001hey it's working okay okay all right fantastic we just miss Gabriella Hey I'm right here can you hear me yeah because you disabled my ability to share my screen so I could put the flies up reading anything could you disabled my abilities here it's my screen so I could put the flag up I didn't know the web was that big thank you okay I believe it is calling what he join us yes she she is I will text her okay and we'll just go ahead and start with the openings so it is now yes seven number two and I'm going to go ahead and call the regular open sessions this is the meeting to order item 4.0 we'll start with the flag salute I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States and to
002the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Hey next we're gonna move on to roll call and then Gary can we pause for just a second yeah the announcement for Spanish translation for those who need to click the button oh yes please why are you there she might already be in the translator class but those who need Spanish translation can click the interpretation button that's like on the bottom of the screen mr. ticket can you translate that los que necesitan IE esta gente en espanol Abajo de su pantalla I own a selection and minook and he said interpretation II's selection is a vote on ba ba tener la vie on the desk Oh herro le heal Spanish selection area so if level I ought robot on
003dande by the seed mute original audio esas cosas selection selection on eva poder or year nuestra gente om vivo en espanol okay thank you mr. Ortega next we'll go to move on to roll call board member pinion present board member Gonzalez yeah Christmas all's here who's gonna go I'm sorry board member Ariana's present and board member Grier yeah here so there we are and now we will move on to approval of the agenda do I have a motion on the floor motion to approve agenda a motion by board member Ariana's ended by Gore board member career and any discussion no okay then we can go ahead and vote and why is this not let me have to yes at the wrong screen I apologized okay and passes 5-0 alrighty now we will move to item
0045.0 and that's items from the floor public comment on the agenda or non agenda items by point this is an opportunity for the public to address the board on agenda or non agenda items no action can be taken on the non-agenda items individual speakers may be allowed up to three minutes to address the board on any agenda or non agenda item prior to addressing the dirt board please fill out the request to speak public comment blue card and submit it to the board secretary and with that do we have any hands raised if you want to make public comment if anybody is please raise your hand you give it just a second but I do not see any hands raised yet yeah I don't see any hands either we did have mr. William said he
005was gonna come back yes mr. Umi Hey I really don't hmm if mr. rout okay we can give mr. Rooney about a minute and then perhaps if he does pop on in the next five minutes we can go ahead and open it up and let him speak and I believe it's pronounced Ryu Ryu thank you hmm if you would like to make a public comment please click the raise your hand button all right I have no raise hands okay then we shall move on and 6.0 comments and requests by the board so we will start with board member crews concise I cannot hear you yes okay okay yeah so just very quickly and as we saw with the governor coming out with clearer guidelines on Friday I think we made the right choice earlier in
006that week when their pseudo recommended that we stay in distance learning in the meanwhile um I do um you know I do look forward to the conversation today I'm moving forward around how we can ensure this strengthens our delivery of distance learning and how we can ensure that our families and our students are learning and learning you know a rich are rich and having a rich learning experience so I I do welcome those conversations and I just hope that we as a community can do everything that we need to do to control the coronavirus spread so that we were able to come back into schools because I know I'm eager to have my son be in a classroom and I know I mean I know educators all of our educators want to be able to
007go back because we all know that's the optimal way to teach so that's that's all I wanted to say thank you okay board member Ariana's can you guys hear me yes I wanted to first of all just say thank you again to our superintendent for working on our distance learning and being able to tackle all the questions and Dana actually all our cabinet all the questions and all the uncertainties that have you know that are coming and all the questions that teachers parents looking forward to the Town Hall this Thursday and and there's going to be one on Friday so looking forward to that I agree as well I think we made a right choice and being able to go and do distance learning the governor did come out on Friday and he kind of
008made a comment when he said you know most school districts around California have already done this but this is now official that I am recommending this and so I am excited to be able to have a different distance learning that we did when the crisis hit and there's going to be some bumps and roads but I do know and I I do know that we will try to be able to target and be able to resolve all the problems or issues that come along I did want to let you guys know that in legislation there is a bill going through for the is it the digital divide and which we were talking about last week about parents students having equitable access to to the Wi-Fi and for it to become a public utility for all
009for everyone to be able to access it so I hope to continue to follow this bill so we can go ahead and be but I have equitable access to Wi-Fi for our most needy families and I hope everyone everyone's having a great summer and I haven't gone anywhere so I can't share anything of where I've gone so board member Greer a good evening everyone first I you know kind of announced a few weeks back and months back and continue to plan on hosting zoom coffees once a month however this month I did have mine originally scheduled for this upcoming Thursday and I know that the district is holding an online conversation and so I'm going to strongly recommend that anybody who might have typically you know taking that space to to come and join in
010on that conversation I would encourage you to join in on the district conversation that's happening on this Thursday and and Friday only other thing I have is just a point of of clarification I know that we have a governance meeting that's coming up scheduled for next month my hope is during that conversation that we're able to finish up really finalize I think we finished some of the work from one of from a governance conversation last year around some protocol and whatnot but I don't know that we that we produced any document or protocol manual or whatnot so so I would like to see us you know have to have space and time to work through that and finalize those things my hope is that we're able to do that next month and that's all I
011have thank you board member drear board member Rodriguez Pena yes good evening everyone I just wanted to thank think together you know when I walk in the morning I went by Murray school and I seen the employees of think together helping hand out the food to to the what the grab-and-go lunches to the community and I want to thank think together I didn't honestly realize that they were also you know helping us helping our employees and I also want to thank again all the essential workers and everyone that was included on you know getting ready for this distant learning I'm very excited and I'm very proud that a USD has pretty much have a schedule or a program I just we want you to see it happen I do have friends and other districts that
