Azusa Unified School District Board Meeting - March 1, 2022

001well good evening everyone and welcome to uh the regularly scheduled board meeting for the azusa unified school district board of education on march 1st 2022. uh do apologize coming back from closed session a little late and so we are opening our open session meeting at 703 pm and we will begin with our flag salute let's stand we'll move to item 4.2 which is roll call board member arianes present board member cruz gonzalez here board member bo here board member rodriguez pena president and i board member greer m also here which moves us to item 4.3 approval of the agenda is there a motion on the floor moved by board member adianas second second by board member rodriguez pena any discussion hearing none let's move to a vote we'll go ahead and take a hand vote

002uh number adianas yes board member cruz gonzalez yes board member beau yes board member rodriguez pena yes and i board member greer i'm also yes so the motion passes five to zero remember audience are you able to join in is it letting you i mean log out login so that moves us to item 5.0 report action of closed session items and 5.1 approval of resolution 21 2220 release or reassignment of an administrator number 21 22 10 59 is there a motion on the floor 5.1 second moved by board member rodriguez pena second by board member ariana's any discussion then we'll move to a vote and the motion passes three to two moving on to item 5.2 approval of resolution 21 22 21 release from employment of temporary certificated employee motion two approved 5.2 moved by

003board member ajanis second second by board member rodriguez pena any discussion and we will move to a vote and the motion passes five to zero moving to item 5.3 approval of a resolution 21 22 22 reduction or discontinuance of particular kinds of services is there a motion on the floor make a motion to approve 5.3 moved by board member rodriguez pena second by board member adianas any discussion then we move to a vote and the motion pass is 5-0 moving on then to item 6.0 items from the floor public comment on agenda or non-agenda items and specifically 6.1 public comment on agenda or 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

004board of education on any agenda or non-agenda items when the public wishes to address the board on an agenda item they may fill out a blue card stand at the podium or raise their hand while in zoom attendance the board will take blue card requests first followed in order by speakers at the podium and then those in zoom attendant and again i do want to remind everyone that there to please keep your eye on the three minute marker because if you surpass the three minutes i will need to stop you to allow for uh equity for all of our speakers to have no more than three minutes so if you keep an eye on that timer and stop then i don't have to stop you and i apologize in advance if if i'm needing to

005interrupt you um with that we'll go ahead and begin with rebecca lopez i have some pronouns i don't know if you'll get them now or later a visual aid thank you good evening school board members and district staff opinions don't affect facts but facts should affect opinions so here tonight i remind us of the fact these have all been shared at the district website and with the school board members i share these facts and ask you to listen reflect and then reconsider it is within your power and you can still make a motion to amend your previous vote regarding the elementary school closures in the district as a representative of our entire city your constituents are requesting your attention we are voicing our concerns facts should affect opinions facts should affect your vote here are

006the facts dalton and lee elementary schools are 0.8 miles apart they are both within the new trustee area 4. this new voting area currently has a board member living there both dalton and lee elementary schools are being scheduled to remain open now let's look at magnolia and powell um elementary schools they are 0.9 miles apart they are both in the new trustee area 3. this new voting area currently does not have a voting member living there both magnolia and powell elementary schools are scheduled to close this area also just closed gladstone elementary two years ago according to the approved trustee scenario map the population difference in these areas for zeros ages 0 to 17 years old is only 1.7 that's the variance between the two districts while the population density is a valid concern this

007data shows that essentially the same amount of students need access to schools yet one area has two schools and the other area has none if these elementary schools closures in the southeast side of azusa don't change there will be a major traffic jam to the west magnolia students will go to the closest school at murray bringing the capacity to 99 full powell students can't go to magnolia so we'll look to lee which would bring that capacity to 100 this would leave a lopsided influx of students assuming that they don't just try to leave the district altogether and if families look to the east for other school options this will continue to bring down the azusa school district enrollment number this could cause additional school closures and then what closely then after spending millions to improve

008it widening the geographic gap of available schools to the entire east side of azusa board members i urge you to reconsider and make a motion to revoke save the schools that are keeping azusa relevant in the region thank you for your time thank you miss lopez next we have jesus carrillo good evening board members board president i'm going to come to you um you guys know all the facts uh that they're posted everywhere everyone keeps talking about facts um i don't i don't think your decisions are based on fox so i'm going to come to you as a parent and as a member of the community as of the last two weeks we've voiced our concerns as a community we've spoken to several community members parents teachers not only of magnolia but of the other

009schools that we will be transferring to no one really knew which leads me to believe that i don't think enough is being done to notify right when your terms are up they're everywhere right signs everywhere vote for me i'm up i'm doing this i can do this i can do that when impactful decisions about closing schools for the rest of your child's basically you know education are being done i think more needs to be done to make communities aware that's one another one is um i've reached out to every single one of you board members thank you president grier for getting back to us man of your word you spoke to us you let us present you with our opinions facts very candid very open discussion superintendent ortega thank you very much another you you

010met with me met with several other um parents um board member rodriguez pena thank you very much for your call that that's the type of i guess board members we would like to continue to have um for the ones i did not mention i sent numerous emails haven't gone back i know you've reached out to other families but i think if if you say hey reach out to me and there's three emails i would expect you know some level of response so with that being said the magnolia community did a walk-in talk which i think every board member was invited to we had a great uh showing of families and we had our little ones as well as our parents and caretakers walk with us that video will be posted online for everyone to see

011i will be sending you the unedited version that's an hour and 15 minutes long so you can see the type of environment we're gonna have to walk through because that was the main focus was the walking community and that's what we're showing thank you thank you mr crew next we have christian career good evening board members first and foremost thank you president greer for meeting with me and a few other parents you're as transparent as to be with some difficult conversations that we had i hope you thought about what and who we represent president greer when we spoke you talked about various players such as district capacity levels allocated funds full distances and dense populations when making the closure decision however if you look at these data points nothing really moves the needle enough to

012justify closing magnolia you also made it clear you were speaking up for the league community since you felt that they are the disenfranchised as you called it in the past years i'm having a hard time understand what the real goal is with the recent closure is it your tie to the league community help us understand the real reason we are losing all elementaries on the east side let me make one thing clear i have no intentions through lee or dalton community i appreciate a walking community however i'm struggling with the fact that both communities now have dedicated schools less than a mile from one another but the new trustee area won't even have one we each have roles in this community relationship as parents and as board members we both have expectations of one another

013and from my point of view are not that hard to understand you as elected members are expected to be unbiased and responsible decision makers for the whole community in return you ask us to raise responsible children children that understand the importance of education and most importantly you expect parents to be involved in our children's education well this is what it looks like we are fighting to give our children a fair chance of an education that is defined as an impartial and honest hand we are showing them what fair really looks like now will you president greer speak up for all communities that are disemprised and unrepresented not only the ones that you have ties to board member cruz gonzalez before the vote was final you made mention that brand new or district would be left

014without a school and then silence in the room you even followed up with maybe that doesn't matter your vote wasn't enough and you knew that board member beau it's very clear that you care more about charter schools and the rosedale community than what's truly right for the azusa district board member rodriguez kenya i appreciate your vote but i would have expected a bit more discussion knowing this motion was an afterthought board member gabriella you stated regardless of where a board member lives or the district that they live in you service all the elementaries well it's time to walk the walk you show you should all be ashamed of yourselves for letting this take place whether it's personal agendas or loyalty to a sole community the decision to keep lee and dalton open was not just

015closing magnolia was a quick win for some of you president greer you mentioned that there have been mistakes in the past board has made well this is one of them but it's not too late open the conversation again we are asking you to re-vote and represent all azusa communities thank you for your time next up we have daisy cervantes hello hello good evening ausd board parents and staff my name is daisy cervantes barron and i have been a student at magnolia elementary school for eight years my eight remarkable years at magnolia have been amazing because of what i have learned and what i have accomplished with the help of all my teachers the teachers at magnolia are amazing and i would like to thank all the teachers i have had and miss wright my current

