4/19/22 Azusa Unified School District Board Meeting

001well good evening everyone the time is now seven o'clock and i will call this meeting to order uh for this regularly scheduled uber meeting open session of the azusa unified school district and we will go ahead and begin with 4.1 flag salute let's stand next we move to our roll call 4.2 board member rodriguez pena president board member beau here board member cruz gonzalez here board member adianas will be she's here she'll be joining us i will move on then to item 4.3 which is approval of the agenda make a motion to approve 4.3 i second any discussion then we will go ahead and vote hope are we able to move that to an abstention or an absence okay uh we'll do a hand vote uh board member rodriguez pena president uh sorry this is

002a vote for approval of the agenda oh yes board member beau yes board member cruz gonzalez yes and i am also a yes and so uh we'll move that to four yes it approved it it's moved forward and is approved for yes to one absent uh item 5.0 report action of closed session matters there are none uh nothing to report and so we will move to item 6.0 recognition and awards and specifically 6.1 recognition of the azusa unified school district classrooms that participated in the fuel year school award dr mitch good evening on march 17th three of our azusa unified school district classrooms participated in the super bowl champion los angeles rams fuel up to play 60 fuel your school innovation challenge mr hartman's class from paramount miss brown coulter's classroom powell and mrs trujillo's

003classroom lee were invited to join the la rams and the greater la foundation for a project-based learning opportunity each class had an opportunity to develop an idea to improve access to healthy eating and physical activity at their school projects included a sustainability component and a budget and during a two-hour virtual event each classroom team had an opportunity to refine their idea with expert mentors pitch their idea to a panel of expert judges and they had a chance to receive grant funding for their project to take back to their entire school the winners were announced live on twitter on march 17th by the los angeles rams and i'm super super happy to announce that team powell won a grant of five hundred dollars [Music] and team lee won a grant of thirty five hundred dollars and

004team paramount was the touchdown grand prize winner of 4 500 and so [Applause] super excited during the event the students had an opportunity to hear from mentors in two different industries one uh an engineer from hollywood park presented examples of how they are using sustainability in different ways and how they're reducing their carbon emissions and lessening carbon footprint uh they learned about waste management and recycling and sustainable transportation and they learned about how the the stadiums divert uh waste materials from landfills and they're able to convert waste into sustainable biofuel they also learned from a the owner of a dairy located in merced california and they learned about the sustainable operations of the dairy industry and their economic sustainability and all kinds of different things about how they use renewable energy and it was a

005very interesting opportunity for our students to be able to uh learn about a couple of different industries so we're super proud of our students and our teachers for uh their participation in this innovative real-world project-based learning opportunity and very appreciative of all of the industry experts and the la foundation who took the opportunity to mentor our students and connect them with college and career explorations and possibilities so at this time before we invite our um our staff and our students to come uh up to the front i'd like to invite christina romero who is from the greater la education foundation and he she's here to present a check to our uh board of education so board president greer if you could come up and we will present this check to you just really uh hi

006my name is christina romero i'm with the greater la education foundation and on behalf of the foundation i'm thrilled to present this ten thousand dollar home your school hometown grant grant to azusa unified and on behalf of ausd and everybody here thank you it is it is an absolute honor we appreciate [Applause] i just want to say congrats to the students and the teachers that participated it was really exciting to see them present um sort of like a shark tank type of event so we're really proud of you and can't wait to see you bring your ideas to life and we would love uh to invite the schools that are present as well and so i'll i'll just share because again how how tremendously proud we are of of just just who you are and

007how you all shine uh we do have these certificates of recognition uh they each say for the respective classes as well as respective school sites uh for winning the respective amounts or the respective schools in the los angeles rams fuel your school innovation challenge next what do we do with it um any any other board members anything you'd like to add or say wow congratulations congratulations then we'll now move to item 6.2 which is recognition of gladstone high school student abigail sanchez miss tradomo here good evening and uh thank you very much for allowing me to come and brag about amazing abby sanchez uh and present her absolutely incredible um latest portfolio of artwork to you all here in the in the boardroom uh this year he has a lot going on um besides this

008um this very first solo student exhibition uh that we just had she also has um the ryman art uh program that she does every day every saturday all day long um this is her third year doing ap studio art um and she is just absolutely incredible we're so proud of her and um and thank you for giving us the opportunity to be here and uh again brag and show off her amazing amazing artwork um you can see an incredible array of um work here uh a variety of medium from charcoal to oil paint to acrylic um even digital art over here she has her hands in um we have one piece that we could not present to you because uh last year if you recall we were here recognizing her again for winning um second

009place in the u.s congressional art competition and unfortunately we don't have the original piece of work here to present because that happens to be in the congresswoman's um office which is part of the uh which is part of the prize it gets displayed for a whole year in in her office so we have a copy of the piece over here on the wall the um graphite drawing of the dewey there it is right there for everybody to enjoy still so um please uh help me congratulate her for her very very hard work this year um this it really is just a small sample of what um what she has and what she's doing she did she did a beautiful job you know most of these portraits i've noticed there are her family correct and of

010yourself so i don't know how you portray yours i don't know how you think yourself other than looking in the mirror i don't know how you do that but it's beautiful yeah and this one over here it's the 3d yes and and i want to congratulate you and i hope you um was grace sapolitano you will come first place this time i guarantee you that me huh and i want to thank mr o'brien and mr domo and all the art teachers for the beautiful job when they're working with the students like when you want to um pound and see those kids in the art and they're little kids in elementary and we have very talented students in our school district i'm just glad that we're able to highlight them the way we do today congratulations

011[Music] and i would go we would love if if you would uh share share a word or two we'd love love to hear from the artists directly um i just want to thank my teachers oh yeah um well because of going to like ryman and being a part of like the program at buzzstone and stuff um i was able to do a lot of like different opportunities and like um i was able to get my work into like a teen expedition at the museum contemporary art in la and recently um i have another show coming up this sunday at a gallery in pasadena through the public art company so yeah it's pretty exciting so great yeah beautiful [Applause] you know one thing i forgot to mention is that at the art gallery by her pictures

012she'd have a little code where you can put your phone on there and she comes on speaking about what is the portrait about right yeah and can you tell me about the one with the buffalo you traveled somewhere right yeah um um me and my parents we go traveling a lot so we go camping yeah that one i took a photo of it when i went to yellowstone so it's a photo that i took so i just decided wow yeah i heard great abigail we we celebrate you we are we are proud of you um and again just another reason this this community shines because of you and you are you are shining example of of this community and this district as though we are very proud of you and thank you thank you i

013i would like to say a few things abigail um your commitment to your work i i mean when did it start when did you have an interest in art well i i don't know i've kind of always been drawing and stuff and my parents have really like just really supported me like buying me supplies and like taking me especially like taking an environment every week and like taking me to go take my work to the galleries stuff so yeah i've just always kind of been um drawing and stuff and it didn't really i didn't really start taking it seriously until i want to say middle school when my middle school teacher mr gafari really pushed me to like try different things and he he was the reason why i put my work in my first

014thing was the key gallery the first show so i've continued putting my stuff out and that's the reason i went to gladstone because i um liked the art program the fact that they had a gallery well thank you so much just as board president said uh you make us proud and you're just your commitment to you know to your education and to your work i wish you much much much success and just remember where you come from asusa take care all right and the the fun continues uh we look at item 6.3 recognition of adam vicente and first place winner uh as first place winner and sonia gonzalez as runner-up of the 2022-2023 azusa unified school district budget book cover yes good evening everyone so the business service division enlisted the students of mr jim

015hegg's class as we did last year gladstone high school graphic design class to create the budget book cover for the 2022-2023 physical year this year the students were provided with theme elevating to excellence the students were tasked to design a cover based on what the theme meant to them and incorporate the district's logo both creativity and vision were left to the individual student the business service division received eight submissions and we will use the selected design for our budget reporting cycle for the 2022-23 school year this year we are deciding to honor our runner-up as well as our winner both will receive we are ausd t-shirts and the winner will also receive a starbucks gift card so i will first show the runner-up super excited am i showing there we go how beautiful is that

016so this is a design from miss sonya gonzalez miss soya gonzalez would you like to speak to us today uh yeah hi i'm on the i'm on the call well congratulations tell us about your piece uh well the theme was elevating to excellence so i decided i wanted to try finding photos that i think would make this school great like the great music programs and the sports and all the science fairs and all of that and how the teachers are so nice and supportive awesome thank you so much and next we will display our winner from mr adam vicente mr adam can you tell us about your piece yes uh first of all uh can you guys hear me all right yes sir okay so this piece was my idea of showing the processes of

017of let's say a child evolving to the excellence of their own uh school year and this process this book uh coverage shows that their evolvation of getting that excellence in that that pride to their own school awesome thank you so we want to thank all the students that participated and we want to appreciate and let the board see the artwork of the two students that were selected and also take the opportunity to thank mr hague for allowing his students to take part in this once again so thank you yeah and sonia and adam we are pleased to share with you here in the boardroom your certificates of recognition for all of your amazing work your thoughtfulness um and your consideration in participating and putting yourself out there we recognize you as artists and as scholars

018and we're proud to display your work so congratulations from all of us at the district can i can i just cannot i want to congratulate you students and believe it or not it makes us well makes me read the um the budget book is this thick a lot more enjoyable by looking at all the beautiful colors right you're kind of past that so thank you kids all right thank you moving on then to item 7.0 and specifically 7.1 public comment on agenda and non-agenda items this is an opportunity for the public to address the board of education on agenda or non-agenda items individual speakers may be allowed up to three minutes to address the board of education on any agenda or non-agenda item when the public wishes to address the board on an agenda item

019they 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 by an order by speakers at the podium and then those in zoom attendance and so a couple reminders that i will have for everyone is that you'll want to be sure to please keep an eye on the clock as the clock is going down because you do have a three-minute limit and so if you do if you surpass that three minutes i will interrupt you and i don't want to and i apologize in advance uh but we'll ask uh that you also keep an eye on that so that i don't have to interrupt you if you if you surpass the three minutes and i'll also uh want

020it to to be known that if we surpass the 20-minute mark uh the board will take a vote uh as to whether or not we will continue to uh to receive the rest of the comments uh but at that time even if we do vote to complete the rest of the comments we will not accept any new comments after that point and so i'll make a reminder of that when we're about halfway through with that we'll go ahead and begin with our first commenter which is julianne miranda good evening i do apologize i'm a little under the weather but i tested negative twice to covet home tested i have allergies and asthma so my speaking is i'm here to just address the changes of the um azusa high mascot i've never been to a school

021board meeting i've never had to come this is very important to me for two reasons one because i've lived in a zoo and my family has owned its property since 1920. my brother and i both attended azusa high school at that time we were so proud to be azusa aztec because it was always held in i was a proud it was proud to be latino and to be an aztec my dad is yaki indian he was a naturalized citizen coming on coming on a boat to japan to fight during world war ii my granddaughter um and another thing as as also is that during the 60s and early early 70s i was part of the chicano movement i believe in being latino i believe in all the good things that come about about that i'm

022a little bit nervous so i do apologize um that being said my granddaughter started high school in ninth grade at azusa high she took her life in ninth grade where i by no means blameless is a high nobody no by no means blame the school board in my opinion i feel that the money that's going it's going to take to change the mascot to change all that when it's when it's a proud mascot it's it's an aztec it's something that's proud to be proud of whether you're whether you're anybody it doesn't matter when i went to is a high we were i think we're about 60 caucasian and 40 latino and it's all changed now all the everything has changed but there were things and i will not speak of them here but if any

023of you would like to speak to me personally one on one on things that i discovered that were happening on campus i just feel that this money could be better used excuse me for updating the facilities that are there for more mental mental resources mental services for the students because with social media i do believe that there's a lot of things that should not be out there a lot of things that are happening that should be out should not be out there and they and things are happening in the school that i'm sure you are not aware of um i just feel that the money could be used better and to change the mascot because it's an aztec because it it's always it's never been a caricature it's never been made fun of all our

024aztec warriors were were really proud latino men so if that's the reason to change it i don't think it's a very good reason and my granddaughter should have been graduating this year he should have turned 18 this year and she's not and for easter and now for all the holidays i decorate her headstone i don't like i said i don't blame the school i don't blame that but i think there's so much more that needs to be done to help the students to help the school than to spend it on changing a math thank you thank you miss brandon next we have ken alba oh yeah you know what i i have one i have jeffrey's book though [Music] board members i appreciate the opportunity to be here and thank you regarding please use the

025heist and please why and here's i'd like to provide some information that may help you with your decision as to whether or not you keep that past my father thank you my father was born in a 600 square foot house at 311 north azusa avenue my last name is alva but historically my last name should be my dad's father came from the los altos region of jalisco he came here because there were other families from that los altos region that were already here in azusa now what i haven't told you is the year my grandfather came here in 1898 that means that there were other los altos jalisco residents already here populating the area of that would come to be azusa on the map that you have in front of you you'll see the area

026that's jalisco and then you'll see an area that's called aguascalientes that i've identified now aguascalientes may be important for you in further papers that we have the los altos region is the area that borders between aguascalientes and jalisco in that particular area and that area is square mileage-wise it's about no it's a little bit bigger than if you take los angeles county and orange county combine them and that includes all the area north the desert area of los angeles county so it's a very very wide area the reason why it's called los altos is because it's an elevated on an elevated plateau there in the state of jalisco the next the next item you'll see a the cover of a book called title dezusa from um jeffrey lawrence cornejo by the way jeffrey lawrence bonajo's

