001welcome to our regular board meeting that is starting right now calling the meeting to order at 7 pm i want to go ahead and share our mission one more time yasuza unified school district equips every student with the knowledge and skills for college and career readiness to fulfill their purpose and positively impact society as we move into open session i want to welcome mr ryan velasco from asusa high hi ryan how are you hi i'm doing well great great how's your summer been my summer's been pretty good so far thank you good good are you ready to come back i feel ready yes great and what grade are you in i am currently in 10th grade right now awesome great well welcome back to this new school year i know you'll you'll start uh we'll
002start uh august 19th our first day back and we are so excited you're here to lead us in this flag salute today so whenever you're ready may everybody please stand and put their right hands over their heart ready begin i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you ryan for leading us in this flag salute for today for our august 3rd 2021 board meeting we welcome you to stay and hear this meeting um or it's up to you if you want to log off um but i wish you the best for this next upcoming school year and as always um we are here you're welcome to join us and anytime on
003zoom to just hear what we are talking about it might be a little boring for you but hey you never know you take care of yourself and thank your parents for letting you come on as well have a great evening thank you we're moving on to 4.2 roll call we'll go ahead and start to my left we'll have board member sabrina bow board member adrian greer here board member channelling cruz gonzalez here board member yolanda rodriguez pena here and i gabriella arayanes i am present today so we are all here today moving on to 4.3 approval of the agenda can i please uh get a motion to approve 4.3 second we have a first motion by board member greer and we have a second by board member rodriguez pena let's go ahead and get to
004our computers to be able to vote are you guys i'm not advanced to oh here we are oh there it is we can go ahead and do a hand vote i don't i don't see it okay we have a board member cruising dollars did she vote yes but i think she just got are you guys seated on your screen okay let's go ahead and we have one yes yes four member career bird member bow yes yes and i s and it passes five zero 4.3 has been approved we'll go ahead and move to our agenda item 5.1 and this is a student matter final settlement for office of administrative hearing oah case number 202105087 student number 21-20 can i please get a motion to move 5.1 a second we have a first by board member
005grier we have a second by board member cruz gonzalez and if we can go ahead and take a vote great awesome and it passes five zero we'll go ahead and move now to our recognition and awards this item is 6.1 we have a souza high school asusa high school softball team recognition with coach hugo and team we have alyssa brianna and liliana do we have them on zoom yes they are on there [Music] all right yes coach he goes here uh dr gomez are you on the zoom yes he's just coming over right now okay perfect uh well while um he uh is logging on i just want to share how um extremely proud we are of the softball team it's been 14 years uh since the team has won mom view league champs and
006advanced to cif and so we're just uh very proud of the team very proud of the support system around that that includes coaching and parents what a great accomplishment uh so i'd like to turn it over to uh dr gomez to uh make some introductions and some remarks fantastic uh thank you uh board superintendent cabinet i just want to give a big shout out to our fantastic softball team um for those of you that uh didn't know uh the year that we went into the covert lockdown uh they were ranked uh in the in the top six in cif uh this year they were once again uh ranked uh the top in cif so slowly but quietly they've been building a strong program um and uh this year they made it all the way to
007semifinals extremely proud of the hard work from uh uh brianna alyssa coach hugo and all the other coaches and parents that have supported not only the the aztec softball team but the school but just so proud of the of the zuzu community so i want to go ahead and hand it off to either alyssa brianna or hugo congratulations this is coach hugo i just want to also um praise the girls for all their hard work and uh determination and getting uh this accomplished also i'd like to thank coach george for his hard work uh on and off the field uh keeping our fields looking great and um the girls did a wonderful job i also want to recognize brianna rodriguez alyssa savales and gwyndolin rivas all of them are continuing their software career briana and
008alyssa are going to pcc and uh gwendolyn rivas is going to the university of antelope valley so congratulations to all of them for continuing their softball career and i'll i'll pass it on over to either briana rodriguez or alyssa savage are they are they on the zoo yes okay you can go ahead and okay i would just like to say i'm so proud of all the girls it was a great year really was you know i don't have a lot to say i just was so proud of everybody i honestly did not expect for us to go that far but i knew we just worked hard and we're just a great team like all around all the girls worked really hard together we're just a good team i would just like to thank everyone in
009the community for supporting us and always being at the games and i would like to thank our coaches for pushing us every day at practice and even though this year was a little hard because of covid we still pushed through and still managed to go the farthest we've ever gone and yeah can you please share your name brianna rodriguez brianna thank you brianna thank you alyssa do we have another student on on zoom gabby can i just add um that this is officially azusa high school 65th year um as a school site um and we we have one cif championship uh in the 80s but uh since since the school opened in 1956 this is the first time that the um the softball program has gone undefeated all the way through through the semifinals so
010a huge accomplishment and alyssa was saying you know we we were good they were they were more than good they were fantastic so uh thank you again uh board and cabinet and uh uh now coaches uh coach george and coach hugo were expecting this every year now so be ready great well thank you so much congratulations to to the softball team as um you just said right now it's the 65th year of asusa high school this year it's um a big one and to top that off we have uh our softball team um i just want to tell tell the coaches and all of the team and um alyssa and brianna that are here online i want to congratulate you for your determination and you know during the these hard times of coming back hybrid
011and when were you going to practice when were you know when were you going to be able to play and just the uncertainty you showed that as a team coming together and being able to have one goal and that was to play and second was to win and you guys did excellent i was following you guys on social media everybody was posting and it was very exciting to see you guys um and i remember that one day you guys went to your finals and you guys had an event right after that it was a graduation and some of you guys were running from you know from your softball game to to back to graduation and it was exciting to see you guys have just a tiring event eventful day for you know you guys brought
012hit this great championship here to asusa for you to celebrate and you guys did the hard work but we celebrate you all we're so proud of you and i know some of you personally and i want to congratulate you and your parents your parents for driving you and doing everything that they have done to to make this happen thank you parents thank you so much um anybody else would like to say a few words um yes i want to congratulate the students and the coaches and also dr gomez reading the principal of that school and uh the parents also it's very true you know i know it was a hard year but if you think about they broke the record after 14 years wow kudos very proud of you thank you okay since uh we
013have no more comments we'll go ahead and and thank you guys thank you dr gomez thank you alyssa brianna and coach hugo and i don't know if there's another coach on here but to all of the coaches and the whole entire team thanks again guys and congratulations on this recognition and you guys will be getting your certificates in the mail i want to say thank you to the cabinet thank you very much awesome awesome we'll go ahead and uh move on to our next item on our agenda and this is items from the floor public common and agenda or non-agenda items and before as people are raising their hand i just want to go ahead and remind uh the to if you are raising your hand please um stay in the zoom attendance make sure
014you unmute according to the legal guidelines board members are not permitted to permitted to respond to comments on non-agenda items a member of the staff will contact you if any information is needed and thank you for your participation maximum speaking time is three minutes translation services are available to the public your cooperation is appreciated um we're going to go ahead and open up um public comment miss lika do we have anyone raising their hand we do we have miss lori ray you may meet your mike okay good evening members of the board superintendent ortega and cabinet my name is lori ray and i am the president of csea azusa chapter 299 i represent the classified employees of our district but tonight i want to focus on the ones that have medical insurance offered through the
015district i am part of the insurance committee and despite our efforts to try to keep costs down like things like switching to cis the cost of insurance keeps going up but the district contribution doesn't so every year there is an increase our members absorb a hundred percent of that increase because the employee is the one who is burdened with the rising cost it makes their paycheck so small that they are struggling to make ends meet and in some cases need to work an extra job just to provide for their family we've also lost great employees to other districts because of this and this causes an effect on the other employees who need to fill in until a person is hired to replace them i have worked for the zuzi unified for 28 years and back
016when i first started here it was known as the district with a heart because they showed it with good wages and health care contribution but now azusa usd's contribution to health care is one of the lowest if not the lowest in the surrounding area i know the district knows this because there is a disclaimer in all the job postings stating that applicants are encouraged to review information related to employee contributions towards medical dental and vision insurance premiums now why does the district feel they need to add this well it's because they know that their contribution is terrible so come on and let's do something about it last negotiations we brought some ideas to the table on how to improve the district contribution and we were told there's no money for it well we all know
017that this year there is money for this and now is the time and really the district doesn't need to wait until we get together for a scheduled negotiations we can meet anytime to discuss this and begin to make azusa usd the district with the heart again thank you and good night thank you miss laurie rayford for coming to our board meeting tonight do we have anyone else raising their hand there are no more hands raised okay great well as we're moving along our agenda we now come to 7.1 i'm sorry 8.1 this is comments reports and requests by the board of education we'll go ahead and start with board member career no comments tonight thank you board member cruz gonzalez thank you i hope people have had a great summer and they're getting ready to
