001We're going to start in about two minutes. Thank you for being here. [Music] Hello, good afternoon. On behalf of the board of our school district, we would like to welcome everyone to our parent and community meeting about our school network organization. I am Arturo Ortega, the proud superintendent of our school district. I want to make sure to notify everyone here that tonight's meeting will be recorded for those who wanted to attend but couldn't for whatever reason, so they have the opportunity to watch this meeting later tonight. We will have plenty of time at the end of our presentation to answer your questions live. The best one we'll have today, but just in case, we ask that you please put your question in the box below so we can make sure to capture those questions and
002create a frequently asked questions document that we can post on our network website. So please, as soon as you have questions, please put them in that box below. But we will have plenty of time to take questions live, and at the end of our presentation tonight, we have two objectives. The first objective is to We want to inform you about the process of our school reorganization and restructuring so you're aware of where we are in that process. We also want to inform you about an opportunity we have for you in our survey, and we'll talk about that a little later. Before we begin, I want to make it very clear that what you're going to see and hear today is not final and can change 100%. Today you're going to hear and see the ideas
003that are created and voted on by the school reorganization team. So what you're going to see and hear today is not final and can change. Okay, so let's start from the beginning. As some of you may know, a couple of years ago, our district, with permission, closed two elementary schools: Clarkson Street and Mountain View. As you can imagine, they closed the schools. It's not easy, and although these two schools were closed, and although it helped where we are as a district, it wasn't enough. So the Board of Education, the governing board at that time, directed the superintendent at that time to create a five-year plan on how to... We were going to reorganize our schools before this plan could materialize or be created. Unfortunately, we were faced with the COVID-19 pandemic, and that put this
004five-year plan on hold. The reason this five-year plan was requested, and the reason Gras and Mount were closed, is that here in the San Gabriel Valley, we are experiencing a decline in student enrollment. That is, each year we have fewer and fewer students in our schools, and that is happening throughout the San Gabriel Valley. Depending on the particular city, this decline can vary. It could be because the cost of living is very high; it could be because we have low birth rates; it could be because there is migration to the east; it could be gentrification, depending on the city and also depending on the district. Some districts have already closed and have been closing schools for some time; some different ones have simply decided to close schools [Music] recently, and some districts are beginning the
005process of closing schools now. The reason the districts have done this, are doing this, or are going to do this is because of the effects on the programs and our schools, the facilities that are affected when we have schools We want to maximize and bring in programs and have schools that offer our students, parents, and staff the highest possible quality, and that's what has brought us here tonight. So, to begin, what we did was form a team of parents and staff to start studying this issue and ultimately to make a recommendation or recommendations to our board. The team that was formed contains 12 parents. Half of those 12 parents are parents of students in our elementary schools, and half are parents of students in our high schools. The other part of our team is 12
006members of our staff. One- third of those 12 are members of our teachers' union, one-third are members of our classified employees' union, and one-third are principals of our schools. This team began meeting in November 2020. When we started meeting, the district staff presented this committee, this team, with four potential models that we wanted the team to consider as a starting point for this work. We communicated to the team that these were not the only models we could have, but rather something to begin with. The team analyzed these models and had many good and interesting questions, and finally, after several meetings and discussions... The team arrived at their first recommendation, their first decision, and these were the recommendations the team made. The first thing they decided was that they would focus only on Model 3 and
007Model 4, starting from that point forward. In other words, they were no longer going to investigate or focus on Model 1 or Model 2. For Model 3, the team had several questions they still wanted to resolve and discuss, and these are the things they were considering. In Model 3, the team was thinking about whether this model would have schools from preschool to fifth grade or if it would have schools from preschool to sixth grade. After much discussion, the team decided that Model 3 would have schools from preschool to sixth grade. The second thing they wanted to discuss and resolve was whether Model 3 would have a school from preschool to eighth grade or not. The team decided that Model 3 would have a school from preschool to eighth grade. The next thing the team considered
