ABCUSD Board Meeting - June 17, 2025

001[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat [Music] up. [Music] Heat. Heat. How are you? [Music] Heat. Hey, [Music] hey, hey. Are you [Music] power? All right. [Music] Clap. Yeah. [Music] Heat. Hey. [Music] Hey. Hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Do [Music] you d [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Data. [Music] Hey, do Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Call this meeting to order. Roll call, please. President, Mr. Nishi, present. Vice President, Mr. Nyola, present. Clerk, Mrs. Yoki Yamabui, present. Board member, Mrs. McCaten, present. Board member, Mrs. Mendoza, present. Board member, Dr. Rios board member Mrs. U here. This evening we'll be discussing the following items

002in close session. Public employee discipline dismissal release evaluation two matters. Government code section 54957. Superintendent evaluation conference with labor negotiator update on negotiations with ABCFT AB AFSCME and CSEA government code section 54957.6 Six conference through a property negotiator parking lot located on the south side of Alandre Boulevard 330 ft west of Pioneer Boulevard parcel number 7014001900 this is pursuant to government code section 54956.8 Eight. Existing litigation special of the education settlement agreement student OAH pursuant to government code section 54956.9 special education settlement agreement student OAH 202520985 [Music] government code section 54956.9. Are there any public comments on close session items? I see none. Okay. I have a motion to uh move to close session. So move Mendoza second. Nyola. All in favor say I. I. We are in close session. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat.

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004N. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. [Music] a hey. [Music] a [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Datal. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Come [Music] here. [Music] [Laughter] [Music] One more. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. [Music] down. [Music] M [Music] Down. [Music] Hey. Hey. [Music] Yeah. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] [Applause] [Music] here. Donat.

005[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] The board is back in open session. Can I have a motion? So move. Second. And all in favor say I. I. Please silence your cell phones. If anybody is in need of translation services, there are translation services in the back and they can help you with that. He's right there. Can you say in Spanish? Can you say in Spanish? Thank you. Tonight in close session, the board discussed public employee discipline dismissal release evaluation two matters government code section 54957 superintendent evaluation. We had a conference with the labor negotiator and update on negotiation with ABCFT AFSCME and CSD pursuant to government code section 54957.6. Six, we had a conference with real property negotiator with a parking lot located on the south side

006of Alandre Boulevard, 330 ft west of Pioneer Boulevard, parcel number 7014 001900, government code section 54956.8 was the authority that we did that with. Under existing litigation in close session, the board discussed and approved a special education settlement agreement in the amount of $70,000, attorney's fees and $10,000 and reimbursement for private school of $60,000 for OAH 202502981 by a vote of 70. Similarly, in close session, the board discussed and approved another special settlement uh special education settlement agreement in the amount of $70,000 attorney's fees of 10,000 and reimbursement for private school $60,000 for OAH 202520985 by a vote of 70. Uh Dr. Rios, can you lead us in the pledge of allegiance? Please stand your right hand over your heart. Ready, begin. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to

007the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Can I have a motion to approve the agenda for the regular meeting of June 17, 2025? Move the agenda. Second. All in favor say I. I. Motion passes 70. Thank you. Can I have a motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of June 3rd, 2025 Tatian? Second. Okay. So moved. Second. All in favor say I. I. Motion passes 70. President's report. School is out. Um, want to talk to the ABC families that have been impacted by the enhanced immigration enforcement. Um, the ABC district supports you. Um, if you need mental health support because of the certain challenges that you've been facing, we have something called care solace that you can call upon for that. If you

008have any issues with enforcement in that particular manner, I would like to ask you to report that. Let us know what's happening. Our staff is trained to address these issues. We will follow the law as it relates to all law enforcement. Um, we need to still keep school as a safe place and that's what it will always be and we need our students to be educated and that's what we always want to do. to the ABC families in in law enforcement. Also, thank you for protecting us and enforce fairly enforcing our laws. We support you. It's not an easy job. Um, I know that they don't create the law. They have to enforce the law. So, and although they may have an opinion, they have a duty to follow the law. And so, I'm very

009thankful for their service. I welcome law enforcement to protect us. But if you come to arrest us just like anybody else, you will follow the law just like everybody else. and uh do that. We have three big things on our agenda today. We have the budget, we have the LCAP, and our schools. Don't leave after the first one because the other ones are just as important as the first one that's on our agenda. You know, the first one is the most challenging one. It's the one I spent just about a ton of time on every single day. It's keeping me up at night. Um I've informed people through tease throughout the years uh parent meetings and we have never denied a single parent meeting. We have if any parent wants to meet with us you're

010free to call me and we will meet and we will meet with the superintendent to give you as much information as possible regarding the issues regarding our schools. I've gone to optimist meetings. I've gone to pessimist meetings. I've gone to Republicans. I've gone to Democrats. I've gone to libraries. mayors, council persons, if they want to have a Zoom meeting during the middle of the day, we will do it. We will talk about it because this is an important issue that affects all of us. This is not a black box. This is an issue of all of us in the community have a stake in this. So, I'm going to make the time because that is what we were elected to do. I'm going to thank everyone for the comments. And some people had some comments

011about how fast we got to this decision. Some people thought it was costs weren't considered. Some people thought uh had a interesting idea for K8. And we've gotten many great ideas and information. IB program issues, how hard it is to do things, uh updates regarding Whitney. Thank you for that information. We need all of this input to make an intelligent decision for our future. Some of the residents have also asked me in some of the meetings, why did it take you this long to get to this point? Because we knew in 2014 that this was an issue. We had a bond issue that failed in 2014. And one of the biggest issues in 2014 was you have declining enrollment. Why are you going to put money into schools that are not are are not fully

012full? We had many critics at that time for the first bond and it failed. The second time around in 2017, that was only three years later, actually four years later, 2018, um we had another effort called BB. And at that point, we had a agreement with our community that we would consider ABC schools for ABC residents. And we also talked about addressing the issue of declining enrollment. And so we did agree and the voters did approve measure BB and Suyu was definitely a big part of that effort. In fact, I think there's a city councilman in the back or city council woman miss Sophia Se is back there. I sort of saw like to recognize her. She was part of the passage of measure BB way back when in 2018. And and part of that

013we did change our school of choice policies to emphasize that our residents are important. Um there's only so much we can do that because by law, school of choice is school of choice. There's a state law that prevents us from changing that too much. Um but we promise not to waste. We put our first priority into safety. So yes, we spent money on all our schools to make all of our schools safe. $25 million was allocated toward that particular goal. So we put cameras, we fixed playgrounds that were old and dangerous. So we put that at all of our schools. We did these investments because these are important for our kids. So we did the demographic study and it did show that we were declining in enrollment. Um but shortly after that we had COVID

014and we had other bigger fish to fry. We had to educate our kids during the worst pandemic this country has ever seen. And so understandably we weren't concerned about reducing. We're concerned about just educating our kids with the teachers that we have, making sure that the teachers are taken care of, make sure that our students are taken care of. Um, and after that, we came back to the fact that we're still declining. In fact, we're still seeing a faster decline than originally planned in the original study. The study went over all the levels. It went through elementary school, it went through middle school, and it went through high school. And it showed that we have significant declines at all levels. Not because we're terrible, but because all schools in LA County are suffering from a

015decline in enrollment. We learned that almost it's not an issue of it's an issue of basically we're not having enough kids. We're in an affluent society and when you have an affluent society you have less kids. We're doing really well but as a result our schools are not full. In 2023 we approved a committee. So to go back in time since 2014 to 2018 to 2022, we formed a committee to go over all of these issues. It's a tough decision to make. So that that committee listened to the community and they said we can't make this decision. In fact, we'll make a we'll make a recommendation to close no schools because it's a very difficult decision to ask of volunteers and people who are sincerely interested in this community. It's basically asking them to pick

016which one of your children do you not like? Of course, that's an impossible task. So, we did send them on a mission that was almost impossible. So we in 2023 paid for people to study the issue, paid to go through an objective analysis. They studied, they went through the data that they had at the time based upon demographics and they made a recommendation. And so this recommendation didn't just include elementary schools, but it also included middle schools. And that was part of the mission because since the time of the 2022 demographic study, we've known that middle school is definitely on the decline. We have one school that has 290 students over two grades. We can't close middle schools. We can't because they're in geographically distinct areas of our district. So, tonight we're going to make

017a decision. We may choose to do nothing. That is definitely an option. We may do a partial change. Please note that the decision we make isn't going to solve all problems. We're still going to have challenges ahead. Whatever decision we make here tonight, and when people think, "Oh, this is a permanent decision." None of the decisions we make up here are permanent, quite frankly, we're going to look through the information with the information that we have at the time and make the best decisions possible and give staff the best direction from a policy perspective. And when we get more information, as time goes on, some of these things may change. We we may have really dramatically great middle school enrollment and I will be glad happy to not have to make major decisions and go

018back and revisit the issues which which we should always do. I've been looking at information up until the last minute of this meeting because these are important issues. I'm not going to not leave one stone unturned because it's the last minute. I'm going to look at every single fact. Every person that's going to speak up here, I'm going to listen and hopefully it may not seem like it, but it will consider into my vote and my decision of what we do here today. So, thank you for being here. This is just the beginning. Whatever decision we make, whatever decision we make, we still need your input. we still need a continuing engagement with all of the stakeholders here. So, I'm so glad that you came. Thank you. Dr. Zil, thank you. Um, just again want

019to reiterate to all of our families, um, our staff members who may be impacted by immigration enforcement. Um, we will continue to send out updates and reminders to you every week. Um, reminding families of supports that are available for students and for their family as a whole, either through our mental health professionals who are here with us in the summer or through Care Solace. Um, we'll continue to connect you to the various um, resources through the county um, that might be of assistance to you. Um, I want to thank the families that have allowed us to help them so far. Um, we are blessed to do that. And so, um, please know that if you need anything, um, our summer schools are open and we are serving many, many kids and, um, it's a bright

020spot in what can be a a sad time. And so, please, um, help us to serve you in this process. Um, and I think that's enough for this evening. Thank you, Dr. Zilo. Can I have employee representative report? Oh, great. Next item is public comment. Clerk Yoko Yamabui. Persons wishing to address the board should fill out a card located on the table by the door and submit the completed card to the secretary. Speakers will be called in sequence during the public comment section or prior to board discussion on an agendaized item. The board shall provide one hour for speakers to address non-aggendaized items. Each speaker is limited to one presentation of five minutes or less. Those who have a group concern are encouraged to select a spokesperson to address the board. Should there be 15

021to 20 speakers for non-aggendaized items, individual speakers shall be allowed three items to three minutes to address the board on the item in order to ensure that non-English speakers receive the same opportunity to directly address the board. Any member of the public who utilizes a translator shall be provided at least twice the allotted time to address the board. Please remember that the board is unable to directly respond to comments made during the public comment section. In addition, neither the board nor district staff verify the accuracy of the statements made during public comments. Persons wishing to address the board on a specific agenda item at the time the item is under discussion are limited to five minutes each and will be called to speak following the staff comments and prior to the board's discussion and taking

022action. The board shall provide 30 minutes for speakers to address agendaized items. Should there be six to 10 speakers for agendaized items, individual speakers shall be allowed three minutes to address the board on the item. Adverse remarks about a person's race, ancestry, ethnic group identification, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender, mental or physical disability, or age may not be made. Please avoid remarks or charges which reflect upon the character, motives, qualifications, or ability of any school district employee, regardless if the identification is by name, position, or other reference. Such comments may be presented through the proper administrative channels set forth in bylaw 9323. No, no public comment on non-aggendaized items. Thank you. I bring this closer to me. Uh consent calendar. Can I have a motion to approve the consent calendar? Mendoza. Second.

023Uh does anybody wish to remove an item? Uh board member Mendoza. Yes, Mr. President. I just want to make a comment on consent item 4.3C. It's the same when I always make a comment on the contributions from our community. Um, I want to thank them for helping our our schools. Um, and I think Twan, can we get a report? I'm sorry, Mr. Nin, can we get a report? Um, now that the school year has ended, a total amount of monies that have been donated to our schools in our next board meeting. Thank you so much. Okay, so let's call for a vote. All in favor say I. Oh, Mr. President. Oh, do you have an item? Sorry. Um, yes. Very briefly, and I thought Miss Mendoza, our board member Mendoza, was going to acknowledge 2.1

024C. 2.1 C, consent item 2.1 C. We do have early retirements. So, we uh, of course, and retirement. So, we would like to thank and acknowledge our longtime teachers and staff for their work here. And, um, you know, we wish you all the best. Hopefully, they can return on substitute teacher basis, but we'll see. Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any items would like to be pulled? Okay, thank you. So then I will call for a vote. All in favor say I. I. Any nays? The A's have it. 70. California school dashboard local indicators. Dr. Castro. Good evening, President Nishi and distinguished board members. I call to your attention a copy of the local indicators dashboard that I have placed in front of you that I also had sent to you prior. The

025local indicators are a requirement by the California Department of Education that uh ensures that we are uh taking the time to reflect on the surveys that we have provided our families, our students, and our teachers. So, as you heard in my previous presentations with the LCAP, we also use the surveys to determine some of our LCAP goals. In the same light, the state requires that we look at the survey results for the California Healthy Kids Survey, for the California School Parent Surveys, and any local teacher surveys that we do, and provide to the public our reflection on those scores and how we plan to address, improve, or sustain those scores. So if you look at page one and two of this report, this is just a summary of the overall report that's being provided. Pages

0263 to 12 is the state required portions that we submit to the CDE. This report is then publicized as part of our uh dashboard which is released in November of this year. So on page three you can see the implementation indicators rubric which is what the number that you see most often represented in the report. And I am happy to report that in ABC unified most of our scores fall between a four which is full implementation which means that there's evidence supporting that the practice is progressing and five full implementation and sustainability which means evidence supports that the practice is not only progressing but it is being sustained. So just a few quick highlights for you. If you look at page one under priority three, parent involvement, we had received some high engagement scores from

027our families. 91% of families felt supported and understanding their legal rights. 89 to 93% re we received positive ratings for respectful and welcoming environments in our schools. Another key aspect to consider is that we saw the highest growth for our LEA in supporting staff to learn about each family's strengths, cultures, languages, and goals for their children. That was an increase of 11%. So that's a notable improvement. Priority five and six, people engagement and school climate. This was data that I had reported to you before about safety. 79% of elementary students and 67% of secondary students felt safe at schools. Although that's an improvement from our prior years, that is still a lower number than we would like. So we continue to work and make efforts in that. And you'll see some of that indication in

028the summitive paragraphs provided on page 3 through 12. Do we have any questions from the board? Okay. We'll wait. I don't we don't have any public comments up here. Okay. Uh board member Mendoza, I just have a quick question. Does the community have access to this, a copy of it? Do we have some out for them to look at this? This is uh publicized as part of the California dashboard. So, they will have full access once it's publicized. The CDE has to rece you have to uh receive information on it. the CDE receives the information and then uh it's publicized as part of our dashboard. So, nobody in the audience has a copy of this right now. I don't know what was it copied for tonight's meeting? No. Is it possible if we're not going

029to pass out to the community if we can put it on the screen so they can at least see what we're looking at because I think we're talking about things and they're not able. I'm a very visual learner. I need to see it. I need to hold it. Um we all learn differently and I think for transparency I think the audience should have what we have. so that they're following along with us and if even if we just put it on the screens for them to see. I think that's something that I would like to see our community have. Thank you. Is that something we can do now to put it up on the screen right now? Is that the request? Yes. Yes. Um I believe I can pull that up in a few minutes.

030Okay. Okay. Oh, sure. Uh, board member McCaten. Dr. Kuster, I just have a question. When you say it's on the dashboard, does that mean it's on the dashboard on the website or are there paper copies available for people who are interested. It's available on the dashboard on the website, but certainly if a community member would like a printed version, they could certainly request from our offices. Okay. I'm just wondering how widespread it is. The information is how widespread is the information because I think it's valuable. That dashboard is uh provided by the CDE. So, it's the California dashboard.org org and where parents would go to find out about our suspension attendance. It reports our CASP scores, ELPAC scores. We usually do a once the dashboard is released in November, we provide information to our parents

031and I can certainly link it on our website. And again, if someone is interested in receiving a printed version or information, we can certainly help provide that. Okay. So maybe um it looks like it's going to be challenging technically to provide that at this point. So um anybody in this room and maybe we can just provide the website that they can get the information from. What would that website be? www.ca-board.org and that will be available about how long in November of 2025. So usually the release is sometime at the end of November. Maybe we can make it available on our own website in the interim. Yeah, I can do that. Thank you. So that way the public here has advanced notice of what's going to be on public later on. So that would be great.

