001hmm okay we are live on youtube yay welcome everybody a three-minute warning i have a question do we have the where the parents can go ahead and click on it for it to translate i don't see it on the bottom oh supposed to be uh yes it's there i i believe you may not be able to see it because you're a panelist oh but attendees can see it so i can see it because i'm the host okay last time we were i was able to see it that's why it there it is all right i just changed it yeah thank you would you like us to announce that uh right at the beginning yes yes please i'll call it to order and then i'll have you go ahead and announce it thank you hmm foreign
002and welcome to everybody uh we're waiting on one more person and then we'll go ahead and start the meeting there we go i need the host i need the host to allow me to be able to share my screen for the flag solution okay it is currently 7 pm and i'm going to go ahead and open the open session of this unified school district uh board meeting and first of all jorge could you explain not jorge i mean a turtle yes let me unmute myself okay okay so we move on to item uh a the flags loop so 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 okay next we will move on
003to uh roll call board member rodriguez pena president thank you board member arianes present i'm here thank you board member greer here board member cruz gonzalez here and i'm here so there we go um next we'll move on to c 4.1 approval of the agenda i would like to pull items 9.5 and 9.6 and motion for approval second that okay motion by me seconded by um board member arianas now we need to vote i can't do it are you having issues board member ariana's yes okay we'll do a hand vote uh board member cruz gonzalez oh i thought we were all yes okay thank you board member greer yes uh board member rodriguez pena yes and board member arianes yes okay and maybe if you back out and go back log back into um i'm
004in now all right all right cool thank you all right awesome all right then we'll move on to 5.0 um items from the floor public comment on agenda or non-agenda items this is the opportunity for the public to address the board on agenda or non-agenda items no action can be taken on non-agenda items individual speakers may be allowed up to three minutes to address the board on any agenda or non-agenda item to address the board please raise your hand while you're in zoom attendance so we have five hands raised four hands raised we do okay uh let's see i see a tavia lawson yes you can unmute your mic welcome tavia thank you um this my public comment is a non-agendized item this evening i'm providing updates for the east san gabriel valley selfa community
005advisory committee and parents place family resource and empowerment center who is our community agency partner first i would like to thank aaron cramer director of special education and azuza unified school district for providing the cac with translation for our parent in services during the pandemic this past school year we were able to provide for in services for families to get vital information needed for this upcoming school year we are aiming to provide four to five more parent in services in addition to implementing a virtual family night at least twice within the school year our first family virtual night is scheduled for thursday october 29th from 6 pm to 7 15 p.m second our cac has started doing monthly newsletters during the pandemic to make sure parents and educators receive resources and tools they may need
006while distance learning leslie castiano's our azusa usd parent alternate has been helping to design the newsletters parents place is also providing a resource list that is being updated monthly they're also working remotely monday through friday from 8 a.m to 4 30 p.m they're providing workshops for parents and educators via zoom and also their parents support groups are now meeting monthly by zoom to learn more families and educators can email the cac at cac felfa gmail.com thank you thank you so much mr lawson next up is miss barbara dearson dr dickerson you can unmute your mic thank you very much board and cabinet welcome good evening i am delighted to be able to address you tonight while i've extended my congratulations to the new superintendent ortega and the new assistant superintendent dr mitchell i also want
007to do it publicly i am certain that there will be they will bring their passion and their energy to the many issues that are before us during these challenging times i'm also here tonight to share some personal news as well as to highlight to the board and the public some of the achievements in the past seven years of my tenure on the citrus college board of trustees we citrus have initiated and held k-14 conversations for the past four years these have been times for all of us board members and trustees to come together to discuss areas of mutual concern such as dual enrollment we've entered into agreements with azusa unified to offer dual enrollment courses we have intentionally at outreach to assist the families for our k-12 summer offerings of which page program has been
008the most popular because it's assist our students in their math skills we have annually provided to principals information about retention and gpa of their graduates after their first and second semester with us at citrus we established the two-year promise program before most other community colleges we have also been more intentional with early decision and assisting students in fafsa enrollment we have a graduate we've had a graduate of sierra high school sit on the student trustee as a student trustee on the board and become instrumental in clarifying for her peers how college works and we have had a graduate of one of the comprehensive high schools be selected by the faculty as man of the year while i could go on and on because i'm still pleased with the work of the past seven years and
009that's why this decision to resign from the board is bittersweet for me i want to express my appreciation for the relationships that have been established and the collective good work that we have accomplished my hope is that the district will work as effectively with the future trustee to continue the good work on behalf of the students thank you very much thank you dr dickerson um next step would be mr jorge rosales uh mr rosales you can unmute your mic hello can you hear me yes we can thank you good evening board staff beforehand just a point of clarification is by understanding that you pulled items 9.5 9.6 for the agenda yes that is correct mr rosales okay so then i'll just limit my my comments on the item 9.6 to 9 to the fact that
010i attempted to get into the um website uh to look at the draft environmental impact report as well as the final environmental impact report and the links that were provided without the errors as a matter of fact there was no link divided for the final eir so if maybe mr ortega can be kind enough to uh send me a revised link or a correct link to access the environmental impact reports for the uh old school um and then just on that on a side note recent conversation with mr ortega i mentioned to him that i've been involved with the district for approximately 12-13 years and ever since i got issue of the old school old school house has surfaced from time to time 12 years have gone by and i'm sure the old school house
011has incurred i think deterioration um but be that as it may i i do want to read the before i can i make any more comments on this and one last note on uh i was bad to hear the stepping down of my good friend barbara dickerson from the citrus school board he has done an outstanding job for the community all its residents and uh we're gonna make sure hopefully we'll have somebody uh of her calendar uh to replace in uh and basically represent next up is mr james ramirez mr ramirez you can mute your mic hi there can you hear me yes we can thank you great thanks good evening honorable board members my name is james ramirez and tonight i would like to comment briefly on the old school house which i know
012the agenda item has been pulled but i still like to submit my comments uh if i may i'm a lifelong resident of azuza for over 30 years and a product of this fine school district i have attended elementary middle and high schools at ausd including slauson where the old school house is located i'm honored to call this city my home one reason being our city's proud history and heritage i believe the old school house is one of those pieces of history this 117 journal structure is a crucial part of our community's past providing a glimpse into the early days of azusa when it served as one of only two polling locations for elections to more uncomfortable historical moments when education of mexican americans were segregated to this building to still have a physical remnant of
013those times creates an extraordinary opportunity to provide local historical context to some of the current social issues affecting society today the azusa cultural and historic preservation commission was resurrected in november 2017 with the goal to preserve the city's rich history by establishing the foundation framework and guidelines for the city's historic and cultural preservation program as the chair of this commission i along with my fellow commissioners have been making great progress in developing our program despite the many covet 19 challenges the old school house would be a prime example of an entity that could benefit from our work i'm asking that you consider preservation instead of demolition and work with me the commission the historical society of azusa and the city to not only preserve this historic relic but to educate students and residents on our
