001[Music] Heat up [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat up [Music] here. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat up here. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey everybody, comm [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat up here. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] meeting to order. Roll call. President, Mr. Nishi, I am here. Vice President, Mr. Nyola here. Clerk, Mrs. Yoki Yamamai, present. Board member, Mrs. McCaten, here. Board member Mrs. Mendoza, present. Board member Dr. Rios. Board member Mrs. U. Here. This evening, we'll be discussing the following items in close session. Public employee discipline dismissal release, evaluation, seven matters. Government code section 54957. Govern conference with a labor negotiator. Update on negotiations
002with ABCFT. AB, AF, SCME, and CSEA pursuant to government code section 54957.6. We will be discussing student discipline deliberation on student readmission case after expulsion case number 2425-1 pursuant to education code section 48916. Deliberation on student student suspended expulsion case 2425-11 pursuent to education code sections 48900 A1 48900 I 48900 R and 48900.4 Four. Any public comments on close session items? I see none. Thank you. Uh, can I have a motion to move to close session? Move to close session. Second. All in favor say I. I. Motion passes. [Music] 6. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. [Music] Heat. [Music]
003Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey. [Music] Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Yeah. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Yeah. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, hey a ah. Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] [Laughter] [Music]
004Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat [Music]
005Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat [Music] up here. Heat [Music] up [Music] here. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Yeah. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat [Music] up here. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat.
006[Applause] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Applause] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat up here. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey. [Music] Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] Hey, Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat.
007[Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat up here. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Hey, hey, [Music] hey. [Music] [Applause] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat [Music] up here. [Music] Heat up here. [Music] Heat up [Music] here. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat [Music] up here. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat up here. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music]
008Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat up [Music] here. [Music] Can I have a motion? Second Niola. All in favor say I. I. Motion passes 70. Please silence your cell phones. If anyone is in need of translation services, there are individuals in the back for room for support. Close session report out tonight. In close session, the board discussed public employee discipline dismissal release evaluation. Seven matters. Government code section 54957. Conference with the labor negotiator. Update on negotiations with ABCFT, AFSCME, and CSEA pursuant to government code section 54957.6. Student discipline. We had a motion and a second based upon the board's review in close session and pursuant to education code section 48916 that the board approve readmission of student 2425-1 beginning upon
009the first day of the first semester of the 2526 school year based upon a finding that he has fulfilled his re rehabilitation plan and has completed the rehabilitation readmission process. The student may seek enrollment beginning on April 13, 2025 should he so desire. Can I have a motion? Tatiana moves second. Mendoza. Call for a vote. All in favor? Say I. I. I. Okay. The motion passes 70. Can I have a motion in a second based upon the board's review in close session that the board accepts the recommendation for expulsion in student expulsion case number 2425-11 and orders a student expelled based upon violations of education code sections 48900 A1 48900 I 48900 R and 48900.4 4 pursuant to the stipulated terms and adopts the recommended rehabilitation plan including readmission terms. Can I have a motion?
010Second. Noa. All in favor, please say I. I. The motion passes 70. Thank you. I'll call on Lety Mendoza to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. the flag. Put your right hand over your heart. Ready to begin to flag United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God indivisibley and justice for all. We'll now have a recognition of the Cerritos High School boys swim individual CIF Division 2 champions. Dr. Zitlo. Thank you. Um I'm going to move down to the podium, but I'd like to ask Andrew Vet to please join us there. He was the CIF Division 2 champion in the 200 meter individual medley. [Applause] Let's all go forward. Also with us this evening is his coach, Mr. Ian Richards. And I'd like to invite Mr. Joe
011pack to say a few words. Hi, congratulations to Andrew Vet uh for being a champion for 200 meter individual medley. Uh you know one thing is that my boss assemblyman was a water polo player in high school. Did you know that she back then there was no girls water polo team so she played with the boys. Yeah. And then she also was a lifeguard. So, I just wanted to present this really beautiful sports award to Andrew Beth, but I'll have to take it back after taking a picture because there was a typo. [Applause] I will get Go. Hold on. We'll So I also want to mention that CI uh Certo High School had a second champion. It was Anthony Dornoff. He was the division 2 champion 500 meter freestyle, but he is currently at nationals
