001well good evening everyone and welcome to the regular board meeting of the azusa unified school district board of education on january 11 uh 2022 i will go ahead and call this meeting to order at seven o'clock and we will open up our session with the flag salute and i do believe that we have daniel torres here with us hey daniel looks like you're muted yeah hello there we go how you doing today i'm good all right you ready to lead us in the flag salute yeah all right take it away everybody please rise place your right hand over your heart ready begin i pledge allegiance to the flag of united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible and liberty and justice for all thanks so much
002daniel you're welcome have a good night youtube bye we'll move on to item 4.2 which is roll call uh board member cruz gonzalez president board member bo here board member rodriguez pena president board member adianas here and i remember great i'm here as well now we will move to item 4.3 which is approval of the agenda uh is there a motion to approve 4.3 and make a motion to approve 4.3 there a second second and discussion i'll start off the the request is the pool item 10.2 so uh and that's because uh antonio uh mr is out thick for the day so board member rodrigo would you um i make a motion to approve um 4.3 with the exception of item 10.2 i second all right any additional discussion then let's go ahead and vote
003and the motion passes five to zero moving on to item 5.0 report action of closed session matters there is nothing to report which brings us to 6.0 and specifically 6.1 recognition of 2021 2022 classified employee of the year mr ronquillo thank you board president greer uh good evening board of education and our astute community on a yearly basis the district recognizes its classified employees at a board of education meeting as part of this process each site and participating departments identifies an employee of the year we are here today to honor our classified employees of the year and i'd like to introduce dr alexis norman our director of human resources who officially start today's presentation hello oh there we go thank you so much okay um good evening board of education student board member if you're
004out there i don't see you here right now a super attendant ortega and cabinet my name is alexis norman i am the director of human resources i would like to thank the board of education and cabinet members for all of your support this year it has been and continues to be a very difficult road to navigate for our students staff and community this time of year when we celebrate our classified employees is one of my very favorite times of the year it is a positive sequence of events that culminates into the celebration we are currently having this year i had the honor of sitting with a group of my colleagues to interview all of our site's classified employees of the year thank you to miss laurie ray our president of our classified school employees association
005ms hilda secretary at azusa high school and the 2020-21 district classified employee of the year miss diana hernandez secretary at our family resource center miss lika juarez director of communications and mr antonio flores principal of paramount elementary school for being part of this year's selection committee i must say it was a true privilege to be a part of this committee we have amazing classified employees and each one of these very dedicated individuals told a story of their commitment to our students their colleagues and the community so thank you to each one of our sites classified employees of the year for sharing your story with us i think i can speak for the team and say that it was a privilege to listen to your words and learn about your very important work however i would
006like to share with everyone here or watching at home this evening a few words used to describe our people proactive compassionate flexible collaborative positive and open-minded and the phrases a shining star handles difficult situations with grace tenderness and wisdom pays attention to detail and is totally committed to serving the community over and over i heard that our classified classified employees guide our students and how our students flourished under their leadership one person even commented that one employee is a ray of sunshine it didn't stop the descriptions of our people continue to aw us our people build morale are extremely approachable do not shy away from work and respond with phrases like of course whatever our students need they play on the playground with our students and are dedicated to continuing their education some going to
007school to become teachers for our most vulnerable students and attending classes to keep up to date with strategies that support their specific job duties i would argue that our classified employees are institutional agents for our students and now more than ever do our children need them these individuals are not only supporting instruction but role models for our students they are patient and calm and when put in difficult situations always treat those around them with dignity and respect they are and i quote the glue that holds the place together as we read through the letters of recommendations and sat through each interview those were the words we heard and it became very apparent the level of love dedication and commitment our classified employees of the year embody our people take pride in their work i would
008like to also celebrate all of our classified employees for helping to keep our school district the azusa unified school district running even when districts around the country have been unable to do so our hard-working team of employees are here every day and serving our community there is no doubt in my mind that we could have not gotten through the last two years almost two years without them thank you for all that you do lastly i would like to thank yvonne marullo lori ray diana ochoa and sandra arkenberg for helping to make this evening special for our classified employees of the year they put together celebration boxes for each site to recognize our employees from their school sites or department offices each box has a gift from your cscaa union for our csva members and without
009further ado let's celebrate all of our classified employees of the year and end the night celebrating our district classified employee of the year we will start tonight with dalton elementary hi i'm laura clark can you hear me yes okay great hi i'm laura clark principal of dalton school project patricia sanchez is our school secretary and the wonderful recipient of our classified employee of the year anyone would be hard-pressed to find a person who serves people with as much dedication hard work and positive attitude as patricia she is the glue that holds the place together she's the one who alexis was talking about she responds quickly to every need because she loves our community and wants to make sure everyone is safe and learning the number of compliments i receive regarding the friendly and welcoming atmosphere
010of the front office cannot be exaggerated patricia gets a lot of credit for this everyone who comes in feels important she volunteers for special events and serves on multiple school communities on committees she has also served the district as a member of the csua board school reorganization committee covet committee azusa high school drama boosters and so much more patricia is totally awesome and she makes us laugh every day i'm so fortunate to have her as a partner congratulations patricia you truly deserve it good evening my name is adrian acosta that's right the proud principal of ellington tka school and it is my honor to present suzette hernandez as ellington's classified employee of the year suzette has been an integral part of ellington's office staff for the past five years serving in the capacity as attendance
011clerk suzette is a voice of the front office and clearly takes that moniker to heart just to listen to her one feels at ease she is exacting in her work while providing everyone who enters the office the space and respect to communicate their needs reading them all with a gentle voice and a genuine concern for ellington eagles suzette is definitely an important part of the ellington puzzle that one eagle you see soaring into the sky each and every day she is quick to recognize before they become issues her strong organization skills keeps things running fluidly and efficiently and if you think that you can walk past the office the second she turns her back without her noticing you you're wrong that's because she already spotted you in the rearview mirror she has at her desk
012yes just like an eagle congratulations to suzette hernandez ellington's classified employee of the year good evening i'm victoria velasquez principal of hodge elementary it's my honor to present to you sadly she's not here but here's her beautiful self navi lucille our honoree as classified employee of the year i had the pleasure of interviewing and hiring nevi this is her first job in the field of education and no one would ever guess that she's been working in public schools for less than three years she's an instructional aide working with our special education students in grades two through four in addition to our work in the sdc classroom she also works extra hours as an ssa during the regular and extended school year in her own words naveed loves her students shortly after she began working at
013hajj our schools were in the midst of responding to the pandemic she rose to the initial and ongoing challenges related to each change along the way amiable helpful professional and hardworking whether assisting with disbursements of materials logging on to virtual classrooms attending professional development to learn tech tips and strategies to support our learners or supporting her team naveed was always willing always present during distance learning she logged on daily to support individual and small group learning and when we returned to hybrid model she was engaged and supported that brings us to this year here we were setting up again and with her sped colleagues navi jumped right into the new normal and set her students for success as they returned to the new version of an in-person environment to this day she works with her
014classroom teacher her team and she supports each student in every way that they need jamie borg a long-term sub that works with her says naveed absolutely sparks the students thirst for knowledge she gives them the ability to feel successful in even the smallest steps they take she is truly their biggest cheerleader i have observed navi remain calm and focused in stressful situations while maintaining a warm and open attitude she nurtures her students and gives them a sense of stability during times of uncertainty naveed embodies the cougar credo of promoting positive learning environment in one which is safe respectful caring and productive parents students and staff members agree we are so proud to have navi lucio represent hajj cookers as our classified employee of the year congratulations navi it's diana roja good evening i am diana
015rojas principal of charles h lee elementary school and it is with great pleasure that i present andres martinez wieser as our classified employee of the year anders has been a student support assistant for associate unified school district for five years and has been at lee for the past three years along with working for ausd he attends cal poly pomona where he is obtaining a special ed teaching credential mr andres is an amazing student support assistant to all of the students that he is assigned to he's his positive attitude patience and calm demeanor are to be admired no matter the needs of a student or how busy that day may get he always stays calm remains positive and has a smile on his face his patience with students is never exhausted although i'm surely he's exhausted
