilized this year was a school psychologist from Epic. I had one that was part-time and four that were full-time and I only utilized them for two months. The purpose being that I meet with the CDE weekly and they were telling me that we have a thing called childfind where parents will

028write a letter and once they do that we by law have to assess. With that being said, when we don't assess and don't follow those timelines, it leads to litigation, which is costly. So, the CDE talked with me and said, "What do you what are your plans for this?" And I said, "Well, we have in our budget where we could do this and utilize them to get caught up to stop this litigation from occurring." And with that being said, we did get pretty caught up. And the reason for doing that was to make sure that my department and myself was making fiscally responsible decisions. I didn't want to go ahead and see if I could have five new school psychologists when I might not need that many and I needed to make sure that I

029was making fiscally responsible decisions for the department and the district. So by utilizing them for two months, we were able to get pretty caught up and then see what the actual need. Uh I I began working in this district in 2014 and we've had the same amount of psyches since then. Our psychologist and that's not okay because it's ever growing. And my psychologist work long hours. They love those children. They work hard with our general education teachers. Without those general education teachers letting our psychologists know of the needs, we wouldn't know. So we are trying to be very proactive by using our psychologist and having those them attend the student study team meetings which are called SSTs which are the first line of defense to see that our amazing general education teachers can see what's

030going on. They've tried all of these things and now they talk to the school psychologists and say we need you at the meeting. We might need to go to the next step. So that's what we've been doing doing with that. So with our epic staffing, basically what I was sharing before is that we utilize them for two months. They are no longer with us. Their last day was December 19th. So now the same amount of psychologists that we've had forever are doing the job that other people were helping us. Since the pandemic, our students have they just need more help. And it's our due diligence to do that for them and make sure that they are getting all the assessments needed so that we can put plans together for the individual child. They don't share

031that. No IEPs look the same. I know my staff works hard. I know my gened teachers work hard. I know the sped teachers work very hard to make sure that these are all done and that they're legally compliant and that we're giving them the services. That is our legal requirement. Our psychologist besides the speech pathologists that do speech only, the psychologists are the foundation of special education. This department wouldn't exist without them because they are the ones that assess the student to see where they are falling cognitively, what they need help with. And with that, they then reach out to other providers if they need occupational therapy or speech speech pathology. if they need that assistance, they are the ones that start assessing and see what is needed and then contact those other providers that

032we have to see if the students also need to be assessed for that. without the psychologist doing that and writing a 25 to 30 page report and then holding the meetings with the amazing IEP team which consists of a principal, a gened teacher, a special education teacher, a psychologist, most importantly the parent and anyone else that needs to be there. Without those people there, that child is not getting services. So I need everyone to understand our psychologists are the foundation of special education for that. It's very imperative that we need that we have them and they aren't taking in more than they can. And I know that my team stays very late at night. I worry about them. They stayed till 8:00 at night at work. That's not okay. So it bothers me that they're

033still struggling with this that they have been for years. And so we're trying to do what's best for them. Like I said, we opened 10 new programs in the district. So, we opened MOD severe programs and um mild MOD programs and our RSP programs. And it's been such a blessing to be able to have students come back from the county when they didn't need to be there because we had no space. So, it's been just wonderful to have our students stay where they need to be with us so we can make sure that we take care of them. And we pulled back 163, by the way. So, I'm very happy about that. Um, with the historical compliance, so this has always been a challenge here and it's just a systematic issue that we've had. We're

034not the only district that has this, but because we are an elementary school district, I feel sometimes that the bigger K12 districts, you know, they get all of the bells and whistles because people want to go there because maybe they don't want to work with the younger students or whatever that might be for the school psychologist. But we have such an amazing team that gives their heart and souls. We meet weekly to see what they need, what school sites they need help at, what I can do, which Miss Perez can do to make sure that they're getting what they need. We um are also able to use a billing system, which our speech language pathologists also do. And with that, they can build for testing, um observations, all of those things, which is actually now

035pulling in money. Because when I was a teacher, and I know our special education teachers out there, we used to have to do billing and it would take me as a teacher forever, like hours to do it. But now the psychologists do it, the OT's do it, our occupational therapist and our um AP, our adaptive PE teacher, Mr. Harper, we've had him forever. He's amazing. And um our SLPs, our speech language pathologist, and the assistants can all bill. So I can send it to you if you want to see. Last month, the team I held everyone accountable because Dr. Walker, Mr. Shifflet hold me accountable and they all got it together and I'm excited to say we build over $221,000 for one month. Here's the part that's not as exciting as a shopper myself and

036I like money. When we look at it this way with the way that we do this medical billing, we get the money back in two years. So when I came back in April 15th of 2024, we started making sure that people were billing more. So now in May, we're going to start getting that back. So if the team will still, and I'm saying this on YouTube, and it's being recorded, guys, if we continue to do our due diligence and bill, we will be bringing in a lot of money to help service our students and pay for these positions so we can take care of ourselves out as a department. That's the goal. But we're trying to do it right. So with that, I um and Miss Perez, we collaborate with the Department of Education Weekly.

037And with this, they come in and they they ask us to find the issues. What can we do better? Um with our district, like I said, I've been here since 2014. When I came back, I was so blessed to come back home and I saw that we were out of compliance when I was a teacher and I was led to believe years ago that we were in compliance all those years. We've been out of compliance for over a decade to where the state was about to come in and take our department over. So, I have worked diligently with my amazing team. And when I say team, I mean every person in this district to get us where we need to be. And it's been such an amazing opportunity to see people work together. When we

038have our professional professional development, we talk about it as a team and everybody plays a role in this. You all play a role in this and we are all holding each other accountable and it's getting us into such a beautiful spot where IEEPs aren't as late. Things aren't happening like they were. However, it comes to my psychologist. That's where we're struggling because like I said, they are the foundation. They are the first level and without enough of them, nothing's going to get done. Things go late. But we are held accountable by the state and I am held accountable by myself to make sure that we're doing what's best for our kids. So we used Epic. We ended with them um in December. We are not using them anymore. I need to make that clear. It

039stopped December 19th and my team was very upset because we were getting ahead. [snorts and sighs] We collected a lot of data. We got a lot of things done but we still need support. We are always at risk of mitigation and it falls like I said from not meeting timelines. We don't have enough staffing so we can't get things done but we we will be able to s sustain it by having a few more psychologists on the team to help us. So, what I'm really excited to share is in June of 2024, we were at for the district, how many students were in special education or identified in our special education program? 16.5, which is good. And now we're at 15.2, which is amazing because we never want to get over 18%. The state does

040not look well at that. It looks like we're overidentifying, which we do not want to do. And I need everyone to also understand that there is such ample data collected by the psychologist that we have to input all into safe. The CDE will sometimes randomly pull IEPs and we have to look through them. We have an amazing team that's been working on a plan moving forward and I have on it principles, teachers, um, sped teachers, gened teachers, middle school, elementary psychologist, occupational therapist, everybody's involved. And I just would like to make sure that everyone understands that my team and myself are trying to do what's best for children. It's what we talk about every time we meet. We need to make sure that the kids are they come first always. And that's what we do

041as our mantra for our team. We just want to make sure that our kids are getting everything that they need. It's our job. That's why I'm here. And I want to thank you for the opportunity to let me speak and share on this. >> [applause] >> Thank you. We'll open it up for questions and comments. Trusty Krauss. Thank you, President Sto, and thank you, Dr. Best, for the presentation this evening. I appreciate the information. Um, one of the things that I've always been a big proponent of is hiring, looking at our internal staff, our potential teachers, uh, other staff that might be interested in these positions. And I hope that at some point we can look at uh a pipeline uh to support our internal staff rather than hiring out uh to companies and we

042do a lot of hiring outside not just for sped but for other um departments as well. But it's always my goal I hope that we can look at that as we move forward. Uh and you mentioned edjoin and I appreciate that. So I went on edjoin and I looked and I see speech pathologist on there for uh special ed. The only concern I had is that the application deadline is in June 30th of this year, 6 months from now. So, I'm hoping that perhaps we can relook at that and uh nobody's going to apply in my opinion uh if they have to wait all the way to June if we're looking for speech pathologists now. So, that's something else. I didn't see any school psychologists on there. I'm not sure if we're looking to hire

043them, but uh that might be something to probably post if we are. And then I saw a coordinator of sped, so I was wondering, President Sodto, is that an addition to the coordinator of SPED we have? Are we replacing the coordinator of sped on ed join or uh can we get some clarification on why there's a coordinator of sped position being flown on ed join related to our special education department. Thank you. That's my only questions and comments. >> Thank you Trusty Krauss. Dr. Walker. >> Thank you. So at the time uh beginning of 2024 we had two coordinators and one director. At this time one of the coordinators was moved into a director position. So, we never did refill that position. So, that position is there uh to fill a spot that has been

044open for almost over a year now. >> Thank you, Dr. Walker. Trusty Stewart, comments, questions? >> Well, I just want want to say as a stud stutterer myself, I do appreciate the speech that our kids give. um you don't know how important it is until you don't speak clearly. It affects every part of your your life. Um so for those out out there who want want to go bad back to school, there's some job sec security as a speech p pathologist. And also I always loved mine. They always cared. I mean, it it's more than than just speech, you know, and they they actually helped my son uh to help pre prevent his his stud stutter because he he was start starting to stutter and thank thank God the school allowed him to go go

045to speech wi without an an IEP. And I just thank thank God that my my K kids are all fluent. So I uh appre appreciate you and what what you do for for our kids because your p passion flow flows through everything. So thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you >> Trusty French. >> Thank you. So Dr. I want to ask you, I hear you speak on um what we do here at the district, but could you talk a little bit about what you do or what our sped program does for children that are not in our district yet, like those Head Start children that have to be evaluated for speech. Can you speak on that? You know, that holds heart to my heart. I just want everyone to know what it is that we

046do and who we all service in our community here. >> Thank you so much for that question. and I appreciate it. So, what's been really exciting to learn in this position is that all of because we currently do not have a preschool program in our district, it's outsourced. And with that, whenever students come in and their parents are concerned, they also do the same thing. parents write a letter or the amazing preschool teachers, those early um childhood credentialed teachers, they will listen and then they will say to the parent, you know, or we need to have the child assessed because we currently do not work directly with them. We are still the ones that are to take care of them because they're ours. So, they are then assessed for speech and language. But with that

047what happens is because we have no control of this when these children transfer into the district as TK now after being assessed and they do qualify they are placed in a mod severe classroom when they are not a mod severe student and that's what's happening and that's that's one of the needs to why I need more support and management with another coordinator because these meetings are happening all the time and [snorts] I need everyone to understand that those preschool students That's a change of placement. And anytime there's a change of placement from one program to another, you must have a psychologist there and or a coordinator or someone in a management position in the sped department to make ethically responsible decisions to help the parents understand. And so a lot of times we get students

048that are considered mod severe when they just have possibly articulation errors. And that's what happens. And so then they come into our district here. But what we really need to do is get into that preschool program and be more involved because those are our babies at such a young age that we can make sure that they're on the right path when they get to us and that they're getting the supports that they need. So they are assessed by county speech language pathologist and we hope and pray that they do it right because we have no control over it. And that's something that I would honestly love to see change is become more of an actant participant with the preschool program. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, >> uh, Vice President Ker. >> Good evening, Dr. Best.

