001testing. Test test test. Test Welcome back everyone. The board adjourned to close session at 4:30 p.m. and we will now reconvene the meeting in open session at 6:05 p.m. Board Clerk Critzfield will update us on close session topics. >> Thank you, Madam President. Topics discussed in close session were anticipated litigation, pending litigation, and public employee discipline dismissal and release. The board took no action in close session. >> Thank you, Clerk Crit. So, tonight, Dr. Aaron Simon is going to be leading us in the pledge of allegiance. Thank you for the United States of America which stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> All right. Do we have any replacement pages tonight? No. And do we have any amendments to the agenda? >> No corrections this evening. Board President Stewart.
002>> All right. Thank you. All right. So, we are moving on to our presentations and we're going to go to our employee representative reports and we are going to start with CSCA. Will CSCA communications officer Anthony Raris please join us at the podium? Thank you. Welcome. [Music] All right, I think I'm ready. So, good evening, board president Stewart, board members, superintendent Simon McCabinet, uh BTA, uh I saw John here somewhere, and PTA leadership, community members, good evening. I'm Anthony Ramirez, the CSEA chapter communications officer, and I'm here to give you a brief update on CSEA and classified happenings. First, I want to extend a very warm welcome to our new superintendent, Dr. Eric Simon. CSEA chapter president Michelle Quayora and Vice President Joan Chain have met with her and are looking forward to building a
003great working relationships. Um, in late July, CSEA sent a letter to the district regarding our demand to bargain the effects of the proposed addition of campus safety staff and support through the use of third-party contractors. We already have campus safety Santa campus safety staff um and we want to ensure that their presence and functions remain fully represented in the discussion and the ultimate decision as you all move forward with a plan to increase the safety for all students and staff. On Monday, August 4th, CSEA along with BTA representation met with Dr. Smith to initiate discussions regarding the state of employee health insurance. It is our position that frank and open dialogue is needed to convey our serious concerns about the affordability of our current health insurance coverage. Classified jobs vary widely from part-time school day
004only to 12 month full-time employees and having benefits that are affordable and accessible to all seems like a reasonable practice. There are many classified employees whose children are students here at BUD and we think affordable health insurance is valuable to the entire local community. We are hopeful that the discussions with Dr. Smith will reflect that value. Over the summer break, our Belfower Chapter 32 sent four delegates to the CSEA State Union annual conference where they participated in approving a state union budget, recognized statewide employees of the year and raised money for a charity fund for CSEA members who experienced natural disasters or personal tragedies. That specific fund is called the uh Dorothy Buork Fund and it's named after a CSEA employee. Our delegates along with hundreds of fellow CSEA members participated in a letterwriting campa
005camp campaign to defend public education funding. They network with CSEA colleagues from every surrounding district in our area like Paramount, ABC, Norwok, Long Beach, and other chapters throughout California. And we brought back a renewed energy to advocate for and represent all BSD classified workers. Earlier today, CSEA just finished participating in the BUSD summer institute. Three days of professional development alongside the teachers and other staff. We hope to see this and other trainings continue and maybe even increase as the word gets around after school starts. And finally, I want to recognize all the classified workers who have been working hard during the summer, especially those who worked during the extended school year session. Other classified employees also worked through June, July, and now into August to prepare every classroom, office, every playground, and yard, process student
006enrollments, work in special education, prepare the kitchens, and translate the pride of working here at BUSD into curb appeal for the students and families to see that we are all ready for the coming year of education. Thank you for allowing me to present this brief update. >> Thank you so much. And thank you to all of our CICA employees. We appreciate all of the hard work you do for all of us. Thank you so much. All right, PTA communications, we have President Alexandra Cortez. Thank you for being here and welcome. Okay. Uh good evening, President Stewart, board members, uh superintendent, and a BUSD staff. Uh want to talk to you guys tonight about our membership. Uh you're going to see this beautiful flyer up there. It has all the QR codes for every PTA that's
007within our school district. And I want to do a special thank you to Mrs. Bonnie Carter. She's joined every PTA that's up there. So, yay. Yay for her. Uh this support helps all of your PTAs create beautiful events and programs for all of the students and families across BUSD. So continue to uh help us support these PTAs. Join as many as you can and uh continue to help us promote it through social media. It helps a lot. Thank >> a question real quick. Is there one code that takes us to all of them or do we need to do them all individually? >> We're working on that. We don't have that yet, but you can do we have do do have a sign up that we can do and then do them manually so I
008can have that for you guys. We can send a link out >> and uh we did that thing last year and then we'll do that for you guys. Okay. All right. Well, thank you so much for your time. Have a good night. >> Thank you. >> Always appreciate you guys and everything you do. All right. Superintendent's report. Dr. Simon. >> Well, thank you so much board president Stewart. Good evening everyone. Um to our esteemed board members, uh cabinet staff and members of the community. Nice to see you all out here uh this evening. I am both honored and excited to assume the role of superintendent of the Bellflower Unified School District. I can say this week the district completed an intensive professional learning program for our staff, tackling critical topics such as implicit bias and
009awareness, accelerating learning, integrating AI in student learning. We also have the UCLA math project here, um, and establishing safe spaces for our students, right? Mental health, which is one of our most utmost priorities here as well. And I just wanted to take this time to congratulate and give a huge thank you right to our assistant superintendent uh Bonnie Carter and her instructional team. Give a round of applause please. If you all had the ability to see our professional learning was just filled to capacity. Um there was a lot of engagement and we even heard from many of the agencies and folks who were here just how engaged Belfflower Unified staff right were the entire time. So that's a huge compliment right to our teachers and others who were here as well and also your staff
010too Bonnie please um thank you to um the staff um in curriculum and instruction I can say visiting our school sites has been a very rewarding experience I have met with dedicated staff I've met with passionate coaches uh committed educators and administrators and inspiring students right that's always a joy from UNCC to have a conversation with our students along with active community members who are passionate um and have deep roots right within this community and want to see our district excel um even more so and do better things. That has been super exciting for me. We are moving forward with enthusiasm for the 202526 school year. Our advanced meeting is scheduled for tomorrow. I'm excited about that. me alongside our wonderful cabinet will be conducting um I don't want to say u professional learning but
011really having conversations with our staff members and really discussing our future forward direction and where we plan to go within this district and then we have our all district breakfast which will be on Tuesday August 12th at 8:30 atlower high school super excited about that some guest speakers we're going to have and we're going to make it in a very exciting event for all who will be there but as we approach approach the first day of school which is nearing which is Monday August 18th. I am eager to engage with all of you. Um the mission is clear to listen to learn from our students, our staff, our families and our community partners. Together we will cultivate a culture of excellence. I've always told folks excellence has been ingrained in my brain since I was
012a child. I was always every morning I would say my my grandparents and my mother would just say Aaron are you going to be excellent today and that's something I want to bring as far as with our students and know what that means to be excellent in the classroom outside the classroom the way they present themselves the way they prepare themselves for life to always believe in excellence. create safe and supportive environments and expand opportunities that will prepare every learner for success in college, career, and life. So, to our students and families also who may be feeling um a sense of fear or just anxiety right as we start the school year and things that are happening within our communities, just rest assured that Belfower is here for you. We're here to support you. We've
013been having conversations with many of our families, right, to get them back. um ensure they have the appropriate resources, but just know that we are dedicated to your well-being and your success. And again, thank you. I look forward to working with each of you, and I appreciate the time for President Stewart. >> Thank you so much. We're really excited to have you here as well. Thank you. All right, so moving on to committee updates. I don't believe we have any committee updates, but please, does anybody have any committee updates? Cloud. Uh thank thank you madam president. I think the only thing uh yeah the committees really haven't been meeting too much over the summer but I do want to say now that the foundation committees concluded because we officially uh kicked off the foundation last
014Tuesday. Uh give them a round of applause. That's a huge thing. Um and I want to say thank you to President Stewart uh and the entire board for supporting that effort. It really and also uh Mr. Sura. Um it was a a big lift from us, but now that that lift is over, it's all on them. And uh I was able to stop by the meeting and we have a great group of people from our community that are going to make a big impact. So I'm just really excited about that. It's nice to see it get across the finish line. Uh but that's all I have to report. Anybody else? All right, moving on to public comments. Tonight we do have requests addressing open session agenda items. While meetings of the governing board are not
015public meetings, they are open to the public. Individual speakers will be allowed three minutes to address the board on each agenda or non-aggenda item. The board will limit the total time for public input on each item to 21 minutes as per board bylaw 9322.2. All right. Can we have Nicole Gates? Thank you so much for coming. I appreciate it. And you got to hit that button, the talk button, the little guy or girl, whatever. >> Okay. Hello, board president Stewart, board members and district cabinet members. Thank you for allowing me to speak tonight. My name is Nicole Gates. I have two children, a ninth grader and an 11th grader who will be attending Mayfair this coming school year. I am here tonight to talk about the lack of honors classes at the high school level.
016When we were reviewing the classes offered at the 9th grade level, I noticed that Mayfair did not offer any honors science classes. I spoke about the lack of honors science classes at Mayfair school site council meeting last year but did not receive an answer as to why Mayfair did not offer honors biology and honors chemistry classes. Mayfair does however uh offer advanced science classes at the seventh and eighth grade level. I do not understand why there is not a continued advanced science path in 9th and 10th grade. One likely reason I heard from a community member about why Mayfair did not offer science classes was because of low enrolling in honors classes. I did not understand this explanation because in ninth grade in ninth grade Mayfair offers AP human geography, honors English, and honors math.
