001John hey thank you for being here and uh welcome everyone um we are reconvening our special um board meeting Tuesday December 1st 2020 uh special meeting at 300M we are starting at 3:15 however uh roll call um uh Mr O'Neal here Mr Jabar here miss piery here Miss Smith present and an Mar R tro I am present thank you uh we will begin with the uh Pledge of Allegiance please stand with me place your right hand over your heart ready begin I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you I think I'm going to um skip a moment of silence and just just uh really just think about all of the
002the news that we're we're seeing um every day day and uh just really uh weighs on on all of us um we're pulling through um we're making the best of it um but we do uh share um our hearts with those who have passed from covid and those who have um really had some hardship so um moving on to the 5.3 Clos session report the clerk of the Board of Trustees will report actions taken during close session Miss Smith please thank you 4.1 no reportable action taken regarding negotiations thank you Miss Smith uh item six public comments Open Session items yes we do have two uh public comments this afternoon the first comment is from Sylvia anopa and bu Bannon apga co-presidents dear Anaheim Union high school board members we are writing to you on
003behalf of apga as we would like our voice heard when you meet to discuss the roll out of bringing back staff and students to the school sites as you are aware all counselors were brought back to all School sites starting October 26 2020 apga is not in agreement with this decision that we are more essential than other certificated employees however we respected the district and board's decision to return to work we are not sure if you were aware but since the summer counselors had been back at their school sites with a minimum of one counselor on campus daily this schedule was working fine for counselors administrators and students and families a big part of what counselors do is service students and families in fact counselors have gone above and beyond since the start of the
004pandemic to meet the growing needs of our students and families the district has asked us to be flexible and we have been very flexible working early mornings and late evenings responding to our students and families counselors are still pushing into classes to provide lessons on various topics in the following domains academic personal and social College and Career as you know students are in remote classes Monday Wednesday and Fridays until 2:30 and working on Independent work until 2 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays counselors have been cautious to try our best to not interfere with students learning hours therefore we have had to Pivot some of our work to nontrad additional hours counselors did this as we knew this was in the best interest of our students and families we are very aware that now more than
005ever we play a crucial role in our students lives and we want to be able to work with them and not add any extra stress to them during these very trying times with counselors being forced to be on campus 5 days a week we have had some members have to take partial or full leaves for their families Andor Health not given the flexibility to work remotely ultimately affects the service our students receive not to mention the strain it puts on counseling teams it should be noted that counselors are capable of doing our jobs remotely as was proven for the last part of the last school year as well as the first part of this school year here's just some of the good work that counselors did during the first quarter when counselors had the option
006to work remotely the following were documented interactions by our counselors in the following areas academics 81844 careers 11,745 social emotional 12892 extracurriculars 30,32 for a total of 13653 uh interactions with the surge of covid-19 across the state and the step back into the purple tier we know that bringing students back in January is on pause we appreciate the district has focused on safety of staff students and community members during these unprecedented times therefore we respectfully request that you consider that counselors have the option to work remotely in order to best serve our students and families as well as to keep us and our own families safe in addition we are also requesting that our return date to campus be aligned with the teachers slps slpas and instructional assistants the second public comment this afternoon comes
007from Grant Schuster president of the Anaheim secondary Teachers Association good afternoon trustees cabinet and everyone joining us online today I would first like to thank the board for scheduling this special meeting to address an extraordinary time 10 days ago you met and acknowledged concerns of District employees and the community by putting a pause on our return to campus unfortunately our public health conditions have largely deteriorated since then ASA and the ahsd have worked tirelessly to prepare for student return to campuses and events beyond our control have kept us the return that we all so desperately want we were all prepared for a hybrid start to the year in August when the covid-19 spike over the summer demanded a distance learning model to the year again in the fall with public health metrics looking good we
008prepared for a return in Winter currently our county is being hit harder than at any time since the start of this pandemic our frustration and fatigue dealing with the situation is real and we must find ways to support each other as we navigate our way through as stands firmly in support of The Proposal from ahsd District leadership that we postpone the reopening of campuses until the fourth quarter there is nothing that teachers want more than an end to the pandemic and a return to classes with their students but the safety of the community must always be our primary focus we will continue to work with the district to find new and innovative ways to engage every student in the district and find ways to support them and their families we will also strive to support
