001the live stream is on good evening and welcome to the Tuesday September 12 2023 meeting of the azuz Unified School District Board of Education thank you so much Isuzu Community for indulging us in a few extra minutes for closed session we appreciate your patience and always welcome you here in person or online we will now kick off Open session with our Pledge of Allegiance and here tonight to lead our pledge we have Jaden Ramirez fifth grade student from Valleydale thank you good afternoon good afternoon good afternoon everybody sorry how are you guys great if I may ask please stand okay right hand over your heart ready begin I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty
002and justice for all thank you very much let's give our Jane Ramirez a big round of applause thank you so much that was that was tremendous uh now moving to item 5.1 report of action taken in closed session the board took no action in closed session now moving on to 6.1 Mr Fernandez good evening Dr Beau Board of Education members cabinet and attendees it is a outstanding privilege to stand before you tonight to recognize these three graduates from Azusa unified last year who are published some of the finest examples of student empowerment advocacy empathy compassion that you would find in the state of California having the privilege to work alongside these young people during the pandemic and seeing what they were able to do online and then after online and get to college and have
003the foresight to say this is something that matters that we need to leave uh something that lasts for the kids of Azusa and these are high school kids I think the Western Justice Center who's been working with us like they the inaugural Peacemaker Awards went to these three brilliant students from Azusa unified and for the community out there there's something wonderful happening for our kids in this District I'm so happy to be able to see this for the last four years so without further Ado I want to turn it over to Dr Beau and our great students Andrea Althea and Natalie who've done outstanding work thank you so much Mr Fernandez and to our alumni Althea Andrea and Natalie we congratulate you for all of your hard work not only as our students but now
004as part of our alumni Azusa Nation making a difference every day out there in the world um each of our students is online virtually with us are they online with us Mr Ortega we do have alkia online with us thank you so much um I'll see it would you like to say a few words about your experience so that we may recognize you tonight oh okay okay I'll go first um hi everyone uh before I begin like I just first want to thank the board and the cabinet for recognizing us tonight I can't speak for Andrea and Natalie's not here but personally there are really no words to really like encapsulate the innate catharsis of being called back home um in almost a month of being here at Cal you know I frequently found myself
005thinking about the temporality of my teenage years and just the fact that there has not been a single day where I'm here at Berkeley that I don't think of home there's not a single day here where I don't think of Azusa and so I just want to think like every single teacher every single administrator who has departed and gifted me um their stories their memories being here is like an adjustment physically because like of course we're all freshmen but I just want you all to know um that I carry your stories I carry your memories with me as sigils of strength and they've really really helped me adjust um and you know while my time at Azusa didn't really prepare me for my philosophy discussions on epistemological dialects on theories of Education um it did
006teach me to hold my head up in Pride knowing that I have a community whose shoulders I stand on with nothing things but loved and gratitude um so yeah all in all Azusa gave me more than I gave it and there's just no amount of articulating that I can do to express just how immensely proud I am um to come from Azusa unified um more importantly more significantly just how proud I am to see student advocacy Advance um and the institutionalization of growth and empowerment and what that means for generations of students long after like you know we've become alumni um so this is a new age for Azusa unified as we all know and while it is daunting it is exciting all the same and please I'm like this is just like me inviting
007myself into three things but if y'all need me for anything and I do mean like anything no matter how small like microscopic really um Camacho Mr Ortega um I'll happily jump on that Azusa unified Alumni network I'm only a phone call or email away so yeah thank you guys so much foreign and now it's time I'll allow time for our my board member colleagues to offer comment we'll go down the road starting with board member Greer I I don't even know what more I could say um other than I mean look um this is I mean we we celebrate you we're grateful we're we're we're I mean this is this is incredible but but um Althea just just kind of seeing you hearing you you are are a testament um just uh to what what
008goes on around here and so uh just just thank you for for being that Testament Althea this is Gabriella hi I'm so excited for you in every turn in every Adventure that you take that you just go on full force and that you literally carry a Souza unified on your sleeve your heart your soul and I just want to remind you of that conversation we had after basketball practice that freshman year and when you shared that you wanted to literally pour yourself and give yourself to this District I see it feel it and you are a prime example of what we hope that we can give to other students here in our district the empowerment to fulfill your dreams and to do and to become leaders because that's what a Souza would like to do
009and I know that all the staff teachers Administration and the board would like that for every student so you thank you so much for carrying the torch and continuing to carry the torch and hey we might just give you a call to come back and uh Empower more students good luck and I'm so proud of you okay um Athea I just want to congratulate you and the other young ladies I've always seen you at Glaston High School always working with students helping students out and now if you anyone notices she's a politician she works with the Senator's office and You Can Tell She's that girl she's going to make it a long way she's also like to help others and we really appreciate her which she didn't graduate last year but hopefully she can come
010back and work some with some of our students and Mentor them because she's a great mentor thank you hi Althea this is uh board member Benavides and I would like to say congratulations to you and all the girls and it makes me proud to say that you are a product of Azusa Unified School District and it's beautiful to see the passion in your voice and how much love you have for the community thank you for being a dedicated student and Community member to Azusa Unified School District Mr Fernandez do we have another we have one in person and I forgot Miss Andrea Mendez is with us live welcome Andrea thank you you um I also wanted to say thank I also wanted to say thank you so much for the recognition because I think that
011the past four years have truly been eye-opening and I've I really um tried my hardest to be here for not only my school but try to be present for the district as well every one of you guys has been able to open that door for me has been able to really show me that Youth Empowerment is something that is that something capable of occurring here in ausd taking from Miss Norma Camacho who has helped us through the Dei from Miss Gabriela Ariana's who has been there throughout that Gladstone Pride helping us Elevate our voices but also seeing each other in a different light seeing that the youth in this district is truly something that can uplift us more than more than we thought we were ever able to um now having a young student board
012member here miss Emily it's also something that I recognize as an alumni I can only say that I'm so so proud to be from ausd that I'm so happy to take everything that I've learned here all the lessons that I've been able to encounter myself within Gladstone or the little interference that I had at Azusa High every every little thing every step of the way is being taken now to my college experience as a freshman starting a new but taking everything that I did here and transporting that taking that with me to take it somewhere else truly continue to make that change and like I said I'm so grateful for you guys so thank you thank you Andrea and go ahead since you're up in a stand I also um want to just congratulate you
013Andrea again after basketball practice or was it before a basketball practice being able to engage with you and being able to see the leader in you um and the fact that you like reached out to Administration into the board and that we were able to go ahead and Empower you that way and when you speak and you say that you carry Azusa unified in your heart really means a lot because you guys are the Trailblazers Trailblazers that I saw you guys meeting after meeting after meeting long hours after long hours of wanting to come and make a difference as student leaders right you guys literally set the trail for the next leaders in our community right coming together and leading by example so congratulate you and I'm so proud of you thank you Andrea foreign
014Mendez and Natalie De La Cruz I will be presenting you each with their certificate I will go ahead and read it for Andre and then Dre if you could join us up here at the dice um for a picture um this is azusa's Unified School District certificate of recognition is proudly presented to Andrea Mendez for receiving the Western Justice Center's inaugural judge Nelson peacemakers award awarded this day of September 2023. thank you so much and please join us for a photo mesito just so you know we're taking a picture with you uh so okay just to preface just to preface um on my Berkeley ID I still have my Azusa lanyard so yeah all right here we go one two three thank you that wasn't a fine example of how we can pivot with technology
015thank you so much alumni for all of your work your accomplishments your passion um I think ladies you win the award for being the most articulate and passionate here tonight we salute you and celebrate you and we look forward to celebrating with you in person in a couple of weeks when you come to Los Angeles for the in-person uh uh recognition Gala so congratulations and have a great night now moving to item 6.2 Mr Ortega thank you Dr bo uh tonight uh we uh are honored and privileged to begin uh our board meetings uh welcoming uh two student board members uh I want to start off with Emily Hernandez who's here uh in person uh she will do half of the board meetings uh in person uh Emily is from Azusa High School um on
016Saturday Emily had the privilege of being at the field of Glory event at uh at the city that's put on by the rotary and Emily was uh honored uh to read the 10 elements of the freedom flag that stands for the remembrance of the events that happen on 9 11. uh so welcome Emily we're very excited of having you here on board are other student board member uh is online uh tonight uh that is uh Mariah Santos Mariah Santos is a student at Sierra High School um Mariah most recently this summer uh spent uh three days uh with board members with staff members with parents um and really lending an awesome voice a student perspective on vision mission values and goals uh she did a a really uh great job of being able to articulate
017a student point of view when we were talking about uh the vision mission values and goals and so I just want to welcome Maria Santos who will be with us online uh uh the first half and then they'll do a Switcheroo Mariah will come in person and Emily will ship to online thank you [Applause] welcome Emily would you like to say a few words um hi everyone I'd just like to say thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to be here and welcome me into your group thank you so much and Murray is online too Mariah would you like to say a few words to introduce yourself um good evening I'm very excited to be part of this and hope to have a good be a very good advocate for my school so