016by the end of the day even at recess you will find him engaged with the students whether it be running around with them playing sports helping a child up the slide or on a swing or rescuing them off the monkey bars mr andres martinez lizard is most deserving of his recognition his work ethnic dedication and compassion for children is remarkable we are so grateful to have him as an essential part of our league team and excited to honor him as classified employee of the year for 2021 good evening my name is jenny lee director of ausd early childhood education program thank you for the opportunity to share about longfellow's classified employee of the year ms justine valdez she is not available to join us in person however she is online with the family and is
017featured on our school's facebook page ms valdez has been with the azusa unified school district as a student at ellington school at center middle school and at gladstone high school after high school she was an intern in our mental health program before joining the preschool instructional team three years ago this valdez is dedicated to student success and the success of our program and is always willing to support at other schools sites as well as at longfellow when working with young children all children we know that it is important that they feel welcome supported and connected ms valdez understands as well she is friendly and inviting when children enter the classroom she actively engages them through fun meaningful activities conversations and building relationships children seeks out ms valdez to engage in play she is hard working
018and is able to anticipate the needs of our students and our program she takes initiative in ensuring that those needs are met we are grateful to have a dedicated staff members such as ms valdez to help us to nurture our youngest students and help them to master foundational skills including on how to be successful scholars in preschool and beyond thank you miss valdez good evening everyone i am marcela fonsica the very proud principal of magnolia elementary school it is with great honor and excitement that i present to you our classified employee of the year valerie murett valerie serves as our superhero health aide and takes great joy in assisting our wild students and staff in keeping a safe and healthy school environment during these most extraordinary times miss valerie's superpowers are a gentle touch a
019kind word and a smile that shines through her mask she makes an ice pack warm and fuzzy a temperature scan super cool and a band-aid becomes a badge of honor this superhero travels the halls near and far to give aid wherever needed and we couldn't love her more so when you drive by magnolia school and see a wild heart shining in the sky it isn't a cry for help but instead a collection of the grateful hearts that have been cared for by our very own valerie muret congratulations for being named magnolia's wildly super classified employee of the year you're our hero good evening my name is jeanette flores and i am the proud principal at murray elementary and it is with great pleasure that i introduce to you murray elementary's community liaison and classified employee
020of the year ms sarah vallejo tonight sarah is at home celebrating safely with her family and here she is and sarah is a product of azusa schools she began her career at murray back when she was a little girl she attended murray moved on to center middle school and finally graduated from gladstone high school after graduation sarah attended citrus college and then moved on to work as an as a loan officer all while raising her family in 1999 sarah became aware of a position at murray and she knew immediately that she wanted to work there the rest is history she has been in the district for 23 years now she has worked as a newcomers aide health aide community liaison and think together pl and has rocked every role she has held however sarah does
021so much more sarah begins her day by meeting and greeting both parents and students as they arrive to school miss b or miss sarah is what they lovingly call her sarah is so valuable at marie and in the community she helps students and teachers and parents with anything they need these are a few phrases that i hear from sarah throughout the day i'm on my way what do you need me to do how can i help i got it and let me do it and so many more her smile is contagious and her laughter can fill any room she is in when i asked her what motivates her what motivates her she replied the students motivate me there's nothing better than hearing a student say thank you for helping me or thank you for teaching
022me for these reasons and many many more is why murray staff selected sarah to be murray's classified employee of the year congratulations sarah now moving on i have the honor of also presenting on behalf of principal antonio flores for paramount elementary so it is with great pleasure that i introduce paramount elementary's classified employee of the year miss issa leyva tonight ms leyva is joined by her husband luis leyva and her daughters alyssa and aileen isa has been working as a support aide for azusa unified for the last four years issa is an incredibly dedicated individual who cares deeply for her the needs of her students issa goes above and beyond what is asked of her she works effectively as part of a team and always carries herself in a professional and respectful manner her knowledge
023of implementing and reinforcing learning concepts supervising students in a variety of settings and problem solving while maintaining a positive and safe environment is a huge advantage to anyone who has a privilege the privilege of working with her isa has an undeniable gift for supporting students and she always offers valuable suggestions and fosters collaborative discussions focused on the betterment of our students all with a smile on her face thank you isa for everything that you do for the paramount students and it is with great pleasure to once again introduce to you issa leyva as classic classified employee of the year for paramount elementary thank you good evening i'm jenny weavey and i am the proud principal at powell elementary and i am so proud to present colleen versuela as our employee of the year colleen is
024celebrating at home tonight with her husband gilbert and her son nathan miss brazuela is an instructional aid for students with disabilities in our life skills classroom she has lovingly served students in this district for over 15 years colleen is calm caring and compassionate i remember one instance in particular when we were discussing a very challenging situation with a particular student the tears ran down colleen's cheeks and i saw firsthand the deep love and care that she has for her students i have watched her in extremely difficult cases proceed with tenderness grace and wisdom students respond to her gentle yet firm guidance parents appreciate and trust her and she is a fun and collaborative colleague the teacher that colleen is currently working with is in her first year of teaching she shared that her nerves calmed
025and her worries went away as soon as she met colleen she said and i quote colleen is an amazing instructional aide who shows willingness to work with each student regardless of their disability she makes sure that the students grow in every aspect by supporting them and loving them what more could i ask for colleen is always friendly always professional and brings an extra ray of sunshine to our school community we are so lucky to have her so please join me tonight in honoring our miss colleen brzezuela powell schools classified employee of the year good evening we can hear you okay thank you sorry good evening my name is adriana garcia medina proud principal of valley dale elementary school and it's my honor to present to you valley dale's classified employee of the year miss alejandra
026madrigal joining us online is her family celebrating with us her husband francisco and her two lovely daughters valeria and jimena i start with sharing this because family is so important to alejandra when she talks about her girls you see the sparkle in the in her eyes and you see the love in her heart i think this is what drives her to give our vikings the same level of support kindness and love we were extremely lucky three years ago when alejandra joined our team as our community liaison from that day on she has continued to impress me with her work ethic her dedication and her kindness alejandra takes pride in her role she understands and she exemplifies what it means to serve the asusa community she knows how to make parents feel welcomed students feel safe
027staff feel appreciated her warm smile and kind ways show up in every facet of her day alejandra is always up to something delivering resources to students making phone calls to parents answering emails making new spreadsheets greeting our little ones creating flyers networking translating gathering volunteers and encouraging our parents to be active participants in their child's education but she's never too busy to offer a helping hand during these challenging times alejandra did not skip a beat if there was new technology to learn she took it on and she learned it willingly she rose to every challenge and always kept our students our staff and our parents as a top priority it is alejandra's dedication and dependability and her passion that i admire her can-do attitude and her kindness are infectious we thank her family for allowing
028her to be part of the valley dell family and we congratulate alejandra as valley dale's classified employee of the year thank you dr contreras you can start hey good evening i'm dr anthony contreras proud principal of center middle school here tonight to present la mas fabulosa librarian this side of el paso mrs rosa reyes mrs reyes is at home surrounded by her loving family via zoom from azusa to carlsbad to minnesota mrs reyes is not just our librarian but a go-to person at center for years she has been on our literacy team and a champion for all students a lover of reading herself she instills and motivates students to read read read she embraced accelerated reader as a way to monitor student achievement and was part of the awards program when we moved to reading
029counts she was right there with the staff and students learning and implementing a new platform this year with iready she once again put on her learner hat and stated i need to know how to see where these kids are meaning their legs all levels so she could check out appropriate books last year during the pardema the pandemic could not stop our champion as she created a book pickup system for students utilizing online reservation of books and times to pick up and drop off rosa is also part of our social committee and has assisted parents with transitioning to the u.s school system and participates in parent coffees mrs reyes brings a bright smile and a positive attitude to campus daily we are lucky to have her at center congratulations center classified of the year mrs rosa
030reyes next we have dr martin good evening my name is donna martin i am signing in for our principal uh sam prodomo over at foothill middle school excuse me first of all we are going to be honoring miss diaz i'm going to put her picture up she's at home with her family right now celebrating online okay i am speaking on behalf of mr predomo so good evening i'm speaking for mr fadomo the principal the proud principal of foothill middle school it gives him great pleasure to present maria diaz as foothill middle school's classified employee of the year and again ms diaz is at home comfortably watching online with her family maria has worked for the foothill middle school for 15 years and the district for 26 years during the time that she has been work
