AUSD Board Meeting - April 13, 2021

001yes good evening asusa families and guests welcome to our asusa unified school district open session today it is april 13th 2021 and it is our first meeting for april we are going to go ahead and open with our flag salute and it will be led by aaliyah torres from murray welcome alia we're ready when you are good evening azuza unified school district board members and everyone in attendance my name is elia torres i am a 6th grader at murray elementary school and i will be leading you in the flag salute with your right hand over your heart 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 so much elia for leaving

002our board meeting today with the flag salute moving on to 4.2 doing roll call we have board member rodriguez pena president we have board member uh china link she loaned in cruz gonzalez here we have board member sabrina beau here we have board member adrian greer here and board member arianes i'm here or there's five of us here great we'll go ahead and move to agenda item 4.3 and um i would like to get a motion to approve the agenda with the following changes uh we would like to go ahead and table 9.3 and 12.6 to april 20th forward meeting can i please get a motion to approve the agenda with those exceptions and make a motion to we have a first by board member rodriguez pena can i please get a second a second

003we have a second by board member sheila nin cruz gonzalez and we can please go to vote can you can you repeat what with the two items yes the the two that are being tabled are 9.3 and 12.6 thank you we can go ahead and submit our vote please okay and it passes five zero moving on with your with our agenda we have 5.6 the recognition of the parent advisory committee pac plus we have a guest with us tonight we have senator susan rubio joining us and i see that she is on welcome senator to our our board meeting yes hello well thank you so much i'm always happy to stop by and say hello to it to all of you and i just want to commend you for all the incredible work you've been

004doing during the pandemic you know as an educator as you all know for 17 years i cannot thank you enough the teachers administrators i know it's been a very heavy task in the last year but you've done this wonderfully and so i'm so proud to be here to acknowledge your golden bell award from the california school board association and the category of parent advisory committee plus and and again that only speaks to your commitment your dedication for our students um and our parents who also need guidance during this time i had a webinar yesterday and i actually engage one of your employees one of your teachers and she was phenomenal so i already know that you're doing a tremendous job in what you do so congratulations i know that my staff already dropped off a

005certificate for all of you but i just wanted to read the certificate if i may and uh the certificate reads um you know uh this is on behalf of the california state senate it is my honor to present you with the certificate of recognition for your prestigious award your stakeholder engagement commitment um and how effectively you become a school a model for for other schools i applaud your commitment to collaboration transparent decision making your investment and tireless commitment to our children and their education which has fostered our next generation of leaders so congratulations i always want to stop by to say that we are watching we are acknowledging sometimes i know the work is heavy and we feel no one's paying attention but i've had the opportunity already to not only engage some of your

006teachers some of your administrators and uh and they speak very highly of the leadership and just based on the work uh it's very evident that you guys are phenomenal so i look forward to stopping by as soon as we can do so safely of course to say hello and really recognize all of you collectively and want to say to our parents out there we also want to commend you for your patience yesterday the webinar i had was surrounding the issue of anxiety for parents and students as we come back a lot of our children are having anxiety uh parents are having anxiety they've been uh together with their children for an entire year almost so it takes a little bit of time and it takes a little bit of patience so we were able to

007give parents and school administrators some guidance and tips and hopefully we can do one in your district in person one of these days so thank you to the president of the board and school board members for allowing me always time to say hello and speak to you i will continue to be an advocate in the educational field right now we're pushing for policies and funding and everything that i know you will need as you continue to open schools and making sure that our teachers and our students have what they need so with that i'll turn it over to you and thank you so much for allowing me this opportunity thank you senator rubio for for your parents and for the certificates for acknowledging that our district is working hard and not only you know from

008the top but you know all around the teachers or csca employees uh and making this work for this pandemic so we look forward to seeing you at our district soon like you said um to come visit and um thank you so much for what you do and for being here in our community thank you everyone and have a good night enjoy the rest of your meeting thank you okay we're gonna go ahead and go to six we're gonna move on to on the agenda to 6.1 public comment on agenda or non-agenda items do we have anyone in attendance that has raised their hand for public comment yes we do first we have vicki davis you may unmute your mic thank you so much board my name is vicki davis and i am an english teacher

009at asusa high school and today i would like to talk to you about honoring mr dave lewis since his passing the associate high school staff has been talking about how we can honor a man who led a life of service there has been an enormous outpour of support by the associate community including asusa high school staff students alumni and drama boosters to have the little theater on a sousa high school campus be renamed in his memory at this time we have the support of over a thousand people who have requested we rename the theater in his honor mr lewis served ausd for over 30 years as a drama teacher and a counselor his contributions went beyond being a teacher he was the heart of the drama program he worked tirelessly to raise funding to keep

010the program running smoothly and provide scholarships to drama students he generously generalists lee gave of his time himself no matter what time you came to campus mr lewis could be found on campus from early in the morning zero period in the theater late afternoon on rehearsal days and even on weekends he was planning a play his joy for life and tenacity to help others was shared with all as a counselor he was compassionate supportive and caring one of my current sophomore english students was telling me that even when he got in trouble he knew mr lewis was there to help him find his way this sophomore student said that mr lewis could even make serving detention a learning experience that was fun mr lewis had a way of making everyone feel supported as a teacher

011i visited his office on numerous occasions to discuss a student i always left his office feeling better than when i entered it and that is because he cared about not only the students but the entire staff his passion for helping students reach their full potential his positive interactions with colleagues his dynamic personality personality will be missed please help us honor an exceptional educator colleague and friend by naming the asusa high school theater the dave h lewis theater for the performing arts thank you so much for your time thank you so much miss vicki davis next we have miss esther campos campos ball good evening board member ariana's and the rest of the board members and the cabinet i am once again like vicki davis going to be speaking to um in favor of renaming azusa

012high's little theater after dave lewis our beloved counselor who as many of you are aware we recently lost unexpectedly um i would like to piggyback on what mrs davis has said about mr davis i mean mr lewis sorry mr lewis always had such a wonderful smile on his face he was always there to help students colleagues you could walk into his office and knock on the door and he always greeted you with the smile and was there to support you and help you in any way shape or form whether you were a student a colleague or administration he was always there for you he mr lewis was our drama program he was you know that drama program at azusa high school function because he gave 110 of his life to that program and what a

013great way for us to honor him than to have the theater renamed after him under david h david h lewis theater for the performing arts um i know that it's not very often that we consider naming any building within our district after someone but i would implore you to please consider when you have to vote on the issue to rename the theater after mr lewis he gave like i said his life to our students our drama students our alumni who kept coming back to assist him year after year after year to the community our theater program at isuza high is mr lewis he is our drama program and with that said um like i said i would appreciate it when the time comes where we present this for a vote that you highly consider the

014impact that mr lewis has made not only for our students our alumni our community and asusa high school thank you board members thank you miss esther post ball our next speaker we have amber hi yes this is amber fish and i just wanted to take a moment to reach out to our board uh regarding the increased violence against our asian communities as of lately uh we haven't seen a statement put out from our district and that's a little disappointing given our goal to be more diverse and inclusive uh i did see that miss beau put out a statement on her personal facebook page and also our azusa city has commented on um on sorry i'm discouraging racism specifically against our asian communities as well and i'm really disappointed that it's been a while and we

015still haven't seen anything from our school board we need to stand up and show the school district as a community that we are here for them that the school board is here to show support if needed give them people a place to look for answers if they have questions or need support and i'd really like to see some kind of action taken from our school board that gives members of our community a place to look in these uncertain times where we face so much racial inequalities and crime hate crimes as of lately so thank you for your time this evening thank you miss amber next we have patricia sanchez hello and good evening everyone um i'm going to be a little emotional but i'll get through this um i'm here today to speak about a

016gentleman who has been an important figure not only to my family and myself but to many of our students parents and peers this man supported and positively affected all those who had the pleasure of crossing his path at azusa high school he was one of the first staff members to arrive and the last one to leave campus he dedicated his life to his profession as a counselor and a drama teacher not only to the students of azusa high school but to his peers he helped and guided anyone who worked with him worked um within any anything he needed his devotion to his faith was ever present and all he did for everyone he had become a grandfather a father and a brother role model to some but an amazing friend to many these words don't

017justify the man and all the memories we created together with him as you know a few alumni of his drama club david ochoa damian lopez and jacqueline sanchez created a remembrance of mr lewis on the east wall of the theater it reads david h lewis 1962-2021 he took the stage and left a legacy that was and always will be mr lewis on behalf of the drama booster club we asked the board of education superintendent and cabinet to please consider changing and dedicating the name of the little theater at azusa high school to david h lewis theater of the performing arts in remembrance of mr lewis for serving over 30 years with ausd along with the love and hard work he gave all of us on and off the stage may he rest in peace we

