Azusa Unified School District Board Meeting

001isn't no I don't know okay but don't know how to put my name now go here stop video what my name okay got it wait learn one thing today hey that video sit there you go Bruce what I think is and I love my computer and it ended up showing my name and he goes I'm not you this meeting is Jerry Vogel I just hate to do it when I'm in a meeting not only this Leland I'm in anything and then I locked myself out before I can get back in or my whole face it's in the homepage I'm like oh my god I don't want to be in the whole page I don't know what I was doing you know my call she's yeah you're not even if you see yourself in the whole

002page you're not on the whole page and other people I'm not in the home page okay so we're just waiting for our turtle and Gabriela I'm here I'm here oh okay good good and there's our turtle all right it is 703 and we're going to open do the open session of these user Unified School District's Board of Education meeting for item 4.0 flag salute I pledge allegiance to the flag and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all remember the words okay now we'll move on to a roll call hmm board member Cruz Gonzalez president board member Rodriguez Pena here board member Ariana's present board member Grier yeah and I'm here okay so we're all here so now we're gonna move on to see item

0034.1 approval of the agenda do I have a motion I make a motion to approve 4.1 second motion by board member Rodriguez pina second need by board member Greer um any discussion okay I think I need to join the meeting I apologize let me have to log off with a logout and log back in [Music] you can handle eating joy meeting there we go sorry about that okay and yeah real are you having problems to turn my phone off okay we're having issues it looks like just second let me get the camera back up so I can see yeah being okay so there we go awesome thank you it passes 5-0 so with that we're going to move over to the next item which is item 5.1 presentation of administrator of the year 2020 2021

004yes I have the honor of presenting the administrator of the year the award that we manager of the year so madam president members dr. Kaminsky cabinet and guests I have the honor of formally starting the formal recognition of our manager of the year our managers include administrators cited minister and district office coordinators assistant directors directors confidential and their works fans throughout the entire district but one thing is a unifying quality and that's the leadership leadership involves vision courage and most of all a deep compassion for all the people that one serves and leads leaders had vision and that others may not have it involves imagination foresight knowledge of people and the law Kerr did also equality that leaders must possess is that internal fortitude that's required to keep moving forward when it's difficult or unpopular

005courage and also displayed when engaged that go conversation or when taking extreme ownership of a mistake you've made or someone on a team has made the most of all leadership require these deep and unshakable passion for the people that you serve not just about relationships if it's been see or interest in the people one serves board of education and guests I'm happy to report that we have an outstanding team of leaders that make up our management team taking just one person to serve as the manager of the year the difficult tasks in a moment you will hear about the finalists for the manager of the year they all possess the qualities of leaders that I just discussed and there are responses to our questions they spoke about students their work with teachers and parents and

006their genuine interest in the school district these finalists also spoke about challenges they faced and have overcome and each of them spoke with such grace and gratitude for the work that they do each and every day so before I turn it over to our superintendent I want you to know that this type of leadership just doesn't happen this type of leadership is modeled over time it's cultivated and cared for dr. Kaminsky as you transition to a new chapter and enter retirement I want you to hear that this is in large part your legacy here as the art superintendent of a sysm you are leaving an indelible mark in the leadership and culture of the this is a Unified School District and for this I thank you so now I'll turn it over to dr. Kaminsky

007to introduce our first finalist for manager Evita thank you so much I am always excited with these events where we celebrate our employees and our parents because it truly is those people that make the difference and that really rise to the occasion year after year after year and inspiring the rest of us and so I'm very excited today to share with you I get to talk about two of the people the first person I'm going to mention is on Chanukah otherwise no as Lika who Lika wadis who is our director of communications at community outreach and I knew that she was a runner and I knew that she was a fast talker in fact is when we interviewed her a number of years ago she spoke so fast that we were all trying to keep

008up with her well that's turned out to be a real asset because we've made her work really fast and really hard and she has risen to the occasion over and over and over again and as you saw a couple weeks ago when she did her communications update there's a lot of work that happens out of her office that really communicates with our our staff and with our families with our students and the broader world of stakeholders who care about what happens here in Azusa I'm very pleased that the messages she sends our informative they're accurate and they're done with grace and consideration towards the public I also found out that you know I initially was a runner but I didn't know she was what's called an ultra-marathoner she has run 50 miles if you can

009believe that 50 miles now I was gonna say it was all within the office but it's not that's not true she is but it's an example of hers to her fortitude her strengths and her commitment and that's what she dedicates her running life to but that's also what she dedicates her professional life to and I admire that greatly sometimes I'm amazed she's a young employee for us but very talented and wise and responsible of what she does so please join me in thanking and welcoming and celebrating legal honor so it's given round of applause yes thank you Jorge and Linda before I begin I want to say that what I'm sharing tonight is actually a quilt of sorts that came together with input from Norma's ed services called the directors and myself so first and

010foremost we want to acknowledge and present Norma Camacho as our administrator of the year for and services we want you all to know that it is such a pleasure to work with Norma she definitely makes our team stronger we notice how normal ifs others up with her servant leadership by supporting listening and caring for others including ourselves the manner in which he focuses deeply on her work and plus her thoughts into action is very inspiring and something for all of us to learn from her kindness patience dedication energy consideration knowledge and integrity are all infectious as she sets the standard for our work as a fierce advocate for students her passion especially for English language learners is centered around monitoring outcomes equity and access Norma is well respected and well liked and that is due

011because and due to her effective leadership her calm mindset and her thoughtfulness not only in her words but also in her actions her advocacy goes beyond our sites and our district it goes to the county level and the state levels and we are so in awe of her and it helps to shine a light on the amazing things that are happening in our district we thank you Norma for all that you do for the department the staff the parents and the community and of course most of all our students they have the best partner ever in you help me in thanking and congratulating Norma Camacho and I have the honor of announcing the 2019 2020 a manager of the year for these two the Unified School District this is a it's an honor to be

012in front of you to be able to do this multiple times a year for our our different employee groups and I'm just as honored doing this for our managers I have to tell you that when we were interviewing that the three ladies all very phenomenal women I constantly kept saying that this was a photo finish it was I mean it was as just a snap of just how talented each and every single manager administrator is in their contributions to the district one one point that really shone out and and it really would reflected when when we announced our manager of the year was just how well appreciated and light our manager of the year is for her work as a site administrator her work has been incredibly monumental in this year as they have transitioned

013and welcomed in new staff members from one of the sites that was closed last school year the parent of the year you may remember also came from this site so there's something something in the water as they say that's going on that special at valedale and it brings me great honor to announce that this year's manager of the year is none other than our Adrianna Garcia aye Medina help me enjoying and congratulating her the Kaminski now I would like to say a few words about Adrianna also and I'm using I'm using in thinking about her there's so much that I wanted to say and I thought let me just put it in what's called an acrostic taking the letters of her name and spelling it out and for each one I'm gonna share with you

014a quality that I see in her and we start with the a for Adrianna and the first thing I think of always is how artistic she is and the reason for that is when she was hired I remember shortly after she was hired I went to visit her at Valley Dale and the office was transformed into this beautiful thematic set of bulletin boards that welcome the students and the staff and the families and continued on down the hall and build and I think it was a team of heroes at the time in each year it's been a little bit different but extremely artistic and and creative in thinking of how do we celebrate people in a way let them know how much we care with the D I always think of dreamer because she is

015when we talk about leaders being visionary she definitely sees the future she definitely sees what can be for the students and staff and Families over at Valley delt and she brings that that idea and that passion to make things just wonderful as she can for her students and families and staff my dreams about that but then makes it a reality and so the R stands for rim master because that's how she makes it a reality she works well with people she gets them excited and involved and I've never seen those the functions that they put on that scope more energetic more representative really of the joy of being at that school that I always they think of her as behind the scenes organizing the whole thing inspiring getting people excited about it and really contributing

016that that role the I stands for innovative I really see her as somebody who's always looking for the something that will help the school helps the families the students the staff better and I think back to the time one time when she called me up after she'd been there just a little while and had heard about a an instructional program to help kids who are struggling readers and wondered if she could have permission to do it and I was so impressed that right away she hadn't been there that long but she was already identifying a need and coming up with a solution that she had researched that she knew about and wanting to do it so we have the a the D our I the next one is a and that really is key to

017somebody doing effective work at a school site she's an active listener she works with the staff she listens to what their thoughts are she listens and read nice is the strength that they build and the creativity that they bring to what they do and she does the same thing with the parents and maybe even with a little kids but it's really with the adults that I see her just being very attentive to what it is that they're thinking with their experience has been and then building from that and finding ways to help that flourish even more and that leads me to the end which is really a nurturer and that's not a wishy-washy word to me nurture is the essence of what you have to do you have to be somebody who sees potential and

018people who just like that they have a garden they put a garden in the right outside the the office and the school had had a garden had fallen a little bit into disrepair but shortly after she was there as flourishing again and I went to see if the though it was raised beds and all the wooded raised beds had been painted and there were little just beautiful little trinkets and things in the in the garden it has changed and she was not only nurturing that garden but as I slowed out I realized that was the way she approached being her principal that her job is to nurture and support the people there at the school and so the last a is what I'm so so excited for her to be recognized as and that's administrator

019of the year so let's give her another round of applause please thank you all very very much would like the board like can I have any comments or is Adriana gonna speak adriana is scheduled to speak if you speak or would you like to make comments first I would prefer to speak it's all about her today wonderful thank you and you hear me yes okay good evening everyone welcome to my home hopefully we don't have any surprises as I'm addressing you but I want to say good evening to them to the board and thank you all dr. Kaminsky come in an audience it's an honor to be here tonight with you and to be recognized amongst such great leaders and administrators in my colleagues Norma and Lika I respect them both I admire their work

020and I know that their leadership too has brought so many wonderful experiences for our students and our families so I just want to say congratulations ladies for this recognition as well to our school board and dr. Kaminsky I want to thank you for giving me this opportunity four years ago when I joined the US as a unified school district I came here nervous nervous about starting a new district after having spent my educational years my teaching years the beginning of my principalship at the same district it was the only district I knew and I loved but I was told time and time again that you're going to love a Sousa it's a great place we have a vision it's a family but I was nervous I was nervous because I didn't know how Valley dil

021community would respond to what I brought to the table but what I found was a community that was energetic vibrant and they wanted the absolute best for all children a community that was willing to do whatever was needed for all kids not just their own from the moment I stepped onto the school site and even to the very first official coffee with the principal that I had I immediately felt welcomed by the essence of family and since family is so important to me I felt it from the beginning from the school board members from staff from students and parents and it reassured me that coming to Azusa had been the right choice I also want to take this opportunity to thank and recognize a long list of wonderful people who have helped me prepare and

022these like-minded people who always have kids in their heart and are willing to step up and do their part to mr. doodle Ortega who is one of these wonderful people in my life you have mentored me every step of the way your mentorship has been instrumental in my success you have your focus that you have on helping us become instructional instructional leaders is admire about the way you interact and approach people is inspiring so thank you for that I have learned so much from you to my staff I want to thank them as well thank you for being you I've seen your motivating examples of doing right by kids year after year and this year in particular I have seen it in incredible ways your willingness to step up and give students all that you

023got during these challenging times is proof that you lead with the heart from pushing beyond your comfort zones to learning the tools of distance learning and pushing through even to this week tells me about the kinds of people you are and how lucky our Vikings are to have you I see the love and dedication when you're reaching out to parents and doing everything from tech support to following up when the student has missed a session and I know that you're still trying to make these connections regardless of what it takes and and what is needed and these connections are what we need during these difficult times last I also want to recognize my family I know that some days my hours can be very long but my family is everything to my dearest daughter Sienna

024thank you for always challenging me to see you perspectives and for making me laugh to my little big guy Aaron thank you for making me a more patient mom and a better teacher to my husband Ernie thank you for helping me see all the little accomplishments during those difficult days for being my rock and my kids hero and less to my parents who have taught me the value of hard work perseverance dedication and the list can go on and all we have so many special people at Valley Dale and we have great things that are happening right now despite the challenges that we've been faced with this year we are working on creating a place where students and their families can call a home away from home a place where everyone is valued welcomed loved

025and supported and I know that this just can't happen with one person's efforts this is a collective effort and one that I'm blessed to be part of so I thank you for this honor and I wish everyone well thank you I wanted to congratulate the all the administrators that receive their certificate decision and opinion but also Adriana you know she's a very good sport when you know I went to one of her festivities were you know who allows the students to take her to the wall Adriana I'm like oh my god she's gonna fall but they had masking tape when they take her to the bomb not sure what what the reason was I don't recall but um she was and she stood there and they took the chair from under her foot feet and

026there she is up on the wall and I'm like wow The Grates Portman's that for her well deserved congratulations Adriana okay I know I'm cheating would you like to say something yes of course I just I want to congratulate all first I can start by congratulating all of our administrators I think that I know how much I know how much work all of our stuff I'm putting in and that includes our administrators right to make sure everything has been running out has continued to run under under these very difficult circumstances that we are in right now so I do want to appreciate that but I do just want to express we appreciate and recognize the three that were recognized today I think the work that you've done in terms of your commitment to our district

027commitment to excellence aren't just is just apparent and everything that you touch so I really appreciate that and then finally with a vide on I just want to say I especially appreciate you coming and being part of our community and I'm glad I did or recruited you over but I especially appreciate the way you have made valedale reflective of the community I think that's really important and so I think that's beautiful thank you board member Greer yeah so same thing thank you to to all the administrators I know that when we when we have a process like this where we're having to to kind of look through and acknowledge and recognize so you know so many administrators that we have in the district but then we kind of narrow it down here and so I

028do specifically yes want to say you know congratulations to Lika and normal as well thank you for all the work that you do and specifically Adriana yes same thing let me just let me just say that as a as a school board member it's not uncommon this is you know we signed up for this it's not uncommon for us to to kind of be around different places around town and for people to seek us out to to share with us challenges that they're having that's not an uncommon thing to have happen but I want to say that in regards to you you have been the subject of conversations that I have had where people have sought me out as I've been out in the grocery store and whatnot just to tell me how great you

