12/19/23 - Azusa Unified School District Special Board Meeting

001Lea please let us know when we are ready to start the meeting okay the live stream has started the live stream has started good evening everyone is the community and students parents and staff Welcome to our special board meeting board of education I would like to call this meeting to order today on Tuesday December 19th at 7 pm I am on item 1.2 roll call Board member B here board member adanes present board member Greer here board member Benz here we're on item 1.3 approval of the agenda can I have a motion motion to approve second motion by board member adanas second by board member Greer before we get to before we get to the Pledge of Allegiance I would like to announce that any member of the public wishing to speak on an agenda

002item number 2.0 which is public hearing on the topnotch steam Academy charter petition you must submit a blue card or raise your hand in the zoom platform by no later than 7:15 anyone who submits a blue card or raises their hands on Zoom after 715 p.m. will not be called to speak this is a consensus among the board to implement this procedure for purose of public hearing tonight yes yes thank you transl for andrin and Spanish are available if requested at this time can the man um mandin translator Mr V Zing please translate the 7:15 cut off time if you can come to the podium please the following will be mandering announcement thank you thank you Mr z uh also um Adriana Garcia Medina can please the translators in Spanish please Charter topnotch steam Academy

003charter thank you can you please place your vote on the agenda we have a a first and second motion I can take a hand boote board member B yes board member arianis yes board member Greer yes and board member benas yes yes five and know thank you you can please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the for all thank you very much the board will now move on agenda item 2.1 public hearing on the charter petition to establish a topnotch steam Academy we will now open and convene a public hearing at 7:04 pm on the charter petition that was submitted to the district to establish topnotch steam Academy as shared during the prior public hearing held on the on the petition the petitioners seek to establish a new classroom based Charter

004School to serve students in transitional kindergarten through 8ighth grade the charter school would offer a English Mandarin D language emerging program with a steam Focus for students as required by law the board received a detailed staff report that included an evaluation of the petition and supporting documents staff in conjunction with the district legal council analyze the legal requirements set forth in the English in the educational code to determine whether the petition meets the minimum standards for approval the staff report includes the review team finding an opinion that the petition does not meet the minimum requirements to re eligible for approval the staff report was on December's website and provided to the to the lead petition petitioners at least 15 days to this meeting as required under the educational code this public hearing is required to

005be held before the board may take action to Grant or deny the petition as part of this public hearing the board will provide District staff and petitioners for topn stream Academy with equal time and procedures to address the staff findings of fls and recommendations on the petition hearing public comments on those findings and recommendations and considers the admission preferences in the petition as for procedure the district the district review team and the petitioners will each have 20 minutes to address the board and present or respond to any information concerning the proposed finding and recommendation the petitioners will receive no no less than 20 minutes to make their presentation that means that if the district R viw team presentation is less than 20 minutes the petitioners will still be afforded a total of 20 minutes to

006make their presentation following such presentation the board will receive comment from any member of the public including on the admission preferences then the board will have the opportunity to ask questions or make any comments deliberate and take action to approve or deny the petition please note that the board by law 9323 provides that individual speakers are allowed to speak three minutes to address the board on each item on each agenda item and board will limit the total number for public input to 20 minutes however to ensure that a full opportunity for public input the board president May with the board consensus adjust the amount of time allowed for public input and or time allotted for each speaker further in order to ensure that non-speaking English receive the same opportunity to direct address the board any

007member of the public who utilizes a translator shall be provided twice the a lotted time to address the board translators for Mandarin and Spanish are available if requested as a reminder if any of the member of the public wishes to speak on this matter they must submit a blue card or raise their hand on Zoom by no later than 7:15 any new blue card sub or raised hands in Zoom will not be considered after 7:15 in addition a member of the public shall not permit to yield their time to another member of the public and the speakers must present excuse me and the speakers must be present with their name when their name is called there is a consensus among the board to implement these procedures for purpose of public hearing is there a consensus

008yes yeah yes yes thank you at this time can the Mion translator please translate the 715 cut off time so yield or yielding time and they must be present at this time at 7:08 thank you thank you can the Spanish translator Miss Garcia Medina please come forward thank you we will now turn the presentation or statements by the district and the petitioners first does any member of The District staff or review team desire to speak on on a presentation or comment on the staff report findings of facts and recommendations please note that you will have a total of 20 minutes to address the board yes uh board president thank you uh Miss LaTasha Jamal is going to put a presentation uh up on the on the um screens so good evening ready okay good evening

009board president Rodriguez Peña and fellow board members uh this evening cabinet our legal counselor Miss lesie locker and I will be presenting key aspects of the district's staff report a fact and recommendation on the topnotch steam Academy charter petition as you know oh sorry next slide as you know the topnotch steam Academy chter petition was submitted on September 28th 2023 the district commenced the petition review timelines when it received a signed certification of complet completeness from the lead petitioner on October 4th this slide shows the timelines that were followed by the district related to the petition and refle reflects the first public hearing on the petition the capacity interview with the petitioners the publication of the district's staff report of proposed findings and recommendation which was also sent to the lead petitioner on the same

010date and this evening's second public hearing I would also like to note that yesterday morning the lead petitioner sent my assistant a written response to the staff report which was addressed to the Board of Education that same morning I forwarded a copy of the written response to the entire board the purpose of the second public hearing is for the board to consider the charge school's preferences and to consider and take action admissions preferences and to consider and take action to approve or deny the petition I will now outline some of the key aspects of the proposed Charter School the lead petitioner Christina Sue submitted a petition to establish an independent classroom based Charter School Miss Su is asking for a five-year Charter term beginning on July 1st 2024 and ending on June 30th 2029 according

011to the petition the charge school would offer an English Mandarin dual language immersion for students with a steam project-based learning Focus this program this program would be designed as a two-way 50/50 dual language immersion model in which approximately 50% of instruction would take place in English and approximately 50% of instruction would take place in Mandarin the petitioner is looking to serve students in transitional kindergarten through 8th grade at full implementation I will now turn it over to our legal councel U Miss lesie Locker to address the legal requirements for the consideration and of Charter petitions thank you superintendent Ortega and good evening members of the board I'll provide a brief overview of the petition requirements to establish a charter school which are set out in the Education Code the charter schools Act of 1992 provides

012a set of standards and criteria for a school board to determine whether a charter petition should be approved or denied in reviewing petitions for the establishment of charter schools the governing board of school district shall Grant a charter petition if it is satisfied that approved the petition is consistent with sound educational practice and with the interest of the community in which the charter school is proposing to locate the school board must also consider the academic needs of the students that the charter school proposes to serve a school board however may not deny a petition unless it makes written factual findings specific to the particular petition which set for specific facts to support one or more of the legal grounds for denial we will be addressing those legal grounds and the corresponding findings of fact that

013the district's review team has developed concerning the petition which are also articulated in the staff report that was published first we will provide a brief summary of the evaluation process that the district implemented for purposes of the petition review after the petition was submitted the district superintendent established a review team of senior Administration from multiple District departments who have expertise and extensive knowledge in various areas of school operation ations the district's review team performed a detailed and comprehensive evaluation of the petition spanning all areas relevant to a charter schools operation the district's review team also conducted what is referred to as a capacity interview which is intended to assess whether the petitioners have the capacity or the ability to successfully implement the program described in the charter petition this is a valuable opportunity to gather

014information on the governance and Leadership team's experience and expertise to assess their knowledge of the laws and practices applicable to Charter Schools and to obtain further detail or clarification on items or questions that emanate from that petition review with that framework we would like to turn the board's attention to the proposed findings of fact that the district review team had identified the first finding of fact in the staff report identifies those sections of the petition that were considered by the review team to overall meet the minimum evalu criteria described in law even though there may have been some concerns or minor deficiencies in the descriptions of those items these included components of the petition addressing the required affirmations and assurances annual independent Financial audits student discipline procedures Retirement Systems Public School attendance Alternatives poost employment

015rights of employees closure procedures and the Declaration that the charge school would serve as the exclusive Public School employ employer finding of fact number two addresses the district review team's concerns that the petition presents an unsound educational program for the students enrolled in the charter school as was shared earlier the petitioner is looking to establish an English Mandarin dual language immersion program for students with the goal of attracting a balance of native English and Mandarin Chinese speakers to enroll while this may be the goal the petition lacks any meaningful explanation of how the charter school would serve non-native English or Mandarin speakers this would result in the exclusion of of a substantial number of students within the district when considering that approximately 48% of the district's population does not speak English or Mandarin as their

016first language this includes most notably native Spanish speakers this would likely result in a significant educational access barrier for our district families additionally the proposed curriculum uh has no clear curricular path there is a lack of clear articulation across grade levels and there is no meaningful discussion as to how the program and materials would be aligned with the applicable California State Standards this is especially concerning given given that there is a heavy emphasis placed on the use of steam instruction yet the description of how the Next Generation science standards mathematics standards and art standards will drive instruction in the units Des cribed is vague and underdeveloped significantly the petitioner's approach to addressing the needs of English Learners and students with disabilities is significantly lacking in detail for example the fact that there is no clear

017defined designated English language development instruction or curriculum for English Learners is problematic and shows a lack of understanding of the Charter's obligation to provide a sound education for these students these are some of the many examples of emissions and deficiencies in the petition that undermine the soundness of the program and call into question whether the proposed model would provide a meaningful educational benefit to students especially those representing some of the district's most vulnerable populations finding a fact number three provides a detailed summary supporting the district review review team's position that the petitioners are demonstrably unlikely to successfully implement the proposed English Mandarin dual language immersion program our team has serious concerns regarding the petitioner proposal to serve students across six grade level spans in the first year of operation of a dual language immersion program

018there is no meaningful discussion in the petition as to how the charter would serve students entering in the upper grade levels if they are native English speakers or English Learners without any formal instruction in the Mandarin language given that the Fidelity of the model depends on maintaining an appropriate balance of native speakers in the target language here Mandarin and native English speakers the review team expected that this would be addressed in the petition however little attention of any was paid to the issue best practice indicates that a successful dual language immersion program be built one grade level at a time starting in TK or kindergarten for purposes of target language acquisition so it is unclear how the petitioners would tailor the program to address these critical aspects to support student learning also based on the

019language in the petition and comments made by the petitioner during the first public hearing and capacity interview it is obvious the petitioner is Desiring to create a charter school to to serve a distinct Asian subgroup residing in the Northeast region of the district which would be at the exclusion of of a vast majority of our families in ausa the district review team also identified deficiencies in the Charter School's proposed Staffing plan and plan for professional development there is limited uh number of appropriately credentialed and experienced teachers who are authorized to instruct in Mandarin since there is an extensive bilingual authorization process required in California there is also a lot of competition among other language immersion programs because qualified teachers are in such short supply although Miss Shu identified some strategies to attract qualified teaching staff

020including potential Partnerships with certain programs and attracting teachers from Taiwan there is no clear reliable plan to identify to indicate that the chared school could secure enough teachers with the their bclad or fing authorization to fill these roles which are essential to the implementation of the proposed model this is further exacerbated by the fact that the employee qualification section of the petition is deficient and does not specify all of the required or necessary education California based authorizations and experience needed of certification staff to be to teach at the school the proposed financial and operational plan for the charter school is also Pro problematic and is based on unrealistic assumptions during the review of the charter school's financial documents which included a budget narrative firste budget multi-year projections and cash flow documents several issues were identified

021in relation to the proposed petition while the staff report addresses these issues in detail I will will highlight some of the significant ones that were found particular with regards to projected revenues although the cola cost of living adjustment percentage of 3.94% was used for the budget documents the newly projected Cola for the 2425 is significantly less the current budget reserve of 5% will not account for the projected decrease in the cola though we acknowledge that the lower Cola was not available at the time of submission the budget as it stands would be out of balance as the cola would result in a projected Revenue loss of over $400,000 in the first operational year the projections for enrollment are not realistic and may lead to a significant overestimation of the charter schools Revenue received through State