018love you mr lewis and we'll never forget forever your drama family thank you miss patricia patricia sanchez next we have miss meg savella can you hear me yes ma'am thank you um i have a good evening board members and cabinet i uh have two requests uh first i'd like to ask if we could please um have a moment of silence at the end of the school board meeting in honor of mr dave lewis and then my second request is to have you somehow pull or explain or defer the approval of the contract with rop for leasing out the former sierra high school site as an association leader i'm very concerned my executive board as the elected leaders of our teachers are also very concerned about the fact that we are only leasing out that space

019for 78 000 a year we have been very patient about waiting um for what what is going to be done with these sites that have been closed and we have been consistently told and and have put our faith into the prospect of trying to look for best ways to generate income with these properties we've been told that a one-stop shop of just selling them is potentially not the best way and that we can find better ways and we have put our faith in in that effort and have not seen any returns i'm sure that you have plans that we don't know about that are discussed in closed session and maybe we could just hear about some of those things but i really believe that for sierra high school and that humongous property even if you're

020only leasing out a portion of it 78 000 a year is just a drop in the bucket i appreciate the effort the movement forward to do something with the property i just feel that one we need to know more about what the plans are and two um why such a low cost low price low the income generation is not anything what i would have anticipated expected from us trying to best use that property to generate funds for our students our staff our community so i'd like you to consider that thank you for your time thank you miss thanks developers are you present yes hello thank you first off condolences for mr lewis i never knew him but he seemed to be an amazing community member and teacher so good evening everyone i'm celica louisa preferred

021pronouncia i'm a parent of two students attending school here in the district and a previous elementary educator in november 2020 a board meeting had numerous presentations from various organizations on the importance of anti-racism in our district and how we can bring more diversity inclusion and equity in our district to ensure all students feel safe and supported members of the board seem enthused and on board with the theology behind each of the presentations i am here today calling on our board members and district to move beyond theology and hold the board accountable to take action i'm aware that since then a dei committee has been made but further and more immediate action is necessary two days ago another black man lost his life to systemic flaws for the past few months our asian american and pacific

022islander siblings have experienced increased violence and deaths it is critical that our district makes a statement condemning racism showing the azusa unified school district value of being student centered we have black brown asian american and pacific island islander and many other students of color that need to hear and know that they are safe and that their community cares for them and their families according to maslow's hierarchy of needs people need a basis of safety before working towards self-actualization our students need to know they are safe additionally before spring break during the drop-off of one of my children i overheard a substitute telling a crying preschooler quote calm down big boys don't cry this was not my child yet i felt the impact i've spoken to the principal yet i bring this here tonight to exemplify

023concern over racism and gender bias in our district this isn't the first i've heard of discrimination in discussion with other parents as well as high school students in our district i've heard of incidences of bias and discrimination based on language race gender and religion to name a few i ask for the following action action items from the district 1. this week create a statement condemning xenophobia and racism and discrimination and stating solidarity with students families community members and all individuals impacted by racism bias and hate crimes 2. commit to immediately searching for anti-racism and bias training for all staff of the district i request training begin the later than the return to school of the 21-22 school year potentially sooner may this training be ongoing and eventually open to the community at large three create

024a system for students and parents to report such incidences both in my online and in person and multiple languages for accessibility without fear of consequence and have a standard operation of procedures to investigate individuals who show racism and or bias as well as tracking of how many occurrences finally i have seen that the california education officials have received verbally that there may be the option to forego standardized testing and option for local assessments pending confirmation if the department of education approve approves i encourage our board to option out-of-state testing and focus on local assessment to not lose class time and maintain focus on the social emotional needs of students as mentioned before by the board i will be emailing the statement and all board members by tomorrow and will be following up on board meetings

025and emails thank you for your time thank you miss louisa next we have alan french hi can you hear me yes sir we could we could hear you great uh good evening everyone i just wanted to talk for a moment about um renaming uh the azusa high theater the david h lewis theater i myself am an alumnus of azusa high i graduated in 2001 and i had the pleasure of uh working under mr lewis in a drama production back in 1999 and the way he was so passionate about drama and you know strive to get the best out of his students whether they were actors or part of the technical crew he always found a way to have them take their um take their performance to another level so to speak i myself was a

026tech and um i was actually a very shy person back in those days and um mr lewis whether he knew it or not really helped me sort of come out of my shell so to speak and speaking from experience he taught me various um various lessons i've carried through some 20 years after i've graduated one of them being how to accept constructive criticism and another is to try new things the reason that we ask or i ask that you consider renaming the theater in his honor is because he founded the drama program when he first started at azusa high there was no drama program and he received permission to become the drama teacher and he also was the man responsible for discovering what we now know as the theater for the performing arts and it

027was through his uh relentless passion and work ethic that he um that he created the theater for what it is we know it today i mean it's very top-notch and you know there the outpouring as some others have mentioned has been absolutely phenomenal i still keep in contact with friends that were in the drama program and i was also friends with mr lewis on social media and the outpouring of mary's emotion has been nothing short of extraordinary and um because of his um endless devotion to his students um for the positive impact he made through hundreds if not thousands of drama students and for everything he did for the drama program there would be no greater tribute to him than to rename at the david h lewis theater for for the performing arts uh he

028he earned he has earned that honor and he's nothing short of a legend of azusa high so i hope you all will consider uh renaming it in his honor thank you mr allen french for your comments and miss lika is there anyone else we have no one else great we'll go ahead and move on to our next um agenda item 7.1 comments reports and requests by the board of education we're going to go ahead and start with board member rodriguez pena yes hello uh good evening everyone um it's been a long time but i'm back and um i just want to let you know that um well paul elementary they had a really great poetry showcase with fifth and sixth graders the um the students did a fabulous job and you can hear the passion

029as they read their poems and it was very touching and i want to applause these young children for really standing up and you know saying what they had to say and and they this with their passion i it really touched me a lot of these students that spoke out um sierra sierra high school the winning of modern continuation high school again i would like to congratulate the sierra high school principal mr kinstall staff students and parents and they have won this modern contin in all the past parents and all the past principles administration they have been winning this award since 2003. so they have programs that other continuations that i do know that do not have and students have you know progressed there and my own grandson went there and and he was a totally

030different person going in and coming out and i want to thank sarah high school for that i see why they do win this award um and i want to congratulate emily reese freshman at azusa high school for placing the top seven in the regional 15 oratorio contest taking him a monetary scholarship we're so proud of her and we're glad that she's putting us on the map and on a cold friday morning this is the rotary students interact club members leticia perez from glaston high school and emily reese from azusa high school they came to deliver and distribute 100 care packages to the pathfinder ministry food bank the community they were very thankful and i want to thank the students and the rotary interact club the opening of school meetings i've been participating in them and

031i want to thank the superintendent ortega his cabinet classified employees certificate certified certificated teachers students parents for all you do for ausd mot nutrition services for always being there rain or shine they're always there i walk by murray school and there they are out giving lunches to the community and um for some crazy reason during the pandemic we've had crazy weather and but they're always there serving the community and i want to thank everyone you know i sit here as a board member you do all the hard work i i'm a policy maker but you're doing all the hard work and you're all the brains behind it and i want to thank everybody for that um and i also um i'll get emotional i'm sorry um you know i i um want to close in

032memory of mr davis um lewis dave lewis and that has passed away unexpectedly he spent 30 years of his life at ausd as a counselor drama and friends to many he was very passionate about his work and helping students believe in themselves i went to many of his plays they were fantastic the kids all did a great job he gave the kids confidence and a place to be i i um i remember when he came out one time as captain hook and he played a great captain hook with a patch in his eye and he was all into it so he was such a beautiful person inside and out and he will be truly missed i am not sure how to do how this is done but oddly i was thinking the same thing i

033would like to propose that it is a unified named the little theater on rockdale after mr lewis thank you for your comments board member rodriguez pena next we have board member cruz gonzalez thank you um i just want to say and i want to just express my appreciation to everyone to all the staff the classified employees who've been on our campuses since the upright stop the teachers who are now um who've been doing a yeoman's job throughout the year but now are coming in and teaching in person and then and then obviously our management who made it really a smooth process to have us come to in person i know um for for me going to hodge it's been really smooth and easy to come to drop my son off and pick him up um