012competing. So he can't be with us. But um board if you have comments. Uh board member you. Yes. Um, first of all, I want to say congratulations and good job, coach. I mean, Joe, I can imagine the amount of hours that you had to uh, you know, practice. Can you just tell us what your schedule was like practicing? Um, so for club, I have about eight practices a week, maybe even nine. Um, doubles, so like practice before school, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. And then Oh, at 5:00 a.m. to 7 and then in the afternoon every day from 4:00 to 7. So yeah, it's just uh takes a lot out of you. Um you don't have time to do much. So yeah. Oh, who drove you? Um I drive now, but prior is my mom and
013my dad. So are they here? Um my mom just walked out the room and then my dad's at home and my sister. Okay. Okay. Well, congratulations and good job. Yeah. Oh, is that your mom? Yeah, that's Hey, mom. Good job, Mom. It's all him. Any other comments? I'd like to say one thing. I wish Joe was here. They did it without a school pool. He They didn't just go to Critos High School and swim at the school pool. No, he had to go somewhere, right? Yeah. Uh, Cerritos Park East for high school and then Lamada for club. So, um, bring Joe back. We need some help with that. Anyway, uh, this is my constant refrain. I don't know. Uh, thank you for all your efforts. Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations. Okay. Can I have a
014motion to approve the agenda for the regular meeting of June 3rd, 2025? Tatiana moves. Second. All in favor say I. I. Great. Approved. 70. Approve the minutes. Can I have a motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of May 20th, 2025? So move. Second. All in favor say I. I. Motion passes 70. Board of Education. That's me. All right. So this last week we had some graduations. I went to a lot of graduations. Um and uh the thing about graduations is that everybody comes to you and it's it's a big change in their life. It's a huge moment where they are transitioning from the school that they knew, the school and their friends and everything to a whole new world. It's a brand new thing for them and it's scary. It's it's bittersweet.
015As one of the persons at Nixon said, they said, you know, and Miss Miss Bautista said at the Artisia graduation when she was talking, she said, the only constant is that there is change, but hopefully there's change for the better and we always must need to adapt to the reality of these things. Graduation is a change that happens in our life and hopefully for the better. Um, I'm hoping that we can adapt to the change that is happening in our own district and make the hard decisions that we have here. Um, change happens because things are hopefully getting better. We had buggy whips way back when and now we don't have buggy whips, we have cars. We've improved a little bit. Uh, before we had stenographers and now we have computer professionals. Um that's the
016change and change for the better. Um I want to thank the community for coming out here and being part of the discussion about this major issue that we need to consider because without you we can't do this. This job is very difficult. We need your information. We need your support to to go through these these tough decisions that um you know it's it's it's not easy. How do you pick your favorite child? You can't. So we had an analyst go and help us make some hard review some decisions and facts. Um, these schools are dear to us. They're dear to me. I mean, I've been to all of them repeatedly, regularly. Um, and so this is never going to be an easy situation. The decisions that's before us today in our regular meeting, it's not
017the only way. We can always choose to punt. we can choose to delay and there are plenty of examples of school districts that have done that. There are plenty of examples of that. Um Santa Ana chose to do that and they suffered an $80 million deficit roughly and they were down by 20%. 20% but they chose to do nothing and as a result staff was lost. They need that staff because those educ kids need the education, but that's not a decision they made and that's a valid choice. Pasadena Unified also decided not to make a decision and instead of uh addressing the loss of over 2,000 students in just a few years, they elected to lay off 140 people. And it's not a huge district to be laying off 140 people. Those are your teachers,
018your administrators, it's your counselors, it's your mental health people. That's a valid choice and they made that choice. I want to make sure that we know that we've tried different things over the years. This is not something that came up like that. We have studied this issue and studied this issue since I started this board seven years ago. But we've studied this issue. But even before I was here, we studied the issues that are here before us. I want to dispel some myths. Want to dispel one myth that some schools are better than others. That is a myth. We have the best teachers at all of our schools. We have the best parents at all of our schools. This is about doing something better for them. is about doing something better for our kids. There's
019another myth out there that this is about Whitney and Whitney's this great thing is not about Whitney. So, I'd like people to not think because I've been getting lots of comments. I get hundreds of emails, hundreds of texts, and I'm hopeful that I've answered most of them. It's painful, too. And I tried to answer them individually. I may not have gotten to all of them. So, I apologize for that. um because you do all deserve an individual answer from me and you do deserve a discussion and so when there's been a chance I've made appointments with the superintendent like that um to the extent it's been asked for I offer it and we do it um as a close oh there's one more thing that I want to for this to stop myth about school
020of choice that something that we can stop. We can't stop parents from choosing. We can't stop parents from aspiring or having opinions about what school they want to go to. That's a right. That's a right by state law. So people think that we can terminate that. That's not something that we within our power can do. We can maybe change the state law and somebody else can do that, but that's not within the parameters that we have here today. Um, I just want to leave us with one last quote uh from the Oakland superintendent who was terminated from her job. She said, "We don't want to deal with that anger, so we're going to do nothing." That's weak. This is not a seat for the week. Um, thank you for talking. Thank you for engaging us.