027family also comes from the los altos region of trying to save paper i double-sided things you'll see a book by another azusa resident roseanne gonzalez hardy the title of her book is san gabriel valley families of nueva galicia nueva galicia is the name of a few of the different states that include jalisco and aguascalientes and that whole region now the reason why i'm giving you a little bit of this information i hope i don't go over my time um is that the reason why the albus came here is because there were already several i'm sorry mr alba that's your time oh no okay let me just finish this up then and tell you that well that your your time would be expired sorry i have to interrupt you there next we have melissa fajardo hey

028can you hear me good evening i am here to speak about the future plans of our school my children's education and any students that will be attending lee in the future i would like to start by saying how truly grateful and relieved our lead families are to have our school remain open our teachers staff and parents are looking forward to continue to work together to give our children and any new enrolled students the best education and learning experience possible i would i would also like to address some points from the last board meeting as it was truly disappointing and frustrating hearing the back and forth between board members i hope you all understand that i am not here to offend anyone but to voice my concerns because as a parent of four children attending ausd

029i'm truly worried about the future plans for our azusa schools board member adeyanes although i respected your decision your tone and approach did not sit well with me or with many of our community members i felt as if your delivery was not of someone who wanted to make the situation for all of us any better we as community members were able to be in the same room and treat each other with respect as someone who's expressed how our community should be united a united community you were not one to set that example i had to express this here today because my children's education is in all five of your hands and i do not feel comfortable having someone with that type of aggression making this type of decisions and my children's future education for board

030member pena i also respected your vote but not the lack of accountability when being told that lee had empty space due to low enrollment you were quick to say to close it down instead of acknowledging that the district has failed to support our school and that shouldn't fall on us but on all of you because how do you expect parents to want to enroll their children in a school where you give us no programs for for our children or funds to keep our school up to date is why i am here today i would hope you will keep in mind these suggestions for future decisions as a very involved parent at lee i stand by what i say i am very proud of our school i want my children to continue their education at lee

031that should tell you how much trust i have in our school and our teachers because i have seen the work that they do for our children i understand that there are so many decisions and work that has to happen in order for all of our schools to thrive but i would like for all of you to remember that we all live in the same community our children should be receiving the same equal opportunities please stop leaving schools to fend for themselves i would like for any future families to know that lee is a great school with amazing teachers and we are looking forward to receive and welcome any students i will be here in every board meeting if that's what it takes until i see changes being made as i am determined to make sure

032that our district gives our children the long overdue support that they deserve thank you ms fajardo next we have louis pedraza good evening board members my name is louis pedrosa and i'm here to speak on keeping the aztec name as azusa high's mascot if you remember after the last meeting regarding the mascot name i send you all an email thanking the ones that voted to give the aztec name a chance to remain it shows that you're willing to listen to the azusa community as you probably have seen the vast majority are in favor of keeping the mascot the same since the schools and steps inception the zusa community is a unique one most of us haven't left this city my parents are products of azusa schools kindergarten through 12th as my sister and i are

033and now my children are mia a senior will be graduating this year she's second team all-league volleyball first team all-league basketball and on our way to being first team league all softball my son louis a junior head manager of the of the zoo's abandoned pageantry and a member of this year's 2a division champion my youngest son james currently a seventh grader at slauson school but no doubt a future contributor to azusa high it's more than a name we're talking about here we're already losing one nic sorry we're already losing one high school and to change the aztec name is like losing another it's also about the tradition of azusa high in this city three or four generations walking these campuses president gur you had mentioned before that it would be about 850 000 to rebrand

034let's use that money to update the school's facilities put lights on that new field so that the band isn't practicing in the parking lot give your cif semifinalist softball team the same luxuries as the boys baseball team and most important keep as many staff as possible who have chosen to teach our children as previous teachers coaches and aides have taught all of us thank you next we have anita figueroa butcher please unfortunately no you you could speak for an additional three minutes but it's three minutes per person changing the aztec warrior is not it's just it broke my heart because you know all of us that graduated from it means so much to the alumni it means so much to the students that you know we say once an aztec always an aspect and it's

035just in our heart and a lot of us have aspect blood we have aspect you know it goes way back and we're proud of that nobody is not whoever is not proud of being who you really are then i feel sorry for you because this is gonna be gonna take so much money to change and like like the other lady was saying you know the money can go on better things like azusa highs maybe their pool that has not been in operation for i don't know how many years it's that school's been overlooked a lot and just neglected the money needs to go on fixing stuff in bettering the school that's what i have to say and i just it like i said it broke my heart and not only me but on hundreds of

036other people and it'll be a shame if they just change the aspect i mean to me it was just like i broke my heart you know but please put the money where where it belongs and don't put it on something like frivolous as changing the name changing the aspect because you know there's pride in that and we have a lot of pride here in azusa for our aztec a lot of aztec pride like you wouldn't even know i don't know i don't know if any of you ever went to azusa high but it's it's in our hearts so please use the money wisely on something that's needed better thank you miss butcher and before uh before i invite the next speaker i do want to remind and ask everyone in the audience plea to to

037please not speak uh while other others are up here speaking um they have the floor um and so let's let's respect them with the three-minute time that they have uh sarah serrano luna hello hi um i am here today advocating for education i am fighting for the people of azusa to have the opportunity to grow and learn this opportunity is unfortunately on the chopping block tonight when discussing the aztec the consideration of losing the aztec feeds into council culture and the gentrification of the city of azusa it prohibits students and the community from learning to do better and educate themselves on the situation our teachers fight for students to learn we are never told we can't try to do better or to learn when we do something wrong i am all for education for learning

038how to celebrate the aztec and indigenous culture correctly in the past meetings the community gave personal testimony as well as evidence and examples of how the azusa aztec can live on respectfully this decision is also major because this decision is going to harm students financially in a district that is closing six schools we must consider this factor greatly money in this district should not be taken away from students in the december seventh school board meeting at one hour and fourteen minutes the number two million dollars is shown when discussing the rebranding of azusa high school that amount of money to change azusa high school i believe instead it was called reimagine i learned today it might be a different number either way i think that we should be saving as much money as we can

039this money could be used to educate our students on the aztec on indigenous culture and history and the truth of the matter is there's more than 5 000 signatures on petitions asking to keep the aztec board members i call on each of you to fight for education and to help your students learn give students opportunity to grow to educate themselves and to the community here tonight i want to remind you all that we vote these people into their positions we are the reasons these individuals are up here they're supposed to represent us and what we want and if you feel that they are not doing their job vote them out three school board members are up for re-election this year and in 2024 two more school board members they are quick to make changes and

040we have the power to do the same um with my extra time i just want to talk about i'm going into the film industry and the film industry um is really lacking representation for latinos and i think that is also what is going to happen in the city of azusa if we continue to gentrify our city we need to see more people of color we need to see more indigenous people more latinos latinas yeah we just need to add more diversity and this decision can be a great change and cut diversity in our city thank you miss luna next we have gloria romero good evening my name is gloria sanchez romero i've been here like twice through other meetings and i'm still coming to say that you guys are wrong in changing our aztec everybody

041loves our aztecs my whole siblings all gone to this is a high one of my daughters went through the high and i know none of these board members have been in the high they've been gladstone and um i think that you guys should make your decision uh to not change the mascot at all save that money for something else just like everybody has been saying and yes you guys are up for re-election and like i said before i'm gonna make sure that half of you guys or even all of you guys are not re-elected because we know a lot of people and like uh um some of these people said that oh yeah their family's been here since 1998. well we've been here my family's been here a long time too and like i said

042nobody has ever disrespected the as far as i know everybody loves the super high and to change it that's ridiculous like they said you could spend your money on other things improving the swimming pools like i remember one of the directors made holes in these pools just so they didn't have to fix it well now to fix it would cost a lot of money but yet you could use them you wouldn't have to go anywhere else the students would be able to use their tools for um physical education because that's what we did when we were in high school we did swimming and the boys did me so in order for you guys to to change our mascot you guys are wrong very wrong and i hope you guys consider not changing it because like

043i said communities out and there's a lot of people that would be very upset and it why you i want to change i don't understand thank you mr morrow uh so now at this point um it has been 20 minutes that has that has passed and so i do want to one invite if there's if there is anyone right now i i didn't give a ten minute warning if there's anyone right now are there any are any additional cards uh and that looks like you might be back there is there one no so there's no one else here uh then with that said we won't receive any additional commenters we do have a few more commenters that are on the docket here to speak and we will take a a vote to see if the

044board would like to allow these individuals to continue with their votes or if we move on to the next item board member rodriguez pena yes uh board member beau yes board member cruz gonzalez yeah board member adianas yeah and i'm also yes uh so we will move on to good evening superintendent board and cabinet i hear the call and requests of indigenous communities clearly stating that peoples or cultures and cultures are not mascots i also hear the call from students and community about representation i myself much rather have representation of my indigenous roots than those reflective of colonizers however as the board decides there is much responsibility not just in the decision of what steps next steps will be about how to educate avoid cultural appropriation and be considerate of indigenous communities so here are

045some thoughts we have the opportunity to honor is a tradition but most importantly honor natives and set foundational work i hope that as students move forward in the selection process we can partner with local groups native tribes to select to represent representatives that is respectful native beliefs all work done should be in partnership with experts i'm grateful that we have dr irene sanchez and representatives of tribal communities we can learn from schools that have done incredible work in this such as the anawa karmic mecca international university preparatory of north american la which has an ib primary years program and k-12 programming rooted in indigenous work if the board decides to keep the moniker is in the aztec since ultimate decision is with the board i hope instead of reference referencing the aztec as a mascot

046there would be a shift in language and perception of ambassador or spirit leader much would have to change individual with visual representations in action no matter what choice i hope the district can do the following we can provide credit for themselves for that for those who identify with and participate in it credit for nawaz classes land acknowledgement at all events and modeled at the beginning of every board meeting just as naturally as a flag salute training to all students during freshman or incoming orientations and throughout the years as well as staff and teachers as the uc system may have may set requirements by 2030 an aid through a through g ethnic studies course criteria to center an understanding of the indigeneity create and honor anti-colonial and liberatory movements that struggle for social justice on global

047and local levels cultivate communities that foster acknowledge and value relationships of indigenous and all communities of color for their survivor survival critique histories of imperialism dehumanization and genocide to expose that they are connected to present-day ideologies challenge and example how multiple oppressions and identities intersect and conceptualize and create spaces and embrace the idea that racial and ethnic groups are not monolithic and model joy knowledge agency and strength this can be a unique opportunity to move forward and model how diversity and equity look like in action finally unrelated but congrats to the recognition recognition of gladstone high school student abigail sanchez my son and i saw your solo exhibit witnessing your art was inspiring to my little artist himself thank you for your time thank you miss louisa next we have laura santos i wanted to

048counter my um pomona my dear pomona friends comments uh that may have persuaded the board azusa is a multicultural community but it's majority brown even one of your board members has an aztec name hello so it's not misappropriation it's our culture um you know some have said that was not the tribe that uh lived right in this area but other people think that brown people from the southernmost tip of south america to the northern tip of north america are all one it's not a pet it's not offensive millions of dollars are paid for naming rights uh as far as the the basket and the headdress not being authentic that kind of just illustrates the need for ethnic studies and you can always get authentic dancers to perform at halftime and um you know some expertise

049on um authentic attire so um and you know i'm i'm sorry for gladstone but um those are my comments uh you should keep the aztec thank you miss santos next we have alan french hi can you hear me yes we can hear you good evening everyone my name is alan french proud graduate of azusa high's class of 2001 and i am speaking tonight regarding the aztec and azusa high schoolers several weeks ago i addressed the board in a previous meeting detailing how students voted for the aztec back in the school's early years along with the fact that the school newspaper yearbook and colors all pay tribute to the aztec culture in addition i read today's article in the san gabriel valley tribune regarding tonight's meeting what i read was how changing the aztec if this

050goes through would cost between one hundred thousand and one hundred and fifty thousand dollars just in redoing the azusa high field which was renovated not that long ago i agree with previous speakers that the money can be used for better purposes based on all of this information it is clear that the aztecs should remain contrary to the beliefs of some who spoke at a prior board meeting a couple of months ago there is nothing racist about the aztec nor is it a caricature the aztec has always been held in high reverence and that continues into the present and the majority of the community wants it to stay we can find some common ground where all parties will be satisfied and that is what we should strive for and there are individuals who are of aztec

051descent that are honored and proud that the aztec is a part of azusa high also given that measure k was passed several years ago which was followed by two schools closing and now five more slated to shut down in the next couple of years it does not send a good message by spending money on a rebranding that is unnecessary given the frustrations of many families with the school reorganization retiring the aztec would only add to those frustrations i can assure you that families are looking to move their kids to neighboring school districts and changing the aztec is something i believe would compel more families to follow suit and it has been documented in previous meetings that enrollment is projected to decrease in the next few years even after more schools are closed the decision is

052ultimately yours but it is my opinion that you should retain the aztec and the colors the community is unhappy with the recent changes that are to be implemented and they don't want any more change and given how the aztec has been paid tribute throughout azusa high's existence along with the district's financial concerns it is hard to justify making this change it should not happen and again we should strive to find a solution that will satisfy everyone i agree that we should have azusa high students learn about the aztec it would be a perfect addition to the curriculum and as the saying goes once in aztec always an aztec thank you thank you mr french next we have christina castaneda hi good evening board members um my name is christina castaneda i am i have two

