001all right well good evening everyone and welcome to sorry i think if diana narvaez if you wouldn't mind muting thank you so good evening and welcome to this regularly scheduled uh board meeting of the azusa unified school district board of education on may 3rd 2022 we will go ahead and begin our open session portion of our meeting uh right now at 7 00 pm and we will do that with a flag salute led by eddie bella uh eddie adebaya rodriguez from lee hello can everyone please rise please put your right hand over your heart ready begin i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god individual with liberty
002and justice for all thank you so much bye bye bye that brings us to 4.2 roll call board member rodriguez pena president board member beau here board member cruz gonzalez here and i board member greer i'm also here and board member arianes is absent this evening that brings us to 4.3 which is approval of the agenda make a motion to approve uh 4.3 well second move by board member audi excuse me board member rodriguez pena and seconded by board member bo any discussion then we will move uh if it's moved so we'll move to a vote and the motion passes four yes to one absent which brings us to 5.0 report of action uh report or action of closed session matters and we do have a couple of items in front of us the first
003one is 5.1 student matter final sentiment for office of administrative hearing case number [Music] student number 21 22 01 14. is there a motion on the floor make a motion to approve 5.1 second move by board member rodriguez pena and second by board member cruz gonzalez any discussion we'll move to a vote and the motion passes four yes to one and one absent moving to 5.2 student matter final sentiment for office of administrative hearing case number two zero two one one two zero four nine two student number twenty one twenty two zero one fifteen is there a motion on the floor make a motion to approve 5.2 seconds move by board member rodriguez pena and second by board member bruce gonzalez any discussion then we will move to a vote and the motion passes four
004yes one absent bringing us to 6.0 recognition and awards and we will begin with 6.1 recognition of student board member crystal flamino thank you board president um crystal flamino is on uh line i believe uh we just wanted to take the opportunity uh to thank the service of the student board members uh just a little insight that in addition to uh being here and reading our reports and purporting what's happening at the school sites i am super grateful for the student board members this year they helped formulate a brand new student advisory council they gave a lot of good input and this year's student advisory council uh the way we're running it uh the the logistics around it the the membership has just been exponentially better than it was in the past and i owe
005a lot of gratitude to our board members our student board members who gave a lot of valuable input from a student perspective on how to make it more successful so i just want to say thank you to them for that and crystal on behalf of the board of education and all of us here at ausd we're proud to present you with this certificate of recognition and we'll make sure that this finds its way to you at your school site if we could all have a round of applause for crystal all right moving right along uh more fun stuff 6.2 recognition of the gladstone high school medical academy and i do believe we have a spring thingy good evening um good evening board president um members of the board of education superintendent ortega members of cabinet
006fire the usd community thank you for the opportunity to publicly recognize our glastone medical academy and their recent achievement of receiving naf's highest level of distinction the katherine blasic the katherine basic distinguished academy naf is a national network of education business and community leaders work together to ensure high school students are college career and future ready we are proud to be recognized by naf as we believe our beliefs regarding college and career readiness closely align we are so proud to not only honor the students who are succeeding in the academy but many of the staff who have helped make this happen starting with jennie aguirre the lead mind you now jenny is quick to point out that this is a team effort with key members throughout the district and school who have played critical roles
007in helping us receive such a recognition i know she will introduce a team shortly when she addresses the board but first i would like to welcome ryan serrano from supervisor hilda solis's office mr serrano if you please good evening everyone my name is brian torrano and i'm a field deputy with the office of supervisor hilda solis and on behalf of supervisor hilde elise let me just say what an honor and a privilege it is to be here tonight to recognize this amazing achievement and on behalf of la county with sincere congratulations and best wishes the board of supervisors of the county of los angeles does hereby join in your celebration congratulations here hold on one second the azusa unified school district certificate of recognition is probably to present bloodstone high school medical academy for being
008awarded the national academy foundation's naf distinguished level recognition the naf's highest level of achievement may 30th 2022 signed by superintendent ortega and board president adrian greer congratulations yes if i can invite um miss gary to say a few words please wow this is definitely an honor for us um i would like to uh introduce the team that is here and also recognize the team members that are not able to be with us um as a collaborative team we worked really hard to get to this point um the economy started eight years ago and from eight years till now um we have had more and more success um with our students with our uh working with our teachers um of course the honors and everything that you have given um but bottom line is it is
009a team effort and i i definitely want to recognize the team our uh first one uh randall rogers he is our medical chemistry uh teacher and then uh edna rogers is our medical bio teacher and the woman that knows it all uh with of naf uh laurie is uh laurie madden is our uh nafta director for our school um the other uh members that were not able to be here is uh joyce de leon which is our uh coordinator for um the academy then we have doug dalter which is our anatomy teacher we have uh lauren wall also that is our medical english teacher oh and irma i'm so sorry yes irma marufo is our new member um she is our ninth grade um health occupation teacher that works with the younger kids so um
010throughout i just wanted to say throughout the years it's been like i said it's been it's been it's hard work and uh the team has worked very very well to be able to uh receive this distinguished uh recognition um it wasn't an easy feat um you know our kids our kids are amazing and i apologize i didn't have any children here today any students today um but they're in the midst of doing so much um we're gonna be doing guests go tomorrow and um our all our kids are going off to college and they just have other things that they were doing but our kids have really benefited from the academy we've gone from having a small internship to now having a partnership with kick hospital eminent eminent is working with the kids now um
011on a program that they are allowed to go to queen of the valley and uh foothill presbyterian to do floor work which means they will be in the front lines working side by side with doctors nurses pecs um on every floor it's called the cult uh program so um hospice they're still doing their hospice internship so little by little we've been doing more and more for the community but getting those kids out there and the main thing for our academy is getting them ready getting them career ready getting them just even just not just skills but their soft skills getting them it was you know funny for them to even do a resume for a while now they're just they they just know you know they send it i mean their resume some of them
012are better than mine so um they're doing really really well so i appreciate the board for supporting us and giving us the equipment giving us the funding and giving us everything that you give us to be able to do for our kids looking forward to seeing what happens with um you know the collaboration of azusa uh we're gonna still work this is hard we've got about a hundred i believe 140 freshmen signed up already um and then tomorrow's our eighth grade expo so it's it's going to continue on working it's going to continue on working community for you thank you so much i just want to add that this is a collaborative effort with the rop kenny gary rop teachers kusd teachers asb staff without the rlp support we will not be able to do
013this as well i know they are here virtually listening to this so i want to thank them as well so thank you very much love it thank you well now we'll move to item 6.3 uh which is presentation of teachers of the year and so i will look to you mr thank you board president [Music] so for president greer board members cabinet and uh guests i have the honor of starting the formal recognition of our teachers of the year at this board meeting teaching is the profession that all professions grow from and it is fitting that we take the time to honor all of our teachers of the year as we celebrate the 2021 teacher appreciation week selecting the site teachers of the year begins in february where sites are asked to begin this process
014of selecting from their site teachers then in march our site teachers of the year submit letters of recommendation and complete a questionnaire in april a committee of bargaining unit representatives managers myself get the opportunity to interview each of the sites teacher of the year it is a magical day probably the best day i have all year the day is filled with laughter heart felt genuine emotion and just an up uplifting feeling that our asusa unified school district students are in very very good hands at this panel interview teachers from each level and from all sites spoke about what is important to them what they value to ensure that all students learn teachers like miss terzo robles hodges elementary teacher of the year who spoke eloquently about supporting students emotionally and academically so that kids do
015not slip through the cracks or sierra high school's teacher of the year mr gary lambert who spoke passionately about giving students the wisdom and skills needed for democracy mr hartman paramount's uh elementary teachers of the year who simply stated asusa is just the place to be and i could go on and on talking about how wonderful it was to participate in this process there is so much passion for teaching our students in our district all told it was another great day for me to work in the district in just a few moments you will get to meet all of our teachers of the year the last couple of years for this event our site administrators were asked to create a video clip that recognized and celebrated our teachers of the year this year we asked
016our administrators to host their teachers of the year at their sites so that we can honor them and recognize them in person via zoom i want to thank our administrators for their constant support and flexibility as we've found ways to make this event special i also want to thank our margaret mccann our hr personnel technician who has coordinated this teacher of the year process from february through this evening i want to thank our district teacher of the year panel some of who are here tonight and above all i want to thank all of our teachers that work so hard every day throughout the year to really touch the lives of students so without further ado congratulations teachers of the year i want to now turn it over to our first principal who will be presenting
017from dalton elementary miss clark good evening my name is laura clark and i'm the principal of dalton school i am proud to present our teacher of the year denise poe denise has been in azusa unified for 23 years and a teacher at dalton for 19 years denise has many gifts in understanding curriculum and implementing instruction her students make leaps and bounds in their academic growth as a second grade teacher responsible for the development of critical foundational skills she prepares her students for the following year and well beyond but what sets her apart as an educator is the community that she creates with her students from the first day of school students feel welcome and build positive relationships with one another denise has very high expectations but she also provides a warm and caring environment where
018students can grow as learners as people there is a clear mutual respect and admiration between denise and her students and this has a direct impact on fostering positive relationships between the students learning and growing into kind and productive young people go hand in hand i wish you could spend some time in her room and watch it in action it's a wonderful sight to behold and the impact on students is for a lifetime it's with great pleasure that we honor denise poe for her continued dedication to the education and development of our dalton bobcats her hard work is so appreciated congratulations miss poe good evening my name is victoria velasquez principal of victor hodge elementary school it is an honor and a pleasure to present mrs is hodge teacher of the year although she is not
019visible tonight she is present watching from home surrounded by her dear family we celebrated her at school today mrs robles tirsa graduated from apu and earned her multiple subject credential there and in fact i can still remember we had spanish class together it's hard to imagine how time has flown in fact it's been 30 plus years since she joined azusa unified in 1988 and began her career as a first and second grade teacher at hodge elementary and she's been there ever since currently as a dual immersion teacher although she is soft-spoken humble and actually a bit shy tierce is also a tenacious advocate and a gregarious teacher her service-oriented leadership love for children and passion for bilingual educated education are evident to all when she was asked what the following question about how basically to
020improve public perception about public education and what teachers could do she shared the following implement practices that meet the needs of students in creative and engaging methods communicate with parents and work as a team to foster learning know our students and build their love for learning tirsa really is a person of integrity and her words are her actions miss robles classroom climate is one in which students are safe healthy and taught to develop skills to successfully problem solve she's dedicated to seeing students involved in healthy play opportunities for choice and active engagement she is a bridge builder who partners with families to support their students mrs luiza a parent of a first grader in her class said my son who had much resistance to learning in spanish spanish has bloomed into a child who is
021not only reading and writing in spanish but most importantly feels joy and seeks opportunities to speak the language he's eager to attend school and he feels supported beyond his academic needs with his teacher she is creative in finding ways to meet her students needs she has made her classroom a safe and joyous place where students go beyond meeting standards to engage in ways that they are feeling supported socially emotionally and seen as unique individuals from the projects i've received home the progress my child has made the way our children and other families speak so warmly of my assured roblism by the way she takes the time to make her students feel seen and celebrated i know that without a doubt she is beyond that of teacher of the year and we join you mrs luisa