016teacher because they have all wanted me to do my best i really like magnolia and the staff here because they try to help us as much as they can when we don't understand something i also really appreciate the books we have read like esperanza rising because it was surprising that we were reading a book that i had something in common with since it had sentences in spanish and place in mexico i wasn't born in mexico but spanish was my first language since i speak it at home every day i want to thank dr mitchell for providing us with these books that people in our class could really connect with you should reconsider your decision on closing magnolia because it would be a waste of money since they just remodeled it and they added advanced technology

017in the classroom they had just remodeled the basketball courts the playground and the fences in the classroom they added built-in speakers that are attached to the ceiling which allows us to hear our teachers better when they used the microphone that they were provided with in the classrooms they improved the whiteboards by putting in new advanced projectors with a smart screen and pen i have seen the other elementary schools and magnolia is one of the most modern schools i've seen reconciled is i think you guys should also reconsider your decision because i have some friends whose parents don't drive or don't have time to take them to school because they work the students would have to walk every day farther to school that isn't close to their home and that would be hard for them if

018you guys close down magnolia there will be no more elementary schools on the east side i also think you guys should reconsider your decision on closing down magnolia since it's like my second home to me since half my day is spent at magnolia with my teachers and my friends i also accomplished other stuff that i never thought i would accomplish there thank you mr montes [Applause] next we have crystal raymundo good evening board superintendent i'm here once again to speak on behalf of my children and all the children in the community we have been left without schools here elementary we are urging the board to reconsider the decision to close magnolia elementary we are asking you to have compassion on our children on the side we are asking you to fight for our kids as

019well we are urging you to open your eyes and look at all the kids that are being displaced that are being asked at such a young and crucial age to make these moves and start fresh as a parent of a child with adhd i am torn and hurt from my child knowing that this change will only affect him negatively not only at school but at home which will then put him in a position where his learning experience will be affected not to mention how hard of a time my child has making friends i would hate for my son to be pushed into a negative mental state i am asking you as a mother to please please reconsider we have been left without an elementary school close enough to home in case of an emergency what

020are we do what are we to do when schools are placed on lockdown as it happened to simply close magnolia to the lack of density and type of community that we are in does not mean that we do not come from the same background that we also have the same difficult difficulties and struggle by taking our only school in reach you are taking those opportunities now forcing the community my community my children what you're taking away from them what you are fighting so hard for to give other children better opportunities and a school close to home we are asking we are not asking you to close any other school we are asking you to keep our school open we are pleading with you to reconsider and think about the consequences of your decision i am

021simply torn with the decision and feel like we are being pushed out by the poor and their personality thank you next we have lisa serrano i believe the mic is off good evening i'm here once again asking that all of you reconsider the closure of magnolia elementary at the december 21st school board meeting sabrina both stated that she wanted to be fiscally responsible to this district something something i find completely contradicting because she was the one to bring up closing magnolia elementary a completely modernized campus and instead keep open to campuses that require millions of dollars to update and stay open this decision was rushed and since then no clear transparent reasoning has been given to the azusa community this past weekend myself and other advocates for magnolia did the 2.4 mile walk from magnolia

022elementary to murray elementary and back a walk many students will have to do alone on hot days on cold days even rainy days they will walk alongside the heavy traffic of gladstone street they will walk on the harsh sidewalk full of crack which we saw they will walk past the line a semi truck parked on gladstone where no cars passing can see them which we saw they will cross busy intersections like citrus and gladstone cerritos and glaston they will have to make their way through the heavy traffic the murray neighborhood house twice a day they will go through these struggles with heavy backpacks on carrying their lunches and projects we cannot put students through these conditions it is not fair and it is not right when i was in front of murray i spoke to

023neighbors they had no knowledge of magnolia's closure and the hundreds of students that would now be coming to their school they were extremely upset they explained that their neighborhood is a mad house during school drop off and pick up they said the congestion is horrible and having more students will only make it worse they were more appalled when i brought up the financial aspect of this decision they felt like the school board was taking away money from their students watching past meetings it is clear that there are no school board members advocating for magnolia none of you spoke up about the modernized campus none of you mentioned the students that come to magnolia after the closure of gladstone street school none of you mentioned the students that are at magnolia through open enrollment there were

024members fighting for dalton and lee but none for magnolia it is completely unfair that students are being left behind by their school board i vote for some of you i'm sorry i voted for some of you for school board members because i thought you would do a good job it has become apparent that you have let personal agendas get in the way of doing what is logically correct it is logical to keep magnolia open i came here today to ask you all to reconsider your decision to close magnolia because although my children have graduated and i am past this district i can clearly see toronto thank you next we have sarah toronto hello a month ago the azusa community came out to the school board meeting asking that the board listened to its constituents we

025were fighting for the aztec we gave personal testimony as well as evidence and examples of how the aztec can live on respectfully since then the board has remained quiet about this i will mine i will remind you that the truth of the matter is is that there is more than 5 000 signatures on a petition from the community asking that you keep the aztec each and every one of you has chosen to ignore the constituents that voted you into this position you are showing the people of azusa that you believe in council culture not allowing azusa high school to do better to learn from the situation according to the board of education handbook your vision is that each student will be a problem solver critical critical thinker and effective communicator yet you were not allowing

026the people of azusa to problem solve this issue you were not allowing you are now allowing gentrification to continue in azusa by cutting history and culture and connection to latino roots and worst of all you are not doing your job you are supposed to represent the whole district each school and all the students and listen to their wants and needs beyond the aztec there has been another horrible decision which is to close magnolia elementary a decision that was brought up by sabrina beau a decision a decision that will cost the district millions of dollars to keep schools like liam dalton open and a decision that will put students lives at risk as they will not have to make the harsh walk to murray elementary but most importantly a decision that was brought up with no

027logical reasoning mongolia is a completely modernized school families have moved to the city to send their children to magnolia these are points i wish the school board would bring up i wish one of you was willing to fight for these students that you claim to represent sabrina beau i wish this was a case where you could answer me back and give me reason to why you suggested magnolia i would like to hear answers to all my questions like have you ever visited magnolia's campus why do you have a website dedicated to a charter school in rosedale are you advocating for rosedale parents to send their children to azusa schools this whole setup where i speak at the board is honestly ridiculous we need an open dialogue where we can have our questions answered and we

028need transparency getting emails after the fact and meeting outside of the setting where others can't hear and gain more knowledge is not enough i do appreciate the school board members that reached out to me and want to meet and hopefully we can discuss getting this type of dialogue at meetings i will end with what i said at last meeting and the meeting before that um which is to the people here tonight and the people at home i would like to remind you that we vote for our school board we are the reason these individuals are up here they're supposed to represent us and what we want if you feel like they're not doing their job vote them out three school board members gabriella ariana looney cruz gonzalez and adrian greer all have terms that end

029this year sabrina beau and yolanda pena have terms that end in 2024 they are quick to make changes and we have the power to do the same when we vote thank you [Applause] thank you miss toronto at at this time due to board policy uh there's a requirement for us to take board action in order to continue with uh public comment since we've surpassed 21 minutes and so is there a is there a motion to um well let me just pull the board on the floor to continue my second uh some and then we'll go ahead and we'll go and vote just by hand vote yes yes yes yes and i am also yes um mr richard covington hello board uh thank you for hearing me out uh i'll keep it short today uh i

030heard a lot of good things a lot about fact when i took the walk from magnolia to that school there's facts some of these families are not going to feel some of the families that go to the school in the community there's no way they could that prick that that it is ridiculous how far it is and the streets and the things we have to pass through to get there i i mean i i see i know for a fact my sister and her kids she couldn't be here today she's working but there's no way that they could continue their lives and still have to run back and forth that's um we need a school in our community one that's safe what magnolia seems like a great choice i i just don't understand why we

031would close the entire area of the east side of azusa we we need something for our community and another thing is what if something happens during the date where parents had to pick up their children from the pool a lot of folks aren't going to be able to just run a mile and a half you know oh well that's all thank you next we have louis pedraza good evening board members i spoke here about a month ago on the aztec name chain um i believe it's on your agenda today to discuss a new name for the school i believe changing the name is wrong how many of you here have heard the term if it's not broke why fix it that name is not broken it is not wrong it does not need to be

