Azusa Unified School District Board Meeting/Governance Workshop - 8/22/23

001foreign [Music] thank you so much and good evening Azusa Community welcome to the Tuesday August 22nd 2023 meeting of the azus Unified School District Board of Education the time is now 6 38 and we will resume with Open Session if you would all rise to join me in our Pledge of Allegiance thank you and moving on to item 5.1 reportive action taken in closed session there was no action taken by the board in closed session now moving to item 6.1 public comment hope do we have any members of the public in person there are no blue cards for members in person members of public in person and Lika is anyone online who wishes to make public comment we have no online public comments thank you and now we'll move to item 7.1 this is an

002action item may I have a motion make a motion to approve 7.1 second moved and seconded is there any discussion I just want to thank the Azusa Police Department for adding that one paragraph that we spoke about and if you noticed it it's on there now so I'm willing to vote on that any further discussion okay seeing none it's been moved and seconded I'll call for the vote and the item passes unanimously now moving to 8.1 our government's Workshop Mr Ortega [Music] thank you Dr Beau uh tonight uh we have um our awesome facilitator who's been with us for several governance meetings I'm happy to um be on this topic um and so um Miss Angelina pride comes with the comes to us via csba and so again we're just very fortunate and grateful that

003she is here and I'd like to turn it over to her um to get us started great thank you so much and thank you for having me back again I've enjoyed working with your board and I'm happy to be here working with you on this process um so when um superintendent Ortega reached out to me to come in facilitate this Workshop as you look at your mission and your vision and your goals um I was very excited about the opportunity because right now is the perfect time for your District to be updating all of these your district has been through a lot the last few years um in under strong leadership luckily you've been able to weather the storm and get to the point where you are now so I definitely want to commend this

004this the board and the administration on all of the work that you've all put in to make sure that this District continues to move forward in a positive way the other thing that I want to say before we get started is that the process I have the opportunity to speak with super superintendent Ortega about the process that was utilized for collecting information from your stakeholders and I have to tell you that the way that your District went about doing this was I mean just incredible to engage the stakeholders in the way that you did to get the responses from the community the way that you did and to let them know that you weren't just checking a box that you really wanted their input and I think the time and the effort that was put

005into it shows them that you're serious about making sure that the mission Division and the goals of this District match what the community want not just what the board wants not what just the District administration wants but to have input from everybody this process that you use is one that I have not seen in a very very very long time so definitely want to commend you for all of the work that you did in the commend your community and all of your stakeholders for taking the time to be involved in that I mean to go to a retreat and spend all day in a room you know hashing through this that's just incredible so hats off to you guys I mean that's truly a model for how you went about this process so again kudos

006to all of you in the district for doing that and making sure that that all of the voices for the community were heard so I want to jump to just jump right into this because you know I want to make sure that we get all of this done and that when we leave here today that everybody that we have a final product I don't want you to have to drag this out anymore you all have good information um from The Retreat and from the surveys from your community so we have the foundation already now it's just to say okay how do we make sure that this aligns with everything that we needed to align to um for the district mainly the lcat so um a couple of things before we get started this is not

007a just a rubber stamp I want all of you to let your voice be heard um to express any ideas that you have any concerns that you have now is the time because once we say okay this is it that's it you're going to support it and you're going to say yes I gave input on this and and I'm ready you know this is how I feel so now is your time to speak don't leave the room and say well I don't like this because of this if there's something that comes up that you don't like or that you don't build represents the district in the way you believe it should this is your time to speak so I don't want to come back to another Retreat six months from now and people say well

008I felt like my voice wasn't heard or I felt like I didn't get to say this now's your time to speak as we go through this process so please please please speak up and let your voice be heard um one of the other things that I wanted to say is I also want all of you to be open and candid um I know that sometimes when we're in these settings uh you you may think that you need to hold back something that you want to say this is not the time as we're developing the mission and the vision and the goals because like I said once we're done with this this goes on your website this goes on all your marketing material you need to be able to look at this and say yes this

009is we did a good job on this so don't hold back any concerns that you have be open and candid with any comments or questions that you have or you know input that you want to provide so we're all good on that okay so then um let's go ahead and get started the first thing I wanted to talk about was the fact that your district has been through a lot of changes but not just your District um education right now is going through a lot of changes we're seeing challenges with funding number one enrollment as you guys are very familiar with um equity and access teacher shortages student achievements special ed services technology language barriers mental health and well-being infrastructure and Facilities Community engagement policy changes and regulations and um still you know trying to

010make sure that we're getting the students back from from covet you know the ones who went into remote learning and never returned back to us and tracking them down and getting them back in the classrooms so the district has a lot of challenges that they're facing so as we develop our mission and vision and goals we need to keep those things things in mind but not just those things we also need to keep in mind the lcap because your mission and your vision and your goals must be aligned with the lcap and if you recall and with the l cap there's eight areas um for the that we have to make sure that we adhere to when we um address the L when we do our lcat and so we want to make sure that

011we keep those eight areas in mind as we go through this process as well okay so then let's go ahead and get started so I figured that we would just go in order of how we usually do it and talk about the um the mission statement first and so the purpose you know of the mission statement of an organization's mission statement is to clarify the identity of the organization number one what are you here for what is your goals what are your objectives what is it that you hope to achieve and so your mission statement needs to do that and it serves the district um purpose to help guide the organization's actions and the decisions that you make in you as a board you guys make a lot of decisions with through your votes and

012through your proposals so your mission statement needs to be able to be clear about the overall direction of the district so and the same with the vision as well but um the vision statement when we talk about that we're talking about purpose you know it outlines our long-term aspirations our function it provides clear and inspiring picture of what the organization envisions of what you want to be how you see yourself when people say Azusa unified what's the first thing that comes to their mind and then the importance it's um it's like um a vision statement it helps you to share the organization's culture you know how you guys interact with each other what your growth plans are how Innovative you are and then when we look at your mission statement we talk about defining your

013core purposes in your primary activities your reason for your existence we talk about um the mission statement we also look at the function which outlines what the organization does who it serves how it delivers those Services um and how we listen to and interact with our stakeholders and then also a well-crafted mission statement provides clarity about the organization's Focus about the guiding principles and the primary function and it also helps the stakeholders to understand what the organization any of you have ever been on a job interview where you wanted to research the company before you applied for the job a lot of things times what we do is we go to their website item one of the first things we do is look at their mission and their vision statement to see okay what is

014it that they're trying to do what is it that they hope to achieve how do they want to be viewed by you know their stakeholders and um the people that they work for and work with so those mission and vision statements carry a lot of weight so when you guys went through the when they went through the retreat and um if I get anything wrong jump in because I was not there so um when they went through the retreat they came up with draft recommendations and these are recommendations and I know that superintendent Ortega has said the same thing to all of you that this is not the final s these were recommendations so let's start with the vision since that one's the first on the draft recommendations when you looked at the vision statement

015that was recommended and not in full statement form but what they put down is they what they wanted to see as a vision statement what were some of the things that you thought and what were did you relate to what they said did you not relate to what they said um did you feel like something was missing or that something was wrong and all of you have a copy of that or was I supposed to bring it up on the screen Mr I think you said uh just in case for live right okay but it would it also be possible to get we talked about keeping the eight areas the lcap areas in front of us could we could we have that freshly sent our way so that we can actually or printed so we

016can keep that in front of us sure okay yes thank you yeah so so um when they they brought back the when superintendent Ortega brought back the proposals uh one of the things they said here was that um the vision that they they saw for the district so students and staff will discover their full potential and positively contribute to their community Through advocacy thinking critically communicating effectively and showing compassion so when you read this um after the retreat when superintendent Ortega sent this out to you what were some of the things that stood out to you about this anybody I just wanted to say that um I actually was honored to be part of the process and um just to give a little background to my colleagues they were not there there was a total

017of 18 people there including the superintendent his cabinet Administration Union reps from aea and CSEA parents and students two board members which is um were president Bowen myself and we were there three days 12 hours retreat just to revisit the division the mission and the values and goals and it was 115 degrees where we went to this mysterious place outside and in the elevators with the air conditioning they knew you'd be happy to be in a room with AC but don't go in the elevators so I I just want to add that saying that you know how much time we took to really look at the goals and really look over um we looked over the survey we um all took strongly into the consideration was the voices of the community and the survey and

018the staff students and parents voices we look strongly at that so I mean I was part of the process of course you know I agreed with that we sat we went around we had conversation you know and for us to be here just to figure it out in what an hour or two I'm not sure um it's very hard to do than us being there three days 12 hours well then this whole group which is great all of you did the hard work you laid the foundation you looked at the survey results you looked at what the community had already said and then it was narrowed down to a smaller group as you said than to go through and say okay what what common themes are we seeing um what do we see that's missing

019that maybe nobody addressed or was something that's been in our heads that you know is here on paper that we hear saw in the survey as well and to have those Frank discussions and I think it was important that we did look at the series which I don't think my colleagues have the surveys in front of them and we did strongly look at surveys of people uh community members like I said staff and students in order to to reach the vision that we're looking for right yeah and thank you for um sharing what the experience was like since you were there firsthand so I really have nothing to add because I added it at that time if I could add just an overarching comment and then a specific comment to the vision um so speaking

020as a board member who was not there uh looking at the work that was done I mean I'm just I'm very impressed with with what's coming our way um as a recommendation so thank you to you to both our colleagues on the on the board cabinet and others who were there and participated yeah it's great work um I I will along the way just have maybe just a couple um suggestions or or some some things to to keep in mind but largely including this Vision I'm I'm just very pleased uh and and grateful thank you for that Miss Pride just a logistical thing can we can you go to the 100 and make that like 150 any help sure is that better yeah board member Ariana's or board member vanity this do you have any

021comments at at the beginning outside of this discussion let's just look at the vision let's we're starting with the vision so any comments on the vision and superintendent Ortega please feel free to speak up as well I think I wanted to just Echo uh board vice president Rodriguez Pena's comments about the process that it was um Mr Ortega did a great job facilitating so he wasn't leading he wasn't really inserting himself into the conversation but he was facilitating small groups that got up to large groups so we had what three or four rounds each to discuss with our our teams and I think one of the uh one of the themes that we heard loud and clear was safety and we addressed that at each round in each of these aspects Mission Vision goals um

022values another element was really kind of the human well-rounded holistic element that you'll see reflected in words such as compassion and collaboration I think there's a lot of robust discussion around the human element of what kind of um people we want our students to be what kind of people we want our staff to be so for me those were two key highlights the focus on safety and how that should be represented in words and in language and also the really the I call the 3D or the the humanistic emphasis on the kind of people we are as a district as a whole a good point and while you're talking about safety because I did see that um as a theme that was that had come up and through my conversations with superintendent Ortega asking him

023more you know about what he heard while he was there um as we talk about safety and wellness keep in mind that it's not safety and wellness is not just one little thing it's several things we talk about physical safety but we also talk about emotional and social well-being as far as safety we talk about um Crisis Intervention and support preventing substance abuse hygiene and sanitation even physical activities we talk about nutrition you know is everybody getting lunch is everyone getting breakfast so all of that falls under safety when we're looking at that word so I know a lot of times with everything in the news when we hear safety we tend to automatically go to you know the safety in the classroom of the students and the staff you know with active Shooters and

024we also go on to the the other part of the um safety where we're looking at the substance abuse in schools because those are the things we hear about on the news but keep in mind that there's so much more as well and as I've heard this board expressed in other workshops that I've done with you about the social and emotional well-being that's a huge safety issue but also the nutrition that's a big one with the lunch and the breakfast and you know just doing everything we can to to keep our our students physically healthy as well so um I'd like to say something about the vision I think police for me um I wasn't involved in those meetings but in looking at this for me I think what's really important is that as a