018thank you for allowing me this opportunity welcome to both of you [Applause] now moving to item 7.1 public comment on agenda or non-agenda items we have one blue card and is that um Mickey Carpenter hi Mickey how are you good evening Dr Bo members of the Board of Education District staff and members of the community I'm Mickey Carpenter I'm director of Community Resources for the city of Azusa and I'm here tonight to provide an update on the city of Azusa Youth and Family Center which is a project of Azusa all in for Azusa all in for Azusa is a network of organizations facilitated by the Community Resources Department it was the center itself was created with input from residents including teens and opened in the summer of 2020 so we just celebrated our one year
019anniversary the location is actually at the North Recreation Center at Memorial Park and we took some underutilized rooms and turned them into a team Lounge a workshop room and a private family counseling space but the center is less about the building and more about the Innovative way programs and services are woven together it's an integrative approach for City Recreation we're bringing not only our our usual Sports and recreational activities but we're looking at an integrative approach bringing other programs and services to really be able to serve the whole child the whole family and of course the whole community um in the last year we've served hundreds of families that received services and enjoyed the social health and Workforce Development Services that were provided there this work is possible through the shared vision and generous support
020of local organizations and our funders I should say that the majority of services there are actually provided free of charge and are in-kind donations from our partner agencies we do know that improving the physical health and emotional well-being of Azusa youth gets them ready for Bright Futures serving entire families in this holistic way actually creates an even more resilient and thriving Azusa and at our one year anniversary I just wanted to give some shout outs and some thanks to some organizations that have been supporting us all year long those include the of course our Azusa Youth and Family Center youth Council the Azusa High interactors the Boys and Girls Club of the Foothills YMCA YWCA of San Gabriel Valley Foothill Family Maryvale Department of Mental Health we now have a peer Resource Center also Azusa
021Pacific University Community Counseling Center Apu nursing department American job centers San Gabriel valley economic partnership the K-12 Foothill Consortium Colgate Bright Smiles Bright Futures the Apu gardening club chap care El proyecto Clinic City of Hope LA County Public Health veteran peer Access Network the Azusa Renaissance theater and Chi ni who's a Rubik's Cubes Cube master and of course last but certainly not least this is a unified school district we generously appreciate your generous support all year long and we look forward to our continued partnership throughout the school year thank you Mickey now moving to item 8.1 comments reports and requests by the Board of Education Dr Bill yes I'm sorry could we check if there's anybody online that has a hand raised yes Lika are is anyone uh for public comment that is participating virtually
022we have no hands raised online thank you thank you so much Mr Ortega and now moving to item 8.1 comments reports and requests by the Board of Education we'll start with board vice president Rodriguez Pena uh good evening everyone I just want to um I wanted to thank um Mr Tasha for that beautiful welcoming barbecue that we have but the most important the best part of it all is that I want a gift card and I want to thank Norma Camacho for that she pulled my name so it was very nice because that's when we see everyone come back and you know um enjoying themselves and have a great time and eating ice cream and everything and it's really good when you get together you know with your colleagues and your um well I call
023them my employees right they're all and you know having a lot of fun and Latasha had some very good gift cards I'll tell you so um I also went to Gladstone Middle School back to school night it was a great turnout you know I spoke to parents and um they had very many positive things to say about Glaston Middle School you know to them it was kind of like oh my God look at this big giant Middle School right they just really love the um the quad especially when they walked in you know some of the parents have never been into the quad and and they in the gym like what there's their position in this place oh wow you know but they were very impressed I had I spoke to one mom that you
024know she mentioned to me that um it would it impact your very much with all the changes that we've had and I'll just give you a little bit scenario about she has one child that was supposed to go to Ellington but now goes to Valleydale she has a second child that had to go to Center Middle School but now I was at Gladstone Middle School her third child was supposed to go to Gladstone High School ends up at Azusa High and she said it was in Justin for her but you know she said no it it worked out and after the buses and the you know who to go get first and everything and she said that you know the kids are fine and she's fine and and I was very glad to hear that
025a positive input I went to the Elementary School back to school night and also I went to several elementary schools Full House it's great to see um so many parents coming back you know a lot of the meetings that I go to there's so many parents involved in it it's really great to see that um and the classrooms look beautiful with the beautiful desks and you know the teachers they look so spiffy in there very nice I'm proud to be a board member when I walk in um is this a high school coffee with the principal another great turnout there was almost 50 parents in there I've never seen so many parents at a coffee with the principal and it was great to see parents you know I knew parents from Valleydale and from Paramount
026and then I seen them at Azusa and then I seen I needed a pairing some sauce in and also from Lee but in terms of these parents don't know each other so I I think it was it was really good um to see them but not only that um the program specialist Laura Clark she held a community Circle and the parents worked together and they answered a few questions and it was good because you know these moms like I said I I guess their kids are all in elementary and now they're all in high school you know and it was it was beautiful and and they didn't know each other but they they started talking to each other and I think it's great to have the Family Circle um more often because they really enjoyed
027it also um I also went to the Rotary I'm also a rotarian so we had the rotary uh the field of Glory students from Azusa unified they were fabulous they played a big part in this beautiful um political Glory event Brianna if you know her she sang the national anthem uh Azusa High School Orchestra played beautifully I want to thank Mary Turner this is a high school students Audrey she read she was the sa contest winner and she she read what Freedom meant to me and it was beautiful the art contest winners three Elementary School students from Victor Hodge one purse second and third place two high school students from um the middle school I'll just tell you we included this time we included Saint Francis of Rome so in the Middle School all those
028kids one one two and three and Azusa High School two high school students one came in first and second and also Emily I remember now I remember that you were there that was beautiful you being there we had we had a lot of students from our district and it was proud to see that people were very impressed I mean with the orchestra and with the speeches and everything and I'm glad that they're part of us um I went this morning to Valleydale uh they were recognized for their success no kid hungry program Christian Val was there to present the award I'm not sure if you know who she was I didn't know her by name honestly after Arturo who's that but when I seen her I know exactly who she was and and she was
029a very nice young lady she stood to take pictures with the um students afterwards and I want to congratulate Mr Trejo Stella the director of nutrition services all the cuff chair employees Laura Davis Bertha Carmona Edna Hicks Linda Valdez Evie Jimenez well deserved she asked the students who was a hero and this one little boy said it was um Spider-Man I guess yeah Spider-Man and then another boy said the cafeteria lady she said that's what I want to hear you know so it is really cute I love to see the students interact but I also at this time since I'm doing thank yous I like to thank oh superintendent or Vega Mrs Camacho Mr Jamal Mr Ellen from the director of MOT and Mr Robert Zamora all the certificated and classified employees and the students
030and the parents for all the hard work and dedication I know that it was a big change for all of them to come back to you know a different school just like this one parent told me and and not that we had to make change before like come back whatever normal means right after covet so now they're coming back to a new school and and I I'm hoping everything works out for everyone because I want to wish them uh to have a very good year thank you thank you and we'll continue with board member vanity this and go around this way foreign I also attended the barbecue for the staff and it was a very well attended barbecue it was fun it was nice to see the camaraderie between the staff and um you know
031the cabinet there and it was just a fun event I think it's a way to come back and start the new school year on a positive note um I also attended and and I want to thank the staff for putting that together for for everyone um and I also attended the um Gladstone Middle School back to school and that was my first time and that was really an eye-opener for me it was a great event I took the opportunity to be a parent that night and and really you know kind of do the walk through and experience what the parents experienced on behalf of the students um I learned a lot I went into the classrooms I really appreciate the fact that the teachers go out of their way to you know make a make
032the classrooms welcoming for the students I thought that to me that was so inspirational uh I you know some put like the extra touch they put lights so they took you know the decor is just incredible what I saw um there was motivational messages and you know things on the wall so it's it's just really encouraging to see that they work really hard to to help the students feel welcome especially now with the mergers I think that was you know they they really went the extra mile and it's really appreciated I also had the opportunity to visit Gladstone Middle School I I want to try to visit the schools since this is my first term and I want to get familiar with the with the grounds at each school so I will be making visits
033and just kind of get an idea of what's going on with all the new improvements and maintenance that needs to be you know upgrades that need to happen and it's really nice to see that the staff is working hard to to make those improvements and working within the budget to make sure that we can provide for the students and and the community as a whole so I really enjoyed my visit at Gladstone middle school and I you know I I'm encouraging myself to continue to do that with all the other schools because I look forward to that so I'm trying to squeeze that into my schedule I did also attend the uh Azusa High School coffee with the principal and that was the first time I went and it was really there were over 50
