5/17/22 Azusa Unified School District Board Meeting

001seven o'clock if you join me in the flag salute i believe we have miss cassidy nord an eighth grade student from ellington to lead us in our flag salute please stand do we have cassidy online it looks like she just got kicked off shall we wait we'll wait for cassidy to join us okay great i'll let you know when she gets back on let's go ahead and give cassidy a moment to um let's be to give cassidy sometimes these things happen on zoom we'll come back to 4.1 and move on to 4.2 roll call board member robert pena president board member uh cruz gonzalez here board member ariana's present and i sabrina am here uh mr greer is absent tonight we'll skip ahead to item 4.3 approval of the agenda may i have a motion

002to approve the agenda motion to approve second moved by board member arianas and seconded by board member rodriguez pena let's take a vote short let's take a hand vote board member against pena yes board member cruz gonzalez yeah board member ariana yes sabrina beau yes the item passes four yes to one absent we'll give cassidy a moment and when she comes back on we'll come back to our flag salute to enable her to have that honor for us tonight moving on to item 5.0 report of action in closed session there is no action to report from closed session item 6.0 recognition and awards tonight we have the great pleasure of recognizing mr kimball coburn and his lawson studio 26 students mr coburn if you could join your team at the podium please testing one two

003check hot mike hot mike uh yeah my name is kimball coburn um and if i get a little emotional it's because i just finished watching this is us um and it was a pretty tough episode so uh i want to first of all thank you all for all your support for studio 26 all these years that we've been doing this we're in our 12th year um it's a it's a unique place if you haven't been there and even if you have everybody has kind of a different take on what we do uh it's not just a video editing program we learn about technical stuff computer stuff um it has to do with uh with thinking and creativeness and critical thinking um it has to do with uh all the things that we learn about in

004you know school about they were going to be teachers all the maslow and the blooms and all that stuff but what i love about it is even though it may not we may not use all the the correct buzzwords and things like that the one word that really describes uh studio 26 is genuine um it's a place where where students can be creative and in a genuine way it's not a school program in fact we try to make it i try to make it less like school i'm sorry if i offend you guys uh because we are school um but i want it to be less like school and more like like a creative state a real learning studio where people can um can express themselves and do things and think in a different way

005than they're used to thinking in a classroom and that's what i love about this project that we were involved in is because of studio 26 we uh with the help of this team and i'm glad you referred to him as a team because we really are a team we were able to produce a commercial for steggy's pizza anything okay shaky species that's cute we did a commercial but you have to understand the uh this wasn't a school project this was a commercial for a national uh organization right that went out on their social media and uh starting with this quick just interviewing someone from shakies about marketing we were just interested in marketing and making a commercial and what would it take to make a commercial so we we did we connect we knocked around

006some ideas and we uh we arranged to pitch those ideas to shakey's visa and so the students got up on through via zoom and we pitched there they pitched the ideas uh shakies loved them and made a couple of tweaks and suggestions to us and we went back and rewrote and and we worked on to work that out and uh and so then we they said great do it we'll get we'll get these out there for you so they were able to actually use our commercials we had their support uh we didn't get paid any money for it we did it because we wanted to for the experience um but we we had a great time doing it and uh and i'm sure the students will want to share some of that with you i

007think someone told me that they were going to be showing those commercials to us right now so let's take a look at it and then we can have a work from our students here audio [Music] wow [Music] hi equals 3.1415926535 [Music] darlene pie shakies [Music] [Applause] i like you i'd like to introduce you this team we have denise we have ramon we have marguerite we have darlene right here students did they uh at least give you a free pizza and yeah got a lot of so how did you feel making that commercial well it was a great opportunity it was really so you know we got experience you got to learn a lot of new things you know um no your students did really good good now you guys have marketing experience underneath your belt

008that that's awesome um did you guys film uh when you guys were filming did you guys do a lot of outtakes did you guys have to memorize uh who thought of uh just the script oh there was kind of a lot of mistakes you made because we're tortured but i think it all worked out but it wasn't did you guys write down your script or was it just like play by here well we wrote down a script and then we made a screenplay so we like we had a plan but and also the young lady that was eating the pizza in math class is that what you do in math class did it help you out you kids did a real a fine job thank you mr coburn always your students since day one they

009always come through on congratulations of the board of education cabinet and staff we congratulate your accomplishment it's an amazing opportunity for young people to showcase their talent and to follow their dreams mr coburn if you could join uh me and my colleagues and cabinet here for a photo opportunity we'd love to memorialize this moment with a photo yeah all of them yes you and your team one thing i i did want to express my gratitude to mr colbert i i think the opportunities that you bring with this program are just priceless and i want to thank you for that for exposing our students to opportunities that um they probably would not get somewhere else and i can't wait to for you to be at the at the middle school at the grant at the no

010it's the the the new middle school when you bring your program and i can't i can't wait to see what that looks like thank you and i just wanted to say something uh mr copeland because you talked about how you try to make it not be like school i think you're i think you're making it exactly like school the way it should be i think that is school right that's i mean we know that's the way kids learn the best right they're hands-on to experience so i mean the more we do this across all of our grades i think you're a model for what we what we want to happen in all our classes thank you i'm moving on to item 6.2 mr von kyo for presentation of manager of the year 2122 yes thank

011you board vice president board of education members cabinet staff and of course our guests i have the honor of starting off the formal recognition of our managers of the year our managers include site and district administrators coordinators directors assistant directors psychologists and confidential employees and their work spans throughout the entire district but the one unifying quality is leadership leadership involves vision courage and most of all a deep compassion for the people and students that one serves and lead leaders have vision includes imagination foresight knowledge of people themselves policy in the law courage is also a quality that leaders must possess it's that internal fortitude that is required to continue to move forward when it's difficult or unpopular and courage is displayed on engaging in difficult conversation but most of all leadership requires a deep and

012unshakeable passion for people it's not just about the relationship it's taking a sincere interest in the people once served board of education and guests i'm happy to report that we have an outstanding team of leaders that make up our management team picking just one person to serve as a manager of the year is an incredibly difficult path in a moment you will hear about the finalists of the managers of the year they all possess the qualities of a leader that um that i just discussed in their responses to our questions they spoke about students who work with staff and teachers parents and our community as well as their genuine interests for our school district these finalists spoke about challenges they faced and have overcome and each of them spoke with such grace and gratitude for

013the work that they do each and every day before i turn it over to our cabinet members i want you to know that this type of leadership just doesn't happen this type of leadership is modeled over time it's cultivated and cared for and ultimately becomes part of our culture these values are certainly demonstrated by our manager of the year finalist and now i'd like to turn it over to our assistant superintendent of business services to introduce our first finalist mr mall good evening everyone i am honored to speak and introduce you all to mr brian jeffrey allen who we call b allen in the business division i'm brian joined the ausd family beginning in um 2021 um he brought to our family 26 years of facility management and construction experience i'm during this interview process

014brian was unique and our process was unique we were looking for someone who had a vision that could actually come in and help us move our campuses forward and not just be a task manager so one of the tasks was we actually took our candidates to one of our facilities and they were charged with identifying things that needed to be improved based on their expertise and recommendation and i would have to say brian was one of the ones that was able to identify everything that we thought needed to be improved and things that we didn't uncover um brian has also had an intricate part of improving the morale in the mlt department um this has been shared with me on several occasions for miss lori ray our cca president additionally he has the leadership and

015vision that we have been looking for to always be a part of our team um one thing that brian will do he's boots on the ground he's not a top-down leader um you will rarely find him in his office unless he's forced to be in a google meet meeting um but he is also the one that will volunteer to do something that he can't do like deep-fried turkey on thanksgiving and we had to have burnt turkey but in addition to all that throughout all the brian's achievements and um accomplishments and the morale he's improved on um his greatest accomplishment is actually his family his pride and joy is his children and his wife um and it's been an honor to write this journey with ausd of having brian on my team mr macho [Music] good

016evening i am truly honored to recognize lisa allen as educational services manager of the year first and foremost lisa is a mother to her two sons and daughter-in-law lisa began her career in azusa unified as secretary to the categorical office during that time she led the office and supported the office through two successful program monitoring reviews dr martin luther king jr said if a man is called to be a street sweeper he should sweep streets even as michelangelo painted or beethoven composed music or shakespeare wrote poetry he should he should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say here lived a great sweet street sweeper who did his job well i believe that lisa carries these words in her heart when she comes to work each and