025vision right for the school district I mean it's great that we you know that we discover their full potential and positively contribute to their community Through advocacy thinking critically communicating effectively and showing compassion but I also think that because we are an educational system we need to remember that well as I feel this that we need to remember that um our goal is to become successful adults right in the future so to me the word success and really embedding that type of language within the vision speaks volumes because at the end of the day when when the student graduates we want to be able to produce a successful adult in life and I think that I I don't I don't see that here I mean I think there's a lot of great stuff here and

026and um I that's one of the things that I see would bring a little bit more value to the vision at least from my perspective you make a good point and I see you all just got copies of the the lcaps the and thank you for asking for that um because as we talk about this you know I said earlier we have to keep the eight priority areas in mine as we're going through and for those listening the lcap you have to address a priority areas and there's student achievements student engagement um this full climate the parental involvement the basic services and course access um so of course as you were saying that our goal is as Educators and as board members is to have the students be successful and students you know achievement is

027always at the Forefront and you guys have done enough enough workshops with me to know that my favorite sand is um is Student Success and achievement that that has to be the number one focus of everything that we do is Student Success and achievement always so keeping in mind what Sandra said and then um anybody else have any comments that they'd like to make about how we need to look at revamping the statement just to get clarification um or which I agree with you a board member benavidez um we would like to have success added to to what the vision is well this is the first time I've been through this process but yes because I think it's powerful that's a powerful word because at the end of the day that's our job right our

028not not just as a board because we we govern the district but you know the teacher also has a job that and I hate to say that a student is a product but you know that's our job is to deliver a successful product that can be a you know a successful producing adult in the future and and I just see I don't see that here I mean it's great and and I and I love this but I I just think that as Educators that it is our job to make sure that as uh as you you stated um that we need to ensure that our job is that we have Student Success and achievement right because at the end of the day they once they leave you know our campus they they are out there

029they're adults we want to make sure that they are contributing to society but that they're successful in their contribution exactly so so where do you think it fits in this fishing that's here you're reading that where would you think it fits I have no idea but that's and this is my first time I'm we're doing you know I'm going through this but it's just I I and I don't know what the parameters are if we can insert that word yeah I can type it in and you guys can read it and say Yes No Maybe So yeah board member benefits I just have a I mean just a thought don't buy what I'm selling uh but we our first goal if uh I'm as Pride if you scroll down to our first goal is around

030student learning just wondering if that would be a place where you want to see success and achievement we do have the word achievement there right now and by we I mean the group um just just a wondering if that would be a a place where um that would that would fit just as a just as an example uh every student will receive a well-rounded education that meets their diverse needs and promotes their gross achievement and success is there any way we could insert that in the mission a thousand percent that's the wishes of the board so are you talking about I thought we were looking at the mission or the vision we're looking at the vision we're looking at the vision statement now this one here that he that superintendent Ortega referred her to was

031the Galt was one of the goals Justice to show that what you were saying is one of the goals listed as one of the goals in that we could possibly add the word success here in the in the gold at in this goal about student learning Mr Jacob could you read that so your learning goal one more time sure again if you added and again this is just a recommendation uh every student will receive a well-rounded education and that meets their diverse needs and promotes their growth achievement and success and I don't know if achievement success are too close or not but um this is a an idea but but to the point of of course if the the board wishes to insert in the vision of course I would actually agree with board member

032benavidez in that uh finding a way to insert that in the overarching vision uh would actually seemed to make a lot of sense to me personally so you're you're saying this goal here or just the word success I'm going I'm going so I know that uh superintendent or Sega suggests or or asked would if we were to add some you know success within goal one would that be sufficient is a question that was posed primarily to boyfriend videos and the rest of us I'm saying after hearing what you what you should I agree and I don't think that that would be sufficient I think that it would it would be best to I agree with you from I understand the language of product and what that looks like I I get the complications with that

033but from a vision standpoint it would make sense for us to talk about uh you know helping to facilitate the growth of successful adults or or that being part of our vision that makes a lot of sense to me as as you've shared that one I'd like to chime in just a little so um in our in the The Retreat uh stakeholder discussion of vision we purposefully purposely included staff so students and staff in terms of all the people that our district represents internally in terms of internal stakeholders and I I'm hearing the um the idea of adding that word success which I'm not arguing against but so I'm just I'm holding it there and as I read the vision as it's written I think if it's if the vision statement is a statement that

034describes our aspirations I think you could say that a successful student reaches their potential they contribute they positively contribute to the community they add they are able to Advocate they're able to think critically they're able to communicate effectively and they show compassion and I think that's a way to describe success even if we don't use the word success and that that's a that's an additional thought but if we were to add the word success into this sentence as it's um currently constructed may be the point of where we could add it would be something like students and staff will successfully discover or successfully realize their full potential right because realizing your full potential is success in in in the broad sense right if you have reached your full potential of the district and the education

035and the experience that you receive and participate in if that enables you to reach your full potential I would argue that you the district has been successful in helping you do that so we'll discover to me is like well I'm going to discover it but am I going to oh am I will I own it right I guess that's the way it's kind of speaking to me because we can all discover our talents but is that something we are going to be a product of is is I could discover that I have the talent of let's just say sewing but is it something I'm going to utilize so if you were to using your your suggestion uh what president uh successfully realized their full potential I I think that that gets that what you are

036suggesting so I think that would make sense in jumping ahead not not too far but looking at Mission where we're talking about uh diverse College and Career options and and we're talking about students there I could see a way to add what you're talking about with success at the end of that so I and I I would be comfortable with it being in either Vision as you suggested or finding a way to put on the tail end of the mission foreign again that the vision is the it outlines the long-term goals and the idea of you know the future idea of what your students will be in the mission defines like the the primary purpose of your organization your reason for existence so when we're looking at the vision you know we're looking at long-term

037aspirations what are you aiming for so I hear you you're saying you're aiming for success for these students so I would suggest if um board member benefits if discover if you feel that discover is not um impactful enough maybe it's a word like realize because realize kind of means that it's you're not just brushing against it but that you are doing it that you're living your full potential is that the kind of like word that you're looking for I just I think for me I would prefer to see the word success in the vision somewhere because when when you when you go to the if you're on the web page or you're looking at this District's Vision I mean that's that's our overall Vision as Miss Pride was saying right so if we could insert

038that word in there somehow and we could come to agreement then I think that would be great okay so I'm going to ask a question here because I do not use Google Docs we are not allowed to use it at my job how do I strike through this in the upper right hand corner where it says editing if you click the drop down and change it to suggesting now you can just delete it [Music] yeah that's what I wanted to strike through so that we are not taking it off so we don't have to keep putting it back so I know where it's at in word but I don't see it here oh you gotta take it out because I know like what was the word you said um yeah I just think that yeah

039the word discovers kind of to reach their potential I think that's what I feel there's success to reach your potential success either I don't know dancing singing English stem whatever they do best and we want to be sure that we are saying we as Educators want this child to reach his or her full potential and whichever it is you know what what whatever they do best but I think the word discover um it's we need to put a different word in there because discover again it's just very vague it just doesn't um so um trustee um Benavides um I did a strike through through Discover and put in the their suggestion that we had have successfully reached um you can see it on the screen is there a way for us to be able to

040see her screen on our computer I think they would have to log into the zoom huh and turn one into three yeah and you tell me what you'd like for me to insert or something in the and then I'll make sure that I put any changes in blue so that you know will know what I've added in and will strike through anything that we're thinking of taking out I'm so sorry are we just speaking out I think that this can be a little bit more important okay um one of the things I I do agree um in adding like success or discover I have uh like advocacy will some word to basically it's it's the autonomy that we're we're giving them right that for staff and for um students so I would suggest students and

041staff will um have efficacy to reach their full potential he and I chime in just on just on the word efficacy only because a lot of people don't know what that means and this is going to be your vision statement that any parent any Community member who's not in education or who's not in a field where that word gets thrown around we want them to know be able to read it and get a a good understanding of what we're speaking on do you have a different word you can think just to check in on that you're totally right when we discussed we did have many educators of course they're bringing all these big words that we didn't know what they meant and we spoke about just exactly that we wanted to be sure that anyone

042could pick this up any parent can read this even if a student they need to and understand it right how about Blossom or our mindset is awesome except to all of you Mama thanks I'm just throwing it out there you know to have yeah you don't like the way it reads um at this moment I I actually do really like it but I do agree with board member Benavides is that I I would like to see success and full potential does kind of but at the same time just to be clear and direct and this is what I'm hearing for you is that you you know just to be clear and direct to be able to go ahead and add that instead of just what is full potential well it means to their success thank

043you all right are you like me I left one of my pair of glasses in Texas I had to take out another pair today Adrian read it to her so it says oh go ahead okay popcorn I mean it says students and staff will successfully reach their full potential and positively contribute to their community Through advocacy thinking critically communicating effectively and showing compassion is that better yeah let's see let's move this over is that better yes with just an eye test chart [Laughter] opinion of what I like this change yeah I do I think it still keeps it simple but it if this is the first thing you read on our page yes success is right there so am I hearing consensus on this as your vision statement yeah okay I just want to say

044that I think what it does is it creates the intention right I mean that's that's the goal and and again keeping in mind you know the purpose of the mission as I said and I think that um I agree with the board that successfully sounds better than discover there's lots of things about myself I'm still trying to discover so successfully is a much better point all right thank you so let's talk mission to create a safe caring environment where we educate and Empower all students nurture all learning styles and ensure diverse College and Career options initial thoughts so I I personally I go back and forth on the comment that I originally had was under the one of the one of my two comments was under the first goal with when we're talking about student

045learning and and being specific about like targeted achievement that's the only thing I wonder I see we're going to educate and Empower all students and ensure options but I've but the mission of what what are we existing to do I I really think talking about student achievement it would be important for our student achievement to be included within the mission somewhere I hear Adrian and uh board member as a Counterpoint to where how draft dramatically the mission changed from what it was to this version um and correct me uh superintendent it was really focused on state state federal and local assessments was that the was that the mission statement that was previously there because there was one of these um uh paragraphs if you will that really focused on assessments and we wanted to move

046away from saying our mission was not to have students do well in the assessments but broaden that and so we that's how we got to educate right we said we're School we're School District our job is to educate and we added empower so that's I share that as background of how it evolved over the course of the three days can you read the previous one do you have it up the Azusa Unified School District equips every student with the Knowledge and Skills for College and Career ready Readiness to fulfill the purpose and positively impact Society let's go one where um about the the gym okay oh what was the previous mission statement [Music] can you read it one more time the Azusa Unified School District equips every student with the Knowledge and Skills for College

047and Career Readiness to fulfill their purpose and positively impact Society again don't what don't buy what I'm selling but what just to a board member Greer mentioned I mean if that was a desire of the board I mean I think you just said it it just goes at the end of the mission again don't don't buy what I'm selling but I mean it would be that to ensure student achievement seems appropriate to me if that was the will of the word can I chime in a question that I had when I read this the only word that's that seemed odd or out of place to me was the word options because it seems like we're narrowing it down to that they only have two options College and Career options diverse College and Career options and

048reality of it is is that there is going to be some students who you know college is not going to be their things there's going to be some students where career may be they're you know they're going to have to have a job at some point maybe to take care of themselves but maybe not some may want to travel do volunteer work some may want to get involved in other things that aren't necessarily a career right away or not go to college right away how are we supporting those students to reach their goals or as well are we thinking about them we live in a different Society now where you know we have a lot of students who take Gap years and want to go off and do something to figure out what they initial

