5/31/22 Azusa Unified School District Board Governance Meeting

001well good evening everyone and welcome to this governance workshop for the azusa unified school district board of education on may 31st 2022 we'll go ahead and call this meeting to order at 5 31 p.m and we will begin with our flag salute um when i do believe that we have eamonn harris here with us yeah go ahead and lead us uh go and take it away okay like right now yes sir oh okay audience please rise put your right hand over your heart ready begin i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all you may be seated thank you so much amen i appreciate it all right then we'll move to roll call

002item 1.3 uh board member rodriguez pena president board member bo here board member cruz gonzalez president board member adianas i don't think we heard you boardman body honest but you're present present perfect and then i board member gear i'm also present next we'll we will move to 2.0 and specifically 2.1 approval of the agenda is there a motion to approve tonight's agenda make a motion to approve 2.1 by second moved by board member rodriguez pena and second by board member beau any discussion then we will move to a vote uh board member rodriguez pena yes board member beau yes board member cruz gonzalez yeah board member arianis yes and i am also a yes and so the motion passes five to zero moving on to item 3.0 and 3.1 public comment on agenda or non-agenda

003items this is an opportunity for the public to address the board of education on agenda or non-agenda items individual speakers may be allowed up to three minutes to address the board of education on any agenda or non-agenda items when the public wishes to address the board of education on an agenda item they may fill out a blue card stand at the podium or raise their hand while in zoom attendance the board will take blue card requests first followed in order by speakers at the podium and then those in zoom attendance it does not appear as though we have anyone here that would like to make a public comment in person lika is there anyone online with the hand raised that would like to leave make a comment we have no hands raised no hand raised

004thank you then we will move to 4.0 general functions and specifically 4.1 our main item on the agenda which is a board governance workshop and i will turn it over to you mr ortega thank you board president um happy to um be here tonight uh per uh board request we went ahead and engaged in the process the csba has laid out in terms of uh board self-evaluation and so i am very excited uh tonight to have dr yo here who's going to help facilitate today's board governance self-evaluation meeting dr yo so much and thank you for inviting me to the district um and stephen is fine so what i wanted to ask if all of you are okay with first name for this session for the gov is that okay so first name all right

005okay i want to make sure yes all right so um i am cepeda yo and uh i've had the pleasure of working for csba as a consultant for the past six seven years and prior to that i work at universities and colleges working as a faculty member and administrator and so i come to you with experience in at the college level as well as patriot book what i love to do is to travel around and work with different teams and how they can become more effective as uh at what they do i am a former board member i had the pleasure of serving in oak park unified it's a k-12 about around 4 500 students and i i tell you it's a privilege because that's how i felt it was truly a privilege to get

006to serve the students and the stakeholder in oak park and my biggest job that i'm most proud of is being a mom wonderful young adult her daughter is 22 she just graduated from college with her undergraduate degree and our son bijan is 20 almost 20. so i tell you that that is my biggest most rewarding job and so next to that i would have to say serving the students in oakmark when i was a board member and i tell you that because i understand the balance of being serving in your professions being a mom being a dad being a partner and then serving on the board of education there's so much that goes into it beyond the meetings right the prep work the evaluation that you put that is part of being more effective as

007a team because you could each individually be the absolute best and i'm sure that you are each of you individually but it's how you work together that can make the board uh effect okay so i want to thank you for taking the time to take the board self-evaluation too i hope that it was easy it i've done it a few times just to see how it feels to be at the receiving end and i found it user friendly i'm open to um suggestions from you and and we'll definitely talk about how we can improve the tool and i'll bring it back to csba as well what i wanted to start with is your board meeting norms i found this section on your or in your handout and what i like to do is if i

008can ask adrian if i can ask you to read them hearing your back all right listen to the meaning behind each of the norms that you set as i understand it as it means make sure each board member's voice is heard turn off cell phones or set them to vibrate no texting during meeting be present and prepared operate with trust keep confidential items confidential honor time be effective and efficient disagree agreeably stay on task assume good intentions be respectful of others engage in civil discourse keep meetings light with humor put aside personal issues and filter out the business of adults focus on student thank you so what i like to do is to make sure that that's right in front of your mind during your meeting again these are the norms that you selected as

009a team right you came up with them how many um is is it like ten of them adrian or however many you have about ten about ten yeah okay so um is are there any issues with any of those particular no that you would like to any of you would like to talk about before we even begin uh for and for clarity's sake are you saying is there anyone who has issues with these norms exactly being followed for today okay for this for this particular workshop are there any issues following the norms that you have for your meetings and gabriella if if you have any issues please feel free to unmute and i would very much like if you could turn your camera on if it's possible it creates more of that engagement of that

010in person feel even though you couldn't be with us physically here if it's possible i understand that sometimes it's not but if you could turn it on that would be wonderful um and i guess having done virtual meetings for now a couple years and now we are going back in person trying to create that in-person feel is really really critical especially for these type of workshops so i do appreciate everyone being here and again gabriela if you can if you can tear not turn on your camera that would be wonderful all right so with that knowing that those are your meeting norms and we're going to follow them today what i'd like you to do is to take a look at the agenda so take a look at the agenda please it's very simple right

011we are going to talk briefly about core of governance it looks like this is just one page and it has the quotes on it okay so um we are going to briefly talk about core of governance what makes governance effective we are going to then jump right into and and part of understanding core of governance and understanding what is other characteristics of an effective leader and ineffective leader the opposite spectrum as well as a board what are the characteristics of an effective board and also ineffective so we'll do that that's all part of core of governance then we're going to jump right into analysis of your for self-evaluation okay so we'll take a look at that and the rest of the time is going to be on analysis of it anything that jumps out any

012area you each have the opportunity to take out an area um identify an area that you feel you need to work on as a team okay and then you'll start um discussions about it i will following the workshop i will send you a memo which will summarize your numbers facebook most likely you're not going to remember every detail i will send that to you along with next step what i recommend for how does that all sound okay all right so with that what i want you to reflect on part of the governance core of governance is understanding your own individual why why are you serving on the board of education and by you i mean the board members well as your superintendent right because you form the governance team so what is your why i'm

013going to give you five minutes write down what comes to mind what comes to your heart okay i really want you to engage i invite you to engage and activate your heart throughout this process okay so what is your why you okay let's go ahead and begin we're going to i'm going to ask you to share i'm going to start each round that you get to share there'll be a lot of sharing tonight i hope that you feel comfortable and and i would think that you feel very comfortable with one another now so after working having worked together as long as you have so we'll begin with the president sharing and every round will go one to your left to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to be the first laundry so if i

014can start with you and please do remind me if i forget to go to gabriella which is very possible i may forget please do let me know and and i'll make sure that you also get the response as well so adrian what was your what is your why yeah so a couple of things one just simply but i i believe in the students in this community i believe in the the schools and and the programs teachers the educators here in this community um but i also think that there's there has been historically a lot of misrepresentation around who we are and misconception while at the same time there's also been some disconnection between uh all that we are and the ways that perceived and viewed in the community and ways that we can be stronger

015and so with that just in general i feel uh just in my life uh be a bridge builder and so in this role i've seen myself in the opportunity to uh bridge some of those gaps that exist so whether it's between families and schools um whether it's between the board and the community or whether it's between students and their respective dreams and goals uh i i just i'm honored to serve in the capacity of a bridge build from the sea you're staring all right sabrina thank you i'm sorry i wrote but i don't want to read what i wrote okay um verbatim i think um i wanted to serve because i really felt it was a calling that had been building for over many years and i wasn't quite sure exactly how to plug in

016um but when i had the opportunity it made sense it made sense because i've always worked in education and i see education as the ability or the pathway for opportunity and i as a first generation college student as a k-12 public school student myself um i really see serving as an honor to use my voice to help amplify the voices in our community um so i'm just one person and i don't speak for myself but i speak for the community and if i just happen to have this opportunity to have a platform it's not my ideas that i want to amplify but it's the feedback and the ideas from the community that i just get share by sitting here um again being that conduit or being that that amplifier is important to me thanks sabrina

017all right yolanda yes um i run um for office to we represent my community and in the area where i lived there was um not a board member in in the areas where the schools in my in the south side of town will say i also wanted to be a voice for the parents and the student and the staff i um wanted to set an example to my grandchildren and let them know that you know no matter how old you are you can always make changes you know i retired 40 years from the garvey school district before i became a board member at age 61. so i also feel that um it's really important that you set that tone you know even for the community that you know there's always a choice and you should