017So why not honors biology? When I attended my daughter's eighth grade promotion cere ceremony this past June, the program stated that 56 students had a 4 point GPA for 2 years they were in middle school. In addition, there were 70 students who had a 3.5 to 3.9 GPA for two years they were in middle school. That is a total of 126 students with a GPA of 3.5 and above. The considerable number of students demonstrating hard work and dedication should have the opportunity to take advanced classes to meet their educational needs. Another probable reason for the lack of science classes is that honor science framework had not been established. If this is the case, an advanced science framework needs to be developed and implemented as soon as possible. Every student in BUSD needs to have the
018opportunity to take classes that meet their educational needs. Whether that means students with disabilities, English language learners, dual language students, or gifted students, BUSD needs to provide educational opportunities for all types of students. Provi providing differentiated instruction and academic rigor for advanced students is essential for the continued success of these students. Thank you. Superintendent Simon maybe in our Friday memo. Can we get just a little blur on what if any advanced science frameworks we have and the reasons why we're not offering these classes, please? Thank you so much. All right. Next we have Juliana Ritzki. >> Thank you. Appreciate you. >> Hello everyone. Good evening board members, district leaders, families, and especially superintendent Dr. Simon. Welcome to BOSD. My name is Juliana Risky and I'm an incoming freshman at Mayfair High School. I'm also proud
019to be part of the first cohort of Suns University, the early college program in partnership with Cerrito's College at our school. Thank you for giving me the chance to speak tonight. I'm here to talk about something that's very important to me and many other students, the opportunity to take honors science classes in high school. Right now, our school offers honors English and honors math, which is great. But for science, the only options are regular science classes or jumping straight to APs, and that can feel overwhelming for a lot of students, including me. Honors classes are very important because they help us grow step by step, and not all students are ready for APs right away. But many of us want to be challenged more than regular classes allow. An honors science class would give students
020like me the chance to prepare, build confidence, and stay excited about learning about science. It would also help students to be more competitive for college and careers in STEM, especially those who may not have had strong science backgrounds in middle school, but are now ready to push themselves. I know adding new classes takes time and resources, but I truly believe that this would benefit so many students across our district. I hope you'll consider making honor science part of the path forward. Thank you so much for listening and I'm looking forward to another amazing school year with you all. Thank you. Thank you so much. All right, we have Miss Arley Nakagawa. Welcome. Thank you for being here. Like to see you guys here more often. >> Hi, my name is Arlene Nakagawa. Um, good evening
021board president Stewart, board members, cabinet. Welcome, Dr. Simon. really excited for you to be here. Um I'm here to discuss the safety um school safety that's on the agenda tonight. And basically I just wanted to just make a comment. Um I as a parent I have a student at Mayfair High School. Um I as a parent am not opposed at all to having an armed guard standing in front of the school. Um, but I know that we don't have this unlimited budget and so I think that money would be better well better spent um on having more highly trained unarmed security on campus. Um, I also think that money would also be better spent on better security technology such as c better cameras, more cameras, camera camera monitoring. Um, also vape detection in the bathrooms
022and things like that. Um, Mayfair is a huge campus. There's a lot of corridors and hallways and rooms that are unmonitored throughout the day. Um, the rest the problems in the restrooms with the vaping and fights and things like that is is it's a huge problem. So, I think investing on having more people on campus to help the staff and help the security that's already there um would be really helpful and also having better technology um would would help our school. And that's all I have to say. Thank you. Thank you for listening. >> Thank you so much. We appreciate your input. All right. And we have Mr. John Paul Dreer. Welcome. Thank you for being here. >> Hi, John Paulreer, former Srias College trustee for Mosa Belfar. Want to welcome our new superintendent. I
023look forward to our meeting in early September. Um, I participated in the safety survey. I appreciate that. And after I completed my survey, something very random happened and I mentioned it to a few people. Um, a woman and her daughter came to my door and I I saw them coming. So, I went outside to see what was going on. I thought um it was something else. and she basically said like the spirit kind of guided her to my door and she told me about the security a security guard at Mayfair was not properly trained and how to appropriately um deal with students and contributed to the truency of students um and other things. Um, and so if we have any new security, armed or unarmed, that they need to be properly trained on appropriateness with
024students, they need to get to class on time. Uh, and also the parents should be notified. At other schools that I've worked at, students, uh, if they're tardy or they're absent at the beginning after 15 minutes, the parents get a notification. So, I'm wondering if that happened or not in this case because um the parent was so upset about what happened. She and she's also a district employee. She had her daughter who was right there next to her at my front door saying that she didn't feel safe at Mayfair anymore and now goes to the charter school um a couple blocks north of my house on Woodruff and um Rose Crays. And so so whoever is going to be our security or we need to update the trainer and who is currently security guards on
025how to appropriately um get students to class and not have them hang around with them where other things could happen. And I I appreciate the other marks about remarks about the vaping too. Yeah, it's so highly addictive and it's causing so many respiratory problems in students and we need to really educate them on that. So, I really appreciate the survey and I think school safety is very very important. Um, and thank you for um letting me speak. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Is there anybody else that would like to speak tonight, >> Michelle? All right, hearing none, we're going to move on to discussion items. We have one discussion item this evening. Dr. Simon. >> Thank you so much again, Board President Stewart. And at this time, our deputy superintendent, Dr. Dr. Ryan Smith
026will present our school safety survey results. Dr. Smith. >> Thank you very much, Dr. Simon. Good evening, board president Stewart, members of the board, uh, staff and community. I'm going to take everyone uh quickly through the school safety survey results that we conducted um towards the beginning of July which okay so over the course of three weeks we received over 600 responses. The majority of the responses that we received were uh from people who identified as parents and family members. About half of our responses, please. Thank you. About half of our responses were received from uh people that were associated most with Belfflower Middle School as well as Mayfair Middle High School. However, we did receive responses from all of our different schools. The first question that we asked, where do I aim at? Got
027it. Thank you. The first question that I asked was how or the survey asked asked, excuse me, how safe do you feel your school site is currently? Nearly 80% of respondents identified and said that their school safe school is very or mostly safe. Less than 5% of respondents indicated that they believe that their school was not very safe at all. We also asked, do you believe your school site has adequate security coverage during school hours? 60% indicated that they felt that more security was needed. 27% feel that we have enough security and 8% of respondents indicated that they were unsure. We asked, would you support the district enhancing school safety by adding licensed security professionals to help protect students and staff during school hours? An overwhelming percentage of respondents indicated that they do indeed support
028that. greater than 80%. We then asked, would you support the district placing an armed security guard on the campuses of both Mayfair Middle High School and Belfflower Middle School during school hours as an added layer of student protection. Greater than 60% of respondents indicated that they support that. About 20% of respondents indicated that they were not sure. We asked a follow-up question asking if the armed security guard were stationed only on the perimeter of campus, such as near entry gates or parking lots, would you feel more comfortable with the concept? 32% of respondents indicated that they were comfortable with the idea already. 47% of respondents indicated that they felt more comfortable with that idea of having them on the perimeter. to go a little bit further into the responses for this particular question. 380 respondents
029initially said yes to the idea of having armed guards on campus. Of those, 181 of them indicated that they would feel even more comfortable if the guard were stationed only on the perimeter, about 48%. 105 respondents initially said no to the question about armed guards on campus. Of those, 35 indicated that they would feel more comfortable with the concept if the armed guard were stationed only on the perimeter. Only 65 respondents indicated no to both questions. In other words, 65 respondents indicated no initially to the concept of an armed guard and no to the idea of the armed guard only being on the perimeter. 122 respondents were initially unsure about placing an armed guard on campus. Of those 122, 66 or greater than half said they would feel more comfortable with the idea that they
030only be placed on the perimeter. We then asked, "Do you believe the district has enough of its own well-trained security staff to help respond to serious safety issues on campus?" Most respondents felt that we do not have enough of our own security. However, about a third are unsure. We then asked, "Which of the following would you support to help improve the district's internal campus safety efforts? Select all that apply." There was high support for hiring more internal unarmed security. There was also high support for investing in additional training. We also asked a couple of additional questions regarding safety measures that our district safety committee in cooperation with a subcommittee of the board has been investigating or pursuing or studying. One of those questions that we asked was related to that. Some school districts are piloting
031new weapons detection systems that allow students to walk through without stopping or emptying their bags. would you support that? There was extremely broad support for implementing that type of technology, nearly 90%. We also asked the district is considering installing safety sensors in school restrooms. These devices would detect things like vaping, loud noises, shouting, signs of distress, etc. Again, broad support for such a safety measure. 70% supported that type of safety measure at all campuses with 27% indicating a preference that that only be in place at secondary schools. We also received a number of comments to our survey about 300. Those comments break along three main themes and I'll share each of those themes with the board and the public this evening. Theme number one, a strong support for increased security presence. Many respondents expressed clear
032support for adding more security staff, including armed guards or licensed professionals, especially at the middle and high schools. What you see before you are three quotes uh that are representative of this theme. I will read one of them just for the sake of brevity. A school resource officer in each of the secondary schools would be the be the most ideal. However, due to staffing shortages at the LA Sheriff's Department, an armed guard would be the next best thing. However, any individuals from contracted out services need to be proactive and build connections with stakeholders. An additional theme that was identified from the comments was the desire for safer, more supervised for a safer, more supervised environment. There is significant concern from our survey results about vaping, drug use, bullying, and lack of adult presence, especially in
033restrooms and unsupervised spaces. One such representative quote read, "My child will be entering seventh grade in the fall, and I'm extremely concerned for his safety and what he will be exposed to since he will be going to a middle school/high school. I definitely think something more needs to be done to deter what is happening in restrooms and places where security and staff are not allowed to be. Finally, the third theme from the comments is related to root causes, discipline, and mental health. A large number of comments called for attention to the root causes of student behavior, including mental health, cultural competency, equity, and the lack of meaningful consequences for rules violations. Respondents described a need for restorative discipline, increased counseling staff, and an end to a perceived culture of impunity. A representative quote said, "Invest
034in the kids. Talk to the quiet ones. learn more about their struggles. Make people feel loved and important. Create a sense of community rather than fear and mistrust. So, those are the results from our survey. Thank you for the opportunity to conduct the survey and present this before you. Um, I give it back to the board for discussion. >> Andrew, do we have discussion? We open the hearing first. We open the hearing first. Correct. >> Uh you can open the public hearing first, allow the public to provide their input and then go into discussion. >> Awesome. Okay. So, tonight we do have a public hearing. Do I have a motion to Do I need a motion? Yes. >> You just open the public hearing. >> Awesome. We're going to open it up. Are there any
035members of the public who would wish to address this item? >> Yes, Michelle. I knew you'd talk. Oh, go ahead. Push the button. >> Okay. Thank you. Michelle Quayar, CSCA chapter president. First of all, I want to start off by thanking um board member Citron and board member uh Critfield for meeting with myself um some security and our labor rep. Uh we did discuss quite a bit of this. Um I wish we had had more time to discuss it. I wish that the survey had come out at a different time, not when we're all on summer break. This is a very um it's an important issue. We do have security on our on our uh sites that are held to a standard where they cannot do their job correctly. They cannot enforce rules. They are
036not backed up. We have security that are um how do I put this? They're not our employees. They are subs, you know, and putting a sub in a car to drive around is not really security. So I really wish we had more time to discuss this. It is very important. I wish that our money would go more towards actually training our security staff plans people in charge of our security our security staff that are not principles. Somebody that knows security and that is their job. Um continuous training working with our kids. These things for the restrooms. Awesome. these vape detectors. I was on the safety committee still am hopefully. Um, excellent that detect every even if you um try to disable it. You can't that somebody would be notified if we go those routes first.