017every day lisa leads by example her energy level is unmatched she has the stamina of a marathon runner and when it comes to taking on tasks and completing projects she is tenacious in ensuring things are completed and all her eyes are dotted and her t's are crossed lisa's greatest asset lies in her interpersonal skills she is patient and kind and her professional demeanor with all staff is valued and appreciated perhaps of even greater importance in lisa we have a daily role model of a person of integrity and honor who gives her finest effort and excellence to any and all given task lisa has many gifts and talents from which we all benefit please joining me please join me in honoring miss lisa allen as educational services manager for you now to introduce our district manager

018of the year our superintendent mr ortega thank you mr ronkill it is my distinct pleasure to be able to be able to speak about jeanette flores our district manager of the year janette came to azusa unified school district uh as the principal of murray elementary school in the 2018-2019 school year at that time jeanette was new to the azusa team it was her first principalship and to top it all off she was going to have to follow norma camacho as the principal of murray elementary school the saint nola camacho that's sitting here to my left in the four years since she has been at murray elementary school through pandemics [Music] and through loss jeanette has been a leader a learner and a partner jeanette has served on the p3cc leadership team that is the team

019that is dedicated to increasing math student achievement in our preschool through third grade level students jeanette is also currently joining her staff as a as a learner and as as a supporter of our sobrador early academic language seal implementation as a principal she is extremely hands-on supporting her students her parent community and her staff in any way that she can with her administrative colleagues jeanette is collaborative she is giving and she is supporting she's always willing to assist and help in any way possible as i have had many awesome opportunities to visit murray elementary school i can assure you that jeanette always has the school community's best interest at heart and they rally and they support her as well it could not have been any clearer than the morning we were able to go to

020murray elementary school to surprise jeanette with the announcement that she had been selected as the manager of the year while jeanette herself might have been surprised and trying to take it all in the news her staff displayed joy uh they provided smiles and hugs and congratulations and pride in their eyes all affirmations of why jeanette flores is our manager of the year congratulations jeanette [Applause] at this time we'd like to uh invite you to the podium and now she can introduce her family members uh who are here to cheer her on uh and her staff that's your children cheer her on as well thank you before miss jeannette speaks i'd like to present jeanette with the plaque uh recognizing her as this year's manager of the year if you could take a look at the

021pictures he's already gracing our our district boardroom congratulations [Music] thank you everybody here with me tonight i have my mama [Music] i have my daughter samantha my son austin my hubby mr flores i have my awesome team and my cheerleaders in the background miss martha and miss vicki and i have my awesome one-two seal teacher miss vivian morales thank you so much for being ahead tonight and i also have my awesome friend miss adriana garcia medina four years ago i came to azusa nervous and excited i'm gonna put my glasses on real quick i was nervous about leaving the district where i started my career as a classroom teacher and went on to begin my admin career to a district where there were some familiar faces but did not know where i would fit or

022if i would fit what can i what i can say from the very first time that i stood before the board to this day that i stand before you i have been nothing but happy thank you board and cabinet for giving me the opportunity to lead a school in this district that believes that every student will be equipped with the knowledge and skills for college and career and will fulfill their purpose and positively impact society the first day that i walked onto my my school site i fell in love i fell in love with the with the with my amazing and dedicated staff and their genuine love for our students i was impressed with the level of talent they possessed with how hard they work and how willing they are to go beyond the school

023day for our students i fell in love with my students as a daughter of immigrant parents i saw myself in them i saw and still see excitement vibrant futures and endless opportunities and i fell in love with my community it was the beginning of the school year and my liaison was hosting a parent meeting she asked me to visit the parent room which i intended to do because she wanted to introduce me to our parents and to my surprise they welcomed me with a bouquet of flowers and a potluck lunch they welcomed me and expressed how happy they were that i was there as their principal they had such faith in me and my leadership that i knew that i could not let them down since then it has been my greatest pride to lead

024murray thank you marie staff students and parents for believing in me and for allowing me to lead our school this has not been an easy journey nor has it been one that i've walked alone i've had the support of my family i am blessed to have a colleague my as gary puts it domestic associate my husband mr antonio flores who is always there for me and after a long day of highs and lows and many challenges he still has to go home and listen to me after my long day and then respond to me when i say are you listening to me thank you for making me laugh when i want to cry for listening when all i need is for someone to listen and for offering advice and words of wisdom when i can't

025seem to find the answer you make me better and together we are the best i love you [Music] to my kids who have been my cheerleaders in the background as i lead my school who keep me on my toes and who keep me young i think and who push me to look at things from different perspectives thank you thank you for your patience with me and for happily picking up chick-fil-a when i won't be home in time to make dinner you are my inspiration to my parents my mom and dad who came to this country without knowing the language or what to expect who worked so hard so that my brother and i would get an education and achieve what they couldn't for having high standards and holding me accountable for pushing me to always

026do better and for teaching me not to settle to always look for what's next where can i go from here i thank you for your support your words of wisdom and for believing in me i thank you and my brother who's not here but he he and i are very competitive and one cannot be better than the other which means i have to work hard so thanks to him for motivating me and always having my back [Music] to my long time colleague neighbor teacher mentor and friend adriana thank you for all of the experiences we have shared i have learned so much from you and hope to still learn more to arturo dana and norma you all have been such a pillar of inspiration and support thank you for allowing me to ask questions for

027answering my texts or phone calls and for modeling what a good leader is i could not have done this without your guidance guidance kindness and support i believe that my personal experiences have led me to this district and to my school i get up in the morning for my students i am motivated and excited to go to work because i get to help students of immigrant parents who are learning the english language who are low income and are learning how to navigate their life in a country not their own this is where i belong and where i want to make a difference i want to plan seeds in my students that will turn into big dreams and a bright future thank you azuza for taking a chance on me for welcoming me with open arms

028and for allowing me to become a part of the azusa family there is nowhere else that i would rather be thank you [Applause] and now i'd like to welcome ms donna perligon from schools first credit union present ms flores with an award hi so congratulations congratulations to all the nominees and on office and i'm sorry i i i skipped the spot because i was so nervous but i want to go back to this because it's important um i wanted to start by saying i'm both humbled and thrilled to stand before you along with my very dedicated and talented colleague lisa allen and brian allen to go above and beyond for our district schools and students behind the scenes and whose work is instrumental to the success of our schools to you both i want to

029say congratulations because you're both very deserving and there's more and on behalf of uh melissa apantar our friend from foothill credit union who could not make this meeting today i was asked to provide even explorers with a 100 check and certificate from foothill credit union aboard vice president i'll turn it over to you thank you congratulations miss flores and to all of our nominees i think you've shown that leadership doesn't happen without the support of family and friends and you all wear the responsibility of leadership so well you make it look easy uh will you join us here for a photo opportunity with your family can we um say something yeah thank you um i want to congratulate all the nominees uh for manager of the year brian and lisa well deserved i also want

030to congratulate mrs flores for manager of the year 2022. it's really well deserved you show your leadership at murray elementary school personally because i live across the street and i'm always watching here okay so you know i see her kids happy staff's happy the community is happy and you know when i first met her i i knew that she was perfect fit for murray community thank you i just want to say thank you and thank you for leaving um your safe space in baldwin park and coming over here i think artud's done a really great job of recruiting a lot of you to come over here and i you know i really appreciate um the values that you have espoused tonight about you know the centering our students and the immigrants the families that we

031have especially around murray um i think that's so important to have somebody like you who can see that and appreciate and appreciate their ass heard my recruitment cells you make me cry now um you spoke so eloquently just about the people that have assisted you in welcoming you here in azusa and the love that you feel here not you know not only from the staff but from you know cabinet and um i just want to tell you that you exemplify such great leadership and it's true it comes you know when there's support at home with your family and that's when you can go ahead and just be ten times stronger at work and so thank you family for letting us borrow her we appreciate you congratulations would you like to join me for a photo