008was They discussed whether this model would have one school, or a high school, or if it would have two. Ultimately, it was decided that it would only have one school for grades 7 and 8. Finally, for model number 3, they were discussing and researching whether this model would have one high school or two. The team ultimately decided that it would have one high school. So, model 3 was born, and according to the team, model 3 would have one high school, one school for girls up to grade 8, and the rest of the schools would be for girls up to grade 6. For model 4, when the district presented model 4, model 4 had middle schools from grades 6 to 12. The team decided that the schools shouldn't be from grades 6 to 12, but rather
009from grades 7 to 12. So, other things that were considered were that we had informed the team today about an idea of how we were going to support the schools with staff. The team liked what we had presented, but they asked us to improve it. What we had done, and we did modify that plan. When the district presented our idea, it was going to take five years to implement because we were going to gradually start moving students to other schools, and that was going to take five years. He and the team wanted a faster, more accelerated implementation, and so that was also changed. Instead of doing this in a five-year phase, it became a three-year phase. And finally, they were considering whether this was going to start in the 2021-2022 school year or if we
010were going to start in the 2022-2023 school year. Before the team could decide this, the board gave the order because we were already too far into the year. They said that, to be fair to our students, their parents, and our community, starting in 2021-2022 wasn't a good idea. So the board asked that this start in 2022-2023. So, once everything was clear, the district staff, took these models and started [Music] with the The schools we thought should stay open and the schools that, through a three-year process, would be closed— we explained to the committee, to the team, that we had selected the school sites solely based on their capacity; that is, the larger schools would remain open and the smaller schools would eventually close. We explained to the team that this wasn't the only way this
011could be analyzed. Perhaps some team members felt that the capacity and size of the school wasn't as important as its location within the city. Maybe they thought it was more important to have schools in the south, the north, or the far west. Perhaps for some, the schools on our borders were the most important schools that should stay open, and maybe for others there were other reasons. So we wanted to communicate that our idea wasn't the only way this could happen. Then the team members were given the opportunity to create their own ideas based on their thoughts and opinions. They had the opportunity to say, "Look, for model 3, these are the schools I think should stay open, and these are the schools I think should be closed." To close, and that's the reason why I
012think this. So, those ideas were presented to the team by each member who created an idea. Each member was able to present it, and the other members had the opportunity to listen and ask questions to understand the ideas. The idea comes after listening to all the ideas that were presented. Each member had the opportunity to go back to their idea and perhaps review it. If they heard something they liked, they might keep it. Maybe after hearing everything, they thought their idea was still the best idea, or they might eliminate it. Maybe they thought the other ideas were better, so they wanted to eliminate their idea. The members who hadn't created an idea were also given the opportunity to create one. If they were inspired by these meetings, then they took that opportunity, and the members
013of this team returned and began to present these new ideas to the rest of the team. After all this process, in the end, there were ten ideas for how model 3 could be made, and there were five ideas for how model 4 could be made. And by ideas, again, we are saying that each idea had different aspects that were going to remain open and different aspects that were going to be closed. So we started a process in the team of We wanted to reduce the number of ideas we had because we had 10 ideas for model 3 and 5 ideas for model 4. So we wanted to reduce that number [Music]. So what happened is that after several meetings, several conversations, several questions, the team members had the opportunity to rank the ideas in order
014of their preference. That is, of the ten ideas for model number three, this is my best idea, and then you go down to the idea I like the least. So which was number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6? They did the same for the idea for model number 4. After this process, after the conversation, after seeing the data, the team reduced the number of ideas for model 3. So there were four ideas left, and for model four there were two ideas. The team then asked us to give them additional information about programs, support staff, and the budget that was possible for this model 3 and this model 4 for the programs. We offered them two different options for thinking about how we could do programs. Again, they were just ideas. So, for example, the first