032fixed say that name is wrong to want to change it you're saying that every person that's worked at that school principal teacher assistant principal everyone that swore that aztec name on their shirt you're saying that they're wrong or they don't know the difference between right or wrong that name is not wrong what is wrong is i've reached out to every one of you because i echo what sarah has said you know we can't ask you questions and we can't really discuss this with you i've reached out to every one of you and only adrian has reached back to me he said we were going to talk and i have yet to hear from you i've reached out plenty of times no response what makes a great city what what makes a city great it's the

033community right we have overwhelming majority of the people that want that name i'm sorry they want that name to stay we want it to stay let's compromise my proposal you keep the name drop the aztec headdress people are offended by it okay most of us aren't let's compromise right meet in the middle the name stays maybe drop the headdress right on the football helmets now a lot of the stuff has the a with the spear or the arrow or however you want to call it there's got to be a compromise get back with us talk to us we want to i want to express more on why it's very important and i want to hear why you think it's important to change we ask to hear from you but we don't thank you next we

034have tamara meza our lives begin to end the day i'm silent about the things that that matter that was said by martin luther king jr and what he meant by this was that if we don't say anything or do anything things will put things could potentially get worse or stay the same good evening board president grier honorable school board superintendent superintendent ortega cabinet and everyone here watching at home i am here tonight to talk about the decision to close that magnolia element magnolia is widely ac accessible by everybody there are many types of transportation people used to get walking biking car etc therefore closing the school down would be harder due to traffic closing down magnolia is a disadvantage because of traffic fans closing down magnolia is a disadvantage of social isolation schools are the

035core of social activity and human interaction when schools close many children and youth will miss out on social contact that is essential to learning and development and some find it harder trying to fit into the new school moreover many parents unprepared for distance and home moreover many parents are unprepared for distance and homeschooling when schools close parents are often asked to facilitate the learning of their children at home and can struggle to perform this task this is this is especially true for parents with limited limited education and resources i've always heard the same things with people that hold power or want to gain power and that is that our opinions matter and that they want the best of us well this is a huge need for our community so why not we reconsider this decision

036for once thank you miss mesa next we have mitchell lawyer hello good evening it's my first time in front of a school board the reason i'm here is going to be because of the rebranding of the azusa high school i'm an alumni of azusa high i graduated in 09 my all my siblings went to zusa high i'm currently a coach at azusa high and um i just want to say that i am not for the changing of the name i am not for the changing of the colors um going to uh big sporting events like uh cross country races we're there with dozens of schools schools from across the country um the baby blue the light blue of azusa high is something so unique that a lot of schools don't have and um changing that

037would be like a huge mistake in my opinion um as for the name i mean there's landora high school there's san dimas high school there's 40 high school there should be an azusa high school i've heard these names uh thrown about like mountain view or some weird names but it's like there should be keep it azusa hi it just makes sense like why would you as the previous uh speaker spoke like why would you change something that's not broken like it's fine um as for the mascot i do agree with my fellow speaker that you know changes can be made to make it more culturally appropriate um however i do think having the mascot uh being aztec is almost a sense of pride um you know the demographics of azusa are mostly latino and hispanic

038primarily mexican and i'm mexican myself and when i would see the aztec you know would go against you know the other surrounding schools and it was like a sense of pride like where the asset um but i think would be a huge mistake change uh to change the mass spots change the colors change the name um but yeah i don't know i just i really hope you reconsider uh changing that i think it's really a huge part of azusa's history and uh and yeah just please reconsider thank you hello good evening board president adrian greer and fellow board members parents and students my name is francisco duran and i've lived here my entire life i'm azusa high alumni class of 2009 my sisters graduated from azusa in 1999 and 1997. my wife is is a

039high class of 2007 and currently works as an ssa aide at the gladstone high school helping you know the students with special need i'd like to first comment on the rebranding of azusa high school it has been azusa high school since the 1950s and has a history tied closely to the modern history of azusa it saw the orchards turned into tract homes and has been a symbol of the city's commitment to education i think the entire rebranding is a wildly silly endeavor when we are literally in the middle of picking and choosing what community members will lose local schools and what classified staff will be let go because of budget cuts and in the midst of this you decide to waste close to a million dollars i hope lining the pockets of private industry is

040worth it i understand the poland valley indigenous community came to my poor working class and mostly picano barrio and convinced you to waste money we don't have to change the mascot i've given up on that point but allow me to plead to keep the colors allow us to have what memories and heritage we've always had a lot of the sports teams have baby blue and black uniforms with only azusa across the chest or back it'll be easy to keep those and only change the mascot uh it'll be easier to change just the mascot of murals instead of colors i'd also like to bring up the fact that gladstone middle school will keep its colors name and mascot they will lose almost nothing also board member gabriela arellano you did not bring up indigenous rights at

041all the first time you spoke in favor of the rebrand and suddenly you were the most woke individual in the room the second time who do you work for what's your interest in this rebrand you said we can find the money for our students when fighting for the rebrand i hope you're willing to fight to find money to supply our students with the tools and supplies they need to succeed in the future i want to see it lastly i grew up in the citrus islands the unincorporated community that is right here right next to the school district offices and i walked one mile to gladstone street elementary even though i lived point three miles away from magnolia back when you guys had closed boundaries uh i was carrying a saxophone one mile as an eight-year-old

042and i was grooming now both those schools are gone and the citrus islands are losing their representative feet we're not gonna have a vote you're silencing us because we're a poor and unincorporated community we i wrote azuza on all of the forms that i ever filled out where i live azuza is on my driver's license azusa was on there when i applied for my first jobs when i applied for universities i live in azusa as far as i know just because politics don't haven't absorbed us into the community doesn't mean i'm not part of the community thank you for serving my mom's community and helping to alienate us and the armandos that live around here thank you do we have additional speakers next we have joanna lemos okay hi good evening for president grier members

043of the board superintendent and other members in attendance my name is joanna lemmons i'm here to speak on behalf of hundreds of families on the east side of asusa that are losing access to elementary schools i believe the board's decision to close magnolia powell was inequitable and done without justification you have yet to prove to us how this is a good decision from every angle that we see it it makes no sense we have families that live on the east area borderline asusa and glendora some even in glendora who come to magnolia elementary we have many that have already been displaced with the closure of gladstone school just a few years ago and now once again our east community is being targeted with you deciding to close our only two remaining elementary schools you are

044creating an unnecessary burden on families limiting opportunities for us magnolia is a great visible location a great visible location accessible convenient for parents that use public transportation has a capacity to accommodate growth and has been upgraded all we are asking is that you keep open a school for our community especially since our community um you know has already been displaced so much we have an online growing petition with over 800 signatures of people who all support the families of magnolia elementary and see that this is unreasonable and want to see magnolia remain open our community got together held a walk and talk event as you have already heard you all had been invited not one of you showed up which tells us that you don't care about our community the arguments that were made to

045keep lee and dalton open were that they were too far from each other and so instead he left a bigger gap for the east community families on the east side of asusa that already used to travel to get to magnolia will now face an even longer distance to get to other schools how do you expect to attract families from neighboring cities if you keep eliminating the schools that would expand opportunities and invite families in our schools are no longer accessible for families on the east side of asusa even families right now that have preschool or tkh children are being left without a school beginning this next school year so parents like myself are already feeling the negative impact of this closure and feel forced to leave the district even before the official close of magnolia

046there are so many families that were blindsided by this decision some are non-english speakers and i believe that there has not been enough public notification to communicate this information to families we ask that you stop targeting the east area of asusa please reconsider before it's too late i believe that you must be seeing by now how closing magnolia was not the right decision so again we asked please keep magnolia open thank you i'm mrs and then we have christina castaneda hi good evening board members i just wanted to be an additional voice tonight for and and plead for your reconsideration of um on changing the aztec name i've already spoken before i've written my formal um letter and have spoken out have have submitted questions um i don't know if those were actually posted um

047on the last meeting that i attended but i i do i just i really do just want to be um i want to i want to say thank you to sarah louie mitchell francisco all of you guys for for um voicing your just your your thoughts on this and and and board members i just i know you know how much this means to our community and i hope that you really do hear our pleas for this because it is so important to us um i i've said it a million times um i'm not just an alumni i'm a parent um i'm a coach and i just please you guys please listen please hear us when we're trying to give you all of these facts all of i mean i don't know how many times we