014city's storied past thanks for your time thank you mr ramirez next up is mr manuel munoz mr munoz you can unmute your mic good evening president and members of the board my name is manu munoz i am the planning manager for the city of azusa i am speaking on item 9.5 and 9.6 i understand that the item has been pulled but i want to continue to urge the board that the city did submit a letter for both items in which we are urging um the board to work with the city for the possible preservation of this historical treasure the current uh the city is currently undergoing historic preservation efforts and this is definitely one area that we definitely want to continue to preserve due to the history and everything that is revolved around the old
015school house and that's it for now thank you mr munoz next up is carissa mendez miss mendez you can mute your mind welcome listen hi can you hear me yes we can fantastic um good evening everyone i am chris mendez mother to four ausd students my youngest is starting tk this year and he's he's pretty excited um i have a few things i want to talk to you guys about but i'm gonna start um with desks i'm part of a lot of online forums and one of the hottest topics right now one of the most searched for items one of the most needed items is a desk everyone's looking and asking for a desk and for a lot of families this is really just not an affordable expense right now um so typically school is
016your home away from home school is your second place home being your first place and now we have to effectively and efficiently merge the two places in a manner that is conducive to learning having a viable workspace where you are organized and mindful of getting work done is of the utmost importance i mean even we as adults we have an area where we sit down where we have all our necessities so we so we won't be distracted be productive and get things done during the google meets last year i accompanied my children my four children i um joined their meets and i noticed that consistently children who were not sitting upright or did not have a desk or table in front of them they just were not as engaged they were tired and were easily
017distracted maybe even teachers can give some feedback on that so my question is would it be possible for the district to check out desks to usd students we've already done this with the chromebooks would it be possible to check out adjust from your school maybe even from the very classroom you can be sitting in eventually um so why not check out desks to children so they can have a workspace and an area where they can be organized and ready to learn the first thing you do when you're going to your classroom is you sit down at your desk you have your things there you're ready to be receptive of information maybe some muscle memory can even assist here so i know a lot of families have had their workspaces figured out and that's fantastic but
018i know that there's kids that don't have an area where they can sit down and be ready to learn so i'm asking would it be possible for the district to check out desks to children who may need that area to have all their things organized and to be ready to learn another thing i wanted to talk about real fast was school reorganization a topic we haven't heard about or talked about you know i think a while now so i don't want this to be surprising when it comes up again and i do think it's a it's a topic that deserves some dialogue so i'd really like to see it you know come on an agenda soon um and then last thing the pact plus committee there are some things that some pac-plus parents had said
019that was really concerning to me as a parent just um in the sense of the information they were given and then what the actual outcome of you know school reorganization would be so i think it's worth revisiting maybe revising and expanding the committee because one parent even um mentioned that it seemed like they were being sold at a car dealership i think she spoke a few months ago at me at one of the district meetings so i think it's worth looking into and worth revisiting again thank you all for your time thank you mrs mendez okay there's nobody else let's see no other hands okay well we will move forward then and next we'll go to item 6.0 comments and requests by the board and board member rodriguez pena hello good evening um everyone i
020just wanted to thank uh dr dana mitchell and norma camacho they did a fantastic job uh with the um the zoom meeting that they had with the parents regarding um giving them options having to do with uh distant learning virtual academy independent study and i was really glad to hear uh in the spanish and in english that there was many parents and they had many great uh questions so thank you dana again and thank you norma camacho that was before we had the translator so norma was doing the translating um after dana would speak then she would translate for her and it seemed to work out okay at that time and i just wanna you know um say that i've noticed that glaston highness is a high school their fields are looking good i i
021just can't wait with that measure um okay thanks to the community and um i'm just going to go and see it closer and i like to look at the gyms because i think that they're coming out really nice and i just going to see the ending result thank you thank you miss opinion uh board member arianes good evening everyone and everyone that is on the phone on zoom or watching us on youtube live thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to come to our meeting i wanted to go ahead and point out that i i really enjoy having the highlights from our district um i don't remember the student's name but i do remember the teacher's name which is a cindy crawford and it was i believe in our board packet
022last week and a student was highlighted and was able to complete his credits with the help of the apex teacher cindy crawford and so what i did is i reached out to this teacher and um i thanked her for her tenacity and her dedication uh you know to make sure that the student was able to graduate from our school district and one thing that she pointed out was you know most of the students that perhaps don't graduate just need that one person to give them that chance that push that you know structure for them to be able to finish and they will be able to finish and that was such an inspiration for her to say that to me because i'm a i i'm i'm a believer that when you invest time and you invest
023you know some time in students and the district also works with a parent with a student we can build successful futures no matter what that student whatever obstacle that student probably had their senior year um that they're able to graduate from the souza high so congratulations and thank you at the district um for everybody who helped with that um i do see the the fields going up um that's pretty exciting getting to see what what they're going to look like and the bleachers i i also agree i would like at the end i i would like to see what they they look like especially at gladstone as a former gladiator as a student um those bleachers were there even before when my mother-in-law went there in the 1960s so now they're going to get new
024bleachers i i would like to to um you know get a chance to come out and check out the new bleachers at gladstone high school thank you very much thank you board member ariana's next board member greer good evening everyone just a couple quick things um first yeah um thank you uh to to dana and the team and everybody who who put together the conversations um you know that that were had um you know heard a lot a lot of great feedback from there um i also want to to thank you dana and also um aaron um for the you know the work i know tomorrow there's going to be a meeting that's being held for um families um with reopening with special education and so that's a conversation that's happening and so i want
025to encourage um you know those to attend to to share and give insight um do also just want to give a quick shout out to vanessa soto also who is a just a superstar mom who also um was instrumental in in bringing forth perspective uh to to make sure that the meeting was what's happening and so uh just just grateful for the combination of folks that we have uh in the district both on staff and also uh parents um to to make things uh better for for our families and for our students um last thing i have is just want to share out i did not uh and very intentionally i did not have a host of coffee um last month but i i do plan on hosting one this month and um that will
026be on august uh 17th that's on a monday um and so i'll be sending out information um but that's august 17th at 6 00 p.m so just uh just fyi um for the for any who would uh be interested in attending that that coffee conversation that's all thank you board member board member cruz gonzalez good evening um i just want to echo yolanda and adrian in terms of the meetings that we had for the parents i was able to attend two of them the ones in the evening um and i i really appreciated the comprehensiveness of both presentations as well as the thoughtful questions coming from our community so i think i think that was good um i'm looking forward to hearing how many of our students are actually planning on enrolling in the virtual