032This is not an item for action anyway, but I mean it's good for people to know. Thank you. Thank you for the comment. Okay. Item 1.2A. Can I have a motion to approve committee member and student appointments to this board advisory committees? So move. Uh, Miss uh, board member McChatten, can you please introduce our new uh, committee members? Uh, oh, um, I'd like to introduce Stein Bang for the legislative policy committee. Um, he can get up and talk a little bit about himself. Um, I've known Stein now for probably five years. He's very active in the community. Um, he belongs to the Optimus Club. He has a octagon. Is that the correct the octagon club at Whitney? Is that the correct title? Joy Club. Junior Optimist. Junior Optimus Club. Okay. Um, he's obviously invo involved

033with Boy Scouts and he's going to tell you a little bit more about himself. Thank you. Thank you for the introduction. My name is Stein Bang. I've lived in Critos for 50 years. I've witnessed amazing progress of the city and the school. I'm a product of ABC school district. I've went to Gonzalez Elementary, Carmela Middle School, it was called Junior High School back then, and Whitney High School. I have a beautiful wife, three sons. Uh my oldest son went to the exact same schools I went to, and now he's in college. My middle son just graduated from Serto High School last month, and I still have a young one at Gonzalez going into sixth grade. I after ABC, I went to UC Irvine. I have a BS in computer science. I also have an MBA

034in at USC. My profession is information technology, IT. My last full-time job was with Cornfair Fairy International where I looked at looked over at IT operations for Asia-Pacific and North America regions. And right now I am not working so I have some free time so I could do things like this. And so I'm involved with a couple of organizations as Genie already mentioned. I'm currently VP of Seros Optimus Club. I also serve on the board for Whitney High School and Sudos High School. I help as a leader for Boy Scout Troop 72. I also am president of STOS crowd cleaning crew, a local neighborhood cleanup team my my kid created. And uh how I got involved with this was Jeannie asked me to help out and I work with Genie on several projects and and

035she was great and we share the same passion of helping the youth around the community. And so I said sure and that's how I ended up here now. And so I'm here to help with the committee legislative policy and I'll do whatever I can to help the committee. Thank you. Do any public comments on this item? I see none. Do any board comments on this item? Yes, su. Uh, thank you, Stein, for serving on the committee. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you. My pleasure. And I'll just, uh, say one comment. Um, he has many jobs. He is not unbusy. So, uh, thank you for adding on a new job, uh, that's not very lucrative, but certainly will, uh, serve us well. Thank you for your wise counsel. Thank you. So, I'm going to call for a

036vote. All in favor say I. I. I. Thank you. The motion passes 70. I'd like to quickly Thank you very much. I'd like to uh recognize Hawaiian Gardens Mayor Dandy Depala. I think he's back here somewhere. He went out. Okay. Then I'd like to There he is. Okay. Um, also like to recognize uh, city council member Ernie Vargas. I like the Ernie's in the room. Stand up. Mr. Ariano from Lakewood. Thank you for coming. And of course, we have former school board member uh, Celia Spitzer, who is still involved with our committee, which is important. Council member, I'm sorry, Council Member David Ariano. All right. Thank you. Thank you for coming for this very important issue and and showing up for our kids. It's very important. Okay. So, we passed that item 1.3A. Can I

037have a motion to approve the plan to consolidate and configure schools to address the declining enrollment districtwide? Tatiana moves. Second, Dr. Zitlo. Thank you. Point of order. Ernie, we I think we're supposed to um approve someone else for the diversity committee. Apologize. She's not here. And so I'm just I was going to just read a little bit of her bio. Okay, then. Um we'll go back to item 1.2A. Uh go ahead, uh board member Mat. Okay, so um I'm nominating Maria Mesa for as an alternate for the diversity, unity, and equity commi committee. um she wrote me like a whole thesis about her herself. So, I'm I'm not going to um read the whole thing. I'm going to just read a little brief little um bio about her. Um she started her her professional career

03830 years ago, but her most important job thus far is being a mom. Uh she has two kids, one who just graduated from GAR and one who just graduated from Ross. Uh she has her BA in sociology with an emphasis in child psychology. She's lived next door to me for 20 years, so I know her well. Um, she loves working in diverse communities and she worked for the Department of Mental Health as a counselor, translator, and advocate. Uh, she volunteered as a PTA member officer at Nixon Academy. Uh, she's been on the PTA multic multicultural group for diversity and multicultural events at Nixon Academy. In addition, volunteered in making the yearbook for five years. Um she said as long as she can remember she wanted to change the world, she may only be able to

039do that in a small way. Um so um I would like to be she would like to be part of the process to help the diversity committee and she thanks um you for your time and her consideration. Thank you. So we already had a motion in a second for this particular item. So uh and we voted but we should probably vote with this additional name. Thank you. So all in favor say I. I. So 100% the second person's also an alternate. Thank you for bringing people to our uh board, helping us out. Motion passes. So we have a motion to approve the plan to consolidate and reconfigure schools to address declining enrollment districtwide. We have a motion from uh board member uh clerk Tatiana Buouie, a second from Mrs. U. Huh? It was Mrs. U.

040Mrs. U. Thank you, Dr. Zilo. Thank you. Um board members, this evening what you will see is back background information where I've tried to synthesize into this document for you what we've heard and seen happen over the last couple of years and then in the last few meetings um from our community. Um I have simplified the plan down to reconfiguring district middle schools to include grades six, seven, and eight. reconfiguring Whitney High School to include sixth grade and then consolidating four elementary schools, Aloha, Ferguson, Wades, and Sters. Um what you will see in the timeline um in terms of the process and phases of how we would do that would mean that where these programs processes end up would be determined after working in collaboration with sites that are being impacted and schools and students

041and families as they are impacted. So rather than going strictly by what a consultant was suggesting um the specific decisions of where and how would be made um by including those impacted in that process. Um and so that's what you see in phase one um working over the next year um school year to work with three of the elementary schools for that process. And then uh phase two working the next two school years with the transition for sixth grade to middle school as well as the consolidation of a fourth elementary school and the work with Whitney High School. Thank you. Um how many public comments do we have on this particular item? 17 Mr. President. So that would be three minutes each. Simple math would be total of how many minutes? 51 minutes. Okay. So

042we would need to expand or extend our um our close uh this item for because usually it's only 30 minutes. So, we would need to extend it by, let's be generous, 50 minutes just in case there's a later on person that would like to speak. So, can I have a motion to extend the uh public comment on this item by 50 minutes? Katiana moves second. Okay. All in favor say I. I. Great. Motion passes 70. Call your first item and we starting at uh 8 uh 7:40. First uh public comment is Hector Ruiz. Then it will follow by uh Michael Louie and then Jamie Castillo. Good evening, respected members of the school board. My name is Hector Ruiz, a third grade teacher at Sters, speaking on behalf of my colleagues directly impacted by the proposals

043on consolidation and realignment. All of us here tonight have a stake in the fate of the ABC Unified School District. But consider the meaning of the word unified. It implies brought together as one. As this proposal is preceded, our school district community is at a crossroads over how unified we actually are. We've seen teachers at one impacted school characterized by a teaching colleague, no less, as specifically responsible for declining enrollment on their campus. Another teaching colleague implored the board to make the tough decision to move forward with the consolidation realignment sooner rather than later. You've heard members of both the Ferguson and Sters communities question the process behind the conclusions of the report. You've heard Ster's parents detail not just how our enrollment decline has been reversed, but also critically how Ster students, many here

044on interd district permit, are actually a source of positive funding benefiting ABC. My Sters colleagues and I are fully aware of the budget shortfalls, but in looking at how we face such issues, we ask that any pain from tough choices be equally shared amongst all district stakeholders. As it stands, sacrifice disproportionately falls upon schools, their students, the parents, and both classified and certificated staff at those sites. Now, our CFO two weeks ago did point out that ABC could work within a status quo where no closures or realignment takes place, but one significant point he made was that such a choice could result in the creation of combination classes in elementary, for instance. This assertion made it clear that to close the budget gap, the hard choices were to be limited to only school sites in

045their communities. Yet, if this is a district-wide concern, shouldn't any potential budget budget shortfall be shared across all parts of the ABCUSD structure? So, if combo classes are considered, why can't administrative roles also be combined? It's instructive, reflecting that Ferguson's $400,000 literacy grant designed to help student body of several hundred barely pays for two district office administrators. Now, while those funds were from a grant, it does help explain value equivalency. To echo our former superintendent Ron Barnes, how is that keeping the main thing the main thing? And if school closures are to be considered, why are property considerations limited to campuses only? Why couldn't the board revisit plans of a decade plus ago where in district office property be put up for sale? Cypress School District provides an example. Selling their longtime district office for

046$9 million to move into other local office space and still netting over $2 million. Selling a property in Cerritos ostensibly to provide acreage for homes not only produces a financial windfall but depending upon what zoning could be worked out with the city of Cerritos provides a mean for new residents hopefully families as a bull work into the next decade to slow declining enrollment. Finally, why not revisit entire retirement incentives to convince old war horses like myself to step aside to save spots for younger teachers? We ask that our students be the last to be impacted by budgeting decisions. That the board slows down the process so that every other possible angle is considered before school sites. If done well by shared burden, taking more time for a decision maintains a veneer of unified that our

047district needs to have in all of this. Look everywhere first, please. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker is Michael Louie and then it will be Jamie Castillo and Michael Coup. Good evening board members. Thank you for your time and dedication to making these difficult decisions. My name is Michael Lou and I'd like to urge you to delay and further study closing and reverting Stars Elementary. There's a critical assumption in the proposal that Whitney's success will continue even though its structure is changed. But hearing from students and parents, it's clear Whitney performs well partly because of its unique configuration, not in spite of it. If we convert it to a more conventional model, we should expect more conventional results. And once that happens, the very appeal that draws students and families to it will vanish. Let's

048look at the numbers. Uh the plan requires 1,600 Whitney students. 600 at the new Whitney Middle, 10,000 at Whitney High is already a thousand students. Meanwhile, because of the IB and my MI programs at Star Wars, Star Wars is enrolling 100 kids per grade. That puts it on track to reach or exceed 600 students without needing to be reconfigured. So, invest money, dismantle a promising program, and get no gain or even a loss. It doesn't add up. There's also timing to consider. Previously, the data proved the synergy of the MI and IB programs. Moving both takes years. In that time, other districts may opt to roll out their own programs to emulate Star success. So instead of building on our head start, we'll risk losing families and seeing them go to other districts. Let me

049close with an analogy. You are a farmer. You have a golden goose, Whitney, that lays a golden egg. You also have a golden goling. She hasn't laid the egg yet, but she's showing every sign she will if nurtured. So what should you do? You should feed for both. care for both. Soon you'll have two golden geese. This plant instead, it cuts the golden goose in two, feeds it the golling's food, and expects it to lay two eggs. And still more, it offers the go to your neighbor. In closing, keep stars open. Commit it. Commit to providing a joint IBNMI program through middle school and high school. These programs are already drawing families into the district. Expanding them creates a clear pathway for students from kindergarten to high school and other districts will find it hard

050to match that. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Jamie Castillo followed by Michael Coup then Path Katherine Pasqual. Hello again. Good evening, President Nishi, board member, superintendent Dr. Zitlo. My name again is Jamie Cashillo Solless and I am a parent at Sters Elementary. Thank you for the opportunity um for allowing me speak tonight. Though our position remains that Ster should not close, I come before you with an urgent and heartfelt request. Please delay the vote on the recommendation until after school resumes in August. This is not about stalling. It's not about doing it's about doing right by our students, our family, and the district. Decisions of this magnitude require thoughtfulness, accuracy, and trust. And right now, those things are in short supply. First, the facts and stories shared by parents, students, and educator deserve more

051than a few weeks of review. We've presented data, enrollment shifts, and firsthand experiences. There hasn't been adequate time to digest this input, let alone investigate it further. Why make a permanent decision without thoroughly exploring updated relevant facts? Second, the process has been rushed. Prior closure recommendation took months or even years of committee work and community dialogue. This proposal impacting multiple schools and hundreds of students has has moved forward with just a fraction of that care. If long-term planning was necessary before, why not now? Third, the data you are relying on is outdated. Since those early projections, Ster's programs have flourished and changed its trajectory. These developments matter. Why not take a little more time to stud to study what's happening now? Even certain board members had to request up updated information and have not actually

052received it. Also, the effects of the middle school reconfiguration are unclear. There's been no serious analysis on how combining grades 6 to 8 will affect ABCUSD's academics or ABCUSD students well-being. We've been told to trust the process, but trust is earned. And right now, that trust is shaken, and the timing could not be worse. In recent days, immigration enforcement actions have been have deeply unsettled many families in our district, especially those who are undocumented or part of mixed status households. Fear, confusion, and anxiety are ripping through our neighborhoods. Families are afraid to go to work, to drop their children off at summer camps and recreation centers, or even to attend public meetings like this one. Children are walking around or staying in their homes, carrying a quiet but heavy fear that their loved ones could

053be taken from them. against this backdrop, rushing to vote on school closure without fully without full community input, without complete and current data, and without a transparent process. And more is more than just ill advice. It adds to more trauma. It ignores the realities many families in our district are facing now. Our children need stability. This is not the moment to add uncertainty to our certain to our students lives. Please choose a path of compassion and caution. Your own CFO has said in the last meeting that we're financially stable for now. So I ask again, what's the cost of waiting for just a few months? Why not take the time to do this right? If you vote now and find out later that this was a mistake, there's no way to undo the damage. We're

054not asking for a special treatment. Simply asking for time to do the responsible, thoughtful, and community centered thing. Please delay the vote and take the time to lead with heart and care. Thank you. Thank you. Next, uh, Michael Coup and then following Katherine Pasqual and then Marvin. Hi, good evening board president, board members, superintendent, administrators. My name is Michael Coup. I'm a parent and resident in the Sters Elementary boundary. And I know you've heard many testimonies over the past several weeks spanning two board meetings. So, I don't feel it's necessary to repeat what's already been shared. Um so today my my my my talk is will be brief. Um so a generality of the consultants report was that closing one school saves $850,000. Not all schools are the same, right? One is not the same

055as another. So I I would want to understand how exactly that $850,000 savings is realized in each case. Uh maybe you have combination classes, you get to combine teachers and that's how you save. Um otherwise it was said last meeting that there's no nobody's being laid off and we know staffing and benefits is the majority of our cost. So if no one's being laid off, how's the savings being realized? And that's the bottom line, right? We're closing schools. We're doing all these measures to save our money or to gain more enrollment and make money. But let's look at how the numbers add up. Let's make sure we make the right decisions rather than just closing it just for closing sake. And secondly, I just I suggest um breaking the voting into segments that are actionable

056rather than just say one blanket approve all or one blanket delay or one one blanket uh deny all. Um each of the the measures and the voting aspects appear to be slightly have different rationale and and just different justifications for each. So I think each should be analyzed within its own segment and not voted alto together. As far as analyzing the financial impact of sour closing, I know we've talked about it before. I've talked about it. Um the Mandarin, if you try to separate out the Mandarin dual immersion with and separate out the international balorate, you know, most certainly you're not going to keep the same number of engaged and number of enrollments. So that's going to result in a decline of enrollment that the consultant obviously didn't um kind of account for. And then

057as Jamie said just before me, um just getting better u more recent data so we can get all the most recent um and make all the decisions based on what's what's most reflective of today's um efforts. So um that's all I have, but thank you so much everyone. Um have a great day. Thank you. Next, next we have Katherine Pasqual, followed by Marvin and then Margaret Saitto. Good evening, school board. Um, thank you, President Nishi, for starting off with a timeline. Um, that just shows us how long we've been working on this as a district and knowing that this um has been coming. And so, I think we've gotten to a critical point here. I would also like to acknowledge that the school district at the district office level is making a lot of cuts

058right now and so I do understand this is not just hitting our school sites. It I know the district has been trying to tighten its own belt before it hits school sites. So I just wanted to acknowledge that and thank you guys for that. Also um I think there were some really good changes in the way that this phase one and phase two are written up tonight. I noticed a lot of community input. I was very concerned when I saw the consultants recommendations of what schools the student should go to when a school gets consolidated. I know there are a lot of community um things at play and so I really think community input for that is great. Um I also like that you added that you put sters into phase two. I was added

059at tea with the trustee. I heard those concerns also about how long it takes to move an IB or to get an IB program approved and so I acknowledge that you guys took that into account. I also know that there like there are some things that need to be figured out before sixth grade is moved up. You've got to figure out how do you test fifth graders for Whitney now? You have to figure out are the fifth graders going to go to camp now instead of the sixth graders or would it be sixth grade with their middle school? There's decisions that need to be made. You've got to make that last year on elementary campus special for the now fifth graders and that there will be one year where that'll be both fifth and sixth

060graders. I think um Miss Yokyamaboui and I both have kids who would be in that those classes. Mine would be fifth graders, hers would be sixth grade um when that has to happen that year. So I know we'll be affected. Um, and so I think that that extra year for phase 2 gives us a little bit of time to make that happen. Also, there is one middle school that is very full and so the school of choice process for the following year might need to be different to allow space for those sixth graders to come on campus the next year. So I think those are all positive great changes and so I thank you. I also noticed that you severed the Whitney expansion to out of district students and Whitney splitting up into two campuses.

061That's not on here. That's not something that is part of this decision tonight. And I think that's a great idea so that it doesn't um I think that phase one and phase two as is look look good. Um I did want to share that there are issues with small schools. you have the same number of activities you want people to participate in but less teachers who are able to run those activities. um combo classes. You've got that's not great for students or teachers. At secondary, you've got teachers teaching more prep, so they have to teach more different subjects, which then makes a tighter master schedule, makes it harder for students to get into the classes they need because there's less flexibility. Things overlap with each other. You don't have multiple sections of it. It gets

062hard. And then you also end up with like fewer club adviserss and coaches because when teachers are teaching four different preps, they don't have the capacity to then do those extras sometimes. Um, and then the last thing is that we now are supposed to have TK be a full grade level. And I know there's not space for that on some of our campuses. We only have one TK class at some campuses that have three kindergarten classes. if we're talking about an enrollment issue, we need to be enrolling three full TK classes, but there's not room until we get sixth graders off campus. So, those are my thoughts. I'm sure I'm not popular in the room again. Sorry. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you. We have Marvin Margaret Sto and Celia Spitzer will be after. Okay, I

063just want to make sure that we all have the access to those documents. So, um I don't mind waiting unless we just want to keep it going. Um good evening board members. My name is Marvin and I am here tonight to advocate um once again um on behalf of the community of Hawaiian Gardens. At the June 3rd meeting, I urge you to keep Ferguson Elementary open open uh pointing to the decline in crime and also the significant investment um that our city has made in supporting our youth in recent years. Since that meeting, I took the time to review uh the summary of public comments and was struck by an emerging pattern. Board members, I don't know if it's fully apparent to everyone here yet. Uh but one of the unintended consequences, and I want

064to highlight that unintended um of this proposed closure is that school communities are now being forced into a battle for survival. Uh some with more access to social and navigational capital than others, and that's something that I think we need to keep in mind. I also reviewed the schoolworks report that was and was disappointed to see that no equity impact analysis was conducted. Um, in fact, I don't think that equity was even considered in the decision-making process. Uh, so tonight I want to present a few statistics pulled directly from the US census to help illustrate exactly what you are signing off on if you move forward with the closing of Ferguson Elementary. Let's start with educational attainment, which you will see in the second page. In Lakewood, 90% of residents have a high school diploma.