037Um, I think that this is what's really important where our money needs to go. And also, I wasn't sure about talking about this because we have demanded to bargain this with our members being uh impacted by this. So, um, I'm a little disappointed that you guys are going to go ahead and already vote on this on the 18th without a little bit more discussion. Our safety committee was great. We did see um the different companies you could work with. Uh, the different the smoke detector, Ve detector, the um, for lack of a better word, the metal detectors. Those are awesome to implement as well. Um, but we didn't really discuss how things are going to be handled on campus because really a lot of our problems are on campus, not outside the perimeter and this
038is something that we need to address that way. Um, so that's it. If I remember something else, I'll I'll get you directly. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Is there anybody else that would like to speak? Rita, come on down. Hi. Um, I saw the results of the survey. Um, I guess kind of the first thing that brought my attention was there was only I think like about 600 from Mayfair that responded and we have what 1,800 to 2,000 students. So, is that even half of the parents that responded to the survey um about what they think their children need? The Western problem was a problem when I went there a million years ago. So, I think the vaping inside the restroom would be awesome. I am not for armed security outside. I'm not
039for any armed security. I do agree security needs to be increased. Um I feel bad for kids that get caught by bullies that are in a blind spot where there's no um staff to help them because I've heard that happen before, too. So, uh, maybe we do need a little bit more time and a little bit more discussion from parents and we do need more discussion from the students that attend there. I was asking my granddaughter about it. She graduated two years ago and she said, you know, it's kind of the same thing that they've always had with the restrooms and and uh the the bullying. And so I'm not 100% sure with what all the answers are, but um yes, in the restrooms definitely and maybe more like um was stated inside the campus
040help that way. So much too. >> Thank you. We appreciate it. All the input we can get. Noella, thank you. It was already on. Oh, my bad. Sorry. There you go. >> Hi, my name is Nala Compos. I'm a current employee at Mayfair High School. I'm a special ed health aid, so I work with a special ed population. Um, I think we need um consequences and follow through with those first. Um, vaping, uh, years ago, if you were caught with any drug or vaping, it was like a 5day suspension from what I was hearing. Now, it's only a one. You just go home. Um I so I think it needs to be a little bit um more of a consequence and it needs to be followed through throughout. Um as far as um let me
041go into the cell phone. We're going to have a lot of issues with that just so there needs to be a policy I believe instead of leaving it up to each school to make up their own rules and policies. I think that needs to be straight across the district. um if it happens once, this is what's going to happen if it happens twice and so on. And I personally think that something needs to go home written uh written policy and it needs to be signed by a parent and the student so when they get caught with the phone, they're not saying we didn't know. I I know that's going to happen. And as far as security, I know at Mayfair, we can we could definitely do uh with a couple more actual permanent security. one,
042especially in that steam room. Um, they're they're lacking help over there. And I've also seen where there's a lot of kids that just stand around outside. Um, and I've heard, I'm not going to say from what or who, but I've heard, well, just let them stand there because if we try to enforce it, what's going to happen anyway? There's there's no support. So, we need to start at the bottom and move forward with the consequences and and having everybody supported if they are in trouble about something they if you have those alarms, that's great. They want to get caught. What's going to be the consequence? So, we need to think about that. Who cares? It gets taken away. They'll just go and get another one. They need to have more of um consequences at school
043that they know if they get caught, they're going to get in get in trouble. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Oh, and one more thing. The we need to have better communication as far as the lock out and the the lock in, whatever it's called. Um, I felt like I was a sitting duck out there at lunch last year when something a a parent was on the grounds and there was a beeping, but it was so loud out there, we didn't really hear what was going on. I think another speaker maybe in the sitting area outside in the under where we had the lunches and stuff would be nice and maybe out there towards the PE area because you can't hear what's going on back there either. And um yeah, that's for right now that
044I that I know that I could think of. Thank you. Thank you. We appreciate the input. Nicole, I just thought of something and I spoke to board uh President Stewart in the summer about this issue with my son. Um I know that there's been a lot of vaping in the bathrooms and Mayfair has really tried and Mr. Diaz has really tried, but they were closing a lot of bathrooms and my son uh the couple weeks before the school year ended, he was trying to go to the bathroom and he'd go to one and it was closed. He'd go to another and it was closed. He'd go to another and then the bell was going to ring because it's like they have the six minutes to go and he went to the teacher and says, "Miss
045Parks, she retired now. Miss Parks, I need to go to the bathroom." because he had a test and he wanted to go to the bathroom before. And she pulled out um a map and says, "Okay, you can go to this bathroom and this bathroom." And he and he said, "Well, those bathrooms are closed." And so, I don't know what the solution is, but that's a public safety issue when a kid has to relieve themselves and they're closing bathrooms and they got to go all the way to the other side and they're late. And so a teacher doesn't know if they're late cuz they're goofing around or because they're waiting in line in the bathroom or a bathroom is closed. So whatever we decide it needs to, you know, we need to move forward with this
046as far as the bathroom issue because students should be able to use a bathroom and not, you know, go to multiple bathrooms and try to see if they're opened or or closed. Thank you. >> Thank you. We appreciate it. Anybody else? Thank you, Juliana. >> You're welcome. Um, I have, first of all, I agree with everything everyone has said so far, and I believe I have a pretty good insight on what's going on around schools right now because I've seen it. I'm a freshman. I've only been at Mayer for 3 years, but wow, I've seen a lot. And I'm really glad you guys are discussing this now, but I truly do believe you guys should have been discussing this a bit earlier because earlier in the school year, like I lost one of my friends
047to suicide because she was getting bullied. And to see that happen to anybody else, like that would just break my heart because like seeing that firsthand and not going to the root of the problem and actually talking to the student, that hurts like me personally. And um Oh my god, I'm shaking my boots. home. >> You're welcome. You're good. Take your time. >> Thank you. Um, yeah. And I believe the bathroom situation is just it's getting out of hand. Every time I walk into a restroom, it either smells like a strawberry smoothie or dookie. The vaping problem is wild. And I really do believe that those vaping detectors would be a really big help in actually like getting down to the root of the problem. And I believe more students should be have should should
048be well should be held accountable to their actions and have more consequences instead of just going home for one day. I'm think I'm thinking of what I wanted to say. Wait a minute. But yeah, I should have just I feel like you guys should have just been discussing this issue better and actually talking to the students because I feel like I'm a bit late to actually talking to talk to to talk to the to the like this is the top. This is as far as I think I can go. So I feel like just talking to the students more and really seeing what they have to say about these issues instead of just standing in a room where I'm the only student and I can I'm the only one who has input on this. So
049yeah, just talk to the students more, get their input, and listen to what they have to say. Thank you. Anybody else? Alexander, you hang up. Awesome. Thank you. Okay, so um I'm going to speak from like two different parts. So I have a daughter who goes to Belfflower High now and I'm also an employee at Belfflower High. So when my daughter was leaving sixth grade from Woodruff, that was my greatest fear that she was going to be in a school where there was going to be high schoolers along with middle schoolers. So our first year was a struggle because she would come home every day complaining that she didn't go to the restroom because she was very scared because people were vaping, fighting, and doing adult stuff that they shouldn't be doing in there. So
050she would hold on until 3:30 cuz she has all eight courses to go to the restroom. I told her to go to the nurse's office so that she could do it and she said that they wouldn't allow her to because it was class time and this is your class time and you can't go. So I'm like well going in passing she said it's too far from my classes cuz at Belfflower middle schoolers are at the back of the school not at the front. Um so this kind of pushed me to be like well what can I do? Um I was part of BTA and I'm like I brought it up to Linda which was our president last year. She communicated to superintendent last year. They spoke about it and I'm like, well, what else can
051I do? Luckily, I was during the transition where I was getting looking for work. I got hired there and I'm like, you know what, this is perfect. I will be there. I will be able to see what's going on. And um the bathrooms are definitely an issue. I have seen a few that have been closed and I've questioned it. Um the answer was I don't know. And that was not a good answer for me. I did bring it up to the deputy superintendent. He did hear me out. He was working with it. Um, but the vaping is something that I've been trying to like wrap my brain around like what could we do? I even suggested a smoke detector just to see if that could like eliminate that. But having seventh graders and eighth graders
052not go to the restroom because they have fear and coming home after a long day of everything they've gone through and not going to the restroom is not okay. So, if we can do something about that, I would appreciate that very much. Thank you. >> Thank you. Appreciate the input. Anybody else? I don't need a motion to close it. I can just close it. All right. The public hearing is now closed and we'll start with our board discussions. Colleagues, anyone want to speak on this? Um, Vice President Garza. Thank you, Madam President. I want to um ask, do we currently have a security department who just deals only with security issues? not necessarily facilities or anything like that. >> Uh we do have a security department that's embedded into our operations maintenance. So it's all
053kind of in one. >> So it's all-encompassing. Okay. Um colleagues I after going through all these um surveys and you know hearing our discussions our comments from this from our community I almost feel like and I don't know if you agree with me like we actually need to separate that and maybe even make this a actual department itself um because it feels like when you place it together there's too much um overlap perhaps on what maybe our facilities workers are doing that are that maybe perhaps they should only be doing something for facilities or what their duties are and then maybe have a separate department or arm that deals only with these issues. It seems like that might be one of the reasons why we're not getting a good handle on what's going on on
054our campuses. Um, I know Patrick does an amazing job and his staff does as well with, you know, what they have and they've done, you know, a good job of keeping our campuses as safe as they could or they can. Um, but also we just heard from, you know, CSA, they need more training. Um perhaps this is kind of like the first step we may want to take to start delineating where those boundaries are and making better decisions, you know, as a board and, you know, with more input in our community. I'm not sure what what are your thoughts? Um I um I I know that that one position it had transportation, maintenance, and security. We separated transportation that so that I don't but we do have a guy named Kevin who is supposed to
055be the lead. Aren't you the lead? >> Yeah, I'm a custodial >> custodial. You're both managers. I mean I mean you're the manager of both departments. So I don't know I really don't know too much about separating it custodial and security but it it it we we we may need to we may need to. However uh I filled out this survey also and um I do agree we we we need more security staff because of you know what's happening. Um, and they do need the training. I think what I think we're doing a good job with what we have, but it's not enough. And and and and the detectors that would be an absolent absolute plus. It would it's heavensent because we can't have personnel lording around the bathrooms because then there goes the liability.
056I like I said I filled this survey out and while I would love for um you know uh someone with an arm to be around should the situation arise. And and I I don't know whether I'm depending too much on the sheriff, but I would hate to implore excuse me um an armed guard and they become a liability to our district. So I think we need to enhance our staff. I mean, we could definitely look into seeing how it would look, how we can afford if we separate security and maintenance, but I still think we should invest more in what we have for district employees. um the the the vapes. We need to educate these parents and we need to get these parents involved because in 20 years they're going to be a these kids
057are going to be a part of a study that's going to talk about all the harm that they're doing to their lungs. We need to get that education out there. Um the bathrooms we like I I had five kids go through the district and I tell you at one point I was to the point forget it. Let's just put portaotties out there. You know that was just me throwing up my hands. That may not be the answer. But we have to get these parents involved with their kids and hold them accountable. Like the students say bring the where are they getting the money from? Are they are do these kids work? I mean, my kids didn't work while they while they went to school. But, you know, that's just me. And the bullying. My daughter
058lost a friend also. She was in the eighth grade because of bullying. And we do the no bullying campaign. We do the no drugs campaign. But, you know, maybe we need to do more. Maybe not once a year. Maybe we need to do it more often to remind each other. And I'm sorry for taking so long, but I you know, I just just had to. But um and we we must put these we must give them consequences and make these make the parents even accountable. And I know sometimes the parents have a difficult time, but that's why we institute institute a factor. We we have different things for our parents and they have to take advantage of what we're trying to offer. So, um that's my spill board members and we we really need to
059you know go ahead. I would be in favor of separating them as well. I don't know if you mind if I ask a question clarifying if we did want to as a board we voted to separate custodial and security. How would that look and is that a possibility? And can you kind of engage with us on what that would look like? >> Renee or sorry, Miss Arcus and I can probably talk through that together. Um, both of us being new in Belfar relatively. Um, it it's an odd arrangement or an unusual arrangement to have those responsibilities kind of under one position. In other words, both custodial and security. And when I say that, I I I don't say that with any with that's just fact a factual statement. It's it's you know, Mr. Maize does
060really great work for us as a district. Um truly in both Ms. Arcus and I I feel that. Um but it is an unusual arrangement. You know, in most districts, you would have they'd be separated duties. Um neither of us have had the right amount of time to kind of unpack how that came to be. I can only speculate and my guess would be at some point when budgets got tough. A lot of districts did a lot of consolidating as duties um and just kind of put it here here because you had to reduce personnel. And a lot of times when districts do that, they never really get around to kind of restoring it. And so those types of things are definitely things that we've been studying as a district internally to look at how
061we're structured. That's not the only position, for example, that we're looking at. We're also looking at risk management, benefits administration, and those kinds of things. So, if the board's desire is for us to move forward with that, um, that's just fine. I mean, certainly you we will do what the board asks us to do, but I do want the board to know that that is something that we've been working on internally as far as getting to a point where we would bring a proposal or a new position to the board to consider. Obviously, we'd have to go through a process to kind of also change some other duties and titles, those kinds of things to more streamline things. And we would work in concert with the personnel commission. Um, because when we create new classified
062positions, those types of things. Generally speaking, a custodial super, I'm sorry, a security supervisor, a security manager, or even a director of security, um, whatever you want to call the position or wherever we ultimately land with it. Um, obviously we need to make sure that that's budgeted for and the duties are there, those kinds of things. >> Mrs. Arus, do you have anything to add? >> No, that's exactly what Dr. Smith and I have been talking about in different positions and he's right. We're working on other positions that we were working through the personnel commission pro process. >> Okay. I would definitely be in favor of that because we do say that safety is one of our number one, if not our number one concern. So, I think that's a great idea. Vice President Garcia.
063Um, board member Centron. Well, first I just want to thank everybody who spoke on this um even prior to the open discussion. Um I too have had um children go through the district and running to b to bathrooms across the campus and waiting until the end of the school to run home and and use the rest. So I understand all of that and student perspective as a parent myself these were my concerns as well. Um I think also being able to be part of the safety committee um has really brought to light a lot of these topics already. So I'm so happy that this is a discussion already being had with the cabinet. Um so I definitely feel like within the safety committee we did we have been touching on this and getting um voting
064for things or hoping to vote for things and recommendation to make sure that we accommodate not only our staff on campus but more importantly our students to make them more safe. So I definitely feel like we need a full department that is only focused on the security uh on our campuses. Um I think uh there's so much more that needs to be done that wasn't mentioned in the survey or asked because I also did take the survey. Um, so we need to hash out quite a few things and I'd like um if there I hope this is not our only discussion. Um, I hope that maybe we can bring some of these if not all these topics to the safety committee and hash out or create a proposal or however we need to move forward
065to make this happen quickly. And I think um trustee uh vice vice chair Garza said it well is that this is most important and we do need to separate these things so that the focus can be just on the safety elements. Thank you. >> Just from my perspective I do agree that we need more discussion. I personally would like to be part of that discussion as a board because this is a big topic. So we can talk about going to committee but I personally would like to continue to have the discussions here in the deis but um let's go ahead and continue on. Clerk crutchfield. >> Thank you Madam President. Um just in reference to the the question posed about separating I I think uh this is Ned Dig but things take a long time.