034so i just want to express my appreciation to everyone i know it's um we're still still very difficult and i hope that at some point we'll get back to normal but for now i just really want to express my appreciation to everyone for all that work um there's a couple other things that i have a couple questions um uh one i wanted to ask in terms of process for the theater is that something that requires board action is it something that happens at the school site um you're saying yes not a yes for board action yes so according to our board um policy um it was required board action um we have that authority uh based on the board has the authority to uh rename a part of the facility okay so i mean i'll

035just second i'll just echo yolanda's request maybe we can put on the agenda for the next board meeting um um so that's one um two i just wanted to call out norma camacho because while i was on spring break vacationing my colleagues at work um had a conversation with her just to see what it was happening english learners and they were just blown away with what what what normal reporting what we're doing in the district so i just want to just express my appreciation to her and then let her know like my colleagues had a meeting with with the cd staff like the very same day and so they were sharing what we're doing in azusa with with the department of education so thank you so much for all the work that all of you

036do especially around the english longer students um um then though i just have two more things um with the testing piece since the state did come out with the waiver um are we and i don't think i've seen any public announcements just i just like an update on terms of process i'm assuming you can give us that during your your your comments right right now in terms of where we are in terms of what kind of assessments we'll be using for the for the annual assessments okay great um and then and then um i don't want to take it away but i just want to say thank you sabrina for for for the impetus for having the resolution that we have on today around um xenophobia and calling out anti-asian hate so i just want

037to appreciate that that just recognize it thank you for doing that because i think it's a very important thing for us to do and make public statements um and i think we could think publicly think about like you don't actually have to wait for the board to put out any statements for the for the for the district right obviously board action is very important but we can also release statements in the interim so i would just recommend that we do that maybe in the future and with that that that's everything i have thank you thank you board member cruz gonzalez next we have board member bo hi everyone good evening and um thank you uh board member chris gonzalez i do want to make sure that i acknowledge uh board member rogers opinion um i

038think we just didn't communicate together but uh board members paint ahead also um put in a similar uh request kind of at the same time to have this very important resolution come before us and i think the point is it doesn't matter who says it or how we do it but that we work together and i do echo your sentiment around um you know the important piece is not the without to take action and so i'm excited to see the resolution um on our docket for tonight um i'm also excited to uh i know that we're postponing our uh diversity in hiring practices to our next meeting which is going to be on the 20th of this month um that's something that i had um requested back in january and i know that we've got

039a lot of things going and things take time um so again i'm gratified that we're continuing to hold ourselves accountable to move the conversation forward on a little bit of a lighter note this thursday ausd is hosting a blood drive in partnership with children's hospital la we're going to be doing that at our barranca campus um and i'm happy to kind of play a part in that and also uh to be a first-time blood donor and i say that because i've had some needle aversion in my life and i think when we talk about it and saying you know hey i'm going to sign up and be a blood donor the more we can hear it and hear other people willing to do that i think it just that's part of what education is you

040know being a model for our students and our peers and colleagues and then finally just a small update i don't have a lot of details yet but i was recently asked to participate on an anti-hate panel in a community in northeast los angeles um internally we don't have a date or anything like that but as that um you know we get more details about the forum and the format and and all of those details um i really look forward to being able to share that back with ours as a unified community and our azusa community and that's all i have for tonight thank you we move on to board member greer good evening everybody have a a handful of things to to share out one yeah just great job for the reopening and in just

041everything that that goes on to make that possible um i'll i'll share and report directly from my daughter who is in fourth grade um her her quote after these these first couple days uh being in person were um even though it feels like we're in fish tanks um it is way better than she thought it was going to be and so she's she's excited and glad and happy to be back in person and seeing her friends and so just thanks for all the work that goes across the board up and down uh the district um great great work let's keep it up um a couple of uh announcements um on saturday april 24th um there is going to be a daca clinic that is being hosted at foothill community church it's in partnership with the

042immigration resource center uh homework house uh my third place and foothill community church and and um it's gonna be a clinic that's helping to with there will be attorneys and other folks present to help walk folks through that process and so um i want to extend a personal invitation if there's anyone who is interested in that in in in hearing more information um you can uh reach out to me my uh my email address is agreer azusa.org or you can give me a phone call which is 626-629-8061 if you have any questions whatsoever about any of that please reach out and and i'd i'd love to see how i can help get you connected and be part of that the goal is for those clinics to be uh um to happen on a periodic basis

043so this will be the first one but but hopefully they will happen rhythmically throughout um throughout the year um i do also want to announce and share out that um i will be finally hosting another online coffee on april 27th from 6 p.m to 7 30 p.m um i had indicated that it was uh it has been my goal to to host these once a month um and i i was doing pretty good um it's pretty widely known by some back in january got coveted and i i am i know different people respond differently to it i'm just now getting kind of on the other side of it um and so it has definitely um hung in there and lingered but but grateful to be able to get back into the rhythm and so april

04427th it's a tuesday from 6 00 to 7 30 p.m again feel free to reach out if you have any questions there and i'll be posting it online and sending emails out to anybody who has uh who's on the list uh from having been to one uh previously um i would also like to echo um the the sentiment um and and in honoring dave lewis um i i did not have the pleasure of knowing him personally um but through i mean the friends that i had when i was going to to school here um as well as the the students that i've served over the years um i've heard first hand um just the impact uh that that he has made and also the the impact and um that that you know the news of

045his passing has has caused uh uh you know on our community and so i'd i'd also like to echo you know um closing in honor i i i i'd echo uh having a moment of silence and and also bringing the matter forward to look at renaming or what needs to happen to rename uh the theater um as well finally um i just want to make a brief comment on um the just the the tragic realities of racism that still exists um the tragic realities of xenophobia that that just is in our world and and i i think that you know there's there's no sufficient amount of statements that can be made or or resolutions that can that can be drafted that that will even come close to to you know appropriately addressing just you know

046the the extent to which hatred racism xenophobia is just repudiated and there's there's no room for it in our society there's no room for it in our community there's no zero room for that within our district and so yeah i'm i'm grateful as well to see um the the resolution that's here before us as well as the other item though we are postponing it looking at diversity in our hiring practices um i agree let's let's examine and let's look through this resolution let's let's draft the statement but but let's also um continue uh to look at the action that we need to take within our district um to address this and echoing some of the comments that we heard in public comment um i wouldn't want any student within our district to to question um

047their their safety to question their their value to question their worth uh you know here and and and what our stance on that is um and so uh let's begin with with some of these statements and resolutions but let's continue on through with uh definitive um action um i'll just add i i just saw the email for this i haven't spoken to any um one about it but i did see an email that it appears that there will be a rally on april 24th um at city hall um that that it looks like is being hosted by um mayor gonzalez um around this very um issue and so i wanted to share that that out i i imagine that the news of that will will spread but um um this is not a um this

048is not an asian problem this is not a you know an asian american problem this is not a a black american problem this this is a this is these are issues that we all have to face collectively as a society and and i'm grateful that uh we're serious and we'll do that in in the coming weeks months and years thank you and um i would like to go ahead and start with um you know echoing what uh many of you have been saying about mr dave lewis i actually did have a chance to to go to uh many of the productions and um and be there and and see firsthand the the impact he had on you know in our students and in our community his passion his dedication the amount of hours that he

049put into making drama and theater come alive at a souza high is is priceless um the the amount of people you know that um now that you know have graduated have come back to visit um there's many and so i i do want to share with the board um you know with the public that it's actually a discussion that um superintendent and i have already had um about uh the the the little theater and so there is um there is protocol that needs to be followed um and i appreciate all of the board members um being on board with you know bringing this forth and so um moving forward um i know mr arturo ortega will go ahead and get that into into play and um we will go ahead and do it uh you

050know follow protocol on what needs to be done to carry this forth so thank you all for everyone who spoke today and uh my fellow board members who share the the same sentiment and um you know for mr dave lewis i also agree i also happen to hear my notes that today i you know i would also like to i was going to close our meeting and and have a moment of silence um for all of us to be together at the end um an honor in remembrance of mr dave lewis second i i am thankful to i'm thankful grateful to all of our staff from like you know from teachers to csa to um adult school to you know special education i mean it's it's it's everyone who has made this transition for our

051students to come back in person um you know it's it's been as some as one of our employees said it was a show it was a lot of work and i realized that and i see that firsthand um the transition was smooth on you know the parents what i saw on on my end um i had my daughter she was so excited she could you know she she attends um dalton school and she was so excited to see her friends even if it was from far away to be in a classroom with other students um she she did school and when i picked her up she said i mean this is the best ever i love my school i love my teacher and everybody who works here and just making the kids feel so special