048have to repeat ourselves where we're i i'm going to pray for change and i just really hope that you guys um reconsider the branding because i mean we're such a tight-knit community and i know some of you have attended our fundraisers um uh miss pena we love you we are always there for us you're always supporting us and and i just i really hope that you guys you guys see that how much this means to us and if you could just maybe what louis said maybe we can go and do without the headdress um but please let us keep our aztec name our colors um we spoke with um our future um uh principal and he mentioned that you know art was super important and you know the murals i mean just thinking about all

049of that you know and maybe maybe he put out put it out there that maybe we could bring something from gladstone and keep the murals i'm really hoping that that we can really just i mean obviously i'm like i'm fumbling over my words right now because i'm just really scared that that this is actually going to change and i'm scared that we're not going to be heard um but i really do hope that you guys listen to us and and just take take us into consideration before you vote for this change um and and uh miss arianes you know you're close to us too and i know that you know what it's like to be a coach what it's like to to believe in these guys that's all i can say um thank you guys

050everyone else who spoke on this and i just hope that that um it goes in our favor and all the facts and all of the you know that outpouring from our community is hitting you guys and you guys are really like taking it in i also agree with the powell and the magnolia um i just don't understand how how that's going to work either but you know i'm praying for a better outcome thank you miss casino it does appear we have no more uh commenters and so we will move on to item 7.0 and specifically 7.1 comments reports and requests by the board of education remember are you honest i have none for today or member cruz gonzalez um i i do i do want to say i i think we do need to find

051some way to have a some kind of conversation with the magnolia school community i feel like we've had them come now for several months now and i i know if i was a parent there i'd be very frustrated that in an official setting they're not able to have we're not able to have a discussion about this um so i'm not sure how that can happen i but i think we need to figure out like that's my request is we need to figure out how to have that have a more formal conversation about this in a formal setting um i would like to make the motion to put it on the next agenda well i don't think they were able to do that just because of the way brown act works but i i that's that's

052a request that i'm putting and i would like to go ahead and bring it up to the board right now i mean you know what what is gonna i mean can we bring it back as an agenda item to discuss it to be able to look at the possibilities of yes looking at all of this and i'm i'm i'm upset i have to say this i'm upset but you guys i'm upset because that's exactly what i was trying to state when i did say we need a school on the east side i i don't know how to you know i would like us to you know i would like to bring this item back i would like for us to look at everything that you know the reconfiguration team took the time to do all

053this for us you know i i think i i feel really strongly that we we should reconsider this for magnolia and i'm asking the board right now i would like to bring this item back i need i i would like to a board president i'm asking you formally yeah so just for just for clarity there's there's two different uh requests that hurt someone with some board member bruce gonzalez which is to allow for a formal conversations to take place where there can be dialogue between the board and the community around this around the magnolia conversation and and what i if i'm hearing you correctly there's a second request which is not the same which is to have to bring this item back for reconsideration uh absolutely why are we going to go excuse me why

054are we going to go back and forth so you know i would like to bring you back as an item for us to discuss it and reconsider that i would like to vote on it again okay so that will require i'm sorry hold on president no so we actually you know excuse me i'm not excuse me hold on i'm still speaking remember audience are you interrupted board board member cruz gonzalez we just can't discuss rationale right so we can't so you can make a request but we can't you can we can't talk about why we want to do something i understand that but what what i'm asking right now is to bring this back right and i'm seeking board direction now so there's two requests that were that were here one is from one is

055from board member cruz gonzalez to have a conversation around the item and another one is to bring the item back so i'm looking to the board for for direction so i prefer what gabriella suggested i mean i think my vote well yes so if she wants to bring it back for reconsideration that that's even better than having a conversation and i'm the one that voted no because i was confused but i want to talk about it more i'm not i'm not comfortable with my vote so um i'll look to the other two board members yes okay then we will we will bring this back at a future at a future meeting [Music] i mean that was just the one thing that i was going to say um yeah the other one's on the agenda i

056can wait board member bo uh no comments this evening board member rodriguez pena yes uh good evening everyone and thank you everyone for being here today and voicing your opinion that's the most important thing if you have want to make a change and you want to make a change or have something done is to come up and speak in front of the community or the board of the city council wherever you need to go um so kudos for that everybody i just want to announce that the um ama the azusa management association association oriented contest i wanted to congratulate all the students that participated they did a great job the theme was to ride the wave and they had such great speeches all these students i wanted to congratulate first place winner emily ruiz from

057azusa high school she will now move on to the original competition i also um attended i'm a rotarian also so the zuzia rotary we had a luncheon and the guest speaker was uh dr gomez from azusa high and he spoke about all the great programs that they have with zuzia high and all the sports programs that some of the rotarians were not aware because they did not live in our community um i also attended the city of azusa and the zuzia unified school district ad hoc committee meeting the discussions were regarding the school reorganization updates traffic safety um for the school year 23 and 24. partly partnering with them to purchase lawn signs for our high school seniors we did that for the last three years and um we spoke about the uh sequa document

058for the old school house that's located at the slauson middle school campus and i want to call i'm calling out to all high school seniors azusa leadership learning educational foundation and azusa sister city are giving one thousand dollar scholarship to each high school the contact person at azusa high is miss hernandez at the career center miss madden at glaston high school in the career center also and miss d davis at fiera high school she's a teacher so if you go in the main office you can get an application and the deadline date for that is march 25th i also like to close in memory of alexis romero she was an employee at azusa high school that passed away thank you and i would like to say thank you to the to the parents and community

059members who who reached out and who i had the opportunity to sit with to talk with on the phone thank you for for that space i know that there are a couple other who we either play phone tag or email tag a little bit and so um i'll be following up and still looking to to have those conversations with those who have not yet had the opportunity um to connect with either over the phone or or in person um with that in mind i did state that at this meeting i would communicate out something that i that i that i've done some semi-regularly but though haven't done in a while is to hold an online coffee where there's space for um just a number of conversations to be able to come up and allow for

060some for some dialogue and so i will be scheduling this next one on march 24th um and so that is it will be on zoom and that's something that i will make available i typically shared out on on social media channels it's also something that i share out to anybody who has ever been to a previous one uh you'll get an email if that's something that you would like the information on to to be able to come and and really the it's wide open to speak about i'd say almost anything some some things are we're not able to speak yet but but most most things and some of most of the things that are discussed here there is space to be able to discuss those but that will be happening on march 24th at 6

06100 p.m and so i'll send that information out and again it's open to anyone in the community to be able to to join in and uh and be part of that conversation with that we move on to item uh 8.0 comments and 8.1 comments and reports by the superintendent cabinet student and student school board members and i do believe that we have our student school board members on crystal flamino hello can you hear me yes we can hear you gladstone would like to congratulate monique juanita monique medina for being named the montview league mvp for girls soccer gladstone will be having a sadie's hawkins dance on friday march 11th from 7 to 11 pm on the outdoor stage the art show for abigail sanchez will continue in the art gallery through march 11th the dates

062are march 1st 3rd 8th 10th and 11th from 3 to 5 pm spring sports baseball and softball have began badminton swimming and track and field will begin on the week of march 14th softball and base will have a non-league game on friday softball home and baseball away against baldwin park girls playing home at 3 15. thank you thank you crystal and next we have hannah hamilton good evening school board this week best buddies club is reporting promoting spread the word to end the word activities this week this friday they will have a fundraiser to pay a staff member or student it should be a lot of fun we had our senior meeting last friday and we're excited to hear the updates for grad night prom sadie's dance senior bbq and our all-class competition chaos in

063the canyons softball baseball batman golf track and tennis seasons are in full swing good luck to all of our teams last week we completed the english spac iabs and this week we are conducting the math spec iebs the results will give us valuable data on how we can better prepare for the actual s back in april congratulations to the following student athletes for receiving montview league honors our lead mvps are hannah hamilton for volleyball nathan nogas and martin cuevas jr for football our first team all leagues are alex alexander pena for basketball hannah hamilton and freddie hernandez for soccer and alex cavaniero for volleyball our second team all leagues are ineligible for soccer juan carnitas for basketball and claudia barone and mia pedroza for volleyball and our honorable mentions are jessica asensio anna kucal romero