018just go out and get it if that's what you want to do all right let's go ahead and go to gabriela can you hear me yes the reason i wanted to run i had i grew up in this district i was a student of this district i worked for the district for the last 20 years and being able to see what changes needed to be made within the district and the necessities of the community of our students the changing necessities that needed to take place um it was important for me to go ahead and be able to have the community that i serve be heard and along with that be able to be a district that is a competitive district in our san gabriel valley you know to attract other students to come to keep

019our students within this district the passion that i have for education um i've been in education for over 20 years um everything that i do is is for this district you know every job that i get so it's important for me to be able to uh you know to carry that as a school board member and i i heard one of my colleagues say it you know yes we are one vote yes we're 20 of this um of this board but at the same time it's important that we represent our community and the needs of our community and that our community in general feels heard and it's important that you know our superintendent and our cabinet also understand our community so through you know through communication and how they're involved in our community also is

020um you know with us is important so um i i love serving our community and i see the needs just like since i was a child here i'm a um i come from guadalajara jalisco and i was the esl student so i learned english so i feel very proud to represent this district thank you gabriella i shared that with you as well i was a esl student as well when i moved here my family i didn't share that detail with all of you my family immigrated here back in the 80s late 80s from iran so i was born and raised in iran my native language is farsi or persian so i do share that with you gabriella thank you for sharing all right arturo uh thank you um as a first generation english learner um

021low socioeconomic [Music] son of immigrant parents and having navigated the k-12 public system like some of you have said that was that inside that that calling ever since i was young to teach to serve uh to inspire uh to connect and so i think that in this role i'm just super humbled uh to be able to serve and uh to to make a difference uh not only for our students but for our community and our staff as well okay i'm going to read mine so i want assistant usc to be a school district where every student graduates college and career ready this means giving students from early childhood education to 12th grade rigorous engaging learning opportunities and enriching learning experiences that provides them with the skills to thrive and are rapidly changing society and economy

022and society and economy and also teaches them empathy and love for their fellow human beings very important to teach those skills right think about what's missing in the world just think about that for for a moment what is the one thing that you can think of that's missing in this world and then share share with me what do you think is missing one one word if you can just sum it up in one word one ingredient one element that's miss at this point i feel compassion okay so compassion okay what else or do you agree with that yeah i agree and also um empathy you know that's the word i was going to use all right anything else that comes to mind beside those two compassion i was going to use grace but i think

023it's i mean it's the flip side of that right being understanding but same same idea so what i like you to do is to keep i i heard um compassion empathy and great keep those in front of your mind as we have discussions today those are the elements the ingredients that are really missed in the world and the work that you do the important work that you do how can you bring those elements back those ingredients how can you bring them back into the schools that you serve and the lives of the children that you serve so i'm sorry so compassion empathy and great grace okay yeah thank you and they all go hand in hand i feel like they they do right so um all right so um take a look at the agenda

024i chose for you three quotes i'll give you a moment just take a look at them before we move into select characteristics of an effective leader so look at the um the quote and if there is one that resonates with you the most go ahead and put a star next to it all right so now what i'd like you to do is you all have post-it notes you have different color post-it notes what you're going to do is pick any color that you like to begin with you're going to come up with just a few characteristics of an effective leader someone that you would consider affecting you all have them you all have to post the note okay so write down on one piece um up to three characteristics of an effective leader someone you

025would characterize as effective what are their qualities you know when you have them gabriella if you would like to share yours with us or talk to you right can i go last find me sure well however you want to send them in that would be fine thank you so yeah so gabrielle i think the the request was to just text them over into arthur and we'll write them okay sounds good i like what makes this workshop effective is the ability to move around work on charts and i really want us to continue to do that as much as possible i want to make sure you're including that i'm including gabriella so if you can't hear us gabriella please do let me know if you have questions let me know i want to make sure that

026you feel engaged and included as well what i like to do is to move over to the very first chart and maybe i'll just move the um microphone with me so then they can hear and and so and move to the chart that says characteristics of an effective leader so if you had who had this first color the purpley was that yours okay and what did you have has a vision is a good listener and has an open mind who was the next color so i wrote good listener fair and thoughtful slash deliberate communicator learner builder listener fear and understanding active listener compassionate and honoring of others gabriella do you want to let us know what you wrote what you chose as characteristics of an effective leader or may i read them oh yes please

027okay so empathetic listener and empower others so what i'd like you to do all of you is take a look at the list take a look at what you chose as characteristics of an effective leader what are some of the common um qualities good listener yeah what else and and how do we listen let's just talk about that for a moment when we are listening to others there are times that we just listen to formulate and respond we agree we're not really listening with our whole sense with all the senses um what i like you to do is try to listen not just with the ears but with your eyes with your heart okay so having said that what's important when you're listening to others as they're speaking as they're sharing yeah so as i

028said you can even see online i wrote good i started to write good listener and then i i changed my mind and put active uh because i think that not only when you're listening should you listen with you know not just your ears but your heart and other things but but also being willing to to listen as the as what is being said shifts and is nuanced um not hearing one statement and shutting down based off of the first phrase that it is heard but instead really being open to hear everything um and even allowing after somebody communicates something for someone to say no that's not exactly what i what i meant but that's not the best way to say it so let me alter that and allowing that that statement to be altered so

029i think that it requires some some active action as we are uh listening i think just to add to that like what would be active so for example to adrian's point active could be can you tell me more about that i'm trying to understand or help me understand this piece right here because i'm not sure i'm clear so really being active to really try to understand what that person is trying to to communicate and i also think as much as we're using our own body language is not just listening to the person but also if you're in person looking at them and and um trying to understand what their body language and their tone is saying beyond just the word and i also think you know when you're listening if you don't understand you should

030have them repeat it or clarify it to be sure that you are listening to the right thing i i think i think no i think you guys covered it all right but i think you know that word active listener implies everything that everyone's describing right now beautiful so i i what i like from all of your share oh gabriella would you like to share with us so we we the one common theme is communication and listening and active listening so do you have anything to add to that thanks for reminding me um what i heard one of my colleagues say the body language and i think it also includes you know the way that we when we speak you know the reaction of others when we're speaking i think it's really important that we're paying

031attention that we're not on our phones right that we're listening we're active listening looking at that person making sure that we're not making faces if we don't agree with something that person's saying that we we are able to because we're not active listening when we are already having a reaction to what that individual is is saying so i totally agree that active listening is something that our board um needs to work on okay so you actually moved on to what needs to be worked on so we are just for now we are just talking about characteristics of an effective leader and so active listening is one and as you may already know all of you listening is um or actually communication is 93 tonal voice and body language only seven percent is the actual word

032so really being mindful of our reactions and and um responses body language rolling of the eyes um i invite all of you if you haven't done so to take a look at one of your videos of your one of the tapes of of your recordings of your board meetings take a look and see what you pick up just for yourself make a note and note to self all right so listening and active listening because those are two different things active listening came up that's really important because it begins with that you have to understand the problem before you can come up with a solution right i think it was albert einstein who said if i had 60 minutes to solve a problem i spend the first 55 minutes understanding it and the last five minutes

033coming up with the solution right really understanding what the problem is so i see that i see being fair on the list thoughtful um what else is there having a vision that that's really important right you need to have a vision you need to know where you're going if you don't know where you're going then you know how do you know when you get there right so having a clear vision really really important honoring others let's see empowering others of course being understanding um and again being a communicator that all of that came up what i'd like you to do now is you're going to think of an effective a highly functioning effective team or board in your case right trustees what are the characteristics of an effective born so come up similar to this

034write it down on a piece of post-it note gabriella you can think of yours and then arturo thank you so much for helping to write gabriellas and i'm going to collect them as you write those so now think not a leader but a board characteristics of an effective high functioning board better good for us right they say um sitting is the new smoking right supposed to be really bad to just sit for too long so you're not going to sit for too long well i'll help you get your steps in perfect do i have everyone's then are we missing okay thank you very much you're multitasking this evening oh i see a lot of overlap listening is there or let's see communication is there professionalism focus compromising having a common goal really important that's unity

035of purpose right you're you're here all of you together for one main reason right to serve your student so that's your common goal i agree to disagree effective teams do that all the time you don't always have to agree on everything but you can do so respectfully being prepared how important is that right i remember when i my very first board meeting and i had been going to board meetings for a couple years because i was very active at my pfa parent faculty association i serve as president vice president and so i had been going to board meetings just to understand long before i even decided to run and so i never really appreciated in the audience um how much time it took to prep for each of the meetings and then i went to