022funding in case the Charter School's expected unduplicated pupil percentage count does not come to fruition during the first fiscal year it could cause substantial revenue losses the petitioners have projected their Revenue based on the average daily attendance of 95% Which is higher than the district's Ada rate of 90% however there is no explanation provided in the petition or the budget documents to support the use of an inflated Ada rate if the actual attendance rate Falls below 95% it could lead to a significant decrease in state revenues and put the charter school's financial stability at risk findinding of fact number four addresses the number of petition signature is required for approval the petitioner anticipates employing 12 full-time teaching positions and therefore would need at least six petition signatures from teachers who are meaningfully interested in teaching

023at the charter school to meet the legal requirements the petition includes six signatures however only one of the teachers specifically lead petitioner Christina shu is authorized to teach Mandarin because she holds a b clat authorization this was problem atic for the review team because Miss Sue is slated to serve as both the principal of the charter school and as the board president of the nonprofit corporation that would operate and govern the charter school given this extensive involvement in all aspects of the startup and operation of the charter school it is unrealistic to assume that she would simultaneously serve as a teacher in the first year of operation therefore when excluding Miss shu's signature from the total teacher signature count this reduces the total amount of valid teacher signatures to five which is insufficient to meet

024the signature requirements under the Education Code finding a fact number five concerns the various elements in the petition that based on the review teams evaluation do not contain reasonably comprehensive descriptions to be mindful of the time allotted for this presentation I will not describe each individually but I will identify the elements where the review team found substantial deficiency that resulted in this finding these include the descriptions of the educational program the measurable student outcomes and methods for measuring student progress the governance structure employee qualifications health and safety procedures the balance of students from different subgroups Admissions and Lottery procedures dispute resolution procedures and Facilities providing reasonably comprehensive descriptions of these elements is critical in order for the district to assess the efficacy of the proposed Charter program and operations however given the number of deficiencies

025and omissions in these elements the district lacks confidence that the petitioners could implement the charter school with Fidelity and uphold the legal mandates applicable to Charter Schools finding of fact number six is perhaps one of the most notable findings included in the staff report which concerns the impact of the charge school on our isua community this finding allows the district to consider the impact that the charge school was have on vulnerable student populations district and school programs and on Staffing and operations particularly in the area where the charter school intends to locate after giving significant and careful consideration to the proposed program it is the district review team's position that the proposed charter school would substantially undermine existing Services as well as academic and program programmatic offerings for students cause a negative impact on the

026district's fiscal condition and Staffing and and limit diversity and access to the charter school for the district significant student subgroups student staff Community have weather significant up upheaval in the last three years due to school reorganization we saw a total of six schools closed which included a high school and all of the middle schools this does not include the two schools that were previously closed about 5 years ago layer on top of this the impact of covid-19 and cannot help but understand what azuza has been through the staff report includes extensive details supporting this community impact finding and describes how the proposed charter school would threaten the district's fiscal solvency program offering for students and educational access to students specifically those who are not native English or Mandarin speakers these are all very real concerns

027which have been expressed not only in the staff report but by a significant number of of members within our community who have shared their opposition or concerns publicly therefore the district review team has proposed this finding because the approval of the petition would have a pro profound and adverse Community impact on the district again the district's recommendation on the petition is based on the propings of fact described in the staff report and shared with you this evening based on the totality of information received and as described in the prop findings of facts in the staff report the district recommends that the Board of Education adopt the district's staff's of fact and deny the petition to establish the topnotch steam Academy thank you so much we turn it over to board president to see if there

028are any questions thank you um thank you superate um Ortega and is cabinet and Miss Locker the petitioners for topnotch Academy will have a total of 20 minutes to address the board and make a presentation or comment so you can please come forward your time will begin now good evening honorable members of the board superintendent and District staff my name is Samantha Cho from icon School management and we were responsible for creating the school's five-year budget projection along with the school leaders we have submitted our detailed responses to all of the district's fiscal findings and the TN response to staff report but I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight some of the responses while we appreciate the district re reviewing tnsa proposed budget we felt that the fiscal findings that were included in the

029staff report were speculative erroneous and failed to identify a valid legal basis for a denial of the charter the first example I would like to direct you to is one of the district findings that state quote the district acknowledges that the new Cola was released on November 16th after the submission of the petition although the reduction in Cola was not known at the time of the submission the current 5% budgeted reserves cannot account for this projected decrease in Cola end quote as the district mentions the budget was developed for submission on September 18th which was 2 months prior to the recent Cola estimate announcement for the next school year the district cannot possibly expect us to predict the future and use those expectations in our budget projections budgets must be based on latest available information

030when the budget is developed which is exactly what we did further the 1% Cola expectation announcement was at best an estimate and has since changed and we have and we expect that estimate to further change during the governor's January budget proposal and the May Revis another similar example is a finding regarding our estimates of the up or UND duplicated pupil percentage as you may already know the UND unduplicated people percentage generates additional revenues our budget projected a highly conservative estimate of having 60% up based on the district's 8627 up rate even with this conservative approach the district states that quote if the 60% up does not materialize tnsa would have a loss in Revenue end quote and that our budget thus overestimates the revenues this is an unrealistic speculation at best as we already conservatively

031estimated that a 20.27% lower up than that of the district and on this basis this cannot possibly be a reason for denial lastly the district states that there are deficiencies in the cash flow projections in our budget we didn't include any revenues for July through September well it is understandable that this can seem to be a reason for concern the reason why we didn't include revenues for the first three months of the school year is because new Charter Schools don't receive any revenues in the first three months of operation instead new Charters apply for pensc or pupil estimates for new and significantly expanding Charters and this generates the first payment in September October time frame through the special Advance apportionment it is clear that the district does not understand the funding process for new charter

032schools and have erroneously included this as a fiscal finding all of the district's fiscal findings followed a similar pattern where the findings were speculative and erroneous and we have thus responded to each finding in detail we hope that you take this into careful consideration when making a decision tonight thank you good evening honorable member of ausa Board of Education mrga superintendent and Aus staff my name is Christina Sue I'm the lead partitioner of the topn steam Academy I'm here today to respond of the ausa UniFi School District staff report we appreciate the time spent by The District staff in reviewing the tnsa charter petition and supporting material however we disagree with the proposed finding in the staff report and are troubled by the lack of a comprehension of a dual emotion program that's evident of

033a staff report the staff report demonstrate not only a misunderstanding of tnsa educational program and a requirement for a charter petition but also a lack of careful reading of the petition that was submitted the proposed finding are inaccurate and should not be adopt by The District Board of Education our Charter petition exceeds an requirement for approval by the district the staff's uh report accusation that tnsa is specifically targeting Asian students to the exclusion of other students of other background is shocking once again this reflects an anti- Asian or anti-chinese sentiment that stands in contrast of the proactive engagement that is encouraged when it comes to other community tnsa has in fact engaged in Outreach with Asian family something that is not against the law but we uh VI mentally disagree with any tion that we

034have done so to exclusion of family without a background the staff report accusation of tnsa has excluded non- Asian student is also repent considering the statistic on Asian family under representation of the district itself one of the main reason we submit this petition was to imediate the under representation of Asian student in the district enrollments based on 2021 estimates Asian students comprise has only 1.6% of students in the district even though approximately 11% of the student age population in the city of ausa identify as Asian cated differently the population of Asian student at District school is nearly seven times smaller than the total population of Asian students in Asia so my effort to draw Asian students back into public education to enroll or reenroll in the local public school system should be praised not to

035condemned it is unfathomably why the district is so averse to the fact that my me as a Asian-American woman seeks to increase the number of the Asian students enroll in the local public school system including Asian-American families in the public education system is not the exclusion of the detriment of a student without a background and especially when Asian students themselves are evidently the one who have been excluded from the district whether accidentally or intentionally the district decision of disagree disregard my name from the signature of the teachers who are meaningfully interested in teaching at tnsa violates the established law the Act was created in part to provide opportunity for teachers parents pupil and Community member to establish maintain school that operate independently from the existing School District structure my ability to serve as a leadership

036capacity at tnsa and as a teacher is not only realistic but is expressly complet by the ACT needless to say I have already proven my ability to serve in the leadership and teaching capacity simultaneously through the Dual imersion popups program in the summer of 2023 I not only serve as a teacher in that program but also founded the program itself held daily meeting with for sumary program staff train other fow teachers by observing their up classroom and providing individual feedback and greet all student attending the summer program every morning and ensure that knew where to attend a class if everyone has experienc serving as in a leadership capacity and as a teacher and that's me the charter articulate a wide range of plan to promoting engagement and Outreach with family found diverse background our community

037outreach plan includes at least night preschool for day Care Center to Religion Center which includes both a Buddhist temple and Adusa Hispanic Four Square Church and a Memorial Park nor uh Recreation centera City library and the California uh Pediatric and Family Service we plan to release all Communication in English Spanish and M Chinese at the very least including fire with information on how to apply links to our website a phone number and invitation to community meeting all application material will be available in English Spanish men Chinese with other languages upon requests from the interest parents likewise the charter school family student handbook will be printed in at least English Spanish and mention language we acknowledge that the engagement material themselves are currently being developed and the school does not yet have Spanish version for certain

038form that you will eventually have naturally we have not assembled all of our material given that school is not yet authorized it is unreasonable for district to suggest the charter school dis sueding non-english maner native speaker from attending simply based on the fact that we currently lack Spanish language form while ignoring all other information we mentioned in the charter at the same time the district own action of the public hearing disuade native mention speaker from having their voice heard in the previous public hearing regarding the petition we wish note that our communy supports signature that in appendix one in our Charter petition feature multiple signatures from families of Hispanic background and other background they are clearly not just Asian a child CH cannot be denied under the factor of The Superficial reasons such as a

039district own declining enrollment or because of the district decide the charters program the the charter school program is not unique enough for or in demand in enough or the district plans to offer a similar program in the future year it cannot be denied simply because of the charter school program could theoretically be replicated and it cannot be denied simply because there are other school in the community with a capacity for more students if this is where the law it would be allow a school district or opportunely and unilaterally should change parents by denying them quality School of a choice in every instance denying Parents Choice for the sake of a district being able to keep all Charter out of their boundary was not an intent of assembly Bill 1505 yet this is exactly what denial

040of this Charter petition would do the physical impact analysis in the staff report relies solely on the Lost revenue of Staff the district failed to consider other factors too such as its own obvious reduction in expenses such as a result of serving fewer students and the fact that tnsa will need to hire teachers from the community and therefore will add jobs California's public education funding follows the student this fact alone means that very existence of the childish School in the school district will lead to the dis uh redistribution of a public education funding if even one child leaves the district to attend a childish School the key is that such funding belong to the student not the school district quality Charter School do not take funds from school district they serve students many of have

041excited um ex access public education all together as is the case of the many families who are likely to seek enrollment at tnsa and public education dollars do not belong to the school district they belong to students the tnsa charter cannot be denied simply because some students may choose to attend a charter school instead of District school which could lower the district Revenue in fact tnsa program would uniquely increase the district's Revenue tnsa withdraw many students particularly Asian students into the local public education system for the first time or who who otherwise would never have returned to the district school the district seem to have a forgot gotten that it would be benefit from the arrangement since charter school authorizer May charge and receive 1% of the revenue of a chared school Under Education Code

042section 47613 the fact that Lee P the fact that Li have been engaged in Outreach efforts with the rosale community as the staff report noted is supportive on the point since many rosale family do not attend district schools furthermore tnss programs serve only grade TK to a tnsa graduate entering ninth grade and above are well positioned to enroll in the local high school in the district whereas without tnsa they might never have the district dis disturbing misinterpretation of the law would in fact reward school district for inefficient and academically unsuccessful practices and result in a denial of efficient High performing charter school that in fact fits School secondary program the second prong of the analysis about whether the charter would substantially undermine already existing services or program in community again for context this finding is

043not a tool for school district to preserve all the its program and administrative Arrangement just for the sake of maintaining the school district status quo loss of downsizing District program prr do not justify the denial of a of a charter unless they would also have a substantial negative impact on students and family the staff report does not provide any evidence whatsoever of a negative impact on students rather than substantially under my existing program tnsa would add a new and unduplicated program sold by many family who are no longer attending district schools at all as for the third problem of analysis the district fails to recognize that District's lack of success in creating its own English Manion dual language Merion model has a little bearing on TNS own Prospect enthusiastic interest in our authentic research back