029are and so that's just like an incredible testament to to who you are and in the work that you do you know a cup last year it was challenging when we were looking at the need to you know consolidate and with you know some of our schools that are Mountain View we're not transitioning over and I was able to talk to Perry parent that I spoke to about that I was able to tell them confidently like you need to understand that that Adrianna Garcia Medina is incredible and she is an incredible you know Jim and as I was able to communicate that confidently as I've heard back from others I mean you you you you made me truer than true as I communicated that back then and so just thank you for your continued work

030and for what you continue to do we are honored to have you here in our district or remember our Dennis I want to start off by congratulating all three and administrators Angelica I see your dedication to us as a unified and I appreciate your your communication and your messages and you being able to be on top of everything that's going on and your response and your commitment to this community as a whole not just our district but the isuzu city as well Norma Carbajal I want to congratulate you for your passion for her children's success for our student success I have watched you from being in the classroom to been an administrator and now being in the district and my friend you shine thank you so much for your continuous commitment and for you to

031have an open door policy I appreciate that hey Janet but I want to tell you that I want to congratulate you and I want to be able to to share a little story real quick how I when I was looking for a school for my kids and I came on a tour to to valle del and just i saw the difference and in the time that you were there and what you had to offer our our community our school community and the parents and i want to go ahead and thank you for that for your commitment and for your acceptance for your job to be here and for all the hard work that you put forth for our district so congratulations again to all three any dryness and so we have you on there on

032here congratulations thank you I'm off mute I would like to thank all of our administrators I would not want to have the job to decide even the the top three because all of you do such a wonderful job for us but I certainly didn't would not want to have had to choose between Lika Norma and Adriana because the three of you are all dynamic so I want to put that out there and Adriana you are a bundle of joy when I see you I feel relaxed and I'm fed if I believe it or not I'm somewhat of an introvert and you pull that out and that is such a good asset to have I appreciate it because I always feel so comfortable when I'm around your school when I'm around you and I can say

033that for most of the administrators but you have that little special glow and I have to give you that so I congratulations every work minute all the work you do thank you okay yes one we have one more person that wants to recognize Adriana and that's our partner from Foothill credit unions Melissa I can that is she Judith the Bomarito feeling theater okay we'll have to we'll have to go back and make sure we honor miss Garcia and Medina the future time with with Hotel credit union so this concludes our recognition our managers of the year Thank You Board of Education thank you Adriana for all your hard work okay so at this point we'll move on to item 5.2 recognition of student board representative and we are going to oh good evening it's my

034pleasure to have us take a look little time to thank Jenna Valdez for serving on our board as a student board member Jenna are you here mark do you know she's on the line I believe she is I mean find her number Jenna are you not getting here so Jenna's from Gladstone high school can you Jenna can you tell us a little bit about just your thoughts um I really enjoyed just being able to be heard and being able to have a chance to speak every week I know although we weren't able to you know be connected all the time I still felt like you guys reached out and still cared and still made sure I was here every week so I thought that was really nice and I really appreciated that and it was

035just a really nice experience to have and to see what goes on behind all of you know the closed doors and what you guys have to go through and vote on and all of that thank you so much thank you so much you know from our point of view I think we all really treasure the presence of the student board member because part of it is to let the students know that we do care about you very much you know you know that you see that new teachers that's true your your principals and the counselors in everybody's school but I want you to know too that the district office and the Board of Education our whole our whole reason for being here is students and so having a student be with us in their meetings

036it's really very very special so thank you so so much for that I really appreciate it thank you round of applause one that makes a noise here for you okay thank you so much you're welcome thank you okay and at this point we'll go to item 6.0 6.1 items from the floor public comments on agenda and non agenda item this is an opportunity for the public to address the board on non-agenda items no action can be taken on non-agenda item vigil speakers may have a he allowed up to three minutes to address the board on any non-agenda item prior to addressing the board please fill out the request to seek public comment blue card in submit it to the board secretary and I see we have hands our first person is Chris Alda very clear

037my computer's going a little slow but we can let her go first can you hear me yes thank you thank you for the opportunity to speak there's so much going on in our district right now I had a recent conversation with a few of my colleagues who tried to convince me to take advantage of all the the movements happening and reconsider going back to elementary of which I spent half of my career there but in the end they told me to trust my gut and I'm here tonight because my gut tells me I need to stay at the middle school and I need to keep speaking up for the changes that keep coming up over and over about the k-8 model and I'm coming to you from the concern that a lot more than what

038these k-8 models are and potentially going to give them one of my concerns is we I keep doing the word exposure and exposure to elective electives that includes art stem our students deserve much better than that I think about my own daughter's experience at her middle school she wasn't an athlete she she went into the music program for three solid years and because of that strong foundation she was able to join the marching band in high school and I think about her exposure to single subject credential teachers like we currently have and I think of the experi that our students will have if they're not given that opportunity to be with single subject credential teachers who can cover so much more ground and provide such a strong foundation and prepare our students for high school

039the way they deserve to be prepared so I just want to continue asking the board to give us more opportunities to convince you that we need to keep the middle school alive our students deserve the opportunity to get full exposure not just partial exposure thank you okay thank you and next up is s Scott um hi this is actually Andrew Alvarez I just got a note judge use my microphone okay is it me you want or do you want either god we can do s kya the names jump drunk we can do s scott first alright okay can you hear me hello can you hear me yes you can thank him okay thank you very much I was going through my name is Steve Scott I'm a counselor at Foothill middle school and I was

040looking through the slides that I'm sure that all the board members saw about the pros and the cons of school closures and I was looking this is only the second time my thirty thirty year career that I've addressed the board the first one was I felt very strongly about early college program this would be the second one because I looked at the eyes about school closures and a couple things jump out at me with the first one where it says the k-8 option it says that Ellington model is working very well I'm sure it is but as Miss berry was just saying I'm very concerned about the electives I brought this up to Adrienne Greer and to dr. Kaminsky my understanding is Ellington has language arts and math support which they absolutely need all our

041schools need those there's a concert band zero period anyone who's not in language arts the math support would have sixth graders we've had avid seventh and eighth graders would have stem there's some kind of music appreciation beginning band one day a week that's that is exposure but that's not really getting the depth of those electives there's no art there's no choirs no leadership those really bother me another problem that is at Ellington forest and there's PE teacher who comes one day a week and then the staff does to other days a week that means that the trees aren't getting five days a week in PE that's a concern especially among this in these times where we have a pandemic that shows that a healthy lifestyle leads to a strong immune system which is something we

042need and we're going to be cutting back on PE for all our k-8 students I have a problem with that basically the less the model the k-8 will have less electives less and this is plain in the second slide where it says smaller schools will equal less students smaller class sizes well that is true but the smaller and the class sizes that we have the smaller schools we have the less electives we have part of my job at Foothill middle school was putting together the master schedule that's all based on numbers so if you have a small if you have a small campus then you're gonna have less electives and going to the next slide I know I have a three minute time frame is about the K six and seven twelve option so we

043had jumped out of me there was high school served students aged 12 to 21 special IDI my first year twenty years of my career Azusa High School and in that time I'd never saw a student who was 21 years old on campus now it is true in an IEP student stay until they're 21 years old I'd like to know how and one year old we have the campus right now but sitting on that since that came up that that age range k-8 would have students from five years old to 14 years old that's also quite a big age group there or age range so if it's a concern for the high school it's a concern for the k-8 as far as the middle schools okay we have time time what's that am I out of

044time yeah three minutes row thank you okay I'm sorry okay now we move on and Mark do you want to go ahead and call them out okay am i you can hear me yes excellent very good well I do in coming here to advocate for the middle schools especially after seeing the school closure options item on the agenda for tonight now anxiously await further discussion of this this item a number of our my colleagues and I to look at this and you heard from mr. Scott some of the concerns that he had had we had some of those similar concerns as well one of the items mentioned with the k-8 was that there was a pair preference for this model but it's unclear to me that any surveys have been done of all the parents

045in our district to see if that's the case or if it even is the case do these parents advocate for eliminating middle school altogether or simply having an option to going to middle school or going to k-8 Inazuma a meeting that we had with a board member Greer a couple of weeks ago there were a number of parents involved that teachers counselors and so on not a single person in that meeting which had about 35 people advocated for eliminating the middle school so it strikes me as a little odd that there would be a parent preference maybe this is something to do with the fact West Committee but that's a committee and we have an entire district full of parents and students would like to advocate for this I asked my students as eighth graders

046would you have preferred to be in a k-8 school or a middle school and all of them all of them want it to be in middle school now is it possible that that's just because that's the only thing that they knew maybe but they were aware of all the opportunities they have there that they would not have had at an elementary school and so that is what mostly informed their decision what's a little concerned about some of the numbers that are put up here rather the lack of numbers when we see that every option except for the k-8 options indicate that there will be student loss I find that a little peculiar specifically since in our meeting with board member Greer there were parents who indicated that they would pull their kids out of the

047district if middle school disappeared I have to imagine that that must not be just a one or two parents but there must be some who would be willing more than that would be willing to do this the only option here that allows for middle school option is a sixth eighth option which I thought again also was peculiar since we've decided already to move sixth grade down to the elementary school that would eliminate some of those cons that are mentioned that 1500 student middle school including sixth seventh and eighth would likely be just about a thousand seventh date and that would be sustainable in our middle school at Foothill so I'm a little concerned that this this these proposals seem to unfairly favor k8 without a preponderance of data or surveys or asking staff students and

048parents what their preferences would be I understand that saving money is an issue but as we've heard tonight Azusa has been one that's put family and people first and I know that that's been the cases I've been here I hope it continues thank you for your time thank you um are we having an issue with the clock it'll work now sorry okay it's hard to do these three or four things at the same time would you like me to call the names I would be great all right I just wanted all right I'm Harold oh sorry all right Harold you should be like mister uh sorry mr. Ezra if you look on your screen there should be an unmute button there you go Oh can you hear me there you go all right in here

049me yes hi my name is Harold oh sorry good evening I've been a teacher in Azusa unified for over 30 years and my last five years at Ellington and since it's become an eighth grade I'm here to talk to you Knight about the school configurations also and I'm here to say that an all k-8 district is a horrible idea I'm sure you'll hear this information later on from people going through this option painting this as a parents choice and as you've already heard it's only partially true when the parents I spoke to heard all the information about Cades their minds were changed quickly now don't get me wrong I love Ellington and every teacher there loves Ellington it is an awesome school and despite all the haters and the cheese made teacher that Ellington do

050love Ellington it's a great place to be it's just not the blueprint for the entire district when yeah just one administrator for two years we failed badly when we finally received two administrators we didn't just blossom we Excel Ellington needs two administrators to be successful and since Ellington has been treated as a Taliban tree schools we heard from previous speakers you guys sure we only get 45 minutes a week from a PE teacher and a music teacher now I can also tell you just in terms of Browns it's been over five years Ellington still has elementary basketball courts you know how does that build for the rest of the district if you do a k-8 um if you eliminate those things that they're talking about you're eliminating athletics music and electives throughout the district having

051a k-8 following that line think about what that's going to do to the high schools you basically eliminate their programs - which is a shame because of Zeus's high school and glass at high school have been excelling in athletics you go to a k-8 district that's done the people who are telling you that the k-8 model is the best option frankly they're the ones who put us in this situation to start with so I'm gonna close up by saying I'm sure you're familiar with the peanuts cartoon so I say this to give good grief Charlie school board how many times were you going to let Lucy pull the football out from under you before you realize here we go again thank you okay um Diana Thornton you can you hear me yes okay good evening

052my name is Diana Thornton and I currently teach seventh grade English language arts and English language development at Foothill Middle School along with several other people who have spoken tonight in fact I have had the pleasure to teach at Foothill for 18 of the 28 years I've been an educator unfortunately I'm one of the two dozen displaced teachers in our district due to declining enrollment and the movement of the sixth grade to the elementary schools when I began at Foothill in 2002 I haven't I had left an elementary school in Glendale so that I could now specialize in the one subject I most love teaching English at a school of over 1,000 middle schoolers at the time I immediately fell in love with this middle school culture where I witnessed adolescents given the opportunity to

053spread their wings over the past 18 years our students have had the choice of competing in sports taking part and stage productions becoming part of school government through ASD leadership class exploring musical talent through our amazing band quarrel and orchestra programs take avid where they understand the implications of going to college and develop critical thinking skills and navigate the roller coaster of growing up with the assistance of an amazingly patient counselor mr. Scott who you just heard from who also walks through an individual a through G graduation plan for every single student having had the privilege of helping with our last two stage productions I have seen firsthand how the students who may not relate to other kids very well in the classroom or on the playground begin to blossom in fact last year one

054student confessed to me he had never made friends at school until he had joined our production this was an eighth grader mind you I could go on and share more details of what makes the k-8 model special but I only have a minute or two left so before I close I must ask the board what is the goal of moving to a k-8 model to blindly follow the current trends or is our goal to do what's best for our students and families in the article which middle school model works best Brian Carolyn Christopher Weiss and Jamal Matthews studied the K model versus the more traditional cave model excuse me 6/8 model two findings from this article stand out most to me first that adolescent students thrive in settings no matter the grade configuration when they're

055given more opportunities for autonomy and decision-making how will the k-8 model provide opportunities for autonomy and decision making by stripping our electives from students moreover we're all students parents teachers and administrators even surveyed prior to selecting this model I know I wasn't secondly the article goes on to state that the classroom is quote where factors such as maintaining and intense focus on academic achievement proactive intervention and teacher competencies matter most for adolescence this district is moving teachers to elementary schools tomorrow mind you who have not taught multiple subjects for many years how can we possibly include good conscience say we'll provide proactive intervention and teacher competency when many of us are now being asked to no longer specialize in a subject but instead asked to teach five or six subjects for which we have not

056been recently trained I implore you to reevaluate this decision and concentrate first on the creation of a five-year plan which has been suggested by current board members more than once do we want to be the district that follows trends or the district that provides an educational experience for the needs of students and families in mind maybe the current Kovach crisis provides us with the pause we desperately need to reevaluate this decision on behalf of our Azusa stakeholders thank you thank you next step is Meg's avala you are like I unmute myself correct can you hear me yes we can hear you okay awesome thank you and I hope you are all healthy and safe board members and your families and your children I really wanted to come on here to focus on two different things