018come back to school um i just have a couple um requests so first a comment and then a couple of requests um so i had um the fortuitous event happened to me i was in san clemente at the beach on a saturday at 5 00 p.m and i was going back to my car even later going back to my car and i saw a bunch of kids and their families coming down the um the steps to the beach and then i saw mrs dorsey from azusa high school and i was like what are you doing here so they they were camped there they went down there to go camping and i guess they go they pre pandemic they would go down camping and do their cross-country training so just exciting to see some of our
019people some of our kids get back to their regular routines um and just the random interactions i just i just wanted to mention that um but good to see that they're already they're getting ready for the the season this year um i do have several requests i'm not sure if you're going to can cover these in your reports today or just follow up um one i wanted to get clarity around how we are addressing um the transition from distance learning to independent study for families who are true who do not want to come back to in person right so what kind of opportunities are we doing are we are we just are we just are we um complying with the minimum standards of the state put out are we trying to make sure that we're
020trying to give them a much more robust opportunity and then clarity about like how many how are we finding out whether families want to want to go to independent city obviously i think as a board member i want i think we should encourage everyone to come back in person right safety standards and made it clear that it's safe to come back but for those that choose to go home i stay at home i want to i want to understand what we're offering them um so that's number one um number two um and i'm sure you're aware under i think it's ab105 for where students have the opportunity to request a change of their grade from like a d or an f from a letter gate grade to a pass no fail um so the the
021information that i saw gives a really tight timeline for so i'm just i would like to understand whether we're able to be more flexible with our with our students because i feel like giving kids 15 days to respond that's not that's not fair to anybody especially if you're talking about like maybe students that are now gone and we're trying to find them and can you communicate so i would like to understand what kind of flexibility we have with that in terms of giving people the opportunity to understand that as they come back um because and then obviously the timeline is off from when kids come back right because we're supposed to notify right now i think and then they have 15 days so they're barely coming to school when their opportunity to have that to
022make that change request is is over so understanding what options we have for families so that they all understand their options um number three um is around kova testing and vaccine requirements so i haven't seen that we've had a conversation i've seen other districts come out talking about i know ali unified is is testing everybody so i just want to have clarity around what we're requiring for employees in terms of proof of vaccination and or a regular testing so i would like to have clarity on that piece um and then finally the last piece is just around um the fine so tied to both fine it's the request to find towards tied to like all the financial one-time one-time copa dollars that we've gotten from both the state and the federal government and how we
023plan to come back and recover and be better than ever right um so i i would like to request either a presentation or even if it merits at a study session where we talk about we get that whole picture of really this is how much money we're getting to focus on recovery you know you know some of it's one time one year well some of it's over three years and this is how we're thinking about how we're gonna wisely invest these dollars for the most for the best impact so i i feel like i haven't had that big picture as a board member and so i'd like to see that come to us sooner than later because i believe there's some timelines i'm reporting some of the dollars at the state level right i think
024so so i'd like to have us have that conversation sooner than later so that those are all my requests thank you thank you board member cruz gonzalez we'll go ahead and move to my left we have board member bo good evening everyone and welcome back to the school year um over the summer i had the opportunity to do a site visit at some of our food distribution partners and it was really inspiring to see some of the community-based and workforce education programs they also offer and um over the next uh over the course of this next year i look forward to opportunities for the district to increase its nonprofit partnerships specifically in the areas of health wellness nutrition and workforce development thank you thank you board member bo we have uh board member rodriguez pena
025yes uh good evening everyone and welcome back i hope everyone had a great summer and i also went to the summer school visitations i went to murray and paul elementary the goal this summer is for students to reconnect with schools in a positive way all students are having a great time there was a um the think together program they have a thing called move and groove and there was they had they showed a video and all these students were dancing and it was really cute because some kids are really getting down there and you know the main thing was that they were all dancing they were all working even the teacher was dancing so it's really great to see the kids they're like so happy they also have a um sports stacking those cup sports
026stacking cups stacking it was competitive students are trying to see how fast they can stack these cups by the end of the session it develops self-confidence i seen a mom when i was walking by murray school the other morning and she mentioned that her daughter was having so much fun at summer school that she would ask her that she wanted to go to school every day uh because she enjoyed what the new curriculum that they have i know that they have a new curriculum than they had last year so it was definitely for me seeing it was a summer school estravaganza i know that's what we called it and it was just that so i want to thank dr dana mitchell assistant superintendent of curriculum and also superintendent ortega for taking me to the walk
027through on saturday july 23rd we had first day la cleanup over a thousand volunteers from sandals church in azusa there were over 13 projects throughout azusa example the caltran cleanup edgewood shopping center cleanup downtown azusa this is a community gardens uh susan national little league they painted it they mowed the lawn at edgewood shopping center they um also had people wash clothes they paid for their clothes to be washed i should say and um i do know and uh i do know that uh board member grier he you were where they were giving haircuts right is that where you were yeah they were doing a number of things there yeah they were just doing different things right so anyways throughout the community it was beautiful because you know mayor gonzalez council member alvarez avila mendez
028and barbara mcgregor and myself from all uh and the interact students from azusa unified school district and their parents so it was great teamwork we did we had we did a lot had a lot done and i also want to congratulate elizabeth morales velazquez the library technician at glaston high school liz was selected as a csea 2020 member of the year when i go to coffee with the principals at glaston high school i always see her in the library that's where they have the meetings and she's always you know helping students or teachers and always with a smile so that was very well deserved i want to also mention um cool cuts for kids 12th annual back-to-school event three haircuts and school supply giveaway it will be sunday august 15th from 12 to 4 p.m
029at memorial park and it's sponsored by mayor gonzalez and his uh city council members and they also have kova testing there on site also uh i wanted to um also mention the um request that i like to see our districts you know in the surrounding areas what what they're paying for medical for the medical benefits i would like to see the comparison from missus unified school district and i also want to close this meeting in memory of yolanda valdepeno she was a classified employee she was a health aide office clerk at mountain view in valleydale and she will be truly missed thank you thank you board member rodriguez pena and i also would like to congratulate elizabeth morales velasquez from gladstone high school she is the csca 2020 member of the year so we could
030give her a round of applause thank you so much for for doing us proud and we're really happy that you were chosen so congratulations elizabeth and one of the things that um i would like to also request is and ask when um when can we make the guidebook to reopening for our parents available i would like to see some sort of town hall um so that way parents would have you know quest that that have questions um would be uh you guys would be readily available to answer those questions because right now um i i've received a lot of emails and a lot of phone calls on what that is going to look like the protocol and so i i would like to go ahead and have that for our district or have our district
031um navigate that and have our parents uh have as an option before coming back to school so we can get the end of books um that would be great um let's see here um i think that's that's all i have for today i want to welcome everyone back again uh summer just came and went it feels like it feels like this whole year has just come and went but we are here starting a new school year and this is our first meeting of 2021 2022 school year so welcome back everybody we'll go ahead and since there's um no more comments from our board we'll go ahead and move on to the next [Music] agenda item which is comments reports and requests um sorry comments and reports by superintendent superintendent cabinet and it looks like we
032do not have the student board members yet um but we look forward to um the students that will be joining us hey it could be one of your children well one of you guys so make sure if you're interested to let your activities office know at your high school your asb i believe um to let them know so i'll go ahead and turn it over to our cabinet and now we'll be starting off good evening board of education staff and community i want to welcome everyone to the upcoming school year i want to also thank our hr team who has been hard at work filling vacancies and new positions i also want to give our site administrators and their teams a enormous shout out for their hard work and also filling positions and ensuring that
033we have a great start to the year in closing i want to announce that we will have our annual years of recognition event also known as the desert social this is where we celebrate our employees who hit milestone years we did not get a chance to do that last year so we'll be having uh two rounds where we'll be celebrating the employees who hit milestone years in the year 2020 and also those who will be hitting milestone years this year in 2021 uh it will be on monday september 20th at 3 15 and the location is still to be determined but you will all receive more information and invitations um for for this event our employees receiving this recognition we'll also be receiving these invitations later in the month thank you all good evening board