031that mr padoma has worked with maria he's observed a school clerk that has gone above and beyond to focus on the needs of foothill middle school office staff parents and students here at foothill middle school mrs diaz is the first person anybody sees when they enter the front office the person who nominated maria quoted maria always greets staff students and parents with a smile and has a good attitude she's always willing to help this is so true however the deciding factor for the foothill middle school nominating committee to select maria diaz was the fact that during the pandemic when the office staff was the only personnel required to be on campus maria was one of the few employees working hard to make certain the functions of the foothill middle school office were met most importantly
032one of these functions was maintaining the daily attendance by keeping it up to date with the new distance learning protocols that were in place finally maria takes pride in her job and makes the staff students and parents feel at ease by making herself approachable with any concerns or assistance they may need once again foothill middle school is proud to recognize our clerk miss maria diaz thank you i'm carol fieri and i represent slosa middle school and i'm standing in as the assistant principal for missy vette walker we're very proud to announce this year our classified employee of the year is ms jonay domiti during her three years at slauson above and beyond her duties as special education instructional aide she has successfully worked with our 7th and 8th grades by supporting our students in the
033administration of testing working with students in small groups and assisting the teachers in the general classroom she also as mentioned before goes above and beyond and she took on extra hours this year working as our front office sub clerk her knowledge of technology as well as people skills has shown to be invaluable when necessary joni arrives early and stays well beyond her professional work day to accomplish any test that needs doing her support with the daily happenings of our front office the greeting of parents and the supporting with clerical tasks has been tremendously helpful joni has won self-imposed standard of excellence and that has guided her through all of her successful years with us at slauson middle school this is why we are so proud of our little joni um and having her represent us
034as classified employee of the year good evening i'm kent stout and i'm the principal at sierra high school and our classified employee of the year is miss carmen hara carmen is an extremely dedicated and humble person she has been the secretary at sierra for the past 18 years even though her job title is school secretary carmen supports sierra in many other ways translating for our spanish-speaking families assisting students who are ill and covering the reception desk when needed as our social committee chairperson carmen helps celebrate all staff members making sierra a fun and positive work environment carmen goes above and beyond in her efforts to work with all students and staff members she does it with grace and patience she cares deeply about the students and encourages them to succeed and graduate she often asks
035them how they're doing in their classes to make sure they're staying on track we especially me because she always has my back are lucky to have carmen as our school secretary the students and staff are very proud that karman hara is our classified employee of the year congratulations carmen the azusa adult education center is proud to present missy bon yuro is our classified employee of the year ms udo started with azusa unified 42 years ago and has worked at most every elementary site in the district she finally remembers when the computer labs were first installed elementaries in all the elementary schools and refers to the big white one that was installed at murray fortunately for us miss udo is no stranger to adult education she worked at the old site in 1998 as a clerk
036before moving on to magnolia and we are excited to have her back for a second time her immediate contributions to our wasp process our testing center practices and input into our data and testing procedures have played a major role in our transition from paper pencil registration and testing to computer-based support for all of our students and stakeholders her passion for helping adult students and love of learning has made her an invaluable member of our staff her contributions are priceless and words of kindness touch the hearts of all of our adult students and make them feel at home students and staff can always be expected to be greeted with a warm smile and a pleasant word please help me congratulate missy von niro as our classified employee of the year you may begin miss benitez okay
037am i on we can hear you you can hear me okay good evening trustees cabinet and superintendent ortega i'm betty benitez coordinator of the special education resource center i am representing and speaking on behalf of everyone in our program for students with visual impairments it is an honor to present and recognize deborah frazier as our district office classified employee of the year i had i have had the pleasure of working with deborah for the last 10 months but you don't need much time to see the impact she has made in this department her dedication and passion are evident in all that she does she has been part of the azusa usd family for 35 years where she prides herself in the support she provides to our students staff and families deborah is not only a
038huge asset to our department and our district she is highly dedicated and committed to her community where she has offered over 15 years of volunteer service as a cub scout leader a community emergency response team member a member of her church as well as helping to feed homeless and low-income families deborah's work ethic is commendable i can't say enough about debra we thank her for her service and we are honored to recognize her tonight [Applause] evening good evening i'm stephanie ortiz coordinator of special education for magnolia adult transition program i have the honor of recognizing maria roscoe as our mitp classified employee of the year she has worked for azusa unified for 10 years maria joined our staff last year during distance learning hit the ground running and has become such an integral part of
039our matp team she is celebrated today by her husband francisco her two sons francisco and santino who both attend azusa schools maria has served our district long before she was a staff member by volunteering for her son's class years ago at longfellow that is where she was lucky enough to meet miss aguilera who convinced her to apply and then we were lucky enough to bring her on maria shared that her number one job is being a mom she has a wealth of knowledge in supporting our students her kindness and compassion shines through as she builds relationships with students and staff maria's love of cooking comes through when she teaches our students recipes and kitchen safety our staff bonds over our love of everything disney and maria is right there with us we are so very
040proud to have maria as our matp classified employee of the year congratulations [Music] mr allen you're up all right welcome azusa unified community family friends fans everybody uh i want to present mot maintenance operations transportation and facilities motif um our candidate was uh lorena gomez she's our secretary um for mot and i'm gonna be a little different just go off to heart uh three points that three words that i just wanna share that kind of describe lorena number one is strength i must share a proverb without fighting a day of adversity thy strength is small lorena's helped us tremendously in finding subs every day for our school sites she calls on a daily basis and make sure we have coverage at all our sites um she also has to deal with you know i hate
041to say this but uh bad attitudes you know we don't get the friendliest calls every day so so uh lorena has to deal with that and um strength is determined by how much you can resist and put up with um she doesn't bench press anything but um she does have to deal with a lot of um resistance and she does it with grace which brings me to my next characteristic which is patience um you know there's another proverb that he that is soon angry dealeth foolishly uh she has a way of attacking the problem rather than the person um since we do get a lot of phone calls that are are negative in in nature um she has an art a craft that she de-escalates the situation attacks the issue instead of attacking the person
042which i appreciate and then lastly uh she's faithful um most men will proclaim everyone his own goodness but a faithful man who can find she's dependable um her attendance is great uh in these times where it's hard to find staff and everything like that and i can always depend on her and when you usually know the value of a staff member when when they go missing or when they are absent and i know that today we thought lorraine wasn't going to make it in and everybody was disappointed because of how much we depend on her so with all that said i just want to say congratulations lorena i don't know if you're out there in the cyber world listening but uh we'll see you tomorrow at six o'clock appreciate it bye-bye mr mall yes we
043have deborah amos that is on right now oh pardon me now we'll go ahead it is our pleasure to introduce the food service employee of the year miss stephanie stephanie has been a part of the azusa unified school district food service department for more than five years she has started the food service as a substitute and because of her dedication and hard work she has moved her way up to a permanent position during the time she has gone over and beyond to provide students with nutritious meals incredible customer service and she is currently involved with our fresh fruit and vegetable program at murray which interacts with our students and sharing exotic fruits and vegetables she has also been very involved with our curbside distribution during covert rainy rainy days wind smoke sleet stephanie is always
044willing and happy to provide meals to our families of azusa city she always has a smile on her face and an infectious laugh that is very addicting on a personal note stephanie manages a household of three and i mean a three three children and a husband she also can be found at the local soccer field on the weekends cheering on her children during their sporting events if you were to ask her co-workers who they wanted on their team stephanie will be the first one on the first round pick we are very proud and honored to have stephanie represent the food service team as the employee of the year thank you stephanie for all your dedication to the students and staff and we will see you tomorrow to celebrate you thank you mr jamal thank you
045so much to our site administrators for highlighting each one of our very special employees now it brings me great pleasure to introduce our 2021-22 azusa unified school district employee of the year miss celia castro i would like to present you with the plaque come on up and then i will turn it over to mr fernandez good evening uh board of education superintendent ortega and cabinet um my name is gabriel fernandez great principal over at glass high school it is my pleasure to introduce stelia castro as gladstone high school's classified employee of the year 23 years in this district in this year of return ms pastor has gone above and beyond daily to make sure the needs of our newcomer students are met she shows up to work with joy and humility in her heart and