066Uh but it's been talked about for a while. Um separating those two. Uh but not just separating like in name but also how we go about this. So that's where, you know, we're really going to lean on you and I I applaud you, Dr. Se. I know even just changing, you know, how we uh title our departments and roles, really kind of bringing us current with things. I think this is one of those steps, too. Uh we've talked a lot about having a liaison at the district office to deal with safety. So there's more streamlined uh information to to you and us. Um and a lot of districts will have like a SRO. Um but we've been told that that's really not in the cards uh because of the shortages uh with SRO's. So I
067think uh I'm in total agreement uh you know big picture uh you know a perfect world we have a you know I don't know what you'd call it executive director security or you know security director um I'd be in total favor of that. >> Yes. I I just want to add that I do know like on some school sites um I I've worked at many different districts and sometimes the custodial uh staff do act like a first line security because they do go in and they do unlock everything. They do look for things. And so, um, because if if we're looking about having a security for for for each school, that's about 13 people. At least at least 12. No, that's 13. >> I think we're talking about like a director of security and safety
068at the district that oversees everything. >> Okay. Yeah. >> Is that what you're Yes. >> Okay. Okay. Okay. So, at the same time, I I can almost see why they kind of like um the security and maintenance is kind of married, but I still say that we do we need to add more staff and probably do have a person that would be focused on security and and and separated. But at the same time, we can't ignore the fact that those security guards do play a role in the security on each of our campuses. They're the first to see and the last to see. >> I agree with you because I'm a teacher so I do see that benefit. Um and I don't think that that's um in question or but it's also not what I
069was posing my question towards. So um my question was more how do you feel about separating those two um positions from being under one person to maybe two separate people who will absolutely have to work in tandem because we understand the importance of our custodians and what they do that we don't necessarily see every day. >> I agree with you on that. Yeah, you're on the same page. Thank you. >> Thank you for the clarification. Claire Crushfield. Um, yeah. So, on that I think I think safety is everybody. I think everybody's on the first line when it comes to being on the school site, whether you're a custodian uh or a teacher, safety should be on everyone's mind. That's our first uh responsibility. Um, I think it's more about the the communication um upstream. Um,
070so I'm I'm in total favor of that. I I do want to touch on a couple of the other things that we were talking about. So the because we didn't really talk about um like what the uh evolve uh system and the Halo systems are. Uh but in in short, I'm in favor of both of them. I think that they're great. We uh had some presentations and I think that they'll be a great asset and non-intrusive um asset. You know, the the detectors, the evolve systems, the same ones that they use at Angel Stadium. If you've gone to a game, you just walk right through. They're great. They use AI to detect. It's just I think that'll be a great thing. Um, and then the Halo detectors, again, the vaping problem, I I know it's
071a huge problem. Uh, but they also have a a whole list of other features that I think are really valuable to our campuses. So, I'm in favor of both of those uh as well. >> Um, just I want to add in a little bit as well. Um just looking at question number seven that was up there, you know, hiring more internal armed security was the most chosen and then um investing in additional training. I think my perspective is I do think that we should have a head of security like Vice President Garzi said, I do think that we should we need obviously numbers on this. Um, we need number figures to kind of pick and choose where we want to go with this, but I would be in favor of the vaping systems 100% because
072we hear a lot about bathrooms from kids and parents. I would be um in favor of the detectors at the entrance. I think that helps a lot with weapons and things of that sort. I would be in favor of adding extra campus security sites because I do feel like I understand that you know there there are threats there are active shooters that go on campus but from what I've seen in the last two years on this board is that there are more problems with fighting bathrooms parents things of that nature. So I would be more supportive of adding our own security guards on campuses and training them. And that was my next piece is training and creating our own security staff that comes in and does that training that we need. And I also think
073that we've heard a little bit about tears of consequences. I think it does start there. It starts in the classroom. And I do think that we need to continue to look at our behaviors, look at our tears of consequences, and again make them more consistent across the board. I know we can't do it every single moment of every site, but the more across the board our parents talk, I think it just makes more consistency. And I think it helps set the expectations for students. They know what consequences they're going to receive. So for me personally, we need some financials. I'd like to know how much are the armed guards, how much are, you know, just a regular our personal security being added at that site, how much that costs, obviously weighing in everything to look
074at that. And I would honestly like to just add these little things and see if it improves and then come back and have a bigger discussion about spending so much money on arm guards. So, that's kind of where I'm at. Vice President Garcia, um I concur with the rest of you um or um trustees. Um I also would like to see the Halo system. I believe you talked about um the vaping monitors as well first and maybe bringing that back and see how it's working or not working. Um maybe, you know, hopefully it does turn out to be the positive thing. agreeing also to add more security on campus I think is a great idea um so that way there are more people more hands on board um so that way that these needs can
075be alleviated on our campuses so um I'm in agreement with all that but I do want to ask um Trustee Critfield and Trustee um Cron you both were on that safety committee correct Correct. Okay. So, have you discussed these systems? I I vaguely remember you guys saying that these were some of the things that you did discuss. What was if you did, what was the the temperature? >> You want to go first? >> Sure. Uh yeah, we discussed these the safety committee met uh four or five times uh pretty long meetings. Uh spent a lot of time on it. We had a demonstration with the uh the evolve system. So they brought them in and we were able to see them and what they do and uh also a presentation uh by our own staff
076did a great job uh on the evolve the Halo systems. >> Sorry. Can you just real clarify? Evolve is like the knowledge centers and Halo is the vaping. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Y um and again man both uh you know non-intrusive uh they use AI that's very advanced. A lot of places are using them. uh very very low uh price point relatively um as far as investment. Um to me those are no-brainers >> and to be to be you know quite frank they weren't really a part of the uh main conversation that the security uh committee was having. They were kind of added to uh the things to consider um but they weren't like the uh the main thing that we were going over. Mhm. >> So would you say that you
077need more discussion to maybe because I don't think I don't recall these being brought to the board yet, right? Am I incorrect? >> They haven't been um they haven't been presented to the board as a whole yet. I think information has come out uh in emails about these things >> uh but we haven't got uh a full presentation. Uh >> correct. >> Yeah. Jenny, do you think price? I mean, that's got to be something that we consider the price. I think these are great, too. And I'm saying yes, but I don't know how much they cost. I think it would be really important for us to all know those amounts, the contract amounts. >> So, I I think I can maybe help. Um, yes. So, in the safety committee, you know, obviously all year the
078committee's been discussing a variety of topics. um the last meeting in May, we did introduce um the evolve system as well as the Halo system. And so what we've done since then is we've had the ability to apply for grant funding from a federal source. And so Christian um or I'm sorry, our IT director uh went ahead and submitted a DOJ grant that will provide us with funding hopefully um to be able to pay for those things if not in full perhaps in large part or a large percentage of those things. That grant was due back in July I believe it was and then we expect to hear funding results in October or November. at the moment. I would caution the board and anyone else from talking about specific brands or vendors um just at
079this point to be a little bit premature, but it is fair to say that we've looked at different products and those are a couple that we've paid some specific attention to. But outside of that, you know, if we do receive that grant funding, that would be the perfect use is to implement systems like those. And Miss Arcus, did I leave anything out? No >> clarifying question for these two systems, the vaping system and the weapons detection. Do they need Wi-Fi, internet, power? Like if some of those things occur, do we lose those? >> And if you don't have information, you can get it back to me. I'm just curious as to how they work. >> I think our director of IT might be able to give us just a little bit of background on that
080as far as the specifics. Um, Mr. Ceras, please. >> Thank you. I don't need to put you on the spot either. If you don't have the answer, it's okay. >> Um, I was talking about the systems and do they need Wi-Fi, internet, power? Like, if we had any problems with our Wi-Fi, would those systems go down or I'm not sure how they totally work? >> Yes. Uh, these systems would be internal so they would not be relying on the external network. >> Oh, okay. Thank you. and and if it does please the board, you know, when we when we get closer and obviously if we learn of grant funding and even if the grant funding results themselves don't manifest, which we we certainly hope doesn't happen, um we can also prepare something at some point
081in a future meeting for the entire board to take a look at such a system in a meeting. >> Cloud. Thank you, Madam President. Um yeah, so I I've spent a lot of time uh thinking about this and I I'll just be very clear. I am 100% uh for having a company come in and provide the the expertise we need to keep our kids safe. Um and I've had a lot of conversations and I I know there's uh there's a real need for training our own uh staff and that's something that's been talked about over and over again. We just to give some context uh and to your point things we we have been having these conversations but things just move very slow. uh 2022 uh there was a school shooting in Yuvaldi. Um and
082tensions were very high. Um soon after that we had two gun incidents at Belfflower High School. We had another gun incident uh over at uh the Bay Center. Um and we had a public forum with the community over at Belfflower High School. Uh we heard the community uh and we went out to survey. in there was a lot of uh uh responses from students, staff, uh members and the results were very clear. We went and we looked out uh for some options. We kind of we did committeeish then too. We uh I think myself uh Miss Garza uh we went to different school sites uh a little further north and looked at what they had and considered those. What we ended up doing is we we we brought in the K9 dogs and that's that's
083great and there have been uh minor improvements in some of the things we've been trying to do but very minimal. Uh the the amount of time this conversation has taken uh is what it is. Things move slowly but uh I I know it's a difficult conversation for a lot of people. Um, but when it comes to kid safety, uh, and what it means to not replace our own, that's where I don't want this conversation to go. It's not, uh, having a security, uh, firm come in and take go on campus and replace our own staff. That's not what I'm for is having an armed security on the perimeter of our campuses to be a deterrent and to be able to react when things happen. It's very it it's a much different conversation when things are
084calm, when we're not seeing anything on the news, when something isn't happening. Uh you know, the sentiment from the public after in 22, late 22, after the school shootings and after the incidents on campus, it was very hyper and you don't want to make decisions then because people are hyper sensitive to it because they see it every time they turn on the news. Uh and then on the flip side, when things are calm because nothing has happened in in the past few months, it's a different uh it's a different atmosphere, different environment. But having a deterrent uh on the perimeter, something that uh our our current staff and classified uh don't do is appropriate, it's effective, and I think it's necessary. That's my stance on it. Um and also in those conversations hearing the uh
085the training that our current security have I think we need to look at job descriptions. I think we need to look at like what required training there is but those are all things that take a long time and I don't want to have the same conversation in a year from now. There's there's things that we can do to improve the security of our campuses right now. And the uh I'll leave the branding out of it. Metal detectors, uh vape detectors, that's part of it. Those are smaller uh things that are going to be very effective and I'm I'm very in in favor of. But having a deterrent on our high school campuses, hopefully we never even know the value of them because they will have deterred something that happened. But I know that other districts
086have uh have armed security. Many districts have a a SRO, which cost the cost of an SRO. when I when I met with the sheriff captain of Lakewood uh was super super high and even if we wanted to go that route we couldn't because of the the hiring right now. Uh another option is some districts have it's in ed code you can create your own police force. It sounds crazy but it's actually pretty straightforward and there you you check a lot of boxes. I don't think whatever decision we make is the final step, but it's at least a step. And we're saying that when we say we uh care about safety and it's a priority and we're going to invest in it, we actually do it. That's the important thing. And it's not it's not
087the final step, but it's a step. And we're showing that we're going to put dollars behind it. Uh and honestly I'm just very forward it's spent a long time talking about whether it's in committee here the presentations with the uh the former uh firms that have come I just I I'm tired of waiting. >> Thank you President Stewart. Um, is is there some way that we could Oh, >> sorry. >> This is going to be quick because I'm kind of visual and I also I I understand, you know, some of our constituents agree to an armed guard. Um, but is there some way that, you know, we we have levels of intervention? Is there some way that we can um have something uh develop, you know, develop a plan, something that can show us the
088least restrictive as far as like like the vaping uh detectors, the smoke detector, vaping and and metal detectors would be like like like considered the least um restrictive kind of like um intervention to most, which would be like an arm guard. Could you guys uh when could you guys develop something like that so that we can see cuz like even even when they brought in the the the dogs that was kind of like um on the end of something that was on on the kind of like least restrictive type of intervention. But you know what's do you understand what I'm trying to say? you know, like the the guards is kind of like a armed guard to me would be like the very last result because with that again, it can really put our district
089at a liability even if they do have insurance. Sometimes they may not even have enough should an incident occur, which means what Brad said, some of districts do have their own police department. Montabelloo is one of them, you know. Um, but can is there somewhere you can like for me because I wasn't on this on the committee so I really don't know everything that was explored but I do know firsthand if we get numbers if we can do the the least restrictive which is attack the the the vaping and and the metal detectors. But you know and and what lies in between what lies in between the vape the vape detectors, the metal detectors and the smoking detectors and and the and the arm guard. What lies in between? >> Dr. Simon, and just one
090little thing, it still says Lisa Asabo. Can we change and have her name put on there? And Dr. Simon, do you have something to add to this? >> I just want to ask for clarification. Thank you, Bo President Stewarts. I've heard for several different like requests or asks and allow I I think they deal with more like proposals or just how much you know would it cost for um the vape detector, metal detectors, maybe how much it would cost for a head of security, maybe additional staff and then then also in comparison, what does that look like with um having arms? So, is is that something that I'm hearing as a request? You want to see proposals just actuals of those three things. Is that correct colleagues? I would say yeah. I feel like we
091have to have numbers. I I do feel like you know our main objective as a board member is to be fiscally responsible. I don't know if the two armed guards cost $250,000 and we can get four people on campus. Are we going to spend a million dollars on safety? I don't know. I don't know that answer. Um, so for me, I would like to see some prices behind it, but let me get to board member Centron. >> Thank you. Um, >> sorry, do you want to jump in real quick? Sorry, Mr. Arcus. I just saw your name pop up. >> If I can jump in to the conversation because I've been texting feverishly to make sure that I've got this right. Um, I was given permission to move forward on the Halo detection services before
092Miss Oavdo uh left and so I did get that directive and I we are actually moving forward with that installation right now and I know there was a lot of conversation and I was trying to make sure I had the right answers but that is the directive I was given. So the Halo installation is in progress. >> Thank you. saying that. >> Sorry, I can only go in order on the screen. When I see that, that's how I call it. >> So, um I'm glad you bring that up because that's kind of led to the comment of of the grant that was created and submitted to um get funding for that. So, I'm I'm glad that you all um brought that up and and made the rest of um the trustees um inform them of
093that. Um I think so I do agree fully and fullheartedly with um Vice Chair Garza and Clerk Critfield on their comments. Additionally, I think my request if the board permits um whatever the process is for this request. I'd like to also go back to a couple comments that were made that I personally have felt that it was needed in the district and that is the account the accountability piece. Um I'm not sure I've heard different things so I'm not clear as to what the district and what we already have as policies and procedures when it comes to accountability and who signs off on what. Um I think I had referenced and I'm not sure if it was in conversation or committee or on the dis but or in another session but I know that I
094had made the suggestion that the parents sign off and that was one of the uh one of the comments um so that they're at if it makes the parents accountable for their student and it also adds another layer of accountability for the student themselves to be able to police themselves instead of adding more and more consequences on the student as a as an aftermath but as a proactive piece. So I wonder if we don't already do that or if we do some kind of form of that if that could be presented as well or the knowledge of that or I don't want to put anybody on the spot so I'm not making a direct question. Um but I do think that we need to have blanket pro protocols, blanket procedures, blanket consequences so that every
095principal or administrator or teacher understands that these are the standards and not have it per campus. Um as it pertains to the the school age too, not just like you know, like a blanket one, but that doesn't understand the the complexities of our campuses either. And I know that's kind of hard to do, but I think it's worth doing because I I kind of echo with uh Clerk Critfield is that the discussions are nice, but I think we've gotten to the point and again being a parent in this school district. I like hearing that our board is discussing it, but I'd like to see more action done, visible action, and there's some quick things that we can do. Vice President GarcA, thank you. Um, so Dr. Simon, I know that you're bring you to us.