049I do want to start by thanking you for your presentation this evening and being with us. Uh, one of the biggest concerns that I'm taking away from your presentation is the lack of school psychologists that we have. Do you know currently how many that we have like approved for a position? >> So we have seven. >> Seven. And how many uh positions are currently open? >> We want to fly three positions. >> So there's four filled right now. >> So right now we have seven. >> Okay. >> And we want to open on edjoin three more additional positions for psychologist. >> Three additional positions at this time. Um, I would like to ask for the board's consensus for direction to allow SPED the ability to fly those three positions on Edjoin. Okay. Um, >> don't

050all jump out of your seats at once. >> I mean, I'm fine with it. I don't mind it. >> I mean, I'm asking for consensus. >> We don't need We need it. Um I just not sure if since >> my understanding is if we agree with consensus they can bring it back to us >> for approval of those three more positions. Three, right? >> Yes. Yes. Three. >> So okay. Um yeah. I mean I'm fine with it. I mean I don't know if it's more appropriate for us to do it during uh board member reports and comments um and then we can get a consensus there. But I'm open to it. I don't know what the board wants to wait until board reports and comments or do we want to give consensus right now? >>

051Well, I'm just confused. Do Do you need the board or isn't that an an HR thing? >> Would you like me to answer? Yeah. Okay. So, >> what I from my knowledge, we don't need the board if we can do it through HR and fly the positions through human resources. >> Okay. We don't need the consensus, but I I would I'm grateful that you offered it. So grateful. >> Super. >> All right. Appreciate it. Well, I'm glad. Um and I hope to see you get more support over in your department. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Vice President Kyer. Yeah. Um thank you for being here. Thank you for your presentation. And obviously there's a big need for mental health services, special ed, and so um I'm in full support and doing whatever we

052can to support you and support our kids mental health. Um I think that's important to me as well. So I think that um yeah, thank you for being here. That's all I have. >> Thank you so much. >> Thanks. [applause] Okay, we'll be moving on to close session declarations. We'll be taking items 2 through six into uh close session. Before we do that, we're going to go ahead and open it up for public comment. Before we do that, um I'm actually going to be the one who's going to take the speaker cards and um call the speakers to come to the podium. And if we can have um our vice president read the uh speaker court instructions. >> Thank you, board president. The public comment period is administered by state law and is the point

053in the meeting set aside for members of the public to share their opinions with the board. Open meeting laws do not permit the board to engage in dialogue or answer questions. Any person who wishes to address the governing board on close session agenda items only must complete and submit an ASD speaker request form 5 minutes before the meeting is called to order. Public comments will only be taken on agenda items during the discussion of those items. The board values public comments and although the board of trustees cannot take action or discuss items not on the agenda, the board of trustees listens carefully and appreciates the input from the public. Additionally, a public speaker can be cut off for exceeding the allotted time or for willfully causing an actual disruption to the meeting. Before cutting a

054person off or removing someone, the board will give at least one clear warning. If you were cut off or warned last time, please consider that your warning. Individual speakers are allowed three minutes to address the board on each closed session agenda item. The board limits the total time for public input on each item to 20 minutes. With board consent, the president may increase or decrease the time allowed for public presentation. Depending on the topic and the number of persons wishing to be heard, the president may take a poll of speakers for or against a particular issue and may ask that additional person speak only if they have something new to add. >> All righty. Thank you, Vice President Kyer. Um, I just want to say something that before we do begin public comment, I just

055want to state very clearly the board's expectations for decorum this evening. The board welcomes public input, criticism, and differing viewpoints. However, public comment is not a forum for personal attacks, disruptive conduct, or commentary directed at individual trustees, staff, or audience members. So, please direct your comments to the board as a whole. Speakers are expected to address the board as a body, remain within the established time limits, and conduct themselves in a respectful and orderly manner. As preciding officer, I have a responsibility under Brown the Brown Act and board policy to ensure meetings are conducted professionally and without disruption so that the board can carry out its duties. If a speaker engages in conduct that disrupts the meeting or violates these standards, I will issue a warning and if necessary conclude the speaker's remarks. I just

056want to remind the audience that we do have some kids in the audience. So, let's show our kids when we disagree, we can do so sibly. All righty. Moving on to public comments. The first one that we have is a point of order. >> Uh the rep the union representatives usually go first. President. >> Oh, thank you. Yes. Um ATA please. >> Good evening. Pres uh board president stood Dr. Walker, Trustee Ker, Trustee Love French, Trustee Stewart, Trusty Krauss, Dr. Valdez, Mr. Shifflet, esteemed colleagues, CSCA brothers and sisters and community members. My name is Brian Han and I'm proudly serving as the interim president of ADTA, the Adalanto District Teachers Association. As always, I thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I want to begin by thanking Dr. Lee and Dr. Valdez from the

057educational services department for extending the application deadline for this next round of beyond the bell clubs and tutoring. That flexibility was appreciated by our teachers and school sites. This gesture truly reflects your responsiveness to the realities of every one of our hard-working teachers at each of our school sites. What I would like to share this evening centers on a common theme. Aligning our district decisions with student access, educ educator expertise and stable sustainable systems. Let me begin with Saturday school and student access. Simply put, equity. We understand the district's explanation that the Saturday school program for the last four Saturday school days cost more than it recovered in attendance revenue. At the same time, we are questioning whether the financial recovery alone should be the primary metric for evaluating a program whose purpose was to

058provide student access and opportunity. Stu Saturday school provided a structured framework for students to make up missed instructional time, re-engage academically, and receive support that was otherwise difficult to access sometimes during the regular school day or in some in some cases for an entire week or more than a week. Ending the program midyear removed those opportunities without warning to the students, families, and teachers who were relying on it. Our dedicated teachers believe alternative approaches could have been explored, such as sight-based in in incentives, targeted targeted attendance encouragement, or program redesign rather than the suspension of Saturday school in its entirety. The concern is not simply that the program ended, but how and when it ended without all stakeholders being given the opportunity and time to thoughtfully respond, provide input, and assist with the creation of

059a viable transition plan. Teachers are also questioning why morning tutoring sessions were eliminated from beyond the bell. While we understand that early start schools would have difficulty establishing two-hour morning enrichment blocks, late start schools have more than two hours available before the instructional day begins. This pres presents an opportunity to differentiate program design and expand access where it is feasible. Why bring the outhouse when we have the in-house educator expertise? We are increasingly concerned about the district's reliance on outsourced vendors for tutoring supervision and enrichment services. On tonight's agenda, Tutor Me is listed as a vendor. This reflects a broader pattern of contracting services that credentialed teachers in our district are qualified and willing to provide. Teachers continue to report that application processes are cumbersome, opportunities are unevenly distributed, and three school sites lack multiplier

060funds, leaving those educators with few or no opportunities to tutor their students. after or before the school day begins. At the same time, outsourced programs such as these often rely on non-credentialed college students with limited alignment to classroom instruction and little collaboration with teachers. My question to all of you is this. Who knows our students better than our own teachers? >> Outsourcing should be the exception, not the default, especially when it costs more and disconnects services from classroom instruction. On another note, where have all the school psychologists gone? Apparently, Dr. Best is also concerned. Currently, we are being set up for systemic risk without them. I believe the district currently has seven school psychologists serving 14 schools. Their case loads are so overwhelming that many of them are unable to provide sitebased support. Rearranging these

061positions, while perhaps well-intentioned, risks placing the district out of compliance with IEP timelines and legal requirements. This is definitely not a reflection on the school psychologists themselves, but a concern about system capacity and sustainability. We need strong leadership, stability, and a path forward. all things that Dr. Walker has provided us in the Adalanto Elementary School District. Under Dr. Walker's leadership, the district has experienced stability, consistency, vision, and inspiration. That stability has created coherence across departments, predictability for staff and the confidence that decision decision decisions were aligned with a broader purpose. The guiding coalition which Dr. Walker brought to us serves as a collaborative framework through which complex challenges can be addressed thoughtfully rather than reactively. Many of the issues that I am raising tonight are not isolated problems but symptoms of systems in need of

062alignment. The guided coalition represents a vehicle through which instructional priorities, student services, fiscal realities, and labor concerns can be addressed collectively and constructively. The teachers are asking for decisions that keep students at the center, fully utilize the expertise from within our schools, and build systems that are stable, equitable, and compliant. With steady leadership and a recommmitment to collaborative structures like the guided coalition, the district is well positioned to move forward thoughtfully and effectively. One final note in our in our agreed upon contractual agreement for the 2526 school year. There was no thought at all during during negotiations that the 10-minute ADTA time would be eliminated from the hours that principles had to conduct meetings. Actually, it is still in the contract and I would ask Dr. Walker that you instruct principles that ADTA should be

063given their 10 minutes at the beginning of every meeting um as we always have had. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you friends, colleagues, community members. Thank you all for your support and have a great evening. [applause] Thank you. Uh, representative from CSEA. [applause] Good evening, President Stoodto, trustees, Superintendent Walker, cabinet, classified staff, certificated staff, and all others present and on YouTube. There are a few things that I'm concerned with on tonight's agenda. The first being is listed on close session number six regarding our superintendent, Dr. Walker. I must say that the encounters I personally had with Dr. Walker. She has been professional, respectful, and always listens. I have to say this is the first time in the 27 years I have been with AESD that a superintendent has brought our students, parents,

064community, staff, and administration together with the guiding coalition Thrive30. I truly believe her motive is to bring AESD to a higher standard via education and transparency with all who are involved. The second item I'm concerned with is the outsourcing in our transportation and our spend department. I believe our own staff are very capable and able to work and do a better job than Edmmy and the professionals that are that we are using pair of professionals. Let's start with transportation. We have a director that can train new employees so they can obtain a bus driver certificate. There has not been any training for this since the end of last year. Why is that? We have many new electric buses but not enough charging stations. These buses need to be charged after the morning run so they

065can be used for the afternoon run. However, we have 18 electric buses and only 11 charges. These buses cannot be used for field trips that go down the hill. I guess that's why we are using admire which is very expensive. There are entries on a spreadsheet in today's agenda with four $18,000 deductions for Edmmy. Why are we using EDMER and is this monthly when we can train new employees? The third item is our sped department. Why are we being outsourced? The young adults, some fresh out of high school, are replacing our very capable pair of professionals. I ask why our ASD professionals must pass a test NCL which the description for sorry I can't read this for the compliance. So, I'm wondering why are we doing this? We should be using our own. I understand

066that many of our pair of professionals who were able to work um years prior um for summer school were not used and we were they were outsourced. That is not right. The fourth item on today's agenda is under new business number two, Assembly Bill 1390. I brought this up previously. It's a bill that can bring the compensation for our trustees up to $1,200 per month, which would be a $400% increase. While our certificated and classified staff receive 1% off schedule for last year, and classified will receive nothing for this year, even though the cost of living for this school year is 2.8%. I again I ask why. There are many decisions that are directly affecting our district's budget and it seems that we are paying the price with our well-deserved pay increase. Thank you. [applause]

067Thank you. All righty. So we have a bunch of speaker cards speaking for a particular item. So if the unless the board oppose a unless the board um you know has a different idea um what I'll do is we'll put 20 minutes on the clock. We'll allow the speakers who are here for 4.6 in close session speak for 20 minutes and that's and then we'll come back to if we yeah we'll come back to those who are not speaking to this agenda item. Um, is that okay with the board? No objection. That's what we're doing then. Okay. >> I have an objection. >> Uh, trust of the French. >> I think that everyone that came out here tonight should have the opportunity to speak if they put it in. [applause] >> [applause] [applause] >> Thank

068you um board. Um it's a good point. Um but we also have to be mindful of the time um and our business >> order. >> Um I am I'm sorry. Excuse me. President I'm sure that in order for ev everyone to have a chance to speak I'm sure the speak speakers will will be mind mindful of their their time if they don't mind to short shorten it a little bit um you know and and not not you use the whole three men minutes I think that we could accom accommodate the the speak speakers >> trustees. So what I what I can re what I would suggest is we we add five minutes on top of the original 25 that we're that is usually on the agenda and well like you've mentioned Trustee Stewart everyone who

069heard that um so when there's typically one agenda item in which a majority of uh audience members are here to speak about we give the audience 20 minutes. Obviously, it's up to the discretion of the board president and the board as a whole if we want to give more time. I'm willing to give more time. And I share this so that you guys are just mindful that since you guys are all here speaking on the same agenda item, just make your comments quick. Hey, I'm here to support this. I'm here for this. I'm here with, you know, and that's it. Um otherwise, you're going to take other people's time and not everyone's going to be able to speak. Um we do know that you know there are some of you why you're here. Um so

070just make it very brief and we'll we'll understand. Um so that's what we'll do. We'll add 25 minutes unless there's an objection and then we'll with that information we hope that you guys can be considerate of your your colleagues who also want to speak as well. All righty. Moving on to the first >> I speak again. >> Oh okay. Um Trusty Le French. >> Yes. So, um, what you're saying is that you've added five more minutes to the speaking. Um, was this I know that only Stewart and I spoke. Is that the majority of the other side of the board that says it's just five minutes or are as the president are you saying that you you're asking the entire board can we allow them to speak or are you saying that you've now made

071the decision for the board for that five minutes? [clears throat] So it the board has every right to this is not dictatorship you know the board has the ability right the board has the ability to object that's why I open the the doors like what do you guys think right this is collaborative it's not up to me it's up to the board but our board bylaw does state that I do facilitate the meeting so I am within my right to do that but if we object that's what I would like the board to that's what we're talking about right now is what do we how do we want to move forward that's my recommendation if the board rejects subjects This is a chance I'm opening the doors for us to talk. >> Okay. So my