044back English Manion dual language immersion model exists now we have received interest from at least 81 member in the community many of when are now not they are not Asian we make no small point in the under line that one of the likely reason the district dual imersion effort were unsuccessful is because Menin speaking Community member will not actually heading up those efforts unlike tnss leadership team moreover none of the program list in the staff report as a district often involve Project based or interdisciplinary learning that is characteristic of steam as far as we can tell the program listed in the staff report are subject taught in the student in the silos not in a dynamic multimodal environment that steam offers and the program that will be offered at tnsa once again the district appear

045unable to grasp what is the concept of steam means in addition most of the family engagement opportunity of the staff report identify of this of section are literally required by law the School site Council elac deac and provide no basis on the denying our petition or any Charter petition for the matter last many of the program list in the staff report exists at practically any school art music and Stam related courses offering are common place this is exactly what makes tnsa educational program a steam based English Manion dual language program unlike any other the district offer under the charter school act the district should be guided by the intent of a legislature that Charter School are and should become a integral part of a California educational system and that the establishment of a charter school

046should be encouraged this very purpose of the ACT is to provide parents and people with expanded choices in the type of educational opportunity they are available within the public school system to improve pupil learning increase learning opportunity and provide vigorous competition with the public school system tnsa Charter petition fully meets the letter and then intend to a provision in the ACT they are not the narrow cherry pick provision cited by the district and the staff report simply put our is a strong petition deserved for the district support and approval we respectfully request that board approv tnsa Charter petition thank you very much for listening thank you very much for your presentation and comment Christina H and Top Notch Academy hope Anda h many blue cards do we have in hands raised I have 22 blue

047cards 22 thank you and we have four hands raised for a total of 26 speakers thank you the board will now receive comments from members of the public who desires to address this matter I I have a quick question point of order can can I ask a quick question before to clarify um so we have 48 in total uh speakers okay please clarify 26 total oh 26 thank you so there's four hands raised total okay so there's 26 total okay uh Ju Just uh question are are we allowing them the three minutes yes we are okay just to clarify just so it's all clarified and everybody knows at this time and just to clarify again we have um translators so there's not two people at the podium right okay I just want to clarify some

048people just came in so that that that's why I'm clarifying um and we have the translators in the front Okay Madame President thank you uh you're welcome I will call our first Speaker Mary Wong come to the porium please good evening a USD board members thank you for your time to consider this proposal you know I I'm impressed with the number of parents and teachers and students who are here this evening um and not only this evening but the prior hearing um and I think this demonstr Ates a very strong commitment to education um which I also share as a teacher educator specializing in language education you know my my graduate students have enjoyed the opportunities of volunteering hours uh of teaching at the home workhouse here in isua and it's been so helpful to

049both your students and to my student teachers um and I've also heard of Spanish dual language programs uh in the isua schools which is appropriate and so encouraging and I want to applaud that um I say this to highlight that I feel we're all working towards a similar goal and that is to help students learn and to prepare them to make a meaningful contribution in their communities I believe that this um proposed Charter School will do this and moreover that it will be mutually beneficial I understand the fears in this room of closing schools and programs of lost jobs tightening budgets I'm experiencing that as well uh as a teacher educator and I think it's precisely because of these hard times that we need new approaches and new programs and that they should be considered

050um I believe that this school could bring back the almost 10% of Asian students living in isua who are missing in the isua public schools and potentially feed them into asus's public high schools um once they graduated from tnsa after gr uh grade 8 um it can also serve non-asian students who want to learn um both Mandarin and English this would enable them to communicate with almost onethird of the world's population speak 7,000 languages but Mandarin and English that would be onethird of the speakers you know rather than a threat um this may be an opportunity and one that I hope will not be missed you know it's right for you to have concerns um but but please take the time to make data informed decisions as I believe that this is a is a

051strong proposal you know as a language educator who speaks Mandarin I actually taught Chinese at Apu um I was the lead researcher of a large multi-year government-led evaluation project um of language education in primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong um so I just can't help but be so excited about the potential of this school thank you Miss Wong your time is up oh okay thank you thank you can I have Genesis Lee so well I am a proud Mount of a special ed kid who actually enrolled in the school district I know most of you some of your teachers here and I was was a you know parent of a year probably not anymore after this speed but I firmly believe that our city and our children benefit from having educational options so contrary

052to the you know the concerns raised by the school districts and the teachers union I'm confident that the charter school will not harm the kid as the funding is intended for the benefit of the children so it is essential to prioritize the well-being and educational opportunities for our children over the interest of external entities parents should be empowered with choices that cater to diverse needs of our community so I do not really see topn as a competitor to the current schools um instead that it is likely to attract students who are currently not enrolling a USD um in especially in my community by bringing in the CH school we have opportunity to welcome back those families and who have chosen nearby school districts for their children's education this influx of students can contribute rute to

053the growth of our local schools benefiting both current and future students so given that top nudge only serves the TK to 8th grade it opens up a pathway for students to contribute their education within the Asuza high school and seers college systems this seamless transition can enhance the overall educational experience for our children and Foster a sense of a community within the district so furthermore the establishment of the CH school has been known to possibly impact property values in the city this increase in property values lead to additional tax revenues ultimately benefiting the city and its residents the long-term financial implications of such growth can contribute significantly to the overall prosperity of ausa so in conclusion um I urge the board members to consider um the potential benefits of support supporting the introduction of topn

054um school by doing so so we're not only at advocating for the school choice but also fostering the environment that prioritize the educational well-being and future succeed of our children thank you thank you very much next up Andrew cleer members of the board I'm here on behalf of my students and our community to demonstrate what it looks like to speak truth to power in this District you are the powers that be so here are some truths for you the truth is that you know your responsibilities are to make the best decision for our kids for their future for this community and nothing else the truth is is that all of you read the report put out by our district because that's your actual literal job to make the best decisions for our kids with the

055best information available and anything less would be a failure on your part as ausa's elected officials the truth is that the district put out a report with reason after reason as to why this charter school is so disorganized unprofessional ethnocentric financially damaging and just playing unable to meet even the most basic needs of our students and so much so that the district needed to use 36 pages to document everything wrong with this charter school I could plaster this wall with that report and you're telling me there's and they're telling me that there's nothing wrong with it the truth is that this meeting is not here to summarize the the board report for you because you read it right the truth is that accepting this charter school would be admitting to the community that the people

056elected to meet the educational needs of their children cannot do so without the help of an outside source and if you read the report which you totally did you would see how unprofessional disorganized and sad their proposal was we need to focus on our own issues in this community not take on the issues of this school the truth is that their petition would be laughable were it not for the fact that you are all seriously considering their proposal tonight this meeting is here to give the charter school an opportunity to call together a rebuttal to their embarrassing petition be before you make a decision the truth is however that the eyes of ausa have set their eyes upon you watching you watching to see where your allegiances lie if you make a decision that harms

057our kids that takes more resources from our kids that Nails the final coffin in this battered but still standing District I say to you that this community does not easily forget please reject this Tarter school I have nothing more to say on this matter thank you for your time next I like to call up Mr Rono no I don't think you do good evening my name is Ron Trestle and I am a teacher at isua high school I grew up in isza just above 10th Street as I got older I always thought that I would move on from muuza just like George Bailey from its Wonderful Life thought he would move away from bed for Falls turns out that I was wrong as a young boy of this community greatly influenced me my friends and

058my family were here we went to church together went to others houses hung out in the same church youth group played basketball Memorial Park and played baseball at the little league and pony league fields during this time I never felt excluded I was welcomed into the houses of my friends no matter what their race or religion I was a guy that ate all the food and then went back for seconds and thirds I was there at baptisms weddings and kinas yes I was that guy I was always included in never excluded I was loved and taken in by families I was never looked at any different there was never any thought of segregation just integration and learning all about culture and love here in isza as a supporter of public schools in the diverse community

059that we have in our schools it makes me upset to hear about this issue that we are considering bringing in a charter school this is my 20th year working for isua unified our district is about integration and inclusion it is about making sure that every student is given a high quality education by high quality High qualified teaching staff no matter one's race religion sexual orientation or disability we do not discriminate we need to stay unified as a school district we we cannot afford to fund a charter school while trying to maintain our own District we cannot afford to lose funding for programs that our students so dearly need or close schools like we have been forced to in the past due to decreasing enrollment I know that most of the board members have been raised

060here in zza and have attended the public school system here in isua I hope that you continue to make the effort to fully fund our district build our programs promote inclusion and diversity and keep our schools open I hope that you vote no on Charters thank you next IID like to call up Mr George Q too he's already there thank you all right uh good evening board members colleagues as a constituent of azuza and alumni from Aza unified I must protest the notion of introducing a charter school in this school district I will not only represent myself but also my family friends and neighbors who are concerned about the charter school in nauza the reasons why me and many other constituents disagree is because Charter Schools absorb funds from public schools in this case topnotch

061Academy will absorb up to $4 million annually from Auda schools from students staff teachers administrators and yes even programs leaving students vulnerable to depleting resources as cannot afford to bring a charter school for it will for it will be against the interest of our students and Community which brings me to the next concern about topn Academy that does not that does a poor job in representing and acknowledging the Latino community and the diversity of our of our students in his we in his website I don't I don't see a trace of Spanish for the many Spanish speaking families and students of azuza according to the district report to the topnotch academy it does not provide sufficient and detailed evidence for any effective and inclusive English Mandarin dual language immersion program as it does not address

062the needs of different student subgroups like English Learners or AKA Spanish speakers and of course students with disabilities their 50 to 5050 model of dual language immersion would exclude students who are not native speakers of of English and Mandarin which is about 48% of the student population or hundreds of students in the report of topn Academy has not clearly defined an eeld instruction for English Learners given the students demographics of districts this is a major problem and reflects as uh Miss kamacho has stated the lack of the lack of knowledge and understanding of the charter of school's obligation to provide a sound meaningful and legal legally compliant education for English Learners um I've spoken to other constituents as well and of course they see this charter school as a form of sub uh segreg um

063and of course some of our teachers have stated before in the meetings that why not work together to create an English Mandarin um dual program and of course a lot of constituents inza are seeing this that there's a bigger issue at hand here an issue that needs to be addressed um so these are some of the reasons that me um I as a constituent of Aza among many others are concerned about introducing charter schools in AA unified and of course I hope and we hope that the board will vote no and of course they're watching right now on how you guys will vote on this matter thank you thank you next up is EST compos M good evening board president Rodriguez paa board cabinet members colleagues and esteemed um citizens of our community our mayor

064as well I I come to you once again as a constituent of the city of Asuza and as an educator of 23 years in at asua Unified School District um I am deeply deeply concerned as a citizen of this wonderful City about the charter schools I came from a city that has allowed charter schools to come in and have seen the public education system nearly diminished at the high school level because of it with no benefit to the district at all I'd like to say to um the people that are here in support of topnotch steam Academy have you st foot on our campuses have you come in to see the great work that we do at AA unified have you looked at our dual immersion models now that we have them I keep hearing

065yes in the background but it obviously when what I'm seeing is exclusion I'm sorry I have I have the microphone right now thank you I'm seen exclusion as a teacher of ethnic studies I work very very hard to develop a program of inclusion including our students of all Races and to hear people say that we are discriminating against them as a as a district is heartbreaking it is heartbreaking I spent countless countless hours teaching students some of which are standing outside about what it means to be inclusive of other ethnic groups we welcome our students our Mandarin students into our schools Bor you have a decision to make you need to think about what's best for our kids all of our kids not a selective group of kids but all of them it is your

066responsibility I voted for every single one of you except for one because the laws changed otherwise I probably would have voted for you as well but but I have voted for all of you and I did it with good conscience and faith that I knew that you would make the right decisions for our kids so I'm standing here as your constituent asking you to make the right decisions for our community and for all of our students and not just for the interest of a few thank you thank thank you next next up Natalia via uh before the uh timer begins I'm the next One jacine S we're going to speak together no um individually please okay um good evening my name is Natalia via and I am a senior at isusa high school I would