034i am happy to announce on behalf of the business and the state of california that all of our students will be able to have free meals and snacks for the 21-22 school year and what this also means is that we will not have to receive the traditional meal application forms but we will need to receive the income verification forms at that as that is tied to our lcf funding so we will be working on our maria and her department will be working diligently with all of our site administrators to have a campaign to get the income verification forms additionally our business team is working diligently to close the 2021 physical year as well as um and unisys working on the audit and fulfilling the auto request on what the goals of minimizing or eliminating any
035potential audit findings and with that i'd like to say thank you last thursday the 29th we received the new protocols for reopening schools from the los angeles county department of public health since then we have developed a draft of a new school reopening guidebook that reflects uh this new protocol we have also been working on our website to update so that that can go live where this new information will be housed uh we are planning uh a town hall for the community uh as well our plan is to have the guidebook completed uh by tomorrow that is the plan so that we may then share this with our staff and our community uh this week uh the town halls uh we are targeting uh early next week uh to have town halls available for our
036community i also want to join in on congratulating elizabeth morales or library liz as uh folks like to call her she is a library technician at glaston high school i just want to congratulate her for being selected as a csca 2020 member of the year what an honor for not only her but for us as a district to have her represent us statewide uh just uh just an honor to uh to to have that distinct that that uh recognition so thank you and congratulations uh liz uh and then just uh excited excited for this new school year august 19th is just around the corner blink of an eye and so uh thank you to all the staff uh csea aea afe our management team everyone who's gearing up to get ready for that for that
037day so thank you good evening today was the last day of our summer extravaganza three sessions all summer long during my site visits this summer i saw a high level of student engagement and participation in the project based learning i want to give a thank you to all of the teachers this summer who participated in professional learning as well and coaching experimenting and trying new things and implementing this project-based learning want to thank think together for their partnership and all of the administrators the summer administrators the school administrators everybody working together we all learned quite a bit this summer uh as we all engaged again in professional learning and um just learning how to um look at uh how we implement learning a little differently so we're looking forward to continuing our our project-based learning
038journey our kids absolutely loved it this summer they had a ball so i just wanna again thank everybody for making this happen this summer thanks thank you so much for that i i did want to give kudos to our um to miss latasha jamal i actually um experienced the the income application app today and it was very smooth um it was actually really fast i was able to just you know do it for all my kids and it was actually um at the school at dalton school it was part of the requirement for registration so i couldn't get past the app unless i submitted the application so that that was a good strategy good strategy i do have to say so i hope that all of you guys watching at home are able to complete
039this income application and again this is not to get free or reduced lunch this is just um part of the funding that we receive that is needed in order for us to be able to continue to receive this funding and we are very very thankful that all of our students will be receiving free lunch regardless of income breakfast and lunch is that correct yes ma'am and snacks and snacks so looking forward to that i i know our students are looking forward to that um so thank you for that that i really really appreciate that app we'll we'll go ahead and move on to um our general functions and 10.1 discussion of decisions needed for future board meetings and i'll turn this over to superintendent arthur ortega thank you uh board president um the governor uh
040signed uh an executive order uh n821 uh that in essence uh slates us here in azusa unified school district to begin on october 5th our meetings to go back to in person open to the public uh meetings the executive order which is n39 this executive order trumps that and there is a phase-out window that the governor put in and that sun sets on september 30th and so we as a board uh beginning on beginning no later than october 5th we'll need to transition to in-person open public meetings um this agenda item is uh just to uh discuss a couple of points uh as we get ready uh for this school year um in terms of our board meetings moving forward uh so the first kind of item that uh i'd like to hear feedback on
041uh is knowing that by october 5th the october 4th 5th board meeting we need to be open in public [Music] do we does the board wish to wait to october 5th or do we start a process or a date to say let's just let's just move in that direction effective this board you know this board meeting whatever that board meeting may be that's kind of the first point of clarification that uh that uh seeking can we start there yeah okay um do we have any comments suggestions on this side uh i just want to know the regular what what would it look like so we would be back in person the dice would be back uh back in where where it typically is we have audience members here chairs which have to follow the protocol
042so people would have to wear masks um people can walk up to the podium to give a public input a public comment and so pretty much the way it was uh before um with some safety protocols in place the biggest one being that we have to all be messed up because we're in and would they have to fill out that form they can fill out or take their temperature walk them to the door so you know right now we are landing uh we would have the screeners like you see in a lot of public places please do not enter if you have xyz um or if you've been exposed to you know this um and then we would have the the digital uh temperature scanner uh there but they wouldn't have to fill out and
043with someone clean the mic every time someone if there's more than one person speaking on the podium that is a possibility we can have wipes there okay thank you anybody else on this side that was my question in regards to some of the logistics that you asked board member rodriguez penas i i don't see why we wouldn't maybe get get going and get moving and get things going sooner i i don't i don't see why we wouldn't do that unless there's some wisdom that someone has as to why we would wait till the october date i agree if it's possible to to wait we don't have to wait till october 5th why we don't just start in our next meeting i agree uh i'll add to it our next meeting as long as it's if
044we suppose that that's feasible and if if if it makes sense to push it out into september just for feasibility standpoint i don't have i don't have a i don't see a reason to rush this or or to wait till the the tent i would say let's get moving and if that lands next meeting or if it's the meeting after i i would be okay with that person so so what you're saying is that at the discretion of um of how fast they can go ahead and make this happen is that what i'm hearing okay and this is actually um just it'll be a it'll be a package it would be a package so if you have we have any oppositions i i would agree as well um i i think it's important that moving
045back into person public meetings before the fifth um would would ease us back um there you know one of the requirements that where we are having is uh the temperature check the the masks being worn i would like to see a designated person to actually clean the microphone to make sure that we are not having the person that's speaking cleaning their own um in a trash can right next to it just so they could you know throw it right away um and what is the capacity um that's one of my questions so what is the capacity i mean if we have a hundred people in here or i mean are we looking to fill the room like we did before because i know the guidelines are saying there's no more three feet and so my
046question is are we going to set that boundary and limit and and put a capacity um i would we would recommend that the capacity be the capacity of of the room just like uh all rooms have capacity so we couldn't fit 100 people in here just like we would in in normal uh board meetings uh but to your point there is no no uh protocol to say um you know can't do this we can't do that we can definitely um minimize or um not put as many chairs as as we had in the in the past um in in the room um but there is no protocol to to limit those types of things so so what about if uh we're given awards and that's when you get more people even students and they're like
047down in the hallway how's that going to look are we you know i mean it happens when the wartime you know of the team or whatever the moms and the coaches and everyone you know there is probably i don't know maybe more than 100 people sometimes yeah so again like if it was tonight if it was a softball team we would have them wait outside when it was time they can come in get recognized again we have to be messed up and then they would exit and is the current thinking that we would hold these meetings all of these meetings here in the boardroom so we would not be going on the the rotation of school sites and uh the civic auditorium so we have a couple more things to discuss and i think based
048on that um that would determine that in terms of what's the feasibility of having the things that we are wanting to keep from the pandemic if you will and i think that would determine um if if it's better to this year keep them here in the boardroom or if it's going to be easy to to move to a school site and or the civic auditorium the only other clarifying piece i know i said i i don't see a reason to rush it or or um you know wait till the the october date do you have a sense of of what an appropriate uh deadline and or an appropriate board meeting would be to to have things set up and ready yeah based on on the conversation right now i think september 7th our first september
049board meeting seems like an appropriate uh start start date i'm comfortable with that again the next ones are just points of clarification um we currently live stream our board meetings on two platforms uh zoom and youtube just want to again verify that that is still a desire of the board we do live stream both on zoom so audience members if they wanted to they can log into zoom and watch the board meeting via zoom whether they're going to participate or not or if they opt to they can they can watch it live on youtube as well and are we only able to do that if we're in this boardroom or if we're we'll say this at the civic auditorium or because we did it when we're in the schools right if i'm wrong i don't