072suggestion was because these people from our community, our teachers, our principles have come, I think that we should allow them to speak. That was my suggestion. [applause] >> And I mean, I'm sorry. Uh we we are their dual dy elected rep represent representatives. President stood I also have two people on Zoom that say that they will go on for open session. That's number seven and number eight which is Lauren Benson and Nanadilli. >> Okay. So is there a majority that would like to do that recommend but look to the French or if not then we'll just do the default which is what I was my recommendation. What does the board think? >> I would like to weigh in on this. >> I think it is essential that we recognize the amount of individuals who are

073here to speak to us tonight. Um, I think it is unfair to limit it. I do believe that it would be considerate to add that if anyone doesn't have something new or different to add to please limit your speaking. >> I I agree. I mean, we we all know, you know, why we're doing this. Um, >> so I I I will confer to that. >> Thank you. >> So, and and so and just to clarify, Vice President Ky, did you still want to give them the the all three minutes each? >> We are as I as I Okay, >> cuz I heard you say that you want to give everyone the chance to talk. So, that means everyone gets the three minutes. I believe it is essential for everyone to be heard and given that

074opportunity at the podium. The only thing I request um if I can get consensus is that our speakers be considerate if they don't have something new or different to add to please limit your speech to allow everyone the opportunity tonight to speak and allow everyone to go home before 11 p.m. [applause] Okay, we're going to start with public comments unless Trusty Krauss or >> No opposition. >> Trusty Stewart. >> No, I was just going to say we could have had like four already speaking. Let's get this on. [applause] >> Point well taken. Melissa Ao speaking on number two negotiations. Sorry, I'm trying to hurry. Good evening, students, family, community members, uh Dr. Walker, cabinet, and trustees. Um tonight, um members of the community are formally moving forward with the recall, um process for the following

075trustees of the Alanto Elementary School District. Um Michael Cross, Stephanie Ker, and Miguel Sto. This action is being taken because we believe kids come first. and this is in the best interest of our children and the future of their education. Dr. Walker, thank you for all your continued work on our behalf and on behalf of the district. At this time, I would like to um I would like clarification on the appropriate process for serving these documents. Um, may I approach the um, trustee directly or should I have security assist with delivery? You can approach the DAS. >> You can put it down. You can give it to me. Actually, just hand them to me. I'll have them to the trustees. >> No. Thank you. [applause] [cheering] [applause] >> Point of order. President Sto, >> Trusty

076Krauss, >> not sure where that falls on close session. I I believe we're only addressing close session agenda items. Is that correct statement? >> That is correct. Yes. >> Thank you. Well point. Good point. Well taken. Moving on to Areli Paralta speaking on 4.6. >> Today we come together to honor Dr. Walker, a woman of whose integrity, compassion, and dedication have left a lasting imprint on this district and on all of us. During her time here, Dr. Walker didn't just lead. She believed. She believed in what this district could become, even when the path forward wasn't clear. Because of her vision, courage, the district has reached heights that our staff, our students, and our community once could only imagine. She pushed us to think bigger, to expect more, and to never settle for what was

077easy when we knew what was possible. What makes Dr. Walker truly special is that her leadership has always been grounded in her heart. She sees people, not numbers, not data points, but people. She listens. She cares. And she acts with a purpose, with integrity in every decision she makes. That compassion has created a culture where staff feel valued, supported, and inspired to give their very best. But perhaps the most powerful testament that Dr. Walker's impact is seen in our students. To watch them grow, succeed, and walk confidently towards their future is incredibly heartfelt. Their achievements, their confidence, and their belief in themselves are a direct reflection of the environment that Dr. Walker has helped build. one rooted in opportunity, equity, and hope. Dr. Walker, your legacy will live on in every classroom, every every success

078story, and every life you've touched. This district is stronger because of you. We are better because of you, and for that, we are endlessly grateful. Thank you for your leadership, your heart, and your unwavering belief in all of us. >> [applause] [applause] >> Next speaker, Audrey Enriquez speaking on 4.6. Okay. Uh, Kimberly Smith speaking on 4.6. [applause] >> Good evening, President Sodto. Good evening, Vice President Kyer. Good evening, Clerk Stewart. Good evening board rep Love French and good evening legislative rep Michael Krauss. My name is Kimberly Smith. I teach at Victoria McGathan Elementary School. I'm a fifth grade teacher and I have been teaching for 29 years. I stand before you not in anger alone but in heartbreak, frustration, and deep concern for the children of this district. For many months, many of us were

079told that there was no intention to remove Dr. Walker. We were told to stop worrying. We were told rumors were lies. And yet, here we are watching truth slowly unravel and trust being broken piece by piece. When leaders say one thing and do another, it doesn't just damage credibility, it damages the entire community. Let me be clear about Dr. Walker. We will not get a better superintendent. She has served this district with integrity, courage, and heart. While many of us desperately want her to stay, we do not want her to continue to endure this board's illwill toward her. She is too important to this district, too important to our students, and too important to her family to be treated with disrespect, hostility, and political games. [applause] While political games are being played, our students are

080falling behind academically, emotionally, and socially. They are the ones who pay the price for instability, poor leadership decisions, and selfish agendas. You sit in these seats not to be not to protect yourselves, but to protect children. And too often that responsibility is being ignored. Many of us come to this podium brave enough to speak, even when it's uncomfortable. But what do we see? Board members looking bored, writing rebuttals before we even finish speaking, dismissing community voices as if there were an inconvenience. When you ignore us, you are ignoring the families, the teachers, the classified, and the children of this district. This district has always had challenges. We know that. But three of you are not fixing these problems. You are making them worse. Division, distress, disrespect. That is what has grown under your watch. Leadership

081is not about power. It is not about ego. It is not about control. Leadership is about service. So I ask, what have you truly done for students? What have you truly done for teachers, classified? What have you done for our families? Because what many of us see is self-s serving behavior disguised as leadership. We are not enemies. We are your community. We are the people who wake up early, stay late, and carry the weight of this district every single day. We stand together, and more and more, the community is beginning to see the errors that were made at the ballot box. >> 30 seconds. >> What happens in the dark always comes to the light, and the light is shining brighter now. History will remember who stood for children and who stood for themselves. Your

082time in these seats is not guaranteed. Accountability always comes not through threats, not through truth community, but through truth, community, and courage. We will keep speaking. We will keep showing up. We will keep standing for children because this district does not belong to three people. It belongs to all of us. >> Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, Ta Brown, speaking on 4.6. Six. Okay, sorry. Good evening everyone. I am Tabitha Brown and these are my daughters, Elizabeth, Nora, and Adora. Elizabeth and Nora attend Gus Franklin Elementary. So they are in your school district and these are the children that I have been talking about to you all. I would like to start off with telling you Trustee Love French, thank you for answering my question at the last meeting when it came to me asking

083about if anyone on here has children. So thank you for pointing that out because you didn't have to. Um, the thing about what crushes me is the sped department. My daughter has an IEP. She's in fifth grade. She suffers. She needs it. Please don't question it ever. This is so expensive. Okay? It's hard. This right here, I asked a question the last meeting and I said, "Do any of you know anyone that knows someone that has speech problem?" This is Adora Brown. She's three years old. My baby has she has a speech problem. She has to do speech online, which is terribly hard for her at three years old. She is mildly autistic. Also, I plan to bring her to this school district because I trust Dr. Best, her department, and what they do. I

084plan to have her go to Gus Franklin where I know I will have the support from the principles, the teachers, all of the staff because they know where I come from and how I feel about my kids. Dr. Walker, we love you. We appreciate and we thank you. And yes, the last meeting we were told that nobody here is trying to get rid of you, put you out or anything, bully, whatever it may want to be called. But for some reason on this agenda on number six, I read that government code section 48900, no I'm sorry, wrong one. 54 957 public employee dismissal release titled superintendent. I'm sorry. Why are you lying to me? Again, these are my children that I stand here for. Okay, Dr. Walker, I know it's hard when you're going up

085against people that don't see what you see. But please don't let the ignorance push you out of here. My babies are up here. I bring them in front of all of you [applause] to see my children. Our school district is Snowline School District and I took them from there to bring them here and people talked about me and told me I was stupid for taking them to Adam school district because it's a terrible district. Please don't make those people right. Please don't. Thank you. >> And I do want to know who's better than you. Thank you. Uh, next speaker, Debbie Shannon. Debbie S speaking on 4.6. >> Debbie. No. All righty. Stefan Tapia speaking on 4.6. >> Stefan. >> President Sodto. That was Debbie Thomas. >> I said Debbie. There's no deputy. >> Hello members

086of cabinet, board members, parents, and both ADTA and CSCA members. My name is Steven Tapia. It's been a while since I've been at this podium. I want to thank Carol Coburn and her team for putting together the winter wonderland event that sp that supported our foster youth held on December 22nd. I enjoyed volunteering as Santa. Um, three hours in a wig and full beard is always a pleasure, but the kids loved it. I came here today for a number of reasons. There are many important items on the agenda, many that impact the entire community and many that tear down that very same community. As a former ADTA president, it was always my goal to build. I worked with the superintendent to combat many issues. When our K six schools became overpopulated, we worked together to

087send the sixth grade to the middle school. When those middle school teachers needed a prep period, like every other district, we got it. At point in point in my tenure as president, we were one of the highest paid districts in the area. I even went to job fairs with the superintendent of HR to recruit new teachers. We were in the position of building together. Right now, some decisions that have been made or will be made tonight will put us in the position of tearing down. Having an effective leader on any team is very important. someone who is engaging, personable, and a fit for the community. For so long, we've had this revolving door at the very top of this district. Everyone can improve. You don't throw away talent when it is um you don't throw

088away talent when it can be nurtured. You don't throw away talent when it can be improved. And you certainly do not throw away talent when it is needed most. All of you sitting up there have to ask yourself, did you take on your role to build using your expertise or to tear down by simply using might? And some of you, the question is, why did your constituents put you in your position? Was it to build or tear down? You have a union leadership, both CSEA and ADTA, who I know would love to build with you. You see, when you tear down only one group destructively, when you when you tear down only one group destructively wins, but when you build together, every single one of us benefits. I'd choose to build. Thank you. [applause] Thank

089you. Morgan Mullik speaking on number six 4.6 Morgan Mcculla. No. Okay. Um Robert Almanza speaking on sped school psychologist info. Hello, good evening. Um, I'm a school psychologist with our district. So, I know we talked a lot about SPED today. Um, I wanted to at least speak about like what is the process and the misconceptions of what a school psychologist does. A lot of people, even the public, think that we just do counseling. We write a brief report and we give eligibility to a kid. But it's way more complex than that. We do our assessments for trienals. We do it for initials. We do our SST meetings. We do our manifest determinations. We sit in several IEPs for various reasons. We attend county meetings. We attend the non-public school meetings. And we also attend our

090home hospital meetings for students that are within our district. We also work on TISAs. We work on FBAs. We work on students that are exiting uh out of sped. We work on students that need DMCC referrals for counseling. I do I do several of those. So I wanted to get to the process of what it is for an assessment. So I usually get a letter from a parent uh requesting that or there's maybe an SST and then I send actually I call them find out what it is their concerns are and then I send them a envelope like looks like this. Inside there they are going to be getting a letter of what all my paperwork is going to be. I give them a notice of procedural safeguards because at this point it's part of

091childfind. I give them a copy of the assessment plan that I've created for them to see if they will be in agreement with it so I can begin testing, doing my interviews, doing my observations. I get the background for everything for their child, medical, uh how they're doing at home with socialization skills, everything. how what pleases their parent, how are they doing with peers, uh listing all their grades, all everything, how much TV do they watch? It's very thorough. It's comprehensive. Then after that, they fill out lots of rating scales for me. And this could vary. Sometimes it's just one. If I'm looking at a student with specific learning disability, sometimes I have a student that's looking at something like ADHD, that's another one. Sometimes there's adaptive behavior skills where I'm looking at intellectual disability.