067just like to start by saying how far that how far our district has come throughout the years and that this change would greatly affect us and all our new upcoming high schoolers K through a and everyone else involved such as parents and families we have greatly evolved throughout the years but this isn't to say that it has been easy we are Gladiators at heart as we have just moved to isusa this year as Gladstone was directed to shut down although this change is irreversible we miss our school environment dearly many others who take part in this District's education have noted that you have recently shut down numerous elementary schools all of our middle schools and our high school home Gladstone this is our final year in this district and both myself and my peers have

068been put through many difficult circumstances as a result of switching schools a USD has numerous successful young people who attend uc's Cal States and additional private schools across the country we apply to competitive programs have the potential to graduate college in three years and we obtain countless scholarships thanks to our amazing excellent teachers and our academic transcripts the claim that ausd lacks any programs is misleading information we personally believe that they offer plenty and that participation in these programs is low due to enrollment decrees many students are unaware of this plan that you are trying to impose on us why don't you consider student and instructor feedback why aren't the top notch recruiting our whole class because we don't fulfill your intelligence standards for your steam Academy because of our racial background a USD offers

069stem classes from elementary to high school all which are evolving we feel that if you were to add an immersion curriculum that this would greatly solve the problem instead of switching the whole district and having everyone go through change change is hard and we have already gone through it enough and adding to that change isn't going to help those who are already struggling thank you for your time and I hope tonight's decision is to vote against the petition and to allow our city to continue to thrive on its own as it has already been thank you okay okay thank you next you will have jacn canana good evening Board of Education and community members my name is jacqulyn Santana today we represent our peers at auza high school who couldn't make it today such as

070the Student Union the Souza medical Pathways the early college program AP classes student advisory Council cheer soccer HOSA Charter hospice and many more Community Schools were just introduced this year to all our schools including auua high school and we continue to learn about their benefits and determining what we can do to improve connections between students parents and faculty considering we are members of the Student Union We Carry Out Community circles to help students contribute to interactions as well as acquire comfort with one another in a classroom setting we address personal needs and ensure that everyone has a voice in and outside the classroom our school offers the chance to collaborate with International students to create welcoming environments many including myself are native Spanish speakers which have been marked as proficient in English throughout the years

071a USD provides a range of Spanish French and sign language lessons that appeal to all the levels of interest to expand our knowledge since the elementary level we have all gotten introduced to the art programs the stem clubs music to expand our likings as we move to the secondary level of Education we also feel that adding a dual language emerging mandering curriculum would be the compromise alongside the Spanish language route that is provided it could be similar to the programs that we offer at the elementary schools currently to provide the Learners with equivalent possibilities and opportunities overall using the a USD funds to add a to add a charter school would not be beneficial to our district adding a Ming program instead to in addition to the Spanish program would be more beneficial for the

072successful outcomes instead of taking our sacred funds that the top notch doesn't deserve we thank you for your time and hope tonight's decision is to vote against the petion and to allow the city to thrive on its own for those deeply involved in the success of our students thank you next I like to call up Hector ernandez okay good start good evening exem board members superintendent Ortega and people in attendance my name is Hector Hernandez and I'm a current senior at Aza High School I am here to talk about and give my opinion on the top-notch steam Charter School especially why I believe it will be one of of the worst decisions made to approve it this decision will not only affect the school district itself but the community of Asuza as a whole by

073implementing Charter Schools you are segregating your community and creating this ideal in which only a specific student can achieve success and what does that do to them the premise of Charter School assumes that they can somehow provide opportunities that do not already ex exist in our community to me it only assumes that we as students are somehow lacking as I present myself in front of you how dare you believe that we will not amount to anything a vote to approve this Charter affirms that stance topnotch embodies this ideology that they will come into our community and somehow save it that they will be the Savior we need to become successful students but guess what we are we already are and have been successful for years without them each year many students are accepted to top

074universities across the country furthermore last year we had four students win and place in the United States Congressional Art Contest award for their artworks and they are now in Washington DC are you now proud of them as well 11 students last year placed top five in the state for medical based competitions in which which three of them are now considered International finalists and two went on to win a top five spot in the world are they not enough for you yet you sit here contemplating this Charter School you were elected to serve ausa students a job in which you promised the people of ausa that you would put them first but as a product of this District I do not feel a priority do so now make us feel a priority to to the parents

075to the parents out there Charter School will also bring about the loss of millions of dollars in budget money that goes directly towards the education of your child this will hurt programs such as engineering medic and do enrollment but if that's not scary enough think about all the teachers and employees who will be fired these is who the educators are the most amazing people I've encountered ever they have taught me how to be successful they have taught me how to think critically and independently and best of all they have taught me how to become a decent person as you sit here on your high little pedestal believing that this will be the best possible thing to ever happen to our district and Community maybe you should reconsider what it means to be a Community member

076don't allow top-notch to win and perpetrate this ideology that they are a savior Asuza needs saying no to schools will show the isza community you believe in them and if this is too much for you maybe you should reconsider your position as an isua School Board member because I promise you we the ausa people are more than this lackluster perception you have of us thank you next we have thank you re good evening Schoolboard superintendent Mr Orga and all others in attendent tonight my name is fivia and I'm a current Junior at Aza high school and a former Gladiator student who has sadly lost their home school when I first found out about the charter school wanting to be brought into our district I was in utter shock and disbelief at this shock at this

077thing where got out and no one knew the true reason the this Char School wanted to come into the existence of our district I was I am a part of the AL committee and at our last meeting of the year we had the biggest question of Our Lives that was brought up by Emmanuel satat brought up to Miss Ortega and Miss Jamal Miss LaTasha Jamal asked why these Charter Schools were gonna be brought into our district they informed us about the loss of our money which was was which was going to be about $1 million lost in our district in the next and over the next 3 years they were also informing us that it would not be beneficial to us because of the mannering English program because most of our families here are Spanish

078Spanish English uh dual dual enrollment program uh families and students everyone knew the basic stuff about this whole thing but no one knew the exact reason and everyone I mean literally everyone in this room and everyone outside was in the dark about all this as a public school student I do not see the reason we need to I do not see the reason we need to bring a charart school into our district because it's not beneficial to us we've been fine on our own for the past four years this is not going to help us at all and the less money we have into our into our district means that our programs are going to be cut our programs are going to shrink even more than they already are our programs that are already being

079shr shren right now they're just they're they're decreasing we're not getting more students we're losing enrollment families are not having many babies anymore everyone's moving away declining enrollment is everywhere Bor as you sit on your pedestal consider this this vote to be a no not a yes thank you uh next I like to call um Ty Ben who good evening everyone my name is tid W what is consider an unsound education program is narrowly defined a program considered unsound only if it is likely to cause physical educational or psychological harm to student or student of if it is likely to be of no educational benefit to the student who attend none of those Factor are relevant to the tnsf Charter and none are mentioned in the STA report the district appear to misunderstand the fundamental

080nature of TNN tnsa program as explained throughout the chter DU language emerging program benefit from a mix of naive native and nonnative speakers of the Tet languages because it allows student to support or be supported by others in the language development while fostering strong personal personal ties and uh building a sense a sense of community in other words du language emerging model are effective when at least some student know the target languages but certainly not not all of them are expect to we understand this and the other Charter expe State we will strive to attract a balance of native English and the mandering Chinese speakers to enroll at the same time tnsa program does not require any specific balance of native English and the maning Chinese speaker student speaking students and then and nowhere and

081by no by no means are due language IM model like pnsn inaccessible or not intend for student who know nether languages student who speak neither English nor mandarine Chinese would would be treated as English learner as required by law meanwhile student who do not speak mandering would learn that language at tnsa for the first time alongside each other thank you very much Mr W your time is up can we have Jim chin move come forward my name Jim Chen and as far as the charter schools grade level ISE the expansion plan the district appear confused by our statement that most student will likely enter the charter School in kindergarten or first grade which capitalize on children's optimal age for second language acquisition uh CR page 90 and we plan to enroll student in grade TK

082to five in the initial years of operation and spend to the include student in grade six to8 in subsequent year see the page 31 as the years progress we expect that most enrolled student overall will likely have enter top NAIA uh Academy during their first few years of elementary school just like at nearly any other public school the district also appeared to confus about the nature mandering Chinese instructor instruction for student in grade 6 to8 as a state in the chatter student in the middle school program will be offer one period of mentoring language and Chinese culture each school day see page uh 6.43 crises will range from novice to advance to account for varing level for of manding Chinese uh proficiency I I see no reason why serve student beyond the TK to kindergarten

083in our first years of operation in case of a concern we are proposing to serve student in KT TK to five grade level in our first year of operation in response to students voice demand for school that serve abroad great span see page 31 special the SRA Valley where Aza situate as a significant population of M speaking immigrant student who do not yet speak English many of these student arrive when they are in later stage of elementary school and many enroll School in the S gabber Valley area none of which are in the district the mandering DU language immersion program a best research reach research based model to support English language learn to become Prof profession in both English and mandering for this new M speak much Mr Chen thank you your time is up

084thank you no more cards and um anyone online are we are we we're going to switch the screen right now with some of your names oh I know I just didn't see any names I okay good evening the soua UniFi School District board members thank you for the opportunity to speak on behalf of topnotch steam Academy as a private citizen who works in the Souza I have witnessed the growth of this city since 2006 I especially enjoy seeing a marked increase in the Asian population over the last 17 years as an Asian ameran allow me to point out the Deep cultural value a have for education especially in Grain in our long history Chinese are known to travel far for what they deem best as educational opportunities for their offspring for instance I have friends

085who live here and travel daily to Pasadena and bulletin foru immersion and steam programs hence it seems natural and wise to respond to a growing need in a Souza a such growth in the Asian population almost always bring subsequent growth growth in the economy and reputation I see a great deal of potentials for a reimagined future with The Offspring of the with the offering of a Mandarin English du immersion program as an educator for over two decades I recognize how quickly our world is changing and the need to offer optimal academic opportunities to Young students to be agile this include offering bilingual education so that they will be ready for emerging Trends in any profession with Chinese being the third most used language in the world it seems wise and Forward Thinking to become one

086of the cities to lead and be successful in Mandarin English dual immersion therefore I urge you to seriously consider the proposal by top n steam Academy thank you thank you can we have um uro Garcia please good evening board members community members my name is aruro Garcia I am a director of operations with icon Cool School management uh in support of topnotch steam Academy a little bit about my background I have 10 years in the charter school five years I worked with a dual emerging English Korean uh School in South Los Angeles they had similar concerns in terms of the community the community is mainly Hispanic and African-American for majority of my five years there we had less than 10 students that were Korean the majority of those students were um Hispanic and African-American um

087and it worked and I think it came from the fact that it's an option a choice for those students in that Community to take advantage of and that's what Top Notch would be a choice for these students here um I also want to respond a little bit to some of the fiscal findings uh my colleague Samantha did a good job but again in my 10 years of working with Charter Schools and talking to school districts uh I was surprised with the amount of speculation in the findings for fiscal a lot of ifs the first if is the Cola will be 1% yes that's learning we adapt as we move budgets forward your own District budget for last year includes the 3.94% cola for the 2425 school year and as your district will work on updating

088budget so will we to update top Notch's budget um the second if of the unduplicated people percentage um we use a very cons conservative number of 60% um your district is 86 the hope is to get students from your community the odds of becoming lower than 60% are much smaller than the odds of coming higher than 60% if we reverse uh the If instead of coming in five students less and we come in five students higher of unduplicated that's an additional $200,000 to the school over three years and then in terms of the loss from 3% to 1% in the first year it's not 400,000 it's 400,000 across multiple years in the first year it's about $86,000 budgets are built with that 5% Reserve to account for that economic uncertainty the 5% Reserve in the