053students are actually a a ninth grader currently enrolled in azusa high school and an eighth grader who is on his way to azusa high school i'm also um the cheer coach and i just i i once again just want to plead with you board members and and ask that you just reconsidered the name of the aztecs i don't think that i need to go into depth with anything i think everyone displayed um or just spoke so clearly for the rest of us and and provided so much informative information and i'm just really grateful that there are so many community members that that care just as much as as i do um and i i think miss loy saw she said it best and i truly couldn't have said it any better alan um and i

054know that he's you know he's been a part of this community we went to school together he was one of my classmates and and i i think we all share the love for the aztec i too agree that we've never ever treated it as a caricature we've respected it um and if by any chance we have offended anyone i i do want to apologize on behalf of our school i don't know how we did so but if we did it is a perfect opportunity for us to learn and i do i do just ask that you you reconsider it because this does mean a lot to us and the rebranding just doesn't make any sense um i hate to go against our district or enter your decisions but i just i truly do wish that

055you reconsider the change and just like allen said and like how all of us say it at the end of the day once an aztec always nasty thank you miss castaneda next we have esther compost good evening board members i would like to address you tonight and first of all thank you for the opportunity to let a constituent a staff member and a very very new member to the isuzu community address you tonight i'm not here um to mention specific changes in regards to the mascot what i'm here to talk about is to first of all um point out to our community the direction that this is a unified school district has taken in regards to ethnic studies i am on the committee um that is creating coursework for ethnic studies that will hopefully be

056adopted by our board before the end of the year and we can begin to implement these classes at azusa high school and at gladstone high school within the coming school year so for our community members mrs louisa thank you for such an eloquent uh way of expressing our possible changes please know and please community know that those are the types of things that we plan to address in our ethnic studies courses along with our latino studies courses i feel very confident that our district is heading in the right direction in regards to ethnic studies and latino studies and pretty much addressing the concerns of colonialism and you know diversity not only for chicanos latinos latinx community but also for the lgbtq community our asian american community our african-american community all ethnic groups and having it

057be an inclusive inclusive courses so number one that was it number two i'd like to address to the board um concerns that i have regarding faculty restrooms at isuzai high school at paramount um i know that some of the issues are being addressed but it seems like they're not being addressed fast enough um so the other issue i want to discuss is um finances how are we spending our money effectively um for students i have to say that i have been um watching a lot of our baseball games at isuzu high school varsity and jv and i can tell you right now our jv fields is a mess we do not have a scoreboard i cannot tell you how many times we ask parents everybody is asking each other what's the score what's the score

058with score same thing at gladstone high school i went they have a scoreboard but they had a poor student putting up scores i just think we need to address these issues and implement the money where our students need it thank you thank you mr i do believe that exhausts all of our commenters is that correct which brings us to 8.1 comments reports and requests by the board of education uh board member arianis i have no comment tonight thank you board member cruz gonzalez um i just want to say um i know we'll have a chance to talk about the aztecs later on because that'll be on the agenda um but i do just want to say i really appreciate um seeing the students that came up right i think i i see from at the

059sea i see these as some of the results of some of the work that our students and our parents and our educators have done and really giving our students additional opportunities beyond just you know the arithmetic and math that sometimes people think public schools is i really want to appreciate that i especially want to acknowledge the piece the sharing of the music we saw in the pictures but then also the art right um it was really gratifying to hear the student talk about middle school right because we know those early investment in our students are what help them grow and build their skills so i'm so happy to hear that we're going to be bringing in art teachers live art teachers into elementary schools next year which i think will just help us expand the

060opportunities and for artwork so i just want to say thank you for that and i love seeing the fruit of what this community is producing in our school board member bo no comments tonight thank you robin rodriguez yes hello good good evening everyone um i just wanted to announce that um i went to murray elementary school for a read across america dr seuss week i had the opportunity of reading in the third grade classroom with ms short and i want to thank the students the third grade students that gave me these little thank you letters they have pretty good penmanship little kids though i haven't been into a classroom for a couple of years so it was really nice to be sitting across from them and reading a story to them i also want to

061say i went to azusa high school to their aztec thrift store it's such a good idea that they have the thrift store on their campus where um any donations that are given there is free to the students they have certain times by grades what time they can go and and select whatever they want they have purses they have shoes they even have lipstick and hair combs and everything so if anyone has any donations it'd be good to take them in the main office they have a box there that you just drop off your donations and they will take them to the thrift shop so i want to thank community schools community liaison leticia enriquez and educational community worker maritza martin martinez and tanya alvarez espinosa chieftain the community school specialist and anyone that is involved

062because i think it's a great idea that the students have the opportunity of um picking up something that they need you know so um i also want to congratulate ozune unified school district parent marvel and grandparent marietta ramirez for receiving the um 2022 for assembly woman woman of the year they well deserved these ladies are always either in the community or they're in the school sites always volunteering their time i also want to announce the um azure leadership learning educational foundation has purchased books written by vipoc which is a black indigenous asian and people of color in support of the dei initiative in our schools we have a set of um these books in every third grade classroom i don't have the book in front of me but i do they're very colorful if anyone

063wants to see them they're very colorful and there's different oh you have here's a book really nice see how they're really nice they're really pretty and and um i'm really proud to be part of it and if you can pass them back through and it's really good i think we talk about um you know learning cultures and everything and this is where we're starting in in third grade thank you thank you uh so the only only comment i have um this evening is actually a comment to my colleagues on on the board there these have definitely been some uh challenging meetings that we've had over the course of these past couple months there have been a number of extremely difficult decisions that we that have been in front of us that we needed to make

064in and as we've talked about sometimes we made those decisions and and there are people who are who are who are pleased and cheer and sometimes there's decisions that we make when we see that that people are extremely upset frustrated um offended and and the the beauty of of how this community works just as it's been stated is we are we are elected by our by our community and and they come and they may or may not want to uh see see others elected and they also have an opportunity to run themselves with that said while we sit up here in these seats i i want to uh use this this opportunity to call us even higher um and just just ask that in the midst of the difficult conversations that we're needing to have

065in the midst of the late 12 a.m meetings that that that we have um and and all of the work that goes on in between the meetings when we're here at the dyess i just want to call us to a higher level of professionalism i want to call this to a higher level of decorum um and and also in civility and treating each other with with the utmost respect um there are opportunities and things such as governance meetings where we there are opportunities for us to address some of the the the challenges that may happen between uh board members but when we are here at this diocese and we're having our school board meetings i do want to remind us and ask uh that we keep that the focus uh and also that we'd be

066open uh to the fact that when we have lost focus um the the incredible seat that i'm sitting in right now and that we rotate this responsibility um i i will be tasked with with helping to keep things back on track and keep things back on focus and so i'll remind everyone that the way that that works here in this structured meeting is that uh the the chair will look to recognize and i'll ask that you look to the chair for recognition as you're speaking and please understand that if you're speaking but are no longer recognized that that you cease so we can ensure that everybody has an opportunity to speak even when it's challenging even when it's difficult and again i want to thank i do want to thank my colleagues for uh just

067the the the hard work that we have been doing and the hard work is not done there's still much more work for us for us to do okay that we'll move on to item 9.0 comments and reports by the superintendent cabinet and student board member and we'll start with our student board members who i believe we i'm not sure if we have uh is hannah hamilton online he's not okay do we have annette camacho it does not look like we have any student board you said any of them so crystal from flumino as well okay okay then we'll move on to cabinet and uh uh superintendent good evening um i just wanted to echo uh what uh board member rodriguez pena said about the books and say thank you very much to our azusa leaders

068for learning foundation for partnering with us um these these books um all of our third grade classrooms are going to receive five books that are all award-winning books that celebrate diversity equity and inclusion and that is something that our district is committed to and so we just want to thank you again for these beautiful beautiful stories our our kids and our our staff they're just going to love them so thank you so much and just to um piggyback on that this is the leadership didn't buy the whole thing like and you know i'm sorry we we probably spend not how much i can't remember but exactly it was kind of half and half or district case it wasn't all the a.l foundation funding we partnered with the this is even white school district good evening

069board of education i'm happy to report that the district and aea reached an agreement on school reorganization mou on march 30th mou addresses the impacts and effects of the decision to reorganize schools specifically the impacts of that are affecting our displaced teachers and logistics related to uh moving from one site to another additionally i want to congratulate kathy tahanian i'm sorry the hagian uh for being selected as our 2021-2022 district teacher of the year uh we will be recognizing her and all the site and department teachers of the year at our next regular board meeting on may 3rd thank you very much good evening ford um i'm happy to announce that our nutrition service department continues to work to improve our mil offerings we're trying to work on how to advertise and market ourselves and

070one of the events that we're going to try to participate is coming up on march may 21st the zoo azusa event where we're going to try to see if we can get some of our vendors and some of our staff to go out and help sample our food so the community also can have the opportunity to taste some of our food offering i would like to thank robert caraballo robert caraballo is our one of our campus safety aides at glaston high school he gave me the opportunity to shadow and partner with him i was i had the opportunity to be right next to him from 6 45 a.m to 2 p.m during my time with him i not only had the opportunity to get to know him but also get a first-hand look at the

071csa position at the high school level i really appreciate the opportunity to do this with our staff and their openness to allow for this so just thank you robert for for giving me that opportunity our district had the opportunity to partner with the center for equity for english learners out of loyola marymount and present at the cabe conference the title of the presentation was equity leadership for english learners we had the opportunity to highlight the things that we do in azusa to elevate practices for our el students and our parents and our families as well it is always a great honor to be able to share the great things that are happening in azusa at large conferences uh like gabe so thank you thank you well this brings us to 10.0 general functions and specifically

07210.1 discussion and decision of school reorganization school mascot and colors for azusa high school uh superintendent ortega thank you uh so the board of education uh this item uh is coming back for the board's request uh to discuss uh what next steps or what decisions uh we're going to be making a round uh the azusa high school mascot and or colors and so um that's what this item is for today so i'll add a bit of just just reminder where we are with this there was a decision that was made which would have prevented future a committee that was formed from including the aztec as an option as they are considering it more recently than that uh there was a a requested a decision by the board to to have this item come back for

073us to discuss and so it would seem that one course of action is that as that committee is is continuing to do its work i it may even be on pause i guess you could so it's on pause so that that committee's work is on pause um as it's looking for either that the the the same direction that was given previously or new direction with new parameters to be given to this uh to this committee um and so we'll we'll open it up and and see if if there are um any any thoughts from anyone on the board and board president if i can just add clarification please uh we came to the board of education with a draft of what the process might look like if we were going to go in the footsteps

074or in the path of a committee but there is no committee formed or anything like that right now it was just a draft proposal that came to the board for feedback that's right and i believe there was even feedback as to who was included on that committee or not and then it was put on pause uh until we have this this discussion okay thank you for the update um then are there any any thoughts that any any uh my colleagues have i just have a question so regarding the vote so if the vote is going to be the um the mascot and colors together or they're going to be separate so i there previously i mean i guess we can we can determine that whatever what we are the direction that we're given previously the

075the current standing action that was given was that colors can remain the state the same and or uh colors can change based upon the decision of the committee but that that committee was not able to include as an aztec as one of the options so so the board can give similar direction new direction uh the the board would have the authority to do that i i would like to make a recommendation regarding on this vote is that they're two different votes okay colors and then and the okay we can we can do that so why don't we start with um as we're looking at separating those for the sake of conversation why don't we go and start with colors um so the the i guess the question is is the committee are we wanting to

076give the committee the direction and the authority to change the colors uh to keep the colors the same let them decide whether to keep it the same or whether to change them is there a sense one way or another i i i think that um i think that we we should speak with the mascot first because wouldn't that determine what colors they're going to use i don't know um or so i don't i don't think it has to let me let me let me go ahead and um well let me ask others are there others who would prefer to discuss the mascot first or or do you do you have a preference with mascots or colors i don't care i think board members i think that we should speak about the mask up first okay

077i have the discussion because that would determine okay let's start with mascot um i have a different opinion on colors i think that graphic identity and visual representation is a part of what we're talking about and also another big part is um symbols and what they mean and how they how they uh permeate our culture and our educational system and specifically what they mean to stakeholders in azusa with that being said i think the the hot button if you will is the mascot and not i don't think it's the color i think it's both well in my opinion i think that the hot button for me the hot button is the mascot and not necessarily the colors i do understand the consideration of blending schools and i understand that um however in consideration of other

078factors including finances fiscal responsibility i'm looking to find ways to seek compromise and for example to be really clear if we're able to keep the colors and then consider mascot change if that is part of the process i would be in favor of that and using those other dollars to go more to to fund any variety of program and so for that reason i think that i am in favor of keeping the colors and having the work that any committee or any governing board do be around the mascot as a visual represent the graphic representation of whatever that is whether it's an aztec an object an animal whatever it is that's where i sit on this so we'll go ahead we will go ahead and and put a pin in that though uh with with

079colors and we'll we'll we'll tee off the conversation with uh with mascot as the as as more on the board have suggested that so um then are there any initial thoughts uh in regards to mascot so so you're starting with the mascot first and then the colors is that what you're saying correct oh okay okay well okay yes i do have something to say i um first of all i want to say that you know i heard from both sides of the community and students and parents and i also did my own research um regarding the zuzo high school as um master mascot i understand it's emotional for the communities on both sides the merging of two high schools is not an easy decision but it's inevitable at this time so i like you know