052that day um for all of you guys uh thank you thank you so much um my daughter loves being in person and um we think uh you know you guys our staff for making this happen and thank you cabinet for putting this together my my request um will be uh to to please uh start thinking about summer school um i know that we are on april 19th uh middle school and high school will will be opening um and we're we are gonna go ahead and kick off this next monday but uh let's start thinking about summer school so we can have some information for our parents um and teachers and um we can get that information as soon as you guys have that i'm sure you guys are working on it but um if we

053can get this to the board um as soon as possible that that would be great and and third i i would like to go ahead and invite um um everyone um i am partnering up with uh the council uh mayor robert gonzalez on the stop asian hate rally which is going to take place on saturday april 24th at 5 30 at city hall we have put a program together and we look forward to seeing all of you guys because just as my colleagues have expressed and others also have expressed there's no room for xenophobia here um i personally um heard about an event that happened actually in one of our schools yesterday and i was very disturbed and to me zero tolerance i have zero tolerance for for any any hate like our board member

054gear said you know it it you know it's not just asians it's black it's any hate lgbtq you know we should have zero zero tolerance for that and address it right away so i feel it feel very strongly about that and i want to invite all of you guys on april 24th at 5 30 at the city hall lawn we will be there and um this is an invitation to all uh my fellow board members as well please come and help us unify here in asusa to be able to go ahead and take a stand against all of this hate that's going around and if you guys have any questions you guys can email me at g ariana's so it's g-a-r-e-l-l-a-n-e-s at asusa.org and that's all i have for today we can go ahead and

055move on to our next board item which is 8.1 comments reports by student board members superintendent and cabinets and cabinet we'll go ahead and start with mr alex arkenberg mr alex i do not see him here this evening okay great we'll go ahead and move to destiny destiny contreras good evening gladstone is eager to see glads in person next week this month is autism awareness sexual assault awareness and child abuse awareness month asb will be posting informational slides on these topics to spread illness our impact project supporting low-income families is in motion we are waiting to receive our percentage of the money we made from our boba fundraiser we plan to use the money to order all needed supplies for our project and once we receive these items we will finalize a date in early

056may the next ecp cohort for the class of will be 73 students we are proud of the growth gladstone would like to honor leticia perez who reached fifth place in statewide hosa competition in the cultural diversity and disparities in healthcare category gladstone would like to recognize our graphic arts teacher jim hague who plays second in skillsusa teachers clearly mr higg is skilled and he expects to win it all next year thank you thank you destiny for for those um for letting us know what's going on at gladstone um high school um 73 students in the ecp wow that's a that's a great increase from the first year and and last year so thank you for sharing that with us um we look forward to hearing how you know how much more we can expand this

057program um at gladstone high school so thank you next we have jacob vasquez good evening everyone spring sports practice is going very well football baseball softball tennis track and field soccer and golf are practicing and working out for their upcoming seasons students are excited to be on campus our assets are returning to school next monday april 19th for tim's instruction we are looking forward to seeing our assets on campus once again we will conduct class meetings on tuesday and thursday at 12 pm to discuss the returning of school policies and protocols this thursday at 2 45 and 3 30 pm we are conducting our weekly cafe astecca meetings leadership class will be working on making signs and posting information to welcome our assets back azusa high school would like to recognize mr lewis for his

058amazing contribution to our school site he is going to be truly missed and he inspired all his students to be the best they could may he rest in peace thank you thank you jacob next we have a comments and reports by superintendent and cabinet good evening i would like to um announce that on april 6th the state of california notified school districts about new student standardized testing flexibilities for the 2021 school year due to the impact of covet 19 pandemic distance learning and return to in-person learning california has given districts permission to use local standards-aligned assessments rather than administering the casp which is the california assessment of student progress and performance this spring as zeus unified will be using our local assessments in english language arts and mathematics to report the academic progress of students

059in grades 3 through 8 and 11 to families the public and the state district assessment results will be communicated to families in late spring and we will be communicating this out to all of our families and staff this week thank you good evening board members staff and community members i just want to express my deep appreciation for all of our employees as we started the process for resuming in-person instruction our classified employees have done outstanding work throughout this entire pandemic and they have been integral to the reopening of schools our teachers have learned to provide meaningful instruction to students virtually and now our teachers are working to provide distance learning and in-person learning to our students i still appreciate that and our site administrators have worked tirelessly to ensure that the many many guidelines and

060protocols from the los angeles county department of public health have been implemented i want to thank all of our employees for their hard work and dedication to the asuza unified school district and community thank you steven ford i would like to use the opportunity to just toot our homes to uh we've had um over five um walks with la department county of health and each time each time the question is asked how did you guys do this how long did it take you can we please take pictures where did you get this template from how did you guys know these protocols and it that is just the testaments are our one our leadership from our superintendent i apologize as well as collaboration from our cabinet and then just a joint effort of all our staff

061members from our mlt staff nutrition services when we're at ellington um the representative he was like how did you guys come up with this grab and go i mean if you go to ellington each gate had designated a point based off the grade spin and that's across the board um we had one walk at paramount and the rep actually said you know what i went to i was already at murray so i knew what to expect so she knew exactly where to go in and it was a quick wrap um it's just one of those shows that we put the investment in they're very impressed with our scanners they're very impressed with all our signage they're impressed with our isolation room they love our cots they love the detail that we put into everything and

062the thought process and i think overall beyond the department of health being impressed i think our faculty also sees the heart the effort that we put in to show that we value them and appreciate them thank you natasha um good evening everyone i too want to echo my condolences and sadness for the passing away of mr lewis just as a matter of consideration uh we are going back to closed session uh so maybe we want to do a moment of silence before we go to closed session and then answer that way people can be around to to participate in that and then end the meeting once we come out in in his memory i want to thank senator rubio uh for the pac plus uh recognition uh for coming out uh under jennifer edick bryant's

063leadership the pack plus continues to grow it continues to get stronger it continues to get better and we are thankful for all the members who contribute to its success this is our first board meeting back since we have reopened uh schools and i just wanted to share how excited i have been these last couple of weeks to see students parents and staff buzzing at our school sites this was the first day of school we had parents with their first day of school signs you know taking pictures with their kids um we had balloons and banners mascots we had teachers and costumes going all out for the first day of school like some of you have shared i too have heard comments from students and from parents and from staff for that matter about how excited

064they have been to be back um so it is it's just it's been for me it's been super duper joyous ah yesterday we welcomed back our third and fourth grade students uh to our campuses and next week we're going to be welcoming our fifth through twelfth grade uh graders back uh so we have been very very busy uh at our secondary sites today we spent the good part of the morning supporting them as they get ready to reopen we did hold two town halls one in english and one in spanish for the secondary reopening and i am happy to announce that uh pretty much every single live question we were able to uh to answer and to address and for those of you and for those of us that didn't want to go live uh

065we did take the questions uh to add them to our frequently asked question uh document um i just want to piggyback a little bit on on latasha um on her report again it's a it should be a source of pride for all of us that inspectors from the department of public health are using the words exemplary are using the words model are using the words best practice and wanting to share with other inspectors and other districts on what is happening here and as everyone has said that is not because of a person or a person's that is because the countless members of our staff that have made that possible so thank you great thank you guys all for your comments next we move on to our general functions we're moving on to 9.1 asusa high

066school academy of engineering and smart materials adaptive structures and intelligent systems collaboration presentation we have mr frank chain good evening let me just get this thing on the screen i hope everyone sees it just checking to make sure does everyone see it you make it a little bit bigger would that be okay i think if you go to presentation mode i think that would make it uh larger sir yeah i'm trying to trying to get it to its corner right here there we go okay okay um well good evening board president ariana members of the board superintendent ortega cabinet members and the azusa unified community i am pleased that this evening we will have the opportunity to recognize career technical education students your support the board support the community support members of the cabinet superintendent

067your support in our cte programs have been critical to their ongoing success tonight you will hear about an amazing learning experience in which our students participated i now would like to introduce mr andres de rielle teacher of azusa high school's academy of engineering who has done so much to build a program and facilitate facilitate these opportunities for our students mr del rio thank you mr chang um again thank you good evening to everybody thank you the board cabinet members for this um great opportunity to have us to showcase our the work the ongoing work that our academy and engineering students are doing and we really appreciate this opportunity to showcase these students and show the community what is the high school is all about and all of our cte programs are doing for our community