034parents there it was nice it was nice to see that there were also fathers that were participating at the event I I'm not sure what the attendance was like before I would love to see more parents come out granted I know that we probably have you know two parent households that are working and probably you know can't attend but it was just it was nice to see that you know there was a large group there I did participate in the community circles and I did that because I want to feel that I want them to know that I'm here to support the parents I'm here to support the students I want to know what it what they what they go through and how they feel so that was really important to me and I appreciate
035um the time there so I can I hope to continue to be a part of that thank you a good friend of mine kind of said something once and it stuck with me I don't know if he's the author of this proverb or he got it from somewhere else but he says uh the the best the best time to plant a tree is 30 years ago the second best time to plant a tree is today and I as I look at the many things that are happening within the district there's there's so much of me that wishes that that in many ways that so much of this would have would have happened a long time ago and it didn't for a variety of reasons um however I'm I'm very grateful for the the fact that
036as I look around the district and and see all of the things that are happening that that today they are um I want to just kind of give a shout out to my colleagues and also the cabinet because it wasn't that long ago when when we were making some decisions and we were saying okay these are decisions that we have to make and we really only have enough information to make these decisions based off of the next year or so and then we said well what if we were to zoom out and what if instead of making decisions based off of one year of of of imagining and projections what if we really looked out and projected several years out and imagine let's get a demographer and let's let's go through all these these steps
037and processes and that was a lot of hard work um and on the other side of that hard work was a a many very difficult decisions that were needing to be made and I so I just want to just say thank you to to my colleagues and also to the to the cabinet for your your willingness to to stick with that and make those difficult decisions um and and realize how complex that is and the ways that it affects our community in many many complex ways um but I know that as a result of those decisions I I truly believe that um we are are setting the azus Unified School District off on an incredible trajectory um one kind of picture of that is my daughter who is a seventh grader so so she's in
038this first class now at Gladstone middle school and I can't describe for you how much she loves her school how much I mean she she was sick one day one morning where and it was like no you can't go to school and she's trying to talk me into letting her go to school on that day when when she's sick um and and that just that just matters it just really it really means something and and I look at some of the students that we've highlighted tonight and and that's that's already the the caliber of student that that is is being produced in the Azusa Unified School District and I just can't wait to look ahead um to see the the future classes that will that will come um that will come after um I also
039really want to acknowledge that this season of of change has has brought about a lot of difficult uh learnings realizations a number of things that we would have hoped to have had in place and and things fully operational and they've they've not been across the board I've gotten emails and had gotten have had phone calls and have had face-to-face conversations I know that many sitting around this diets have as well and so thank you for continuing to share those concerns um and Reporting the the things that are not working not functioning uh properly um and I just want to say I'm sorry for for that sorry for the the fact that everything is not right where we would like it to be um but but I can say that with with great confidence the the
040amount of hard work that's being put toward um seeing to it that those items are being addressed um and so thank you for being this iteration of students of families of teachers of of classified employees administrators who are are in the midst of this transition and so because of the the cost that you're paying to be part of the transition it's really again setting things up for for the future generations of uh the azus Unified School District and so thank you for for your willingness um to be that and then last thing I I really want to say is thank you especially to uh Miss Jamal and also Mr Allen for your just just hard work the the list of things to do based off of of these consolidations is is just endless I mean
041and on on top of the consolidations there's also modernization that modernization that's taking place and and other upgrades there's any number of things and and though the the list is long and it sometimes seems like it keeps growing um I I it's not lost on me personally uh the way that that you uh Mr Maul and also Mr Anna are directly addressing these things head on um the way that that you are just responding to to people with with uh such Grace and humility um and and I just have so much such great confidence that that we will um in in very short amount of time really really see some of these things um get to where they need to be and so just want to say a special thank you to you and your
042team foreign good evening everyone I would like to welcome you guys back it's students it's been a month teachers staff in the front administrators what a month we're into this transition I I just to kind of echo what my colleague said my son also attends Gladstone Middle School and he was so excited to go first week he goes in he just loves it um loves going to school loves his classes loves to be on the campus and so these are great examples of the students that are attending Gladstone Middle School that it is a great middle school and then and it will continue to be great and to move forward there have been a little hiccups and I personally want to also help our staff for addressing the hiccups that you know there's no doubt
043when in life you go through transitions that it's gonna run smooth ever so I appreciate the way our staff has responded to every concern and just to Echo again the list you know we can sit here and approach a situation in a very angry and you know no solution and we're just head on and but the way that I have seen our staff Administration face this is with very strategic approach and solution focused and I appreciate that because this transition I'll tell you we're the first district that has close Six schools and people are calling what did you guys do we're still doing it and it's going to take it's going to take a little bit but we will get there and I have faith in our staff in our district I've been here for
04445 years in this District not only as a student an employee as a parent now as a school board member and I have never seen a more Dynamic Administration here on the board working with the board so I thank you I thank you for that cabinet all of you and for you guys at the schools the principals wow staff in the front desk coming back to get geared teachers students we have all come together and we're taking our district back because this district is a Souza Unified School District and we make great leaders and tonight is an example right the we had the three girls and we have more success stories we do Walk With Pride because we are a USD and I want to wish you guys a great great year and thank you
045again for addressing the issues that need to be addressed and being transparent so I think each one of you guys who have reached out to me personally have stopped me at every um time that I go to the grocery store have email text again Asus is here to stay and we're only going to get better thank you colleagues I would just want to briefly Echo um my congratulations for all of the hard work of our students parents staff and administrative team and making this transition go as well as it has um it's a testament to the resilience of everyone here and their commitment to not stopping and not settling um and also to if there's one thing I learned from you Mr Ortega is the theme of continuous Improvement so as we knock out one
046thing we identify things to keep getting better at and as my colleagues have shared our community is very engaged and they are they feel comfortable coming to us coming to you saying you know we're still working on this issue so I also want to continue to encourage you and the team to address those issues as quickly and as positively as possible we know that there are like whack-a-mole one thing gets resolved and nothing pops up so we just want to continue that positive spirit of improvement knowing that every day if we make a little bit of progress we're better than the day before a special announcement that I'd like to share with you today is that um I have uh the honor of serving on a planning committee for Senator Susan Rubio's Wings empowerment event
047Wings is a short acronym for women in pi women inspiring the next generation of Sisterhood um this is the second annual event it will be held on Saturday September 30th from 9 to 12 at El Monte High School um it is for uh young women and girls seventh grade through college open to all all community so throughout the San Gabriel Valley the workshops will revolve around four themes financial literacy etiquette healthy relationships and wellness and so I'm happy to share the registration link and the flyer with our staff so that we can have a great group of Azusa unified young women and girls represented there it is free um again it's 9 to 12 on a Saturday at El Monte High School they're about 200 seats available and we're not full yet but we know
048that as we get closer the seats tend to fill up so I hope that we can get the information out to our counselors and ensure that we can have some representation from Azusa unified at this second annual event thank you so much and now moving to item 9.1 uh Mr Ortega uh thank you Dr Beau I'd like to turn it over to uh Mariah to give her student a board member report good evening board members superintendent Ortega and cabinet my name is Maria Santos and I'm excited to represent Sierra High School as our student board member this year has been off to a great start with lots of improvements we have a few new classes this year at Sierra College studies to help students prepare for life after graduation Spanish 2 which allows us the
049opportunity to have two years of a foreign language and ROP graphic arts which will grow into a graphic arts multimedia program I'm actually in the college studies class and it is a great opportunity for me and other students to explore careers and how College May support our goals After High School we're also very excited to have a new principal Miss Peterson new counselor miss solisano Mr aquiza who teaches Latino studies and our new health career ROP teacher Ms Gonzalez we also have a new campus security team that engages and interacts with us while keeping us safe in addition we have new improvements at Sierra new classroom and teacher Furniture new AC units which is a live saver especially in the weight room a new roof and new cameras to help with safety on campus I
050want to thank you the board superintendent and cabinet on behalf of our school for all the new improvements we had our first black football game last Wednesday where we played Doug Sears Learning Center we were ahead most of the game but Ducks years won in the last play by one point overall it was a good game and everyone had fun I also want to share some upcoming events at Sierra our back to school night is on September 28th we have a blood drive on October 5th and we have spirit days every Friday where there's a different theme or activity last Friday was anything but bring anything but a backpack day it was a fun and creative day I brought a shopping cart as my anything but a backpack which I thought was the best Sears