092I also have ones for autism and for students that have emotional disability. There could be multiple of those that are given to a parent. That's what gets sent to the parent. This is what I use to help make my assessments for an initial or trienals depending on what's kind of going on with that student. So, I want you to also know that this folder is empty when I start my assessment as a school psychologist. This is a completed one that I am done with now. So I want you to understand what it takes to do the job of a school psychologist and why we're asking for your support and I don't know why there's been resistance to that but you know we work very very hard as a school psychologist at the end of that

093you know when I have all my assessments and protocols I have my report we make a determination on eligibility is based on legal criteria we look at several different areas like 14 different areas what I want to say is we work very very hard we need you to understand we need your support to help the most vulnerable students students in our district. So, please work with me. Thank you very much. [applause] >> Thank you. Next speaker, George Kamacho, speaking on Dr. Walker. >> [laughter] >> Good evening board of trustees, superintendent, executive cabinet. Sorry, I had this call. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name, as you mentioned, is Jorge Kamacho George. You know, I am a parent of children who attend school within the school district. I am also an active member of

094my kids schoolside council. I've been fortunate enough to have participated in the district joint parent leadership meetings, district parent advisory committee meetings, and I think most importantly, most recently, I was able to provide feedback at the guiding coalition meeting as it relates to the Thrive 2030 strategic framework for the district. So, the reason why I wanted to say that is to show that I am involved in what's happening in my kids school, the district as far as going on. So with all that said, I'm here because I want to acknowledge so far the positive changes I have seen in the district under the stewardship of Dr. Walker. I have seen the district put an emphasis on student achievements and attendance. I have seen the district partner with community organizations to increase opportunities and give the

095access give the kids access to kind of real world opportunities. What's going out there like what's really happening? The robotic presentation played very well into that as far as that. I'm seeing that in action. I have seen I think most importantly the district start putting more emphasis on the well-being of students by showing them that you are part of a community. This district is your community. Everybody around you is your community. With that said, I do want to kind of say that these were all possible because of action plans that were put in place by Dr. Walker with the support of the school board at that time or even moving forward. I think that's all possible as an active member of our community um and an active member of you know just participating in the

096school and wanting to see our kids achieve. I wish to continue to see these positive changes and I want to see them move forward and I really think we can do that by all all of us working together school board executive cabinet superintendent parents teachers the uh association and um the last one I cannot remember the abbreviation sa dtmp I'm just throwing number out now I'm not exactly sure as far as that >> but I do want to acknowledge like I've seen changes and I think these changes can continue to move forward and I want to acknowledge that and I think we can do it as long as we do it together. Thank you. [applause] >> Next speaker, Aaron Guro speaking on 4.6. Dr. Walker, >> President Sodto, trustees, Superintendent Walker, I want to speak

097to the teachers, the administrators, the parents, and the students in this room. I am a guest in your home. I teach in Long Beach. I like to think of myself as an ordinary teacher who was blessed with extraordinary students named the Freedom Writers and extraordinary leadership. I have a superintendent who was here tonight, my original superintendent, Dr. Carl Cohen, one of the most esteemed superintendents in the country. I've also had the toutelage of a mentor, Dr. Ketiora for Marino Valley. I know great leadership. I've traveled the world. I've traveled our country and I see great leadership in Dr. Walker. [applause] I am humbled. I am honored to work with the vulnerable youth of your community. Each and every opportunity that myself and my trusted freedom writers have had to work with the hope scholars, the

098beautiful young children at Colombia Middle School, Mesa Linda Middle School. we considered a gift. And so we are here to elevate you, to celebrate you, to stand with you and beside you because you are the north star. You are the light that is leading us through a very dark time. It is January 13th and our world is upside down with everything that is happening in this world. We need stability. We need progress. We need restorative circles. If this board could get together and do a restorative circle. >> Yes. >> My program started because there was bullying in my classroom. A caricature, a note that led to a best-selling book and a motion picture. I didn't send those kids away. Those bullies to this day are scholars. We got together and we handled our business. So

099my humble advice to you is when you go to close session, handle your business because people in this community will hurt if you get rid of Dr. Walker. People in this community will rally if you get rid of Dr. Walker. And I am not even from this community. I am a guest, as I said, in your home. But there's a lot of folks from the LBC who are willing to drive up that 15 to honor and respect and and march with your leadership. When you say stand, we salute. So I am here just to praise you, to honor you, and to stand beside you. Thank you. [applause] [cheering] Thank you. Next speaker, please. Uh, Delon Fernandez. >> Dylan, >> that's Deborah Fernandez. >> Deborah Fernandez speaking on 4.6. >> Hard followup. Um, I just want

100to say thank you to the board, to President Sodto, um to um to Dr. Walker for letting me speak. Um, I've been in this district. I'm going to get sentimental because you guys always know I'm sentimental. [laughter] Um, I've been in this district 19 years. I'm going on 20 years. And, um, I'm really tired of the turnaround. To be very transparent. Um, I'm trying to provide stability. I am the hope scholars teacher with my partner and we work with students of trauma. We work with students that are going through a lot and so to have it going through also now in a bigger fashion is really stressful. Um, we for the first time have true leadership and I've seen change for the first time. I'm actually proud of my district for the first not for

101the first time but for a long time I can say that we're heading the right direction and so I just want to say that I am um in full support of Dr. Walker. I'm um I've been here long enough to see the different changes and the things that we've all gone through. And I think we all want the same thing. We need stability and we need leadership. And I think we're all tired of the lip service that we've had and the change that we've had for years. And I just say that as a as a blanket statement. Um I don't know how long I can stay with a district that keeps changing. And it scares me. It scares me to have constant leadership. And I am so passionate about what I'm doing. I am driving

102like a lot of us are commuting just to be here to be with this community. I love our students. I love our families. I am very passionate about what we do. You guys you guys know this. And um I just wanted to say that um that um Dr. Walker is out at a foundation that that we've never had. And what I'm afraid of is is having is saying that we're going to be doing like saying we're going to be doing something and pulling that away. It it breaks the trust from everybody. How do we trust that if we don't have Dr. Walker? What's the next step? Who do we trust again? How long do we have somebody? It's a constant turnaround and I think it just is starting to break a lot of us. So,

103I don't know what else to say. I just needed to say this because after 19 years, it's just I'm really tired of it and I just want change for our community. Our students deserve it and our parents deserve it. They need to have the stability to un to hand that trust. You cannot have trust without stability. Thank you. [applause] >> Dor Dorina Blandon speaking on special education. [cheering] [applause] >> For the sake of time, I thank everybody here present our community, our board. Dr. Walker. I have been with Atlanta Elementary School District since August 2018. Um, in my short memory, I had a stroke. I had a stroke August the 7th of this year and I had the support of all my team members. But the one thing that gave me hope to come back

104to work and to push with the therapy to be able to be a somebody that contributes to our community. I love Adilanto. Was when Dr. Walker one day I said, "Dr. Walker, my my purp I'm an advocate. I'm a school psychologist. I thank all of you. But there's something that I'm very passionate and that is serving your children in the least restrictive environment as an advocate to the best of my abilities. And that includes doing what is ethically and legally appropriate for each of my babies. I call them mine. They're all mine. when our district when our special ed department doc um Robert came in front of you and explained that all the things some a portion of what we do but we're highly dependent on evidence what is the evidence that a school psychologist

105does when we conduct our in-person assessments when we collaborate with our teachers when we collaborate with our parents we have to do we have to complete protocols. Those protocols cost money. Accountability. All right. Those protocols, if it wasn't that Dr. Walker didn't approve the online protocols for me, hey, we're short of money. Our district has been in due in due process multiple times. If it wasn't that Dr. Walker approved for Dr. Best and Miss Pettis to purchase our protocols, I would have nothing to conduct my assessment with. All right? And if I don't have the the protocols to do the test, all of you parents would be filing a due process against me. And it doesn't matter if I have a cute accent, Spanish accent, that is irrelevant. You know what's irre what's relevant is

106that we meet those deadlines. Okay? When a parent when a teacher says, "You know what? My baby needs help. My baby h I've been begging you guys for help for months, for years, and you guys complete the the request. We are required. We are required to say to to to to the parents to the school board and not to the board but to to our teams hey you know what we have 60 days to complete our assessments we have we have to present to the parents we have to make sure that we find the list >> thank you >> but this is the most important part without Dr. Walker >> without Dr. Walker I wouldn't meet those deadlines >> thank you >> because she approved it >> thank you >> and in the past no

107I'm going to this is the only time I get to talk in the past. >> You have three minutes. You're over. >> Anyone that wants Dr. Walker to stay, raise your hand. >> You see this? >> You see that? For the sake of time. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> We need consistency. >> Thank you. >> This is this restrictive environment. >> Thank you. [applause] >> [cheering and applause] >> Next speaker, Ruby Sandival, speaking on 4.6. [applause] >> Good evening, everyone. I'm going to make it short because I wasn't really going to speak, but I feel like I had to now. Um, and this is what happens when we feel that we're being um pushed. Um, this is evidence. You're going to get more of this. Um, and I'm here to uh show my support

108for Dr. Walker, for the support of our community, everyone here that is speaking, and to thank Dr. Vales for being at our school at Victoria McGathan and giving us an idea of what can happen in our dual immersion program. I am a Spanish dual immersion teacher at Victoria McGathan. We have the program also at Melva Davis and every time we hope that we get support for that program and um we had Dr. Valdez coming to us but now I see that like every single time when the new superintendent we get we get support and then all of a sudden they tell us oh we're not going to have a superintendent anymore. What happens to our program? It's small, hasn't been able to grow because a new superintendent comes in and nothing happens. Things change. This

109is a great program just like all the other programs that we have here. that creates uh kids that are bilingual, biiterate, that brings income to our district because if we can make it great, we'll have kids from all the districts coming to us. And these changes really affect our schools. It affects our Spanish dual immersion program. So, I hope that we can work together, work with Dr. Walker, think about what you're supposed to be doing, which is supporting our community. That's what we need to do. Thank you. [applause] Next speaker, Shed Shedderland Pulman Pullman. Shed Shedlin Shedderland PM Pull speaking on I'm assuming 4.6 Six shed shedan no sounds pium last name >> okay thank you Lisha wardro speak speaking on 4.6 Six. Ward off. Lisha Ward. She left, I'm assuming. All right, Jackson. Jason,

110sorry. Jason from CSA. [applause] Um, hello President Sodto, board members, cabinet members, classified and certificated staff, parents, and community members. My name is Jason Turkers. I'm a labor relations representative for CSEA. First, with everything that's going on, I want to start off by making it very clear that nothing I'm saying is in any way negative of Dr. Walker. And I want to be clear, Dr. Walker has an very open door policy that I very much appreciate and it is not her fault or my fault that we haven't had to speak of we haven't had the opportunity to speak on a couple of these items, but I also want the board to know what's going on as well. Um, there are a couple things I would like to uh address tonight. Currently, CSEA has two unfair

111labor practices that have been filed against the district with the Public Employment Relations Board, PERB. In both cases, PERB has issued complaints and one of them is going to a full evidentary hearing with PERB because the district um in my opinion and I'm not and I'm keeping it very vague as asked too. So uh was not honest when we had the informal conference and claimed that outside contracted pair of professionals had more qualifications than the pair of professionals employed by the district. This is not true. Um and CSEA will prove it when we have the hearing. CSEA will also prove that the district isn't even using those contracted pair of professionals to do the work they are claiming. The district tried to say that CSEA does not know what we are talking about. Um, but

112the district forgets CSEA members are the ones at the schools every day working with the students. We see what is going on and we definitely know what we are talking about. The other unfair labor practice charge is because the district negotiated directly with CSEA members instead of coming to CSA. This is not allowed and is illegal. The district and CSEA are meeting with PERB tomorrow for an informal conference and hopefully the district will agree to resolve this issue because there is no denying what happened. Um I wish this is all I need to say tonight but unfortunately it isn't. Um as the board knows the district and CSA recent reached an agreement to increase health benefits the health benefits cap. That agreement changed the health benefit cap as of July 1, 2025. To date, CSCA

113has uh retiree members who overpaid what they should have for their health benefits because of that change and yet the district has not yet reimbursed them >> for that for the amount overpaid. These are people who are retired and on fixed incomes and they need to be reimbursed. CSEA and some of these retirees have asked when the reimbursement will happen and the district has not yet given us an answer. I'm asking you, the board, to tell the district to get this done immediately. It should have been done already. Thank you. [applause] >> Thank you. Moving on to Zoom public comments. We have duplicates here that already spoke in person. >> President Sodto, I'm sorry to interrupt, but Debbie Thomas is in the audience and she was number five on the list. >> I called Debbie

114Thomas. Yes, I apologize. The handwriting was a little bit hard for me, but yeah, you can come up, Debbie, please. All right. Good evening, everyone. I'm Debbie Thomas. Um, I'm This is my 30th year in the district. I like to say that just because, you know, I've been around, I've seen all the ups and downs. I'm not here to speak for Dr. Walker tonight. I'm here to speak for my fellow colleagues, for the students, for the parents in this district right now. We need someone leading our ship, and that's Dr. Walker. We don't have a CBO. We do not have We just have a very new uh educational services person. And that once again, if you manage to get rid of her, what do we have leading the ship again? I feel like I'm on

115the Titanic and we're trying to avoid some of the icebergs. Any you know, I would didn't even necessarily agree with that super majority to get rid of her, but now you know what? I like it just because I am so tired of it turning over and turning over and turning over. It takes three to five years to make any type of difference. So, you need to give her the chance to have her to run out her contract and see what she does. Now, my number guys at work said that since she's been here, attendance has gone up, the state test scores have gone up, and the I Ready scores have gone up. So, she's making changes. >> [applause] >> So, I know that supposedly it's all rumors that um once you go into closed doors,

116you're trying to get around the supermajority by offering a deal to leave, which I don't know what the infighting is with you guys, but I like the restorative circle part because absolutely that's something that you guys need to do. Right now, we need someone leading our district. I don't personally know her. I've never had a conversation with her other than to say hello on the way to a PD day, but I've talked to many people who have worked with her. And I want someone to lead us. And that's what we need. She's doing it. I get the stress. God help me if uh I get it if they're yuck yuck yuck yuck. But you need to let her do the job and have a have a chance to do it because she is making changes.