050i don't know um i'd have to verify yeah i just want to just does it mean that we have to be here all the time or not i have to i have to i think we should i think we should give the parents the opportunity that they're able to um view it in their own home you know people that can't come here or they want to see what's going on because we have some big things coming so i think it'd be beneficial to the community that we continue and i i would take it a step further than that and and say that i would appreciate if we continue to allow for for engagement and comment to happen virtually into the future as well so not merely streaming but but also allowing for people to remotely
051uh provide public company yeah i i would like to add to um board member careers comment as we continue um because it seems like the majority would like to continue the zoom and youtube there's two things that i would like to bring to light and that is um and this is just i'm asking the board um what do you guys think sometimes we since we are going to be having some [Music] uncomfortable conversations and decisions that we are going to have to embark in the next several months um we the reconfiguration the redistricting it's coming so there's going to be a lot of people wanting to chime in um coming to do public comment i i would like to suggest that we have a first and last name of each individual that um speaks on
052zoom just like they do when they come here that has been practiced and so i'm opening it up to what do you guys think they don't have the first and last name when they're on here no they have a phone number what would be the purpose to know who they are just like when right they would come before they would state their name um they fill out a card it you know they would um fill out the address just like they do at city council meetings and it's just for what maybe maybe um i mean i don't know maybe they don't want to hear their last name i don't know i'm just you know and i i don't want them to feel that they cannot speak because they're not going to give their first and
053last name right but if they were coming to a public meeting in person in person right so let's look what i'm saying is to have uniformity across right if they were going to come in person it's first and last name as well as let's go ahead i would like to go ahead and um practice start that practice on zoom as well and you're just saying they would just say it like orally right right so because they just start speaking sometimes they don't have it there now could we see it on the screen is that why right is that your name yeah but if you don't put your name it might just be your phone number or it could be your kid's name right it could it could it not only your name on your computer
054or something right so they would state their first and last name just so that way you know we have it um i think it would be appropriate to have it you know to have uniformity as if someone was to come in person right we get to see them when they're online we don't get to see their face they may have you know there may be on their children's laptop but if they state their you know first and last name at least we have a first philosophy so i think philosophically that that makes sense and i wonder if there are even any like legal requirements as to if that needs to happen i i think the the only concern that i foresee is someone starts talking and doesn't say their name do we so so we
055interrupt them or we don't allow them to finish or if they if they didn't say their name then we say we cut them off we move on just just the enforceability of it is is the what i what i wonder so so the practice we would probably uh what would it look what it would look like lika since she's welcoming them and she's you know putting them on there so she would ask them to please state their name right are you are you right or i'm all right or the president whoever is leading the meeting i i would just like to see more uniformity more a formal protocol um [Music] and uh just moving forward with this and and just to be clear i mean i don't i don't see i don't know that i
056foresee this happening but just for clarity yes so you ask someone to say their name and they don't say their name so we move on to the next person and they don't they're not allowed to speak unless they say their name i don't know what either that that's the only thing my concern is i mean if they don't i i don't know but have we ever had anybody come in person and not because in person they usually do say their name i will check the legal requirements in terms of that particular thing but in terms of just trying to help out uh i think uh for member chris gonzalez i think that is i think i like that right the uh lika do we have anybody else yes we have a person raising their hand
057okay great please take your name before you speak that would be a board president and then we can also add wording to the public comment agenda item uh i just said you know please please make sure to say your first and last name to help with that and then i'll check i'll check from the legal to see if there's anything that prevents us or allows us and then we can discuss that further as well right um so thank you one more thing i'm so sorry i had two things oh yes um for four board meetings right we have them on zoom and on youtube i think it's very important that um and i'm gonna bring this up again our regular open meetings are are are recorded right so people can go back and they can
058see they can hear it they can you know stream it whatever they need to do one of the things that we had at the governance meeting um this last uh month we had a governance meeting there there was um i had asked for all of our open meetings to be recorded it is our diligence to be open and transparent to our community and so i am also asking that if we continue to live stream board meetings it should be all open board meetings including study sessions governance meetings and of course not closed meet you know not closed sessions but any open meeting all taxpayers employees parents have a right to go back and see these meetings and hear what we have to say it's all about transparency we're not hiding anything and i don't want
059to give that perception regardless of what happens in meetings it's important that we maintain you know that practice anybody have comments i have a question related to that so generally i mean our past practice has been to have like study sessions or your evaluation at other at the pdc or at the spa right so so would that impact the ability to video record those if we if we move i think it goes to the other question earlier that you want to ask about like if we go to the if we go to a school site or if we go to um the auditorium at the city hall yeah so that i mean that's i think that's the other that's the question i would have right and then that and then plus you know past practice
060has been obviously we're socially distanced right now because of because of situations but i think we use it we normally in those kinds of meetings we sit like in a table sit around so we can have a conversation with each other so how would that impact that for you know for the for those discussion purposes yeah i'll i'll definitely uh look into because i just want to recap really quick uh because board member grier and board member president before president obama you already um talked about the the last two items that that i wanted clarity on one of them being are we going to continue to offer public input on zoom and that that was a conversation and then the other one was going to be do we continue the practice of videoing uh recording
061and uploading and so board member ariana [Music] spoke spoke on that so if that's where the board lands number one our first open public meeting is nine seven number two um yes we're going to continue to live stream on both uh youtube and zoom number three yes we're going to continue to allow uh public input via zoom and in person of course and then number four yes we're going to continue to record and upload um to youtube and right now board president arianes is saying that that would be all board meetings um then yes based on that recommendation i would i would then we would work as a staff to go to to find out the visibility of city hall other locations here at the district office and then school sites but for sure all
062of that can happen here do we have any more comments or anything else you guys would like to before we move this wordpress and i have a question regarding action items so can you clarify at what types of board meetings the board takes action on so board um the board takes action on agenda items when it's specified so do we take action at workshops and at study sessions or only at regular and special board views so when we have agenda items that are on our agenda for action items right that is when we take a vote so when we have a study session obviously we don't have any action items okay so i heard you say that when we have agenda items but only if there are action so i just i just want to
063make sure i understand clearly that study sessions or workshops you generally don't have any action items they're all informational and for discussion only is that accurate that is correct we are in the past uh study session items have had action items uh we are working really hard as a team to not have that happen that to really clear out uh the air and the space so when we have a study session that we really can focus on just the study session so not saying that they won't ever happen but we are working really hard to make sure that that does not happen is the the idea behind um going above and beyond to offer a recording um for everything um because i i guess i definitely understand the idea around live streaming and recording where
064action's being taken and certainly all the discussion around that action but i'm wondering about things like study sessions or workshops that where no action is there are no action items um what's the what is the can you show your thinking around absolutely yes so what you're asking is what is my thinking about having these public meetings that the board's coming all five of us are coming together to speak right so we're not breaking the brown act we're coming we're talking about certain things we're having a study session it's more it's more uh one of the things that and i'm just going to say it the community did not in the last couple years have trust in the district on the board and so the transparency that has been coming in the last i would say
065three four three years or so three four years um finally that you know the committee is seeing the transparency the communication and i would like to go ahead and send that olive branch and continue that we have nothing to hide right we're going through this reconfiguration um journey together if we us five are going to have any conversation that we're you know that that is going to be bringing up that we are going to um that affects this district in any way shape or form it is our diligence for us to be able to hey you know what so and so um mr herrera wants to see our study session because we were talking about reconfiguration in our discussion what we're thinking right all of all five of us are coming together i think it
066is our diligence and our responsibility for us to be able to be transparent and clear and that anybody can go back and see these recordings that's it do you have any more questions board member book anybody else questions comments no but my preference is we take two separate actions because i'm like everything that we've talked about i'm okay with um i just i just think just i i think that it still um makes sense to not um to not record the if we're gonna have governance retweets so i'd prefer to have a separate action on that one so that we can submit so it's not so we can so i can vote on all the things that i do support if that's so let me see if i'm understanding you correctly board member um cruz