051officer a great star and I'm looking forward to a great senior year this year thank you Mariah I'd like to turn over to Emily for her student member report okay so Azusa High School would like to welcome parents to our back to school night on September 13th at 6 PM the evening begins with the parent meeting at 5 15 PM in the gym teachers will be ready to show off their new rooms answer questions about grading curriculum and homework we hope to see you all there Azusa High School would also like to congratulate the following students who were rewarded the national Hispanic recognition award by the college board for their outstanding performance on College Board exams such as the SAT PSAT or AP exams special congratulations to Andrea Garcia Brian Ramirez Gonzalez Brian Pacheco Elizabeth
052aguir Eric Argos Hector Hernandez Aaron Zaragoza Priscilla Ortiz Zamora and Joe Joel Sahara good job Aztecs September is attendance Awareness Month 733 students have missed one or fewer days this year so far we hope to see that all students continue to see the importance of regular attendance in doing well in class every single day Azusa High School Italy is pleased to announce that the partnership with the Western Justice Center in our community schools program have yielded two school-wide Community circles so far this school year and one day of parent Community circles during our last coffee with the principal on September 7th this is all part of our plan to build community and connection at Azusa High School we will continue to use circles with students parents and staff as we build a culture of belonging
053here at Azusa in Azusa sports news we are excited to announce that the Azusa volleyball team has started the season 11-5 they start league play with an away game against Duarte on September 13th Azusa girls tennis has started the season one to one and is away this week against Montclair Aztec football has started the year 2-2 with our first home win of the Season against mark keppel on September 8th football's next game is on September 14th this Thursday night at Citrus College at 7 pm cross country will start their season on September 28th and the girls flag football will start their season away on September 26th and their first home game will be on October 3rd lastly we want to celebrate our theme for this year at Azusa High School which is Together We rise
054juntos NOS elevamos by working together we can achieve anything and we look forward to an amazing year thank you thank you Mariah thank you Emily um a couple of things to share number one uh just wow on our students are being honored by the Western Justice Center for The Peacemaker award um definitely a source of Pride right just to to see students uh rise to the occasion rise to the calling and I always say sometimes we we lose sight of this but there was a kindergarten teacher who added value to those students and a custodian or or or a lunch lady or a principal right it's an accumulation of the of the culture uh of the team that that makes that and so just want to uh show my gratitude uh for that um I
055was also at the Gladstone Middle School back to school night and even though I'm going to piggyback on some of the comments here um spoke to many parents uh but one parent I want to highlight one parent comment um she shared with me how nervous uh she was about this move she wasn't on board with this decision but um kind of like board member Greer uh she said but it's all worth it when I hear my child and how much she loves this school and so I thought that was that was pretty awesome um have had the opportunity to visit Sykes that is a highlight of what I get to do uh speaking to classified staff certificated staff walking into classrooms walking into cafeterias uh saying hello uh and and just being able to witness
056the amazing things that are happening in our district uh today Valleydale uh we were at Valleydale um and even though we were at Valleydale I just want to again just show my gratitude when we think about wrap around Services I would think about the whole child's approach nutrition is a critical uh component of that um and so to to know that we are being recognized by an outside agency to have a caliber of Kristen Bell aka Anna to my children uh from Frozen um again just what a what a what an awesome right uh tribute to what's happening um yes we have the core program of breakfast and lunch but to know that we're pushing those boundaries for with Second Chance breakfast we're put pushing those boundaries uh with a supper program we're pushing those
057boundaries uh with with scratch cooking and organic ingredients um again it's just a testament so just want to thank the nutrition services Latasha and her Department um because again it is the whole child and nutrition is such a big component so I just want to give a shout out to Valleydale and everybody that was there but to the whole entire team as well thank you I would also like to begin by just recognizing Althea Ito and Andrea Mendez and Natalie De La Cruz on the recognition that they received from the Western Justice Center um they're really a reminder and a representation of our why and the purpose to the work that we all do here every day so congratulations to them I was able to attend back to school night at Longfellow and at Murray
058it was wonderful to see all of the families the staff and all of the engagement and participation tomorrow night we have back to school night at Azusa High School and at the Magnolia adult transition um so I too have been able to attend back to school night I um partnered with superintendo Ortega at Gladstone middle school and I've also attended doll tip I got to meet the Bobcat who came all the way down from the mountains according to this position to say hi so I was like howdy but I realized it wasn't a horse I wasn't supposed to say howdy but I just said hello but the point of reflection um um I know what we have in our division is called belt which is the business executive leadership team and on the last couple
059of Thursdays when we have that meeting we've been having a lot of moments of just self-reflecting like oh my God we thought we're going to achieve this we thought we were going to achieve that but going to the back to school night it just gave us all the realization of how much we did achieve um we did not meet the mark on everything we set our goal on and um one point for myself I remember my year two of starting a school year um and the public comments was AC AC AC AC HVAC h back it's hot it's hot and I remember sitting with Brian the director of Maintenance operations like how can we achieve the goal of this is not the public comment for the upcoming school year and we were grateful when the
060Board of Education approved the Esser project um when we were slated to have all of our hvacs installed for the start of the school year but beyond our control we had the delays of materials delays of contractors case in point Valley bill was scheduled to get 27 units and as the units were being delivered it was an accident in all 27 units were damaged and the car accident and so now they're starting from scratch so we're we're having instances where we have the goal we have the authority for the Board of Education to make stuff happen but it's literally just things beyond our control that's setting us back we installed the furniture and then we have some of our classrooms where the sizes of the classroom are just not the same on every every campus
061though we measured the classroom but it came down to when we have additional items in the classroom such as bookshelves and file cabinets it just makes it a tighter fit so we have the goal of just being the best and that's not going to change but we are pivoting to figure out how we can make sure we're the best and making sure we're being compliant with everything I'm still grateful my team is grateful but I also wanted to continue to give them Kudos because sometimes you do get discouraged and just like oh my God the complaints the complaints but we're so proud of what we're doing today being at Valleydale seeing the little kids like can I have some more garlic bread you getting garlic bread at school I mean I mean we gonna talk
062about we getting garlic bread at school from scratch I mean we didn't make the red but it's fresh butter but we did have we do have pasta we have organic meat I mean our students are having stuff that some kids still don't have we have scratch cooking we hired three cooks that we have that are preparing meals we have um a chef that's on our staff now um it's just more and more that we continue to do that we're going to get better we are going to get better we're going to continue to thrive we have the goals of improving all our meal lines and not all of them were able to be open because of staffy shortage but we have a plan in place to meet and Achieve our goals so I just want
063to encourage everyone to know that we we do hear you we're going to continue to be resilient we are not going to give up because we are determined to continue to keep a zoos on the map where they are and all of our directors and all of our staff has committed to that and we're going to continue every week we will promise to show Improvement thank you and good evening um I also had an opportunity to attend uh paramounts back to school night last week and at the beginning of the school year I was able to attend uh Sierra High School's uh principal introduction night where she also was able to provide parents uh with an overview of the school and a3g um and just all the awesome stuff that Sierra offers so it was
064really nice to be a part of that and see uh Miss Peterson at work as our Sierra High School principal I also want to share a brief update on our certificated and classified Staffing we have filled over 70 certificated teacher success coach program specialist and administrator positions over the past spring and summer we still have and we still are continuing to fill on the last few certificated positions at schools and special education and our combo support coaches but it has been a heavy lift for our department to to hire that that many number of certificated positions uh similarly we have filled over 40 classified positions throughout many of our classified our classifications um in in the district also uh csca and management positions some of those positions have been mentioned here already the district also
065was recently a form that will undergo a stirs audit um stirs is our certificated retirement program for the 2020-2021 and 2021 2022 school years so the auditor requested to review a list of certificated employees and that process is ongoing and lastly the year of service dessert social is this upcoming Monday September 18th at 3 45 pm at Sierra High School's multi-purpose room this is an opportunity to recognize our employees who have achieved those Milestone years of service to the district uh this was this is a a great way to honor um a our employees that have given so much to our district so I hope to see you all there on Monday at 3 45 at Sierra High School thank you thank you so much superintendent and cabinet just before we move on to the
066consent agenda I wanted to just uh brief Miss Hernandez our student board member on your role here as a student board member who's participating in person so for each of the action items um whoever serving as president will call for um a motion and then a second um there may be discussion and then we'll call for the vote before the board members vote I will look to you and ask for your student preferential vote and so um we need you to make sure they're fully engaged so because when you say yes you're voting yes and if you say no you're voting no and then after that the board will vote and that will be reflected on the screen okay thank you so now moving to item 10.1 approval of the consent agenda I do understand