057and really the people before me have covered it Andrew Alvarez really covered my major concerns about tonight's presentation having very few data and and nebulous and I'd like to ask you to look deeper and ask for deeper and ask for more so that the things that say parent preference are backed up by survey data when it says there's a cost savings how is that cost savings being measured and break it down if we're going to push for a particular model let's look at all the different pieces of that model you know that AE a does not advocate for going district-wide I have heard lots of different preferences and there's got to be a compromise somewhere in between and I'm gonna ask you to take pause like Diana said to look at the data and to

058solicit more data I would like to ask for a survey survey of staff that are going to students as well as parents what do the students want and what does the data say I want clearly delineated information and I think that we should all expect that in order to make accurate well thought-out positions also I agree a hundred percent with Diana we need to hit the brakes The Cove is 19 pandemic has created situations that require your attention on other things right now and while I know that it's important that we follow through with a five-year plan quite frankly we need to take time for this decision to make the best one possible and I think that it serves the best interest of the district to wait and focus on those other things also I

059think that it's super important that the next superintendent that's installed be a part of this process board members you have an incredibly difficult decision to make and that Meuse superintendent also needs to have bias and a vested interest in those decisions and you're all going to have to do it together and I think that it would behoove us to one focus on those immediate needs that have to be taken care of now cove is 19 starting school what the calendar going to look like is it going to be distance learning and at the same time step back get constituent input from all of your stakeholders as to where they want to go with the five-year plan so that all of these meetings you're saying you're going to have include all of I'm going to say

060the right people which is everyone and including whoever the new superintendent is that you choose so thank you for taking time I appreciate it and I hope you I wish you all safety and healthiness thank you thank you okay next up is Ron okay if you guys hear me okay yes okay all right so good evening board members my name is Ron trustful I'm at Gladstone high school so good evening board members assistant superintendents and dr. Kaminsky I am concerned about the recent movement and discussion about going to an allocate a district I understand the necessity to steer our district through these difficult Financial Times and that there are some parents darn that are in favor of going to a k-8 district I appreciate that board members have asked for transparency however I don't think

061that the whole picture has been painted it is not what is good this is not okay so what I'm trying to say here it is not what it's good for the bid for the district administration first of all we have to think about the students they are what matter most here second we have to think about teachers and then we have to think about school site administrators here are my concerns about how this is playing out we seem to be seen just one side of the story there seems to be a big push from our superintendent about going to a k-8 district without really telling us we're discussing other alternatives I would like to see those other alternatives get equal time so these so these are not positions that AEA is looking to me to

062endorse I am speaking on behalf of myself here if we are considering going to a K model we have to consider all the consequences that are I'm sorry that would come about but it's not seen as though the consequences are being discussed if we go to a que district the students will lose out on the following highly qualified single subject teachers in the areas of math science social studies in English students who are served in eighth grade may not have PE every day and if they do highly qualified PE teachers would probably not teach them students would also miss out on electives such as music art foreign language or other electives they are currently receiving at the middle school they attend students who are in seventh and eighth grade would not be able to move

063from class to class and get the high school experience by allowing them to move from class to class they learn how to be responsible for their time and their organization the materials needed for each class this would also mean that there will be less interaction because they would be with the same peers for the entire day establishing relationships with different peers throughout the day is extremely important because it teaches students how to be socially appropriate in different situations it allows them to establish relationships with other teachers in regards to teachers single subject teachers from the middle school would either need to move to the high school or be let go from the district if they move to the high school they may bump a teacher from the high school these are highly qualified single subject

064teachers who have vast knowledge of the subjects they are teaching they are teaching these classes because they have earned the right through their education and training in the specific areas they teach let's keep looking at other up 200 alternatives and keep an eye I'm sorry and keep an open mind when it comes to the reorganization of this district that's also allowed the new superintendent have a say in the decision making process thank you thank you next is Terry and I just kind of like to remind everybody that we need to do the three minutes and end it three minutes because it makes a moot the board meeting move smoother and this is our business meeting so we do need to get to the business as well and it just makes everything more efficient thank you

065I have a question do they have a clock that they can see or yes okay I don't see a terry in the reading anymore okay so galaxy s a let's see hello my name is Nathan Ariana's I am a senior at Gladstone High School and I would like to represent most of the seniors that are graduating this year of 2020 so this year I had the opportunity and the honor of graduating in white graduating in white I Gladstone means that I have earned honors this is something that I worked hard for ever since I was a freshman I worked day and night weekends even stayed up late to graduate in my white yet if there is no chance of me graduating then I would have all of that work I had done in the last

066four years I've gone in vain I even know many students who they are the first in their family to graduate from high school yet if there is no graduation ceremony they will not be able to celebrate that moment with their fins so whatever the situation is with regarding the graduation ceremony I beg of the student council or the school board to postpone the graduation to a later date whether it be in the summer or early fall I highly encourage you to consider it thank you thank you that was well played okay next Laura Gonzalez actually we have Terry okay hey thank you can you hear me yes great all right good evening madam president board members and cabinet before I get started with my maiden points I want to just give a shout out to

067Jenna Valdes your student representative on the board as well as he Menna Escobar who put that great video about seniors on the website because they are both Ellington graduates and we are so proud of the accomplishments that they've achieved through high school I just wanted to remind you a couple of things in regards to Ellington's k-8 I've been at Ellington for over 32 years and I've shared my thoughts with you prior to this in December I sent you an email with a lot of points and then I spoke at a board meeting to give you some pros and cons but my main point tonight is about the size of our middle school and if the plan is to make all elementary schools at k-8 I need you to consider the size of those we have

068about a hundred and fifty-seven students our middle school was created to keep students in our district because of where we're situated a lot of students would go from Ellington to Las Palmas and then from Las Palmas to North U and we would lose them if they and then instead of going to center because it was so far away and some students continued to leave even at sixth grade or in eighth grade and the two main reasons that I've heard are that they want to go where the sports are more competitive and so if you think about having all K eights then those teams are going to be reduced because you won't have as many players from which to choose so that's why we have six seventh and eighth graders on our sports teams and yet

069we still very small teams other students leave because they want that middle school experience that traditional experience where they're going from class to class at ellington students do move to different teachers just not as frequently as at other schools Steve Scott mentioned some interventions that we have he was talking about avid and stem but we do have electives so they're different interventions are everyday electives are just a couple times a week but the reason why our electives are limited is because when you have a small number of students you have a small number of teachers and those Gen ed teachers are the ones teaching the elective so when you only have six gen ed teachers you have six electives so keep that in mind as you are considering making all schools okay eight I think

070Ellington is great I love it there but it's not for everybody some kids need another choice a more traditional type of middle school so I was glad to see that there's the option of keeping one middle school open my time is up thank you I'm here if you have questions or you can email me Thank You Terri okay now we will move on to Laura them solids good evening board members first off I'd like to thank you for your the commitment you have made to all of our children and thus to our community part of your job is to make some very difficult decisions as unpopular as they may be and that is to ensure that our district can push forward and continue to provide quality education to our students I wish that we could

071hear four more families in our district but I am here as a parent and as a parent I'm asking you that you need to be brave you need to make the decisions that are necessary to make sure that our district is fiscally solvent prior to Cobra 19 and school closures we were already dealing with a pressing a large school deficit now with the may provision that just came in we're gonna have to cut even deeper if we continue the way we are are a role to fiscal solvency is far from us yes Jaster decisions need to be made and they need to be made to ensure that all of our students continue to have to receive a quality education not just this year not just next year but five ten years down the line as

072a parent to be honest I am tired of the continued requests for more data we've heard that over and over again over several months and as we continue to ask for more our district is digging itself deeper into a larger deficit I also keep hearing some other members of our community state that you know students are not gonna have PE music art which are all electives that I love dearly and that yes I think are important in our children's development however if we don't meet if we don't we're not fiscally solvent and get taken over by the state we're not gonna have any electives to choose from and I appreciate all the work that everyone in our community does and I understand that it is not easy for people to be laid off I I

073don't like that either however we're not the only district in the state or in the country that is facing these challenges there every district I know for sure in the state of California is facing some very difficult decisions and it's gonna be is going to have to address large cuts to their district so again I ask you to be brave I asked you to focus on our students because no one would have a job if we didn't have students and I ask you to prioritize that and make the decisions that are needed as even if you are not liked by some and we appreciate your bravery we appreciate the courage and all the energy that you put into this thank you thank you and next up is Ali Munoz nice oh hi there you go

074you're like I thank you so much so I was calling to I was calling I came in to follow up on the issue of graduation ceremonies based on my discussion with you guys last week it was my understanding that the superintendent was going to get back to the board with a clear directive as to what what route we're going to be taking to celebrate these very deserving students who are being very patiently I might add bit very patient and I'm just here to follow up to see if you guys made a decision if you guys have more information if you're better prepared to to move forward with a decision I like Nathan Ariana's idea about moving it further out if necessary so that the students can get what they a ceremony that is it that

075meets the requirements of what a graduation ceremony should be in a safe of course manner it was never my intention to think that we were gonna be unsafe but life is going to start moving forward and we need to start thinking about what does life look look like for us from here on out this is our chance to to set the tone for the rest of our city for the rest of our students that we are able to go through something like this and and come out shining like the Phoenix out of a fire this is what I want for our students and you should want that too everybody should want that too we need to put our heads together and make sure that that these celebrations happen in a timely manner and and that

076they are indicative of how we what how we support our students with that said um I want to thank BL Ariana's for reaching out to me and following up with me regarding my my or discussion last last week so Thank You Gabby for reaching out I know you're all very busy I appreciate how busy you are you have a lot on your plate from everything that I've heard today and since I'm here I also want to touch base on the this K through 8 thing that I'm hearing you guys do you guys even talk to your students does anybody ask the students what they want I'm just wondering because I worked with students for many years and just listening to them you guys are gonna crush them if you take away their middle schools this

077is not good for morale for either teachers or students or parents I don't know how this how this happen I don't have all the information but I can tell you right now that is not the route the route to go so you guys will be in my prayers please please take the time to listen to students and listen to parents and listen to your teachers thank you Thank You Allie okay next is Christian does Molly hello can everybody hear me yes thank you hello my name is Christian Demery and I am a seventh grade math teacher at Foothill Middle School and I've been a teacher in our district for 24 years about six years ago I left Foothill for the new k7 school that was beginning that fall at ellington after a few months there

078I realized that the concept that I thought it was going to be for students did not match the reality of what it was for the middle school aged students there was no PE structure PE at this age is vital and a well established PE program in middle school sets the students up for success I had to give the students what was appropriate for seventh graders not an elementary version of it there was no defined elective program an elective program in a middle school is so important for students to express themselves academically through other outlets the elective program we had ellington consisted of two days per week and was facilitated by the teachers in the 618 and a few other teachers we had to have something to offer three times per year one for each trimester

079that's the elementary grading period there was no avid program that was offered like at Foothill so the students lost out on all of the opportunities of tutorials and other aspects that make Abbott very valuable in addition to having to teach PE and an elective we had to teach two subjects now I know that in the elementary setting and in the sixth grade teaming that is the norm in seventh and eighth grade students benefit from a teacher who knows his or her material very well and has honed and crafted his or her style to meet the needs of all learners as a teacher who has dedicated himself to math I know that the students lost out on some amazing science teaching from the likes of the professionals who I have dedicated themselves to quality science instruction

080I have seen firsthand over the years at Foothill what caring and knowledgeable science teachers can do to unlock curiosity and Wonder in our students who maybe don't excel in other subjects the teachers dedication to science over the years has rivaled my dedication to my students math learning I was not able to give that science instruction the justice it deserved as it would have been from those other expert teachers additionally the time was not dedicated to it and history in the master plan of minutes in middle school it receives its equal share of time I would also like to know how many parents who were advocating for k-8 in Azusa Unified are completely informed of all that there is to know about a k-8 setting Ellington's parent base was informed on prior on items prior but

081were not aware of all that maybe was to come in terms of the major change to the elementary setting in my opinion I don't feel that many parents know all that entails the k-8 situation the middle school bridge to a high school is a realistic mode for students to begin the process of multiple teachers assignments and responsibilities my last thing so more vocal representatives may be speaking for a smaller group there also may be others who in this situation are uninformed indifferent or maybe unsure but a true representation would be much more valued by all stakeholders involved if a realistic representation were given not solely relying on an estimated projection of unrelatable dollar amounts and one last thing I'm sorry the concept of timing is everything is really important right now and so we have

082some other needs to address and I don't think that a discussion right now of ak8 is really something that we should be focused on thank you so much I appreciate that very much no worries thank you and thank you for getting my junior high and high school French going and look who's next hi can you hear me yes hi I'm so sorry I did not want to speak until I started listening to the conversation so I don't have anything written so please I am very nervous and I'm a parent and I was one of the parents who was at the PI plus meeting when they spoke to us in regards to this K through 8 model and what I think it's really important that I say on record is that the information that was given

083to us presented to at least me I will speak in regards to myself it's not what I heard once it was presented to the board the first time and I was very discouraged to go back to the practice meeting because it was a whole day I had to spend there I even ask the questions in regards to are these kids going to have the sports and they said yes and one of them is here present in the cabinets and I'm not very happy about that because I know that they're saying the parents wanted but to be honest with you there was only about 15 parents and the information was not completely given to us to be honest with you now that I think about it it just felt like like car salesmen trying to convince

084us to buy that car once we go sign that paperwork the finance charge is not what they said it was gonna be and it's sad it's really sad please get informed please get all the information and it's very discouraging Thank you Thank You Libby okay nobody else anybody else there's one more no the list doesn't go that long so I'll let you know when we get to the end of the time okay thank you whoever has the Galaxy Note nine username you're muted I clicked for you to unmute yourself give it a couple of seconds oh there they go do you wanna you're lying yes your life okay hi um when I started learning espanol por kisses medium I mean hombres Rosa yo yo yo tres Nina's en el distrito escolar de souza a primer