021Thank you for coming here. I'm hoping that we can be strong in information that you provide us here today and into the future. No decisions that we make here are permanent, right? They are always changeable. Um but we do have to make some decisions so that staff can actually do some work and go forward. So I pray for strength and weakness and um that is my simple report. U now it's the superintendent's report. Yes, thank you. Um just a few things going on this last week. Um we did our final meeting with our district leadership team um on June 2nd. Um I participated in the governor's budget May revise workshop on May 21st. Um like many of our board members and Mr. Nishi, I attended many graduations and promotions um and was able to celebrate
022with our California Distinguished Schools and our National Blue Ribbon School with the California Department of Education on the 30th. And then we did meet with our local city councils um regarding just our budget and declining enrollment. And I participated in a state superintendent meeting for AXA. Thank you. Do we have an employee representative report? No. Okay. Thank you. Now we have on to public comments. Persons wishing to address the board should fill out a card located on the table by the front door and submit the completed card to an administrator. Speakers will be called in sequence during the public comment section or prior to board discussion on an agenda 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
023who have a group concern are encouraged encouraged to select a spokesperson to address the board. Should there be 15 to 20 speakers for non-aggendaized items, individual speakers shall be allowed 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
024will be called to speak following staff comments and prior to the board's discussion and taking action. 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. Do we have any public comments? Yes, we have two. The first will be
025Brooke Nam and Arlene Cardinis together and then Matthew Duncan. Brooke Nam and Arlene Card Cardinis Good evening board president Nishi, Vice President Oyola, board clerk Yokoyamai, board member Rios, board member Mendoza, board member Se, and board member Yu, and superintendent Dr. Zilo. My name is Brooke Nom. My name is Arlene Gardinas and we are rising seniors at Gar High School. We serve as presidents of G Youth for Change, a student-ledd civil rights and social organization, social justice organization dedicated to empowering youth with the intersectional activism they need in promoting youth political literacy. We speak to you tonight as both advocates and students of this district. Someone who, like so many of our peers, has been shaped by the environments, educators, and values of ABCUSD. You may recall that our team addressed this board at the
026March 4th meeting where we discussed the need for equity and curriculum and the urgency of centering student voices and and district decision-making through our proposal of Voices United, a festival for justice. We returned today not to simply continue that conversation, but to extend a tangible opportunity for partnership. On August 3rd, Youth for Change will host a countywide studentled initiative entitled Voices United for Justice to be held at Gar High School. It is more than an event. is a platform for collective learning, civic engagement, and cultural expression created by students for students and designed to reflect the very principles at the heart of the ABCs student learner profile. At its core, Voices United is about empowering young people with the tools, context, and confidence to engage critically critically with discourse and policy around them. It will
027feature studentlike conferences on systemic injustice, intersectionality, education equity, policy forums with educators, activism, polers, and peer facilitated discussions on cohort topics. We will also be featuring Salomi Agaroji which is a GAR alumni and 2023 to 2024 youth national lawyer poet laurette for our keynote speaker. And to be clear this festival is not about abstract activism. It is about translating what students are living currently and learning into meaningful civic action and cultural change information technology and infrastructure support. We ask for addition we ask for district assistance in setting up secure digital registration for ticketing, managing accessibility needs, and possibly supporting live streaming for digital archiving using tools and platforms already available to ABCUSD districtwide communication and outreach. We ask that the district help us share this opportunity through existing school and district channels from student bulletins
028and email newsletters to district social media platforms to ensure equitable access and awaren awareness across all campuses. Civic presence and leadership participation. Your presence board members, cabinet and school leaders carries weight. We would be honored to have uh to have you attend as an active participants in forums, panels or simply as visible supporters. When students see institutional leaders show up, they understand that their voices are heard. logistical collaboration and permits for organization with Gar High School as the host campus and our hopes of collaborating with on-site lawyers, advocates, organizers, and representatives from the ACLU of Southern California, the California Conference for Equity and Justice, Project Knucklehead, Project Super Bloom, Carefirst California, the Youth Justice Coalition of Los Angeles, and more. We need assistance in coordinating permits, contractual agreements, and liability insurance documents in order to