027academy right so i think you know um to understand what that means for our schools um and i'm just i mean i don't want to say i'm looking forward to school opening i i am but i am looking forward to seeing what what's going to be coming out of all this mad planning that's coming from our to from our from our administrators from our teachers from our classified employees to sort of midstream go back to distance learning that we thought i think a lot of us hope would be over in our past um and clearly is not um so i look forward to just hearing more details as they come out um and really always just reminding us all that our parents and our students our students especially in their and their families have to
028be centered in what we do right because ultimately we are depending heavily on them to make sure that that we can have the level of education that that we're aspiring to so i just wanted to put that on the table thank you thank you board member cruz gonzalez and i would like to um i called arturo today to tell him thank you because um in our packets the explanations of what everything is and what what each item is for is so clear and concise and i'm really appreciating the details that we're getting in our packet that don't have to be worked out while we're in a meeting so we already have it and if we still want to ask questions there we go um i'd also like to thank staff for all of the hard
029work they've been been doing and um the fields having been walking out in those fields and practically twisting my ankle i am so happy to see it i just saw gladstone's last week i haven't seen it in a while i see i live near azusa high so um and they are looking nice it is gonna be so nice to have our children be able to drive past that really nice football field and track and be proud when people come for track meets it's gonna be us so i thought i'd throw that out there as well and that's all i have to say and so we'll move on to item 7.0 comments and reports by cabinet and superintendent please proceed mr arturo ortega thank you um so mines are gonna be echoes as well so i'm
030happy to let everyone know that the turf for both the azusa high school and glaston high school fields have arrived and so that's always a good sign when the turf arrives because then we know that we're closer than we've ever been so we're very excited to to be able to see the finished product i want to also thank the over 700 attendees our community partners and families and parents that we had at our virtual community meetings about our distance learning in english and in spanish we greatly appreciate the feedback and the questions that were posed during those meetings because those questions and that feedback helped inform some of our next steps for example our improved frequently asked question document our one page infographic that i believe went out tonight or is going out tonight if
031not by tomorrow those are those are results of us working together in partnership and those things happen um when you give feedback and you give questions so i just want to say how thankful i am that you all attended and that you provided your input thank you okay miss dana mitchell good evening uh in the last week principals have been returning and we're getting excited about uh making plans for opening our our schools and our virtual environment lots of plans are shaping up we've got parent meetings welcome videos for students and parents we've got student meetings uh planning for different workshops and i'd also like to echo too just to say thank you so much for all the parents and community members that have attended the meetings and provided us with just incredible feedback especially
032parents who have given us so many suggestions on different kinds of workshops and the kinds of workshops that they'd like to have and how they'd like to access that and access resources and information so it's given us just uh really some great ideas for planning and especially when it comes from the the parents it's been very very helpful i also want to share that throughout the summer many teachers have been attending uh different virtual professional learnings one of the sessions is happening this friday and azusa unified is part of a new 10 district professional learning network collaborative with a focus on preschool through third grade mathematics and this collaborative is part of our work that we've been doing with california education partners and the collaborative comes it's a three-year professional learning network and it comes
033with lots of different shared learning opportunities and the first one that um that we get to participate in uh is this friday and it is a workshop on counting collections and it is facilitated but it's facilitated by dr megan um frankie of uh ucla she's a professor and an expert in the field of mathematics education and there are 100 seats and 35 azusa unified pk through third grade teachers um scooped up those seats so we're excited about that and and we just know it's going to be super super valuable and then lastly yes tomorrow we are excited uh august 5th at 6 pm we are hosting another parent meeting and this time it is for our parents with um students with disabilities and this is around just reopening schools it's a follow-up and so we'll
034be offering that meeting in both english and spanish and again look forward to continuing and to answer answering questions so thank you very much thank you dr mitchell and next uh miss ms patterson nope alrighty mr unkyo thank you i'll be brief i just want to share with you that i am really happy that um the work that we're doing with our bargain union leaders uh to really help reopen schools it's appreciated that each and every participant is really putting students and families first and as we think and talk about the reopening of schools thank you mr rilke all righty and so now we will move on to um item 8.0 report action of closed session matters there's nothing to report so we'll move on to item 9.0 general functions 9.1 appoint board representative to
035the los angeles county school trustees association laxta for the 2021 year um and that's an action item so right now we have board member arianas as the representative and board member greer as the backup do you all want to any change do you want to continue on what you're doing does anybody else want to step up actually um i i'm a director on that board right now so i don't know if i can do both and i don't know if they want to do it that's fine too but i just want to just throw that out there because i will be there at every meeting that's what i'm saying that's why i asked yeah that's fine um how go ahead adrian yeah i i would feel great about uh moving for board member rodriguez pena
036to serve as the as our representative okay i accept we do need an alternate so yes who's who would like to be alternate i can't do it i i don't mind continuing on as an alternate if that's helpful thank you so the motion is for you uh yolanda to be the um representative and me to be the alternate okay that sounds good um any discussion all righty well then we can go ahead and vote on this for board member rodriguez pena to be the representative and for a board member greer to be the altru okay passes five zero so next we will move on to nine item 9.2 azusa unified school district legal services miss ster ortega please take over thank you um i'm actually going to turn it on uh turn over to ms
037patterson uh but just to do a brief uh intro here so this item is a follow-up to conversations that we have had at the board level regarding new legal services potential new legal services for azusa unified school district ms patterson has done a really good job of clarifying the rfq rfp and putting together a objective and transparent timeline for your consideration and so today she's going to walk through that timeline and then ask for feedback with the hopes that after today's conversation we have clarity on on next steps uh so that we can begin uh implementing uh the timeline ms patterson thank you superintendent ortega members of the board so um what we have done is i know that uh there was uh this was broccoli board earlier this year i i've taken the document
038and worked with a wonderful district staff to make it a more robust uh document it basically added bond counsel into the legal services um asked for specific staffing i asked about staff helping us do professional development so we don't need to spend money as much money on legal services because we know better and we can do better and added corporate background diversity objectives and the ability to negotiate the rate based on how many different areas of expertise are awarded so that's kind of where the document is right now i have proposed a timeline starting with this evening if we can get a agreement on the document itself we can put that in arrange for placement in the local newspapers tomorrow morning and we can put it on our website the next day on the 6th
039of august um at that point we would begin mailing to all legal firms that are registered with the csba axa casbo and others known in the area with k-12 experience in addition to that on august the 17th uh would be the last day for anyone have any questions to request additional information and as those questions come in they would be posted to the website so the questions and answers would all be available for all people uh interested in participating in the process uh at this point we're looking at august 28th is the deadline to put to submittals of the rfp rfq um the week of august the 4th we would have a selection committee put together to work with the rubric in opening the proposals grading the proposals uh the week of august the 7th