032thank you so much everyone uh lika we have miss cassidy from ellington ready for the flag salute we want to circle back with that yes we do she is on zoom hi cassidy good evening thank you for joining us are you ready to lead us in our flag salute uh yes would you like me to turn my video on if you would like to sure okay please rise to the pledge of allegiance place your right hand over your heart eyes on the flag 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 thank you so much cassidy we appreciate you being with us tonight moving on to item 7.0 items from the

033for public comment on agenda or non-agenda items as a reminder uh presenters are limited to three individual minutes um at such time that your time expires i will ask you to stop respect our process um lika do we have anyone online in zoom attendance for public comment we have no hand raised online thank you and hope is there anyone here in uh in person attendance yes please mr miz farhado please hi can you hear me yes we can sorry i didn't have a baby good evening board members i hope you and your families are doing well once again i am here as a parent of lee to speak on the future plans of our children's education and schools i was unable to attend the last meeting as i was attending my sister's teacher of the

034year recognition for the city of whittier as you can see education is very important to me and my family these are my two youngest boys that are the reason why i continue to be here to advocate and trying to get them all the opportunities possible in the city that we chose to live in i was able to watch the board meeting online and we are very excited to see that plans are being made to move forward and to make such needed improvements on our schools i would also like to say how great it was to see the support from superintendent ortega and president grier attending our open house it would be great to see it would be great to continue to see all of your faces at all of our school campuses from time to

035time although we are looking forward to see these improvements on our schools i am hoping that you are all also discussing and have plans to put programs to offer all of our children at our schools it would be great if there was a way for our families to know more about these plans and how you decide what programs go to what schools and how can we as community members and parents can get more involved and have some input so that no schools are left behind and so that all of our schools can thrive together i am hoping that programs will be a topic we will be hearing about soon as we are looking forward to see progress and changes being made for the better future of our souza schools thank you all for your time

036thank you miss fajardo and please please don't feel the need to apologize for bringing your children to a meeting we welcome them moving on to agenda item 8.0 comments reports and requests by the board of education board member robert pena um hello um can you hear me through here yeah okay uh good evening everyone uh first of all i want to uh say happy classified employees week i want to thank you all for your dedication and being on the front lines during the pandemic we could not have did it without you i am proud to be a classified employee for 40 years and i want to rsvp to this beautiful event for september 2020 i thought the date was wrong but you guys way ahead and i'll be there thank you all um i went

037to the azusa and gladstone high school expo it was great to see everyone coming together and at one high school and viewing and seeing all the clubs and all the sports that are going to be offered when we only have one high school and um people were very happy and were very complimentary about uh having this expo that was put together by our cabinet in our administration i um i i think it's it's a it was a very good start they had the balloons that i've never seen in history probably that had red and blue together either you're seeing blue and black or you're seeing red and black well this is together and it was made whoever made that did a very beautiful job and i just want to thank everyone whoever put it all

038together it was great people were very happy and it was a great turnout too i went to paramount elementary open house and i went to visit mrs ramirez's 4th grade classroom room 18 and students are working on the california gold rush and i remember way back when i was in the calendar well you're still doing california gold rush oh my gosh but they are so it felt really great being back in the classroom again and seeing all the parents they had their their um parking lot was full of parents all over it was really nice i went to glaston high school on the drama class they had the twist and turns of the mystery murder on the menu students did a fantastic job the audience audience at one point had the opportunity to vote on

039who did it right so it was certainly needed because i thought it was one person but when you get to the end you you have to have seen this i'm not going to tell you um i was wrong so uh i'm just lost in middle school in the production of annie junior uh the musical again students did a fantastic job they memorized their lines singing the songs all from the annie's musical i really enjoyed it and and i want to thank the director of jade clavercida and the students for a great job they did i went to the middle uh middle school open house at slauson middle school and again they had a great turnout i think everyone's just excited to be out everywhere wherever you invite me i'll just go there right it's going

040to be there i'm going to be out so um i went to an 8th grade classroom and i had a student juliana explain explain the um they had a holocaust holocaust butterfly project on the wall they had many beautiful butterflies they were handmade by the students and there was a poster that really touched my heart and i like to read it it says um this is a very powerful it's just oh excuse me butterflies are a very powerful symbol of the transformation and have been ability ability to make an impact with just a flip of one wings they symbolize all the good things in life but also remind us that life is fragile and delicate the butterflies also serve as a symbol of hope thank you board member cruz gonzalez nothing tonight thank you board

041member ariana's i i would like to uh thank uh the tea the art teachers for displaying their their students work this last week i had a chance to go to gladstone and as we were walking around they asked me uh do you think this is a high schooler or a uh middle schooler uh right art art piece and so i i got it if you're wrong but since my daughter was in arts uh the art class at slauson i kind of already knew what she drew so that that part i i did get it was um a great event they had the jazz dustin's jazz band out there um which was really great one of the things that um i would like to know more about is when they're having um like i guess they're

042having their they went to knottsbury farm or something like that that one of the students was telling me and which was really great to hear because kind of like what board member uh rodriguez pena said um they're just happy to be out you know the students that were there were just happy i mean it you know you could see it in their faces um another event that i went to was gladstone high school's talent show this last friday and you know we have some pretty amazing students um there the first place winner was she sing in three languages and she taught herself how to sing in french spanish and of course you know english and so i i was just astonished to like she didn't tell us what she was singing she just started singing

043and so she was our first place she was a first place winner second place uh winners were a duo um i can't remember their names right now uh it was two students that danced and put on a dancing routine and the third winner was mr phillip who i did not know that played the flute so beautifully and so we have a lot of talent and you know just seeing um the students the families come together they had sofis chick-fil-a it was just um just a great event um to come together with families and so i i would um if you guys invite me um i will come if you invite me to your school i will come and if you let me know in advance i will take work off to just come and so

044you guys have my number 626-691-5338 text me call me you know if i don't answer your email invite me to your schools i would really like to come and see what you guys have um that i have missed maybe so with that being said i will go ahead and turn it over to my colleague thank you i just wanted to share that i had the privilege of stopping by the foothill middle school art exhibition at montreal coffee last friday we watched some of the art was being installed and it was just such a fun time to see what our students can do and as we know we've had some amazing talent at the high school grades as well so i am expecting uh big things from all of our art students in the district moving

045on to item 9.0 comments and reports by the superintendent and cabinet ms jamal yes so first i would like to say it's an honor on in honor of classified appreciation week i would like to say thank you to all of our classified staff for their um continued commitment dedication and hard work they give us day by day i'm happy to also announce that we are in the plans of we are currently drawing up the plans for lee elementary school to be submitted for modernization um to dsa um those plans are slated to be in the dsa office within the next couple of months and then we'll be waiting for a time for approval and with that we currently do have four open seats on our citizens oversight committee we have an open seat for a

046senior citizens organization as well as a parent or guardian of a child enrolled in our district we also have an opening for a parent-teacher organization or a parent or guardian with the child enrolled in the district and lastly we have a seat open for bona fide tax payer so if anyone is interested in joining our clc committee it's not a huge commitment but we do have a minimum of four meetings a year um and we will be in person next year so we're excited about that um you can find the application online on our district website or you can call our business services office and we'll be happy to help you and lastly i would like to share that the nutrition services department will be um participating in the community fair this saturday we'll be

047giving out samples so everyone could taste our goodies good food like our pho i think yeah i would like to taste some of that food and do we have our do we have two student board members to make comments tonight just to recognize we do have stu three student board members hannah hannah hamilton crystal flamino and annette camacho thank you students for your leadership in serving as a student board member moving on to item 10.0 general functions 10.1 presentation of disposition of surplus property site mr ortega mr mall was that it for cabinet oh just following the note please proceed thank you i would also like to acknowledge our classified employees this week they are indispensable and we appreciate all that they do and their commitment and service to our district i had the opportunity

048to go see the mariachi the azusa concert on friday and it was amazing the singing and the talent that we have um is just astounding and impressive so if you have an opportunity to see them you must we have been hosting um dual immersion parent interest meetings we have a lot of interest in our program um our we hosted a hybrid meeting at valley dale elementary school we had 30 participants about 30 participants online and about 20 in person there was a lot of interest in the program and some joined because they saw the video on social media so that was exciting and we are very excited to continue to see our program grow we had um hosted um module three of our serato early academic language um training um from which our murray and