080i think we should work together and try to make this transaction fair to both schools the best way to honor tradition on both schools is to equally move forward with a new beginning it's difficult enough to experience change let us not choose one school over the other let us grow into one by allowing our student body and input from the community azusa high was citrus high school before in another location and before became azusa high school in 1956 it was chosen azusa aztecs and the colors were chosen by the student body in the board of education on a um azusa herald article on may 17 1956 i have the article here in my hand a new mascot we would send a message that we have not chosen one school over the other we cannot dismiss

081gladstone high school gladiators their feelings either because you know they have been in existence since 1964 58 years azusa high school ashtop ask aztec mascot currently is insensitive to the native community we have also heard from them regarding the changing the mascot and logo for the following reasons the headdress is a sacred object that was earned through the years of battle native americans are not a character or a mascot we are stereotyping the indigenous people the zeus aztec name is not a concern to me i'm good with that i'm good with the colors i'm good with the zoo's aztec i'm fine it's just the mascot for the reasons that i stated i um you know if we're going to keep the enthusiastic name we um should change the mascot where it is not offensive to

082anyone in the native community now it's time uh now it's time to unite the rivalry between glaston the gladiators and the aztecs as one and at some point i would like to hear from our cbo latasha jamal about the cost and the funding i know that's a big concern and um what is it going to entail to i mean if we're just changing the mask and we keep the name you know keep the colors and just change the mascot i don't know if we looked in just to the mascot we can have that when when you get time work thank you that's that's my any other thoughts about the mascot directly so i'm i'm perfectly happy to keep it as is just the aztecs the way it is um i'm open to having a conversation

083i know we've seen we've heard of examples brought to us by community members but also in research that i've done around um communities putting together a a committee that's representative that includes native local natives community representation students sort of figure out what's the best way to um honor right the history of the land that we live on the culture of um of our community um to find ways i think there were some good examples tonight talking about how can we start incorporating actually some of the cultural aspects um of of heritage of chicano heritage of heritage of many of our our ancestors into the work we do and make it authentic and make it um make it a learning experience for our students and so i think i'm i'm open to what yolanda just suggested

084um i'm also i think my first preference would be just to keep it the same but i'm open to that and having that conversation and having that conversation about whether um does it even even going as far as i wouldn't say specify that this would be the charge but even specifying as far as if if it becomes the spirit leader or the the name of the the high school um dewey or do we not have a mascot that goes along with it um so that's number one um i i gave examples before of for example my college where we had uh we were the engineers but our mascot was a beaver right so we had a title of what we were but but are we at an animal mass thought um so that those there

085are examples like that out there um i think i would be comfortable having a committee that's represented not just i think the first committee you invented arthur had a student right whether you brought to us right i think this has to be a much larger group and representative like i said um but to me that's where i am i would have to agree with uh my colleague board member beau um and board member rodriguez pena and keeping the colors um or changing the mascot or not changing the mascot and changing the colors i i really feel you know i'm going to stand with what i've said from the beginning and that is that we do need some some some commencement some new beginning so we need to meet halfway i i would really like to

086meet halfway um so that that's that's where i stand i think it's really important you know uh i i hear a lot of um which which you guys bring out really great point you know why is it that the pool and asusa like it was functional and for pe you know uh you were able to like makes no sense i i don't get it i hear you and i i would like to see that full fixed regardless i would like to see gladstone's pull fix regardless you know one of the comments that was made is one of our i'm not gonna go but moving forward you know i would like for us to unite and compromise you know moving forward just to be able to go ahead and start something you know whether it's going

087to be the mascot whether you know it the colors but i really really hope that you guys you know can come together and understand that this is a new beginning for us a new chapter and change is not easy i i it's not and i'm the first one you know person to say i'm going through a lot of change right now we are all going through a lot of change and i really would like to come together and move forward in this and you know collaborate and so with that being said um i stand with but um i remember bo i do i do want to give you an opportunity to speak in just in case because i know you were originally talking about the colors um and so did you have any additional comments

088specifically about mascot to add or were your previous comments uh sufficient i think i shared my main points thank you i i myself would say that some similar to the journey that uh barman rodriguez that you shared uh when this when this when this item first came up i i i know that i originally was not in favor of changing the ass aztec um and and we even had a meeting where we talked about it we discussed it in december and then brought it back later and in between that time there are conversations that i had with with community members i know there's a lot of there's there's a lot of talk about folks from pomona folks from pomona i had conversations with community members who who expressed the the the offense and the and

089the hurt that has been experienced uh from the aztec uh mascot subsequent to that that turned me on to do my own research and when i did my own research reading scholarly articles on the on the impact um it became clear to me that that there is real impact to how uh indigenous folks serving as mascots for schools and school campuses how there just is a real impact that um as i've had additional conversations with with uh individuals within the community from from the indigenous community one of the things that that was stated is there have been times in the past where there were efforts and attempts to say okay wait let's let's try to do it in a way that's honoring that that's that's that's not uh um offensive to culture and that wasn't

090and and those kind of those cries were not heard and and now it seems that as the conversation has shifted to say if if there's not going to be any type of uh cultural understanding and and finding a way to do it in an honorable way then let's move away from from the mascot all together i'll say though that as time has gone on and as we've seen over the course of these past several weeks i think that that there has been enough disgust there's been enough said that i do think that it warrants an opportunity for us to look at how we might be able to to to move forward in an honorable way i think if we were to look at yes can uh can just as you shared board member uh cruz

091gonzalez does does that does are we caught up on the term mascot because maybe yes maybe azusa high school can have a different mascot but maybe azusa the azusa aztecs can have a different mascot if that makes sense um and i don't want to i don't want to be presumptuous as to what that can be but i know i've i've heard some talk about you know for example if if there is a cultural and spiritual significance to certain animals within the aztec uh that kind of community and culture maybe that can be the that can be the mass the mascot but can still remain as the aztecs and i do think that there is opportunity i don't even know what i would say i i don't even know that i would call it compromise because

092compromise comes with an inherent expectation that both sides lose a little i don't even know that i see it as a compromise i see it instead as a there's there's the potential for there to be a win-win um which is for whether to continue to be richness of culture but maybe taking a hard look at the fact that though some of us even here in this room say that that you know we as individuals have never felt any offense or haven't seen any disrespect by way of the aztec as it has been still recognizing and understand that there are those from within our community who have and so this isn't uh this isn't a matter of the people with this perspective are right or the people with that perspective are are right or wrong and

093opposing but instead how do we how do we honor all those perspectives and i do think that there is room i so i would be in i personally um closer to what you were saying board member cruz gonzalez i would be in favor of keeping the azusa um azusa high school known as the aztecs uh but but expect explore different terminology and maybe even explore an additional animal that will give that could serve as a as a true mascot in the spirit of of the azusa asset i remember bo i have a question around um cost and question around in our imagery so we have the the a we have the aztec with the headdress where are the places that we would need to change if we were going to make a change so for

094example if we keep aztec as the identifier but have a different mascot where are those places that we would need to spend additional money and i don't mean money that we are already slating to spend to upgrade facilities but purely incremental differential money to change an image to a different image where where does that what does that look like and where do you find that that would be our athletic football field um the middle um logo in the middle of the field um so that will require a turf overlay and the murals um throughout our campus i mean if we have any helmets i don't know specifically each one of our sports events um sporting teams but if we have a helmet like some of our team just have an a but if any of

095our uniforms actually have the aztec logo that will be included but the main item as far as facility is our football field so for what i see it's in the uniforms they usually just have an a on them or like these young people here it says azusa right and then this has the a i mean like but that's not there's no change there that would only be a change a lot of uniforms i think that's really uh there is one more area um the current marquee i believe has the um aztec logo right now and so that would be um that would be a cost but we are recommending in a later board agenda item um we were gonna we were already gonna recommend that those marquees be redone regardless of mascot so that might

096play into you know again it's a recommendation right now but but that is a recommendation that we had to overhaul the marquis did i ask why the recommendation regardless yeah we are reimagining our schools i don't want to say specifically the high school but we are looking at recommending quite a bit of upgrades to our high school it's going to be our one high school um and so because we have already done the marquee the the biggest cost of the marquee is going to be all the underground the data the power that's already done the actual change of the marquee we think that we can bring it up to a 21st century uh better marquee as we are looking to improve our communication this would be another avenue it'll be a lot bigger than it

097is now i don't know about the size but it'd definitely be bigger i mean definitely be 100 better in terms of quality or just just for the sake of of conversation because i know that we're gonna that that will be an item on specific on uh for discussion later right maybe we could put it we'll put a pin in that we'll talk about it when we get to the item but we'll talk now uh and stay on on track about the mascot yeah thank you mr mull for pointing out the the main facilities pieces so i heard you say that if we were to change the graphic identity from the aztec warrior with the headdress that that would be the turf overlay on the football field and various murals that are on campus at azusa

098high school is that right yes ma'am so i'm thinking of um kind of a museum approach to preservation of art from previous periods and how the curating process is important to explain the history of a piece and how it was created in that era and perhaps there's a way to consult with additional arts experts both in our own school district and in neighboring um higher ed institutions around preserving the current murals but adding a curated piece or a second mural that our students would design and install that gave a recognition to the past but also an interpretation and a vision for the future so not an erasure of murals but an addition to and i think what we're hearing a lot is about education and dialogue and going forward so i and i also see

099that as a great way to engage our students certainly build upon the art talent that we have within our student body and it would be a it would stand there that second mural would be a piece that would be an addition to the azusa high history like are you talking like a statue or something or what exactly are you talking about not being an artist myself but um so if this is the mural on on a wall maybe there's a a plaque that talks about you know did you know right uh that this mural this uh aztec warrior was selected by students in 1956 that's the history and then on an adjoining building our own azusa high school students develop a new mural a new graphical representation of what being an azusa aztec means to

100them so maybe not such a literal interpretation but again i leave it to art students art teachers and art experts for that idea i mean we're surrounded by that talent now any additional thought one thing i'll add and then i'll i will ask for greater levels of specificity because i as we i think we're kind of collectively all over the place a little bit um if if we were to move forward with with that and that would that would be my suggestion that we move forward and find a way to to maintain aztec but but still shift to have a a mascot that that supplements and serves as the true mascot whereas the aztecs can be you know who who um the school is if you will um it would it would be tremendously important

101to me that those who are here locally and and and representatives of the indigenous community are invited in to speak into that process so that it isn't just a so that so that the groups of people who who have expressed offense have an opportunity to communicate what could be done in a way that that would allow it to to honorably move forward and so if if we were to do that i would i would want to make sure that that is a that's a piece and a caveat that that those groups um are are invited into the conversation okay so i'm gonna i'm just gonna kind of go around again because because they're they're we've all kind of been all over the place and so clearly speaking about mascot the mascot alone i mean uh

102and i'll ask each board member um are you are you of the mindset that the mascot um aztec needs that the the aztec needs to no longer serve as the mascot or identifier um at azusa high school you're looking at me i'm looking at you so oh yes i i believe that we should um keep it azusa high school aztec colors thing but find a way how we can make it right um where it's not offensive on the on the mascot yeah that's my input board member beau i concur with board member rarity gaspina member chris gonzalez i agree board member honest i would like to add that listening you know used to be uh board president um one thing came to mind i'm just throwing it out there um aztec jaguars i like this

103now did that so it doesn't have to be i'm just saying you know throwing it out there but i would i would say i would have to agree i think this this is an opportunity i think we've neglected so long um you know the fact that we don't have we barely have one class of honor studies and we're about to approve ethnic study soon hopefully um don't know how it's gonna go but you know bring it to the agenda i i think this is a great opportunity to ratify um you know those people that that need to be ratified and i would agree with board member beau i really like the idea of having to you know being able to teach not only to preserve that mural but to also um you know teach the

104new and what our history here is moving forward and um again yeah i i also um would be in agreement with that with uh azusa high school remaining the azusa aztecs uh but again supplementing that with with uh for the the sole purpose of mascot and you know be uh looking for whether it's animal representation or something like that and we could look to indigenous communities from within that community to communicate um what would embody that um also that again we're including them in in that conversation um superintendent ortega maybe you could speak to are there any pieces as we're as we're looking at at this and the board has has weighed in as it pertains to the mascot alone do you have a clear direction um to give to this soon to be formed

105committee or is there anything more that you would need from it i just have one clarifying question i think i heard but i want to make sure um let's pretend the committee's going and they said at the end of the day well you know what we're just seeing this is a high school aztecs we will not have a mask is that also um would that be an allowable conclusion that we're just going to keep azusa high school aztecs we're going to be the a we're going to be the aztecs but we're not going to we've decided as a committee that the best way to honor and the best way to keep this you know what what whatever they feel is to actually not have a mastop a mascot and maybe it's just the a or

106you know i don't know i'm just thinking a lot but is that all is that allowable but but i thought we just discussed about keeping the azusa aztec name and colors right so now you're we haven't discussed colors we haven't discussed colors yet oh okay we're going to keep that right correct so now you want to ask the community if they want to change it no so if the committee's working on how to make it not offensive culturally appropriate no about the mascot or maybe it's an animal or whatever but if the committee decides well why do we need a mascot let's just be the azusa high school aztecs i guess my question my clarification are we saying no that's not we actually have to come up with a mascot president i think that us