067that uh board member Benavides you have an intention to pull an item actually I did want to pull an item but I appreciate the fact that Natasha already gave an update on the HVAC so thank you for that so with that would you like to make a motion no no I don't need to pull the item okay so with uh 10.1 this is an action item approval of the consent agenda is there a motion I make a motion to approve 10.1 through 10.338 [Music] second moved and seconded uh Michigan is the one the one point and this is all just also to remind me sometimes because I go too fast the only agenda item for which we don't have discussion is the consent agenda so now that we've moved and seconded I'll ask for your
068preferential vote on this item yes thank you and board members I will now call for the vote for 10.1 thank you and motion passes four two one yes it didn't go through sure no to to yes so let the record reflect that item 10.1 passes unanimously um now moving to the next item 12.0 presentation of our community schools program uh Miss weed I was told to speak right into the microphone good evening Dr Beau um members of the board superintendent Ortega and cabinet I'm so happy to be able to be here this morning [Music] all right let's try that I am so excited that I get to be here with you tonight um to share with you all about our community schools initiative that we have been launching here in Azusa um I think we
069can all agree that a focus on building connections and community at all levels particularly this year is going to be essential as we're merging our school communities and trying to address the increasing violence that we've seen in our city so for me I feel a real sense of urgency and timeliness with this initiative I thought a lot about Martin Luther King Jr's letter from the Birmingham Jail when he talks about time and that time is neither an asset or it's not an ally or an enemy things don't just get better or get worse but it's incumbent upon us to use time creatively to work for justice and that is really what this initiative is all about um so tonight I'm in this presentation I just want to give you a little overview of what it
070is and why we're doing it and help us to begin to develop a shared understanding of the initiative and the framework where we are right now and where we're going so I hope if you've been out and about you have seen these Banners at the school sites um this is our Azusa Community School logo a lot of thought was put into that I wonder what you see when you look at that image what it might say to you about what community schools are about I hope that you see warmth I think I hope you see the people in the center I hope that you see the heart for caring relationships the graduation hat signifying culturally relevant education and our students reaching their potential leaves to show growth the swirling Circle to be signifying that continuous
071Improvement that ongoing Improvement that we want to have and then in the word Community you see that we emphasize Unity we've lastly got our three power words for our community schools initiative here in Azusa which are connected joyful and thriving what we're trying to strive for at all of our school sites and then our team collaborated together on a theme for this particular school year and you can see that our theme this year is we build community together as we Foster belonging and Empower all so what is a community school a community school strategy transforms a school into a place where Educators local community members families and students work together to strengthen the conditions for student learning and healthy development as partners they organize in and out of school resources supports and opportunities so that
072young people can Thrive we've got a short little video that we can share with you to help us all understand what community schools are how to get the most of grammarly free It's Kayla on behalf of grammarly to tell you all about the free version of and about grammar caring for the whole child expanding the horizons of learning building relationships with families working together to realize a shared vision this is the school every student needs this is a community school Community Schools are public schools that partner with stakeholders to create the conditions students need to thrive Community Schools can be found across the United States and their numbers are growing fast but what exactly makes a school a community school they integrate student supports clinics counselors and other services ensure each and every student is
073ready to learn they expand and enrich learning extended school days summer programs and real world experiences help students reach their full potential they engage families and communities partnering with residents to identify and meet Community needs makes everyone feel safe welcome and involved in school they lead in collaboration inclusive decision making and peer learning builds trust among students Educators families and communities when a school stands on these four pillars it's a community school research supports this four pillar approach but there's no one-size-fits-all model every Community School is different because each Community is different figuring out what it looks like in your community starts by getting actual community members involved that's the full-time job of Community School coordinators they're the human bridge connecting all the partners and stakeholders that make Community Schools possible so that's what makes
074a school a community school now how do you pay for it startup costs like hiring a full-time coordinator can be raised from foundations or state and local governments tapping into existing funding and partnering with local businesses can bring in service providers sharing resources and staff with Partners can help everyone do more and as a community school becomes more established leaders can advocate for budgets that sustain their impact and new funding to expand it every Community School is different what will yours be like get started at community schools.future4learning.org [Music] so I hope that helps give a little picture one of the things we've really been trying to emphasize and have people understand is that this Community Schools initiative isn't another thing on our plate it is the plate right this is the way that we do
075school and that all of our other programs and partners and initiatives align with the values and are working not in silos but in concert together to support the whole child through the school which is then kind of the heart and hub of the community that's the goal of a community school so the why behind Community Schools this is a vision from laco our regional lead for Community Schools and the vision statements says that our vision is to lead the way in strengthening School communities to create a more Equitable socially just system where all students families and staff are empowered and thrive and then the mission of Community Schools is to disrupt inequities and to break the cycle of poverty by leveraging assets to transform schools with authentic collaborative leadership at the center We Believe students
076staff and families and communities are essential Partners to ensure that all are seen valued and supported so you've heard a little bit about the what and the why what it is and why we should do it now I'd like to give you a brief overview of the Community Schools framework to help us all develop the shared understanding the framework of community schools has four fours and the first four is the four pillars of Community Schools the first pillar is integrated student supports and that's really about the whole child approach the research is clear and we all know that if students don't feel safe and connected if their mental health is suffering if their physical needs aren't met and their academic growth is going to be affected the second pillar of Community Schools is expanded learning
077time and opportunities for this one we think of things like what is available to our students outside of the regular school day think of think together internships clubs Sports Parks and Rec all of those things and also how can we enrich what's happening during the school day the third pillar is active family and Community engagement which is a large part of what our community schools teams will focus on and then the fourth being collaborative leadership structures it's really about shared power shared decision making it is not a top-down approach but a really collaborative process the second four of the Community Schools framework is the four Key conditions for learning you can see number one is a supportive environmental condition that Fosters strong relationships and community the second key condition for learning in a community school
078is productive instructional strategy strategies that support motivation competence and self-directed learning the third social emotional learning that both Fosters skills habits mindsets that enable academic progress efficacy and productive behavior and lastly system of supports that enable healthy development respond to student needs and address learning barriers and as we stated through our theme number one is really our Focus for this year and what we're going through here in Azusa that supportive environmental conditions that Foster strong relationships and community the third of the four fours is the four Cornerstone commitments of community schooling the first commitment is community schools are assets driven and strength based we talk about that a lot here in Azusa we don't want to view our students our families our neighborhoods through a deficit lens but rather really recognizing and uplifting the richness
079the wealth of wisdom and culture that's already there the second commitment of Community Schools is that they are racially just and restorative School climates so we could talk about that one for a long time but I'll just highlight here our partnership with Western Justice Center and our work with restorative practices and Community circles and we are working very closely with them to really scale that out into all of our school campuses and classrooms the third commitment of Community Schools is that they have powerful culturally proficient and relevant instruction we're doing a lot of work in that area already if we think about things like our Pathways the seal curriculum our dual immersion program all the work that our ptosis are doing and then lastly as we mentioned before a commitment to Shared decision making and
080participatory practices again it is not a top-down model none of us get to decide what's going to happen that the answers are going to come from the schools and from the community themselves and then the last of the four fours is there are four proven practices for Effective Community Schools and for the things that need to happen for Community Schools to be effective is number one Community Asset mapping and GAP analysis so this is going to be one of the first big tasks of our program Specialists and Community Liaisons to do this needs and asset assessment at their School site and the second proven practice is that each school has a designated community school coordinator here in Azusa we're calling them program Specialists and we have a few of them here tonight I'm going to
081be able to introduce you in a moment um the third proven practice of Community Schools is that there are site-based as well as a district-based advisory Council so we are in the process of developing those councils so that we lift up all voices and then lastly Community Schools work on integrating and aligning with other relevant programs so again that concept that this is the plate and mtss and PBIS and seal and Avid and pathways are all aligned and a part of the values of Community Schools this graphic was kind of helpful to me and I don't know if if I can see it in detail or if you can either but if with the legend you can see in the center is why we do this work and it's so that all students can Thrive
082and reach their credential and then who does the work is around that um that's the school staff and the Community Schools um team as well as the students and families and the Community Partners all together what are the enabling conditions that need to happen the key practices some of which we've touched on and then supportive infrastructure and governance around the side so all of those things working together to make an effective Community School so where we are right now um we have hired our director that's me one one thing down check right and we have hired most of our community school staff we are our grant initiative is over nine of our schools all of our schools except for Sierra and Longfellow were able to be included in the grant so we have our our
