001well good evening everyone and welcome to this regularly scheduled board meeting for the azusa unified school district board of education on february 15 2022 for our open session uh we call this meeting to order at 7pm and we will begin with our flagship salute and i do believe we have mary i see you there with us how you doing mary good how are you i'm doing well thank you would you lead us in the flax salute sure delicious thank you so much mary incredible love it [Music] well thank you have a great night uh moving on then to item 4.2 roll call board member rodriguez pena president board member here board member cruz gonzalez here board member adianas here and i board member i'm here remotely uh moving on to item 4.3 approval of the
002agenda is there a motion on the floor i'll make a motion to approve 4.3 second moved by board member rodriguez pena second by board member adanas any discussion then we will move to a vote looks like we're still waiting for one vote to come in why don't we go ahead and do a handbook uh board member rodriguez ready i'm ready there it is and the motion passes five to zero moving on to item 5.0 report action of closed session matters and there is nothing to report this evening which brings us to 6.0 recognition and awards and specifically 6.1 recognition of azusa adult education center employee daniel soriano i believe we have mr hernandez here with us good evening uh mr president board um superintendent panel camp cabinet daniel began working at azusa adult education center
003in october 2013 as a school counselor what daniel enjoys most about being a school counselor is being able to inspire students to maximize their potential when people see failure he sees successes when people say they can't he says yes you can on his days off you will likely find him coaching softball and practicing soccer we're very proud of mr soriano and his achievements and at this point i'd like to turn it over to him to see if he has any comments all right morning good afternoon thank you to the asuza unified school district thank you mr hernandez for his leadership to our students community most importantly our teachers thank you very much mr mr paul hernandez would you like to um let us know why we are recognizing mr soriano tonight well we are recognizing
004mr soriano for his award in support of our student student services and making sure that they are receiving all the support they need via whether it's through high school diploma or hiset or abe which is stands for adult basic education he makes sure that his door is always open and that he is available for students congratulations to you mr soriano grateful for your leadership and your work uh in in our community we celebrate you um any of my colleagues would you like to say anything i'd like to uh congratulate daniel siriano he um i also seen him in action and i know he's always approaching the the students and be sure that they have the right qualifications for whatever career they're looking for and uh after i seen him the other day he was there
005at night i know he works days but he was there at night still working with students congratulations daniel i would like to congratulate mr daniel i i know this is gabriella by the way um we're very grateful to have you here in this district you go the extra mile to make sure that these students that um are in your care that they're able to go ahead and access all the options that they have and i really appreciate you thinking outside the box and um working with mr paul hernandez and making sure that we have the best you know continuation school um all the things that you guys have brought forth um the ap classes at a continuation school that's amazing so keep up the good work and good job i'll go next so daniel i
006just congratulations i know 12 was well deserved it's been a couple years since i've seen you running around because i know but pre pandemic i would always do everywhere because you really engaged in the community and i really appreciate your commitment to our community and i know this i'm really glad that you got this award congratulations mr and i on behalf of the board cabinet and all families who are present today i also want to extend to you my congratulations for all your work and also to share that um in our focus um a lot on k-12 in the district i want to make sure that we all also recognize our pre-k and our adult learners as part of the district that we're a through adult district and i know mr ortega will be able
007to present the certificates that we have for you i'm in recognition of all of your work and your achievements to support our students so thank you very much well thank you again mr sorry congratulations okay then we will move on to item 6.2 recognition of ellington custodian uh alicia moreno thank you board president greer board president greer um honorable members of the ausd school board uh superintendent ortega cabinet everyone watching at the district office and at home good evening my name is adrian acosta i'm the proud principal of ellington ka school and i am here with our custodian um elisa moreno who is being honored for his act of heroism a couple of months ago i was in the office during a meeting when i received a call from the secretary saying that a boy
008who had just exited after school started to choke on his way out of the campus i ran over to where the student was um the boy was choking on a lifesaver that was lodged in his throat and eliseo wasted no time um and he applied the heimlich maneuver on the student um after we had called 9-1-1 um the boy was able to breathe he was calm but you could tell that the situation was not improving eliseo kept applying the heimlich maneuver and i think with the excitement and the salivary glands working their miraculous act the lifesaver was able to dissolve and dislodged itself in the throat of the student and it was a very tense very stressful moment that afternoon paramedics came just to make sure that um the student was safe which he was
009mother was there and gave her gratitude to uh mr moreno for his act of heroism and we were all grateful for the acts of eliseo that day and as i've said many times there's always something special about ellington and that day it was the act of heroism on behalf of our custodian mr elisa and do we have mr morneau here with us this evening uh yes uh for president greer he's there he was on his way home and he got caught in traffic and he was still able to pull over to join us uh he's there in the bottom square um so he is with us um i'm glad that he's there well then miss mourinho just want to thank you for uh just just your your service and your quick response uh we are
010we're grateful for you and we celebrate you tonight thank you any of my colleagues have anything to i also want to congratulate um or thank i should say mr moreno for his bravery and his quick response thank you thank god you were there at the time miss moreno thank you so much um for your heroism your quick thinking and your calm nerves to save the lives of one of our students thank you and i'll just add mr moreno you know we always say that our classified employees are so critical um not just with whatever their their tasks are and i think your your commitment and what you did through through that and so i'm glad that you were trained up and that you're able to use those skills and save and save the child thank
011you thank you for your active uh the act that you took and that you were able to go ahead and act uh fast and that everything turned out okay thank you for taking that risk because i know that sometimes you know when people see somebody else choking they may know cpr but may not take that leap and wait for 9-1-1 to come so i i we appreciate you i'm sure the parents appreciate you and that was a really tough um it was scary i bet but uh thank god that everything turned out okay thanks again ms moreno and board member do we have a certificate to present we absolutely do here and we'll ensure this gets you safe and sound thank you thank you again this morning so we will move on then to 7.0
012and specifically 7.1 public comma comment on agenda and non-agenda this is an opportunity for the public to address the board of education on agenda or non-agenda items individual speakers may be allowed up to three minutes to address the board of education on any agenda or non-agenda items when the public wishes to address the board on an agenda item they may fill out a blue card stand at the podium or raise their hand while in zoom attendance the board will take blue card requests first followed in order by speakers at the podium and then those in zoom attendance i do want to just remind everyone who is joining us online and or in person that there is a three-minute limit and so please keep a close eye on those three minutes because if you pass the
013three-minute threshold i will interrupt you um and to stop you and move on to the to the next speaker and i i would prefer to not do that but i will so i'll ask again that you please keep an eye on that the clock so that you can conclude your comments prior to the exhaustion of the timing um with that said we do have to kick things off um maricela cuevas um you unfortunately well you're not able to share um the time but one of you could speak um and we could switch over to us to a second person and give someone time as well good evening um my name is marisa and i'm here also with myra rico and we're both on the board of the azusa leaders for learning education foundation i'm a