036my very first meeting and back then we had um hard copy packets that were delivered on friday afternoons and that's fine too i'm i like hard copy too because i like to be able you know to to take on places and not depend on technology and the phone running out of charge and all that so from the time i took that packet that weekend everybody knew my family knew i needed to go through the packet come up with my questions ask my questions be prepared and really feel good i wanted to really feel good about my participation and my service on the board and so that was really important so being prepared super super important right it is it is homework right absolutely right right so um what else what else did you want to

037share um i'd like to open it up i don't know if you want to come up and look but if you had if you set something that you really want to focus on for an effective board you can go ahead and share that any of you so feel free to go and take a look i think we had a lot of commonalities i think it's nice when you're able to look to kind of understand also your quality and what's important how do you determine if a theme is effective so if there is there is yes so this one is on two it's the same color right gabriella thank you for sending in yours would you like to elaborate on yours on which one um well you pick it looks like you pick three of them

038right there is common goal compromising what's the third one is it about hijacking i want to make sure that it's clear on okay so feel free to to share with your colleague um how is that an important element of affective teams or board well i feel it's important um because there's there's times um i mean i have to give an example is that what you're asking if you'd like to give an example sure um i think it's important when we're you know trying to convey or trying to get a point across that we are you know not interrupted by an individual who or another person who may think that you know may have the answer or is uh going to have a different answer or is ready for the next you know what they were

039going to say um it's important to hear the other board member out completely um because a lot of the times i feel that we may be you know we're listening but we're so quickly to respond um and we're not listening really you know through and we're so quickly to respond and we're interjecting and we we we go ahead and interject and you know we don't have the patience to actually just stop and listen right we're already assuming what the other person's intention is when in reality we don't know and we should ask you know and not become defensive um and take over and interrupt the other person so i think that's something that we need to work on and not hijack the meeting right from the superintendent or the lawyers so i think what i'm

040hearing is is active listening right because when we actively listen we're listening to understand not to respond right which is what i see on on most of the post that is active listening or um [Music] communication and all that is is that right yes ma'am okay okay any any other um points that any of you would like to share or if you have questions about one particular characteristic or quality or do you all agree that these are the characteristics of an effective work whether your thought i think to me the one that i really appreciate up here is they agree to disagree because i do think sometimes we as we all said earlier right we don't all come from the same perspective right we that's that's what the value of having five different board members

041and i do think that sometimes we have we have to be able to individually be responsible for being to agree to disagree with somebody and be okay with um maybe and this gets back to my other one that i that i have done below is be okay with being um maybe things not going the way i want to go because the majority of the board has decided to go a different way i think that's very hard to do for each of us but we each have to be responsible for that i mean i do right so i feel like that's that's a key value of being an effective school board [Music] and just to add to that i think that honestly we do a good job at that because you know we don't always agree

042and um when we do it's great but when we don't it's not like you know we're mad at each other or we don't um and that's that's one thing i do like but where i put be prepared because i i'm saying that because i'm not sure from where i'm sitting if people are prepared and the reason i'm saying because sometimes i'll see or people are asking questions that i know that are already in the in in our agenda or they may be for i don't know but this is my my impression and they also looking in or do they call superintendent or take on monday and get clarification because what happens when i'm hearing from the community people say oh wow didn't they know that before or did they just get that packet that day

043like no we all had it on thursday and we're all able to and it had to be like the organization was a big thing for us and the community was wondering like did you did they just they're just asking that question then that they just know it's been you know it's just um uh perception which is very important as sitting in the board and i will echo but you said shiloni uh just the idea of agreeing to disagree the way that uh the way that i chose to phrase that is unity but not conformity and so what does it look like for us to be to still be united as a as a board as as there are decisions that are needing to be made but but that doesn't necessarily mean that we're not able

044to to disagree or to have nuance but still be unified in the in the midst of of that that nuance um and then just for process clarification but i understand that right now you're asking what are characterized what are the you know great characteristics of are the characteristics of an effective leader what are the characteristics of an effective board and i uh we may be venturing into how we can how we perceive that we may be able to grow and i'm tempted to go there also but i will but i'm looking at you doing maybe that's not there will be space for that later okay so not yet okay this is and thank you for asking that question this is a great segue to get right into the the results of your word self evaluation

045we we're going to talk about a number of these um qualities that you mentioned and then if there is time at the end then we'll create another list of ineffective leaders and and and board but i want to leave that for last i really want us to deep to um dive deeper into the analysis are you ready for that so but this was a great um conversation and an introduction into that so what i like to do is now gabriella you're going to receive um an email with the results everyone else i have hard copies for you you would be happy to know i have hard copies what i'd like you to what i'd like you to do is when you receive it take a look and see you'll see that there are four colors

046okay they're color coded green means that uh majority agreed or it's the strength of this board that particular item blue is that it shows that that particular item is in strength for a single majority and then it goes to yellow and red and what we're going to really focus on is identifying the green what you're really good at what you're really strong at as a team this is not individual responses this is all of you as a team and after we have identified the areas of strength you're going to take a look each of you will select one of the red or yellow whichever you prefer areas that you would like to open up for um for discussion and we'll have discussion about it okay so and also for clarity when uh you say this

047is all of us as a team is that including did you fill this out as well so the five board members as it says it's for self-evaluation so it's just a board just the five members okay so let's take about 10 minutes take a look at the whole evaluation circle an area that's an area of strength for you so just go ahead and circle it it could be one whole item one whole area there are 11 areas 58 questions right 58 pumps and then once you have identified the strength from your point of view of this board you're going to identify two areas each that you really want to talk about and have a discussion about and work on okay so two in the orange or red and one blue or one green one area

048that you're really proud of that's that's the area i'm not understanding what you want me to do okay um all right so you see that you see the color coding right and the numbers to okay yes so what i like you to do blue or or actually green green means that that particular area or that particular question or prompt is the strength of your team so let's let's find the first green already have an ingredient in here okay so if you don't have any green go to the next color because blue yeah so pick a blue yes and then once you do that just circle the blue that you are most proud of then you're going to move on to yellow and red those are the areas to focus on those are the areas that

049were identified as areas that you did not agree on and yes peak two each of you will pick two to work on or to discuss or to introduce introduce discuss and and further talk about gabriel are you done selecting the strength of your team as well as the two areas that you like to open up for discussion sure okay all right here's what we're going to do arturo can i ask you to start that'd be okay all right so you have we have two pieces here um what i like to do is you're going to go around i'm going to ask you to share the strength of your team so one of you didn't have any green but one of the blue areas right that that's the strength for majority of you of your um

050your board so we're going to start with sabrina sabrina what is the what area did you pick which number the strength area that i would like to highlight is number 12 under board culture okay the board treats the superintendent with respect okay so that's number 12. now if just do 12 and then respect for soup or something yeah so did anyone else when we get to you if you selected that item just let us know and we'll go ahead and put a star next to it okay so the first one is number 12 respect for the superintendent yolanda what did you select um i selected number eight board members follow board agreements regarding speak speaking for the board okay so number eight agreements right all right gabriella what did you select as your um the

051area that you selected as the strength of your board for your board i selected number 19. kind of 1920 go hand in hand board member received timely information board members receive adequate information i think that that's one of the um things that this board has in uh what the superintendent has improved on so timely and adequate information thank you perfect all right and uh dylan what did you pick i picked number nine board member board members keep confidential matters confidential okay so number nine respecting confidentiality right i i also at number nine board members keep confidential matters wonderful okay so for nine we have two okay so number nine we got two okay perfect all right thank you now we are going to go around and you're going to share the first area that you

052feel you all need to talk about openly transparently and respectfully sabrina question did you want us to share the second highlight the first one first oh just the first one so hopefully by now you have selected the two areas that you feel you need to work on you're going to begin with the first one i'm going to begin with yolanda yolanda what area did you pick remember one of the yellow or red areas that you need okay on the red number seven board members agree on on the role and responsibility of the board and the superintendent so number seven please put roles and responsibilities that's all thank you all right gabriella what did you select number four the board works well together okay thank you all right fellaini what did you pick number 13 the