083plan is to have a program specialist and a community liaison team for Community Schools at each of those schools we have all nine of our program Specialists hired and six of our nine Community Liaisons already hired so I'd like to take just a moment to introduce a few members of our team that were able to come here tonight we have Michelle de Rosas from Hodge go ahead and stand up Michelle she's our program specialist at Hodge um we have Mr Eddie Lotts from Magnolia um Miss Jessica Estrada is our program specialist at Valleydale and Lorena Ellis is our program specialist at Gladstone Middle School and I am not going to forget my wonderful Community School secretary Sandra arkenberg who is also here with us tonight so we've got an excellent excellent team um our Community
084Schools staff has been trained in the community schools framework and values we had a couple weeks before school started to really dive deep so we could get a really good shared understanding of what it's all about they've also been trained in community circles and restorative practices um they have been assigned to their school sites and are getting to know their principles and the culture of each of their school sites of course we've created our logo as I shared with you and developed our theme for the year and I hope you all heard about our district-wide community circles day that we had you heard Mr Fernandez talk about that they've done this at Azusa High and we thought well why can't we do it at every school and so we got all the schools on board
085through the work of our community schools team and on Friday August 25th I believe it was we had a district-wide community Circle day and so all of our students TK through 12th grade and all the staffs at those School sites as well as over 50 staff from the district office participated in community building circles that day around the theme of what does a community of care look like and it was just a really beautiful day of connecting all across the district so where we're going um we've already obviously helped provide with the first day welcome but our teams are really there to provide a welcoming Embrace every day at the school sites we are working right now on sharing the Community School vision with all stakeholders so I'm doing it tonight but our program Specialists
086have been doing it all over the place said coffee with the principal and classified staff meetings and their staff meetings at schools and TK and Kinder orientation and the word is getting out all around the district what are Community Schools about um our community schools team has trained their school staffs in the framework and values and Community circles and restorative practices and that is ongoing and they're they're continuing to do that throughout the year um we're all working right now to completely um to develop our advisory councils at the district level and at the school site level and once all those councils are developed we'll be really laying out the protocol and criteria for how we're going to do this needs and assets assessment here in um in our district how we're going to look
087at that data and then the teams will administer that assessment and then develop a plan for each School site which will look unique and different at each School site because each School site is different so I hope you can see we're kind of in the starting blocks ready to take off with this Community Schools I shared with the principals at our leadership seminar at the beginning of the year that it's kind of like they have a new Chief of Staff right not an assistant principal but a chief of staff alongside them to really help in building a relationship-centered racially just strengths-based restorative School culture where everyone is valued and everyone has a voice that's really that's what their full-time job is is to implement that that Vision um we're using the tool of community circles
088as one of our primary tools to really help build those connections and relationships throughout the district I'd like to end tonight with a little story um the story comes from Africa from the Maasai tribe and I think it's really relevant to our work here in Azusa at with Community Schools it's called and how are the children among the most accomplished and fabled tribes in Africa no tribe was considered to have Warriors more fearsome or more intelligent than the mighty Messiah it is perhaps surprising then to learn that the traditional greeting that passed between Messiah Warriors was kassarian inguera one would always say to another and it means how are the children it is still the traditional greeting among the Messiah acknowledging the high value that the Messiah always place on their children's well-being even warriors
089with no children of their own would always give the traditional answer all the children are well meaning of course that peace and safety Prevail that the priorities of protecting the young the powerless are in place that the Messiah Society had not forgotten its reason for being its proper functions and responsibilities all the children are well means that life is good it means that the daily struggles for existence do not preclude proper caring for the Young I wonder how it might affect our Consciousness and our own Children's Welfare in our own culture if we took to greeting each other with that daily question and how are the children I wonder if we heard that question and passed it along to each other a dozen times a day if it would begin to make a difference in
090the reality of how children are thought about or cared for in our own community I wonder if every adult Among Us parent and non-parent alike felt an equal weight for the daily care and protection of all the children in our community I wonder if we could truly say without any hesitation the children are well yes all the children are well so that is our vision with Community Schools here in Azusa I'm so happy that I was able to share with you this evening um so thank you so much and I'm available if you have any questions thank you so much Miss weeby colleagues if you have questions or comments I mean I just I feel speechless on a number of uh topics this is this is just incredible incredible work thank you for for leading
091the charge and and for the team that's here uh just very exciting stuff wow that's all I can say I think this is a long time coming for our students right kind of what Mickey our partner for from Parks and Recreation has seen the child the whole child and being able to provide all this with the help of Western Justice Center and addressing right empowering them I I just can't wait thank you me too I'm so excited I'm so excited to meet some of the um the program specialist and seeing them knowing a few of them in the classroom and how they've empowered a lot of children in our district I just can't wait to see you know the fruitness the fruitfulness of this program so thank you hi yes you know first of all
092I love your newsletter will we be getting one of these every month you sure will you sure will I'll be expecting it and also I wanted to mention so how is your um is your advice reward selected by School site what is the process so um slightly different at the school sites than at the district level we decided at the district level that we really want the advisory Council to mirror the four fours and so um we are inviting four students four parents for community members and four District staff so that it's really balanced in perspective and um makeup at the school sites it's a little different um we also want it to be balanced and that for families to have just as much of a weight in the in the process um as staff
093but a lot of our school sites have put out um Flyers to parents um to show their are they interested um um you know they put it out of back to school night and um they got you know they're really smart they do like QR codes and all that stuff that people can do so um you know drawing interest talking to people around seeing who's interested they're really looking for their Community Partners they're looking for our partners that are really connected to their school site um and already where at the district level we were looking for partners that are broad across the whole District so our big Partners like Western Justice like think together like our city um Youth and Family so I'm trying to get partners that really are working with all of our
094schools at the school site um and then that at the schools at the district level and then at the school sites more specific to their sites but how many parents will be selected by school and how are they selected so the parents at the school sites are teams have mostly like I said put out a a call to see what I know but what I'm saying is are they going to select three parents five parents ten parents how many parents will be um selected so like this right to work purses so they don't have an exact number um we do for the district level like I said because we were going to do the 4x4 but it's it's varying slightly like I know at Azusa High since they have a bigger school and more participation
095they just we just said we want to make sure that our parents and students because we have students on the council at the secondary level are there's many of those as there are staff so I think as many staff as they have interested in wanting to participate they're just balancing that with parents and students does that make sense um I'm not quite answering your question I can't tell I'll take it I'll call you later okay call me later clarification but it's okay um in my second my other third question is actually so your calendar would your calendar of events will be on the on the school's calendar General are you having a separate one so no so are the that and I'm glad you asked that because we actually had one parent ask one of
096our program directors where is this community school and she said it's us so um whatever we're doing through Community Schools at the sites will be advertised through their sites through their School site website their School site calendar um if they're you know if they're Community School advisory meeting that would be on the hot the Hodge Community School advisory meeting would be on the Hodge calendar The Gladstones would be on the Gladstone okay very well thank you very much you're welcome and thank you for participating in our community Circle thank you for um the work that you're doing and uh I look forward to you know updates the newsletter on the continuous work that you will be doing um I guess because board member um you'll end up in your brought it up but I want
097to make sure that I'm understanding it as well so that means that you're going to have four parents for the entire District or on the district level advisory Council yes and only four people that work for the district on the district level advisory Council as well and for students and for Community Partners would it be possible to have like four parents represent each School site is that something that we can explore to to have say can you ask that again we'll have four four counts for parents as I don't know if you call you're calling them advisory Council uh that's it so we have four for the entire District I'm saying four for each School site since each School site maybe it has different needs or different concerns so well one of the things one
098of the things about the advisory Council although we're trying very hard to give a broad representation on the advisory Council um it's they're going to be gathering data from all of the schools so for example the district level advisory Council when our school sites are doing their needs and assets assessments they're not just discussing it with their advisory Council but they'll be doing probably focus groups you know with students with staff with parents surveys school-wide data that they'll bring to the committee so the committee will look at all that so more voices are heard and drawn in than just those that sit on the council I mean we could look into possibilities of maybe having a representative from each School site present or we can we can talk about it a little bit more I