040that would be done the committee would meet and do the ranking and then the week of uh september the 14th um the recommendation the top-ranked bidders uh would submit their last best and final offer of rates to the assistant superintendent who then um i basically we've reserved the right for that person to negotiate those rates further based on the number of categories awarded uh and then at this point we were looking at agendizing it under september the 22nd board meeting and so with that i'd like to open it for questions comments and be back does anybody have any questions i do okay remember ariana's right so i think this it um i like the timeline i appreciate the timeline given and it's very detailed i do appreciate all that um one of the things that
041i want to go ahead and bring up that when this motion was carried back in january what was motion and passed was that the board was to approve and to go ahead and select the legal counsel so i i really think that the board should make that decision there's two things that the board is responsible in doing and that is the hiring of the superintendent and the second is legal counsel and it's it's really important that when we you know select when we're interviewing or we're selecting a superintendent we do not invite another cabinet member we do not invite another staff member so therefore i want to go ahead and open it up to to my colleagues and see what they think anybody have anything to say what do you yes no disagreement we will
042have two people on according to the board members right but that's not what was motioned in past and that's what i'm pointing around all right it's the entire board that um that would that would go ahead and uh do this process the selection among the you know among the uh rfqs and rfps that will be presented so that's that's what i'm asking uh asking and throwing out there that's my opinion i i i don't agree with that so um i just want to go ahead and open it up to my colleagues i just wanted to add um i'm sorry honest i i do recall the conversation but um i don't know we specified all board or you know two board members to be on this panel yeah i i i don't recall i'm not saying
043it didn't happen but i'm just saying i don't recall um but you know i i don't recall with everybody or clarity just for the sake of the conversation um are what i'm hearing um that you're asking the other board members is that where it says the week of september 4 2020 and i'm asking for clarity uh you're saying that it should be five board members and it should not include cabinet and special education selected is that correct is that what you're asking the board uh for feedback on yeah yes that is correct okay i just wanted to clarify what what what what that was so i think i'll go ahead adrian yes as i'm thinking back i do remember that we you know we had this conversation i think this is one of the challenges
044when we when there's you know so much time that goes in between uh like a conversation and then when the item is coming here um i do remember that we talked about um the board being involved but i but i i also don't remember what the what that process would would look like so i mean i guess i guess maybe it would be helpful to hear what i mean how things one how things have happened in the past and to how would that process work if the five of us were to i don't i'm just trying to think about how that how that would play out i'm and that's not clear to me okay board member cruz gonzalez yeah i was just gonna say i mean i'm looking at this timeline um so i think
045i think to your point so let me just ask a question of arturo then and colleen right so because because i'm comfortable with a panel that has both staff and board members on it to vet to vet right i mean that's something that we commonly do but just to clarify i mean ultimately the contract would be would be approved by the board right so the ultimate decision will come to the board um i just can ask the question in terms of um do you is the is the intention to just bring uh like a sort of like an overview of the different of the finalists or is the intention and maybe it's too early or is the intention to bring like a single recommendation that then would come to the board for approval i just
046think there's like a there's like a you know like a halfway point to me where the board has some input but where it's not all five of us sit through all the root the scoring piece in the interview piece um in my history what i always find works best in these types of situations and i'll just put that out for you guys to to see if this fits or not for you for your community is generally the rubric done by the people who are using the professional development and the legal services and the board members um usually if there's a rubric that actually would grade that um and then i'm used to having that go to the board members um and then basically it's like okay so then we'll agendize that as a discussion you
047can do that as a discussion item and then put it back on the agenda for award so you could actually do it as a two-step board process um but usually um uh the the part to that is that you don't you won't have your assist you can't really negotiate a last best and final on the rates until you're ready to award and so i would want to separate those two processes to help you guys keep down your legal costs i think yeah so i mean that being heard i'm comfortable with having like the panel be both staff and the board to do the initial evaluation um and then i would just say i just i would just put on the table i want us to be um open to considering maybe having more than one
048firm do legal services i mean i'll just give an example i think our ed services is very happy with their special ed support that they get right now right and so you know depending on what interviews come back different firms have different strengths and so i know i know other districts have multiple firms so that you can have you know so you can have find the person that meets your best the needs for whatever area you're talking about whether it's hr or admin or just general policy work so um or special ed ed services so i just want to put that on the table because i think you know last time we felt really we had to have one one firm and then that was it and i think that sort of made us feel
049um it makes us feel constrained right because then we're sort of that's the person they send us is the person we use which in whichever field because that's because we only have one option so i just want to put that on the table as well and all right i don't want to be on the panel i i just don't i don't have time to to be on that on the scoring panel i i was going to say i i agree with you on that point that the um i i i don't the original panel if we're going to get together if we have maybe the panel can whittle it down to three because i do feel that it is important to let our the people who are going to work with our attorneys also um
050have part of the hiring process but also oh my gosh i had a brain leak there for a second but also for the fact that um yes more than one legal firm i checked around and i talked to people and they said that it's best to have more than one legal firm that way you have special people who are good here people who are good here people who are good here and that's my point and next step um can i speak to that before you move on yes please um that that's totally consistent with uh the piece that's in here now about conflict of interest because frequently um there is a conflict of interest and the legal firm will notify you that they have a conflict of interest and then you have someone else that
051you work with that you can roll to so i just wanted to get that in before you moved on because it's a very important piece okay and gabby did you want to say something or did i saw you took your hand down no okay um i did i did oh i did but i'll go ahead and let adrian and yolanda go go ahead okay thank you thank you i keep forgetting about the lag so please forgive me i'm trying to work on that so i so i i you know i think it's i'm i'm typically a um a fan of of allowing different people to speak into things especially when you know when it affects them and so so seeing that other people are giving input or insight i think that i can see how
052that's helpful i still recognize though that um as board member ariana said that this is one of those situations where this is the board that makes the you know makes the the decision here um is it possible um to as as you may be suggested here uh colleen to just add an additional step in here in between the what we have on the 22nd and uh the fourth where where where there is an agenda it would need to be agendas but there's an agenda conversation where the board is able to look at what uh recommendations came forward from that that group um if if we add that then it still allows the i think that still gets at the spirit of what it sounds like because i don't entirely remember but i do know that
053we talked about wanting to play a role um and i think that that gets at the spirit of what was decided back in january so can we is it so what if we amend the process to add that in there um one other thing i would i would say just to for point of clarification it says in here the week of september 4th which is a thursday or uh it's a friday it looks like um so i but i i i presume you mean you know the week of august 31st so maybe okay just one little typo there then i appreciate that yeah and uh let me i guess i'll add also i i depending upon what day that is that week i may also be unavailable um so it just depends personally so it