089first year was over 150,000 that 86 is absorbed in that but of course you go and you work to update that the other if in terms of 88 percentages uh Charter Schools do have 88 percentages that are typically higher than districts again because it's Choice students are choosing parents are choosing to send their students there so their attendance rates are much higher and their levels of chronic athletism it's lower um with couple the schools that we work with in LA and Orange County last year the average 88 percentage was 95% and this year it's increased slightly um last year was a tough year across the board for Ada um historical lows for everybody just as you were coming out of the pandemic so you know it was just a lot of ifs and districts work

090with ifs we work with ifs but we have to have the opportunity to make that adjustment and move forward thank you uh next I'd like to call up um Cecilia Ford good evening superintendent cabinet and board members and community members um I come to you tonight as a parent of a junior at isza high school I am also an employee of this district and I worked for this district for 13 years um having a charter school come in would take away programs that we've already built we're building right now we're rebuilding because of reorganization we've gone through changes don't make us go through another change again some of our kids are struggling we see it in our school district right now we see the high school we see the Middle School we've come together and

091we're everybody's trying our teachers our staff our students are all readjusting to bring somebody new in would be another change that everybody has to go through I urge everybody on the school board tonight to vote no against another change that we have to go through our C we need to readjust we need to adapt to everything that we've gone through to this point our staff our students and everybody in the community is readjust ing please vote no against bringing this Charter School in let us rebuild and let us come back together as one thank you now I would like to call Andrew te good evening board members I'm Andy C and I'm here to voice my opposition against the proposed Charter School the fact finding report from the district is clear the petition does not

092meet the key elements of EC 47605 I would like to address the the divisive undertone of the charter school petition I am highly disturbed by the undertone of this petition and the exclusion of key demographics in our community we as a community should oppose any publicly funded school or programs that excludes by race gender religious background orientation or disabilities whether that exclusion is by design of happen stance it should be legally and morally opposed I have been in a I have been a resident of ausa for over 10 years and I've tied to the communities for close to 20 years my wife is of Hispanic descent and has been part of the community her whole life it was not so long ago that asian-americans had targets painted on their backs while Asian hate crimes Rose

093across LA county and and across California I cannot find one single report in azuza that shown any hate crimes against Asians the exclusive nature of this petition is an insult to the ENT to the isua community that ensured me and my family made it home safely every night during those trying times this petition does not meet the legal requirement and should be denied if that is not sufficient then the petition should be denied for the pure device of nature to our community thank you for your time next I like next like to call Eva or J good evening uh Susa UniFi School District uh board members uh my name is Eva ortis I am a resident of ausa UniFi School District I have four kids and six grandkids I am here to support topnotch steam

094Academy okay I want topnotch steam Academy open in our community because it will give my grandkids a competitive Advantage for their future they will not only be bilingual but trilingual when my kids I have I have a 23 year old 23 year old son he did not graduate from high school from asusa he he went to Elementary here in asusa and also to asusa high school and unfortunately he did not graduate right now I have a 17-year-old and he is not doing grade in ausa high school I see that a lot of teachers are here a lot of teachers are here but my sons they tell me a lot of teachers focus on all the A+ students not on the ones that need help a lot of teachers a lot of teachers need jobs a

095lot of teachers are here becausee they need they need their jobs I do have friends that are Asian and they have to drive far to take their kids because there are only a couple of them in in here and they get discriminated they get teased that so I am here to please ask that we have a choice and I ask and and um for you to approve the petition of topot theme Academy thank you thank you uh next up is Meg zala Schoolboard I'm not going to address you because you know how I feel I've spoken to almost all of you at some point or another about the Union's feelings about the charter school instead I want to speak to the parents um who are here to advocate for top knot you don't know me

096um I am the President of the teachers union but I'm also a parent and I live in Chino I brought my children to go to school here in isusa because of the amazing teachers because of the district's inclusiveness my husband is Filipino um we have a biracial family and I have biracial children I know what it means to be discriminated against it's happened to us and it's very hard and it's very scary but it didn't happen here in isusa my kids were well taken care of and it's because the teachers in here they care about the kids they do and when we took our children back to Chino schools it was more because of the neighborhood friends and all those kinds of things but my eldest son his passion was Mandarin and so we took

097him to Chino Hills High School because it was the only school that taught Mandarin he took it for four years and then he took it in college and his first job as a mechanical engineer out of college was to work for come key um which is a Chinese sauce company for those of you you probably have it in your pantry at home anyway um it's insulting honestly and maybe you don't know this it's insulting to us when you say that um Asian parents do whatever they can for the education of their children because the inference is that we don't and that honestly is hurtful because whether I'm Caucasian or my Filipino family or the Latinos in the room we all want the best education for our children and so I I'm I'm saying this with

098respect truly you want what's best for your kids just as much as I want what's best for mine and after 30 years 32 years teaching in this District I want what's best for our children in as youa and that includes you and so whatever the board decd decides tonight I am going to I'm going to plead with you please bring your children to our schools I want your children in my classroom I want them I want to love on them I want to teach them I want to encourage them I want to uplift them to be the best that they can be and I'm sorry that you you had children that had difficult experience with with whatever it was that they endured but I'm going to I'm going to say that I believe that's the

099minority because the majority of kids come out of here like rock stars and so please please let's acknowledge the fact that we are a district that's inclusive time is thank you I would like I would like Charlotte ree to come forward please good evening my name is charot Ruiz I a dual imersion student at Victor hods Elementary I love my teachers and everyone that works at my school I'm here today to speak against this topnotch them Academy Charter School the past couple of years have been hard on our azuza school communities we have closed many schools due to low low enrollment not because our schools are bad but because many families have made the hard choice to move to more affordable housing many families have adapted to changes but we are a wonderful community and

100have adapted well Aiza unified offers all the programs we need and more I love our doing Mion program CU I get to learn Spanish a few years ago Mandarin was also being offered but not enough interest was shown if that has changed I am sure our discrict district will address it soon in our arts program we get to learn about many different artists and their styles of painting I will soon be joining the miai de as soua and soon after the orchestra you don't need a charter school to take resources away from our schools next I will have Emily Reese good evening president rodrigus paa members of the board and superintendent Ortega and the cabinet members as a proud student of isua high school and an Engaged Community member I commend the school for its

101outstanding and diverse programs enrolled in the international Balor program Project Lead the Way engineering program Maria deza and the zua Unified School District chamber orchestra I am grateful for the rich academic and extracurricular experiences provided however the foundation of this preparation began in Middle School laying the groundwork for my success in high school one of the most notable strengths in our public school system is its sense of community and inclusivity as an active member of the Student Union we collectively strive to Foster unity and a strong Community spirit and this includes elementary and middle school students as we have done Community circles in the past with them and have seen that students open up from all backgrounds no matter their ethnic background or academic success it would be such a shame if a charter school

102were to come and strip away all this progress we have already made and make a bigger disconnection between students who have different educational barriers barers moreover this sense of community takes root early on beginning Marin Orchestra in elementary school I've had the privilege of going growing up in the same group for the past 10 years I hope my little sister who is currently in college Elementary School can share a similar experience when she reaches her senior year however this would not be possible if a charter school were to exist as a programming would be different our elementary schools are evolving positively so considering the potential impact of with Charter School on our progress I implore you to P persevere and strengthen our existing programs especially in the light of our merger our school district is

103already grappling with low enrollment and introducing a charter school could adversely affect our community please let us continue to flourish and contribute positively to the academic and communal fabric of azuza thank you thank you next I like to call up sto Serano Luna Sarah Sano Luna hello everybody my name is Sarah San Luna and I'm here today to firmly stress that there is absolutely zero need for a charter school in isusa and although I hope I actually don't need to persuade you the board today as it is again so extremely OB obvious that allowing a charter school to open would only hurt our district and our students School board members eyes are on you tonight for you to listen to your constituents and to to listen to the district's recommendation and not allow this to

104happen to the people here and the people watching at home play close attention to how these board members are voting today as their vote will show you if they actually care about this district and its students and take into consideration when giving them your support and your vote before I go I would like to say to Sabrina B I'm a especially paying attention to your vote tonight as I like a lot of people here do not believe that you truly care about this district and its students but rather have ulterior motives like a charter school opening and are catering to the people in your area for I think we would all appreciate you pushing those in your District area to attend ausa schools and help build our district up again I want to emphasize that

105if you are doing your job tonight the job that everybody here voted you to do you would be serving the people of the school district district and be voting against a charter school thank you I like i' like to call forward Savannah Rudder hello everyone um I'm Savannah Rudder I am a product of your District um I went to school my siblings are going to school have gone to school with your kids with your grandkids I am friends with your grandkids and with your kids this is our community ladies and G gentlemen this this is us um and if we want more options let's bring more options let's bring more let's do more for our kids that's what they deserve right keep it public provide Equity equity for all of our kids publicly everyone I'm

106hurt as a teacher right now because what I heard is that us teachers and is Unified are not caring about our students and if anyone in this room I can wholeheartedly say that I am one of those teachers that cares 110% if not more I am involved in our community greatly I have been involved in Girl Scouts for our community providing leadership to our young females I am an educator at isua High School teaching science I am a product of many of these teachers I have had many many of these teachers I coach many Sports volleyball basketball men's volleyball girls volleyball girls basketball basketball softball baseball it's the options are endless I do that because it's for the kids so I am hurt if you're struggling if your student is struggling if you're a parent

107who feels that your student is not being heard please come join me take your kid into my class room 335 at isua high school and come see my class filled with more than 36 students at lunch every single day who get to participate in inclusion diversity City and Community it is a community in there and it is a community a community in every single classroom if you walk onto that campus please join us we want it we welcome it Lord please come onto our campuses I want you in my room come see me please let's have a conversation come see my kids come see what they're doing come see the great things see the community that we're building come watch our amazing teachers come watch our amazing students because they are doing great things to

108any missing students that some someone mentioned earlier come join us we want you here we welcome you here into this amazing azuza Community with that being said our students the students in our district deserve our undivided attention all of our undivided attention so let's focus on them let's keep investing in them in our community our future please deny this petition thank you so much next next I would like to call Kevin Davis good evening honorable board members this is Kevin Davis I hope you can hear me I'm one of the zoom participants um I serve as legal counsel for topnotch steam Academy I believe you heard comments from my colleague Greta Proctor at the last meeting and it's my pleasure to speak and support of the petitioners who are not only proposing to bring a

109dual IM immersion steam program to the isua community but who who are also proposing to bring District residents back to the local public school system with this program this will bring State funding back to the district I would like to speak to the board of education's options tonight adopting your staff's proposed findings is just one of the options the petitioner has thoroughly responded to and refuted each and every point in those findings I hope you've considered the petitioner's response because the staff report in front of you has been thoroughly refuted another option for the board is to approve the charter tonight which does not require any specific findings like those prepared by your staff any board member could make a motion to approve the charter petition and the board could take action on that motion

110right now I assure you that top- notches Charter petition more than meets the legal standard for approval including the new requirements of ab55 that require the school to demonstrate it will meet the entire the needs of the entire Community by providing opport OPP unities that do not currently exist this option to approve the charter petition is consistent with the Education Code which says the the establishment of charter schools should be encouraged the legislature contemplated this back and forth between the district and still found that Charter Schools should be encouraged it's also consistent with the State Board of education's guidance on reviewing Charter petitions which states that an unsound educational program is narrowly defined um the findings that your that your staff has made are are narrowly defined by the State Board of Education a program

111is considered Unown only if it's going to cause physical emotional physical educational or psychological harm to students or if it's likely to be of no educational benefits to the students who attend the school those findings can't be made tonight based on this petition or at all this Charter petition presents a sound educational program the petitioners are demonstrably likely to successfully implement the the program described in the petition and the petition contains all the legally required affirmations and comprehensive descriptions of the of the elements that are required for a charter it's ready for the district's approval tonight I wish to express my strong support for this Charter petition and request that the board approve the charter this evening so that the district can bring this unique program to serve students within the community thank you very