046her service to our international students is probably the reason why we keep attracting new international students but working hard with the teachers at gladstone high school miss castro makes their students understand the content in different disciplines this is not an easy task going from fast fast and daily based translating make sure they understand the content helping them acclimate to life and take everything sum it up watching her students cheer for her when they found out that she won the classified employee of the year and then district employee of the year does more justice outstanding job i appreciate it yes it is really a great honor to be specific employee of the year i don't really know what i do the third piece and i i'm very appreciative i just know that i work with that
047love i keep the best and really you know when i tell them everything is everything in life is possible if they set their mind to it if they dream and they have work are you telling them to embrace you know their culture their act and they can do anything everything is possible it's really a great pleasure to be here and thank you unified school district for giving me the opportunity to work for 23 years really played on thank you ms castro thank you miss fernandez you are just contagious just so charismatic um we do have a special treat for you ms castro and it is presented by miss melissa alcantar from foothill credit union are you here miss kentar i am here can you hear me we can oh awesome yes hi everybody thank you
048so much for allowing me to join um so my name is melissa and i'm with foothill credit union and um i'm here to join the celebration of azusa's classified employee of the year um as a community partner we are happy to always show support in any way we can and these are my favorite events hearing all the stories and the highlighting of the passion behind everyone's hard work is so beautiful and heartwarming to hear so it brings me great pleasure to announce that we always award a hundred dollar check to the district employee of the year so congratulations celia castro will be delivering your check so congratulations on being azusa's classified employee of the year thank you miss alcantar we have one more surprise for you miss shauna laba from schools first is another person
049here to celebrate you so she has a few words she'd like to say as well so good evening everyone again i'm shawna with school's first congratulations to all the winners and especially you my dear thank you for everything that you do for the students for the community your passion just dudes so it's my absolute pleasure on behalf first for you with this little basket i've made uh and a hundred dollar uh gift card to target congratulations thank you ladies all right and lastly i would like to present miss castro with a certificate of recognition from assemblywoman blanco rubio district 48 it reads on behalf of the california state legislator and residents of the 48th assembly district i thank you for your unwavering dedication to the students and the families of gladstone high school your commitment
050to our future generation of leaders is admired by many congratulations on this well-deserved recognition and best wishes for future success thank you so much at this point i will turn it over to our board president mr greer well just once more congratulations to all of our classified employees who are are recognizing and we're we are just absolutely blessed by the opportunity to hear the stories and be reminded of just how great ausd is because of the those people who make up ausd and so thank you and congratulations to everyone out there and specifically mrs castro congratulations to you i have the i've have had the distinct privilege of knowing you for many years and ha and as well as your children and knowing the the care and the love and attention that you that you
051give to them it shows that that extends beyond them to the other young people here in our community and so thank you for your decades of service and it is a well-deserved honor and we are so grateful uh that that you are in our family um any of my colleagues yes i have something to say i'd like to congratulate estelia castro um he's so passionate about her job as an instructional agent and i have seen her in action i was reminded that you were from mountain view yeah i remember seeing you on and congratulations um congratulations to all the classified employees of the years i've seen many of you in action i want to thank you all for your hard work and dedication to the students at ausd especially at this dur this very hard
052time during covet i have known sarah from murray school since she was in kindergarten he went to kindergarten with my daughter serena so uh when i seen her name on the list i thought well that's fantastic um you know i i just imagine a day without a classified employee just imagine that and um i totally know that you have all worked very hard for this award um and congratulations again and hopefully in the future well we'll we always have some great employees every year we have so many um employees receiving this award and next year we'll have another bunch of them because all of our class 1 employees do a fantastic job you'll get your turn thank you congratulations ms castro this is the first time that we've met personally but as some as many
053of my colleagues have said your enthusiasm and your love for students signs through your mask and really reverberates throughout this entire presentation but congratulations to you and you almost brought me to tears when you said i tell my students i tell them everything is possible and it was just such a heartwarming sentiment and i'm glad that you shared it with us here tonight i'm glad that you share your work and your passion with your students and all of the issues unified community so congratulations uh so i would also like to thank all of the classified employees of the year um i think we we know we know and it's been very clear over the last few years especially with the pandemic that you are all very critical the function of our district and you've been
054there through this whole time so really appreciate all of you gracias thank you for all you do with our students um especially our newcomers i think it's so important that they have somebody who can relate to them and make them feel like they belong here so thank you board remember adianas do you have anything to add okay well again congratulations to everyone out there uh this is the highlight of our meeting and now we go we go from this into the other stuff but but the other stuff is still calling us but once again congratulations and moving along to item 7.1 on our agenda which is 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
055given up to three minutes to address the board of education on any agenda or non-agenda items uh when the public wishes to address the board uh on any agenda item it will 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 remind for anyone who is here that we do have a three minute limit and i i will be holding us to that three minute limit so if we get to it i will i will interject and interrupt and that will let you know that your time has expired so please keep a close eye on the clock um lika i don't see
056anyone here in person so i don't imagine we have any blue cards do we have anyone in zoom with their hand raised we do first we have mr adrian acosta mr acosta oh hello go ahead and take it away no i i must have clicked the wrong button i'm sorry everybody first of all without the talk i'll talk for like 20 seconds thank you everybody congratulations to all the recipients it was an honor to be here that's all all right okay and then we have cecilia del tori good evening hello hello good evening let me go ahead and begin good evening board members cabinet members ausd families and friends my name is cecilia delatorre and i'm currently a teacher at paramount elementary tonight i would like to voice my concerns in regards to the last
057two years without a pay salary increase this inadequate pay schedule along with the increase of the cost of living including groceries gas electricity and other household items has been a struggle for myself and other ausd teachers please consider at least the full cola to ausd teachers the cola's purpose is to support public employees with up to the the date cost of living and the realization that we are ranked lowest within the surrounding school areas with the quality compassion dedication and hard work we ausd teachers deserve to be recognized through compensation as are those districts within the surrounding area i appreciate your time i'd like to very quickly congratulate all the classified employees of the year at each school site and a special congratulations to ms celia castro for ausd's classified employee of the year thank
058you and i hope you have a lovely evening thank you miss deletori next we have alan french hi can you hear me okay yes we can great thanks first i just want to take a moment to congratulate all of the classified employees of the year tonight it's a great honor for all of them and folks like them are the glue that keeps these schools going uh i did watch the board meeting three weeks ago which of course featured school reorganization as the primary topic and being a proud aztec i was happy to see that the name azusa high school will be retained that being said i would like to talk about the mascot and colors for both azusa and gladstone i don't know if a decision is going to be rendered on this tonight so
059i felt it proper to speak on this now i am a firm believer that the aztec and gladiator mascots should remain as should the respective colors for each school all of this is part of a story tradition going back decades when you think of azusa high you think of the aztec and the black and blue colors and when you think of gladstone white black and red all come to mind as does the gladiator though some will point to the rivalry between the schools the reality is that this has been a friendly rivalry to be sure school pride is on full display during the annual sports meetings particularly the football games but this has never been a rivalry fueled by negativity there's simply no reason to change either the mascots or the colors the discussions for
060school reorganization along with the final decision rendered has been difficult for all involved though it has been many years since i attended palo and foothill i am still a proud panther and trojan and i speak for many who are sad about these schools as well as several others closing in the next couple of years therefore i ask the board to retain the school colors and mascot of both azusa and gladstone particularly for the alumni of both campuses it is difficult enough to lose powell ellington magnolia and all three middle schools in the coming years and keeping the aztec gladiator and the colors of both campuses would at least be a consolation with a reorganization plan now in place the time has come to focus on giving our students the education they deserve this includes discussions
061of curriculum and programs as someone who received a great education from outstanding teachers at azusa unified i want the students of today and tomorrow to have that as well and i want those who are lucky enough to attend azusa high to experience that pride of being an aztec and that goes for those lucky enough to become gladiators too both azusa aztecs and gladstone gladiators have a nice ring to them and neither ring should fade away thank you so much alan french next we have ron do you guys hear me now yes we can okay first of all um i want to congratulate all the classified employees of the year uh throughout our district you all do an outstanding job at our schools i mean i know that you know working with my instructional aides throughout
062the years and how how great of a job you know they do in my classroom each and every single day i really appreciate everything our classified employees do and to miss castro wow you know when i when i hear about miss castro and her passion it's true you can't believe the amount of passion that she has to work with her students i had the pleasure of working with ms castro uh last year when i co-taught with mr hart for earth and space and i got to see first hand how she worked with her students and the amount of love and respect that her students have her so congratulations mrs castro on district employee of the year very proud of you good evening board members assistant superintendents and superintendent my name is ron tressel and i