009all of our teachers nurses and spee and language Pathologists along with the rest of our employee groups to ensure that they have the resources necessary to be at their best for our students we thank the board for considering physical and mental health needs along with the educational needs of every District stakeholder when you make these difficult decisions we look forward to reuniting with everyone in person as soon as conditions allow and that concludes public comments thank you Carl hey moving on to uh seven the return of students to school action item so moved second moved and seconded comments from the board questions uh well I let's just go in order uh Mr O'Neal how about you go first I'm not sure why I was full first if it's because of my age I'm the youngest
010one or what your beauty it's Beauty thly uh we've had uh a lot of discussion about what has taking place uh and what is taking place and what possibly can take place in the future and the the district recognizes um the concern of our uh employees throughout the district and um the students the um you know gist at our at our campuses so um I'm in favor of making uh modifications to what we had planned originally in the roll out that was to take effect today uh we we do not know what the future is going to hold for certain but we do know that there that what we had planned originally needs to be modified uh because because uh the times have changed so um with that said I will pass it to the
011next person thank you Mr O'Neal Mr javar yeah I'm I'm in agreement with uh chy O'Neal I I think I mentioned this before when I supported the initial conversation about it is that it all depends on what it looks like on the ground and uh I think things things have changed and uh we are basically modifying our decision based on that uh but mostly I you know this is a time where we talk about menahal of all folks including our students and staff and I think this will give a a much more of a uh much more of a relaxing uh situation for our our our staff members because they don't have to worry about having to come to work and go back and maybe infecting their family uh and loved ones so we we're
012in a we're in a good position I think we've heard uh not only our community folks our parents but our staff members and I'm in favor as well thank you Mr Jabar um Miss piery okay um yeah since things are changing daily and uh We've you know we've had to come to terms with the fact that we are no longer uh showing a decrease in numbers we have to you know react accordingly so I am in favor of you know postponing this coming back right now and I think but I think the right now I was looking for the actual proposal from the from the cabinet but I'm not sure I want to definitely say you know postpone until the fourth quarter I think we want to wait and see what happens you know we
013assume there's going to be another Spike but maybe not so let's just you know right now um we're going to be let's say starting the second semester online and then we'll kind of you know go from there and hopefully we can uh ramp up to hybrid as soon as the numbers are fine because that's what we want to do but we want to do it safely but but I don't want to lock us into only going to fourth quarter because fourth quarter would be what March or April I don't even remember which one it is so anyway but i'm agreement that we do have to back off right now because hey who knows I the governor might say we can't anyway you know depending upon what happens in the next couple weeks thank you Miss
014Percy Miss Smith good afternoon I would like everyone that is online here listening that the conversations that we had in close session held everyone in their hearts all of the people that work in the schools the the students the parents the families the realities of what we are all affected by and I started my statement out to say I'm very flexible and as long as the people that are employed by the different units in our school system are told clearly what we they should anticipate and that everybody understands we're all clear about the same page we're on so I agree with the other board members and I want you all to know we appreciate you and thank you ever so much for everything you all do thank you Miss Smith um I just want to
015first of all um you know thank um our staff for uh you for for really bearing with it and and sticking through it um and for those of you who have come on our campuses um you know and and really um laid the groundwork for for all of this uh to happen um I am agreement though with um postponing um the opening but I wanna I also want us to kind of take a step back and really um you know let's really look at the work that's being done we've never done this before but the quality of and the and the work that's being done with Integrity um all of our admins being on campus um all of our uh classified employees who have been on campus um you know doing the work and and
016you know truth be told um I was getting phone calls uh and and complaints because um classified employees wanted to come back to work they wanted to be part of the solution they wanted to be part of uh you know creating the safety net um and cleanup and and all of that um and so I just want us to kind of take a step back um we're getting a lot of letters um pitting employees against each other and I I just really want us to kind of take a step back from that and let's not do that we're all doing our utmost best um we're we're working towards making our campuses the safest you know um I disagree Mr Jabar I don't think that people will come school and get covid um maybe that was
017a Mis you know you misspoke a little bit there uh were I I would never ask an employee to do something that I'm not doing myself I I've been at work since um since August I go through the protocols I wear my mask every day so um you know when we ask you to come to your job to your place of work um it's it it shouldn't be um with that attitude of being forced um this is your place of business this is your work um we want to make our our community um as safe as it can be and we want to work in harmony so I would just really ask some of you to kind of take a step back from um pitting us all against you it's not a district versus classified