107as a board um we we should take a direction in that that it should be a new mascot if we're going to go ahead and keep the you know the asusa aspect i think we should move in that direction and give directions to the committee be able to go ahead and report that oh i mean i i think from the outset arthur right i said that's what i that's the scenario that i laid out and that i would be i'm okay with that i mean i think what's what's important to me is that we have a process where we have a diverse group of people thinking about how can we best um honor our community and honor the history of the aztecs of the local um natives of of um all of those generations so

108i'm okay with what arturo just said i agree you're my option so i'm not understanding i i just need clarification what you're saying is that they can say we want no mascot is that what you're saying i'm asking if that's yeah if that is a a choice for the committee i'm not saying that's what they're going to agree on they might agree on an animal or a different representation working with this committee but if let's pretend that this committee after studying and looking and collaborating if at the end of the day they just said well you know what it's just best if we let's just not have a let's just not have a a mascot my question is is that an option or are we saying the committee no you must come with you must

109come up with a mascot so even even to be specific uh or or well this is maybe this is a statement and a question at the same time so what we're what we're looking at is as we look to the to the is the to the potential future of an azusa high school logo because because because we've seen the there's like the the the portrait head headshot drawing of the the asset so so we have that that's what is served as the logo there there it is uh thank you we have illustration here so that that so that is what has served as the as as the logo so so this would come with azusa high school aztecs remaining the aztecs but but shifting away from from this image as the official logo board remember

110bo you're suggesting where that may be painted on a wall where we still honor it and keep it um so don't don't paint over it keep it where we're honoring it with our history but with but with uh supplemented with information and education the goal to go along with that yes and and then we're also saying as we look at what does it mean what is a mascot or what is the function of a mascot it means that um let's i'm picturing a football game and a football game happens and it's a halftime show and there's the there's a lady there's an aztec warrior and an aztec warrior that are that are running out so if that group were to say we want noah we want no mascot then there would be there would in

111essence be no character that runs out during a halftime show however if i'll use i'll use board member ariana's suggestion if uh it were the jaguars uh that were that were voted upon and and decided upon then um then there we could still be the azusa high school aztecs uh but the azusa high school aztec mascot might be in the form of a big headed jaguar costume that someone is wearing and running outside so i just want to add i mean there are other ways to be able to incorporate the identity right so for example we heard in public comments lisa talked about having danza steka right like if we had students actually learn dantas deka actually be immersed in that because that brings together that brings part of that is learning is learning about

112that culture the aztec culture right um and they have authentic ways of honoring um the different they have different ways of doing that through their dancing right um so there are that's why i think i personally feel like it's not appropriate for us to be specific at this point i think it's appropriate for us to say and i wouldn't even base what i believe based on what people came and made public comment those were opinions by people right they're not experts they're they're not even part of the local indigenous group they're not part of the thong ball right so so i would i'm not comfortable trying to pigeonhole people and say you have to do this or that i would i want to have a really open conversation in our community i'm spearheaded by this

113community this diverse committee i'm going to say diverse again um to have this conversation about how can we best honor it does it mean changing the logo i don't know i think i think that's a conversation they have to have and i don't feel like i am able to just do make that decision on my own or the five of us i would just like to go ahead and re-emphasize that there needs to be some change and i think that we as the board can direct that if we're going to go ahead and um you know moving forward there's five of us saying yes where we would like to go ahead and um you know uh keep asusa aztecs but you know make the modifications i think that we as the board should direct that

114um because of the fact that you know again i'm going to say we need some new commencement and somehow um and that that person i i i thought i heard you say that we haven't reached a consensus if not a formal vote but we haven't reached a consensus about keeping the colors and i thought we had and i say that because i heard board members pena say keep the identifiers the aztec the name of the schools this is a high school and keep the colors and i agree and i agreed so have we reached consensus or have we not on that so that that would be uh just process wise so that would be two two people um uh the first request from board member rodrigo was to separate the two and then the second

115request was to first discuss the mascot and then after we have the mascot conversation then then have the colors so so i'm i'm i'm honoring that though we've had some peripheral conversation which might bring us to the point of colors which could be a very simple uh movement forward um where i'm i'm looking to keep us on on mascot uh alone first oh okay the only way i just wanted to add one thing because i recall in the past we talked about um um keeping the colors or not not not necessarily changing them in the past we spoke about it before right yeah well let's let's come back to color let's let's say let's stay on mascot uh did you have something to add about mascot what are you uh excuse me um i think

116we've we've had um enough discussion that we can go ahead and move forward with with direction board president yeah would someone like to make a motion yes carlos if i may um in just saying kind of listening to this from the outside here i'm not hearing a consensus uh from the board prohibiting any one specific outcome from the committee's work but i am hearing a consensus on the board that the original action back in december doesn't necessarily need to stand where the mascot has to be changed so i guess one suggestion i have is rather than kind of have the board wrangle itself around a motion to give to the committee the the board could just say there's a consensus that there's work that needs to be done by the committee the superintendent is delegated

117to to handle that work and have the committee come back with those recommendations and those options and the board doesn't necessarily need need to take a specific action today i prefer if we take action because we already took action giving directions to the superintendent that their committee academy committee had to um go out and figure out if if we're going to change the colors with the authority to keep it the same but with the direction to look to change the mascot so i would be i would prefer to have an actual vote today to undo some of those pieces and make a clearer give clearer direction about what we want a committee to do and so i agree on that because on here just specify information action yeah and just just for the for the

118for semantics and this is this we're splitting hairs at this point because we're talking about the difference between i don't even know that we've identified an alternative term we're saying not mascot but something else so we've not identified what that what so i've heard i've heard the word ambassador i've heard i've heard the word spirit leader i've heard the the term identifier so we still need to figure out what what that is but it does sound to me though that we're saying as far as the mascot is is concerned that the mascot the direction is for the mascot to change but that the identifier the ambassador the spirit leader the blank can remain as as the aztec and so to carlos's point i don't i don't think that that would that would be consistent with

119the vote that we took in but we gave specific direction that they couldn't be the aztec but that wasn't the vote right the specific direction if i'm if i'm not mistaken is that the mascot had to change and not be the mask uh and not be the aztec so just from a semantics from the looking at semantics that doesn't change moving forward to say that there's a different mascot but now we are adding additional direction to say that the identifier the spirit leader the ambassador the blank whatever whatever term can now with new parameters remain as the estimate i think that because additional context and ideas and discussion has taken place i i am in agreement with board member um cruz gonzalez about taking a very specific vote and if we're decoupling it to colors

120identifier and mascot i would feel more comfortable either voting on them as a block or voting on and or making three separate motions because it is complex and i think whatever we the direction we give for this very important issue should be codified in a in a board action then uh does someone want to make a motion yes i'd like to make a motion and i'm open to word to um amendment um in terms of how to phrase this but i'd like to make a motion that we take a vote to agree to keep it the azusa aztec and direct the superintendent to put a committee together to um of diverse stakeholders including local local native representation um to be able to ensure that we are um i don't know how to say it um

121um not only being sensitive but honoring honoring right um the indigenous roots of our community um and our student and our and our yeah of those so that's that's my motion a second okay any additional discussion thank you member uh president i i would like to add amend i think you could make a comment and and uh board member chris gonzalez may be open to adjusting her amendment based off of your company right so i i would agree most of it just um making it open that it is not the headdress and uh the fire that's it i i would add to i think that you made a you made an excellent point um gonzales which is for us to not try to make that decision here um i think that if we are going

122to open it up to a committee and and and one of the requirements that we're making with this action is to include those who are actual experts uh and and representative of this culture um we can allow them to speak into that because you're right maybe it's not that had maybe maybe it's something else but instead of us making that that decision as as the non-expert let's let's look to the to the cultural experts to to make that recommendation the culture can can you are we bringing in a group are we hiring somebody um remember recruits do you want to re-clarify your recommendation and what it would include well i don't want to i don't want to specify because i think i want to give the superintendent the flexibility to put together again i'm going

123to use the word diverse purposely vague right so that we can make sure they're representative but i would imagine that it would include um local local um representatives of tongva so that the land that we live servant and potentially maybe someone someone that has an expertise in terms of this um aztec and ancient indigenous cultures as well um um so i i'm not i'm not putting that into the motion i'm just saying like in my in my mind like it feels like that that would be important to have those those expertises on this committee and i just wanted clarification um they have that conversation so we need to have it in public though yeah okay let's do that okay yes so it's been moved it's been seconded are there any other questions or uh clarifications

124then we will move to a uh hand vote there are going to be multiple layers of votes in this within this item so we'll move to a hand vote to uh for this particular layer um uh board member rodriguez pena yes board member beau yes board member cruz gonzalez yes board member arianes and i am also a yes um and so the motion that motion passes five to zero uh the next clearly the next clear item that that requires uh some action is just around colors so i'll remind you that up to this point we have given this the same committee discretion around around colors um and and i think there was a little to your point board member rodriguez pena i think they were given a little more flexibility where we said that that

125committee could choose as an option for the colors to remain the same or they could choose for for the colors to be altogether different so so now as we're looking ahead to what this new set of parameters will will be is there a preference on whether this committee has the option to change the colors uh where we are removing that option where the colors remain the same or any anything in between there i think if it's remaining this is the aztec right and this is more about how are we how are we displaying it how are we honoring how are we talking about and educating about it um it makes sense to me to keep the same colors and not even have that be part of the conversation so that that's fine and and i

126in what i that's what i said earlier you know the name the aztecs and the colors to keep the colors yes i agree with keeping the colors of azusa high school as is i agree and i i also agree with that with keeping the colors the same i i think it does as we saw and there still is a student there in the in the hallway um thinking yeah there she is um and so it that that is as we look i think those are great uniforms i think those are awesome uniforms yeah they're i think we there are other uniforms that we've identified that are our are in need of being updated um this by keeping the colors the same it just puts us on a timeline where we can address what is most

127needed as opposed to um try looking to do everything uh all that so i would be in favor of that as well so if i'm not mistaken then um we would be looking for a motion from someone that would remove the option of the uh uh of that committee to change the colors and that those colors would remain uh what they currently are if i suggest can we just have a just can we just have a just an affirmative motion just saying that the colors will remain the same i think that's clear to people um anyone is welcome to make that motion yeah i'll make a motion that the um color should remain the same which is um blue and white but i'm i'm not embarrassed but she has blue black what is the color

128of that right blue what is that glue doing i mean it's not just blue colombia blue i like to yeah i like to keep from columbia blue i would just make them to keep them the same i think it's keeping the same thing don't specify the colors oh don't i'm sorry yeah just use it then we look it up and [Laughter] any discussion okay then we will go ahead and vote on this particular uh and we're gonna do a hand vote again because i do have a question in case there's one piece that's left out um board board member roger espana yes board member beau yes board member cruz gonzalez yes and board member audience yes and i am also a yes um so now but before we move on there because we had identified

129three layers where we talked about the identifier we talked about the colors and then there's also mascot um we can we can leave it as we can leave it as is if we're comfortable and and and uh superintendent ortega if you think you have enough information to be able to move forward and we don't need to we can or if there's a direction to want to take clear definitive action in regards to the mascot specifically i'm happy the way we are right now i think i think i'm good anyone else with no other no additional emotions that's what i'm saying yeah um yeah uh do you have any additional things first no okay okay then then we will go ahead and um move on then from this item and we'll we'll call this item settled

130and move on to item uh 10.2 which is uh approval of resolution 21 22 28 declaring the month of april as armenian genocide of 1915 uh commemoration month i'll make a motion are you going to make a motion to approve 10.2 moved by board member rodriguez spain is second by board member arianes any discussion can you please explain uh mr tega yes uh this resolution um has been coming to the board of education for the last couple of years this is just to recognize the armenian genocide and commemorate the month on behalf of a commemoration of the genocide that happened i believe it was in 1915. does it read on here that we're supposed to have a collection of not on here next okay sorry i'm ahead of myself i'm good any additional discussion or

131questions okay then we will move to a vote and board member audience had to step up for the user restaurant um we'll go ahead and we'll go ahead and vote yeah so uh what remember roger espana yes member beau yes board member of course gonzalez yes and i am also a moving on to item 10.3 approval of resolution 21 22 29 humanitarian relief from the children and families of the azusa unified school district is there a motion to approve make a motion to approve 10.3 a second move by board member rodriguez pena second by board member beau any discussion question um i'll ask yeah uh superintendent ortega if you could if you could enlighten everyone us all on this yeah absolutely uh this resolution uh is coming to the board of education for consideration for

132approval uh this resolution um is to acknowledge the atrocities that are happening right now uh in in ukraine uh with the uh war that is happening uh there this particular resolution not only is um is having us recognize but it also directs the superintendent to begin some fundraising efforts that would all be donated to a child-centered organization that is that that is helping in the ukraine so this takes it one step further saying that we would start a campaign to raise funds it does say in a resolution that that organization would be decided by the superintendent but i will say um now that i'm doing some research and thinking about this and the possible passage of this um because it is it does specifically say that it has to be child centered i would be

133recommending that the funds go to save the children they are doing some specific work in the ukraine and again this organization is child centered any additional questions or discussion conversation yeah i just i do have a comment um and i fully support this i think that it's it's something one it's an important statement i think it's valuable but i do want to i also do want to say you know we've had a lot of conversations at this school at the school board level and within our district around just um structural racism how we how we view people right and so i i have been hearing and reading different articles about the reaction that we're having to the ukraine crisis right um when we think several several months ago we had the afghani crisis we had