012are also starting in August and they're like we have any week which we don't even have a plan yet you know I mean we don't even know what we're supposed to be doing you know what do you guys do it or not I'll let them know like wow you're you're ahead of us and I'm very proud to say that they USD we're we're ready to go and and we'll see what happens thank you okay thank you miss Rodriguez Pena and for me Adrian you and I must have been on the same wavelength because I was going to bring up I simply had the discussion on the rotating mayor last night I thought about it and I know he had had that discussion and I wanted to make sure that our board bylaws reflected what we
013had decided and I found its word bylaw 9100 organ is a and it's about the meeting where you elect and it says number one elect president vice president and clerk from its members but farther on it says board shall each year like one of its members to be clerk so we need to fix that and make it clerk I well I guess during that um we can discuss it during our governance workshop but I just wanted to point out that there's a conflict of comments in there and we need to clean that up a little and thank you everybody for what you're doing as far as getting things ready for school I actually shared that presentation and our schedule blocks to my school it's an Iowa as they are going back to regular learning they're
014going back to in school learning which is but in case they go back I sent that to him and he thought it was great he couldn't believe he was an I so thank you for every making us that good it's all of our employees that make a second so and that's about it so we'll go ahead and we'll move on to item [Music] 7.0 comments and reports by cabinet members and superintendent so I'll miss cardina thank you a couple of things on Monday the 13th I was able to attend my first Azusa leaders from hurting Education Foundation meeting I want to thank the foundation for all of the work time and dedication that they have dedicated for our students here in Azusa in the past and I look forward to what is to come in
015the future and partnering with them and being part of this organization I was very thankful and had a really good time at my first meeting tonight we're going to be diving deeper into a into our distance learning plan for the opening of school here in August in advance of that I do want to thank dr. Mitchell and the countless other staff members that have come together to imagine the best possible scenario audience inform families as was mentioned this is an evolving environment that we are in right now and I just want to plot everyone who has added value to this plan with that mindset of continuous improvement we look forward to this Thursday and Friday when we will have an opportunity to engage with our families in a live manner and discuss what the beginning
016of the school year would look like and the options that were going to be offering to our families lastly I would like to introduce everyone to Colleen Patterson who is serving as our interim assistant superintendent of business services while we are working on hiring a new assistant superintendent Colleen has been with the Sousa Unified School District in the past and in a similar role and so she already comes with a base knowledge of our district and already know some of our staff and so she's got an advantage and has hit the ground running although she's not working full-time she is definitely jumping in and assisting in the areas that we have need in her main role is to oversee the big the big items that are coming up assist with questions and clarifications add to
017team collaborations and decision-making and ensure that the department continues to function seamlessly we in these last couple of days that she has been here I have really enjoyed the added value that she brings it so welcome coding that is all for me president thank you and assistant superintendent for your own team for comment okay assistant superintendent Danny Mitchell dr. Dana Mitchell I will save my comments for my update okay and Colleen would you like to say hello yes thank you very much it's my pleasure to kind of continue to serve as this on your community and I just appreciate opportunities and you've got the wonderful community and a great staff thank you for having me help and serve thank you okay and at this point we'll move on to item 8.0 report action of closed
018session matters 8.1 student matter final settlement settlement for office of administrative hearing oah oah case number two 2019 one two zero zero zero four student number nineteen twenty one twenty five and do I have a motion on the floor I move to approve item 8.1 second hey moved by board member greer seconded by board member ariana's and he just kept on oh we already had her discussion never mind okay we can vote now you and it passes 5-0 so we will go on to the distance item 9.0 distance learning update mr. Ortega superintendent Ortega thank you you know that dr. Mitchell set up her the presentation again just like my comments we're very happy and pleased today to dive a little bit deeper into our into our distance learning plan is set to take off
019here in August and welcome input as we as we move along dr. Mitchell can you see my screen yet or not yet no okay okay can you see it now yes yes okay so it says support for success you see that yes okay perfect good evening president Bibles Vogel board members superintendent and cabinet since last week's board meeting we have been working on planning for the implementation of our support for Success plan Pedro Nogueira reminds us that it's not simply the learning it's the stability stability is essential in the lives of children and as we begin and as we begin 2020 in the distance learning environment in the midst of a pandemic we know that creating stability for our students academic emotional social stability is of the utmost importance and that stability will come in
020the form of many facets and we'll take a coordinated effort as we begin to plan for the opening of school in the 2020 school year we wanted to circle back to a few items from the last board meeting and provide you with an update on some of our plans for our support for success Dana Dana you're not sharing your showing your desktop not at the screen so it's pretty small can you can you see it now for you yes okay okay thank you thank you for that so as we head into this new environment and a pretty and important question that we ask ourselves is in what ways will we support parents and how will we engage them as partners in their students education we do know that regardless of a distance learning or a
021brick-and-mortar environment the research data show parent engagement has an impact on student achievement as an example literacy training and support is required for our title line schools so we're looking at some additional options in addition to families and schools reading roads and thinking about how we can continue to increase parent engagement as another example miss Carbajal Camacho has been exploring the work around responsive schooling and culturally and linguistically diverse students and our D lac has had many conversations about how to get more families to participate and remove barriers so this year we will continue to develop a cohesive plan that meets the needs of families bridges the home school connection and utilizes our community liaisons to ensure strong parent engagement plans as we head into a USD support for success distance learning 2.0 one of