049what they want to do later on in the future so the just the word options it made it seem like that's it that's your option college or career pick one Yolanda do you want to talk about the kind of the thinking of the stakeholder group and how we because I know we we spent a lot of time on this piece talking about careers and courses things like courses of study and I I strongly believe that the word options was like other than College and Career oh okay you know you know college career yes but other than that just like you mentioned some we get they are not going to go to college or even the career but they have other options of anything else they want to do maybe that's not the right word but

050that was the mindset I hear what you're saying you know what I mean yeah so I don't know there's another word you have in mind if you think I I I'm not sure other options that's I think when we were talking about it we were talking it started we were talking about courses or curriculum sorry oh no go ahead and and I think that's kind of how we're saying well we're instead of just talking about courses and curriculum what about Career Technical education vocational education and that's kind of how it got to these couple Awards here so you were looking at the CT part of the component of it gotcha um the other the other option for options is opportunities bringing the opportunities to our students right college and career opportunities a career can be

051in anything it could be Tech it could be you know a three-week course or online course and these are opportunities for our students so I'm going to suggest maybe opportunities instead of options what do you guys think thoughts I'll put it here just so that you can see what it looks like I'm a visual so I know we're getting into the nitty-gritty Awards meeting here which I mean it is what it is I like opportunities I think the word Ensure is odd with the word to ensure diverse college and career opportunities oh I'm like yeah I think if we're saying opportunities which I like opportunities it seems like provide fits it better I think I personally like that as well so to create a safe caring environment where we educate and Empower all students nurture

052all learning styles and provide diverse college and career opportunities yeah is that a thumbs up from everyone sounds stronger it looks like you well the only thing I have is around achievement but that could uh maybe that's for the conversation for the first goal to uh that we have so I'm comfortable with this we have consensus I'll read it one more time to create a safe caring environment where we educate and Empower all students nurture all learning styles and provide diverse college and career opportunities we're good trustee um dinovites it looks like you still have a question well I was just trying to go back to what um board member Greer said with respect to if I'm understanding it correctly student achievement somewhere in there is that what I was hearing or yeah to to

053unpack it and maybe maybe we can decide is it best here or best to be addressed in the next area I just think it's important when we think about what what are we doing whether it's a goal or whether it's saying what do we exist to do is is to create a way for students to to almost like a better is get to the next level so if if we're coming here how do we how do we rate how not just raise our scores but but how do we how do we help students to raise their own individual like they are we're speaking about their their individual growth which then raises you know everything across the board so maybe that's best looking at the goal one or being specific about that within goal one um

054but I would just say that's part of when we think about what do we exist to do uh part of that is to to to to to uh catapult our our students hire um academically and I I think that that you're right I think when we get down to the goals we can be a bit more specific um this one is if and I'll go back to my my first analogy from when we first started the workshop if you were looking to apply for a job at Azusa Unified School District and you were at the mission statement as we just edited it what would you think would you think oh okay or would you think I don't get it we're good I didn't want to say anything until you reached consensus but I really like

055it I think it sounds good with just those couple of changes I think that it really um it kept the it kept the the input from the stakeholders and from what was developed at The Retreat it kept what they wanted to see and what they thought the missions should you know look like and I think it just took it took it up a notch so and that was with just changing those two words so okay great so before we get to the goals we do need to talk about core values so these are the things that um came up as core values in one thing that I did notice is that a lot of the the items on this list do go back to the um the priority areas for the lcap as well so

056as you look at the core values here what do you think do you like what they put is there something you want to add is there something you want to delete we have collaboration diversity equity and inclusion Integrity accountability and respect continuous growth open communication and student focused these are the core values that you as abort the administrators of the district the teachers the staff this is what they're saying that they're committed to doing in their positions each and every day and your positions each and every day for the students in this District I I do want to make comments on this I and I don't know if we can change any of this because it sounds like it's related to the lcap or whatnot but you can still change it this is this is

057what we're here for today and I I mean I think it's important for me to speak on behalf of the community that I represent on behalf of the children and um and I love everybody and this is just you know unfortunately for me you know Equity diversity and inclusion and we can thank our government for this but there has there is some kind of you know related like negative connotation to that and I can't sit here and say that you know because of the community that I represent that I'm comfortable with that because uh there's there's still a lot of legislation out there there's still a lot of things that um when we look at the Dei I mean we're sitting here talking about this but how do the parents feel right I don't know

058because we're we're making we're basing our core values for them basically for our students and I mean at the end of the day the vote it'll come down to a vote right and and but I but I can't sit here and say that I'm comfortable with that as part of the core values and I know some schools are probably adopting that and I think for me I'm just not comfortable with it because there is like I said there's still a lot of legislation there's still a lot of things that are out there that um there's a lot of mixed feelings about this does it really promote um I I think it undermines too that it undermines um like Merit and qualifications and things like that to a certain extent whether it's in the workplace in

059school or whatnot but that's that's just my my feeling towards the Dei in the core values when I looked at when I look at this I'll I'll tell you and I'm speaking just for me what I what I see when I read diversity equity and inclusion what I see is that it means that um every student has the opportunity the same opportunity at every time and place from our El our English language Learners to our um our high achieving students to our low achieving students to our special ed students to the the you know at every level that every student is looked at in the same way and that they're viewed is viewed as how do I help this student continue to achieve no matter where they're at no matter what level they're at that

060when I hear the word inclusion that's what I think of is that every student is going to get what they need in order to be successful in school while they're with you and Beyond when they leave you um and the same thing with Equity um when I was with your team before I don't remember if it was last time or time before that but one of the things that we talked about that came up was making sure that there was no group of students that was left behind someone brought up the fact that um we were having a conversation and we were talking about um students who weren't performing well who weren't achieving well and someone says well you know yeah we want to give resources to those students and make sure that they're achieving

061both we can't forget about the high performance students either we need to keep challenging them we need to keep providing for them and make sure that they have what they need to continue to be successful as well so when we look at Equity you know we're thinking about that as well as far as as far as diversity your district is very diverse um very very diverse this district is and I think that the importance of that would be just saying that you know one area isn't going to get more because maybe that part of the district is more affluent than the other part of the district or this District isn't going to get more because maybe they're um a lower socioeconomic area of the district but that we are making sure that everybody gets what

062they need and equal isn't always you know Equitable because if you give us all the same thing you know all the same amount of food to eat but I'm not hungry and I don't really want mine so I let mine go in the trash but superintendent Ortega hasn't eaten in two days and I just wasted something that he could have benefited from you know so that's how that's just my interpretation of it when I look at diversity equity and inclusion one thing I would say and I hope that this doesn't get taken in the wrong way by any means is that I think that when you're sitting on the dance and you're making decisions about something like this and there's all this noise in the news and in the papers and on the radio and

063on the talk shows and everything that you have to say what does this mean to our district don't look at what this District said it means or what this news channel says it means or what this politician says it means what does it mean to the to this District so you as a board what does diversity equity and inclusion mean to you you have the opportunity to Define what it means to you and what it means to Azusa Unified School District because I know of Plenty districts that I've been to where everybody has a different interpretation so what does it mean to you but that's why you know I can add that you know I think it's really important that we leave it in there you know we are non-partisan when we're voted in we're

064not voted in by parties so we should not look at parties and look at what's on the news because we are here to serve our students whomever they are again like you mentioned you know ERD students you know High Achievers whomever we need to serve them and educate them all the same so to me we need to leave this in here it's very important because we started having this um even the students um what remember Ariana said we call the students at Glaston high school you know they were meeting together because they wanted to be included and they wanted to be a voice whoever they were and I know her daughter was one of the students and they um would come to the board meetings and and it's really important that we include them and

065whoever whoever these students are but it's also our job it's also our job to do that so we have to get away from parties and who you are and the News seriously we have to think about the students and the staff that are here at Azusa unified period And I took my oath right and I appreciate that and I took my oath as well but I think that and I appreciate everything that Mrs Sprite said as well but you know I I think that for me I think and and like I said at the end of the day the board will make a decision right and and um and I just wanted to make sure it's on the record and it's not I'm not here as a party I'm here as a board representing the

066parents of the children and um when I think about this I think about like you know diversity I get it I'm Hispanic right I come from a single parent household I mean we were on welfare you know my mom struggled she worked hard to you know for I I mean I went to school as an adult worked a job and got my master's degree but you know so the diversity I I understand that and we are a very diverse Community I used to work for the city I mean I know the demographics so equality you know I I look at it more like equality yeah we're all equal in a sense you know I mean and the reason I said that earlier we can thank our government because it's kind of like they've they've structured

067this Dei and and um it's evolved into something that unfortunately I didn't make that decision none of us here did and and it and it just happened and now we're having this discussion and I'm not here representing any party I'm just representing the children and the families and what I heard when I was out there campaigning and I'm looking at it like diversity yes because we are a diverse Community equality because we all have we we all have equal opportunity I'm sorry quick question just so I'm clear is it equality did you guys change it what well like stepped out or Equity yeah I'm saying she's standing quality yeah so diversity quality and you know to me it's like more like color blindness because I think that that I just think that we're we're getting

068caught up with a lot of yeah it is there there is a lot of talk out there and and with respect to different parties and things like that but I also think that we we need to respect the parents and the children and and um some of the things that we hear too as board members and I'm not here because I'm here representing any part I'm here because my job when I was door knocking was I was listening to parents and they're what they were voicing to me so if I were sitting on the dice and not voicing I'm not just voicing my opinion then I would be doing a disservice to my community or my trustee area and I'm sure there's some within the other areas that also feel the same um this is

069why we did go on the survey parent survey yeah parents were the highest at 52 percent and we listen to their voices and this is where we actually came out with this also right you know so and and hear the community also right and that's okay I mean if the survey you know if it rated high in a percentage that's fine but I just wanted to make sure that I voice my opinion on behalf of the community that I serve because that's also important that I don't forget that that's why I'm here no and remember what I said at the beginning is that everybody needed to speak out and everybody needed to say how they felt about things whether they like it whether they don't like it whether they have suggestions for it to change

070it that's part of the process so you're just yeah you know and sometimes we're going to agree to disagree but absolutely my job as a board member is to represent my district now the 52 I will challenge you on that when your job as a board member is to represent the entire right the Azusa unified right exactly but so so and I I don't know the 52 percent you know maybe they surveyed those people I I have no idea that's we did yeah this is a service right so I mean I'm just voice and that's what we that's when I asked each and every one of you to do and I thank you for doing that it's important that everybody's voice is heard and you know everybody up here you don't always have a 5-0

071vote on everything that's that's just part of being on the board so no I thank you for um voicing your your opinion and your thoughts and your concerns if if I could add interestingly enough ironically looking at diversity I think I think this represents diversity even here on the board because for me as a as a representative who who values representation across the district across the different categories that we may you know consider it's it's for that very reason that I I would be I would be uncomfortable if diversity equity and inclusion was somehow excluded from from our our core values um and I and I do know I'm uh I'm I'm aware of the ways that that can be a buzzword in in certain settings in certain certain places um maybe even positive and

072negative and depending upon where you're where you're suggesting it but I think that was spot-on despite what you said about uh for us it's important to understand what does diversity Equity uh and and Equity to distinguish from equality like uh specifically from equality um but what is what is diversity equity and inclusion mean within the Azusa Unified School District and I think it's important that that we are we are mindful of that um across across the the district um and across the different categories I just want to to read Equity Equity means each individual or group of people is given the same resources resources or opportunities Equity recognizes that each person has different circumstances and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome one of the reasons I believe that this