134afghanis coming to our country we had the haitians right trying to get into our country and are visibly being stopped at the borders um and so for us to really think about internally like i we we should make this effort and i fully support it um but let's think about like what's driving us think that this group is so much more important than maybe the other ones that we just saw even within the last few months that we didn't take this important step to say we need to support these refugees that we know are coming to here so i just wanted to put that out there but i but i will i do support it and i will vote for it okay any other comment um yes so uh board member bruce gonzalez i i

135think i agree with you but i think that you should um bring it to the superintendent or bring the words that we can um also have a resolution for any other culture or anyone else in need also we can do that okay if there are no other comments we'll go ahead and vote and the motion passes five yes uh zero no moving on to item 10.4 consideration and approval of amended employment agreement for assistant superintendent at lark is there a motion to approve make a motion to approve 10.4 moved by board member rodriguez pena i'll second it seconded by board member adianas um any any discussion well i i could you plea could you please explain this so we're clear about the role that dana will be serving uh yes um so uh dr data

136mitchell um has announced her retirement uh for uh this school year um although we are all extremely sad to see her uh go on the other side of that is we're very happy that she um that she gets to retire she's retiring at the same time as her husband and so we are happy for her uh for that um so seeing that she is retiring we have taken the opportunity uh in the next board agenda item to bring for consideration um a new assistant superintendent of ed services so this would change dana's title to at large number one and number two it would change her contract to end 6 30 20 22 which is this school year so those would be the two amendments to the contract dana mitchell then would move into a support

137and coach and partner role to get us through the end of the school year so that's the role that she would be taking to finish off the year i just want to say that i appreciate that we're giving the opportunity to provide on-the-job coaching and mentoring especially for a new a new um person at the same position i think um it is an expense right it is an expense um because for two months we'll be having an additional superintendent but i think that the value of being able to be onboarded um have a seamless transition um i think is is well worth that expense so i appreciate um you thinking about this and doing it and you and dana planning this so that we can have this this overlap and i'll just say i i

138there's there's so many things that i would say right now but i imagine that we will have an opportunity before uh june 30th to to to share how much we appreciate you dr mitchell um and so i will i will save my comments uh for that moment but just know that they are expensive i'll save my comments for the retirement party too [Laughter] we're going to have one right okay then we'll move to uh um oh there was a there was a motion in a second that will move to a vote and the motion passes five to zero moving on then to item 10.5 consideration and approval of employment agreement for assistant superintendent educational services i motioned for 10.5 more consideration approval of employment agreement for assistant superintendent educational services um movement for approval is

139there a second second any discussion board member agree i just wanted to make make sure that there's going to be a summary of the item 10.5 or any of the fringe benefits in 10.5 i understand 10.4 is really um it was an approval of an existing contract with a slight amendment to title but i imagine that 10.5 is going to be slightly different yes so thank you um if so going back to uh 10 10.4 um well 10.4 i think is is really just a slight amendment that did not impact any of those fringe benefits so i'm focused right now just on 10.5 because that's going to be a new person holding that position so if we can have the summary yeah so can i just clarify so is this done before or after the

140votes taken i this is done before the votes taken it's a summary to the public of the the uh the compensation and other fringe benefit pieces in the contract so for this item prior to taking final action on 10.5 an employment agreement the browneck requires the governing board to orally report a summary of a recommendation for the salaries salary schedules or compensation paid in the form of fringe benefits for local agency executives an assistant superintendent is a local agency executive and proposed contract is before us this evening the contract before us employs the assistant superintendent of educational services norma camacho effective april 20th 2022 the assistant superintendent's annual base salary will be 681 dollars and eight cents and they are eligible to receive longevity in crim increments as established by the board the assistant superintendent's

141current contract runs from april 20 2022 through june 30 2025. fringe benefits include 12 sick days per year the assistant superintendent will receive 30 days of paid vacation each year the same health and welfare benefits provided to other certificated management employees a 50 000 term life insurance policy during employment payment for membership dues in the association of california school administrators and two other organizations an annual medical exam not to exceed 500 and reimbursement for actual and necessary expenses while performing day-to-day duties for the district and again this is for 10.5 any other uh discussion conversation okay then we'll move to a vote and the motion passes five to zero and i say something i'd like to congratulate norma camacho you know great choice well-deserved i've known her since she was like a baby she was

142a teacher then she was a principal and then she was a student mr rochester student and then she came into the white house and now she's even higher congratulations well deserved young lady sure yeah miss camacho would you like to share a word or two sure thank you board president career school board cabinet um i have been in azusa unified almost my entire life as a student and my entire professional career um it is an honor to be selected um for this position and i am committed to work in partnership and collaboration with all staff school board and community and continuing to move the district forward thank you thank you one of the things that i would like to uh to share is that first congratulations norma camacho um you know we we're we're lucky

143to have dana with us um your spirit and the way that you are in the community and you're with the community and you're a very positive um individual i've worked with norma before and seeing her as a teacher and engage with children she gives all of herself to this sister and i can honestly say that i am very excited we're very lucky to have you and we look forward to working with you and congratulations again all right moving on then to 11.0 consent calendar and specifically 11.1 which is approval of the entire consent calendar so all matters listed under the consent calendar 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

144board member requests discussion that item will be removed from the consent calendar and considered separately is there a motion on 11.1 i like to pull an item item 11.3 are there any additional items um rodriguez painting is that a motion to approve the consent calendar except for 11.3 yes i make motion to approve uh consent counter eleven point one to eleven point seventeen uh what what with the um pulling of the eleven point three do we have a second a second okay then we'll go ahead and vote and the motion passes five to zero item 11.3 now becomes item 12.1 approval of agreement between azusa unified school district and california school boards association so yeah my question is on on these um the csva board evaluation survey tool the cost is says not to exceed

1453 500. um but and then the next page and the compensation is uh 2700 for travel i want to know is that included in the 3500 or the additional thank you the 3500 includes the 2700 and we don't know if they're um local or they're coming from somewhere we don't know that yet correct but not to exceed is uh to add a cushion uh we have no idea what the travel cost might be and so um they might need to fly in and fly out the same day they might need to fly in and get a hotel they might be local um but whatever that may be that cushion allows us to pay the 2 700 and then whatever we pay for travel expenses okay great thank you any other question or discussion then we

146will go ahead and vote on actually we'll need them uh is there a motion make a motion to approve 12.1 4.1 12.1 oh 12.1 is there a second oh second a moved by board member pena second by board member cruz gonzalez any additional discussion then we'll go ahead and vote and the motion passes five to zero which brings us to 13.0 business and finance and specifically 13.1 capital facilities program general obligation bond update yes thank you give me one second to share my screen right in collaboration with the district's architects team the director of mlt and the director of mis presented before the board is a draft project list to address the facility needs for our schools i'm sorry for our schools that are projected to remain open as a result to the school reorganization

147process the projects have been placed into three categories safety which is colored in peach which we consider a must do then you have the next category strongly recommended in color blue which are items to improve and enhance our facilities and in this category you will see the emphasis to elevate our high school facilities the final category includes the upgrade and add-ons which is in a colored yellow which include all of the previous allocations for the three schools left be modernized which includes paramount lee dalton along with other items to increase the facility in instructional operations jamal okay um as you're speaking about the items can you make sure that they're on the screen right now we only see peach and blue i am so sorry all right here's the blue and then here's the yellow

148strongly recommended okay and i apologize in the bottom left hand corner in the green box you will see the available funding of approximately 59 million dollars which is comprised of several funding sources following the boxes to the right outlines the remaining if we were to complete the safety related items the second box to the right includes the remaining funding that will be available if we completed both safety and the strongly recommended and then the third box to the right outlines the shortfall of approximately 44 million if we were to account for safety strongly recommended and the add-ons [Music] the items in peach okay the items in peach are safety related and are considered a must tonight we are seeking feedback on the blue and yellow category based on the feedback we receive we will bring

149back revised blue and yellow category on may 3rd may 3rd board meeting for further discussion and render a decision are there any questions for me comments i i just i have a question regarding the new little theater and it's azusa high east [Music] the where school we're so is this campus or east somewhere else so is a high school east is a representation of us accounting for utilizing the foothill campus got it thank you you're welcome you know i i just wanted to add something to that regarding if that's little mr lewis's questions mr lewis's um theater that he had i think it'd be nice if on the foothill facing the street there was a sign there that did um mr lewis's name on there like mr lewis i don't know auditorium or theater or

150something like that because i've seen that before and it'd be nice because we're we're theaters is so small you don't you have to literally go in the campus to see this little park like this big so i think it'd be really nice because the community really loved him and um if it's affordable i would like to see something like that as well thank you i would like to ask um here on the upgrade adam item yes ma'am i see that there's the pool um that has been added for us through the hyde i do not see the pool added for gladstone middle school is there a reason why um at this time if it was an add-on we were just giving the cost for azusa high school to have it at a high school or

151on pe but if the desire of the board is to also have it at glaston middle school it will be the equivalent cost and do the middle schools usually have a pool i don't know if i've seen one but um i don't know just for information does anyone know seeing a middle school with a swimming pool i understand the high schools because they do compete and you know with other schools and everything but i'm not sure about the middle school i'm hearing um brian i'm state that no that's not common to have it yeah i think so okay so though i would add as as we are reimagining schools i i wouldn't i wouldn't necessarily have us look to what is common around as we're making a decision and instead say what what will azusa

152have and how will azusa stand out with that said there are there are limited resources and so we have to make we have to make decisions and so that may or may not make that that cut but but i would push us to look beyond what is typical um in districts around us yes sir again i i i'm gonna say it again there's um uh the la county supervisors they have funds and i know like for gladstone like i think it was 10 years ago um when i had a conversation with one of the county supervisors so we can look out there again you know for that money that way we can go ahead and this would be uh eldest elise and catherine parker excuse me just correction it's it's warger he's um yeah hilda

153is like across the street i'm seeing for both high schools yeah i know hilda is here for a susa high yeah but but i'm also looking to get funds yeah from from both so i'm pretty sure that with redistricting we're all there it's all under hilda's elise now it will be it has changed um but i think that i agree that's a really good point so um for example they've invested in la puente and they partnered to put a school i mean to put a pool in there not at a school but but at a community park with the agreement that it would be available through the county so i do think that um there is opportunity to think about that um as well as thinking about having further conversations with the city around joint

154use right and how do we think about facilities um you know for example i'll just say we don't have soccer fields anywhere in the in this city right you see other cities but we have lots of field space at some of our schools right so i i think that those are good opportunities i use them as examples my feedback in terms of the timeline you present um i'm not comfortable with that i i think i think what's important we have most of the board here was not part of the decision making around measure k and deciding priorities um and i do think that there's there's the need to have a clear vision especially now that we've consolidated in terms of where our schools are going right whether that's a full-fledged master plan or whether that's

155some other kind of visioning process i do think that that needs to happen to think about what we want right so for example do we do we look at the upgrading a little new theater or do we build a beautiful performing arts center like they just built in west covina right so like let's let's have conversations about that and what plans for how we would get to having those pieces because i know for example in other communities they've passed multiple bonds or they have much higher asset values so they can get a lot more out of a single bond um but having those plans um so that's that's my feedback in terms of from the board my perspective what needs to happen next um um but i again i'm just one of five people but

156i think that to me that that makes more sense to me [Music] so today during public comment we heard um some employee feedback regarding staff restrooms and it's not the first time that i personally have heard this from district employees about the status or the condition of their staff breast room is that um contemplated in this list that you present us here so staff restrooms is part of our deferred maintenance plan so that would not have to be utilized through bond dollars we're actually taking that on through the general fund through fund 14. you're welcome i do have another question i thought it was my understanding in recent years that the state passed additional legislation around some state funding state matching dollars requiring districts to have a have a facilities master plan is that correct

157am i am i wrong about that but not required yes yeah um and like i said i'm not necessarily saying that so you so and you're oh we don't have mic for you oh we do um but i think as we as we think about we you know we've had a great con presentation about our technology and where we need to go right um you know i i really believe like we need to have these conversations about what is that vision right um i haven't even brought up the id our previous conversations around like sustainability right and conserving energy and the feasibility of solar and other other pieces that you could put in so i i i would prefer to have this kind of broader conversation did you want to speak to that yeah one

158of the things that you can do to aside from doing a master plan for the whole facility is doing one just for your high school um one of the things that you're going to be able to do going forward is when you whatever you decide to do with a big property you can build new buildings we haven't built a new building in azusa high as far as a legitimate from the foundation up since 1950 so that's something that we look forward to um but i think that we need to masturbate our high school for sure for losing our students because of the dilapidated festival but we can also do one for the entire district but um we have done one in the past in 2000 i do have old one um so there is one

159out there that we have spent money i'm chuckling because that's now two decades ago right yeah yeah yeah and and then some border member audience i i think this is a probably a really good conversation to have at a like you know governance meeting for us to be able to discuss study session a study session there you go um for us to be able to discuss like that you know the needs the wants the because it is a different board than you know like board member chris gonzalez said that when measure k was was passed and the direction that we're moving in right now i think it would be a great opportunity for us to uh board member president uh greer um i would like to go ahead and dust that yeah and i i