117And how can you possibly when we're already one management person down again? How many times have you gotten rid of superintendent when we're down one employee, a management team, and now you're going to try to do it again? No. We need leadership. We need stability. We deserve leadership, and we deserve stability. Thank you. [cheering] [applause] >> Thank you. Moving on to Zoom public comments. First one we have is Lauren Benson. I do not have Lauren Benson on Zoom. >> I believe Lauren Benson said she's going to do open as well as Miss uh Gadilli. >> Okay, got it. >> I have um next Christine Turner and Phyllis Morris. >> Perfect. Christine Turner, please. We are asking them to unmute now. >> Hello. Can you hear me? >> We can hear you. Okay, good evening um

118everyone. Dr. Walker, cabinet, um students, parents, staff, trustees. Let me bring up my notes. Um also congratulations to the staff and students of Morgan Concaid and Mala Davis. I am deeply impressed with the first graders reading ability. That really makes me proud. And Dr. Best, thank you for your dedication to the district and our special education department. It's that type of leadership has been a long time coming. I'm here once again, unfortunately, to speak on behalf of Dr. Walker, who in my opinion, as a former trustee, is one of the best superintendent this district has had. I mean, one of the best. [applause] Many discussions has been on the district having many many superintendents who only after one year in office you have initiated to remove this superintendent who has ran circles around many who

119has occupied that seat. This decision isn't about children and staff of this district because their voices is not being heard. Dr. Walker has been an asset to this community, to this district, to our students, to our teachers, and to our and to our leadership. Attempting to let her go selfishly and without cause is unacceptable. This action showed a complete disregard the stability, leadership, and well-being of our stu of our schools. As trustee, our formal obligation, our foremost obligation is to make decisions that are good for kids to keep the district solvent. What's bad is these decisions have nothing to do the current decision has nothing to do with children. To sit here with stray faces attempting to remove a leader who has earned her stripes is deeply sad. Let me be clear. Yes, Christine Turner

120voted to remove several superintendents. I absolutely did because it was in the best interest of our children and our district. And yes, we made some bad hires. People can say all the right things, but actions speak louder than words. And I've watched their actions and they did not follow through. Dr. Walker did and still is doing that. Dr. Walker, you belong. Like the kid said earlier, you belong. >> Boy, please do the right thing for the district for once. Put all your personal feelings aside and look at what's good for the district. Dr. Walker is good for this district. And I can say that after serving on this district and seeing many superintendent after 18 years. Thank you, Dr. Walker. Whatever happens in there, remember you have a super majority and it take more than

121three board members to end your contract. Good night. Thank you for listening. Next speaker, Phyllis Morris. We are asking Good evening, President Sodal, board members, Superintendent Walker, and members of the community. My name is Phyllis K. Morris Green, and I am a community advocate who has carefully reviewed this board's past and present agendas and actions. I am here tonight in support of Superintendent Dr. Terry Walker and to raise serious concerns about transparency, consistency, and governance. In reviewing past agendas, references to the superintendent were clearly framed as performance evaluations. At the December meeting, when the community asked about this, we were told there was no cause for concern, that these listings were routine. Tonight's agenda is different. This item is no longer listed as an evaluation. It is listed as dismissal or release. That is a

122meaningful change and no explanation has been provided to the community to justify, excuse me, to justify it. That lack of transparency matters. For more than 15 years, Adalto has experienced repeated superintendent turnover. That level of instability is not a student failure. It is a governance failure. Dr. Walker did not create this history or culture. She inherited it. Repeatedly placing a superintendent under the cloud of potential termination without clarity or public accountability creates destabiliz creates a destabilizing and demoralizing environment. At a minimum, this conduct appears punitive rather than professional. The community understands how board votes work. We are paying attention to patterns, not just outcomes. If there are legitimate concerns, they should be addressed transparently and fairly. If there are not, this board must stop engaging in conduct that perpetuates instability and distrust. Tonight, I urge

123the board to commit to transparency, fairness, and stability, and to support Superintendent Terry Walker in the role she was hired to perform. The credibility of this board is on the line, and the community is watching. Thank you for the opportunity to be heard. >> Okay. Thank you. Next speaker we have Deja for Deborah. Oh, we did Deborah, right? >> I don't see that name on here. >> She's number eight. Okay. Miss um for CTA. You're asking them to unmute now. >> Good evening members of the board, community members, educators, and family. Hi, my name is Nanette Dilly. I'm a former teacher here at ASD and former president of ADTA. I now serve in the capacity of helping in the current um helping the current ADTA president and members. I was a teacher at in AESD

124um for 15 years. And I do want to make sure that I say this because in that 15 years um we had six superintendent. Six superintendent in 15 years. Uh not counting the interims in between. And if you think about how long a contract is, approximately typically three years. Um, not to mention all of the other positions higher up that have been, you know, in and out. Um, in the last three and a half years I've been out, AESD has had three superintendants. I'm here today to speak clearly and decisively about the leadership of our district and the importance of maintaining it. Public education is facing extraordinary pressure. Academic recovery, workforce shortages, budget constraints, and increasing public scrutiny have placed superintendent in an environment where success is defined not by ease but by resilience and

125steady direction. In this context, Dr. Walker has provided consistent professional and principled leadership for this district. Strong leadership is not about avoiding challenges. It is about confronting them and transparency, strategy, and accountability. Under Dr. Walker's leadership, this district has remained focused on its mission. Serving students, supporting educators, and moving forward despite obstacles that would have stalled lesser systems. Let us be clear about the stakes. Removing a superintendent is not a reset. It is a disruption. It delays progress, destabilizes staff morale. weakens community trust and signals uncertainty at a time when clarity and confidence are most needed. Leadership turnover comes at a real cost and that cost is paid by the students and educators long before any perceived benefit is realized. This decision must be guided by evidence outcomes and the long-term health of this district,

126not momentary pressure or political headwinds or inflated egos. Stability is not complacency. Stability is what allows improvement to take root. Tonight, I urge this board to demonstrate responsible governance and courageous leadership of firm your confidence in Dr. Walker. Allow the work already in motion to continue. Choose continuity over disruption, progress over pause, and students over instability. This district deserves steady leadership. Our community deser deserves thoughtful decision- makingaking and our students deserve nothing less. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> We're going to go back to uh in person. Zena Le. Good evening board members, cabinet, Dr. Walker. When we talk about kindness, it is often used as lip service, a word spoken lightly without depth or accountability. But true kindness is not passive. It is intentional. It is strength guided by compassion, integrity, and consistency. Dr.

127Walker, you are the embodiment of that kind of kindness. Your leadership reflects class, professionalism, and unwavering dedication. You lead with clarity, calm, and purpose. Especially in moments when others might lead with ego or impatience. Your kindness is not weakness. It is wisdom. It shows how you listen, how you respond, and how you uplift those around you while holding firm to your high expectations. your model what it means to lead with grace. You create space for collaboration and remain grounded in doing what is right for students, for staff, and the entire community. Your presence brings stability and your leadership inspires confidence. An amazing leader is not defined solely by accomplishments, but by the way people feel supported, respected, empowered under their leadership. By that measure, you do it with all. I've been here for 14 years,

128many leaders. Dr. Walker, you are exceptional. Your kindness is lived, not spoken, and it sets the standard for us all. Thank you. Thank you. Moving on to item number six, recess to close session. Trustees, I'll entertain a motion. >> Kyrie, I motion to recess to close session. >> Stewart, I sec second. >> Miss available, please. >> Jesse Krauss. >> Krauss. I >> Jesse Ker. Ker I >> Trusty Lef French >> Le I >> Trusty Stewart >> Stewart I >> Trusty Stoodto >> I stood I the time is 7:51 we are at close session [cheering] Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Hey. Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Hey [music] there. [music] >> [music] [music] [snorts] [music] >> Heat. Heat. Hey >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] [music] Heat. Heat. N. [music]

129Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. N. [music] >> [music] >> I hear you. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] [snorts] [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Oh no. Oh no. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Yeah. [music] >> [music] >> All the heat. Heat. Heat. [music] [music] Heat. Heat. I [music] don't I don't I don't know why you [music] >> [music] [music] >> Hey. Hey. Hey. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Uh, good evening everyone. We're reconvening to open session. The time is 9:28. We're going to take roll call. Trustee Ky. >> Kaire present. >> Trust the French. >> Left French present. >> S present. We have two trustees um in close right now. We have a quorum. All right. And we're actually going to extend the

130meeting. At this time, trustees will entertain a motion. >> Trusty Ker, I motion to extend the meeting to 11 p.m. >> Is there a second? >> Can we extend it longer or can we only extend it once? I don't even know if we'll be done by 11, but >> you can extend it if it gets longer. >> Longer. >> I believe we're actually only allowed one extension. So I will admend my motion >> to extend till midnight >> just in case. >> I second. >> Okay. All right. Um the vote uh trusty French >> Le French I. >> Trusty Ker >> Ker I. >> So do I. Motion passes 3. We extend it to 12 midnight and then I'll entertain a motion to go back into close. Trusty Ker, I motion to um return back

131to close. >> Is there a second? >> French. I second. >> We'll take the vote. Trust the French. >> Le French. I >> trusty >> Ker I. >> So I motion passes 30. We're 929. We're back in close session. >> [music] >> Hey. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, Happy day. >> [music] [music] >> Hey. Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Hey, hey, hey. >> [music] >> Good evening everyone. We're going to reconvene to open session. >> The time is 10:38. We're going to do a roll call and quorum establishment. Miss Levy >> Tissy Krauss >> Krauss present. >> Trissy Ker present. >> Trissy Le French. >> Le French present. Trusty Stewart. >> Stewart pre present. >> Jesse Sto present. We have a

132quorum. Moving on to announcements of reportable actions taken during close session. It was moved by Trusty Ker and seconded by Trusty Stewart to approve the recommendation of the administrative panel for case number 2025 through 2026-17 ID number 330802 to suspend the enforcement of the expulsion. In this case, the student will be allowed to return to school with some contingencies on a probationary status the second semester of the 2025 2026 school year. Contingencies include attend hope scholars or alternative education settings outside of the school district, attend counseling both as an individual and family including anger management and maintain satisfactory grades and attendance. In addition, the board accepts the rehabilitation plan which includes the following. Attend Hope Scholars, attend anger management, maintain satisfactory grades, attend an indiv individual counseling, and meet with the director of student services

133after June 2nd, 2022, 2026 to show proof of completion of the above conditions and to determine the most appropriate education placement. The votes were 5 to zero. It was a unanimous consent. Moving on to public testimony. Miss Leves, do we have any or I should say um we have one speaker. I have one speaker card. I have Lisa Martinelli speaking on agenda item 11.41. Is this here? It's not here. Okay. So then we'll move on to the adoption of the minutes. We still have um President Sto, I'm sorry, but I think I believe um the one person that moved to open was Laura Benson. >> Do we have a Lauren Benson on Zoom? >> We do not have a Lauren Benson on Zoom. >> Okay, thank you. All righty. We're moving on to adoption of

134the minutes. At this time, trustees, I'll entertain a motion. Steward I I motion to to approve the the minute men minutes. >> Is there a second? >> Ker I second. >> We'll take the vote. Any discussion? We'll take the vote. Mr. Le >> Trusty Krauss >> Krauss I. >> Trusty Ker >> Ker I. >> Trusty Le French. >> Trusty Stewart >> Stewart I. >> Trusty Sto I. Motion passes 5 Z. Moving on to the consent. We're taking items two through 41. Does any trustee want to pull an item? Trusty Krauss. >> Yes, President Sodto. Thank you. Uh, item 13, 14, 15, >> and 23 and 33. And that's all. Thank you. >> 23 >> again. Again. 13 14 15 23 and 33. >> 33. >> Yes. Thank you, >> Trustees Le French. Trusty Stewart. >>

135No, I'm fine. >> Trusty or BP Kire >> 41. >> All right. And I have none. I'll entertain a motion to approve the rest with those exceptions. Steuart I motion to uh uh approve the re remain remaining I items on the consent agenda. Is there a second? >> Ker I second. >> Take the vote. M. >> Trusty Krauss. >> Krauss. Eye. >> Trusty Ker. >> Ker I. >> Trissy left Branch. >> I. >> Trusty Stewart. >> Stewart. I. >> Trusty Sto. >> Stood. I. Motion passes. 5. Going back to items removed from the consent. We'll start with number 13. >> Uh, we'll entertain a motion. Trustees >> cross. A motion to approve 13. >> Is there a second? >> Stuart, I sec second. >> Open it up for discussion. Trusty Cra since you pulled it.