022our entire hodge community faculty say congratulations to you mrs roadless good evening i'm diana rojas principal of charles h lee elementary school and it is with great pleasure that i present mrs luke alvarado as our teacher of the year mrs alvarado is an amazing teacher she is dedicated caring supportive inspiring and innovative she provides her students with the most fulfilling educational experience possible by researching and implementing new ideas and strategies that engage and motivate her students to learn mrs alvarado has worked for azusa unified school district for 27 years teaching all grade levels from tk to 4th grade here at lee she has been our tk our tk teacher for the last six years and excels at teaching our youngest learners and i'm in a multi-sensory lively fashion enthusiasm for teaching is so contagious that
023it always inspires her students to be excited about their learning and to do their best work mrs alvarado has a love technology and has incorporated incorporated successfully into her classroom in so many ways including robotics which has been a truly amazing experience for our tp students it has been fascinating to see her students work on coding to make their robots move along with being an excellent teacher mrs alvarado has served on our students study team schools like council pta board district math leadership team and robotics integrators test kitchen mrs alvarado is very giving of her time and there's nothing she wouldn't do for our school or our district we are truly blessed to have mrs alvarado on our staff as the foundation of our students learning and she is well deserving of this recognition as
024east teacher of the year good evening my name is jenny lee i'm the director for the early childhood education program for zizzi unified school district and i have the honor of presenting to you long fellow school teacher of the year mrs sylvia alapisco who is joining us virtually with her family i also have her here with me mrs dolla pisco is truly a wonderful product of azusa and she has dedicated her life to serving the children of this community she attended dalton school slauson azusa high school and apu after completing her studies at apu she returned to ausd and has taught in our district for 27 years her work has been centered around fostering our youngest scholar to embark on a joyful successful academic career currently mrs alepisco teaches a dual immersion transitional kindergarten class
025she is exceptional she uses her many talents which includes art dance and music in her teaching her classroom is a beautiful lively and exciting place ece's current unit of study now is insect and i had caught up with one of our students maddox maddox is actually longfellow's very own expert on so insect met him on the playground i asked him if he's enjoying this unit of study because i couldn't wait for him to experience it he insisted that i must go with him to see something very special in his classroom he was beyond excited to share the newly emerged butterfly that they had in their class he also gave me a tour of his classroom using the visual charts on the walls as references to share about the types of insects that we're studying as
026much as maddox loves learning about insect especially bees when asked matic shared that the best thing of everything that mississauga is teaching him it is how to speak spanish mrs alec opens door to her students through languages and academics and provides opportunities for them to discover abilities they did not know they had she inspires a student to be excited curious and ask questions her classroom is filled with children's work and activities that engage students mind she's patient caring thoughtful and most of all loved by her students this is shared by our own resource teacher mrs smith mrs soledad a parent shared that mrs alapisco makes learning fun and the fact that she's teaching the children in two languages is mind-blowing esther her daughter loves coming to school and that that is because of her teacher
027thank you and congratulations mrs alepisco on representing long fellow school's amazing teaching team can you hear me okay good evening everyone i am marcela fonsica the very proud principal of magnolia elementary school it is with great honor and excitement that i present to you our teacher of the year joanne christensen who is joined tonight with by her beautiful family and online her mom and dad and her twin sister gigi so we're gonna say hi to them miss christensen has been part of the azusa team for 22 years and has taught multiple grade levels at several sites three years ago she joined the magnolia team and brought with her the brightest smile the kindest words and an exuberant heart ready to give her best to our wild mustangs i actually think miss christensen put the i
028in wild she inspires others with her positive perspective and has cultivated a caring environment that students continue to journal about even after they've left her classroom each day she pours into her students her students love to learn and learn to love because she guides and supports them unconditionally miss christensen is an inspiration in word and deed miss christensen thank you for what you do for our community this is a well-deserved recognition and we are proud to have you represent magnolia as our teacher of the year congratulations go ahead miss flores good evening everyone my name is jeanette flores and i'm the proud principal of murray elementary and here with me i have miss rita smith tk teacher and her loving family patient caring creative and are all and fun are all words that describe our
029rita rita has been in azusa for 12 years and works with our tk students here at murray in her fun and kind way she teaches them how to stand in line take turns and share more importantly she also teaches them their abcs and their 123s and for those who are ready she even teaches them how to read it is rumored that she casts a spell on all of her students using pixie dust that allows her to teach them how to become well-mannered students that follow directions and follow her every command at times her colleagues lovingly refer to rita as the kid whisperer rita students absolutely love her and are mesmerized by the many ways in she in which she engages them in learning from singing songs and exploration to expressive read-alouds every day is an
030exciting day in miss smith's class and it is for those reasons and many more that the murray staff and i are honored to have rita smith represent us as teacher of the year congratulations good evening everyone my name is antonio flores principal of paramount elementary and it gives me a great pleasure to introduce to you paramount elementary teacher of the year mr david hartman and david is joined tonight by his wife lisa david joined our staff two years ago and from day one his enthusiasm for educating students has been evident david brings an energy of positivity both inside and outside the classroom and he is always willing to lend a helping hand to someone in need david's message of family constantly being instilled to his students allows them to feel respected cared for motivated excited
031challenged and willing to participate in lessons and discussions they recognize that david is committed to their growth because he has high expectations for their academic and social development david is also actively involved in our after-school stem academy he along with other teachers have been growing our program from one from one after school group to now three david also led our sixth grade students in the fuel your school uh school challenge resulting in a touchdown grand prize needless to say david continuously demonstrates his dedication toward helping students grow learn and contribute to their to their community and for these and many more reasons david hartman is paramount elementary's 2022 teacher of the year good evening my name is jenny weavey principal at powell and it is my privilege tonight to honor melanie robbins as powell's teacher
032of the year melanie am i on there yes you are okay sorry melanie is celebrating at home tonight with her husband adam and her daughter jolie her daughter mckenna is watching from college and i'm sure her sister tracy who is also an ausd teacher is celebrating with us as well melanie even grew up here in azusa her mom linda koscielski was an aide at paramount her dad jim is currently undergoing treatment at city of hope so mom and dad are cheering her on from there melanie started teaching kindergarten at powell in 1998. she taught kinder for five years before becoming powell's resource teacher so for 23 years mrs robbins has served the students and families at powell i decided to look up the definition of resource and the first one i said i read said
033staff and other assets that can be drawn on by a person or organization in order to function effectively and i thought wow that is the perfect description me and our school truly depend on melanie in order to function effectively almost every day i start a sentence with mel can you help me with blank or mel could you run that report or mel do you think you could cover this classroom and i'm not exaggerating when i say that i never even finish the question before she answers sure or of course her colleagues express the same sentiments if you need curriculum she'll get it to you if you don't know how to log the kids on for an exam she'll be right there to help you if you teach a combo she'll take half your kids and
034teach them math she does whatever is needed to make us run effectively and her loving heart always shines through she comes in early every day to answer the phones and greet families in the office just because she enjoys it i overhear her interactions with students and parents and they feel cared for after they've spoken with her she's also a crier she shares in the joys and pains of those in our powell family and i love that about her because it shows her tender heart we need more tender hearts like her in this world so to all of her family watching tonight be proud your wife mother sister daughter is receiving a well-deserved honor and as we wind down and come to the final year of powell next year it seems fitting that our recipient has
035served powell faithfully for so long so wherever you are whether it's in the boardroom or your school office or at home or at city of hope please join me in honoring melanie robbins powell's 2021 2022 teacher of the year mr trejo you may go good evening i am orazio trejo proud principal of valley dell and excited to highlight valleyville's teacher of the year miss jessica rios whose family is joining us online core to mrs real's approach to teaching is acknowledging that it takes a village to raise a child it is with this in mind that she creates a partnership with parents that lasts years after a student leaves her classroom year after year she makes sure that parents not only know their child or how their child is doing academically but also helps give our
036parents the tools necessary to help make their child a stronger student in addition to her strong commitment to our families she goes above and beyond to create a school community that is supportive of all students not just her classroom and lastly she holds her students to the same level of expectations that she holds for herself in other words she expects the best fortunately for her students she also makes sure they have the support to reach those lofty expectations we are blessed to have her and i'm honored that i get to highlight our most excellent miss rios doctor controls you may go let me fit let me fix this back right now and i have a minute to change my back if you don't mind there we go oh wow our camera just changed really right
037let me fix that angle look good okay good evening everybody principal dr contreras here coming live from center school to introduce mr irwin tafoya and is joined by his family in the background i'm i'm pleased to introduce center middle school teacher of the year the amazing trailblazing and commemorating mr irwin tafoya erwin is azusa from head to toe from cougars to g-stone azuza is always home off to cal poly for his education majoring in history in civilization not content with being a history blaster he went on to the next level and earned his masters at six foot three and lessons for subject-based learning to the room's garnet student and staff admiration at cms he's known for his dedication mr tafoya teaches with flair lessons are thought-provoking and he shows that he cares never a dull
038moment in room 23 active students and collaboration aplenty teacher coach life family and more mr tafoya helps all to soar there is no better rep or center than he mr tafoya is our mvp mvp mvp mvp mvp congratulations mr boyd go ahead and fear hi i'm miss fieri and i couldn't be prouder to be here with mr rico and his wife carrie and of course mr demerit to celebrate foothills teacher of the year does mr rico love to read and think you should too no doubt because if you go into his classroom you're going to see read all over the place mr rico knows history and mr rico knows language arts he takes those two he mixes them together and poof he makes the study of reading responding and writing come alive now i've had
039the opportunity to be in his classroom when he taught narrative writing to his students appeared over their shoulders as they wrote their stories i'm telling you it was inspiring every intro i didn't want to leave i wanted to read more okay that's rico magic right here okay on campus mr rico is known as a favorite here's what they say about him he's cool he's caring he's fair he is kind and he helps me anytime i need it he makes even the most boring things fun he always listens to me and this most important when i talk in his class he makes me feel important and for these reasons and so many more we want to thank you mr rico for giving that special rico magic and making her students feel special thank you so much
040very good that was awesome yeah uh dr gomez good evening azuza hi my name is martin gomez i am the proud principal of azusa high school it is with great pleasure that we recognize miss andrea vogel as isuzu high school's teacher of the year for 2022. ms vogel has been teaching spanish and supporting her colleagues for the past 24 school years all while continuously collaborating with her colleagues and sharing ideas and best teaching strategies ms vogel has a presence which speaks of respect character and integrity she is always willing and committed to go above and beyond what is expected instructionally she has a great management skills and is able to teach successful lessons with different technology strategies and to strengthen the students literacy and curiosity don't just take it from me here are some comments
041from her students in her classes ms vogel is a great teacher she is always patient with the class explains the material perfectly allows us to work together to open our minds to new ideas and most importantly makes the classroom a safe space to participate another student wrote i picked ms vogel to be the teacher of the year because she is probably the kindest teacher i have ever met in my life i am not exaggerating ms vogel credits her family for her excellent teaching and work ethic she followed in her in the footsteps of her father mark cooley who was a spanish teacher and later the bilingual director here in azusa unified her mother diana cooley was also a teacher of health and science in addition to her parents she would like to thank her husband
042scott vogel her daughter alicia nygaard and son-in-law marius nygard congratulations miss andrea vogel you are a fantastic person a fantastic teacher and a fantastic colleague once an aztec always an aztec congrats ms bogo mr predomo good evening all my name is sam pardomo and i'm the proud principal at gladstone high school and gladstone high school is proud to present susanna martinez is this year's teacher of the year susannah is joined tonight she's probably joining us virtually i don't see her on the screen but by her husband angel daughter sophia who attends gladstone and victoria i've had the honor and privilege of working with susanna for the past 10 years and during that time i have been fortunate to observe susannah where she has conducted meaningful engaging lessons but like my prior colleague said don't just