065In Cyprus, it's 94. But in Hawaiian Gardens, it's only 68% of residents who have earned a high school diploma. When we look at higher education, the disparity is even more troubling. Just 17% of Hawaiian Garden residents hold a bachelor's degree compared to much higher rates in neighboring communities. So I ask why would you shut down a school that is directly working to close the gap through its educational programming and strong focus on biiteracy. Now look let's look at poverty. The poverty rate in Hawaiian gardens is approximately 18% more than double that of Cerritos and Lakewood. Similarly the median household income in Hawaiian Gardens is 40,000 to $50,000 less than Cypress and Lakewood. Again, I ask, why close a school that provides critical resources to a community that's already economically disadvantaged? Finally, let's consider the logistical

066and consequences of the proposed reassignment. A quick Google map search shows that if Ferguson Ele Elementary is closed, families who walk to school and choose to attend Hawaiian Elementary will now have to walk 15 minutes. For those students that are supposed to be bus to Melbourne Elementary, the situation is even more dire. If a student misses the bus and their parent doesn't have reliable transportation, the families will be left with a difficult choice to make. Walk 25 minutes to the school or keep their children at home. This is not equity. This is not access. And this is not the kind of decision that reflects a commitment to serving the communities. I urge you to approve uh the closure uh to not approve the closure of Ferguson Elementary. The community of Hawaiian Gardens deserves an opportunity

067to get better. Thank you. Next we have Margaret Sto, Silia Spitzer after her and then Ernie Vargas. If you could line up when she calls their name, that would be greatly enable more speakers to talk during the time that we have aotted. Thank you. Okay. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak on this issue. Um I noticed that the budget reduction plan for 202526 uh is 5.7 million those are the cuts as I understand the reduction in terms of to the budget. Now the consolidation and configuration that we're talking about is going to show 3.4 million. Okay. Now, this is to me is more reorganization and as as you say, it's restructuring. We're not actually cutting staff. It doesn't sound like it. We're just moving people because we don't have enough students in

068in certain schools. So what we're talking about is the fact that how can we effectively teach in terms of what we're dealt with in terms of the number of students we have at each school. And so if we already are committed to the 5.7 million, maybe you might want to think about some of the things that they're saying requests to consider in terms of like stars. If STARS really is drawing people, drawing families into the school, into the district, I think you should reconsider closing the elementary. And like Whitney High School, opening it to outer district, if you're going to open it to out of district, Whitney should go to the district, families that are within the district, and open the other schools, the high schools. Let them come into Artisia Gar and Ceras. Okay.

069In terms of if you're going to have out of district people coming into the district, I don't know if that makes a difference, but in terms of giving priority, I think that we should give priority to the district to to go to Whitney in and also maybe because of the demands to go to Whitney, maybe we need to look at the development of we know why they want to go to Whitney. Okay. If we could de have the same standards in either car or certos developing so we would attract more people into the district raising the caliber in terms of the classes and academic achievement. We might want to consider that. Okay. Um also uh let's see I think we need to talk to the families because a lot the schools cannot do this by

070themselves. Families have to take the responsibility of teaching their children and don't expect the families the school to do it all. One time I went to the post office and I noticed this man came in to the post office and he had two small children maybe two three and he was spelling he said we are at the post office and he spelled post office P O S T O F I C. So these we need to develop best practices and help our families develop that so we can have an um an environment that promotes literacy. Thank you. Thank you. We have Celia Spitz Spitzer next, Ernie Vargas, and then Kathleen Melo Navaj. Sorry. Um I think they're being passed out copies of my presentation. And I decided to have you have them before I speak

071because I'm going to speak really fast. So, uh, that way you can follow along because I know it's very hard to absorb and not have it in front of you. Good evening, ABC board members. I will start. I'm Celia Spitzer. I will start with a brief history of school closure in ABC with which I am very familiar. In the mid 1980s, the board formed an ad hoc committee to recommend the closure of three of the 21 elementary schools in one of the five junior highs. I was an appointed member of that committee. We were given a list of 18 criteria to determine which schools to recommend for closure. We individually ranked each school on each criterion as to where it most closely met the reason for closure. The rankings from all committee members were combined

072and tallied. The result was clear-cut. Bloomfield was the overwhelming number one recommendation. Number two was Cababrio Lane, but not so definitively. After that, there was no school that stood out as a number three con or potential number three. Consequently, we recommended only those two. The board agreed and closed both around 1984 or 85. Bloomfield near Carson and Norwalk was ultimately sold and developed as a shopping center. Cababrio Lane became a second site for our growing adult school and remains so today. The committee felt it was not necessary to close any junior high. As a result, we didn't even evaluate those schools. Fast forward to 2022 when the board formed the ad hoc committee to quote review and prioritize issues of declining enrollment and efficient use of facilities unquote. I served on this committee as well.

073We started out in a similar manner as in the 1980s. Potential middle school closure was not something we were asked to consider. One of the responsibilities given to the committee was quote making specific recommendations about specific sites to the board. At its December 2023 meeting, the committee using a subset of the board provided this criteria um identified three schools, Aloha, Ferguson, and Warz. However, it decided to add three more and evaluate all six using additional criteria. Unfortunately, we never had the opportunity to do so. So, here we are tonight when you need to take action and close elementary schools. I strongly support what is in what is proposed in phase one to close the three listed schools and do whatever is necessary to make that as easy and possible for all those affected. Regarding phase

074two, I strongly oppose closing Stars. Its enrollment is certainly not declining. In fact, it is growing. Its long-standing IB program could not just be moved to another site. It takes a number of years to establish an IB program. Furthermore, when the ad hoc committee prioritized schools for potential closure, Stars was not even close to being recommended. Bottom line, implement phase one is described. Phase two, I oppose any action regarding Stars. While closing schools is a difficult decision to make, school districts I'm almost done, throughout California are needing to do so. The board began exploring elementary school closure over three years ago. The current proposal is even more necessary now due to ongoing decreasing enrollment accompanied by uh decreasing revenue. Thank you. We have Ernie Vargas. Next is Kathleen Melo Navaj. And then Robin Rico. Good

075evening board. Um, I know you uh may see me as a council member, but I'm going to represent myself tonight as a uh as a wine gardens resident. Uh, speaking on just my community. Um, I've been a resident of Wine Gardens for 60 years. I was there at the beginning stages of our city and I've seen the development and the beautifification of what it is today. uh even the the development of our kids uh from the beginning stages of which were many gangs there and uh I've seen the cha changes through the years. Uh so I know you're listening to all the the comments, all the statements and suggestions. I'm hoping that you will uh table your vote tonight to be able to hear what everybody is here for regarding their their schools and closure.

076Um I'd like to mention a a few things uh regarding u uh some suggestions that I that I have. Uh Ferguson School is a landmark in our community. It sits right in the middle of our our community and to close it. What is going to occur to those families? What's going to take place? Hawaiian Gardens is the smallest city in the in the uh LA County. And yet you've already closed one school, Bloomfield. And now if you close another school, that's two schools in the smallest city in LA County. And I'd like you to consider what you know that what that'll do to our community. Um, currently, uh, Ferguson was, uh, going to be re, uh, there was a a renovation for it. Uh, there was a, uh, 1.4 million dollars that was, uh, granted

077from Congress, uh, woman Steel, uh, Congresswoman, uh, 1 million from the casino and additional funding for the for the project. What's going to happen to those monies if Ferguson is closed? And what about the the monies uh for measure BB? Where where those monies go to? Um I would like to just suggest a few uh suggestions to you that um what is the possibility of you capping uh the uh Ferguson school putting the cap on the students who uh who go outside of the school like other districts have. they have a cap on theirs. Also, uh changing the boundaries where school where our students go. If you change the boundaries, then uh our kids could could go to the schools in that area if the boundaries are changed. Uh Melbourne Elementary School is in Lakewood.

078It has a high percent of our Hawaiian Gardens residents. Aloha has Hawaiian Gardens residents. If you move those students to Ferguson, the numbers will be there. I believe Ferguson uh the schools uh the school can sustain itself. I I I'm a firm believer right now at this point. So I hope you will consider uh my suggestions and thank you. Next we have Kathleen Melo Navajas, Robin Rico, and then Aaron Schaw. Before we have our next speaker, can I ask a clarified question from the superintendent? The council member spoke about some funding for Ferguson. This is the first time I'm hearing from it. Can you please share that with the board? So, we would handle that when we have board comments. Okay. We can ask that question. In fact, I have that on my list of

079questions. Thank you. Good evening, honorable school board members. It's an honor to be here tonight. My name is Kathleen Melo Nejas. I am the former mayor of Hawaiian Gardens and city council member and it really gives me great pleasure to see Olga here tonight. You know, I kind of got tears because I remember your mom walking side by side with trying to save the schools working very hard for Head Start and I see you here tonight on the school board. It really touches my heart. Hawaiian Gardens is a very poor community and we've all struggled for many years to make that a beautiful city. And um I saw you here tonight. I thought, "Wow, look at this." We fought to get this school district to get a representative here for Hawaiian Gardens. We went to

080Sacramento and we got a bill to represent Hawaiian Gardens because for all these years, 20, 30 years, we never had anybody represent Hawaiian Gardens. And Francisco, I worked on your campaign. And tonight, you have a responsibility to protect Hawaiian Gardens. I served on the city council with Vin Ferguson, who was a founder of ABC School District. ABC school stood for artisia I think bellflower cerrito something. What was it? Yeah something. And he was the founder. He helped incorporate Hawaiian gardens. And what are you going to do with his legacy? Shut down the most important school right in the middle of Hawaiian Gardens. How can you have a conscience to do such a thing? And I walked with your mom and we made tortillas and tacos and tamales to keep those schools and those head start

081kids, you know, in school. And if you take out that school, what's going to happen to that? That's the only school in the community. You close Bloomfield. Aloha Hawaiian Gardens kids go, but that's Lakewood. What's going to be left? So I ask you tonight, what are you going to do? Develop it? you're going to have developers come in and develop it. What's going to happen? You have a responsibility to that community to provide quality education for those children. And to close one of the most important schools in Hawaiian Gardens is a disrespect to this community. It took us how many years to get somebody elected and now we have Dr. Oga Rios. I am so proud of you and I ask you tonight to reconsider your cons what you're doing to that community. It is

082inappropriate and it is not okay and we will fight to keep that school open. Thank you. We have Robin Rico, Aaron Schaw, and then Carla B. Santa Cruz. Good evening. I'm a parent of two children at Ferguson and I've been asking the board to look into alternatives for consolidation since with the community found out about this proposal and have we considered consolidating the adult school and the continuation school? Um, and can our middle schools even handle all the sixth graders, which somebody did bring up and I'm grateful for that. I am still a big proponent for limiting the school of choice even though we benefit from school of choice because we come from Lakewood to Hawaiian Gardens. But again, there's not enough information to parents to know that dual immersion is happening at Ferguson. Long

083Beach Unified has like 3,000 kinder kids who want to be a part of the dual immersion program. their middle school, which is Helen Keller, is there's a lottery to go to their dual immersion middle school where our um Fetty has a our students are able to get college credits for their dual immersion classes. So, there needs to be a lot more emphasis on that. And I'm still waiting to see the financial benefit. And I'd like to the school board to consider tableabling the issue for at least another year. I don't believe the community of elementary school parents know what you're pl that you're planning to move the sixth graders into middle school. If if they were, they would be here, I'm sure. So if the 26 27 school year we move forward with these changes,

084the kids who were in TK kinder will be the kids who will be pushed into middle school and after co and these are our COVID babies and that was so traumatic for them. So then consider we've had to, you know, work extra hard to get them up to to this point where they are now and then you're going to traumatically move them into sixth grade, middle school early. So how does that affect their learning and their ability to, you know, love school and appreciate school? So, I also think it's important for you to know that I've been contact with the with attorneys from MAL deaf and the ACLU. I have been told we have a case due to the discrimination against the Latino community and socioeconomic status based on the 14th amendment civil rights statutes

085and state laws equal protections claim. I have also included the racist comments from board member Su Yu and the obvious discrimination from the district as a whole. Closing a school in your poorest neighborhood is not going to help ABC's academic excellence. Thank you. [Applause] We have Aaron Schaw then Carla B. Santa Cruz and then Anneil Surandra. Hello again. I was here last earlier this month as well. Uh my name is Aaron Schaw. I am um a director of a charter school network called John Mir. We have 38 school sites. Um initially I was going to come up and ask you to consider splitting the phases up because um phase two seems to lump a lot of things together that I think deserve a lot of separate study. Um, but I'm struck by the comments from

086um the parents um from I'll just call it the South because we're closing a bunch of schools in the South um or preparing to um and I was struck because I wanted to share some a little bit about my the school district that I work for. Um we have a school in uh called Rancho Cello Youth Build in Selenus, California. It serves 150 students. It's a high school program. There's a culinary arts program. There's a full auto mechanic shop. There's an envi agricultural tech program. It gets millions of dollars of donations from the community um because they see it it its value. Do we have a teacher for every subject area? No. Have we won awards across the state? Yes. Awards national. Awards nationally. Yes. The point I'm trying to make is that the question

087here is what is the right size for a school? Can a school operate with fewer than 600 students? Let's say yes, it can. Do we do we need to shut down the school if we can't imagine a school site with a hundred elementary school students? No. In fact, if my student if my child was lucky enough to go to a school with only a hundred students and very caring teachers, but they had to be in a in a classroom with um with, you know, first and second graders, maybe the community would prefer that to having the school completely shutting down. So, I think this this report here is great, but I also heard a lot of board members saying that they they want ideas and I think that we can we still have a lot

088of imagination power within this community. Um, it sounds like the the the families really want to make this work. And so maybe making it work just means we don't have a full school and we don't have as many teachers at that school and we don't as have as many admin at that school. But maybe the school is still great. Maybe the school becomes an award-winning school because of the intimacy it can provide. And maybe Stowers isn't shut down because it's growing school and it's a really robust program. Um, so maybe we just do the right thing and make all of the schools really good. Thank you. We have Carla B. Santa Cruz, Anil Serendra, and Janet Ortiz. I emailed this to everyone as well as my page report last time. And how much time do

089I have? My my uh three minutes. Pardon me. Three minutes. My uh printer quit. So there's only seven copies. They have they have copies. Thank you. Good evening once again. I'm Carlos Santa Cruz. I come as to you as a concerned area 2 constituent, but my heart is still at Ferguson where I taught for over 18 years. I have previously outlined and repeat my concerns for equity and safety of Ferguson students and families as I expressed in June 3. But first of all, I would like to ask you uh to thank you for earnestly seeking public input and I want to be part of the solution. I thank the board members who reached out to me, who read the report and took time to meet with uh other members of the community and stakeholders such

090as myself. I ask you to please boldly and responsibly vote no or table the current board action. item vote no in order to thoughtfully study amend and incorporate students stakeholders stakeholders input. I'm not asking you to put it off forever. I'm asking you to please take more time to do something that we had only one month less than a month to hear about the shock of the plan and then to react to it. It will be too late to change course if you rush the vote tonight to consolidate and close schools based on incomplete and inaccurate data in the schoolworks plan. There's still time to amend and improve improve a plan to incorporate important stakeholders input and still address budgetary concerns. Remember the design of the legendary ship Titanic? The big beautiful ship design looked

091so great on paper, but tragically it was built without including enough lifeboats to save its drowning survivors. The international baloric program is developed over time with an official specific approval process for non educators. Excuse me. It may seem logical to just look at numbers, but for those of you who are educators, you know, like me, a carefully crafted IB program uniquely woven woven with the Mandarin dual immersion program is very unique and not just a plugandplay process to develop or implement. Numbers can be split cleanly. District boundaries can be redrawn. But what's lacking is a human element of stakeholders who know and care about our multilingual, multicultural community. Stakeholders who want to be part of the solution and deserve to be part of the process that affects their children, our children. I firmly oppose the

092proposal to create um Whitney Middle School to override the gem of stard successful thriving growing international baloric uh balorate mandarin program that t takes years to create. Do not take present ABC students already welcomed with interd district permits in order to speculate on possible future Whitney enrollment. Our current and future Ster students already firmly strengthened ABA ABC's ADA in its stellar program. Finally, I just do want to thank you. I always con I always continue to thank you for your support of our biiteracy programs. Let's support our present ABCUSD family. Study and allow us to participate in the process. Support us and we will support you. Thank you. Next we have Anil Serendra followed by Janette Ortiz and George Gallardo. Good evening. My name is Anil. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to speak to

093the ABC board. It's unfortunate that many of the good elementary schools in the district have to be potentially combined and consolidated and it's going to affect the students from the areas. I urge the board to please wisely look into every path to avoid the proposed integration and save the schools for the future students of the district. I would also like to know if the board has ever considered integrating the parts of Cerritos that borders south street, Palawi and Artisia uh where which I am a resident of that area and it's close to the uh auto square as you all probably know uh in into the district into the ABC school district system. This can increase student enrollment in the district and also will benefit the district in various ways. Thank you for giving me the

094opportunity and have a good day. Thank you. Next we have Janette Ortiz followed by George Gallardo and Sarah Horta. Hello. Becoming the voice of your community means more than just speaking up. It involves actively representing the diverse needs, concerns, and aspirations of the people you live and interact with. It's about being a bridge between your community and the systems or instit institutions that affect it. Good evening. My name is Janet Ortiz and I am speaking tonight with the weight of many voices behind the voices that couldn't be here because they're afraid. In our community right now, there's fear. Fear of ICE, of deportations, of being seen and targeted just for showing up. So, if you're looking at the crowd tonight and wondering why it's smaller, please don't mistake absence for distant rest. We care. Our

095families care. And we have shown that not just with words, but with peaceful action week after week. If you close Ferguson, the wound doesn't heal. It spreads. It spreads fear, mistress, and dispersion. But if you choose to protect this school, you protect the children, the working families, the stability of neighborhood that has already given so much. Tonight, you have the power to choose not just what's practical, but what's right. Please keep Ferguson open. Show that leadership still means listening. It's hard. We are living in hard times. Our families are dealing with this possibility consolidations. And now we're facing just by our color of our skin that we can't shop. We can't go anywhere. We can't show up for because of the fear of being deported. And again, we're targeted because we're the minority. But let's

096not mistake that we're here and I will be here and speak on their behalf one, two, three, four, five, 10,000 times if I need to. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we have George Gallardo, followed by Sarah Horta and Maritza Tjo. Good evening. My name is Jorge Gayardo. I'm an Aloha um parent. Aloha Elementary is a place where students feel safe, seen, and supported. Feedback from students show they feel welcome, and cared for, which is a direct reflection of the inclusive, respectful culture Aloha staff has cultivated across campus. Our students thrive in the small, inclusive environment that Aloha provides. One of the most impactful approaches that our students are provided is maintaining small class sizes, which allow teachers to provide targeted individual instruction. As a parent, I've seen firsthand the difference small classes size makes in

097my child's educa education. In a smaller setting, teachers truly get to know each student, their strengths, their challenges, and how they learn best. My child is not just one of many. They're seen, supported, and engaged every day. Smaller classes allow for more meaningful relationships between teachers and students. Quicker identification of learning needs and more responsive instruction. For students who may struggle or need extra help, this individualized attention can be the difference between failing falling behind and catching up. This past year, families at Aloha have experienced a deeper connection with the school community, which has led to significant increase in parent involvement. By creating welcoming spaces and offering opportunities for authentic partnership, families now play a more active role in Aloha school culture, events, and instructional programs. PTA part participation and family event attendance has doubled.