049hodge and valley dale are participating and during that training session one of our trainers had the opportunity to do some classroom visits um with our coach and was very impressed at the level of implementation and the language that they were hearing from our kindergarten and first grade students so we are very happy and proud of the work that the teachers have been doing alongside their coach and their administrators want to congratulate and thank all of our classified staff happy happy classified week we appreciate the contributions and the teamwork and the partnership that we have with our classified staff thank you to studio 26 what an awesome way to have a real life application and opportunity for students to show their talents and what they're learning in school i want to thank all of our middle

050schools who just had their open house i was able to attend a center and really enjoyed walking into the classrooms the vibe the energy of our our parents and our community it was it was really inspiring to uh to be on our campuses um just want to say that we are excited for this saturday to participate in the city's community fair uh azusa unified school district is going to have a pretty big presence there on saturday you already heard latasha we're going to be doing some food samples but we're going to have students there we're going to have our ece programs there we're going to have our pat some of our pathways we're going to have a job job kind of fair as well and so just we're really excited to be there and partner

051with the city um and then lastly on april 19th the board of education uh passed a resolution reaffirming our commitment of welcoming and supporting refugee and newcomer students to our district that resolution also launched a fundraising campaign uh for save the children i want to thank everyone who has already contributed and just want to announce that the fundraiser is still open and still running uh it goes all the way through may 27th so about two more weeks left there uh any amount uh is appreciated and helpful so thank you so much and lastly i'd like to join my colleagues and the board of education in the course of thank yous and celebrating and uplifting our classified employees their work is certainly essential and the dedication that they showed to our students and our schools certainly

052is valued and recognized i also had a chance to attend boston and center's open house this past week um i heard and i saw with my own eyes just the number of families that had attended um teachers were reporting and so were administrators that the number of families that were participating in this year's open house had exceeded recent memory so i believe there is a want to want to come back and participate with our schools and we have wonderful schools for all that to happen uh we held our selection day event uh this was a event wherein our teachers that were displaced as a result of school reorganization had a chance to select classes in their schools for next year while this was not a salvatory meeting by any stretch it was a well-organized meeting

053and we did receive some positive feedback from those teachers that did participate and like mr ortega mentioned um human resources will be represented at this saturday's community fair we're looking forward to being able to represent us this hr department and share with the city uh the different openings that we have all throughout our organization thank you mr and cue board president yes i'm board vice president good um sure um i would like to one thing i forgot to do is congratulate our classified uh employees for for the weekend the endless and tireless um hours you've given through the last couple years that we've you know gone through this cobid um issue and one of the things that i just read right here um which is so true um and it says right here in this

054in this uh invitation that they have here for their chip chip hooray um in and out burger uh lunch event that's in september that my colleague said that she's rsvp in advance right it says here we are classified we bring it every day and you do you guys are are definitely one of the you know pillars that um make this district strong so thank you again for everything that you guys do and for those that you know uh pour their heart and soul in just in every classroom with every teacher as you know is needed um here in the district um we see you so you're seen thank you mr ortega uh thank you number one great um tonight uh we are uh excited to be here in front of the board of education um

055as uh you know we have been on a process uh for school reorganization and we are very happy to report that uh what we are calling phase one of school reorganization which included um decisions on sites uh decision on models uh we have a we still have the mascot that we are working on diligently to um to to move forward uh but phase one is is almost complete phase two uh we opened and had a really uh productive conversation at a special board meeting and phase two includes uh our modernization um projects uh how we're gonna use the rest of our bond and some other funding that is available and the board of education did a really outstanding job of making some critical decisions moving forward obviously that's going to take a while we have

056a long journey with that but that phase two has been set in motion and we're very happy and pleased that that has begun tonight we launched what we are calling phase three and phase three is going to um include [Music] a process and a journey uh for us to consider what we might do with our surplus property um this surplus property that we are the journey that we're about to begin not only includes the surplus property because of the recent decisions on school reorganization but previous decisions as well speaking specifically about mountain view and our former adult school slash sierra tonight we're very happy to have our partners jessica and sarah here and tonight's objective is to provide a an overview of what's ahead for us as a district as we begin to continue as

057we begin the journey of deciding what what might might happen uh with our surplus property tonight uh is not uh we will not begin to discuss or talk about you know what we think should happen with the properties that is part of the long journey that we will be part and so there will be ample opportunities for that again tonight objective is just to launch this and to give a very high kind of general view of what's coming and what to expect in the coming months and probably years as we move uh towards this so with that um i'd like to turn it over to uh jessica and sarah thank you superintendent ortega good evening everyone i'm justin uh my name is jessica ehrlich we're with fagin friedman and paul frost and happy to represent

058the district in a legal capacity um i've been representing public school districts in the areas of business facilities production and property thank you for over 12 years um so we're really happy to be here today sarah join it yes i'm happy too um hi everyone good evening i'm sarah plito i am also an attorney with fagin freeman in full frost um and in my practice i specialize in helping districts with deciding what to do with their surplus property so i'm excited to be here tonight uh to take this step of the process off and to help introduce the board to some of the exciting options and the process that we look forward so first we'd like to thank superintendent ortega and assistant superintendent jamal and their team for really their diligence and overall effort throughout

059this process and getting us to discuss phase three and we'd also like to thank the board for allowing us some time we think this is a really exciting opportunity for the district and the district community and just to reiterate superintendent ortega's sentiments um the idea here today is for us to just give you a real general overview of what the surplus property disposition journey that we're all gonna embark upon looks like and there is going to be plenty of time for both the board and the district community to review this process to ask questions and really participate um so today is just the commencement of phase three so before we move forward into some of the more substantive content i did want to give just take this moment to kind of identify the six sites

060that we're looking at to kind of move forward in this process so mountain view elementary um center middle school slauson middle um the aec shs ellington elementary and then last but uh last but not least the powell elementary site um and you know for uh for a large majority of these sites they uh they went into operation in the early 1980s so they're you know upwards of about 40 years old um and so it's a you know it's a great opportunity now to see what um additional benefit these sites can have for the district in a different capacity and also for the community but please so as we embark on these journeys we're going to have various requirements recommendations some of them are legal requirements some of them are best practices and some are a

061combination of both um and some of these happen simultaneously or right after each other so we'll kind of walk through that here tonight um one of the first things that we recommend as a best practice uh is for the district to consider retaining a development consultant to consider all of your options and what to do with the various surplus sites this allows the district to be put in a position to really meet with consultants who are experts in these fields of what to do with properties you know some that we will think of off the top of our heads some are creative options and this is a consultant that typically the district will contract with directly um and you know there are various options about the best way to retain a consultant that we can

062work with both the board and superintendent ortega and his team on how best to retain a consultant we want to make sure we avoid any potential conflicts of interest in retaining that consultant and to really pick the person that best suits the district the district needs to that uh to that end um one so number one as it was stated this is a recommendation uh this is not a legal requirement [Music] but this is a recommendation that we're bringing forth uh for a consultant to come and help us right understand what are all the possibilities uh with these properties right there's the what seemed to me i'm not speaking for the board but the the the more common ones right lee sell repurpose but there's other things that we might want to consider and think

063about in this realm something that the board might consider um csba the california school boards association uh recently uh partnered uh with a uh consultant a development consultant group uh called dc dcg strategies uh and this partnership and this relationship between dct strategies and csba uh has made has been made public and they are working not only with csba but other districts as well right close to us here they have been working with pomona unified school district uh just to give you a sense of somewhere that's close um in addition and that's the question about that is it um are they working is a partnership just to um to look at educator housing or is it burgess development services in general uh yeah they offer a wide range of services in this particular case we

064would be looking to retain their services to to help us understand what the possibilities are now uh to uh board member uh cruz gonzalez's uh point um as we're going through this process maybe there's something creative or you know out of the box that we want to think about they definitely have a full suite of services that they can that they can assist and they can help with in terms of that so that that might be something for the board uh to consider a we have a partnership with csba um i i was uh i was able uh to um attend one of their breakout sessions uh at the csba conference um and did feel at the presentation that they were very thorough and seem to be very well versed in this arena um and