073is very I feel very strongly about keeping these core values within our district the diversity the equity and inclusion is because we did have our students staff community members come and speak and we listened and that shows right there that we are listening that we are not taking things out of context because somebody feels strongly about you know taking it out of context it is what it is I mean we can't we can't read too much into you know we want to accept everyone diversity equity and inclusion is what we need to have in our core values and um you know it's it's one of those things where I I hear um what what was said that you know we hear our community but the same time we need our community to come and speak

074here we can go and listen to our community you know on the phone or they can text us which they do right and we can knock on their doors or whatnot but I think it's so important when we have a group of students that feels very strongly they did not have a diversity equity and inclusion in their school setting that we we listen this is our future and I think one of the things that we have in our division let me go back um where we included right the success I think this adds to their success as well that at a young age we are not excluding them right um and so being able to empower them with this I think will also will also um you know Empower them to be successful adults I'll

075try to be brief so um I'm very much in supportive including diversity equity and inclusion as part of our core values and I think just to uh if we could skip ahead just a little bit to one of the goals that is presented here around human resources um Board of debate with this I heard you mentioned something about uh Merit and accomplishments and presumably you're talking about affirmative action or preferential hiring practices or admission practices in the Human Resources goal that again is presented as a draft for consideration we specifically cited hire and retain diverse Personnel who are highly qualified et cetera Etc um so I think diversity in in this entire document as a whole appears in a couple of different ways um and and I think that is also you know by Design

076um and this I hear you're very passionate comments about how you feel you know representing stakeholders that you've talked to personally or stakeholders in the district um I think along with some other colleagues here that citing and really naming diversity accurate inclusion as it stands I would not want to have a Mission Vision value statement that did not include that any other thoughts or any other thoughts on on diversity Equity inclusion or any of the other bullets that are listed here or do you feel anything else is missing in the core value where it says continuous growth I was um thinking more of the line of providing lifelong learning right because continuous growth sounds kind of like okay but being able to provide um as a district the love of you know of learning to

077be lifelong I I had us well I'm not not I don't know about lifelong learning but what I wondered growth is uh we've talked about continuous Improvement and that's a word that we've that we've used and I wonder if that's more fitting only because growth growth can not always be isn't good or bad or it can be either um so I I would actually be in favor I don't know about I'm not sure about lifelong learning um or if that it would go there if we were looking to add that somehow as another value but um which I'm not sure about either but I would say continuous Improvement versus a continuous growth yeah I just didn't like I didn't feel that growth was the strong enough do you have a strong an adult app program

078is when I think of lifelong Learners I I didn't know my mind always goes to our adult Learners that are in our district and we you do have an adult program yeah I would like to see lifelong learning added to our core values to also include you know one of the things you said because it's the ranges it covers everybody we can make that another bullet I would like to suggest that but I do like the continuous Improvement instead of the continuous growth and then possibly add to the and add the lifelong learning as a different uh bullet point just add the two bullets and the lifelong Learners and continuous improvements and remove the continuous growth because that's a growth means like I mean a lot of things but grow I don't know [Music] put

079that there will leave or make this one and I think Mr Ortega we've heard you say continuous Improvement in many board meetings so it's not only Improvement to test scores and other measurables but Improvement to systems and procedures and policies you're doing pretty good on that Angela yeah you don't know how to do it this is so you know anytime you're on a different computer other than your own you're looking for everything yeah so um I made those changes is there anything else that sticks out to any of you any questions comments some concerns additions deletions can you what were the core values or is if you can read those out the previous ones yeah collaboration honesty and integrity being student-centered accountability equity and Excellence transparency can I make one suggestion not that it really

080matters but can we move student-focused up to be the first one so are you guys okay with this list now anything any other concerns I think I like transparency in there because I think that's it's it's critical nowadays I mean it was in there in the prior goals right with integrity and title I was actually going to say how about if we put um transparency and integrity together because they kind of go hand in hand yeah is that okay yeah that's that works are you guys okay with that how does that look to all of you complete [Music] and I know um I know that there's concerns on the diversity equity and inclusion but we have consensus that we're moving forward with this I just want to make a comment on that and you know

081for the record I'm not sitting here saying that I don't know that we're a diverse you know group I'm cognizant that we are in a diverse Community not just here in Azusa but you know in the surrounding communities um so I'm sensitive to that and uh and I know and I believe that we should all have you know there should be some kind of equity and and and and that everyone should have an opportunity whether you're you know whether you you know you have maybe you come from money or not and and that um and that it should be inclusive of everyone unfortunately in today Society right this is where we are today so for me you know the reason I brought that up is because I want to make sure that there is an

082understanding out there that uh it's important for me to be the voice for for the others as well and I'm it's not because I'm sitting here and not cognizant that that you know I'm sensitive to those things as well especially because of my upbringing and and I I mean some of my best friends are from different cultures you know and and I mean I meet with them just this Saturday I'm meeting with different cultures but unfortunately today we live in a society where things have been taken out of context right so but then again I go back to the fact that I am sitting here representing certain stakeholders and I I'm that voice and and I just want you know my colleagues and everyone here in the audience to be aware of that thank you

083okay we're making good progress here so now we were on our goals so I'm gonna take this down so I can try again I'll show you as much as possible so we did make some changes here already I can take that one out now that I know how to strike through things so I can take this one out so if you'll recall at the beginning of the meeting um we skipped down to Student Learning because of the word success and we added um we added that in under student learning the student learning goal so the student learning goal says every student will receive a real one well-rounded education that meets their diverse needs and promotes their growth achievement and success um anything that now that we're actually on goals that you would like to add

084delete have a discussion about this statement before we move on to human resources I think the only thing it would add is a comma after achievement to make the punctuation consistent among all of our sentences absolutely thank you you got a question on it doesn't sound quite right to you I'm trying hard not to be nitpicky oh no go for it then remember this is your opportunity do it now so I wonder if looking at looking at this I wonder if but if my Hang Up is on the word promotes um it's it's just a bit too passive for me and I I understand I I understand that we will have these are going to be goals and then we're going to have other like specific tangible targeted goals that are that are attached to

085this is as well but I would just love this as a district to take to be bold enough to to do more than promote let's set a goal of promoting growth and achievement but I don't know but I don't even have a suggestion for a replacement one I mean thank you how about their support or ensures because this modifies well-rounded education Imports diverse needs and supports their growth diverse needs and what did you say uh trustee RLS you said a word just a minute ago myself yeah I can't remember what you said just a second ago Advocates that's right Advocates um I think I think the word ensure insurers is the closest one for me personally that I've heard the word insurance is carries the most weight that's what I'm gonna get me give me

086some context of what you're looking for it to to explain to convey to somebody who reads it what do you want to convey that we're that we as a district are saying that we we're that this is what we're going to do like we're we're taking on the goal of not merely promoting someone's growth and hope they get there but we're our goal is that yeah so if we look at the word ensure we look it is a goal to ensure because it's already a guarantee yeah because it's already a goal which which the fact that it's a goal makes it aspirational by by Nature so we're working towards it so to be working toward the promotion of is just a it's it's it's too passive in my opinion sure I would still like to

087see that meets their diverse needs and advocates and whatever other word I would like to include advocates in in there as well that we are all Advocates teachers staff Administration board we are all Advocates right of their diverse needs to ensure their growth and achievement so that meets their diverse needs and Advocates their growth and achievement their growth achievement and success that sounds a lot stronger that means their diversity and ensures achievement and success let me take out insurance for a minute so you guys can read it both ways let's see it both ways and tell me what you think I don't I don't feel like the word Advocates fits in this sentence it sure means that we are going to do that that's right we are Advocates means more of um well I think

088you're going to advocated yeah because it's a well-run education and yeah ensure their cross yeah I like that one could you could you read it for us please every student will receive a well-rounded education that meets their diverse needs and ensures their growth achievement and success I'm comfortable with this yeah I'm making sure better than promote any other thoughts maybe not here but I would like to see that in one of our goals and I can't remember which one right now the word advocacy um but we'll get to it okay hold on so we have consensus on this one yes sure it's a Human Resources we will hire and retain diverse Personnel who are highly qualified and provide competitive compensation professional development and ensure high standards for professional conduct you have professional choice she missed

089you if we were trying to not use the word professional twice in the sentence and also make it more accessible language we could think about replacing professional development with training so I know in schools we talk we say we even say PD we don't even say professional development and that's not something that everyone would readily know or even what professional development is but I think training is a more accessible word we will hire and retain diverse Personnel who are highly qualified and provide competitive comp and provide competitive compensation training and ensure high standards for professional conduct there's still something in there when I read it out loud that sounds weird am I the only one catching that I think training doesn't fit in the right trees Stronger Yeah well something with cream flow yeah you

090know I don't want to say dog but you're training you know someone you're just I think it should be I mean it shouldn't be a simple coaching Fuller than professional development because yeah you're right okay but it's just there's something with the flow listen to the flow it says we will hire and retain diverse Personnel who are highly qualified and provide competitive compensation training and ensure high standards for professional conduct it could just be me I think it's it's just something it's Punctuation is that what it is so here's I'll take a stab so we will hire and retain diverse Personnel who are highly qualified comma and provide competitive compensation and meaningful training comma and ensure high standards for professional conduct so compensation and and meaningful as a descriptor for training uh-huh foreign high standards

091for professional conduct is that I miss anything that you said no but now that I look at it maybe there doesn't need to be an and after qualified it's just um a comma so the the verbs are higher and retain provide competitive compensation meaningful training and then the next verb is Ensure so we will hire and retain diverse Personnel who are highly qualified provide competitive compensation and meaningful training and ensure high standards for professional conduct Ed before Angela um educate educate somewhere in there I mean um provide competitive compensation and educate I'm actually comfortable with uh professional development even though the word professional is in there twice because it's professional development and professional conduct which are which as two connected things are are I would be comfortable with professional on there twice as it was

092originally wow and then we're taking out did I get that right oh oh sorry I mean in poha should be removed so we will hire and retain diverse Personnel who are highly qualified provide competitive compensation and professional development and ensure high standards for professional conduct yeah I like the professional development but could we use another word for like professional conduct the professional development I think is strong and yes we do we do like the perfect but but the whole professional and professional does the same thing well look at professional conduct and again like before I asked you so when we say professional conduct what are you trying to convey excellent customer service [Music] that they're going to have good contact with the um students parents staff not even conduct what the word means I don't

093know if you have to put professional conduct down now I really like what what you just said can you please repeat it employee conduct right you said something different oh um when you asked you know when you say professional conduct you know High prevent you know good pressure conduct um what did I say I forgot what you said excellent customer service excellent customer service so if we're facing our students we're facing our parents the community each other if we're all providing excellent customer service yeah yeah then we are acting according to high standards of professional conduct I I mean so let's let's go with that if that's what people are thinking I think customer services include and included within professional conduct and but that there are other aspects of professional conduct that are not included

094within customer service so so to me that change would be more limiting um could we add that though okay I would like to add it actually I don't think we should put it twice I think I think that would uh I just think changing it replacing professional conduct with customer service would only get at a a important aspect of professional conduct but but it but there's there'd be other pieces I think that are not included within that so I agree with that and it was just my reaction to what is that was my first reaction to professional conduct because this is a human resources goal so this is about our staff and our employees what if we instead ensure high standards for employee conduct I would be comfortable yeah it works yes yeah I like