043take my word for it here are some things that she's done so well and the students have said i've learned more in spanish class than any other class she makes the classroom environment feel like an open space where everyone feels really close miss martinez is reliable and she treats every student kindly and with respect miss martinez is the right amount of strength miss martinez makes everyone feel welcome and she is very understanding miss martinez has made a high a huge impact in my school years she is someone i look up to miss martinez is a great teacher i love her teaching methods she always tries to make the class work more classwork more fun and really funny and loves talking to her students and getting to know them but to stay within my minute i
044can go on and on but i have to go so please join the staff in recognizing susanna martinez as the teacher of the year yay go glad thank you mr podemo we're gonna uh ask miss walker to go ahead good evening i do apologize good evening i am the proud principal yvette walker of slauson middle school and it is my pleasure to announce mr nolan sinclair as this year's teacher of the year over the past eight years i've had the opportunity to work with nolan on many occasions he has been an asset to our slauson community he is his dedication as a pe teacher and willingness to coach all after school after school sports shows his commitment and dedication to our students the after-school sports has made a positive impact on our students here at
045slauson and if it wasn't for nolan's time and commitment our sports program would certainly have fallen short nolan is a natural coach and a teacher and it shows in his interactions with parents administrators teachers and most of all with students he is involved with the students and encourages them to participate and to grow in all areas there is a natural banter that occurs which allows students to feel comfortable in all of his classrooms he provides a safe space for students to interact with one another while learning nolan is kind he is empathetic he is funny he is thoughtful and most of all he is nolan sinclair our teacher of the year it is my honor to have nolan sinclair represent slauson as this year's teacher of the year congratulations nolan good evening it is with
046great pleasure that i get to introduce sierra high school's teacher of the year mr gary lambreit mr lambright began teaching at sierra 26 years ago he has taught just about everything including ap government where he has successfully led his students into passing the ap exam with scores of fours and fives as our leadership teacher he ah he's always planning lunchtime activities for the students or coaching our co-ed sports teams mr lambright is a true motivator to all he always has an encouraging work for students and staff members he's very passionate about building positive relationships with students and the community at sierra gary was nominated for this honor overwhelmingly by our staff and students he is one of the best classroom teachers i've had the opportunity to watch in action his students are always actively engaged
047when you walk into his class students are working in collaborative groups presenting or having a deep discussion on a topic students truly enjoy being in his class as one student put it i have learned so much from mr lambright this year congratulations gary for being sierra high school's teacher of the year thank you good evening it is with great pleasure that i present miss veronica fierro as a zeus adult educations teacher of the year fiero is supported tonight by her husband david her oldest son david iii her son michael and her daughter priscilla miss fierro is a strong advocate for her el students both in and out of the classroom and demonstrates a strong worth work ethic that students appreciate and emulate when they are in her class ms fiero plans her lessons so that
048all students regularly practice newly learned skills and receive immediate and important feedback within her esl class ms fierro creates an environment that promotes risk taking for example during the holidays ms fierro's class can be heard singing classic christmas carols and then to solidify the lesson will take her students carely through sierra high school and adult education campus recently ms fierro has been part of a team that is designing a pathway for eso esl students to earn not only their citizenship but their high set certificate her results this very first year 13 of her advanced esl students have earned their high set and will be participating in our june's ceremony not bad for year one miss fiero congratulations it is with great pleasure that i present miss veronica fiera our azusa adult school adult education teacher
049of the year go ahead ms benitez good evening trustee superintendent ortega and cabinet members my name is betty benitez i'm the coordinator for the special education resource center on behalf of the circ department i present to you ms julie villa julia is one of our itinerant teachers for students with visual impairments julie has been a member of the azusa family for over 21 years she currently provides itinerant services to students within the charter oak covina and west covina unified school districts san jose edison charter school as well as our student infant population ages zero to three julia is actively involved within the azusa district where she sits on the leadership committee the social committee the safety committee and the parent advisory committees for valley dale elementary school she's also actively involved in the community including
050the baldwin park safety committee district advisory committee and fundraising committees julie is an active member of her church our lady of guadalupe where she organizes graduation masses she has taught religious education for over 10 years and organizes parent educational workshops julie is highly vested in her district and her community because she fully believes she believes the key to supporting students and families is getting to know and understand where they come from and how they live julie is held in high regard by staff and families as well as all surrounding districts she serves she builds trusting bonds with students and offers families supports to navigate not only educational but also outside support services in order to ensure success for all students with visual impairments judy is described as the epitome of a professional charitable and generous
051sensitive and one of the strongest advocates for students for this and all that she does to promote success through independence and functionality for all students with visual impairments we honor julie villa as the search teacher of the year for the 21-22 school year thank you it is my pleasure to present and recognize kimberly daum as the teacher of the year representing our teachers on special assignment kimberly began her career in azusa in 2004 teaching english at foothill middle school and then moving on to teach english and eld at azusa high in her role as our english language art tosa kimberly has been instrumental in the development and implementation of our district student success drivers she has partnered with teachers supporting them through the plc process and guided teams in plan do study act models this
052year she developed an asynchronous course called improving reading for students in order to support our secondary teachers in strategy work and literacy development for our adolescent students to get to the heart of who kimberly dahm is i will share these words from her colleague him does not work or serve for awards or accolades but simply to inspire and impact all of those that she comes in contact with each and every day whether she meets with teachers one-on-one leads a small group in professional learning or is an integral part of a district-wide initiative every person that works with kim becomes a better teacher which impacts student learning kim is trusted and respected by all her peers due to her natural ability in building long lasting relationships this is evidenced by her excellent listening skills her ability
053to stay present in a conversation where she makes it a point to value others perspectives and always offers constructive feedback it is truly my honor and privilege to recognize kimberly dahm as artosa teacher of the year thank you asusa leaders and one more congratulations to all of our teachers of the year let's give them another big round of applause and now i have the distinct honor of announcing our 2021 district teacher of the year she is a true superstar and we are very very proud and excited to announce that kathleen zahagian from ellington is our 2021-2022 district teacher of the year congratulations and now i'd like uh to have mr acosta come up here and say a few words good evening everyone before i begin i would like to first take this opportunity to first
054congratulate all the amazing teachers of the year who are being recognized tonight and i would also like to thank and congratulate my administrator colleagues for a job well done in sharing the accomplishments of their amazing educators to stand in the company of such excellence is truly our honor board president greer honorable school board superintendent ortega distinguished cabinet to those present here today and to those watching from home good evening my name is adrian acosta and i am the very proud principal of ellie10k8 school [Music] in armenia and throughout the world the armenian people refer to today as [Music] the translation appreciation for the yearly teacher award ladies and gentlemen on behalf of our school staff students and parents it is with great honor that i present to you ellington's teacher of the year in the
0552021-2022 azusa unified school year district of the year this is kathleen horison joining us in tonight's celebration is kathleen's husband stephen along with mother louise and friends and former ausd colley maya angelou once said quote do the best you can until you know better and then when you know better do better for the past 35 years at alice m at ellington elementary school mrs hagin has done just that kathleen or kathy as we all refer to her as has worked hard to not only make her classroom the best learning environment for her students but also to make ellington k8 the best school for all of our eagles from tk through 8th grade each morning at 8 15 you will find kathy out on the quad with her students and tk colleagues for a morning flag
056salute followed by morning song in fact this morning i had my daily workout dancing la razpa with kathy and as i stand here i can honestly say that my legs are still a bit sore if you were to walk inside cassie kathy's classroom you would see evidence of her passion and advocacy for reading on a daily basis you would see that her classroom library is quite extensive with appropriate level high interest books that her students can have access to and who are often seen on a cushion at a desk on the rug or with their teacher reading with enthusiasm and eagerness kathy is known school-wide for engaging learners through purposeful instruction and motivating activities from counting collections to interacting virtually with students from other areas and the parents of our students are always well informed
057about what is taking place in the classroom because kathy works hard to promote two-way communication with parents mr rogers once said quote find the helpers if you were mister if mr rogers had the opportunity to meet cathy today you would definitely be proud for doing just that you see kathy is very selfless amazing and resourced and a resourceful professional who goes above and beyond for all of the students at ellington kate eight doing things that leave us in awe for example she has established numerous partnerships with various authors who on many occasions have participated in google virtual meetings with kathy's students to talk about books kathy is also an avid grant writer and donor's choose participant if it's something related to reading and for kids kathy takes her own time to apply for it she
058has also received grants from foothill credit union california casualty and adopt the classroom the materials she received enhanced her academic program and support student learning all in all kathy has raised approximately over 25 000 and she has now even become a donor's choose ambassador helping promote the program to teachers at ellington as well as teachers within any ausd school she has provided partnerships with the imagination machine for example a company of talented individuals who bring the story submitted by our ellington eagles to life on stage each year furthermore kathy is also responsible for our neighborhood shared exchange boxes which looked like mail boxes and the ellington located in front of the school where students and members of the ellington community can help themselves to good books for free and that's not enough if that's not
059enough check this out because of mrs sahagan's partnership with scholastic book fairs and her advocacy to keep students reading during the covet pandemic scholastic offered her an opportunity to depart to be part of the united states of readers a program that has provided all of our 371 students from tk through 8th with two new free books each month for five months so let's stop for a second and do a little bit of math two free books times five months that equals to 10 free book right times that by 371 students that's right 3710 brand new free books for every student at ellington from tk through 8th grade and there's more i have just been informed late last week that scholastic has given her the green light to repeat this again next year now at this
060point i really could continue to share with all of you many more wonderful marvelous examples about kathy's strong work ethic her positive and caring attitude her kind and friendly rapport with everyone on the ellington campus and her integrity as an employee and as a teacher but i would much rather say thank you kathy for your dedication and for being a positive role model to the ellington community and thank you for being a teacher that cares and serves as a champion for our student kathy it is your commitment and your thoughtful personality that makes positive difference to staff members our parents and especially to students at ellington k-8 ladies and gentlemen please join me one more time in applauding mrs kathleen horisonian sahagin ellington k-8's teacher of the year and the 2021-2022 azusa unified school district
061teacher of the year i could have a mr ryan uh serrano from uh from supervisor salisa's office come up please good evening everyone again i want to say on behalf of supervisor hilda solis what an honor and a privilege it is to provide this commendation to kathleen sahagian we learn something new every day with sincere congratulations and best wishes the board of supervisors of the county of los angeles does hereby join in your celebration congratulations [Applause] i also would like now to welcome our friend melissa acanthar from foothill credit union to present mr hagin with an award good evening um my name is melissa on behalf of foothill credit union i'm happy to award a hundred dollar check um to azusa's teacher of the year kathleen sahagyan in recognition of your enduring devotion to the
062school district and its students congratulations thank you next i would like to welcome shauna curligan from school's first credit union to present miss tahagian with an award as well but before i ask shawna to present i want to formally thank our friends from schools first credit union for sharing tickets to this friday's angel baseball game versus the washington nationals we gave the tickets to misahagian as well as our classified employee of the year celia castro and from gladstone high school and our parent of the year anna valencia also from arlington thank you schools first for helping us recognize this year's all-stars so on hello is it awesome [Laughter] so on behalf of school's first federal credit union it is our honor and our pleasure to congratulate you of the year and of course shout out