015idea was that we could possibly build specific academies for each site, for example, The best school was a school of this year, meaning it had a focus on science, technology, and mathematics. Perhaps a school was an arts academy, perhaps a school was an academy of our dual-language program, perhaps a school was a Javier academy. These are some examples; they are not all the examples, but the idea here is that schools would become academies that had a focus. Another option was to create programs that all sites would have, and these programs would be the foundation, so that no matter which school a student went to, they would find this foundation of programs there. For support staff, the committee members made suggestions that we please increase support staff, for example, health aides, our technicians in our schools,
016educational support, and social-emotional learning support. Again, these are some examples. For the budget, we reviewed some possible ramifications. This is possible; again, these are just ideas and things that may be possible. For model 3a, an estimate of two and a half million dollars was given. It is an estimate, and it is something possible. For model 4, a possible estimate of 11 was given. Millions of dollars. These costs include items like a possible rebranding, name change, mascot change, colors change, a new curriculum, modernization of kitchens, new flooring in gyms, athletic equipment upgrades, improvements to our team locker rooms. These are possibilities that could impact the cost of one of these models. In addition to this, there may be other considerations as well, such as the academies. Yes, that's how we might go about it. Some of
017these academies might have a cost depending on the programs or the academies. We might need additional classrooms, or we might need newer classrooms, or we might need to expand our parking lots. So those are other considerations that could take a toll on our bond funds that were allocated to our schools. Depending on the model, those funds that were allocated to those schools could be closed. It's possible that they could be reallocated to cover these costs, but again, this is only a possibility; it's not certain. So after listening to This is about the programs, the support staff, and the budgets. So the team took the four 3D models and decided on one, like the two 3D models and decided on one. So right now, at this moment, there is only one 3D model and one 4D
018model that the team is considering. So let's look at those models. Let's start with model number 3. This is model number 3. Again, I want to take this opportunity to remind you that, and now, at this moment, this is just an idea because this is not final. This does not mean that what you are seeing right now is what is going to happen; it is just an idea. So here in model 3, we see that the team has this idea that is currently in place. This idea turns video into a school, a girls' school, up to eighth grade. On the right, and you see that David has a maximum capacity of 724 students. Here you can see that my girlfriend Mary, brother, and Paula. Those schools would remain as girls' schools, down to sixth grade.
019They stay in those grades, and there to the right of each, the maximum capacity for those schools. Here you see that the girls' school would eventually be closed. Here you see that If we take the school in the video, those schools combined have a maximum capacity of 4,519 students, but in 2022-2023 we are projecting that we will have 3,715 students. So that means that from Berlin, and these are only projections, right? But if they are realized, it means that those schools will be at 82 percent of their capacity. In the secondary schools, you see that the school that emerged is the one with fewer than 7 and 8 students, and that the island center would eventually be closed. Folio has a capacity of 1,269, and we are projecting that in 2022-2023 we will have 1,033
020students. So that means that Folio would have a capacity of 81 percent. The A high school, the preparatory school, and it says "new school," but it's not a new school where there will be a new building or a new site, but the idea here is that there would be a new school on the campus of ASUS A high school. So Xhosa High School has a capacity of 2,001, 2,100, 24, and the The projection is that in 2022-2023 we will have 2,022 students, meaning that César High School, or this new school, would have a capacity of not just one capacity, but in 2022-2023 it would be at 95 percent of its capacity. This is model 4, and again, here you can see the elementary schools. They change a little in this model. So, if you look
021at all the schools in Apple, those are the schools that would remain open. There on the right are the capacities of each school. And in this model, Lee School and Alirio School would be closed. If we combine the capacity of all those schools, the capacity is 4,251 students, but we are projecting that in 2022-2023 we will have 3,715 students. So, those schools would be at 87 percent of their capacity. In the secondary schools, this model has two schools, from 7 to 12, and those two schools would be their respective agents, Cool and Honors, combined with their acronym Tone. They have a capacity of 4,032 students, but in On the 22nd and 23rd, we are projecting 3,055 students, so that means that thanks to High School and Sons High School, we would be at 75% of
022our capacity. So now, what happens? What are the next steps? We want to tell you that very soon we will have a survey for all our parents and our community that will be shared by email, our social media channels, and our website. This survey will be asking you which model you prefer, Model 3 or Model 4. There will also be an opportunity in this survey where each person, if they wish, can also communicate an idea, a concern, or a suggestion. There will also be an opportunity for that in this survey. This survey will also be given to our staff, and the staff will have the same opportunity as our parents and our community. The school reorganization team will meet once again after having the data from these two surveys, and in that meeting, the school