085lugar por favor quisiera pedir leis Alport member Casey porfavor quiero que tiene ser alchemy take a siesta for mondo para ayudar a la decisión de empezar Alana's collar meant a venti you know si por favor Sammy puede tomar in cuenta me me petition el otro commentary's que los padres de familia por favor queremos ser participate in todas las decisiones que se hace en el distrito la mayoría de los que estan open ando estan nosotros tenemos dos por que por que son nuestros hijos los que están en el distrito también tiene mucho do Pienaar ustedes tienen que escuchar low opinion de ellos es el futuro de nuestros hijos yell futuro de este pais oh no estrosi hos queremos mejores programas para ellos con el plan de que true a nacho chewy es tanky Tondo muchos programas

086y también la oportunidad de una mejor education de nuestros hijos SE los agra Desco gracias por el tiempo que me quiera gracias okay so now we move on to I am said point zero Connor okay item seven point zero comments and requests by the board seven point one board member Rodriguez opinion yes good evening everyone first of all like you congratulate on all the classified employees for the happy classified employee week and I want to thank them for their hard work and dedication to our students and the schools they continue to serve in this very hard time and climate change it we have you know we couldn't count on the rain or shine nice seen him out there serving lunches and the other day I walked my meringue and they were on Getti the school

087supplies ready it was a big old truck blow to school I'm like what's in there and these school supplied with they're all ready from the custodians to people from the district office from um food service you know I mean even hope the secretary of our tutor Tigger and they're all ready to go with their masks on with their gloves on ready to work and I just want to congratulate and thank them for all their hard work and and I and I did listening listen in during the task force to the beginning of school and it was great because they had you know parents teachers administrators principals even the nurse union representatives and they all had very good suggestions and great questions on the opening of school and I'm really glad that they've included all those

088different entities from our district because you know again they work there they know the climate and even their own schools so I'm just glad to hear what the outcome is going to be and we went on Monday morning to go with the long side on the students homes and I want to thank mayor Gonzalez and his council members and also our school board is unified for our collaboration in making this happen students and parents were very appreciative and it was nice also to go to one of my colleagues house and her family and they were all happy come out taking a picture her husband and her daughter her son Nathan is a very nice young man and he was very happy to receive his his sign and the at this time Azusa leadership Ernie Educational

089Foundation and sister city we've been reading scholarship applications and we read like forty six scholarship applications from all the three high schools so I'm really glad that the students participate they were able to get their scholarship information in and the counselors and the clerk's gave them to us and we're reading them and we have the name so we gave them to the school sites and they don't want us to say the name until they award them and and I just wish all the kids good luck thank you board member person's office thank you I have a couple things one I just want to first start off by in recognition of all the public comment and which I appreciate listening to I do hope that as we move forward and eventually come back to meetings in

090person that we find some way to continue a modified approach maybe even a hybrid approach where people are able to listen in via online and even give public comment online I think that I can we can we can all see the value of the making it easier for people to participate and so I just want to make sure that we find some way to continue that along with looking same lines I just want express appreciation for our district because I now that we have the opportunity to watch other other districts or agencies in action I see many districts only doing like email your comments in and will read it out loud to you and then we'll limit it only to a certain amount of time and so I think having a forum and the fact

091that our staff was able to quickly put it together this approach where we actually have can have live public comment I think it's very important so I just want to express my appreciation for that um and I of the pieces that were commented on I think those are the graduation piece and then the the school configuration space are on the agenda so I'll reserve my comments for those pieces around those during those comments doing those pieces but I will just say I'm hoping that especially with the graduation piece even though it's clear from from the county that they're saying that we cannot do any good breath through graduations I hope that we can maybe find a way to write a letter to the county urging them to reconsider in fact in light of the fact

092that pretty much every other County is allowing such things and so I think it's only fair to our community to our students so that was the last thing I had to report on and well actually one more thing and then like Yolanda I really and I was able to spend a little time handing out yard signs to seniors this past week and I think I think any way we can find to find to recognize them it is very important so I'm glad we were able to do that one thing especially in partnership with our city cop the City Council thank you remember greer your mute can you hear me now we could hear you now alright I was I was I was pretty far into it but so first just want to say good evening

093to everybody and yeah starting off it was an absolute delight to be a part of just the collaboration of folks that were out giving happy delivering the the signs to students was absolutely incredible to knock on I think one of the the favorite ones was a knock on the door and there was a brother who answered the door who was clearly had just woken up and I mean so there definitely was it was a surprise to many folks as we were showing up but it was it was just a delight to be able to do that in and yes I was joined by Councilman Macias and sir the city manager as well as a chief of police and and lika was there Marta dr. Gomez was there and so to have these people just coming

094and knocking on your door just to kind of celebrate and congratulate folks was was an incredible thing to be a part of and so just want to say it's it's but a small token of how proud you know it's a kind of show and gesture to show how proud of you we are and how much we are with you and we are celebrating with you and though this is not what we expected or anticipated it's just one tiny bit for us to celebrate with you also wanted just same thing saying thank you to all of our classified employees this being a classified employee week and although all the hard work that everyone is doing and has been doing prior to this is doing now and will continue to do you know I the the things

095that go on I feel like I feel like the classified employees are the the blood and the bones that you know allow things to happen and so thank you for again the things that are seen and very obvious but also the things that are unseen and unknown that you know folks in our community don't even realize are happening but because you do your you know your play your role and do your job here in our in our district our community is better because of it so so just want to say thank you I do also want to say I know I talked up I have I held a an online coffee earlier this month and I it is my intention to do those once a month that's my that's my goal to have something like

096that once a month maybe at some point we'll move to some in-person stuff but for you know for the time being those will still be online and I also said the lat at the last meeting that even though is my goal to do them once a month I was wanting to do to try to do to this particular month and so that's what I am going to do and so I wanted to say just kind save the date I'm gonna be holding another one on Thursday May 28th at 6 p.m. and so I'll send that information out and again when I you know invite and or and encourage anybody to come in and join I think you'll find that it you know again it was a very respectful conversation and good format some things that

097were learned will make some some adjustments but I only see it getting better so excited for that so I'll send out information also you know email the folks that were there that this last one I'll send an email so you are able to to sign up for that and then I just want to say you know put this offer to any any board members as well again I think that it was it was very beneficial and so I don't want I don't in no way do I think that this was you know this is you know my idea and there's some sort of proprietary idea if there's any way that I can help assist you if that's something that you're interested in hosting yourself I'd love to share with you how I you know went

098about doing it and you can build upon that and see if that fits for you as well anyway I can help I want to be resourced to you my colleagues as well and then yeah it would be good to you know to kind of hear more of an update from some of the reopening group and and hear where some of that went so I know that it appears that you London in Gabriella were able to be in and a part of that I will say we were able to kind of check in with our legal team earlier and verify that it would not be a Brown Act violation if the if any of all the five of us were able to listen in on that meeting so moving forward it would be helpful if we

099could each receive a link and then I'll just remind my colleagues that what our attorney said is that it would it would be you know imperative on us then to not you know just stay muted and not comment on anything but there would not be a need to agendize and we would be able to join in and listen if we're available then in regard I'll save some fuller comments and questions I know item 10.2 is was one that a lot of people had some things to say I'll save some fuller questions and comments for that time but just just a couple a couple things I want to say one in regards to two graduations yeah III I that I'm hearing some some some suggestions and I'd like just you know we can we can talk

100about that in a little bit but you know Sheila Nina I think that that's an incredible you know suggestion that you talked about sending a letter and kind of advocating for ourselves and for our community in that regard so I'd love to see about that but but again I would like us to explore postponing if necessary but then also the the risk that we need to keep in mind when we look at that is what happens if we postpone to a date that has to be postponed to a later date that has to be postponed to a later date that's a it's a it's a risk we take if we start going down that down that road but but it does sound like that's a like from those who I'm speaking to that that's a

101risk worth taking but I just want to make sure that we're clear and upfront about that but we can we'll talk more about that I imagine here in a moment and then also in regards to the models so I see that you know we have the same document that's being shared with us today that we've we've seen you know more than a handful of times and we've discussed so I'm not sure if to wait I'm not sure if it's being presented to us I you know again you know brand new or if it's just kind of a reference document but I will say that that may be first to staff and say cabinet it would it would be really vital for us to get information you know so that that really does I think it

102really does kind of paint a particular picture and I think that there are some things that are missing there and so I know that we've talked about what does it look like for us to have equal information from some of the other models and so I would love to be you know surprised and see on the docket what a seven twelve model could look like or what a you know what a singular middle-school model would look could look like these are some of the other scenarios that we've talked about but we don't seem to get as much information there so so I would like to see some of that information hopefully and you know in one of these upcoming meetings I also want to say to staff let's let's be careful to protect against let's

103let's ensure that any accusations of intellectual dishonesty in regards to the information that we're bringing forward is not warranted and and so let's and so I would encourage us to be diligent to make sure that where we're laying all of the information and all of the options and clear understanding of pros and cons on the table so that a clear decision can be made and then to to those within the community teachers and parents who came in and shared in some of some of their concerns the only thing I'll say is I I I want you to hear me when I say that what we're hearing are recommendations the board has not voted on on these things and the board still needs to and there needs to be conversations and we have over and over

104committed to inviting in ensuring that that our community is able to speak into that and that will be a part of the process and so I hear some of the concern there but I just want to say that there is there there won't be a process that moves forward without that input and I think I think I'm comfortable speaking on behalf of my my colleagues and saying that because of things that we've discussed here from the Dyess as well as the digital Dyess that's all I have thank you okay board member ariana.sea good afternoon everyone this is Gabriella ariana's and I want to go ahead and thank our classified staff for their work there are a pillar in our district and without them we would would not survive so I thank you guys for your

105hard work and I thank you guys for your commitment and dedication thank you for the school supplies that were given to our students with their meals this last Monday I know of a lot of families that were very grateful for the pencils and the pens and everything that was given to them along with their meals I want to go ahead and thank the Sousa City Council the mayor my fellow colleagues here the Asuza school board members the city manager the Asuza Police Department both Gladstone Asuza and Sierra high school principals assistant principals teachers counselors and staff that made Monday an exceptional day for our seniors and how they were just surprised and welcomed the the yard signs that lit up and lit up their lives for that you know that one day and reminded that

106we that we love them and that Asuza our whole community is here in partnership to make sure that we celebrate them it was a very emotional day for a lot of seniors and parents so I I want to thank all of you guys for that one of the things that I just want to address is that a lot of the times people may hear that we may ask for data or numbers or a document and the reason perhaps sometimes that you may hear that we continue to ask for is because we do not receive it and I just wanted to go ahead and clear that up and making sure that cabinet and our superintendent that when we request something make sure that we receive that information and I want to thank you guys again and

107have a great night Thank You Gabby and I too would like to clap thank classified staff and hope they are enjoying their week they are the pillar of the school district it it is well known without having our MOT our MIT our custodians our bus drivers our secretaries we would not have a functioning district so congratulations thank you for all you do for us I'd also like to express well I would like to tell everybody that that the economy is starting to come back because of all of our manufacturers are calling us so unfortunately I was working and I could not make it to hand out the signs but I saw all the pictures of it and the faces that I saw everybody city council police department city staff school staff and board members thank

108you all for getting out there and doing that because that was obviously just such a nice thing and you could just see from everybody's faces how much they they felt cared for and I think that's very important and all right we'll just go ahead and go on to comments and reports by student board member cabinet and superintendent okay I just want to comment and say that I think is so nice of the city in the district to get us so senior signs and to have a teacher delivered to us made it like super special I just thought it was so nice to be recognized in that way they showed that they still care about us and I know it made a lot of us and yours happy so I just want to thank you guys

109for that and I also want to thank you guys again the board for allowing me to serve as a student representative I really enjoyed my time and thank you okay would you like to again good evening board of education cabinet and I guess I won also echo the the celebration of our classified employees this is classified employee week and like has been stated pillar of communities the the blood and the bones that is absolutely true has been served as a teacher and as a principal I have first-hand knowledge in just how vital the work of our classified employees is to the success of the district they are they do a lot of stuff in the front and the office and like was mentioned by board members in the back were things are happening and just

110like we would trust that the lights turn on when you flip a switch it's really the classified employees that are there that are making sure that things are running so that students learn and that all looks very very different now in this current situation that we find ourselves in but again it's our classified employees that are rising to that occasion and I and I celebrate you and I and I recognized your your work truly truly appreciate each and every one of you I also want to I say a couple words regarding a group of teachers who will be making some important decisions tomorrow you heard about a couple of them yeah earlier and during their comments and these are our teachers that are who will be displaced the result of the reorganisation of both we

111met with our labor partners we came to the agreement with an MOU and now we're in the process of executing that MOU and they'll be selecting school sites that they'll be going into tomorrow we'll call that selection Election Day but it's not lost on me just how significant of an event is that many of them have spent many many many successful years at the school sites that they're that they're going that they're at right now and next year they will be going to a new school site to continue that that work of bringing excellent instruction to our students and and although that I might rust that they will be received with open arms and we'll do phenomenal work and at whatever school they they end up it I also wanted to make sure that we

112recognize that our teachers are going to make a pretty significant decision tomorrow and I and I and I appreciate the professionalism and grace by which they've also been handling this process so thank you mr. Morita yes I also wanted to say thank you to our classified employees for everything that they do for us during this week and just putting this stuff as we talked about them and it's a cool image of everything that they do for us and one of my directors when I saw that like for a tease me that says shovel snow and when do we shovel snow it did hail last year everyone but they really do make everything work and that is more than evident now during this time I get to spend Mondays and Wednesdays with a lot our classified

113employees that are helping with nutrition services and they pick up wherever it is needed to make sure that the folks are moving they greet every parent with a smile even though it's raining and pouring they ask them how they're doing it's amazing to see the dedication that they have to our community and to our families and even in the most trying of time so I'm very grateful to work with such amazing folks so thank you not just this week but but every day of the year for everything that you do thank you are to do with them thank you I too wanted to say congratulations and thank you to all for happy classified week I do want to share an example with you all about the impact that classified staff has on our district as