136>> Yes. Thank you, President Sto. 1341 15 are very similar. Uh but I'll just give my little speech on 13 um for tutoring services. I do believe our students do need uh extra tutoring services. However, it is my opinion that I believe we should open it up to our staff first. They should have the right of first refusal. We have many many dedicated teachers in this district that uh are very well capable of providing these tutoring services. Uh what I found is a lot of these companies hire kids that are either in college or right out of college that are not very astute at uh really providing the necessary uh tutoring services even though they work for a tutoring company. And so um again for 134 15 that will be my speech but I just

137want to pull each one of these for separate vote. Thank you. Trusty Stewart. >> No, I have no no com comment. >> Trust of the French. >> No com. >> I just would reiterate the sentiments of our fellow board member. We do have highly trained staff, teachers that are able to identify our students needs on a deeper level. I think it should be something that should be redirected and considered for our stu our our teachers and our students. That's it. >> Thank you, colleagues. Yes, I've always been a huge advocate for not outsourcing and investing in our own people, our own staff, our teachers who are best equipped to know the needs of our students. So, I'm in full support of what the concerns of ADTA that was brought up and it sounds like the

138board is also as well. All righty, we'll take the vote. Miss >> trusty Krauss. >> Krauss. No. >> Trusty K. >> I absteain. >> Jesse Lrench. >> Lrench. No. >> Just Stewart. >> Stewart. I just s name. Motion fails. with three nos, one abstension, one eye. Moving on to number 14. I'll entertain a motion. >> Cross motion to approve 14. >> Is there a second? >> Okay. Second. >> Open up for discussion. Trust Krauss and are you? >> Same sentiments as item 13 present. So no additional comments. Thank you. >> Thank you. Trusty Stewart. >> No. >> Trusty Le French. >> No. >> Trusty VP Ker. >> No comment at this time. >> And I have none. Same sentiments. Uh Mr. Vote. >> Jesse Krauss. >> Nay. >> Jesse Kerstain. Jesse Le. No. Trusty Stewart

139Stewart I trusty sodto >> sod name motion passes three nos one I >> oneails motion fails >> three nos one I one abstension >> moving on to number 415 I'll entertain a motion motion to approve is there a second >> car second >> open up for discussion just cross >> again no further comments thank you just the French >> Stewart. >> Um just a really quick question. So the since the these aren't p passing, how long uh do you think it'll take for count counseling, I mean for two tutoring to actually start with the teachers? Does anybody kind of have a time frame since we want this to go to the te teachers first which which I understand but how long will this de delay >> to tutoring? >> Thank you trustee Dr. Walker. [snorts]

140>> Um I'm gonna let um Dr. Valdez respond to that question. >> So having these contracts come to board at this period of time in mid January, we would begin services in February. Um if we delay the tutoring um services at this point in time, we would have to establish new contracts with different agencies or with the teachers, come up with um what curriculum they're going to use, what their scheduling is going to be, etc. And so that probably would not that would delay the tutoring for about six weeks. So they wouldn't start until March. Now the majority of the teachers that want to work in after school programs are working in Beyond the Bell. Almost every single um petition that was put in by teachers to either do after school tutoring or beyond the

141bell type of activities was accepted. The only ones that were not were there was two clubs that were not accepted because State guidelines now say that if we're going to use ELOP monies, which is what regula um regulations state that it has to have a literacy or a numerousy st strand. I cannot speak for what happened prior to me being in this position that those were guidelines that have been in place since the beginning for EOT funds, but they were not enforced. So that is why we have some teachers that did not want to continue with their beyond the bell um clubs because they now had to have an academic strand. Also one of the guidelines is that the program the beyond the bell program has to be at least two hours of service a

142day. And so that is why the question was asked earlier why were they discontinued in the morning. So for those school sites that begin at 9:00 in the morning, it is possible to have something that starts at 7 in the morning. But for those school sites that begin at 7:20 in the morning, that means technically they would have to have their um program begin or their tutoring begin at um 5:20 in the morning. So um that is why it's mostly after school now. And the regulation that it has to be two hours is not our choice. our preference. It is a state guideline and mandate for um the use of the ELO funds. In addition to that um for those two hours, the first half hour is actually us providing a nutritional um meal to

143the students themselves, their restroom break and so forth. Then they get back to the classroom and then they do some sort of physical activity, you know, get the wiggles out, get them re, you know, back into um grounded back into their educational setting and then they begin their tutoring. >> Can I ask a follow-up question to that explanation, please? >> Sure. When when you made the mention that they have to tie the curriculum and the standards to the program and whatnot, do we have that same requirement for these three third party contractors and the other afterchool providers that we currently provide to our students? Are their teams held to the same standard? >> So for tutoring um the programs these um programs these contracts yes they are They have to have standardsbased lessons and pre

144and post assessments to measure the growth, the academic growth. The reason that we were presenting these after school tutoring programs at this point in time, it's to specifically target the students that are two or three years below their grade level to try to give them an academic boost prior to state testing that begins in March. Okay. Thank you. So, um, as I shared [clears throat] earlier, all teachers that wanted to teach an afterchool tutoring session were approved and are able to teach. >> Thank Thank you, >> President. Just trust Krauss. Yes. Thank you. Uh, and thank you, Dr. Valdez, for that explanation. Um, it's January 13th. Uh my I heard you say that teachers that submitted their proposals were approved, but I did not hear anyone say that all teachers were offered the opportunity to

145participate in after school tutoring. I believe that if we start tomorrow with a conversation with ADTA, we could perhaps have that conversation going immediately. And if the district provides the information needed for these teachers, I can guarantee you that every single teacher I know in this district who are stellar will jump on that and learn whatever they need to do because they are credentialed. They do follow the state standards on a daily basis, whether it's literacy and math. And I do believe that they would have no problems uh picking this up immediately. There shouldn't be a six-w weekek waiting period uh for us to uh offer this to our existing teachers in the district. I I I I have full faith and confidence in our teachers over some college kid that has no idea about

146our district coming in and trying to uh bring our students up to grade level that they need to be at. Again, I support our teachers and I it's just my recommendation, President Soda, that discussions with ADTA start immediately if that's the case, if there needs to be anou or something else like that in place uh to offer this to. We have over close to 400 teachers and uh I guarantee you there's some teachers listening tonight that said, "Hey, I would love to do that. I would love it, but nobody's ever asked me." So, I'm hoping that at some point that that conversation can happen sooner than later. And that's all I have. Thank you. >> Thank you, Trusty Krauss. Dr. Walker, you wanted to respond? >> Thank you. Um first of all, um all teachers

147have been given an opportunity participate in tutoring and beyond the bell. Every teacher was given an opportunity to engage at that level. Secondly, with regards to um expertise and experience and things of that nature, this has nothing to do with that. Uh anytime you're trying to have a intervention program or tutoring to fill the gaps for those students that are two and three years behind, you have to have a specific curriculum and our specific standards that you're focusing on in order to move the dial with those particular um students. And so when it was said that it would take about six weeks, well, because you do have to get the curriculum together, you do have to make sure that you have pre and post assessments, you do need to make sure that everyone is on

148the same page and that is there is an opportunity for monitoring of those standards that are being taught. And so um the offer has been put out there. Not that we won't offer it again, but it has it is something that we have done in the past and we will continue to do. Our first line of support for our students is always with the teachers that we have sitting in the seats doing the work and that know our children. >> Thank you, Dr. Walker. Anything else trustees? >> All right, we'll take the vote. Miss S. >> Trusty Krauss. >> Krauss. Nay. >> Jesse Ker. >> Abstain. Jesse French. >> Are we on 14 or 15? >> 15. Yes. >> Trusty Stewart. >> Stewart. I >> trusty soda. >> Sodto name. Motion fails. >> 221. Moving

149on to number 23. Employment of guest administrator or entertain a motion. Trustees >> steward. I motion to uh approve. Is there >> a second? Okay. >> A second. >> Any discussion? No discussion. President I pull this item just to vote separately. >> Miss the vote, please. >> Jesse Krauss. >> Krauss. Nay. >> Jesse Ker. I'd like to vote last. >> Jesse Le. >> Jesse Stewart. >> Stewart. I Jesse Sto. So um >> going to make the hard decision to say I >> go ahead and say I >> motion passes 41. Moving on to number 33. I'll entertain a motion. That's a motion to approve. Is there a second? >> Uh, Stuart, wait. I'm sorry. Where where where are we? >> Number 33. >> Uh, Stewart, I sec second. >> Okay. Any open up for discussion?

150Trusty Krauss. >> Yes. Thank you, President Sto. First, let me reiterate again wholeheartedly. I believe everybody in our district should be fingerprinted absolutely 100% at all times. However, where I disagree with this item, and we've never had this until recently in the entire time this district's been in existence, is where the district uses Title One federal dollars to pay that should be going to our parents and our students to pay for outside vendors, contractors to get fingerprinted. They have the ability to pick up a sheet of paper, a live scan from the district, take it down to UPS or whoever does the fingerprinting, pay for it as an organization, and those results will be sent to the district. It's the same process except they're paying for it and not the district with Title One money

151that should be going to our students and our parents. And I would also question the legality of using federal funds in this manner to pay for outside vendors, not employees of the district to be con to uh be fingerprinted. So again, I will consistently until this this there's a better discussion on this because there's no way you can convince me that using our funds for our students and parents should be going to these outside vendors to be fingerprinted. I think they should be fingerprinted 100%. I don't believe we should be using money that is less money for our students and our staff going to again outside vendors. And that is my discussion this evening on this agenda item. Thank you, President Sto. >> Thank you, Trusty Krauss. Trustee uh Stewart, sorry. Um Can can you

152explain why this is I mean it's >> can so so that the p public knows it's a third $32755 per person and I lo lost count but I think it was seven 17 I lost count I'm sorry I don't hold numbers in my Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. Yeah, I think it's se 17. So, can can we cl clarify by this? [cough] >> Yes, doc. Dr. Walker, we are currently on number 33 and trustee Stewart is just asking for more clarification. Uh trust trusty cross doesn't like the fact that we're paying for outside age agencies using tight title one funds to fing fingerprint outside agencies. >> Thank you. Um so a couple of things I'm going to start off with. Um safety. Um yes. the outside agencies

153are running their own reports. However, there has been instances where those reports were ran and they found that um certain employees still um had records that was not necessarily provided. So we decided once we heard that that the best thing for us to do for the safety of the students that we serve that we do our own fingerprinting and because it includes parents and community members as well as volunteers that is why title one funds are being utilized and title one funds can be utilized for that purpose. >> Okay. Thank Thank you. >> Thank you. If I may jump in real quick, um, if I'm hearing you right, Dr. Walker, so the district staff was having a hard time submitting the paperwork that states that their fingerprint the, you know, you know, that states their

