1/24/23 - Azusa Unified School District Board Meeting

001thank you now moving on to our roll call board member Rodriguez Pena present board member Benavides uh board member arianis is with us anzu board member Ariana's is not on Zoom at this moment okay so we will Mark board member Ariana's absent for now and we're anticipating that she will arrive shortly via Zoom um and we will Mark board member career as absent for now he may join us later uh via zoom and I Sabrina Bo M here moving on to item 1.4 approval of the agenda may have a motion make a motion to approve for a 1.4 and a second moved and seconded any discussion seeing none call for the vote thank you for that uh patience and the motion passes moving to item 2.0 items from the floor public comment on agenda or

002non-agenda items um hope I don't see one in the room with a blue card and is there anyone online Lika that wishes to make public comment this evening we have no one for public comment on tune thank you now moving to item 3.0 General functions and 3.1 review of effective governance procedures Mr runkio Dr Beau Board of Education it's my pleasure to introduce you to Dr Luis Taylor the executive director for ciac and Dr Debbie Collins it's the ACT consultant who is also our IBB facilitator at Art negotiation table with aea I'm going to turn over the presentation to them they will be leading us in our IBB training and bear with me as I present their presentation thank you very much just would like board and have no very be here men thank you

003right in front is this good thank you just thank you look Tasha um we we commend the board and cabinet for fluorine IBB and trying to learn more about it because by doing that you're supporting your negotiating team and it takes time out of a very very busy schedule to do that I want to let you know that full employees Association of California is an organization that support School District with collective bargaining all HR issues and provide both free and facilitation at the table and you already heard that Dr Collins is working with aea and the district team in IBB we want you to know that we have extensive experience with negotiations and with IBB both as District negotiators when we were in District before retirement and when we were superintendents and each of us

004have several school districts where we're helping IBB teams facilitate and so we really appreciate being here and now I'm going to turn it over to Dr Colin good evening it is a pleasure to be here to um provide you information about I think a very very important topic uh in any school district that is how the negotiating teams work especially as it relates to the interest-based bargaining process um both Dr Taylor and I work for uh over 20 years together on in Monrovia working with interest-based bargaining it was very successful and uh we are very passionate about um how to apply it and how to ensure that um that the tables can access Concepts and principles to use them effectively in in bargaining um I have one additional um qualification I'd like to just share

005with you and as a teacher uh I was an intervine for several years and I did become part of the association chair the Teachers Association and I was on the negotiation it was traditional bargaining so I do have experience um in traditional bargaining in Irvine as well as base marketing experience in Monrovia um so um I've seen both sides and I understand that one of the things that you would like to know what is the difference between those two and so we are going to Endeavor in our short period of time to kind of walk you through what IBB is and then compare and contrast to two forms of negotiations and hopefully convince you why you should we should be using interface parking and how how it so um what we'd like to do is

006we'd like to hear just have each one of you introduce yourselves to us and just let us know how long you've been working so my name is Norma Camacho I am the assistant superintendent of educational services this is my 26th year in Azusa Unified I can't beat that my name is Arturo Ortega superintendent and I am in my ninth year in Azusa yeah my name is Sandra benavidez and I am a newly elected board member here and I'm Yolanda Rodriguez Pena and I've been on board 11 years hi I'm Sabrina Beau this is my third year as a board member and my first year as a parent of District kids for two and a half years and hi I'm Jorge Rocio and this is my fifth year um we're going to cover several topics today

007that we feel are we have per our greatest interests um first we're going to inquire for you what your views the perspectives of ibbr and Debbie will take you through that and then we're going to give a bit of the presentation which is where did I be becoming from what is it how does it compare traditional and what are the step teams go through now we usually do three day workshops and we're going to condense that all into under two hour um so you look you're all faster so um we'll just zoom right through it and then we're going to spend some time on board and cabinet role working in ibp and go into questions that you might have and reflection on what you have heard that come join us so um the first thing

008that we'd like to do is we'd like to get a little bit of a pre-assessment of what you wonder about in interest-based marketing so um I have placed some Post-its on your tables if you would just write down just a brief comment it could be something like I don't know anything about IBB I wonder about how it relates to a traditional or whatever you wonder about interest-based bargaining please write that on the Post-it because we want to make sure that as we travel through the take you through this journey to this evening that we address those questions that you might have okay we will return to those later read them try to make sure that we cover all those and then at the end we'll decide if we have we haven't we will okay so

009uh where I'm going to begin and this may may be interesting uh hopefully for you that um um the uh interest-based bargaining process began in the 70s with a project that Roger Fisher and William Murray are doing together and it really had the projects had to do with problems and it was it was almost loving daily problems versus actual worldwide problems but it wasn't really intended to be for Collective bar today but it really was a method of solving smaller scale and on the largest so they took the notion of negotiation as a kind of authoritarian work down to what really was very simply problem solved and so what we believe in a school district that has a bargaining that that it is really an atmosphere of problem solved and so that's what we do

010and we sit at the table that's we probably work with problems and so we will work through how those steps work on their very definitive steps that they come up with um they uh this is the book I still have and I still refer to it on a regular basis called getting to Yes um by these two gentlemen and um it was uh I think that this stands the test time in terms of Concepts the principles used um even to this day if you want to um learn more about this then what about and particularly Roger Fisher has many Ted Talk online that you could um you could review if you have wanted to dig deeper on so interest-based bargaining based in a nutshell it the notion that everybody that at the end of the

011day even though you walk into a negotiation session with two different ideas of of a solution to whatever you're negotiating um you may not get you may not get that it may not you may not get what you walked into to get but when you walk out of the room out of negotiation what you will take with you is the idea and the experience that you did thoroughly discussed it in an honest and trustworthy way and that you really did the best you had the best agreement that would be the best and in this case the best agreement for the students of Azusa Unified School District ultimately um it's principled and what that means is and what that means to us as we uh our facilitators and we take trainings out to people is that

012[Music] um in order to have a really effective interest-based bargaining Concept in your District you need to have full trust and trans among um the school district administrators among the the employer employee groups and um among and between everyone has to be built on trust in order for this to work um effectively it's collaborative and that doesn't need any explanation you know what that means and at the end there's Mutual gain and what that means is that at the end when you come to that agreement that nobody leaves the room thinking oh they won or we won it really is mutual what we both want we both won and again and we want to emphasize that in a school district we want to ultimately win student and do the best thing for them so interspace

013bargaining is I just already mentioned uh is really interest based problem solving and it helps teams to turn face-to-face confrontation into side-by-side problem solving um I mentioned earlier that I I did sit at a traditional bargaining table and it at that table quite um opposite from a IBB cable um literally the district was on one side of the table and the association was on the other side table so it was it was them against us in a very visual form so one of the guidelines that we use in interest-based bargaining is that when we sit in a room to negotiate we sit next to somebody from the other team we try to do that and be consistent about that so that we aren't sitting across from each other or we're not talking to somebody on

014our team during the during our negotiations but we really are working together as one team in that room that's what we call side by side problem solving so the principles um that that these are the more defined principles that IBB uses is um to focus on issues and uh personalities one of the things that happens um when there are disagreements as you may have experienced in your life somewhere is that when you're trying to solve a problem you focus on the personality of the person people with whom you are feeling and it usually is their fault for not being able to be we should see it your way okay so um in interspace bargaining we really focus on the issues and really really drill down on what we need to solve in as the problem

015rather than dealing with their personalities um we focus on interests and oppositions and interests are Dr Taylor is going to take you through an activity on interest because in that it's in the the title of the negotiations process you would imagine it'd be pretty important um because interests really do Drive how you come to an agreement uh it when you start out looking at the interest of both sides then you can more easily come up with solutions that meet both sides interests thereby reaching the the on the ideal of having Mutual gain so um so hopefully you will understand interest through the activity that Dr Taylor will take you through in a moment um we also after we uh determine what the interests are rather than positions um and I don't have to explain positions

016you know what a position is you walk in and and you know you know what you want you can offer them 11 uh zero percent the association wants 11 and then you just you talk back and forth until you reach two um but uh those are positions that you have and those those usually don't work out they were they they may end up in an agreement but everybody may or may not be happy we hope that it even in salary negotiations that interest-based bargaining can work um after you identify interest and you create options to satisfy both um the mutual and separate interests of the group so I'm going to take you through this more specifically um after Louise takes two interest um and then uh at the end you evaluate the options that you

017have generated like the possible solutions to the problem that you have raised and um use standards and I'll talk about that a little bit later too by which to compare your options to see if they do meet the standards that you have as a team and they that would include for example um something like is it legal uh will the Board of Education approve this will the associations ratify this and so their standards that you can evaluate some of the options um can we afford it uh and so by using those standards you can go back and you compare them to compare your options to the standards and the interests and come up with some solutions at the end so I'm going to step in now and focus on that area of Interest as Debbie

018mentioned interest-based bargain there's the foundation is interest and I will tell you that my experience moving in to IBB was similar in that I walked into a format of traditional bargaining but as a brand new Chief negotiator the best way I can just describe it is that they were trying to solve problems oh when I felt I was from another plant because there is no way that any problem was going to be solved by people sitting across the table and just being angry with each other and then demanding a caucus and walking out and that was the pattern that was happening then we went through IBB training and I as we perfected it over the years so magnificent and invaluable impact not only for how we work together as a district ultimately and this is

019our own game or the progress that our students in Monrovia made over that time this benefit might but the biggest challenge I had was and understand interest my brain just like yours you're in leadership positions you are probably brilliant at solving problems and I felt that I was very good at solving problems too but when you sit in your own little faith and think about a problem you have only your own person and your problem solving Your solution may be may seem brilliant if you don't have that information and if you don't look at the broader interest then it's not going to give you the best solution for yourself or for others interest with the biggest challenge I found one activity if you'll go through it quickly with me help me and as help most

020people understand the difference between position or an option and an interest so I'm going to ask you to do this I am going to ask five of you to um okay a a position in a story you will get the name of you want the name of the character will speak on their behalf and all of the script is on the screen is going to be fairly straightforward what I will need is somebody to volunteer to be a parent I will need for um of the children of this pyramid do we need a Carlos and a Jerome and we need an Isabella and an Olivia so who wants to be bold and brave and be the parent oh great oh thank you okay I'm doing all day uh yes uh yeah okay so you'll you'll

021be you it's a very familiar role okay so we have para now who would like to be and of course you can choose any name you want it doesn't have to be gendered who would like to be Carlos okay you're familiar all right so we're gonna have a Carlos how about a Jerome every Brave there uh and how about an Olivia and how about an Isabella you wanna do that okay so uh I promise no embarrassment and you can see that we haven't brought anyone in um as the talent scout from Hollywood so you know you're not it could have been an option all right so the the story the scenario is you'll get the orange because you can see how juicy this orange is but parent the one in the house so here's the

022situation you are parrot with four children who were demanding that one orange nap and these kids are out of control and they are fighting and creating a great so you're going to say an exasperation there's your line parent what is all this fuss go and the answers come first from Jerome I'm the oldest I should get first dibs on the orange and I need it this very minute and then Olivia says I asked her at first then comes point Carlos but you don't understand I really need the orange I'll be in big trouble if I don't get it Isabella I absolutely will be ruined if I don't get it you just have to let me have it if not I will never speak to you again okay so empty threat so exasperated parent with fighting

023children tell us what's your decision what are you gonna say Okay um I would say okay guys we have one orange who has had an orange today okay um and is that why you said this is the brave part and whatever you want what would your decision be you had four fighting children so Carlos since you had an orange today can I get you go to the store and buy you an orange for tomorrow I'm gonna be in big trouble what do you mean big trouble but I understand I'll I'll I'll I'll acquiesce Okay so [Laughter] Olivia Isabella Jerome did you have any fruit today no no what about the strawberries I packed for your lunch that's not an orange okay okay I had a banana okay thank you for being good listeners um Isabella

024did you have any fruit today do you have an orange today or any fruit I had some grapes great okay well the good news is everyone has had some fruit today and I'm really happy about being healthy eater so and you you already had fruit you already had an orange so tell me why we need to have a second piece of fruit okay why it has to be an orange thank you very much you're just way ahead see he's an advanced learner so you're doing exceedingly well I will tell you that most people in your position playing this role say put it in fourth shut up right or they say some of them say I'm eating the orange myself because you are misbehaving um it's interesting what the answers end up to be but let's

025try a different way this time we're going to go into scene two same situation the parent is seeing is all angry and demanding this Orange but this time you're gonna have to walk and here's what you're going to say that dark blue box okay my lovelies I see you're all upset about wanting the one orange we have in this house relax calm down now one at a time tell me why you want and need the orange and my oldest Carlos we have your own okay Jerome I need the orange for my steel life photo project mom I already told you I need to take that picture right now so I can process it and then Olivia says I have waited all day to make orange juice for my friends and then Arlo says I need

026the seeds to finish my science project that's due tomorrow and then Isabella says I have a cooking class recipe to complete tonight and need grated orange peel so now what you're just hey guys now I understand why everyone has a different need for this orange and I think I have a solution so Jerome you need to take a picture of the whole orc right yes and you just need to take a picture yes and so your your siblings can eat it yes okay and then okay Olivia you're really thirsty and you really want your orange juice yes so can we cut it in half and squeeze it and give you your orange juice yes okay would you be happy with that yes awesome Carlos you just need to see you need the whole orange or