063to all the site teachers of the year congratulations i know it takes a lot of time energy love i have a best friend who's a teacher and i know all the hours that she puts in and she didn't even make it through the year so i know and just hearing everything that was spoken about you like i thought there were only 24 hours a day i don't know how you do everything but you do on behalf of those first likes now mrs hagie and you are welcome to say a couple words board member board member superintendent ortega ladies and gentlemen i want to start by acknowledging all the amazing teachers of the year and from every school in azusa it is a great honor to be in your company i have been teaching in azusa
064for the past 35 years and i've always enjoyed meeting and working with teachers across the district we all know that the past two years have been challenging and teachers in azusa rose to the occasion i cannot tell you how many times teachers all across the country and in azusa uttered these famous words you are on mute please turn on your microphone um i began my career as a student teacher at murray school where i was fortunate to work with an amazing staff after interviewing in azusa where i had to teach a lesson to principals who acted like students i was hired to teach at ellington yes that really happened and they only did it for one year and then they kind of changed their mind about i was so lucky to be hired by by
065and learned from principal sharon lindsay as well as learn from the many amazing teachers at my school this includes suzanne pickbring who took me under her wing when i was a new teacher and taught me the important importance of always being a learner additionally i'm grateful to dr dalia recenius who taught me how to use a green screen and other technology presently i work with adrian acosta and dr anna clock both former teachers of the year i appreciate their encouragement and support there are no words to express how grateful i am i love being a teacher it is truly my passion i also love learning and working with others i'm grateful for all the teachers and principals who took me under their wing to guide and support me when i was a new teacher throughout
066my years in education i have said the day i stopped learning is the day i stopped being a teacher i would be remiss if i did not thank my mom and dad for all their love support and guidance both have continuously supported me in everything i wanted to do and i'm so grateful my dad passed away two months ago but i'm thankful that my mom is here with me tonight i additionally want to thank my husband who has helped me at school countless times he has scooped ice cream for reaper floats made cds for students had who had their writing performed by the imagination machine and even spent several days on the weekend putting in our two sharing libraries in front of our school lastly i'd like to end with a quote from mr rogers
067who i have always admired he said as human beings our job in life is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us really is that each of us has something that no one else has or ever will have something inside us that is unique to all time it is our job to encourage other others to discover that uniqueness and to provide ways of developing its expression from the bottom my heart thank you so much i feel truly honored and so blessed to be part of the uc unified school district thank you [Applause] and just one more thing i mean couldn't say it any better than everyone else who said everything and even as as well as you said it but we just want to say how grateful we are to have
068you here in the family and and we also want to present in addition to everything else you have here and the placa certificate here that's proudly presented to you for your contributions and dedication to the students of azusa and i i think that there will be a number of us here at a moment who will want to take some photos with you as the celebrity that you are tonight you laughs thank you all this concludes the recognition for teacher of the year and miss miss hagin will be available for autographs after adrian and so let me let me look to uh my colleagues if you'd like say anything yes i'd like to uh congratulate all the nominees for the 20 21 22 nominees teachers of the year and for all the work and the dedication
069they have give to the zenith white school district i also want to congratulate um kathy the han hanigan from district teacher of the year from ellington k28 we could not have do it without you but i think her mom was having the best time watching all the videos i was watching you you're having a good time that was really right on congratulations teachers um all of you recognize here tonight online in person with your families um you are the reason that kids come to school plain and simple it's not about anything else you as classroom teachers are the reasons kids come to school and for that reason we entrust you with our most precious resource our children so on behalf of everyone here thank you so much and i'll just be very brief i just
070want to echo my colleagues i appreciate the teachers um i was happy to see one of my son's teachers is the hottest teacher of the year so that was nice to see um but when i think of when i think of all the years that have spurred we're talking about centuries that we honor tonight right so thank you all of you but especially you kathy because i know that you dedicate you really dedicate your life to our community so really yeah and and likewise uh as i as i look at this list of names that represent just some of the most incredible educators that we have here in our community here here in our district i see names of friends that i went to school with i see names of teachers who i had who
071educated me i see names of parents who i also see out on the softball and baseball fields um i i see see friends and and just members of this community who who just pour and give so much of themselves and so yeah on behalf of of all of us at the district we want to say thank you for for your dedication for for the the ways in which you go above and beyond uh for the thank you for the things that you don't get thank you for um and know that that that we just value and appreciate you and again mr hagin hagian kudos and congratulations to you well this moves us to the next portion of our meeting which is 7.0 and specifically 7.1 public comment on agenda or non-agenda items this is an
072opportunity for the public to address the board of education on agenda or non-agenda items individual speakers may be allowed up to three minutes to address the board of education on any agenda or non-agenda items when the public wishes to address the board on an agenda item they may fill out a blue card stand at the podium or raise their hand while in zoom attendance the board will take blue card requests first followed in order by speakers at the podium and then those in zoom attendance i do once again just want to remind everyone that about the three minute limit and ask that you please keep an eye on the three on the three-minute limit uh if you surpass the three-minute limit then i will interrupt you and and stop you and i don't want to
073do that so i apologize in advance if i do um but would just ask that you keep an eye on the clock um so that um you're able to stay within that time limit with that said we will move to our first speaker which is ken oliver honourable members of the board and administration my name is penny alvin i'm a fourteenth great grandson of mock zuma ii emperor of the aztec nation i am here to explain how in 1531 direct descendants of his excellency were among the first settlers of an expansive area of mexico named by the spanish crown as nueva galicia this area encompasses many states in mexico including the present-day aguas calientes and jalisco please turn to the top uh to the first page title or second page this page which i printed
074from wikipedia and i highlighted some sentences for you you will note that uh don lope ruiz de esparza you may notice that anna's name is also at the bottom of the first sheet in your packet indicating that i have the honor of being ana's 10th great grandson back on the lopez ruiz de espresso page you may notice some of the other surnames highlighted such as romo macias piscarino escoto montes de oca lostano uyoa castillo and aguilera the reason for that is because those are some of the surnames of people from azusa you went to school with people you know and people you perhaps are related to if you look at the third set of papers you'll see that there were only 117 families that were granted land rights by the spanish government to populate this
075huge territory of land please take a quick glance at the name if you attended azusa schools you would most definitely recognize several of those surnames the reason for this is for the past 500 years those 117 families intermarried to the extent that cousins were marrying cousin and during the 1800s at least one family from that group traveled up and settled in azusa once there were quickly spread throughout the nueva galicia region that azusa was a favorable favorable place to migrate to and there were relatives already there for support so began the nueva galicia diaspora of aztec blood to azusa so all this is to say that right now you have hundreds if not perhaps thousands of aztec indian nations uh people living in azusa and those aztecs have been living here for generations and attended
076both azusa high school and glaston high school these inheritors should be the ones to determine how their family's history their image their name their likeness are depicted i respectfully request that you consider seeking out a focus group from azusa's with aztec blood to determine how the high school mascot should be depicted please select if i may an equal number of azusa high and gladstone high school graduates and allow them they who have an ancestral right an inheritance right a familial right and an azusa community member right to determine how their aztec family history should be depicted thank you mr alba next we have gloria sanchez romero good evening superintendent ortega and board members my name is gloria sanchez romero and today i was looking at the meetings from the last meeting and to me it
077seemed like um this is miss arianos was very adamant in changing the um mascot to an animal which i don't think very cool about that i think that um since we're going to keep our colors our aztec name our zoo that maybe we should just keep the a as representing our school as we have up now and today earlier this morning i went to the student school at azusa high to buy some merchandise there after spending like almost 300 there um i was talking to the lady that was working there mrs barmus and she was telling me because i was looking at all the murals there and she was telling me that all of them had taken down which is a shame because they're beautiful mural and a lot of them have been given to
078the school as a gift from the graduating class the path and um i was really sad about that but i really think that um if you would um consider not having a mascot and just going with the a which would be okay with me but i'm not the only one that's going to be voting but um i think that would be more appropriate than having an animal we don't think our school should be represented by some kind of animal and um all i have to say thank you mr murrow and next we have melissa fajardo can you hear me good evening board members i hope you are all doing well i am a parent at lee and i'm here once again to continue to advocate for my children and all of our lee students i
079would like to share with you all why i continue to be here i have lived in azusa for eight years now this is the place that we decided to raise our children i have four children attending ausd eight years ago i became a full-time mom to my two oldest and amazing boys that at the time were kindergartner and a second grader because this change was was made so quickly for me i was unfortunately not as involved as i am now in their schools attending these meetings and back then not knowing too much about how schools work azusa was a new city for us with no family or friends nearby conveniently i put them in an elementary school here in azusa that at the time was closest to our home which was a good school with
080some great teachers but they did not offer any programs although my children have thrived academically throughout the years i can now see the importance of having programs at our school my oldest son is now a freshman at azusa high school although he is on track with his grades he is having some difficulties finding something he's interested in he's joined sports sports which is great but he is constantly wanting to change his electives because he struggles to find something that he truly enjoys i strongly feel that if he would have had more opportunities during his elementary and middle school years he would have had better guidance or a better idea and knowing what he is interested in my other son who is now in middle school enjoys his school but has asked several times to to
081have him move somewhere else because other schools have programs that he wants to be a part of we shouldn't have to change our children's schools because their schools are not offering any programs all of our schools should have programs as a parent i have regret not being as involved and speaking up for my children then but now that i am more aware i want to do better my two youngest are still in elementary and i want to give them all the opportunities possible they already attend an amazing school at lee with amazing teachers and staff we have amazing parents and a great foundation all we need is your support in bringing these programs to our school our teachers ali worked twice as hard because they understand that with no programs they have to put in
082more work to keep our children enriched and keep them excited about coming back for every day which is why i am here because coming to these meetings to voice my concerns means that i miss time away from my family i am hoping that you are all truly keeping these points in mind for future plans and lastly congratulations to all of our susa hardworking teachers especially for our lead teacher of the year miss alvarado thank you all for your time thank you ms bijardo this moves us to 8.1 comments reports and requests by the board of education board member rodriguez uh good evening uh good evening everyone um i wanted to um say happy teachers appreciation week i would like to thank thank the teachers for the dedication this is one of the most difficult times
083of being a teacher with switching from distant learning back to personal in-person learning we are lucky to have you all still here at azusa unified food district we do appreciate you i just wanted to mention that i went to um in my rot monthly meeting we usually spot like different districts and um this time it was the graphic art multi-medium pathway at glaston high school teacher jim hegg and mr hagan students showed a video of their project other board members were very impressed and said you know what we wish we had that pathway at our school just and our uh high schools so i was very proud of that that i i was the most unified school district um and i want to congratulate san gabriel valley rop education foundation five thousand dollar scholarship winner
084from gladstone high school kaylin yang for graphic arts and multimedia i went to the murray school bmx assembly gun show students are so excited not only did they have a great show they also spoke about respect trust fairness and teamwork and making the right decision i went to glaston high school coffee with the principal i want to thank um uh i want to i i put an attorney with uh leanne hussain and her staff at azusa library for the great presentation they spoke to parents about programs that they were not aware that was going on at the azusa library they have the azusa diy night classes they have mother's day stealth defense classes teens diy neighborhood connections for housing citizenship seniors service employee and employment and how to get a library card when you get