014co-founder and vice president of the foundation so we're a group of volunteers including azusa businesses community and parent leaders and we raise money to support programs that benefit students staff and programs at azusa unified school district the zuso leaders for learning foundation provides a fundraising vehicle to support and provide funds to students to reach their highest potential and become responsible students the foundation just over the course of its inception in 2016 has generously donated 28 000 dollars to the school district to benefit the students staff and community of azusa some of these donations include a yearly 1000 scholarship to seniors at each of our three high schools a field trip to all seventh graders in the district to the museum of tolerance support to our music programs we sponsored service oriented field trips for students
015and families through sill beach for cleanup and we also donated um funds for the beautiful banners that you see hanging at some of the schools showing the students staff and community how amazing they are and new to this this year is our teacher grant to help fund enrichment projects in the classroom and at this time on behalf of the foundation i would like to present our first teacher grant of seven hundred dollars to stacy marie lane a standard middle school teacher for a pbl project for specially designed children's books handmade by eighth grade english language learners um i believe she's here with us as well via zoom is she stacy marie stacia i'm sorry stacia marie i believe she is here on june okay so we wanted to hear a little bit um we wanted
016to hear from her a little bit about her project no we do not want to hear about her okay i'm hearing i was like i know yeah unfortunately okay all right so it's a wonderful project and the foundation overall is just really excited to start this new teacher grant opportunity for teachers at the school district and so she was our first grant of seven hundred dollars so arthur i will give this check to you on behalf of the azusa leaders for learning education foundation thank you miss claus and miss rico next we have jesus carrillo good evening azuza board members superintendent ortega i come as a proud azusa resident and magnolia elementary parent i will present the board with key talking points and facts that have been left out of your decision to close down
017magnolia president greer you're correcting your statement presented to the community on february first board meeting in which you stated that there was a lot of planning over the last 11 months between teachers faculty and parents on the school reorganization the committee presented the board with three options after looking at countless pages of data such as infrastructure upgrade school capacity and population density just to name a few the board had a tough decision having to work through scenarios on which which close which school to close why and how to impact the local communities they serve on the december 21st board meeting when reviewing one of the three scenarios presented named proximity map the board members were very concerned on a closing charles h lee would impact the walking and dense community it served you president greer
018mentioned and i quote it would leave a desert end quote in that community there was a very candid and transparent discussion between the board members when it was proposed to keep charles h lee open and closing dalton elementary due to the communities they serve and the impact the decision to close lee was based on fiscal responsibility and capacity restrictions in the 38 minute discussion several considerations and points were made as to why lee or dalton should be the schools that closes i was intrigued and proud that we had a board and committee that took such thought and understanding on how this would impact not only the district but also the communities those schools serve that feeling however was short-lived a last-minute amendment was made by board member beau which shifted the for and forever changed
019the landscape of where the desert president greer had mentioned previously would now reside that desert is now in the east side community of azusa the third most populous trustee zone will no longer have an elementary school it will take our children and families 60 minutes round trips walking distance to travel to murray an hour 22 minutes round trip to travel to lee there was no representation no fight for this disenfranchised and unrepresented community of azusa the only consideration was made by board member beau to ensure we had strong and common sense transportation for our district and especially our elementary school student i would like to remind you however that never though there was an option of the walking communities of dalton and lee i implore you to revisit your decision president grier you mentioned this
020before speak up for the disenfranchised and the underrepresented we need your help thank you thank you next we have kristin carrillo hello oh hi mommy good evening my name is kristen curio and i currently have a student in tk at magnolia today i will be speaking on pure facts to outline the unjustified decision the board members made when closing magnolia leaving personal emotion out of the conversation i want the community to hear how it will impact everyone involved in the december 21st board meeting board member mr gonzalez argued that due to the dense population between foothill boulevard and 210 freeway it was important to keep and provide access to schools and i would agree if that argument was applied to all trustee zones i want all children have access however shutting down powell and magnolia
021for the east side of azusa leaves children without access later in the board meeting when board member beau proposed to close magnolia no one made the same argument for the east side this doesn't seem to be a fair representation the original revolver was a closed lee leaving dalton open and accessible to the north side closing magnolia and powell gives east side children no choice for close pulling the closures go against the main argument the board discusses a transportation plan for magnolia and pal student per year december 21st meeting dalton and lee are 0.8 miles from one another magnolia and murray where the children will be sent if closed is 1.2 miles away once again this doesn't seem to be a fair argument let's talk about funds tax dollars that will be wasted and misapplied magnolia
022has been modernized from its safety measures to its technology all the way down to its infrastructure in your december 21st meeting it was stated it would take 3.3.4 to 5.7 million dollars to update other schools that are not up to date as a homeowner and a taxpayer of azusa this is absurd i remind you that children currently enrolled will be cheated by losing the benefits that magnolia has to offer i ask that you go back and review your december 21st meeting and see the noticeable shift when board member beau proposed to shut down magnolia prior to that motion the debate was between lee and dalton for approximately 45 minutes when the new proposal was suggested it took less than 20 minutes to close down magnolia the hardest part was the lack of data and justification
023where was the representation for magnolia when the decision was made although this happened a few weeks ago we are here now the global pandemic numbers were highest in january and families were hit leaving this untouched now i'm here and i can't stand by and let azusa unified close the school without justification it will be a very sad and disappointing day in azusa if anyone feels it's too late to overturn the closure i don't think there is a time limit for children closing magnolia should be overturned in azusa unified truly cared about all its trusty communities not their own personal agenda without justification this huge decision this huge decision leads me to believe there are personal motives especially with re-election around the corner that comes with new terms i expect more of the azusa school district
024this was a rash decision with no data to support it thank you for your time thank you miss carrillo next we have charlotte ruiz hello everyone my name is charlotte ewiz and i'm here to say i'm thinking to get a playground for for the for the kinder and first places and second graders because sometimes it's kind of sad for the genders and first waiters and second waiters to see the big kids play on the big hit playground so i'm thinking to replace the monkey bars as a playground and also to make sure that other elementary schools have playgrounds too thank you miss ruiz next we have joanna lemus good evening board president career members of the board superintendent and other members in attendance my name is joanna lemos i'm here on behalf of the hundreds