054would just depend on what day of the week that would um would be okay next uh board member is finna yes um i that's a great timeline and and i and i agree that um you know uh board members should be included and um but i myself i'm not interested so i i'm good with you know two board members you know i trust their judgment i would like to see the recommendations of course more than one one firm and um but but you know i'm i'm not interested in being included in the process until we get to the end hey board member ariana i what i'm hearing from from the board is that you guys would like administration to be included on this i i would like to go ahead as a board member include
055be part of that process so i will be available and i would like to go ahead and be part of that process if that's what the majority wants uh then um that's okay i'll go ahead and just continue and just be part of that process and bring back like board member yolanda pena said uh bring back and uh thank you for trusting our judgment okay board member cruz gonzalez i just asked a clarifying question about um about the um the vetting process will there be any like live interview with the firms or is this all just paper screening uh i actually uh in the rfp it makes uh the availability the firms the availability that the firms can do live interviews um when it comes to professional services uh generally it's it's not like done
056at a board reading setting because that kind of turns it into a marketing campaign um and uh the information um i put this it's more about relationships and and and you guys have been a senior board for quite a while so uh you have some history uh where you understand the background that some of these firms have been through um and so it's kind of uh that there's a lot of background stuff and rubric rating uh that usually is done in the background and then just brought forward does that answer your question or did i not address it yeah so i i'm not i'm not so so one i do i just wanna i think that it's very important to have live a live interviews um i'm not suggesting i'm not suggesting that it'd be
057the board i think i'm talking about the panel that's doing the scoring right that's gonna be sending recommendations and the reason that i say that is i think we as a board can agree that communication style is very important right and you cannot you don't know that when you read when you're reading some a written document and so i think that i personally feel like it's important that we have an attorney that can be concise can be clear can be direct um and and will answer our questions you know and not sort of give us great answers and i think i don't i can't know that from just reading a piece of paper so that's so so uh so yes i i'm requesting to have some live interviews with whichever finalists that you that you
058settle upon but not not the board but that committee the two board members and the other people that you're planning on including on the scoring process yes and i i think i believe there's a piece in here where it says the selection committee may vary select the firm's deemed to be the most highly qualified evaluation of the proposals and basis award uh will be based on the review and analysis numerous impact factors which will be included in the proposal and the firms um may be invited to present their qualifications and respond to questions from panel members so that's already in the rfq giving telling the people in the award system that the panel is keeping that as an option that they may ask them to come in and answer questions so if you're okay with
059that language in there we can just state the intent of the board that they would like for the committee to exercise that option and i would like to say that i don't mind being on the panel i'm not going to be here for the results so if you're okay with that because i'm stepping down i'll do it i just wanted to make sure the people who were actually going to deal with the law firm had a chance all right um board member pena did you have more to say okay board member arianas okay board member greer thank grier yeah um so do we have is there a target date just because like i said i i could i could be available but it just depends on what day it is that that week and then
060should we if we're going to go a two board member um route should we identify who those board members are now because again i'm available to do that um if it's the latter half of the of the week but i'm not available on the on the first half of that week oh okay well remember if you want want to go ahead and join do we have the date identified for when that would take place no okay would it be one would it be one day or would it be over the course of more than one day well if you're gonna want to meet with the firms then it would be probably more than one day but at least the initial screening probably would only take one day okay then the ranking and the rubric and
061then you might want to just invite certain attorneys back to discuss certain areas as you're deciding because there's seven areas that you could award in according to this rfp so you may want to vet them out or vet cheaply them against each other so arthur do i see you nodding did you did you want to let us know in your mind what this would be like because i i appreciate colleen's work but i'm not sure you're going to be with us calling when this happened i know that's why i tried to make it as as complete as possible yeah i i like that that two-step process of uh depending on how many i i think that we can uh have the opportunity to decide you know as as we get the the the bids if
062there's just as an example if there's four that we can add the the live if there's maybe it's a two-step process where first is paper and then you take your top and then you you you bring in uh some of that that live interaction so i think we can we can kind of be fluid in that depending on on what it is that that we get and then we can make those decisions as this committee that's outlined right here uh in terms of dates and times and make sure that you know everyone's available and we can we can move forward um i do just have some some some clarifying just so that we're on the same page here so we talked about the fact that there is a request and a desire and a want
063and we will include uh some live portions of this vetting process um i heard that um yes we're gonna move forward with the committee that it's outlined here which is two board members superintendent cabinet and special education the one that i want some clarity on is um i think we're all in agreement but i want to reiterate and then i want to be clear on this that even though this is a committee that we still want to honor the entire board kind of conversation that had taken place and so we're going to add a step between the september 14th step and the september 22nd step where the board can have an opportunity again to look at the top recommendations and be able to put in uh comments uh and ideas uh to that but what
064i want to do is actually be a little bit more granular about that and tie it uh to actual board meetings unless we're thinking about adding uh because right now um our our board meetings if we're gonna add a step in here we would we would either have to say that we're going to be on a quick timeline and that step that we're adding is on september 15th or that seems a little too too rushed and so then that's going to have to be added october 6th which then of course adds the the the award agenda to uh to a later board meeting so that's what i want to gain clarity on is are we aiming for that second step to be on on the 15th or are we waiting until october 6 or no
065there's a desire to put like maybe a special board meeting or where this is we're only talking about this particular uh item well we have been meeting almost every week i i i i'm gonna suggest that we we are able to meet september 8th and make that an agendaized meeting to be able to discuss this what do you guys think does that depend on though how many candidates we have or firms i should say wouldn't that depend on that if we have am i recording or not that many you know around there yeah my recommendation is if we're adding a special board meeting to to discuss the the candidates that that would be the earliest september 22nd so that that that step that we're talking about that would give the committee plenty of time uh
066to do the work that they need to do on the 22nd we would bring a special meeting just to talk about legal services so that the entire board can weigh in and then the award uh goes october 6th if if the process works the way it's supposed to work okay um i'm okay with that but board member grier uh do you have some a comment oh okay board member rams okay so i i'm a little confused i just need clarification so adding a step right to amend agent you said you wanted to amend what so yeah my my suggestion is that we add a step let me be clear the step that i was talking about did not have any dates attached to it um and i and i'm personally comfortable with pushing dates out