068um so we go ahead mr giant so last fall during the summer we were approaching this a great opportunity like we mentioned to work with the professional professors and advisors um to have students create a project and present at the annual masses conference that um dr kuzuku fuji is going to talk about in a little bit so we jump at this opportunity mr chang presented it i believe a board member approached him about it and um but we definitely took this opportunity and i approached the students with it and they were enthused about working with professionals and uh the possibility to present at this on conference oh can you go back a little bit mr chang because you could be good on talk about it about the presentation the conference mr dario do you want

069to introduce the people who are with you today yes that they were coming up um we have if you go to the next slide if you want they're on the next slide okay dr fuchs i think you're muted mr professor perazo maybe you could go ahead and start please yeah sure a perfect so first of all everyone a good evening and i hope everyone is having like an amazing week and from what i've been hearing maybe like the last few minutes i think everyone is doing great at susan high school so just a little bit about the smashes conference it stands for the asme american society of mechanical engineers smashes stands for smart materials intelligent systems and smart structures and this is a conference that happens every year from engineers from all over the world

070and you know it has different locations last year of course and this and this year it was it will be online because of the current copied situation it normally brings about a 300 to 400 researchers and specialized on the smart structures and of course you know we also focus on outreach and also collaborating with external people especially this activity this year and this past year with asus high school it was it was great i believe mr royal is going to talk a little bit more about it so i can try to see if i might go ahead yes okay sorry sorry about the control issue uh my name is kazuguchi i'm a research engineer at the university of dayton research institute i'm joining tonight from dayton ohio so we were looking for a collaborator on

071an educational outreach effort in the last year and we got in touch with mr dariel and it's been great working with him and his students especially in the last year it was really important to work with people who are flexible open-minded and capable to be able to facilitate throughout this difficult new environment and you will learn more about what the students will have done for the project but i was particularly impressed by the students ability to find the ways to collaborate with each other and do this um engineering design process as a team in this new environment edwin do you want to uh describe the project a little bit sure perfect yeah so just because i i forgot it's on the slides but my name is edwin hernandez and i am a professor at very

072close to you guys i'm from i am in irvine at the uc air bank so hopefully you can send your students here i will be very happy to meet them so of course i'm wasting time so let's go over the description of the project so of course this project it was on the uh on designing and developing a packaging designs that will limit the damage in eggs so you know that whenever we carry eggs sometimes they go on the truck or something and they start undergoing a lot of vibrations and sometimes they can be some shocks and we don't want to break the eggs so we wanted to be able to design a different packages in this case these packages had to be inspired by origami so you know folding paper and sometimes when you

073fall paper in special ways you are able to create small containers that can perhaps our goal is that for them to be able to take the vibration and decrease it as much as possible so the egg is as protected as possible so the students they were given different constraints in terms of their design so we said okay you have to use this particular materials and your structure has to be on this size obviously has to be very compact so it doesn't take too much space on the egg package and you know it was very impressive the students came up with first in teams they started brainstorming different designs and then they start a uh you know mentored by mr the real they start brainstorming uh different designs and they start putting them into different categories

074so is this good in terms of like size is this good in terms of lightweight is this good in terms of like a you know paper material etc and then afterwards you know they build some prototypes by that they mean that they grab the paper and fold it and they did multiple tests like they did like a shock test they did like a drop test so it was like a full design experience like normally exactly the experience that we normally undergo when we go into more complex engineering problems so i think it was very fun also seeing all the videos of things getting dropped and hit but and i'm pretty sure the students had a great time as well and also a learn about the design process that we do all the time in engineering

075thank you mr prasad um mr chang if you could go back one so we can introduce the students students go ahead and introduce yourselves and say a little bit about yourselves please hello is my is my mic working okay hi my name is lisa eng i'm a junior from azusa high school and this is my second year in the math engineering academy um and over the past two years i've learned a lot of technical skills such as programming 3d modeling effective sketching this year i'm in the principles of engineering course where we're touching upon a lot of disciplines of engineering in the future i want to pursue a career in programming or cyber security i'll pass it off to also although um i think waldo might be having issues with his audio should i introduce

076him go ahead lisa why don't you introduce waldo um uh wallace also my classmate we we've taken the same classes together he's interested in yeah he's having technical problems he's interested in pursuing something in mechanical engineering in the future some of his hobbies are photography and um and comic books and we'll go to the next slide moldo's design was based on the miura ori origami pattern which was used in things such as the space fire units it was very effective while also being easy to build one of its drawbacks was that it does take a very long time to build and to fold lisa's design was based off of origami springs and as soon below it took some trial and error to find the right thickness of springs that would be both cost effective and

077efficient the pictures to the right show how the pressure on the spring from the books help it hold its shape despite its resilience the design is complicated and time consuming to build for the humidity compression test the design was placed in a fridge overnight and undertook the same compression test to see if the design's humidity can impact its performance compared to the initial compression test the new heights of each trial were not shorter than the initial test for lisa's model for example the design did not shrink more than their original test results for the second version of this test that utilized 1.58 pounds of weight instead of one pound of weight the prototype suffered very minimal deflection as seen in trial 2 which had a deflection of 0.25 inches in terms of damage to the

078prototype itself the only noticeable piece of damage was on the top edges where they had become more flat than they were when they were first made and here's some of our here's some of our drop test videos from our team members elizabeth and oswaldo and as you can see in the video that elizabeth is doing right now we dropped she would drop the textbook of varying weight varying weights and they would and they would see which weight would crack would finally crack the eggs and it would and the design would be considered a failure some valuable lessons i learned from this project was it's very important to keep communication at all times especially when you're going over zoom or google needs or just in distance learning in general what my group did what people did

079was that we set up google needs to work on during class together and we also created a group chat where we would search into our progress and discuss each other about the project um some soft skills which obviously include communication we also learned valuable critiquing skills and academic discussion where we would evaluate each other's designs to see which would better fit the criteria and the basis of this project and one of my favorites of this project was the professional collaboration we had with our advisors after we compiled all our data and all our videos onto our presentation we sent it to our professional advisors to have for critique and we would take and improve our project even further and i thought that was really cool to have some professional input on on stuff that we're

080doing and we can go to the next side piece i think also although still having mic issues all right thank you lisa that was just a very a snippet of a presentation of a few five group projects that were highlighted and tonight so what's next for these students um one group or two groups is gonna have the opportunity to actually present at the conference i was mentioned earlier um i think it was originally supposed to be in person but it's going to be virtual this year and probably the year after hopefully it could be in person so that's going to be in september so we plan on collaborating again next academic year it was a tremendous great experience working with these advisors these great advisors that helped throughout the whole process and lisa is going

081to speak a little bit about the internships for this summer um the k-12 foothill consortium internships they're run by a woman named amy full she helps us gain industry connections through the our nation's cte track and we actually compete completed our first internship training today we're gonna have our next one next week and we're gonna start our application process and looking into some companies and job offerings and internship offerings as well um one of the internships i've already applied to to this through this consortium is the la metro summer internship we're gonna we're gonna have a list of companies that are interested in us around the next following weeks so then we'll see which ones that we're interested in like the city of hope or nasa and a fun thing about the consortium internships is

082that um we once we complete these summer internships we become cte certified and that and i and i believe that's the term cte certified yes and sometimes that our partnership when with naf the nav engineering academy actually give automatic interviews to students who are cte certified during some relationships so it's a good step into the professional workforce thank you lisa next slide so really quickly these are the group project links if you have a chance please take a look at them and provide some feedback for our students and myself and our advisors and also links for this masses conference and the mechanical engineers um website for more information mr del reyel would would you please email that to to the board um so we could take a look at that absolutely absolutely uh yeah this

083link here and it's also on the our our school website but i will definitely email it to you thank you we would like to thank you for your time board members cabinet community i think it's really important for the community and everybody at the district to know what our students are doing um i mean they're they're the ones on the ground they're the ones basically um getting out there especially in cte with the internships and these types of opportunities i think those are the most besides learning the theoretical things in the classroom i think these are the types of things that are the most um beneficial to them in their careers and whatever careers they want to pursue so again we like to thank our um thank you for your time and advisors and if

084you guys i'm up i don't know if we have time but uh you could either for me questions or if we have time students can answer or anybody can answer questions right now if you free time allows actually yeah that would be great i actually um want to open up to to our board members um for any comments or questions i can go ahead and start i i just want to congratulate you lisa and you know um i've known you guys for quite some time i see the dedication that you put into not only your schoolwork your extracurricular activities um and i when do you have time to to to do everything i this is like so fun i i see that you know you guys are dropping the the eggs you know my question