085a library card you get a library card either you can be um go in person and get your book or you can rent them out and see them at home on on your on your own computer so that was some of the parents are very impressed about that uh because not everyone lives close to on the north side of town and azusa beautiful we partnered with city of azusa west coast a west coast arborist to plant 50 trees around northside park and uh uh in that in that neighborhood we approximately had 100 volunteers i want to thank mayor gonzalez council member jesse avila former mayor joe rocha azuda unified school district employs annette campos teddy and sal luera and even mr fernandez we also had students from the elementary school children's mom was there and
086her son helping his flat trees there and uh some of his little friends would it's great to the students to see that young to show them what volunteers about you know they they did get a gift card to um in and out to get a free lunch so you know that's they worked really hard we got done at 10 o'clock we thought we were gonna be like october one but we had so many volunteers it was a great turnout and we also had students from the zoo the gladstone interact club and we had some students on the azusa high school football team and many other volunteers thank you board member both good evening once again i'd like to offer my deepest appreciation to all of our teachers and as i shared um classroom teachers you
087are the reason that kids come to school so thank you and i just have a couple other announcements i am looking forward to attending several of our open house events this thursday and also bringing back an update from the azusa library i sit on the azusa library commission and i want to help spread the word that the azusa library has now waived all late fees so if you're holding on to books and you're afraid to turn them in because you are might be facing some late fees or if late fees have been a challenge for you in the past that is no longer a deterrent so just bring your book back and continue to enjoy the library so i wanted to share that news that azusa library no late fee so just bring your books
088back and continue to use the library remember cruz gonzalez i have nothing tonight thank you and i just i have a few so again yes congratulations and and kudos and thank you to all of our teachers out there um yes the ones who are honored and celebrated tonight but but even those who were not specifically honored and celebrated this evening uh we we also honor and celebrate you um i do also want to just say welcome uh miss camacho uh on onto here at the table um great great to have you here uh joining us and then just wanted to extend an invitation uh to any and all and specifically to to my colleagues and those here around the table um as as many of you know um there's an organization that i have the
089the pleasure of leading called my third place which is a youth uh mentorship organization uh this this year we've actually partnered with the district and partnered with um specifically with foothill middle school um we've been on campus doing um art and and really art art intervention and looking at how art can be used as a as a a way to uh allow for students to kind of tell their story um and and channel um kind of the the things that they're going to express themselves and so um we've been doing that throughout the course of this semester and there is going to be an art show on friday may 13th from 6 to 8 p.m at mantra coffee um so it'll be there that evening it's it's kind of come and go um six to
090eight but there will be a a brief program at seven p.m and so check here and those at the table here check your inbox there'll be an invitation uh for for you all um you're invited to come uh but so one invites you all to that and also let anyone here in the community uh know about that as well and that is that concludes my comments this evening and so then we will look to 9.1 comments and reports by the superintendent cabinet and student board members and i did see that we had some student board members on the scene are they still with us lika and crystal are with us okay annette good evening board members good evening we had 10 students take the ap government test and another student submitted his work for the
091ap art portfolio last week our co-ed softball team won their game 24-4 their next game is tomorrow at mount olive this week our health career classes are going through cpr training our parent group continues to meet every friday for the mental health classes offered through la county office mental health thank you okay crystal good evening gletzner high's hosa program was named distinguished academy by naf speaking of hosa maria jose escobar received a gold medal in medical assisting and kimberly lopez and alejandra magana were gold medal winners in emt skills gladstone high student first lieutenant brenna amarel was the recipient recipient of an award from the toronto chapter of the dar for her community service excellence and leadership nasa will be using a promo video on climate change made by our very own advanced graphic arts
092students sat testing for 11th graders was proctored on wednesday april 13th ela sbac testing for 11th graders began on monday april 18th and continued through friday the 22nd math aspect testing for 11th graders began on monday april 25th and continued through friday april 29th wasc visit on friday april 15th went very well in kudos to our staff students parents and cabinet for their participation choir performed on april 21st in our little theater gladstone held its first indoor rally of the year on friday april 22nd on april 25th citrus college was at gladstone from 8 a.m to 12 to enroll 10th graders into the ecp program on april 25th april 27th asb students attended the montview league asb symposium at sierra vista high school on april 28 april 28th at 6 pm gladstone choir performed in
093the little theater glaston drama production murder on the menu show dates will be may 5th and 6th at 6 p.m in the little theater ap testing began on may 2nd and will run through may 13th montview league outstanding senior awards was held last night and we honored the following gladiators bren amaral zamira cabanias vanessa travaria camila garcia and jairo lopez gladstone gladstone boys varsity baseball team hosts big bear this wednesday in the first round of cif playoffs at 3 30 pm on the varsity baseball field gladstone asb will hold its first talent first ever gladstone night market and talent show on may 13th on our campus from 4 30 to 9 00 pm tickets will be sold at the door for seven dollars all money we raised at this event will go to the leukemia
094and informal society glaston senior awards tonight will be held on wednesday may 18th from 6 to 8 pm in the gladstone gym thank you thank you superintendent cabinet again i want to thank all of our teachers for their dedication to the teaching profession being a teacher is incredibly difficult it requires countless hours of preparation and a whole lot of care and concern for students and their learning i want to thank you teachers for the work that you do each and every day please enjoy teacher appreciation week additionally i want to congratulate our csc csea employees who earned the professional growth award this is an agenda item on today's agenda uh i just want to recognize our csca classified employees who have invested in themselves by continuing their education in addition to working for the district
095good evening um as this is teacher appreciation week i want to congratulate and thank all of our teachers of zuzia unified school district and also i like to share great news um we i shared previously with the board that we applied for the breakfast um expansion grant um previously we are told that we were not going to receive any allocation in april i mean then february they said oh way to lose we have 55 000 for you but then they said oh wait on april 28th they announced that we're going to get 61 000 and maybe more um from the state for expansion and so we're excited about that and with these funds um we will be purchasing electric insulated transport carts um to have um house hot and cold food so we're excited about
096that good evening i too would like to express and recognize all of our teachers of the year but also express my gratitude and appreciation to all of our azusa teachers on this future uh us teacher appreciation night um i'd also like to put in a little plug we are hosting two of our bilingual dual immersion informational parent meetings um this week one at valley dale on thursday may 5th at 8 30 a.m this is going to be a hybrid meeting so families can attend in person or log on virtually and another at longfellow school on friday at 8 30 am we invite all of our families to attend who would like to learn more about our program me gustaria compartir que tenemos programado dos is i would i would also like to congratulate all of
097our teachers of the year uh all of the honorees that were highlighted tonight when you think about the collective impact positive impact that teachers have on our students and our community we just want to say how much we appreciate and we thank you for that i also want to send my appreciation to all teachers as we are in a teacher appreciation week this week again thank you so much for what you do for our students our community uh and our schools i also want to congratulate our administrators stephanie stephanie de la torre antonio flores ken stout and yvette walker who were all honored who were axa honorees this year so congratulations to them and then lastly i just want to give a shout out and congratulations to paramount elementary school to all of their staff
098their students and their parents for being recognized as a california pivotal practice school for the 2020-2021 school year that is a state award and so just want to congratulate paramount for that acknowledgement thank you moving on to 10.0 general functions and specifically 10.1 approval of resolution 21 22 32 order of biennial election of the azusa unified school district of los angeles county california is there a motion make a motion to approve 10.1 i'll second move by board member rodriguez pena second by board member beau any discussion then we will vote and the motion passes four yes and one absent moving to 10.2 approval of resolution 21 22 33 school board candidate statement is there a motion make a motion to approve 10.2 well second move by board member rodriguez pena and second by board member
099beau any discussion i just have a question um there's not a fee on here is there supposed to be a fee in here or not you know it's just for how many words in the fee that uh that they pay is collected by the uh la county registrar's office uh so i'm not exactly sure what the amount is there are changes from year to year okay one more question thank you um the last election that candidate fee was for one language so if you wanted to do it in more than one language would be 800 times the language so for example if you wanted if you want to publish in english and spanish you'd be sixteen hundred dollars got it thank you and that was but that was for the whole district right it'll be
100down it'll be a fifth of it now right so that was for in the last election for the esd school but it was um district-wide it wasn't so it should be different i guess if it's by district because they're less right maybe that's why this is not maybe uh as a direct dollar amount yeah i was just curious thank you yeah any other discussion [Music] and the motion passes for yes to one absent moving to item 10.3 approval of resolution 2122-34 certification of signatures is there a motion make a motion to approve 10.3 a second move by board member rodriguez pena second by board member beau any discussion then we'll move to a vote and the motion passes 4 yes to 1 absent next we move to 11.0 which is consent calendar and specifically 11.1
101all which is all matters listed under the consent calendar which are considered by the board of education to be routine and will be enacted in one motion there will be no discussion of these items unless requested by a board member if a board member request discussion that item will be removed from the consent calendar and considered separately is there a motion to approve 11.1 which approves the entire consent count i make a motion to approve 11.2 through 11.9 a second well no discussion so we'll move to above and the motion passes for yes to one absent which brings us to 13.0 business and finance and specifically 13.1 approval of resolution 21 22 36 providing for the issuance of series d of the district's measure k general obligation bond is there any is there a motion
102to approve make a motion to approve 13.1 well second move by board member rodriguez pena second by board member beau any discussion then we will move to a vote and the motion passes four yes to one absent which brings us to 13.2 approval of agreement between azusa unified school district and enterprise we will receive some information before we take a vote good evening board i would like to introduce you all to rick and miss alexis who's online we'll do a presentation on enterprise leasing options good evening everyone my name is rick ritter with enterprise um and i'm here today to review the opportunity for a partnership excuse me all right that's a little bit better um rick ritter with enterprise fleet management i'm here to review the opportunity for a partnership with a school district
103enterprise fleet management in order to lower your total cost of ownership as it relates to vehicles that you operate across the district um so i'll just do a brief high level overview based on the information that was provided um given that the zuzu school district qualifies for a government buy you have a unique opportunity based on the incentives that you receive as a government entity at enterprise as you all know as a rental company we have to be experts with operating fleet as most effectively as possible from a total cost of ownership standpoint so as a fleet consultant we'll partner with the district to make sure that you're getting the best possible buy on your vehicles so we're operating them at the optimal point and that we're capitalizing on a resale market through our infrastructure
104and then monitoring all this through telematics program gives us all the data to make sure that we're making best possible decisions and operating both so this is a tried and true method as you can see these are all partners with enterprise fleet management so you would not be a guinea pig in this scenario this is an opportunity that you can capitalize on we are qualified through the source well purchasing cooperative um but if you would like to speak any of these preferences in terms of the scope of service you know our best fit for the school district would be to help on acquisition of the vehicle and funding as well as making sure we're doing ongoing consultation analysis after the cent per mile that you operate vehicles with um selling those vehicles at the right
105time through the right channel and ultimately leveraging all the data we're collecting the best in class fleet from a safety standpoint efficiency as well as a standpoint we did an in-depth analysis on this fleet and identified an opportunity in your current holding pattern to make sure that we're optimizing buying power coupled with the way that we're able to market vehicles through our network of wholesale dealerships to drive the value of those vehicles so this is an example if any civilian were to go buy a pickup truck they would have to pay msrp which is 36 000. um and so what we found is that typically with government entities there's a buy and hold strategy based on a capital budget constraining how many vehicles we can replace well because the government entities buy so well and
106we're able to market vehicles so effectively based on our experience in the industry and our infrastructure rather than holding vehicles for an extended period of time we're able to capitalize on unique opportunities and in this example um and what we've done with other government entities is operate a vehicle for only 12 months and actually drive revenue for the district which will help lower your total cost of ownership and your budget so this particular example is unique to a pickup truck in the current market conditions but this is also the example of ongoing consultation and expertise that we're going to provide as a fleet consultant to make sure that we're operating as efficiently as possible and using um the funds appropriately to make sure that we can give you all the visibility and information so that