025of families on the east side of asusa that are losing our elementary school i'm a parent of two young children a proud homeowner in asusa and i believe that the board's decision to close magnolia powell was inequitable and done without just at a time when discussions about equity and access are at the forefront of everyone's mind i am disappointed with the district for this unreasonable decision the communities on the east side are underrepresented on this we do not have a trustee to speak up for us i believe the board should have tried to gather more information from families being impacted by these closures before simply casting a vote that would eliminate school option for families on the east have you done that you would have learned that magnolia is at an optimal location providing accessibility
026not only for students but families in isuza and other neighboring cities in reimagining our district accessibility must be a priority we need schools that can be accessed by public transportation and that are inclusive to parents and caregivers with disability magnolia is conveniently located alongside avenue which provides a direct route to the covina metrolink station covina transit station and the metro apu station that can all be taken by by one buck you are creating an unnecessary burden on families by limiting access to public transportation that would expand opportunities for working parents and caregivers not enough public notification was received so many parents that are non-english speakers were uninformed of these closures looking back at past board meetings the board misled many viewers into thinking that a school would be kept available for families on the east
027side then december 21st the board voted in a completely different direction abate and swit removing all schools for communities on the east side that coincidentally had no representation by a trustee to test this out you are well aware that magnolia has been upgraded and modernized with taxpayer funds can accommodate growth in his position in an ideal location to expand opportunities for working parents with so many closures the city will not attract new residents or gain confidence for families to further invest in this news that these communities being displaced and pushed out of the district you close gladstone now you're closing magnolia and powell personally if i would have known this three years ago i would not have pursued a home here magnolia was one of the main reasons we decided to move because it provided
028access to various modes of public transportation which i rely on for work how do you expect to attract families to neighboring cities if you keep eliminating the schools that would opportunity we have a growing petition online with with nearly 700 signatures we are asking you to reconsider your decision on school closures and keep magnolia open do the hard work you're elected to do if parents truly have a school choice then allow us to have one i choose magnolia thank you miss lemos now we have crystal raymundo good evening board members my name is crystal riveno i would first like to say that i am an azusa unified graduate along with a long line of family members as a member of the community neighborhood surrounding magnolia elementary i would like to state that the school board
029has done nothing to advise the community without children about school closure there has been zero visibility for these families as a mother of three children in our district i would like to state the fact that magnolia has been modernized in and out of the classroom monies have been spent within the last four years all these taxpayers all this taxpayer money will be going to wait we are all aware that the eastern side of our city will be left without elementary school leaving all the students to travel anywhere leaving all the students to travel anywhere from 0.8 miles or more as a walking parent this is a huge inconvenience i am well aware of the district providing buses but do not feel comfortable sending my incoming kindergarten student on a school bus with no supervision other
030than a school bus stripe we need to give our students the best opportunities and the best resource as a parent and a homeowner in this community i am urging the school board to reconsider this decision and think about how rash and how unfair this choice was made no one from our school was able to defend magnolia i know that the decisions are difficult but we should be making the best decisions for our students thank you thank you mr mundo next we have ryan fish hello everybody um it's um i would like and victor hodge on the first graders when you're drunk modern because uh because the older great and um he cares have a jungle gym just we only have things in monkey bars yes they took the monkey bars out because it was dangerous
031so we would need like a jungle trip because we we would only have we would only have swings to play at thank you mr fish and next we have amber fish hi for your time this evening i just wanted to take a moment to articulate my adorable little child just trying to tell you um as zoella is fair one of his classmates bob johnson sprawling of his dream for a classroom or for a playground he's a little shy and didn't want to come out tonight to support but through a picture um a little like four little slide sam being happy because they have something to play with um as a parent we look at all of our students going to school and we think about education but also what's important is what they have access
032to and a jungle gym might not seem like something super important it's definitely something i overlook but they they were in modified quarantine for a time and he came home and he was so excited because they got to play on the big playground i didn't really think about what that meant at the time i just was like okay that's well you guys got to play over there and then modified quarantine ended and now they weren't allowed to cross the line anymore and i just for granted that they had to play with they had a the slower grades i believe the tender first insect have a swing set and a monkey bars that were recently taken out for what we understand however there's nothing else but not all the kids like um they say that they
033go and they run around in the philippines and feel that the camera sick but they don't have anything else on this side of like but as they said the pairs of their own the sixth uh fourth fifth and fifth third fourth fifth graders have their own so we're looking for a little bit of the quality for our and not just at odds but with the new chambers that are taking place with all of our schools and make sure that each grade level has their little jungle gym to play with so that nobody has to look over like charlotte said and he'll tell thank you miss fish before we progress on uh due to our board policy i do need to to pull the board to determine if there is openness to hearing the rest of
034our public comments as we've extended beyond 20 minutes i emotion that we move over the 20 minutes to let everyone ski second okay uh any i guess we'll just go ahead board member rodriguez pena second so that's a yes for the vote yes support number both yes gonzales yes board member adianas yes and i am also yes so we will proceed with the rest of our comments uh beginning with lisa good evening board members aasc faculty and parents i am lifelong my four children attended magnolia foothill and azusa high even though my children have all graduated and moved past this district as students we are all involved as community members from the year 2000 to 2015 i worked in this district as an aide a substitute teacher and a fourth grade teacher at ellington i
035have taught at every single school in this district and i am aware of the quality of each campus and that is why i am appalled by your decision to close magnolia elementary magnolia is one of the few schools in this district that has a remodeled outstanding campus magnolia has also been upgraded recently with amazing technology in each classroom i am very curious to know if you board members have visit magnolia's campus i am more interested to know if all of you board members have visited all the campuses in the azusa district these decisions seem to be coming from a personal place rather than what makes logical sense it is known that board members from have children in schools that will not be closing like lee elementary a school that would need around 3.4 to 5.7
036million dollars to upgrade mrs arianis kept fighting for dalton to stay open stating we would not have a school above a lhasa but if we close magnolia we will not have a school open on the east side of citra dalton would also need 5.2 million dollars to modernize the school and this whole idea of closing magnolia was brought up in the december 21st board meeting by sabrina beau somebody i do not think has the best intentions for our district and its students seeing she has a whole website dedicated to a charter school in rosedale and her own child does not attend azusa schools how can we represent our district when you do not believe in it are you fighting for rosedale parents to send their children to azusa schools what are what are you you