022the areas we need to plan for is implementing evidence-based parent engagement strategies in a distance learning environment there are two ways in which we will focus our partnership with parents through workshops tools strategies and communications the first one is to provide parents with specific learning tools strategies and resources they can use to support learning at home and the second one is to provide parents with tools strategies and resources on the online platforms that we use such as Google classroom Google applications Google meet as well as helping parents with access to our many digital curricular platforms because sv-98 requires synchronous instruction and we will be doing this to Google meet we need to provide parents with the tools and the resources they need to log in and to help their students to log in and essentially
023we need to create opportunities for parents to learn how to use and to navigate these platforms or plan for this begins next week we've already scheduled three opening school planning meetings with our elementary middle and high school principals to create a plan for parents support around technology and strategies to help their students at home in preparation for this meeting we've already provided the principals with the summary of the salient research on the connection between parent engagement including some of the highlights of Karen maps work and her parent engagement framework and we will be sharing more with you as we don't develop the very specific plans of this implementation story the next piece is around technology all summer we have been hosting virtual meetings with teachers to get their input and communicate our distance learning plans
024teachers have expressed a strong desire to give students a tech boost prior to the start of the school year especially when we think about our younger students who may need support and learning to navigate our online curriculum or Google classroom or Google needs providing opportunities for students to learn some of these things prior to the beginning of the school will give them a boost so at our principal planning meetings next week we're going to coordinate what this will include as well as the logistics currently our new students register for school on our website through the Ares online enrollment process one of the things that we do need to think about is how we are welcoming our TK and kinder students and their parents to their new school in a brick-and-mortar we've had orientations canned around
025up all kinds of things so what we need to do now is we need to coordinate what this will look like in a distance learning environment and this is also on our planning meeting with our principals to determine how we will be welcoming our students back to school especially our TK and our kindergarten students and I will be providing more information for you in your weekly board updates as we solidify these these plans I want to talk a little bit about preschool we received guidance from the state who determined that CSP PS can align to their le A's and as a result our preschools will begin the year with a distance learning and and continued to be funded when the le a site has determined it may not open we are currently enrolling students for
02611 3 hour sections at three schools for Longfellow to a paramount to a Marie when it Powell when it valley Dale and one at Magnolia in in addition to these six schools we are in the process of getting Dalton and Lea licenses right now Dalton has a provisional license and last week our application for start-up funding of over $31,000 for Dalton was a free so we were hoping to offer section at lea and Dalton as soon as we are fully licensed I also want to let you know that in terms of our special education preschool we have six three hours sections one or three mild to moderate sections and three moderate to severe sections at Longfellow we continue to also have our Dual Immersion preschool and eat the K is 2 K we have 2/3
027our preschool sections and to eat c c ck and CK classes one each at Longfellow and Valley do as an update in terms of professional learning and support in 2019 through 2020 21 our e TK and TK teachers have been participating in the California early math initiative learn strategies from the Sobrato early academic language program and they will we just received word that they will be continuing to support us in our distance learning environment this year we're also participating in a professional learning network with other California districts with our California education partners which is a pre-k to third grade coherence collaboration specifically focused on mathematics the next piece is around pink together so yesterday I met with Stacey gall Domas who is the general manager for San Gabriel think together programming and we talked about
028some of the highlights of their summer programming and I learned that 585 of our students participated in think together programming this summer they offered high interest modules including social-emotional learning healthy living stem arts and enrichment and then language arts and mathematics support as well as virtual field trips now let me know that their data show that students mostly appreciated the inclusivity of think together the confidence building and the student connections that they were able to make with one another so the great news is is that we are going to continue with our think together programming next year the greater news is that the conditions of their grant is flexible next year and they are able to align their programming to fit our needs so knowing that we're working collaboratively to create possible options for the
029school year and some of these options that were exploring include options and distance hybrid in-person both during the school day and after this school day and we're also exploring learning hubs right so how things together might be able to support students with their learning and academic support so as we get closer I will be sure to share all this information with you the next piece is around our AO SD virtual academy this week we sent communication home to families that we will be hosting for a parent community reopening schools meetings July 23rd 6 p.m. is English 7:30 p.m. Spanish and on July 24th 8:30 a.m. Spanish 10 a.m. English and a reminder will be sent tomorrow and during these meetings we will be explaining the distance learning block schedule plan as well as other options
030such as our a USD Virtual Academy sv-98 requires that eliezer I'd stood until quarantine or have been exposed to Coppa 19 with an online option the AOS D Virtual Academy will provide students and families with the option to choose a year-long fully virtual academic schedule and this academic this Academy will offer a large range of rigorous courses for students from TK to grade 12 it will include grade level online coursework UC approved courses in English language development world language electives and honors and AP courses for high school students we are committed to ensuring that rigor relevance flexibility relationships and social emotional support are essential elements of all of our learning options and throughout the learning experience with the Virtual Academy we have our highly qualified certificated teachers providing instructional support progress monitoring and live virtual