067gonzalez what you're asking what you're what you're sharing right now is that you're not comfortable for the for the community to see our governance meetings that are public board meetings no that's not that's not what i said so can you please clear that yeah because i said i'm fine with it being live streamed i'm just saying i don't see i don't say we need to report and so i i really think that i'm not sure that you want to do what you're doing right now because i think we each are entitled to our own opinions um and so i think we all want to work i just want to clarify your opinion that's it so what you're saying is you're okay i don't want you to speak for me i just want to understand you
068go ahead i've already i already said i would like to have two separate actions this is um i just want to clarify why you want to have two separate actions and that is because you don't want our governance meetings to be recorded and for somebody who may not have the time to come and see them at eleven o'clock or eight o'clock when we have the seven o'clock they can't go back and and watch our meetings that that's what i'm hearing from you so i really would appreciate it if you spoke for yourself and not for other people so i i just want clarification board member cruising's office that's what i'm hearing is is that what you're saying no i i hear you interpreting what i'm so let's let's take the action that i'm happy to
069give my rationale for why i'm voting for something or again something i don't want this to come in i i just i made a request that we do it separate can we do that please so let's let's um i would like to keep it together it's all one large sum it's our public board meetings so why don't we start with that right i am going to request a motion so the first motion that i am going to request is well i'd like to make a motion then to um to take adopt all the the recommendations that we talked about moving to in-person public meetings on september 7th to live stream the board meetings via zoom and youtube and to continue recording and uploading our regular and special meetings that happen in this in this room
070um and then also continue allowing public comment via soon a second okay so we have a so what you're asking again is that all of this except having our governance meetings be recorded is that your motion no no i i said all special and regular meetings that happen in this room be recorded and uploaded so you're making one motion you're not dividing you're not taking it out so um i'm sorry i'm not quite understanding what but that's the motion so is there a second second so okay so we have a first and a second we can go ahead and discussion discussion just so that i understand the motion because you said you said special and are you saying governance you're not you're not including governance your emotion no i think it's i'm just specifying that
071it happened in this room so i think it just gives flexibility in terms of okay i would have to disagree um i'm i i'm not okay with that i am not okay with only meetings in this room we as a board have a responsibility regardless of what the conversation is or how heated or uncomfortable it gets it is important that we upload every meeting that we have that is an open meeting and that's my final comment you need to call uh for a vote um she wanted him separate so i'm going to go ahead and start with this one um let's go ahead and take a vote for president can we restate the motion for clarity yeah go ahead board member chris gonzalez so um the motion is that we would move to input in-person
072public meetings by september the meeting on september 7th we would continue to live stream board meetings all board meetings via youtube and zoom and we would continue to record and upload all board meetings um that happen and i can change like at a minimum all board meetings that happen in this room so it still gives you flexibility about the governance meetings the meetings at city hall or schools but at the minimum of the ones in this room and then continue public comment via at all meetings that's my emotion and i also want to make a another just comment i'm not comfortable with putting all this together because i'm comfortable with everything except again the last part i think board member crews gonzales has made a motion and so that's been seconded by uh board member
073beau and so i think there has to be a vote and board members can obviously speak the other votes okay let's go ahead and take a vote are we voting online there's still the option for additional action within this item right we can go ahead and turn so do we need to just vote for for that for those pieces so we can continue if there's additional items to discuss within here but this is one motion this is one motion within a motion so we can vote we if it passes and it passes if it doesn't we go back to the drawing table and then we can that's not what i'm asking if if we we vote now we do not move to 10.2 we can remain in 10.1 if there are other items that we
074want to discuss so i'm suggesting that we take a hand vote on what was just discussed and and we do not immediately move to 10.2 because i'm not sure that we've finished our conversation here so continue discussion is that what you're asking there may be more items to discuss within 10.1 so i'm i'm can i'm can we do a hand vote for what has been where we are now and then determine if there's more to discuss within 10.1 before we move to 10.2 board member i think what is being contemplated is to vote on up or down the motion on the table and that the chair can call for another motion and anyone can make that motion another motion i mean there can be many things that we can vote on for this one item
075that's how i'm interpreting so that maybe it's helpful if i ask this question superintendent ortega are there any other items to discuss within this within this item but it matters okay then we can we can do the regular vote so if you want i mean i can take out the the recording piece so then it's just really clean that we're just because that's the piece where you know that we're not necessarily all in agreement so if you want if we're going to do some motions i can do that and remove that so just why don't we go ahead and do that so um so i'm going to amend my hook and i am in my motion and so my the mail student is just that we're going to open september 7th in person we're going
076to livestream all the board meetings via zoom and youtube and we're going to continue all public comment all at all meetings via zoom so that's the current that's my current motion we can we can address the the recording of the recording and uploading meetings in a separate motion is that okay are you okay with that with that amendment sabrina i second did that yeah okay so we have a we have a first by board member cruz gonzalez and we have a second for all of for the amendment motion excuse me i second the second the amended motion i okay um i'll all accept the live record meetings recorded meetings uh of all public board meetings any discussion before we move to this vote and then we'll vote on the next would that become a different
077item i think it still lives within this item okay there's no more discussion on this then let's go ahead and take a vote we're ready to vote and it passes 5-0 as we're continuing with 10.1 we'll go ahead and is there a motion for the floor more present if i may another alternative uh if we want to keep this uh clean um is we can move with the direction these three directions our board meeting that we're talking about going public is on 9 7 we can bring back an agenda item just for uh recording uh and uploading i personally i welcome the motion if anybody else has another motion i would like to go ahead and motion that we as a board are transparent and that we live stream and record all public meetings point
078of clarification as a chair can you make a motion yeah she can we all have the equal right to make motion we're not i think it's not necessarily robert's rules so all of us can make can i get a second no second so we're not voting i'm so you we're moved to we're moved to a vote or you're making a motion there's more that i would like that i would prefer to discuss so then we can go ahead and discuss after the second question yes except that we we are already in discussion where i'm confused here is because we're doing we're doing multiple motions within within this item so that's where things are are a little strange and confusing so we already had a discussion prior to the motion that took place i would i
079would it would be helpful for me if we would if we could have a discussion continue with the discussion we had on this particular item before we before we make motions and and uh and take next steps as we did with the previous piece within this item starting with the info piece correct to the action correct okay all right so what what what appears to be and this is we've discussed this now a few times what what appears to be at play here is what what do we do with governance with our governance meetings our governance meetings it well one streamed although although i i've heard we just took action to say no that their stream i think it's a matter of are should governance meetings be memorialized and and recorded and uploaded to to
080youtube to to be viewed at a later time so there i i understand that the the the philosophy and and transparency which i which i think is important the the other side of that piece where it's important to it's important to to recognize at those governance meetings is that those governance meetings have to do with um not necessarily decisions and and items that that or action that takes place in regards to the district it has more to do with with uh protocols and norms and how the board itself operates and there are even times what it has become space due for there to be interpersonal um conversation that that takes place that if we just assess the reality of it is at is is at times affected if and when those conversations are memorialized and
081recorded i i can think back on on some conversations and interactions that have taken place at governance meetings and and can be grateful that that they were not memorialized not because there was not necessarily because there was anything sneaky that was that was happening there but only because it allows for there to be you know a space for there to be honest and open and candid conversation that if it were recorded and memorialized it may not happen and so i think we have to so i think the question before us is um or a couple questions before us is do we just have the open and uh in candid conversations that we might have recognizing that they're that it's recorded that it's memorialized and that it's there um do will we not be open honest
082and candid and address in interpersonal dynamics or other governance dynamics if it was recorded and if that were the case if we did not is it is it more worthwhile to to have a governance meeting that that then maybe we don't get at the core in the crux of of issues that are are at hand because it's memorialized on on a video or is it more important that it's that that it's not that it's recorded and uploaded online which of the two is most important i think is before us you know how i think about it is actually um we're human beings number one and i know sometimes we do talk about certain things that you know you don't always keep hiding from the community i had a situation going on which i wish it