053board manages internal conflicts in a productive manner okay all right athen and i also have number 13 the board manages conflict uh internal conflict in a productive manner we got two for that okay okay sabrina same number 13. okay so we got three for that okay so there's definitely some agreeance agreements on what you need to work on at least on the first item let's go to your second item that you chose okay and i am did i start with you yolanda category this is the second the second of what you need to work on yeah we're getting ready all it's okay take your time i'm going to start with you gabriella so the second area of what you feel you all need to work on as a team as a board did you hear

054me oh no oh i'm sorry number 15 15 board members treat each other with respect okay number 15 board members treat each other with respect for respect among board members thank you all right what do you have number 30 there is a good relationship between how long the board spends on an agenda item and the importance of the item so number 30. relationship between time and importance of agenda items thank you so much arturo for returning okay we're not going too fast so that was number 15 right for number 30 i'm sorry 30. thank you all right adrian what do you have and i also have number 15 board members treat each other with 15 okay so fabulous all right sabrina i chose 48 and 49 the board monitors student progress against established benchmarks and

055or monitors progress toward district goals based on established success indicators okay so 48 and 49 right so student progress the monitoring of student progress right and orlando what do you have um i was also um on number 30 30 okay yes okay all right so this is what we are going to work on for the rest of our time together first of all it's important to understand and celebrate your um the strength of your team right the high point and so board tweeting superintendent with respect that's one that you came up with board members follow agreements for speaking and um timely and adequate information that's really important for all of you to receive to be able to make the choices you need to make and respecting confidentiality with two of you so those are the

056high points for your team let's take a look for the um areas that we need to really focus on this evening for the rest of the time that we have together based on the items that you selected and we're going to open it up and you're going to have a discussion based on that by the end of our time together i'm hoping that you will come up you as a team with three goals that you would like to work on moving forward based on your discussion okay hopefully having a better understanding of each other's perspectives or what you need to work on you're going to establish goals we may or may not get to that because these these discussions are really critical and important and our time together is limited so let's just open up

057conversation and discussion remember your norms of your meeting norms as we begin and remember all of you focused on and really talked about the importance of active listening so with that what i like to do is i'm going to we're going to start with the first one that's on the list which has to do with rules and responsibilities i think did you bring that up your land or who brought that one up that's number seven sabrina yolan that's what i thought okay so let's let's have a discussion about that um yolanda you can feel free to talk about that specific item and then you're going to open it up and hear from the rest of you how you feel about understanding roles and responsibilities as you know the roles and responsibilities of the board and

058the superintendent are very clear and i saw in your handbook that at the end of the handbook you had a number of bylaws board bylaws and board policies included in there you had the 9 000 and 21 10. so those are the roles and responsibilities and the limit of the board as well as the superintendent right so you have it in your handbook i know that you have seen it let's have a discussion about it yolanda how do you feel why did you pick that well i select that one for the reason is um i have heard that board members will speak to either a teacher or speak to a principal and um we are directed to actually speak to the superintendent you know and he he usually if there's a situation going even with

059a parent we direct it to him and he will stick to the principle or he will stick here but i know there's some board members that will speak to the administration onto the um staff and not bring the superintendent so i think we need to um improve in that that that is the protocol and i don't feel it's being followed sometimes not always but sometimes how does everyone else feel about it so i'm going to go around i'll start with um i don't think i've started with you for any of them so how do you feel about that and also is this i believe this is one of your norms or one of your protocol on communication am i right is that one of your protocols and that yes so and you also have what

060you have is your protocols on the seven different areas handling concerns is one board member role in public being prepared for meetings maintaining confidentiality communications meetings and as well as frequently asked questions so you have that packet as well what is your protocol when it comes to communicating with um staff with the public what is the protocol first of all we listen you know we will we should listen to them we should not just not speak to anyone but this that once we listen and we get the information well myself i can speak for myself i all address the superintendent and he will you know speak to whomever and he'll come back oh you london the reason was then he was in the pad every time we ask questions we could you know we all

061know what we asked him and he'll say and i spoke to whomever and this is why it happened that way you know to clarify but i don't personally talk to the principal um directly or we shouldn't we should bring you know do this do you bring the information to your superintendent when you hear of something that a question a concern a comment all the word know what question was asked you know it doesn't say what board member asked but then we know what the answer is okay which that is that is a clear um distinction between the role of the board and superintendent right when it comes to listening to the comments and all that did you want to continue on no i thought you were asking me so that's why but oh no i

062agree with yolanda i i will just say that i have no knowledge of anybody on our board doing that so that's why like it didn't but i'm you know so well i can give an example you need me to have not but i don't have to yeah and i may be wrong the story okay when you came to the story about the restrooms that were needed at fairmont school right so i know i don't know who who told you i don't really don't know and i think we asked if you speak to the superintendent about and i don't know if you spoke to arturo what the staff member told you about the bathrooms that they needed another bathroom i don't see i don't know that's what i'm saying so i don't know if you spoke

063to arturo that because i would assume that if you heard it from a staff or whoever it is you take a character he would take it to um the principal i guess well you know about this bathroom because i know a teacher did approach me about the bathrooms and he said it was there was not a bathroom by her classroom but then a week or so after that oh guess what i found the bathroom by my she's new to that who came from another school before she went there and then she said oh i found the bathroom by my costume and then i was hearing that reena was asking if we were going to build another bathroom so that that's that's where i was playing i'm talking yesterday i don't know i didn't know what

064happened so that's why i said that sure yes so i am i understand your um question around where did that come from yeah so as as all of us receive questions or concerns from people from parents or teachers and they say you know i have this concern and some most the time 99 of the time it's uh a concern on email and then i'll respond thank you so and so i'm forwarding this to the superintendent and i'll physically cc arturo and then he'll take it from there and we'll get feedback in our board packet or whatever it is saying okay this is this is the colored protocol or whatever it is um in my my um approach in bringing or kind of highlighting the stakeholder concern again i didn't know if it was an a

065real thing or not but i had heard it from a few stakeholders at that school my purpose in bringing it to the just talking about in a board meeting was to highlight it and kind of to say not highlighted as this is a problem but this is something that we're hearing and as a representative i wanted to bring that forward if that is something that was already addressed with um latasha with facilities plan and i brought it up at the time because we were talking about facilities and about modernizing campuses and so i felt like it was the i felt in the moment that it was the right time to say if we're talking about spending millions of dollars and making plans are we you know the same conversation about are we going to add

066portable right as we modernize wings and classroom and and campuses so that that's why i wasn't trying to um go off on my own mission to improve a single facility or advocate for a particular campus um but but just the question am i did you speak to the superintendent or latasha so because they didn't seem to know you know so they would have known the conversation i hadn't yeah that's just what i mean for the clarification yeah absolutely yes can i add this so so this so i know i said i didn't have any examples but i do think um and i don't know i've talked about this i do think um i feel like and i'm not sure how we handle this as a board and maybe thinking about how we do it together

067i do feel it's not maybe not i'm thinking more about staff right there's a i feel like there's a sense and i just get it based on the emails that we get that if someone sends something to the board right that's the issue is going to get taken care of right so we we have been over the over the last couple years i've noticed we've got an increasing number of just random complaints from staff about a certain thing that probably should be going through the channel of their their their channel of communication um but instead they think oh i'm going to email the board and it's going to get taken care of and i think to me that's an issue and it's connected to your thing because i feel like it happens been happening more

068and more and more question i would have that's because similar to what you said shilling i i don't me person that that example didn't strike me as or or this situation didn't expect me necessarily as an example it seemed like it came up in real time so i i personally can't say that i have any um there are any specific examples of this that come in my but maybe i am someone so so call out a new blind spot i guess i i would love to know from from you mr or take it for for doing first names from the from the standpoint of not i'm not sure that it's helpful to say yes and then and share out a tally of of who and and give giving concrete examples um but is it your

069sense as the superintendent who then would be the person in the in the midst of that where there are things coming you know the the those that are under your direction is it your sense from your seat that you see this happening um chronically within the district i do not see this as an issue that happens chronically yeah wonderful gabriel do you have something anything to ask on that on number seven before we move on that's on roles and responsibilities you'll have to unmute yes um yeah i i would i would have to say that that the role and responsibilities of the board i think sometimes um you know it is blurred um for example you know what what we agree on what we agreed us on a board is that the fact that if