037school board members doing to fight for students to stay in this district why would you consider closing a completely modernized campus when we are struggling to keep our own residents at our schools this decision was made without public discussion you did not take time to consider all aspects of this decision you did not think of the students who were forced to move to magnolia after the closure of glaciers gladstone street school and how now they would be forced to move again to murray you did not think of the 30 percent of students that attend magnolia by choice through an open enrollment they chose magnolia because it is a great school that is that is something i wish our school board members knew magnolia is an amazing modernized school with advanced technology thank you next we
038have sarah serrano hello there has been a lot of bad decision making happening with the school board as an azusa community member i am here to hold you all accountable i am frustrated with how our district is declining yet poor decisions are happening time and time again what i find most appalling is how much money this district is willing to spend a district that struggles for money a district that says no to field trips doesn't fix broken pools has several campuses that haven't been modernized the list goes on last meeting adrian greer spoke on misinformation about the cost for rebranding azusa high he was baffled that people brought up the two million dollar price tag speaking as if this number appeared out of thin air yet in the december 7th school board meeting at 1
039hour and 14 minutes the 2 million dollars is spoken about i believe instead of rebranding it was called reimagine another extremely poor decision was brought up by sabrina beau in the december 21st meeting asking to close magnolia elementary a completely modernized campus a campus that is home to students that were forced to go there after gladstone street school close a campus that has advanced technology and would not require money to keep open closing schools is hard and i understand that i have family members who currently attend dalton elementary i have coached at lee elementary for years but this decision must be logic based and not on personal agendas it is logical to not have to spend money mod it is logical to not have to spend money on modernizing lee or dalton it is logical
040to keep a completely modernized school open like magnolia sabrina beau i do not understand why you chose to close magnolia i truly wonder if you have the best intentions for the sister or if this has something to do with your goal for a charter school i hope all members of the school board feel the pressure to think logically when it comes to spending students money other districts are aware of the situation that is going on i've received mail for an ad from northview high school showing all these great amenities this should concern you that other districts see where they're in trouble they see we're closing schools and they have smart school boards and they have smart boards and advanced tech and other districts are smart enough to move in while we're down don't let them
041three minutes is not enough time to address all the issues that have been raised in these past couple months more so it's frustrating to have no dialogue in these situations there should be opportunities to speak to the school board and have them speak back for us to ask questions there should be open discussions i have emailed each school board member and never received a reply last meeting adrian gross grier said to reach out that our board would love to converse i will be emailing all of you tomorrow to discuss magnolia elementary and the aztec and i hope to hear back from you i will end my time with what i said last meeting and i would what i will continue to say at every meeting until the school board decides to listen to its constituents
042to 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 are supposed to represent what we want if you feel like they are not doing their job vote them out three school board members gabriela ariana sheila and cruz gonzalez adrian greer all have terms that end this year both of them next we have rebecca lopez good evening school board members my name is rebecca lopez and i have three children at magnolia elementary school while my husband and i both teach in different school districts we have decided to enroll our children at magnolia elementary because of the convenient location and quality campus we know other districts are eager to enroll students with open arms
043and are potentially keeping an eye on this eastern portion of azusa and as a future student body taking away magnolia will definitely be a detriment to the school district of azusa as a whole if there is not access to a local nearby neighborhood school in azusa where will we look outside i am concerned that with the decision to close magnolia that the district will further be forcing their trend of a lower district enrollment instead i would encourage the district to reconsider the vote to close magnolia and put it back on the agenda for further discussion and voting after gathering additional information from committees and community members the california department of education website includes a closing school best practices guide while i know the school board is able to make decision decisions outside of these guidelines
044it would seem judicious for you to continue to take them into consideration the school reorganization team from azusa along with the superintendent made a couple of recommendations to the school board which were also shared via email to parents and posted to the district website prior to the december 21st vote i'd like to emphasize that neither of these proposals from the committee or the superintendent included the option or suggestion of closing magnolia elementary the state guidelines share that once closure recommendations not votes are made that the school can is considered foreclosure should be the site for a series of public hearings again magnolia was not under consideration i'm wondering what data and evidence was presented that would support this vote what facts supported this decision what recommendations for the years of fact finding were considered the
045california department of education guidelines include taking the following facts into consideration as to which school should be closed while i did hear some of the debate regarding other schools um were these items in fact considered with magnolia specifically in mind they include condition of a school quality environmental factors transportation including busing why not bus other students from magnolia neighborhoods including the area the future trustee district that is not represented by the current board aesthetics and more all of these give higher priority to keeping magnolia and making a fiscally responsible decision if the board decides that previous year's work of investigations and findings by the school reorganization team is not sufficient i asked for the school board to reconsider this vote and find additional data to support this decision allow community members to reinstate an updated
0467-eleven committee and time to further investigate the best decision please take more than 10 minutes to decide such a drastic gift and plans that will impact so many members of this district thank you for your time and consideration thank you miss lopez next we have tamara meza good evening board president greer honorable school board superintendent ortega cabinet and everyone watching here and at home my name is tamara messa presently a freshman at assistant high school and a former student at macmillan elementary i am here tonight to talk about the decision to close magnolia elementary school removing magnolia won't be beneficial for many parents kids and the district for one kids kids like my sister won't be able to for one kids kids like my sister will lose their friends because of this decision i thankfully
047grew up with all my friends in the same neighborhood and i'm with them right now at azusa this is very beneficial because it can potentially ruin their mental it can ruin their mental health in many ways like over covid hovid sadly hit all the little kids and it took away the chance to make new friends to better their education parents because of this decision will want to move their kids and do whatever it takes so that their children can have the best chance in education even if it means pooping out of this district many parents enroll their kids because of how accessible magnolia is taking out magnolia will bring a huge decrease in huge decrease of kids in this district i have attended magnolia foothill and now i'm in azusa and will and have always
048had outstanding remarks by teachers if i have to move to the glendora district with my sister then i'll go i hope you guys can reconsider closing dad magnolia because it's a very good it's a very great school unlikely i'm sorry magnolia is very well built and it's magnolia is very well built and it has way better everything is just better by magnolia thank you miss basil i hope do we have any additional commenters yes we're uh bringing up uh there you go next up we have what could be canasa mendez good evening board member president board members superintendent uh staff and community happiness as well i'm carissa mendez and i have four elementary school students currently enrolled who would echo the sentiments of ms charlotte and mr riot um so i'd like to talk about