063am a teacher at gladstone high school i am speaking tonight on behalf of the teachers in our district who need an increase in pay the district's team's offer during bargaining was not only extremely low but also embarrassing teachers are asking for at least the full cola because of the rising cost of living this is not a lie but just pure facts the following are examples of how the cost of living has increased over the last two to three years according to gas prices.aaa.com the current cost of gasoline in california is 4.84 cents from 2019 to 2021 food prices in the us have increased by three to four percent they are expected to increase again this year this report is from ers.usda.gov according to narada real estate investment the median price of housing in the la
064county metropolitan area is seven hundred and twenty thousand dollars this is fourteen point three percent higher than a year ago as evidenced by the facts i have presented to you these are reasons why teachers need at least the full cola i appreciate your deliberation on these numbers thank you mr tressel and i believe finally we have esther compost i am here uh board members um president greer superintendent cabinet members um i come to you tonight to speak to you about a concern that i have i'm speaking as a teacher of asusa high school as well as my fellow colleagues at my school site um the reason i'm addressing the board tonight is because of the situation with our sub system and the fact that we don't have enough subs to cover classes i am asked
065on a daily basis to cover a sixth period class that is my prep time um that is time that i have to grade ib ap and regular student work it's extremely difficult to get that work done as you are very well aware those i have three very high level classes um and to get the correct feedback that i need to give to my students on writing or any type of work is just not there because i'm being asked to cover classes with that said i know that we are currently in negotiations to increase the amount of pay that teachers receive to cover classes when the opportunity or the time comes i would like to beg and implore you to please consider the time that we are giving to cover these classes every hour that we
066have for our prep time that is given to another teacher to cover their cost is one less hour that we have with our family at nighttime and so you know i know that when the time comes i would really greatly greatly appreciate it if you would consider um fair compensation for our time that we have to give up at school during our prep um i keep hearing a common theme of the increase of cost of living i would also um support my colleagues that have spoken here um yeah the cost of living is very high i'm a constituent here in asusa i live here i know how much the home prices have gone up everything's going up so please consider fair compensation when the time comes i would also like to congratulate our classified employees
067and our classified employee of the district ms castro congratulations to you for all of your hard work at gladstone high school thank you board members and have a good night thank you so much moving on then to item 8.1 comments reports and requests by the board of education uh board member cruz gonzalez i have nothing tonight board member bo no comments tonight board member rodriguez pena yes um good evening everyone uh happy new year hopefully uh 2022 is gonna bring a better year for all of us um i just wanna announce that i went to glaston high school um before the winter break uh for coffee with the principal and we had uh the glaston high school sonic boom and the jazz band played beautiful christmas music for the parents and as usual i'd like
068to thank director jade clavacio and principal fernandez it was a very nice afternoon i want to put a middle school where students from moca concert course the beginning advanced orchestra also were playing in the mariachis it was a bit chilly out there but the students did a fantastic job and i want to thank also directors mary turner and carlos rodriguez rios um clauston middle school mr coburn sent us a video the video from studio 26 they had um episodes one three and four it was the christmas stocking the years were 1967 1980 and 1997. in 1967 the background it was posters with hard day's night the beatles the mom was wearing rollers the phone had a long court and i'm like wow where do you find all this stuff i mean i used to have
069that stuff you know i'm i'm telling my age now but i don't know where mr coburn finds all this but the students did a fantastic job he himself was in every episode and also did a fine job i want to thank mr coburn and all the student filmmakers from studio 26 i really enjoyed that the azusa rotary interact students from azusa and glaston high school made over 150 gift bags with color books and crayons we went to the zooto police department on a saturday afternoon to present them to azusa police department chief mike burtison and captain robert landeros for the children they um mentioned that they were going to use him and as a the police officers go in there and the police cars and they see children they would hand them this packet with
070the crayons on them so i want to thank myra rico and all the students the supervisors from glaston high school with darla elliott and azusa high is mary turner for putting these packets together i also want to uh announce a said announcement that mr rosalie's putting rosatus passed away on january 3rd i have known mr rosales for over 15 years we were in many committees together jorge was a photographer and he said actually right in that seat he came to our meetings periodically and also went to the city council meetings he spoke his mind so he also came to my um kids christmas parties that i have in my home la fosa de carlos ninos over 10 years he would sit there for over two hours taking photos of children over 200 children taking pictures
071with santa then he would give me a video at the end of all the students or all the children and um at no charge he just did it all the kindness of his heart he volunteers time through many events throughout the community azuza community and he will be truly missed thank you board member rodriguez pena uh board member arianes is ill and she's here joining us online but uh has no comments for tonight i would just like to uh one wish everyone a happy new year um and just remind and encourage everyone to to be uh safe out there um as i know we're experiencing somewhat of a of a surge here and now and so know that uh uh community you are in my prayers moving on to item 9.1 comments and reports by
072superintendent cabinet and student board member i do believe that we have chris no we have annette online this evening you can mute your mic and then if you're there can you make sure your mic is unmuted okay if you're able to we'll check back after uh comments and reports by uh superintendent and the cabinet to see if annette is here with us um i'll turn it over to cabinet good evening board um and community members i'd like to start by saying happy new year to everyone i wish i could be there with you um i want to use my time to thank uh the business services leadership team um from robert zamora to brian to jesse and debra shannon and my right hand man one man i'm sorry miss melissa um we have a lot
073of trying times coming ahead of us um we use our business shop talk me you know meeting um monday where we just open up the doors for anyone to come in and ask us questions well we actually use that time to identify how we're going to get the mask based on the new state order of what type of mask our staff have to wear we want to have make sure we knew what adequate inventory we had on stack how we're going to get those out make sure we have a clean system and it's just showing the testament to our team of how they're willing to pivot even though they already have a full day full schedule at any time we call them meetings they're willing to pause and say hey let's make sure we have
074our best support and to serve our students and staff so i just wanted to publicly use this time to thank them um we're also um starting their budget development for the 22-23 fiscal year so we had our first meeting and cabinet on staffing bashan and i have started the rollout plan of how we're going to meet with our sites we're trying to re-imaginary reinvent the will of how we actually allocate funds and resources to make sure we're servicing all of our students and using the funds today for the students that i earned them so i want to continue to thank my team and thank the support of our cabinet thank you good evening uh board and community i just want to join in celebrating and congratulating all of our csea employees of the year you
075are such a critical component of our district and uh we are so appreciative of what you do day in and day out and today we are so proud to have congratulated and recognized such amazing talent in our district um i want to welcome all of our students back to school tomorrow wednesday we are i want to thank all the classified management certificated staff that has put in quite a bit of time to get ready for tomorrow these are challenging times and things are changing rapidly but this is kind of our second go run and so we're just i'm just very thankful to all the staff that has really rolled their sleeves to get ready to welcome our students back tomorrow thank you good evening board i just want to also echo uh just uh congratulations
076and celebration of all of our classified employees many many heartfelt thanks from from the team from the ed services team we just appreciate everything that you do whether you are at the school site supporting whether you're at the district office all over the district what you do is vital to the organization and uh we are just all again just so thankful and grateful and um it's an honor to to celebrate uh to celebrate all of you this evening uh yesterday and today we kicked off uh the second semester with professional learning uh and a professional day for our teachers we had professional learning that was site-based all across the district that went very well a couple of highlights the teachers were able to uh to finish the first module of seal which is the sobrato
077early academic language and i got lots of really awesome feedback from uh teachers and so that went really well um also one other highlight from today we had 22 teachers participating in an action research project with dr doug reeves who was uh with us today um kicking that off and so we're super excited about that project and looking forward to uh just the different um research uh action research projects that the teachers are gonna be doing and we're looking forward to hearing their findings at the end of the year so it's a very exciting thing so thank you very much and i do want to congratulate our classified employees of the year and i want to thank all of our classified employees for their dedicated work uh day in and day out as you can
078see by tonight's presentation our classified employees are absolutely essential to the work we do here and this is the unified school district i also want to thank our amazing csda executive board for their support of our recognition today i particularly want to thank our csva president laurie ray our csda secretary diana joy and our csda treasurer sandra arkenberg for their time and energy and putting together our celebration boxes for each of our sites and department and i would be remiss if i didn't extend a heart about happy birthday to our laurie ray today is her birthday uh may this year bring you um all that you wish for and much much more thank you good night thank you i will check back one more time lika do we have a net with us hi yes