095that I think for me I was thinking more like um just the like the environment right because that's a what do you mean go ahead high standards for I think I have I'm just adding this in so we don't forget where we were again what someone said so you had a thought yeah because in nature it's the environment right that we want to provide that it's a professional environment because um you said the p word yeah [Music] I think when I think you actually had a a good point with this Being Human Resources the word employee makes sense I know in many organizations especially you will see that they'll have an employee code of conduct but that's who they serve because HR yeah and that's it's in the HR part so the using the word

096employee actually does make sense so we will hire and retain diverse Personnel who are highly qualified provide competitive compensation and professional development and ensure high standards for employee conduct I see hit nuts consensus sure yes yeah I think it sounds good I I'm just I'm sorry I I would like to actually I I just remembered where um where I wanted to put the word advocate it goes back to our mission real quick just real quick too to go back to it real quick so so to create a safe caring environment where we educate comma Advocate comment and Empower all students nurtural nurture all learning styles and ensure diverse College and Career options let me put it down here so everybody can see it foreign just as a point of remembrance we did use advocacy maybe

097this is what you were remembering in the vision if you look at the vision that is in there not saying it shouldn't be in the mission but I'm saying I know you were remembering like where and and I I remembered wait a minute we do have that already in the vision you go back to the mission they're both right there I don't understand paragraph I would like to include it as well because we're talking about the environment and when we as staff right where we as a district we're advocating for our children not only are we educating we're advocating for them as educators if yeah I'd say um this is this I'm fine personally fine with this but if we say Advocate I think we'd have to advocate for um not just advocate that we

098would need to add the I don't think that it the sentence structure makes sense without the word for so advocate for and comma I like including advocate for but I would flip it to say educate comma Empower comma and advocate for all students so advocate for is immediately before all students or do we take out the empowers that what you said but no just just uh flip the order so educate comma Empower comma and advocate for all students to create a safe caring environment where we educate Empower and advocate for all students nurture all learning styles and provide diverse college and career opportunities that sounds strong yes consensus just say just throw it out there don't buy what I'm selling I don't think you need the and after empower oh okay you do yeah yeah

099they're relieving it [Music] that's where it goes so the human resources one are we okay now we're good on that one so we're at budget and finance to be responsible stewards of public funds and provide the resources needed to meet our goals fulfill our priorities and live up to our values the only thing I would change provide resource I would I would like to maximize resources or or I would be okay with instead of but but if if not somehow talking about the maximization of those resources but I'm comfortable just replacing Peppa provide and maximize resources because you can provide with them I think it's just a matter of probably like so because we're talking about budget and finance I don't we're not for do we provide the resources we don't we don't provide the

100monetary resources but we receive the monetary resources and then we met we we are to maximize those there are other types of resources that we provide but I wouldn't say that it falls unnecessary I don't know right we do we allocated resources to programs and activities right right and I think allocate would be a better word than provide so to be responsible stewards of public funds and maximize resources the allocation of resources and maximize the allocation of resources which do you guys prefer Boardman Burger when you say maximize what do you trying to emphasize yeah so if we look if if we if we take a look at uh the entire process that we went through for our school reorganization and are continuing to go through personal reorganization that is a that is a way

101to look at these are the resources that we have how do we how how what do we do with those resources in such a way that it maximizes opportunities uh programs student learning student experience how do we how do we take the same resources that we would have and maximize them um for the usage of our of our students and stuff so it would see as we're looking at goals I think that I would just see maximizing us as what what we are actively working toward now do you think that that is a word that someone will understand I I think so but but um I also think that it's a it isn't it I think it's what we're doing I think it's an and I don't think um allocation necessarily gets at it I

102think I think allocation is insufficient and I wonder what I think someone would probably have a better chance of understanding maximize over the work uh allocation but um yeah I have to agree with trustee Grier that maximizes a good word only because um remember at the beginning when I talked about some of the struggles that education as a whole is facing when I talked about was financial resources and so what we get is what we get and we have to make the best of it we have to decide you know like so many people do each month when they get their paycheck how am I going to make this work how am I going to get the most out of this money and so I think that maximize says that that you are getting a

103certain amount of resources financial resources and you as a board have to make sure that you're getting the most out of it that you possibly can I have to agree because I think that it shows that we are taking action watching our dollars where we're spending the money and then we're putting those dollars to good use so I I really appreciate that word absolutely but now the question um that trustee Greer also had was about the word allocation so right now it reads to be responsible stewards of public funds and maximize the allocation of resources needed to meet our goals fulfill our priorities and live up to our values I think we can take out allocation just keep it more simple to to read public funds and maximize the resources needed to be responsible stewards

104of public funds and maximize you want the left and the resources and maximize the resources needed to meet our goals fulfill our priorities and live up to our values I go back and forth about the word of that I'm comfortable with it come on is that what I'm gonna have to do yes so you okay with that let's see to be responsible oh because I have the strikeouts still in there to be responsible stewards of public funds and maximize the resources needed to meet our goals fulfill our priorities and live up to our values short sweet to the point any thoughts we're good consensus okay okay so now we are on community engagement so under Community engagement there were they proposed uh bullets basically here so to welcome build and sustain strong Partnerships with students

105parents families residents educational institutions in the business Community to support student wellness and achievement I would love to see Community organizations added to the list and and I'm and I'm I'd be good with that petition so what um business Community is that considered like the city hall you know can we try to get partnership with the mayor and the um content members is that under government or are we calling that um business communities you could say Civic and business Journey so I mean to do that so you could say Civic and business Community yes okay yeah yeah I like that and just for formatting um I think when we wrote it on the the poster it was easy to Bullet it out so that we could consider each stakeholder um and I think when we're

106presenting this in a document or on the website oh yeah I would probably say not have bullets and have everything in lower case with commas so it reads as as one you wanted with one sentence right so so Community organizations and so um I don't think we need yet and the if you put this well I think it's gonna depend I mean is it like one sentence it is I viewed it as bullets you want it as one sentence so do you want it to read as one sentence that says to welcome build and sustain strong Partnerships with students parents families residents educational institutions Community organizations in the Civic and business Community to support student wellness and achievement that's a long sentence no I I just went like the community oh no I was talking

107to trustee about the community organization and you know in that same line but if if it's bullets I would take out the and the yeah I would take the end of its wallets yes to me I think it when we were writing it it made sense to list it but in a final for final language I think it's it ends up being a long sentence but in a very and we see it as the paragraph yeah so that we could visualize it I think that would benefit as we're here now keep in mind when I do this they won't have capitals but I'm not going to take the capitals out and until there is a decision made so those would be lowercase so that's how it would look without the capitals of course should it

108read Civic and business communities or is it sufficient it's just a community I would like to include communities communities so to welcome build and sustain strong Partnerships with students parents families residents residents educational institutions Community organizations and the Civic and business communities to support student wellness and achievement so you guys like it as a paragraph I still I still don't like the end uh before Civic Ambitions but just and Civics and take that out yes so remove the duck no I I say remove the and uh use comma Civic and business communities wait I'm sorry I think you kind of have to have and because it's your list yeah okay and ship it so to welcome build and sustain strong Partnerships with students parents families residents educational institutions Community organizations and Civic and business communities

109to support student wellness and achievement I think to I would go either way with the the that struck out but either way yeah I could go either way I think I would lean more toward the side of including the but I I could I Wouldn't Die in that [Laughter] it can you read it with the and without the to welcome build and sustain strong Partnerships with students parents families residents educational institutions Community organizations in the Civic and business communities to support student wellness and achievement I asked you no she asked me to read it when okay yeah so that's with it I think that works majority wants I mean I'm comfortable either either way it does whatever okay so then we're putting it back and then um just we're doing lowercase on the items yeah

110and then we'll change everything to lower case thank you it looks okay in a sentence right I'm just looking yeah yeah okay see you guys skip like that yes yes okay facilities our facilities will be safe clean and well maintained for Learning and extracurricular activities with state-of-the-art technology so um my first question is we look at this one is this is this is a goal is this a goal that is um a long-term goal short-term goal or medium term goal think about your your resources all the time vote right but um when we put in there you know with like state-of-the-art technology and for the extracurricular activities I'm a parent and I'm reading this or I'm a Community member and I'm reading this and I'm thinking oh cool you know we're going to get that

111new gym that we've been wanting and oh wow all right our classrooms are going to have this and that in it this Tech that Tech in it that's why I asked that question well that is our goal yeah right yeah so I mean but is it like is it like long term where I look at this as my kids freshman year and I'm still looking at it on their senior year and I haven't heard it doesn't change or you guys have things in the plans in the works I think more than enough I think that there are things currently in place that are in line with this that's what I meant and that we're continuing to build up to build upon that so I think I think okay um we won't let you down we'll

112be sure to be sure that we're going to do what we're saying right or if we're here today not tomorrow but future board members you know that's what our mindset is is right and that's my job is to ask these questions that you might get from the community so okay so are you guys good with that is there anything you want added taken away do you have a recommendation if state of the art should be hyphenated or does our Communications team have a style guide recommendation for state of the art if it should be hyphenated or not I don't have a recommendation I'm trying to think of how it looks and things other things that I've seen where it was like part of a statement like this because it it modifies technology well this will

113be proofed anyway before you know well that's what we thought we were doing they'll have they'll have the real English Majors through it to make sure we we dotted every eye across every t technology okay so there's hyphen said for Google as an adjective it is an adjective yeah but then not be not between art and Technology between art and Technology okay so anything else with that one are you guys good I mean I think it's very clear very to the point okay safety and Wellness let's pray if I may hear um so let me take it down to a different page because it it ran into two pages it'll make it easier for us to view thank you um the [Music] group that went to that got to go to look at this uh

114felt strongly that there should be a goal around safety and wellness based on not only them that were there but based on the outcomes of the thought exchanges that were put up um we were almost done but we did not get to finish this one to add to bring forward to the Board of Education a recommendation so where we where we were in the process and in the protocol there were two iterations of what this goal could be but we never got to the point where for one and so this was uh it was decided that this would come to the board of education for consideration um and to talk about we like number one we like number two or meshing these two together that's why you see two here versus everything else you only

115saw one recommendation thank you for explaining that so the first one we ensure environments that address students needs by providing emotional physical safety along with fresh healthy meals to influence cognitive development for overall well-being the second one to establish a physically and emotionally safe environment for all where students and Staff feel secure and supported that first one had a little something strange going on when I read it yeah I think it's I think it's supposing safety is attached to emotional and physical but it's added to the list instead so I think I think that's where it convolutes the first sentence I think you're right board member there's that piece and then um the the concept of fresh healthy meals nutritious food fresh food came from I think it came from the the surveys the 1300

116voices that talked about better school food better school food which is a common refrain so I think it's we're trying to figure out if that should be if if School food should rise to the level of being embedded in one of these overarching goals or not and also strongly in the surveys were safety right safety and um fresh healthy meals you know of course they want your child to eat well and but safety was also a big um point that we wanted to put in somewhere in these goats do you have a preference between number one and two right now or is it something that can be tweaked to take a little from both or is there yeah seeing seeing the convoluted aspect of safety on number one makes me prefer number two as a

117as a foundation um personal unless we were to figure out how to word Smith that and figure figure out that piece what do you mean Adrian so number number one it simply doesn't it actually doesn't make sense unless hey so number two makes sense what where where would we add fresh and healthy meals well yeah I think we'd have to add it but it's clearly just kind of added to that one as well yeah so if we were to just use that as a foundation and just add it there um what do we say establish or maintain I would say maintain I think that's a good point because if you use the word establish it's like it's not there yet we don't have it but we're gonna get it we're gonna we're gonna you know