112much and I'm here if you have any questions we have three more speakers we're just going to refresh the the thank you ni I like to call um Ethan nango board president it appears he has left the zoom okay we'll move to Amber fish can you hear me yes we can Perfect all right thank thank you guys for your time tonight um I want to start off by saying language is so important I have a family who in our immediate family we have English Spanish Greek and Mandarin speaking individuals um we love that our son is getting to participate in the D Merion program that we currently have here at isua it is a great program unfortunately for myself I didn't wasn't taught in Spanish and my son started out in the kindergarten program and

113he sat there saying I don't know what's happening he did it online kindergarten first year online from because of covid and he just add at the screen saying I don't know what's going I don't know what they're saying I don't know what's going on and I was so disheartened for him because it was hard to watch him struggle he's a smart kid he's in third grade this year and he is doing phenomenal thriving our program works we start at kindergarten in first grade the students progressed until middle school high school they'll graduate at the end of the program if they continue it it's their choice to continue with a sylla by literacy topnotch is talking about opening up a TK through fifth grade where do these students start do they test in and if they

114test in how many students are they going to have for these grades that are native English speakers as compared to Native Native Spanish speakers because there has to be a balance that's what makes this program work um my concern is that they don't have this for the first first few years because Sixth and eighth grade obviously come next and they're saying their students after graduating from eth grade would go into our school that that's phenomenal I'd love to see them come into our schools I'd love to see them come into our schools starting at TK um but where does that leave them with their Mandarin program learning we currently are not supporting that and they won't be able to graduate with that Sola by literacy on their diplomas like our students will um steam programs

115are district is already pushing out steam throughout all the schools we have these amazing steam labs for our students to use and I love seeing the creativity that our students are coming up with using them I'm hoping that our district will consider a mandarin program dual immersion program in the future near future to support these parents who obviously seem to want this in our school district but I also think that it's important to take into consideration all of the time and effort that our community has put into reorganization already you've mentioned it we've closed a lot of schools we've had a lot of shuffling we're losing certain programs but ausa School District asua Unified School District we are thriving right now we are doing the best that we can for all of our students and

116making the best choices and adding a topnotch steam Academy is not in the best interest of our school district and I believe you guys should vote no deny this petition keep focusing on what is best for our students and for our community within our school district thank you next I'd like to call on sashik hi can you hear me yes hi my name is sachko abrahamson and I'm an Asian-American who happens to be a parent of a dual immersion student um I guess it's safe to assume that the funding for this Charter will come from isusa unified will only students within the isusa city limit be allowed to attend if not what are the insurance what are um assurances that the charter will give to make sure that it serving the community that they attend

117to take funds from we have serious concerns about any program that um takes away from programs that are already hurting to cater to a very small population that's not guaranteed to come back to isusa unified um especially to the last speaker what she was uh talking about if the program ends at 8th grade and they don't get to graduate with that biliteracy um certification why would they want to come back if they could stay in a district where they would would grad uate with it um tnsa looks to Target a very small group of residents while taking resources from already established students who choose to stay in the district we implore the board to not punish the families who chose to enroll and stay in ausa we hope that you will um consider this and

118deny this uh proposal thank you thank you okay thank you um thank you all for your comments um now we have questions from the board and uh the Board of Education and I would start with um Mr Greer any comments or questions yeah have I'll least start with a couple questions I I I would uh appreciate hearing uh both from the uh topnotch representatives and also from our our district um there the understanding of the distinction between ELD and dual uh dual immersion so EOD is for English language development and the Dual language remission is for students um there are two type of a dual language remission program one is the native speaker of mention language so which they probably as the uh English language learner as well so they will be uh qualified under

119the uh EOD program and the other uh part of um the students who are um English native speakers so then they will be uh the mangor language Learners can I ask or normal would you be able to speak that as well sure so dual language immersion program is a program that is structured with a balance of students who speak the target language so you have a balance of sometimes 30% um English-speaking 30% bilingual 30% whatever the target language is with the goal of um adding an additional language to the first language the students bring or if the student is bilingual uh building proficiency Additionally the goals of a dual language emersion program are to establish students who are bilingual biliterate and bicultural English language development is a California well it's a nationwide requirement for English

120Learners and requires two types of English language development integrated ELD is provided to students throughout the day so that they are able to access um instruction um in a language that is their second language that they are learning so it gives them that entry point to be able to participate fully with instruction designated El is an a second requirement so students have to receive both designated ELD is a designated time during the day where students are specifically taught um uh to develop English which if I was a native Spanish speaker my designated ELD time helps me to be able to fully participate with the goal of eventually reclassifying thank you and for tnsa could could you speak to um at the start of the at the at the start of the the the potential opening

121of of the academy how many grade levels would would dual immersion Mandarin be made available to students so we plan to open 2 TK 2K 2 first and then second to fifth grade will be just one class per each grade so if I hear you correctly you're saying TK through 1 well there would be multiple classes yes and then uh but second through fifth dual immersion would be made available uh but you're expecting that it would only be one class per grade grade level correct the first year yes can from our District staff can we speak to uh with our experience with dual immersion uh can can could it be spoken up up to what grade level do we currently have dly imersion present it's Spanish of course our current program is at uh seventh

122grade at the middle school and how many years have we have we had this program in place so we launch launched approximately 8 years ago um and we started with a prechool TK and two kindergarten classrooms at one site um so two strands at one site and two kindergarten strands at another site can I ask why we did not launch a dual immersion program uh that that expand the elementary grade levels so best practice um with instruction being tied to state standards and stu um instruction being pitched at the appropriate rigor for students to be able to participate um and be able to engage so our program is a 9010 model so we would expect that students are able to fully participate um in the program as they proceed throughout the grades so they are

123developing um Proficiency in that target language in our case Stanish beginning in preschool and each year that adds so again they are able to fully participate with the appropriate um rigor of the grade level and um the standards and really engaging in again those core pillars of being biliterate bicultural um and bilingual and then for for I say is it would you say that it is your all's understanding um that uh best practices would would call for for some of the um kind of additive growth and and the inclusion of of native and non-native speakers and how if and if and if so so that's part one to the question and then if so how how would the Academy address this particularly for the the higher grade levels yes I agree um uh What uh

124Miss um I'm sorry the uh commo um just explained it's absolutely correct of theoretically um that is a best model best practice that I've been practiced throughout my teaching career as well um however the reason uh that we propos uh for additional second to fifth grade was based on the parents demand um throughout this the popup summer program and also based on the uh parents who sign up the intent to enroll form we do see there are the parents who interest in this program that their children are already enroll in the manor program uh throughout the U different uh diversity of the groups um so they are interested in this program I I totally um as far as my teaching practice I seen I that's the best practice that she just described um it's just

125the the student population who interested in the tnsa program I already have somewhat of a um background um language um learning mjor language learning um levels um so that's the reason we feel like we can add just one class that's the reason we only add one class per grade level from second to fifth we don't do um two classes and then the also I want to add that the model for the mention dual language Information Program is different than the Spanish language program that currently um that was modeled in ausa UniFi our model is a 50/50 model um so I know that uh Thomas Kier they do have a lot of research done says 910 model is the best practice um however those study was only based on a Spanish dual langage Information Program those

126program um this those study was not done in the uh M dual langage program um you UTA is the most successful state of um launching the Dual language education um believe they have um 50% of their schools are all offer variety of a dual language Information Program and Utah has found the most effective program are 5050 and then in order for the uh School in the Utah State to receive the funding directly from the state they have to implement 5050 program in addition the top nuring Academy the our Menin curriculums is the uh Menin Matrix um which is developed by the state of the Utah and so we are adopting the Utah model thank you thank you board member benus yeah I have a question for TSA so I noticed in the petition um regarding

127the Outreach efforts what would you do to implement your Outreach efforts to parents because as you know the district tried this in the past and they weren't successful at it or they were successful but to a point because they didn't move forward with the uh English manderin dual immersion program so could you tell the board what would make it different for you you for TSA for tnsa um so um when we um after the summer uh popup summer camp that we did over the summer um there was uh you know parents come to me and tell me that uh whether we're going to have similar program available anywhere and that's the reason I started to asking them that if I um start up uh petition for the child school would they be interested um so

12885% of the parents who took the survey expressed that they will be interested in the similar program that we uh implemented over the summer so that's the reason um I um you know take everybody's um you know um in start to make a survey um to the intent to enroll form and I distribute it to people and turns out to be like I have a 996 uh parents who sign of an intented enrollment form in the city of Azusa I I understand and thank you for that but in the future because it sounds to me like there's two things happening here there's the petition for the charter school and the need for a English Mandarin dual emersion program for the students but in the future how would you continue your Outreach efforts to reach those

129parents that the district in past years worked hard at implementing and they got very little turnout from what I understand um so that's kind of interesting I don't know um what type of a um information session that um the district has held um so um what I have been doing is I've been constantly giving up information session every weekly and sometime I do it like two times per week um to um explain to parents what type of a um curriculum we are teaching what kind of model we are using um and then um and also uh what type of a a Project based learning that we've been doing successfully over the summer um so that I've been like celing have um having the uh the meeting the information session um and also that I um

130visit um the um the um Parks uh throughout the city and then talk to parents and find out what's their concern about their students about their children and I also ask them oh where do you guys go to school will you be interested in coming back to public education um public schools if that we offer a good uh you know RoR uh mjor door language imion program with a steem focus and then they all say yes yeah so I believe in the response the city the district's response weal I I believe I saw that TSA focused their efforts primarily on an Northend what did you did TSA do anything to address the community on the s then and if you did what did you do um so same thing I try to visit the parks

131um you know in in the um Sol Park and then I do find that um some parents are interested um so I want to add my personal story uh my children um I also um my children also uh uh grow up with a Spanish dual langage generation program so they are trilinguals um so they helped me to do a lot of Spanish trans ation um so um that I I have to admit that I do um go to the some of the parks um in the southside of the city uh not very successful um was also because there are times when I try to talk to parents and then uh because I need a translation with a Spanish um they got uh some people heard that I have a conversation with par they come and

132to interject my conversation so I wasn't able to really continue to promote my program in the southern part of the city and I do find more success successful um you know um uh rate over in a know part of City yeah remember B thank you board president um I have a couple of questions for Mr Ortega and staff um this is largely around our current world language and dual immersion offerings um at um which World languages do we currently offer at Gladstone Middle School we currently offer Spanish at the middle school level and does that begin at sixth grade uh we begin at uh 7th are do do we have any current plans to expand World Language at the Middle School level in terms of adding another language we would definitely look at the interest

133of the students in what they um what additional foreign languages they would be interested in in US adding is that um already something that's part of a survey or part of our current District surveys that we've surveyed the students themselves so we um host listening sessions um towards the end of the year with students to to collect feedback from them in terms of um interest of of adding additional um programs um also through our triaa which is our academic articulation advisory with teachers counselors administrators um we collect feedback on um addition um adding courses and that type of thing thank you and um we know we have the international baloria program at isua High School um my understanding is that the IB Program requires two World languages to be part of that course of study

134um can you confirm which World languages we offer as part of the IB program at isui yes Spanish and French Spanish and French um our community schools effort has been um kicked off very successfully I've seen it at my children's own school at Hajj I've seen it at other district schools I've seen the community school liaison out in the community at non-district events um it's been a point of Pride for our school and I know that we are continuing I think we have just one more Community Lon position to fill and I think we're all excited about that um given Theus the uh increased Asian population within the city and District of isua um can you share with us um if we have any current um community aison that are Mandarin speakers So currently of

135our community Liaisons they are bilingual English Spanish um one of our program Specialists speaks some Mandarin and um as we as a a destination Community where we have newcomers from all types of ethnic and linguistic backgrounds um how do we serve those families who are Mandarin speakers and Mandarin monolingual when they show up to enroll out of school uh we have um different efforts um in terms of what types of translation and interpretation um that we provide um when we have um loow incidence languages um we will utilize technology to to help to support that um and when um the need arises we may have requests from teachers um for count um for uh different types of conferences ssts IEPs um parent coffees um for additional languages um we've translated for ASL um Arabic cantones