031interaction and this again this Azusa virtual Academy is intended for a full year program so beginning tomorrow this will be posted on our website and parents will be able to enroll their students online a couple of points I want to also make about this is that students who are enrolled in Virtual Academy will be enrolled in their home school and can take part in school activities graduating high school students will receive a diploma from their home high school and participate in the graduation ceremony to align with sv-98 Virtual Academy students will participate in synchronous and asynchronous interactions with our teachers and their peers as well and students will be expected to attend scheduled synchronous meetings make satisfactory progress in order to meet districts and grade-level standards and parents will also be receiving product reports at
032the regularly scheduled grade report a series on August 17th the district will host the a USD support for success virtual conference this virtual conference is going to include a variety of breakout sessions in which our teachers will be and are certificated staff will be able to choose we have a lot of topics that are going to be available there breakout sessions around instructional technology blended learning illuminate tools virtual IEP s social-emotional learning care solace pl roadmap teacher toolkit suicide prevention and ongoing resiliency CTE Advisory our teachers on special assignment will be providing curricular planning and support restorative practices new science curriculum support and middle school reading supports last spring we provided a plethora of professional learning support and our teacher surveys have indicated a desire to continue to learn a variety of topics so the
033support for success virtual conference is going to provide teachers with that variety of options from which to choose to best meet their learning and finally as we think about programming and we think about distance learning and we think about making sure that we're understanding what is working and making sure that we are continually improving it is critical that we gather information that supports our efforts to address the impact of school physical closures in the spring and the onset of our distance learning block schedule plan 2.0 this fall in particular we need to understand the experiences of our students who have the highest need in order to ensure equitable instructions for all students this year dr. Jennifer Edith Brian has developed a plan to implement student experience checkpoints and what these are are a series of
034short survey questions and they have been taken from a pivot learning and unbound IDI a document that's called equitable learning recovery toolkit so these student experience checkpoints coupled with listening circles with our elementary students middle and high school students to gather data on how we can better meet student needs and address gaps experienced by particular student groups so three times a year we're going to collect data using this student experience checkpoint and administer it to all students in grades 5 through 12 we're gonna analyze the checkpoint results and develop listening circle protocols based on the need for a deeper understanding of what that data is show and the factors contributing to student success as well as those that are posing barriers to success and then from there we'll host one our virtual listening circles and
035we will include fifth and sixth graders our middle school middle school students and high school students and our participants will represent a cross-section of all students including English learners special education socioeconomically disadvantaged foster youth ethnic groups and homeless we will analyze this data and use the findings to inform our planning at both districts and site levels Nina can you just clarify are you gonna have sort of great span listening sessions or you're saying you're gonna have all these different students in one group together we the plan is to have we would have groups with students who are fifth and sixth grade and then we would have middle schools too so these will be separate is that what you're yes I'm saying I'm meeting so as we as we take an equity stance it is important
036to analyze both the student achievement and the opportunity gaps among student groups school improvement literature suggests using equity audits as a tool to mitigate gaps by identifying achievement and opportunity gaps as well as their root causes so we are exploring equity equity audit tools that will help us in examining structural inequalities in our system as we work through a cycle of continuous improvement question yeah now it's open for questions dr. Mitchell yes please thank you anybody have any questions yeah I have a couple questions thank you for the presentation I'm just a couple things so how are we planning on ensuring that every student has internet access and the computer I know last year we just sort of did like an opt-in survey it's a how are we gonna how are we gonna ensure that
037this year so so you're asking how are we gonna ensure that every single student has access to devices in the internet yes so we're actually what one of the first thing we're gonna do is we're going to start before school even starts and we're circling back to our families that had that said in our surveys and not only that but they had indicated to their teachers or to their site administrators that they didn't have a device or they didn't have internet so part of that process was to reach out to them we made phone calls we kept spreadsheets and reached out to them to determine you know how come you're not connecting how can we help you can we connect you with you know devices an internet so the first thing is is circling back
038to those families many of those families had gone through the that spectrum offer and so we want to make sure that if they are not connected before school that we will get them connected the second piece of that is that we need to develop that same system right so understanding the minute that students are not engaged part of sv-98 is creating that learning continuity attendance plan and one of the requirements is that we have something in place that's called a school reengagement plan so we have to make sure that any students who are absent are not participating we've got a team for that so we have a plan in place to work with the sites to develop that re-engagement team and then the other piece is that this needs to be ongoing we need to
039be doing outreach with our families to ensuring that all students are participating another way to be able to to look at that data is attendance is required in this with sv-98 and so teachers will be taking attendance in Aires and that's going to include whether or not they were engaged and so that'll be another way for us to know immediately if students are not participating by looking at their attendance Yolanda board member who drew his opinion yes thank you so my question is great presentation by the way very clear thank you so I know the state aren't they giving us some funds for to continue our distant learning right so my next question so I know that you're gonna give up the Chromebooks on the 24th of July Friday is that is that what I
040read or I read something about that what was that for so we are we continue over the summer we've been continuing to distribute Chromebooks and at last count it's over 5,200 Chromebook devices that we have distributed to families and so all summer long we have had we've continued with our hotline our emails and making sure that families let's just say they were participating in summer school or think together activities and maybe there was something that was you know wasn't working or they were having trouble they had a hotline or an email they could call and every every Friday they would make they would have appointment to come in and do that so we're we have it on the calendar to continue to do that I will go ahead so the handing of the Chromebooks on