079hey now um good evening board members cabinet and superintendent ortega in december all students participated in a school-wide writing prompt many students received awards at our first trimester awards assembly on december 17th this this week students will have an opportunity to participate on our soccer team and begin practices mr stout and mrs wyan will hold the virtual parent meeting for juniors at 5 30 on thursday january 20th teachers will be available for a conference with parents from 6 to 7 pm the students and staff are looking forward to finishing the school year strong thank you thank you so much moving along then to 10.0 general functions and 10.1 we have the presentation of the 2020 2021 district audit report good evening board again board president at this time i'm happy to introduce you all to
080mr andrew park who is currently the partner of um edie bailey who is our audit firm that honors our district financials he will present the auto report for both the district um general fund and measure k mr enter i'm here instead kirtan i'm so sorry you're fine nice to meet you nice to meet you um good evening uh thank you for allowing me the opportunity to present the results of the audit for the district um would you like me to share my screen or should i just go over the results of the audit and do you all have the copy you're able to go over the results of the audit and the board has the auto report in front of them perfect okay so the board if you if you remember back in september the
081district uh presented the unordered actuals to you so our job was to audit them as of 6 30 21 and uh this will be the results of those audit excuse me if we could would you be able to actually go on ahead and share your screen can we make sure he has the ability to do that absolutely actually oh yeah there it is thank you we have the report in front of us but the community may not all right so this is the thank you this is page 92 of the report um and the title is summary of auditor's results so during our audit we have three main areas that we look at and we have three main opinions the first one is financial statements our auditor's report was unmodified which is the highest and
082a clean opinion that we can give to a school district we did note one material weakness and it's on the next page the finding related to it we had no significant deficiencies identified and we noted no material non-compliance to the financial statement so that's a little summary of the financial statement audit with again unmodified opinion which is the highest and clean opinion that we can provide um then we have federal awards these are the grants you get from the federal government um and if you remember this uh in past year there's a lot of talk about the federal stimulus chronovirus relief funds so the district did receive quite a bit of money during fiscal year 2021. so again our opinion on the federal awards was unmodified which is again the highest and clean opinion we
083can provide we had no material weaknesses identified no significant deficiencies reported and no audit findings that require disclosure according to 2 cfr and normally for your district we only audit one federal program but due to the new funding received by the district we ended up testing three programs chronovirus leave fund education stabilization fund and your special education cluster and as i stated before our opinion was unmodified so the clean opinion and lastly we have state compliance so these are the programs that the state of california requires us to audit that are present at all school districts um our opinion again was unmodified which is the clean opinion except for school accountability and report card and the finding related to it is on the subsequent pages um that's the summary a brief summary of the district's
084audit any questions on this before i move to the measure k audit questions looks like we have no questions please proceed thank you uh so now we go to measure k um in here we have this is a two part audit financial audit which is the audit that we do for a school district but only for measure k or 121 and there's a performance piece so for the financial audit we had a unmodified opinion with the mature weakness that we had identified which was related to this fund but again we had unmodified opinion which is the clean opinion and the second piece is the performance audit so i'm gonna go to that page here and i'm gonna show you performance audit so in this piece of the audit what we do is we look at
085the ballot measure that was approved by the voters that approved the language of what the monies will be spent on using measure k funds and it's pretty much a yes or no audit did the district spend moneys on the water approved measures and i'm happy to report that it was correct we did not find any transactions that were outside of order approved language and during 2021 fiscal year the district spent seven point seven million dollars of measure k and we tested 7.6 million this is about 98.6 percent and based on our testing we had no expenditures identified that were outside of order of food language and so our opinion is clean any questions on measure k audit any questions it does not look like we have any questions thank you so much moving on then
086to item 10.3 this is an info action item which is a discussion and decision on school excuse me uh let me just remind you that 10.2 was pulled so we're moving directly to 10.3 discussion and decision of full reorganization oh excuse me thank you we need to back up and and take action on item 10.1 thank you so much so back up to 10.1 is there a motion on the floor i'll make a motion on 10.1 all second removed by board member rodriguez pena second by board member cruz arianis any additional discussion yes yeah chris gonzalez um yeah i have a question for the staff um so how do we plan to address the issue of the um internal um internal control or internal control yes so those um we've addressed those um through training
087um in this particular case what we had is we had a transaction that was paid in the month of july um that effective july 1 is the new fiscal year but that payment should actually been accrued so could it hit the current fiscal year so it would have showed that the payment should have been part of the expenses as of june 30th but since the staff member paid the expenditure in july it was going to be reported in this current fiscal year so we are we taught that and we did a training with our staff to help to understand the proper accrual and then we've also put controls in place so so that way when transactions are going through during the closing process we have checks and balances so that way we have different levels
088of accruals uh check off to make sure we're properly accruing all of our transactions okay thank you you're welcome any additional discussion hearing none we'll move to a vote and the motion passes five to zero now item 10.2 again was pulled and so we will move directly to item 10.3 which is an info action item discussion and decision of a school reorganization just as a as a quick reminder of where where we are we we had a our our last special meeting on the 21st and there were a number of things we were looking to address and we were able to get through a good number of them but we did not complete all of them so we did make we did give direction and vote on secondary and elementary as well as the timeline
089we also gave direction on the names of our secondary campuses we did not make a decision on uh branding and meaning mascots and or colors for either of the uh what what will be azusa high school and what will be gladstone middle school we also did not uh yet talk about longfellow and what would happen with with that campus um which we were hoping to address on the other side of the break same with programs um we did not yet address in in conversations with with uh superintendent ortega about the the the best process forward i want to to suggest a course of action for how we will handle this um we could address these things tonight and we could have we could have conversation and look at look at these things a secondary option
090is this upcoming week next week there is a on the 18th we have a study session that is currently scheduled for us to look at the lcff as well as the lcap we have not yet received our information on the lcff we could hold that meeting continue to hold that meeting next week and just discuss lcap which means that we would need to schedule another meeting later at another date to address lcff an alternative would be since these items are timely we can address school organization as a primary uh point of conversation and topic for a study session this upcoming uh or it'd be a special meeting that we'd have this upcoming tuesday and reschedule that especially the study session that we have for a later date which looks like it would make sense to
091do that on february 2nd 2022 so these are things that we can address in the next item when we're looking at our calendars for both this year and next year but wanted to open up the conversation is there a desire to continue the conversation tonight and address these other items or is uh what is the wish of the board as it pertains to uh using next week's meeting for for this purpose um i would like to just make a recommendation i would like to continue to have special board meetings um to discuss the reorganization you know there are times we'll sit here two three hours just discussing budget or schools or programs and and i don't want to be rushed during the board meeting knowing that you know we have other things on our agenda
092that we have to continue i would like to continue family organizations just discussing the reorganization so it does give us more time and more input it's just a recommendation that i have um i i agree with board member rodriguez pena um i would because these action items potential action items are timely i'm in favor of keeping our january 18th board meeting time and converting that to a special meeting to discuss only school or reorganization okay so then that that appears that board member audience still feel free to chime in if you have something to add um i that would i would i would be in support of that as well um just to gain clarity and and specific direction then which we can formalize this or or or in our next item 10.4 but if
093we were to look at 118 for school reorganization as a special meeting this upcoming tuesday we would then discuss or the items that are that are are still left outstanding is the other side of branding as it pertains to both gladstone middle school what will be gladstone middle school and azusa high school as well as a decision on longfellow programs is another piece that staff is saying that they would be ready to to share with us the the full scope of what what program their recommendations for a program on march 15 2022. so that means if if everyone is in alignment with that then we would this upcoming uh 18th january 18th we would discuss branding as well as a longfellow is that fit please miss our ticket board just a little nuance uh no
094later than march 15. thank you i agree um for president i have a clarifying question when we say a discussion or ready for a staff presentation on staff recommendations on programs no later than march 15th um i know we've had a couple of board meetings where we've tossed around ideas about programs including international baccalaureate academies vaffa um what what would be the the meat of recommendations is it building off of what we've already discussed and getting um more operational and more budget information for the program implementation or are we talking about um programs that we have not yet discussed it's an extension of the conversations that we have had um just really getting our our current desire is to get a little bit more uh input from different stakeholders um we have um committees like