098We have been able to add events in our and family fundraisers to support all students and the Aloha comm community. Our 2024 2025 PTA association membership enrollment totaled 95 members which included parents, guardians, Aloha staff and district staff members. Aloha has been taken has been making great strides in reducing chronic absenteeism through consistent outreach, improved attendance monitoring, and meaningful incentives. The administration and staff have assisted families understanding the importance of daily attendance. And together we built a culture that values showing up every day ready to learn. Aloha has decreased the chronic absenteeism by almost 15% over the last two years. This progress helps retain critical funding within our district. Thank you. [Applause] Sarah Horta, Rita Trejo, and Juan Cerno. Hi. Um, so I just wanted to speak today for all of the parents who couldn't

099make it today, who are in fear of leaving their homes, um, and their safety. Aloha has become very dear to us and in this last year we have have done a lot as far as the PTA. Like my husband said, this year we have have had 95 um members. We have had our first off-site fundraiser at Raising Canes. Thank you, Mr. Nishi for participating. Um, this year, our 25 26 year, we definitely are going to do more. We're going to do greater and bigger things. Aloha is going to do amazing things this year. And I want to share with you that your report that you accepted last the last meeting is incorrect because Aloha is actually going to have a special education uh classroom next year. Ferguson currently has the special education classroom and your

100report shows that it does not. So I want you to know that the report you have right now has incorrect information. So before you make any kind of decision tonight, know any decision you make would be based on false information. So think about that. Make sure you make a decision on correct information. go back to the drawing board, get the facts right, get the correct information because you do not want to make any kind of decision based on false information. Thank you. Thank you. We have Marita Tjo, Juan Cerno, and then Irwin Tuazon. Hello, my name is Marita Tjo. I am a parent of um two children at Ferguson and one that's actually going to be coming into kindergarten for the dual immersion to learn Spanish and English. While I don't know your decision yet

101and I don't know if we can convince you not to close any schools, I would like to to offer you some ideas. Your recommendation is to close four schools, how about you start with one. This way you can learn from any mistakes that you will have that may um and you can learn the dos and the don'ts and see how that works for you rather than disrupting four schools and hundreds of students. As much as I would like to u make this sound like a minority issue, it feels like it. You choosing to close after closing three other schools feels like a cover up. It kind of feels like you are just trying to hush us. You probably didn't think minorities would stand up and fight for our children. Ferguson has a dual immersion program

102from kindergarten to sixth grade, fully developed and running smoothly, which has been visited by several schools to learn from the program. With that being said, allow parents to choose the schools we would want our children to attend to because our Hispanic kids have the right for better education as well. Since you're disturbing our schools, allow us to have more programs and tools to allow our children to have a better education. Give our children a chance now that you are trying to dim their light. Let's be honest. We don't want to come to the schools in Critos and you don't want us here. Please don't make us use our our right for school of choice to move our children to yours. Allow us to stay with our community and with our family at Ferguson. I got

103wind that a board member questioned our teachers ability to teach. My daughter reads, writes, takes all her tests in both English and Spanish. All because of the very capable teachers at Ferguson Elementary. As a minority, I take pride in defending my child, something our parents were not able to because of fear and lack of education. But here we are, educated by the very same schools you're trying to close. Speaking on the topic, moving schools will have a huge impact on parents who might fear to walk further due to the immigration statuses given and the current situation. Closing schools now seems so cruel and I hope you consider your decision. Thank you. [Applause] Next we have Juan Cerno followed by Irwin Tuisan and Phoenix Twazan. All right. Dear board members, good evening. I am Janserna. I'd

104like to point out that uh I was going through all the paperwork and agendas this whole day at work and I was kind of driving me nuts, but um I was trying to figure out what was going on. And I even went back as far as 2017 and to some of the school accountability report cards and there's the status and it shows that uh most of the schools were in the middle of classroom sizes like they're already 22 going on 31 kids. So I'm like if you close four I know you're going to flush all those kids into the other classes. So other schools around the neighborhood and they're going to overcrowd the schools and overwork your teachers. So I kind of argue on motioning no on going forward with anything until we get further

105information just like they said earlier because we don't have completely all the facts. I don't have all the facts for the numbers for 25 uh this last school year because according to SAR it's not on there. Um, but I like to say that the the intimate school sizes at Aloha are really good and any other small classes are beneficial for any kid going forward. I'm sure a lot of people would like to be learning from their teacher directly then rather than being yelled at and you know what I mean like getting direction but not really listening because most people don't learn that way. It's either hands-on or they like to be visual. It depends on the child and I know that's why uh we appreciate Aloha for everything they do and I'm sure Ferguson and

106Star Wars are really good at their programs too because they sound really amazing too. Um so now um you know like I said like I seen the poster outside when when I walked up here it says uh we're here to help every child every school. So let's figure out another way. There's got to be another way. Thank you guys. Good night. Thank you. Next we have Irwin Tuisan followed by Phoenix Tuisan and Eddie Salceto. Hi, good evening. Uh my name is Irwin Tuazan, Cerrito's resident and parent of rising fourth and second graders at Sters Elementary. I want to thank the board for allowing us this opportunity to speak and also meeting with many members of our community over the past week. I want to reiterate some of the reasons that Star Wars is an asset

107to ABCUSD. Our enrollment is increasing. We have an incoming kindergarten class of 100, which if kept going, our overall enrollment will increase by a full class size each year, reaching capacity by the 2030 school year earlier if we don't cap the Mandarin program. And additionally, a reminder that the schoolworks report recommendation number five stated that Star's closing is contingent on a six to8 middle configuration and if a separate Whitney campus was needed to take over Sters. Um, regarding special programs, they're not as easily moved as people think. I know it's like we can, you know, move the Mandarin program, but the faith in that program is already getting chipped away. A couple of families have already left Sters. Our newly formed Stowers Foundation went from planning and fundraising to to raise funds to hire teachers

108aids for classrooms to fighting for our school's life in a matter of days. On top of that, the unique designation of being an IB school gives many students outside of the district an easy way to transfer in. And on top of that, the IB model pairs perfectly with the dual immersion program. It challenges our students to understand other cultures, which is definitely needed right now. Instead of cost cutting, how about a definitive and transparent costbenefit analysis? Research other ways to invest like a more aggressive independent study program to help recoup recoup loss attendance funds. Research the possibility of a K- through8 program if that makes sense in that area. Research the possibility of other dual immersion programs to increase attendance. Research the social impact, not just the academic impact of a sixth through middle configuration.

109With kids younger and younger owning smartphones, do we really want our youngest 11 year olds mixing in with our most mature 14 year olds without giving more research to the social impacts? Please think about our students. Please think about what's happening with our country with our immigrant communities. Is now the best time to talk about consolidation for any school with what's going on? These actions are concentrating on the students of the future. But what about these students now? these students who went through CO. These students in our communities that may be affected what's going on around them. These kids that if approved, we are asking to go through another drastic change. Yes, kids can be resilient, but how about this time just letting kids just get a chance to be kids? Thank you for your

110time. Thank you. We have Phoenix Toazon and then Eddie Salceto. Good evening ABC community. My name is Phoenix and I'm a rising fourth grader at Sters Elementary. One of the best experiences for our community was when we ster students had the opportunity to put on a show. We didn't do a musical like every other school. We did Shakespeare. We did comedy. Despite many people doubting we could do it, our production of A Midsummer Night's Dream was a hit and filled the Brewer Theater at Cerritos High. It was full of magic, music, and joy. We even had Tony Award winner Miss Anika Noni Rose in our audience, who is best known as the voice of Disney's Princess Tiana. She told us she loved it. We made Shakespeare modern, accessible, and understandable using his own words from

1111595. We were the first to sing two original songs. We also danced to the original choreography by an eighth grader from Carmenita. Who else is bringing Shakespeare to life in Cerritos with elementary students? It was such a success that our directors are coming back next fall to direct the star students in another Shakespeare play. Our production made believers out of doubters. It brought kindergarten to sixth grade students together and show people that if you trust kids to do hard things, they can achieve that and more. It happened at Sters Elementary. Thank you for listening. [Applause] We have Eddie Salceto. It's hard to follow that up. Both of them. That father was amazing. Uh my name is Eddie Saledo. I am a father of uh now one ABC school district student, another left because of this

112board and this school district. Basically, um I'm here to talk about something a little bit different than everyone else. Everyone's talking about the consolidation of the schools. I'm here to talk specifically about something that I'm not saying you're trying to sneak it in, but the schoolwork's recommendation of uh expanding Whitney's uh enrollment to outside students. Uh before I begin, I want to be very clear that um whatever I say is protected under uh free speech. Um whether I say something offensive, use some language, I don't intend to, I don't want to, but I'm pissed. But it is protected free speech. Cohen, California 1971. Uh, is in Madison Local School District 2021. I can kind of say whatever I want, but what I want to say is what you're trying to do right now with Whitney

113is just blatantly wrong because what you're telling this community is let's close a bunch of schools and let's bring a bunch of kids from outside when there are plenty of students within the school district who qualify for Whitney. It's not that high of a bar, but there are plenty of students that are at Ferguson, Willow, Wararez, you name it, Kennedy, who have in the past have been denied their rightful spot according to your own policy. Dr. Castro and the rest of the crew has repeatedly denied students the rightful admission to Whitney High School, and now you're saying, "Let's consolidate schools and let's bring kids from the outside." It's utterly ridiculous. It is. The numbers are there. The facts are there. I sat in front of Dr. Castro, Bob Buena, H everyone. That's how we've always

114done it. So, we're not going to change our policies, especially the Hawaiian Guardians kids. We've talked about this, Dr. Ogar Rios. Especially the Hispanic kids. The school district is 45% Hispanic, yet only 11.9% of Whitney is Hispanic. You tell me that they're that there's that disparity in the kids, that they're that dumb that they can't get in? No, they can get in. And there's repeated systematic denial of kids from Browner schools to get into Whitney High School. It's facts. You have schools that are obligated to have three spots to come into the school. How many are they getting? One or two? But you'll have Gonzalez and they'll have 27 kids overindexing on car by 50 plus kids. So for you to consider the fact that you want to open up and school work said it's

115to help with the declining enrollment of the school district. No, that's We have enough kids that go to this school. So whether you you have to close schools, we know that it sucks. But be CEOs. Do what your job what you were voted to do. Close the schools. Explain to them why you're closing them. Give them the first right to take the bus. The first right to go to Whitney, the first right to go to school of choice. Do the right thing when you close the schools. You have to close the schools. It sucks. But this doesn't need to be the Hunger Games out here with these kids and these families fighting against each other. But to contemplate bringing in more kids to help in the enrollment of the school district is nonsensical. It's unethical.

116It's stupid. It's effing stupid. And if you think that Dr. Castro and her crew are going to do this again and deny our kids the rights, you're looking at lawsuits. You're looking at denial of civil rights. 1961 uh civil rights six. So do the right thing with the schools. Explain to them why you're going to close them. Give them all the opportunity. But this idiotic idea of allowing kids to come into Whitney is farical. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Are there any other public comments? None. Thank you. Um I'd like to take a quick Yeah. Would would a council member from Lakewood would like to speak because we do have uh um we did allow it to nine o'clock. So ju just go ahead and turn in your card afterwards. It's all right. We have

117David Ariano. I apologize. Mr. Ariano. Yeah. Yeah. I apologize council member Ariana. Um, excuse me. Yeah, council member, not the mayor, not yet. Um, so, but no, good evening everyone. Uh, trustee ABC staff and passionate parents and residents and teachers. Um, my heart goes out to everyone here tonight and those outside the room as well. As you guys know, I'm council member Ariano elected by the residents uh around Aloha in the fourth district and I believe uh Ernie's area as well. So, thank you so much for all you've been doing. Um this is a very difficult decision uh that's being considered tonight and I will respect whatever outcome that you reach um tonight as you make your decision. Uh I appreciate the transparency that we've had with uh Lakewood staff and then also the APC

118Taff. Um, like I said, um, I respectfully ask that I know these decisions very hard, but if there's any way possibly a little bit more time because, as you know, you have a recommendation, but as trustees, you have time that could put more into the decision. So, this decision that you make will impact generations to come. And I appreciate you letting me speak. Um, and good luck tonight. Thank you. Thank you. like to take a quick 10m minute recess. Oh, but there's one more. Go ahead. We we have time. We did uh move it till 9:00. So, um please identify yourself. Uh mayor, good evening, President Nishi, uh superintendent, uh Dr. Zitlo, members of the board. It has been a journey and I come here um on behalf of majority of residents of Warren Gardens

119that go to Ferguson Elementary School who are going through such fear. Um I trust that the board has deliberately and thoroughly studied the options and our desire and the rest of the community. We want our schools to remain open. Ferguson Elementary School is a community school. It's so unique, very unique. It's etched in the heart of Warren Gardens and we would like that option to continue our work there. Again, thank you so much. And on the families of Warren Gardens, we will continue to work together. Thank you and have a great evening. Thank you. Okay, one more time. Anybody else like to Again, we have time. Seeing none. Seeing none, then I would like to take a 10-minute recess. Um, and we'll be back at 9:00. Exactly. [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat.

120[Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Daddy. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Laughter] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Okay, the board is back in session. Uh the public comment section is uh completed and now we will entertain board comments. Uh board member Sue Yu. Yes. Before we go into anything, I wanted to turn on your mic. It's on. Yeah. Can you hear me? Yes. Yeah. I wanted to ask a quick question which is very important. Uh as an immigrant child myself, children do not choose to immigrate to this country. They come

121and follow their parents. I came when I was 80 years old. I grew up in LA and I want to ask a very important question. I know that our board president and Dr. Zillow made a very important comment, but we did as a board pass a resolution to protect children on this campus in our ABC district regardless of their immigration status. And I wanted to ask Dr. Zitlo, can you share that with us? Thank you. Yes. Um, back in 2017, um, this board made a commitment to, uh, protecting all children regardless of immigration status. And there are education codes and laws, plus our own board policies that all dictate the same things. And so, um, just to reassure families, um, that if children are at our schools, we will follow all laws and protect them.

122Um, and our campuses are closed to anyone who is not connected to a child. And the reason why we want to emphasize this is we want the community to be rest assured that we will protect your children because children need to be emotionally safe and secure and all the teachers and the staff should set aside time to assure the children that you are safe. Thank you. Thank you board member U. Uh now we will entertain comments on this particular agenda item. Okay. Uh board me uh board clerk Tatiana Yokoyama Buouie. As we all know, this is probably one of our least favorite decisions we'll ever have to make while on the board. Um, as I understand, in November 2024, the board had a contract with schoolworks to assist the district in maximizing school facilities, capacities,

123and utilization and make a recommendation to the board regarding possible school consolidations. And that took place in November in 2024. And as I understand the reason why we contracted with school works was because in 2023 a committee with community members appointed by the board as well as representatives from the ABC district community representing teachers. um and and various other members of the district were not able to ultimately reach a decision to close schools. They met for about a year looking at similar data to what school works was asked to look at. So, these community members um some of whom are here tonight were asked to evaluate our schools based on numbers and ultimately they could not reach a decision and I'm I'm sure it was very difficult for them just like it's difficult for us

124now. Uh yes, again they were not able to make a recommendation because they voted no. I believe it was a 6 to3 vote and I've reviewed the minutes from that meeting. So, thank you. So, so where I'm left here is that we have a schoolworks report that was provided to us in May based on data which some members of our community believe is imperfect, incorrect, not current, but it's data nonetheless. It's objective. And what I also understand is we've had an immense amount of public comment. Not just tonight, but for the past three meetings, we've had a showing of community members come out. a small number in support and understanding of what is required of the district and a big number advocating for their schools and their communities which is absolutely expected and warranted. I

125don't think any ABC school would have zero numbers showing up in support of their schools. So where does that leave us? There's no perfect school. But it's a bit unsettling to me when the data is presented and a report is presented and it turns into less about understanding how we can move forward and more about trying to provide other schools or other options or other things that we could do. That's why they had the that my understanding is that's why we had the objective report. So for me, I'm not, you know, I I I don't it's it's very hard for me to to take apart the report and say I like this part of the report but not this part of the report. And and ultimately for me it's it's an all or nothing decision.