041the 24th is that where the fall classes or for I think it you know what I think yeah you know what I put that as a recurrence and so I just did it every Friday and so I probably need to go back to the ED services calendar and take that piece off so yes for you for district office we're gonna will continue to hand those out but that's thank you for that because I know we have approximately 7,000 students and then you went in we have 5,000 something up right now so you know we're we have this big gap that either they're doing it are they able to do it on hard copies you know they want some people do want it that way I know but I just you know want to be sure
042of course it every student you know it's going to be learning whichever way is less for them and their families of course mm-hmm and I just want to know so who is going to oversee the the virtual academy is that overseen by a principal or a department that will be overseen by the director of alternative programming mr. Paul Hernandez thank you hmm okay I I have a suggestion I had a suggestion given to me or a circumstance where people live in very tight quarters say they're you know two kids are sharing a bedroom it's a two bedroom apartment or one-bedroom apartment and the kids are in different grades and so there they are in the living room one listening to their Chromebook another one listening to their Chromebook trying to pay attention while they're hearing
043their siblings if we could reach out maybe to one of our wonderful donators when I donate ear plugs or earphones for our students in those circumstances I think that yeah okay um I'm just gonna go down because I didn't see who came first so Adrian I mean board member you're muted Adrienne you're muted we can't hear you about now okay you had such a good suggestion Gerry that I'm trying to it slipped my mind won't you come back to me I think I'll write it down when it comes back to me okay board member Cruz Gonzales so yeah I have a couple other questions um so one and just really piggybacking I think even know what just Jerry said so I'm really glad to hear that we're talking to think together and one of the
044things that I'm seeing around other districts around the state is that they're trying to create learning centers or resource hubs where students that for the exact same students Jerry just talked about or maybe students are homeless right they were creating a space where they can come in that has an adult there that not the nuns and not the teacher is going to teach them but a bit an adult so they're in a supervised location a learning environment that they can learn and and not everybody for like all of the students but small cohorts right you know whatever whatever criteria we ended up deciding is them has the most need and so I just want to know I can't we thought about that where are we on that like is that a possibility because I could
045I'd like to know about that yeah that's a great question so in my conversation with Stacy Gotham as yesterday that was one of the the points that we talked about and I brought that up to determine is that a possibility is that something we could do so she said that she was going to look into that and then she would get back to me and so as soon as she does I will let you know okay great and then my next question is around the parent outreach right and actually it's a little question but also just maybe a statement of opinion um so I really appreciate the fact that we're thinking about how we can connect especially for the students on a regular basis but I also appreciate that in your presentation you talked about
046how critical of parents are going to be in this whole process so I'm wondering in terms of connecting to family and making sure that we're meeting the needs of the family that may go beyond just beyond I mean obviously the the critical piece is the education of the child but also just you know making sure the family feels like they're supported to be able to provide helped that were kind of asking them to do now um so um do we are we are we gonna have a plan around how we reaching out systematically to parents on a regular basis whether it's like on a weekly bi-weekly basis you know how often that we make sure that families are contacted to make sure that we're that they feel like they're that there's a connection and that
047we know that we are trying to support their student success as much as possible and we know that they're a partner so I just wanted to put that on your you know just put it on there too out there to see if that's something that we can do because I think we did a lot of opposite I felt like we did a lot of we did a lot of follow-up but we did a lot of opt-in in the spring and so the more that we can systematize and make an intentional and be proactive about connecting the better board member group thank you so a couple couple questions one I'm just curious to know I know that we made the decision to not collect Chromebooks at the end of the year which which makes perfect sense
048did we do the same thing with books are our books where books collected or do students still have books I think my daughter still has hers and so are the how does that exchange happen that's a great question so so it's a is a combination of both right so one of the things we did as we were you know in closure we had to figure out a couple of things one our outgoing seniors and our rising 9th graders we had to develop a plan to say how do we do this and how do we do it safely right so those are the grade levels that were able to to do that and so principals really worked hard to to create a system which takes a while for for them to come for the families to
049come in and exchange the book so for the other grade levels we need to do the same thing but what we'll do is we'll do it concurrently so that's also on our list of planning meeting with the principals to talk about how do we do this again keeping a safe socially distant manner and how might we be able to bring the books back in exchange kind of at the same time and accorded it in a core nated effort so that is on our to-do list for sure and the other piece is that is we want to do this via Slee before we start school right so we want to try to get as many things in as humanly possible so our elementary principals come back next week our middle school principals just returned this week
050so we've got those meetings on the calendar and that's really what the that's you know reopening planning so that is definitely one of the things that we need to pay attention to yeah and a couple more questions too and so looking at looking at that taking into consideration so I mean they're not new books each year right so my my daughter who was in third grade last year has a book that a in a third grader coming in this year will need so so yeah so doing the exchange but in a way that she gets hers in first so that it can be given to it yeah right other couple questions I have around virtual the the Virtual Academy then can you maybe in a 30 seconds can you can you summarize I mean so