096Um, so you're kind of jumping feet first into this. Um, so maybe this is something that we can um follow up with a discussion or maybe some information from cabinet. Where are we at right now? I've heard a lot of um information about maybe having already one of the systems in place. Correct. Um ready to be installed. Okay. Um, I do remember us saying yes to a contract for armed security with a company for armed security. Am I incorrect on that? >> I think we agreed on the company that we would chose, but we didn't agree on what they would provide for us. Correct. >> So, we just decided on the company, but not necessarily what we're going to be doing with them. >> Okay. So, it seems like maybe those are can be next
097steps. Um I'm just kind of you know trying to get this in my mind organized to what we need to do next because I agree um a lot of discussion there's nothing on our campuses at this point. So what else do we need going forward? So if you can help me kind of >> get this going. Um, if I can, I think that that's exactly what we're doing here is to be able to give staff direction and I I know it's uh I mean we we we had meetings where we went thoroughly through the the different companies we and that's where the discussion ended was like okay armed or unarmed. So that's what like this conversation was supposed to be like I think it's really important if we if we want to see action it's
098not all on them it's on us. we have to really give them clear direction so they can move forward it, you know, having another discussion or getting back to us about certain things. Uh that's, you know, part of it. But, you know, with a like I I think the uh the detectors is kind of one of those things is we have a budget and that's we we set aside uh money in the LCAP in the budget for safety. So, us approving uh everything isn't necessarily the most efficient thing. that's saying, "Hey, this is the direction we want to go." And then they can go and carry on and not have to come to us each time there's, you know, oneoff things because that's what's going to slow down our district. And I don't want to
099be a part of the the the problem when when we're I don't want to come at them about a problem that we're kind of helping create, you know. Uh but I think that's what this meeting was supposed to be is, okay, we've we heard from the company, we we selected a company, the conversation ended out armed or unarmed. what do we want to do? We went out to survey. The survey results are very clear. It's about saying yes, go out, get the get the quote for the armed uh guards out on the just on the perimeter because that's what uh it sounds like people are for or have that discussion say no, this is what we want them to do. But right now, I think it was like two months ago for the uh that
100last presentation, we selected a company and they're just sitting sitting idle, but we haven't given direction. I think for me the way I interpreted it was we selected a company which I'm just going to be honest I think we did that out of order. I think we should have decided what we needed first and then sought a company but we did it out of order and that's my fault. Um but this is the first discussion we've had. We haven't had discussions. You guys may have had committee discussions but as a board we want to collaborate and we want to work together and this is the first time we've had this discussion. So, I'm not sure why it's the first time we've had this discussion, but I've been on the board two and a half years,
101and I haven't seen it brought to the agenda until now. Um, for me, I'm out I'm just against the outside agencies, whether that's our sped aids, whether that's our security. I want people that are going to be inhouse making connections with our kids that are not outside agencies. So, yes, we chose the company, but we never chose what we wanted to do with them. And I'm just going to be honest and transparent with the community. And when we chose them, I never intended to use them for anything because I never agreed in choosing them in the first place. Um, as far as me surveys, yeah, we have 605 surveys that were done. We didn't survey any students. Correct. Dr. Smith, were any students surveyed during this this pro uh process? When the craft when excuse
102me when the survey was crafted with uh feedback >> this particular survey did we send this survey to any students? >> When the survey was crafted with feedback from a couple of board members um it was determined that we would not include students in the survey. >> Okay. So we didn't survey any students. We have our CSCA saying that they would like to have more discussions upon this. So, it's obvious to me that maybe we've had some discussions, but we haven't had enough because we still have ambiguous things coming from our community. Um, the fiscally responsible part is it's important. What if we only I mean, we said in our LCA cap, we set $500,000 in that. So, if armed guards are going to cross 300,000, is that all we want? Because from what I'm
103hearing from my community here tonight in the public hearing is they want more people on campus. They want more people at the bathrooms. students want to feel safe going through classes. So that's what I'm hearing for our community. Not that we want to spend three of our budget with one person standing outside. Also, I honestly I worry about the Long Beach example. We all saw that example where they did that. They hired armed security and we saw what happened. It was tragic. Someone got shot and killed. Do we want that liability? I don't personally. So for me, I just feel like yes, we need to do things. We all agree. And I have to believe that we want more safety and security for our kids. It's just what we want to do that we may
104not agree upon. And for me, I just don't want to go zero to 100 and let's get armed guards and put them all over and do all that. I want to do what we're seeing, which is stop the fighting, stop the bathroom, stop the tardiness, put more security guards on our campuses and train them. That's what I want to do. And I think that's what's fiscally responsible. And I think that's what I'm hearing from my community tonight. Vice President Garza. Thank you. Um I think that we already have committed to a company. So we and we are getting the survey responses back from the parents apparently just the parents um who have overwhelmingly said that they would be okay and want some on security on the outside perimeter. So I don't think that um we
105should just throw this away this information at this point. Um we need to make sure that this is now going forward um and we have someone in the meantime as we perhaps go in the direction of having our own armed you know personnel. Um but the reality is that none of our personnel is skilled or trained in those that type of events. So not having someone around there at this point um may not be helpful is what I'm trying to say. Um, I do want I think that's something that marries both of those requests because there are parents who are saying that they want them more personnel in inside and then there's also parents who want personnel outside but none at this moment unless Dr. I'm sorry I'm going to put you on the spot
106here, but um none of our personnel, correct, are trained to be able to carry a weapon. Are they trained Do they have a um a guard card? No. So already I'm seeing some things that are holes in the in our system. It's unfortunate, but that's what we have right now. So, let's move forward from what we have and start these conversations and get this going. So, if if it's for maybe a year until we arrive at what we really want to do with our own personnel, then it's a year. If it's two years, then it might be two years. But I don't feel in my opinion that we having this in front of us, just throw it out. Um, if we want to add, I'm I'm going to offer maybe um add a student feedback
107form when I get the kids back in in the about a week, next week. It's next week. So, maybe that be part of the something that we do get that feedback back from these students because I do agree they're going to be on that campus. You guys have to feel comfortable with what's inside and outside. So, we do still need that information. Um but we do also have this directive from our parents who are saying they want this. So that's my two cents. But as now that you um for now can you just give me back what you've heard Dr. Simon kind of a synopsis of where we're at please? Well, uh, Vice President Garza, I've heard a myriad of things, and I think for us, I would even like deeper clarification on just the
108guidance that you're asking. So, I've heard, you know, um, an understanding, a proposal of, you know, how much, you know, the said companies, right, would cost for, um, vaping that we're going to start and for metal detection. and then also right how much it would cost for um armed security and then how much it would cost for an executive director of security and maybe with additional staff. So that's what I've heard so far and if that is the direction of the board right that is something that we will definitely move forward with providing quickly and for me I I totally respect that we're looking at these surveys but when I look at these surveys there's 607 responses and 60% of parents I was a math teacher so that's 360 parents responded to this and we
109have over 10,000 students or around 93 9500 students right so to say 360 people should make the decision for an entire community and board. There's another public hearing next week. Please come out and talk. If we have to vote on this, you're going to want to have yourselves heard. So, I I don't know that 360 is going to sway me to just go off these results only. Board member Armstrong. Thank you, President Chris uh um Stewart. >> No. Um, I want to say that I I I have you I have the same sentiments as as you as but I still gu having guards on the perimeter. Now like I say the the the vaping system and if if immediately cuz you know they were on this committee so if they feel you know I I
110would like to have metal detectors too. If that's something that you can bring forward to us quickly, we can have that the the vaping system installed. We can hurry try to hurry up and get the metal detectors in um involved. But at the same time, uh security guards, armed security guards on the perimeter of our schools is not helping the vaping in the classroom, is not helping the fighting and the bullying on campus. And and again, we really need to get the parents involved and create some policy. Um you know, like my other um board member um colleague um Miss Maria Centron was talking about, we have these con consequences laid out. We have to get these get the parents involved and make these students and parents accountable. But I still think guards should be
111armed guards should be the very last resort that you know there are so many other things that we can put in place before the armed guards. So that's it. >> Member Centron. Thank you. Um, I think I just I I feel like I haven't really given a full spectrum of what I I would hope to see moving forward. Um, I do think it's very much necessary to train our employees first. I think it's necessary to give them and equip them and Those that have been watching me, I always say capacity build. I want our security guards to be able to do their job with not only confidence, but understanding the structure that we're putting in place. Because as of right now, we know that it it it just it I don't want to call anybody
112out, but there's necessary measures that we can implement now when it comes to our staff. And I I was under the assumption that the reason why we hired an a company was to be in collaboration with our district. I think that's the decision that we had made when we were discussing a company at least what that can expand into. I I think you know we needed more discussion on that and understanding those you know finite elements. However, I thought that that's what we were going to do for bringing these skilled workers that are trained up that have the ability to train our employees, our staff get new staff hired and that would take personnel commission and all the other entities to make that happen. And so that we have enough security because one thing that
113we have heard from our community time and time again is that we don't even have enough guards. I mean security safety police safety personnel on campuses period that we have to like rotate them and if something pops off there then they have to run to the other thing. And I thought that's why the company was initially accepted. I I I feel like I don't think we should throw this out, but armed guards is what we just like automatically jump to when we have a survey like this, but there's just so many other things that we need to do first. There's there's things that we can do right now this school year that I know our cab our cabinet has been working on that they're going to present to us that will alleviate a lot of
114what the parents and the community are here saying tonight because that's already in the works. We're just not ready to present it yet. We don't know the numbers yet, but that's what's getting presented. But I don't think, you know, if there's a vote or if there's a extension of this or whatever have you, I'm not going to vote for armed guards. Not tonight. There's too many other steps that need to happen there. There's too many discussions that need to be had. There's two information that none of us have even if we've had discussions outside of this room and outside of this dis. So I I feel like we might be kind of going back and forth on the same thing, but I think all of us can agree that there's steps that need to happen
115that can happen quickly. And to uh clerk Chrisfield, I always want to call you by your first name. Um point is we need to not be in the way of our cabinet and our admin you know our extended administration groups and our contracted people that are already on contract cuz I would hate to that's another wasteful thing is hiring this that repaying this company and then having them sit while cashing our our paychecks, we need to use them as we discussed and we agreed and how we use them. That's what needs to be the discussion. So >> it's for her. >> I'm sorry. I just have It's okay, but he's been on this. >> Okay, go ahead. >> Thank you, Miss Armstrong. Um, you're totally right. Um it is about kind of getting out of
116the the weeds when when it comes to uh budget. Um you know there is a lotment so like us jumping in on everything is that's where we can slow things down and become part of the the problem with things. Um I don't think it's intentional but there's a lot of straw men things when it comes to this topic. A lot of uh you know okay it's about it's about the money but it's not about the money because it's already budgeted or now we're talking about the the metal dete. What was that? >> I said it's not true. I believe, Miss Arcus, that we would put $500,000 in, but we don't know how much any of this costs. Is that accurate? >> We do have a budget developed for security and it does cover some of
117the current current expenses as well as >> Okay. I just wanted to clarify that we don't know the budget. Thank you. >> We don't know the budget. Is that >> We don't know how much any of the items cost. Can you give us a roundabout of all the different things we've talked about and how much they cost at this moment? >> No, I can't. >> Thank you. that this the straw men of this conversation is off the charts. Um we we had a survey go out in 22 and that had I don't remember how many responses but it was a lot of responses because we did it during the school year and the results are pretty similar results are pretty similar to to what we're seeing. So, we got the we went out the survey.