154background and so the district decided, well, we'll just pay we'll just do it ourselves because of safety reasons. But I'm just that kind of >> doesn't right and that's why I'm trying to get trying to get more clarity because that's what I heard. Yeah. >> What I'm saying is outside agencies are getting fingerprints done and we're receiving the results. However, we want to have we want to be sure because some of those fingerprints from other um agencies we found that There were instances where crimes were committed that we were not aware of even though we had received these reports stating that they were all cleared from the DOJ. So, we decided to start doing our own. Not that I'm not exactly sure what you said, but yeah. So, they're doing it. We're doing ours for

155security purposes to make sure our students are safe and that we're not getting any criminals on our campuses. Just to clarify, have um you're you're saying the DOJ hasn't fully reported maybe all historical occurrences on some of these employees. Have he reported that issue to the DOJ? So depending on the agency, their level of background check may not be the same as some other agencies and or the district. Our background checks are really goes back into the history of the the person whereas agencies don't necessarily follow that same level of background checks. President Sodto, when when I may. >> Trust Krauss. Yes. Thank you. I've been in this business a long time. There's only one form that any agency uses in the state of California for fingerprints. It's called the live scan. BCIA8016. That's the

156official name of it. every school district and Mr. Shifflet could verify in HR that every potential employee or anyone else that wants to do business with the district has to use this specific form. The only place that this form goes to is the California Department of Justice. No other agency, no other form. We require all of our vendors to pick up the same form that our potential employees get, take it to anyone that does a live scan. It goes up to Department of Justice. Department of Justice sends those results directly to human resources. This could be verified because this has been the process for 50 years. It hasn't changed any. And so that's where I'm getting confused as to what other agencies are doing these background checks because that is highly illegal in the state

157of California. It has to be done through the Department of Justice for anyone wanting to do business or work for a school agency in the state of California. >> Thank you, Trustee Krauss. Uh I'm going to let um Mr. share a little bit more background so that you can have clarity. >> Sure. Thank you. So when we first uh brought this to uh for approval and using the funds using title one funds um we would get reports from the DOJ just like anyone else would. We typically get them quicker. These companies necessarily wouldn't get the DOJ report because once the company uh has their check, they just go ahead and process. What we found is some of the DOJ hits that's come back after we have run the report have come back with um felonies,

158various things that remove them from employment. So that's why we uh went to the direction to have that safeguard for our parents and uh our our students. If if so, if I'm hearing you right, is that we are why are we um It's still not It's still not really clicking to me. Um I'm not understanding. >> Um >> so Mr. Shifflick, can can you just briefly >> So can I can I add something real quick that might >> Sure. >> with clarity. Um >> if they go elsewhere and use a different agency, we ne we will not get the DOJ report. >> I remember. So, what I what I heard you say is that the reason why we're doing this is because we hired we would hire staff essentially. We would we would do the

159report, but unfortunately, we've already hired staff. So, when the report comes back, it says, "Oh, this person is, you know, there's hits." So, I guess I I guess my question is, why don't we just wait until the report comes back? That's what I'm hearing. I don't know if I heard misunder misunderstood. Can you can you restate your question because it was >> why why why don't we wait until the report comes back from their background before we hire them and then have to fire them because the report comes back with a hit. >> Yeah. Go ahead. Dr. Valdez, do you want to add to this? >> So basically let's use AYA as the example. They are an employee of AYA in our after school program. They got the background check that form that Mr. Krauss

160was referring to because it was sent on behalf of AYA. AYA is the one that receives the report. Now, they may share the initial report with us, but if there's any post um crimes or incidences that take place after that report, AYA is the one that receives the report, not us. So, as a district to be a prepoundonderance of caution, we decided it was best to go ahead and have us also ask for the same DOJ background so that we would also receive the um the reports directly from the DOJ if the person or the employee was arrested or committed some sort of a crime after the initial um placement here from the agency at Ottoanto. So, it's really just a secondary precaution for the safety of our students. And we can tell you that

161after we started doing that, we did receive um reports from the Department of Justice indicating this individual was has committed this crime or etc etc. We would not have necessarily received that from AYA because that report now um it would have have to gone to AYA and then they give it to us. In this case, we are the ones now receiving the reports directly. So you could say that that indivi those individuals are being fingerprinted twice. Once by the agency that they're being employed by and then assigned to work in our district and the second time by our district so that we can receive any reports or um update reports from the DOJ so that we can ensure the safety of our students. Did that make sense? >> It did. Yes. Thank you. I appreciate

162it. You know, uh that was helpful. Um yeah, that was helpful. Um >> so when they say we don't receive those reports, it is true. We don't receive the reports if the initial a initiating agency was an outside agency, we only receive reports that we request that they get fingerprinted for. >> Okay. >> So it gives it's let me give one more example. Um, I worked in a previous school district, um, Burbank Unified School District. To work in Burbank Unified School District, I had to go through the fingerprint process there. When I applied here to Adilanto and I was hired here in Adalanto, I had to go through the fingerprint process as well because when I did my fingerprints for Burbank, only Burbank receives the updates because they were the initial initiating agency. So, when

163I came here to Ottoanto, I had to do my fingerprints as well. so that the human resources department here in Ottawanto could receive any of the reports for me. >> Just a quick followup question. Does that mean that we discontinued the raptor system? I thought that was the system we have in place. >> Dr. Walker, >> that's tied to >> the raptors are tied to the volunteers when they go on to the school sites. So we're not >> we still use that that is completely different than >> going through the fingerprinting to be hired. >> Okay. Okay. >> Yeah. This is >> okay. >> All righty. Um so two last points just across. Thank you. So the effective date on this uh memo is 1210. Does that mean that these people have already been working?

164Have they been fingerprinted yet and this is a ratification? if I can get clarification on that. And secondly, we had three items this evening for tutoring services. I do not see anybody from those companies on here. Would that not delay six weeks perhaps uh having those people on uh our campuses around our children as well? So, I just wanted to make sure >> there's a clarification on that. >> Trusty uh BP Ker, what's your point? >> Relevance is that we do not have President Sodto, we do not have all agencies on here. It seems to me when I look at the past items related to this, it's about three agencies only and not across the board with all of these agencies that work around our students. So my question is how are we fingerprinting all

165[snorts] of the vendors that work on our campuses around our students or are we just choosing which ones to get fingerprinted? That was my point as well because I think safety I agree safety is paramount but at the end of the day if we do one for one we have to do one for all. >> Okay. Thank you Trusty Cross. Um, Truss, um, you you have a good point. Did Did you want to add Dr. Walker? >> So, first of all, >> we've already had discussion. >> Yeah. I mean, I'm I'm ready to move on if you guys are. >> Dr. Walker requested to respond. >> Yeah. >> Am I responding or am I not responding? >> Entirely up to you. >> I I thought we did, but um Yeah, I I don't think I

166need to reiterate what we just said. So, >> fair enough. Okay, let's move on. We'll take the vote. Miss Le >> Jesse Cra I >> Stewart Stewart I >> Jessie Sto. Moving on to number 41. At this time, I'll entertain a motion. Trustees >> cross a motion to approve. >> Which one? >> 41. That's the one you wanted. Oh. >> Oh, sorry. I have an extra circle on my page or my >> They pulled six. >> Got it. >> So, uh, Trusty Krauss, a motion to approve. Is there a second? >> Stewart, I sec second. So um any discussion BP K? >> No discussion. >> Trust the French. >> No. >> Trustee Stewart. >> No. >> Trusty cross. >> No discussion. Thank you. >> Miss Levy the vote please. >> Trusty cross. >> Cross. Nay.

167>> Trusty Ker. >> Ker abstain. Jesse Le. Jesse Stewart >> Stewart I >> Jesse >> I'm gonna abstain for lack of information >> point of I'm sorry I don't even know if it's a point of order what lack of information >> I have a lot of questions with the purchase order and reports and because of the time I don't I don't know if it's >> I understand that pre president and I'm sorry to cut cut you But you are the board pre president and you go through the agenda agenda set setting with the sup superintendent and I know when I was the pre president we went thing through things line by line and I just don't understand again we've been through through this in the past you will do de delay paying and re reimburseing

168im employees because they're they're waiting to get paid back. We we have things and you you will again delay delay it. So I would like to un understand why you want to why the board feels that they have to de delay this or not even pass pass it. There are certain So thank you trustee Stewart. If there are certain item line items that we can table I'm open to that. I just don't know if we're able to do that because so then we would have to table the whole thing because and you have a good point. >> Okay. May I interject for a moment? >> VP Ker, >> I would like to amend my vote. I so we can move on. >> Thank you. >> Motion passes. Three, two, >> President Sto. I'm sorry. You

169have an amendment for an I. Who's the second? >> No, she's changing her vote. Oh, you're just mending the vote? >> Yeah, she's changing her vote. >> Thank you. >> All righty. Moving on to number 13, new business. I'll entertain a motion at this time. >> Steuart, I motion to uh approve. >> Is there a second? So do I'll second. We'll open it up for nominations. Um, [clears throat] yeah. So, we'll start with CSBA CBC SBA president. The incumbent is Sydney Gardner. Is there a motion to approve her as president? >> Steward. I mo motion to uh approve her. >> Is there a second? A second. >> Any discussion? We'll take the vote. Miss Leave. >> Trusty Krauss. >> Krauss. >> I. >> Trusty Ker. >> Ker I. >> Trusty Lef French. >> Lef French.

170I >> Trusty Stewart >> Stewart. I >> Trussy >> Sto I. Motion passes. 5-0. Moving on to secretary. Incumbent is Maria Gomez. Is there a motion for her? I'll move that we approve Maria Gomez as secretary. >> I sec second. >> Sir discussion. Miss Levy the vote please. >> Trusty Krauss >> Krauss. I >> Jesse Ker. >> Ker I. >> Jesse Le French I. >> Trusty Stewart >> Stewart I. >> Trusty Sto. >> Sodto I. Motion passes 5 Z. Moving on to area director area A incumbent is Clayton Moore. Is there a motion? >> Steuart I mo motion to approve. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> We'll take the vote. Miss Le >> Trusty Krauss >> Krauss I. >> Trusty Ker I. >> Trusty Le I. >> Trusty Stewart >> Stewart I. >>

171Trusty. >> So do I. Motion passes. 5. Moving on to area director area B. At this time, I'll entertain a motion. Trustees >> Steuart. I I I move motion to to approve the incumbent. >> Is there a second? >> I second. >> Mr. Leve the vote, please. >> Cross abstain. >> Jesse Ker. Nay. >> Jesse Le. Jesse Stewart >> Stewart I stood >> s I motion passes 32 moving on to area director C I'll entertain a motion >> Steuart I mo motion to uh approve >> is there a second >> miss the vote please >> Krauss I >> ker I >> the French I trusty Stewart Stewart I >> Trusty Sodto I motion passes 5 Z three more mountain representative for the desert >> steward I motion to uh approve >> there second vote please

172>> trusty Krauss >> Krauss I >> trusty ker >> I >> trusty lef >> French I >> trusty Stewart Stewart ID. >> So I motion passes 5-0. Moving on to the East Valley representative. I'll entertain a motion. >> Steward I mo motion to approve. >> Second. I second. >> M please. >> Trusty Krauss. >> Krauss abstain. >> Trusty >> Ker I. >> Trusty Le French. >> Le I. Trusty Stewart >> Stewart I >> Trusty Sodto >> so I motion passes with one abstension moving on to West End representative the last one trustees >> stored I move motion to uh approve >> there a secondy Krauss >> Krauss >> abstain trusty >> Ker I >> trusty >> Le French. I >> trusty Stewart. >> Stewart. I >> trusty sodto. >> So abstain. Motion passes. 32. >>

173Okay. Moving on to number two. Board of trustees to discuss and possible action on assembly bill 1390. I'll entertain a motion. >> I motion to approve. >> Is there a second? >> Steuart. I second. Second >> any discussion trustees >> I know that there's some you know it's upset it's a lot we earned it >> so you know we we have we we should come pre pre-prepared you know we read the agenda I come to workshops you know I mean it. Yeah, that's all I got to say. >> Thank you. Anything else, trustees? >> Okay. >> I just Oh, >> car. Yeah. >> Uh, quickly, um, I want to take a moment and really express why I'm even considering this. And that primarily has to do with the fact that this position does not have