051what is what is the difference between the virtual to clarify between their virtual academy and for a parent who is saying I'm just going in you know the traditional model which is exclusively distance learning at least for the beginning of the year what what are the differences is it just that it will continue on virtual okay can you describe some of the new ones yep and so as you know it sits right now distance learning is our traditional instructional program we're just doing this in a distance remote learning format right so the Virtual Academy is going to be also remote remote learning for the entire year so students who are going to choose like I'm a I'm a fifth grade student and I am going to Marie Elementary and I am with my teacher and
052my students and that class right now is distance learning until we begin to transition into you know reopening schools again right the Virtual Academy is different so the Virtual Academy students would stay in that program for the entire year and so they will have a teacher and again it's really going to depend on the enrollment right and that's how we'll look at how it's staffed in terms of the curriculum that we'll use you know it could be a combination of depending on the grade level you know the curriculum that we currently have some apex classes for students for example who are taking me some AP classes so that Virtual Academy the nuance is is that if a family chooses to do our traditional instructional program that right now is distance learning at some point we're
053likely going to transition hopefully you know we'll be able to safely reopen you know in the future the Virtual Academy is not it is a separate program and that is a commitment for the year that is a distance learning format dr. Mitchell if I can add just a couple more nuances sure key number one the probability of being with students that you're used to and you're in your neighborhood that go to your particular school you'll be probably with students across the district also the probability of a teacher who is currently at the school that you belong to there's also probably probability that it might not be a teacher from that particular school so those are some additional kind of nuances that would separate those two programs and then the last question that I had is
054actually in line with that as well how are teachers for the Virtual Academy selected how will they be identified that we haven't gotten to that piece yet as soon as we have our our enrollment opens tomorrow and it will close on the 31st and so that's our window to be able to say what does it look like in terms of our enrollment and after that then we will take a look at that staffing piece so right now we're not sure but as soon as we know we will definitely let you know all right board member Chris Gonzalez thank you I had one last question and that is around is this so so buried in the governor's new orders is the ability to seek a waiver from the county hospital to be able to open up
055elementary schools right K by K so knowing that that is a eventual possibility right I have you guys started thinking about that possibility and and maybe trying to bring the younger kids back sooner then you know as soon as possible so what we know right now is that we we do know that they have talked about that waiver but right now that waivers not available that's not they have not released it yet so at this point we have no idea what it is we don't know what the protocol it is we don't know what it's going to require and so so right now we just don't know what that is until we actually did the waiver come from the account from the health department or from the or from the the county superintendent we believe
056that comes from the County Department of Public Health okay okay and I'm sorry if I cut you off board member Kirsten solace I didn't mean to remember Rodriguez Pena yes question regarding the the Virtual Academy does it determine on the enrollment if you're going to continue or keep it or how are you can determine if you know that you need like a full class or do you determine to continue or to go with this model that's a great question we do not need a full class to be able to do this right and so the the structure of it will depend on we'll have some flexibility put it that way depending on you know how many students we have but we will be able to offer students a fully virtual online program regardless of how
057many students we have oh thank you okay board member ariana.sea hi yes I have a question about Virtual Academy you said that it will open tomorrow until July 31st sorry go ahead keep going I have not seen any advert are we how do parents know that there you know for example that they want it you know they're thinking about this but how do they access this so this is we are kind of unveiling it tonight and tomorrow on the website is going to be all of the the handout it's going to have the chart that you know talks about the different options that we have and then we'll put that on the website and there will be a link that says if you would like to register we've already created a Google Form it's ready
058to go it's in English in Spanish and then at the parent meetings that we have scheduled this week that's where we're gonna also kind of talk about that and we really we wanted to create a window so we could get an idea in terms of again that staffing piece too so we're gonna we're gonna open this up and an offer to the community and put it on our website and social media and try to get the word out as as much as we can another if I can add to that another highlight of that is that the team has worked on a FAQ format and so we've tried to think about questions that the community and parents might have about the Virtual Academy and so we're gonna have a fake you sheet as well to
059help to help with that and for the Virtual Academy if the textbooks are needed would they also be able to get them from their home school absolutely Chromebooks right you know everything that they would need yes absolutely okay any more questions comments the greedy so one of the things that I also wanted to ask was the grading for the because this is new in our you know that we're offering this to parents so like you said they'll be able to graduate they'd be able to participate in the activities for Virtual Academy would they be able to participate in CIF sports if they decide they want to do sports that's a you know that's a great question I did reach out to see is to ask that very question and so what they said wasn't the
060email I got back was they are working on guidance and that they would let us know so I'm going to keep after that question because it is a question I know that you know our students our families want to know so I will keep on that one and then I will circle back and provide that to you in your weekly packet so oh okay all right it looked like you almost said something and board member ariana.sea also asked about grades yes you asked about grades and so are you asking specifically about Virtual Academy or everything it's no I know in distance learning we had last week we spoke that they the students will be receiving grades yes and be graded also in their participation but for a Virtual Academy would it be the same or
061would it be different this is absolutely the same so same marking repair reporting periods right triads semester so report cards you know grades and area is the same the same exact thing remember sorry one last question okay and it's about distance learning one of the questions that I have so this is a new you know a new way to start the school year again we talked about last semester was a crisis it was a swim or sink type of thing teachers needed to like hurry up and get online what are what are we providing our teachers so for example a teacher that has been teaching for the last four years already has the lesson plan already prepared ready to go now teachers have to develop new lesson plans for this new school year so therefore