067if that's if that you know needs to happen you know um but what i was talking about is just steps the last two steps one says the week of september 14th one says the week of the september 22nd my suggestion is that we add a step in there where the board is able to to review some um you know some of the the finalists that comes from the committee or we you know we award um but if yeah if that were to happen on the 22nd and then push out you know um to the to the sixth or even if we were not to schedule a special meeting and have it on the sixth and push it out to i mean it's all i mean we're talking a matter of of a couple weeks to
068bring this to resolution so that's minuscule in my opinion so we have two options option one if we are not in the mood for adding uh meetings um then we would bring the step that's currently being talked about um to the october sixth board meeting that would not require adding a board meeting and then on the sixth all board members can weigh in on the top candidates that this committee has been working on then if everything works out the way it's supposed to work out then we're looking at october 20th for the possible award of the contract or contracts and if we're okay with that then that requires not not adding any additional board meetings i'm fine with it remember family is fine with it board member arianes finally that works out all right fantastic
069um just a point of clarity is that is it that would be a closed session um review or that's open session review of those contracts ms patterson do you know the i don't know the answer to that my sense is um actually i would say unfortunately it probably depends uh because if you discuss it strictly as a contract um then it would need to be an open session and if you uh want to discuss your current ongoing legal um claims in the context of who you want presenting and taking care of those then my sense would be that way that could qualify for closed session but remember i'm not your legal counsel but i have used a fair amount of legal legal counsel and i think that's how that would come down and for that
07010-6 to your point uh mr greer for attend six i i will gain super clarity on that as well and board member ariana i just want to be clear um that uh board member adrian greer has uh said that he can be part of the week of the 31st of august but not necessarily the 31st and it because he showed some interest in being part of this committee if we can go ahead and um accommodate uh adrian if you can give your availability i think that would be great somebody so so the two board members are going to be who uh board member ariana's and board member greer okay and and i'm looking so so maybe um jerry would you could you be a backup if need so i could i am i'm available on
071the third i could do the third or the fourth [Music] and actually the third would need to be um more during the day and the fourth could be any time okay so then we are going to move forward with this timeline uh we are going to work with the committee um on specific dates and times if for whatever reason as a committee we cannot accommodate um a schedule then um mrs bible's logo will step in as an alternate is that what i'm hearing right okay thank you okay any more okay so we'll move on to item 9.3 approve public employment assistant superintendent business services government code 549545.5 do i have a motion motion to approve okay motion by board member arianes second seconded by board member greer um any discussion yes i would i would
072like for mr uh arthur ortega to kind of speak um on who uh mrs jamal i can't jamal uh just talk a little bit about her before we vote um i'm happy to do that and mr rokio please fill in the gaps if i fail to do that um number first and foremost we're very excited um to let you know uh that we're bringing forward latasha jamal uh as the next assistant superintendent of business services uh ms jamal i went through a pretty rigorous process that include that included interacting with parents of the district high school students of the district our labor partners from certificated to classified to afe uh to management uh and uh other staff members it included a homework assignment and it included an on-demand performance task so two written assignments one
073where they had uh the time to to think about and create uh one where they were in the pressure cooker to respond to uh with a timeline i also went through a process with cabinet and myself and i am happy to say that at every single turn of this process whether it was the performance task the homework the the various interviews mr tasha jamal um rose to the occasion uh impressed all the way through and just did a phenomenal job um and so we're very happy uh to bring her forward she currently serves as the assistant superintendent of business services for moore park uh and so they're very uh sad uh that this is uh that to lose her uh but we're very happy uh to uh to have her join our team mr tonkyo
074if there's anything you needed to or wanted to add to that mr attaina you did a fantastic job uh summarizing the process uh it was a very talented um group of uh candidates that mr ball uh was was participating with but like mr ortega stated uh is she was um the the outstanding standout of the of the group very very happy to have her join our team okay is there any more comments all right let's go ahead and vote and the vote passes five zero in favor and next we have approve assistant superintendent business services contract do i have a motion on the floor make a motion to approve okay motion by board member rodriguez pena seconded by board member arianes okay any comments okay let's go ahead and vote and that passes five zero
075and i would like to let ms jamal latasha jamal come forward if she has anything to say miss okay here she is mr mall you are in the room and you have been unmuted i believe you hear me yes thank you and i want to thank you for the opportunity um thank you superintendent and the cabinet members and thank you for board for your vote and confidence and i'm looking forward to just hitting the ground running thank you again okay thank you all righty so with that um we're going to move to the item 10.0 consent calendar all matters listed under the consent calendar are considered by the board to be routine will be enacted by the board in one motion on the format following the last consent calendar agenda item there will be no
076discussion of these items prior prior to the time the board staff or the public request specific items to be discussed if discussion is requested by a board member that item will be removed from the consent calendar and will be considered separately the superintendent and staff recommend approval of all consent calendar agenda items do i have an emotion or yeah um jerry i'm sorry i'd like to pull item 10.4 please okay go ahead and pull 10.4 i'd also like to pull item 10.6 and 10.6 and so do i have a motion to approve the all the consent items excluding item 2.10.4 and 10.6 so moved okay moved by board member grier and seconded by board member rodriguez pena it's all about time to vote okay is past 5-0 and item 10.4 becomes item 11.1 and item
07710.6 becomes item 11.2 and um yolanda uh board member ruth pena yes i would just i want to ask a few questions regarding this teacher um my question was did she teach at ausd last year um doing this course and um i do know that sometimes we are in need of emergency credentials but i know that we try not to give emergency credentials we like to have the teacher in the classroom that has property credentials to teach this class um uh we'd like to see in the future in the in the resolution a date like when is this person supposed to get her credential to teach his class is there a timeline or you know how how does this work um very very good questions uh board member rodriguez kenya um it is our interest
078to have all teachers fully credentialed uh when they're in front of students um that's that's uh that we know that we set our students up for success when we have the most appropriately credentialed person in front of students we do have very exceptional situations where we do need to um look for individuals who are teaching classes where there isn't really um that many candidates um and american sign language is a one of those one of those uh classes uh we're very fortunate to offer that as a world language at um our at souza high school um and so we did go through a very rigorous process of trying to fill this position um last year um and so we we really we partnered with mount sac we partnered with citrus college um and really were
079um unsuccessful in finding a a candidate uh that was appropriately credentialed that would be a good fit for our students we did have a person who was who is actually going into her second year so this is her second year the second year of two so you're only allowed two years to be on an emergency credential like this um so uh she did uh our office required that this employee sign a a letter of understanding that they need to be fully credentialed by the beginning of next year or else they will not be able to continue on this on this path i've also asked of my my office to schedule uh regular check-in um points so that they are checking in with with the teachers so that we are getting regular updates to make sure