174a lot of incentive to it. I show up for 200 bucks a month. Um, I read about a 1500page document in a weekend. Probably more exciting things I could do with my 20s and early 30s, but here I am. What I don't want to see is our district fall into another habit where we have revolving doors of incumbents that others don't even get the idea or shot of. And so my hope is the incentive that our legislative team felt with this bill will trickle down into Atlanta and we will see represented representation from every area evenly come in and out. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anything else? Trustees, we'll take the vote. Miss >> Trusty Krauss >> Krauss. I >> ker I >> Leaf French >> Le French I >> Trusty Stewart >> Stewart I

175>> Jesse Sto I motion passes 5-0 moving on to number three approval of the annual and 5year reportable fee report for fun 25 is there motion a motion to approve >> there a second I second >> any discussion the vote please I ker I french I Stewart >> Stewart I s I motion passes 5-0. Moving on to number four. >> President Stoy, if I may. >> Yes. >> I would request your um patience and understanding. At this point in time, I have a massive migraine. Um and I believe I'm going to take my leave um now before I have to run to the bathroom. >> Okay. >> All right. I'll put on record. We'll put on record that um VP Car is leaving at 11:25 p.m. All righty. Moving on to number four, approval of

176the ratification. Trustees, I'll entertain a motion. Girl, I motion to approve. Is there a second? >> Steuart, I sec second. >> Any discussion? >> Yes, President Sto, if I may, real quick. >> Okay. I uh do hope that this passes and if it does, I want to again welcome uh potentially welcome Mr. M Mc Alpen back to the team. And so if uh that's the case, I uh am in full support of the work that he has done for our district last year and potentially moving forward uh the work that he would potentially be doing for the district. And so uh with that, that's the only comments I have, sir. Thank you. >> Anything else? Trustees. Thank you. >> M the vote, please. >> Jesse Krauss. >> Krauss. I >> just Le I. Does he

177Stewart >> Stewart I >> Des I motion passes 4 Z moving on to number one on go on to number 14 policy introductions number one approve and adopt the first read of EP3311.1 entertain a motion >> steward I motion to uh approve >> there a second cross I second >> any discussion the vote Trusty Krauss. >> Krauss. I >> ker Oh, sorry. Trusty Le. >> Trusty Stewart. >> Stewart. I >> s I motion passes 40. Number two, approve and adopt the first read of AR 3311.1. I entertain a motion. >> Stewart I motion to approve. >> Is there a second? >> Close. I'll second. Any discussion? Miss Levey the vote, please. >> Jesse Cross. >> Cross. I >> Le French. >> Le I >> Stewart I >> stood I motion passes 4 Z. Moving on

178to number three. First read a board policy 5113 absences and excuses. I entertain a motion. >> Steuart I motion to approve. >> Is there a second? Krauss. I'll second. >> Any discussion? Just the vote. >> Trusty Krauss >> Krauss I. Le French >> French >> I >> Jesse Stewart >> Stewart I >> Jesse Sodto >> Sodto I motion passes 4 Z move on to number four approve and adopt the first read AR 5113 I entertain a motion >> Steuart I motion to approve >> is there a second Krauss I'll second >> any discussion take the vote >> Jesse Krauss >> Krauss I >> the I >> Jessie Stewart Stewart I >> So I motion passes 4 Z moving on last one number five administrative reading of 511 3.11 entertain a motion >> Stewart I motion

179to approve >> there second Krauss I'll second >> Jesse Krauss >> Krauss I >> left French >> Le I >> Jesse Stewart >> Stewart I stood. >> So I motion passes 4 Z. Moving on to governing reports and announcements. We'll start with let's see Trusty Krauss. >> Thank you uh President Sto. At this time I'll reserve my comments to the next board meeting. Thank you >> Chelsea Stewart. >> All right. So I first want to read some lines from the uh board governance handbook. It's a thing that we we have that kind of shows our you know like kind of it's like the rule book you know kind of in the guide book. So one one of them under li limits of the board member authority individually board me members may not com commit the

180district to end any pol policy act or expenditures. Board me members hold the the education of student students above any part partisan principle group interest or per personal in entrance interest in competence and judiciousness. We are on honest stewards. I like that name of stu students education and f focus on what what is best for them. We op operate with within our respective roles and responsibilities. We do not micromanage the dis district. We devote our time and energy to the import important business issues and not to politics, pettiness or un graciousness. We do not nothing to blindside fellow governance team members. We do do not form alliances with within the the team to care carry out diver virgin goals or secret agend agendas. We make no unilateral extraneous I'm sorry it's a long word and

181I haven't read that one. Um re remarks re regard guarding the job per perform performance of the s super intendant or any other employee. Rec re recognizing that that employee performance re reviews are conducted so solely in accord accordance with estab established pol policy. We are on time and pre-prepared for meetings. We do not bring hidden uh agendas to board meetings. Next, when we take class co classes, one of them is is meg, you know, mass mass masters in govern governance. Here the the top of the peer pyramid is the govern governance team. We are the the strategic role. We kind of say this is what what we want safe schools and high achieve achieving kids. The ne next one is the tactical role the admin administration. That's what they they do. And the la

182last one is the the operationational role and that's everybody else, the te teachers and the staff. So, you know, yes, we're one, but we each have our roles. Um, so now I have my notes. Sorry. So, I w want to thank Miss Ms. This is uh for Fernand Nandis' class for my my Christmas cards which were signed by her her class. I appre appreciate it a a lot. I me meant to bring the the card because I want wanted to read each and every single one of their names because it was just so so sweet. I en enjoyed the Chris Christmas per perform for per formances at George. They're little tk kids are adorable. Um al also I en enjoyed the per performances at VME. I was not not expecting to be pulled out of

183the the audience and dance with the kids, but I appre appreciate it all a lot. So that that that was fun. I also um I thought it it it was great when when the school sang h happy birth birthday to do Dr. walk walker. It brought brought me to to tears. I want to en encourage encourage parents out out there to please volunteer for your your schools. It doesn't have to be each day. It can be be an hour for for a week. You you could take take the things home to cut staple glue. I'm sure the teachers in school would appre appreciate it a a lot. This includes the mid middle schools too. I'm sure they would really love the par parents to be more more involved because I know once the kids get

184older, parents kind of like, ah, they're good. No, you know, they they they're still kids. They're still kids. Um I do want to say that um this past semest semester I went went on school school site viz v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v visits with Dr. walk walker. And if you were to meet meet her, if she came ac across you, she always stopped to greet everyone. If you had a line of kids to go to art or to go back back to to class or to the um the the play playground, she would stop you, ask you your name, how

185are you you do do and just know that wasn't a one-time thing. She did it every single time. Okay. So that that was my ex uh exper experience with with her with her as a sub substitute not a substitute as a sup superintendent. I appre appreciate the things she has done. One, one of the things that you know the board in the past ha has asked of the sup superintendent is that to please put our our dis district out there. We have great teachers. We have great kids. We have great great staff. They just don't know. With the name of a odd lanto, they always think the worst of us, right? They look, oh my gosh, you know, you guys don't even know. Don't even know. And she has put herself out out there to

186shine a light on our dis district district. Um, but I have to say her work working conditions are diff difficult. And it's not just, you know, all the things she has to do and stuff, but it's the criticism she gets. It's like death by a thousand paper cuts. This bind binder is full of emails that I got when I was a board pres president. Thank God I'm not and any and more. >> I just be careful. Trusty story. >> I'm not showing it. I'm not showing a thing. >> Okay. >> I'm not showing a thing. I'm just saying >> she's done. >> Right. >> This is a a week weekly commune mutant mutay that doc Dr. Walk Walker send sends to to the board each week that gives daily you know week weekly things about

187what what's go go going on in our dis district district in HHR in academic ser services and in business services. up. But I just want want to say she goes above and be beyond and I truly appre appreciate her. Um lastly, I'd like to say that um when please stop for the bus buses with the red blinking lights, please. Uh la last week I was drive driving and one one of our bus buses was stopped on Mo Mo Mo Mo Mo Mo Mo Mo Mo Mo Mo Mo Mo Mo Mo Mo Mo Mo Mo Mo Mo Hav Hovi and the cars kept going going. I don't care what district they they come from. Please, if your kids were were on the bus, you would want the cars to to stop. So please set the example.

188Please have a good good night. Thank thank you for your patience. >> Thank you Trusty Stewart. Trusty Le French. >> I don't think I can follow that. >> But I do want to say that, you know, I've been up this morning. I already knows that I work. I work down the hill and I come up here. This is a long night for me. So I um at this time 11:40 that's pretty late to be able to have your mind function this late. I do want to say thank you to everyone came out tonight. I want to say thank you for letting your voice be heard. I appate last one of you and I hope everyone drives. >> Thank you, Trusty the French. I just um I want to thank the people who are still here

189tonight. It's almost about to be midnight. Um so, thank you for being here. Um you know, sometimes people ask for transparency and you know, for some reason, sometimes it's too much for people. Um, so I am going to make a few requests. You know, the public wants transparency. You will get transparency. I would like the board to consider in close session whether a limited scope independent review of district actions taken during the 2024 election cycle. It was appropriate for the purpose of ensuring district resources, authority, and processes were used consistent with legal requirements. I would also like the board to consider at some future meeting whether an operational audit of district level systems and workflows would be beneficial so the board and the public can identify strengths, gaps, and opportunities for improvement regardless of who

190occupies leadership roles. Whether matters properly belonging in close session require further board consideration under applicable law. And so independent reviews, structured oversight are standard governance tools. Bringing these forward allows the board to act deliberately, transparent um transparently where permitted and in a way that protects the district as a whole. Additional details to the extent required by law will be reflected on the agenda for the special meeting. So that's all I have to say. Hey, I hope you guys uh my number actually I wanted to share my number. My number is 9098456354. That is my direct number. If you guys have any questions about what was said, I'm I'm limited to what I can share. But I'm more than happy to give you what whatever you need. I'm here for you. That's all I have. So,

191we'll move on to a journ or we'll move on to superintendent reports and announcements. Uh Dr. Walker Thank you, President So, Board of Trustees, Executive Cabinet, AESD staff, students, and the community. I am deeply grateful for the incredible kind words shared this evening by parents, teachers, our psychologists, our executive assistants, and so on. Your messages meant more to me than I can adequately express. I was especially moved by the beautiful song performed by our students. It was a powerful reminder of why this work matters so much. Thank you for the generosity, the grace, and care you've showed me tonight. It has been an extreme pleasure and joy to do the work that we've done together. I am grateful and I will close with this message. Big, bold, and brave [music] together. A phrase I once

192chanted alone until most of you, my AES family, join me, [music] giving it a voice. For me, it has come to signify my two years as superintendent here. My heart grew stronger with every school visit, every interaction, and every shared moment. I drew energy from seeing students excited for school. teachers proudly showing something unique in their classrooms. Principles proposing plans to make their sites even better and then the happy faces of staff dedicated to their work. Each of these moments reminds me why I love what I do [singing] and [music] why I am so proud to serve this incredible district. >> Our efforts have helped us grow and steer in the right direction. Did you all know that we are no longer part of the county's direct technical assistance program? This milestone reflects the dedication

193and hard work of our entire district family and shows the progress we are making for our students and staff. Mesa Middle School deserves special recognition for an outstanding William visit. The county team was impressed with the school's condition and operations, noting that Mesa Linda could serve as a model for other middle schools. I had the opportunity to be the first guest of the year on high desert [music] dialogue conversations with Regina and Roxanne where I shared our district's [music] work with the wider community, highlighted the programs and supports we provide for students and families and strengthened partnerships with local business partners. Another exciting update is the refresh school logos, replacing outdated [music] pixelated designs with a professional unified brands that reflect the pride, identity, and excellence of every campus. To start the year strong, we

194held a principal meeting to ensure every school has a [music] clear head start and is aligned on priorities and goals. We also held a district office meeting to bring our team together, [music] making sure everyone is updated on district-wide progress and fully equipped to support our schools and students effectively. Everything we have built together is designed to last. The systems, structures, and practices we've put in place empower our students, support our teachers and [music] staff, and strengthen our entire AESD family. [music] My hope is that our district will continue to strive for excellence, foster innovation, and support growth, creating a space [music] where every student is capable and every future is possible. Dig, bold, and brave together. Sort of second. I want to go home. Take the vote. Miss >> Tissy Krauss >> Krauss. I

195>> Tissy Le French. >> Le French. I >> Trissy Stewart >> Stewart I Tissy Stoodto I. Motion passes 40 Z. times 1149 or a drink.