023reorganization team will decide which recommendation to give. The best thing is not a single recommendation, but what recommendations will be given to our education board, our board of directors, when that re The recommendation or recommendations are given at the board meeting, and that's where this process begins. Now, the board and the education committee begin to study this process, listen to the parent survey, listen to the staff survey, listen to the recommendations of this committee, and begin to decide what will happen in our district. For more detailed information, we want to tell you that we have a page on our website dedicated solely to this topic. There we have videos, documents, and summaries of all the meetings we 've had with this team, and there you can find a lot of information. We'll also send that
024link so that those who want to can watch the video. These two things will also be included in the survey. So, for those who couldn't watch today, couldn't be here, or want to learn more, we'll have this in the survey so that everyone can participate, share their opinion, and give their feedback. We have about 20 minutes to take these live questions, and I want to remind you that if you have any questions, please write them in the box. Kenny, because we want to make sure we're answering all the questions, so we don't want to run out of time today without being able to answer in the future. So please, if you can, put your questions there. We appreciate it. So if you have any questions right now, please raise your hand and we'll listen to
025your question and try to answer it. Okay, so I'm going to ask Miss Juarez, what's your guide to Nibali, Risk, and Angelina? Okay, let's give her a little bit of time again. If you have any questions you want to ask live right now, we want to give you this opportunity. Just raise your hand and we'll give the opportunity to ask those questions to WikiLeaks, Hendrix, Bar Babel, Ms. Elba Carpio, Roberts. Although my question is, I just heard a little bit earlier in the first one I saw in English, and I kind of heard a priest asking if they were thinking of closing Glasston. Right now I didn't hear anything about that. I don't know if I missed it, but it was about closing Gaston and leaving things and turning it into a new one. School
026completely, if that's true, I want to start by saying that this is just an idea, it's not something that has been decided, but if in model number four that's the case, in the case that Larsson High School would be closed and the ASUS High School on that large site, in that school there would be a new high school, I mean, no, we're not going to build a new Jesus, but on the campus, in that school is where the new school would be, so yes, yes, that's true, and that's in model number 4. Thank you for your question, and can you explain to me how, okay, Mr. La Palma, we're okay, good afternoon or evening, and I, well, I have nothing, well, I just joined the meeting, for about 50 or so, I managed to see
027something about models 3 and 4, but both models show that they are going to close it, is that true, how is that, I don't know, although thank you, thank you for your question, so yes, it's true, but it's only true in those two models, it's not true that that has already been decided, so no, there is no decision that the Larsson High School is going to close, that's only seen in Those models, but the board still has to follow its process, so it's possible that the school isn't closing. Why? Because it's seen in both models doesn't necessarily mean it's definitely going to close. Thank you for the question. Thank you. I don't even know. I know, Mr. Rosell, good evening. I have a question for my students at the Victor Paz school, and I would
028like to know, for example, if there are only 30 students, because obviously there would be approximately 80 students in the class. My question is, my doubt is, is it by lottery with this pandemic? This is for the... Thank you for your question, and both... Yes, I understood it well. The question is, right now in our classrooms there is a maximum number of students we can have in a classroom, and that is through a contract we have with our groups here in the USA. So, this doesn't affect the number of students in each classroom, and those numbers we have right now remain the same, even though some schools may close. Then those students have to go to other schools, but that doesn't mean that suddenly the number of students in each classroom is going to grow.
029No, what will happen is that staff will come with those... Students too, so there will be more teachers in more classrooms, so the answer is no. Thank you for being here. In that context, Acevedo Rocker, good evening. Good evening. I ask you about the other models. Look, like the other lady asked, and it would close in the 3rd and 4th grades. I have two children still in elementary school. I know it's not anything yet, as you said, nothing 100% certain, but thank you. In that case, how would it affect them or where would they go? They are perfectly fine. Can you tell me what grade they are in right now? They are in fourth and fifth grade, okay? So, for this example, only your students, yes, the decision is that number one is or isn't.