027just the seeds just the seeds for your science project that's due tomorrow and I already bought the board we're good okay so we'll give you the seed and then Issa you have a cooking class and you just you need the The Flash or you just need the peel I need the peel okay do you know where the grade The Grater is in the kitchen yes in the drawer okay my lovely is everyone does it sound like we have a plan of everyone getting what they need and you have to take a picture you could have your fresh orange juice that we talked about you get the seeds for your project and then you get to greet the peel and you have a plan for that okay everyone agree hey thank you so much thank you

028Ray Aaron now let me ask this either working with your children at home or working out a problem in the school district are all of them this straight forward against them absolutely not but the whole point of this is that sometimes we just want to get one thing we want to have a position about something and sometimes if we take the time find out more information about the interest that people bring to the table and solving a problem then the solution creates itself and so we take the time not only in the step Debbie will take you through to tell the story gather information get data before we just solve the problem in other words we don't solve a problem right away we'd say it's all the right way and take the time to do

029that and what we have found in years and years of experience is that if you have just the position everyone said at Birth every thought just wanted the orange you take time find out the general aim or the need or the desire that find it then very often you're going to evolve into pain much better solution with interest-based bargaining you find that positions are mutually exposed in other words everyone wanted the orange and if that was your original demand you you can't have an orange because it doesn't divide them interests are not mutually exclusive and when you have the interest involved then it doesn't belong looking for different ways of solving the problem it really opened it up and it's amazing even with the most difficult question how this works at the table remember Roger

030Fisher William Yuri they had very complex problems they were mediators for the for the United States they helped solve the Belarus problem they help well Roger Fisher helped develop Marshall and the problems in a school district may seem small compared to those International incidents but they are not small for us in a school district and they are not small or are students in the classroom those are the only day the only month the only years they put and so that's what so important so I'm gonna let Debbie take you through what part of ibp brings to the table so first of all I just would like to say that um Dr Taylor and I have been at least 50 presentations using this orange activity I've also used it in my classrooms uh in my college

031level classrooms and I can stay that I have never seen an anime uh uh participation on the parts of the forest uh the forge children and the mother who was trying to solve it without us good job on that so anyway just as a um as a caveat to um the interest activity one of the things about interest that we try and we have to work on Concepts especially as we're working at a new table on this using IBB for the first time is to always think of Interest as they're used in IBB as the why it's the why why do you want this why do you need this why is this important I will go I will go through that more in depth but for example people somebody can say um I am really

032interested in you seeing my point of view that's not it it's an interest in I want you to come my way the interest is deeper than that the interest has to do with really what the problem is and ultimately what's going to solve the problem in the best way for your and ultimately and I'll say this again it's working together for students that and that's kind of what the basis is even though that really isn't what necessarily what the associations stand for um they stand for associations usually stand for their their um uh their unit members and uh in a traditional bargain bargaining session you might not even hear um people who want to even talk about students or the needs of students um but the interest-based bargaining table you will hear that um there

033is an interest in in doing the best for students as well and for the school district so um and I some really good questions that you um anyway negotiating team has commitments that they make together when I say negotiating team you know once once they're in a room together um they're one team working together it isn't they're not they don't take sides not the idea to take guys that they really want to work we want we want the teams to work together and the way they do that is to have um standards and norms and guidelines and follow the process that I'm going to go through in much detail with you so the um for example the Teachers Association and the administrators in this District at the table have developed their own their own um

034standards norms and guidelines and they have that that they use in fact we spend a lot of time writing those together and also reviewing them together and spending and really making sure that they reflected um what both teams wanted together we had small groups working together and and they came up with their own dorms and guides guidelines um and then the process is really just keeping true to the IBB process and that means following the steps so I could if I can step out for a second and just say that um you may wonder about you know what my role is as a facilitator at the table and so really a facilitator in interspace bargaining is one who helps the teams develop the standards develop the norms and the guidelines from the experience that I

035have in doing that at other tables and then one of my main jobs as a facilitator is to help the teams stay with process and and and and um and not Veer away from it because if you don't use the process in its entirety it won't work and so it's my job and and sometimes you know the teams will will call it call me out and say you know what you need to help us stay on task we got off tasks and we want you to make sure that you call us out and bring us back together um it's ultimately a goal and I'll say this honestly in interest-based bargaining it's a goal ultimately to have the teams work together without a facilitator they can do it that them so ourselves and designate people to

036you know to work through the process that often take a lot of time to do that many maybe a couple years and some some school districts have had facilitators for 12 years you've had one of those right Echo outside of Monrovia so um people just like to have kind of like somebody that just keeps them on track and and also is a neutral person who can give feedback from a neutral standpoint and um that's I think also helpful to both sides so as a facilitator in that I bring in both the teacher perspective and the administrative perspective of my experience um in in my lifetime in my hundred years of being in this work um I think that I I think I can very easily see both sides and um I think that it helps

037me to help them come together so um uh so this is what we use and I and it's very structured and in um mostly in our negotiation sessions it would be the norm to review the um that the guidelines and the Norms before each session just to remind us how we are going to behave together and this is true especially for a team that is just learning um interest-based bargaining um together with maybe new people in that it just takes time to kind of incorporate the whole aspect of working together cooperatively if you're used to working in a tradition environment so and I think this goes along with this this point the question is how do you anchor your position in IBB if you do um and I'm not sure exactly what that means in

038terms of anchoring a position if it's the position um of uh of like either the district or the teacher but what we don't do is that we don't do positions in um nibb at all um but and Luis is going to talk about later um but what happens is that the Board of Education your your job by law to set the parameters for the chief negotiator to go in and to follow those parameters in terms of the decisions that can be made in the agreements that can be made so when you say anchor a position I would rather say it in the in terms of and and similarly the association has to really get um receive input from their um their their leadership and from their unit members in terms of what they want and

039give them the direction of what how they want to reach a conclusion so but we don't use the word positions in interest-based bargaining you know we we tend because that really implies that I have something that I want and I'm going to keep on talking about it until you agree with it so it is it's really I I guess I would rather say say that it would be um really being able to use the process and see if we have to use the process if those positions or if the parameters really do work for everybody so um but it would be the the um the person who's designated to be at the table and that would be Jorge in this case the teacher table he would be responsible to come back and say this but

040we've been talking about it come back and talk to you in closed session and move on to the if you could reach if you could help him reach an agreement table using the parameters that you had in the first place okay we're good okay how is IBB okay so this is just this kind of a simple um chart each art really um that shows what the differences are between interest-based and like formatted on this felt really messed up yeah I'm not we worked so hard on that formatting I'm not sure anyway um so traditionals on the left interest basis on the right so um yeah on traditional and interest based on number one you both have issues so that what that means is that in a normal in a regular year and to use the

041the items that will be um discussed at the table through the sun shining process and so you know pretty much what is going to be discussed and you probably have closed sessions so that you know what the issues are that will be discussed at the table um so there are always issues and people think maybe in in collective bargaining that the only issue that occurs in collective bargaining is salary and health benefit and that is absolutely not true um it has to do with the entire collective bargaining agreement with working conditions and um and as I said before and I think this is really important for you to know that any other problems that happen to come up uh in in the district uh that that impact uh The Association members of the district that

042can be resolved at the table so because it is a problem solving study but you have issues okay that need to be resolved then in traditional bargaining you have positions so if somebody comes in with a position my favorite one was the one I I mentioned earlier and that is you know somebody comes in with wanting 11 somebody else says we're gonna have have zero percent and you fight and haggle about it then you end up with something that neither neither team um really is happy with so um and that goes back to you know District solvency and and having an interest in maintaining that and that can also be um discussed and listed as an interest so um when you rather than have a position if you you can both agree and this happens

043on a regular basis then all the tables that I said at really that when we talk about interest the association the the association will agree that they want District solvency nobody wants to break nobody wants to spend money that's going to break the district or not allow them to pay their bills or or function so it's a place where both teams can meet and say we agree um that we want District solvency sometimes what the issue is is to agree on what that actually means what district solvents they actually need um then uh on the traditional side there's arguments uh persuasion and on the interest-based side there are options and options are probably my favorite part of the um of the process because it really is a time to be creative to solve a problem

044in a way that you just open it up and um in a brainstorm different ways that you may not have thought of uh in the in the previously to negotiate in traditional there's power and compromise I'm in control so we're in control no we're oh we're losing control we at the district um you know um has the authority the associations have the ability to go on strike and um you know who's going to take the power if if you in a traditional setting that's the only option if uh you know for Association if you can't have agreements is to have right and we just saw that recently in La unified and how horrible that is uh I was in a one-day strike in Irvine and it was it's probably the worst thing that I've ever

045experienced in my life in education so um Power and compromise um you know it just it just doesn't work Nobody ends up being happy instead as I mentioned earlier we have standards that we measure um the the options and then um at the end uh on the traditional slide and the settlement there's a win-lose somebody always thinks you know maybe that they lost something they really wanted and others think that they may have won something so it's not really about winning and losing it's about winning and winning meaning that there's an elegant solution where both both teams can feel like they've come out of it with the win that has met the entrance which is a very deliberate process of going through that and I will now any questions at this moment that you wanna

046yes I had a question regarding the interest-based bargaining um when you mentioned that that's uh I don't want to call a confrontation but face to face problems dogging together in the same room right but how does the administration make a decision um the board of education is not in there do they make the decision for the board or do they bring it back to the board then go back okay I'm sorry say that again just say that again it so typically that's uh done through like parameters or through um Authority so the board gives some parameters or some authority to the negotiations team so that when they are in the room negotiating in this case in an interest-based bargaining um manner uh our team knows what their parameters are because they've already discussed it with

047the Board of Education yeah got it that's right and you have given them the direction direction from the board understood right which the program have using parameters may be different than saying basically you go and get this period and there's no room that would be more traditional or this is what we want to get it or we're not in an interest-based environment there are parameters and you can say here here are the parameters by which you can work they don't make the decision there they can make a tentative agreement but it's within your parameters and and um the keep your representatives at the table no better than to make an agreement that is outside of those parameters that the Board of Education because the last thing that anybody wants in that room is not to

048have the Board of Education support the agreement one and two not be ratified by the association either one you can't have so um yeah they have to come back so no I'm sorry I didn't get the first part of your of your statement but they do not make the final decision there in an isolated man and I think Louise might not weren't as thank you okay any other questions at this moment before we move on okay this is the this is the nitty-gritty please stay with me um these are the actual steps that are used and one of the questions that somebody had here or what are the pros and cons of interest-based bargaining and traditional bargaining one of the things that we read um about in there isn't a whole lot of research really

049in interest-based bargaining but one of the things that we hear anecdotally maybe is that uh interest-based bargaining take to block and um it it take and that that's the con is as it is just you talk and you talk and you're talking I'm gonna as we go through the steps you're gonna see why that is true because going through the steps versus um fighting about it and arguing about it um I think the arguments finally end up in well somebody just gives in because they don't want it to last they don't want the argument to last forever so they give in and they go along with something that really they don't they may not want to and then you end up with an agreement in a room and then you have parking lot conversations than

050people who are not happy with what has happened but in this process we believe that at the end of the day after you've found the elegant solution um that it uh people everybody ends up happy okay so I'm going to use an example as I walk through these steps with you that is completely unrelated to the unified okay just an example of something that could be negotiated in a school district just to kind of give you some system examples of how each step would be you so um in in in interest-based bargaining um somebody brings in an issue okay so I'm going to use the issue of the classified employees would like to negotiate some kind of incentive program for them to receive some incentives for becoming teachers and that would be maybe monetary or

051whatever but they they want to find a way to be able to go to go to school get a potential and become a teacher they've spent a lot of time in the classrooms maybe as an instructional age and they want to pursue a teaching credential but may or may not have the money to do that so they want to um appeal to the district to come up with a plan in some way to support them financially that would also benefit the district so the first so you say okay you want to have some kind of a program to help um your people in the inside become so the first thing that you do is you tell the story and so um this is the story could take a long time depending upon how much history

052is on this topic uh in your district and it could also take a long time depending upon how many people you have in the room with his with um institutional memory some people who have been around for a long time have a lot of institutional memory about a school district and what happened like 15 years ago or 20 years ago um and so telling the story sometimes depending on the topic can take a long time and while the story is being told the reporter whoever is taking notes sometimes it's the facilitator sometimes it's somebody else um they either take take notes electronically and project them on the on this on the screen or um in the olden days and people still do that we use charts and we can write um write the story on

053charts and then and then have the charts or have somebody transcribe the charts that we have that later um in a in a Word document so you tell the story to clarify the issue so it so so what could happen in this part and telling the story in Azusa is that part of the story could be that there are classified employees who have been working in this district for many years the many they may be uh instructional AIDS or they may be interested in becoming teachers and they want to have promotional opportunities do that but they're in a position where they can't afford it so um and those people and what we know about classified employees in a school district is a lot of times those folks come directly from your community and a lot

054of times those people are also um or were sometimes parents and so they have a lot of vested interest in this district and so to to have somebody to you know to bring along into a teaching position or promotional opportunity would benefit you know could benefit the district so in in the story you want to hear all the reasons why um you know uh classified employees want this and and give any background that that you might have about it so you tell the story and then um through that story it kind of clarifies what the real question is um and then so that that's number three when you really clarify the question after you identify the interest okay now remember that the interests are the why okay I'm going to give you a little test