118put this in place so I agree that it has to go to maintain yeah and I wonder if there's a way to take the back do we just take the back end of that sentence on number one and find a way to work it in the end of number two from with fresh and healthy it seems kind of I'm trying my take on this is that um we know that we're moving toward scratch cooking and um you know beautiful learning spaces right I'm not sure that having a specific goal around School meals is at the district level but that it's at a lower level in the lcap when we say we you know we've created um School Chef we've created cafeteria workers who are doing these things and we're our priority around Health wellness and

119nutrition is embedded in the budget process and how we allocate funding rather than its own Standalone goal because then I think if you're talking about fresh food healthy meals you're also talking probably about physical education health education PE and that can be where whereas we don't have other specific big goals around that's Ela or math right it's not a Content area we don't have other content area goals or this would be like a health and wellness nutrition goal can we can we fit the word healthy in there without without saying freshly fresh healthy meals you know to maintain healthy healthy physically it physically an emotionally safe environment for all because I I while I agree that we may not need to get down to a level of saying fresh healthy meals it may still be

120wise to to include healthy some somewhere within the environment that we're because physically it gets at it but we're talking about physically physics healthy meals not necessarily fresh but healthy meals because we are going into scratch cooking and that is more healthier than eating um prostitute right so we're trying to let the community know that we are leading that way where the students are not eating all processed foods so um I like healthy meals it not necessarily fresh but to be sit in somewhere there how about like to support student health something to that effect [Music] I think saying healthy meals gets does get too specific I think that that's that that's lower in the milk that if we say if we stay healthy then as we flesh that out and and the lower levels

121of the of the targeted goals and and strategies for to achieve those goals the healthy meals are part of that I don't know that we have again same thing we said before um saying healthy includes healthy meals but also includes other aspects saying healthy meals excludes other things that healthy generally would include okay well because you mentioned what you're talking about like physical education you talk about that but then we should just add physical education also healthiness add both of them because yeah healthy means healthy can mean a lot of things but why can't we spell it out I I would like to add that that too as as well because it goes it kind of flows with it both food you know meals and physical and I actually do like the fresh healthy meals

122it's something that we haven't had in this District in a very long time so are you looking at adding along with fresh healthy meals to the end of number two [Music] how would you start that though along with fresh healthy meals and or the physical um idea if not a separate goal we don't have physical education in here we just say emotional physical what president about um you know we're talking about also the physical well-being as in sports and physical education and because that's where they have their daily exercise exercise right that includes to Wellness so then I would suggest I mean emotional um the wellness support the emotional well-being of our students also I have a Hail Mary here okay are you Catholic um to to maintain a healthy environment that is physically and

123emotionally safe for all where students and Staff feel secure and supportive but I like to add meals feel safe no feel light security where you're reading my notes [Music] I I said yeah Latasha I have a question do we have a uh staff well one is do we have a school wellness program right a school Wellness Plan yes ma'am and does that include staff yes ma'am um so with that in for example for number two the original number two we say this environment where students and Staff feel secure and supported um maybe we could add to the end of the year number two uh to maintain a physically and emotionally safe environment for all where students and Staff feel secure and supported and have access to high quality health and wellness programs and have access

124to high quality health and wellness programs which would also include physical education yeah we're doing we're on the well-being yeah because we haven't there's it's mental health physical health nutrition for staff and students I would like to withdraw my number three comment comment after support it I have to tell you guys I love commas um I'll put them everywhere if you let me can um so I would like to be on a combat after support it or no yeah I would like to um actually add something that um board member added uh just one word and that's and I don't see it up there so we already have safe environment never mind we're good to establish a physically and emotionally safe environment for all where students and Staff feel secure and supported and have access

125to high quality health and wellness programs don't think we need it it's a quick question if I'm a parent if I'm reading this high quality health and I'm just going to just play dead with it so does that mean Health Care does that mean what does that mean what do we mean with that we need to add like when it's together with Wellness I think that that that means that like the physical education the the food like the uh that type of environment but again it would be health and wellness but if we're trying to do simpler terms right [Music] well it's like when a doctor tells you your health and wellness is important yeah health and wellness is yeah they you think exercise taking care of yourself eating right drinking water there's a word

126missing to maintain a physically and emotionally safe environment for all where students and Staff feel secure and supported and have access to high quality health and wellness programs you mean nutrition like Health comma nutrition comma and wellness programs only to talk about the emphasis on food yeah well to your point you're saying that because I think health and wellness like to add nutrition in the middle of it I think changes where health and wellness is a thing well we already have healthy meals up there so no we're gonna no that's this whole separate thing it would just be number two just be number two um so because because health and wellness is a is almost in and of itself to add nutrition in there it now separates health and then and and now I think

127that's where it gets confusing and what you said like health programs what health program we have so I think adding nutrition I think makes it more confusing okay you know um there's too many ands there's too many ants that just students so are you saying nutrition and have access I mean meals I'm saying that the term health and wellness is something that includes meals so adding nutrition wouldn't be necessary because health and wellness would already be inclusive of nutrition then if you wanted to keep nutrition I do I wanted to keep nutrition or I wanted to put meals in there some somewhere because again we are heading towards fresh meals and nutrition yeah that that that's okay why don't we do this here I call nutrition and health and wellness programs there's too many ants

128well I didn't add another in I didn't take one away but I didn't have one to maintain a physically and emotionally safe environment for all we're students and Staff feel secure and supported and have access to high quality nutrition health and wellness nutrition yeah we'd have to put another hand um and Latasha I have a question can um staff purchase meals yes ma'am does Steph know that yes ma'am I love this do we have well yeah because this is Wellness so that's why you have secure in here right yeah for safety can we put a period somewhere I just feel like there's all period like the first let's just out to maintain a physical and emotional safe environment for all period where students and Staff feel secure and supported no I think maybe it's just

129a long sentence yeah it takes a long sentence but it reads it well well I don't think it reads right we're trying to um get a nutrition common health to me I think we would need another name I do too but it's already a lot of bands but and I wouldn't put a comma so to us to maintain a physically a physically and emotionally safe environment for all where students and Staff feel secure and supported and have access to high quality nutrition and health and wellness programs so I think because the list is two nutrition is one and health and wellness is two then you don't need a comma I'll read it one more time to maintain a physically and emotionally safe environment for all where students and Staff feel secure and supported and have

130access to high quality nutrition and health and wellness programs that time it didn't sound bad could it make sense if we if we replace and have with the word with ah with access too I like that to maintain a physically and emotionally safe environment for all where students and Staff feel secure and supported with access to high quality nutrition and health and wellness programs Governor wanted it does it sounds better it flows much better let's say ye all that works Okay so I'm gonna just strike through that one and we have consensus on this one and that takes us to the last that was the last one okay just for for next steps um I will take all of these changes put them uh on a clean slate and then just to matter of factly

131I'll bring them to the next board meeting for approved I think you all did a great job um we had some good discussions about everything and you reach consensus working as a team so and I think that you still kept the foundation of the hard work that the stakeholders and staff put in at The Retreat to come up with all of this information to give you the foundation to be able to do what you did tonight so I thank you all for your hard work on this and um I look forward to seeing it in print on your website let me know when you put it up so thank you before we leave I know it's late and you guys have done a lot of work and we all have to go to work tomorrow

132just one quick question I would be remiss in my duties if I didn't ask um how things are going in general um aside from what we've done is looking at governance uh because that's the last time I was here that's what we talked about so just really quickly how are things going as far as governance um with your board our things flowing meetings being managed well things good well I I have a statement or um a concern I would say you know within our board and you know we've talked about in the past about the elephant in the room okay yeah definitely we have so you know I'm concerned that you know we have a board member well I would say you know president well you know um you know we need to talk about

133social media you know she has posted on her on her social media uh regarding Charter School charter schools and her Facebook and I understand you know it's her her Facebook it's her page it's not my page but what disturbs me is that you know I'm getting calls I'm getting emails I'm getting negative statements regarding the Board of Education and you know they mentioned the superintendent from community members and parents so of course no one includes me now I'm in it which I have nothing to do with it but I don't mean it because I am a board member so you know someone text me this statement that um The Rosedale Community is going to give us a petition regarding this top-notch uh stem um and Mandarin do a language emerging program for a charter school

134I have yet to receive it but if someone received it I'm not sure where but of course they're sending it to me I I get texts all the time so my concern is so you know can you give us direction or what do we do about it I mean we just you know and and I just want to discuss this because this is why we have governance you know I don't call her and ask her personally or I'm not going to do that but you know that's what government is about for us to discuss situations like this right and it concerns like I said because I don't have an answer to people that ask me you know so what you can do about it and stuff like that and it's not my my space but

135what kind of Direction can you give us or I I don't know what honestly what what I need to do and I'm not sure if my other colleagues have received anything I don't know but I have so first of all I think I'm a little bit confused so let me ask for clarification first of all are you saying that trustee Bao posted something on her social media regarding a charter school um I guess advertisement and literature I'm I I don't even honestly I don't even have her on my Facebook page I don't but people have sent me you know articles or something she wrote and stuff like that and I think that um you know we need to discuss it to see what do we do about it as board members or I I don't

136know so when someone posts something on their Facebook that you know that they've sent it to me like in a text no when someone posts something on their Facebook and then that wasn't you and then the other board members are getting yeah well myself calls from the community about something that someone else posted yeah I kind of speaking we have another my colleagues I can see calling for myself okay so you know my colleagues have received anything I I don't know so one of the things that I've talked about in governance when we've had our our you know basic New Beginnings workshop for the boards is I always caution about social media use um it's a double-edged sword you can use it to promote things in the district and in the community and you can

137you know use it for the good but the thing with social media is it's all the interpretation of the the reader yeah so I could you know I could post something very simple and basic but maybe you take it as I meant it but then maybe someone else takes it and says that's no I that's not what she meant she meant this and you know you could have two different people with two three different views without seeing the posts I haven't seen the post so I don't know what it's about I do know that from being with you earlier that the charter school issue was a very sensitive issue in this District um so that is not something that I would say should be posted on social media but again I have not seen I

138like the opportunity um you know I wasn't sure that this was going to come up as a an agenda item and I'm not hearing you say that it in itself is an agenda item no because she has to get concerns and this is why sure the government and this is why we can't we can't do that right sure I mean yeah I asked about governance and how you were operating together as a board right we should not I get it but I think this is a time and that's what she asked and that's what I'm saying sure so I have a question um for superintendent um according to our our board bylaws policies handbook um when we have a concern I guess among board members or any any one of us would have a concern

139about any what other person's conduct any other trustees conduct is our protocol to talk to the superintendent is our protocol to call each other um what is do we have an established precedent or or or do we wait until board meetings or government sessions well from what I know Eastern governance Retreat you know I I don't I will not call you and you know I'm not going to approach you we're not supposed to do that no that's not I encourage you all to do and I know that but I know I thought we were supposed to but that's what I encouraged all of you to do if you recall um one of the workshops I see one of the workshops that I had with you one of the things that I encouraged because there was

140some dissension among some trustees was that there needed to be conversations that take place um to discuss things and to talk about things and you know not let it just simmer and but yeah so that is what I always recommend as the first course of action is to ask for clarification depending then upon the situation and what the response is after the conversation and if there's still an issue then you can decide okay no this needs further conversation at that time I would let the superintendent know hey just giving you a heads up I have this this concern with this trustee about them doing X Y and Z I've talked to this trustee about it um not happy with their response I feel like this is a is a problem but keep in mind that