065so that's something that the board may consider obviously they're not the only development consultants out there but the fact that they have a partnership with csba might be a good launching point for again for the board to consider that this might be an objective um you know um partner uh for us as we're moving through this through this process i i also wanted to highlight um some of the other things that a development consultative of this nature can help with um i think one of the biggest things in this initial phase and we'll talk more about the 7-eleven committee as we move um as we move forward but the development consultant can do the initial assessment of the value of these properties so at some point we would recommend that you do an appraisal and

066we'll get to more detail about that as well but i wanted to highlight um to give the board as much information about these particular properties and the assets that they have getting an initial understanding of their value can be done through um an initial assessment done by the cons right so they they can look at other similar properties and kind of give us a range and that's information that we would want to provide as a part of the 7-eleven process as has been mentioned before i think one of the great values with a development consultant is their ability to explore options and solicit information from the community about interesting or creative uses for the properties that um you know we may not otherwise think of they can engage with the community as much or as

067little as you would like as the board and then they can bring forward some of these interesting and creative ideas to give you as much information as possible when you decide so speaking of options um our next slide so this is a list of examples potential possibilities it is by no sorry it is by no means exhaustive um it's a list of examples potential possibilities of what we may do with some of these surplus sites and there wanting to walk us through just generally a few of these on sure um so these are really kind of like the general group or like categories of things that you can do with the site and then within each of these categories that you know we can identify you know who would be the lesbian or what would

068you sell the property for um but i want to walk through some of these um there are pros and cons to each of these options so for example for a sale it's a bit more of an extended process to get to the point of being able to sell because of the legal requirements but you can you know structure a large like payment of a lump sum at the sale of the property as opposed to a lease for example where you retain ownership and you can have that small lease payment over time so if we wanted some some income from that property for some time that's something we look at with elites they're you know of course in that on in that option the board acts as a landlord and so there's some additional administrative um

069duties that will happen internally with the lease option um going down to joint use lease or joint use grant projects this is a great option if the district wanted to partner with another public entity or a non-profit to use one of the site for for a creative uh community benefit use for example exchange is a relatively uh unique option but it's kind of a carve out in the ed code that allows the district to exchange their property for another property and so if there's you know some other site that the district is is looking to acquire for some other use that's uh that's an option that allows us to get around some of the more difficult um parts of the procedure in the ed code um finally i want to talk a little bit about

070the waiver and the license agreement options um so there there is a process in the code for disposing of property but there's also the potential to apply for a waiver with state board of education and that gives districts the more flexibility for example to negotiate with developers or other for or profit entities that may have an interest and could offer a great benefit to the district in in buying one of those sites um so again this is not an exhaustive list but i just wanted to kind of introduce some of the most common ways that we expose a property so can i set the question on of course on the waiver so the waiver is um like is there a deadline date that they need to sell it or release it or i mean when

071i'm going with those sort of if there's a certain date a waiver is you can extend it or what is the waiver how does it kind of work that's right so um so the process for a waiver is generally uh the state board requires that we submit all that documentation um about 10 to 12 weeks in advance of of a particular board meeting where the waiver is going to be heard um then generally we've seen in in past experiences that if they agreed to grant the waiver it has a term of between two and three years depending on how we argue and what we ask for um so that would be the initial term of the waiver and then there's always the option to extend you have to file a new application to ask for

072an extension but that is always an option depending on how fast the transaction is going and how much time we need those of the site or they solve this thing understood yes okay next slide along with a development consultant we also want to retain an environmental consultant now this is a legal requirement and the purpose behind this is the district will want to continually be in compliance with the california environmental quality act or you also might know it as what and so this is a consultant that usually we as f3 law enter into an agreement with and that you know the reason for that is you know there are work product privileges and other things that really help us through that process and speak was purpose is to address any environmental impact that we might

073face in the process and i think the reason in retaining a consultant at the outset is we really want to be ahead of this provide community input where necessary and so we can address any um potential environmental impact then respond accordingly so so just to clarify so you want to hire this consultant not as we have the project you have to do that you know to do the determination about the review you want to do it you can do at the beginning because normally i mean in my experience you usually hire i mean you do the sql review once you have a project writer or some direction you're going yeah so um so yes that's true so under sequa the district as a public entity is only required to do an analysis of a particular

074situation when it meets the definition of a project um and usually you know like reorganization of schools for example would be a project for or you know just really depends on the particular um type of action at play but like a redevelopment of a site could be a project um and so we like to bring the consultant on at this point in order to get ahead of those things so we can anticipate what things will be projects and then have a better plan in place about what type of what level of environment environmental review do we need to do for each project can we coordinate those to help um you know to help administrate costs in a way that that can build inefficiencies um so it is very project based but we like to get

075ahead of it so that we're not you know chasing the tail of the dog on these these issues we can we can have the consultant kind of come in do a wholesale review of these potential projects and then we we work with them as they come to play and then i think the other thing is we would like the environmental consultant to also work hand in hand with the development consultant um so they're aware of what are the potential options that we're talking about and if the scope of work will vary through time so we might get an environmental consultant on board um and maybe they don't really start their work for a few months into that so a lot of that's dependent on how the consultant process works and some of it is flexible

076but prior to determining what we're going to do with these specific sites we will want to engage an environmental consultant to ensure that we're compliant with sql and then so do you so in the past right when we did this process it was the same thing we had the attorney have the agreement with the with the um with the environment so do you already have an existing relationship so you already know who this is going to be or this is a process deal both to determine who it's going to be so we we work with various environmental consultants and we have a few prefer just based on our experience and working with them um that we can either present to the board we can present it to super attendant superintendent ortega and his team or

077you know if we're given the direction you know we can also select the consultant so that's really a process for us to decide you know together as partner okay [Music] okay so i think moving on to the next slide um we talked a little bit in the context of the development consultant about wanting to make sure the board has all the information about the value of the property um and up front it does make sense to do uh the broker's opinion of value but then once we get more serious about trying to decide how to dispose of the individual sites we will work with an appraiser directly with a professional appraiser that you know will will use their process to identify a very specific number so it's no longer a range it's no one specific

078number about the value of the property um and we we usually wait to do this process with the appraiser because you know there uh there is some expense so usually between seven thousand and ten thousand dollars that can vary depending on the appraiser um but we like to uh to tailor the assumptions that are within the appraisal to uh potentially the highest and best value of the property so it's all um we use this not only as a tool to identify the value but also to help support a particular value that the district wants for the property depending on on the plan for sale or for others is this cost or sorry sorry yes cost per site or is sick site yeah so this is a per site cost some some appraisers if they're doing

079you know a large number of sites and can help provide a better cost per site but this is just in just an estimate based on some projects that we've worked on with appraisers before thank you and this appraisal process can depending on the path that we use um can implicate legal requirements and then also is oftentimes the best practice and i'm sure that's something if we move forward with the development consultant that they're really going to advocate for as well i just wanted to add that we do have kind of a set of appraisers very similar to the environmental consultants that we work with kind of based based in the area so we can certainly provide a recommendation and are happy to work with the board to identify the best appraiser for the okay moving

080forward um the next particular type of document that we would recommend and this is something that we'll talk about more as a next step here very soon is obtaining a preliminary title report um and these these are a bit less expensive and cost between 750 to 1200 each for each site and what we do here is we engage with a particular title company and then they do a search of the documents that have been reported against the property and they can give us more information about um you know potential issues with the site we can uh we can help to clear up before we think about disposing or selling um it it it gives us a a lot of very uh property specific detail about the parcel and history things like that that we would

081also want to convey to the 7-eleven committee uh when we get to that process um and this is something that we do really early because um because it gives that much history they don't change all that often and unless you know something else gets recorded but it gives us a really substantial background about the property where we can start to work clear any issues that may be and obtaining a title report in that process you know also implicates legal requirement because people want to have free chain of title if we you know choose to transfer um any one of these properties and there are select title companies we work with or if the district you know work specific title company those are also options that we can explore as we get into the process next

082slide please so you've heard sarah spoiler alerted you know mentioned the 7-eleven committee a few times so this is a legal requirement as part of this process that the district will need to form and appoint a 7-11 committee and generally what the 7-eleven committee is going to do is participate in the process of determining and reviewing the options about what we'll do with these surplus property sites and i think you know whether or not it's a legal requirement i think this is a really important step in getting community feedback having stakeholder buy-in and what we're going to do with these properties so sarah's going to walk us through a little bit of what the 7-eleven committee looks like what do they do how often do they meet yeah so first i want to address probably