055right so what do you think would be an interest that is the why of the classified employee who is an instructional aide who wants to be a teacher can't afford it and would like to negotiate with the district to become a teacher what would be an interest of that uh us Floyd do you think they would further their career to be teachers from an instructionally and make more money they'd have an interesting promotional opportunity exactly right for emotional activity anything else hey what um better health insurance benefit okay that could be um it would be more financially stable and supported health benefits okay so so you're on the right track so they would they would say that in the district could say what would be in interest of the district in terms of promoting inside

056people why would you want to promote inside people that came from originally potentially from the community as parents okay so you have people who have um a vested interest in this District because their children went through the district maybe they're still in the district and they want to stay there and they want to continue to contribute so you see how when you sorry okay you want to say something um since we have those online we might want to make sure we're all keeping the mic close to our mouth so that those that are participating online here okay so just okay it's okay is the hard thing to do did you want to say something no you you captured it um okay our classified employees have an interest in in the community so right so um

057so It ultimately could benefit and uh the district to invest in its own people um to bring them along so so you go through the interest and ask that now we all know that at the end of the day there's a financial tag to this and so that's kind of in the statistics not in her head because and it seems like it doesn't it seem like every single thing that we talked about always has some kind of financial uh tag to that which is which is difficult because you know in our work it's not like we have a lot of money to do a lot of wonderful things that other organizations can but if um you know if we can do something that does really benefit the district and students it would be well worth

058the um Financial um investment in that so then you clarify the question and sometimes this is not this is a hard thing to do because looking at my time am I okay um it's a hard thing to do because um in in this case it's not really a problem per se but it's really just an interest from a group to better themselves and so you need to clarify what what is it that you want to to to do to create to answer and then um clarify that make a problem statement or or write a clarifying question and then you go through the process of trying to answer it so um how can we best serve the um you know the the classified employees who want to promote in this District into potentially certificated positions um

059then you brainstorm options and um brainstorming options as I mentioned earlier is my favorite because this is the time this this is so diff this is one of the biggest difference um I think in interest-based bargaining than traditional is that um you just open it up to anything and um you use the rule of brainstorming where you don't evaluate an option that is given anything is accepted and in fact what we've seen as we know as as Educators or people who work in education is that we the more um Outland or outlying the the option can be it does bring about other more creative ideas that could ultimately be solutions that we never thought of before and you know that works pretty much in any environment as well I mean and again as I told

060you some of these the the steps in IBB can work in managing any kind of group or any kind of problem and so um you know have you ever been in a situation where you're trying to solve a problem and you get stuck has anybody ever been stuck not knowing yeah we've all been stuck and so this is one way to just expand the possibilities and get people thinking and I remember um when we first started doing this and the touch I'm going to pick on you a little bit here but you know when you have the CBO at the table and somebody you know uh sets forth an option that is like really expensive um the dbo just has to like keep their face like totally like a poker face and not rolled her

061eyes but you can't hardly see Natasha's eyes anyway but I I would know that Latasha would be rolling her eyes over there thinking about how much money that's going to spend and where is she going to get it um so um so and that's one of the things that that we work on um at the table is that when we're brainstorming that any any option is accepted as long as everybody's taking it seriously and it is and you know and and we're doing the right thing um but again making an outlandish um option does bring forth and I've experienced it it does bring forth more creative option then you go through a process of windowing options and there are there are at least 20 different ways that we know of the window options um you

062know just the kind of narrow narrow them down to a list that can really meet the interest in the standards and I think again I want to emphasize that the most important part in that is meeting the interest in the standards that have already been established and so that can be a very painstaking process if you have a lot of interest to go back and I've seen tables actually take every single option and see how many interests it actually meets and like write down the numbers of how many it meets and and so when you talk about interest-based marketing taking a lot of time that takes a lot of time so um so winnowing options I think that there's like the main part would be just to kind of go through and say and and

063this is the time they talk about them talk about you know um on how they would work or what people meant by them and kind of and then narrow them down to something that that might work it's a it's a big task um I've seen it I've seen it you know again I wouldn't be sitting here with you today unless I've seen it really work very very well so um and there are other um you know ways to one of the options that you know depending on where the group is um you know a a group that's been working together for a long time and I've seen this happen um and the same people in the same room with this you know that have been together can just kind of start talking about them and

064they can they can winner the options really easily together because they're pretty much of one mind and so getting to that place of being of one mind at the table again takes a long time and and it takes the same people and and it takes a lot of work to to get there but it it can be done um then uh the the last would be to find the elegant solution and that would be um to narrow the choice and um given and after you've um you know uh looked at the interests and standards and then find out what what what can work and again um it has to also be and I and during this process let's say for example um as in as you as the board and again Louise will talk about

065too but you know you will be aware you should be aware of what's happening at the table so that in this discussion so that you can kind of give your feed your input into the parameters of where you think can go which is kind of exciting thing for you too to say okay we can see these are the parameters to go back with and then um and then you go on from there and so when when your representative the table brings something back as an elegant solution it does meet your interests and your parameters and it does work so this take time and it does take more time than traditional bargaining and I'm not sure how to explain that exactly but it does because people are talking more and they're listening so um and and

066it's but any questions about that so one of the questions that that one of you raised was how many interest-based bargaining tables do you think there are compared to how many traditional tables so that's a hard question um sorry sorry to interrupt I actually do have a question oh sure so um you've identified the the steps and this is the protocol to follow correct um when the part when the negotiating team is in the room um are these uh steps printed or outlined or is there a yes you know a PhD uh hey guys this is remember this following yes okay thank you and I would just add for context and I have had the experience of being at both the traditional table and also at an IBB table with Dr Collins as our facilitator

067but in addition to that I also went through a training ncf where I met these uh two wonderful uh professionals and they had a compare and contrast so one of the signature differences between a traditional experience and a ibup experience is that the amount of air time I mean face time at the table is significantly Less in traditional bargaining because the teams come in with their proposal and add in the exchange proposals they may have some discussions about their proposal and some of the the the the the the explain explanations that come along with proposals but then that then they each go into their caucus and then from there um they they come up with a counter proposal can you explain some of those big differences because I think that's that that'll bring it home

068yeah thank you thank you I guess the the two put myself back at a traditional table and how it worked because it's so foreign to me at this point at this point but um and I haven't really seen a traditional table uh in my adult life after it was first a teacher so um but I I think that what he what what he's talking about is that um in a traditional setting there really isn't a whole lot of discussion about it it's really the position I want this you want that and then you kind of like kind of barter in a way barter back and forth and so you say okay well then you you know the the district might give a little and then the teachers or the association might give a little and

069then they they go into their caucuses and they develop develop strategies on how to pretty much break down the other side and that's what that's what traditional bargaining is how do you break down the other side just be at our way to come more around to what we want and how how can we get them to do that yeah well I like I prefer the IBB because I feel that when they go in separate rooms they're like um like they don't trust each other because like what are they talking about over there but when they're together face to face and it does it may take longer right but I feel that they will both tear each other out and they're they're right there together right instead of definitely coming back and then somebody and come

070back I I I personally prefer the IBB for that purpose um and it's all about trust at the end is it is and what I'll say is is that that in in tables that are very evolved in that process they can stay together in the room always and talk through even if they have questions or concerns they can talk through them but there still is the uh option in in interest-based bargaining to talk and but the the difference would be the intent of so in interest-based bargaining the intent of the caucus should be to get on the same page with each other because sometimes you know because everybody can talk and that's one other difference in the interest-based versus um traditional in interest based anybody can talk at any time and sometimes somebody might come

071up with something that is more um irrelevant to their own position you know at a middle school or a special ed position or you know or or whatever so um you know sometimes the teams just have to say you know what we need time out we need to get on the same page to make sure that we know what if what we're talking about is the same thing so but not to strategize not to break away so that because you don't trust the people at the other side that talk in front of them so that's a very good point thank you um and just in this I just wanted to just make one comment about um how many tables are there and we'll stay in California say um you know we've been at this a

072long time and I wouldn't venture to to say but I think that there have been there have been Trends um that we've experienced in California right going in and out of interest-based bargaining in the 80s the California Teachers Association was very supportive of interest-based bargaining they were working with administrators they were doing trainings together they were very supportive and there were a lot of interest-based bargaining tables and then something happened leadership changed CTA um and then all of a sudden uh teachers just walked into the table they said we're at IBB we're back to traditional so a lot of it has to do with the support from the the Regional Offices in your associations um for um for interest-based bargaining and how they support it uh and um so I think that we're seeing more

073themes coming back to IBB now right Brian I wish I knew a percentage but I don't know my impression is there are few people who have take time to acquire those skills it is a lot easier to just decide what you want and get mad at the other side if they don't have that idea it's just easier as a person should be angry and then bye this is an opportunity up with a much better solution I'm right on my um okay this is just another slide about it okay so this is just a reminder um uh that we talked about this before just to come back to this and um you know you asked a good question about um you know having all of the procedures and having the standards that everybody has it and

074in fact we actually make posters that are I'm also with that we pull out and we put in in the negotiating room so that we can refer to our norms and our standards and our guideline um and so um that worked really well because it helped us kind of like look over and we need to do that and get back to it so um because sometimes it's easy to take a shortcut on things and I what I have found when I've done that with um with tables we take a shortcut we we end up at the end saying why did we do that that is not working so we just sometimes we'll just stop and start again and go back to the story and walk through the process so um just remember I think probably

075most importantly is to really remember the in the interest part of this um that is the key and that it's based on Trust and being honest at the table and um people be trusting that what you say is is what you mean and it's true and that goes for both sides there has to be trust there I think it builds a relationship but it's also even with the Board of Education when you know you trust your Administration um by doing the direction that we discuss because sometimes we will hear at some time well they didn't really say what we said but if you build that trust okay I think it's really important between when I say teams I don't say unions in administration because we're all in board we're all a team right yeah together

076and I think that's how we need to see this the whole um bargaining right negotiation experience right well and somebody else asked a question about how does IBB help relationships and I think that the answer to that is as far as I'm concerned is that we spend a lot of time in the room developing those relationships and one of the things that we do which is um takes time as well is is that part of our process is every day every every time we meet we do a check-in and we go around the table and we say how's everybody doing and that was a very interesting um activity during covid because we were all on zoom and people were really having a hard time and that was it was a tough time but we go

077through check in with people see how they're doing what's going on with them and then we have we'll have a question of the day and we'll ask a question for them to um to answer and um and to talk about so that the team members can get to know the um the other team members on the other team better because I believe and I've seen it the better you know somebody the easier it is to work with them to listen to them and the more you trust them so thank you for bringing that up some people just want to be heard that's right that's right you're absolutely right pretty much everyone yeah okay I'm almost almost done here and you'll give you to Louie um um so we believe that in order for this to

078be um workable uh in a school district is it that there is a commitment that really starts here commitment really starts here it starts with the Board of Education and the superintendent um in terms of the commitment to the beliefs and the um the the precepts of interest-based bargaining and that means um that uh collaborative problem solving enhances relationships understandings and outcomes the more you collaborate the more you problem solve the better your relationship is um believe that both parties can win help each other win that open discussion and transparency unveils Mutual interests and expands options and the standards can replace power also um to use collaborative problem solving as much as you can everywhere when there's a problem uh to have equal participation in decision making power uh to follow the IBB steps and

079to adhere to the team protocol and um that any questions on on my segment before we go on any other questions for me on the process I'm going to move through my slides quickly but with um what your role as a board and a superintendent cabinet are and you have touched on some of them because you have very good questions and the uh the main thing to keep in mind is to think of Interest so let's say you don't they I want you to remove seniority from the contract a single option If You Dig Two interest I'd say I'd like to find a way for quality teachers to be able to move to another school in the district meet the need of a program and students and have a fair process not just always select

080the most senior person and that's that broader and it really your intent so it's thinking and and um what what you'll be doing in IBB if you focus on the interest and then your role the parameter focusing on your interests and then don't go beyond the perimeter of what you are offering then you're going to allow the team to be more open and understanding and also to come up with some more creative delivery that any one person doesn't have and when you're at the table and you're taking that first step of telling the story gathering information and perception you're going to get a lot more information about how it's best solved do you want to allow your team to be able to do that proposals separate from we talk about that providing an answer options

081they will create at the table so um that helps so what you would bring to IBB would naturally we have already heard from you in this room so I think you're there is the attitude that values and nurtures that opened collaborative climate for your disc I mean you were saying important for us to build relationships and to listen to build trust hear what people are thinking that's the most supported the team you bring to ibp a commitment to help them use the process and you're showing that by being here today and saying how do I know more and I mean I am not working directly with a group so now I live next door in Glendora and I read the newspaper you've been through some very very difficult time in terms of closing schools looking

082at mascot and all of these complex issues what I've observed from afar that you've taken the time to hear from people you're not going to be able that they're going to come into the room some of them say but this is the only answer you should provide that's a position as you listen to them you are taking in their interest again okay this is complete how can we asked me this and I mean I just I found it free that you decided Mast box but now how do we redraw of what that mascot stands for and it's just interesting it never would come up I but that pipe of an option without your already your ability to listen and that that of course isn't a negotiating shoe uh it's negotiated with your community inside and