049february 3rd which was a thursday when there was an email sent out through all ausd emails the initial email seemed to have started as a prank but the females that followed after that were for reply alls to every single kid which had inappropriate language inappropriate photos inappropriate emojis nothing that should have went to my elementary students email now so that so i'm fortunate enough to be around other people and other community members who are like hey go to kids email and delete everything that's in there fantastic i did that however my fifth grader did go to recess and had other students talk to her about how they got so many emails and why they had so many emails and what's going on so i expected some sort of notification from the district as to why
050this happened and not only that but to communicate with me that i may need to have a conversation with my child later about inappropriate use of the internet and you know what to do when events like this happen anytime there's a potential harm that comes to my student whether that be physical emotional or mental i need to be notified immediately so that i can be prepared to have a conversation with my student later the fact that no notification was sent out there was no notice or anything from the district was very disappointing um you know word i hear constantly this year's transparency and when i expected you to show up and be transparent you were not i expected you to communicate with parents i expected a lot from you and you did not show up
051so we're gonna have to practice on some trust exercise because it didn't show me that you can take ownership of what happened and you could be transparent my next point so i'm gonna backtrack not back chocolate for my next point so i want to talk about before and after child care before and after school care um in an all-day preschool um i feel this essential for our community i know there's been conversations around this but really hope we don't lose sight of this goal and the impact it will have on the community and future aus students when i look at how to best serve our community how to best serve our families what they need is before and after school care and that seems to me like a simple goal and so many parents that
052i speak to often talk about how they even go to the neighboring district they pay to send their kids before and after school care so even for our youngest students here at ausd the tk's in case don't have things together allowed to them there needs to be something in place to make that happen and i know you guys have talked about this i know it's in your minds but let's continue that conversation and try to make this happen as soon as possible thank you all for your time have a lovely evening thank you ms mendes next we have laura flanders it looks like laura may have gotten kicked off but we do have one okay let's move to one and if uh miss flanders rejoins we can give her some space again but one uh
053good evening members of the board of education my name is juan cruz i first came to learn about the closing of magnolia through a petition i am deeply disappointed and outraged years ago we purchased a home in azusa with magnolia being the main reason why we chose this neighborhood magnolia essentially located between the metro gold line and metrolink which myself and my wife used to commute to work my wife going to downtown l.a and myself going to riverside my child is currently attending magnolia elementary school and is heartbroken to hear that it is closing my youngest son will be starting preschool this year and was very excited to attend magnolia since we walk to it five days a week now i have to figure out where i can enroll my youngest and not know if
054it's going to be the same school as my oldest son looking at the map i'm trying to figure it all out i realize whichever option i have now i will no longer be able to walk with my family to school i don't know the exact words but it doesn't seem fair it almost seems like a form of discrimination against the east side communities of azusa on december 21st the board pulled a bait and switched voting to close down magnolia when it was not on the chopping block i believe it was a conflict of interest with the deciding boat being casted by the board president who has a child that's in a school remaining to be open a situation in which a person such as a public official an employee or professional has private or personal
055interest sufficient to appear to influence the objective exercise of his or her official duties may be like voting to keep a school of their child open and instead closing all the schools on the entire east side of the map in other words in my opinion a conflict of interest please consider keeping magnolia open think about how it will affect the east side families of azusa and if children are truly our future don't limit their opportunities to succeed by shutting down their school don't shut down magnolia thank you thank you mr one c is laura flanders back on by any chance he is not okay then seeing that we have no additional comments we will move to 8.0 and specifically 8.1 comments reports and requests by the board of education uh we'll begin with board member
056adianas and i would like to thank um mr is it moreno and mr danny soriano for their certificates today um one of the things i i want to share is that there's a lot there's a lot of people you know saying and i'm just going to throw this out there um that you've reached out to us um and i appreciate that and i want to publicly apologize if i didn't respond i i had covered then i got the booster but on and on and on and on but please reach out to me personally i will sit down and meet with you and have an adult conversation i want to hear from you i want to be able to be you know sit down with you and have some coffee and be able to listen what
057you have to say i appreciate all of you guys being here and i don't know what it's like to be on the other side or this side all that i know is that i i'm here and anything that i say or do can be used against me but but in reality i i just want to listen to you and i want to hear you up but i also want that same you know opportunity to be able to [Music] to share with you and and commune with you and share a little bit of of me because i'm only one person one vote and why i decided but i know we're not supposed to speak up you know on comments but i do want to give you that so thank you guys all for being here uh
058board member cruz gonzalez thank you um i will be brief um but just a couple things i just want to thank everyone who's come out tonight to speak to us um and um i i hope arthur you have a list of a lot a lot of good issues came up today that we should follow up on to make sure that um they're addressed um and i just want to say especially thank you to charlie and ryan for coming out um and avi's drawing um because all of you are in my son's class so i'm really proud to see you guys there and speaking to us um um and then the last piece i just want to request um for the foundation awardees can we find a way to put that on the agenda so they
059don't have to do that from public comment and then we can have the awardee teacher speak to the project because i would really like to hear what they're planning on doing with project-based learning but i think that would be a good partnership um and so that is all i have tonight board member good both and i also want to acknowledge all the families who have come out tonight have reached out to board members who have otherwise communicated your concerns and um i want to take this brief opportunity to share my a little bit about my my own personal experience so my older daughter attends kindergarten in a district public school and her school is closing june 30th so i do have a deep sense of empathy for you as a parent i have to decide
060where she's going to go next year and and stay in a public school um but i just want to share that with you um because i'm i'm a trustee but i'm also a parent um and that's all i want to share tonight thank you i remember rodriguez yes now good evening everyone i want to thank everyone for being here uh to voice your your opinions and i also want to um thank charlie and ryan you're doing a good job you're starting out very young and that's very good if you have something to say you go to the podium and and you voice your opinion um i just want to announce it i want you to send it why didn't go to center school the virtual seventh and eighth grade award ceremony they had the silver