118All the boxes that we're talking about right now as far as any deficiencies in this survey, that already happened. What did we do with it? We did nothing that the survey asked for. We did the we did the K9 dogs and I think that was a good thing. And I think the price tag on that was like $15,000 or something. It was is pretty small compared. Um, and then we went to committee and then uh we had we had those meet. So the survey uh with uh all the boxes checked that that didn't yield results. The committee we say that there's issues there that everybody needs to be involved. Uh which okay well then it's not a committee. Okay that's out of the way. Now we have this survey which is very clear totally clear.
119This is what parents want in the district and now we're saying that's not good enough. And the idea is we already had this meeting where we talked about okay we're going to go with a company to provide skilled uh services highly trained skilled services for this and trustee Centron is totally right. The conversation wasn't supposed to be about every little thing that we could possibly do with security. Those things don't change. You you you still do those things. you still lean into and invest in training our current staff. You still lean in to all of the other safety measures. This conversation and it it keeps getting just delayed and and two years of it. It's okay. I don't hear an appetite for armed guards. Okay. So, we'll go non-armed guards. That's it. That was the
120conversation that we were supposed to have tonight. We've already selected a company to do it. We've already talked about the the results were clear. The other investments and you've gotten thumbs up, but some of them already going forward because we don't need to every single time you're going to do something with security give you a green or red light on it because that's what slows things down. board member, >> I just want I just had a um just a question for board member Centron, but actually everyone would we be in agreement to expedite a number on metal detectors because that's something that we you know that's something that's I I mean me I think it's kind of like least restrictive, least invasive but very at the same time. um every student could, you know, we
121we can scan every student. Is that something that we can kind of like e expedite if we get numbers to because you already got the the the vaping system, you know, getting ready. The next thing that they talked about was the armed um the metal detectors. I mean that that is is a step forward to putting more to implementing more uh strategies or interventions at the school level. I'm just saying is is is that something that we can agree to give them direction on? >> I think we've kind of asked for the numbers already for everything we've kind of talked about at least giving us some even if it's just like a in the range type of thing because we don't I don't know how much this stuff costs. Yeah, >> I'll be honest. >>
122I think for me, I'm just going to be honest because that's who I am. But hiring a company again before we knew we wanted what we wanted it for, it wasn't the proper way to do it. And I was asked to place something on the agenda and I did. But that doesn't mean that we discussed the objective or what we wanted or did we want this company to be on campus or our people to be on campus. Those discussions never happened. They never happened. And so when we're talking about how we use them, we didn't have the conversation. We just chose the company, but we didn't have an objective. That's just my opinion of what I've seen. I also believe and I really cabinet, please. I know you guys, we're losing you. I know this
123is long, but I also believe that I am here as oversight and I want to hear from you guys. I really do. I want to hear Andrew's legal advice on if we get on guards. I want to hear what the cabinet thinks. You guys are the experts and we oversee your decisions. So, I would love to see you guys go back and have a discussion on what you feel you think would be the best and give us your opinions. Whether we agree with you or not, I would love to hear input from you guys as well. And then just lastly, as far as the straw man approach, I don't believe that. What I believe in my opinion is that this is my opinion on something and I've spoken to a lot of people. Many of
124you are in the audience know I've reached out to you and asked you what your opinions are and I've seen you guys come up here and talk. So I don't think I'm making a straw man argument. If it's a 3 to2 vote or a 4-1 vote and I'm the only one that vote against it, so be it. I'll take it. But this is how I feel. I want to support our CSA workers and I want to support our community. And what I'm hearing is we're having problems with fighting bathrooms, things like that. So that's where I'm coming from. It's not even the armed guard versus guard. It's none of that. But to say that my opinions are a straw, man. I'm I'm throwing the data out there. Yes, we did get I think it was
1253,000 people last survey. Yes, right after we had two guns on campus, right after shootings. We have 600. That's just a fact. That's just the data. So, I don't believe and this is a difficult situation for me and that's why I have reached out to my community members to ask them how they feel because I don't know what the correct answer is. But what I feel is getting more people on campus, putting these systems in place, using our people and training them. That in my heart is what I feel is best. So I'm not doing any straw manning up here. I'm just telling you guys my opinion as an elected official that you guys put up here. So I just want to state that. Clerkfield. >> Thank you, Madam President. Um so the conversation uh
126is about we've we've decided to a process and selected a company and the decision the discussion today was okay uh how do we feel about armed security how do we feel about armed security just on the perimeter or how do we feel about onarum security highly trained people to come in and fill the gaps um I I hear the conversation phrased in a way of it's one or the other a lot of times um and I think uh the really important part is is not replacing our CSEA workers in any way, shape or form and making it a value added and also uh rather than talking about uh how we need more training or we have we've been saying that for a long time uh having a company that can bring in expertise and then
127work with our our labor unit to to figure out how that can work and how that collaboration can work. It's a step in the direction of making our campuses more safe and secure. When I when I say strong men, and this isn't to you directly, uh, President Stewart, this is in general. A lot of what I hear is we're we're taking off of that conversation and we're we're targeting that conversation towards other things that aren't really relevant. If if we don't want to say how we feel about an armed guard or an unarmed guard, that's fine, but we can't tiptoe around it. I actually feel really bad for our staff when it comes to us not giving direction, just asking for a bunch of we need more discussion, we need that number, we need these
128numbers, these numbers there. I I believe that this discussion is best suited to do we want armed guards guards on the on the perimeter. There's a survey here. We can look at that. We've heard from it tonight. Um and if not, then the answer is okay. We're not going to go for armed guards, but we want to have guards uh on the perimeter. That's it. Instead, we're talking about all these other things, you know, something that uh has already been put in place that's already going forward. We're up here discussing it because we want to micromanage and try to, you know, dumb exactly, you know, what everything needs to be. And I get the compulsion uh to do that, but we need to move this forward. It's been two years of talking and that's all
129this is becoming. It's becoming another thing where we have all these follow-ups and all these things and we want to go to let's do another committee. Let's do another survey. Let's keep doing that and then two years from now nothing. I care about spending this year's money on this year's kids. We have budgeted for safety. This is a step that we've we've moved towards as a board and yet we this is where we ended last time. We end right here. And I just don't feel like it's uh it can be a little disingenuous sometimes. >> And for me, I didn't think this was going to be a fight about armed or unarmed. I looked at the questions. How do you feel about school site safety? Do you believe your school has adequate security coverage during
130school hours? Would you support adding licensed professionals? um the perimeters there. So, armed guards was a part of this, but I took this as a bigger conversation on what we wanted to do on safety and security with an LCAP of 500,000. So, if I missed the mark, um I apologize, but that's what I thought we were discussing was safety in general. Um did you want to add in board member Armstrong? I I do want to just just add, you know, that this is the the one of the first times that this is the first time that we really really really talked about this. And going back to when when we voted for the the security person to go around the perimeter, it it it was just on it was just on the agenda um as
131you know, do you want this or do you not want this? and it it was all you it was armed. We had a presentation and everything. Um I took the survey and my answer is always no to armed guards. I have kids at the school. I've seen what happens and I know what happens to to districts if something should go should something happen even though they'll go after the security guard they will go after the company. They will come after us also. They are a big liability. And we do have the the the the Lakewood sheriff and we do have extra we have good staff. We just need more and we we need more staff and we need training. You guys already heard that. But this is our first time really really discussing it. And
132when we did hire vote voted for the person I mean that that company still didn't know how we were going to use them and to this day we still don't know how we're going to use it. We never had the conversation. But please, as President Stewart said, please get us the information that we need so that we can move forward um with the next steps. That's all correct. >> So, we we have I'm so glad our meetings are recorded. We've had this conversation multiple times. Multiple times. And the fact is that uh if if we're say and it's fine that we all have our own sensitivities to armed guards. I personally again 100% for it on our high school campuses in Armgard as a deterrent. I I see the the traffic issues in the morning.
133I see I mean how many times do we get emails about fights breaking out in front of Mayfair High School? Like and when it comes to the sheriff's department, I'm I'm very familiar with how many times we call the Lakewood Sheriff's Department every time and we wait for that response each time and they're great at their response, but we we get in line with everybody else. Like when we call the sheriff's department, it's not like we have our own SRO like ABC school district. I think they have two actually. We call 911 just like everybody else. And the response times are okay, but we for every incident, big or small, we get in line with everybody else. And that's not the safest for our kids. We need somebody who can respond to things right there
134to be able to support uh our staff and and keep our students safe. Th I get that we're saying we we want more and more things from staff, but this is the this is the cycle that we get in and it just it makes it to where 6 months from now it's a similar conversation. It's like we're we're so afraid to just take a step and invest and say, "Okay, let's try this out like like uh Trusty Garza said." Uh you know, that's why you you do something like this on a contract so you could try it out for a year, see how it works. Did it make our campuses more safe? you know, did the results from the student survey. Do they feel more uh safe and secure on campus? Like you invest and
135you try things out and you and you move from there. It's not a it's not a final destination, but you're showing that you you're willing to invest and move in that direction. It's the indecision that just really gets me. It's two years of this and like to hear like, oh well, I voted for with no expectation of ever, you know, even using them. Like that's the type of cycle that puts us in. Well, then what are we really doing here? Like that's that's the issue for me as a Okay, it doesn't sound like there's uh I think that there's already been kind of a voice vote on no armed guards, but okay. So, I am in favor of having uh highly skilled uh professionals to support our staff uh at our high school sites. That's
136it. We've already went through the process and selected a company. We've already done all that and let's and let's find a way to use that to uh you know work with our our labor unions and do more training. Look at the job description. I looked at the job description. There is no guard card right now. We need to update our uh our job descriptions. Somebody coming in as a a security guard doesn't have a guard card. like we we need to do all of that that uh work that takes a little bit longer and there's more process, there's more conversations that need to happen. But you don't not do something today because while we have this other thing going on, we could do both or else we end up just not making any progress on
137something. Safety is very important to me. Um I'm a parent in the district. This is something that I feel very strongly about. Um, I'm I'm a little disheartened, but I that's that's how I feel about it. >> In all respect, I don't think any of us should feel disheartened. I think we agree. We just don't agree on how to do it. I think every one of us up here wants to put more, from what I'm hearing, we want to put more security on our campuses. It's just a matter of how we do it. Do we put an outside agency or do we put our own people? I think we all, from what I'm hearing, we all agree we want that. So, I don't think it's disheartening. It's just a matter of how you do it.