126Additionally, you know, we're looking at numbers. We're looking at trying to grow our district population by bringing in kids from out of the district and elementary school. I'm potentially, you know, in the future and and I don't know if this is something we could approach. I'm concerned about how our middle schools will be affected and whether we are going to be able to, for example, at Sters where we're getting these big numbers, really optimistic, great numbers, are we going to be able to meet the expectations of those interd district families when their kids eventually will have to go to junior high or high school? Can our schools or the schools that they would desire to go to be available to them? Will they leave? What options do we have when other school districts seize our

127opportunity that we have right now to grow this this program and they do the same exact thing and then we're we're left with I think someone referred to it as a golden goose that we've invested our time and money into that potentially uh another another district could could just copy. So, um I think you know a couple years ago was too late to make a decision. I think um we're in a very tough position now and it's no longer just about money. It's about our schools and the academics and our communities. Um, and so I I I I don't think that this any of the decisions that we're making uh h are any reflection of how I feel about the community at a particular school. Um, not at all. I I actually um I empathize

128with every single parent that's here and um I I don't want this to be the last time we see any of you. If if there is studies or sessions or something where we can get participation and contribution, your thoughts are going to be needed. And as you know, President Nishi referenced earlier, we're discussing big important items tonight. stay and listen because this is this for the past six months, this is what I've been hearing and listening to. I'm not I'm not putting my head in the sand. I'm not closing my eyes to what you guys are saying. I'm listening to everything. But I do understand the importance of this decision tonight and um I I you know we'll do what what I believe is the best for our district. Thank you, Vice President Francisco Nyola.

129Uh thank you, President Nishi. Um I'll probably just start by by saying um this decision we we've all been trying to make is very objective. Uh the school report is very objective. It's looking at numbers and for myself I can speak that it has been very hard trying to be objective because um like has been mentioned I am from Hawaiian Gardens. Uh I grew up in Hawaiian Gardens. I went to Hawaiian Gardens schools and that is a part of who I am. And now I get to sit up here as the first uh homegrown kid to represent Hawaiian Gardens in this seat. So I I'm very proud of that. And I thank the people who came before me like Dr. Rios that paved the way. And to me, this consolidation plan, um, we have to

130be objective, but we also have to be empathetic and, you know, we have to collaborate with our community. And the things they're sharing with us are things that this this plan doesn't really consider yet. Um, so I I think we really need to figure out a way to incorporate the ideas that were shared, not just today, but in the past, of trying to increase our enrollment. But there is a road we have to take down and I think that road is inevitable that schools will have to be consolidated. Um so my my decision is to um create a plan um with us here today um and and make that decision to go down a road together. Um as as hard as it may be um I think we we have to for the good of

131the students. Um we have made a lot of progress. Our LCAP is phenomenal. We've been making slow and steady positive changes that have been by because of our teachers, the investments we made in our in our campuses. And for everybody here works very very hard to get those small little changes of growth positive every year. And the reason we're we're doing this consolidation is because we want to keep that keep that momentum. If we slow down, if we have to make cutbacks, we lose that momentum and we can actually go in the opposite direction. So although I I I wish I could just be subjective and not close any schools, I do have to be objective and and face the reality that if we want to keep this momentum going at ABC, we have to

132make a decision. Um I think we can discuss here a little more on what we would like to see moving forward, but I think a plan needs to be made. Thank you, Vice President. Uh board member U. Thank you, President Nishi. As you guys all know, this is very tough, especially for board member, you know, Noyola, and it was like that when we were passing the bond. I was so torn, you know, torn because there were people who were against the bond, but we carried it forward and we used the the bond money. The first thing we did was to secure all the schools with cameras and fences, closed campuses, and we did the right thing as a board. And we sit here because we love children. We love the community. We love the people.

133Everybody on this board, we always talk about what can be done to improve the academics on for the schools on the south side. That is probably what we talk about the most honestly. And I just want to share with you guys that this was not a decision that was done in one month. The if you look at the board agenda and you look at the timeline, February 2019, we hired the Davis demographics to study the enrollment. That's when we started 2019. May 2022, we formed ad hoc committee, school facilities, capacities, and declining enrollment. January 2023, Davis demographic updated the demographic study. And May, between May 2023 and 2024, for one year, the ad hoc committee met one year, two town hall meetings, and did not deliver final report because we were not ready as a

134district and a community. November 2024, the board hired schoolworks and May 20, 2025 is when the schoolworks presented the recommendation and June tw June 3rd we had the public hearing and here here we are today. So it was not something that happened overnight. It was a process and during the last four years we waited but the enrollment declined even further because it's not just our district right as you all know it's the whole California and the stakeholders not just the the the residents but the teachers and and the families and the others we understand this issue And we as a board member, we have a duty and a responsibility because we didn't hire all these demographers for nothing. They're the ones who studied the enrollment trend, interd district, intrad district students, trend of the each

135school, each campus's enrollment. They studied all the data and they did this with the staff. We hired a staff, our director, Dr. Castro and you know our CBO Tuan who knows all the money and Dr. Zidlo, they put their heads together with all the principles and they came up with this and I have been on the board for 13 years and I do respect that our district executive board and principles and teachers. We have very excellent educators who are not corrupt who does not waste. So I really do put my trust in this result. It was pretty shocking, but it is very important that we move forward and take action tonight. And I do like to definitely ask our staff to make sure that the transition team must consist of impacted parents, teachers, and family,

136and provide plans for the transportation and priority in school choice for the impacted students and family. and that all the programs will stay intact and report to the board quarterly. Thank you. Thank you, board member Dr. Olga Rios. Okay. Um I just want to speak to a few cons considerations that I'm um thinking about. Um but I'll start off with um with a followup. We did commission a report for um I remember when we were considering the bond and the people came back and said don't do it it's not going to pass. We said yeah we don't know about that. We think we can absolutely get it to pass and it took work from all of us. Um but we've taken reports and made our own decisions about it. Um I just want to speak

137to three considerations that I'm making. Um, we did get to hear from the district and the district did make a compelling case about why we needed to do this and as you can imagine a lot of it was financial. Uh, but here are three things that I am considering as well as I know my other board members are. Um, timing. This is a very difficult time and I would consider this um what's happening in our communities, our communities being under attack, the fact that people are scared to leave their homes. I mean, I was at In-N-Out today and I was like, "What's going on?" Usually, there's a line. Like, I mean, at In-N-Out, people aren't coming to In-N-Out to buy a hamburger because they're scared of what might happen to them. So, I know, you

138know, somebody spoke to that they could have they probably would have been here, but they're scared. I believe that. Um, and so timing right now to me is a big issue. Um, the fact that we would be holding this decision over people's heads for an entire year, I think I had a problem from the beginning. Um yeah. Um the second thing that I'm talk that I'm considering is the issue of equity. From day one, we knew that this impact would have a disproportionate effect on our vulnerable communities who were already struggling. Um transportation is absolutely going to be an issue. And even though we heard that they're, you know, tentatively creating a plan of how kids were going to get from A to B, we heard the community and we've been hearing people tell us

139over and over that, you know, grandparents walk their kids to the schools. Um, you know, somebody brought up about what if the kid misses the bus. That's going to be a real issue. And so I don't know that we can come up with a plan that's going to effectively address issues of kids getting to school on a daily basis. We know attendance is already a problem as it is. We know parent engagement is a problem as it is. Um again disproportionately going to affect the most vulnerable in our schools. Um and then does this really the third consideration is does this really address the big issue. Uh we did commission a dem demog demographic report and from day one they told us that it's not necessarily that the kids aren't at these schools is that

140families are choosing not to send their kids to the schools. whether it's perception, whether it's reality, that is an issue that we continuously ignore. Um, they gave us numbers anywhere from 30 to 60%. People are choosing not to send their kids to the school. I know teachers were kind of upset because I brought up outcomes. To me, it matters that kids read by third grade. We're in the business of educating students to be functioning adults, whether they're anything, whatever background, whatever color, whatever ability. Um, they have to be able to read and write regardless of what they choose to be. And it's not our decision uh who or what they're going to be or they're going to go to college. Again, if you go to our teacher high school, 100% of them will apply to

141college and possibly walk onto a college campus. Um, so anyway, those questions probably shouldn't be directed at teachers. It should be directed to principal. It should be directed to our ed services. It should be directed to our superintendent because somebody has to own it. Somebody has to own that idea of how do we get more of our kids to read, write, and do math at at grade level. So anyway, those are the real issues. I don't know that consolidating schools at this point today in time is the way to go. Reimagine education. We've been talking about that for the past five years. yet to see, you know, they did it at Sters, it sounds like. Why isn't it happening in other places? Thank you, uh, board member McCaten. Good evening. I'd like to really thank

142everyone for their, um, heartfelt comments tonight. And, um, I know fiscally we need to shut some schools, but, I'd like to slow down the process. Um, I really don't want to see Ferguson closed. I think that they are in the middle of a grant, a reading grant. They've made great progress on that and we're now going to say, "Okay, stop. You've given PD to your teachers. Um, stop and we're going to shut your school and those teachers can go to other places." But they're like, they're moving in the right direction. They're making progress with their students. Um, their scores have gone up. I just think it's a bad time to stop that. This [Applause] secondly, um, at Sters, a school that is, um, their population is is rising up because of the immersion program and

143because of the IV program, I don't think it's a time to stop to close that school either. I would I'm going to suggest that we look at closing a southern school, closing a northern school, doing it slowly. It's going to take it's it's a process. It's going to be a hard process. It's going to be there's lots of memos of understanding between the the teachers union and the classified unions. And it's going to take some doing. Um I'm sure we have great teachers at Aloha. I've just begun to know them. I have subbed at Warz. I know that those teachers are when they when war whereas became an engineering school, they went full force into that. Um I don't want to disregard them at all. We have to start somewhere and I know that those

144teachers from whereas will go to other schools and be successful, but I'd like to slow the whole process down at this point. Thank you. Thank you, board member Mendoza. Thank you, Mr. President. Um, I had to write my notes down because I do take things personally. Um, but I just want to talk about the facilities committee that's been mentioned. I was on I was on that committee. I was there. We did have recommendations. We ultimately voted to send to the board a a no vote, but we we made sure that there was recommendations that were going to be sent to the board. Unfortunately, we had members on that committee that blocked the ability to send the recommendations to the board. It was out of our control. We had a list going. We did a great

145job. I think u we worked through some of our differences, but ultimately there were members on that committee that didn't show up. There were members that had questions that went back to another meeting. So, we did our job and there was recommendations. Um but ultimately, yes, we our recommendation was not to close schools. Okay, I wrote this down because I I don't think I could get through uh my notes if I didn't. So, as a Latina, I can't consider this agenda item. I cannot even cons begin to consider a plan that would deepen the fear and instability already threatening our families. We have fought too hard to build schools that reflect who we are, Latinos, to now no longer be worth keeping open. We are being asked to close schools. But let's be clear, this

146is about people. This is about children, families, and neighborhoods, especially those that have been historically underserved, marginalized, and too often ignored. School is more than just a building. It's a safe space. It's a support system, and for many students, the most stable part of their day. And we heard that from many of our our our public comments. Consolidating schools uproots that stability. It breaks apart trusted relationships between students, educators, and families. These connections are especially critical for students who are already living with trauma, stress, and uncertainty. And that bring me to the heart of the issue. Three out of the four schools being targeted for closure or title one schools serving predominantly Latino students and families who are already economically disadvantaged. These are communities that face systemic challenges every day. Displacement, underfunding, language barriers, and

147a constant fight for equitable resources. Now, on top of those struggles, families are also living under the real and immediate threat of ice rates. Let that sink in. Ice rates. We had our parents come up here and talk about that. I live in fear. I don't want to go outside. You heard Dr. Rios. You go and you see our communities are empty right now because there's fear. They're living in fear. Fear of separation, fear of deportation, fear of losing their loved ones. You can go to social media. You can go to the news, you hear about it. I follow one of the posts that just shows constantly where where ICE is at. And you know, our students carry that weight with them into the classroom. How can we even talk about closing the schools that

148offer them safety, consistency, and care in the middle of that kind of trauma? I ask myself, and you should all each ask yourselves, have we done enough to prevent these closures? What alternatives have we explored? Have we truly exhausted every creative solution? A study session to look at all the public recommendations. We have so many ideas from our our our public our public uh comments. Why aren't we looking at those? Why don't aren't we considering those? Now, let's be honest. When we consolidate schools like this, we're not just closing buildings. We're closing the doors on trust, on community and belonging. And we're doing it to the very families who already feel under siege. And listen, you already heard it. When we close a school, it doesn't open back up. It's closed forever. So, I feel

149that this is not the time to be discussing school closures. Okay? We have a report that we accepted, but it's just a report. It's just a recommendation. We're the board. We make decisions. We can make our own decisions. We don't have to follow someone who doesn't know our communities, someone who doesn't know our families. So, with that being said, I'd like to make a motion. I'd like to table this agenda to another time. So, I'd like to make a few comments before uh board member you gets to just because we all get a chance, right? Sure. So, um first I think the audience needs to have some answers to some of the questions just there's a 40 27 questions or issues. So that that's definitely an issue. So one of the uh persons I indicated

150uh where does the $850,000 savings come in? So hopefully somebody can answer that question Mr. So this number was provided to the um ad hoc committee back in 2023. So when you consolidate a school right or close them um the teachers will follow the students right so um what will be the saving you will not have a principal you will not have support staff like the two custodians you will not have the office staff like the secretaries case you will not have to spend the additional funds to maintain the facilities and potentially there could be some saving in utilities. So we analyze that and the committee study that and analyze the cost those are the real savings of closing the schools. So the questions come in is if you're not laying off anyone how where's

151the savings? So just because we don't lay off personnel, permanent employees, doesn't mean that we don't have vacant positions that we can move staff into. So if you were to close the school, there will be real saving to the bottom line because you will not have those positions. Thank you. Um this was a a question that was asked to me. Um if we go 678 uh there was an issue or somebody indicated that the study seems to show that we would lose uh school of choice and we have less out of district kids because our compasses are too full. So is is that the case if we go to 678 that we will lose out of district kids and we will lose school of choice. So the recommendation is to move 67 and 8 beginning

152in 2728. So by that time we will have about depends on the numbers if you look at the current. So that would be the current four, five and six, right? In two years they will be six, seven and eight. If you were to add those enrollment as of right now, it will be about 3,800 students. So if you were to remove the 330 that would normally go to Whitney's, right? Or it wouldn't be three, you know, if you depends on the board configuration of the Whitney. If they have a 6, seven, and eight also, then we would be about at 3,400 students. So we do have the capacity at the middle schools to accommodate all those students including permit students from outside the districts. So we won't lose any permit students and we won't lose

153any school of choice if we go 678. Is that the answer? The answer is we won't lose permit students. The school of choice capacity will be different depends on if the board choose to redraw the boundary. Correct. So total capacity, we do have the capacity at the middle school to accommodate permit students if they want to come. Again, if they want to come to a certain school, there may not be capacity. Right. Right now though, that the middle school ag uh it's not on our agenda to move those boundaries. So at this point, we would not lose. Yeah, it would be part of the transition plan if we need to. So thank you. Let me ask another question. Some uh there was somebody who talked about 1.4 4 million from Michelle Steel. Um, does Zia

154have a answer to that particular question? I wait I I need to unfortunately ask staff. Do you want to address that? You Yeah, I'll answer that. Thank you. So, we have been approached by the city manager as exploring stage. There has not been a formal uh proposal from the city of Hawaiian garden that uh that the superintendent and I have met with the city man city manager from Hawaiian gardens. He has indicated that uh the city of Hawaiian garden have secured some grants uh that potentially could renovate uh or do some kind of renovation at Ferguson similar to Fetty. uh but they are still trying to secure and finalize the funding. Um so they have not come forward with a proposal for us to consider for staff to even share with the board because it's

155still at the exploring stage and they have not finalized all the fundings. So the grants, my understanding is the grant from the Congress woman, the former Congresswoman um is a component of of of the total funding. Uh there was a number um was discussed at up to $34 million. So $1.3 million was just part of the grant. There was other funding sources that the city was trying to secure, but it's still at the exploring stage. We have not received any formal proposal from the city. Okay. So, it's 1.4 is guaranteed then again we don't know that's between the city uh of Hawaiian garden and the former congresswoman. We don't know if there's any condition if there's any timeline. We have not received a proposal from the city of Hawaiian garden. And so the congressman is

156uh approved monies to improve the specific school facilities like um everything at that school. Again, it's part of the funding we were told that the city of Hawaiian have secure commitment from um the former congresswoman uh to support the renovation of Ferguson Elementary. That's a school that they are proposing. Does it have to be at that school? I don't know. Oh, it could be any school in probably Hawaiian Gardens though. Again, I don't have the details of of the proposal because we have not received a proposal from the city. Okay. Um All right. Um there was a discussion regarding a $400,000 grant at uh Ferguson, right? Um can you give me some details regarding is that transferable to any other uh location or is that money lost if Dr. Castro can Dr. Castro sorry because

157there's somebody talked about it in the audience so I need to ask sure that is the uh literacy grant from the state of California and I believe we have one more year left on that grant. Okay so there's uh one or two more years left on that particular program. Um, can it be transferred to another school? Is that possible? Do we know? No, it cannot be transferred to another school. It cannot be transferred to another. Yeah, it's dependent on the demographics of that particular school site. What is the amount? It's $400,000. So, what's left over is about a h 100,000. I don't have that specific detail at this time. It's a four-year grant or two-year grant, three-year grant. It was a two to threeyear grant granted by the state. Uh it was no application process

158for the grant. This the school was simply designated with that grant money and there's requirements that have to be met in order to keep your grant funding going. So, how much have we spent to the grant so far? I don't have that information in front of me right now, but I'd have to do some research to follow up. I'm not sure if uh Mr. W has that information. We can provide that through Thursday notes. Well, well, I need to make decision. Do we have anybody on staff to be able to answer that particular question? I see. Okay. All right. Um, they spent some of the money already. Correct. Yes, we have spent some of the money mostly on our literacy coaching and supports. All right. I I have questions here. Uh board member U. So

159I have some questions too. Uh what were the schools recommended by the ad hoc committee that uh studied this and met together for one year? What were the schools that were recommended but of course they didn't finalize during the discussion of that one year? Do you have an answer? Again, this committee did not provide a report to the board. Mhm. So, they looked at the 19 schools and they used a different criteria. They narrowed down to six, but um I believe at the final two was Warus and Aloha. But again the recommendation was no not to move forward with close closing those two schools. So therefore there was no report from the committee to the board. Okay. So we have in 2018 2018 uh we had 20,299 students. This year we have 17,510 students. And