064mondragon reynosa and carlos rosales for soccer congratulations and finally congratulations to emily ruiz lisa ing melanie perez and isabel verduco for participating and winning some scholarships in the recent axa oratory contest and rotary speech contest good evening thank you so much and hannah if i heard you correctly you you said your name twice there within that and so uh you gave congratulations to everybody else including yourself but we want to also throw a congratulations from us to you on on both of those achievements that you listed up thank you so much we turn it over to superintendent cabinet i just want to take a quick moment to uh congratulate emily reese a student at azusa high school back-to-back wins on a speech contest so just wanted to congratulate her for that and thank everyone who

065has invested so much in our students and then also to abigail sanchez who is having her first student solo art show at glasgow high school it's breathtaking uh what she uh is creating uh artistically uh and again just many many things to everyone who has invested in her development the show is is it's awesome it is very very awesome to see uh what she's producing so just want to congratulate both of the students i also wanted to um echo what uh superintendent ortega said regarding um abigail sanchez's show at gladstone high school and offer my thanks and congratulations to the entire secondary art department they have been working collaboratively in a plc for quite some time and the work that they are doing to produce and support our artists is absolutely outstanding so i just

066wanted to recognize the teachers thank you i don't have any comments for tonight thank you then we will move on to 9.0 general functions and specifically 9.1 presentation of school reorganization update mr ortega thank you very much uh board president uh greer uh we're uh excited to uh uh provide a school reorganization update uh this will be one of many coming in the near future as we continue to move on our school reorganization process as all of you know this is a process that begins uh next school year and moves into the following school year i want to begin by sharing that we have created a shared document that all of the departments uh speak into and write into uh it is a way to memorial memorialize the things the the numerous things that need

067to be accomplished as we are moving forward with school reorganization we have also instituted a weekly meeting to provide updates clarify questions um make decisions um and so those meetings are again just meant for that uh obviously us away from the meetings uh the departments and staff are working really hard uh to uh implement the decisions around school reorganization so i just want to um give thanks to all the staff that has been working diligently uh on this topic uh with that i'd like to turn it over to um staff who will give provide a little bit more details on some of the topic um good evening so i will address boundaries transportation and facilities so um with our partner powerschool formerly decision insight they have successfully redrew or redrawn our boundaries based on the

068school reorganization plan so what this means that charles h lee boundaries will expand to include house boundaries clifford d murray boundaries will expand to include magnolia and valley dale boundaries will expand to include ellington though we have our new boundaries on the outline new home schools for our families the district will continue to offer bullish fights can you repeat those because they're not up there so i can't see them so can you just repeat those again so that i can in my mind yes ma'am so charles e calls hp boundaries will expand and include powell clifford murray boundaries will expand to include magnolia and valley dale's boundaries will expand to include ellington we for as far as transportation school to school transportation will be provided as the district begins to communicate the boundaries and routes

069as the district plans to communicate the boundaries to the community routes and times will be made available to our family at this time we have committed to having at least one pickup and drop off location at our closed site for example based on the current approved site closure there will be a pickup and drop-off location allowed to transport students moving to a facility our director of maintenance and operation mr ryan allen along with our architects have walked all of our campuses to provide the border education with the detailed listing of the conditions of our site this report is being compiled as a result of the walk and will be set in categories um that outline the following things that need to be addressed based off of safety modernization and we'll also have enhancement and upgrades

070untapped this list will include the projected timeline and cost for all of the recommendations our goal is to have the complete report and present the findings to the board of education by the end of march or early april thank you all right at our next board of education meeting on march 15th we are going to provide a presentation on our planning for our ausd 2324 elementary and secondary programmatic offerings a part of the preparation has been getting input from our education partner groups on potential programmatic offerings and so far we have met with our elementary and secondary academic articulation and advisory committees we met with a student advisory committee we've met with our site and district administrators and we have plans to meet with additional student and parent groups as well as a preview in

071addition to considering new programs we are working to continually align elementary and secondary college and career pathways in programs such as visual and performing arts media arts stem elementary and secondary literacy initiatives dual immersion and seal which is sobrato early academic language we're looking forward to presenting our programmatic offerings to you on the 15th thank at the you where we get a list of those in writing um that includes of the programmatic offerings yes yes we're going to provide um presentation but we can also put that in writing um yeah the board package thank you good evening i will be speaking of uh on staffing and the negotiating impacts and effects the resolution to reduce or discontinue positions in the early abort action was a result of our staffing projections um exchange for next year

072as we move forward with school reorganization further the 22-23 school year we anticipate the certificated staff transfers of teachers and certificated staff at ellington magnolia pal and gladstone high school as for classified employees we do not anticipate transfers of csva employees for the 2022-2023 school year in the 2023-2024 school year as the identified schools closed we will need to reduce or transfer classified employees similarly for the 2022-2023 school year we will need to reduce or discontinue the number of management employees we have in the school district moving on to negotiating impacts and effects we recently added two additional negotiation sessions with the asusa educators association aea in addition to our regularly scheduled sessions we will meet to negotiate with aea on thursday march 10th and monday march 14th the schedule will include negotiating the impacts

073and effects of foreclosure we have our regularly scheduled negotiation sessions with csda on march 9th and if needed we can also add sessions to negotiate the impacts and effects with csda good evening i'd like to give an update on the ninth graders over they're all going to be at assistant high school next year first of all we have determined that all ninth graders will fit at the azusa high school campus in the 22-23 school year we are planning a three-half day ninth grade orientation experience that will include outdoor activities in nature around our community culture building motivational speakers link career activities parent engagement and a campus work we have recruited teachers and staff from azusa high school and gladstone high school who will work together to plan this experience for ninth graders and will recruit

07410th and 11th graders from azusa high school and gladstone high school to help mentor the ninth graders the goal is to use the link crew next year as a means of transitioning the two student bodies together we have identified introductory cte courses from gladstone in the medical pathway and the digital media arts pathway that we will add to the current cte pathways at azusa high school and we will host the virtual eighth grade parent night to showcase azusa high school programs on march 10th at six o'clock to be followed later in may with the in-person expo at azusa high school and now to speak on our draft of the high school mascot and color selection process i would like to invite uh crystal and hannah to speak first about the context for this work here

075we can have hannah and crystal speak on january 26th mr ortega hosted a student advisory council meeting with representatives from azusa high school gladstone high school in sierra high school to discuss a process for selecting the mascot and colors first as a high school these students started in small groups to discuss their ideas for mascot and class selection that would be fair to those impacted by this decision after initial idea generation students formed larger groups and listed to each other's ideas and developed a final set of recommendations these recognition recommendations are included in the process mr fernandez will be sharing tonight all right so before i go into the description of the process they do want to share that we consolidated the student ideas into this process here we took this process draft on a

076road show we did share it with students we shared it with parents and we started with this unified uh staff to get their feedback on this draft that i am presenting to you tonight so first of all um we would like to form a committee from the three high schools including special education and el voices within that student committee then the committee will meet and design an initial survey to pull all current seventh through eleventh graders in a zeus unified while in school um that there will need to be a strong message campaign for students before that initial survey occurs to make sure that there's good understanding that that survey is occurring and what to expect then that initial survey of students will be conducted after the initial survey is conducted that student committee again

077will meet to review the responses and develop a final survey another message campaign that will go out to students parents and staff who will be participating in the final survey that final survey will pull all seventh through fourth graders in azusa unified their parents and the azusa unified staff and that finally that final recommendation from that final survey will be presented to the board of education i have a question on that i like to know at any at any time i didn't hear that the community would have a survey or input on any of these on the final choices so the outside the of the final survey another part for the other community members to speak into it but yeah the community yes this is the community or even participate right i mean i i

078think i was i think in our initial conversation i don't believe we were talking about having just a student only i mean i appreciate that we want to make sure that we have student voice in the decision but i think we have a lot of active alumni as we can see in the audience we have people that want to engage and so i i mean i agree with with yolanda i think that was i thought it was going to be like a multi-sector i thought originally it was going to be coming to you i didn't stay here that's why i'm questioning that thank you okay that was that's my understanding as well okay just for clarity um so in bullet one um are we saying that this committee that right now the students when they