070we would be speaking to you know um the press or to um other electives to be making decisions you know within the city or or our school district that we should um have the designees take care of that and i think that this is something we do need to um improve on because there's a lack of understanding within the board um there's a board member that's been here for for quite a long time and perhaps i mean she she knows um you know what that protocol is and how to handle that but i think as we you know i've been here for three and a half years and as we're learning this right like for example sabrina coming in and and um as i heard the example um it's it's not that or myself you

071know i have probably done things um it's not that i think it's important that we do address them and that we don't take them personally because you know we're learning and if we are you know we can't understand our role or our responsibility as a board member i think it is important that hey you know that we are addressed um and that um we're made aware of so that way we learn it's a learning opportunity absolutely okay thank you and may i refer all of you to board bylaw 9000 which is role and responsibilities of the board it is in your handbook as well and uh board bylaw 9200 which is the limit and so when you look at the 9200 you'll see that there's there are limits to your authority and individually you have

072absolutely no authority to make any promises to fix anything your power is when you are together the five of you working with your superintendent okay so understanding your roles and responsibilities that's really one of the pillars of governance and effective governance so that's something that i would um i would definitely highlight as something to look at further and really understand it on that deeper level okay but having protocols of course is really critical so you're all operating from the same set of norms especially for newer trustees because sometimes when you have been here for a while you understand the protocols and all the norms and all that and how you um how you do business for someone who's coming into your team new you're not going to have that knowledge okay and can i just

073interject yeah three just a real quick thing so something that i'm also mindful of is so for you dr bob i'm not sure but we talk about these protocols and we talk about the the adoption of these protocols but how many of these protocols did you inherit when you joined the board versus um did you have the opportunity to um speak into or or or call for uh adjustments or clarification that that and which is maybe just a piece that we can look at as when when new board members come on but as we talk about how we've all agreed upon them i'm not you may be least you you might have that might be less uh true for you in that you you you just inherited these unless it's your sense and if you

074feel over the course of this past year and a half that you've had ample opportunity to speak into uh and adopt and have full ownership of our protocols so i wasn't part of the board that created the board handbook um i'm happy that there is a handbook and i think that it's worth um maybe an annual review to say you know is this working for us as the way we in the way we intended it right because on paper it's one thing but in practice it may have a different outcome um i think there are a couple of items that i don't necessarily agree with but i'm you know i'm i'm still very much in learning mode to see how it plays out um so i'm you know i'm committed to upholding the policies and

075certainly following the bylaws and you know one one part of it is is this board self-evaluation has been written into our bylaws and so i'm glad that we're doing it again that's the written policy versus implementation um so i i if you're asking me hey you know you're new do you feel like you have um input or are you are you invested in in what we've written i am and um i'd like you know i'd like the opportunity to continue participating and again coming together maybe annually evaluate pieces of it as we go along i think would be an important part of the board's growing process that was a great point adrian and most of the time for most teams they have not been all part of creation of such documents your handbook is a

076living document it needs to be revisited especially when you have a new board member and there should be an annual review right so that's part of the um the maintenance of effectiveness of the board um i did make a note of that and that's going to be in my recommendations and next steps is to make sure that you do review your handbook okay all right now tell me move on to number four which is also on your list of items that you wanted to discuss board works well together and that's number four so let's take a look at that and uh who brought that up who would like to okay gabriella would you like to talk about that yes um i think that um there's not a clear understanding for example that we are able

077to go ahead and be you know we we can talk to each other like hey you know not about an agenda item but necessarily and i felt like well when i was president um when i would call people i wouldn't get i there there was times that i mean there was one particular board would never call me back email never called me back so when i was trying to get you know input from the board on a particular item i you know we just it was like okay we need to take our personal you know our person whatever it is that you have you know that we have we need to take it to the side and we need to focus on our common goal and i think that's one thing that we are lacking

078in this board and that's why at times we don't work well together you know or you said something at this meeting so now i can't talk to you no you know we i we need to be able to communicate and not be you know stepping on eggshells when we see each other and um you know like i've approached board members like hey you know can i please have a sit down with you can i have a conversation with you and i've been rejected no no you said something at the board meeting and i'm not okay with that well okay now i'm gonna be punished so we have the passive aggressiveness happening within the board and i feel that that's something that we we need to work on you know we're gonna work well together in

079every relationship in every aspect of our lives we are going to have disagreements we're not going to like what other people you know what our husband says you know what our sister says our mother says our friend says but i think it's really important that we are able to have that open you know clear concise communication that you know what yes we may be at the board meeting at times you may be a little heated but at the same time all in all that we're able to be amicable and be able to have you know a sit down and conversation and not reject each other and be passive aggressive towards each other and i think that is um you know a key and uh that we need to completely work on this for it is

080for us to be able to work together you know what you said earlier the unity you know we're working for a common goal we we need to be united in a common goal yes are we going to have disagreements absolutely are we going to not get you know like what someone says absolutely but the common respect and you know being able to you know what move past that and be mature and be have emotional and challenge to be able to go ahead and address issues or things that we may not like or you know it's something that um can benefit our board and i see the potential of this board to go in that direction thank you for sharing that the working together for anything is not something that happens overnight right trust needs to

081be established and strengthened and nurtured and so you can have real conversation right so if that trust has not been established you're not going to have transparent open and honest conversation because then then some individuals may be afraid of hurting someone else's feeling or not being completely honest so that trust is really important and i'm not sure what you have done as a team to work on that because again that doesn't happen overnight it takes time no t no we have no team building activities it we don't okay um i'd like to open this up new discussion for all of you how you feel about this particular item and again going back to think about the issue of trust or lack of it and how it can and can impact your behaviors and your conversations

082on the board who would like to take it next uh i can go first um because both those examples are related directly to myself i'm assuming i've had at least two separate interactions that that have those same things so i will just say and i can i will just own that maybe i could better communicate i could communicate this i did not respond to the call from gabriella when she was trying to uh ask if we wanted to have a meeting canceled that we agreed to at a board meeting because i felt that was a serial meeting right to pull all for all four other board members about giving the superintendent direction about something between board members between board meetings to me is a violation of the brown app and so i i just didn't

083feel comfortable responding to that now now i say can i but i maybe have communicated that piece i think so i think i communicated that with arthur so he knew that um so i will on that piece but i will say you know when it comes to the brown act and the rules that we follow i i very much um feel strongly that we should follow that's the example number two the second example um gabriella and i thought i think that i would explained it very clearly in the text when you asked when you texted me about meeting one on one um getting to the point about trust i i think i was very clear in in my text message is that i did not after you attacked me verbally on the diocese in december

084last december and said that i that i bully you right i i mean it's on the video we can go back and look at it i really did not feel comfortable having a one-on-one meeting and i think i communicated that in my text message because you know what you you have to build trust and i feel like if we're going to have a meeting one-on-one and you're making assertions that i don't think are valid right i would be concerned about having an individual meeting and then what would come out of that and what would you say that i said right and there's nobody there to validate either what i say or you say and so i was not comfortable meeting and in that case i did communicate that very clearly why i did not want

085to meet so and i just wanted to put that out there because i think that those are the bo those are the two examples i think that you were alluding to but i mean if i'm wrong please correct gabriela did you want to respond to that yes it was it was just not one time i guess and you know in the communication part and i appreciate you know you being able to process this and and responding to this um i think you know i agree a response you know is a response no response means no response right disregarding and so as as president i i you know i i i didn't feel supported by somebody who's been on the board for 20 something years and when you know and if you told arthur i i

086was not aware that you were told arthur i think that clear and concise communication is is what i'm referring to and yes um i think i agree you know the fact that we're able to go ahead and not break the brown act and all that i was trying to do not trying to talk about the situation with with you because i did not want to break the brown act but at the same time be able to go ahead and have your opinion about that meeting and so you know to give you that respect and i think it's so important you know uh when we have conversations out in a public like this right um we we are able to go ahead we put on um you know we say things i did not personally attack

087you i did not say your name specifically i did not say chandelien cruz gonzalez this isn't that it was a general statement that i made and you know i wasn't going to address that right there and then it was other things that i needed guidance in because i walked into the hispanic uh what is it um it was a vote that was happening and i wanted to kind of understand what was going on and you since you know everybody i wanted to get that perspective from you and i felt that you know you've been on the board for 20 something years um for the new board members you know i have not learned or haven't been empowered by somebody who's been uh you know on the board and not only on this board but many