018it's not a district versus um you know uh um uh certificated you know it's not that US versus them we're all together and we all mean it what what Miss Smith said we're all in this we're all in this together we're all losing sleep we're all you know we we all read the newspaper we all see the TV we we're all going through this together but we're a service oriented business and and we really just need to think with that frame of mind um so anyone else want to speak uh go ahead well I I'll I'll correct myself I don't think I uh intend to say that people will come to school and get infected with covid but it's the mental health of our staff knowing that they have to come to a location where
019there are going to be more employees and the possibility of getting infected I think that's the point that I was trying to make uh and if it came out as uh you know I want to correct that because I I do have the confidence in our staff including Manuel who who's uh joining us here he led a great team which has actually put together a uh facilities which I visited couple of them uh where um an at Anaheim high school it's like literally I could say that you'll probably be more safer in uh but it's the me mental health and the mental strain of wanting to do that that's key for us I think that's something that we have to as board members take into consideration the second point that I want to make is
020I think we we also want to consider uh counselors um and Jaren do you wanna do you w to modify our uh motion to include that specifically or would that be a directive that you could actually give directly to the counselors well trusty Jabar under under the fourth bullet which gives um assuming uh you all approve this item it gives the District administration US essentially the discretion to adjust the remaining aspects of the return to schedule so um as as you know counselors uh specifically since you brought them up what we could do is we could modify their um request where they're not back five days a week but each counselor is back one day a week on a rotation so the high school since they're a larger staff um they would come back one
021day a week and the junior highs each counselor would be there one day a week with uh two or three days of of of no coverage unless you're a junior high with only two counselors and you have three days with no coverage okay perfect and let me let me finish my point by also saying stating that I want to give special kudos to our uh classified staff right asme staff and CA staff who actually being there uh it's not that the rest of them don't want to come on campus it's just a matter of they've been there uh as as you know they've been needed they've been asked and they've been there doing the work specifically I want to give a shout out to ask me because I think they have been there in terms
022of uh doing our uh food drives right food distribution for our families and that's a key part and I want to mention that you know when abme was there we did have teachers who volunteered to take pick up a route for especially for hope school you know to go out and drop food for them uh we had csca staff who came in supported ask me staff to distribute so I think all in all everybody wants to do the right thing but for me the main main discussion or the main main point for me was to make sure that not only keep our sta staff safe but the mental health of our staff need to be taken into consideration especially during this pandemic so having said that I support this and Marie um I would like
023to add one thing about 11: uh this morning I was driving into the parking lot at the district office and someone waved at me and I stopped and put my window down and I had to remove my glasses because the tears came down my face and it was Orlando grigo and I said to him I think of you and the gals that do what they do every single day and I just wonder how do they do what they do and they were giving out meals and all I can say it's not just our district it's not just the community it's human beings that really care and do the best they can under the most unbelievable circumstances so to Orlando and his wonderful crew I just want everybody to know that we do love in this
024District thank you Miss Smith thank you Mr Jabar okay anyone else all right with that uh I will entertain the uh the vote roll call Mr O'Neal hi Mr Jabar hi Miss piery uh will you repeat the motion what is the motion in entirety so entirety oh my goodness hey Carl could you help me out with that yes I'd be I'll be happy to read it the um the motion would be to alter the timeline adopted in in the resolution adopted earlier by number one one delaying the return of students to campus until the start of the fourth quarter number two setting January 4th and 5th 20121 as regular student days pursuant to the original District calendar number three delaying the return of teachers speech language Pathologists and assistants as well as instructional assistance to
025a date or dates to be determined by District administration with ample time for Preparation in alignment with the return of students and number four providing District administration discretion to adjust the remaining aspects of the return schedule okay so just as it was printed on the agenda uh that we received okay yes that's right so I don't agree I'll say no I I already said I didn't think we needed to push it off until the fourth quarter per you know permanently like this okay okay thank you Miss piy Miss Smith well I said flexibility in the beginning and I would agree with this but I think that we need to be flexible and understand that things can change so I agree with it okay that's an i and I vote I all right um I would
026like to entertain adjournment so moved motion second Mr uh uh sorry Mr matsuda no okay he's waving goodbye okay Mr O'Neal hi Mr Jabar I miss pery I miss Smith I and I vote I thank you everybody have