030It starts up to the 22nd or 23rd, which is the current recommendation. Number two is that this is going to take 3 years, it's going to be a three- year phase, which is the current recommendation. So, if your students, this doesn't affect them at all because if the school were to close, your students would n't be in that school anymore. The ones who will be affected are those who are currently maybe in kindergarten or first grade. So, maybe there Yes, there is an effect, but right now I couldn't tell you if the school closes, which school or schools they will go to. But I can tell you with confidence that if the final decision is what is currently being considered, this will take three years and won't start until 22 or 23. That doesn't affect
031our students, our students who are in fourth, fifth, and sixth grade. Perfect, thank you. I didn't understand until this part, but now that I understand about the three years, I understand better. Thank you very much. Thank you. Martinez explains, I have this mute, we ca n't hear it until now. Now yes, okay. The preceding certificate in the genes with a special site on the path of science by Elvis Scott Campbell Jr. Ford, since before and not Maite is not good opening, says his daughter Laura Ling. The name of sessions to play commented on the mind in the biggest event of this virus after three days of classes before this entity and there hasn't been a single day that excludes the like this web is good, Pingüi properties, the breakdown of Stark Lausd, we went through
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033Maribel Martinez Ingo firstly gave a comment that maybe right now is a great opportunity to reevaluate how many students there are in a classroom so maybe it is an opportunity to reduce the number of students in the classrooms and also asked what will happen with the properties where they will see schools that are closed so a very good question to the The current thinking is that when the board of directors, the board of education, makes the final decision— and this is already final—we will immediately begin a new process to study, to imagine, and to decide what will happen to those properties that are empty because right now we already have two: Manchen Vivo and what used to be the adult education center, and the school is closing. So I don't know what will happen to
034the properties, but what I do know is that the intention is that immediately after this process ends, we will begin a new process to determine what happens to those properties. So thank you very much for that question. Explain to me, I'm going to Islas, my son [Music] next to me, listen. Yes, look, you're asking me about this. Right now, with the pandemic, my daughter Victoria and I were in a very large class, more than forty students. My daughter didn't do very well, and she only started improving towards the end. But that's how they're going to do it. I feel that if many schools close, they're not going to leave, as you say, fewer students. Right now, what I see... Regarding the pandemic, the teacher was given a heavy workload, both my daughter's teacher and my
035other daughter's teacher. Their class sizes will be very large. What's going to happen with that? As I said before, we have an agreement, a contract with our teachers, and that contract dictates how many students can be in a classroom. Now, the contract does allow for that number, but that's a business agreement between the district and the teachers. The district can't, without any explanation, put more students in than what's stated in the contract. That would be a violation of the contract, and we can't do that, nor do we want to. Excuse me, what happened is that I spoke to the district to tell them what was happening, and they told me they were very sorry, but that's how you had organized the groups. The teacher didn't have much support from either the school or District III,
036and that is sad, isn't it, because she tried her best, and unfortunately, she didn't have the support of either you or the school. I also contacted the school, and they told me that's what was happening today, and nothing. Okay, well, I apologize, I'm not sure what happened there. If you want to contact me, we can. I'm very willing to talk and listen about it. Okay, unfortunately, we only have time for one more question. So please, I ask that you please put your questions in the one that Schatz said, excuse me, in the Kiwi, so I can answer your questions. They explain to me, we want more questions. Time for questions, okay? There's the machine, okay, the propolis word wef and it's depriving in outside organization, it also provides in being a big club with sites
037of living, believing in you, the sun, the parlacen for the verse and that it blooms again by Kevin Martin, Guerre, this electronic hunger also in flowers, totally show the shooting of direction with mine, it has been just a matter of number one to give, it's the one of Christmas, the apathy, the convergence in the school to give, that has happened to them of vegetable position rules, Jones were of him, it was to sell nothing, to have happen to enter the universe, girl lover Ribéry for various tactics, return and your universe and that has served, we know, waiting for one hour and prior to Wimbledon and Universe Tica and Disney cable off, given play, enter names to the question about what was done right now is number one, what separates an organization like a private or
038charter school from deciding, look here, an empty property, I want to open something here, nothing, nothing for an organization to want to be able to do that, but we do have quite a few policies and regulations that can accept or prevent something like that. The second question is that right now, very true, there is a proposal in the government that we could offer, that we would have to offer, and that to all four-year students, but I want to say that I am very proud of our district because our district has been offering this to all our four-year students for several years now, so we are very proud to be able to do that because the question was if we are considering that maybe if we have this program and for everyone, maybe more students will
039come, that was considered, but as I said, that is already something we are doing right now and I am very proud that we offer it, we do n't wait for a law, we started offering this a few years ago for our community. Once again, on behalf of our board of directors We want to thank you so much for joining us tonight and for your questions and comments, which were all wonderful. Thank you so much for that. We look forward to your responses in our survey, which will be coming very soon. We wish you a very good night, thank you for being here today, bye.