061award which was a three point um zero to three point four nine the gold award 3.5 to 3.99 and the platinum award was 4.0 so i want to congratulate all the students from central middle school they did a great job even if it was virtual but you know they did a very good job i went to the adult school visitation and i went to go visit the um graphic art it's a new design class that they have with mr hague which he sees he's one of our teachers at glaston high school also teaching the um graphic art under the rop program and i visited the asl and the citizen classes and those students and i know they're adults they're still our students and they're very grateful that we still have the um adult school here
062at azusa unified school district i also attended my first rop meeting rot um empowers students to become confident long-life learners and self-reliant professionals by providing equitable opportunities through vigorous rigorous career technical education san gabriel valley rop currently serves azusa balwan park charter oak glendora san gabriel walnut valley and west covina unified school district i will be doing some site visitations to see what other career pathways that other districts have and i'm very proud to represent azusa unified school district um i just make an announcement mayor gonzalez and consummate alvarez are having a trade-in event saturday february 26 from 12 to 2 p.m in front of the city hall if you have an old tattered flag or you know the wind a lot of the winds have torn up some flags it's not good to throw
063them in the trash or to burn them but if you take it there they will give you a new flag in place of your other one and they would i think they're giving to the veterans and they know how to what to do with the flags when they're old and tattered and i also like to clone close in memory of um a student that passed away this month elves chaviro pina and also mr sanchez and one of our employees like closing memory they both passed away this month thank you thank you and uh just a couple things from me one similarly just want to thank everybody who is coming out and sharing their thoughts their perspectives their concerns their their issues again we welcome and we invite you to come and share um i'll say
064for for myself personally i i wanted to schedule an online coffee it's something that i do um interrupt you but there's a lot of static we can only hear half of what you're saying i apologize for the interruption is is this any better or does it sound the same uh still the same you can try again can you guys hear me better as i'm speaking okay let me know and i'll be brief let me know um so i'd look to schedule an online coffee i'll share that out at a future time in addition to that i do want to share that at the last board meeting we had which was a governance meeting there was some discussion around committee appointments and i made a recommendation that as it pertains to the city ad hoc committee
065between the city and the school district that we provide an ex-officio uh position of the president and vice president sitting on that seat i also asked my colleagues if there was any concern as i was a person making that recommendation and i was the and the sitting president if there were any concerns that i'd be happy to step aside so as to avoid the appearance of any type of conflict of interest i do want to thank a courageous colleague who after uh did communicate to me a concern that they have and so i am happy to step aside off of that particular uh committee and i i have would strongly recommend however that yolanda rodriguez pena serve in that that capacity so that she can provide some continuity to some matters that i accept and
066that's until december that would be correct that would be until december at which point we would move to what we voted on this past uh meeting where the sitting president and vice president would from that point on sit on that particular committee thank you and that's that's those are all the comments that i have today we move on to comments reports and uh by superintendent cabinet and student board members i'll call on first uh hannah hamilton i see you here with us good evening board members our middle school visitations are taking place on february 15th and 17th we're looking forward to showing all of our middle schoolers what high school has to offer our counselors will be visiting the middle schools from february 22nd to 24th to discuss scheduling school programs and classes softball baseball
067batman golf track and tennis seasons are to begin in the next couple of weeks good luck to all of our teams this upcoming season kindness week is february 15th through the 18th we are excited for our activities happening on campus and finally congratulations to our three aztec wrestlers angie brody and ed who competed who competed in the cif on february 11th thank you hannah and we have annette camacho good evening board members cabinet and superintendent ortega last week our junior parents and students attended a meeting with mrs wyatt and mr stout to discuss transcripts and credits needed to meet graduation requirements our spartan soccer team is currently undefeated and has a game tomorrow at azusa high school parents have been meeting with mrs signs our parent for parent education classes topics this month will include
068dealing with cover 19 high blood pressure and diabetes next week our students will be preparing for finals for the end of the second trimester on thursday seniors attended the citrus college application workshop our garden club meets every monday after school with mr and missy and mr callison and mr welch we are excited to see what they grow thank you thank you annette uh next we move to uh superintendent and cabinet uh thank you uh on behalf of cabinet we just want to also congratulate daniel soriano for his uh recognition and the work that he does for our adult learners and our community uh and also to mr eliseo moreno for number one thinking quickly number two acting upon those thoughts and number three possibly avoiding something terrible and so just want to thank uh mr
069moreno for for his actions on that day thank you thank you superintendent we'll move on to 10.0 and specifically general functions specifically 10.1 approval of resolution 21 22 18 certifying the final environmental impact report adopting findings of fact and adopting mitigation monitoring and reporting program pursuant to the california environmental quality act for the old school house removal project approving the project and delegating authority to staff to prepare execute and file a notice of determination is there a motion on the floor make a motion to approve 10.1 second move by board member rodriguez pena second by board member adionis any discussion hearing none we will move to a vote the motion passes five to seven moving on to 11.0 and specifically 11.1 approval consent calendar all matters listed under the consent calendar are considered by the
070board of education to be routine and will be enacted in one motion there will be no discussion of these items unless requested by a board member if a board member requests discussion that item will be removed from consent calendar and considered separately is there a motion to approve 11.1 question 2 approve 11.1 through 11.12 seconds move by board member adiana's second by board member rodriguez pena any well there'd be no discussion as a consent um so we'll move to a vote and the motion passes five to zero moving on to 13.0 and specifically 13.1 approval of the memorandum of understanding between the zeus unified school district and think together is their emotion on the floor motion to approve 13.1 the mou between isuzu unified school district and think together second with my board member adianas
071and second by board member uh rodriguez pena any discussion yes i have a couple questions um since it did come up tonight um can you just clarify about access to thing together for the younger grade um because i mean there's reference to tk and kay not having access to think together so can you clarify that for me please my understanding is they do have access okay but but not at every school but not at every school or at every school i'll have to i'll have to check can we clarify that and get get right which grades are served by which school can i just ask that kind of piggybacking off what board member chris gonzalez said um [Music] i know for a fact that at hodge it's only first through but now sixth i believe
072at other schools is younger grades kindergarten and so forth and from my understanding what parents have been sharing with me is that it depends on the principle it should be uniform i would like to see that i will get clarification for you on the grades and the only reason i asked at this point right now because if i mean well i guess this is the mou for for the spring break piece correct so can we ensure that the spring break um at least for now make sure that this is going to be available for pk through six at all elementary schools that i can verify for sure that is yes it is for sure okay it is for sure yeah and then just get back to us in terms of which schools are offering what's