083would have been recorded i wish people would have known what was going what was going on you know and i i think that they should be recorded for that purpose because we're human beings you know things happen but at least they know that we're having the conversation that's how i feel about it so i say yes to answer your question you know one of the things that i've noticed um not only as an employee before but as a taxpayer um you know a constituent uh board member atten uh attend i attended board meetings the face that we give the public when it's recording we're cordial towards each other majority of the time i understand that and what you just said right now is that well sometimes the dynamics or we might not be okay to
084say something i've experienced myself in governance meetings certain things that have been said to me that wow because it's not being recorded you you are able to be passive aggressive towards me but yet you're not willing to have a conversation with me outside this room look we don't all have to get we don't all have to like each other sitting here but the one thing that we do need to have is respect how we talk to each other we are leading this district and how we lead this district is the interactions not just on the decisions we make here past this past that where we you know reconfiguration uh committee and now we're gonna close a few schools and we're no it's the dynamics right here between us whether we get along whether we don't
085i think we owe it not only to our employees to our students to our community and parents to display that respect whether the camera is on or not all that i'm asking is for us to be transparent and yes we are going to have uncomfortable like i said before conversations we're human we make mistakes but bottom line is whether the camera is right on me right now guess what i am going to speak the truth i'm not going to hold back because guess what i don't need to hold back that's all i'm saying for people watching at home they're going to see the real me and that's all i'm asking for we're having a conversation an intimate conversation us for i'm sorry us5 including myself um as five how much more respect would you at
086home have for us for us to be able to have a very uncomfortable conversation and you were part of that maybe not in the same room you could choose to come and be in the same room with us but you can watch from the comfort of your own home and if you're not able to make it at 10 o'clock in the morning when sometimes we switch the times and you're not able to make it how much more are we saying to our community hey we care about you you can go back and see our intimate conversation because guess what you're able to trust us not only in making decisions for you for you for your life for your workspace but the way that we respond to each other by having these uncomfortable conversations i've been
087i i got to say this i was at a souza high and i wasn't a board member yet and it was a very uncomfortable governance meeting that they had i had to take time off work to go to this meeting as an employee of a souza unified school district i had to take time off work because it was important for me to attend this meeting because i had something to say why would you know i wanted to see what was the outcome and why not give that to our community hey are we going to have some hiccups between us absolutely but we're adults we should be able to talk things through and be able to get our act together to be able to lead this district with dignity integrity and not come after each other
088because we disagree on something we are going to disagree on things that is life but the way we respond to each other so that's it i would like to be transparent all transparency and that's all i'm asking this board can i can so i think this would be a good time for me to um so i'm just gonna say and i and i wish we wouldn't dwell so much on the interpersonal because i think i think sabrina's point earlier around you know making sure that if we're we're talking about substantial issues substantive issues that affect the policies of the district or our roles um in decisions that affect the district right it's very important to memorialize that and have that and i and i personally believe especially with this board here that that we treat
089each other with respect whether we're in a board meeting and an open meeting closed session and governance retreats one-on-one i have not seen disrespect from come from anybody on this diet to any other board so i hope that people don't walk away from this meeting thinking that because i feel like we've all been very respectful um i just i think more it's just a process piece and i think in the governance retreats we spend a majority of that time talking about the process right in terms of like how we're gonna who's gonna be appointed to what position or the norms that we have um and i i think there is value in record and live streaming that and so that's why i think that's that's great i think things that happened we didn't do we
090didn't even do zoom three or four years ago right i'm so glad that now we can do this and people can just call in um i don't want to belabor this i just want to make it very clear that for me it's not about i don't you know i think we should be able to have those uncomfortable conversations in this diocese when we need to have them right i think that's part of our norms is being able to call a colony to call it call out each other if someone is stepping beyond the bounds of our norms um but i just i just think that of those process pieces i think it just it's i'm not sure that it's necessary to be memorialized so that's why that's why i'll probably vote against the motion that
091happens um and it's not and it's very much not about how we engage with each other because i feel like i only normally see respect from from board members to other board members i just want to make that clear let me add i while it's also not my intention to belabor the point i'm i'm i'm so grateful that this that this conversation is happening i think even as we talk about uncomfortable conversations that happen publicly i think that that's that that's what's happening here so for me the reason why i'm saying i would prefer that there be a discussion ahead of time is is so that the the the norms and expectations are are set for us and so if if we we move forward with this which we're if if we move forward this
092it means that um the the the camera being on and and things being recorded not that not prevent the conversation that needs to happen so so even if it is on even if it is uncomfortable or even even when it is it is challenging that it's that it's the space for those things to happen specifically in the context of a governance meeting and i and i would want to ensure that there is at least amongst the five of us that there's complicity in that or that there's there's opportunity well i guess it'd be three of us that the majority of the boy that that there's complicity and ownership over um the recognition of that uh because i think that it would be it would be unfortunate if a decision to to keep things recorded and
093memorialized meant that there that there were any of us that were therefore unwilling to engage in the necessary conversation any more comments or discussion on on this okay then we'll go ahead i'm going to call it for a vote we're going to go ahead and vote for this or can you receive the motion yes the motion was to have all public school board meetings for a souza unified school district to be live streamed and recorded second can we please do a handball yes we'll go ahead and we'll start with board member cruz gonzalez we have board member sabrina beau no [Music] board member rodriguez pena yes board member adrian greer yes and my vote board member gabriela araganes i say yes so it passes three to two thank you guys for your vote now we'll
094go ahead and move on to our agenda on 10.2 we have discussion approval of the 2021 2022 board meeting calendar if this is an info and action item we'll go ahead and turn it over to superintendent arthur thank you board president i just want to talk about uh some changes uh considerations that we are requesting uh regarding uh our board calendar um so i just kind of want to walk through those uh the first one is moving our november study session to september 14th uh the rationale behind that is uh we are uh we can see the light at the end of the tunnel in terms of our first phase of the school reorganization team and so this would this would grant us the opportunity to spend a study session around school reorganization um as
095a board as a governance team to really understand the journey understand the data understand the moving parts uh and we can just focus on that conversation around school reorganization uh the second is to move our april 5th study session uh to april 12th april 5th lands on spring during spring break um and then to move our june 7th board governance meeting to may 31st uh because june 7th our high school graduations so we approved this prior to the calendar and so just kind of want to make those these recommendations are reflected on the attachment that you have that you have right now um but also want to bring up two additional items that are not currently uh reflected in this board calendar you heard in my opening remarks that dph put out their protocols on
096thursday and we've been working on that diligently and so asking for consideration to cancel next week's board governance meeting uh so that we can um focus on the the protocols for reopening uh the town hall and getting um ready for that um the website and whatnot and then lastly uh typically uh here in azusa i don't know how far back it dates so i apologize for that um but board meetings that happen prior to the start of school and board meetings that happen after the end of school uh go we typically go earlier so instead of five and seven um i'm sorry instead of 5 30 and 7 we go 3 30 and five and so asking for those considerations uh for the board calendar i just want to ask a question guardian um i
097noticed some of these dates are not on our regular calendar um right from our the app percent thank you for that follow that like my bible thank you okay could could you clarify whatever could you clarify what you were saying in regards to next week's meeting you were saying you were saying canceling next week's governance meeting and and doing what he said town halls so would that be cancelling or postponing uh again our our uh ask for consideration would be a cancellation uh but again we're open to what the board decides yeah i just i um i'm i i i wanted to ask why we don't have a second meeting in november then because traditionally we have two meetings in november because then we don't have a meeting from november 2nd until december 14th and
098i would just i would i would prefer if we keep that second meeting in november and still have it be a study session um because i think generally we choose a education related topic generally has been our practice and if we eliminate that and just do that reorganization we won't have a chance to talk about substantive substantively about the reason that we're here and that is education of children right so i would prefer if we kept that november study session date and i mean we can you know that can be a discussion of what that topic is um but that that would be my fault is this november 16th yeah yeah clarifying questions just to make sure so keep the november but yes still add the september 17th september 14th oh september 14th yeah i'm
099just saying yeah i'm just saying second second and then just to clarify is that study session just going to be study session and not other agenda items that is correct so then all our financial reports are coming to us in the seventh oh so when are they are they do at the end of september they do by september 15th september 15th for estimated actual or unknown actually so are those coming to us on the on september 7th you guys can work through the processes but i i only request every but let's keep our study sessions and study sessions and not add action items to any of them ortega do you have a a red line of this so we can see what the changes are so i'm having trouble keeping track of i can read