141things that we talked about before were more interpersonal they were personality differences um I don't feel like you take me seriously or I don't feel like you listen to me or I feel like you cut me off those type of things if you're talking about something that's reflective upon the board as a whole or the district as a whole then that's that's a whole other different issue and so I I would still address my concern to that individual I would then Loop the superintendent in to say Hey you know just letting you know this is going on normally I would say I would Loop the president in as well but this is between the president and the vice president so yeah well you can still even with the president you can still feel free to

142you should still be able to to voice your concerns well I don't feel comfortable okay and I can under I respect that but um yeah but then after that it's something that yeah if you if you feel like you want to talk about it with the whole board then this is the only setting that you can't address that in um is not a closed session agenda item so you would have your board comments where you could bring it up and then the president would have the opportunity to respond because I just asked about governance based upon my past working with your board and what we've talked about in previous retreats then yes you had the opportunity to to voice your concerns right now because I did ask about that as far as governance you know

143to check in with the board based upon our previous workshops um again I haven't seen the post so if I may ask a question so board vice president respectfully since you've brought up this topic here in this forum can you share with me what your concern is now that we're sitting here face to face well yes my concern is that you are the work president and if you're posting on Charter Schools Charter School um your oath is to represent this is the Unified School District and their programs and their students it's like if I was advertising Mountain View High School when my daughter goes to Gladstone you know why am I highlighting another District you know it showed a new version we have the immersion we have stem in our district so why would you

144be advertising I hear you and um you know I'm unanticipatedly addressing this and I want to address it with all of my colleagues here and for for the record um so on July 14th um I hosted on my personal page right so no I'm sorry not a personal page personal profile if that's a distinction or not well on a Facebook account operated by me as an individual um I posted a flyer for what I thought was a Summer Academy summer program opportunity and that's what I thought I posted to say hey and it was in the middle of summer exactly July 14th um I'm sorry for from our district I just want clarification if I could I wouldn't be happy to provide clarification yeah uh to share publicly right I'm I'm on tape as we

145all are um and so I wish I received an e-flyer that you know was kind of small and it was I I believe again this is what I believe was it was a summer opportunity it was a a um I don't know if it was tuition free or if it was it was tuition based or fee-based summer program that was offered in the city of Azusa and I believe it was offered at Apu at an APU classroom um that's what I thought I said and when I was representing it I wasn't representing to say I'm doing this or the district is doing that said hey families here's an opportunity for another summer program among all of the summer programs that are available to families in the area including what our city does other non-profits things

146like that um I posted it like hey here's something that you could do if your kid's interest in stem right I had looked at it myself for my own kids but ultimately we decided to do it do something else and I enrolled my kids and think together um and as everyone knows here that my two students are in elementary school in the district and in fact they attend Hodge in the dual immersion Spanish program so yes I am the supporter of dual immersion programs myself as a parent um and we're currently enrolled in the Spanish program and I intend for my children to graduate and earn their biling we'll see a live of literacy um subsequent to my the post that I made um I saw some posting about well you know what is what

147is this you know is is Dr Beau supporting a charter school and I was like oh well no I wasn't supporting a charter school I was just sharing information about a summer program and so I realized that this has caused some consternation within the community and um you know I think one of the most important things I've learned as an elected official is to listen as much as you can because people will share what is important to them um people will share what's important to them right and uh I I hear that some people are perhaps questioning the oath that I took and I know a couple of times we've said here you know the oath that I took well we all took the oath right and um we took those to represent a public

148school district um it is no secret that I'm an educator who has worked in charter school since 2004. I've made no I hadn't I haven't hit that it's on my resume it's on LinkedIn um I am all in for public education and I'm here as a trustee to represent not only my trustee area but also the students of Azusa Unified to my knowledge and and so that is what I am absolutely comfortable saying I made a post I believed in all with all my heart that it was about a summer program um and not anything to do with a charter school of any kind um so that's that's where I stand if that has been misinterpreted or if that has gotten uh amped up in the ruler Bill about my intentions because I happen to

149be an educator that it's worked for 20 years in public charter schools you know everyone has their own opinion right Everyone's entitled his own opinion um as am I now regarding my uh duty of loyalty to this District um I am not aware of any petition having been submitted to the district and here I would ask the superintendent if the district has received any petition because to my knowledge unless the other trustees know something that I don't there is no action item before the board if that's a question that is correct there is no action and no petition has then submitted to the just and I I am fully aware of our responsibilities even though social media is a pervasive tool that we use to communicate lots of things both personal professional private corporate um

150I I am well aware that uh our that the brown act prohibits us from communicating in meeting in series and by sharing or posting or liking something that had to do with a district decision that would be in violation the brown act I am well aware of those that responsibility that we all uh swore to uphold and have actively participated in that training and in the event that I'm wrong or that I violated a brown act violated the brown act um someone please let me know but to my knowledge I have not that was not a brown violation not as I know the brown act I think that I I I know you know if I was gonna question her breaking the wrong app or anything like that I was just questioning that um in

151perception probably because you you know you work for um Charter perception wise people are watching that and they're like oh wow so she works it so she must be bringing it I mean we talk about a lot of things we don't put on because perception Community see that it that's what that's even a city here people will always be watching us and we don't have any such thing as a my page I don't have my Facebook page no we don't when you're an electric official that page is everybody's everybody watches it everyone reads it it's not my page anymore maybe when I was a civilian I guess you call it a civilian but it's what I became elected official it was not my page anymore and I know that and that's something that I always

152preach to sports is that there's no differential between uh Facebook that you have set up for personal use versus a Facebook that you have set up specifically for district use because if you post anything on any of them everybody people see it they're going to take it as you the elected official that's just that's just the fact that happened so we and that's why I always caution about being very careful about what you put on social media because things are taken out of context sometimes or interpreted differently by different people depending on who's looking at it and a lot of times personal feelings also come into how they interpret things as well you had a question first yeah I would you know one of the things that I I'm hearing um yes in the community

153is the fact that the post did state in the flyer that it was fifteen hundred dollars per child um acknowledging and knowing what we post is part of our everyday life like you just said we are elected officials what we post becomes public what we post not only does it affect the individual posting but it also people start targeting the board as a whole to start targeting the superintendent start targeting the district so it put it puts us in a place of where we're targeted whether we're you know whether we knew about the post we didn't know about the post you know uh you know it the the conflict of interest of not promoting our district was seen by the community as a betrayal I I respect I'm sorry I'm not done I'm sorry I'm

154not done can you please no can you please speak I hear you let her finish and then you can respond please I think it's important that you know we do discuss this let's talk about the elephant in the room we spoke about this you know you did share last time that we should have these discussions to this day board member Bo has not called me to to talk about and I'm cordial towards her right I have to my due diligence to serve this community so but I you know there's still one of the things that I actually wanted to point out that it's very important that we as a board when we are in public or we're asking our staff to come to Apu you know to we have somebody you know we have a

155we have a community from Taiwan who wants to know about dual immersion hey staff right you're using the resources our time of our staff back to the original right it kind of ties in okay so it's dual immersion right it's about dual immersion um stem and and I understand you know um education I understand you are an education uh board member Beau um but I think it's really important that the the perception of the conflict of interest where you're where are you in reality I mean are you are you here wholeheartedly which you did say that you are I mean you publicly just said that right now but again I think the post does not reflect what you what you're saying and so that's where um it's important that we take in consideration that whether

156right we're not all friends on Facebook or in what that's one thing you suggested and so we took that into effect I don't get to see anybody's post I don't get to see and so when the community's reaching out to the other board members or you know we here in the community hey you you and we should get targeted you know we individually get targeted by individuals out in the community because of another board member posting something now it's my problem how is it my problem when I had nothing to do with it and that's I think where we need to be able to draw the boundaries and be able to check ourselves before we post something that is not in the light of recession that is positive for our school district right we the

157fear right the fear of like no is there a charter coming we um is important too where it all relates because she is tied to Charter she just she rights that right and so I think that's where the community is like wait a minute why isn't she promoting the summer school like you said a thing together right at Hodge um I I didn't know that but like promoting our school district when you are the president of this board right now you are the face and so um just speaking on uh you know being able to just Express what I've heard from the community where the community did come at me and I was very uncomfortable with that because it's like wait no we are now promoting the stand that that the board member Beau posted

158please sign up a thing together do not go to that one do not pay 1500 do not try to get the scholarship I did discourage people to enroll because we offer stem we offer dual immersion we offer all of that here in our school district and that takes away from our kids which means I'm sorry it takes our kids which means it takes from our teachers and that I'm uncomfortable with I have a big problem with and so I I wanted to address that here as well right thank you oh so board member or clerk Ariana's I I um I wanted to respond to your allegation that I've betrayed this District I did not said it you said it's a betrayal my actions will represent some sort of portrayal stand corrected I said I I

159I'm sorry not Stanford what I said was the community shared with me not that I said that you betrayed I not once said that I said the community has shared that it looks like a betrayal okay I I hear you um I think that uh if we're going back to here's a summer program and it maybe it's fee based I I'm having a hard time understanding if that that's what I believe that I was sharing this opportunity there are free programs thing together which was over subscribed sold out I understand so think together served how many 800 students this summer over 1200 things together serve 1200 students so maybe uh 25 of our students or so which is a great which is great but it's not all right we know that there were summer Recreation

160programs by the city there are we're talking about Community organizations a variety of community organizations non-profits that offer Summer Camps summer programs some are fee based some are not so I think to conflate the idea of uh Dr Beau is is promoting something that's fee based in and of itself I don't think that's problematic if we're just talking about if it's with the district or offered by a non-profit or even a for-profit company you know sign your kids up for a Kumon right which you have to pay for I I don't see that as problematic if parents are equipped with information to say I'd like to do this or this or this or do all of them or do none of them in the summer okay can I respond to that letter so I I'm

161hearing the the passion I'm hearing the concern I'm hearing words like betrayal and conflict of interest um I'm I'm an open book when it comes to the work that I've done in Education before I got elected and the work I've done as an elected official um you can look at my voting record you can look at the Motions I've made you can look at the discussion that I've had in supporting many things um that are that we're doing and pushing for us to do more um so I would hope that any member of our community that's watching or it's going to watch now or watching on the tape would take all that into consideration um and and and look at the work that I'm doing with this team right I'm part of I'm part of

162this team and while I am currently the president next year I won't be right someone else will be the president and yes and I do understand that if you're a board officer or a president that comes with added responsibility at a time I understand that um and I also understand that I'm a part of a team that we've all been elected to represent the students and families of the greater Zuzu unified Community whether you're not you live in the district or you transferred in we're here to represent uh public education here in Azusa Unified so what I would like to say on this topic I have not seen the email can I respond real quick before I forget just really briefly because it's very late and I want to close the loop on this you

163know what no go go for it would the one thing that it I think it's very important overall is the fact that I hear you say board member Beau you know if there was another activity and so forth but just the fact that it was Charter I it's it's the community that's that's not okay with that's it I just wanted to clarify that it's not that it was you know Parks and Recreation offering something that was you know fee based it that's not the point I think the point is plain and simple that it was Charter it was a charter school that you were promoting on for our community and that's what's not okay with our community so I I think that the plain and simple again is that I was I believed I was

164sharing about a summer program that is not a charter school um and I know that we've had several comments here on the dice about representing our stakeholders representing our trustee area and I would submit that um there are those in the in within the Azusa Unified School District that uh are fans of District education that are fans of public charter education that are fans of private or parochial education I think there are representative stakeholders that would support all of those types of educational options so I think it does a disservice to the community to say that to to represent the stakeholders of Isuzu unified to say that we or the community doesn't want this when there's been no decision that's come before the board for us to accept or bring in any other option not