095our aaa we have our uh a parent roundtable just having a little bit more input and collaboration with others and then coming forth again no later than march 15 with a recommendation or recommendations that have been flushed out and that steam would fit in alignment with the convert the previous conversations that we have had would that require us a special board meeting in mart if that's the desire of the board if not that could just be part of a board meeting maybe i'm not looking at the right calendar but if i'm looking at the board agenda calendar for this year i don't see a march meeting march 15th march 1st are you on esb yes yeah they might not be on esp yet okay yeah thank you i also wanted to add um if we're
096making that decision on um the 18th on the um change of mascot or colors or whatever will we have the report regarding any budget anything by that time our intent right now is on thursday to supply the board with the most updated information regarding that okay thank you okay then the only other piece if we could look at our calendars because we would look to reschedule the this study session that we have on february 22nd which would allow us we expect to have that and the information to lcff as well as lcap information to be able to present on that date so we would schedule an additional meeting does does that work for february when what time he's still keeping the is still keeping the the tuesday tuesday february february 22nd i imagine this would
097be at seven seven o'clock that was that's that's again wishes of the board uh typically study sessions uh we don't have a closed session and we start about 5 30. okay i'm good yes um yeah i think so so to be clear in february we'd have a meeting on the regular board meeting on feb first a governance workshop on feb 8 a regular meeting on the 15th and then a special meeting on the 22nd is that correct that's my understanding okay and so the 22nd what was the start time 5 30 pm yes i can do that okay so we've given direction here we'll we'll include that formally in 10.4 but uh it will include these items then we will not take any additional action on item 10.3 but we will hold a special meeting
098this upcoming tuesday the 18th to discuss things further then moving on to item 10.4 discussion and approval of the 2021 and 20 20 21 22 as well as the 22 23 uh calendar mr ortega do you want to kind of pick it up from where we just left off absolutely um i'll just uh i have one clarified question and then i'll summarize uh everything else um 118 right now when it was a study session was slated to begin at 5 30 p.m you want to keep 5 30 or do you want to do 7 p.m on 1 18. i i would suggest 7 p.m because of due to the content of the of our the topic okay i agree we've been continuing we've been having them at 7pm all right yes okay uh so uh
099118 will be a special board meeting um at 7 p.m we're gonna take the original study session uh that was slated for 118 and we're going to move it to 2 22 and that's going to be a 5 30 p.m study session on lcff and lcap um the only other uh item for this particular calendar right now on this on this on this calendar that was approved we approved april 5th as a board meeting day but that is spring break and so we just would like to bump that just one tuesday over to to april 12. is there any conflict with that so oh april 12th instead of april 5th right well i think and google calendar they already have a need it's been changed in our google calendar it's been changed in google calendar
100but there's formal action needed for us to change it formally on our board schedule i think it's fine it will start at 5 30. that would be a regular meeting at 5 30. okay then that's calendar number one right now we do have a calendar number two uh would it be advised to take separate action on each of these calendars i think that would provide for a clearer record okay so is there anyone brave enough to give to make a motion with those pieces in mind you don't want to take them together just calendar based off of the our council i'll stay let's let's continue to do them why aren't they two different agenda meeting items then on the agenda i said why aren't they two agenda items different agenda items so i make a
101motion to approve both the calendar from today to the end of the school year of 2023. like why do them separately if they're not they're already they're one agenda item there would be there would be a additional discussion to make changes to the 22-23 board calendar well then why don't we discuss them right now i think if you want to so i'm suggesting that we vote them that we vote on them separately based off of our legal counsel so if we do that we would we would vote right now on just the 21 22 calendar then we would have a subsequent conversation on the changes that are being requested for the 22-23 calendar and there's a motion on the floor to treat them together and there's emotion together but i retract that because i i
102just thought we're if we're going to discuss it further we don't need to vote on it yet is there a motion then for the 21 22 calendar uh i make a motion to um i hope i'm saying this right i'm making a motion for january 18 to have the reorganization meeting beginning at 7 pm and to move the study session lcff and lcap to february 22nd starting at 5 30 um p.m that's my motion and one more oh one more oh the um the next one is to add april 12 a special meeting starting at 5 30. no where am i oh two i'm sorry to delete april 5th board meeting study session and move to april 12 at 5 30 p.m that is my motion i second the motion any additional discussion then we
103will go ahead and vote um we'll do a hand hand vote uh board member rodriguez pena yes board number beau yes board member cruz gonzalez yes board member adianas yes and i am also a yes so that motion passes five to zero continuing on in 10.4 we have the 2223 board meeting calendar which there is a uh recommended shift based off of direction that we gave last time around um mr ortega yes uh so we brought this uh calendar forward per board request there have been a conversation that may be moving forward the the board governance meeting that we typically have in february that that be shifted instead to january and so we bring forth the calendar if that is the desire of the board to shift board governance uh moving forward to january and
104can you tell me what was that purpose i do remember the thinking behind it was as we look at as we look at the the the timeline in which new board members are elected and then and then appoint or sworn in that a january governance would allow them earlier access to a governance meeting um to to become more acquainted with yes thank you i recall thank so you there a motion is there a motion on the floor for the 22-23 calendar so i i make a motion to move the february 14th governance workshop starting at 5 30 um through january do we have a date i'm sorry i apologize for that uh yes right now we currently have a meeting on the 10th and the 17th uh so the possibilities if we want to move
105it to and keep the tuesdays it would be the 24th or the 31st and um to move february 14th valentine's day workshop a governance workshop to january 24th at 5 30 p.m that is my motion is that during your superintendent conference you attend that i don't i don't think so usually it's usually the one usually that week that would be the way coming up and i'm i'm not aware there's a motion we have a second second any additional discussion hearing none we will move to a vote and we can vote online and the motion passes four yes the one note moving on to item 10.5 we have yeah i would like to retract my vote to a yes i don't know what i pressed okay but that's five yes five motion passes five zero thank
106you moving on then to item 10.5 approval ratification of resolution 21 22 12 certification of signature is there a motion on the floor i'm making a motion to approve 10.5 by second any additional discussion then we can move to a vote and the motion passes five to zero moving on to item 11.0 consent calendar and 11.1 approval of consent calendar 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 on these items unless requested by a board member if a board member requests a discussion that item will be removed from the consent calendar and considered separately is there a motion on the floor i make a motion to approve um 11.2 to 11.9 consent calendar i
107second the motion any additional discussion hearing none we'll move to a vote and the motion passes five to zero moving on to 13.0 business and finance 13.1 ratification approval of contract agreement between azusa unified school district and ryland school business consulting is there a motion on the floor i make a motion to approve 13.1 moved by board member rodriguez pena do we have a second second by board member cruz gonzalez any discussion yes uh my question is for mr mall mr mo on um looking at the one page contract and then looking at the board note in um online it says that the the cost is not to exceed 168 thousand dollars and will be paid from the unrestricted general fund um but i don't see that cap on costs in the contract itself um
108can you give some detail on that um let me see what you're you're referring to not seeing the cost in the contract the cap on fees it said the cost so in in the contract itself i i'm reading it's a 175 hourly for the professional services and for travel time um and i don't see a cap on those fees however in the notes online it indicates that the cost not to exceed 168 000 will be paid from the unrestricted general fund i i've never brought a contract to the board um that identified the cap inside the contract language um that would be a change for me not comfortable approving a contract that on the one hand if information is being presented to us that says the cost will not exceed 168 000 what control do
109we have over that if we're approving this contract we would do that internally and that's what we do with all our contracts and so when we do the purchase order the purchase order cannot exceed 100 the amount that's on here without board approval so that's the control we have in place the laker wouldn't even approve a payment beyond the amount that's on this board agenda i have a separate question and that is um how did you come how did you come to estimating that amount um we utilized the uh remaining working days that we have in this year and so that's the max that it would be but our goal is not to even come close to that and that's subtracting out any holidays um and the actual work days that we would utilize the
110individual up into budget development so in terms of the working days how many so how many is this one person how many how many positions is this would this be utilized for this will be covering several uh positions but there's only one person and is there travel time contemplated yes well they're actually staying in the airbnb so they will not be commuting daily i actually would like to table this item until we do have a contract because also in front of me i don't have any figures other than what you're telling me uh mr mall so could you help me understand what i would need to provide in the contract it identifies the hourly rate um and this is through june 30th and it would not exceed the amount that's um and that's on the
111agenda but i can do an addendum just let me know what i need to provide and i can give that for you i can provide the calculation of the number of days that we projected to come up with the full amount if that helps but just let me know and i'll be happy to provide it well i i personally would like to have it in front of me before i make a vote on on this um on 13.1 okay i understand there's a motion to postpone the current main motion is there a second second any additional discussion yes i do um so uh just to help me understand and you can i mean i can have a discussion later so this would this one person is going to be feeling doing the work of how