114you know or you might know Monday we had a supply school supply distribution at our nutrition distribution sites and in the a.m. and the p.m. and I just want to want to highlight how the classified team came together to order to organize to pull apart to count and to make all of those school supplies in one day was truly amazing to see again the commitment that they have to our students and to our community and then of course the actual distribution at Slauson glass on high school Marie and both of the times Sousa high school I do want to highlight hope Valdez and Diana Choa who did a lot of the legwork behind the scenes with that but again just want to give a shout out and thank you to classified for what they do

115for our kids and for our families thank you and I also would like to join this chorus of appreciation for the classified staff you know when you think about it oftentimes the first person somebody sees when they walk into an office is a classified staff member and sometimes the last person who's on campus is a staff is a classified staff member so from the very beginning of the day opening the gates to the school reading people as they come in and then waving goodbye or maybe as they're taking down the flag that day our step our staff were classified just providing the enormous service one of the things that we do in in regular years is have our seniors have the opportunity to visit a number of businesses and some go to businesses off off

116campus things that they might be considering for the future but there are always some students who come with me and I always show them the classified staff all throughout particularly the district office area and the surrounding buildings there because they they typically haven't seen it and there they're always very impressed with what they see and very impressed to learn that more than fifty percent of our employees are people who they've never seen but who as people giving all these analogies to you know the try to describe the just the essence of their work and how essential it is my thought is they're the backbone of the district they're what keeps us standing tall what keeps us standing proud and I really deeply appreciate it thank you very much thank you now we can go to

117the next item yep I'm sorry I had to unmute myself item 9.0 report action on closed session matters there is nothing to report and so next we'll move on to item 10.0 general functions 10.1 kovat 19 update all right thank you very much we have previously brought to speak with you about how things are going in urban 19 years and tonight bringing students mentary a middle and a high school student who are here with their principal the principal is going to introduce them tell us a little bit about them and then we want to hear from the students what has this experience been for you so thank you very much and start with Laura Clark welcome Laura thank you so much my name is Laura Clark I'm the principal of Dalton elementary school and I

118am going to introduce you to a student named Nancy Sharma she's a second grade student in his post class and um unfortunately she's had some tough time getting on with technology because of some glitches and so it took us about an hour and a half and so she got a little flustered so um Nancy go ahead and take a nice deep breath and we're all just excited to hear you speak I was a wonderful winner over now star you there yes Nancy can you um can you take yourself put yourself on the camera okay do you see the camera button on the bottom I'm clicking on it but a wound okay you can speak just speak that's okay sweet my name is Nancy Shama and today I'd like to tell you some things that I

119like about the distance learning program students really like this program and they feel motivated to let um my teacher um we use Google classroom and have Google meets on it and that's one thing I really like so I really like how everybody is working hard to help us through these times and we're still able to learn because of all the people I'm helping us I would like to thank you all are W yes I would like to do introduce it's time to go we're gonna introduce our middle school student to everyone mr. Panello you are unmuted if you want to introduce your student my staff my name is Mike this life skills right seems mr. Ford almost having a little bit of technical difficulties so Michael you're ready to go we can see you and

120we can welcome I am an antimatter school I play but I can't be my friend on the human bird I miss being at home but I kind of I mean I hope thank you thank you Michael thank you very much thank you so much great and now representing class in high school we have the principal Gabriel Fernandez just wanted to quickly introduce Darlene whose garbage speaker she's a senior graduating she's a member of our ECP program as well as health Academy and I asked her to talk about those two programs in this distance learning environment and she's also a survivor of the online AP testing so she might want to share some of her survival stories from AP in the last we can have Darlene okay hi good morning everyone my could you hear me

121yes yeah okay so my name is Darlene Rocha like mentioned earlier I am part of the ECP program and the Medical Academy the shift from in person learning to online learning has been very difficult from both our perspective as students and I know also from faculty so for example in our early college program we would have class at 7:30 in the morning and it was usually in the library so it's like 60 students all together and it was a lot of just like listening of what he said so when we switched to online learning we didn't really like have that but he would ask us all questions so oh the concentration part of it so our class was statistics rate and us concentrating in class was very difficult because we had a lot of distractions

122being in the morning as it was some students I know we're falling asleep which is very hard because ooh and for the medical we were in the process of starting our injections to in order to get certified but due to this hall and everything we don't know as seniors because the class is for for being four years in the Medical Academy we don't know if you'll be able to continue that so I hope the board looks into that and hopefully helps us reach our qualifications in order to continue our pathway through as medical students and for the AP test I know many of us had internet connections where we couldn't do it or the Wi-Fi went out which then allowed us we would have to redo it which is then again we're studying because for

123example I have prepared weeks and Dan's months sometimes we would read like me and my teacher we would read till like midnight our bucks for Spanish and then we would wake up early and then have like eight hours session sometimes in order to prepare for our reading regarding graduation I'm uh I like many other students I'm the first generation and the first person from my family that will be graduating so the ability for I earned my white coat like I said earlier so my grades and everything my cords it would have been like a big honor to walk the stage and graduate with the rest of my class so I hope that all of you consider not only for me but I know there's many other students who also have are in the same scenario

124so we could graduate all together and finally I would like to thank all of you for allowing us to speak to speak to you and I'm sure our standpoint and everything and hearing us and allowing us to communicate thank you thank you so much sterling thank you very very much congratulations on the work that you've done and perseverance during a really difficult time thank you so much thank you alright let me ask Arturo is there anything else you would like to add in terms of general updates on coordinating I know we continue to just want to promote that we continue to host our hotline which is available not only through telephone but also through email I just want to announce that over the course of the last couple of weeks we consider that to be

125like in reach right parents are reaching out to us saying hey I need help with this or I can't find this or you know whatever it may be but a couple of weeks ago we also began to do how reach our schools have been doing such an amazing job of not only making phone calls and sending emails but also trying to keep tabs of those things and connecting students back to distance learning I'm talking thousands and thousands of phone calls some even with the evening even connected with internet prefer print at the elementary level we continue to do that on a weekly basis as well providing print for those families that prefer a print option and so we just we continue to even though we are decreasing significantly we do continue to distribute Chromebooks and

126continue to find ways to connect us our families to Internet who say that they do not have internet so just again just really grateful for for all the work that people have done to come together during this time for these purposes thank you very much mark burrito yeah we've we've really done a good job of communicating with the community about meal service and with that we're going to be shifting starting next week to a single day of meal service so we'll be providing five days worth of food and starting on the 20th so I'm sorry next week on Wednesday that change is gonna be easier for families because they won't have to come by it two days a week they can just stop by one day a week to pick up meals and it'll help

127us to get into our plan for the summer months where we will have a little less food because in the summer we won't be allowed to serve the supper portion so we're we're looking forward to that transition and which will happen next week on Wednesday so I have a question about that so the meal for students will be given five days of meals on Wednesdays is that correct that is correct and the times are they going to stay the same the times are going to stay the same yeah so we'll have the morning session for all four sites in the afternoon session from 2:00 to 4:00 at Azusa High and then we'll look and see towards the summer because the funding isn't there like it is during the school year that we have to reduce

128further but at this point it is gonna stay the same I have a question so the grant that you received from no Kid Hungry and the additional stipend that they that they qualified for that does not help for the summer program it was $30,000 did that definitely helps for the school year but it is yeah it's a small number in comparison to what we spend in nutritional services what was the total amount that was granted to Asuza Unified School District from thirty to thirty thousand and the additional fifteen thousand we did not receive an additional we didn't know their parents being notified by text or email regarding the 1-day third I mean because I know that I'm sure it's gonna be on Facebook or online but not everyone has Facebook so I really hope that

129we communicate with them so they don't show up and miss it if it's only gonna be one day yeah we do medications to make sure everyone knows and then again we'll notify everyone tomorrow on Wednesday that the following Monday which is a holiday which is we can't serve on that day and then that Wednesday will be therapy and they'll also I'm sure be notified when when the summer supper is going to stop right like when in June it's gonna be in June 1 so her school starts is that what's gonna be correct it's gonna stop we're not gonna start our summer program we will bet it we don't have supper we only have the summer service it's a little different meal service in the summer okay okay thank you so much okay thank you yes

130thank you gonna report that during this period of physical school closures the human resources department has continued to be operational interested and employee needs as they've come up a interacted with our team to make sure that they are responding in a timely manner the remember we have had many of our teachers follow through with the retirement process of that paperwork that were that were addressing itself through email many many of them business is being conducted also our classified employees that took advantage of the early notification bonuses also going through and HR has been responding to those increases we started open enrollment that window opened yesterday so we were bringing in the press with communicating open enrollment to to our employees and again filled in questions as they come up and we continue to meet with

131our labor partners for functions of the Human Resources office and we're all adapting to interacting over hooble meets that's one of the big takeaways had two to four member crews on the dollars excited about having second carries over into our regular reopening how old I think that's a key they not we will be able to use as we transition back to physical thank you very much Jorge and mark could you please put up that slide that we used last Friday during the first meeting of the group to plan the reopening of our school system sorry it's gonna take them a moment to find that we had our first meeting this last Friday and in that meeting we shared the the afternoon before the Los Angeles County Office of Education released their taskforce report about areas

132that needed to be considered as schools think about opening up again and so we shared that information excuse me with the members and there was a very good turnout really appreciate all the people that were there and then ask people as they looked at the key areas key focus areas to really think about which one was a prime interest to themselves and did a lot of listening to what people had to say what their their questions were what their thoughts and recommendations were and mark is just about ready to put this up it looks like so beat me to it okay so I don't really go to the second slide down please with this one highlights are the five areas instruction safety and health social emotional support systems family and community engagement and then the

133last one in blue is operations and so as I was saying we asked people to we actually went through information from the task force about some initial questions that these superintendents have put together and then asked them to think about what their questions were what their thoughts were what we needed to be sure to think about and to tell us where they would like to focus their efforts because in our next meeting we're going to do some some breakouts around each of these particular things to really begin to look at how do we make the best decisions and what are some of the things that we want to make sure in addition to what laco has said or instead of what laco has said what do we want to use as our guidelines here in

134the district so actually I thought it was a good start to the meeting lots of good input everybody has something to say she's very good questions thoughtful comments and we're looking forward to the next one that's coming up any questions about that did anybody has can I kiss ass so does that mean what made Ranbir said that all can all board members that 10 Fridays in again did you ask that question to Steve Anderson you did yeah and he confirmed that it's not a violation so that's right so what we'll do is when we send out the email to folks with the link for the meeting that will include the board and whoever can join us is very welcome because it was great and it was very good information and and it had everyone you

135know chiming in either on questions or suggestions and it's good that the board appears what pros and cons are what's going on yeah I I have I do I do have two questions and the first one is really around so how do you see this and I appreciate I mean I appreciate that we need to start planning and I think this is I'm we're going the right direction but how do you see this work in relation to whatever guidance comes out of the state whenever that comes down well I think this is a good question one of the things that we actually do need is state guidance and there is a there is a task force at the state level that is meaning around basically these same areas and coming up with their their thoughts

136their recommendations they have not finished yet with coming up or going through that process in and the report hasn't been finalized but that will be instrumental to and so if we finish beforehand before they do well we will go through a process of looking and comparing notes we may need to reconvene with some of our folks and the other group besides the state that's the State Department of Education working on that but the other group that we are looking for some guidance is actually the California Department of Public Health so that there would be some statewide guidance one of the concerns that that keeps coming up over and over again is how do you how do you a level of consistency but also recognize that different counties or different places some counties have a very

137low incidence of Cova 19 others like ours we actually have the highest of anybody in California and there's all sorts of reasons why in terms of you know demographics those whether it's an urban or rural area lots of different reasons that impact that but you need some overall guard overall kind of overarching guidelines but then the nuanced guidelines that need to take place depending on the particular area that you're in so we will keep monitoring that I've been on a couple conference calls this last week with AXA with some state leaders also with Lacko hearing some of the information that's coming out and we'll keep making sure that we stay aligned to what's going but also recognize that we need to make decisions for our own students in our own situation so along those same

138lines my second question is right now in terms of this group meeting and what how long do you anticipate this group meeting for how long and so when would they become when will you be coming out with recommendations based on this time come on what are we talking you a task force whatever we're calling it any group we have planned for meeting so we have one this Friday and then two more Fridays after that and so as soon as we finish that that is when we plan to come back to the board with what their recommendations are so we're talking about our June what state meeting is that students like 12:00 you know that's not that that's not a Tuesday so whatever the regular meeting I'm in June that we have is done you'll give

139us an update June 16th meeting in the meeting on the 23rd so one of those to me he's depending on how quickly we can pull that all together for the meeting might be the 23rd because of the need to publish will be meeting actually probably will be the 23 because we'll be meeting on the 12th when the the agenda gets publicized so we'll definitely keep you abreast of what's going on and what people's thoughts are and and I'm looking forward to that the the members who were there seeing very very committed to helping us make the best decisions that we can given the challenges that we're facing so very very committed group of folks all right any other questions yeah on cover 90 no this this piece of it right now so one question is

140it so just because you know we're wanting to be careful with time and timing so you said that the meeting is happening on the 12th and so we wouldn't be able to publish the findings is it pocket how does it work for us to have on the agenda you know that we're going to discuss it even if we have to so it appears to me that we might still be able to discuss some of the findings from from the Friday prior yes it can still be on the agenda well we'll do what we're doing right now is putting cope at 19 on the standing item so that we can discuss okay I'll just say thank you thank you I think it's a great like great beginning to the process yeah it's gonna we have a

141lot to consider when making decisions so so thank you for getting gave me having this process started and including stakeholder so yeah like looking forward to kind of hearing in and seeing what people are thinking saying and and feeling in what some of their concerns and thoughts and ideas are so thank you okay great thank you you're welcome and thank you to the people who have volunteered to be part of this I really appreciate it the other question that you may want to discuss a little bit is graduation I actually really appreciate the students comments about wanting to have a regular a full graduation and I'm hoping that we can do that for them I think that would be a wonderful thing to to even if it can't happen you know within a couple of

142weeks if it can happen later to be able to do that for them and we had offered that very early on at a time when I and I think a lot of people just been processing how to how to deal with this situation how to deal with recognizing as we started you know I think when we first closed schools we thought maybe that would just be it maybe a two week two or three week process and now it's turned out to be something different so as people become aware of the situation that continues to evolve I think the thought process that people are going through and decisions that they're heading towards are really very important so I'd like to hear from the board anybody I could say that I'm sorry Jerry okay no go ahead