029ensure our event is as safe and productive as possible. We also want to note that Youth for Change will be meeting with the director of special programs Dr. Evelyn Hub, doc, board communications officer Scott Smith, director of secondary schools, Dr. Lewis, tomorrow to further discuss operational support for the festival. We ask currently that not for budgetary support or financial support, but that we have your public support as board members for social justice initiatives like such. Beyond administrative coordination, we are here tonight to request for your individual support as board members. Your encouragement, involvement, and willingness to uplift this work will mean a great deal to the students who are leading it and collaborating for it. [Music] In a time of transition, uncertainty, and challenges for our schools, our communities, and our state, we are choosing
030to lead with clarity, vision, and unity. We are not asking ABCUSD to fund this mission. We are asking you to believe in it and help us to make it possible. Thank you for your time and your continued commitment to student voices. We look forward to working with you. Thank you. Matthew Duncan. Matthew Duncan, retire, retired teacher from ABC Unified School District. Taught here from uh uh 1982 to 2012. I have uh I want to talk about the uh something I mentioned to you last summer, last August, which is my concerns about the district being involved in the uh bull fight uh held in the city of Artisia, the festa dooza dbola event. Uh and I have something I'd like to just share with you if you could come if you want me to bring it
031up to you. Four pictures uh two of them from the bull fight itself. I don't know how many of you have ever attended the bull fight. Uh and let me just make clear, I'm not here to try to stop the bull fight. I'm here because I believe that uh a school by public school district should not participate uh in a bull fight in the promotion of a bull fight. Uh, I spoke with city uh school district officials throughout LA and Orange County. I can't find one that participates uh in in an organized bull fight. As a matter of fact, most of the officials I spoke with said, "Well, bull fights are illegal in California." They are, but the city of Artisia has an exemption. So, that being the case, uh I just want to read
032a a a quick email that I submitted uh last year after I spoke to you guys uh and uh to your uh communications officer and it's read in our discussion last night at the ABC USD board meeting, you said that Dr. Zitlo needed photo documentation of facilities at Ross Middle School being opened for bullfight participants on horses and for bullfight attendees to park their cars. So the position of ABCUSD is at the south athletic field and parking lot at Ross Middle School were not made available for those involved with the fested debola bull fight on May 25th, 2024. And despite me observing horses with riders running on the Ross Middle School South Athletic Field and cars filling up the Ross Middle School parking lot at 5:45 p.m. on May 25th, 2024, ABC was, as you
033stated, quote, not involved in the bull fight. Well, I went back this year and you saw the pictures there, the two pictures on the bottom. uh they are of the parking lot at five about 5:34 on the uh the the Saturday the 25th. Those cars were parked by attendees of the bull fight. The picture of the horse with the rider was taken on the little narrow green strip uh that's on 178th. Uh it's between the curb and a sidewalk. Now, I thought it was extremely dangerous for the guys, the riders from the bull fight to take the horses out to have them warm up on those strips. And they they ran on both sides of 178th. Last year, they used the athletic field at Ross. I feel they were pro possibly were told they should
034not be using it because I told officials from ABC last year that if they're using the athletic field and they're using the parking lot, then you're involved. And I continue to be told, well, we're not involved in the bull fight. You are involved. Even if you weren't involved specifically in the actual bull fighting activity, you're involved. Thank you. So I say that um I feel like my obs my observations and concerns have been dismissed and uh I I I just feel like we can do better. Uh I taught here 30 years. I taught health physical educa and physical education at Ross Middle School where this happened. I coached football and track and field. I was the adviser to the just say no to drugs club. And I feel like I really have no my comments,
035my observations get no respect. And I'm told that my my observations uh amount to no evidence. So I think we're better than that. This is not the district that I worked in for 30 years. Thank you. I think he wants Oh, does he want it back? Yes, I would. Um, do you Okay. Do we have Got it. Great. All right. Uh, can I have a motion to approve the consent calendar? Second. No. Is there anybody wishes to remove any item to be considered separately? Seeing none. Oh, um, yes. Let's do consent item 2.1 C. Okay, let's discuss 2.1C. I I usually um hear my fellow board member uh Batisia Mendoza mention this and um I guess it will be my turn today where um we attended a number of graduations all of us and I