085is like when do you have time and how many cartons of eggs did you have to go through to to you know to get your variable um for for this project sort of carton of eggs i personally wasn't a team member and dryers are breaking the eggs my mom would have killed me if i did that so we had oslo and elizabeth take the blow and i think it was roughly just one carton of eggs because once the eggs broke and the testing process would be considered over the design like out of failure and thank you for thank you for your compliments yes yes for your presentation it was really great i think that um when you look for the internships where where do you go to look for internships have you went to northrop

086grumman here in azusa well we can't really explore internships in person um we get our internship opportunities through amy fall with the foothill consortium um she emails us with any with every and any internship opportunity she she gets through her partnership companies like forward v2 an internship with la metro i've applied to it but i'm i'm awaiting their response right now and then the next following weeks as we continue with our internship trainings um they'll give us a list of like companies that are interested in taking high school interns from us i would like to comment a little bit about it so thank you the the foothill consortium um through the grants that we have gotten the c-take the k-12 strong workforce um was able to partner with the um san gabriel valley economic partnership

087who hired amy full as a consultant to in fact um look for internships of local internship opportunities from local businesses and present it to all the consortium students last year was our first year in which we were able to have internships available albeit it was virtual this year will be virtual again some of the internships that we were able to get have been in person but the majority have been virtual and this is a beginning stage of the show i say this is our second year and i believe we have six partners this year met possibly seven and we are continuing to build opportunities to ensure that all of our students and all of our pathways have an opportunity of an internship i have a question um so this is supposed to students and since

088oswaldo is having technical difficulties maybe he can type in his answer if he wants so what through the whole process from like brainstorming to design process to testing what was the part that you liked the most and what was the part that you felt was like the most difficult is this a question for both me and as well for both yeah both of you and i mean since he can't speak if he wants to type it in that's great that would be great okay i'll speak while he types his response in the chat okay one of my favorite parts of the engineering process is the brain often times some of course some of my designs won't make it into the final product but i do like i am a very artistic person so i like

089to sketch out all my ideas and get it on paper that way i can go that way i can communicate it with my other team members what i'm thinking about if you look on the the powerpoint slide there's a slide full of my my drawings and stuff of of what i was gonna do what i had in mind for my design and the hardest part is i want to say choosing it choosing the design like by myself it would have been particularly hard for me to choose between my own designs because i'm a bit because i made it but that's why we have team members you know so i enjoyed uh critiquing each other's designs and my own designs through the lens of my team members and picking which one would be that's pretty good

090with the team thanks do you have any okay we have an answer from mr uh osvaldo it says the most difficult portion of the process was most likely the brainstorming part this is mostly because it requires a lot of thinking a lot of attempts and finding the best design the most fun part was probably testing since i was able to put our design to the test thank you spaldo does anyone else on the board have any questions or comments i i would like to to also share this is this is exciting to see in asusa um as a former student myself here of asus unified school district that this is something and i'll tell you guys that we we've never done that you know this engineering program all these things that we are offering our

091students um we're we're we're a competitive district and i think a lot of the times um you know um we just don't toot our own horn you know and so i'm very appreciative of um you guys presenting tonight because you lisa and osvaldo um and our our fellow uh professors dr fuchi and dr hernandez and mr del reyel you know by by you being able to provide this for our students and expanding their horizons and being able to uh you know to to bring this forth and um mr chain uh teaming up with amy um opportunities that that you know are gonna come forth to our students are just great and i'm looking forward um lisa nosvaldo to to um hearing about your journey and um what else may come from this and please keep

092sharing with us the great things that um you guys are doing so thank you so much if there's no more comments or uh questions from our board then we'll go ahead and move to our next item thank you again for your presentation and good luck and thank you for being here uh miss gucci i know it's a different time zone where you're at so thank you for staying up with us we will be moving on in our agenda for today we are going to move on to 9.2 review of the 2019 2020 asusa unified school district audit reports and we have shiloh garos be here with us welcome hi thank you for having me can everybody hear me okay yes great um i i am guessing that i should share my screen unless you had

093a copy of the report that you were bringing up um on your end or should i should i screen share on my end yes if you could please screen sure okay thank you give me one second okay and hopefully everybody can see my screen now can you make it a little bit bigger just for those of us at home what i am sharing right now for you is is really just a singular page in the audit report that uh does a great job of going over the results of the audit that are included within this entire report you know this is over 100 page report and i'm sure as much as uh some of you would like me to go through every page i will i will summarize the results of the audit for june

09430 2020 and then of course i'm always happy to answer any questions that you might have after i after i cover the results and the reason why i bring you to this particular page in the report is because within our audit you know for those of you who may be hearing this for the first time our audit is designed to do really four specific things one we're we're providing you with an opinion on the financial statements that are presented in our report based on our audit and our goal is to provide you reasonable assurance that they are materially stated and so that's that's the first goal the second goal of our audit is to provide you a report on the internal control structure over the financial reporting this is a requirement under our government audit

095standards and in that report we are providing you any findings that we might come across during our the course of our audit that we would classify as either a significant deficiency or material weakness and then the third item that we do provide in the report is a compliance opinion on the federal programs that are operated by the district as well as if there are any internal control deficiencies identified over the federal programs and then the last but not least at the bottom here i'm scrolling is the state compliance we also offer you an opinion on compliance with various state programs that are required to be audited so with that said going back to the top the uh auditor's opinion on the financial statements is considered an unmodified opinion now what that means is that as

096as presented we believe the financial statements are materially stated based on our audit it is the highest level of assurance that we provide in an audit and it is considered a clean opinion so the financial statements are fairly stated as it relates to that second report on internal control over financial reporting in that report we are reporting a material weakness in internal controls and the details of that um internal control deficiency is is on the next page and i'll scroll to that in a moment if if there are specific um comments or questions on that but um mainly the the results of that finding pertain to the we did have audit adjustments and other errors that were identified during the year-end closing process that resulted in an audit adjustment as well as just some other

097errors so so the material weakness identified relates to the internal controls over the year-end financial reporting and closing process and then as we move into the federal programs we are off uh providing an unmodified opinion on compliance again as i mentioned before that means the same thing it means that as presented we did not we do not believe that there is any non-compliance based on our audit so that's a clean report on compliance and we did not identify any internal control deficiencies related to the federal compliance as you can see here down at the bottom of the screen we identify for you the programs that were subject to audit under that federal program audit this year and so your child nutrition program cluster as well as the title iv 21st century community program those were

098the two audit programs that were specifically subject to to this audit and last but not least the state compliance report is unmodified so over as a result of the various audit procedures that we perform over multiple state compliance areas that really are governed by the department of education and the uh education our audit guide that's issued by the education audit appeals panel um state controller's office we have our mandated audit very specific programs so things such as how you report attendance how your instructional minute calculations if you have a after-school education program that's funded by the state the unduplicated local control funding formula reporting there's a lot of very specific programs that we have to audit so that unmodified opinion means that we did not have any findings related to any of the state programs

099that were audited and then i just wanted to scan to this page so if you um had an opportunity to review in advance and and and were wondering where the results of uh the finding that i mentioned related to the material weakness this is where it starts on the very next page after what i just covered so pdf page 108 and this really details out for you what i mean by those errors and adjustments that we included within the audit when there are any other issues that do come to our attention as a result of the audit that don't rise to the level of a significant deficiency or material weakness oftentimes these are are items that pertain to maybe your associated student bodies where they don't represent a significant portion of the financial statements of

100the district but we do think that there are just some things that we believe we should bring to management's attention we do include them in this it's really it's really kind of the end of your report it's it's a letter that's addressed to management for observations that other observations that we come across and then we include that in this letter as well so like i said these are just other areas where we might have some observations uh predominantly you'll see you know asb type of observations here we do want to bring them your attention but we do not believe that they impact the financial statements as a whole and that being said i am going to leave my screen sharing up but i mentioned i didn't want to go through 100 pages oh those are

101our results but if there are specific questions or comments or concerns i'm i'm happy to take them do you have any comments or questions from the board i have a question so this this audit um how many times uh so is it every other year is it every year how many times does our district get audited like this it's check and balance so i would really like to know you are mandated to receive an audit every fiscal year so um you know the the district fiscal year ends june 30 2020 we you usually receive your unaudited actual sometime in september and between september till the time we have to issue the report which is normally december 15th the state required deadline we would complete the audit and and um and provide the report we had