083outside the district so you have already done that exceeding well so specifically um the First new Step here identifying and clarifying issues and listing the interest certainly the interest to be provided by you if you have some tie into an issue usually if the role of superintendent to come up with issues that need to be but there may be one you bring up such as you know I just heard that Mrs Santos could not based on security being given that position in another school when I hear there's other people who were more qualified so minority may be a problem what are you looking for in general once you've done then you agree on the parameter you're certainly not going to say do whatever you want even if the budget won't balance over here everyone agreed

084to that so you're gonna set parameter Latasha is rolling her eyes over there so your job is to avoid institutions just stay here here's where you could go and then commit to patient and understanding because um how many in this room know that they can control how people in their family their community in the school district are going to react and how they're going to present issue we can't can't control how somebody responds to that but we can control how we respond to them and if somebody demands something we hear what they can even ask and and what are you looking for you could take for interest if you want but you're not going to make a decision that is the best just because they happen to have ended it nor are you going to

085make a decision that isn't the best yes because you don't want them to get what they were demanding I mean you're going to base it on what you need for students um so you do that don't take it wrong and then you always have the authority the beginning you want to know you want to share with the Prem and what you're interested at the end you have the final approval on whether this is going to be the district so the final question but you're going to have some more is can things go wrong with IB if nothing went wrong with IBB then we would be traveling internationally sprinkling magic IBB dust across the world I it there is no one answer to all questions what we have learned is it helps people understand poor and

086trust that you're making the best decision possible for the students staff support them and the district as a whole so but what can go wrong you may have heard of Board of Elections that argue among themselves or somebody comes in and they want individual personality can can make man take decision but working with five or seven people on the board can be in this case it appears you have no problem there can be problems with the negotiating teams there can be disruption on that administrative team you can certainly have difficulties with more associations we've got the wrong leaders but if you keep going through the training and reviewing and if they make commitment like Debbie said to the norms and guidelines and the standards then they're most often with you always need to work on

087communication all of us too you don't want us understand with the public sometimes the public or even or if staff can come forward and say yes you solved that problem using first paper but if only you'd had a big fight and been tougher you could have had something better and don't let your stuff be pushed into that point because um fighting usually not only disrupts the whole District in fact yeah but it doesn't speak with the best salute so it can go things can go wrong with ivp the way they go wrong with steps but the standard with the commitment much more to go well than with any others particularly oh happy we look at the posted I think we've met us oh I've been yes I want to focus on those with you it's

088collaborative support I found it negotiating as the chief negotiator as the superintendent and I was superintendent for 18 years in Monrovia what I found is there was a much more collaborative support positions we made in the district and a better understanding of the issue because we got input onto these before we claim um to a solution as a district working with the board there was more buy-in from the staff in general and really if you listen to them and if you collaborate with them it is a grand gesture of respect and value for what they are offering their schools and your students and with students the biggest benefit is that if you are working together research has shown at students teach much better when there's collaborate particularly the stock but that for a district one

089and so they benefit from learning and thriving in there so I think now we've looked at what your questions are or you can just ask them there's something that we have covered um I think we covered most of the postage that you sure if I understand this one this one this one says how can we increase the time it takes to complete an item and I think I'm not sure I think is the question how do we decrease the time oh increase oh oh oh go faster go faster okay all right um you know a nice tip in here for a minute because I didn't talk about how much time maybe take um what I have found is that actually we tend to think it takes long but it actually takes less time than traditional

090and I know that sounds strange but I was working with another District in this region and we had we had had about five or six IBB sessions and after we I I was facilitating at the time and so I said I'm gonna stop for a minute I want to go around the room I want you to just say what do you think about the use of IBB this was a mixture of teachers and administrators around the table the first two people said oh you know I really like what we've been able to accomplished but it it takes so much time it takes so much energy the first two said that the third one uh that said no I had that thought at first then I remember but we spent the full day in this same

091room and it seemed like it didn't take so long because we only spent small minutes of time talking with each other but now what I'm realizing is that it's harder were we the whole time together working on solving the problem rather than going next door to a caucus and wasting our time being angry with each other and then all of a sudden the person who said oh you were right and we went around the room and they said ultimately we accomplish or break no more both in the solutions and in building our relationship and understanding then it just it seems like you know you get we have found that half of the time is lost and caucuses for traditional and you're lucky if only decision or time where you really work together but it is

092it's a Non-Stop I think the other thing is and this is kind of funny because um as we know there are a lot of different personalities and there are some people even sitting in this room you have probably a lot of different personality types in this room and there are some people who could just sit and talk and listen forever and enjoy listening to people and enjoy you know just hearing all different aspects of the problem and then there are other people that that drive crazy drives them crazy because they are they want to get things done they're goal oriented and it's taking too long and why are you talking Etc so I think that there is a there is a place in the discussion part in IBB and I've had this experience as a

093facilitator where um sometimes people take the opportunity to talk too much and it really isn't benefiting the group and so when I see and see again I think that that would that could be one of my roles as facilitator to help that and I have been known to because I have I also developed the relation relationships with people in the group too so that I can talk to them individually they need to trust me also they need to trust me being there so if I talk to them individually they trust that I'm I'm really taking their best interest in mind if I'm talking to them about something that's happening at the table so I've been known to pull somebody aside and talk to them about how much they talked at the table and how much

094time it takes and and are you listening as much as you're talking and so I do that and and I think that that's one of the expectations that some people have of me is just to kind of help control the room not well I don't want to State Patrol to kind of manage the room in the IBB environment so that it is productive and not just an ongoing discussion about every single feeling you've had about everything so because that can happen and and it does happen so um so uh question overall question I think we answered the ones that you put forward to us so far if we didn't um if I didn't clarify we didn't clarify those um uh you can ask it again or differently so that we can clarify it and otherwise

095are there any other questions that you have I think that's why it's great to have a facilitator everyone in task right so it's not like all over the place right like a referee yeah so I think it's great they kind of sometimes you might feel that way so sometimes it's not here not here not here that's good though it doesn't give too many penalties though right I think in your heart if if you make the best decision for the students and and District but most of all your financial budget you know and we're all here for the same reasons I think we'll be good yeah go ahead yes I can hear you so I wanted just to it's more of a comment to say that um I appreciate the interest-based bargaining because I think it

096really um creates connectedness with among the group um it gives people an opportunity to um see what individuals you know the value they bring to the table and because we do set the parameters I think that although it could take time I think that when you're working with within those parameters everyone knows we need to you know stick with the within the parameters but at the same time it also gives them an opportunity to be more creative and come up with options and have an open mind so and and at the end of the day um we are here for the students and I I appreciate the fact that uh you both ladies brought that up in the beginning because that's that's what we're here for thank you I have a question just to help

097with with our team um and if you could just talk about the normal Arc of the learning curve for a district that is transitioning from a traditional um setting into this IBB negotiation model you know you can add to it too they take long I mean think of all the facets of interest-based bargaining I mean you know for me really trying to understand what is that underlying interest and I will I will tell you that I always thought teams would do their own facilitating and I have learned by training District that when they can have a facilitator who has used IBB over years and decades that that becomes their encourager and helps them move back in um so I I'm working with one district for 12 years as a facilitator and I am not their

098first facilitator they decided they would have a facilitator and they've been doing IBB oh I think 30 years they were one of the first tests and then I have another District that I feel datum were on year nine and I keep saying okay you are doing very well do you want to go on your own and they sing hang around because we know every district has a challenge be it a person or an issue and just keeps it moving through but they built on those skills does that help you know I would like that that um I wish that there were an easy answer to that question right um but this is what I'll say about that I've worked with a lot of people in my bay uh as a principal um and as a

099district administrator I work with different groups of people in negotiations in other committees or you know whatever we do all the things that we do in the district I've done a lot of those things and I have never met a group of individuals that was the same as another group of individuals So my answer to you is first of all it's going to be frustrating it depends it depends on what people are bringing to the table and I think that at the end of the day what it it really rests on every single individual at that table and what he or she is bringing to the table that day are you bringing an honest open approach to collaboration or are you are you mad because you don't want to do something on this topic you

100know what do you genuinely bring into it and the extents to which the willingness and commitment is there I think that that there's a direct correlation between that every single member of that group and the time that it takes to get together people are fascinating I love people and I think that you know if if they're there for the right reason and they really want to do the right thing and they bring their best to the table um I think it could work rather quickly I think just the observation that I have is while we might think of a district as a static group we have different players so even a district that's been implementing IBB for decades the leaders have changed um even long-standing leaders they will they will rotate out um the board

101member composition will change from time to time so the parameter set will change and um you talk about the what that person what the team members might be bringing to the table that day that also um Taps back to what's going on in the district and pressures around all of it uh reorganization mascot Community violence everyone is bringing that Collective psyche to the table during the negotiation negotiating period thank you for bringing that up because we have one other activity that we use on a regular basis at the at the table at the table and that is that um every time we meet after we check in and everybody's doing um for the day and have the question of the day we also asked to see if there are any elephants recognizing just the very

102thing that you just said um that if you know somebody they come in and they're mad because uh somebody just did something that they were mad about and they you know can't negotiate then we have to get that out and on the table and talk about it or else we'll have we will not have a good day so um sometimes um sometimes the tables when I was first doing this work in Monrovia um sometimes the elephants would would like take over the entire day because there are a lot of things that people wanted to talk about there was no other forum for that and so we kind of figured that out and made another forum for people to solve their problems other than at the negotiating table but um an elephant is is very specifically

103something that would beep people from being able to negotiate that day because they were so angry and so we would get that on the table but we do that like the elephant in the room so um we do address that and I think that um I think it's I think it's positive I think it's a good way to you know to start the day and to deal with that very issue because you know as you as you all know every day um you know there is never a dull moment in a district there's never a dull moment there's always something going on any other questions okay we have one more thing that we would like you to do uh thank you Louise um we'd like for you to think about um and this will be

104anonymous but you don't we'll put it up and it'll be enough I'm going to read them but it'll be anonymous though you can write what you want and we'll keep it anonymous why you think that IBB is a good good work in in Azusa why you think it could work why you think it'd be beneficial based on what you've learned or what you knew already and um maybe say if you've learned something about your role tonight that may be different than what you thought before you walked in say something about that or what you think your role is in the IBB process and um just give us that feedback or yeah I've so just put it on the Post-it and then we can open them up and we'll read them but we won't we won't

105say who they anonymous laughs oh you're um huh that the sisters I be could help you know this better relation and that's usually part of that you know any team you work with if you could work solving problems together it there were some people who say and they don't know IBB is just cookies in Kumbaya that people are just trying to but no the point is to be very productive this comment is um it creates an opportunity to try something new benefits why IBB there is a positive shift to this relationship with bargaining ABP Franklin and as for a role it to listen to communication and understand budgets set parameter for them that is a boy but if they're constantly moving parts okay deepen prod I trust him relationship with our labor labor partner for

106their double yeah I mean again solution um my role is to help conversation issue and keep um IBB strength strength and trust and collaborative relationship and my role and maybe be support and this is for the role across I think that they are right decision trust at all and better decisions support process me we're doing the right we may give you thank you so much I mean you've just you have such a deep understanding of why maybe be very natural to use them for people thank you for these comments they're very helpful um to hear from you um and I know that you will continue to do the right thing and good things for students in Azusa the great district and you've got a lot of you have a lot of work to do still

107right always every so thank you for for the time um that you gave us tonight uh it is um look at one minute to spare yes I love it thank you thank you so much thank you Dr Taylor Dr Collins thank you very much appreciate the insight and your time this evening have a great night we're president if we take a recess a break about 15 minutes uh we'll get people out and get ready for the next session okay so we will take a 15-minute recess and we will reconvene at 705. foreign thank you foreign okay Lika we're going to go ahead and uh rejoin our meeting we are ready the live stream is on good evening and thank you uh the board has returned from recess and we are continuing with item 3.1 review

108of effective governance procedures uh Mr Ortega thank you Dr Beau uh we are very grateful and fortunate to have Miss Angelina Pride uh back with us uh here uh to continue uh with effective board governance um a couple of years ago we had discussed that we want to take advantage of this particular gov board governance meeting uh in the case we have new board members uh so that this would be an opportunity to really get them familiar with some of the big picture things uh regarding uh the board and so again just very grateful that Miss uh pride is here uh to help us with that today thank you well thank you for having me and um it's nice to be back work with Azusa Unified School District again I always enjoy the time that

109I send you into the new trustee um welcome it has been wonderful meeting you today I look forward to working with you as well as part of the governance team thank you so I know you guys have been here for a little while so we're going to go ahead and get started and I will say um that some of the information they covered today will be redundant for those of you who are returning board members but we all know our refresher is good and especially when you have a new member who may have questions about things and if they bring something to light for you or you may want to chime in about something specific about how you do something um in particular in your District okay so we'll go ahead and get started do

110you have your packet so our agenda today is to cover governance review um governance team protocols and consent agenda items and we'll also be briefly talking about the brown act and Robert's Rules award so you have your handouts that I gave you um governance system is is what makes the school boards work there is no other way to explain it or say it but it is what keeps the school board functioning it is what governs and um dictates the way you take care of the district's business and the way you um interact with your community and stakeholders and the way you interact with one another as well so government is the is very important ground governance is important but even more so it's the team adhering to governance protocols that makes it really effective the

111first thing I want to talk about is the attributes that are shared by effective school board and I will use the word effective because some some school boards will say oh you know um we we have this problem with governance and we're you know but we're fine we get through everything but to Be an Effective board it's more than just adhering to the governance rules and regulations I would say but it's following them and being clear with them and making sure that you set an example with them and so there was a study done a while back called The Lighthouse study and it talked about what effective governance was and what made School boards effective and one of the main things that showed was peaceful relationships and that means that even when you don't agree