136so we contract with um translation services um to offer that when a significant need arises or for those specific types of um instances where um a family requires that access um to be able to bridge language thank you mrga I'm gonna ask you just a couple of questions um preface this with my own two daughters are part of the dual immersion Spanish program at Hodge um my big girl started in Kinder in first grade and she's currently in second um and my little girl started in TK at Longfellow and I can tell you that they are both thriving really well and in fact uh my big girl comes home and she speaks to me in Spanish um so I am a defin a supporter of language for all um and regardless of ethnic background or

137what your family looks like or what your family speaks at home and I say that as a testament to language learning for everyone um so that's my endorsement of dual immersion in isus unified Mr Orga how would you as superintendent rate the quality of our dual immersion parentheses Spanish program here in isus unified we have been um extremely fortunate uh here in isua to launch uh a dual language emersion program uh like Miss kamacho said uh we were very careful and intentional on how we launched uh including our youngest Learners in preschool and knowing uh through experience that any dual language immersion program um throughout the course and the run of the program uh you see a drop in students because a they trans they there's attrition natural attrition uh or B students get a

138voice and so sometimes in fifth grade um they're like yeah we're done with Spanish or we're done with this we have other interests and so they're going to drop out the program um and so knowing that uh we were um extremely uh intentional on building four launch classrooms knowing that through attrition and through voice uh that would still give us a very strong middle school program uh we are extremely PR uh that we have uh been asked uh to um share about our program uh locally uh at the county level and at the state level um and so when we our students and uh what they are able to do and what they are able to accomplish um I would rate uh our program um something of a model uh for others to see we

139actually get quite a bit of request from other districts as well uh to come and learn and to see what we what we've done and how we launch and how we've implemented thank you and Madam president if I could ask just one more question of course thank you and uh Mr Orga given that high rating of endorsement of how well we do dual immersion programs in the district as part of a district program um don't you think that given the interest expressed for it by many voices in this room that uh if the district would offer its own dual immersion mandin program that that would be of benefit for the district as well as all of the district students we would not only be eager but proud to uh add another layer of uh dual

140language again we think we have we don't we don't think we we know we have the expertise um and so yeah that would be again we would be eager and proud to be able to uh to serve our community in that manner thank you Mr T thank you board president thank you board member Aris excuse me um I would like to start off by actually thanking um everyone that's here today from all of our teachers our students our parents and also the people that are here to also advocate for who uh what you're standing for and that is your Charter dual immersion Mandarin dual immersion coming up to the microphone and advocating for something that you stand strongly for is not easy I'm very passionate very passionate about Ju Just dual immersion it's and what

141it stands for I am a proud parent of two children in dual immersion one has received the state literacy seal in her diploma I am that parent here at a soua unified that started with dual immersion when it began I have seen the struggle of a beginning dual immersion I have seen the fight the tears of many years of trying to get parents children to stay as they progress in grades I have seen the successes with my own children such as um you know thank you for for sharing that uh board member Bo that your children come to our district and that they're in the Dual emersion Spanish program that that's amazing and that they're at Hajj taking advantage of the parents that have fought with tears in blood standing at the podium begging for

142this program to continue and to be strong now it's been 13 14 years that I have been part of duel immersion Spanish I do also have a testament of what a soua unified has done I endorse as well I I I I share the same sentiment board member my colleague with my colleague here the the endorsement of dual immersion absolutely when the district offered dual imersion Mandarin when they or in the beginning stages I attended the meetings because I actually wanted my this is before my son started dual immersion Spanish my son wanted to learn du wanted to learn Mandarin and I was that parent that was advocating for the dual immersion Mandarin I was that parent outside of the schools in the Parks through cheerleading through the nonprofits trying to recruit our community in

143rosale for our program here at auua unified to be successful for dual immersion Mandarin and I share the same sentiment as both parties are here sharing their belief and their passion for what we it's a common goal and that is our students the success of our students that's a common goal that we all have and I know that here my colleagues also have that same sentiment such as you guys that have spoken you guys that are here sitting standing outside have you know on this standing on the side we all share that same sentiment and that's why we're here or else this room would be empty as a myself as a proud auua Unified School District student I was an English language learner I know the struggle as well as a student I also worked

144in the classroom as an English language advoc uh educator so looking at this as now a board member being able to not only be a student a parent an educator inside the classroom now a board member I truly see the importance of dual immersion absolutely and I really really hope that we as a board understand how long it takes for a program to be successful and that it's not easy again as Su unified has put it out in the community and we only had so many people not enough to be enrolled in the program I have a question question for our district if this passes tonight do you have a rough estimate of how much let's just say given a number right of how how much in Ada funding they were to take maybe they're

145saying there's about 96 that that that's what I I have here 96 right let's just say 100 100 students from our district how much is that in Ada we did the calculation over a three-year span and we're looking at approximately over $2.3 million so what you're telling me it's $2.3 million that we will be losing in our district for a program that is just starting and um now I W would like to ask uh the top notch um I have a question for you under what Foundation or what other you you said um Miss Miss Christina um Sue thank you um what other Charters have you led that have been successful um I I've looked at your your profile and um you're here and you you want to lead this um what are programs have

146been successful under your care under your watch um so as you mentioned earlier that's very difficult to start uh to a new program I absolutely agree in fact that I was um the Lead Teacher to uh start the uh wage worth program in hend laon and also the panta program in pona unified um so while I was in uh both program I was the lead teachers and also um I was the curriculum developers and I know um that it takes a lot of time and effort to build a program and both School turn out to be a very high performing schools um and also that I'm not just saying the Asian students they um I also um have very successful High successful rate for teaching Spanish speaking students um the parents are so happy to

147come to me said they um took their kids to uh community events and then their children are able to communicate um in using mention language with the uh like Market they go to or the store they go to um and and so they they came to thank me uh personally and so I know that how to build a program successfully um and like as you mentioned um and also Dr Bo um has uh applaud uh the successful of the ausa Spanish dual language program me as a proud parents as well like I mentioned earlier my children are trilingual and my daughter she not only graduate um from a college with a chemistry degree but also she graduate with Spanish minor so that shows that the effort that I put her through the Spanish dual language

148program throughout the elementary grade level of a a very worth in investment for my children's future so vice versa that the parents who are already speak Spanish at home if they put their kids in the uh Manion dual ination program are also a very um good investment for their future careers um and also that um by knowing that the district um we been uh the um board member uh of benav keep asking me how to recruit students um so so I think the key is really um we need to have like parents would trust who is running the program who has been successfully knowing how to begin a program and also to grow teachers and I um learned that that was very difficult to recruit teachers um in the uh the the situation of uh

149in the United States of the teacher with the m uh credential with a M uh B clad um and also multiple subject credential we do have a lot of teacher who are single subject credential in Chinese but not multiple subject um with a b class so those are very difficult to recruit um so so then by knowing that I personally invest a lot of time and also go uh talking through many of the uh credential uh program in the University level uh learn that that we we can also um have the uh a teacher uh that recruit internationally um so there is a very successful Menor dual language Charter School in Oakland called you mean charter school so they are like uh the the top 1% uh score in the state um and um they

150do have a lot of teacher art they hired through their international program and and those are are doable and then I do uh work with a lot of University in Taiwan uh and then over the summer I was able to um have them come um to um teach at my summer camp that I started and then I have the opportunity to uh uh provide um the professional development uh and the strategy that been implemented successfully in the American educational model and then they were so quickly able to adapt and change um their teaching strategy that being growing in Taiwan and to teach in the United States successfully yeah so by saying that that topn them account is ready um to launch the school uh because we have uh the teacher resource and by also we

151have run the program in um the United States and with experience and then we also have uh the community parents who trust us um and then willing um to work uh to send their kids to the topn steam Academy thank you thank you I'm done okay thank you yes um I have um a questions for you for the tnsa so first of all why a charter school why not as is UniFi why why can we have um the do imersion mandarin where our students can be trilingual I'm just understanding why our Charter and not you know work together with our district I mean our teachers are top-notch too we have great programs I know you heard about the great programs that we have right we have stem I mean we talked about many great programs

152I just don't thank you I I I just don't see that um it is beneficial I agree with you but I still think that the children why don't they come to our school district why don't they come to Ze Unified School District um I feel like uh parents should answer this question not me okay no no it's no I'm sorry I'm not expecting to answer it's just like I'm I'm I'm wondering like why don't they come to our school we have great teachers we have great programs you know we have great schools you know why do we have to open a a charter school what is the necessity other than I understand your concerns about the do mergin the do um Mandarin we could do the same thing because we have a successful dild Spanish

153English right so um also so um I I was kind of not too happy only when I did read the memo when you did talk about that you wanted to be in the northern part of the city I I read that somewhere and I I live in the souths side of town in in the south of the 210 Freeway over 45 years and I personally have not heard or seen that anyone from your program has approached any parents or anyone regarding this top notch Academy so you know I am concerned with the past six years years or five years we have closed six schools due to declining enrollment we also have um still people still on unemployment you know our teachers have lost jobs our classified employees have lost jobs is is I mean you

154don't think about that you think that would it you don't think if it's going to harm us at a z white school district or you I I I'm not understanding why we have to have a top notcho and we can just um have it in our district and we did try but we can try again that's okay we can we can go out again and try it again and have it in our district well what I can say um is that um currently um the students who signed the intent to INR form with topn steam Academy only probably five to six students are currently the students who are enrolled in ausa uni School District so and you know and and that and sorry excuse me I'm not done thank you and that's another question I

155have you know I I did see the list and the students are from Temple City they're from Diamond Bar correct they're from rosem me mon park and why are us as taxpayers need to pay for children that are out of our district it's just a question I you don't need to answer I understand but I'm just kind of puzzled all this I don't so I do want to if I may yes of course so the funding for a student who's attending the charter school who is not from Aza Pacific that fun city of Aza sorry um that funding does not come from the pot of money from isusa UniFi so the funding for Ada is per student from that student so that student creates that rate from the state it's not uh there's 100 students

156if 50 are not from isusa that doesn't mean you're taking 188 from ausa so I just want to make sure that's clear well well I I you know because they mentioned that the community of isua we're talking about isua today right want needed or want a a um an academy or or wanted um do Merion Mandarin we could open in our district just to same just the same way and and have get the Ada at isza and also I me we we do have permits someone from D come to permit we'll welcome them too we'll get ada8 with that too I just you know don't understand the loss of funding that we've had in the last five years and I I I just can't see just doing that again and just losing and again uh

157staff members losing jobs like I mentioned you know our kids have been switched from one school to another school and you should visit our schools come to our schools see our programs you know and and see we have great changes we had real big re organization it's turned out really well so just saying so I would like to thank the AA unified and topnotch Academy for your presentation also everyone for coming out tonight and sharing your public comments with the board of education do any of my colleagues have any further questions Bo R certainly some comments there there could be a question in here somewhere but I'm I'm struggling to see what topnotch would be able to provide that the isus Unified School District could not I'm I'm I'm struggling to see what what topnotch

158could could provide that would somehow be superior to to what um Aus unified offers and has the capacity to offer um I have tracked all along uh just the the success and and the slow progress of our of our dual immersion Spanish uh language program and just recognizing that it's it would it would maybe be possible to in order to have something that's that that's that's Grand or is is is is able to be marketed to all grade levels to kind of start something and launch and invite everyone to be there but but there was a a long slow commitment to doing things and and taking time recognizing best practices and and implementing those those best best best practices and so one of my one one a concern that I that I see when thinking

159about students who are Learners here within the isus Unified School District is um my just just the the lack of confidence that I would have in uh the the the program model that's being proposed um and and um the the value of having native and non-native speakers present at at each grade level I I struggled to see how that would even happen how how there would be non-native Mandarin speakers especially at the upper Upper Grade levels I I just I struggle to see that um I also want to say we we have sat up here the this the specific have looked slightly different over the course of the the past handful of of years but we've been tasked with making some extremely difficult decisions and and the decisions that we have been making have been

160painful at times but but we've continued to ask what can we do to to provide the the the best and the most robust program offer offerings and opportunities for the students here within the isus isusa Unified School District and and as that has amounted to consolidations of of of school campuses I I've shared up here for every school that i' I I grew up here every school that I've attended does not look like it did when when when I was attending here and and those are or difficult decisions that were needing to be made but what it's done for us some of those incredible sacrifices we've heard some of our Aus uh high school students talk about the the the cost for them as as being part of Gladstone High School but what that's done