036also attended some clapouts and I am so honored and privileged to congratulate the retired uh employees, teachers, staff. It is very nice to have that kind of um farewell and they've all worked so hard and I know that there are some who maybe come back later to substitute but there are long careers here and I know that um they deserve all the rest and relaxation uh from all the years of work here with with our schools and our students. So I did want to pull that item and again recognize our retired teachers and staff members. So thank you. Thank you to the schools for also memor memorizing them at the graduations. Thank you. Anything else? No further questions. So, any other further questions on the consent calendar? Uh, seeing none, let's have a vote. All
037in favor say I. I. Motion passes 70. Item 2.1-1, public hearing for school consolidation and reconfiguration. Can I have a motion to open a public hearing? regarding the school consolidation and reconfiguration. Dr. Zitlo, did you get second? Yes, we did. Thank you. Um, this evening we're going to walk through um just a few items um so that we remind everyone what is being discussed. Um, our presentation this evening has some information that the board requested as well as um thoughts um should the board move forward on the kind of timeline the district would need to make something like this happen. Um, and so just briefly, um, I'm looking to just give an update on what was recommended on the 20th. Um, share some of the pieces and the context and the rationale and then we
038will have the public input on the proposed consolidation and reconfiguration plan. Um, part of that piece is the declining enrollment we have been experiencing as a district. Um the decline since 2015 um is pretty significant. What's projected down into 2029 would give us a projected decline of 26%. And so um that is the situation we sit at currently. We have seven of our 19 elementary schools and two of our five middle schools that have 400 students or less. And so when you also consider the impact of us having about 2700 students who are on permit um loss of permit students could become an issue as well and create a further deficit for our district. Um the board's process to this point is they began looking at and working through a process to consider how we
039use our facilities in May 2022. They formed a committee um that looked at that from May 2023 to May 2024. Um in November, the board contracted with schoolworks to also provide a comprehensive study and share a plan which they did on May 20th. And so the board requested that this evening we have a public hearing on this matter. The recommendation that came from schoolworks was to reconfigure middle schools to be in a sixth through 8th grade model um in anticipation to try and avoid potential future middle school closures. um consolidating four elementary schools due to enrollment and the movement of sixth grade which would be Aloha, Ferguson, Wates and Sters per that report and then reconfiguring Whitney Middle School to begin accepting a small number of out of district permits to try and assist with
040the declining enrollment as well. board members requested some data and information as part of this. And so, um, what you see is our current year enrollment for the four schools being considered, the number of permits they have from inside the district, the number of permits they have from outside of the district, as well as the number of students who live in that attendance area and are attending their home school. the number of students who have transferred to other schools through the school of choice process and the total number of students who live in the attendance area for those schools. Um shared there is the transfer out rate and then the projected enrollments for the coming school year 2526. So the public hearing this this evening would be to hear from our public on reconfiguring the
041middle schools to grades six, seven, and eight. to hear from our public on consolidating four elementary schools, Aloha, Ferguson, Wararez, and Sters. To hear from our public on the reconfiguration of Whitney and the idea of accepting out of district permits, excuse me. And um the next piece of information is um a consideration on how we might do that if the board moves forward in this direction with phase one giving a planning year for the consolidation of three elementary schools, Aloha, Ferguson, and Warez so that we would have time to work with the families and the staff at those schools to support a proper transition for the 26 627 school year. And then phase two being a two-year planning phase for being able to transition sixth graders to middle school, consolidation of sters and the change
042of Whitney. So looking to have that be in the 2728 school year. Where we stand tonight is the board is getting input on this information as a public hearing and if the board should choose to do any action with this they would have to bring it back at a future meeting. Just to be clear for our community, the things that most people want to know can't be addressed until there's a decision made. And so at this point, until we know where the board wants to go, we don't have a plan for everything in terms of movement of programs. All of that would happen once there is a decision by the board. But that would include how we move staff. That would include what we do to work on understanding school cultures and melding those together