160of the 17,510 students, 2,700 students are enrolled from outside the district. And uh we have the enrollment statistics that's available to the public, you know, in our agenda. And if you look at the four schools, Aloa in 2001 had 463 students and this year we have 299 students. Ferguson 712 students 2001 today we have 291 students. Huarez 516 students and we have 297 students. Stars 609 students and 543 students. But for Star Wars, of the 543 students, how many are from interd district? All right. It's it's a pretty big number. And so because of the the school choice as uh my colleague um board member Dr. Ri you know Rios uh mentioned so the students come from other home school within the district. That's how many almost not 50% but like 40% right. So it

161is I ideal ideal excuse me. Okay. Actually you do not have a say in this but thank you. So hello. Um thank you Dr. Thank you President Nishi. That threw me off. Okay, status quo is the easiest thing for us bo as a board and if we don't take action what's going to happen is uh I mean it's just not sustainable status quo is not sustainable folks and if we don't take action you know uh Dr. Zidlo, what can we foresee in the next 3 years, 5 years? Um, well, we will have to regroup and look at how we are using our current funding. So, um, it will mean we have to review programs, processes, um, in order to maintain staff. Um, we may have to eliminate programs. It's hard to say what those details

162would be. Um, we have for many years been able to use one-time funds to deal with combination classes. That will not be an option anymore. Um, and so even in schools where class sizes were small, um, they may be contract size, um, and may have two grade levels in them at the elementary level. Um, for us as a district, we have to work through whatever decision the board makes. Um, but there will be significant changes that will have to be made. And so if we don't take action tonight, it's going to be August and um that's a new school year. We cannot make any decisions when the new school year. So it's going to delay another who knows how it will you know come as a action item or you know discussion study session again

163during those two three years. I do not want to go the route of Santa Ana Unified School District. They just laid off 400 teachers. And uh can I ask a question to the union teacher union president? How the teachers? No, you you need to ask staff. Okay. Um HR Dr. Frasier, I wanted to ask you the competitiveness of our teachers. The living cost is constantly going up. And will the teachers at ABC Unified stay with us or can we recruit and hire competitive teachers without being competitive in pay and raises? Thank you, Madam Sun. I I think it's important for us when we negotiate with our our our unions that we um look at competitive rates throughout the the between the different like districts. And I think that's what we do and what we're we're

164committed to um to make sure that our employees feel valued um and want to be with us. So status quo is not sustainable and it's not really about just the money but for our students to have the best teachers and not cut programs because it's about educating them to close the gap. Um I think that it is responsibility of our board to move forward with this action because we've been working on this since and you know the data the enrollment you know presented by the the people who only does this the school works they don't just work with our district they studied the entire other districts too. So what is best for the students? Thank you board member. You I want to move to the next uh person. Um vice president Noiola. Uh thank you

165President Nishi. Um if I can amend the motion made by board member Mendoza. Um it hasn't actually been seconded yet. Still in the middle of public comments. Yeah, we're still in the middle of board comments. Comments. If somebody wishes to make a second at a certain point, then uh we'll entertain that. Okay. Uh, I would like to make a second uh on that motion and if I can amend it. I think um to bring back this item as is is is one one option, but I think we would possibly want to bring it back with some other some other additional phases. I think uh moving phase one and two down and adding additional phase to maybe a study session like board member Mendoza asked and look at some some equity decisions. Um maybe revisiting the

166school of choice. um looking at how that can help those schools that have higher um transfer out rates um bring back some some students and also look at real residential student numbers. I think some of the comments made about looking at schools from look focusing on on ABC students uh primarily looking at residential students. Okay, we have a second with an amendment and we have a comment from board member Mendoza or a question. Um, no, just some common sense. You let everybody else speak twice. I want to go twice. Yes, you're on. This is an important issue. We don't just do it once. You know, I keep I keep hearing like we've done it. We've done everything. We've done everything. I I can I was on I was on that committee. Even though we didn't

167make a recommendations, there's recommendations that were made that nobody I don't know if they Twan, Mr. I'm sorry. I get I get so emotional. I'm sorry, Mr. Did the did anybody from our committee ever come and speak to the board about the recommendations that we did at that committee? Yes. Uh the chairperson um did come and present to the board and basically his report was that the committee was not able to uh move forward with a final report to the board. But none of the recommendations that we made as a committee made it to the board. They never got to hear those. Correct. Because legally it was not able to have a final report to the board. Okay. So, so, so I'm not going to say anything, but I'm just going to let you know

168that we came up with some recommendations. Um, and we've heard lots of recommendations from our public and we're not listening. We're trying to rush through this. Um, and I think I want to be a board that listens to my community. I want to be a board that gets ideas. I don't want to be a board member that just pushes something down our community. We've had town halls. You we hear them loud and clear. And I think as a board, I think as a as a community, as experts, we can come up with some ideas that will help. Maybe this will come down the line and we have to. But I don't think as a board member, as a community member, I haven't seen us do everything that we can do to get to this point.

169I honestly I don't. And I would love to have a study session to bring all of these ideas together and ask questions and find out this and that. What about this? What about that? I know you're talking just about this plan, but this is not our plan. This was a plan given to us by somebody that we paid. I'd rather hear from my community. I'd rather hear from my parents. I'd rather hear from everybody else except from the person that doesn't know our community. That being said, there's a motion. There's a second and amendment. Yes, we should have actual discussion which I will get to do. Thank you. Um if if it's okay board member you I'd like to one more comment really quick. So everybody's thinking that we are rushing to judgment. It's a

170rush. Oh my gosh. Except for the fact on the table that this has not been rushed. This has been in consideration since 2014 when we did not pass the bond. Excuse me. I get to speak at this point. We were quiet when the the public was talking and this is my chance to speak uninterrupted. We can of course wait and do some more study and what we call analysis paralysis. I have seen many places where they have done that and I will give you some examples. Oakland school district made a decision. By the way, all the decisions we make here are not permanent. By the next board, we can change our minds very simply. What we do here today is provide a way forward to address and not hope and pretend like this is not

171happening. We have done actions to try to have more kids. That's one part of it. We have tried to move the district headquarters. Uh we've not tried it. We've moved the fairs in the south. We've added programs. We've done many of the things, but we can't create new kids. That's just not within the board power. Only God has that power. Um the issue is of course we can delay. It's not a disaster. We are running a $15 million structural $5 million $4.1 million I'm sorry deficit and $15 million of our reserve extra funds from our restricted funds are being spent every year until we be gone in three years. And we will be spending money on our bonds because it is required for us to spend it within a certain amount of time since we

172approved this. So we approved in 2018. We have 10 years. So, we can wait, of course, and we can put millions, $5 million per elementary school into these schools with the hope that all of these programs that we put out here will change the trajectory of what's happening. But that hope is not a strategy because we know that there are no school districts of our size that are increasing in population. I'm sorry. That's the truth. We can put our hands head under the ground and we can cry. There's a lot of people here that I'm crying about because schools, just like board member Mendoza said, they aren't buildings. There's a place where we saw our kids sing. They're the places where our hearts are. But we're also responsible to the persons who are not in

173this room. The 17,500, the 100,000 residents that we serve in this whole community, the city council persons here that rely on this school district to be the best that it can be, they rely on us to make hard decisions. So when the middle school kid can't succeed because there's not enough programs in the kids can't go to the have the same shows as other parts of the district because we don't have the people there. We're just telling that kid we don't care about them. We don't care about the middle school kids. We don't care about our high school kids. We just care about these kids. Right now is the time that we have money. Next year, I don't know that we're going to have federal funds. Quite frankly, I I hate to be pessimistic about

174it, but our president may elect to save more money in places where I don't think, but you know, that's that's their prerogative. And the state of California is not going to be able to backfill it. We're already spending 15 million of our restricted monies in excess of what we get in and we're already spending $4 million of this and we're not delivering the best product that we possibly can. I This is depressing. I get it. Um because there's not the the the numbers that we need. There's a lot of things we need. I would love to have a million different things, but hope is not a strategy, guys. Um, delay is not something that these kids can afford to have. These kids suffered from COVID and here we are. We're going to not give them

175the resources because we won't have the resources. That's the way it works. It's not like I can materialize money out of nowhere. There's I know there's people say, "Well, you got lots of money. Figure it out. Don't uh don't buy pencils or something something like that. That's not a strategy, guys. We're here to make a decision. And it's not I I would never want to be in this position, right? And I don't blame anybody who makes a different vote, however they want to vote. That's that's on the conscience that you have. Um but we also represent also represent teachers. We also represent staff and they have families too. Don't they deserve to have something competitive? I think we we represent a community and and I would like to be able to serve that community with

176the monies that we have because now if we address it, we can address the issues of the buses and we can address the issues of the mental health and we can address the harms that ICE is committing on our our residents. We can do that now. But if we put our hands in the sand and we surprise parents on a decision like they've done in Oakland, by the way, and instead of having great education, instead of that, they picked the building. They picked the hard building that yes, people have a heart about, but they picked that. And now they got rid of their teachers, their mental health people, the people that were helping them learn, the tutors, all that extra money. No, it went to a different place. It didn't go to our kids. That

177is a priority that I think that people are more important, far more important. Teachers are more important, students are more important than our buildings. And I I will cry if we have to do this. But I also know that, you know, those memories don't disappear. And I would hope that we can that the kids can see and um experience additional other areas as well. So that is my general comment. Suyu, do you have additional comments? Yes, I have a question. the action we make today and staff I wanted to ask you um it's not going to be done overnight. This is we have a transition time one two three years phase one phase two and to my fellow board members I think we're all talking about you know having more time and we can make

178those decisions the transitions however the action tonight is very important because this will give the staff time to prepare and plan and and you know move our higher and not hire and you know make the they need time to do that you know that right but whatever all that you've mentioned you know Jeie uh uh yeah board members what you guys mentioned that's in the transition team and many of the you know uh comm community members tonight can be part of the transition team to to input and as far as the timeline is concerned the board can decide that's that's more detail but the big picture I think we do agree and we do need to move forward so that this will have the entire district including the teacher union all the stakeholders get going

179with the plan okay thank you so I want to clarify the motion that you have so I think we've had enough board comment and so uh what was the specific motion and your amendment so we can be clear your motion is my motion was to table this agenda item and then I think Mr. uh Noyola had an amendment to my motion. Uh yes, with the additional information we're we're learning tonight, I think uh an amendment to not just bring back this plan, but I think uh an initial preface to this would be to look at my focus area would be uh residential population as as far as just enrollment. So, I think that I'm not sure if that's consistent to because she's saying don't vote on this at all. So, I think Are you seconding

180not voting on this at all? No, my motion was not to vote and my motion is to table to table it. Yeah. To another time. Yes. Yeah. to table to another time but bring back a plan that includes um um so not these schools specifically but you know also look at considering new the new data for the new enrollment and also residential population. Okay. And additionally, I don't know if this would go into this decision, but um uh the school of choice if that's within our purview, you know, looking at how we can address the the higher amount of transfer out rates. That just feels like a whole another motion. Yeah. So, I'm thinking So, why don't you just add a study session to it? So I think first we need to vote on your

181motion and then we can vote on his motion if if we get a second for that. So is there second to your motion? Mr. Nyola did a second to mine. So you want to do a second but without all the other stuff we can um discuss the other issues? Yeah. Um but okay. And I'd like you to do a roll call, please. Yes, we will be doing this by roll call. Thank you. Um actually, you know what? There's no other further board comment. Okay. Because normally somebody would call the question, but I I am calling the question at this point. Genie, can I make an can I make a mot another motion at this point? No, we would still need to con consider her motion first. I wanted to make a motion, too. So, mine

182is first. Hers is first. We need to consider hers first. So, Liz, can you do a roll call, please? So this is motion to table the whole thing. Do not consider anything indefinitely because that's what she said. Mrs. McCaten, no. Mrs. Mendoza, yes. Dr. Rios, yes. Mrs. Yu, no. Mrs. Yokoyama Bui, no. Mr. Nyola, yes. Mr. Nishi E, no. Motion fails for Excuse me. 34. I I'm sorry. It passes. What? No, it fails. Excuse me. It fails. 34. Okay. I have uh board member you. No. Well, you got Francisco and J. Okay. I'm looking at the number. I saw two. Um I pushed it. So, I have to go by the the button pressed. So, you It's fine. Go. I've been wanting to make a motion. No, I think point of order. I think we

183were discussing mine and then you said Francisco's and you said you had to do mine first and then you're going to Francisco. That is true. Yes. Okay. Correct. So, that is correct. I I did say that. All right. Francisco. Uh, thank you. I think given the new information, especially with the grants that we're unsure of to clarify and and new enrollment data, I think we can uh bring back this uh this recon uh consolidation plan but with uh an additional preface that can be decided at a study session. My second do we have any definition as to when that preset study session is going to be? I think you know towards the end of July. So this can be on the agenda the first meeting in August. Okay. We don't have an August if this

184could be a special meeting in July. So go ahead uh superintendent. So um I do not believe I would be able to put together what you're asking for by the first meeting in August or even the second meeting in August. um because we would have to work through the details of everything you're looking for and then I would have to have staff working on that. Um and at this point there's a lot of staff not in with the summer months. So this would have to move into the fall. Okay. So at the earliest uh possible agenda. Sorry. Yeah. Okay. The earliest possible agenda. Is there a no later than date? Uh, no later than uh yes, November. Okay. All right. Is there a second to that motion? Second. Okay. So, board discussion. Uh, board member

185in Manhattan. Is it only discussion about that item? It's a discussion about that item or um whatever you want that's pertinent to the current issues that we have before us. Okay. I can make a motion at this point or I can't make He's made a motion. There is a second. Then we need board discussion. Okay. I um would like to have more board study, but I also would like to move forward knowing that we fiscal fiscally need to close schools and suggest that we ask that two schools move forward with closure and then we do more studying as we proceed. So you think two schools? Okay. Uh board member you. Yeah, I agree with uh Jeie, board member Jeanie. Um, we can make a motion. We can move forward and do all of this with

186more time. You know what I'm saying? We can move forward with a motion and still have a study session and delay with more time. We can do all that, but we we that's not necessarily I don't know how that relates to this motion, but I'm just saying that we can carry out the main motion and put all that under. So, that's not what's on the floor right now. What's on the floor is his motion to delay the consideration of this until we have done a study session which occurs no later than November and then at a later date we would reconsider this particular item. That is is that your motion? Think that's that is his motion. So he's saying no decision today. We wait until someday later. Okay. Can I respond to that? Um, first

187I'm going to recognize Dr. Olga Rios. Yeah. I don't know if this would be an amendment, but something that I would be very interested in at the study session would be um, you know, when we first got that demograph I can't say that word demographer demographer study. You know, we learned that parents were choosing not to go to these schools and so we said, okay, you know, we're they don't know about the fabulous programming we have. And so we hired a communications officer we to spread the word and we're still dealing with the same issue. So, I want to know like why are parents um choosing to not attend their their their their home their neighborhood school because we know it's very inconvenient um as opposed to just walking around the the corner. They're they're

188making this choice. I want to know I'd like us to know why. Um and we talked a lot about reimagining maybe some creative ideas. We know ABC district is held to the highest standard. You talk to anybody in our area and they look to us for setting the standard when it comes to educational quality, labor union, uh, relations, like you name it. We know kids will come here. We need to figure out what is it going to take at schools that are on this list for that to happen. So, I don't know if it'd be in, you know, maybe our ad committee instead of why we should close should be about why we should stay open. Um, so I think that's still within the parameters of what his motion is without actually amending it. So

189I don't think you need to make an amendment, right? It was just considerations for that study session. Okay. Thank you. Board member, you Okay. So my concern of delaying is um we we we will have because this is a really um bold um recommendation. So many different groups will come during that time and it's going to be even more difficult to move forward with any decision. But if I may, you know, board member um Noyola to to to make a motion to approve the plan to consolidate and reconfigure schools to address declining enrollment districtwide with the condition of the transition team consists of impacted parents, teachers, and family. provide plans and have a study session and look at the school choice and transfer provide plans for transportation programs are intact. We can do all that.