088boards and state you know the state where i was looking forward to your guidance ship i was looking forward to your mentorship but that's okay you know um you're very reserved and i get that but at the same time you're very closed off i think because of the fact that when i do ask very short um and that's where i'm coming from it's like look we're all on here to you know for the same common goal to have a conversation to have a sit down in a conversation of over coffee could you know re remediate a lot of the things that are happening on the board to have a personal conversation right since we can't have it here um in public and so that's where i was coming from okay so what i like to

089do what i invite all of you to do because i want to make sure we get to all the points that you selected i ask that everyone please keep your comments concise and short as short as possible um [Music] i think it goes back to both of you what you shared goes back to the lack of understanding of communication effective communication and the fact that if there is no trust if you don't have a foundation of trust you're not able to have those conversations that you need to have connecting on a personal level is very important for all of you but then you also have to be very mindful of the brown act and serial meetings and making sure that you are connecting to understand perspectives the historical perspectives of why things are the way

090that you're in your district and really get to know each other on that personal level that can be and should be the the uh point of getting together or meeting to to you know one one on one but not to talk business of course does that make sense so going back to really understanding your communication style your working style and how you can work well together get the information you need adrian did you have something to add as i look as i look at this list um just so we are on we run the second item which is number four board works well together i know that we're eager to get through the list but honestly as i look at number four number 13 the next three in the current one we're on and the

091subsequent two um i think that there may be can there may be some connection in there i think that there's a there's a theme among those three um that would probably warrant um some space and some dialogue uh around around this area and so i appreciate that that it has that it has already begun but the but we're currently on board works well together the the next one after this is managing internal conflict productively and then the next one is treating each other with respect so again there i think that there's just a a common theme among those three so my mind kind of goes to grouping those those somewhat together um with that being said i don't um i i have been disappointed at times at the way that we we as a board

092have not displayed tremendous levels of respect for each other from the diet um so so during and during board meetings when we're here to do to do business there have there have been times where it does um venture into personal personal things that that that take place that i think distract from from the focus of what we um are really here to do um the the difficulty with with this and with how to proceed is uh is this a situation where we are is this is this a space to speak on specific examples um which then would identify specific people um i'm not i'm not sure that it is the most helpful to speak broadly um to where in in the situation um sheila nina's you just felt maybe a moment ago where something is

093said maybe you sense that it could be directed at you but you're not sure if it's directed at you and so there there ends up being some back and forth and there's a lack of lack of clarity um it may it may be valuable and worthwhile to actually be a bit more specific and and call out and identify uh some specific examples and and themes that kind of happen uh repeated i think it's important that i mean it just like you know sabrina and i you know i mean i just asked her a question and she just answered what what maybe i didn't understand and we just clarified but we know that you know i was talking about her i'd rather just tell her and let her know what i felt and then she just

094told me the same thing so i don't see any harm in it because if you say he she them when and and then you wonder who you're talking about you know i just think it just clears the air um a little better and this is your opportunity to be open and honest now granted when we do these type of workshops we have more time you do need to have time because it's not something you can rush right so you need to have these conversations and be able to um say what's on your mind and allow the other person to respond and explain and share their perspective it's really important each of these items each of them is critical and that's why you pick them right and i do agree that number 4 13 and 15

095are very um they're related right so to me the what's missing when i look at those items and the fact that you brought them up is is that foundation of respect and foundation of trust if that's missing then you're not going to have healthy conflict you're not going to have the questions or ask the questions you need to ask without feeling unsafe right but that's something you can work on and again that doesn't happen overnight that begins with each of you really being committed to connect on a personal level and that will take some time okay so my suggestion is let's move on to number 30. we'll see what what comes up with that and then the last one and my suggestion at the end i'll share with you my next steps for you and

096what i suggest you can do to begin to establish that layer of for that foundation does that sound good actually that that doesn't sound good to me okay um from from the perspective of again as i look at this and see that there are three items i think that we we've merely brushed by it um and like i said as i've seen how things have flared up at board meetings i think they've they've flared up at board meetings and we have said as as the sitting in this chair i've said this is not the appropriate time for that the appropriate time for that is at a governance meeting and so now that we are at a at a governance meeting um i i can't help but but return to the idea that this is the

097this then becomes the appropriate time for or or maybe there is never a pleasant time but this becomes the most the most appropriate time for it and as i look at some of these other pieces uh number 30 and the others in particular i see those as things that could potentially take place and have and there could be rooms to have those conversations at proper at board meeting proper i don't see where and when we address uh 4 13 and 15 outside of this competition and i need to agree with him on that because you know we set an example and i do know that students from high schools watch us especially we're going to the organization and we're still continuing but they watch it for the history class so we need to know how

098to respect each other because if they what do we what our job what are we teaching them this is how you act when you don't agree or this is how you happen you don't like the person we should not do this so i think those items are very important right so could could we could i ask for some sentence starters or for some help in expressing how we feel or what we've experienced because i i think this is a this is a really hot topic and i agree that we've we've said this this is not in a regular meeting but this is a space um but i also like it i'd like some help to be structured in how to give my feedback and also to receive feedback and you'll and i do appreciate you

099asking me the question live because i'm going to answer you live without any varnish but i really feel like i need some help in how to share my experience yeah and i think that um i know i mentioned this to you in the evaluation you know we did um you know just put numbers one two or three or four but there was no space for the state why do we feel that way or why are we answering it why is it so low we didn't have that opportunity to do that with this evaluation and this is this is your opportunity right right yes to question that and to have discussions about it that's a great point sabrina so when you are talking about something that's um that's emotionally charged and something such as having a

100conflict an internal conflict is a crucial conversation your ability as an individual to say what's on your mind ask the questions you have the concerns that you have beat out attacking anyone and then just giving that other person the um the opportunity to respond is really important so starting by saying this is how i feel i feel um this is happening or whatever the concern might be and allow others to find mean and share how they see it from their perspective everyone has a perspective and of course you all are going to have different perspectives because from where you s from where you look at issues you're going to see things differently and feel about them differently but your ability to ask your question and ask for clarification is really important i'm perfectly fine with

101spending the rest of our time on those on those three items and really helping you have open honest dialogue on what's really bothering you and what you need to do to move forward okay does that sound good okay so um let's go back to working well together and and one thing i wanted to give you clarification on is when you meet when you come together your meetings are your meetings in public right they're not public meetings i want to make sure so staying to the agenda staying clear and concise is really really critical on the agenda items that you have okay but working well together let's open that up from your perspective what are the challenges of working together working well together okay maybe i give you a moment think about it reflect on it

102so as you share each of you please remember your sentence order and if you're listening then listen to understand ask for clarifying questions if you need to to really understand and then you can respond okay so i'm going to start with adrian this time so go ahead and share your perspective on the challenges it's this is a very difficult question to answer be uh i know we've had conversations in the past about not having these meetings broadcasted not having these being public uh sorry they're always in public but not having these meetings broadcasted in real real real time and reported um and i think that's that's part partly due to potentially uncomfortable nature in which things are um and and so i don't as i'm trying to answer this question honestly i don't know how

103to do it in a way that isn't uncomfortable and so i think as as big boys and big girls we maybe we will just need to go there um and so as i as i from my perspective as i think about what is um uh challenges to us working well together uh one of the things that comes to mind is um the ways in which uh that this idea or concept of assuming the best uh in each other and the ways that that doesn't uh i think it doesn't happen across the board um and to to be to be tremendously specific um gabriella i'm it's it's it's very difficult um sitting on the dice at times when there are really in in public meetings things that are said that are really loaded and have tremendous

104i mean what what becomes what what is said then is a is almost i mean it's a tremendous accusation um towards another board member um and then why i think sometimes things get heated is because that's not the most appropriate time for the board member who's being accused of something indirectly or i i think a firm that was used earlier was passive aggressively uh and it's not the appropriate time for the board member to respond to it yet that particular board member feels as though to say nothing about it also feels empty and so and so there's this it creates this this this ten this unnecessary tension point um that i think is rooted in not assuming the best and really becomes making it uh what i would call um at the time that the

105times that come to mind are really unwarranted accusations um and so uh that's that's the that's the for i do have a second part but i'll i'll pause there that but that's that's the first part of a tremendous concern okay what i like to do is open it up and hear your thoughts and perspectives on what was just shared and also give gabriella an opportunity to respond but i'd like to hear from all of you on that if you would like to share sure thank you caprile you'll have to unmute i i think that's uh one of the things that i'm bringing to the board as you know today is is the fact that we're either going to have the conversation in private or we're going to have the conversation in public you know i