102uh we were granted everybody was granted an extension this year by the state because of covid and so we had a little more time this year to finish the audit and and and present the reports which is why we're here tonight as opposed to when we would normally um come to the district in in like january december january so one last call anybody have questions comments for president i could uh have a moment to just thank shadow and her team i know she played an intricate part um and my transition and understanding where we are where we need to go um they've been very responsive very attentive um i know we have work to do but she had the foresight to identify areas of needs we were able to collaborate on solution vice versa i

103just want to help with thank you latasha for you know for that um and shut up for being behind the scenes and helping latasha uh you know here in our district and this is very very important because it's our money and making sure that we're spending it correctly and making sure that like you just said right now that um uh what was it called an it was the un unmodified unnotified and that's that's that's where we want to be is that correct yes okay um if there's no more questions then we'll go ahead and move on to so thank you shiloh for being here um we're going to be moving on thank you very much thank you we're going to move on to our agenda item we're 9.4 approval of resolution number 20-21-27 denouncing xenophobia

104due to copa 19. um before we take a in an action i think i would like to do this a little different um this resolution one of the things that um i want to to to do tonight is i would like all our board and our cabinet to go ahead and read this together one of the things that i heard tonight from our community was that they would like the isuzu unified school district including the board and us to take action i know that all of us have shared tonight at board members how differently that we're you know we're taking action on on our own and being able to be part of the solution so therefore at this time right now i would like to go ahead and start reading this and as i call

105your name if you can read the paragraph that is next um that that would be great if you would like to abstain you can go ahead and do so as well um i'm going to go ahead and start a susan universe president can we have the um excuse me can we share the document on the screen i'm sorry yes um hope can we please share the document on the screen nice and big for where we started me one second i can do it no worries thank you um i just want to express the sentiment on how you know reading this together as as a dice and as cabinet that we are you know committing ourselves to not only are we just voting on this resolution but we together are you know in uh together in

106a sense partaking in this being able to to read this off together that we're partnering this you know putting our differences aside being able to go ahead and stand as unified as we meet and that we're just not going to you know do this in the boardroom but outside of the boardroom as well let me know when you guys oh it's there can all of you guys see it and if you guys have um you guys can also open it into the pdf and um on your computers okay is there anyone that needs more time okay like i said i'm going to go ahead and start it and as i call your name um for the for the paragraph um we'll start with where you know you'll start with whereas in that paragraph um let

107me go ahead and start reading this resolution asusa unified school district resolution number 20-21 a resolution on our commitment to the safety and well-being of our asian american and pacific islander students employees families and community members and denouncing xenophobia due to fears of the covet 19 pandemic whereas a souza unified school district believes that we have a special responsibility to understand and intentionally work to eliminate racism in our curricula our classroom cultures and our relationship with our students our parents our guardians and each other because our collective future depends on it and adrian can you please read the next pair whereas azusa unified school district celebrates the rich diversity of its school community and recognizes students families and employees of asian and pacific islander descent who are valued members of the school district and we

108have a board member rodriguez pena whereas azusa unified school district recognizes the role of current events in teaching of tolerance and understanding and the value and strength of diversity and we have board member uh channeling cruz gonzalez whereas asian american and pacific islander communities are suffering acts of discrimination hate crimes and macro aggressions due to fears of coven 19 and board member bo whereas scientists have confirmed that the covid19 disease does not respect borders and the world health organization has cautioned against using geographic descriptors because they can fuel ethnic discrimination and mr arthur ortega whereas azusa unified school district is especially aware of the trauma and isolation that is accompanying the covenant 19 global pandemic and miss dana mitchell whereas azusa unified school district affirms its commitment to the safety and well-being of our asian

109american and pacific islander community members and ensures that they are not alone and will be supported in helping to stop the spread of xenophobia and mr jorge ronquillo whereas asusa unified school district stands in solidarity with our asian american and pacific islander communities and miss latasha jamal whereas azusa unified school district stands against discrimination among all persons regardless of national origin race greed gender sexual orientation and abilities now therefore be it resolved that the associated fight school district board of education continue to support our asian community and pacific islander community members and announces any and all xenophobia related to cobit 19 and beyond be it further result that the asusa unified school district board of education calls on all residents and leaders to join in condemning racism attacks against asian americans and pacific islanders in

110all forms and be it further result that the asusa unified school district recognizes the tremendous contributions made by our asian american pacific islander communities and affirms its commitment to support to the social emotional and physical needs to all of our students today we will adopt today on the 13th 13th day of april 2021 by the board of education as we vote we will be able to go ahead and carry this forth um i'm going to go ahead and ask for a motion to to approve 9.5 hello we have by board member sabrina beau we have a second by board member uh cruz gonzalez i'm sorry no riolando rodriguez pena one thing um as we're getting ready to vote um i thank you guys all for coming together and standing as one that we will not

111tolerate this not in our schools not in with our employee you know not towards our employees and not in our boardroom therefore at this point right now we can all please cast our votes [Music] and it passes 5-0 thank you so much as we are moving on we are going to move on to consent calendar and at this point if we can get a motion to please no no yes thank you for that we have a 9.5 discussion of board self evaluation we can go ahead and have artudo start this with for us absolutely thank you uh item 9.5 was which is a discussion of board self-evaluation it was a request uh from uh from the from one of our board members to have this conversation i went ahead and took the initiative to attach

112our board bylaw that talks about just just to have as a reference as you begin this conversation around self-evaluation great and so um i would like to go ahead and start with this any of the board members would like to go ahead and start uh president arianes if i may um just offer an opening comment so mr ortega um when i initially reached out to you on this in your research did you do i have it correct that um when you looked into the files that the last time the board did a self-evaluation was in october 2016 is that accurate that is the last time that i could find a a board agenda item for a more self-evaluation yes sure um and then i'm looking to our two you know veteran board members for kind

113of some perspective on you know that process and what you've seen in other boards and kind of where we might start in getting back onto a cycle of board self-evaluation uh board member chris gonzalez and board member pena um yeah i mean there's there's many way i mean there's many ways to do it i think it's been a while since we used to do it annually but it was a long long time ago um but i mean there's so like for example we csba has a tool that we can use um and we've done we've done a process i've done been through a process one time when it was just us right we just looked at our um our bylaws and our and our what's in our manual and use that to evaluate ourselves um

114i think it's really just up to what we feel most comfortable i think generally it's always in an open session regular session meeting it's not um it doesn't happen in us in a like a governance retreat um i don't know um i i find it better if we have a tool right i find it good if we have a tool um that we start with like an individual just reflection and then use that to sort of do a group evaluation that's i think that's what i've seen that's i feel like it's been most effective when we do it that way but i i mean i'm i'm open to whatever process i think it's a good thing to do annually yeah and so i've been bored they've have never did a self evaluation so i am

115not familiar with that other than you know going to see sba conferences that speak about it but i do think it's it is important since we hold everyone accountable in this district student staff administration i think we should do the same it's a good idea can i can i share something so one of the things that um you know the this uh board bylaw it's a the vision setting the curriculum personnel finance policy development even though we haven't had um one in the last two years that i i'm aware of i know that we've come together as a district um with cabinet with um directors parents to and we had a workshop i don't know if you guys remember um board members that we came and we created a uh we created a vision a

116new one and we had like little hubs do you guys remember we we were here i think it was in the circ i'm not sure but it was in the um at the district and we created a vision we you know we spoke about community relations there was different groups and it kind of reminds me of kind of what um uh mr arturo ortega put together that he actually was sharing with the board you know what is this committee doing so there was different committees that were made um you know one of them being you know uh the relationship with the community what what can we do to improve that um the advocacy our curriculum our personnel and so forth the finance and there was a a committee for each one do you remember any

117of this yes that was facilitated by a consultant like president arianes is saying we had uh different uh stakeholders in the room students parents staff and in addition to creating a vision statement we also created some action statements and then we had to report to the board i believe monthly on what we were what the progress was in those in those specific areas moving forward so i i do want to suggest um and i mean i but i'd love to hear from everybody what what to do but i do want to suggest i think um it's really helpful um to look at the csba governance standards right and i think that it's really helpful for us to we do a lot of um i mean it's important for us to evaluate outcomes based on what

118we do with our tutors the superintendent evaluation with our annual goals with the lcap um but i think for it to be really effective for us as the board right we should be thinking about like what are our roles what are our governance roles and setting those goals for ourselves so that then we can evaluate like after a year how we met those goals in terms of thinking about our collaboration in terms of affecting the effectiveness of meetings in terms of um some of the things that that gabriella mentioned i think i think it's helpful for us to focus on when we think about what we're supposed to be doing you want to talk about being a policy maker right what what are those things that we're doing and are we let's measure ourselves against