083the main question in your mind right now which is why is it called the 7-11 committee does it have to do with the slurpee or the gas station um it doesn't uh the reason we call it a 7-11 committee is that the statute requires that it have between seven uh between seven and eleven members so no less than seven but no more than eleven um and uh the statute also lays out in the education code that what it really should do is the membership should be kind of a cross-section of the community it should represent the economic um age ethnic um you know all of the different factors that we see in the community they should be present on this committee to be able to guide the board with regard to uh you know ideas

084and recommendations for uses of these properties um in particular you know in a way that is similar to the cboc for example the statute requires that we have administrators and teachers and landowners and and renters um and parents and guardians of students for example and then also professionals in you know law or real estate um or like city or or county zoning knowledge so the goal is to get a good cross-section of people that are um you know both familiar with the operations of the district and of these sites but also um real estate law and you know other professions that will bear on the decisions about what to do with these sites um so generally the district will uh solicit applications from folks that meet these qualifications in the statute um then the the

085board will select the membership of the committee and then assign the six properties for the committee's review at that point uh we hold a series of meetings usually between three and four uh um at which the the district staff presents information about the individual site their size their value information about the number of students that attend the district and really anything else that the committee could ask about from a data perspective to help the board or i'm sorry to help the committee identify whether these sites are plus um and so the result of those four meetings is that the committee will draft reports uh that comes to the board that provides their recommendation about the use of the individual properties um and then the board you know can review and consider the report it's just

086the recommendation the board is not bound to the of the identified use that's brought from the committee within the report but it does give lots of information you know from the community from the committee to the board to make that decision about how to dispose of property and the idea would be that we wouldn't just throw the committee out there without any information you know the development consultant would be a part of that process and we make sure that the committee is informed before they prepare their recommended report yeah some of the other things that i've seen committees do is they take a visit to the site i mean they get to go and you know um and walk around these these particular district sites that are being considered and really um you know they're

087there to get a physical sense for what the site could be and what it could mean to the surrounding community they often solicit comments from from folks in the public they talk to local community groups and identify ideas for what the site could be used for and then of course the development consultant helps to bring some of that data and those options that they can consider so this is another legal requirement that we may consider as we move through this process and depending on the specific disposition of each property yeah so there um there's a relatively new legal requirement um that that requires that before a district disposes of surplus property that it it makes an offer to certain affordable housing entities um however for school districts there's an exception if the district doesn't want

088to use its property for that particular purpose as long as it's gone through the 7-eleven committee process the the board can approve a resolution finding the property as exempt surplus and then that resolution gets gets filed with an explanation to the department of housing and community development um hcd and they uh they usually send a response within a couple weeks just um affirming that they agree with the board's determination that the property is exempt surplus and this again gives the board a bit more freedom to decide um what to do with the site and i will highlight that we've already gone through this process with the the former sierra high school site it's relatively quick and painless and so this this step has already been completed for that particular property [Music] okay next slide please

089so in this final slide we're just showing some of the other steps that may be involved depending on as we take this journey what fork in the road we go did you have a question yes did you just say that we that you have already filed for resolution yes yes so the board uh the board passed a resolution for the former sierra site and then we did the filing with uh with hcd to have them reaffirm the finding of exempt or blocks when would you we did get the results they approved it yeah they uh they reaffirmed the boards uh the board's decision that it is exempt surplus [Music] so that will hopefully be our first of many victories in phase three um okay so this final slide really shows us the other steps that

090may or may not be involved depending on what we what we decide to do with each of the sites um these are potential possibilities they may happen they may not um but it kind of just gives you an overview and sarah's going to walk us through in a little more detail um what this involves yes okay so if we start at the green box um send so there there's a legal requirement in the education code and the government code that requires that before we um sell surplus property that we have to make a series of statutory offers they're called and it really just means a series of letters that go out to other public entities and non-profits that are listed in the code to give them the head start or a priority if they have

091interest in buying the district site if they do have interest they respond we negotiate for a period of time and then we can decide to either agree to sell to that entity or not but they just get a head start with notice to get in an offer if they have interest in a particular site um moving to the dark blue box to prepare um so one of the additional things that we can do and i mentioned it in the context of the waiver is that we can help to prepare the waiver that goes to cde if for a particular property or a number of properties the board decides that it would be more advantageous to do a direct sale to a particular party to do a request for proposals for example as opposed to the

092process that's laid out within the education code that just requires that we solicit the highest offer for the property at a board meeting sometimes that's a great process sometimes there are particular entities that can come forward with a higher offer outside of the context of a public meeting or it also gives the the board the ability to negotiate based on terms outside of price if there are other factors that are important to the board outside of just getting you know the the highest vote at an at an open board meeting um the the the waiver process allows us to use um an alternative process to the highest bid um moving to the orange box engaged so one of the other options and this is this is this is optional but we've seen it be a

093benefit for some districts is to uh to engage a commercial broker to help to post these properties on a site called loopnet it's like the mls for commercial properties um they have access to you know some of the marketing materials and um they can do that work to get the word out about the value of the property and solicit interest um they're also great at negotiating with developers um so we've seen that happen and in some cases they're able to use the market to push the price up for a particular property so working with a broker is certainly an option we have some that we've worked with before and it's certainly also a space for um you know the the board to do interviews or to review uh you know additional materials from from brokers

094that are interested in being a part of the process and i'll just time in that any consultant we engage broker development consultant um we can really decide what process works best for the board and for the district we can have an rfp process we can develop a district board subcommittee to handle that we can delegate authority to superintendent ortega and his team but we can certainly develop a process for all of these options and of course we have recommendations but um you know those are all things that we can address as we get to each of those steps absolutely okay so moving forward to the yellow box uh to notify there are a series of requirements in the education code that require that the district notify the prior owner of the property and we are

095certainly happy to assist the district with preparing the uh the letters and notices and the publications that are required within the code to comply with the procedure before before we move forward with the sale and then finally the light blue box here negotiate once the district decides a more specific route for a particular property you know we are are skilled in assisting the district with with negotiating the transfer document whether this is the purchase and sale agreement or a highly specialized lease for a particular use this is a this is an important um part of the process where we can assist the district in ensuring that you know whether it's a short transaction or a long one we can we can build provisions into those documents that will lead to a successful transfer of the

096property and then hopefully avoid some of the risk in those transactions as well [Music] so from an immediate next steps um i know we really appreciate everyone focused and you know providing us the stage to go over this with you we know talking about real property transactions at 8 30 at night after long days can be challenging so thank you everyone for your time um but immediate next steps you know we heard all this what do we do now and really the next immediate steps are you know moving forward to identify consultants the consultant process to obtain them um selecting a title company to proceed with the preliminary title report process and starting to form our 7-eleven committee because as we know um informing committees like 7-11 and cboc you know it can be a

097challenge where we try to get members and the sooner we start that process the better so we are so looking forward to supporting the district on this journey and we thank again superintendent ortega for all his support any other question my colleagues do you have questions for our f3 team thank you all so much and we look forward to seeing you soon thank you so much good night thank you mr t i do have a question related to a collection of consultants are we considering an rfp or an rfq process to select consultants um that's definitely up uh for um direction discussion uh uh from the board um our first immediate one would be do we want a consultant group development group to come and again help us understand all of the different possibilities that

098we have with these properties as you heard jessica and sarah also say they could be very instrumental with the 7-eleven um and so again i would recommend it for uh i think um i think uh i don't know if sarah jessica said as you can imagine with a process like this there there could be potentials for [Music] conflicts of interest or different kind of avenues because this is going to be a lengthy process and so a recommendation would be if we move with the development i think a way to be super objective we have a development consultant that has a partnership with csba um it to me it seems like a good recommendation to um if the board if the board is agreeable and and gives that direction that we bring forward a contract with

099dcg strategies to be the the group that's going to help us again they're not they're not the decision makers but they're going to help us understand what we can do with these six properties and help us with uh the 711 committee as we're moving in that in that space but of course as was stated today that could be decided a different way that could be an rfp it could be an rfq it could be an ad hoc there's a lot of different ways that we can do that as well um again just a recommendation just because of that that partnership that was csba seems to me like like uh like uh like a sound choice yeah that was my next question regarding so um can we go out for a bid and and look to