073great i'll be happy to and i just would like to thank think together for always being there during the pandemic they were there also um for our students to be able to go there and and um some parents were not very familiar with computers and so forth and to to get them on board and for the can you continue their education and now it's great that during the spring break they will be there again so i want to thank thing together i want to share last week i had a conversation with a couple of a think together coordinators and um just to see what you know what they're doing and one of the one of the things that i don't think that a lot of people or parents know that at the high school level
074they have culinary they have like all these different um activities for our high schoolers they have in at the library they have uh what is called study hall you know if they want to go to the library and use you know the computers that they want to um uh get some homework help and they have these different rooms going on with different activities for our students and at the elementary level i know for a fact that kids love going to think together it's it's an amazing program so i'm really happy to see this on the agenda tonight and thanks again um to the ceo of being together and uh steve and you know we're partnering up with with the sousa unified we thank you you know for doing for your uh for your team to
075do the best at not just the school district but every school district you guys put students first and thank you to whoever's coordinating um again i would just like to see that all across the board that everybody has access to that any additional questions or comments hearing done we will move and the motion passes five to zero next we have 13.2 presentation of the sobrato early academic language model it's an action item correction or is there a presentation it's listed as an action can you clarify that superintendent yep that is this is a presentation uh it's an info item good evening board president greer board members superintendent ortega cabinet i am norma camacho i am the director of multilingual services and categorical programs and i am excited to be here this evening to share a
076little bit with all of you about the sobrato early academic language approach um next slide we are launching steel um this year at three of our school sites and i just wanted to start by showing you a little snip of a video of steel in action feel is about rich rigorous [Music] okay through interconnection oh thank you um i like superheroes you shows that when we treat english learners home language as an asset and we design learning to meet their needs they succeed academically the steel model is a research based and is a research based model and is designed to provide high quality education to all english learners starting in preschool through elementary school and to prevent the development of long-term english learners feel provides professional learning curriculum support and technical assistance to bolster learning
077for all of our students but this is especially critical for english learners feel is a powerful english learner-focused approach to education and it's rooted in research and educational equity at its core the steel model is committed to developing the intellectual and linguistic instinct of young children it honors the value and the role of a family's culture and language in students lives and helps teachers cultivate the skills and the mindset they need to become powerfully effective educators field model is a comprehensive approach the systems change that couples the professional learning for teachers with leadership development opportunity for district and site level administrators and instructional coaches the school and the district staff engaged in professional learning for two to three years there is also the opportunity for teachers site leaders and district administ administrators to collaborate with
078other educators across the state of california who are also implementing the steel model according to evaluation findings of the steel model they have shown that teachers in steel school who receive steel training significantly increase their use of research-based practices for teaching english learners which also increase the achievement of all students these are some of the feedback that we received from our own teachers after our first few days with field training teachers found the approach very powerful they appreciated the opportunities to collaborate with one another the opportunity they appreciated the opportunity to have coaches who are coming alongside them to support them in the implementation of the practices that they are learning they also had opportunities to partner across the whole site and it has been a very powerful even though we've just started this launch
079um we have seen just teachers who are participating embrace this model feel is not a program it is an approach that is about changing a school and a district system one field demonstrates results when we design powerful learning opportunities that put our english learners at the heart of our educational system they succeed and by extension all of our students succeed studies have found that students in feel demonstrated positive outcomes in english and spanish language development as well as in english language art spanish language art mathematics and other content areas coaches and themes continue professional learning support through this sorry coaches and teams work together to maintain opportunities for sustainability so the steel approach is about changing practice and is it something that goes away when we infuse the change in the practice and continue to
080build the capacity of teachers and support our coaches in maintaining that support in order to change practice so where are we at currently with steel and is we are implementing steel at three sites clifford murray valley dale elementary and victor hot we selected these sites because these three sites have the largest representation of english learners that they serve at their school sites with before murray being the most significant at 68 english learners we also looked at the opportunity to give our sites who are implementing the dual immersion program who also have significant populations of english learners and opportunities to work across sites because these schools in implementing the steel model plan together work together and have an opportunity to collaborate so it gives all of our sites and teachers an opportunity for not just across
081a grade level at a school but grade levels across sight we have participated in a launch day which gave the teachers a big overview of the cmo field model we participated in module one which was focusing on oral language development and we have worked in our unit development day one which is taking what the teachers had learned in module one and have used those elements to develop um aspects of their first unit um we are looking um or we are maintaining sustainability by working with our teachers on special assignment who serve as coaches for our steel teachers and they come alongside them to support them in their planning organizing materials um and supporting them in any way that they need in order to free them up to implement implement the practices that they are learning
082so far in march we will be moving into our module two um and it will be two additional days of training for our kinder and first grade teachers and looking at language development can be done and we are doing it and it's it's so exciting because i have um been a long proponent of the work of dr laurie olson who is the catalyst of the steel model um for 10 years ago he wrote the piece reparable harm which looked at [Music] long-term english learners and how long-term english learners come out of systems and what do we as schools need to do in order to change that fact just recently they came out with renewing the promise which looked at um [Music] irreparable harm ten years later and where are we at in our practices and
083seal continues to be a model um that when implemented uh correctly can overturn that that experience of long-term english learners so we are excited to bring it here to us thank you ms camacho any questions from the board uh yes i have several questions uh first of all i noticed um what is the difference between the di and the ceo program because i know they spoke spanish and english also by watching the video but you did see the dia was a program right that was a difference well the di is a program so that's our language uh yeah dual immersion program but the steel model what it is is instructional strategy so the instructional strategies can be implemented in any language um they can be in english spanish anything about the instructional strategy and can
084students belong to both yes so our students do belong to both they do so our teachers who are at those three sites are learning those strategies and as they learn those strategies they implement them into a unit so over the course of two to three years they will have fully developed units um utilizing those high leverage strategies that they've learned through this yellow okay thank you um so a couple questions to you the first one is um just wondering if you can describe how this looks different from what i mean right now we have maravias or wonders in our classrooms right so and we i think we have several parents on this so we know what it looks like what the homework comes down like so how does this look different in a classroom still