112you're all respectful to one another you ask questions of underscore understanding so that you don't make assumptions and you if you do have a conflict with someone you're addressed it immediately and you do it one-on-one with them first so that you can clear the air because a peaceful board can work together it doesn't mean again that you had to agree but it means that you respect the just respectfully disagree so you don't yell and scream at each other you don't hate each other and call each other's name post things on social media you just um say okay that's the difference that we have but that's okay we still work together for the benefit of our school district and the kids also the um the board's opinion of the superintendent so often I have done these

113workshops with some teams governing teams who felt like the superintendent was their enemy and that they weren't supposed to get along the superintendent and I never understood that and I would always ask them to please explain that to me because I don't I don't know how that works and you know I would get some weird responses but the fact of the matter is the superintendent part of your government you hire the superintendent to do the job of running the district day by day the superintendent is someone you rely on to give you guidance when it comes to the business of the district and to make sure that when you're casting a vote that you have all the information that you need in order to make an informed decision I always ask the question how many

114of us could apply for a superintendent job and even get through the paper screen and usually except for when I did where I had a former superintendent sit in the room but usually the answer is none of us and that's why we need the superintendent we rely on on the superintendent's expertise to take care of the day-to-day business of the district and we'll talk a little bit more about role later the Roses superintendent and the rules of board but just know that you work hand in hand with the superintendent superintendent is not the enemy he's part of your governance team and together is what makes working together is what makes you an effective board also and this one goes without saying because usually when I ask um why people ran there's always children children so

115of course remembering that why we are here I tell people all the time don't forget for why no matter how long or how little of a time you've been on the board when things get breath remember your why because that'll help you get through it look at those kids look at those students that you you're representing and then just do what's right by them so on the next Slide the realities of school board governance um Sandra when you campaign you campaigned alone as an individual you are not part of the governance team yet that goes for all the rest of us when we campaign and when we campaign we you know talk to people yeah I agree oh yes we should stop that oh yes we should do this you know we're hearing from the

116community and we have all these big ideas in our head what we're going to do once we get on the board then you come in and you learn all these rules that you have to follow and the biggest rule is that you're now part of a team so not one person makes a decision but all decisions are made by vote of the team and it's always majority rules and um sometimes it's hard I won't tell you that it's easy because they think that we're very passionate about that maybe the others on the board think that that's something that can wait and it doesn't pass emotion might not pass but that's okay we still keep fighting and we still continue to be a strong part of the theme and a strong advocate for the children in

117the district that we serve so just remember as an individual nobody has the the power to fix anything in the district it's all about what the team wants to do and you're bored and your success as a trustee is tied to the success of the board as a whole uh there's this uh comic strip that we always use in some of our workshops of a boat that's getting ready to sink and there's people at the bottom who are getting wet and there's two people at the top and they're like man I'm sure glad I'm not down there getting wet but they're eventually going to get wet too so no matter what position you take or no matter um what happens the board is viewed as a whole so one person not adhering government standards and

118making the board um have a a situation that that's not a good one for the public to see can ruin the reputation of the entire Port so you want to make sure that everything that you do is as a governance team with respect and it's tight to the success of the board and then just keep in mind that you like I said that you work together with one another that you treat each other with respect and remember that governing is a human experience you're gonna make a mistakes um you learn from them you correct them you move on but most importantly we put on here have a sense of humor because if you don't you'll drive yourself crazy so there's some times when things are going to get rough and the community won't be happy

119with you and you have to just remember to you know still try to smile afterwards and just know that you did what's best for the district and fortitude and as long as you can say that you have the right so governance mindset what is the government's mind that just means that you understand that what you do in the role of a school board is strategic is not administrative there's the administrative part if you're super intended in his staff so yours is strategic what do what is our vision for the district what do we want to do where do we want to see our district going how do we want to move forward um how do we want to handle these tough things those are the things that you all talk about and then you provide

120direction to your superintendent and then the superintendent and his staff job to carry out that that work also remember that it's policy driven because there are policies that dictate what a board can and cannot do should and should not do and then as well as that you have your Norm you have your protocol that you should be following in here into and then just remember like I said that no individual is in charge of the board no matter whether you're brand new no matter whether you've been here for a long time no matter whether you're the board president no one person gets to make all of the decisions foreign that I talk about frequently and I am I don't think that I ever do a workshop without mentioning this no matter what the topic is

121I find a way to weave it in that the board has to be unified but not uniform and what we mean by that is very simple that means that you can have a 3-2 vote you can have a 401 Vote or you can have a 5-0 vote it doesn't matter but when you leave this room you support the vote even if you're on the losing end and it's something you didn't agree with you still support the vote you don't go out and bat-mouth it you don't go out and say well I don't know why they voted for that I'm against that and I hate it and I don't know why it passed and that that doesn't do anything to cause cause um relationship problems within your board and remember we just talked about how you

122represent for it one person still represents the whole board so if you have a boat and you're on the losing end of it find a way to get on board with it with something about it find a way to make it work for you so that it is you beneficial and will meet the needs of the students and if you can't no matter how hard you try then like our parents always said if you can't say nothing nice don't say nothing at all because you don't want the bad mouth support you don't want to have a divided board and when I use the word divided what I mean is you don't want to start having practice where you have factions developing on your board where two people are only voting together on everything and three

123people are only voting together everything because you lost your cohesiveness and being divided on both and not being uniform Unified and that causes that problem so you don't have to vote the same you can vote no you can vote yeah it doesn't matter but be unified as a board to find whatever decision the board makes and I I emphasize this one because it is and I learned from experience from my first year on the board that this is one of the key things that will either make a board or break board so don't let it break your board Community leadership when you all are out in the community remember that represent the district and I I always tell the story about when I first got elected and I'm an early bird and I like to

124go to the grocery store early before other people go and I had I was on the board for a few months and I got up through on my different color scarf on my head in different color socks and my son's flip-flops or whatever thinking I'll go to the grocery store and get my stuff done get back home and wouldn't you know I ran into like everybody who lived in Rowland Heights and I was so embarrassed but I thought I'd just get in and get out you know that nobody else would be up that early and I learned a lesson but just remember you don't have to be dressed up like a you know like a queen or princess or anything but be mindful that you may run into people who recognize you as a board

125member and don't go to the store early in the morning looking like I did so but also make sure that you know how to handle yourself when you talk to your community your district has been through a lot lately in the past few years with the community you know with schools closures that's like the toughest thing any District can go through anything related to school closure or financial those are the things that bring the community out and broke and so you guys have been through a really tough time and I think that I think I had off to all of you that we're here during that time you handled it very well um you know you guys made it through I didn't see you all in the paper too much and that's always a good

126thing but just remember that when you go out and there's something big going on in the district take guidance from your superintendent as the superintendent and the board president will work together so that you guys are informed so you know what the message is because when there's big things going on the community will call each and every one of you and they should hear the same message from each and every one of you that's transparency that shows truth that shows consistency if they start getting different messages from different people then they start to think okay somebody's not telling the truth what's going on here you know the district isn't being honest with us so that's when you guys make sure that everybody has full information and it's on the same page tell us what's going

127on so that when you are approached that it can be addressed properly um I know you guys have some protocols on that as well in your uh full board handbook but um stay focused on the on the business of the district and the mission and the vision and make sure that they're both are aligned with things that with the goals that you guys have set so don't go off and spend a whole lot of money on something that's not going to be tied to the goals that you determine you want to follow for your dish so understanding your roles just remember you're superintendent that you was aboard you guys are the what and your superintendent is the how so all of you are in that yellow circle there where you guys set the Direction with

128the policies and the priorities and the missions Visions those things that's all the governance teams work so once you guys say hey this is our vision this is our mission these are our goals this is what we want to do then you're superintendent and cabinet will hear that and then they will come up with the plans to implement and make your vision reality and then they will to their business once it goes to them then you guys will get reports and updates about it but you don't do the work and you don't question them about doing the work they will give you report update so anytime we had given direction to um the hour of superintendent on a project of any kind we would always say can you you know give us an updated three

129or six months or sometimes the superintendent would just say automatically I have an update for you guys in three months or six months and that's how you get updates on how things are going is the superintendent and staff doing what you requested them to do and how's it going is it working is it not working as the board do we need to support something in a different way in order to make it work but remember you're the what superintendent and his staff are the how and then responsibilities related to the superintendent again remember you said Direction um and established a structure you support your superintendent you provide resources so that the goals and divisions can be met and ensure accountability and you let the community know what's going on as well and by letting the

130community know what's going on too I encourage the communities to you know I used to always encourage my community members some sort of board just hear you know what we do see how see us in action or watch on a live stream you know whatever it takes just so that they know what you guys are doing and how you are taking care of the school's business and again the superintendent when they're doing that how will give you follow up on how things are going and if for some reason you don't get a follow-up then the board president will ask the superintendent for a follow-up and that's usually done through a presentation at a board meeting or it could be communicated through you um to you through your superintendent communicate with you I gave you a

131little cheat sheet in your packet on roles and responsibilities and it shows just some general things like Personnel community relations um you know General and it's there's a column that shows you what the school board's role is and what the superintendent's role is so it's just a quick little cheat sheet so if you're not sure you can take a look at that and kind of get an idea of where you fall and what your role is and what the superintendent so uh next I want to talk to you about your norms and your protocols and this one will just breathe because it's in your your school hand School government handbook uh have any of you guys looked at your handbook recently ah there we go good and I know Yolanda and Sabrina have been around

132for a little bit so I'm sure they've looked at it many many times but this that handbook outlines on what you're supposed to do as a board which you should be adhering to as part of the governance theme and it talks about your norms and protocols and one thing I like about your district is that you always have your Norms here when you have a meeting so that you can look at them and reflect on them as needed because I tell you sometimes meetings can get rough and there may be something you want to say that you know you shouldn't say so you have a look at that and that helps you to remember okay I'm just gonna stay quiet right now that's why yesterday I organized my notebook and I made it a point

133to include my handbook in my notebook because like absolutely yeah and and you're lucky that you came into a district that already he had one because a lot of districts that I'm still working with don't even have one and new members are coming in and they have nothing to guide them so the fact that you have your district has one and that they take the time to put out the norms and everything here is critical when it comes to your norms and Protocols are there any that um that you guys have questions about or would like to reiterate to the board you feel like they've everything gets a little lacks on I don't have any particular areas of development but I I do feel that we are really coming together around I I have oh

134I'm sorry I'm sorry you said you're coming together I feel like we're coming together around those meaning that we are adhering to them better than a year ago and that's my perspective I only feel um that my team I would say my team is being laxed on is be present and be prepared and I'm not sure if that has to do with time because I do know somewhere where it states that we should be here five minutes before the meeting I I think we should be here 15 minutes before but that's what that's me um and my board members they do not they'll come in a minute when meeting starts and sometimes they're not even here when the meeting starts so I feel that that's being locked because I know that was one of the

135discussions that we did have when we set the protocols and norms and and when it came the last time thank you for bringing that up Yolanda and and you have valid very valid point because remember again like I said the community is watching you and so if they see that the meeting is being called to order and people are still straggling in it doesn't look professional um it doesn't look like the board is taking the business seriously so they do need to make effort to every effort and I understand things happen I commute from Los Angeles so I know that sometimes I get stuck traffic or things like that and apps that they should make every effort to plan accordingly to be here prior to the start of the meeting so that when that apple

136is that everyone is pressed so thank you for bringing that up and hopefully all the board members will will hear that concerned and we'll adhere to it do you think there's an issue with the time or is it just well we have two board members not here not present so I don't know how that would be I mean you know related to them or you mean a concern about the start time of our regular yeah of your meetings that like Elon reference about not being here on time for a regular meeting I can set the context only so people know I think uh more vice president is referring to board members will attempt to be ready to begin the meeting at least five minutes prior to the board meeting start time I think that's what

137yeah yes I am so maybe it's just a reminder let's start with that um formal reminder and um maybe in a communique you can um State something about that that was talked about today in that uh if there's an issue to please bring it up to the board president and let her know otherwise the expectation is that everyone will be here prior to the start of the board meeting so that when the meeting is gaffled to order all board members are pressed and saying that I just have a second question to the superintendent so um when I'm looking at the clock up on the wall would you say it's this 5 00 p.m I'm not now I'm just saying but and then when I looked at my laptop it said five um 455 or something

138in other words this doesn't coincide what are we going by here are we going by there I don't know if you noticed but maybe it's my computer but uh like right now my it's this 727 and this says something yeah a few minutes more right my computer says 733. yeah I have 7 30 right now on my computer yeah 7 27 p.m so I'm looking at this but I'm looking at that and I'm not sure which one are we facing to be here on here that's another question I have I think that oh then this is not my computer it's not fit right I'm not sure they're all what is your say mine right now says 733 oh yeah see here's it yes oh yeah that is anybody's watch that yeah so yeah my watch

139this and your computer is not watching my hands because the clock is only shortly yeah no this one's just 7 28 now okay so yeah so you know if I see my colleagues I'm not sure if I'm looking at this or I'm looking at that you know I'm maybe they're on time I don't know I'm just questioning that well it's never it never hurts to be reminded to be on time right so again thank you for bringing that up so are those the only thing that you yeah and then Sabrina indicated that she felt like things going much much better they are referring to that and that's wonderful I agree with her on that yeah sure yes do you have a question yes so um one of the things that I was surprised since I'm