160i'd love to get to hear from uh superintendent ortega just one of the things that that we recognize is as as we have been making a number of shifts and and decisions which has affected which campuses are to remain open which campuses are to remain closed i imagine that there must be some items on this list that are that are pretty imminently needed um could you speak as we look at as we look at appropriately pacing items on this list can you speak to what you see as as a timeline for the conversation happen that allows for that conversation versus the need for items on this list to take place immediately sure i can start the conversation latasha if you want to join in on that as well um we definitely uh as a staff

161um feel the need to um try to accomplish some of these things sooner than later we have a year and a half for [Music] all of the high school students to be as a high school um and so you see that we invested quite a bit in azusa high school and just these initial conversations we have things on this on the safety side that um literally we we can't wait anymore so for instance tonight we have uh an item coming for approval on the gym floor the gym floors as a high school is a safety hazard right now the only way you can use the gym floor is if we pull out the bleachers because we have to make sure that we're covering parts of the floor that have exposed nails and things that cause

162a safety and there are sports that want to use the whole entire gym with the bleachers back and and we're saying we can't do that right now we have to make sure now that we move forward uh with that um so you know again it would it would be great to align the transition to the new schools as closely as possible to some of these big projects we have taken the proper step i believe uh to pause all construction and all bonds right now uh so that is completely on pause that we're not doing things that we you know we had no idea what was going to happen because of the of the closure um so just in our heads as we have campuses that are not as uh populated right now this would be

163a really good time to start doing some of these at least the safety items and then maybe have a bigger conversation on the blue and the yellow because again some of these some of these things are really really pressing i don't know if you wanted to add anything to that yes and so i was just going to echo those same things and then i'm just thinking of how we're combining efforts so um some of the items that mr manuel presented on in order for some of those items to actually work some of his key items that were initially part of construction are listed so we start off with his items lines three all the way through line um nine so those are technology related voice over ip things that we need to do before we

164currently do not have surveillance on any of our campuses um so that that's considered to me a safety is that something that we could push down we could but it's also something i think is important at this date and time we need intrusion alarms we currently do not have that at most of our campuses um so um items and safety is not um to me are items that we need to take place now and some and the reason why i'm saying now is that even if we receive the green light today it's going to take about a year for some of these things to actually happen so it's not even a turnkey we say yes today and then tomorrow we're moving it's other dsa uh forms and things that we have to submit to actually

165get the approval so the longer we delay on the safety related items or longer time frames before we can actually have them happen and i just wanted to speak on the little theater it wasn't us trying to reimagine saying okay this is what we're going to put at foothill it was because we actually had to close the theater at azusa and they currently don't have anything so this was our idea of thinking that's why we put it with safety is that something i could wait yes but we're also identifying that now we will not have a theater space for them to utilize or board member audience um did you speak on the street closure honestly the high east it's 1.3 million dollars um what exactly would that would that be so that would be working

166in collaboration with the city of actually making two quota sects so that will close off two streets um and i'm sorry i don't know brocktale thank you and it would make it so that that's a clear path for students to walk through safely without having to worry about ongoing traffic would the residents be able to get in somewhere or how yes so um uh both um both sides over i'm very bad with directions but for both sections there's an entry point for both residents to get in yes i'm fenimore i'm going to say yes but i don't know the name of this chose rockville then the next one's venom okay okay then they would enter and so they would be it would be on uh rockville in first and then uh the next three over

167that uh i can speak a little bit on it so um if you are going if you're on um on first and you're gonna go north on rockvale um there is a not this street i don't know but there's a street that you can make a right on this closure would be north of that street so residents can still take rockvale to get into that neighborhood going south on rockville there is also a street that goes that's right in the north northern part which runs with foothill the street closure would be south of that so residents can still take rockville and get into into linfield the only parts that would be closed are north of that street and south of the street so think about the field portion if you will of foothill that would

168now be a permanent closure there would be no traffic it would just be part of the property part of azusa high school take a field trip i can't i can't picture that in my brain right now i remember chris gonzalez um um i i appreciate what you're saying and i do think it's important to start moving forward with some of these pieces um i do want to just mention though i mean i think we made a commitment with measure k that we were going to take the unmodernized schools and we were going to monetize them so i see for example the upgrade items we have classrooms from dalton lee and paramount do we have paramount in there too yes we should right and so to me that's part of finishing modernization so that's why i

169say like we have to have these conversations right because in my mind it makes more sense let's commit and make sure that we're going to fully modernize those schools that didn't get a chance in under measure i um and that may mean that it goes we go down beyond your red right but because we're saying these schools never had a modernization and now it's the time most definitely the other question i have so does the affordable funding the available excuse me the available funding below does that include the funding that's that came from the settlement agreement with the rosedale it does so where where does that live in here you actually um see that and fund 40. and fund 40. okay special okay so you staff staff is looking for direction yeah and i think

170i mean again if it's possible right we we are definitely um would want to speak about the things in the blue and the things in the yellow and refocusing and re-prioritizing and how does that make sense um if you look at uh the graphic there looking at what the current funds that we have that's about 23.2 million dollars [Music] if if we were to look at items in blue and yellow and say what makes the most sense if if we if we had the opportunity to move forward with the things in the red um and and and then continue having conversations about the blue and the yellow and twenty twenty three point two million dollars um i think that would be that would be perfect so you see the numbers at the bottom um if

171you start with the green section um the sec the first category to the right is where mr ortega is referencing the 23 million dollars so we have available funding the 59 million less the amounts and safety which is 36 million and we'll have 23 remaining available for discussion to identify and prioritize prioritized projects i'm going to say i agree with with my fellow board member gabriella and say that we need a study session i think looking at a big spreadsheet and making decisions is a bad way to make decisions and are we committed to have a study session for the blue and yellow are we saying a study session well i'm not clear with the red where is all of that where i'm not even i'm not clear so is this stuff coming out of

172measure pay is it part of its measure it's not clear to me what spending what so at this time all of our funding um we would we have a total of allocation of 59 million dollars of that majority is coming from measure k we have other funds that we could capitalize on which is fund 40 fun and fun 25. um fun 25 is more restrictive that's developer fee so our first priority we will spend down um measure k then we will go to our fund 40 then developer fee for those that um are available that qualify as expenditures through our developer fee funds just to be tremendously clear because you said you said most of those funds come from educate but measure for the grand total would be 59 but it says measure k total

173is 22. plus the 14 million of the last issuance at the bottom so so for clarification what you're saying is that we have about no measure k funds all that we have left are what 30 36.1 million 36.1 million so the maintenance uh funds are separate than these ones here yes yes ma'am and and what are we using the maintenance funds for for deferred maintenance so um yes deferrability for projects that we could tackle in-house as well as things that we can um take care of that doesn't require dsa require projects or does not require us to go out to something that we could do tangible and make it a rotating cycle okay thank you i think we really have something like a respect meaning just for painting right here i'm just kind of like

174so am i hearing the board say that there is a desire to not move forward on anything including the items listed under red until there's a study session well i mean what kind of guarantees am i are we are we having that we're going to be able to complete modernization at dalton lee and paramount um if we're saying yes go ahead and spend measure k dollars on everything up above this line above under under red and i just want to add also so like what is the timeline i mean this this should have to be made like right now today or do we have some space um we have space for everything it's just a matter of the longer that we take to make this at least to start on the safety items our facilities

175will continue to be in the current condition they are until we have i agree though the safety items are really important and another option could be um to approve the safety and stick with the commitment of the 6.5 that was allocated for those three schools stick with the what the 6.5 million which is part of the add-ons that is the modernization allocation that was allocated for the three schools that you're referencing so this is exactly why i want to have it i want to have a converse study session i i mean i have other questions like for example like voip and cabling right um why are we is is it is it an option to try to get e-rate funding for those pieces right um so i you know right but it's currently not a

176funding window but so yes if we're able to leverage e-rate we both definitely will but right now that's not a funding window for us at this time so we'll okay but i want i would like to have those conversations and we can have them right now but but i just again a spreadsheet is a very poor way of having this conversation i don't feel comfortable deciding this i i would like i said before i we need to have a study session sooner than later we could schedule that um i would be open for it so that way we could have a much richer deeper conversations we're talking about taxpayer money we're talking about money that we're going to spend and i would like to go ahead and um have more of questions answered and so

177for president i would like to have a study session board member beau is this an info item this is an invitation so we're not required to take any action or we're not even able to take action on this item right i think you were just waiting for direction right of the board that's [Music] but but again an info item then it comes as an action item correct each item as like let's say we have the green light to start on everything in safety each one of those items will be an action item once we award the contract right and i'm not comfortable with that yet thank you so yeah yeah the challenge the challenge that for me as i look at this is i do see some i hear that there are some items that

178are listed as safety that i agree our safety when you talk about our the gym floor and the need for that there are some things that clearly are safe safety issues um even as we talk about the street closure i'm not i don't know what yeah but the timeline on that is but but that that would seem to me like maybe that's is that something that could wait or does it need to start right away so so even as i look at this though there are a number of items listed on under safety the challenge is that some of these do appear to be potentially urgent and some appear that they could they could wait so because it's not separated out it becomes difficult i guess i would ask i know you have something to

179add there brian are there is there an argument to be made for any of these items on the red list that are tremendously overdue and maybe we can start with with those those items in particular um i would actually allow emanuel and daniel to speak on their items and then i will piggyback off of them and you said one thing i would like to go and see this street closures in what streets are we talking about what does it look like you know just tell me the reason we could do a field trip but i will say i like going with um board president's first question like the street closure most definitely could be an item that does not have to happen at this time okay i mean obviously there's butts right so it doesn't

180happen at this time uh we open up the high school that's not done so now we need crossing guards we need extra campus security aid because now it's a full-flown street are we gonna try to do um temporary closures right so there's ramifications but yes i mean it doesn't have doesn't have to be done today but i mean if we don't have that done when the when the school is open then again we have to pivot and do different things i also see the majority of the items here are for azusa high i'm having conversations with the city about this yes have they has anybody talked about the idea of looking at there's a lot of local investments around walkability and and upgrading coming through skag and other like city and state have we have

181right we have conversations about partnerships around that i'm not saying it may not be possible right but i think they're more well versed in in what's out there around that yeah the city um as we were having conversations about this uh this is a recommendation um so you know as if we're gonna be thinking about this because we thought about everything right bridges tunnels uh temporary closures only on school days um you know just kind of different things like that um and this seemed like the most fiscally responsible thing to do the easiest thing to do and the safest thing to do remember beau so i agree with board member cruz gonzalez and i think generally with my colleagues that this is a list and it's not a plan and it's really hard for us

182to have input into a vision and a plan when we're just looking at a list of items i think when we look at safety we all kind of react like oh wow safety nails in the floor on the azusa high gym we're not saying we want that or that should even have been allowed to exist however these are big chunks of dollars and i think it the level and the magnitude of these expenditures really weren't a well thought out plan and you know maybe it's time to update the facilities the master facilities plan it i think we nee i would be in favor of going fast to go slow rather than trying to rush through and make decisions on a for example a road closure that we're not even looking at and i think that

183one one part that sticks out to me maybe the most is i don't recall a full conversation of how the azusa high east campus for the foothill middle school campus will be used as part of the high school i don't recall that detailed discussion and the contemplation of spending 4.1 million i don't feel like i have enough detail to say yeah what about you guys like again i think that we keep going back in in circles and we keep asking questions and more questions keep coming up so i'm again i'm going to suggest um point of order president can we please schedule something so we can yeah i mean let's pull let's pull our calendars out um so just looking at may uh what kind of time is needed for for this plan to be

184put together for us to even be able to discuss it yeah um again unless brian latasha i would want just some kind of further feedback from the board in terms of what it is that we're looking for um i'm just trying to wrap my head around you know a vision and a plan but with like coupled with these details um i just want to if we can kind of if unless again that's bryan natasha you have a good understanding of what's next and just get some more feedback on what would help the board what can we provide or what can we bring forward to help this conversation i think board member said it well that that this this is just kind of like you know just dollars on paper that there's not a clear like

185understanding you know written out like what's the vision you know i mean we're looking at numbers but it it's i would like to see you know exactly what vision you have for you know uh how many fire alarms where are these going to go the intrusion alarm you know to go into detail because i again i'm looking at this blindly and we're trying to guess and that's why there's so many questions though because i mean we're we're going to question everything when it comes to money and especially how we're going to upgrade you know susa high and all the schools that you guys have here so again i i think that we can sit here and we're going to have another 30 minutes again we need to have a steady state right so the challenge

186is so we say we're going to have a study session on may 10th but but uh business services says that it's going to take us it's going to take them a month in order to have in order to have a plan if so so so we need to under do we need to hear um what is the what is the timeline that is going to take you all to produce the plan so that we can so that we can ensure that the the study session that we scheduled is after that but i hear you all saying you don't know until you hear from us what you're look what we're looking for from that plan you can't give a timeline on can i make a comment please so the safety items sorry now the safety items

187you don't need a plan for safety um what you really want to plan for is if you're planning on doing new buildings the complete construction of a new if if it's safety like let's say i get a call tomorrow there's a broken window i need to go and fix it right so we've through an assessment we've already distinguished we need all these things for safety so safety is pretty much you have to do it by code and through dsa you're going to have to do these things so um as far as the details that ariana's looking at you don't get that into the weeds until you get bids until you actually have an assessment done by a contractor so so these are things in in safety that you don't necessarily have to have a facilities