080that she's making appropriate progress so that we're not stuck in a situation like this in the summer trying to fill a vacancy when students are already enrolled for this class thank you very much so so they are aware that they have to complete their credential at a certain date like you said two years one right correct they have one more year you get a total to get a total two uh we are in the we're entering the second year of that uh two-year agreement and the employee has signed a uh letter of understanding stating that they need to complete it by the end of by this time next year so we give them the summer to complete it okay thank you very much for the clarification thank you of course thank you do i have
081a motion to approve i make a motion to approve okay motion by board member rodriguez pena do you have a second second by board member okay and we will vote and it item passes five zero and we will move on to item 11.2 approved contract with csm consulting incorporated and board member greer yeah could we just uh would you be able to publicly just share what what this is um you know the purpose and the takeaways from this contract sure i can certainly do that so this is a consultant agreement um this consultant provides the required e-rate related services independent of the e-rate application or dollar value of the application including audit support so they prepared documentation forms and applications regarding the federal communications commission e-rate program any other questions hey do i have a
082motion i move to approve 11.2 um motioned by a second board member rear seconded by board member arianas and let's vote [Music] okay we're waiting on yeah my mouse is acting really funny i don't know okay no i can just i just go to the computer all right no we're gonna hand vote now hold on a second i just seen a vote yes here did it vote did it register no yet [Music] yeah i just i don't know what's wrong with my computer okay we'll just do a hand vote no big deal oh um board member cruz gonzales yes uh remember okay board member grier member ariana yes oh there we go it worked yay zero thank you next we move to item 12.0 curriculum and instruction 12.1 approval of the california emerging technology fund
083cetf agreement for collaboration with school districts for distribution of chromebooks in response to covid19 dr mitchell i'm going to assume is going to handle that one move to approve oh okay uh motion by board member cruz gonzalez seconded by board member greer and any discussion you have several questions um i noticed on the agreement it does state that they have distributed 5 000 chromebooks to low-income students and in the communities in the frontier service areas my question is how many of those chromebooks will be distributed to azusa unified school district it's because it's not in the agreement and um how are they selecting the students that will be receiving them thank you my student does not if the student does not have frontier in their in their area you know it depends i guess where
084you live right what happened they don't get one or or what happens how do we work better around that that's a great question thank you so much for the members rodriguez pena um so um i received confirmation from um the uh california emerging technology fund that that they have allotted 500 chromebooks for uh zeus unified school district and we are our district we are the ones who um will identify students who may be eligible for these chromebooks and again students who are national school lunch eligible so it's really the district who we will be the ones who will be um determining those students and notifying the families and they don't have to have any frontier service um it's not it's not really um they don't have to have that part so we're okay there so
085we're looking forward to this and this is going to be very exciting we are also part of this agreement is also doing some publicity um as well and so we're excited that we're going to be getting these chromebooks part of the agreement also is that the students will be able to keep these chromebooks and so this will be something that is as is part of an investment for um for their education so who's paying for their service um so if they um so they have different um options for uh for service and so they would be able to use any internet service that they wanted to use and then um yeah and then if they don't have um an opportunity for um for that then of course they would reach out to the district and
086we would help them oh great great thank you board member ariana's you're saying we would help him so does that mean we would help him with hot spot or what does that look like yeah so it could be a variety of things um we we would help them with uh you know to get internet um part of this is also making sure that we publicize different options for families for low-cost internet but also we would help families who were not able to obtain that so we've got a couple of different options for that any other questions okay let's go ahead and vote passes five zero and now we will move on to 13.0 business and finances 13.1 approved contract with time and alarm systems do i have a motion motion to approve 13.1 motion by
087board member ariana so do i have a second second okay it's seconded by board member greer and any discussion okay with none uh we will go ahead and vote okay item pass is 5-0 next we're going to move on with contract with top-ranked communications item 13.2 do i have a motion on the floor question to approve 13.2 okay motion by board member ariana is seconded by board member rodriguez pena is there any discussion questions comments okay with non-scene give a little bit of lag time all right let's go ahead and vote that's 5-0 okay then we'll move on to item 13.3 approval of the memorandum of understanding mou with western justice center wjc in the azusa unified school district ausd do i have a motion on the floor motion two approved 13.3 motion okay motion
088by board member ariana seconded by board member greer and again i apologize for my lack of awareness of lag and is there any discussion yes i have excuse me i have several questions regarding um where will they be doing this training with the uh staff and students and how would they be selected or who are they mainly going to work with i'm going to ask mr gary creel if he could join us to answer some of these questions i think this is a great opportunity for our students and staff good evening uh can you hear me yes yes okay uh so in response to your first question all of the trainings that will be done now would be done virtually in fact we have um several employees who are going to the abcs of conflict
089training right now and that's all conducted online and they're doing this on their own time right now to be trained in such areas as restorative practices and conflict resolution you know those sorts of things moving forward with the students until it was safe to go back to school those trainings would still be done online of course as for who's chosen uh right now well actually last year uh oscar oyama who's now the assistant pro or one of the assistant principals at a gladstone high school he and i went through the training and he started a group of peer mediators over at foothill middle school uh steve scott and adrian acosta are going through the training right now so they'll be carrying on with what oscar started and then we have several uh gladstone high school
090staff members who are going through the training right now so they're just kind of running a pilot program and then as we get it going we will be incorporating it hopefully across the district so will the students mainly be middle and high school students in the beginning yes they would probably be middle and high school there has been some work done with um upper elementary school and now that we have fifth and sixth graders uh at our schools i i would certainly think that those students would be old enough to do that thank you mr creo you're very welcome okay i have a couple questions about process right so i think i think it's wonderful that we're doing this um i just want to talk about um how are we going to make sure that
091we are um fully committing right and this is not just like another thing that we're doing that um passes by um you know because we do a bunch of training and then something else comes along right so so we we've talked a bit about um addressing structural racism and anti-racism right and that's sort of on the plate so i just i want to hear from dana in terms of what do you how do you think this fits in those discussions moving forward because the other thing that we want is coherence right so it's like i i don't want us to go off on one tangent doing something with one group with one group of students or schools and then we're going a different direction with other people so so just in terms of the overall
092vision i know i know you're still coming back to us but i'm just i want to understand from you how this fits into what you what what you're thinking about well i think certainly when we think about restorative practices right part of that is also taking a look at our data taking a look at students in terms of social emotional learning so i i do think that this is a this is a part of um i think a a big picture right in terms of how students are um interacting with one another um you know this when you when you think about restorative uh practices this is designed to really take a look at um the system and the structure of um discipline right from like a punishment standpoint right and really helping students to