079created this that it would be just students that that that are we saying that the board is saying that in that first one we should expand a wider net or are you saying that no in bull or baby it's both in bull in the sub in the second to last bullet uh that's where communities should also be involved in that i i personally would like to have him be involved on selecting under the selection um at what point when they're going to select the final um model right in this i'm not sure where it falls into here the way the the students designed this and we got a lot of feedback um there wouldn't be a committee selecting the mascot uh that would be um and actually i take that back it's mascot and colors

080um that would be based on a survey so the survey would dictate um the selection of the mascot and the colors and the survey going to right now that survey was going to ausd parents seventh or twelfth grade students and staff but what i'm gonna see it go to the community sure yeah thank you i i would say something slightly different i think ninety percent of of what you shared but remember um reduce painkiller i think when we look back at the selection of the aztec part of the conversation that we've had is that um it was selected by the students um like ultimately um with this i don't see where the community is involved and where the community is able to speak into things so i think it makes i think having the community

081involved in the in the uh the committee and even looking at you know some initial surveys that we have there but i would say i would prefer to see after there's we pulled the community pulled all kinds of folks which has limited down to some some options that the final say come from the students as opposed to um just across across the community because it will be our students who are who are going to be kind of caring and championing whatever that mascot ends up being but originally i i recall speaking about the community's input at some point of this process right and so that's why i agree with you i think when i look at this i don't see where the community is there right but so i would like to see some strong

082community inputs at some of these bullet points but i think when we're looking at right there it says the second last point says final survey polls all seventh through twelfth graders in a usd parents except i i mean even looking at parents and staff i really look to students more so to make some of the final the final call than than any of the rest of us because right now it's definitely the way the the students designed it it's really the opposite right so the students are the ones that will be the first to voice into this initial survey which is not about select your favorite mascot and colors it's about hey what do you think the future mascot of azusa high school should be and why so it's getting input from 7th or 11th

083graders on what they feel the mascot should be why it should be and what the colors are well what i mean i mean ortega like for example we narrow it down to five or three wherever then the community would be able to have input on is that does that make sense sir it makes sense but i'm hearing a board president greer say the article we're saying we're saying we're saying the flip flop of obviously so i think we're both saying community input and student input yeah um you're saying community input at the final with at the final um vote i think i'm saying community employment input on the front end and students at the final vote you know i'm i'm fine either way i'm good as long as they have me what about our other

084board members i you know i i i think that there should be community engagement in the whole even in the decision making and and the reason i think that is because i think operating an assumption that only the current students in the system are the ones that have the the valued opinions i think as we had the school is really the high school's really the center of our community right there's a lot of connection to it and so i think too to say okay okay because you're the i will say lucky or unlucky ones that are in our schools right now that you're going to make this decision and it's going to have a greater impact across our whole city and community right community because it's not just the city boundaries um i i think

085that that that should be there should be some community involvement in that in that in those in that where that how the recommendation comes to us and not just student driven okay then here those are three three members saying three different things so which is how it happens sometimes uh board member beau former are you honest so i i would like to see formal engagement of the community and and i think i'm seeing this as a draft process and this is our our opportunity as a board of education to provide feedback and i think what you're hearing clearly is there has to be um a formal way to engage the community throughout the process i'm sorry what what we're hearing from from you or from the whole board i'm sorry i just need to clarify

086what part do i need to clarify what um so actually i actually want to be able to answer your question so can you please repeat your question i was just asking for a clarification on what point only because it took me by surprise though i i need to understand what what i what i'm supposed to what you would like me to clarify and i apologize because i i don't that's what i was asking for claire i didn't understand it i know i didn't know what you meant by that remember would you would you remind uh would you mind just kind of restarting from the beginning of your comment just for clarity um so what what i what i'm saying is um i i i agree with the at least what i'm hearing from the other

087four board members who have spoken or the three board members have spoken to this point that um there should be a formal way to engage community members so non-parents but community members in this process and that mr fernandez says you're presenting this as a process that students drafted to present to us i'm seeing this process as now this is the opportunity for the board of education to have input into the process and the second part of what i um i'm observing or i'm feeling is i'm wondering i don't have the answer but i'm wondering how we is there a weighted system of input from students versus input from staff and input from community given that by sure number there would be more community members and fewer students so i would ask for recommendations about how

088to uh wait that if we're if because generally when we think of a survey we think of the total number of responses you know to a tally i'm wondering how we would incorporate and would it be a weighted survey response or would it be and would it be the same survey or tailored surveys based on student experience and community experience [Music] um yes i i think the committee does just need to be involved um from beginning to end i but i do agree with so i agree with that part with board member cruz gonzalez and i i agree with uh board member beau and that's why i asked for clarification so now i understand i i do agree that the percentage right what does that look like because we may have you know more teachers

089than we do you know students or something like that or more community members i think there needs to be a balance and so um but that means that and yeah i agree the community needs to be involved and that i think you both said what what what i don't think i did say which is that that would be my concern is that there'd be there could be so many community members that speak into it that it that it just completely overshadows what uh students may have to say so um maybe there looks like they're you this was not made easy for staff and that i don't know that there was clear direction coming from here uh maybe if there was a is it possible to to put forth maybe uh a couple options of some

090processes of and kind of bring that back for us to evaluate to look at where the community would be involved based off of what you heard here and then we can look at the next iteration of that and and kind of evaluate that process and quickly um so so it's not something like it's something that we'd like to see at the at the very next uh 15 yeah i i think that we have time right i think this the school's not going to change for another year and a half so i don't i don't have to rush the process but i mean that's my perspective so that's that i would say i don't feel the urgency to rush it um i did want to just bring up so i think that's good to bring back

091some options i thought that was what it was going to be sort of this refinement process where so i agree with adrian on that um in terms of options right i think we should make i think we should it would be good to re-clarify that the board has voted to keep the name as just a high school there's not gonna there's no confirmation of that that the board voted to con consider changing the colors but the current colors could remain right i think i mean my preference is that it remains um and then the last piece was the mask spot where we said it was going to change and so i do want the what i i want the board to requesting the board to reconsider allowing the option of maintaining the asset because i

092would just say what's going to happen if we put out a survey and you get like a majority coming back doing that what do we discard that i mean what do we do with that so i think that they're um that has to be part of the conversation um and so that's i'd ask the board to reconsider consider that at the very least then i'll i'll look to the board on reconsideration of mascot or including the option of the mascot remaining as the aztec as one of the options up for consideration as this uh committee considers up or for further clarification to treat the mascot as we are currently treating the colors correct where it could it could stay um or it could be i'll look look for direction um board member audience i are

093you asking for we would need consensus to give direction are we taking correct we're not taking formal action because it's not agenda right we're not taking formal action on this this is to hear if there's there's a request from board member uh gonzalez to allow for the aztec to be included in this process and so i'm looking to the board to speak into the openness or if not then it remains as it is as is which is that the aztec is not an option um for consideration um so i think that so we know that we took board action to leave the colors as is or to leave the colors to be decided they could stay the same or they could change depending on this process and the other part of the board action was

094to say that the the mascot would not be the us and i think over the course of the past six to eight weeks we've heard additional community feedback around a compromise or a modification of maybe it's the name aztec but not the um graphical representation of the hedra and and i did say in some of my prior board comments about um approaching this issue with a rich liberal arts education and critical thinking around why are we doing the things that we're doing so i'm at this point i'm open to involving students and community in that process and i would ask that as we guide that process that we're guiding students in the development and in the survey so that the criteria are laid out so that the students not only as they're designing our students

095and staff maybe are designing the survey that we're asking we're getting them to understand why we're asking these questions and it's not as black and white as up or down but if you know why would we change why wouldn't we change and what what kind of guiding questions need to be included kind of in the preamble to the server so i'm i'm open to that um i'm open to that because i i think critical thinking is really important and and and i will add that um i i the rationale or the reasons i stayed behind why i felt that it should change i still stick to the same thing but the last video i also said um what should have really happened is maybe um just like this young lady she did mention regarding um

096how can we make it right you know how can we not offend the native americans you know how can we keep it there but not to have their head i mean i'm over that kind of a discussion but not to have it where it's going to offend someone because it's any race anybody but if we can make it right i mean i'm good with that you know we can make it right and you know i don't know um well we're looking what what is offense you know what is offense because that would for all of us and um i don't want to offend anyone and i don't want to make it wrong but if we want to keep it what can we do to keep how can how can we fix it right kind of