107you can focus on education and leverage our expertise and so one of the unique opportunities from a funding standpoint is our open-ended equity lease this is not a traditional lease you'd experience at a dealer this is no wear and tear fees there's no over mileage penalties and you participate in the entire equity of the vehicle um so this is a cash flow tool so we're able to do more with your capital budget and make sure that we're replacing vehicles at an effective point both for safety and from maintenance and fuel standpoint so that there is operationally efficient as possible i already touched on the acquisition and the disposal and then the telematics program would allow us to track the data safety as well as utilization utilization's especially important in a government scenario to make sure
108that we have the right number of vehicles that we don't have too many and that these vehicles are being used at an optimum point um so that we can right-size the fleet in the event that anything's under utilized and we can better serve that with a rental or other reimbursement other op well so we did a 10-year analysis where we took the current fleet identified your holding patterns and our recommendations and identified the oldest vehicles in the fleet as a place to start a partnership and what we did was by taking this model where we're identifying the right term for the vehicle based on the capital cost annual mileage pattern and when that vehicle should be sold were able to effectively replace your fleet over the period shown here with an effective savings of 382
109000 now this is a financial forecast and this demonstrates that by taking a more proactive approach and leveraging expertise that we have in the automotive space that we're able to drive down your total costs and operate an effective and safely in the process and then in terms of tools and technology we have enterprise client website which is essentially a data warehouse for all of your elite data that would be using as ongoing consultation and tracking and then we do have the ability to provide manufactured comparisons where we're putting manufacturers side by side and comparing them on a cent per mile basis as well as what the effective holding pattern is or the type of vehicle that's going to be the best suited for your need so all of that being said enterprise fleet and partner
110with the district to help drive down your total costs and leverage our infrastructure and expertise um to give you more control and visibility into your overall feed spend and to drive down your total cost in the process while refreshing your fleet and keeping it safe and operating back so i think as a just an everyday user when we think about leasing a new car or even buying a new car we generally experience that um the the vehicle loses value when you drive it off the lot so could you explain to us in a layman's terms how you're able to generate revenue after we've leased a vehicle for 12 months yeah so and that that example is specific to a half done pickup truck so the resale market's extremely strong right now and your average mile
111pattern or annual mileage pattern is about 5 000 miles a year um so because you buy the vehicle so well if you and i were to go to a dealership we couldn't buy as well with the government buy that essentially covers that up front on depreciation that you're referencing so with minimal use and 12 months later we're able to actually remarket that vehicle on the fair market for more than we purchased it for with the qualified government body and that's not going to be the case for every vehicle class that you operate but given the pickup truck market right now as well as minimal after market it's an opportunity that this weekend relies on thank you and i have a second question um and also you mr mel what is our um our plan for
112transitioning from uh fuel-based vehicles to electric or hybrid and what will that mean for our uh charging station infrastructure yes so that's a great question so um by going through this lease that would actually um it is one step ahead as as we're exploring type of vehicles to lease um in the meantime we are currently exploring um facility grants where we can do infrastructure on adding the charging stations um we're also doing that for our buses as well one of the things that we ran into or that we learned is that we have to um first we need to identify the type of fleet that we're going to have and then find a universal charging um we talked to surrounding districts who were able to be awarded the state grant to get the infrastructure for
113the charging but now that they're buying buses and vehicles those charging stations do not work for those vehicles so we didn't want to make the same mistake so we're trying to partner to them simultaneously you're welcome so i have two questions um one's very sabrina's first question do you mind going back to the government the one that you showed the um the f-250 side um so to your point about where the used car market right now is very very um it i won't say type there's but they're really used cars are very expensive right now right because because of the shortages and shortages for new cars so in terms of are these numbers based on like the current market these estimates are based on current market so the the numbers that we've used from a
114resale standpoint are based on the commercial black book index um so yes those those are current market this particular example you know even pre-pandemic before the used car market had its spike was being implemented instituted and the government buy coupled with selling a vehicle lightly use very low mileage there's always going to be a robust market from that standpoint but given the nature of the open-ended equity lease in 12 months if it didn't make financial sense to remarket the vehicle we could extend that out for another 12 months and continue to depreciate the asset until the fair market value exceeded the residual that the police was being written to thank you um and then my second question um can you go to the slide that has later on that has the number um our sleep
115our current fleet profile the one with the yeah there you go so i look and see how many average years our fleet has so i'm very excited about this opportunity right and i also noticed that the city of azusa is a partner with you and i see their like light and water trucks driving around look really nice so i'm actually very excited about this my question is actually for our staff in terms of fleet size right is there going to be an analysis of the of the current fleet size whether it's the right amount i mean we have factors maybe we've never had enough cars or maybe we're closing school so we don't need so many right so at what point when does that analysis happen in terms of the actual fleet side so that
116actually and i will start yes so that's actually taking place now um so at this point in time we don't have enough vehicles for our team um and the advantage of the lease is is as um our school sizer decreases and our number of faculty staff that utilize vehicles decreases we just um contact enterprise and we'll say hey we're going to turn this vehicle over versus if we purchase all these vehicles now we have a yard full of vehicles that are just sitting right but the analysis is happening right now though yes ma'am why when do you anticipate that being done so um can you um elaborate on that because we identified how many cars we need based on our current staff so i see here that you have our current our current fleet is
117this is this what you anticipate us needing or this is our current fleet right now currently right so do you already have the numbers in terms of how many cars we we need to plan to have yes ma'am and is that in this presentation no ma'am but we couldn't hear that you can share that with us no problem so i have a question right you may have answered i'm not sure if i was hearing you properly but so if we lease it we'll say 10 years will um is the least you could either return it or keep it or change it for a newer year you're a model right what are we doing after that time do we know yet um can you um say that one more time kind of like okay when you
118lease the car you can either return it or you can keep it or you can or you can return for a newer model so or which one of those you're to do are we going to keep them are we going to upgrade them it may be both options so depending on our like if we have um and um board member cruz gonzalez example if our number of our employees are decreasing at that time we may choose to turn the lease over but if we still need the vehicle we'll be working with enterprise to get a more modern upgraded vehicle to be more to continue to be efficient just to add on there for context we do have quarterly meetings on an ongoing basis with our fleet partners um and we're continuing to reevaluate the market
119your needs utilization so it's not just let's get started it's an ongoing consultation we're continuing to earn the part and and do we have a cap of how many miles you can put into it no open-ended equity leases do not have any mileage restrictions but but when you lease a car you have you when you return you you have to be at 13. yeah you're referencing a closed-ended net lease which you would experience at a dealership you and i could not go to a dealership and qualify for an open-ended equity lease that's based on our funding partners okay understood thank you yeah no problem thank you so just in terms of just in general generalizing right um so your government partners how often how long do they generally keep their cars that one year three
120years ten years and i know it's hard to just generalize but just roughly like um like say a school district right yep i would say if i had if i was pinned down to give you an exact general answer it would be three to four years um it all depends on the type of vehicle aftermarket equipment the annual mileage pattern so there's a lot of factors that go into that but they would average out the three to four i have a few questions uh you you had indicated that you talked about the sale of the vehicle so so you're saying that when if the vehicle is leased and then in essence once it's sold back is what you're saying what can you can you communicate what you mean about how you assist with the sale
121of the vehicle yeah absolutely as your fleet partner we would be able to remarket owned vehicles as well as any vehicles that you acquire through the enterprise partnership so because you know as a an entity we sell over a million vehicles a year we have the infrastructure in the partnership with wholesale dealers where we're going to be able to drive the price of that vehicle based on that partnership and relationship so we would instead of the district selling on your own we would sell on consignment or on your behalf which allows us to get more value for each vehicle and and that would include our current fleet or that's that's in regards to the the vehicles that we obtained through this partnership we would have the ability to help you remarket your current fleet as
122well as any vehicles that you would acquire through our partnership and you would keep all the equity or resale proceeds based on the lease structure of open ended and then you had also made a made mention about uh a cent per mile so uh and i just heard you reference that so i know we're saying it's it's open-ended and so therefore there is not a a mileage cap um if there's not a mileage cut can you speak to the the cent per mile charge that you were referencing um the semper mile would not be a charge it's a benchmark on how efficiently we're operating the fleet so we would take the fully burdened cost so your acquisition the fuel you use the maintenance as well as reselling the vehicle and based on the annual mileage
123pattern we would benchmark the cent per mile to make sure that we're operating as efficiently as possible and then as we as we evaluate our fleet and i'm talking from from small down you know up to huge are there are there categories of vehicles that that we would not be able to use so i you know maybe buses come to mind right are there are there other vehicles that that we would not be able to utilize the partnership for it's a great question so we can help with your light and medium duty vehicles that means anything up to 26 000 pounds in the gross vehicle weight rating um we wouldn't be able to help on anything beyond that but anything from a chevy spark all the way up to you know a 650 utility bed
124we would be able to help with but we would not be able to help the school buses bucket trucks or heavier equipment that fall past that 26 w i just have a process question for us though um um the there's no actual agreement attached to this to this agenda item is that because it's the contract to resource well or is there an actual contract between us and so actually the purpose was for mr rick and his team to present to see if this is um even what the board would like for us to explore if we get the go-ahead then we will bring back a formal contract to put on the board agenda okay because if the gen dice is infil i have another question um regarding you know i'm reading here that um enterprise
125will order the vehicles where where are these vehicles coming from they're not necessarily the ones on your lot right you order the needs of the district or that's correct yeah where do they come from the best way to acquire a vehicle from a cost standpoint is to go directly to the manufacturer so we would um request the government incentive that you qualify for with the manufacturer the vehicle would be specked out your exact needs nothing more nothing less and we could factory order that vehicle um that way you're getting the best possible acquisition price and the exact tool that you need for the job so um enterprise i know is uh what i is a rent rent place right rents your cars enterprise rent-a-cars fell cars there too and released cars yeah i wasn't aware
126that i'm just not yeah no so i never bought a car no absolutely so i'm a member of our enterprise fleet management division so we work with commercial and municipal entities to help manage their fleet and lower their total costs we also have a rent-a-car division that you referenced a truck rental division our sales division so there's different divisions within the company um so as you're as a fleet manager we would be helping your total cost of ownership in that ongoing consultation but our division does not rent cars or sell cars directly right so you you mainly uh do them with um two districts in in city halls or con you know yeah cities counties universities school districts hvc companies roofing contractors home health care companies so we just we span a lot of different
127industries utility company okay thank you understood just a couple more questions uh one you you said that that we have the potential to to save in the long long run i think i think it was a 10-year projection 382 000 so when and i understand that it is a projection is is this projection you talked about the the truck and and the truck image and you talk how holding it for one year this is the savings that one has 3 000 but that's due to the resale market at this current time so what is this 10-year can you speak to what the 10-year projection is is getting at to where there would be a 382 thousand dollar savings for the various vehicles uh over the course of that time yeah absolutely so what we did