106it's important that we have dialogue it's important that we communicate as a board i you know this whole passive aggressiveness when it comes it's just not me it's i i felt and i'm and i've i've been feeling you know i i hear you adrian but when i said what i said it wasn't just one board member i i said in general i included superintendent a cabinet right it was something that i wanted to say but not towards one board member i included myself in it right if you wanted clarification on that right that was an opportunity like hey you know what give me a call what did you mean by this right because sometimes when we say things for example i i may have said something right what you what you shared and precisely it

107was not meant towards the way that it was taken and like i said i think it's so important that you know when it comes to we're talking about trust we're talking about being able to talk to each other how do we address things when there's things that have been done right personally say to me and i in that individual have not had a conversation and hashed it out to come to the dias to to work on what we need to work on so you're right that's one thing that we need to work i i i've i've been open i've reached out but i felt rejected i've been rejected by board members right i don't want to talk to you but okay so now we're just going to sit here and be passive aggressive to each

108other you don't want to resolve this you don't want to talk about this like mature adults and okay then guess what you're right adrian it's going to keep coming back why because it's a it's a vicious cycle unless we address it unless we talk about it unless we're able to go ahead and have you know conversation about it i'm willing to have a conversation so am i uh you know does it sometimes yeah it sometimes does because of the fact that guess what maybe there's feelings on both sides from me or the other board member or another board member that we need to hash things out we need to talk about things but not on the diet you're right not on the diets but since i'm not given the opportunity it may come out of

109the tires at the time i i don't mean to i really don't mean to am i direct absolutely i am direct but i i agree adrian it's important that we have you know communication but when not giving the opportunity it's kind of you know uh we have not given the opportunity to be able to go ahead and speak on what we need to speak on it's going to come out on the diet and i think that's one thing that we need to work on on this board so gabriella before i go to adrian to respond what is important to [Music] be mindful of is a time and a place and if you haven't had as a theme the time to have these conversations these workshops are the right place safe place to have those conversations

110the dice is not when you have your regular board meetings that is not the right place so but i want to make sure that we um we hear from adrian as well yeah and uh that actually what what you just shared gabriella goes to the second part of what i i wanted to hold off and see if there was a response to the first part but that really goes directly to the second part um that i that i had um which is which is couched in what i believe is um dare i say um a what what i perceive what i perceive as a a lack of self-awareness in in regards to these matters and these issues because i think when there are um again accusations lobbed of of a a passive passive aggression um

111as well as in an unwillingness to engage or communicate with um those are the things that i i have i have seen um most significantly modeled uh on on your behalf and so when when those are shared here as though it is as though it takes place equally across the the board i don't think that it's a helpful um that it it is a helpful and or healthy perspective um and so i i know that there was reference you you referenced a time when you were wanting to to reach out and meet with people i know you're speaking broadly wanting to reach out and meet with people and that there are people who would not uh meet with you i think that you would certainly agree that i was not one of those individuals that

112you would say did not meet with you and discuss um different things and also point out some directly to you things that i thought were problematic and i thought that that could lead to conflict um on on the dice and ways to navigate that in a healthy way and uh earlier this year earlier this year um as as we were having one of those conversations uh you communicated to me directly to no longer uh speak to you about those those matters i mean that you were no longer uh willing or open to sitting down and having some of these these converse conversations um uh because of and so because of that um i i have i have experience from you the the the very thing that you're that you're sharing out and saying that you've

113experienced on behalf of the other other board members but but almost verbatim the things that you're saying or problematic that were said are the exact same things that that you said directly to me and so with that i'm i'm i i think there's a yeah there is an inability then to engage about these and talk about these things on a one-to-one basis when when that communication is directly cut off which then means that this becomes if if not then in a one-on-one setting then this becomes a necessary place and so um i i am i am i still remain tremendously concerned about some of the actions uh some of your actions on on the diocese um some of you some of the words that you say um some some of the the ways that you

114say the things uh that you say are i i think um just just tremendously concerning for me um as a member of the sport can i respond to that gabriella go ahead yeah i you know i i am very concerned as well you know as you being president one of the things that i shared with you was this um why i said you know i'm i was very upset and the conversation that i had with you was that um i said you agent are coming after me i said i'm not the only one that's seen this people in the public as they're seeing our our meetings you know you are constantly directing things to me not once when and i'm sorry uh chandeline i'm i i'm gonna say your name when chinaleen is talking over

115me or she interjects or she interjects when the lawyer's speaking or she speaks over the superintendent or you know you know because she wants to say um hey no it's done this way right and so then i said well the lawyer's here i think it's important like not once do you when she talks over another board member you know board member um sabrina or yolanda right you only direct it to me and that is why i said you know i'm really upset that you only directed to me i said i feel attacked i said and i'm not comfortable with that and that is where i came from and i'm very concerned about that as well because of the fact that you you've undermined me in public meetings um you know so i'm i feel like

116okay you know what i constantly have to be defending myself and it's not just from you excuse me it's from others as well it's like okay so everybody gets to say whatever they get to say but whenever i say something instead of asking for a clarification right or maybe i said things wrong again i'm an english language learner not and i'm not saying that as an excuse i think in spanish and i have to translate so the way that things come out sometimes may not be appropriately correctly the way that like you just said adrian me you know what and i've asked you in private adrian i've asked you i said listen when i say things you know if i say them incorrectly please correct me i gave you that before because i want to

117be able to learn and improve right as an english language learner as i i hear you guys speaking i have to process i have to process things in english okay now i have to respond i'm thinking in spanish there's a lot of processing that i have to do and i've addressed this with the board as well so please give me some time to process and and at times adrian you don't give me time to process right as president i can can at least have some time and you have when we did the reconfiguration meeting right but like i said the things that you address with me you don't address with others on the board and i did call you out on that day i said that really is concerning to me because you're not fair

118across the board i do not feel that you are fair across the board and please remember everyone when you're sharing you're sharing how you feel right you're not accusing um i really want all of you to be mindful of that i like to if you like to respond adrian and then i want to hear everyone else's perspective on that you're also at those meetings right so you're watching you're listening think about your perspective i want to come back adrian so i'll be very brief in response i i i there's there's much that i could say if we had more time that i would say but i'll be very brief in saying that i think that what even what's shared there i think is a is a discrepancy around around what i perceive is a discrepancy

119around self-awareness and so that's where i think me being lean and and um please uh i i'll look to my colleague if as as you as you see things if it is if it's your perception as well um some some of the some of the areas that um that gabrielle is sharing if that's your perception as well i i invite you and i welcome you to share that with me directly so that i can grow in in my role as a as a board member and in my role in this seat um but uh so so i'll i'll leave it there i'd be eager to hear um if there are any thoughts or or comments from from my colleague all right so anyone has anything to add they're your perspectives your thoughts your feelings sabrina

120go ahead since i was the one that asked for a sentence starter i think i need to go ahead and use it so um i feel that a challenge to working well together as a board is um when [Music] we level accusations without presentation of evidence and i'll give a very specific example so gabriella some meetings ago you had shared that you felt that closed session items were being shared confidentiality was being broken by some board members or a board member and you said that in an open session meeting and that took me by surprise and i don't know if it took anyone else by surprise um and it it seemed to me that if that was a concern that would be a pretty serious concern obviously to break confidentiality with all the important things

121we talk about in closed session um and i don't know i didn't see anything in a board packet about you know an issue or someone being um you know count a board member being counseled like hey remember that's closed session we can't talk about it so i felt like it was an accusation level generally to the four of us and because we didn't have an opportunity or no one said well hey what do you mean again during that open session meeting um i just felt like it just sat on us and i didn't know if it was going to be resolved i didn't know if it was a real issue um so it felt it felt like an accusation again without presentation of evidence and i'm not sure if you still have that concern about

122confidentiality being broken or if you think it was resolved or if that's something that you discussed with the superintendent one-on-one that's that's what i feel is a one challenge to working well together is accusations without common presentation of of evidence so sabrina as i look at the list of what you all selected as strength for this board respecting confidentiality is on that that's something that two of you at least identified as something that you're proud of something that you do well on that item right okay i personally have never heard any breaking of confidentiality with a amongst the board to anyone i i've never heard it what's [Music] it's three three board members collected that out okay thank you so that's significant that's majority of you right um gabriella i want to make sure i