143that's what I was gonna ask oh okay III would like to say that um I think yes the students do deserve a graduation um you know they did work very hard for it and everything I but I still feel what I said last time I really think we should you know do it in August worse we're on stage two right now hopefully we'll be on stage three by then and it would be more things to be open so I would be comfortable of course and having it for sure but just until August and I know some of my colleagues mentioned in June but I did still that's still soon but I really think we should have a ceremony and have it in August that's that's my opinion okay who's the next so Gabriela terrine so

144I thought I was needed thank you um yeah just interpret that in terms of what process so in order to change the graduation to a different date does that require a board action and everything that can happen administrative Lee what needs to happen it's not something that you have to do an action on again just be consensus that we're going to move forward one thing that that might be nice to you and you can decide if you want to or not it's not needed is to do a resolution that says something that you know in then we want to honor the kids for the work that they've done in light of kovat 19 and the limitations are requirements for social distancing we can't do it now but but we're committed to doing it at a

145later date when it's safe because you know we're always want to keep our kids safe first and foremost and that could be something we could bring it to the next board meeting for you to to approve that's not required but if you'd like to do something like that we could definitely do that so you mean the June 2nd meeting that we're adding to the next meeting we have this after school year ends yes June 2nd would be appropriate okay well I think I'd prefer to have some kind of consensus today so that we can communicate that with our families and then we can just confirm now as a resolution on June 2nd so I'm I'm fine with with postponing whatever you know whether it's end of July August whatever you guys settle on I'm fine

146with that but I still do want to request that we that we send a strongly worded letter to our county supervisors and and our County health officials dr. Barbara Ferrara really encouraging her to reconsider the the decision not to allow any drive-through celebrations and so I'm not sure Linda whether that needs to come with your signature honor or Jerry's or both but I do want that to happen I think we definitely can do that the County Supervisors do not weigh in on this so going to the department Public Health makes a lot of sense because that is where the that's the agency that is directing this I appreciate that but I would like them to be compete on that so that they're aware of the letter definitely okay yes I agree already thank you well

147I have resin well yes I'd let's do the letter I personally have reservations about a drive-up anything but do it August later on I'm good with but go ahead and do the letters you know the majority ones so I mean I'm sure we're not gonna be the only ones so we may not even get a response tell maybe July or so you know but great idea anyways so let's see Adrian and Gabby yes so yeah I would say I'm in favor of us kind of setting some tentative plans in motion with the understanding that we may need to change those plans and also communicating that up front and so like if we can set a deadline you know and of course I'm making this up I don't know what the dates are but if we

148can set a deadline where we're saying July 27th you know we are it is our tentative plan on July 27 to drive through graduate you know that's what we're planning on and this is this is how this will go out but let's keep in mind that as time is going on we don't know what will change and but but it but let's have a plan in place and then again mood if we need to and then to the community I'll say yeah I think I'm hearing and everyone's concerns and I think we're all on the same page that it is our preference to honor everybody full-blown graduation ceremonies in person if that's not possible you know how do we scale back and so that's where you know I'm staff has already provided some ideas of

149what that could look like but what happens if we you know if we set something for the 27th of July of course I'm making that data and then we have to push it back to August something and then if we're still not out of the woods and then we have to push it back to what happens if it gets pushed so far back I mean is it you know that's just something we need to keep in mind because we don't know what this is going to look like but I would still be in favor of putting a tentative plan in motion and with a date attached to it and I think I think as long as we tell students ahead of time that that a possibility you know confidence that our students will understand that

150I also have seen other districts in our area some are selecting December some are thinking next June so it's because nobody knows when and I think if we communicate that to our students they will understand that too yeah I agree I just think I just know that they want to be honored and walk on stage and I and I feel listening to the students other parents is that what that's what they want you know on the date I know it's a sed but we can still plan and see what happens you know and I would like to say in honor of our students and in honor of the nurses and everybody who are dealing with this that we need to I mean I don't want any child to get ill with coronavirus or one of

151their elderly families because we did this because we've all been working in our you know not like I said I have nurses in my family they are working hard to control it so yeah III want the virus to give us direction on where we're gonna go we don't know what it's gonna do but yes as long as we have a day and we put together and say we want to have a graduation and I would prefer a whole graduation that really comes down to it I mean that's probably gonna be something that would be much much later because of low graduation as much as I like the idea to its gathering almost well probably 600 or 700 people right about you know a little less than 300 students plus their parents even if it's only

152two people that they bring there you're almost up to almost a thousand people that probably would be something that would have to wait I would assume till next spring or June you know until we get very very far beyond where we are now the preference is to not wait that long then we need to think of doing something that is you know maybe it's some kind of drive up or drive through kind of a procedure where people remain in the car they're safe in their cars so those are the options that we have that's realistically the options that we have Adrian I know Gabi's been waiting I'm sorry Gabi I I just want to I wanted to take this time to just make Nathan re honest I I didn't know he was coming on and

153to speak and to share what he was feeling and I really appreciate the fact that Linda you suggested a resolution for us to hold ourselves accountable and committed to being able to celebrate these seniors with the recognition that they deserve one of the things that really touched me today and I heard from both Nathan Ariana's and from Darlene Rocha how hard they've worked over the last 12 years for them to graduate in white and Darlene Rocha being the first in her family to graduate from from high school and you know with that given I think it is it is it is good that we commit ourselves with the resolution like you said to our seniors that perhaps right now in June may not be the best time due to you know we're still in stage

1542 but do set a date just like Adrienne said earlier at the end of July early August and if need to be then we we would go ahead and move that you know keeping that in mind and I think that gives them hope and that gives them some sorts of you know what this wasn't in vain we're still gonna get recognized no matter what and you know it really lifts up their spirits so I wanted to thank my colleagues and let it thank you for suggesting that and I do agree with it I think we probably should do we should do a resolution I have another question Linda in in the last week we had asked for a plan and we did not receive the plan in this Friday okay and I understand with all

155the confusion from Lacko giving out the information but I think it it's really important that no matter whether it's in June or whether it's in August I think it's important that we have a time frame of what this looks like so let me ask you there was one prepared for the packet I don't know if maybe it didn't get in I received I received a plan no we need to share this out is what I'm saying it'll actually it will probably end up being tweaked a little bit by each school so that was the generic version of what what could happen kind of the big picture but it definitely will depend on for example where the the where the parking lots are where the exits are things like that all that has to be done

156so the schools have already started working on that and and they will continue to do that thank you Adrian yeah and so with with that being said can we can we have a deadline that we set for that and Linda could you speak into that because again I'm thinking what part of the challenge is is that right now our plan is as far as you know publicly and as far as people so I understand there was a plant there was some some you know bones of a plan to be shared with us but if it's not sure it out then what's communicated to our community is the plan is hold tight we'll have a plan soon and so could we what is what is a realistic deadline to be able to say hey you know

157community by this time this is when you can expect to hear from us what this date time and plan will look like from from the schools there are a couple variables that we have to work out still for example we we can and our principals have put together plans of what they would do and have know how they would work that out at their sites but there are a couple of issues one is looking at what what support the police are able to provide and also looking at exactly what the street configuration is around the particular schools those those details still have to be worked out in conjunction with city authorities so we will move forward with that and I would expect that probably what's today today is safe Jason minimal of Mesa basically so

158if we have that meeting on June 2nd when we do the resolution that could be a time that would make sense to hopefully come back with what that plan would look like and then we give give the schools a chance to work through some of the logistics that they have to work through so okay so I'm gonna I guess I push back in a little bit so because I hear that June so June 2nd is a way to maybe have a lot of the details iron ironed out but even if we were sending out an initial so you were kind of some initial thinking around this and and again attaching a tentative date to it you said that the plan that you shared with the board is more kind of 30,000 foot view as opposed

159to the the granule level that the each school site will have to think through is it so therefore is it possible to say here is the you know skeleton here's the bones and here's a here's a tentative date and on June 2nd we will provide additional detail as far as specific schools are are considered I don't see why we so so I but what I'm saying is something like this Friday send out to our community hey community this is a date this is a this is a plan more information to come on June 2nd we can do that I cannot give you the full plan down though because it's not just up to the schools they have to coordinate with the city and if we and it's Tuesday they have Wednesday and Thursday if we

160got that information that fast we could do it but we may not so even if even if we were if you want more reason but Linda but Linda is a more reasonable deadline then that may 26 I'm just gonna say that June 2nd is too late that's the day before the original scheduled graduation so can we what is the date then are we saying the 26th of next so a week from today I would say definitely by Friday of that week is what I would aim for because of you know just the way we communicate and if we can get out earlier we though I mean so I I'm just one for I'll say I'd like it to be sooner than that but what I'm saying is I will ask them to try to do

161that and and I'll communicate with you if they cannot for a given reason I'm sorry I'm not clear so the timeline is if this Freddie you cannot get it then by next Wednesday you will go ahead and have that windows am i hearing that correctly okay thank you thank you okay anything else move on to tonight well I I do have other questions I thought that was directly I do have an office and one other question oh please I'm sorry yeah and and it kind of it relates to sort of whiny on the school year so I just want to understand in terms of the devices that we've shared with our families right so whether it's some clone books or hot spots or those pieces what is the plan with those in terms of our

162you know are they keeping them over the summer are they returning them if they do when it when a dead date right sooner would you please address that right now the thinking we're definitely heavily leaning towards not collecting them we have summer program that's going to expect that's going to extend from elementary to middle to high school so we have that and then we also have the possibility of course nobody knows but the possibility of showing up in August and being in either just complete distance learning or some kind of hybrid and so it would make no sense to to collect everything just to just to just disperse it right back so right now we're definitely leaning towards not collecting the Chromebooks okay and then along the same line and I know we've talked extensively

163around like some of these low cost recall free program or free programs that are being offered by the telecom community companies right many of those extend at the end of June right so unless they expand extend them so I just it not for right now but I do want to have an understanding of in terms of our plan of how do we ensure access for all of our students into next school year and new start daga at this time have you had any problems with Chromebooks that are not working or something's gone wrong with them who takes them up who fixes them and if they're gonna keep them for the summer you know that that's a long time but how is that working you see if they're working fine if they need upgrading or program

164upgrading any of those things but we do have a lot out yes we have very very few of those instances but we have had them and Families again they're just reaching out to the hotline we coordinated with them just like we have for the pickup to grab that and at the same exact time give them a brand you want another one that would that is working okay thank you okay any more all right so then we will move to ten point two school configurations so this is a time we we had a chance to hear quite a few comments and appreciate the people who came forward to share their their opinions this can be a time if you have other questions or thoughts of how you would like to move forward we have you have

165asked us and we would have a plan for more information when we come with this report that's due in September but in the interim if you wanted to have more meetings for example where we keep this as another standing item on the agenda so that more people have an opportunity to come we can absolutely do that so just just to clarify we're not because because I hear I hear that just for the semantics cuz sometimes I hear this like report that's coming out in September but that's not that's not my understanding or I know when when I was asking for it that's not what I was communicating so just to be clear it's not that there's a report that comes out in September with information if that information comes out now and then we are

166able to discuss that information with community input now so that in September we can make it informed so an informed decision can be made and and discussions have happened along the way and so again I just want to the thinking isn't that there would be again an unveiling of some of some report like so so I guess we can discuss what would we like to and can we put some timelines on on now and if we need to make some extensions in lieu of things that are going on but yeah can I interrupt just for a second Gabby that kicked off she's coming back on so gory go ahead to me so um I think Thank You Adrian for opening that door I think so in my mind and I think I mean I was

167this is what I was thinking but I you know I think we heard it from several the people commenting because it makes the most sense right I don't know why we would spend a lot of effort in the next six weeks talking about this and understanding it when we know starting July 1st we're going to have a new superintendent coming in and frankly I think that's the most important thing is to there you know when you have a new Superman coming in and I'm well what you know we have will have some transition but when the spring is coming so when we have that happen right you have to have there has to be space for that person to have that leadership and drive the work that's happening in the district and to lead all

168of us right and inclusively and so I don't know spending six weeks right now struggling any of us any of the six weeks right now struggling over these issues or even thinking about data and having it presented I'm not sure how is that helpful when I feel like they're working to start when the new person coming in has the opportunity to have us build that vision around what happens and so I mean to your point Adrian I think to me it's a process and there needs to be a very inclusive process I mean we made a very clear point in this in the fall of spring and I thought we were not going to change have discussions about these that we would be okay moving sixth grade for now to them entries and we were

169going to pause everything else and have an inclusive process to discuss what are all the options for them on the table and so I'm suggesting we do that with the new leadership and and and and have a reasonable timeline with that person around what what it would take for them to be able to have that collaborative conversation with all of us before decisions are made I agree with Cheadle mean if we're going to spend in six weeks talking about something that may not even happen and when a new superintendent comes in they may have a disability want to move forward on so I agree with it it should not even we're gonna waste time talking all about this and it may not even happen and i and ii emma green was she owning as well

170I think well no I am I agree that definitely we just since it's going to be a new process we don't know you know our budget is still up in the air to join extent and nobody knows what's happening there if we start with the new management at least you know we're not backtracking again you know we're not having new things over again it seems more efficient yeah so I guess my thoughts right I think I I think I mostly agree with you she don't even with most of everything you're saying the only nuance I would say is in the same way that we moved forward with sixth grade because some of the process is the in the same way that move forward with that knowing that we can't make final decisions until until later

171but we can there is some things that can happen now as we're looking at timing as we're looking at you know data to receive or information on different models I do I do think that it's possible to receive information sooner rather than later even if we are recognizing that we need to extend the deadline and and and like restructure the timeline on when we discussed that I still think that there's there's space to receive information so I mean I would just ask so I mean unless unless we as a board are gonna be very directive in terms of what specific information we need and want to see and I mean I'm not sure I know all this planning is going on going on around reopening like I'm not sure why asking and I kind of