165not when it's a board member on a public school board it's not okay my post was about the summer program plain and simple and if it's a fee based program and if some parents have the ability to pay x amount of dollars I'm okay with that man I did not voice my decision or my opinion on any type of potential or uh vision of any other type of public education offering this was a summer program may I so here is my thoughts on this was it a conflict of interest I'm not an attorney but I would say no based on what I know about governance it was not a conflict of interest was it bad judgment giving given from what I know about you know things that came up during your campaign you know with

166the charter the concern about people in the community you know with Charter Schools and especially as you're going through school closures was it bad judgment to post something about a charter school related to a charter school absolutely case in point you all know that I'm an educator by trade that I work at the local Community College we have adult ad programs our district had adult Lab programs I would never promote the adult ad programs from my college because I want people to go to the adult ed programs from my district where I served on the board so those are things that we have to be cognizant of as trustees and as elected officials again how things are perceived because perception is a lot and yes you know people are going to go to the trustees

167that they feel most comfortable talking to and then say hey this is a problem this is a problem what's going on and then things get blown blown up really really big and then the next thing you know that's when the rumor mill starts oh there's there she's trying to bring in a charter school and all it takes is one person to to tell the story in a different way about what was on the Facebook post to then set off a whole chain of events but this is again why I caution everybody when they're on the board of how you use your social media my social media was used for I met back to school and I look at this this classroom it's great um if there were kids getting an award I would ask the

168parents hey can I take a picture with your kids is it okay if I posted they would say yes I'd take the picture with the kids look at our great students who won these great Awards isn't this fabulous those were the things that I posted I just stayed away from anything else unless it was like a food giveaway um backpack giveaway something like that but we have to be careful we have to be careful so that's what I would just say is to look at how you're using your social media and you're right like I said there's no separation between your personal one that you may have been using for years before you were an elected official and one that you use for um School District events and things if people have access to your

169personal one they're gonna look at that as you the trustee they're not going to separate that this is Sabrina Beau versus trustee ball they're going to look at it the same way so you just have to be careful um I think that you've you've said what you what you meant and what you were doing and we learned from things that happen like this we learned when people in our community get upset with us and they come and they talk to us and they you know tell us something that they didn't like I've voted on things or against things where I've had people in the community come and voice to me that they were unhappy with me based upon my vote and that's what they have the right to do and they have the right to

170ask questions as well in the future I would suggest that if something like this comes up again that remember the protocols that we talked about have a conversation with their in person first I know um trustee Pina that you said you were uncomfortable that's what your superintendent is for you can then say hey can you and I have a I need to talk to you but I'd like to have the superintendent there just because I feel uncomfortable talking to you about this one-on-one have your superintendent just sit there he doesn't have to engage or be part of the conversation but he could be there just to make you feel more comfortable so that you can have the conversation and then try to you know air things out and if things in the foot so that

171they don't Fester or blow up or cause ill will among things because your board was you know is working well together and we want to make sure your board can continue working well together and continue to move forward I understand that you know some of you are are hurt and upset because your constituents have come to you and they've been upset and you know hurled accusations maybe not just directed towards Trust Depot but saying that you guys are part of this as well you've made it clear um there's in um superintendent Ortega has also stated that there has been nothing that's come into his office there's no Charter School um trying to petition coming in at this time so I think yeah oh go ahead I mean right now we have no petition from attorney

172yes so that's clear so this is for the community can hear this that there is no petition from a charter school coming in so I think that um this is a lesson learned for everybody of What Not to post and of how to deal with it when something like this comes up again and hopefully um now that you guys have been able to have your say that you can move forward and continue working well together as a board um but please in the future remember the protocols that we discussed before and if you're not comfortable talking to someone one-on-one then please engage your superintendent okay can I just ask one one question one last question about something completely different once we're done if it's brief because we're at the 9 34 Mark just when um

173when the president's speaking and a board member says point of order and says something um right it's appropriate correct what do you mean so for example I'm just saying um one of the things that happened earlier and I just wanted clarification since I have you here um uh one of the things that we have uh I'm sorry to be bringing this up but I think it's since she's here um a lot of the times where um we are going to speak on something um she's a board member Beau she's the president she'll want to say her statement first and so what we have is that the president um will speaks last on the opinion she lets the other board members speak first and so this has happened repeatedly and for example today I say you

174know point of order you know can I please ask president B last to speak on this matter and it was and so she turns around and she said okay if I can still be chair and chair the meeting with the very condescending tone and I said well I'm sorry do I not have the right to to call out point of order do you have a protocol that the president speaks last so then that's something that a quick reminder after the meeting and a remember this is our protocol very simple to say hey this is our protocol that you speak last we go first oh okay I'll make sure to do that in the future then if it doesn't happen again then you can do point of order but it should be addressed first um yeah

175I I just I just want it just board member if I if I you know ask for a point of order it has nothing to do with personal but when you address with you know and answer I mean a very condescending way where I'm the chair and how can I get it's like whoa hold on I I'm just saying point of order I'm not saying anything else so I I would just like moving forward you know we could please have a clear understanding on that that that's it trustee group can I have her answer before he speaks because I'm addressing does she want to say something I'd like to hear it I'd like to I'm asking her a question could I please have it answered the frustration you heard in my voice earlier today in

176the meeting came because um as sitting in the role you know not that I'm anyone special but I happen to be occupying the president's role and I'm chairing the meetings during earlier today during part of our meeting I was interrupted by board member Barbies Pena and I didn't take that necessarily as anything bad but because it was a good point of clarification so I said okay let's let's yeah let's do that before we do this but you know I just like okay I'm trying to and so later on in that part of the meeting where I was beginning my sentence or getting my first few words out and you interjected um at the beginning and then I sort of had to I felt like okay I'm trying to be a very active and responsive chair

177and so I generally allow the interruption or allow the interjection without saying hey let me finish and so I've been perhaps I've been too gracious and not maintaining that strict of an order so I I I did answer you in a short way because I was frustrated because one I've been interrupted by you and again I understand and then later on in that portion of the meeting I was interrupted by you when I was trying to get the meeting started and so that if we're talking about our interpersonal relationship that's where that frustration was and I I could have I could have addressed it better with you I would I would take that I take that under advisement thank you moving forward to please do because then it creates tension when I did not mean

178to bring tension I I was asked for clarification and I was asking for point of order that's it and when I'm addressed that way then the meeting goes sour or you know I mean it just brings negative connotation to to the rest of the thing inside I held myself back you know say more things to you so I just want to make sure that we don't go there again not being frustrated with each other and being able to talk to each other in a tone in a manner with respect it wasn't the point of order thank you point that I was um I was suggesting was the interruption because I do understand the protocol of each of us have the right to bring up a point of order it was an instance right at the

179beginning of the meeting as we were getting started into the discussion where you suggested that I um proceed in a different way with the conversation and so that's what I felt was the interruption not you're raising a point of order the point of order to me was not the interruption but it was the context in which the meeting had been conducted where I felt again I just felt told me that I interrupted you you didn't just keep going because I didn't even realize it interrupted you I didn't realize that but you didn't say anything so I don't even remember what what point you're talking about but you know you should let me know or be at this again I I'm trying to I generally have uh been more gracious in allowing my colleagues to voice

180right because then how do we know that we're interrupting you or where you're upset because about it how would I know I I wouldn't have brought it up I would have just because it's being brought up here in this forum so I'm addressing the point of order piece that I interrupted you that's what I'm saying and I I just acknowledge I said it was it was a good it was a good clarification it was beneficial for the meeting and so maybe before I in that middle second where I thought oh Milan is interrupting me oh well actually it's really good that we talked about that first so I'm expressing to you my Humanity in in how I process it in that millisecond and then how I thought about it later in the meeting I thought

181it was beneficial for the entire meeting I'm sorry I just want to bring to light that whenever I was rude it was called to my attention right okay I was hung which was okay because you know what I Grew From that and I'm growing from that we are all human I understand that but it's a constant negative connotation and the way that you speak to us at times I'm not okay with and that's one thing I just wanted to address and it happened again today when we were trying to decide something that you know that we could have handled different like you could have handled it you are leading this board right now so that's it that you know moving forward if we could just please have respect for each other whether we're frustrated with

182each other angry at each other we represent the community so we need to be able to respect each other and talk to a manner where it's not very condescending I apologize for speaking to in a short manner um that is not my intention thank you um trustee group no I mean there's I have I have so many things to say that I don't I'm not even sure where um where to begin and and not even sure that there's that there's time or that makes a whole lot of sense to begin um I I think I would my maybe I'll I'll save I'll save the majority of my comments for the next time remember we have a a Governor's meeting um but I think what I will just encourage each of us is uh to um

183continue to ask ourselves how how can we extend greater levels of Grace to each other most of us who are sitting on up here at the table have sat in the chair seat and and so most of us who have sat in the charity recognize and understand not only the added responsibility pressure how each one of us have have uh understand and have have gone through enough training to understand that there's particular protocol and then have forgotten to do this before that or they're just they're just as a is a reality and so I think that if we are approaching each other from the perspective of um I am anticipating and waiting for the wrong that you commit as opposed to us seeing ourselves as a team of diverse perspectives and diverse strengths and weaknesses

184um my my I have much more to say than than this but but I'm I'm I think uh in the interim my my the only encouragement I would have for each of us myself included for each of us is that we we continue to ask ourselves how can we have greater levels of Grace for each other um this is uh this is not an easy job um it is a it is a there's a lot of responsibility and there's there's a there's a lot of hard work and hard decisions that have to have to be made and yes there are protocols that are important there are laws that are needing to be considered and there are differences between I didn't like something and the law was broken and there's there's all kinds of things there

185but my encouragement my only encouragement I want to give right now is just uh for us to to ask ourselves how can we give greater levels of race uh to to each other uh because this is hard work and we're a team okay can I share something real quick with the grace I you know and we can talk about this later the grace that was not given to me until later until we had a somebody in front of us and I felt attacked all the time so we should talk about that and you know heal from that which you know I think it's important that you're right the way that we treat each other here on the uh you know and be able this is not an attack you know um be able to differentiate

186and attack to what actually really is happening right making things up or but I think we should talk about we should talk about this and make it a governance meeting and I agree that um the last time I was here there was I saw progress um now I'm seeing regression um so I do think that that's something that's probably in order for us to come together again where that could be the focus and we could address this but again I'm I'm still going to go back to what I told you guys the very first time I came here is that communication goes a long way and when we don't talk to each other and we let stuff Fester then this is what we get we have to talk to one another we really really have

187to talk to one another but I definitely agree that maybe that's something we need to look at seeing about scheduling so that we can have more um time without other things on the agenda as well to try to work through some things but I think each one of you for your your honesty and and reception of what's been said here tonight and I definitely I'm going to repeat what trustee Cruz says is Grace does go a long way and I know what you're feeling and what you're feeling and what you're feeling and you've just been quiet but um we do have to learn how to talk to one another we really do so with that if there's no objection so I'm going to turn it back to president though so that she can adjourn the

188meeting thank you so much and thank you to all of my colleagues here and cabinet and staff for um going through this important work today uh we I think really we accomplished a lot both for the district and had some good dialogue around our own work that we need to do as a governance team um so although it's heavy I think it's good and it's a way for us to move forward and in the spirit of continuous Improvement Arturo that's I'm Gonna Keep uh reminding ourselves of that refrain so this brings us to item 9.1 adjournment may have a motion make a motion to adjourn second moved and seconded I don't anticipate any discussion but I am scanning the room and seeing none I will call for the vote thank you so much the media

189that motion passes and this meeting is adjourned at 9 48 PM good