128is we identified all the different vehicle classes that currently operates your holding pattern versus what we've identified as optimal based on your total cost of ownership and then we played that out over the course of 10 years so in this example you'll see that um just in the first couple years your maintenance spend drops considerably because we're getting the oldest vehicles that cost you the most from a maintenance standpoint out of and then if you look from a fuel standpoint you see that that reduces as well considerably in flat because we're getting rid of the least efficient vehicles um and then looking at hybrid options and ev options they incorporate um and then the other element is that selling vehicles at the right time when they still have good value as opposed to holding them
129until there's no value left so when you couple those things together over the 10-year period when you run that's how you achieve that policy okay and then the last question i have is for mr mall so i mean all of this all of this sounds great what what are the what are the potential disadvantage that you first right now the only potential disadvantage is the delay on the vehicles um no matter how we slice or dice it it seems like it's taking vehicles a long time to get here um but we the advantage of this is that they will all always be working and so they'll know when the vehicle is available and then we'll be first online to go forward but at this time that's the only disadvantage we have and that does that's
130that's a disadvantage that we would experience whether we were working with enterprise or not are there any are do you can you see any specific disadvantages to the the partnership with enterprise not at this time any other questions mr ritter who are your competitors um in regards to other food management companies um you know in the government space there's not a whole lot our you know primary competition is mindset in terms of a buy and hold strategy other fleet management companies are ari wheels um donlin you know where we're positioned is we work with municipal and commercial entities that operate anywhere from 20 vehicles to several hundred vehicles and that's where we add our best value we have a local support theme that provides ongoing consultation where the competitors that i referenced are more positioned
131to serve large fleets of several thousand or more and provide more of a technology and then operate on your own with dedicated in-house representatives as opposed to an outsourced ongoing consultation solution thank you um and so then for clarity to your point board member cruz gonzalez so this is an info action item but you don't actually need us to vote in order to move forward with uh with the contract you just need direction i just need direction that we would like to explore this and i can bring a contract to the next agenda item yes i agree and i just have to give one anecdote so when i first got elected there was a board member who went on a field trip with some students in the minivan and the door fell off the minivan
132this is the early 2000s but i'm just saying like so this is very i am very much in favor thank you who are those people thank you all for your time and it's been a pleasure sitting in on all the tremendous accolades that have been celebrated absolutely mr mall is anything else you need is that give yes thank you thank you moving on then to item 13.3 approval of consultant agreement between zeus unified school district and daniel minion their motion no this is an action item approval of a consultant you're oh i'm sorry thirteen point three thirteen point three i'm saying yes um approval on thirteen point three make a motion well second move by board member rodriguez pena second by board member bo any discussion i just still have a question about the um
133the empty positions but so when do you anticipate those being filled so we're getting close we're getting close um so we filled our accounting supervisor position um miss winnie sue our new purchasing specialist just started we still have a vacancy and a lead accountant and we have one vacancy in payroll but we have selected the candidate okay then we'll move to a vote and the motion passes four yes to one absent moving on to 14.0 curriculum and instruction and specifically 14.1 presentation presentation of a zeus unified school district a through g completion improvement program we do have frankie hello again um i have the opportunity tonight to give you some information about the a through g completion improvement grant program uh this program was actually notified through edcode and we have an opportunity to get
134some money and start using it so the presentation goes thank you so the so here's a very simple description of what the a through g completion improvement grant program is and there is an ed code directly linked to this and the purpose is to provide additional supports to districts to help increase the number of students who would be eligible to graduate with a through g um as you know a through g um let me let me go into the next slide to make sure what e3 sheet is e3 is essentially a sequence of high school courses and that students must complete what they see or better to be minimally eligible for mission to the uc or california state university system and so the grant will allow us to develop students coursework as well as professional
135development to ensure that our students are through g ready to give you a brief understanding of how our ausd graduation requirements compare to a through g i just show this little chart here and you can see that we are very closely aligned so there are some factors that are different for example we do require other things that a through g does not for example we do require two years of pe that a through g does not um but other than that we are very closely aligned in regards to graduation requirement and a through g ability there are however what is not pointed out there is for a3g eligibility there are recommended number of years versus required number of year and for our students to be competitive our counselors always talk to our students to make
136sure that they not only do the minimum but they go beyond which is you know the recommended um so for example it is required that you have three years of math i mean you want three years of math but you really want to recommend them to get four years of math you want it's required to have two years of science but you recommend them to have three years of science it's required that they have two years of the same language other than english but you recommend that they have three years so um a3g eligibility is based on these basic requirements but our counselors always recommend our students to go for more moving on to the next slide so there are two parts of this a through g program improvement grant um the first part is
137the a through g access grant and this access current the priority areas are these four areas listed um don't necessarily need to read this all to you because we are doing a lot of this through our lcap that is the the great thing about this access scan brand is it aligns very well with what we already established in llcap um in usc will receive approximately 520 000 of this a through g axis grant and i want to show you on the next slide the other part of this grant is the learning loss mitigation grant and that will be around 195 000. so these two parts will allow us to continue what we're doing in our lcap for example next slide our lcap goal three already have these actions and services built in and we will
138continue these and augment it more with this funding we are clearly focused on college readiness we pay for our students assessments all of our students for example if they want to take the psat or the sat i know those are a little obsolete right now but if they did want to and still we encourage students who want to because it is an optional test if they do want to we pay for it entirely if students are taking ap tests we pay for it if students are taking ib tests we pay for it we're gonna pay for it not only through the a2g grant that is before you but also we have written that within our lcap we pay for the avid program to ensure that our students understand the value of a college education many
139of our students are first-generation students going to college we support them with apple tutors we support them with college visits we support them with understanding study skills we support them with fafsa um applications all of these things we support through habit yes of course should i wait no please please okay okay so um are we funding um our continuation high school because it is a credit recovery high school so that our students can graduate with with a higher grade but are any of this funds going to the continuation yes so um the learning loss mitigation allows us to do credit recovery and so we have um apex classes online for our students so that they can take these credit recovery we use learning loss mitigation funds for a lot of our students online and virtually
140for summer school but if you're saying specifically for the continuation high school we have general fund for that and so i'm not going to say that this directly is the only contributing um grant money that will support the continuation yeah i would just say that because you know the purpose of it is to you know have our students graduate with this year or better and that's where the students go to get you know better grades and and for credit recovery yeah and we also offer that at the two um high schools the comprehensive high schools so when a student does not get a c or better and an a through g class there are opportunities even at the school and they don't have to go to sierra and the continuation high school in order to
141recover that credit and mr chang on the other on the on the weather end as well when you're saying uh if a student wants to take an ap exam that's for all three high schools yes right all three high schools we heard today from teacher of the year uh sierra membrane nice students passing the ap exam with fours and fives they they also benefit from those funds as well thank you within our lcap go interactions and services we support obviously a lot of programs and the mindset and idea of getting our students to be college ready and within it we have credit recovery options as well as advancement in a through g course um moving on just showing you our a3g completion rates um you know we were at um [Music] pretty much around 34
142and then we started seeing some momentum being built um right at 2020 and which will decrease or increase our a through g to about 45 percent but you know the the hit of cobit um really brought us back down to about 38 um but this shows that we've been doing a lot of good things in our district start moving those numbers up a lot of the contributing factors include increasing our math requirements you know making sure that our students are taking a language other than english establishing bpa papa classes for a graduation requirement so that really that alignment with the a through g requirements showed that through the last several years we've seen an uptick we want to continue that momentum i know over it has presented some challenges but as we get through this
143pandemic we hopefully will continue to see an uptick in our a3g ask question about that um so how much impact do you think the fact that in 2020 and 2021 um students were able to um do is that past sale right that they weren't necessarily graded how much impact would that have had on that or we can we look at that and see the impact of that well um the ucs and csus accepted the past not passed um so the the courses that were a through g um eligible um the the university accepted the past not passed our challenge um during this time was a lot of students um not necessarily performing as they should and as we historically might have expected our students to perform in these classes um what we developed in the
144last two years with kovid is that a lot of our students um especially the ones who are ready for graduation they needed more credit recovery so the learning loss mitigation would help something to that matter um so in that sense the past not passed thankfully our universities accepted it but the impact of the lower d through g is more because our students were not passing classes even for high school graduation i was talking about we had a spike in like yeah that was that that's what i was talking about like how much of that is connected to the fact that students were able to do a past failure and not and not have to get a grade knowing how many of our students complete the a through g's but may may not have a c
145or better in all those classes right yeah that's what i was asking oh i'm so sorry i totally misunderstand that i don't know i can definitely look into that and then get you i can try to figure out if there's a way based on her history um i can try to figure that out sorry i totally misunderstood that um our next slide so some of the things we're going to work on and have been working on high quality professional development um a target a student support program utilizing um in-class and virtual tutors and credit recovery opportunities so for example we are partnered with california education partners non-track collaborative that focuses on decreasing the dnf rate especially with our ninth graders and we have seen some positive results year-over-year results for example semester one results from
146this year versus semester one results from last year we have seen um some good numbers in regards to a decrease we're working with doug reeves for um for a lot of our teachers to do a pilot program for grading practices we're working with dr nancy akavon regarding interventions and instructional leadership we continue to have apib and avid trainings in fact summertime is huge for that we have a lot of teachers going ap ib and avid trainings and of course we have continued district support from our tosas so all of these help with our high quality professional development and then we also have student support programs in which for example with other funding sources we've been able to get interventionists working with our students increasing the number of students in ninth grade classes um interventions working
147with students directly we have a hey tutor program we have virtual tutoring and we are currently in discussion with apu to see if they can fund in-class tutors with their um i forgot what is the grant money that they get they get um students and qualify for um to be paid work study yes yeah gosh i can't believe i forgot that i was a work study student um but yes through work study so we can get these students into our classrooms to be classrooms thank you we again mentioned earlier they mentioned free college readiness for all students college writing is testing for all students s-a-t-a-p-i-b um we're extending our partnerships with citrus college apu and we are exploring once again because we used to have partnership with princeton review or kaplan and expanding the use
148of our college board ap classrooms we want to be able to make sure that all of our teachers who teach ap classes can expand their resources within the ap classroom and that is something that is done that is available for all of our ap teachers and we want to continue to build leadership and collaboration amongst our teachers our counselors so that they can help our students understand the value of a3g classes and then also a key area is to make sure that our middle school students have a good understanding before coming up to the high schools so those are the basic things that we're working on i i know it covers quite a bit there's a lot of things actually i just gave you a quick overview of what we're going to be using the
149grant funds for to any other question whatever beau mr chang i was just taking a look at the um the grant uh allocation awards especially that goes along with these grants and just looking at some of our surrounding district and where they are with their a through g um percentages what's our what's our target what's our goal if we're at approximately 38 percent now what's our goal i i can't say that i have an actual goal um because ideally we want to prepare all of our students to be college ready but the grant is based on a 67 percent um anything less than 60 you get a certain amount versus those who are above 67 so the cde is using that target of 67 to differentiate between the two funding funding amounts for certain districts