062they're going to have to prepare and it's going to take a little you know it's going to take longer so what are they doing this on their spare time what are we providing as a district for this for these teachers got it so in terms of preparation time yes so in the distance learning block schedule we actually have built in teachers have preparation time built in every day for prep time and at the secondary level when you look at the block schedule plan teachers have their prep periods and so with the block schedule plan like let's just say I'm a language arts teacher and my prep period is period - well then every week I would have my my period - would be my preparation time I have another question sorry the outreach for teachers
063in elementary they have fewer students and they do in the middle school or high school one teacher has over a hundred and fifty students a day so the outreach for those teachers for every single household is going to be quite substantial and so are we providing them with assistance from like aides or other you know other types of resources for them to be able to reach out to their students that is a that is a great question and so as we take a look at again this you know you're right this outreach plan we need to make sure that we're doing that that's part of the plan so we need to really develop what that would look like and then who's available to be able to help us so we will definitely be looking into
064that and figuring out know you know what's that coordinated effort going to look like so we will definitely circle back to that one and put that in your Friday packet for you thank you okay board member Greer thank you so a couple other questions just circling back to some questions from the last meeting to make sure that they remain on the kind of on our radar so one I'm curious to know what is our timeline with this so I know that a lot of these plans that we have you know they're they're tentative are they're you know they're they're not quite official I know that we're getting feedback from parents at the end of this week to speak into certain aspects at what point do we expect to be able to finalize formalize you know
065some of these things and push it out announce it and communicate it out to the community one and then two in regards to two things that I brought up last week one was the there's that one block of time where where school starts earlier on Monday there actually was a mom who reached out to me and and kind of said that she had some similar thoughts and opinions around that the challenge of that one being an earlier day and she actually suggest had a suggestion that thought was good to pass along which is what if that space was was used to create space for parents for a particular class to be able to check in with their their teachers during the time so if there's a if there's class for a parent on Mondays at
0668 o'clock to talk through some of the the you know learnings and activities and teachings that will happen throughout the course of that the week and so I thought that was a you know a creative suggestion that I wanted to pass along and then ii also was the same thing around you know thinking timing for lunch pick up I know again it's currently scheduled four times during the the course of the teaching you know time and so just kind of keeping that on the on the radar even if there isn't a response you know necessarily now but but those are definitely two things I'd like to make sure that we have time and space to really hear some of some of the thinking from I'll respond to the the third point kudos to nutrition services
067they were tuned into that conversation understand the value in terms of not interrupting quote unquote you know instructional time and creating a space because sometimes students themselves have to assist with that nutrition and distribution and so they have been working hard since our last board meeting and I believe that we are close to being able to do Monday's from noon to 2:00 p.m. if I'm not mistaken so they are working on that again they understand the value and can see the the potential you know kind of roadblocks if it's during instructional time and mr. Greer can you go back and I just want to clarify on that Monday so can you just tell me that one more time and talk about what that what that time looks like you said on that Monday a space
068for parents so so yeah what was this is what was suggested is so if we remember back to the to the calendar there's that 8 o'clock to 8:45 time block that was that's currently listed as an instructional block for all students but again that means that that would be an earlier day for for the you know majority of students and so again the parent communicated that she felt the same way and said you know in thinking through creative ways and you know as parents are asking for support on you know as they're partnering with the teachers to do the teaching throughout the course of the week what if that space was was designated to have time for a group of parents to be able to join in and interface with the teachers for any of
069that that choose to so you know clearly there would be no attendance and it wouldn't be required but if there was one or if there was four parents or ten parents that wanted to join in on the zoom or excuse me the the google meet then then they then that would be an option and so there that way it's still consistent across the board as far as teaching but then provides additional you know support for for parents as they're partnering with teachers to do the learning ok board member cruise glutes on us yeah so my my question is around sort of the pieces that engage that really engaged students so thinking about to curriculars or we think about music class so how are we how is music going to be delivered and so that's my
070number one that that's question number the car first part of it and then second a second part like are we think what kind of creative ways are we thinking about like how can we create like non-magic spaces for the kids to socialize online that's not related to learning [Music] that was a that's a it's an interesting question because that was a lot of the questions that I was talking with Stacy gal Dumas from think together yesterday and so in thinking about this this flexibility that was one of the questions that we talked about was if we are allowed to to create some of these think together is allowed to create some of these spaces during the day I'm just gonna give an example perhaps it might be part of a rotation right so we're thinking
071about flexible learning so it was something that we definitely talked about and again she's she's actually going to create some different scenarios and options and so we're going to be taking a look at some of those things the other piece about music are you are you specifically talking about elementary is that what I guess because I'm assuming I mean that's we're gonna have the secondary right yes yeah oh yeah that's it well and the secondary periods are they're already built in the schedule yeah and that's the that is one of our actually that is one of our items for planning is now that we have this distance learning block schedule what does that look like so we have been working with our music coordinator and and thinking about how we might be able to do