190Can we make a motion with the condition that way we can move forward and still address all of your concerns? So I think the the question is um she wants to amend your motion to actually vote on this particular recommendation but have a study session later. I think that's what the the request is. Yes. The question is um procedurally. Yeah. Uh is is that a friendly amendment and you do not have to accept that? You can accept it if you can accept it or not accept it? No. I I think because of the information I think closing you know some of these schools may have some impact some some financial impacts that we don't we aren't aware of yet I think shared today the financial impact of some outside grants um that we may potentially

191lose so I would just like to verify that and also you know do some study sessions on on what you know what Dr. Rios is mentioning on why these parents deciding not to go to their neighborhood schools. So, he's rejecting your uh friendly amendment. Mr. President, I'd like to call the question. Okay. Well, I I get to ask some questions, too. Okay. Well, I I you you can call the questions, but then we'll have lots and lots of time. I mean, I can just I'll press my button, too, and I can keep talking, too. I mean, at some point, we need to call the question. Okay. But I have not gotten to speak on this one issue. Um I won't be too long. I I just uh um and all the decisions that we make

192here today are changeable. The issue is providing direction to staff and making a plan for the future. So of course we can always plan to do nothing and the committee will respond exactly the way we have not shown leadership. Um, and I think that is critical because the last time we did this, the demographer said we were going to be at 18,000 students. That was his prediction. He was wrong. He was wrong. 500 additional a whole school left in one year because we dithered. That is exactly what happened. And we will find out in August that again because we dithered it won't just be what we have. These four schools don't actually solve the issues that we have before us. This is only the start of what actually because it doesn't actually help palms at

193much Carver Gonzalez if you look at their uh second or third grade class has 40 kids. That's a combination class right now. We're basically telling the kids that Gonzalez please have combination classes. That's exactly what we're telling them. And we're telling them that to the kids in Hawaiian. We're telling that to the kids in Ferguson. We can wait, but those kids can't really wait. I mean, that's if that's the decision of the board, that's that's the decision of the board. Uh board member Buouie, there are struggles that um our community uh some in particular are facing right now which I I obviously sympathize with and I I I can't understand on the same level that you all do and I I apologize for that. I I I know we we're living in uncertain times right

194now and it's very difficult. I believe, you know, parents mentioned about walking to school and feeling unsafe and and I um I'm hearing the compassionate cries, especially related to Ferguson. I know that the literacy coach has has come. She's spoke at the town hall. She spoke at um she she's emailed. So So that's how you know we're we're fairly familiar with with this grant. I I'm feeling it and it's and that's why when we come here it's very emotional. It's very emotional and I imagine in 2022 2023 when this was being discussed it was also very emotional. It's never going to get easy. This decision that we're we're potentially making is never going to get easy. And there was I think a public speaker who brought up the Hunger Games and schools different schools are

195being brought up. What about this school? Wouldn't this school be better? How about this school? And that's why for me, as much as I know that our public or at least those who are present here and who have emailed don't agree with the report, I can only look to the report because it's subjective. It doesn't take into account what you all are seeing in the community. and and and every each one of our 19 elementary schools has communities similar to yours. And so I'm not telling you that and and I see you shaking your heads. You're not all the same. I get that. I I I get that entirely. Uniquely, wonderfully different. Some more challenges than others. I believe that the district will take into account those challenges. While I want to make things as

196perfect as possible, I can't. But what I what I don't want to see is more and more fingers being pointed at other schools. This is hard enough as it is. So, so that's what I'm feeling as a board member. And I know you all um have been very voc vocal about about your beliefs and I'm just sharing mine. So thank you. Okay. I think it's uh I don't see any other comments here. So we will have a vote. Thank you. And the motion is to not close any schools and delay for a uh a study session, additional study session, which by the way we can have at any time uh whatever decision we make. So, at this point, we will call for the vote. Mrs. McCaten, no. Mrs. Mendoza, yes. Dr. Rios, yes. Mrs. Yu,

197no. Mrs. Yokoyama Buui, no. Mr. Nyola, yes. Mr. Nishi E, no. Motion fails. Three four. Okay. Okay. I think um was Jeanie next in terms of the the line of orders? Yeah, Jeie, you're next. Okay. I'm sorry, not Jeanie. Board member MChaten. Oh, thank you. Um I would like to propose a motion that says we revise the way Well, we really can't revise phase one and two, right? I mean, that's the way you can do what you want. This is You're right. Sorry for um my ignorance at this point. Um, I'd like to propose that we move forward knowing the district is struggling fiscally and close Aloha and Warz and from there meet as a community and talk more about how to meet the needs of the community and how we can strengthen our schools

198to bring in more population. So, schools like Sters that have really found a way to enhance and and get the population there, how do we replicate that? Okay. Is there a second to that motion? Okay. Uh I don't see a second to that motion. So, I will need a motion to continue this uh meeting. I think we will need we haven't touched the budget. We haven't touched uh LCAP and so um and the budget is also a very important issue. Hopefully everybody sticks around for um so I think I would like to have a motion to continue this another from 10:30 to 12:30. Can I have a so moved? Is there a second? Second. All in favor say I. I. Motion passes 70. Okay. I'll entertain another motion. Board member U. Okay. To my colleagues,

199all of your concerns can be addressed in this motion, but we do need to take action as I shared all that. So, I'm just going to make a motion. I make a motion to approve the plan to consolidate and recon reconfigure schools to address declining enrollment districtwide which with the condition with the following condition. Transition team must be transition team must consist consist of impacted stu parents, teachers, students and family provide plans study session on school of choice transportation priority in school of choice for students who are impacted that all programs are intact and report to the board quarterly. Okay. Uh, that's your motion. Is there a second to that motion? Second. Okay, there's a second. Can I have board discussion? Board member Mendoza. So, the motion includes school closures. Yes. Okay. Thank you. That's

200all I want to know. Uh, Vice President Nyola, uh, just to add to that, is it specific to any schools or are you just looking to We are making a decision today to close schools, but to be determined after a study session. All the schools that are included that we've been studying for the last four years has to be included. Yeah. So that we can Yeah. In this in this motion. Yeah. the ones in this agenda item or four years in no the in this agenda item. Yeah. I'll add uh one can I have a friendly amendment? Sure. That we would also consider uh as part of the analysis in phase one a potential K8 option which obviously may change the entire calculation of all. That's right. That's right. um has to be realistic. Yes.

201But would you accept that amendment? I accept it. Thank you. Any other discussion? Yeah. Yes. Board member Mendoza. Yeah. I just want to continue to make this comment that if you choose to close these schools, you are affecting Latino schools, predominantly three of them. So, I want you to keep that in mind. Each one of you that's voting on this, you are impacting the most vulnerable population in our schools. Okay? Just keep that in mind. I'm going to keep saying that every time you guys want to vote to close schools. Any other comment? I have just one comment also. It affects all of our kids. That's right. Mhm. Um, and the issue is that these schools with Latino kids don't have enough kids where they can have all the programs that we want them to

202have. But it's not just the programs, it's the parents. It's the parents. You know, if And what's great is that Aloha had 90 kids, 90 parents helping out. That's a pretty amazing thing. But if you're at LE, you have 200 parents, 300 parents, all working towards providing programs, theater programs, all these other things. That's also a factor. So, I don't think that this is an anti- any particular group. I'm hoping that this is a pro district decision. Okay. Meno, uh, board member Mendoza. Yeah. Uh, I I think it is. I think it's it's not being equitable. And we had a parent that came and spoke to us at our last meeting and she stood right there and she looked us all in the face and she said that no board member came to Ferguson, no

203programs were being promoted. If that school is not progressing, that's not just their fault. It's our fault because I have said many, many times that we need to promote our schools. It is our responsibility to make sure that our communities know the programs that they have there. They have an amazing dual immersion program and one of the parents said that other committee members don't know. What if they did know? So, it's it's it falls on us and you keep saying it's not a Latino thing when you're closing schools that are predominant Latino. Yes, they are. And I I beg to differ with you. I respectfully disagree with you. Thank you. All right. Like to Oops. Uh board me Dr. Rios. Yeah. And I will remind the board also respectfully that the demographer did state that

204there's declining enrollment across the district. The numbers again are more significant in our um low-income areas because again parents are choosing to send their kids somewhere else, not because they're don't live in that area. Uh clerk Buoy, I've visited uh Sters. I've I've watched their plays. I've spoke with the administrator. I I understand the work she's doing there. I've visited Ferguson and um have read in the classrooms and the kids are remarkable there. Very bright, very bubbly kids. I've also read at Warz in this past few months that I've been on the board. Um I I believe we all make attempts in what we can do with our abilities and schedule. Um I I do believe it's unfair. um what what my fellow members are saying right now and I do believe we all make

205the attempts based on our abilities and our integrity. So I I would respectfully disagree with my board members and I'd like to note that I have also been to for I built I didn't build my daughter did it. She helped with the she got the community together to help build a a mural there. I went to the poetry readings. I've seen the performances. I was the only board member to show up to see those performance. But I saw those performances. They were great. They were wonderful performances. You know, I also see the performances at other schools, too. And I see what happens when there's more resources. It's so different. These kids are really great. They have we and we provide arts training, which is amazing. That teacher did she did a a bone dance, which

206is the Japanese dance. They did a I think they did an African dance. They did all kinds of different dances. It was really amazing, but the it was great, but I could tell there wasn't as much resources. Um, even though we provided an extra teacher, even though we provide extra monies in those schools, we definitely provide a lot more money to those schools. And you know, wouldn't it be better or nicer that if the bond funds are put out there, we could put more money into those schools? We can do that because we haven't spent the BB funds yet. We can put more into the specific facilities where those kids will be. That's that's that's all I have to say. just I'd like to put more into that, but or we could just keep all

207of our buildings, which do hold our feelings, prioritize that, and um not put extra money because we only have so much money, 5 million, 5 million. It's that's not enough. But we can do that. That's possible. We will keep on going. The kids won't necessarily know that we didn't put more money in there, but I'll know. I don't know that we could have put more money into those schools. Uh, Vice President Oyola. Uh, thank you. Um, if I can make an amendment instead of um to be equitable, I think um if we can consider removing Sters and Ferguson from the list and look at the school with the lowest residential populations. I think we are trying to focus on our ABC school students. with all respect, we could consider that even though we passed this

208because we as a board can make decisions, but I would like to move forward with the the motion. Okay. So, the friendly amendment is rejected. uh board member Maten and this will call for a vote after this. Okay, Mrs. U, could you explain your motion one more time? Okay. I make a motion to approve the plan to consolidate and configure schools to address declining enrollment districtwide with the following condition. Transition team must consist of impacted parents, teachers, family, and students. provide plans for study session on school of choice issues. Transportation priority in school of choice for the impacted students. Slow down. All programs are intact. Report to the board quarterly. So then you're basically saying, "Yes, we're going to do phase one and phase two, but it's got these requirements that go along with it."

209That's right. With all the community, a lot of these the community will be part of the transition team because we're just making the big plan, not detail. Yeah. That includes closing certain schools. Yes. Yes. Yes. because I respect the work that was done the past three four years. Yeah. Okay. Um Liz, can we call for a roll call? Mrs. McCaten? No. Mrs. Mendoza? No. Dr. Rios? No. Mrs. Yu? Yes. Mrs. Yokayyama Bui? Yes. Mr. Nyola? No. Mr. Nishi? Yes. Motion fails. 34. [Applause] Okay. Um I don't see any anything here. I don't know that um I see no other uh lights here. Board member U. Can I make another motion? Yes, you can. Okay. Try to make one that will be approved. Okay. But we will eventually have to uh stop having motions. Okay. We

210need to move on at a certain point. I make a motion to approve the plan with phase one to consolidate and reconfigure schools to address declining enrollment districtwide. Is that good? What? What is Didn't we already have a vote on that particular item? Oh, phase one only. Okay. Phase one only. I see. All right. Is there a second for that? I just want to point out. No, we haven't. We haven't. So, is there a second for that? Um I Yeah, I don't see a second for that. All right. Which one? I think we've already done that. Okay. All right. So, I guess we have uh can we have a motion? We already have motion. We already have a motion. We just have to vote. All right. Great. We have discussion. Let's call for a roll

211call on the original motion. Who was the first and who was the second? On the first original. I was the first. You were the first. And who was the second? Second. Okay, got it. All right. Okay. Roll call. By the way, uh so what happened is it's the original motion, the first motion that we didn't everybody kept adding little motions and additions to it. So we didn't actually have a vote on that. just on the action item. On the action item itself, we've asked we've had a motion to table. We've had a motion to have a study session. We've had a motion to um have this particular action item with a bunch of contingencies. And now we actually have to have the motion uh actually have a vote on the original staff recommendation. So, um

212no further discussion. Um, can we have a roll call, please? Mrs. McCaten, no. Mrs. Mendoza, no. Dr. Rios, no. Mrs. Yu, yes. Mrs. Yokayyama, yes. Mr. Nyola, no. Mr. Nishi, yes. Motion fails. 34. All right. Uh we'll move on to the next one. Actually, um so that we can I have a motion to do the uh to move up the budget. I move the motion uh to move the budget up to the next item. Mendoza. Okay. All in favor say I. I. I. Great. We pass 6. Can we have the motion uh and budget? Is LCAP and budget together? Correct. Okay. LCAP and budget together. I I would hope that the rest of this community sticks around to hear this because this is very important. So, we have a motion to second. Uh let's hear

213the report. What does this budget look like? What does this LCAP look like? Thank you, President Nishi. This is on page 101 of the report. So, at the last meeting um on June 3rd, the board conducted a public hearing on this budget and staff Dr. Carol Castro and I present the LCAP and the budget to the board on the June 3rd meeting. So, that is the first step of the process. tonight um you know we are taking it back as required by law to for adoption uh of the budget. So the adoption must be adopted before June 30th uh for next year budget to be effective. So again um we Dr. Carol Castro and I have presented this budget and they'll kept to the board at the last meeting already but I will go over

214it again again on page 101. So this is for um the 202526 uh fiscal year. Um for the fiscal year 2526 total revenues for the general fund is expected to be $37 million 299,433. So of that total about 242,987,000 is from unrestricted and 64.3 million is from restricted. Again on page 101 our total expenditure and transfer out is 219,93,000 I'm sorry. We will deficit spent next year for a total of 17.2 million. 1.7 million of which is from unrestricted fund and 15 million 15.4 is from restricted. We will end the year with a 58.4 million fund balance. 11.1 million is unrestricted and 47.3 is restricted. Again, this budget has incorporate the entire $5.7 million in reduction plan that we presented to the board at the June 3rd meeting. So that is on page 101. So

215the district also required to do a three-year projection. Not only that we are required to meet the financial obligation in the current the budget year but two years after that. So that is on page 104 of your report. So we are expecting to deficit spend 17.2 million in 2526 18.3 in 2627 and 18 million in 2728. Actually, Mr. Nuin, $18 million is kind of an abstract number. If we continue at this rate, how long can we go? We will be spending down the restricted fund balance by the 2728 school year. Meaning we won't have any money in the 2728 school year. If we have to consolidate, at that point, we'll have no money to help the kids. We will have to adjust our budget on the restricted programs to um ensure that our expenditures align

216with our revenues. Thank you. I guess in another ways, yes, we do have to make cuts. We would have to cut actually. Go ahead. Go ahead. That's correct. So, and that's where we are with the unrestricted program. I mean the and the restricted programs. So that basic that is the budget report for next year and the two years after that. Okay. Board comment actually public comment. I see none. Any board comment? Board member U. Uh Mr. W. The main reason for the deficit is because of the enrollment or what is the main reason it three factors right declining enrollment is the biggest factor okay um a low cola from the state is also another factor right 1.07% 07% for the current year, 2.3% for next year. So um a a very low cola would also

217play into the budget reductions I mean deficit. Uh the third is also increase in cost. You know we have automatic increase in cost in healthcare like uh this coming year uh alaiser insurance rate scheduled to go up by 15.38%. So that's at about 3.2 $2 million to the expenditures. So on the one side your revenues is less and your expenditures is higher. So therefore you will continue to have a structural deficit and at the end of the day um we will have to make budget reductions to be uh to be u fiscally solvent. So the schools with um let's say 60% capacity right 300 versus 500 the schools with 300 students would have to operate with just the 300 students. We will support all of our schools and programs with our current policy and current

218agreement with the with the teach union. Right. So we have staffing ratio for each of those schools. So we will continue to honor that until we we revise it or change it. Right? We provide the appropriate support at every school whether it will 300 or 500 based on needs whether it's mental health support, counseling support. Um so we will continue to do that but at some point we will have to make adjustments. Mhm. Um at the same time as as discussed earlier by the board, um you know, we we we have a stellar reputation, but that's because we have um outstanding teachers. That that's just the bottom line. Okay? There's no other way saying it. In order to retain and attract outstanding teachers, we have to be competitive. Mhm. So, um and and that's something

219that that that will be I want to say a struggle, but it'll be it'll be challenging. Uh but we will continue to do what we always been doing. Uh but at at some point, um it it will be challenging. Any other board comment? I have a couple questions. $17 million that we're spending more than we're taking in. Are those people in those positions? Yes, sir. A lot of people $15 million, $17 million of people. So, there are programs that we retain personnel for. There's contracts that we contract out with with consultants. Uh, so we would hire people outside. we wouldn't have the teachers. Okay. Thank you. Potentially, Dr. Rios, I know that there is a lot of potential for um added funding. Is that part of this projected um budget? Like I know, for example,

220there's going to be opportunities for us to recover um absences. There's some ELOP money that's Oh, not we call it here. After school program, sorry, excels. Um there are a lot of grants. I mean, I know that um community schools, I don't know, we talked we use the word, but I don't know that we've accessed the funding for community schools. Um, of course, that's not on here, but is there like does that get taken into account? Yes, the assumption that we use and what we built into the budget is recommended by the county and school services. So, we we were direct to include in the budget items that we know for sure that will be funded like the 2.3% cola, right? There's discussion about the onetime block grant may or may not pass. So, it's

221not in the budget. So, we will not put anything in the budget or factor in until we know for certain that we will get the funding a and the county will direct us what we can and can't put in the budget. So, for example, we may apply for a community schools grant. We may get it and we will put it in the budget once we get them. no different than, you know, we've been very successful to get um the Golden State Pathway grants um to the tune of almost $5 million, but we don't put in the budget until we receive the grant. So, like all grants, it's not in the budget until we receive the grant. We only put in the budget items that we know for sure that it will be funded. But there

222is reason to be optimistic, right? There is funding out there. I know there's like the youth health initiative that school districts can now ask for reimbursement for mental health support. So yes, there there's there's always um grants that we can go after. The reality of things is that the state, as you know, is facing a 12 billion deficit. So they are in the budget in the main revisions and is still being debate up in Sacramento as of today. How to address that? how to there there's there's there there's in the budget proposal that the governor is using one-time fund and I'm going to say this for the records to pay for ongoing items that that is problematic in his proposal that he's drawing down all the savings from the budget stabilization fund. There's in his

223proposal there's deferment in out years and this is all in the main revisions. So these are the challenges that the state will have to deal with in the future. So they have a structural deficit now and they will have a deficit in the future. Uh so is there reason to be optimistic? We want to be prudent and we want to be factual with the budget. Thank you. Um you know I I'd love to be optimist. I'm member of the optimist club. Um but that's not my job. My job is to be prudent with the public monies. And this is a $17 million deficit spend, which I'm okay with. I'm okay with 17 million because it goes to our kids and it goes to our teachers and it goes to our staff. So, of course, I'm

224going to vote yes on a $17 million deficit. But as we all know, uh, and by the way, that's based upon a 12 billion dollar deficit that the state has. So, we're hoping that they give us the 2.3. They're hoping that that happens. And by the way, that's a projection of that the economy is going up because those tariffs are not going to affect us. We're not going to have inflation and we're not going to have job losses because of our ICE raids that are affecting our entire economy. It's hoping that our economy, despite all of these challenges from the federal government, is going to keep on chugging away. But I will vote for this even though in three years we will have to well I don't know it may be sooner than three years

225because the last time the problem was the last time the union asked a question about this and said are we going to run out of money in three years and you know Twan was honest he said no based on current budget no but I got a letter from the county saying that uh Mr. Mr. Nishi, you're going to run out of money in two years. So, Mr. Nuin wasn't correct. We are going to lose money faster than that. We do have restricted reserves. So, it's not the emergency. And I'm not going to ever say that money is an emergency, right? Because we'll figure out a way. But it just won't be people and it won't be programs. It won't be this dual immersion because we won't be able to afford the the good teachers that

226we have a hard time getting right now because it's hard to keep it. It's hard to get those Mandarin teachers. They're not like falling off the trees. They're getting good pay at other districts. We won't be able to be competitive. We can't afford to pay them more. So, we won't be able to be competitive. So, it's it's a little disappointing. It's not the end of the world because there's still time, but not a lot of time because time keeps passing when we keep passing this buck. So, uh, me being the last one, I will call for a vote. Roll call on this deficit budget. Roll call vote, please. Mrs. McCaten, yes. Mrs. Mendoza, yes. Dr. Rios. Yes. Mrs. Yu. Yes. Mrs. Yokayyama Buui. Yes. Mr. Nyola. Yes. Mr. Nishi E. Yes. Motion passes. 70. Thank

227you. Can I have a motion to approve the memorandum of signing between the board of education and the American Federation of State and County Municipal Employees AFLCI local 229 council 20 36 amending article 11 calendar and modifying article 16 personal necessity leave of absence with pay for the 2025 2026 26 27 and 202728 school years. Tatiana moves second Mr. Frasier. Thank you Mr. President. Um we're bringing this item forward uh theou between um the district and our American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees. Um this was uh like our other uh associations as well, the calendars for the for the work year. And so we're we're glad that we were able to bring this together or uh forward tonight for you. Thank you. Um any board comment or actually any public comment? See none.