138And I feel like, okay, a guard's card, yeah, but training, I mean, if they don't have weapons, then I don't totally get the need for the guards card and then the way that we could train our own people. So, I don't I don't I don't totally disagree with you, Clerk Crutchfield. Like, I understand safety is important to me as well. I just disagree on how we do it. And that's all. Vice President Garza. >> Thank you. Um, Dr. assignment. I just want to confirm that are we going to be moving forward with the survey for students some upcoming weeks? >> If that's what the board desires, we can move forward with that quickly. >> Okay. So, my question to you, do we want to do that? >> Absolutely not. Like, it's again the same cycle,
139another survey, let's do another town hall, let's do another uh you know, let's have another committee. like it's no action from this board at all. >> Um um your answer is I would love to hear from the students because the questions we we may get a little bit more um different questions. I would love to hear from the students and even add in there h how would you you know how do you see security on your campus? You know put out a survey for the kids. >> I would be in favor of that. And just remember this is only a discussion. It wasn't an action item tonight anyways. We're just talking about it. Vice President Garza, sorry, I just kept my mic open to hear everybody. Oh, sorry. Board member Centron. Um, I I echo
140a lot of what is already being said. Um, but I and I kind of just want to emphasize like moving moving forward. I think I don't know why guard card is being um so I just want to say the guard card is the most basic and general training and I want to say that because now we know that none of our security has a guard card. That is the most minimum training you could possibly give a guard at any point in time on a school campus, on an out outside um company, agency, bar, restaurant, club, whatever. We have to have a discussion with the people that are our staff that are already in place and see what they they want with knowing that and I'm I'm I don't see them in the room tonight but
141knowing that they would be willing to do that training because that is the most basic thing that you could possibly have that shows you the elements of what you need to be able to be at least a baseline security person on any so so um that's not an outside it's not something that would be completely out of budget it's very easy it's very basic and in full transparency I have a So, I'm telling you, it it it really does help with awareness and being able to understand. Our staff that we have right now are the most intelligent people that know our campuses the most. And if we're not even willing to have a discussion about giving them the chance to get their guard card as a base and then work from there up, then we're
142really doing a disservice to not only our staff but the students on campus. So if there needs to be more knowledge on what guard cards are and what they serve as and what modules they have to take that could you know be given and looked up on online. But we need to concentrate on who we have now and how we can make sure that they have the training for this upcoming year. and then adding to the group, looking at their job descriptions because they're out of date. Like, yes, there's actionable items. Let's move forward, but let's look in house and let's create a path forward of capacity building and making sure that the people that want to be guards are fully trained on campus to make our campuses safer but also making the students feel
143more secure. That is not a dis that that is not a disagreement on this dis but I'm just saying like if if that's the basic thing that we can agree on, please let us agree on that. We need our staff trained. We need more staff, but we don't even have a job description for it, guys. Our job descriptions are outdated with all kinds of things. The last time I heard it was 20 years since the last time they even updated that job description. So, I haven't been here for all the discussions and the surveys and the this and the that. I know I've taken them, but I'm here now. And I would like to see us move actionably move forward with discussion and and and make that our process moving forward. And that's what I'm
144asking from all of you if we may. I believe this is the first time we've had the discussion because that's what prompted CSEA to turn in their their um negotiations. Dr. Simon, >> I was going to ask and thank you uh board member Centron really. How do you want staff to move forward with the recommendation? So, I guess that's my question. I know there's a lot of discussion. I am not trying to interrupt um you know that that discussion but really how do you want staff to move forward with the recommendation? >> I mean Kirk sorry clerk Kersfield is next. Just really quickly I think we've got consensus. Let's agree that we really would like to split custodial and security and have them look at that being a full-time position. Do you guys agree with
145that? Yes. So that would be I think our first direction is we would like to see custodial and security split. Give us I guess a price tag what that would look like and I think start with that for sure. I think I've heard that we definitely would like to get the amounts of each of these things. Um just because we we do and that doesn't mean we have to stay within the 500,000. We would just have to negotiate with our financial people. But we need to know how much things cost. So do we agree with that one? Go ahead. >> I just wanted to add to that. Um would you agree that not only of the split but the um the recommend recommendation on job description to what that would look like if we had
146like a deputy secure >> deputy some >> director of security. So when you look at that position, could you guys look at a job description that the board can evaluate to see if that's how we feel we should move forward on that? >> Yes, absolutely. And including Dr. Almos, of course, I'm assuming that >> and this would be for uh excuse me, next board meeting when timeline. >> I feel like this is coming back at the next board meeting. Then we can continue this discussion. It should be a major item by that time. Um, but it would be nice to have the information or if you can get it to us prior obviously, so maybe a Friday memo so we can review that before the board meeting. Um, our next one. Um, I'm going to
147go to Clark Critzfield, but please remind me if there's anything else we kind of came to consensus of that I haven't told staff. Go ahead, Clarkville. >> Thank you. Uh I think the in giving direction to the it was the only thing that wasn't brought up was the thing that we were supposed to be discussing which was what we want the firm to do like we again it's not it's we touched on everything else but we just didn't touch on that. So, >> and again, I just I understand that you want the firm to do something, but some of us up here don't agree that the firm should be here at all because we feel like maybe our own people would be better in that position instead of an outside agency. So, that's what we're
148discussing. Maybe three of you, maybe four of you, maybe all of us decide we want to use this firm, we want to use this company, and that's the way we're going. But I was under the impression that this was just a discussion to figure out how or if we were going to use it. I wasn't ever set on we're using this firm and we're using them for this and that. I never um have expressed that and I didn't believe that that's where we were at with that. I apologize. Um board member Centron. >> Oh, I believe Clark. >> Again, you guys, I'm just going to let me just say this right now. There's a screen and it has names on here. And again, if you do that, your name now falls down. I am as
149president not going to be biased. I'm not going to play favorites. I'm going to call the name on the screen and if anyone would like to come up and look at the screen, you may. But I'm going to go in this order because once you sit here and see it, it gets really confusing. So if you don't want to be next, then you might want to take your mic off because right now you're next. So do we want to skip you and go to court? >> Thank you. I will say that I want to use the agency as the people that come in and help us evaluate our campuses to see what our all of our needs are. Like I heard comment before and I wrote this down about cameras and blind spots. that could
150be something that we can evaluate for and I think that takes an expert because as of right now we do not have an expert on staff at all. So I feel like the agency because they are full of experts that they come in and evaluate our campuses of the needs that we need. Um I secondly would say also to work with the cabinet or Dr. or almost or whoever else that we need to have um to understand what our our training limitations are with our current staff and make a path forward for their u their positions right now for who we have right now. I think that's a second like a second way that we can use this agency right now. Um, I think it's also bringing um the ability of having more bodies on
151campuses is how we can use them as well. Our security is unarmed. So, I would would like to see more unarmed security on our campuses, but working in tandem with the the people we have in place right now. So, it's more of a collaboration, not one's the boss and one isn't the BO. It needs to be a collaboration. And that's like my side note, but that's how I I saw I visualized this agency coming in, not taking over like in collaboration with who we have and using their skills to to our advantage of where we are right now with the safety on our campuses. Mrs. Arcus, just for clarification, do we have a contract with this agency already? >> We don't have a contract with the agency. >> We do not yet. And do we
152know any of the prices for any of the things from this agency? >> They did. They did provide pricing and they did do an assessment that they were >> Are you allowed to get that information or do we have to wait? Is there some protocol that I don't know? >> I passed along to the superintendent at the time. So, I assume that it was provided. Is it possible to provide us again with maybe what that contract would look like prices because again we've never seen that or discussed that either. >> Okay. >> Um and also I know we were slated they came in and they did an assessment. Correct. >> They did they came in and did an assessment. >> Okay. So we were provided with that assessment but we have not been given a
153presentation on their assessment or what they think is well. Correct. No, you so you did get the assessment. I wanted to make sure. >> So, we got it in the memo, but they haven't come and done um that's slated for another meeting for them because this was only a discussion. We have not received an assessment from that company on what they think. Correct. In a meeting. >> Well, that's what I'm asking you. I'm sorry. I'm trying to clarify. There was an assessment done and I thought it was shared with the board, but they have not come and provided it to the board. Just the document. >> Is that is that okay? I wanted to make sure. Thank you so much, Clerk Kirchfield. No. Um, Dr. Simon. >> So, even with that, so we can provide
154the quote. So, we can provide a quote for you all for unarmed and also armed security. So, we can provide that with the information that was also requested today as well. >> And again, can we please be provided with if we hired our own workers, CSA workers, and how much that would be? And maybe can you see how much it would cost to um train them? How much would it cost to get them the guard cards? Are we talking about a lot? Can it be done in three hours like CPR? Is it a whole class? I I don't know how that works. If maybe you could provide us some information on that as well, >> Chris Shield, thank you. Um, so those are in order to hire our own and go through required training and
155job descriptions that would take some time, right? >> Yes, it would. >> Especially through CSCA >> and it would have to be a conversation with with our partners. >> Correct. >> Okay. Um and I I think one of the things that you know what was discussed um in committee was uh you know we don't it wouldn't be I'm not for having somebody come in and do the job that our current staff is already doing and just add people that way. I don't think that that's the right way to go about things. Um I think that uh highly trained uh uh experts who are doing something above and beyond uh what our current staff has the uh ability to that is appropriate. Um, I'm fine with uh going and getting prices, but uh again I I
156I um it's the decision of indecision given this uh this discussion this discussion and how this discussion came about. I'm going to take a moment of personal privilege. Anybody else? Okay. So, do you guys feel confident that you kind of know what we want for the next meeting? >> Let me recap with you board president store. Make sure. All right. >> So, we want to uh separate uh custodial and security um and provide a job description for I'm just going to say director security. That may not be the right title, but we'll play with some other aspects of that. >> Also with a price tag for that as well. >> Amounts for the items that we discussed for whether it's the vape or the metal uh detectors. Um unarmed versus unarmed, the price for for
157those. and also the price for our own in-house um security as well. So, I have four items that we'll uh look into and provide information to the board. >> Thank you. And Miss Arcus, I have one more clarifying question. The handler systems that we are putting in right now, is that included in that $500,000 LCAP budget or is that not included in that? Do we have that 500 and that or B? Can you explain? Sorry. I'm trying to figure out where the $500,000 LCAP is that the the budget that's I don't know of an exact line item where $500,000 is lined out in the LCAP. Bonnie, >> I was told by previous interim superintendent Oavdo that there was money placed aside because we were going to have this conversation after the LCAP took place. So,
158there was at least money put aside for the board to use for security. Okay, that's the way I understood it. That really helps clarifying. So, we do have security expenses in the budget as part. It wasn't asked of me, but one of the list things that I'm going to do is kind of comb through the budget. We knew about the halos because I was given directive before we finalize the budget. So, those are kind of those are included for sure. >> And then I'm going to have to look into like what other line items we might have um put in there. >> So, maybe if we can kind of get an update on that as well, >> added that to the list. >> Do you guys have any other questions or anything else? Yeah, I
159wanted to make sure that if if you can also you may have to talk to CSEA about um whether or not you would go forward with with training for a guard card because we have security and then we have guards. I don't know the difference. So, you know, and then about how much that would cost the district also. >> Um anything else that you guys I'm sorry. >> Okay. So, consensus um I know clerk crutch fills out. Do we want to pull the students? I agree. Yes. Yes. >> Yes. Yes. >> So, then we would like to at least get some um information from the students. Now, I know the students come back on the 18th and our next meeting would be that week. But I don't know if that gives us time >> with
160permission. I mean, it will give us time to give you better accurate information. So, we could say the first meeting of September if the board was open to that. It would just give us more time to assess, analyze, and give you the information that you need. >> Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. Anything else, colleagues? >> Okay. I'll put that out there. >> All right. Can I just add this board president? I'm going to cut you off and maybe even more so the 18th. I know that pushes us back just a tad bit, but it just gives us more time. My my goal is provide each of you with the best information um not have it been peacemeal. Um but for you all to make a a decision, right, moving forward. >> Thank you. I
161appreciate it. Go ahead, Vice President Garza. So September 18 is what you're saying? >> Yes, Vice President Garza. >> All right. Moving on to the consent agenda. Do we have any items to withhold from the consent agenda this evening? Anybody any items to withhold? Vice President Carson? >> No. Okay. Um, can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> You have that motion. >> Can I get a second? >> Second. Roll call, please. >> Miss Armstrong, >> I. >> Miss Cron, >> I. >> Mr. Critzfield, >> I. >> Mrs. Scarza >> I. >> Miss Stewart >> I. All right, moving on to board communications. Um, board member Armstrong. >> Thank you, uh, President Stewart. Um, hello everyone again. Thanks for coming out and I I want to say from the dis um, thank
162you Dr. Simon. We're almost at the end of our our meeting and I'm so glad you're with us leading this team. So anyway, I mean, you you you went you hit the you jumped right into action and and I appreciate that. Um I I met with Dr. assignment and um you know just to go over some things and um I'm looking forward to uh stay updated um with you and I know if I have any questions that you're you're you're there so I will take advantage of that. Um, the only thing that I did, well, you know, coming off a summer, um, I did go to CASPY, that's the California Association of of Black School Educators with our, um, with our president, um, Amy Stewart, and so many good things came out of that session.