140you know new to um the the protocols and um the meeting Norms is uh we don't participate in so when the public speaks we don't participate right but yet yet during the pandemic if you will or you know things have gotten really contentious with some at some districts with between the parents and the board members yet I'm sitting here hearing that you know we have these board Norms but I had yet to see that kind of behavior because and and I'm speaking on the part of the board because the board things got contentious like I said in some districts and it's because the board maybe didn't have these Norms or um they they got verbal with with you know the audience or the public and um it's nice to hear that because it wasn't some

141of the behavior that was displayed um because there's a lot of you know issues in you know within each community that rather safety whatever the case may be and um and I think that um for Azusa when I when I came on board and I read that because I read it a couple of times and I and it just brings dogs my memory back to some of those meetings that I've seen I mean they're all on social media yeah and I think that I like that the fact that we have to we have those Norms because we are being respectful of public participation and the public because they also have to share right they have a a time in the meeting where they bring concerns to the board right right so I just wanted to

142share an observation and thank you for that and um in some cases you're right uh some some boards that don't have a governance handbook and so they don't have a set of norms and um protocols that they have agreed to follow as the governance team and so um there's no way to really hold anybody accountable other than to say Hey you shouldn't do that but with with your District you can say hey remember these people out there but they remember these we came up with these as the government team and we agreed to follow them so that does make a difference and sometimes it doesn't I will be honest with you that yes you don't engage with uh the speakers during public comment only thing that you can do is to support president and provide

143directions to the superintendent and say Hey you know can you have someone speak to that individual or have someone reach out to that individual um but that's pretty but pretty much it and I know that things I really needed a lot of times during the pandemic and that was just unfortunately the norm up and down state of California and throughout many school districts I was support president when covet started so um I I understand my district was we were fortunate we didn't have that many who were angry so but it wasn't that way across every place and you know you as a board member you learn to deal with it you have to put on your poker face and you have to listen and and that's the one key thing I would say even when

144someone's yelling and screaming at you there's usually something there and so I would try to find that something that that message that they really wanted to get across or that point that they were really concerned about and I would try to you know just make myself a note of that and just ignore the yelling golly all the other stuff um and then sometimes some people just do come yell with you I I think for me I was just surprised um because of the you know the the board that some of the districts that engage with the parents or the audience that um and that's a note yeah I think for me I was surprised right to read that and then I thought well I I thought well I thought that would be adopted across the

145board you know what I'm saying Within the whole school district in California well it is it is in the 9 000 bylaw about uh public comments um so the board bylaws the nine thousands uh you you should take a look at those and it isn't there's usually always something in the board bylaws about the public comment and how the board um should react or not react to Public Health here when the word president um or he reads it um [Music] Yeah because sometimes that will like make people more irate because they think that you're ignoring them but that's why the divorce the president reads the statement to say Hey you know it's not that we're not ignoring we're ignoring you it's that this is you know how we handle public comment foreign helps keep the

146meeting in order yeah and remember the board meetings are they those these board meetings that you have are the board meetings they're just held in public but this is a meeting for you as a board to come together to take care of the business of the district it's not or designed to cater to the public yes you show transparency in your actions at the meetings because you're handling all of your business in public but it's your meeting is not the community's meeting and sometimes that's hard for community members to understand and they don't like when you say that but it's a fact this is your board meeting because without it you cannot take care of the business of the district but that brings us to our next thing effective board meeting so that was a

147good segue into that um in in the board meetings are also um the opportunity for the board to show leadership for the district and your board has done that um especially well over the last couple of years with everything that you were going through because you have to give the community confidence that you're making the right decisions that you're working well with your superintendent and cabinet to make sure that the students have the best education possible the best resources possible the best staff possible so you guys have to demonstrate that and that's what you do when you hold your meetings and that's why they're in public to show that in this you do that also through your vote to support the things that you know are best for the district they may not always be

148popular but they will be the best thing for the district if you guys have been reading the papers lately you know that there's several districts that are in um Financial turmoil and um that's those are tough things for a board to have to go through but if it's the best decision for the district to make those cuts to do those layoffs close those tools then that's what the board has to do so it's not always an easy and fun job but it's one that needs to be um that needs to be in place so that the district can function and then also um your agenda when your agendas are done for your meetings your agendas should all be focused on Student Success and achieve everything on that agenda should be focused on student assessment achievement

149four-year district and people are like well you know if that's the case then why are we approving you know um uh invoices to pay for toilet paper and soap okay because if you don't have toilet paper and soap at your school sites then what's going to happen so everything is ultimately tied to your suit uh when you're approving new staff when you're proven uh job bulletins when you're approving um for new textbook for professional development training for your your classified and certificated staff when you're supporting your superintendent for professional development as well so all those things are tied to Super the students success and achievement because the more that they learn and the better they can do their job then the more resources and the more Direction positive direction they can have or give provide

150for the student so everything is linked to students success energy and can I just mention something regarding this is the yes ma'am we're on the consent agenda right the bottom one are we there no we're not there oh we're not there yet okay okay we're going to talk about that one all right okay um but also through your District um vision mission and priorities and progress through goals and then that's an area where the district with the board wants to continually when you're looking at vision and mission statements that's where you want to continually keep the public informed and also get them involved in the process and keep reporting out on what that is because your vision and your mission in your District beliefs and priorities those are what should drive the work that you

151do and that tells the that tells the community where your focus is I was just recently um invited to sit on the um the theme for my former school district for Rolling to work on the their redefining their vision and mission and goals and they asked me did I want to come and be part of it you know as a community member now and I was like oh absolutely definitely you know because the voices of everybody should go into those things but the board provides that direction of where they want to go and then they listen to the community and then they might change some things or revamp something or to just let the community know hey we heard you and this is the direction that we're going in and we we're taking your input

152when we formulate these Mission envisioned States you get input from people same thing and then the um bylaws and your policies and norms and protocols those should all be followed when you have your board meetings you want to make sure that you stay on task and we'll talk a little bit about that if you um the brown act a little bit more but you want to make sure that you're following um the agenda in that you're abiding by state conflict of interest and open meeting laws as well when you um have your meetings and use both Sandra about you know how contentious some meetings had had gotten and there were times when the board asked to make a decision to adjourn the meeting and go back into closed session or take a break um because

153things get so unruly or out of control and the board has the authority to do that because again it's your meeting it's not the public meeting when people come in and they get a little loud and rambunctious and you know we had to do that during negotiative negotiation here where everybody was yelling and chanting and we can conduct our business so we just dabbled out for a recess and when it said in the superintendent's office until they got quiet and we came back out and finished conducting the work of the of the board so and that's the that's the duty of the board president to do that yes it is it's not us sitting here the board president yeah and if you feel like the board president isn't doing it fast enough feel free to

154shoot him a look and be like she knows my look yeah um but um you have to you have to use your best of when when it's necessary to do something like that and if it impedes you being able to do your work then it's go ahead and so now we're gonna get to what Yolanda wants to talk about the cassette agenda and um just a quick recap about the the is you know there's consent agendas are listed on every board and the consent agenda is basically um an area on the agenda where you can vote for a whole group of items at one time instead of going through every single one independently um one of the the blessings that I found about the percentage and the things I love most about the consent agenda

155and being able to vote for a group of things at one time is this saves a lot of time and allowed us to spend more time talking about other things um during our board meeting because if we had to sit there and vote for every line item in our agenda on the consent agenda that we would be there all night because remember every invoice and payment and you know Tech bridge and things that need to be done um are just basic things that happen you know in fuel for the buses uh toilet paper for the school sites you know those basic things order and paper and pencils I don't want to vote for those things one at a time one at a time so that's the that's the blessing of the consent agenda um and

156just know because um when it comes to robbers throws the Border they refer to it as a consent calendar is the same instant agenda Instinct calendar is the same thing it's just um just worded differently but these are things that are non-controversial so don't try to like buy things that you don't want the pub to know about you know inconsistent agenda so not that your board has done this nor does your board intend to do this but let's say the board decide hey we're gonna give ourselves a 50 uh exercise um for our hard work and we're going to put it in consent that's not something that you went to but let's say that you wanted to um you had already gotten a bid for a new fuel supplier for your school buses than you

157guys that went through the discussion at a previous meeting and everything and now it was coming back for a boat and everybody was like yeah no we're good with this you know that get going so you just have to make sure to write things are going on consent agenda you had a question Yolanda yeah so the question uh word says how did all items together without discussion um actually we can pull an item that's something so I'm ahead of myself okay okay all right yeah and so if you go to the next page you'll see it talks about what belongs on consent agenda and again you know we're talking about things like a proven minute um proposals um staff appointments that um require board confirmation but the superintendent has already you know let you guys

158know about everything reports that are information only um correspondence that don't require any action just routine math those are the things that go on consent agenda now the um the Yolanda's statement uh things can be pulled from consent we have had things that may come up that are of interest to you where you're like that just didn't we just approve that last meeting too what is what is this one why is the same company on here two meetings in a row then at the beginning of the meeting when you're going to adopt your agenda then Yolanda could say I would like the full item B12 from um consent for further discussion so that one item would be removed from consent agenda you know not physically but in your mind it's removed the board president takes

159note of it and then when they vote on consent they're voting on everything except for that one I and then that one item is discussed and voted upon independent so you can pull items from consent um I have seen that be abused that time um where somebody just you know felt like nothing should be inconsidity with full like item in it I want to pull this item that item that item that item that item and for no rule and that's just a waste of time like I said your meetings in order to be effective need to focus on things that are related to Destiny and if you're spending every minute going line by line voting on the things that were in the consent calendar independently because somebody just wanted to pull them all for whatever

160reason that's just a Time waster and it's not fair to the rest of the board make sure that when you something is going consent that you're pulling it you have questions and you you feel like it really needs to be discussed and if you know that something is going to consent when um you get your copy of the board agenda and you see it and you have some serious questions about it or you're not sure about it if it should belong there that's what your superintendent is for have a conversation with your superintendent and say hey I see this item is here on consent and I'm not sure that this should be there can you tell me why we put it on consent and not independently and to to your point that's one of the

161protocols uh that the board came up with that uh they will make an effort to notify the superintendent in advance of their eye of the of an of their intent to remove an item from the consent account yeah because then if you still want to pull it at the meeting it helps him to be prepared or his staff to be prepared to answer the question effectively in the meeting and um Brian and Yolanda I know you guys were here when I talked about this and Sandra I'll tell you this as well one of the things that I always advocate for for school board members is that if you have a question about anything on the agenda in advance of the meeting I'm sure that your superintendent and board president have told you this as well

162um that time to talk to the superintendent prior to the board meeting and ask ask your question now that is not the same that you cannot ask that question in open meeting you can and if you feel like it's something that the community should hear like let's say it was something related to a Child Care Program that you guys were thinking about ending funding for something and you wanted to still ask your question in in public please do by all means but this is what I tell people I have certain board members I've worked with that have been well I want to ask my question in public at the board meeting because I want Community to hear me ask it okay that's fine they were like I don't need to tell the superintendent in advance

163you don't but here's the thing if you want the community to hear the answer it's better to have a superintendent with the information to provide that answer at the meeting think about all the things that the superintendent has to take care of all the things that that happen has to take care of and if let's say your questions regarding the number of students enrolled um in the third grade at a certain school that is not something the superintendent is going to have in his head that's not something his cabinet members who are present are going to have in their head so if you tell him in advance hey at the meeting I'm going to ask how many third graders are enrolled at the school I want to know that gives him and his staff time

164to get that number for you so then you say you want the community to hear the response they get to hear it otherwise what happens is if you don't tell the superintendent in advance and you ask that question the superintendent is going to say I'll get that information to you and it was pointless because the community didn't get to hear the answer you'll hear the answer probably the next day when the superintendent calls you or you know and it gives you the answer so it didn't work out so you want to make sure that you tell the superintendent you know here's my questions and some of them you might be like okay there might be one where you say I'm still going to ask this one in public so that they have their answer ready

165you answer that ask that question they can answer it fully the community hears the response and it's on record that's why we say ask the questions in advance some people think that it's like a doctor thing and that is super cool to ask a question that the superintendent happened can't answer and it's not it really isn't is there no one um to do that so again always take time to talk to superintendent before the meeting do you guys do one-on-ones I know you just got sworn in a little with a little over two months ago yeah so during those one-on-ones thank you that's an opportunity for you to ask those questions as well so um in the both items that are taken um items that are pulled from the consent agenda those items can either

166be addressed before the vote on the consent or after the vote every District does it a little differently but it has to be either before that vote when you get to consent and say this item pulled you can address that item first or you can vote on the consent the rest of the consent agenda and then address that item there's no right or wrong way for that part so if you pull a consent item is it it's over to the next meeting um only if maybe like there's by boat I think it has to be by boat of the board majority of both the board in order to carry it out you have to give a reason why and then the the board super board president would fall for a vote to determine if they

167should be Cable in the item yes to determine if it should be held off or and so Sandra what our practice has been currently is we start the meeting prove the agenda and then we get to consent agenda I'll say is there a motion and then board member Burgers Pena may say I moved to approve the consent agenda accept item 3.1 okay and then is there a second right and then we vote because there's no discussion um and then that 3.1 will become four point and hope we'll we'll change that electronic uh dashboard and then we'll say I'll say okay we're now at item 4.1 um is there a motion and and is there a second and then we'll have and then we'll say okay we'll have discussion and the board member who pulled it