097like that kind of my mindset is there so i'm good for that we can make it happen and make it happen right i'm there so so if the if the board is going in that direction and it's comfortable and i'm not saying that we have because it would require some voting right um because we've already made a decision i do think that we should have that conversation sooner than later because it would be silly to have a whole input process if what the conversation we really want to have is how do we have how do we we're okay keeping the aztec but how do we make it culturally how are we being culturally responsive like so i mean i look at the example of san diego state university so they put a whole committee together

098to evaluate you know what they could do to transition away from they're very if you see their mascot it's very egregious the way they um their monty montezuma right so but um and i'm not saying that we do that in zusa but that's a different kind of committee right that talks about the issues than than a survey around what choices do we have to change it so if we if then so i would i would then say let's have a let's let's reconsider the vote that we took in january and see where we are right if the board is coming if we have a majority potential reconsidering um and then we can if we if the if the vote changes then and and we say okay yes we want it we're going to keep the

099asset then we put together a committee that has this conversation but then and also i also want to respect the students the graduates the gifts from gladstone that are going to go there i also want to respect those students in that community that part of the community where we are working together and we do make them feel welcome and that they are also included so you know sitting here we have to look at the big picture you know i just can't be one-sided so i am looking at the two schools the two students i mean even staff so yeah we have to have a deep conversation and we need to make it right if that's the one how we want to keep it um more member audience one more opportunity if you had commented then

100i would uh i would say yeah that it if if we were to keep the you know we said you know we've had conversations around is an aspect of mascot or or there's even things to look beyond and that'll be on a mascot i mean but if we were to look at the the aztec phil still serving as a as a symbol that is connected to because there's a high school i would agree that it's important that if we were to do that we would do it in a way that is culturally responsible um and so yeah it would make sense that that then there is a conversation that we have around around what some of those culturally responsible parameters are and you know even maybe inviting um even some of the the indigenous communities

101to be able to even speak into what what that could look like in a in a culturally responsible way um and it probably would be important that we have that conversation prior to sending folks out as you're saying board member cruz gonzalez so that we're not sending a group group out to come up with a particular something that then we look at and stay still comes back and the end result still appears to be culturally irresponsible um and and i agree that what we have had in place is not to the extent of other other examples that we've seen just around around the country but i still think that what we have had in place um could be better and could be more more culturally responsive you know one thing i mentioned also so when

102we i've seen the petition i seen it on facebook and i see it had a nastic calendar i mean it looked really nice i mean i'm just saying you know it was a nasty calendar it was still called the aztecs and um that's the picture they had on there so i just thought the calendar looked nice they asked the challenge my request is can we bring this back the vote that we took in january for reconsideration and have that and then have that be on the agenda um we can clarify where we all are in that position on that on that but i agree with mr gr board member more president regarding including the indigenous people if they can you know work together everyone work together and that's what we we should do um we're

103going to be a team i'm just make it right i just think it'd be great because it also bring unity to the community and unity to the native americans and to all of us you know we're all chicanos we're all from here but you know what we work together i think it'd be more beautiful that way so i do believe to your request board member cruz gonzalez it does sound that there was sufficient board consensus to bring this back so we'll work with superintendent ortega um to add this to a future uh board meeting agenda just for clarity then by default then we'll hold off on the 315 of this for right now yes but we should acknowledge and thank um the students who went through this whole effort and we don't want them to

104feel like it was not for anything right i think um so yeah there's a we're we'll put a pause on on this and and look to reconvene and bring the group back um with with this kind of new set of of kind of parameters and and guidelines that we're looking at after a board conversation yeah and i think it's also great for the students that have worked on it i appreciate all their work but then again you know their kids and they'll learn you know there's change change happens all the time and you know i think it's also a good lesson for them to know that you know things um mr fernandez we that was that was quite a tangent that we thank you for waiting patiently there at the podium um we don't have

105to quickly move to thank you unless uh unless there's anything else that you have for us you're welcome so i i do have some other questions related to the earlier pieces absolutely no not related to the high school piece um so in terms of um so i appreciate um clarifying um where the enrollment boundaries are going to be so can we get information about student enrollment like those shifting what that would look like at each of the schools that would be remaining so that we have so that we understand that information yes um because what i see here right there's more students going to be at lee murray and valley dale i don't see more students coming to dalton is what i see right now in this list right right so so um can we

106see that and then i did want to i did want to ask a question about um because i was i was not a i i assumed that kids would stay at that school until the the closed elementary schools all students right all grades would say that how much school before we close so i was not thinking that like the tk kinder kids would go to the next goal and maybe i must have missed that but i do want to understand what is then going to be the impact on a family that has let's say a kid in tk or kinder but has a third grader or fourth grader and what does that do for them and let's say they have kids in middle school and high school right conceivably you could so i i'm not

107sure i was i i wasn't thinking that was going to be happening so i think i would like to have better understanding about that before decisions are finalized because for next year because i because i would have concerns about that especially we do have many families that have two kids at one school right it would make it very difficult for them yeah so that would be they'd be able to if they wanted to right now forcing but they'd be able to move right but what i'm suggesting is maybe that would be instead of saying yes you can move we would say you know it makes more sense to have the kids all be we're going to keep your kids where they are with the incoming kid that makes sense like we wouldn't move tkk so

108stay status quo for elementary for one more year yeah i mean i guess i assume that was going to happen and are you you're staying only for elementary you're not staying the same price right i think the high school kids are a little older they're not but they still have the opportunity for example if a nine if they have a ninth grader going to azusa high next year and maybe they have a tenth grader they have the option of sending their 10th grader to azusa high also i mean if transportation's a problem or you know like they have that option right remember uh board by recruiting are you just suggesting that we push out the transition time by an additional year no it well i mean in terms of instead of tk k going to

109their new school next year that they would remain at their current school for one more year so parents would have in effect a two-year window rather than a or an 18-month window rather than a four-month window to change to know where they're going to school well i mean i think in my mind the transition happens in one from one year to the next right so it would happen between the end of 23 and the beginning of fall 23. so this is this is the meeting of just pulling the board on on things but just even just to get some some understanding there because this is another area where we did already make uh some decision on and there may and there obviously is already some movement for these things so i'm just kind of one

110the request from from board member cruz gonzalez was for there to be some a options and or some current i'm not mistaken options under conversations before the the plan is finalized um so that's that's the request to come back so is that shared among uh of other board members or um is the request because if not then uh it will stay as it has been voted which is that the incoming grades would go into new schools and parents would be invited to move their students to those news i'm not clear that we voted on that we voted on which schools to close i think it was just a conversation we didn't vote on the we didn't vote on the process the process i mean the process was presented was the transition was presented to us

111but if we could consult them in it we voted on which goals we were going to close so can i think then can i see here if there is um if there's interest in revisiting that topic and i don't know if uh staff if you're able to sp speaking of that now that's probably something we just speak into if if it comes back into the conversation but speaking into the impact of that and or what has already taken place and so that may not be something that you're prepared to speak into but looking into at the rest of the board is that something to also bring back for a conversation and reassess i guess i guess what i'm saying is i didn't i thought that what he was presenting was recommendations and it wasn't like

112that's why they're developing a plan right that's why their developer plan that's coming back to us in a little bit and so that's why i'm not asking to make decisions right now i'll bring it up at the next meeting when they start when they bring when they bring report but i can bring it up later on i just i didn't i i wasn't clear i didn't think we were voting on a concrete plan because there wasn't one in december um well i think we talked about actually i do think we talked about uh when we when we voted i remember because i had to state out loud the different variations and when things would happen from year to year so i do believe that it was voted on and if my memory served me correctly

113we could check minutes but now i'm having a distinct memory that there was clarity on those pieces um and so maybe staff can you speak to what you're understanding and where you have been moving um what what did you take away i mean if that's the case then i'm happy just just i'll just go back and reread the minute just to clarify for myself i'm happy to do that i do have the minutes up and we did make a motion and vote um that in the 22-23 school year paramount valley dale murray lee dalton and hodge pending state approval would be pre-schooled through sixth grade they will remain open magnolia and powell first through sixth and ellington first through eight will remain open in the 23-24 school year the designated schools to remain open will