188plan that's more for new buildings um your vision going forward if you're gonna put the abilities does that make sense i do understand that but i have again with street closures i mean we just had a lot of people here saying that you know that we didn't communicate and we're transparent we're talking about people closing a street in our city where people live i i again we need to have a deep conversation about that right how are we gonna address this how are we gonna let those individuals know this you know the community know um i understand like you know the the drainage and so forth that you're saying it's pretty self-explanatory but again i think that after we can sit down with more time and be able to go you know step by step

189i i would like to do that then we can give you a more clear direction yeah actually before board member board member sorry yeah but what i was going to say too is that with the street closure so we're already behind if we're going to close that off because you have to go to dsa and do half the travel new gates all that stuff so i'm just saying that time is of the essence i'm not forcing you to make a decision i'm just saying that we have to think in terms of if you decide to make that decision tonight it's not like tomorrow we can just start construction there's a process i'm just i'm just putting that out there just for info and the only point that i wanted to add is that everything on

190this list whether whatever we decide to do each item would have to come back to the board for approval so once we're doing fire alarms once we go out to bid for the contractor to do the fire alarms that did the whole process will come back to board so it's not given a blanket of okay yes let's just tell spend 36 million and we'll never have any other discussion each one of these items will require board approval to make it happen so we wouldn't know that until you get the bid from whatever companies how can you give us the plan if you don't have that would be our channel yes right yes so if we were hypothetically to give direction on on the the red items to to take next steps i should say with

191these red items that does not necessarily give approval meaning that there it authorizes you to take those initial next steps but there would still be the opportunity for it to come before the board where the board could say no and it doesn't happen case in point the gym floor it's on here and safety the gym for item is actually on the board agenda for approval the actual contract did bid through cmas today and can i ask regarding the defense on north rockville what's the mean what does that mean just a new fence uh no so yes that's the perfect question so currently there's a fence on a back way of glass zone this is deemed safety because we've had an instance where staff will go in they don't lock i'm sorry you mean azusa rockwell

192that's behind us dudes behind me yeah i'm sorry that's the last part of the chain link fence so they have a size up you know i'm just not northbound thank you yeah but rockville is the long street is it by first streak at that end or is it the other end oh the the one that you're going to do to divide or cross thank you sandra and i'm sorry i started jumping to the other fences on here for um glass on high school so i apologize okay does that does does that shift anything for the with the board um on on anything knowing that there's they're in essence each item has to come before us before it moves forward i i am comfortable if it's gonna it will come to us and when it comes

193to us we would know who the bitter is i mean who what company they're going with then we can ask the questions about how much are you know for these people or whatever whatever but how would they know if they haven't put bits out for these jobs if when i'm seeing it if we don't give um direction to move forward how would they go out and get the bidders right so i i feel that we need to give him some kind of direction today premier bow so i think i'm i'm interested in um having more of a timeline and so for so for example for each of these safety items right i don't think anyone is necessarily disagreeing with safety items as a general concept but what would the phase-in look like right and would

194we start at when we start with azusa high school or are we starting with are we evenly distributing the work are we starting at the elementaries right as our entry point as we're trying to boost preschool and insurance into the district and then kind of looking at it down this way to finish the modernization at some of the campuses is that bleed into some of the strongly recommended items so i think rather than the just the list but in perhaps it can't be a fully detailed plan but more of a project timeline of what would this look like and then how would each of these line items be funded right so we have the the rest of measure k we have the final issuance and then we have fund 40. so for example how are

195we using fund 40 what project is will be funded by that i think would be helpful so that we can begin to understand with more specificity how we are funding these projects with which fun mission if that if that was board direction um is that something that you would be able to take action on and and to produce something for us to create a study session here soon or or is there is there still more you'd be looking for from us to give you direct so what i want to make sure i'm hearing um is that if we took the items starting with safety related identify the time frame of when everything will take place and which funding sources will be allocated for those tasks remember so i mean i think that is helpful but

196i think it doesn't get to sabrina's earlier point about you know this is a list not a plan right and so i would hope internally like that that there is a plan around like a plan around these pieces i i know you're looking at portugal but i mean for example like um i look at the safety related item pieces and um there are pieces that are required by dsa right that clearly we understand fire alarms not so sure that voip or the classroom conversion for little theater are maybe dsa required safety issues maybe they're educational safety issues where we feel the urgency um so i want us to be clear about about those pieces um but i would be very concerned arthur and i'm talking to arthur right now that that you you're not able

197to articulate a plan for what these facilities look like right and if that's the case then we have to go through a process to be able to articulate that um and i don't think it's the board's responsibility to say this is the way we want the plant laid out right that's really an internal you guys have obviously discussed and decided what's important what to recommend um and so really that's really your responsibility to be able to synthesize that into a vision sort of a plan for where we're moving forward and i also feel like if we if we had also decided which one's our dsa needs dc approved because i do know that those will take longer like a permit that will take longer than just something you just need do not need a dsa

198approval right so that would be helpful too so we know what so i'm hearing urgent yeah so i'm hearing having these items listed out with a fun with funding source with a with a timeline um coupled with a with a overarching plan that that would come with that um sorry rodriguez paint you also just added approval and timelines so so i'm i'm hearing the formation of of information that would be helpful for a study session so if we were if we were looking along those lines um what what is a what is a timeline word which that could be produced for the for the board um we'll make whichever date we schedule for a study session in may yes so currently may 10th is the is the only may date that we do not have

199a board meeting schedule the 24th i believe we don't have a meeting schedule that's right enter 24. i'm through the 10. i'm feeding the 10. i i may have to fall in but but i'm free well and then again what time are we are we talking so i'm sorry the time afternoon i think that would be at 5 30 uh that would be a 5 30 start time or evening so if we have if we have a 5 30 p.m study session on may 10th um and miss jamal you'll you'll be able to collect this this data that'll be the central focus of that meeting yes and we're focused on safety are we looking at all i think we're focused on facilities that uh in in general um i think that correct me if i'm

200wrong here uh colleagues i think if they're there appear to be some items of urgency and we're and we're saying that there's difficulty because we have to also take into consideration the uh the full usage of measure k dollars and how those are are expended so it's probably i see it as a larger thing that goes beyond safety but i'll look for the others as well no problem i would agree as well yeah i agree we'll have it done i did want to just say um i thought we were gonna and i thought we were gonna have a com maybe i missed it but i thought we were gonna have an additional conversation about the technology plan right including discussion about where different pieces were gonna be funded and i thought that we said that

201was gonna come back to this board meeting yeah so that and that was requested and there's uh what in the within the board packet there's some uh questions in regards to that uh to speak into the desire to have it return or not i have a question now now the board has uh taken uh direction in being able to go ahead and discuss this further at a study session meeting um will we be pulling the item from the agenda today oh there's no need to pull it's an information provisional so there's no need to pull no no uh the gym floor oh well we haven't voted on you i guess we can we can discuss that when we get to it okay then we will move on okay yes are we confirming the study session

202to be may 10th may 10th at 5 at 5 30 pm okay then we'll move on to 13.2 approval of resolution 21 22 30 the closure of fund 53 tax override is there a motion to approve motion to approve move by board member rodriguez spain is second by board member adianas any discussion uh yes i have a question regarding so um this this fund was from the measure i the remaining of the measure i funds is this you found someone found this money is that what happened or i don't mean found but i won't say foul well look it's until when 2000 2003 and here we are i mean that's yes and so it's been sitting there and it's just one of those um the question continue to have why do we have fun why

203do we keep having fun 53 why do we have fun for the three no one most districts aren't using anything for and we realize this was sitting there so the auditor's recommended and the okay the auditors and um um laco recommended that we transfer the funds to general fund and then under board approval then we actually pose the fund so so why is it not transferred into the measure king since it was scuba funding measure i because the only way you could put funds into a bond fund is from the issuance we can't transfer or not to not from another um funding source but we could out we could allocate it if it was originally for for facilities used to add to say we are going to assign or commit because of the reserve requirement

204commit the 12 million the 12 thousand dollars i said 12 million 12 000 is that emotional we're here or what should we do well there could be a motion i like to make it work so you want to do you want to adjust your oh i'm sorry i i changed my emotion my motion and i like to make a new motion right to have this funds um transfer to the measure cave funds facilities to sign up for facilities we're going to assign the funds for facilities facilities but not necessarily like i forgot you just depend on and can you put it into the okay the facilities on but can you put you so you can put it even in maintenance funds you can put it any funds yes we could put enough funds but the

205facility funds is the one we need for this you know list don't that's who i want to put it um does your second still stand with that board member audience yes okay and we'll go ahead and vote and the motion passes five to zero moving on to 13.3 approval of the proposal between azusa unified school district and wilden energy solutions there a motion to approve make a motion to approve 14.3 you have a second second but i have a question uh so moved by board member rodriguez pena second by board member arianes um board member iannis um yes what exactly is this um weldon energy solutions going to be uh bringing to your district so this um contract is to um complete or to help facilitate our sr3 expenditure plan for hvac windows and doors

206so this company is our energy energy conservation company who would assess how we maxify maximize our energy conservation so they will make the recommendations on the type of windows recommendation on the type of doors and the recommendation of our hvac units as well as give us the useful lives or how we can repurpose our current hvac units and i have a second question it says here no budgetary impact so that's all free yes um and so uh yeah so we actually just to get back story we went out to bid for this um and that was one of the factors of what made them more um enticing to the district um all of the other entities that responded to us they stayed no i figured that oh okay all of the other entities that responded

207um they stated that they stipulated that they would do the work but in the end if the district decided not to implement their plan then there would be a fee between 75 000 to a hundred and fifty thousand this firm um in their bid they've um identified that they will not charge us if we chose not to implement their plan but they will have the rights to the plan meaning we will still have it we can plan it but they too will use that design to present to someone else so with this right here i mean nothing is free so are we borrowing from like a bank are we borrowing from any of our funds no this is this is they're designing a plan to help us spend our estro dollars on the type of

208windows that we're going to implement our doors and their hvac units which is what we told the state we're going to spend our s or three dollars on so how are they getting paid they they so they um they work with the contractors and between them and the contractors that's how their fees are handled but the district does not pay welding any additional question conversation okay then we'll move to a vote you picked it right there thank you i would have to give ryan that credit yeah and the motion passes five to zero which brings us to 13.4 approval of the contract between azusa unified school district and harsh wall company llp independent audit services make a motion to approve uh 13.4 and i have a question moved by boardman rodriguez pena second by board

209member arianes so my question is um our auditors that we have now the eddie bailey firm who how long have we had them and is it like time to to get new auditors is that why we're looking at this so um good practice is you um rotate audit firms um every four years or for the financial side at least on rotate partners um we've been with eddie bailey e bailey for over 16 years um and we were with them 16 oh 16 yes yes and prior and i can double check the years but they changed their name so there they were original auditors and they changed their name to eddie edie ed bailey so they were prior um i want to say ela clifton allen lift and larson allen i believe they were bt yes

210rbt i would have to get the actual name but um they were um and so previously um prior leadership was going to go out to bid but they chose to stay with the firm with a new partner and with the partner name the entity name change i think this is great i think that i prefer changing auditors every so often and not just changing partners and because we've gotten better perspectives when a new editor comes in um just because they differ they're looking looking at things differently so i'm glad that we're doing it thank you any additional question question we'll move and the motion passes five to zero bringing us to 13.5 approval of resolution 21 22 31 authorizing filling of applications for the california preschool transitional kindergarten and full-day kindergarten facilities grant program is

211there a motion to approve 13.5 second moved by board member honest adianas second by board member rodriguez paynium any additional discussion or questions then we'll move to a vote and the motion passes 5-0 moving on to 13.3 approval of proposal between azusa unified school district and kya services llc is there a motion president 13.3 you meant 13.6 thank you 13.6 same language to approve 13.6 check it any discussion then we'll move to about and the motion passes five to zero bringing us to 14.0 curriculum and instruction and specifically 14.1 uh third quarterly williams uniform uniform complaint report we have no complaints to report okay motion to approve 14.1 uh that's info so no no however 14.2 approval of the contract between azusa unified school district and roberts castillo's bmx freestyle team is an action item

212okay 14.2 a motion for approval okay second move by board member rodriguez pena second by board of member arianes uh any discussion okay and we'll vote and the motion passes five to zero bringing us to 14.3 approval of the memorandum of understanding between azusa unified school district and dennis langlais bmx freestyler is there a motion to approve second move by a board member ariana arianes and second by board member rodriguez pena any discussion then we'll move to a vote and the motion passes five to zero bringing us to 15.0 human resources and specifically 15.1 approval of the contract between azusa unified school district and loma linda university is there a motion to approve make a motion to approve 15.1 moved by board member rodriguez payne and second by board member arianes any discussion and we'll

213move to a vote and the motion passes five to zero uh bringing us to item 15.2 approval of the learning site agreement between azusa unified school district and california state university san bernardino question to approve 15.2 second move by board member audianus and seconded by board member uh who's gonzal uh rodriguez pena any additional discussion or questions and we'll move to a vote and the motion passes five to zero bringing us to 16.0 and 16.1 adjournment is there a motion to approve motion 16.1 you have a second uh and any discussion then we'll move to a vote and the motion passes 5-0 which means that we are adjourned at 10 11 p.m everybody have a good day you