123give you the opportunity to respond to that particular item yes in general i i can i can think of one particular uh meeting we were having a a close session meeting and um and sabrina you uh you were at a park a public park and you were talking to other individuals and you were with your kids and we were talking about pretty um you know pretty substantial um things that needed to be in closed session and to me close session means you're in a closed off area where no one can hear you because we're talking about closed session items and so therefore when you were at the park with your kids and having this meeting in an open area where people could hear you speak or i don't know if they were hearing that's the

124break of confidentiality and that's what i was referring to and that's the only one that i can remember right now um there's been other instances but but that's the the major one where you know um you know what is the brown act when it comes to um confidentiality in a board meeting that it's supposed to be closed session are we okay to be out and about and you know at a park with our kids and have friends around us you know and and that's where where i'm coming from i i didn't know okay so closed session means closed session that means everything that's discussed stays there and you leave it there right you don't talk about it after you leave closed session but i want to make sure i give you enough time sabrina to

125respond to that particular situation certainly i honor the confidentiality of our closed session meetings and i don't recollect certainly i go to parks with my kid many times but i don't recollect having any conversation with anyone even a board member about closed session items outside of the closed session so all i can say is i have no recollection of it and it's certainly not my practice i think the question is is not that she broke the confidentiality it's the location she was at i think that's what gabriel let's talk about the location she was at the time of the close testing matter not necessarily that you broke it but i think we should maybe just talk about that you were at the park during a closed session can you clarify gabriella yes i uh yes

126uh yolanda's right i what i'm saying is she was one of the things that i'm that i'm sharing is that when i think of closed session right and the confidentiality is when we're speaking about matters and agenda items from closed session we are in a closed room right others are not hearing us speak we are not you know they're not hearing what we are discussing because it's closed session and i felt you know that particular time when um and by all means you know i that it was not shared with us as well either that she was going to be at a park with the kids and so i'm thinking okay we're discussing things do i say this do i not say this um she's at a park and people hear us you know can

127people hear speak what is the protocol do we have a protocol when it comes you know is there a csba um bylaw where it says closed session has to be closed session do we as a board can't you know do we work on you know can do we have a protocol all these questions came to mind right and yes yolanda you are correct um close session to me means closed session you're in between four walls with not another person that is not a board member or cabinet near you while you're discussing the agenda items thank you for clarifying sabrina you so now i think i know what we're talking about um we were in closed session and i was i was at a public place um i wasn't able to join in and i don't

128remember if we were all calling i think this may have been a meeting where we were all calling in um and i was on my earphone or my earbuds i was not on speakerphone and even though my earbud can pick up sounds there was no one within your shot of me to be able to hear the comments that i was giving and so i now that that jogged my memory i know what we were talking about all right and i don't know what you have as far as protocols or board bylaws on that i will have to look and see if you have one uh and if you don't to create one and i can certainly share language csv language but that's important and these are the topics that you all need to talk about

129just like this in a safe environment to be able to say how you see a situation your perception and allow the other person to respond in a calm and respectful manner and i'm seeing that here and i want to let you know that i so appreciated that you're able to do this you're having some tough conversation so thank you and thank you for allowing each other to respond and really listening okay i do want to be mindful of time i'm fine going beyond i know on the agenda you let me know what you like to do what is your profit i i thought just saying i i thought we were going in at seven and i i did have a dinner i'm sorry to say that my daughter's birthday and tom i'd be there at

130seven because i read here that it's at seven right so here we are at 7 42 i just i saw some numbers at 7 40. is it your regardless i want to honor your time because i i was given seven and then i stopped the next step um workshop or journaling 6 50 to 7 p.m okay i'm looking at this so knowing that what i like to do is i like to suggest that you continue these conversations this is not something that you just we just barely stress the surface and these are important conversations you all need to have so i am open to your ideas your suggestions on um continuing this another time when you can allow you can have autistics hours that you can work on this and at that time your governance

131handbook can also be revis review so that's one option you could continue on without the orlando i don't know if that i think it's really not that i think i know it's important to have all of you here and i prefer that you're all here basically for a future meeting so again you let me know how you want to proceed and i apologize orlando on over yeah no that's okay okay so what's the preference of the board president uh gabriella uh yes i i would agree i think we all need to be present and um i appreciate this raw conversation right being able to go ahead and speak about things um that hey what about this and and coming from a place like hey addressing it and the other person not feeling like that the

132you know the person sharing is being attacked right trying to attack the person but actually really asking an honest and raw question and so i would like to continue at another time to have another governance meeting like this because i think it's very productive and i would like to continue with yolanda i think we should we should end and uh have a part two hopefully soon yeah it is i mean other that's that that's i'd say more than enough to move in that direction i can't imagine um i'd have anyone else say anything other than that um we could how do we how to best proceed we could look to uh putting something on i i i don't know how urgent this is or is not i know we have uh graduations in one next

133week but this could be something that we look at on the other side in the new board calendar or this is something that we could uh try to address more uh um quickly than that is there a sensor or preference from the board i would i would look at either the end of june or just have like one meeting in july we kind of do that like just put i mean no one's going on vacation you know um one meeting in july you know spend like five hours you know in the morning just i don't know but that's just my my idea you could select a saturday that's an option also that's true when you're off we've had them on a saturday before yes starting at nine and five hours or eight years whatever works

134for you i apologize but i'm not available on saturdays until after 2 30. are there any uh weekdays that you are that you could be available um earlier i guess that's the question uh yes mondays mondays i could do as early as 11 o'clock june is really tough for me um with all of the educational responsibilities and ceremonies and july will be tough for me i i i'd suggest that we um we we can look at this for the uh for the august counterpart when we start back in in the new year are there any objections then well i was hoping that we could do it sooner because i i didn't have a chance to speak to any of this but i mean if that's yeah if it has to be august then i mean

135i think that's kind of far away august uh you know this conversation it is important uh to make this effective and i think that um we're going the right right way about it by you know addressing each other and respecting each other for whichever maybe there's things that we're not aware of right or so i i think sooner than august would be i'm wondering how we reconcile that because i know you're not um you wouldn't be able to continue later today right better today i can to continue on later today no and then uh sabrina you're saying that june is is not um i could do the last week of june like i was i was gonna suggest if you can give us some dates probably mr ortega and you know not now but then

136are some dates and times and maybe we could just look at them and [Music] agree so adrian can could you like work with arturo to do some dates the last week the week of the 27th and we can respond with yes or no and find the date that works best for all of us yes and i'll say for me it would have to it would have to be um make the monday work or it'd have to be the tuesday or the wednesday are you camping all of july well there's a there's a lot of i have a lot of work travel that i've saved for july i'm sure you do okay i can do monday i can do the monday the 27th i can make that work would that be like a 12 o'clock like

137a 12 to 5 or 12 to 4 thing if you're looking to have it um facilitated i am not available till five o'clock on that day what was the other day 27 i could make i could make the tuesday work pick your head i could make the the wednesday work uh if it was earlier i won't be able to do that okay i apologize you're talking about june right that last week in june yeah that's all but you cannot do tuesday no no and i cannot do the rest of the week i can do monday tuesday but i cannot do the rest of the week i might be able to do tuesday but i don't know until tomorrow but i don't know gabriella said i don't know but are we intending to have this facilitated

138because that'd be that you just said you can't do it i won't be able to yes oh yeah but you could do monday at i could do monday and so you could pull a late night uh that would be like monday five tonight five to ten or five to nine nights four hours right is there dinner included gabriella would that work with is that feasible for you if you look if we look at the 27th um starting at five for four or five hours yes i could do monday i was looking at my schedule i could do monday um five uh we're gonna be there for i think it's important that we are there like you guys said for five hours and dinner included i'm there i have my own board meeting at 6 30

139on that monday i guess i'm okay with august [Music] so then i will uh coordinate with arturo and we will look at uh some some dates in august to figure that out okay you know we'll just continue we should just continue i'll just no it's all right yolanda i think we already important you know that's very important i'm sorry uh team i i also have another meeting that i had to attend at 7 30 which i'm late to because it did say seven o'clock that we were gonna end so i actually have to get going as well okay okay then i will i will move us on from here on to adjournment and and like i said arthur and i will talk about uh a next the next meeting okay then we will move to

140item 5.0 and specifically 5.1 which is determined is there a motion to adjourn second moved by board member rodriguez pena and second by board member bo any discussion hearing none will do a hand vote uh yolanda's yes yes yeah yes yes and i'm also yes so that's five to zero uh for adjournment at 7 51 pm all right thank you have a good night