099mean we want to make the council you know a working group that um that works well together but we can explore that a little bit and Ms weeby just to be clear each school is going to have their own Council yes and that council at that school will have staff community and parents from that particular School Community correct correct so every school has their own advisory Council and and I think many school sites will have more than four parents depending on the amount of parents that are interested and you know that they can draw into that group and then the district level advisory Council will give will get input from them but then we'll also give them guidance in how we want to do the needs and assets assessment district-wide what kind of data points
100we think are the most important for us to track and follow to see our progress and will those some of those parents that become selected or did you already select those parents or are we going to be outreaching to Spanish-speaking parents 100 let me just clarify that I I did invite the parents for the district by doing a lot of collaboration and asking questions because I really wanted it to be a a good diverse representation I wanted to make sure that we had parents that represented elementary middle and high school students I wanted to make sure we had parents of English Learners that we had parents of special ed students that we had parents that live on the south side of the city as well as the north side of the city so really tried
101to get a in that small group representation for all of those different areas okay I I think I I think what concerns me is that um I I know that a lot of the parents in Azusa primarily those that are Spanish-speaking and maybe there's a two-parent household I mean I don't know the stats or the data on it but I would think that most of them work so what what time are you hosting the com the or what time are you meeting with the parents and the advisory committee well our school advisory committees are after after the school day and the district level advisory committee is once a month on a Friday in the afternoon it is lunch to 12 I think 12 30 to 2 30. okay thank you you're welcome are there any
102further questions or comments by the board thank you so much you're welcome thank you now moving to item 13.1 approval of vision mission values and goals Mr Ortega uh thank you Dr Bo um we recently had a governance meeting where we were able to have a full discussion around some work uh that we had uh done over the summer with a diverse group of students staff and parents and board members and we brought those that work here to the board of education at that governance meeting uh the governance I'm sorry the board of education further um worked on the vision mission values and goals and all of that work that happened at the governance uh meeting uh was captured and so tonight uh they are here uh for approval and they they reflect the changes
103of that conversation of of the governance uh meeting thank you and 13.1 is an action item is there a motion move to approve 13.1 second moved and seconded is there any discussion MS benavidez so um I want to start by thanking everyone for their hard work and their part and and their hard work and who participated and played a role in the thought exchange survey and to those who helped create the draft vision mission core values goals statement being presented here this evening because we live in a very because we live in a time where freedom of expression can ignite controversy I am often reminded of and remind myself of the importance of respecting the opinions the values and points of view of other individuals again I value everyone's opinion and point of views and
104hope that you will do the same at the last board meeting I express my concern about one of the core values found in the draft vision mission values and goal statement we have before us this evening my concern focused primarily on the core value of diversity equity and inclusion tonight my concern grows stronger and I will explain why it is my understanding that the thought exchange survey which was conducted by the school district during the months of April through June 2023 was used as a framework by which a selected group developed the draft vision mission core values and goals which was presented at the ward governance meeting held on August 22nd let's be reminded that April through June happens to be one of the busiest times of the school year as students parents and teachers
105are busy with testing graduation preparation cap and gowns pictures Awards ceremonies and you know the rest in the recent week I had a chance to analyze the thought exchange questions and survey responses myself this is what I found the survey went out to 15 000 individuals made up of students parents and staff the survey questions were placed into four buckets vision mission values and goals the survey was administered administered based on the timeline as follows vision and and you could correct me if I'm wrong the vision portion of the statement went on April 27th with a reminder of May 1st mission part of the statement went out May 8th with the reminder on May 14th values went out on May 21st with a reminder on May 27th and the goals June 3rd with a reminder
106on June 7th just a quick reminder that 15 000 surveys went out the results of the surveys were as follows 2300 School staff were surveyed 269 responded that's 12 percent 5500 in students fourth grade to 12th grade and right there I have difficult time understanding how fourth graders fifth graders and how do they Define Dei we're survey 349 respondents responded that's 6.5 percent 7 400 parents were surveyed that's 643 responded that's nine percent this brings the collective total to 1 261 responses which is 8.5 of 15 000 survey the values data bucket reflected the following and this is only the values data safety ranked the highest for 12 responses denoted in the category followed by accountability eight improving education four transparency three Integrity two respect two nutrition and cleanliness one Equity one and collaboration one
107to this day and with no end in sight Dei continues to be at the Forefront of many controversial conversations at almost every school board throughout our communities States and our country Dei is now entangled in the culture wars of racism gender ideology and taking away and the taking away of parent rights and much more understandably this is not a partisan issue in this discussion and most of us if not all of us would agree that Azusa Unified School District always has is and continues to embrace students of all cultures races social economic status student and a social economic status student and individuals of all walks of life and believes in equality which defined by Google means equal especially equal which defined by Google means equal especially especially in status in status rights and opportunities for
108all based on these facts it is notable that Dei does not line up with the responses by students parents and staffs denoted in the values bucket an entire survey in general further di remains at the center of controversy and should be enough cause for additional scrutiny incorporating Dei as it stands today into the core values at Azusa Unified School District is not representative of the community we serve and it does not give a voice to everyone who participated or should have participated in the survey most importantly my commitment and respect to the residents and parents of Azusa which I am so humbly grateful for who elected me to this position and their voice will not be overlooked I would recommend that if you haven't looked at the thought exchange survey and responses take a look
109at it because safety was the primary concern if you take all the buckets I just focused on the value bucket but I did uh itemize or categorize the entire survey and I don't know if the survey is is available on on the webpage but I would encourage that if it isn't we get it on on the web page and that you look at it yourself thank you any further discussion I think I would I'm I'm moved to to just add to this meeting something that came up in let our governance meeting when we were having this conversation uh which is that it's understandable that Dei as a as a phrase as an inclusive phrase um has I I would say unfortunately uh become um in entangled in in controversy um in ways that I don't
110think it should be if we if we examine the the three words and the definitions of those three words uh that make up the acronym um with with that said what came up in our last meeting in our governance meeting is that it would be wise for us as the Azusa Unified School District to not fall into the Trap of what um whatever Talking Heads on on either side of this issue uh may have to say or or contribute to what they believe Dei diversity equity and inclusion means but that it's important for us as the as the Azusa Unified School District um to Define what does it mean for us to Value diversity equity and inclusion and and again when we break down each of those three components um diversity I mean the the
111simple fact that that we would uh that we that we value um and appreciate representation across the board which means um representation of those who have varying um viewpoints even on this issue um that those were being uh invited to to the to the table and be represented um again equity separate apart from equality which which just are are two distinct different words but Equity recognizing that um now everybody doesn't need the same things but in order to thrive it's important for us to to have mechanisms to to know our students to know our communities to be able to provide what is needed for them to be thriving students and thriving um in individuals um which is much more complex than just kind of giving everyone something that that's equal um equal is not always
112Equitable um and then uh third again the idea of inclusion um which which goes you know even back to the concept of diversity which means um different voices different perspectives are are welcome to the table um that that we wouldn't exclude a perspective just because it's it's different from from our own um and so the the the mere fact that not everybody would would agree with um not everybody would would support their understanding of Dei um and yet are included in the conversation I think is a representation of of Dei um and so I'm I'm well aware I'm I'm personally well aware of the the ways that this has become a buzzword but I I look forward to us continuing to um dive deeper into this and defining what it means for us what does
113it mean for us to be and and for us to value and recognize diversity equity and inclusion within the Azusa Unified School District I think that there's a lot of work that we have done um and I think that uh there's a lot more work to be done I you know and I I can say that as um a black male that grew up within this city and growing up within this city looking like me the age that I grew up in in this city it was a much more difficult time um for for those who looked like me back then than it is now significantly different and I and I think there's been a lot of work around Dei that has made it more safe for those who look like me though I am
114what would be um a minority amongst those my uh peers within the school district but but but to to be seen to be valued um and to be included I think is significant and I think it's incumbent on us as a board cabinet as a district to to continue to to do that work um to not only be mindful of the of the majority um within our district but but to care just as much uh for those that are are representative of the minority so I in true kind of diversity Equity inclusion fashion where there could be differing views and opinions just want to restate that um I am I'm extremely grateful I'm extremely proud of of our um district and our community for for um for this being on the the list and I