093um find their voices it's a way for students to develop their leadership and some of the conversations that i've had with the people who've been involved in this i think it's an opportunity for for students to really have a voice and i think when we think about kind of big picture with what we want to do in this district in terms of um i think you know when i think about social justice especially um i think really doing this from a student level is something that is incredibly important and i think there's a lot that we can learn from that as well so i see it as i see as a piece of that right and i also see this as being a five-year plan um and so we piloted this last year starting at
094uh foothill uh middle school and so over the next five years i think it's important to um to to prototype something to pilot something and then really find out um what are some of those best practices and and be able to share that um with other schools as well so that's from my opinion i see that is actually a um a component i think that aligns well to the things that we're talking about great i think that's important so i i'm just going to put a request then on um as a board member is is let's let's move forward with this but let's also um can we build some um let's say a process and outcome metrics that we want to measure against for implementation um that can come back to the report in a
095report um whether it's i i mean i think i'll defer to you in terms of thinking about when when the best time to report to us about it um i just want to make sure that that we're that it be that it gets implemented and that that it is something that does flourish right and so i think i feel like at the board level the best way we can push that is to make sure that there's reporting coming to us about about the implementation my other question is in terms about the the cost of it right so i you know last year i think was a pilot it was free i think this year we're spending ten thousand dollars to do this piece um i saw in the mou that they're committing to try to
096fundraise right um so do we have clarity in terms of like the financial commitment and out years what that would be if there's not additional if if they don't find grant funding has that been or are we just like sort of making this commitment and then it'll go year by year well i think we're making the commitment right now and in in the agreement it's it's not to exceed 10 000 but this is going to be a portion for training or subs or maybe we need to do some you know some extra hours and so that's really what we have the funding for um so we don't have any costs projected out for that um and we would like to be able to again seek you know some some additional funding so um so really
097that's what this uh that's what the cost is is around right to be able to um you know support uh staff and training with us so you're saying it's gonna be ten thousand per year are you gonna are you anticipating that as we expand to more districts at more sites that it would be more and out years um gary can you answer that one we're not really entirely sure yet as as dr mitchell mentioned the money is like largely for professional development it's not a check that's being written to the western justice center there's also some costs that we're looking at for the peer mediators that the western justice center hosts a peer mediator open and so there would be transportation for students to this open where they could you know take part you know
098in the in peer mediation and the whole celebration with other school districts so part of what the western justice center needs to see when they're for their fundraising efforts is that as you mentioned the district is like fully committed to moving forward so we haven't really talked about um any financial burdens in the coming years we don't know how many student or rather schools are going to be involved and you know it's possible as more schools get involved that there may be you know more extra hours more uh financial commitments so i just want to put that on our radars board members right because i think i mean getting back to my i you know my point if we're going to make a commitment to something i want to make sure that it's not just
099like a fly by night and that we're really committing and so i think we need to have the understanding that i i mean i hope that they're able to fundraise and we're able to find additional like you know foundation dollars or grant dollars to do this work but if not you know we may be facing a year where we have to maybe allocate more dollars to this at the same time that we're probably doing budget cuts because um that's just where we are in terms of our declining enrollment and and fiscal situation so so i'm okay with that i mean i think this is very important i think we need to put our money behind who our mouths are and so if we say this is important and we're talking about restorative justice and peer
100media those are really important pieces that engage our students but i just want to make sure that we're aware of that so that you know in a nine months from now when we're thinking about what to cut this is something that we say no we don't we need to put money behind it because we've committed to it i tend to agree i think it's a really good program and sheila nina you've been talking about it for a very long time so i thought you'd be happy about it oh i'm happy i just wanna i want us to come in oh no i didn't mean it that way i didn't mean it that way it came out wrong i knew you would be happy about it because i thought you know um yolanda yes um i
101have a question uh so since it was piloted last last year at putin middle school do we have any outcome to show any outcome what what happened at puto middle school the outcomes we have are anecdotal and i wouldn't really say it was a pilot because we really didn't have you know an mou with western justice center or whatnot this is just something where um mr oyama took his training and he started a group with um a group of students to do peer mediation um i'm sure we could probably you know get some of those students to talk to speak to their experience but we didn't really use it so much um you know as something that would be uh like for data it was just something that he did with students and you know
102it worked at foothill i i don't have like the number of referrals that they they handled but you know the students and this and you know mr ayam were very pleased with the outcomes anecdotal though they may be that they had i i think it would be nice if if we even had mr yama or maybe a couple of students didn't want to speak you know how it would work for them i just think it'd be nice and sir um i can certainly arrange that and actually the western justice center would be very very happy to come and make a brief presentation for the board for what the program is all about and what they do um [Music] that can be easily arranged if that's what you do mr creole that that would be great
103any more comments hey let's go ahead and vote that passes 5-0 and we will move on to item 13.4 approve the memorandum memorandum of understanding mou with department of children and family services dcfs for foster youth transportation i make motion to approve okay i'm sorry okay motion by board member arianes no cruz gonzalez versus alice okay thank you thank you i didn't and seconded by board member rodriguez pena do we have any discussion can you explain a little bit about this um wherever this goes under please this would go under me again oh um essa is the every student succeeds act and and part of that is directed towards uh youth who are in foster care and the studies have shown that students perform better if there's school stability that of you know keeping kids
104at the school that they were at if you can when they went into foster care so one of the real challenges is how do you do that and so what this mou does is well actually the school districts are mandated to along with dcfs pay for the cost of transportations if it's if it's in the student's best interest and so what this mou does is it splits the cost between dcfs and uh the school district of zeus unified they uh originally and the way that it works is uh dcfs and this and azusa unified they put a set amount of money into a joint fund and then that fund is invoiced when a student needs to be transported transportation can be in a multiple number of ways it could be the foster parent transporting the
105student and and they would be you know paid a certain sum of money it could be a bus pass or a train pass it could also be what's happening for for many kids is uh kind of a hop skip drive which is kind of like uber for students and so those students would be transported by car from their homes to their school of but during this pandemic how how would we use this service well we wouldn't um so that would be moving forward and actually last year we didn't transport any students at all using this method in the past before uh this came through esso we used to provide bus passes and you know those sorts of things for students but now um with the pandemic there no one is being transported and so we
106wouldn't need this right now but the possibility is when school starts again that we we may have to transport students any more questions okay so we can go ahead and vote passes 5-0 and now we'll move on to item 3.5 up ratify approve of consultant agreement gpt staffing we have a motion on the floor i moved a moved by sheet uh cruise member board member cruz gonzalez second seconded by board member ariana's and any discussion no okay we'll go ahead and vote then and it passes 5-0 and that is the end so i am calling the board meeting close at 8 41 pm and that's it in