150that'd be a good number to keep in mind but again i don't have a personal goal because i think ultimately it's 100 but at the same time realistically we do see that our graduation rate has to correlate to um well let me rephrase that i think it's number one priority is ensure that our graduation rate increases and continues to be above the 90 percent that we are and if we increase the number of our graduation rate the increase our graduation rate then our uc eligibility will increase because we are closely aligned so that's that's probably the best way i can answer that but i want to push on that a little bit so i understand our graduation rate is what is it 92 percent and so if we have 38 of those let's say we
151had 92 students or 100 students and 92 92 of them graduated does 38 mean 38 of the 92 or 38 out of 100. 38 out of 100. okay and so how how how far can we move the mark forward by only looking at graduation rates because i heard you say that our graduation requirements are very closely aligned to the a through g requirement so maybe i'm missing a calculation of why those numbers aren't closer you can graduate from ausd but more of our students graduate from ausd not being a through g um complete so where's the gap the key area is the c and better so we we have a lot of our students who there that is the area that we have to focus on how does it see your back and then um
152so i think it's important to state what our goal is not really be afraid of stating that our goal is 67 i mean if that's something that's been identified in a grant then i think that you know the people in sacramento have identified that as a statewide goal and so by setting the carrot at 67 percent they want districts to get there and in looking at geographically surrounding districts west covina is at 54 percent covina valley 66 glendora 60 baldwin pork 41 monrovia chartered 46 bassett 37. so i think you know a lot of schools have a lot of you know room to grow to get to 67 but i i i think we really need to not be afraid of stating what our goal is and if the state has already identified 67 as
153um an incentive to get there i would like us to consider that to be our benchmark as well so can i just say something so having been part of those conversations in sacramento when these numbers were negotiated i just want to suggest that we decide and we decide here what what what what our goal should be right because i would say that 67 to me is low right i think we should aim for higher than that um um but i do think i i think what makes sense to me is we're going to be approving the updated lcap right let's put a goal in there and we're supposed to have annual goals so let's let's let's and it's i think it's our atg's already in there right so let's review that to the el cap
154process and make sure that for this next year do we think like is that growth reasonable so that we're getting to whatever whatever the end target is but so that we have a base an annual um growth target i think that's important and i also think it's important to disaggregate to look at how different student groups are doing and i i would agree with that just that the concept of so 67 or or 80 or 90 that might be a target vote but if we were to look and say where do where do we get what what can we target by the end of 2023 where can we target by the end of 2024 and and and have kind of iterative benchmark uh that we that we said as that i have a question so
155in terms of the p requirement it's it's not an a through g requirement but is it an ed code requirement that students have physical education right so there are some requirements that may not be okay yeah just gonna clarify that um in terms of the sat um i'm just wondering i don't think i think right now maybe premature but just the fact that they use these you know have moved now to not using standardized tests and many ologists except my alma mater have decided not to use standardized tests um i just i'm not sure if continuing to invest in a system that may be deprecated in a few years right because it's really not equitable um i'm not i think we should have continuing conversations instead of like doubling down and trying to give more
156opportunities i don't know i'm just saying like it's all everything is so uncertain i think we should think about the value of that investment um in terms of the slide you showed with the a through g completion a through g requirements versus our requirements right why don't why don't we just add one more year of language right and then our graduation requirements align with the a through g requirement i think that's a question for my colleagues right why don't we just add one more year of language um especially if we build an opportunity for language in the middle schools right they could actually start some of those early and maybe not impact their high school years um i think that's something for us to think about moving forward um i do have a question about
157the strategies right because i hear a lot about intervention additional support right i mean i think in my mind we want the goal should be around first best teaching what happens in the classroom right um even as you think about mtss right we want to have students succeed the first time around right and so i think i'm probably looking more to like norma you and dana right around like how do we how do we connect the dots for everyone and i hear you i mean we're doing good things with on-track collaboration with looking at the dnf rate i'm talking about grading practices but so how does that connect to all of this is what i really want to understand because a lot of this is really around kids get a d in a class right
158and then they're no longer a through g eligible because they don't have c are better in other classes so where and looking at are just have we done an analysis about students and where they are and where they start getting the d's frank you want to speak to the data that you started looking at for students yeah unfortunately for the last couple of years we've seen a trend in which a lot of our incoming ninth graders well not incoming they're ninth graders now they experience a lot of um challenges and you at their ninth grade early years um we see a lot of these and f's in math and in english so thankfully we're working on that with the on-track collaborative but we definitely see a lot of just at the early years of high
159school a lot of students experiencing those challenges are you looking at three pandemic years are you just looking at the less so so what i i think i actually had on my list ask arthur for an update on the on track collaborative and what's happening with that because i think it's important for us to understand like where we are with that because i think i'm very interested in understanding what kind of analyses are coming out you know what how are we identifying as what are the major factors in terms of kids coming in and maybe you know in their freshman year they get a d or f in math right or english right um and just having those very public conversations about the pieces that are these stumbling you know i agree with that it's
160like so so you focus it at ninth grade and the next question is though what are we doing about it you know what are we doing to help these students and to also communicate with the parents and let them know how important it's because you know it's hard to explain to students they they go to um elementary they go to middle school and they need to understand that once you go to high school if they're on credit it's not just a grade it's more than that because that is going to help them through to get to college right or even to get a better job so you know how are we um letting the parents know you know how important and and the students too because students they just come into school and they just
161maybe not think about it i don't know but you know how are we reaching them is is that a question that you would like me to address no no no no no no i'm sorry i'm just thinking out loud you know what are we doing you know what are we doing for these students and and families you know i include the parents because you know education starts in the home but right but we need to let the parents know how important is even when they go to coffee with the principals you know you see a lot of parents in high school these days um well it's more open now after the epidemic a little better thank god for that but you know they need to know that how important it is you know need response
162to go in there and speak you know we need to reach them and not wait till they're like a junior and they then they end up at sierra high school you know we need to try to reach them before that i'm just no i'm not asking a question right and then my last question is just around budget right so do we as a board have to actually adopt a uh we you just have to have an information item at a board meeting um and so um are you gonna clearly align a budget for how we want to spend these monies like at what point is that gonna come to us so we can see like how this aligns with or else happens yes i can generate a report that along the way and and you
163can see how the alignment is if you were like i think i was asking if maybe we have a plan an event i understand things may shift right and that there's value in being able to make sure but but i i would really like to see like at the outset like right a budget of where we anticipate as spending these dollars in house sure um keep in mind that it doesn't have to be expended until i think 25 um 2025 um so this total amount i would give you kind of like a three-year plan for what you can do perfect yeah and i think it makes sense to bring that when you bring the elf information but i think looking at budgets at the same time makes sense i just wanted to share a comment
164that as we talk about this particular grant being focused on a through g and for students in grades 9-12 i'd like to have a future presentation and discussion on articulation between junior high and high school and where we're providing more support to middle school students so as eighth graders matriculate to high school how are we ensuring that they are ready to do high school work and rather than doing a remediation once they get to high school and maybe fail yeah the two questions i had were around pe and and uh two years of language the discrepancy uh what's up here the disruption between the a through g and then our graduation requirement with pe to board member cruz gonzalez's question we require what is that the what is minimally required by ed code yeah and
165that's what that's what our graduation okay and then as far as language yeah you pose the question i mean for for the rest of us um i i'd be here to know what other if there are thoughts from other board members around this the concept of of there being you know two years versus one year and then also hearing from from uh staff around what what is the what what is why why isn't that currently aligned why is there that description yeah my question is so if the requirement is two years why do we have one year that's you're right i mean why is it not two years if it pleases the board i'm thinking uh we can uh bring a presentation uh to kind of see um you know for every action there's a
166reaction um we have the ada g and then we also have uh cte pathways and courses and robust um on the if we're talking college and career maybe on the career side and so just kind of see how those things work together in in tandem and in collaboration um so that when we're when we're looking at our students our high school students um that we're keeping in mind um for most students right that's six periods uh four years and so how how do we how do we uh have a graduation a requirement um that that honors lots of different choices and i'm not saying it can't be together i'm just saying we can explore that and study that and see how that see how that how that works uh for uh for all of our
167students i welcome that conversation i mean i'll just give the examples though when i went when i went to school like my first year of language is in eighth grade and i got high school i mean i got credit for my for my a through g's for that right so i think that there are ways to think creatively about how we fit all of this in um and then what was the other thing but oh the other thing is the piece about the same language is right because once upon a time a normal might know this better than me like we have we would have people come in who were fluently spanish and so they would be encouraged to take ap spanish one year and then the next year to go to france instead right
168and so that was a common practice i don't think i'm not i don't think it's anymore but i think for a long time that was a common practice so this same language piece is really important any other questions thank you okay so we will move to 15.0 human resources and specifically 15.1 approval of professional growth awards for the 2021 2022 school year make a motion to approve 15.1 i'll second move by board member rodriguez pena seconded by board members gonzalez is there any discussion uh i just want to congratulate these classified employees uh you know to continue their education and um and i'm also glad that the unified offers you know um some funds and and i noticed that i have there's some employees here their high school elementary even the adult food transitional program
169and middle school so it'd be interesting to see what are their job titles i mean are they instructional custodians what their jobs are because i i want to um i know that they have families and they work but they want to continue their education you know you just look for another job i mean you know within our dis right so i i want to congratulate these customer employees for um taking the time to review the work i just want to echo what yolanda just said i mean i agree with you um congratulations to all of these people i do want to say i just want to say i appreciate the fact that we have this right i think so often schools pay attention to professional development for their certificated staff and so i think this
170is very important and the more we can give all of our staff opportunities to grow the better so i just want to express my appreciation for that and just one more thing so as long as i've been in the board it's um i was in the same amount who gives who decides what amount is the words to be 250 but the amount is um has is part of the agreement in the csca um contract so under article 19 uh it states that the amount is 250 uh but it's also important to note that an employee can receive up to a thousand dollars um through this same um article in the contract uh they just cannot receive the 250 every year it's every other year they could apply uh for for this professional growth provided that
171the units that they're using to um to satisfy the requirements are not the same units that were used for previous awards so so changing this amount would be negotiate negotiable with the csda correct have you ever thought about that or we i just been seeing i've been here 10 years and i've been seeing the same amount i'm just you know inflation has gone up so forth and i i'm just um wondering if you know give it a shot from i don't know we're open to the discussion for sure thank you okay any other discussion and we will move to vote and the motion passes four yes to one absent which brings us to 16.0 and there are four well 16.0 and then we have 16.1 through 16 uh mr ticket 16.4 in error where it
172says it has action listed there that is correct that's an error so so that means for 16.1 through 16.4 each of these are our info items are there any um questions or or or any uh any discussion around any of these four items hearing none i'll move this thing to 17.0 and 17.1 which is adjournment and i we'll entertain a motion make motion to approve 17.1 adjournment second the move but moved by board member rodriguez pena is seconded by board member beau any discussion remember you want to talk to us while you're oh you're already up okay all right then we'll move to a vote and the motion passes four yes so one absent and with that this meeting is adjourned uh at 9 45