119those things that we that we should be doing as board members yeah i would agree with that um in reference to the the meeting that we had um board president i think that that was a good work that we did um but i i would suggest that that's though i haven't been a part of a uh board self-evaluation i i imagine that that's separate and apart from a self evaluation and and um i think it'd be great to look at any tools that csba has in place and how can we use that as a model to evaluate ourselves collectively as a as a board i just want to um just clarify i didn't want to say that to do that again instead of i just want to clarify that i just i just wanted to

120share because sabrina is new to the board and um i did want to share that that's something that we did if that's something that she would like to take a look at um she's more than welcome to request um you know th that and so just want to provide that information for her but no i i i agree i'm sorry i cannot hear who's speaking i'm sorry i said the csba survey is a very long survey um so um just thinking about like i feel like it's if it's more focused right and we identify areas that we want to focus on i think it's more effective and i don't know i don't know sabrina if you have just in your experience professional experience like um seen other tools that you could use i mean we

121could or our doodle right there could be tools that we use um to really build what fits us um i think in my work with schools and non-profit boards it's that focus of board self-evaluation has been also about board member composition which is different than what we're doing here that's been more about like what skills do we want and who else do we need to recruit to the board so that's not our work here um i think looking at the csba tools is a great place to start its criteria that has been recognized and adopted and when you say that it's a long tool um are you suggesting that we would it be a tool that we um complete offline and that we bring it back and that's what we discussed when we decide we're

122going to discuss items you know sections one and two in our first you know phase one of our about our self-evaluation is it would be something like that i'm sorry board member cruz gonzalez i'm sorry i keep on turning off my mic sorry um um we we we completed the survey and then we never got to the point where we came together and and went through it um so i think i mean my suggestion is maybe if there's a subcommittee of the board like two people that are interested in in sort of working with arthur to develop a process i think that would be really helpful because it could move it forward that's that would be my suggestion and if we can have two like if people people will be willing to volunteer to take

123a lead on this i think it'd be that would be very helpful i would be interested in in participating in that kind of subcommittee i i would be interested as well anybody else that's good okay so we have two great so we have and so is that technically is that an advisory group not subject to the brown act because we have two or how does that work it's more than three two two of us can be can can be and we can talk about them because it's ad hoc so you guys aren't you're just gonna meet like for a short time okay and there's no official action ad hoc committee i will move forward then and uh organize and uh collaborate with board member beau and board president arianes and uh we'll come back to

124the board as a whole with our with our insights and our possible recommendations great thank you arthur do we have any more questions comments concerns for 9.5 great let's go ahead and move on with our agenda to consent calendar do i have a motion can i please get a motion to move 10.0 and all in the consent calendar can i get a motion to move consent calendar make a motion to approve 10.2 through 10.13 in the consent calendar wait we have a first motion by board member rodriguez pena can i please get a second motion i second we have a second by board member beau if we can go do we have any comments questions scenes that seem that there's none let's go ahead and vote okay and it passes 5-0 moving on with your

125our agenda for tonight we move on to business and finance move on to 12.1 approval of u.s again contract with foothill middle school can i please get a motion to move 12.1 we have a first by board member adrian greer can i please get a second second we have a second by board member rodriguez pena do we have any questions comments discussions 12.2 i think it's a great idea yes so this will put a bin in front of the school where um guys could donate and then as long as there's clothing that can be reutilized repurposed the school will receive proceeds from the agency and how long do they leave the bin there we're going to do it for a year to try it out just to make sure it's not also taken away from

126our curb appeal and seeing how everything works out so what are you doing to to did someone doesn't jump in there or you know for safety issues i mean just it may happen that that is a possibility right so we're going to try this out to see um but it is it has a lid on it to prevent that um but someone could jump in there yeah and it would just be one of those that we would have to provide resources to assist to manage okay thank you i have a question about that um this being in front of foothill middle school um would there be like hours of operation where people can come and drop off things no this just stays it just stays open there's no hours of operation okay great thank you

127and we'll we'll be um letting our our community know that um we will have this recycling um in front of foothill middle school is that correct yes ma'am okay great thank you any more comments questions concerns seeing that there's none if we could please place our vote and it passes 5-0 moving on to 12.2 the ratification approval of consultant graciala gardner resolution number 20-21-28 if i can please get a motion to move 12.2 [Music] second okay we have a first by board member greer and we have a second by cruz gonzalez does anyone have any comments or questions or concerns seeing that there's none let's go ahead and cast our vote okay and it passes 5-0 we move on to 12.3 approval approval of current solutions contract can at least get a motion to approve

12812.3 i make a motion to approve and that was by board member cruz gonzalez thank you and a second by board member rodriguez pena any questions seeing that there's none let's go ahead and cast our vote [Music] great and it passes 5-0 moving on to 12.4 approval of change order number 001 asusa unified school district gladstone high school heating ventilation and air conditioning upgrades can at least get a motion to move 12.4 motion to approve 12.4 i'll second okay we have a first by board member rodriguez pena second by board member cruz gonzalez any any discussion seeing that there's none let's please cast our vote and it passes 5-0 moving on to 12.5 approval of change order number 001 asusa unified school district relocation of portable buildings at glaston street elementary school can i please

129get a motion to move 12.5 we have a first board member greer we have a second by board member cruz gonzalez any discussion seeing that there's none if we could please cast our our votes moving on to 13.0 curriculum and instruction we start with 13.1 approval of the agreement between asus unified school district and disciplina posativa if we could please get a motion to move 13.1 make a motion to approve 13.1 again we have a first by board member rodriguez pena a second by board member greer do we have any discussion i actually have a question mr arthur ortega could you please ex share with us what disciplina positiva is i'm going to go ahead and defer that to dr mitchell thank you we actually have i believe principal antonio flores from paramount who is

130here who could answer a question about that uh lika would you mind moving him over yes he's just moved over okay thanks people floors are you online hi sorry good evening everyone i was having some technical uh issues uh good evening board president ariana thank you for the question uh so this uh disappearable diva is actually a program it's a parent workshop um that focuses on uh supporting our parents uh through during the summer pandemic uh helping them giving them strategies uh to assist their children uh to have them be successful academically uh mentally and emotionally emotionally during this pandemic um mr and mrs uh orozco actually came to our school in november uh before we closed and they did a sort of preview of their workshop and our parent group was very very excited

131uh to to have them uh presented our school so uh our goal was to continue with uh partnership with them but then the pandemic hit but we closed and so they've been working with us um to uh you know uh get to get this workshop going with uh with our families and helping to assess them too to uh you know have success with their students as they're dealing with you know mental stresses uh academic stresses uh during this time of the pandemic great and is this just for for one one um one of the schools or is this for the district this is for paramount for paramount great thank you um thank you so much for sharing that with us um any more discussion or questions no thank you mr antonio flores thank you okay

132as a board we can go ahead and cast our vote and it passes five zero moving on to 13.2 approval of the contract between gladstone high school and right question institute can i please get a motion to move 13.2 i make a motion to approve 13.2 at first by board member rodriguez pena second and we have a second by board member career any questions discussion seeing that there's none we can go ahead and cast our vote and it passes 5-0 moving on to 13.3 approval of the contract between asusa high school and leadership inspirations can at least get a motion to move 13.3 i make a motion to approve board member cruz gonzalez can i please get a second second board member rodriguez pena any discussion scenes seen that there's none if we can please

133cast our vote and it passes 5-0 we have a 13.4 approval of the contract between asusa unified school district and thriving u university can i please get a for a motion to approve 13.4 we have a first by board member greer i'll second we have a second by board member cruz gonzalez do we have any discussion seeing that there's none let's go ahead and cast our votes and it passes 5-0 and that actually concludes our agenda we are going to be moving to closed session but at this point right now i i would like to go ahead and and dedicate this this meeting and this moment of silence to our dear friend teacher um mr dave lewis and we can go ahead and just bow our heads and just have a few sec a minute

134or so a moment of silence thank you thank you guys for for uh joining us in this moment of silence for mr dave lewis and at this moment right now um our our our board and um cabinet will be moving back into closed session thank you all for attending our meeting tonight you're more than welcome to come back for for for us to close and adjourn but if not you may all have may all of you guys have a great great night thank you good night [Music] here i i have um is it okay we take um like a five minute break are you guys okay with it okay we can come back at nine nine eleven all right thank you [Music] are you fine you