100this one but then i'm hearing you add in a couple of other things yes so right now uh board member shilling cruz gonzalez is requesting that um that the consideration of moving the november study session to september instead of moving it adding the september meeting and keeping the november study session and that was for november 17th to keep it that's the idea sticking to november 17th session and just add in the september one that is correct november 17th or 16th let me get to the calendar november 16. 17's on a wednesday just want to make that november 16th is correct okay the other two that are not reflected on the calendar right now uh are they what we typically do here again in azusa and it's not reflected in the calendar is board meetings happening
101prior to to school starting and board meetings happening after school ends so in this case it would be our uh august uh 17th board meeting and it would be our june board meetings uh to go back to our practice of having those uh start at 3 30 instead of keeping them five to seven you're saying you're you're asking yes that we that we go back to those practices that practice can can we just articulate what is the the reasoning behind that change over the summer um i again maybe or member chris gonzalez or yolanda review can help out but my understanding uh is that during the regular school year uh due to work due to staff having access to uh particular meetings um that was why we had the five to seven but because we
102were uh in summer and school was not in session um it was easier for people to access it still starts at five which is still technically after hours um but that was kind of the rationale can i just um share i'm unable to come before five o'clock due to my employment um for the rest i i will not be able to to get off at three o'clock so i would like to continue having these meetings um at the same time um so that's that's my take i i will not be able to be here at three or any earlier and if and if i can also say i know that that's what we've done but i think i think it's we should ask ourselves who does the who does that change primarily benefit and and
103i i hear how um it's beneficial to it's definitely beneficial for us because we get done earlier it's definitely beneficial for for staff because uh if they're if if we have you know teachers or whatnot that don't have classes and so they're able to get there sooner but i i don't see how that's beneficial to our uh to our community i think that their their work schedules and whatnot do not change over the course of the the summer and so their ability to to join for uh for public comment and whatnot um would be negatively impacted by moving it earlier so even though it'd be great if personally if it was earlier i i i would still recommend that we keep it at a consistent time so um i would agree with that i would
104i would like to have consistency as well even this last year i had people um you know email me and calling me and saying wait what time was that again why are you guys switching and so forth and so just being able to be consistent and that way everyone knows that we start closed session at 5 30 and seven o'clock is our regular time uh moving forward in anybody have any opposition to that well i i do like the early we've been having it like you said i know and people in the community are used to because it's it's been it's going on you know um but but i understand and if you work then you work and and you know i mean i'm retired so i'll come at two o'clock but you know if
105you work i'm i go and go either way it's not a problem for me great thank you so well yeah to accommodate whoever is fine with me i remember both so that's not reflecting the calendar but it sounds like we're gonna keep it that way anywho and then the last thing that's not reflected in the calendar was the consideration to cancel um next week's uh board governance anybody have any comments i think it's important that they do reach out to the community about school opening that's i mean i'm not saying it's not important that what we discussed but i really think that sooner or later we need to let them know because i am also being asked what does it look like when we start yeah so it seems like um all in consensus uh
106we will agree to cancel next week august 10th governance workshop and uh to be able to give room for a town hall for welcoming back our parents and students and sharing the guidebook with them and if they have any questions you'll be live and ready to to answer one thing i wanted to to just bring bring forth tonight is uh sousa police department and the city are having a um it's called a national night out and and i i think it's important that for us to be there um and we are not because we're here and this is our our our priority of course um but what do you guys think about for next year um because i know everybody here what is it our surrounding cities um san gabriel valley all of the police
107departments put it together on the same night which is the first tuesday of every august anybody have any thoughts i feel like we had the same discussion last year and we all agreed to move it to what the wednesday and then we just it didn't happen this year i think we talked about it last year yeah we had her on the wednesday that's true so so would you guys um be open to to moving our our next year's um first board meeting on from tuesday to wednesday to be able to accommodate for for us to you know um for a suse unified district to be present at this event sure i think it's just asking the superintendent to present that revised calendar keeping it super fun for sure okay great thank you for that yeah
108and then the last thing that wasn't said in the summary but i have it down was uh board member chris gonzalez's um request that we bring back the november study session um and not go to the september one but but keep this one alive instead of moving it let's just add this let's add this yeah i think uh yes we're all in agreeance that that that would be a great move thank you would it also be possible to to ensure that um we all have google calendar invites for for each of these so now that we've had um our discussion um can i please get a motion to move 10.2 discussion the approval of 2021 2022 board meeting calendar with all the um break motion to approve 10.2 with um modifications with an update calendar
109of what we discussed right any changes second second thank you we have a first by board member rodriguez pena and we have a second by board member career we can go ahead and join to vote and it passes 5-0 we're moving on to our agenda item consent calendar and this is everything from 11.1 to 11.23 can i get a motion to move 11.1 through 11.23 and make a motion to approve second we have a first by board member rodriguez pena we have a second by board member career do we have any discussion or any full items that anybody would like to make at this point seeing that there's none we can go ahead and cast our vote and item and our consent calendar is approved 5-0 we'll go ahead and now move on to 13.0
110business and finance we have 13.1 approval of a souza unified school district ausd resolution 2122.01 of the governing board authorizing the establishment of fund 08.0 student activity special revenue fund can at least get getting motion to move 13.1 and make a motion to approve 13.1 we have a first by board member rodriguez pena second we have a second by board member beau any discussion i would like an explanation on this resolution please yes uh thank you um so back in 1718 gasp 84 was passed were identified that all fiduciary activities have to be identified in a specific fund and now um will be a fund that is reported in the district financials in addition it will be audited by our auditors so currently right now all asp funds are just looked at as for internal
111controls where they go over look at their bank statements profit and revenue loss statements and vice versa now it would actually be reported in an actual fund for the accounting board reported and it will be audited and they would be on um on the monthly budget in a certain category in your student body yeah so we currently right now we receive the bank statements monthly from all our asb where we reconcile those bank statements for them but it will go one step further and now it will be actually reported in the fund where we'll actually have where right now we have fundo one we have fund 17 fund 13. now we're going to have fun 08 what would be reporting during our entering report to say okay this is what the total account uh for
112the asbs um gatsby 84 was actually passed due to most of um some of the frauds that most asbs are have been dealing with and then the students are being impacted because some one person made the wrong decision so this is to give it more oversight and accountability i i think i think it's a great resolution um and asb is only high school high school and middle so all secondary oh okay secondary yeah and um but they'll make the deposits and then they have to give the district a report or yes ma'am and we're still working with our auditors to outline this um just to see what the oversight most districts are actually um uh setting up an actual asb person that runs it because they're going to actually have the audit and overseeing have
113more hands-on approach with all the sites and we're not there yet i think that's great thank you thank you mr mall yes um this resolution give us um more capacity to address some of the internal controls issues that were found in the last audit um i won't say it gives more capacity it gives us more accountability as far as we will be able to ask for more information um but um regardless the internal controls are being addressed by the process we're putting in place now thank you you're welcome do we have any more questions or discussion seeing that there's none 13.1 is up for a vote 13.1 passes 5-0 let's move on to thirteen point two approval of state of california cal card program canali is getting motion to move thirteen point two i'll make
114a motion to approve we have it first by board member cruz gonzalez second we have a second by board member rodriguez kenya this is open for discussion or questions i also would like an extra explanation of this program please yes ma'am so the cow car program will give the district the opportunity to have a credit card that we will utilize for emergency purposes only um that would help us with conferences um any last-minute purchases um that could not go through the purchasing department as far as deadlines and um requisition process um but the cow part is the in my opinion the best credit card as far as interest rate um controls and accountability it only allows the district to have three credit cards it's not one of those where you can just say we want
115a credit card for every person so it was put into place for uh districts and other las um to have more control but i also have the same opportunity to have a credit card for emergency purposes so so you mentioned conferences so when people go on conferences they would it wouldn't be the secretary of the superintendent who would have this card it will be in the safe with the authority for myself or uh superintendent ortega to utilize it thank you you're welcome do we have i see that there's language here about unpaid balances 46 days or or later do we have an internal policy that we would pay the credit card by yes our goal is always net 10 so within 10 days of receiving receipt but then that also goes in to make sure