072that and what it would look like and and and the other pieces that we want to make sure and you know involve our music teachers in terms of what that might look like because we have we have band and we have choir and so we've got to do some some planning around you know how we'll provide that and what looks like so that is that is in the works and we have been having conversations around that and as soon as we have again landed on that one we'll definitely let you know but that's a that is on the one of the top tickler files for us to do board member Rodriguez Pena yes so we're speaking about music will the students in virtual learning be able to to be in chorus or play an instrument
073or an ahmadi hockey program and either participate in any of those extracurricular activities yes that's a great question and just like we did in the spring the students were able to make appointments and check out their instruments and be able to have class one of the things that the secondary teachers did is they used a program called Smart Music and this was a really great tool where students were learning how to read music they could play along with professional accompaniment that's a really cool feature with that program and so that will continue yes so we be great because it would keep the enrollment up in our music program in our arts program and you know our extracurricular activities board member our EMS yeah Deana hi I just wanted to make sure did I hear you
074correctly virtual academy students will also be included in the music choices so so Virtual Academy students will be able to participate in activities at the school so let's say for example that we are you know we we're opening up the schools again and they're the public health order has allowed us to open up activities right so if a student is involved in Virtual Academy then an after-school activity let's say a mariachi yeah that's a perfect example so yes a virtual Academy student would be able to participate in an after-school programming so Orchestra that's one yeah yes okay any more questions board member Pena okay all right there you go all right and with that I'd like to thank everybody for all the work you did thank you dr. Mitchell what's outstanding um anybody else it's
075all done we will move on then we're going to move on to 10-point consent calendar item 10.1 all matters listed under the consent calendar are considered by the board to be routine and be enacted by the board in one motion in the format following the last consent calendar agenda agenda item there will be no discussion of these items prior to the time the board staff or the public requests specific items to be discussed if discussion is requested by a board member that item will be removed from the consent calendar and it will be considered separately the superintendent and staff recommend approval of all consent calendar agenda items do I have a motion on the floor I like to pull item 10.8 please okay well I would like to pull out item 10.3 okay do we
076have a motion oh I move to approve the consent calendar with the exception of ten point three and ten point eight a second okay moved by board member Greer seconded by board member Ariana's let's go ahead and vote okay I'm zero and at this point we now have okay we'll discuss item 11.1 appoint School League representatives to CIF Federation the California Interscholastic Federation my only question was in it went through my head and now I understand why is why Sierra high school wasn't listed on having a representative and then I realized that each of the students placed boards in their home schools correct correct and Sierra high school does not have they have intramural athletics but they didn't participate in the CIF alright that was it so now we'll move on to eleven point two
077um a point of order I think we need to vote on that item okay thank you um all right let's vote i motion to approve you didn't play well oh I'm sorry thank you board member Grier and board member Cruz Gonzales first bite motion motion by board member Greer seconded by board member Cruz Gonzales now voting there's no yes five zero and then we will move on to item 11 point two which is approval of Memorandum of Understanding MoU with Foothill family yes my question to that is I know there's none of the put your family under assist who your family will provide online on-site counseling and I noticed on do you want some APU the other ones we have in here else a virtual son didn't say we're sure this one only says on
078site so I don't know when you change the wording on that or um how they do it on site that is yeah that's a great question and so I would have to go back and ask them I we are not open on sight and so I cannot imagine that we would not be doing like telehealth you know like some of our other services as well so but you think that's who are improving a contract we should have yeah we can definitely pull it and then we can have them revise it absolutely thank you okay so do I have a motion to table it so 11.2 yes you live in point - I like your table that please until we have that correction and okay its motion by a board member Rodriguez Pena and seconded by
079board member ariana.sea let's go hey and it passes 5-0 so now we'll move on to item 12.0 Human Resources 12.1 approval of the contract between Los Angeles County Office of Education laco and Azusa Unified School District for joint powers agreement employee assistance service for education EEF second okay motion to approve by shining board member Cruz Gonzales thank you did by board member Rodriguez Pena and discussion certificated I'm yes I remember Gonzales it's like it's for all ma USD employees and their families just a bit of background for regarding this item you the program that has been with this is for many years however we haven't had a contract in place with them and this is something that they sent to us to have approved so the amount that we're paying per employee is not it's
080not changing and the number of employees that were extending the service to include all of our teachers certificated employees our classified employees are part-time employees and management thank you okay any other questions all right vote s is 5 0 and with that we are gonna have a quick question I forgot to ask you earlier is that okay well please Mel go right ahead yeah sorry Dana um you know just fine point I'm sorry I'm going back to distance learning I'm so I you know in terms of the like that and the extra the extra curricular activities so how what's how is it gonna work with clubs like clubs at the middle school in high school level like have you guys thought about that hmm question so yeah that is a great that's a great question
081so that is also something to think about in terms of when we have actually I have we have our middle school principal meeting I believe it's this this Friday so I will bring that up and talk about what that piece looks like and then let you know but yeah so in terms of again all those other pieces with school that make school fun for kids right involving and and how we do that so and the other pieces that we'll ask them what were some of the things that they did in the spring how did they do that and what you know what worked and and the other thing is finding out you know what do kids like right so yeah that's a that's a great question okay thank you for that the new Spanish in
082what you call this I'm sorry translation I hope you worked out well for the families I really do and that's great whoever figured it out Thank You Tommy Lika I know board member Cruz Gonzalez actually gave us the link and mentioned it so and board member ariana.sea for it so this is great alright well with that 8:17 we're closing session and you know meeting next week it's the first week in in like three or four months uh-huh exactly you've had one more there's been one more week off oh here we go all righty well everybody have a great week bye [Applause]