168will ask question and get clarification any further discussion all right then we'll move to a boat an item from the consent but I guess it's presumable that it could happen sometimes maybe just like a lack of information or yeah they didn't put the total amount something like that and they uh again it's up to the board if they agree that you know we wanted more information we want to see that bigger before we vote on it and then they the next um agenda item that's when they they can move it right I was just gonna say for just Uber transparency that's for both consent and action again it's not uh it's very rare but it doesn't have to be in consent could just be a regular item that gets tabled for whatever reason it would

169be you know I make a motion to table items 3.1 second and then discussion you would say this is why and then it would vote and then it would thank both of you bring in all of that point about SafeLink and I know we wanted to talk about the process that you all use for the consent agenda and so I'm going to turn it over to superintendo um delete that discussion thank you uh in your packet I believe it's the last piece of paper in the packet that was given to you you have something called consent agenda uh draft um so I think uh first just really quickly just to give some context um in Azusa Unified School District um the way we do consent is very very simple if the board has never seen

170this has never spoken about it it's the first time we're going to do it it cannot go on consent even if it's something like Miss price said toilet paper something that's only fifty dollars something that's super routine the the practice in Azusa has been that that cannot go in consent so to miss price point then the regular agenda becomes longer because now we have to deal with those one by one by one by one by one or the direction of the board I put together uh something for us to consider moving forward to change that practice uh on how we do the consent uh our consent items here in Azusa the first thing and I I want to point out um we didn't practice this but um Miss Pride threw me a lot of softballs

171today right now we currently call the consent portion of our agenda consent calendar I don't think there's anything wrong with that but I think it's a better picture and everybody has been using it today just as a as a note I think it it gives a better more accurate description if we change our own terminology and we and we move to consent agenda um again that's what we've been using today you when I've been hearing and listening you have to say when we get to the consent agenda to me that seems a more accurate description than consent calendar um so that's my first kind of can we move to to that to that verbiage and then um Miss Pride again touched up on quite a bit of the things here and so why is there

172a consent agenda it's to promote more efficient meetings um we can bundle those items together we act on upon them you know in one motion everything that has been talked about uh today but these bullets that are here would be the new guidance of how we determine what gets on the consent agenda and some of this has been spoken uh by Miss Pride so something that's routine in nature so I'll give you just some simple examples uh we have a with kovid one of the things that everybody found out was like you don't need to be physically where you're at so now we have a staff that are going to universities that are not even close anymore and they might be doing their their student teaching or their credential and so in order to do

173that we have to have an agreement with the University that is routine we have that with Cal Poly like all the local universities but if it's a university that we have never discussed UCLA Bradman University of Minnesota then the way we do it right now that would be an action item that you're gonna have to vote on individually by itself versus well that's super routine that just means we have a teacher that's clearing their credential through this University it's an agreement to make sure that you know we're on the same page that now would be in the consent calendar in the consent uh agenda portion of our agenda of our agenda um something that's not that we're not anticipating discussion that I am recommending approval um still continue with the old process previously been approved

174by the Board of Education is forty nine thousand nine hundred ninety nine dollars or less um unless the item has been previously approved by the board I think Miss Pride talked about non-controversial and she also talked about that's already something that's been discussed explained and we don't we don't need any further uh discussion or explanation and if it didn't meet this criteria one or more of these points then it would be an individual action item and then we end with the discussion that we just had right now that no matter how we cut it slice it or dice it a board member always has the right to request that an item be pulled uh for for whatever for whatever reason so this is just our our thoughts bringing forward that per the direction that the

175board gave this is what we came up with to say maybe this is a new way that we look at the consent agenda versus the old way Mr Tate I have one um point of feedback so um I know that there are certain items that cannot be adopted in a consent agenda um I'd like to see that written here that any items that were legally precluded from being on the consent agenda would not ever be placed on the consension good point yeah I have a question so I I agree with the consent agenda because it's part of the agenda so where did this consent calendar even come from what does that even mean right so agenda uh Robert rules the Border oh oh so it's part of the agenda under the consent and I do

176also like uh superintendent Ortega when he does um give us our packet he does specify if something has been consistent like we've been you know using this same thing for two years so you know it's not like new you know he he'll he'll break it down and see how long we've been with this with this company or how you know totally people we've been buying it for the state company for you know five years but he always specifies that so we know it's not like the first time so it should be in the consent agenda and you know I have I thought that I had included a samples of items that should not be placed on consent and it's not um I apologize that Legends I will email um the list that we used as

177the information point for csba that talks about the items that um you don't want to put on instant so I'll send that email that to you in the morning thank you for bringing that up that should I think overall the nature of developing the agenda um that process goes between the board president and the superintendent to draft the agenda and then of course when it comes out to the full meeting any one of us could pull an item so I I guess by saying that there's a little bit of these are some are firm firm guidelines these items such as these cannot be placed on consent agenda and these are more specific guidelines and and we might have a different interpretation of what is non-controversial so we can talk about well I think it might

178controvers let's put it on regular and and we'll massage it that way right because I think if we do put something controversial people think you're trying to just put it under the rug and not talk about it right but of course like you mentioned that controversial may be different from you and I or whoever right so yes you have to look at that closely when we get a person I think that's a like a super great point because you might have an item that Matt like everything checks out and it should be based on this but these are to Dr Boys DR Bull's Point these are guidelines and even though it matches all that it's still gonna the it's still better to to deal with it outside because of XYZ um the dollar amount too

179is what you're comfortable with as a board because I know our district had a little bit higher threshold but it has to be again what the board is comfortable with so I like that came to an agreement or that you're giving them a suggestion of what you think is that yeah and thank you for that so I did work with a lot of neighboring districts uh work with my personal coach as well and so yes this is like in the middle uh there's some that are lower and there's some that are way higher that can go on the consent um so I thought that that would be a nice middle ground for us yeah I agree yes so I will spend tomorrow a sample list of and it's not all inclusive by any means it

180could never be all inclusive but I do have a sample list of some types of things that should should never be put on consent um no matter what so I'll send that and then um to Brenton and we'll share that with all of you and we have Mr take we also have our legal accounts to provide an opinion if we're if there's an item in question absolutely thank you and when in doubt leave it out put it on the regular agenda yeah if there's any question and you're not sure don't waste money calling legal just put it under regular agenda it'll make your life easier are there any other questions about the consent agenda that was some good conversation I'm glad that that that was talked about that there's something that um WordPress that will

181be being adjusted and just in some things that were clarified um I do have a question regarding like sometimes there's State mandates right that come from the state that impact the school district and the the board has to take a motion to approve those are those automatically on consent calendar typically because they usually would require some discussion usually if something like that comes down I think the board would want to discuss it before a vote so anything that the state mandate apartment a bit or or something like that I I don't see your District puts that on instead um am I wrong no you're 100 correct and some of those State mandates um have an effect on board policies or administrative regulations or board bylaws and those always come out of consent first to give

182the board an opportunity to speak into if there is any and then then they do move to consent because we've already discussed that and we've already had an opportunity to talk about the approval then moves to consent at a following board meeting is because I heard today and I I mean I haven't had a chance to read about it but they were talking about um bringing the Mandate like masking to where I'm at and I don't know if that if that's a state mandate that's coming down to the local level the school district I was wondering how that worked with respect to the school board and you know them implementing that mass mandate is it something that just because it comes from the state is that an automatic it has to be implemented at a

183school district how does that work foreign we're in a tiered system so we have the California Department of Public Health that says these are the guidelines let's just use mask mandates as an example so the California Department of Public Health says effective on this date you must wear a mask indoors at all these locations the county which is at the end of the day really what we have to follow can always be stricter than the state but they can't be um Less in the state and so the county can say we yeah you're gonna have to wear a mask plus you have to get a vaccination and a booster this is an example I'm not saying that's true um so ultimately we get our protocols from the Department of Public Health and those we have

184to follow a board just like the county can do to the state a board can decide to go even stricter than the county but they can never go less in the county and so when you talk about board being means board meetings going viral that was part of it because I think there was confusion that the board can say oh well but we're not going to mandate mask in art in our district that's not an option when you when when the uh the health officer has given an order uh you have to follow those those protocols thank you I think it's good to know because I heard today they were talking about that and it's like something I was surprised to hear so I know it was something you know a big um ticket item

185for a lack of a better word for schools you know something that was very controversial thank you and that's a good question so um after each meeting I always tell forth to ask yourself two questions um what you achieve in the meeting did it enhance student learning test and achievement and then also was the majority of your time spent on issues that were related and connected to the district Division and goals if you come out of your meeting and you can't say yes to those things and you have to wonder if you're be productive because those are the goals of your your meeting as I said before the actions that you take should be linked to Student Success and achievement so um during covet when meetings were um basically live streamed at every District across

186the state of California almost I saw some really interesting board meetings and um there were several that had no focus on Student Success and achievement at all um so make sure that you guys stay continue as they continue to stay focused because you are a focused board right now and just continue to stay that way and then um I put this in here about confidentiality just because um you need to remember that um everything that you say and do and closed session is confidential and there may be things that are not in closed session but something that happened in the district that the superintendent needs to notify you of right away but it's due to it's related to a matter that is confidential um for the board it's not something that should be shared with

187the public so you have to really be mindful of those things and um just make sure that you're not saying anything that you shouldn't be saying to the community and it's going to be hard because the community will press you and they'll throw out that card I voted for you I supported you you need to give me an answer and on some things you just can't you can tell them the answer will be forthcoming and that the board and the superintendent are still working on it and that um tune into the meeting things like that and let the superintendent know if there's um any topic where the community is really you know coming hard at you with lots of emails lots of phone calls lots of when they see you in person um with the

188same question immediately notify your superintendent because sometimes even just something put out by this defendant something posted on the website um a common state at the board meeting they can help to alleviate all it so with that I want to talk about Brown act and Robert's Rule of Order so let's start with Robert's Rules order I gave you that one and I'll I'll give a full disclosure I am not an expert on Robert's Rule supporter but I know the basic and so I'm going to share some of those Basics with you so I gave you a handout on that one of the white paper so um just remember that Robert's Rule of Order those are Parliamentary um procedures they're not uh lost they're it's just all about um procedural of Brennan immedi and usually you

189you won't see Robert's Rules of Order in its full form use typically used in a school board setting but what you will see is that in like corporate boards um I sat on a board for a foundation um that was starting up and we used Robert's Rules of Order um in that meeting and we had actually had a parliamentarian who would be telling us no you can't do that I I had no clue what was going on it was very different from a school board um so it the Roberts rules and Border are usually used in more like organizations like foundations corporate boards but there are some super some school boards who used it but here's some things that you guys can use like parts of it um I will see people use parts of

190Robert's Rules of Order um basically the one of them is to make sure that if you are going to use any part of Robert's Rules of Order that the whole board knows what it is um don't just assume that people know this uh if you guys like something about something that's linked with Robert Earl's reporter then bring it out and say Hey you know I'd like for us to adhere to this maybe look at putting it in your handbook and indicating that that's something that you guys would like a procedure that you guys would like to follow but don't just throw it out there and say Hey you violated Robert's world's order like okay I didn't know that I didn't know what they were I did have to say that once um so you would

191adopt them and then you would um say these are the ones that we're going to use these are the procedures from Robert's world's order that we're going to adhere to make sure that everybody has the copy and full understanding of it be consistent if you are going to pull out something from Robert's Rules of Order to use be consistent about it don't go back and forth okay we're going to use it no we're not going to use it because we have informed adopted it so we don't need to use that we're not required to use it if you say you're going to do it and the whole board is agreed okay yes we will do this then make sure that you stay consistent with it and then if you have questions about it um talk

192to somebody who's who's knowledgeable about Robert's School supporter um that wouldn't be me not in the full extent but um there's plenty of parliamentarians out there who could come in and and teach you about Robert's Rules of Order if that's something that you feel like you would like to adhere to as a board in its full sense uh and then you know Robert's Rule of Order it can provide like framework to help the board stay more structured um by what I see your meetings are going fine now they're pretty good yes thank you so um usually if a board decides to bring in Robert's Rules of Order it's because their meetings have been out of order and so they want to try and it's full set in its full capacity and they want to try

193to get it back on but um you don't have to adopt it um fully to be to utilize it you can use like I said pieces of it but also keep in mind that it shouldn't be used in a way that will conflict with the brown Act because there are some some crossovers um that you'd have to be very careful of but the school board you guys should always stay in compliance with law over parliamentary procedures large from the Parliamentary I have a question for a superintendent Ortega do we currently have we adopted any portion of the Robert Rules of Order we uh do not we have not formally adopted Robert's Rules of Order I believe that our board operates uh in the spirit of Robert's Rules but it's not a formal adoption and to

194miss Pride's um comment the the entire Roberts Rules of Order is ginormous I mean it's a lot of steps and a lot of things to do but I think for the most part the board the spirit of Robert's rules in order in terms of first second you know those kinds of things I think we we definitely try to adhere to the spirit of that thank you and just their energy there's people who have college degrees in parliamentarian procedures that's how detailed it is so um yeah next I want to spend some time just talked about the brownie because this is one that we do have to adhere to because remember the brown Act is a California law that governs local legislative body um and in the school boards you'll hear us they round out background