085compared to what we see right now happening in our class so what you will see that's different so as teachers move through the different modules so currently they have received training and mod 1 which is all oral language development so what they begin to do in the development of their units is they begin to look at those curriculum pieces um not as kind of the the piece that moves the instruction but rather how do i use maravias and wonders as a resource to teach the steel strategy so in the first module the teachers have um learned how to take um they're looking at some science standards um and a unit kindergarten is looking at weather and climate first freight is looking at plants animals they look at the next generation science standards identify what is
086it that are expected to learn here they look at the ela standards integrate those and then they begin to develop a unit using those strategies so they might organize a can they'll write an original chant using some academic vocabulary from the standards that they are focused on the in in class they will implement more oral response opportunities for students to interact with each other so as they move through these modules you will begin to see um more and more aspects of seal come into the instructional pieces that you as parents will eventually see at home that answers your question but that is the idea that they are moving through this model and developing that become these inquiry-based units as opposed to a traditional kind of um curricular piece so just so i think that's what
087i was trying to get a sense of what does that inquiry based unit look like how does that look different than from what we normally see when people are using sort of the wonders unit that they're that they're used so they will develop their units around they'll start with essential questions what is it that they want the students to answer becomes more about hands-on learning and using language as that factor that drives the curriculum as opposed to letting the curriculum drive so are the teachers developing the the unit like in our within our district they're the ones that develop the units or they like repackage that come in and then they utilize it we develop our own units so as they learn those high leverage inspection strategies through those modules they will continue to add
088elements of those strategies it does it'll take about two years before we have thick fully developed units but it gives teachers an opportunity to have that input based on standards um they will have those built differently so they've developed so far um kind of a framework of a year-long plan so what are the themes of their students they've developed that and now they will move into incorporating science free ela mathematics all of the standards and then looking at their curricular pieces uh to integrate into their units along with so are they developing common units across all three schools or schools so they're doing a common unit across three schools which is what makes it so powerful so for example um we had teachers from three of the different sites working on some chance and you
089know they said that me um so we have teachers from the dia school who are developing them in spanish and the students will receive all of the chance and all of the languages to take home because you know they may have a grandparent or somebody else would be spanish their home and they'll get um these stands at home as well so um rdi students and our s guys um we really feel really looked at how do we leverage the power of the home language for our students than when we have such a significant population students who have spanish as a first language we really want to capitalize on that asset and empower the students to use and that kind of leads into my next question so um i i appreciate a centering um especially a
090program that we know is going to um really focus and support one of our one of our student groups that really struggles in our outcomes so i appreciate that but a majority of our students are not english learners and so can you talk a little bit about how um the value of this program for not our non-english learner students and how you see that i'm having an impact on them well absolutely the high leverage strategies are high leverage strategies for all students whether they're english learners or not they are effective strategies that increase learning through language through literacy through all of the educational focuses that students have alert so um all of the students are receiving this rich instruction through the building but obviously as a byproduct of that our english learners thrive in that
091environment and then my last question i think actually might be for you either arthur or dana so over the last several years right we've had a lot of different implemented a lot of different strategies for our teachers to use i'm thinking about starting with formative assessments we've done many things over the years right um so how do you see those strategies that we're doing how do those align or not align with what we're doing in still i'm just thinking about like are we asking teachers to do a whole another new thing is i mean so where is that is there alignment and and how does that fit in i'll let you go first because a lot of this has to do with um things that we have had like glad strategies for example project-based learning
092there's a lot of these things so keep going okay so um exactly so a lot of the high leverage strategies that teachers have encountered in the steel model our teachers are glad trained so glad is guided academic language and development and those are also strategies again that look at how do we center instruction in an active way around language and building specifically academic language um and we also have been looking at inquiry-based learning for all of our students so again the steel model um really focuses on that inquiry-based learning um also incorporating things like thinking map trainings um we spent um over two years really looking at how do we build and provide opportunities for students to engage in academic discourse through the work with kelly um think pair share was one of the high
093leverage strategies for strategies that they focused on in module one and so for a lot of our teachers and i think it is in the slide where we had some of the comments um one of the teachers specifically identified in their feedback that um they had the operating opportunity to see how a lot of their training came together within this model so they were able to see how a lot of the strategies and trainings that they have received over the years kind of come together here so far and that was their first module i also think that aligns perfectly to our student success drivers we've done a lot of work around elevating cognitive rigor collaborative practices and and academic discourse as well so this is a way to be able to um continue to deepen
094that professional learning in those areas any additional questions or comments by the board thank you mrs camacho for the presentation this brings us to 14.0 human resources and specifically 14.1 which is the azusa unified school district sunshine proposal for the 2021 2021-2022 fiscal year negotiations with the azusa federation of adult educators so are there any questions from any on the board about this particular item info item hearing none then we will move to a public hearing on this particular item and so i will uh call for a motion to open this public hearing on discipline motion to open 14.2 seconds moved by board member adianas and seconded by board member rodriguez pena now that this this open hearing is called to is open at 8 00 uh 34 p.m is there anyone in attendance in
095person or on zoom that would like to speak at on this item don't we have to vote yes we do thank you uh so moving any discussion before we open and hearing man we'll go ahead and vote and the motion to open the public hearing uh fastest five to zero and so thank you very much gonzalez now the the hearing is open do we have anyone in person or online to speak on this particular item we have no hand grace and zoom attendant and it does not appear that we have anyone in person and so we will go ahead and close the public hearing at 8 35. which will move us to 14.3 which is the approval of the azusa unified school district sunshine proposal for the 2021 2022 fiscal year negotiations with the azusa
096federation of adult educators is there a motion on the board i make a motion um to approve 14.3 second four point three move by board member rodriguez pena second by board member iannis any discussion hearing none let's move to a vote the motion passes five to zero which brings us to [Music] 15.0 adjournment and specifically 15.1 adjournment is there a motion to adjourn [Music] to adjourn 15.1 second move by board member alliance seconded by board member rodriguez pena and i do want to remind that this evening we will be closing our board meeting in honor of lydia sanchez as well as elvis shawira let's go ahead and go this concludes our regularly scheduled board meeting at 8