172feel like the data we presented is what is what the best thinking has been given to us this far right and so I'm not sure that's why I'm saying I think it's best to wait until we have a new person come in and then give with the fresh eyes they can help us guide us through this process of thinking where where do we need to go as a district so I mean is also again unless you have very specific data that you think that you you think we can request and talk about I I would just like to wait so and what I would so and I don't mind and I I will I will certainly yield I mean I I see that there's more colleague more my colleagues here who are there's enough to

173move this forward but what I think that I would like to see what are some of these models so when we're talking about Kate what are what are you know or what are some of the what are within Kate what are different models that we've seen from other school districts what are some of the models of a 712 or singular middle school what have been some of those actual pros and cons again just just some some information even if we use it later I think would be helpful and so it would be helpful to start can we just start with like maybe some so for example there was the teacher that referenced an article right could it would can we start with that kind of that kind of information or you or is this like

174board reports at board meetings informational I again I am okay even if what we do now is kind of communicate or talk through like you know formally extending you know or suspending the the September deadline that we put in place I think that I personally think that there may be wisdom there in light of not only but Cova 19 but also due to superintendent transition that it may be why is that just to do that to manage expectations I would you know be in supportive of that but even if it's information even if it's just info that's received with it doesn't have to be presentations I think it would be good if it was given to us and also share some of it shared out but I don't think that we need to necessarily have

175necessarily have extended conversations at every school board meeting I I also would like to see I'm sorry Jerry keep doing that to you I'm sorry oh okay I just basically was gonna say that I mean there's nothing that doesn't say kind of like we have the co vyd we could have a little blurb where okay this is what has been discussed maybe if somebody comes up with to show us the different plans like Adrian was saying say we have one meeting where we have like a three-minute blurb on okay well this is this this is a K through 12 and this is this and this is that just okay she'll need I think Yolanda's next I'm always what I like to see is you know what is a curriculum look like because I do know

176um what I did I did attend the class meeting and I know that parents were concerned that you know they heard about K to 8 and they're like okay that sounds good but then after the fact they realize what the curriculum was gonna be what they're not gonna have what they're not gonna have been and they're not gonna have only an hour of the ears so forth the minutes and they didn't have that information in front of them then then they changed their mind I do recall that because they approached me on that and also you know I'm concern about the social-emotional I mean of a student of that age I worked 40 years in a junior high school and I think it's very very important that the students have a junior high or in

177between between Highschool good this is a time for me working in the school system they go either way because they're like in the middle and you take that away from them and and on I feel we need to look at at that also the social-emotional of the whole child you know how would it affect them and I think I've seen that sunni so I just I just wanna I mean you know I'm so I I just mean I apologize I don't know what I don't want to talk about a lot of process but I just want to caution us against putting this on every single agenda item I mean as we've seen I think every time some of the agenda is sending a message to our community that we're planning on making a decision on

178this right and so there has to be a lot of effort on our community's part to engage and be part of the conversation which I appreciate and I you know I want to make sure that they have that opportunity but I don't want people to feel like they have to be that far engaged in every single board meeting when in fact the item is not only meant to be taking that we're not gonna take any action on ever have any substantive discussion about it right so I think we'd be sending the wrong message the community Briella yes I'm hearing my colleagues and hearing the the parents and the teachers speak tonight I I would like to go ahead and make a recommendation for us to be able to move the September deadline and one of

179the things that we can't start on is community engagement we had said as a board that we would like the input from teachers from parents from students and we haven't done that we haven't set a governance meeting where we can have this type of dialogue we you know this this conversation keeps coming back to our school board meetings which we only have a limited of time so what happened to those meetings when we requested for us to have those meetings and you know we set that goal and yet we have not had any meetings with any stakeholders I would like to give input so I want to suggest for us to be mindful of that and for us to to set a different date for this but to start the conversations we don't need the

180data what we need is the communication and the listening of we need to listen to the different parents teachers and students on what they would like and so what I'm suggesting is for us to start with a governance got a couple of governance meetings and be able to you know set a goal perhaps October November and then work backwards and be able to go ahead and schedule those meetings for us to be present and for us to be able to communicate and listen to to it parents teachers and students have to say Alana yeah when I do recall from that meeting did Gaby Ariana's is speaking about is it we did request a a survey a survey to go out to the community which I have not think we want to know you know what

181does the community feel about it and what our staff really feel about it they're the ones that are going to be going to the school they're the ones going to be working with the students and how do they feel about it before we even start this we haven't heard from them and I recall we did request a survey to go out shooting me so again I think it's and I I'm just gonna hit this point again I think it's not fair to whoever is going to be coming in to walk in on a half starter process right because if we want them to be a leader and we want them to be and I feel that the superintendent should be the one that's convening is collaborative conversations and getting this information for art from our

182community right I I don't I I mean I I don't want us to start a process and then have somebody come in and have to pick it up and complete it when I'd rather have them design it from the beginning and so then there's authentic leadership throughout I hear you um Jeanine and I would agree with you the same time we as a board can set can extend the deadline and we can go ahead and ask our current superintendent and cabinet to be able to work from the date that we can can set and when the new superintendent comes in which would be after June 30th which is less than a month and a half away we can go ahead and already have those meetings in place and that's what I'm referring to so basically

183you would like to schedule just a couple of governance around it even if we don't actually meet them say if if we don't have the information yet but do we know if our new superintendent has the same vision yeah we don't know that I understand yep but at the same time on when the new superintendent comes in in July first we can we as a board like I said we can go ahead and extend the deadline and after that and work backwards and set those dates cuz we have to look at our schedules so we can go ahead and plan ahead and be able to go ahead and set those dates and when the new superintendent comes in engage that new superintendent to be able to participate and move you know and pretty much what

184I feel like this has been since early early this year you know early February where we had asked for this to happen and we still haven't had those meetings so that's that's where I'm coming from I think that's a great idea maybe we can have Linda work offline not right now but offline to fit to get those dates help set for us so Jerry and Linda can do that because you talked earlier about the possibility of meeting in July so if if we scheduled some meetings in July that would kind of meet two goals it would get you a start on it but also if you start with the person who's gonna be superintendent mm-hmm okay how do you feel about that a dream okay that's I think that's sufficient thank you all right thank

185you everybody so is that it for the school configurations and we just formally say that that it'd be best to suspend the expectation that September 15th is the deadline for this and and so we'll have to rework it and still we're still committed to having a deadline but yes due to some of the unknowns that are you know balls that are in the air we'll have to have a DVD on that one for now thank you thank you now we'll move on to 11.1 consent calendar 11.1 all matters listed under the consent calendar are considered by the board to be routine iam will be enacted by the board in one motion in the format following the last consent calendar agenda item there will be no discussion of these items prior to the time the board

186staff or the public requests specific items to be discussed if discussion is requested by board member that item will be removed from the consent calendar and will be considered separately if superintendent and staff recommend approval of all consent calendar agenda items I make a motion to approve okay second all right motion by do you wait you'll wonder if you want to pull an item I wanted to pull 11.6 please oh okay so we'll pull 11.6 move that down and make and that's my motion to pull up everything except 11.6 okay do we have a second second okay seconded by board member Greer and we all need to vote [Applause] hey it passes 5-0 and then we move down to 12 point Oh 12.1 discussion approve resolution 1920 49 resolution of the Governing Board of Azusa

187Unified School District approving assignment of delinquent tax receivables to the California statewide delinquent tax Finance Authority for fiscal years ending June 30th 2020 2021 and 2022 the authorizing execution and delivery of related documents and actions make a motion to approve okay I do I have a second second all right motion by Shi Xian Cruz gonzales seconded by board member Rodriguez Pena so discussion yes I just like an explanation on that one it's dumb this is delinquent tax finances I think I like to hear someone speak on that piece mr. Brown burrito thank you so this is something that every school district does when the term is up of the approval but what it does is it allows the county to collect the delinquent taxes on property tax and those delinquent taxes go out to Eleazar

188or school districts and this resolution allows us to be able to receive those delinquent taxes and include them as part of our revenue thank you very much okay any other discussion hey let's vote even passes 5-0 and now we will move on to 13-point business and finance their approve the retirement incentive plans or permanent certificated non-management k12 bargaining unit members thank you this is something we're very very excited about and I'm gonna ask Horton a Tokyo to please share the good news with you point of order do we need a motion and a second before we discuss this is it's not an action item it is an action item need a second discussion yep yep so I make a motion on 13.1 nice second okay okay motion by red board member to Rodriguez FEA seconded

189by board member Greer thank you board member ger and discussion yes thank you board member the one is violate protocol I the you can remember board members we have come to you with this idea of offering a retirement incentive and you had approved us to move forward with with the retirement incentive which when we when we set out to do this we had set a very lofty goal of of 34 participants needed to come forward and and take advantage of this retirement incentive not 34 in a district of 440 teachers there's a high percentage of teachers so it took the efforts of cabinet members and of course our labor partners to really drum up support educate members we held multiple meetings had individual group meetings and also health individual meetings and happy to report that

190we not only cross the finish line with with more than 34 we actually have 36 participating teachers or teachers decide to participate in this incentive and by by moving forward with this we were also able to rescind several of our preliminary notification for layoffs so all told it was if it's a good move after they have to write that report any questions okay let's go ahead and vote okay it passes 5-0 and now we will move on to approve Memorandum of Understanding MoU with the Sousa Unified School District and University of California Los Angeles Luskin social welfare do I have a motion on the floor come on second okay moved by board member Cruz Goodwin dollars seconded by board member ariana.sea is there any discussion yes can um and it can you please share what

191this is I believe she probably was gonna ask me to do that this is a Memorandum of Understanding with UCLA that it will allow us to have and strike a partnership they have been asked to evaluate the impact of our Community Schools Initiative through the Los Angeles County Office of Education there are 15 high schools in this initial launch of the commit of the Community Schools Initiative and so this allows us to partner with UCLA who will evaluate this three-year initiative and so we're happy to partner with UCLA to to find the impact that it's having not only in our students but our community as well any questions concerns all right let's vote okay that passes 5-0 and then we will move on to the next item which is the state revised item thirteen point

192three state may revised budget we can't hear you Linda sorry thank you we'll be sharing with you some information that we just learned today about the budget all right can you guys see my screen all right today school services had there may revise which is providing a detailed breakdown of the governor's may revise the budget with a 2021 and a couple of out years all right one of the reasons why were were really in an unknown budget situation and I think a couple of our board members mentioned that earlier is we typically have our tax receipts which they use to estimate how much money will come into the state and the state really and and also the federal government really has not a clear idea of what those tax revenues will look like so if

193we look at this chart here under 1819 let's see if I could turn on light laser pointer under 1819 this shows that we received 22 percent of our tax receipts in in April so after the tax deadline and then PIN in 2019 it actually went up to thirty one point two percent so that's a large percentage of the tax receipts that come in at the last minute and that is obviously because you don't want to pay your taxes until the last minute especially if you have to pay you want the money to be in your pocket as long as possible this year they only received that difference of 7.6% so is that because that there's not as many tax receipts that are gonna be coming in or is that because people waited because the federal

194government provided an extension or taxers for taxes to be paid and so that is really creating a big unknown another large factor is unemployment so if you look at this chart you can see that unemployment and these are numbers of folks that are unemployed from 2018 it was declining declining getting better and better really record low unemployment and then we spiked up to 23,000 unemployment claims and that that is one of the largest increases that we've ever seen in such a short period of time and and that I think give me 23 million right that's not I'm sorry um yes 23 million correct so that large increase in unemployment claims and is is definitely cause for concern because that means folks are not working and they are not contributing tax dollars in the May revision

195they're projecting and the governor's office is projecting a forty 1.2 billion dollar loss and compared to the January budget and that is a combined amount of 9.1 billion from 1920 which is this fiscal year and thirty two point two billion from next fiscal year and again those are the best estimates given the short tax receipts and unemployment and when you when you factor that in those numbers are massive and they're they're such a large percentage of the general fund budget and that programs everywhere have to take a cut and so that's where everyone's looking at well how did it get distributed was it fair if we look at where those dollars came in for education in 1819 this is showing the state budget versus the May revision more dollars were actually owed to prop 98

196or education budget than what was previously in the January budget by a little bit in 1920 you can see those numbers where they significantly reduced in just this year and then the huge decline in 2021 and on the next chart I will show you that kind of graphically what it what it looks like okay okay there it goes so if you look here looking at those same numbers you can see the increase over time in prop 98 funding and the blue lines representing where we eventually got up to 84 million was projected for next year the the increase over time so significant increase in in dollars and that's just for us to keep things going remember we're not growing programs exponentially we're not seeing huge increases in salaries for folks that's just to keep systems

197going but then you compare that to where we are now which is May revision and the red line dropping and if you kind of draw a line over that puts us back to 15 16 level funding in a single in a single year so that is that is significant loss of prop 98 funding now was that a fair reduction for education and did we get our fair cut from the governor's budget I will point out that these are the the budgets for each one of the departments and right here I have it kind of bolded but k-12 education and you follow it to the end of the line for all k-12 education we reduced our budget by nineteen point nine percent and you can look at other areas there was one area that had a

198higher reduction which was twenty eight point seven five the general government but it's a smaller area of the budget of all the large portions of the budget we took like by far the lion's share of the reductions and I hope that the legislature looks at that as they're considering that across the board there was an eight point four nine percent reduction compared to our nineteen point nine percent and so we the state looks at that and maybe more equitably shares those cost reductions or cuts to education where we're in a a very difficult time as a state because we need to plan for our June budget and we're waiting for the state to make up the final budget this this is just the first step remember the governor produces a budget and the legislature has

199to approve it there will be a lot of politics and horse-trading there goes on into what becomes the final budget and we've seen that especially over the last few years and so what were what we're presenting today could change for the better hopefully in the next few weeks but we may not have final details by June 30th which is highly likely and we may see that that we are approving a budget that's based off of our best estimates and that after we approve it we will need to do revisions to that budget based off of what the legislature ultimately approves so again we'll be kind of holding on with information that we have but that the board does need to approve a balanced budget by June 30th with the information that we have on this