195around that brown act a 50 gazillion times um and it's because it is important that we follow it the brown Act was um put into place because um people were doing things that were detrimental uh the organization um violate confidentiality making illegal bills and things on the agenda that shouldn't be there and talking to people to gather their votes and and the state of California said okay no enough is enough and there was a case and I can't I'm drawing a blank right now and I wanted to share it with you guys and I'm drawing a clean blank I apologize but there was a case that ultimately brought about the brown and I'll I'll remember it of course as soon as I get on the freeway and I was like so um but um the

196brown Act is important and it's important that we adhere to it and the biggest thing is that it says that meetings must be held in public and um if you guys remember uh and they must be agendized properly too within 72 hours of the meeting taking place and I know one of the cases we all remember the um City of Bell scandal where they were holding meetings and giving themselves phrases and you're not not agendizing things properly and not really giving proper notice so nobody would show up and hold them meetings at different locations and things like that and that's ultimately was their downfall um of what they were doing because of the violation of the brown act so you have to make sure that your your meetings are agendized posted properly and that the

197agendas are available and when we say post it properly you know you have to post the agendas um here at your district office so that people could see it we always add copies at our front door of our office so that people can see the agenda as they came in the office um so it has to be in a prominent location you can't hide it somewhere put it on the back door things like that or the staff entry door it has to be where the public can see it and then the public has the right to address the board you know we talked earlier about public comments they have a right to public comment they have a right to comment on anything that's related to the business of the district even if it's not on

198the agenda now what they don't have the right to do is to come in here to your meeting fill out a public comment card and then start to say what are you guys going to do about those those potholes that are down there on Covina Boulevard um I went through one today because that's not the jurisdiction of the sport so there's nothing you can do about that so you don't have to um to address any of that let's just say out of our addiction you know go talk to city council but uh so but anything related to the business of the district they have the right to talk about and then it also the brown act also says that they have to be given reasonable amount of time to beat now with reasonable um and

199it also depends on the situation ours was three minutes what is yours during normal times three minutes three minutes um I imagine that during the height of the discussions that you guys haven't over the last two years on some tough issues that you probably had a whole bunch of people who wanted to talk and at that time you can reduce the amount of time that each person has if they're speaking on the same topic when we are we're in the midst of a contentious negotiation and a hundred teachers showed up and they all wanted to fill out speaker cards then we reduced the number of the amount of time and the amount of comments that we would hear and so then people kept building their time to the next person yield three times in the

200next person but um you can do that as a board under the brown act you can limit the amount of time because to have a hundred people give the same comment a comment on the same agenda item is not reasonable can I ask a question regarding that so yes ma'am it's up to the board president Earth's up to the board so I thought it was up to the board president uh number one and number two is um also it's up to the board or the board president too also said no you cannot yield that to the next person also right right now here's the thing what we did now keep in mind that um you know negotiations so when we were addressing closed session items regarding negotiations before we went out into the public meeting

201we could look out the window and see that there was a hundred teachers on the line honking horns and screaming and yelling with time but we already knew what we were in for it so you know we had already said we're gonna we're gonna talk about that you know so one of the things when we first went out and the the president was handed the speaker cards and the president said you know I have you know 68 speaker cards here and they're all on You Know parody for foreign be the board if it's so if the police is the board um I would like to recommend that we only give speakers this much time or we only think this many speakers or you know whatever we did but we decide to do so the president

202would make a presentation we discussed it because other people throw out Recreations and then we would come up with one and we would vote yes that's what we're going to do and then that's what we did and what about the portion about yielding the time to someone else he now we didn't I have to say I'll be honest we didn't deal with have we ever did that Mr Ortega I don't recall if um I think we have most recently we we are not allowing that most recently the board has not allowed I didn't allowed it it's not allowed for you to say they're gonna take my three minutes or whatever right yeah so I guess it wasn't that bad because we never had to address that one I saw him do it but that was

203at a time where we were only giving them like one minute so they had 20 seconds left they'd say I yield my 20 seconds yeah but yeah but just know that you can limit time um and that you stood I was up at a school district um two weeks ago and they had an issue um it was it was a controversial issue that came up and so the community came out and um I know that one of the board members well actually more than one several of the board members felt that they should hear the community that resulted in them spending three hours listening I was just gonna ask and you also increase the time but then you'd be there oh no oh yeah a long time and and I yeah that was just three

204hours wasted of their meeting um and they ended up not getting out of their meeting until I think like one in the morning she still has to take care of the business of the district exactly you got to say that so it's not something I recommend and the board members who had wanted to hear the community to show that they were transparent and listening they they kind of regretted that afterwards but um just be mindful that you don't have to do that to show that you're listening you know if you hear 10 people say it and you're you know you show that you are listening you know then that that's enough and note that I said that you show that you are listening even during a comments and when people are you know upset and

205angry over something it's still good like I said earlier in the meeting to try to find what they're really angry about in their statements and and take note of it um don't you know sit there and play on your phone or you know look up at the sky or you know really pay attention to them still you know and and show them that you you do hear them because sometimes that's all some people want us to be heard and if you're sitting and they that makes them more angry because they feel like they're being disrespected so just give them your attention be patient and listen and and look for what they're really upset about and make note of those things um meetings should be conducted in an ordinary fashion I think we talked about that

206because I you know I shared some of the interests and meetings that I saw online during covet um but this board is professional and you guys discovering yourself accordingly so you don't have to worry about that one but anytime the board changes it's good to address it um promote transparency and you do that through public participation again with public comments and also by you know some of the questions that you asked um after presentation that's how you show that that you're being transparent and you're being open and then one thing that I had underlined on my copy was you guys should not discuss or take action on any item that is not on the agenda and sometimes what will happen is something will be on the on the agenda like let's say uh you guys

207are talking about the fuel provider for the bus and that's on the agenda you know the field provider for the bus on the and the and you guys are having a discussion about that before your vote and then somebody says well if we had electric buses we wouldn't even have to worry about that yeah I know I think we should get Alexa too yeah how many people here think we should get electric buses that's not on the agenda so you can't do that so make sure you stay focused on on what's on the agenda what you can say is that is something we should talk about superintendent can you prepare a report on um what a process would look like to get elected but as that is not something you should have a full discussion

208about at that time or address because it's not on the agenda and if there's someone in the community who is anti-electric buses they have the right to know that you were going to discuss that so that they could be there um and um a closed session just remember closed session except um you guys are not going to take any action on anything unless it's something that you're reporting out on in Open Session and that you guys always letting you guys do that um these are just some of the general rules um about the brown Act before we talk about closed session any questions on the brown act and that's something the brown act has a lot of twists and turns so um we we have workshops that are like you know several hour worked up

209just talk about the brown act because there's so many ways you could get yourself in trouble with serial meetings and all that other kind of stuff I just highlighted some of the things that tend to happen as you go through your closed session now this one is is one that um people kind of get mixed up on but just remember that everything in closed session again closed session will happen agenda items items put on the agenda however they will be very vague it might say personnel it might say um negotiations it might say um uh anticipated legal action but there's no other information there's no links to click on and get documents it's just very generic because those are things that cannot be discussed in the public for example when you do your superintendent's evaluation

210you guys do that in closed session because that is the Personnel thing so I gave you a list here of things that you can talk about in closed session and again like Personnel if you're going to terminate somebody if you're gonna um if you're discussing an appointment of somebody for employment um discipline in evaluations anything like that that's a Personnel matter that that's the system in closed session pupil matters if you have to talk about suspensions expulsions um anything that a kid did that got them in trouble that those are confidential about that child about that student legal matters any um pending litigation potential litigation anything that you need advice from your attorney on um that you guys are having trouble working through uh in that phase and closed session as well your attorney comes

211into closed session they will talk to you once that part is done the attorney leaves and you resume your closed session property matters selling a property purchasing a property all of that same thing security um security procedures related to Personnel those type of things are closed session when I first got on the board Berlin unified had a a police department we didn't just have campus security we actually had full police and um so there was several matters that came before the board uh here in that uh negotiations of force or confidence and stay in close session and I will just reiterate that um that is one of the most important because it can um just throw your negotiation process into chaos if things leak out of closed session about the negotiation process and with the

212where the district is that what the district is doing and what people said that that can be very detrimental to the district and it can also cause some severe legal prompts uh and then other things that are specifically authorized by law but for the most part if you ask somebody what can I talk about in close session they're going to go ahead and they're gonna name off those first Six Bullets because those are the most common ones that you run from those are all closed sessions and it's important to remember that the brown neck requires closed session only be held for those purposes nothing else don't just because something's controversial and you don't want to talk about it in front of everybody else don't say oh let's just talk about this in closed session you

213cannot do that unless it falls under one of those things and then um you guys do keep uh the superintendent will typically keep a very generic note about what happened in closed session because sometimes there are some things that um that where direction is given to the superintendent and so you know superintendent may need to make a note of that direction but you keep them very vague about went out and then um we would always tell the members of our board to try not to take notes because it just wasn't a good thing he didn't want to get out you know any questions about closed session anything about closed session yeah I wanted to say something during the csba um I went to one of the workshops on the brown Act and it was really

214good I mean I appreciated the the conversation they had with respect to social media because when I worked in local government it was social media wasn't as popular so I think that was kind of an eye-opening for me yeah and if you're in covet especially a lot more rules came down about the use of boards and social media and I always try to stay on top of it because it changes so yeah so then finally the brown act violation um I I want you guys to know that the brown Act is serious I know that as full board members we tend to throw it around oh no I don't want to violence around that oh no that might be a violent background you know we say it a lot here that those two words a

215lot but it is a very serious matter and a violation of the brown that can cause you some very serious problems it can um it can be a fine it can lead to being sued it can be lead to um a referral being made to the district attorney for prosecution um there's a whole lot of things that can actually happen with the brown act in just two weeks ago my my phone and I hit the Google thing that's you know how this new stories come up I get several stories about school districts that come up because I'm always searching schools and um one of the ones that came up recently and I wanted to screenshot it so I could go back and read it later and then it went away because they hit the wrong

216thing and I couldn't remember what school district was I tried Googling it I couldn't find it but there was a school district um that was had a school board member that was being prosecuted for violation of the brown Act and um I remember one of the things that it said was that the district attorneys were starting to take the brown act more seriously as a result mainly of both because there were so many boards that were split on them and so some board members would go out and tell people hey the board's gonna do this so get your people together and come to the meetings and and stuff so a referral was made to the district attorney and they're actually um going to file charges against this this board member but one of the things

217that we have to be mindful of is number one there's no secret um I know that that we always think that that we can say things and do things and if you tell one person it's not going to be a big deal um it's something that happened in closed session but you can't do that and I think I shared with this sport that a kid that went to school with my son who who lived with me for a while I tell you guys that story where he he ended up after they had graduated he ended up working for the district and got himself into some trouble um and it came before the board and my son called me and was like Mom did you hear what happened you know and like oh what are you

218guys gonna do and I was like I can't talk to you about that he was like what do you mean he lived with us just tell me like no I cannot tell you and this was one of my son's good friends in high school like I said he lived in our home and I actually ended up recusing myself from even being part of the discussion because of my Coastal but but again I you know I couldn't say anything to my son about that because there was been a violation of the brown act it was a closed session matter as personnel can't say it and tell them so my son had to wait until he could talk to the kid and the kid could tell him his version and when he told me I just said

219that's what he told Jesus you know but we have to be careful in his heart sometimes especially if it's involved in a friend or a family member but keep that in mind that like I said that that um the district attorneys are looking at cracking down on some brown act violations more and part of the reason too is to protect the board members because when things get really contentious and people start following board members and harassing them and stuff like that because something was leaked out of closed session we can put you guys at Jeopardy so it needs to be dealt with so um it is something serious that you have to look at as a governance team any question about Brown violation and just real quickly um in our other going back to our

220other packet you guys have your governance handbook and remember to board bylaws the nine thousands I recommend that you revisit those frequently just to remember like or if you look them look something up just to remember um you know what protocols you should be following according to the bylaws as well not just the normal norms and protocols because there's things in the bylaws that tell you what your position is and what you should and should not be doing and then you know I put this quote in here when problems arise so do our emotions and based on our process perception and Associated feelings of whatever is going on and that's just a reminder like I was saying earlier that when people come and they're they're upset just just listen and try to find something in

221what you're saying that you can take away from it even when they're angry and the same goes from when all of you disagree just listen be respectful ask questions to make sure you understand and always assume positive and sin so with that that's all that I have are there any next steps I will ask our board president and our superintendent any next step for the board I think Mr taken now that we have um at least among the three board members present today looked at the draft the consent agenda guidelines uh will you then be publishing that with the additional items around what cannot be in consent and circulate that among all the board members that is correct and so that will that be in next week our next board packet or what do you

222think yeah about in terms of timing if Miss Pride can get me that email and then I'll do some homework as well um I could I can my goal is to put it this week on Thursday's weekly board packet thank you our board members that are not present the reminder of the brown Act and the um I do have stockings of the handout for them Angelina do you have your materials electronically that you could provide to Mr Ortega and then he could send to us absolutely because I might recycle this packet oh no worry um colleagues do you have any uh last thoughts before we adjourn Mr Ortega no thank you so much all right then if we could move to item 4.1 adjournment is there a motion make a motion to adjourn there a

223second a second all right let's move to our vote the motion