161for us is it has really put us in a position as a as a district where we can really look to to reimagine and reeval evaluate and ask ourselves what is the menu of program offerings that makes the most sense and and facilities and and and just who are we as a district as we look into the future far into the future and and what I'm hearing uh from this is that there tends to be a a ground swell of of some support for Mandarin um and when I when I think about that and I think about the pro proven track record of the isus Unified School District to offer dual immersion programs um I'm I'm you know one want to give a strong directive uh to to with the support of my of my

162colleagues to to our staff to really investigate and look into um dersion Mandarin um and offering that for for our community um and and I and I would also want to invite uh the the the the those who are here tonight and and requesting that the the approval of of this the of this Charter School to to Really join in um the the efforts um and all the good things that are happening within the the schools within the isus Unified School District and and I mean yeah I'm I'm just I'm struggling to see why why we would when we're closing schools and needing to to reorganize why why there would be a new school that that that's open and and if and if that new school um yeah I'm I'm I'm just I'm just really

163really struggling and and uh to to to see a pathway where where it would it would make sense to move forward with um with this petition yeah so I I really want to add that um the district did try right to open up a m dual language Merion program um I guess that also sets a lot of a limitation of a teacher the resource teacher that you can find that can teach in this dual language program and the experience the directors who can help to establish the program so I think the key is really the flexibility of of not I'm when I say flexibility doesn't means they don't meet the requirements of the credentialing requirement to to teach in a public school education right so so it's really um the the resource of the teachers

164that I'm willing to work with um the to hire the international teachers um to be the model of a 5050 that requires um two teachers co- te two classes so one teacher will be the Ming teacher the other teacher will be the English teacher or or I can say target language teacher um so so then the Nate the both teacher are the native speakers of their language right those are the very key of to make the 50/50 program successful so so that's the reason I say we need to um as as a charter school we tend to have that flexibility um that we able to invest and to hire the teachers who qualify to as a credentialing program the credentialing requirement by the CTC um and then we can uh work with the international teachers

165uh to um teach in our program so that's the key here thank you any further questions board member benos I'm sorry can can I just please ask board president I I really would like a five minute break I I'm so sorry if possible I think we need to continue I'm sorry okay then I'm going to excuse myself the consens and I will be back thank you I didn't want to miss it but you keep going we're good okay Ben yeah um I'm going to share some thoughts that I put on paper so first off I would like to to take this opportunity to thank the topnotch steam Academy team and Miss Christina Shu for submitting the Char School petition I can see a lot of time and work went into putting the information together at

166the same time I would also like to thank thank our staff and superintendent Ortega for their hard work time and comprehensive review and Analysis of the petition details as part of my review process and in examining all the material presented to the Board of Education my goal was to keep an open mind regarding the petitioner's request and similarly I had to recall the importance and priorities of our student Community their goals our goals as a district and how to evaluate the impacts of a charter school at this point in time Upon Our student community and the district's budget although I kept an open mind concerns became evident I will share a few concerns regarding the petition itself that are questionable for example the petition lacks d details as we heard here tonight um the petition

167lacks details in many of the required elements presented in the petition such as programming implementation student enrollment teacher credentialing average daily attendance rate and the lack of advertising and Outreach to Hispanic students given the fact that our district is 91.6% Hispanic and the methods for determin determining eligibility for special ed students and L long-term financing for the success of the charter school to name a few I also have concerns regarding the student recruitment strategy and process as it runs entirely counterproductive to serving a balance of student subgroups reflective of the district's population the district also the petition also presents a flawed instructional design and reveals insufficient planning and preparation to support the staffing needs of the school when fully implemented further it is clear that the petition lacks insufficient information regarding how how the petitioner

168will integrate the various components into the design in the short future and meaningfully address the educational and other needs of students enrolled in the charter school for example how will they appropri appropriately staff school with qualified experienced teachers and provide and provide professional development although we've heard some proposals tonight um I also I I continue to have a concern because I I feel the district also shares that same concern how would we reach that pool of credential um Mandarin English teachers more important I became overly anxious to see the lack of information as to how the charter school anticipated revenues and budget costs to ensure the fiscal stability and solvency of the school in the short and long-term Future these are only some of the many concerns and or omissions that undermine the soundness of

169the petition and providing an exceptional educational program and fiscally sound of Charter School within our district as you can see the petition lacks viable information I believe we are a district with Forward Thinking With A Forward Thinking Vision that has a dee rooted commitment to provide outstanding deliverables on a day-to-day basis as we help our students achieve their highest potential for success now and in the future I would encourage those who have not read The District's response to the petitioner to read it at your leisure the district's response is an has been posted on the District web page since December 4th I also think it would be shortsighted of the district not to Recon the district not to consider entertaining the following um the district should consider re-evaluating the district's capacity to once again reintroduce

170a Mandarin English dual language immersion model into our district one I would also encourage to the district to survey students teachers and parents regarding the need for a Mandarin English dual language emerging model I would also like to encourage the district that during coffee with the principal um superintendent Round Table Community circles and things of that nature that our staff as parents what they know and what they think about the Mandarin English tool immersion model this way the district can get an idea if if they know about it or what they know or the lack of knowledge uh I would also encourage the district to develop better Outreach efforts to reach parents and the community as a whole regarding this full starter Pro proposed startup programs such as this program being discussed here tonight I

171would also encourage the district to talk about this at the City Council meetings when this superintendent provides his updat so the community as a whole is hearing um the needs or maybe proposals that the school is working on and I know that Mr Orga does that now but it seems like there's this is something that's been on the table for a long time I would also encourage the district to continue to work with the city to get the word out all that being said it is critical to consider the timing of the petition we just finished closing six schools and continue to work through the merging of the schools which remain open and the fact that the Board of Education most recently began working on the Surplus properties and is in the process of evaluating

172the disposition of those properties it is not a decision we collectively make overnight I believe there is a time and a place for every decision be it in our schools in our homes or in our personal life I believe we can not work in haste to make decisions that appear and sound fruitful yet lack critical data to prevent calls in the future I leave you with this quote by Charles Spurgeon The Waiting itself is beneficial to us it tries Faith exercises patient trains submission and endear a blessing when it comes thank you yes Dr B thank you board president um I will try to be brief in in my comments um I hope that an outcome of this evening is that we can take as a school district and as a city and as a

173larger community that we can take a Quantum Leap into a more robust concept of unity and Community um it is to me disheartening uh when we talk about a north south divide um it's something that I have felt in my own residency being relatively new to isua and I think that whenever you chose to be part of the zuza community whether that's six Generations ago whether that's you are um from indigenous people that have been on the land since the beginning of the continent or whether you are a newcomer that moved here because of jobs opportunity um I think it's really important to continue the dialogue and say that we are all aans just because we are here together and we have all made that choice to be here so I hope that as part

174of this dialogue that we can again take that Quantum Leap into actively promoting unity and recognizing that we're all here for a variety of reasons for a variety of time and that that as human beings we have we're all in the same Level Playing Field and deserve all the same equal opportunities for our children for our parents for our community um before my children were school age I did attend as a resident as a protective I attended the uh dual immersion Outreach interest meetings that adverti both English and Mandarin programs and this is my my personal anecdote um it was hard and and I am not uh a mandarin speaker I know enough to just enough to be dangerous I know slightly more in Spanish um my my U native tongue is English and when

175I attended those meetings um they were um held in English and Spanish and all of the materials were both in English and Spanish and so I as I think we are hearing more interest in Outreach to uh the Mandarin speaking Community um I want to Advocate that materials are and translators and interpreters are readily available so that that if and when we have a ground swell or even two three five families that are monolingual Mandarin speakers that come to the district for any type of question or information seeking that we're able to receive them in a way that's dignified and that we provide to all families um I'm just saying I'm not saying we don't do it but I encourage us to do more and and with that um in some of in some of

176my work in education um I am encouraging you Mr Orga and and your staff of um excellent Educators to look at the promoto model of trusted advisors as a way to increase our Collective cultural competence in engaging with Asian Community here in isua I think who is doing the talking and the asking and that relationship matters and uh it all begins with conversation and conversations begin with language um and an understanding of one's um cultural and ethnic Heritage so I encourage us to look at that as we expand our footprint in communities um and also communities and and also as we advertise and make current families aware of new programs um as we have adopted uh new programs we're capitalizing on new grants preschool Community Schools it is our responsibility to get that information out

177there it is not the responsibility of the public to dial into a meeting so that they can find out it's our responsibility as public servants to push it out to families and residents in every way possible and in that respect I don't think there's any possible way that we could overc communicate that and those are my my comments board president any further discussion I I yes I just you know I I wanted to also thank csca for for being here um they're strong supporters as well of all our children and I want to thank you uh for being here and being passionate uh and standing for what you guys also believe and so thank you for that that is all thank you oh I'm so sorry I no I'm I'm good okay hearing none I

178would like our legal council to explain to the board the options for voting on this petition so that both the board and the public are clear on any action taken by the board Miss Locker can you please come to the podium oh yeah thank you thank you board president yes so so tonight you have an option to approve the petition and under the Education Code you do not need to make written factual findings if the board collectively you know votes to approve the petition document um so you could approve the requested five-year term that was set out in that document or an alternative year or alternative term not to exceed five years your other option would be to deny the petition and so before you and as posted on the agenda there is a draft

179resolution 23249 and that includes uh an attached exhibit that is reflecting the staff report of the proposed findings effect so by virtue of adopting that resolution to deny you would be effectively denying the petition but you would be also incorporating or adopting the the findings of fact that are listed in that document as your own does that make sense so the board in order to let me just clarify in order to deny a petition you must make written factual findings one or more legal grounds for denial the staff report that was posted on December 4th and a copy of which is included as an exhibit IIT to that resolution includes those listed findings effect as proposed by staff so if the board were to vote to adopt that resolution 23249 including those findings of fact

180you would be effectively adopting um the resolution to deny with those findings of Acts supporting that decision to deny the board may choose to include additional findings or alternative findings however those would need to either be read into the record or written down those are not within the resolution itself so I will share one other less used option which is called a conditional approval or an approval with conditions that is not something that is set out in the Education Code but other agencies have used it before but what I would share is that that's typically where the petition is largely comprehensive and meets legal requirements but there's just some technical amendments that need to be addressed which could happen via a memorandum of understanding or things of that nature so that is a possibility however

181when there is a petition that has substantial deficiencies or omissions or problems that would not be an advisable route to take I just wanted to share that with you because that has been done in the past however again it's typically for more non-substantive issues that are identified in the petition that could be easily corrected um after the fact so those would be the three options available to the board any board members have any questions M Locker just for for clarity sure um you started off by saying uh one option is to approve correct the charter so in essence that means if somebody if that's if that's the will of of a board member or board member the first step is to then vote no on the resolution there would need to be a motion so

182a board member can make a motion and there could be a second on that motion if that motion is to vote to approve the petition and there's a second and a vote is called and that that carries then that would be to approve the petition got it if there is a motion to adopt resolution 23249 a vote of yes would mean that you are taking action to deny the petition a vote of no just means you're not voting to deny the petition that does not mean that you're approving it that's not the default what would happen there is that if that didn't carry the board would still need to take action in some manner in other words you have to affirmatively approve the petition or affirmatively deny the petition and again that resolution as proposed

183by staff is presented to you for your use if you so choose to use it any further questions so I have a a motion on the floor well yeah I I I move that we adopt resolution 23249 uh to deny the petition I second the motion motion by board member buau second by board member benas having a motion and a second will now we will not vote due to the nature of the importance of this tonight's topic I would like to take roll call as a vote board member Bo yes board member adanes yes board member G yes board member benas yes and I'm a yes motion passes 5 the public the public hearing on the topnotch academy charter petition is now close at 9:59 do I have a motion on the floor uh for

184adjournment second first by board member Adis second by board member Greer see none I mean both hand yes yes yes yes hand thank you Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year we are now adjourned just