228Any board comment? I have one comment. I will vote for this because I favor people. Thank you. Um I think I will call for just a general vote. All in favor say I. I. Any nays? The eyes have it. 70. I have a motion to approve to request a contract with Orange County Primary Education, OCDE, and enter the career technical education partnerships partnership CEP to view access to ABC student information systems through ARIES and provide technical data assistance for the 202526 school year. So moved. Second, Dr. Castro. Thank you. This item aligns with LCAP goal 3, college and career readiness action 3.1. Um this service is provided in order to improve our Kalpat's reporting and it will improve it by 30% ensuring accuracy of data decreasing manual data by 20 to 40 hours in the

229reporting period enables real-time student tracking and helps to meet the program requirements particularly of the Golden State Pathways as mentioned by uh Mr. earlier. Thank you. Is there any public comment on this item? I see none. Is there any board comment on this item? It's kind of important item. I'll call for a vote. All in favor say I. I. Any nays? The A's have it. 6. 6. Can I have a motion to approve request a contract with Real Inspiration, Inc. to provide a two-day program entitled Day of Understanding Focus on Social Media Pressures and Fostering Empathy, Respect, and Student Engagement at all grade levels at Whitney High School for the 2025? Uh, yeah, I'm sorry. I read the wrong one. I 3 3.14A. May I have a motion to approve the request to adopt the

230following textbook titled Closeup, a critical introduction to film by Kendall Hunt Publishing for the 2025 2026 school year. So moved. Second. Okay. Uh Dr. Castro, thank you. This book textbook is to be part of our film 159 CCAP approved class, Miss Fus College. It's an existing class that we have in the district, but it's an update to the book. We have made an agreement with the college that we will update the book every three years. This class has an 84% pass rate and is offered across the district to meet VPA requirements in the summertime. Thank you. Any public comment? I see none. Board comment. I do have a question. Yes, Dr. Castro. What grades utilize this book? Grades 10, 11, and 12. It mentions 9th grade, but the courses so far have had enrollment of

231grades 10, 11, and 12. Any other questions? I just have one comment. Great choice. Interesting book. I sort of want to take the class myself. Um, all in favor say I. I. I. Any nays? The eyes have it. 70. Okay. Can I have a motion to approve request contract with Real Inspiration, Inc. to provide a two-day program entitled day of understanding focused on social media pressures and fostering empathy, respect, and student engagement at all grade levels at Wiki High School for the 2025 2026 school year. So moved. Second. Dr. Castro. This item is presented in support of Whitney High School's uh decision to use these funds. This is part of their one-time funds to support the social emotional learning of their students focusing on social media. Do you have any public comment on this item?

232I see none. Do we have any board comment on this item? Um I do. Uh sure. President Nishi, actually start with um board member Mendoza and then you can press your button. Thank you, Mr. President. Dr. Castro, do we have like is there like a survey that goes out to the kids to see if this is something that they felt useful? Uh we can work with the school site to design a survey to get student feedback. It's typically we use the California Healthy Kids Survey. We have pre-data already from this past year looking at students feelings about bullying and pressures and so we could use that data point as well. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you. Uh board clerk Tatiana Yokoyamai. Um Dr. Castro, is has this been offered before to other schools um

233other high schools and do we have potential to offer it if it has not? Uh it has. This is the first time this has been offered inside of our district and so Whitney is leading the way with offering this and certainly if uh other schools are interested we can look at bringing this back in order to offer it to other school sites. Thank you. Thank you. Can I call for a vote? All in favor say I. I. Any say nay. All vote passes 70. Can I have a motion to approve the estimated actuals financial report for the 2024 2025 fiscal year? Some move. Is there a second? Second. Tatiana. Second. Mr. Duin. Thank you. Um, President N is again this is for the current year. So we we talked about the budget year and the

234two years after that, but this is the year that ending June 30th, 2025 in about se 13 days. So this is an estimate as you as the report said. So um the the state have asked us to do what do you think your current year going to look like? So this is our estimation. Uh on page 99 again total revenues for the current year um 314 million 330 and 3,000s. The expenditures will come in at 336 million 583,000. So we will deficit spent this year 27.9 million. So I'd like to point down the unrestricted program of 11.1 million in deficit spent. This is due to a 7 million in settlement as a result of AB218 that the board has approved. AB218 settlement. Correct. 7 million of the 11.1. So you still have that structural deficit

235of 4.1. Uh but seven of that is is one time. So we are projected to end the year with $12.8 million in unrestricted fund balance and 62.7 million in restricted for a total of 75.6 million in district in in total fund balance as of June 30th, 2025. Thank you. Any public comment on this item? None. Any board comment on this item? I have a quick comment. You mentioned 218 liability. Is that all of our 218 liability? No. No. Do we have any other uh 218 issues out there? Yes. Is this the same 218 that in uh the another school district resulted in a multi-million dollar judgment? Yes. Thank you. But we haven't budgeted that in there for this year, right? For the coming year. No. So, we don't have those T18 liability budgeted. Correct. We

236don't know the outcome of those um cases until either we reach a settlement agreement or until there's a verdict. Thank you. All right. Call for a vote. All in favor say I. I. I. Any nays? Vote nays have it for uh pretty 70. Board member report. Actually is do we have any other items that I see here? That's it. All right. Board member reports. Let's click Dr. Rios, I get to go first. Try to be quick. Um I I just want to remind our first thank the people that voted um no on this item. I know it was really difficult, but the urgency is here. It's not going to go away. This is probably going to come up again. And so I guess the challenge remains. Um I still would like to recommend that we

237have a study session so that we can discuss some of those pressing issues about like why are parents choosing not to attend certain schools? what is going on, how can we reimagine our schools so that when we have these issues, they're the discussion is a lot more positive. Um secondly, I'd like to invite our board to our um CLSBA unity conference which is happening September 11th through the 14th in San Diego. Um, it's, you know, with everything that's going on, I think it's more important, it's now more important than ever to come together and figure out how we are going to support our students, especially those marginalized students that are really struggling um, in our communities. And those are the type of discussions that we have at this conference. Thank you. Thank you. Any other

238board comment? Oh, okay. Uh, board member in Manhattan. Um, I had a chance to uh visit Schoolhouse Rock. The play that was at Carmenita. It was very well done. Uh, it was Leo and Whitman's uh two uh sets of students working on it for two weeks and they did a great job. And um I'd like to uh continue on with u what Dr. Rio said. I'd like to have that study session sooner rather than later. Um so we get moving on this. Sure. Uh, board member Buoie, um, last actually, Clerk Buoie, I'm excuse me, a couple weeks ago, I did not get to mention the graduations I was able to attend. Um, that I was very happy to attend. I attended Willow Elementary um, graduation. Uh, and I found it really exceptional that the principal

239um, Pon Pon principal Pon Pon she did get a chance to acknowledge and recognize every single student that had graduated. She found a way to make them feel special during the ceremony and I really love that. Um, I also attended Cerritos High School uh, graduation. I've never seen a graduation that size. That was just so astronomical to me. So, great job to everyone who put that on. And additionally, I attended Tracy High School graduation. Um, ve very emotional and very heartfelt. Uh, I also was able to attend schoolhouse rock. Uh great job to our director Patrick Sales who's also um you know a te a teacher here at the school not only for drama but for special ed. So thank you for all the work you do. Thank you board member U. Thank you. Uh

240we cannot control the environment the economy the declining enrollment. These are not the things that we can control. what's happening in the federal and the state level and California is in deficit next year. It's not really promising. Rainy days are here just statewide. Um I'm kind of shocked that we're going to go into 17 million deficit two years in a row. I am concerned and I'm just reminded it really hit me on the May meeting when um teacher uh union president ABCF president Rayar shared that how we received a letter from LA County of education LEO to have a reduction plan of 5.5 million was it how much was it 1 how much 4.1 1.4 before. Yeah, that that reduction. Yeah, but we made the cut and what shocked me was it hit me really

241hard when President Rear said this is the easy cut that in the future it's going to be harder. So, I'm concerned, but um we'll weather through. Thank you. Good evening, board member Mendoza. Thank you, Mr. President. Um, so I attended the grand opening of the Carpenters Local 323 over in Compton and the Compton High School band was there and I got to see Dr. Natividad. If everybody knows who Dr. Natividad was, so it was really nice to see him and see the work that he's doing over there. I also attended the district employees barbecue here on June the 13th was actually my birthday. So, thank you for the birthday wishes. Um, and I know we celebrated all of our graduations here in the district, but I know when I was on the school board last

242time, we also bought brought in some of our students who are joining the military. I don't know if we still do that if we can do that because I Yeah, we used to do that before when I was on the school board. So, I don't know if we can bring that back, but I want to say congratulations and thank you to those students who decided to join the service. I want to thank them. Um, and then I I I I know today was a really really hard meeting. Um, and I do take things personally and I do speak up and but I think I have to. Um, because sometimes our families don't get to show up here and like today wasn't as crowded because there's fear in our community right now. They're scared and so

243sometimes I have to feel like I'm their voice and I got to speak up for them. So, thank you to those who did come out. Um, and I just want to talk to our schools and our community. I'm going to leave you some homework this summer and the next school year. Spread the word. Tell everyone, everyone, your family, your friends on social media. Spread the word and let them know about all the great programs that we have in our district because someone might see it and say, "Hey, why don't you come over here and if they need help, come and talk to one of us." Um, I know all the time I'm out there talking to, you know, friends and family. I'm like, "Come over. You work in the district. You work in the district

244area. You, you know, you can bring your kids to the district. Come on." So, we can do things. And I I won't consider closing schools until I feel like we've done everything possible to get to the point for closing schools. And I don't feel that we have done that. So, the homework is to share on social media, word of mouth, tell everybody about the great work that we're doing here in the district. So, I'm saying it in Spanish. Um, Facebook the ABC. So, I think all of us need to do our part as an ABC family to spread the word, to share all the good things that we're doing and to make it equitable for all of our students across the district. Um, we are our board members and we are elected by our our

245constituents in our voting, but we represent all of the students in the entire district. There are no lines that say Miss Mendoza only represents Artisia, 90% of Artisia. No, Miss Mendoza represents all of the students in the district. And so, we can all do our parts. We can all visit schools. We can all share. We can all talk about it. But until we we come to a point where say we exhausted all of those things then I can't say that I want to close any schools. So I'm in agreement with our board members that we need to have a study session so that we can look at all the options. And I think leadership comes in many many forms. Leadership comes in the hardest way too to make those decisions that maybe might have consequences

246but maybe not. We don't know what the future holds. We know what it might look like with the federal government right now. We h we have no idea right now. And so as a board member, I think I I right now in this point in time, I'm looking to how our students are feeling in their homes, in their community. And for that reason, I just I just couldn't I couldn't vote. My conscience just couldn't let me do that. So that concludes my board report. Mr. President, thank you. Our next board regular board meeting will be Tuesday, August 5th, 2025 at 7 p.m. District board office. Committee meetings will be strategic planning board advisory committee. Tuesday, August 26, 5:30 at district board office. Uh legislative review policy uh advisory committee will be Wednesday 27th at 6:30

247at the district conference room. Dates to remember first day of school 7th grade only is August 12th, 2025. First day of school for all grades will be August 13th, 2025. Second public comment section. Yes, we have a comment from Eddie Salceto. Thank you. Following will be Miss Santa Cruz. I don't pretend to know that your job is easy. Uh it is not easy, but you volunteered to do this. Um and you are pressed with some hard decisions to to make. Um, what I ask is in your resolution that you look at the numbers. Some of this is a self-made problem with school of choice. So, in your discovery, find out if you made everyone go to their home school, what would the numbers look like? So, that's part of just the process in the in

248looking at if we made all of our students go to their home school, what would our numbers look like? So, that's part of what I'm Thank you for doing the right thing and not voting on this tonight. And you're probably all familiar with what we is pork barrel spending, right? Everyone know what that means? It's in a government bill where you just throw a bunch of into a bill. And so part of what this resolution from school works was throwing a bunch of to get some of it passed and some of it no one's going to notice. So, and I'm specifically talking about Whitney Ernie by looking on your on your face. So, we to be very clear, schools need to be closed. There is no question about that. Okay, fiscally speaking, schools need to

249be closed. I support that. It's terrible. It sucks, but it's the reality of what is in front of us in terms of fiscally being responsible and putting programs into other schools that we can support our students. What I didn't like a lot tonight was some pontificating by some of the school board members when you did have your speaking. You you limit our time to three to five minutes. I wish you guys would pass a resolution sometimes where you limit to how long you guys get to pontificate on whatever point that you want to get across. I get you need to earn votes and you're politicians and you might have other ambitions, but let's we can cut it down a little bit. Specifically, I want us to talk about Sue. Sue is out here and she

250used the word multiple times, I am concerned. Well, so am I. She tried to shove this vote down multiple times. Multiple times that Sue, you tried to shut push this down. This is a picture of Suyu at a at a event at Crito's library two years ago with Gracie Vandermark. Does anyone know who that is? The Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Federation says she's a danger to society and Sue is standing right here next to her in front of a California Department of Education, state of California insignia with a red line crossed through it, smiling next to her. And this is the woman that's saying, "We need to pass this tonight." She was clearly reading something and it was clearly altered as she's speaking. So, someone is feeding her something. If you had it pre-written,

251great. But, as we all know, there's a P request that will now be submitted to find out what electronic communication you had and who was feeding you your resolution and your immediate resolution right after that. I know you're smart. You own a tutoring company. You're really good at your job. You lost legitimacy when you st stood on the stage with that woman. when you told Hispanics to not spend money on kinetas and traveling to Mexico, you lost legitimacy when you flooded this boardroom with members from your church who don't have kids in this school district who have nothing to gain other than your at that time election for president of the school board and somehow this board voted you president which is I've used the word earlier farical farical. So you trying to ramro this

252thing tonight and you saying I'm concerned and you worried about ICE and you're worried about all it's just such a ruse and it just it's sickening and I am so disappointed in some of your members supporting your positions. We know who you are. It's very clear your voting record, who you associate with, your stance on things. So, I'm not saying anyone has an easy job here, but you did the right thing tonight by not pushing this through. So, when I say pork barrel, it's just like Congress right now is talking about the big beautiful bill. It's negotiating. Put this in, take this out, move that, close two. Don't do the Whitney thing. You don't Ernie, the one thing I was disappointed tonight is that you wanted to just ramrod the entire thing and say we

253can go back afterwards and make an amendment. That's not how things work. One things once things get voted through, it's so hard to bring them back. So, it was the right thing to go back and look at what we're going to push through. Close the schools and as I said earlier, give the first priority to the students who are going to be most affected by this. The buses, access to school choice, access to Whitney, whatever it may be, psychological, mental health support. So do your job. You're all CEOs up there. A CEO's job is what? To give bad news. Thank you, Miss Santa Chris. Good evening. I just really want to be here because I asked you to please take into consideration public input. I feel that you're doing that. I think that your job

254is so hard. Every single one of you, I do believe sincerely that everybody sincerely cares and really wants to do the best job. And so that's why I keep coming back because I want to be able to help as much as I can from a community standpoint and from an expertise standpoint. So I did not have an agenda for myself to say let's kill the bill. That's not I I know that things h hard decisions still have to be made. But um I want to still thank you for considering the public input for trying different um amendments or considerations for thoughtfully considering that's what I was asking for. But I'm still here and I think a lot of us still are. We still want to be part of the solution because we know that there's

255still a big problem that needs to be solved and not kicking it down the road because I know that we have a very big deficit that we need to address. But uh I do want to say thank you and please let us be part of the the problem solvers. I think all of us have a very um important role and I always appreciate our administration. I say it every time. I want to say it again. Thank you so much for over the years continually supporting our bilingual programs, our biiteracy programs. I saw that the consent item approved the professional development that's so critical and I appreciate that. So, thank you. And the other good thing, I'm free. So, thank you. Thank you. Can I have a motion to adjurnn? All in favor say I. I.

256Orjour. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] [Applause] [Music]