115couldn't I couldn't foresee I couldn't foresee the exclusion of this value on on our list of of values that that we're focusing in on thank you colleagues I'll add just a brief comment and then Mr Hernandez I'll be calling on you for any comments um that you may have us on this issue and that'll be asking you for your preferential vote um and hearing this Rich discussion and remember this is to set our Mission Vision Values and goals for the next at least several years um this breadth and depth of discussion is warranted um so I appreciate all of the input and all the time and thought and work it took to get us to this point um one of the things that I hold dear in this work and in being an educator is
116that our work is to push forward the value and ideal of centering the marginalized and I think when I reflect on this phrase of diversity Equity inclusion to me that's a marker of how we can look at our students and staff and community members that are on historically and currently on the margins in whatever way we Define that how do we begin to Center them so that we are all part of the Center focus of our work and our attention and our resources um and I again I appreciate all the discussion and I think again I agree with you that this is a reflection of that value of including and giving air time and space to can be wildly different perspectives and our commitment to do the work day by day and move and move
117us collectively forward Miss Hernandez your any comments you'd like to add and then I will ask for your student preferential vote on this action item um I would just like to say that I value both of your opinions and ideas but um I have to say that I do agree with Mr Greer I just say about how different students need different things and I know that in a district that is full of mainly Latino students it is important to acknowledge um the three of Dei um and so my preferential vote would be I yes thank you so much Miss Hernandez so just to review our process the item has been moved seconded we've had discussion among the trustees we've asked for student preferential uh student comments and preferential vote and so now I will call
118for president um well I'd like to say make another comment so I want to make sure that everybody understands that I'm Hispanic and I come from a single parent household we had to work hard you know I have a I have a degree but I also have to remember that when I sit up here I'm also representing the community of Azusa the parents and the students and I agree with a lot of the things you said Mr Greer board member Greer but I also have to take into account that it's important that we don't leave those who put us up here out of the conversation because I'm their voice so that's important to me as well and I'm a minority myself but I also have to remember that why I'm sitting here and I embraced
119all cultures and all Races and all social economic status because I've lived through that I've walked that life but I reiterate I'm a voice for those that I was hearing their concerns while I was walking and campaigning to be elected thank you last call for any final discussion thank you so much colleagues I will now call for the vote on item 13.1 the item passes four to one thank you very much moving now to item 14.1 this is an info action item Mr Mall thank you right good evening Dr Beau a fellow board members and members of cabinet and audience members tonight I'm going to present the 22-23 Isuzu Unified School District Anatomy actuals so here is our budget cycle where we outline we're here now in September we're presenting the unaudited actuals to the
120board of education for approval next we'll be in front of the board education in December we talk about our unathered actuals I mean I'm our first interim um but on audio actuals is our work of meeting our department fiscal Services where we're closing out the 22-23 um fiscal year so this is our work that will be presented to board education that hence goes to the county office education um and then we receive our report card in December when our Auditors come to say yes we did a great job or no we made a mistake or here's an audit finding so what are unaudited actuals so we are required to do the another actual report according to Education Code 42 100. we also have to present this in front of the board education on before September
12115th as well as have it into the Los Angeles County Office of Education hands prior to on or before September 15th so we're going to talk about our general fund on general fund revenues so here we outline our general fund where we close out the 22-23 fiscal year our largest revenue Source continues to be our lcff Revenue that comes from the state our second largest funding source is our state revenues as followed by our federal revenues at 10.25 percent and our local revenues um being at two point 3.7 I apologize so here's our general fund expenditures this is the show um our largest population I receive our expenditures our employees um we average 75 70 of our expenditures goes to our employees um followed by our contracts and services we also have our employee benefits
122we also have our Capital outlay which are expenditures over five thousand dollars so this we're going to go over our revenue and expenditures so our total revenue um for the fiscal year for the 22-23 fiscal year was 178 million dollars our actual expenditures that we close out with was 139 million dollars um that has the ending balance of carryover of 38.7 million dollars majority over 90 percent of that carryover is our restrictive funds for programs such as our community schools grants our Esser fund dollars that are being carried over Mr moff I could just ask a clarifying question with that those the carryover of 38 million and you said about 90 is um restricted funds or are those also one-time funds that are also restricted yes ma'am yes ma'am thank you so here we're going
123to provide a breakdown of our components of any fund balance so we have both unrestricted and restricted components of any fund balance so we have our restricted our unrestricted components of any fund balance we have 9.7 million dollars which is committed for our supplemental and concentration carryover of unspent the reason why we have a large amount of unspent funds is because we have a lot of one-time funds that have a current expiration date and we've been able to identify qualified expenditures to utilize those one-time funds are going to expire so the funds that we have not spent that's NRL cap is being committed and that is 9.7 million dollars we also have our fund 14 transfer where every year the district could miss a million dollars to go to fund 14 for deferred maintenance we
124also have our concentration add-on Grant which is 4.9 million and that is additional grant that we received for the last two years where we have to increase our improved certificate of services so we cannot surplant but we have to actually show an increase and we also have our transitional kindergarten where we have only 13 000 left of what we spent to maintain the class sizes required as well as the um staff and student ratio and here is our largest part of our 80 fund balance which is our restrictive fund so we have 14 million dollars a set aside that's assigned for our community schools Grant we also have our educator Effectiveness Grant we also have our elop grant our learning block recovery Grant we also have our site donation accounts where they actually receive funds
125we keep those funds set aside as well and we have our education learning Opportunity Grant as well and with that I would open it up for any questions [Music] Natasha I have a question on the Deferred maintenance can you just give us some examples please yes so um I'm very excited um the district you're prior to my appointments I'm not going to take credit you know um but the district passed action where every year they will commit a million dollars of the general fund to deferred maintenance and what that does is that set funds and fund 14 that helps for like roof leaks or if we need to repaint a school or if we need to upgrade our carpet it allows for anything that um that we would not normally be able to afford in
126our regular general fund is set aside to assist us with deferred maintenance do we ever increase that portion of the the budget we have not it has maintained at a million dollars but we can always bring that in front of the board education for consideration to increase that contribution but in addition to that I don't want it to come across that we only contribute um one million dollars but that's on top of the required three percent that were required to set aside for routine restricted maintenance so this is the district always like we always do we go over and Beyond the minimum so we're only require three percent but in addition to the three percent we also contribute a million dollars to fund 14. and and in the time that you've been here have you
127ever seen the district because I know you're fairly new so have you ever have we ever have you ever seen us eat up those funds for deferred maintenance we almost depleted last year with um with the school reorg and all um that was part of some of the major construction that we need not construction but major upgrades that we need to do so like case in point we have our Azusa high school gymnasium HVAC that wasn't part of the Esser project so we um utilized funds for that um system so we can have that um AC upgraded as well okay thank you you're welcome any further questions or discussion by the board Mr Sanders you have any questions may have a motion on this item motion to approve second moved and seconded I think I
128just asked for discussion but I'll ask again any discussion and seeing that mrnado is your preferential vote yes thank you and now I'll call for the vote by the board and the item passes unanimously thank you moving on to 14.2 this is an action item it may have a motion motion to approve 14.2 second moved and seconded is there any discussion seeing none Miss Hernandez um yes thank you and I'll call for the vote by the board make a motion to approve uh we're calling for I'm calling for the vote yes we have moved and seconded and now we're voting about it we're almost there and the item passes unanimously um item 15.1 this is an info item is Jamal could you provide a bit of context yes ma'am so thank you again Dr Beau
129on board education um this item um presented is for info for first reading for board policy 7310 um this was brought back for reconsideration per board member board request um we will note that on this item we have an incorporated the changes that's currently being recommended by csba um so this item is to discuss or to consider um renaming of a facility we did a line so right now um you'll see some of the um highlights to recommend um it outlines the process as far as coming up with a commit committee as well as changing the process of where it could be we can name a facility for someone that's deceased our living thank you please explain the process so yes um so one part um one we would have to bring this item back
130or action item if the if that's the board's desire because this is info only for first reading um and then after the board um takes action to approve and then we would like to preserve that then the board would have to take action to come up with a committee where they would add a point and committee to um hear the desire of if we're going to rename a facility and get that input and then present that the committee's recommendation back to the board of education and do you know how long that process will take I do not know how long that process will take okay sorry any other questions on this item thank you and now we come to item 16.1 adjournment is there a motion motion to approve a German moved and seconded Mr
131Hernandez your provincial vote on this last item yes thank you and uh board members I'll Now call for the vote to adjourn the item passes unanimously thank you we are adjourned at 9 12 pm Manuel