114be preschool through fifth and the designated sites to be closed will be closed okay that's fine i'm fine all right any other questions then so so for clarity then we move forward as as was voted back then any any other questions then about this okay and does that conclude the presentation mr ortega okay then we move on to 9.2 voting of state of california school boards association delegate assembly representative there a motion on the floor i'll make a motion um 9.2 is your motion to do we need to nominate somebody well so yeah um yeah i make a motion to select uh jeannette flores from the charter unified school district we can vote for two oh oh okay i'm sorry then um stephen he pronounces that uh from claremont unified school district i'll second the

115board member crews gonzalez moved to vote yo london move not me can i say chris gonzalez yeah you did my apologies my uh board member rodriguez pena moved to uh vote for jeanette flores and stephen or um for the state of california school boards association delegate assembly representative and it was seconded by board member cruz gonzalez any additional discussion and we will go ahead and vote and the motion passes or yes to one note moving on to item 9.3 approval uh ratification of resolution 21 22 23 certification of signature is there a motion i make a motion to approve the ratification of signatures certification of signatures second moved by board member cruz gonzalez seconded by board member rodriguez pena any discussion [Music] and we will vote and the motion passes five to zero which brings

116us to 10.0 and specifically 10.1 which is the approval of the consent calendar and 10.1 uh and encapsulates all the others so 10.1 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 the board by a board member if a board member requests discussion that item will be removed from the consent calendar and considered separately is there a motion i make a motion um for the consent calendar 10.1 through 10.8 second any discussion well there will be none as a consent calendar then we'll move to a vote and the motion passes five zero which brings us to 12.0 curriculum and instruction and specifically 12.1 approval of memorandum of understanding between

117the azusa unified school district and the san gabriel valley regional occupational program is there a motion on the floor make a motion to approve 12.1 second move by board member rodriguez pena second by board member audianus any discussion and we'll move to a vote and the motion passes 5-0 moving on to item 12.2 approval of the agreement between azusa unified school district and atkinson anderson loyola rude and romero aalr is there a motion to true promotion at all make a motion to approve 12.2 moved by board member rodriguez pena by second seconded by board member beau is there any discussion mr taylor i have a question regarding uh the need for this contract in the board notes you indicated that azusa unified was disproportionate in its identification of students on the autism spectrum is that

118disproportionately higher or lower in identifying those students thank you i'd like to uh call in aaron kramer who can provide some more background on that okay good evening um i think i'm on good evening board members thank you for inviting me in um yeah i absolutely am happy to speak on this so just some short bullet points and i'm happy to expand the all school districts are monitored by the state of california in 14 areas by california department of education including graduation rate for students with disabilities least restrictive environment and also identification regarding disability and ethnicity so there are times when an ethnicity into your question may have a higher percentage proportional to the number of students who are enrolled in the district so the simple answer is it higher it's a bit higher in

119this area for the subgroup that we had to write the plan for so can you just please specify which which subgroup that your student group you're speaking about absolutely so in the 2019 2020 school year azusa unified was identified as having a high percentage in the area of asian excuse me so sorry i was getting off 2019 2020 was caucasian autism the 20 20 20 and so then we had to write a plan for that the subsequent year in 2020 21 we were out of and we were significantly disproportionate in the area of asian autism and had to write a second plan for that in this current year we have gone into a appropriate number however once you are identified as significantly disproportionate you have to stay that way and go out of that number

120i believe it is a three to four year process to sustain that number so ms kramer i have a question on that um what's the the process to understand if your identification is accurate meaning that you may have a disproportionately higher number of students by ethnicity by area of disability how do we know i mean are we saying that we think that there's an issue that we've over identified or could it be the case that we actually have more students that are accurately identified very good question and so that is a lot of the work and a lot of the training to answer those very specific questions that potentially we are under identifying in another area and so a lot of the um work that we do with the selpa and with our technical assistance

121providers through the state we work with collaborative learning solutions is to explore the root causes potentially of these concerns and to look at not just the groups that are identified but also the groups that are in our district and so looking at groups that maybe have a higher number in the district and are we appropriately identifying those areas as well as potentially over identifying in others any other questions then there is a motion on the floor and so we will vote and the motion pass is 5-0 thank you aaron thank you and next up we have item 12.3 approval of the contract between a zeus unified school district and assessment consultation consultation entry make a motion to approve 12.3 second moved by board member rodriguez pena second by board member audianus any discussion can i

122please have an explanation on this item we're going to bring back miss kramer good evening again so this is also my agenda item this particular contract is in consultation with a consultant who we are hoping to work with to support our behavior support programs in our school district including doing an audit of our current programs in how we utilize our student support assistance our instructional aides helping our teachers our administrators our school teams really implement evidence-based practices in the area of behavior especially supporting students with significant disabilities the classroom environments the ways that we interact with students who maybe don't respond to what we would consider maybe traditional positive behavior interventions as outlined under federal guidance under idea and so we really want to work with someone who can work in tandem with our behavior

123specialist um victoria torres who is new to our district and is doing a really wonderful job and we just would like someone who also has a little um a bit of a different perspective and making sure that we are supporting our programs and our staff our families and our students thank you very much i have another a different question so can we if so if this is directly related to um it feels like um primarily special ed support correct um so um why is this being paid out of supplemental concentration funding and which action service is it connected to i'm to have to partner with dana dr dana mitchell on that one um i will start by answering that we are doing a um overview of all of our behavior sport it is targeted toward

124special education however this also would partner with student study team processes for all students who may be distributing are demonstrating some behavior concerns so it is not solely for students in special education however you're right there would be um a percentage that would be supported in there so again my question is so which action and or action in our lcap is this because i mean in order to spend i'll see if these dollars right it should be outlined in our in our alcap so i would wouldn't i need clarity on that i'll be happy to um i'd have to look that up and i'd be happy to get that to you in a friday packet in front of me so what would be the so let's say we approve this contract which i agree we

125need to do right but it turns out that it's not in one of our actions and services so it's really shouldn't be coming out of supplemental concentration dollars which is does that mean that maybe we should not vote on it now so so it's clearly where it's coming from or you have the ability on the back end to ensure that we're not we're not misusing our supplemental concentration fund and i think i'm so sorry dr mitchell i think i can speak to that um we do fund our current behavior specialist out of our um lcff funding and so i can tie it to that um i don't have it like dr mitchell said i don't have that in front of me but i do know that we do support and have supported our behavior plan

126through our lcap historically and we can give that to you when would this this when when were you planning on having to start like what what we're going to start i can have her start as soon as um it's approved but we can delay that if we need to i have it up in front of me if that's helpful i just was able to look it up it is under i'm just reading i'm so sorry actions and services it's under my lcap section so maybe i don't have the the tie to the funding um part but it is we do update it in the lcap on a regular basis okay recruits is this something that you're you're requesting that we do indeed uh delay for for further verification on on the funding of course i

127would prefer it i mean you could come on the next agenda i just want clarity and miss kramer you said that there is there's face uh there's margin with this particular item yeah there would be margin we can do that that that's fine okay can we look to bring this i guess so your table with it so can i make a motion to well did you desert emotion yeah do you wanna you might have men in your motion to table it okay yeah i'll make my emotion my motion and you have that table the item 3.3 to the next meeting to the next and then the second was that we have the the information before we get we have the information on the funding i think i can provide that for you under goal 4

128we have the board member rodriguez pena your your emotion is are you you have changed your emotion um so that there's a motion but not now not a second second and so now that is what's on on the floor uh to table this until the next meeting um any additional discussion then we'll go ahead and vote go to people this is a vote yeah this is thank you this is a vote to table this item to the next meeting and so it may it'll look different from what we're seeing on our screens oh the original motion says it's recommended to a vote to approve so this is the amen well not the amended most emotion the table and the motion to table this item to the next meeting passes five to zero which brings us

129to 13.1 adjournment is there a motion to adjourn moved by board member arianes second seconded by board member rodriguez pena and any discussion other than uh we will adjourn tonight in uh honor of alexis romero thank you then we will officially adjourn at 8 58 pm thank you everybody have a good night