116we have the proper paperwork prior to making a charge just to be crystal clear you said it is our goal or that is our that is our policy well there's no written policy as far as when the bill paid but our goal is always to pay our bills and that 10 meaning one 10 days within the receipt of receiving the bill but there is no written policy to say that the district pays their bills within 15 days of the date that we receive the bill there's no written policy but our goal and our practice is to pay the bill within 10 days when people in doable and you would you would say that that tends to be the case with with everything that they'll get yes but this will be a new practice for us
117so um upon my appointment we actually eliminated all credit cards um that is a preference uh and we attempted that but we're seeing the need to have one just for emergency purposes so this will not become a practice where we're just using a credit card right this is solely for emergency purposes okay yeah i would i suppose i'm okay without having that policy now but but uh it would be helpful then maybe can can this be on a ticker somehow to to revisit at some point to determine if i i suspect that this isn't a concern but but it it's it's usually i would say a good idea to have policy and not merely a goal but but i if you're saying that we tend to operate out of that anyhow it shouldn't be an
118issue um it may be worth revisiting in the future is all i'm saying yes sir do we have any more questions or discussion so yes so so the responsibility of paying the bill would be the superintendent's secretary or your and actually be the accounting department so once you see the credit card bill be treated just like any of our utility bills or any other bill that we receive for the district i have a question um check and balances so is it just one person who is is paying this bill is you know if there's any late fees um who's doing the check and balances for so that would be myself um shannon and sylvia which is our director of physical services as well as our accounting supervisor so what we do is that we will
119actually create a purchase order to repay the credit card so each department that would want to have access to utilize a credit card they would already have a purchase order or funding allocation that'll be encumbered to pay a bill as it incurs and so that will prevent a delay of handling bills so as soon as the bill comes we already see that this charge is from the superintendent's office there's rda requisition in place we already see a charge to the business office there's a requisition in place we could pay that bill great thank you for the clarification no problem seeing that there's no more questions or discussion we can go ahead and move to a vote to 13.2 we can cast our vote and 13.2 passes 5-0 we'll move on to 13.3 approval of certification
120of signatures can athletes get a motion to move 13.3 second we have a first by board member adrian greer we have a second by board member rodriguez pena it's open for discussion or questions seeing that there's none we can go ahead and cast our vote and it passes 5-0 moving on to the next item in our agenda curriculum and instruction we have 14.1 approval of the consultant agreement between a souza unified school district ausd and ekato wind philosophies llc canopy's getting motion to move 14.1 to make a motion to approve 14.1 we have a first by board member rodriguez pena we have a second by board member adrian carrer any questions or discussion i have a question um dr mitchell how many professional development workshops and capacity building workshops are planned uh for the year
121so right now we have um we have uh based on your approval tonight we have one that actually starts tomorrow it's a six-hour training uh we have uh 12 teachers who are signed up to attend uh high school teachers ela and history social science the next workshop is scheduled for september 20th and then after that we will be scheduling with the teachers um the next the next workshops after that so we've got two that are scheduled right now so just based on the the limit of the not to exceed at 58 000 is that roughly 10 throughout the year yes there are there are several workshops and so we're going to schedule as many as we possibly can we also would like to schedule them next summer as well so we'd like to be able
122to go uh to continue on with them they have a series this year but they also have additional if we want to have more teachers be able to attend as well thank you um so just just to clarify so i see here that the the intended outcome is to implement an ethnic studies course correct so we already have an ethnic studies course right so so what how does how is this different from what we already have um so we have the latinx studies right right and so um this course would be a an actual course in ethnic studies and so in this course there are different many different so not just latino studies but it's different ethnicities as well and so part of this is um recognizing the value of all students voices all contributions
123they're going to talk about social justice they're going to talk about literature and how to be able to infuse that um this so there's two ways to look at this one is to implement a course that is an a3g course in ethnic studies we could do that through for example english language arts or history social science another way to do that is to also take components of ethnic studies and other courses as well so that's why i'm trying to get clarity so i mean because it seems to me if we're going to invest this much i would hope that we wouldn't just come out with a single course right um i think i see here it says it talks about having a framework for drop developing curricula because i think um it should it can
124it should be a bigger discussion around how does ethics studies fit into not only in you know separately identified courses that are social studies but how does it fit into like let's say offer for example and i've said this before a freshman english course right um so i mean i think i think it would be good to be very clear from the outset what what it is um because i think that if we if we're just planning to develop a single ethnic studies course it's going to be a social studies a through g course that kids can take at the end of their high school year i think that that may not align with our goal of seeing of diversifying our narrative and being inclusive um so i just you know i i would like
125to see better clarity about about those outcomes sure and is it and if it's more than just a single course at the high schools can i ask for uh just clarifying a question so would this be also are you asking for like middle school and elementary school as well no i think i mean i think it's clear that this right now is just at the high school right now that's what we haven't slated for you right and then the other question i have is how does this fit in with the the diversity equity inclusion committee right because it feels like they're doing work but if you're just going to be working with some teachers over here how does how do you make sure there's cohesion with developing vision so how does that committee align or
126how does this this work and this first element align with the work that the dei committee is doing so part of um yeah with the dei committee and especially the students who are involved in that that are on the diversify our narrative committee a lot of that discussion and work was around how do we make sure that we have a curriculum that includes all students and so that's part of this work with an ethnic studies course right and so um if it were to be for example in uh language arts in ninth grade for example um it's being able to take that coursework with an ethnic studies lens and so taking a look at the the literature the fiction the nonfiction that would align with that um and so this this first part of the
127professional development is to really learn what is ethnic studies um how does that benefit students um and then how do you develop coursework around that there's lots of examples uh from some other districts that have done some really good work in that and developing some courses so um the first part is really having an understanding on uh what this course is and what are the components and then how you um how you teach that and then after that it's really working with the teachers and developing what our course would would look like in azusa unified seeing that there's no more discussion or questions we can go ahead and move to a vote we will go ahead and cast our vote and we have 14.1 pass 5-0 we'll move on to the next item on our
128agenda 14.2 approval of the memorandum of understanding mou between a souza unified school district ausd and the huntington library art museum and botanical gardens can i please get a motion to move 14.2 i make motion to approve 14.2 we have a first by board member rodriguez pena we have a second by board member bo do we have any questions or discussion at this time we'll go ahead and move to a vote i just want to just uh what it passes five zero fourteen point two i just wanna say this is awesome that we we're having an mou with the huntington library yay that's amazing i love that place your kids are going to learn a lot thank you for that we have 14.3 fourth quarter williams uniform complaint report 2020-2021 can i please get a
129motion to move 14.3 get the information though excuse me i'm sorry can you repeat that again it's it's this information i don't think we have an action on this that's right thank you for the clarification that is right this is an info item and we'll go ahead and turn this over to dr dana mitchell so i'm happy to report that there were no uniform complaints for the fourth quarter great thank you for that anybody have any questions we'll move on to the next item uh in tonight's agenda we have policies and bylaws we have 15.1 through 15.6 and do you guys have any questions on these the first reading of our policy and bylaws seeing that there's none we'll go ahead and move over to 16.1 but before i close this this meeting tonight i
130i would um instead of me closing and doing the observation before it closed i would like to turn it over to miss uh to board member rodriguez pena um to go ahead and hold a moment of silence and closing oh yes i just wanted to hold a moment in silence in memory of um yolanda batafenyo like i mentioned she worked at valleydale and at mountain view and i believe she worked in our district over 20 years and gave over time she was a very nice lady and i'm sorry that she's passed but yes i just everyone got that i appreciate it thank you thank you we'll go ahead and we're closing our meeting today august 3rd 2020 in memory of joanna bosnier and we could just take a moment of silence just to remember her
131and she was an amazing person and i'm sure there's a lot out in our community who knew her and are remembering her here today so we could just take a few moments thank you for the reminder board member rodriguez pena this time we'll go ahead and move to 16.0 which is the adjournment and again this is a german motion point one that's great we have a first by board member rodriguez kenya a second by board member greer it is 903 and it is officially adjourned i'm so sorry yes we have to vote that is correct now we're voting and it passes 5-0 and it is still 903 therefore we had turned at 903 and all of you guys watching at home thank you so much for sticking around until the end and coming to our
132school board meeting today and welcome back to this new school year look forward to seeing you guys come to our school board meetings or join us on zoom or youtube you guys have a great night and your families good night