112many positions we have internally in your like because you talk about extended vacancies and the vacancy of accounting supervisor yes and so we currently do not have our county supervisor we're without our financial analyst we currently have a payroll clerk that's out so we would utilize this person they have several levels and grades of expertise to help fill in the gaps until we have our positions field okay could i ask why we're paying the airbnb for this individual until june 30th uh june 30th no that's not what we're saying we're saying that we won't have travel time because the person will be staying in the airbnb so we don't have to pay them from traveling from let's say from los angeles to get to azusa board board member rodriguez pena i just wanted to ask
113a clarifying question did you have a specific date a board meeting date for which to want to postpone it um just for those staff would know when that matter would come back if you don't have a particular date then the board president yes i would like to leave it up to the board president and the superintendent because they set the calendar thank you for asking okay so the motion on the floor then and is to table this and that mr ortega and myself will determine when to bring this back but we will if there's no further discussion we'll go ahead and vote and the motion passes five to zero that brings us to 14.0 curriculum and instruction 14.1 approval of the partnership between the azusa unified school district and step up tutoring we have a
114motion i make a motion to approve 14.1 i'll second move by board member rodriguez pena second by board member beau do we have any additional discussion yes i have questions um so how does this fit in with the other tutoring that we approved at previous board meetings i can go ahead and take that question thank you for that question so um this is uh this was recommended to us through laco and the community schools initiative and so we see this as kind of a part of a comprehensive tutoring support so we'll have in-person tutoring support during the day this would be for additional students this would be for uh this is going to be after school so it's online it's for students to have homework help it also includes mentoring it has some additional um
115like um enrichment activities and so this is just again providing another layer to make sure that we have a very comprehensive tutoring program and then so is it how does it align with our approach of having high dosage tutoring is it do they get the same tutor assigned to them i mean is it like a program they sign up for or is it just like is it just you know as an ad needed basis how does it how does it function yeah um so i think what i hear you asking is how are we going to coordinate this so it would be the same the same type of coordination in terms of identifying students who we think would benefit for this kind of a you know tutoring support um a little different than the high
116dosage uh high dosage again we are going to be selecting students who would be receiving ongoing tutoring with the same tutors and this would be this would be very similar but this the difference is that this would be after school students would be able to get homework help this wouldn't be you know in in school but they'd also get a component where they would get mentoring and then some enrichment i think they are going to be doing some coding activities with students too some group activities so i think it's a really great opportunity to provide some tutoring and some mentoring as well i think it also aligns with um you know community schools initiative as well to answer your question yes like that and they will be meeting with the students uh during their school
117time they take them out of the classroom or how they work not yeah not this one the other one that you approved previously they're gonna those tutors will be going into the classrooms and pushing in they wouldn't be pulling students out this step up tutoring program is um where it would be online and it would be after school and so um and the and the tutors you know partner with the teachers and with families and really determining maybe students are having a difficult time at home by the time they get home and they need more help with their with their homework in addition to that um the tutors really do develop relationships and provide mentoring to the to the students as well um sometimes after school because you know the parents are able to participate
118just like they did when the online learning how parents were speaking how they were working with their students and they enjoyed that because they never had that opportunity in the past yeah i i agree with you um and this uh this organization um at this time it is it's it's not at any cost to us um but they'll also be um collecting you know data along the way to see to what extent is it helpful is it effective how are students benefiting what do families think about it so um again just an another kind of a layered approach to this you know providing additional support to uh to our kids so we're really excited about it um this is a program that they've been doing in lausd and they've found some success there and so
119they were looking for uh you know a smaller district in which to partner so i met with them several times to to really learn about it and understand um you know the types of support they're providing and um i think it sounds like it's going to be a really a great idea and how will we um monitor uh these tutors or knowing how it's working for us and for the end for the uh students and families yeah that's a great question so um one of the ways is again to be able to look at um to look at data to see how students are doing on for example their reading or mathematics assessment another way a great way to find out is through qualitative analysis talking to the kids talking to the families why is
120it that students for example if they go home and they don't they're not doing their homework maybe they don't have you know maybe don't have anybody that is able to provide that support maybe they need some motivation maybe they need to find some connectedness but a way to look at the data is both quantitatively and qualitatively as well so um i think they they do have a pretty good comprehensive plan to be able to um you know to collect data for their own purposes as well because i do believe they're i think they've been grant funded so i think they've got a process that they go through as well and who will be working with these um parents their families you know they don't speak english or they speak another language yeah that's one of
121the things we um we talked about is that we wanted to also make sure that we have um uh tutors who um who speak spanish for example right and so um they know that that's definitely something that is um a desire for us and so they're very open to that um they've got tutors who are either have college degrees or they're working on their college degrees um they provide them with some training so they've got a they've got a um i think a pretty good system that they have developed as well so we're excited about um making sure that we have um uh you know tutors who are um who speak spanish as well that can communicate with our our students and our families and not only spanish and um you know also the students
122we do have vietnamese students in our schools at this time we also have the students that have a different dialect that is not spanish right yeah like right yeah yes that's yes yeah you know you bring up a really good point um because i know it's very difficult to you know to find um uh those that speak that dialect so that's something i can talk to them about too as well to make sure that we can get a wide variety so thank you for bringing that up any additional comments or questions okay then we'll move to a vote and the motion passes 5-0 moving on to 15.0 human resources 15.1 approval of tiebreaker resolution 21-22-11 adult education is there a motion to approve i make a motion to approve 15.1 moved by board member rodriguez
123pena well second second by board member beau any additional discussion then we will move to a vote and the motion passes five to zero moving on to 15.2 approval of tiebreaker resolution 21 22 12 certificated employee is there a motion on the floor make a motion to approve 15.2 false second move by board member rodriguez pena second by board member bo any discussion and let's vote the motion passes five to zero now we have 15.3 approval to establish the purchasing specialist position and job description is there a motion make a motion to approve 15.3 moved by board member rodriguez pena we have a second a second second by board member cruz gonzalez any discussion um can we get some background on um the creation of this new position and how the job description was developed
124yes of course then thank you for for the question uh this is a new position to the district uh purchasing specialist position is a uh would be a non-management position previously this uh this role was a management position that overstalled federal uh department uh with the uh decline of enrollment in our in our contractual schools uh we saw the need to uh reinstitute this position as a as a non-management position um and so the um as we do with the new positions uh we looked at positions that are similar to this in other districts and we took uh we worked with our business services department uh who helped us put together this this uh this job description and then the subsequent step was to work with the um bargaining team from csda the position was
125ultimately approved by csta and ratified it now it's being brought here to the board of education any additional discussion then we'll move to a vote the motion passes five to zero moving to 15.4 approval to establish the fiscal analyst position and job description is there a motion make a motion to approve 15.4 second moved by board member rodriguez pena seconded by board member cruz gonzalez any discussion same question yes sorry i was anticipating that thank you uh so the this is a a generally new position to the district um and the position will perform a variety of technical and analytical um fiscal functions that will support the district administration of grant and entitlement i will see if i miss jamal wants to add to what i've just described and similarly um we brought this uh
126job description to uh the was developed in the same way um by looking at some of the positions in other districts we also interacted with our bargaining team um it was approved by the csd bargaining team and ultimately voted on by members and now it's being projected to the port of it i have a question for mr mall so this fiscal analyst position is this one of the vacancies contemplated to be filled by the ryland consultancy yes actually both of these positions are are listed as the vacancies that we need assistance with in purchasing as well as in a financial analyst have these positions already been posted no we can't post till we get board approval thank you it will be posted tomorrow if the board of education approved any additional discussion then we'll move
127to a vote and the motion passes five to zero which brings us to 16.0 16.1 adjournment is there a motion on the floor make a motion to flew 16.1 adjournment second uh moved by board member rodriguez pena seconded by board member bo any discussion by i would add actually that will be closed in honor of mr jorge rosales yes with that let's go ahead and vote the motion passes five to zero and so we close our meeting at 905 in honor of mr jorge rason