163And I shared those items with Dr. Simon. Um they had lots of information on on AI um on math intervention um reading um uh Benchmark has this whole line to uh help us identify and and teach and treat children with dyslexia. So, um and um there were um there I I met another lady. Well, I I seen this lady before, but water education lady from Metropolitan was there and we talked about water education and I'm hoping that, you know, maybe one day she could, you know, meet with the staff to see how she could how we could use uh some of the curriculum that's out there to teach our children about the careers that that they have now for water. Um it's a it's an aging um occupation. There are a lot of uh people
164that are working and and they're aging out and they really do need to train more children and uh and I'm hoping we can move forward with that. Um um I'm going to um that's it. But I know one thing. Um, it Caspie was really good this this year and our president is going to talk much more about it because she had a grand time also. That's it. Thank you. >> Thank you, board member Centron. Um, I had an opportunity to meet with our new superintendent and it I'm just again elated that you're here and thank you for being here and meeting with all of us uh a rombious uh group and um really I did want to say to the community as well um this is such an opportunity for us moving forward. our superintendent
165is willing and ready to really make positive changes for the district and uplift a lot of different voices. And so I um I look forward to it and I look forward to encouraging that spirit and supporting you. Um so thank you very much. Um, and I want to just a special thank you for everybody that's still in attendance and after making all those um, great comments and remarks because we need to hear from you more often. And I did get a lot of text messages while everybody was speaking. So, thank you for those. Um, that really gives me insight. Um, other than that, I hope everybody's been enjoying their summer. I didn't get to attend the conference, but I hope to attend next year. Thanks. Claire Cr. >> Uh, so went to the 14th annual
166Uptown Jazz Festival in Long Beach. That was awesome with Councilwoman Joanie Rick OD. Um, I too was able to uh have a couple meets with our uh brand new superintendent, Dr. Aaron Simon. great conversations and uh I'm really excited about this school year. I I'm really excited about our whole team to be honest. I think we have a superstar uh of a squad and uh with you at the lead. I think that we're going to accomplish a lot this year. I mean we have so much going on whether it's you know Mayfair Fields um all the programs uh you know every single department um I feel is in capable caring uh hands. So, I'm really excited about what we're going to be able to do this year and uh really excited to have you. It's
167been awesome to to get to know you and I'm really uh pumped up for the uh all district breakfast coming up on Tuesday. Um it's going to be a great time. I I really I know we we have discussions up here, but really I you know, I was talking to President Stewart about this earlier. Um, you know, even even in hard uh discussions, I really believe that uh the overall attitude of the district and the atmosphere environment has become so much more positive over the past 3 years. I get told all the time about uh the changes. I was talking to a parent just last night who had taken their kid out of our district just a few years ago and now she's going to bring her kid back in uh potentially uh because of
168some of the changes. And I think it's really important that we keep that positive uh atmosphere and we do that through action, showing people uh the changes that we're making. Um so I'm I'm really excited about this year and uh welcome to B USD and I hope you all have a great start to your school year. >> I'm going to go back to barber centron for a second. Sorry, I forgot to mention I also attended the Bellflower um pageant. And the reason why I mentioned this is because all of our students that went ran for court this year um or all the young ladies that ran for court are students here at in Bellflower. It was absolutely okay. I under I underestimated the pageant. It is a lot of work for these young ladies and
169I'm so proud to say that all of them are part of our district and they're a success and they're doing so many things outside of school too. Um, and I know that we gave certificates on behalf of the school district and I hope that we find a way to maybe honor them here to the new court. Um, that would be great. And a side note and a privilege, my daughter ran this year and that was cool to see. That's how I know how much work it is. Um, and I just have to say, um, I underestimated what the pageant's about, but I think that if we can support our students in that way, that would be great. Thank you. >> Thank you, board member Centron. Vice President Ga. >> Thank you, Madam President. Um, I
170just want to say I kind of didn't go to as many things as all of our other board members did. Um, I do want to say thank you to our cabinet and to our CSEA um, members as well because you have been working during the summer so that all of us can come back and be ready, you know, to start the school year. Um, I also I think I also mentioned in the last board meeting, I thanked Dr. Mos and Dr. Knox as well. So, thank you for the continued work that you do and that you will continue to do for our district. Um, also, um, I know that we had about three, correct me if I'm wrong, about 300 approximately, staff members from our district attend AVID, right? How was the number? It wasn't
171300. There was aboutund oh 30 somewhere around there but it was all of our campuses. It was quite a few. >> Thank you. We have very good pictures of it and it does look like there's 300 of us here. >> It is a large large number of our staff members who actually went to this training. So I'm looking very um forward to seeing it implemented on our campuses um as we walk around and do you know for this new school year. Um, also, um, excited for the new teacher breakfast on Monday and also a welcome back breakfast on Tuesday. Um, and then, um, we have also some new admin and teachers. So, we will definitely be in there waiting for all of them. Um, and I also did meet with Dr. Simon myself and we
172got together on what the vision was and you know, my personal vision. um and then also a very good discussion on where you come from. So I appreciate that and that kindness. Um and thank you for jumping in and working with us on our very first board meeting with you. So congratulations. Thank you Vice President Garza. Good evening. Since our last meeting, I attended the CAPSY conference. Again, that's the California Black School Educators. The speakers were my favorite part of the conference. We started with conversations about math excellence and I know with the test scores that are out right now, the math scores that was really important conversation to have. I just want to remind teachers that remember the qualities that students need the most are care, patience, support, focus, understanding, passion, engaging, dedication, and
173connection. So, please take the into your classrooms this year. Math everywhere needs to be taught and our students need great math teachers. We need systems to support teachers to become better and the responsibility of that should be on all of us the board and our cabinet and not the in the students entirely. We need to find ways to teach it so they can understand it better and we need to work more collaboratively with our students and our peers. Some specific strategies they discussed were to focus on our students with disabilities, to nurture the staff, to help kids excel in their evaluation goals, to identify the best test practices and policies, to collaborate and discuss student outcomes, achievement, and data, and that we should be constantly engaging in data. So, they left us this with with
174this question that I would like to share. What concrete action must school leaders take to ensure every student receives exceptional math instruction? And what sustainable systems can be used to navigate the barriers to progress? So, in my opinion, we need quality first instruction. We need meaningful assessment. We hear a lot about our assessment in this district. We need datadriven decisions and targeted intervention to succeed. So, I hope that as we come into this next year that we focus on some of these things and um for further years to come. I also enjoyed the conversation I had with Colin Kaepernick. I attended a secondary, he was one of our speakers and he just talked about education and he's working a lot with AI and technology. And I also attended a secondary workshop with him where he
175discussed this in even further depth. We discussed what we want the future to look like in regards to our use in classrooms. We talked about meeting our youth where they are culturally and generationally. We have the opportunity to meet students where they are and drive outcomes and empower our students and we should capitalize on that. We should analyze our AI policies, our administrative regulations and we should use data to exponentially bridge the gap and make connections. We can lead sessions in every class on prompt engineering and we can use the technology to help students be more innovative and creative and increase their depth of knowledge while building these connections through research. So overall, I thought it was really good to hear more about AI. I look forward to our committee on AI and getting more
176into the technology and the part where our students can actually use this and it can be a positive thing. So um the conference was really great and thank you board member Armstrong for spending a lot of time with me. Little side story, Miss Stewart forgot her driver's license and couldn't rent a car when I got to Oakland. So, board member Armstrong saved me and it actually gave me some time to get to know you and not talk about board things. I don't think we talked about the board too much. We talked more about family and things that we enjoyed and that was nice to do. I met with our superintendent, Dr. Simon. We discussed some of the things that we felt um the board had accomplished since I joined in 2022. We discussed some of
177the things that past interim superintendent and I had talked about, had worked on, and we discussed things that were going well, and things that we can improve upon. I believe the communication, the Friday emails have already improved. So, thank you so much for that. Um, and I just appreciate you being here again. I I do believe that you are the right leader for us. So, I'm really excited that you're here with us. I had lunch with um export president Phyllis Tweet. It's always great to talk and learn from women who paved the way for me to be here and to hear their thoughts and feedback on how things are going, how things are being perceived, any comm uh concerns they have in the community. She was really excited about Dr. Simon. She had told people
178about Dr. Simon and everyone that I've talked to that has talked about you has just gotten good feedback. Oh, she's a great leader. She's great. So, it was nice to hear her give that positive feedback as well. On Thursday, July 24th, I did a walkthrough of Ernie Pile. Dr. Simon accompanied myself and clerks, Missy Ouyoa, Mr. Turner. They updated us on the changes that were taking place there. I looked at the calming and the sensory rooms, the drop off and the pickoff for our sped students. I looked at the cafeteria and how students will access these locations. The bathrooms have been completed, which is really good news. Thank you for that. And I encourage that the things will be ready for our students August 18th. So, I appreciate that walkthrough and you guys taking the
179time to show me um what was happening over there. On July 31st, I had a secondary Zoom meeting with Colin Kaepernick regarding the AI and his company. I know he met with Dr. Simon and her staff and so I'm really excited to get updates and to see obviously we don't know how much it costs, but I'm really excited to see hopefully we can afford it because it sounds like a really good program. Um I had individual meetings with Clerk Crutchfield and Vice President Garza to just kind of talk which was nice. Last night I joined a Zoom with Congressman Robert Garcia and some other elected officials in the area to discuss just some current policies in our country that we need to be aware of and to just collaborate with that group. It was really
180nice. And today I went back to work. We had our district convocation this morning and tomorrow I will continue getting ready for my students on Monday. So I want to just wish all of our teachers, our staff, everyone a wonderful year. Um, the new year is always, you know, we're so optimistic and I hope that you guys stay optimistic and happy the whole entire year. I'm excited to see everyone at the breakfast. I'm really excited about football coming up. I know Mayfair and Belfower, I'm really excited to see what they do with their seasons this year. So, um, I'm really excited about that. So, thank you so much. All right. Do we have any questions onformational items? All right. If there is no Oh, so just in case you didn't know in our consent agenda,
181our next meeting uh will be on Tuesday, August 19th, on August 21st, that first that Thursday, uh Mayfair, we'll be pay playing your Belinda and football at Sofi Stadium. So, we decided that a lot of people wanted to go out and support that. So, we are moving our meeting to Tuesday, August 19th. So, if there is no objection, this meeting is adjourned at 8:40 p.m. until the next regular board meeting to be held on Tuesday, August 19th, 2025. Thank you guys for being here.