100retain a developer consultant or do you want us to directly go to the csba or do we do we have an option i mean financial i'd like to know what is the cost yeah we definitely have the board definitely has uh that option um if they if the board desires again to be more like an rfp rfq and put it out there for folks to respond board my recruiting zealous do you have any thoughts um so i'm okay either way i'm like arthur i've heard the um the principal for the working with csba he presented at the csba delegate assembly last year i was very impressed um sort of the grounding of his work and equity right and um and the work they've done the examples he showed um but i also think i mean

101we do have a fiduciary responsibilities i'm okay if we decide to go for an rfq process i just want to clarify it would be our q right we're looking at qualifications not like lowest bidding price right i'm i'm finding remember honest yeah i'm also fine either way um but rfq would would be best um just uh be able to go ahead and open that up um listeners are better so we can move forward with this i mean they feel that you know if they're selected then they will be selected out of the rsp but at least you'll have the option of looking at others so it sounds like we have consensus among our four board members that we are giving direction to the superintendent to proceed with an rfu request for qualifications for the selection

102of the development consultant so at the same time are we going to move forward with to have f3 f3 look for the environmental consultant as well colleagues would you like an rfq process for each of the consultants in this process both the development consultant and the um and the sql consultant the environmental consultant yes yeah vice president yes so mr ortega is that clear about what the board's direction is yes so i just wanted to chime in on the rfq piece for the environmental consultant that might work a little bit differently because typically legal enters into that contract we can certainly still hold a formal rfq process we can also accept multiple proposals so one of the good things here is these are all very specialized services so we have a lot of leeway in

103how we determine the process but if the board is more comfortable doing a formal rfq process that's fine as well but that's a nuance usually um specifically with the environmental insulted that we don't see all that often but certainly you know the environmental consultants want to work with the district so they'll participate but we can also as another option i just wanted to propose the other option was obtain proposals from we can pick a number we can get as many as we can um various environmental consultants for the board to review and then from there we can make a determination so i just want to say i i mean i think um i prefer that approach and i also i'm not sure that the board needs to be engaged in determining the environmental consultant um

104i think you probably work there our attorneys probably work with a lot of them and have an understanding of where their expertises are and would have a better understanding of who would fit where so i'm not sure that i would want to be feeling like we have to make the decision when they probably have a better understanding of those expertise which we know can be very specialized right and one of the things we're extremely conscious of is we want to work with consultants that are supportive of public agencies both in the work that they perform and in the pricing that they give us so we really try to be mindful of that as we navigate which consultants to reach out to to obtain proposals from and if i can put a little bit of context

105if this was the pleasure of the board we do have experience with f3 in a similar situation uh with a consultant and i think in partnership they can get proposals that's what happened last time we were able to look at them ask questions uh do some some ranking and some kind of uh point system and then reach out to f3 and say okay we'd like to go with this person a question question so but so am i hearing you saying that that there could be a potential that you would have um more than one consultant just based on what where we go or it would just be one for one beauty proposal then it would be one consultant we would use for the whole for all of our work ideally we didn't want to use

106the same consultant right the continuity there i think it's pretty invaluable so we'd want to select a consultant and one that we you know we want to reach out to consultants that we know are competent to perform this scope of work can you explain a little bit the difference between an rfq and just listening proposals so an rfq is typically like when the district is seeking you know an outside vendor we're not we aren't required to do uh what we're used to as a you know low bid going like putting our bid out on the street and we have contractors bid on it so the rfp a request for proposal request for qualification which is pretty much used interchangeably um that process what it does is instead of just allowing the board to choose on

107lowest price we're really looking at it more through best value and in terms of that value is of course price is a factor but also who's going to provide the best services for what the district is looking for the board often does you know rfp rfqs for legal services for design services and maybe engineering services your auditing services so it's usually a specialized service and there are various exceptions in the ed code and public contract code where we do that for certain projects but um it's a more formal process and sometimes we couple an rfp process with interviews um sometimes you know the board of the district elects to do that sometimes we don't and so we're asking proposers to submit basically a packet of information detailing you know why they're the best for the

108job [Music] yeah i just say one more thing so i just recall when we had this initial conversation around a development consultant that adrian had very particular opinions about the process so i i just want to say i want us to be um inclusive i know he's not here tonight so i'm not to say that we don't i don't want to move forward but i do think and you guys might remember both of you like he was um you know he he very much stepped into the process as we were discussing a consultant a couple years it was a while ago it was probably when it was probably like three or four years 2016. i recall so there's also a publication requirement usually attached to a formal rfp process we might post it on our

109website or post it in our local newspaper of general circulation or trade journals things like that and sometimes we don't necessarily want to do that in instances of specialized services so there are ways we can maybe have kind of an rfp light process where we're you know requesting proposals we're holding an interview process and we're making it all a very open transparent process but we're tailoring it to the specific consultant and the needs of the district for that specific scope so one of the i was just gonna say so one of the options could be for example for the member that's not present you know we could we could review some some options and we could provide a uh kind of a brief summary right of their their cost structure some of their prior experiences

110we could you know be helpful in trying to draft kind of a an abbreviated summary of those that we've that we've found or identified so that the board's not feeling overwhelmed maybe by having to administrate a full formal rfp or rfq process um and you know that would give all the members the ability to kind of uh you know review the details of those options and then decide forward you know it can't the way you guys are explaining it correct me if i'm right it's kind of like the same process for the rfq i think it's important that we continue with the rfq um and i would like to hand that over to cabinet um you know to be able to go ahead and board member chris and sellers shared that she did not want

111to be part of the process i was talking about the environmental oh pennsylvania i mean i'm fine either way i mean i would still like to continue with that um this is going to be a big big project and um i i would like to be in the know maybe i can summarize where i think we're at right now um so what i what i'm hearing the board uh say is that for the development consultant that that would be an rfq process we would request for these qualifications we'd go through a more formal process for the development consultant um and we would do and we do we do that many many times for many many different things for the sql process and the sql consultant which is different and apart from the development consultant um

112we would work with f3 internally and i think this is what remember cruise gonzalez is saying um we would mimic uh a process that we went with through with them recently they would uh send over to us some proposals to look at and then we would reach out to them and say okay you know we we like this person or we worked with them before we got some good recommendations and then they would uh start that part partnership uh with them and and and then we would have we would handle that as staff and f3 to uh to obtain a sequel consultant but the rfq development consultant i'm sorry but the development consultant would be through an rfq process so i'm still asking the same question so board member arianes you are saying you wanted

113to be included i mean i'm not i want i'm not understanding what you're saying about that just the fact that um we're going to go ahead and open this up to the rfq i think that the superintendent summarized it correctly um kind of what cruz board board member crews gonzales shared uh board member bow you shared i shared it falls into the you know the two things which is we can do an rfq for the development consultant for the sq we can go ahead and trust the process with our three f's uh um and so that that's okay just be in the know that we're gonna be informed of all okay thank you i think we have consensus yes thank you um if i can just clarify one more thing i just want to make

114sure that that we our objective was done uh was that it or did we also what are we also seeking for um the title or that can happen later um sorry uh we wanted some just like general direction from the board about uh two additional items whether we wanted to move forward with engaging a title company to do the preliminary title reports for each site um and then also whether the board wanted us to move forward in um in combination with staff in doing the initial solicitations for folks that want to be part of the 7-eleven committee to reach out to see um it you know it's an application process we would make the applications available and then um you know start to see if folks from the community are interested in forming that committee

115so just just some general direction on whether we should move forward with with those two those two items as well and with the title company it will work similar to the environmental consultant you know there's not just one title you know we can talk to a few title companies make sure we're getting best value that they can really support us because when we select the development consultant environmental title company that's usually who we stick with um of course if something um goes awry we always have the option to pivot but ideally we want to really you know we're adding these people to our team um so we all want to work together with them remember board member rogers pin your thought no oh yeah i i agree i think appreciate it forward selection of title