200this is just a reminder of our enrollment and we'll go into detail but we are projected to decline as projected before and significant numbers in the next few years and I just wanted to do a reminder of kind of where we were and where we are and and looking at kind of the the challenge that a fiscal crisis has on our district is a little bit more intense than even some other districts because of declining enrollment so when you are declining in when you are increasing in enrollment and you add in more money per a DA that equals amazing growth and programs and in systems for districts to live on to create new things for kids and create better learning environments and that if that environment is ideal you're more efficient you have more money

201to support your kids and while you're becoming more efficient the system or the the program that we've been on for years which is declining enrollment but due to our high unduplicated count we were receiving more money per student and we were actually receiving more money year over year and that allowed us to to have an average level of growth we weren't seeing the massive increases in programs and systems as some of the districts with the increasing enrollment getting the double health but we were seeing average level of growth of resources work for our community but now we are seeing a change where we're gonna have a declining enrollment and declining dollars per student and that's obviously not good for education and we're going to have to rethink what we do in education in azusa because

202of those too complicated issues that we're facing them combined so what does those what do those big reductions and dollars at the state level mean for Azusa this this projection shows you what we thought at second interim prior to Cove in nineteen and I think it's a good baseline to understand where we thought we were going even with our January budget we still support looking at a decline in total dollars and I think everyone remembers that next I want to show you the line that with the numbers that we received and the estimates that we received today from school services our budget would look like this so next year 2021 we would go down to 78 million dollar lcff revenue and continued down from there and that is based off of the Cola that the

203governor provided which is an effective negative 7.92 Cola and followed up with zero colas for the out years so that is that is a little concerning for many in the industry that there's they're basically saying we don't know enough to project a future Cola and but we're hoping that it doesn't go below zero and those were those were pretty much the words they use today so I included just for for folks to see what it would be if we did have a decline in Cola that took a little bit more time all right for our economy to recover and so if we had that same Cola which is the known quantity from the governor's budget the 7.92 or negative 7.92 and then we we had a slow recovery where we still were losing revenue to

204the state it might look something like that where we eventually dip down to 64 million dollar budget so it would be yeah about five million less then the school services budget and then I wanted to give a projection of what our budget would look like if we went straight with the Department of finances budget which came out about two and a half weeks ago and that was to have a negative 21 or 22 percent sorry Cola and then zero Cola after that so the numbers that we use for this presentation are the school services may revise number which is this orange number but I just wanted to show some other models being that there is so many unknowns and to what our revenue would look like for next year if you look here you can

205see the difference between second interim and may revise in if we jump down to 22 23 it would be a difference of almost 11 million dollars less money for the district in revenue this sheet here we're showing you the difference in projections from what we thought in January with the January's budget and what we what we're projecting now with school services numbers or may revise and so you can see even in supplemental concentration dollars there's a large drop in in dollars and so the kids that obviously need the most services we're going to be receiving a pretty significant reduction in funding now there is some good news in the governor's budget which is he's going to be providing an increase in funding to pay the ever-increasing pension costs of stirs and purrs and so you

206can see for the first time that we've actually had a decline in our pension cost projected so if you look here we're going to go from 11 point 1 million dollars in pension costs down to 10 point nine and that is due to that increase funding provided both for stirrers and pers there was no projection for 2223 of continuing that that contribution and so that is why we're projecting that it would jump back up but there might be some intermediate step if the governor continues to to put money from the state directly industry whimpers next is categorical programs categorical programs took the largest amount of reductions in the governor's budget our after-school program took a very large reduction in 1818 a half percent reduction and it's I have here what the state side was an

207estimate of what that means for azusa our seat take grant lost over half Adult Ed Block Grant which we get from the consortium a very large percentage for that program almost $400,000 a hundred percent of the specialized secondary program grant the state preschool program all the new all the new seats as they call them are all the new spots for kids to enroll were removed and the amount that we will receive per student is reduced by the 10% Cola which after the increase is seven point nine two percent and then the new special ed preschool grant and that we were so excited about it was a few million dollars that were was proposed in the January budget is eliminated so categorical programs definitely took the largest share of those reductions and and you know other

208districts who have even more categorical as they they definitely lost all some of them less a hundred percent of their their dollars I'm mixing some more good news we the messaging definitely worked from our self a--'s from from our boards to say that the funding that the state and the feds are providing for special education is not enough so even in the the most dire budget situation we've ever seen the governor kept the increase that was provided for special education funding and so we will go from receiving five hundred and fifty seven dollars per student to six hundred and forty five and you can see the difference here is about seven hundred thousand dollars so that is that is definitely a welcome increase for a very and needed program and some some more additional funding

209so this is something that has gone back and forth and it's the cares act so this is federal dollars that I guarantee you these numbers are wrong I guarantee you they will change there's going to be a lot of conversation around how much school districts get and how much each school district gets but there's two portions to this one is the elementary and secondary emergency relief fund those dollars were pretty certain about we received information already from the state that it is going to be about two point four five million dollars that we will receive for that program the number that we are certain is wrong because there's going to be a lot of debate around how the money is spread out is the may revise number this is money that's coming directly from the

210feds to the state for them to distribute kind of as needed it doesn't necessarily have to go to education but the governor is proposing to give us a large percentage of that money and he is he's pushing two portions to dictate how the money gets spread out to districts first is prioritizing special education students so there's a per student amount for students that are in special education and then second a second formula that that's being used to figure out how to prioritize concentration grant districts so so districts that have above 55% unduplicated students which Arielle Foster and homeless youth if you have more than 55 percent of your students which we have far above 55 then you're eligible to receive a per ADAO now which is where we we arrived at this seven point seven

211million dollars and that second portion is what's being hotly debated as to what the legislature office will do because there's tricks that have 54 percent will receive nothing and districts that 55 will receive the exact same as districts that are a hundred percent so there there's definitely I would imagine some movement that would happen with with this seven point seven million dollars but either way we will still get a lion's share of the money with our unduplicated numbers and it may go up and it may go down but it will definitely assist us in dealing with this fiscal crisis this money is only one-time money so just to be clear it is one time and it will need to help us for many years next is the governor's budget says that there will be one

212point nine billion dollars worth of deferrals this year what is a deferral at the furl is that they are going to pay us for something holy so it's basically an IOU and they are going to say you know what we owe you six six and a half to eight million dollars or 19 20 but we don't have the money for it we will pay you a month late for those dollars and then in 2021 that amount will almost double right so or more than double and it will go to sixteen and a half to twenty two million and they'll owe us for money throughout the year and that will continue to grow so that's why it's essential that we have a large enough reserve to be able to continue our payroll to continue to pay

213bills because the state will OS money but we won't have the money to pay and the only way that we'll have enough money to pay is if we have a reserve and we continue to pass interfund borrowing resolutions allowing us to borrow from our other our other funds that we have and with that I will open it up to any questions I think by looking at this at this presentation mark I think it's very important that as we move forward the reconfiguration looking at the drop in students in our district this should should also be included in in our discussion of the school reconfiguration she Looney um mark can you go back to the slide that shows the education budget in comparison to all the other state but budgets so I just need to share

214this from you again so I you're showing us a fight and we're saying that right now the budget deficit is being carried on the backs of education both k12 primarily but then also higher at 20% 10% and then I'll be an obviously general government also is taking a big hit to a smaller but so we're saying that we're protecting prisons were protecting Health and Human Services which is upon the legislators friends and and then the it's going to be carried on the backs of education is that what I'm seeing that's what I'm seeing I copied this right off of the state's website because it it was shocking to me to see disparity in numbers so I'm glad that Gabriella's here and I'm glad that she works for one of our state legislators but I hope

215that we can take this message back not only us but our community that we say we education is important I think it's proven to everyone in the last couple months that education is a key is a cornerstone of our not only our society but our economy so this just gets me very upset every other oh I'm not trying to put her on I'm not trying to put Gabriella on the I'm ok I'm glad I'm glad that we have her in our in our we have her with us as she can make sure that they understand I think it's really can I just share something I'm one of the things that other school districts are doing that I think it would be in the best interest for our school district is for us to be able

216to write a letter to our legislators and for you know to advocate for our students our education the funding it's it you know just like you said she leaned I I do see that right here on nine negative nineteen point ninety percent it we're gonna take a hard hit and it's it's one of those things that unless we speak up as a school district and we just can't rely on the district next to us to speak for us or try to get a letter from them we ourselves have to advocate for ourselves so I'm gonna suggest that you know we we put we put our our letter together and be able to to advocate for ourselves one of the things that is happening at the state level is that all the major agencies C SBA

217acts CTA the CSB icsea other other labor unions and interest groups including early childhood education and a wide range of people have approved a letter a very strongly worded letter to to do just that because it is it is unconscionable that we our children we should all take a fair share you know we know we're in tough times and we all have to shoulder a portion of the burden but the burden should not be on the backs of children disproportionately and they say children because I mean clearly there's adults too it's all our stuff it's everybody in it the question is when people get up and talk about how much they value education and then cut it drastically something is not right so can we write that letter like I uh suggest that sent on

218and we've already proved the letter I happen to have been at this meeting Sheila need happen to be there and so we know the souther letter is going out and it's strong about it it is all the educational organizations in the state complaining about this issue so I think what I'm suggesting though is that we write our own letter I know CSD a put up a whole website that has that has sample language that we can use so let's use that my face is right in our own money who did CSV a yes yeah okay as a whole has a whole budget advocacy can we get a time frame so that way we know exactly when this letter it's a really important that we act on this right away yes it is important and so

219I'll give give you a copy of the letter in your Friday packet so you can see into the timeline is that those discussions are going on now the state will want to come to a decision by June 15 so the so if we get our objections and concerns in the mix of information that's going forward I think that would be that would be really you know a good contribution to what we're trying to achieve here so everything by this Friday you'll have the letter out Linda our letter will be sent to our representative yes included in your Friday update for you so you can see it so will we be signing on this letter as a board are we deciding this are we just writing the letter and you're signing or we as a board

220going to be also signing this you can do it any way you'd like no thanks you all want to sign you have to come in somewhere you know typically what I'll have what happens and the first line says on behalf of the Board of Education and so you're included that way and your names are included in it but you don't physically sign the letter but it's it's very obvious it's coming from the board you know are we able to use are we able to this isn't my question but it with that are we able to use the digital signing option that we have documents I so I mean I sorry I'm not I think that our practice or past practices and if we passed the resolution then we all sign it but if we just

221are sending a letter we direct our superintendent to write a letter on our behalf so mark I'm comparing so having having a luxury of seeing slide 13 and 18 at the same time it says that based on these numbers that there's a deficit of 8.7 let's call it point 7 million that we're anticipating for the next school year and then based on the numbers that we see through the federal cares Act that there is you know potentially in an additional ten point two million dollars in revenue that that's coming in but again we are expecting some of those numbers to change first of all and second of all those numbers are intended to hold us over you know they're one-time funds that we need to use to you know for losses in subsequent years so

222with that being said does this mean that it's very well possible that though we may end up though the you know a profit and loss statement might reflect that there is a that there's more money to work with in truth that wouldn't be accurate it wouldn't accurately reflect based off of how we need to use those monies in subsequent years correct so you know pointing out something that's nuanced that I'm I'm glad to hit on so yes if we only had to worry about one year 2021 then we're great you know we actually have extra money to spend if we thought that 21 22 was going to jump back up to where we thought it was gonna be in January but that is not our reality so if we were to look at our reserve

223line and a reasonable response will be yes that our reserve is going to jump because of that 10 million dollars and then we'll be able to use that to weather the storm over the next 3 years but there will be additional cuts required beyond what we already did the the 8 plus million dollars that we that we did last month so we will need more cuts even with that 10 million dollars to be enacted this this year before we get started in the school yep and so I guess I'm wanting to highlight that so that there's clarity you know around the table so that we see that again from from a profit and loss statement perspective it made it may look better for us going into the into the next year but but as we're

224we're looking into the long as we're looking at the long run and the bigger picture into the future we're still definitely in like the the need to make drastic drastic steps and and mitigate you know the you know these realities is still ever before us even though it may look better on a graph yeah you know definitely we'll have we'll have some additional reserves for the first year and then after that you know depending on how much we're able to reduce spending by it it will obviously taper back down because of the zero Cola and you know obviously not having an additional ten million dollars in 21 22 another note too to mention is that there's a lot of pressure on the feds to pass and the heroes or some some resemblance of the heroes

225bill at the federal level which would provide and that bill has three trillion dollars in it one trillion of it would go to States and according to our governor he says that if we received that then all of this is wiped away and we're back to our January budget so that would that would be best-case scenario the Republicans have said very clearly that there is too much bloat in that three billion dollars and that they will reject it as soon as it comes in but that's how that's how it works right they'll come back with something that maybe a little bit more slimmed down but hopefully education and state dollars are left alone and maybe some of the special projects are eliminated with that being said mark I think also it's really important that we

226also write a letter to our congressional office as well um since we're talking about federal what do you guys think it wouldn't make sense it goes to the Senate next so then we would then we should write to both yeah by the time our letter gets there it might have bounced back to the legislative legislature so it might be good to do both you're absolutely right Linda can we get that letter as well to those two we absolutely will do a letter okay any more questions one one more question mark when you said that that for the deferrals that these monies are a month you said if there's six to eight million dollars that would be paid a month later so for the first one we know that they're going to short us the June

227apportionment and we will get it in July but for these other ones we don't it's not a monthly no it'll be starting it the projection is that it was started in April so they will short us April May all of May in all of June and we will get started getting that money the some of that money the following year and that they will there will always be a portion that they will still owe us when you say when you say following year you saying following fiscal year so scre X 20 and 21 22 yeah and that's that's where districts well you have a few options you can first obviously call from your reserve that's the easiest place second you can borrow from other funds so I'm your I'm your building funds or from your

228adult Edie funder any any of the other funds and then following that you would have to borrow money and so then you can borrow money from the county if the county has money tomorrow which remember they are also being shorted money and then next would be from a lending institution like you and I do and that's called a trans until we would we would take out a trans and and pay interest to a lender to borrow money which is the you know where definitely where we don't want to go and because then it's costing us money to make payroll okay any other questions for comments hey with that um 10:37 and I'm calling the meeting to an end thank you have a good night everybody and thank you everybody thank you good night good night

229good night