116company with e711 yes yes so we're in agreement that we'd like to move forward with uh retention of the title company as well as the process for 7-eleven um can you share with us what that's what that process will look like to the community sure sure for the 7-eleven specifically yes yes um so the district will um and actually we can assist with this process uh so we have applications um it's kind of a standard form that will ask particular details about the individual to make sure that they fit um in the categories that are there in the education code and then usually we make those applications available on the district's website at the district office we can have additional events to try to solicit some interest and make those available also if there's particular

117members of the cabinet that or the board that are aware of folks in the community that might have interest we can hand those out to folks directly um then at that point once we feel like we have a good group to review we usually assist the the cabinet in reviewing those applications making sure we check the boxes of the required folks from the community that are in the code and then we'll bring forward a recommendation to the board with the resolution that names those folks that um that the cabinet and the council is recommending for selection of the committee um the board will then review that resolution uh decide if they're happy with the composition of the committee and then at that point they'll approve the membership and then assign those particular properties for review

118by uh the committee members um so the initial step with the community is really just a solicitation of interest for folks that want to be um a part of the committee yeah i'm just gonna so they can fill them out online and submit them online also but they'll be able to fill them out online and then submit them to you yeah so i'm sure we could set up a process on the website where they can submit that way but also certainly however hard to comment yes okay great whatever is easier and so this process can take a little bit of time as we see with our cvoc and getting the comm committee members together and we also might gather the committee appoint them and then they might not meet let's say for a few months

119out because we need to have them to have materials to review so that's all going to come as we engage these consultants and start the process we of course will have a preliminary welcome meeting and things like that to explain their role and responsibilities but there might be some lag time before their formal work gets done if we're lucky enough to get the committee formed quickly i guess i'm sorry just one more question so um how many days are you doing it's like for 30 days is it you know is there a deadline date that the community will know where the cutoff is and everything yeah so there's um there's no particular timeline in the statute for how long we have to solicit interest um with with most districts you know we can kind of

120feel out whether we we feel like we have a good group or a good crop of folks that are interested and then at that point uh we'll be sure to you know the um the item where the board will see the resolution will be on the agenda and we'll know in advance you know we could certainly even do an announcement on the website for example of the folks that are part of the committee so that the community knows that they've been selected um and then all of the agendas for the board meetings are for the committee meetings will be subject you know to the brown act those will be made available to the public in advance we have time for public comment on all of the things that happened during those committee meetings and so

121the goal really is to engage the community not only through the selection of the members but through the entire process of those meetings as they decide and they form the recommendation report board member annis and then chris gonzalez i i would like to to see this actually um be able to go ahead and partner up with the city like the library uh you know the post office uh i would like the community engaged in this um since they are our you know our residents we are the residents um and they're they're the ones that live right next to these properties they expressed you know some of them did come to our meeting and that they would like to be part of this process so how how uh superintendent how do we other than email right

122because we have our parents email our students email how do you see uh partnering up with the city and being able to access the community to have access to this application if interested yeah we can definitely make sure our senior center library right those high traffic kind of areas that we can drop off applications i do frequent the city council meetings and so i definitely can also make announcements there in public and then also partner with the city manager to explore other avenues where those could be highly visible i had um another request to the city um i do i i i understand that with when we bring out a consultant and we have the committee they're going to be able to think about what what what opportunities we have with the site um but

123i do think um there's value in maybe reaching out to the city manager or sooner than later because i know for example with the healthy communities initiative in the city right they have funding to put in a health clinic someplace um they may have other ideas in terms of like the master plans they're adopting for you know so i think that there's some space to and that that kind of that kind of like brainstorming takes time right so i think if we front load those conversations the better so we can think about some really interesting things that we could do with our really our community space yeah a thousand percent and um like board member cruz gonzalez [Music] one of the and again not that this has to be this way not advocating but the

124development uh consulting groups can also partner with us in those conversations so they have a really good sense right and so definitely uh looking forward to that all right moving on to item 10.2 approval of resolution 21 22 38 declaring the month of may as national mental health month attention to approve 10.2 we have a motion to approve by board member rodriguez pena do i have a second a second second by board member cruz gonzalez any discussion yes i i would like to to think um this means a lot that this right here seeing this on our agenda really means a lot mental health um you know we we have uh not only did we just go through covid now we're going through you know what happened this last weekend um in buffalo and and

125what not and so mental health is near and dear to my heart as a a acsw i fully support this and again you know anything that has to do with mental health our students our staff um i'm really happy and proud that we can have this resolution um on our agenda today and that we will vote thank you any further discussion let's have a vote and the resolute resolution passes four to one absent moving on to item 10.3 approval of resolution 21 22 39 declaring the month of may as asian american and native hawaiian pacific islander heritage month may i have a motion to approve to make a motion to approve second moved by board member cruz gonzalez and seconded seconded by board member arianes i just wanted to make a comment here on this

126item that um i'm happy that this is the first time our district has brought forward such a resolution and um as a member of the aapi community i'm i'm proud to to be sitting here before you and i wanted to take just 30 seconds to share um some history uh trivia brought to us by our city clerk and hometown historian jeffrey cornejo that um i am not the first asian american to serve on the azusa unified school district board of education that honor goes to mr tom okey who was born in azusa in 1916 and served on the azusa unified board of education for several terms in the 1960s and 70s any further discussion i just want to add one thing um as many of us say during black history month or hispanic heritage month

127right um api um celebrating epic culture should not be a one month thing of the year so i you know for us to think about how do we ensure that we're inclusive with with all of our work that we're doing in our schools throughout the year not just one month although it's great to highlight it you know to call it out during this let's have a vote thank you for sharing that history with us thanks to jeffrey jeffrey and the motion path the resolution passes four yes to one absent moving on to item 11.0 approval 11.1 approval of the consent calendar do i have a motion to approve 11.1 consent calendar make a motion to approve 11.2 through point sixteen second moved by board member rodriguez pena and seconded by board member arianes let's vote

128and the motion passes four to one absent moving to item 13 business and finance mr mall 13.1 i'm sorry approval of the allowable piggyback contracts for the 22-23 school year do i have a motion to approve moved by board member arianes and the second by board member rodriguez pena discussion i have a question regarding um how long have we had the contract with piggy bank so this is a list of piggy backable contracts and i'm not certain if i'm saying i work right but this is a list of piggybackable contracts that we can utilize throughout the school year so it's not that we're going to use every one of these contracts it's just a list to give us authorization so that throughout the school year if we find that a contract is already in place

129of something we want to purchase based on the price um we would be have the authority to utilize them even if um we utilize them we will still be bringing that contract to board to identify the item that we're purchasing with this piggyback full contract so what they exactly do is they look for a better price on an item or what what exactly does piggyback do yeah it's a great question so um what this does is um case in point let's say i want to buy chromebooks and so if i went to dell directly that chromebook maybe 500 um but santa anna may have just purchased a fleet of chromebooks and maybe they had um a price point of 250 per chromebook if that contract um was piggybackable then we would after having board authorization

130could actually buy the same chromebook at that price to santana bought it thank you you're welcome any further questions or discussion by the board let's vote thank you moving on to item 13.2 approval of the contract between ausd and laco for the best system do i have a motion to approve 13.2 and a second second moved by board member ariana and seconded by board member rodriguez pena any discussion let's have a vote and the item pass is four to one absent moving to item 14.1 approval of the consultant agreement between ausd and clarissa iliff do i have a motion to approve promotion to approve 14.1 and a second moved by board member rodriguez pena and seconded in by board member arianas any discussion hearing none will vote and the item passes four to one absent

131four point two approval of the contract between ausd and the sawdust factory may i have a motion to approve ocean to approve 14.2 and a second second moved by board member arianis and seconded by board member rodriguez pena any discussion hearing none let's vote and the item pass is four to one absent 14.3 approval of the consultant agreement between ausd and crisis prevention institute may i have a motion to approve motion to approve 14.3 and a second second moved by board member arianes and seconded by board member rodriguez pena any discussion hearing none we'll call the vote oh i'm sorry i did i didn't have a question oh no i'm starting the next one i'm sorry where unfortunately you're okay to vote 14.3 all right let's vote and the item passes four to one absent

132which brings us to our last item 15.0 adjournment i have a motion to approve motion to adjourn 15.1 and the second move by board member ariana seconded by board member rodriguez pena any discussion hearing none will vote and the motion passes four to one absent and this meeting is adjourned at 902 pm thank you