043if that's the case. Setting up of attendance boundaries, transportation, um things that would need to happen for families to understand new spaces and be welcomed to those. um how we might handle school of choice or priority for transitioning students, how we would handle culminating endofear activities like science camp or promotion. um working on how we would use our mental health professionals to assist and then of of course um how we address the re transition of resources whether it's title one measure BB all of these would be pieces that would be considered once the board makes a decision. So with that we can transition to our public hearing. Thank you Dr. Zil. Um Dr. Zitlo, how many cards do we have for this public hearing? Um we are anticipating 44 speakers. Okay. Um so normally our
044public hearing is only 30 minutes. However, I think that that would not accommodate the 44 speakers and so I'd like to have a motion to extend time uh to enable um these speakers to have a chance to speak. Um, we would need a motion for I think two hours because we have other items on our agenda to to discuss as well. So, can I have a motion? So, moved. Second. Okay. All in favor say I. I. So, the motion passes 70 for two hours additional public hearing. Before we begin public uh comment on this item, I want to make sure that this is a very respectful audience and I'm glad that we are all here to discuss this. But in order for us to be able to hear the speakers and respect what we have
045uh in terms of being able to listen to them, I'm going to ask uh people not to cheer or boo any particular speaker because it can be very intimidating to be up at that at that uh podium. And so to say uh something that may not be to your liking, I need for everybody to have respect so that we can get through the entire two hours and can hear also everyone. And that's the the goal. If we have a lot of clapping, we won't be able to hear and that will defeat the purpose of having a public comments. So we are at uh 750. Who is the first public comment? Hello. Before we start, um did you receive all of the slides? Um and so the the first six of us uh our ster parents
046will be speaking um for the sides. Um so good evening members of the board, superintendent and district leadership. Um please turn to slide one. First and foremost, thank you for your time and for your continued commitment to the students and families of ABCUSD. And thank you Dr. Zilo for your um your presentation that will be very pertinent for our um our presentation today. I'd like to reintroduce myself. I'm Jamie Castrillo Solless and I have an incoming kindergartener and rising fourth grader, both of who are in the non-emersion program at Sters Elementary. We understand that the district is navigating complex challenges and we do not doubt that the decisions before before you are difficult. We also recognize and appreciate that these decisions are being made with the intention of serving the best interests of all students.
047As President Nishi recently said, change is inev inevitable and learning to adapt is part of our growth. But when a proposed change is as significant and far-reaching as the closure of Sers Elementary, a school that serves hundreds of students and their families, along with the closure of other schools and reconfiguration of junior high of Middle School, it's essential that such such a decision be guided by clear data, sound analysis, and a full understanding of its consequences. We are here tonight as a group of concerned parents using our professional backgrounds including attorneys, parallegals, accountants, business operation professionals, school administrators, educators, nurses, and other experts who have come together to advocate for what we believe is a more thoughtful, informed approach. Together, after 18 straight days of non-stop research, discussions, and meeting, we reviewed the facts, studied
048the impact, and collaborated to bring forward perspectives that we hope will help the board see why closing Star Wars is a mistake. not only for the school community but for the district as a whole. Though we wholeheartedly agree that we are not a line item on a budget, we are here to discuss and challen to discuss figures and challenge the report the consult consultant provided. And now I'd like to introduce the topics our team will be addressing in further detail. First we will present expanding excellence growth of the manner and immersion and international bachelor programs. Um Jessimine and Irene will focus on the programs thrive um how they are tri thriving and serve as unique educational assets. Next, Richard will present on the cost of disruption, the real impact of sudden school closures. And following
049that, Richard um following Richard will be Aaron, who will discuss Sters as the strategic asset, understanding Sters's financial contribution out of D out of district students generate significant revenue to programs that draw enrollment interest showing that Sters is not a liability, but a source of income, stability, innovation for ABUSD. And in closing, Urban will tie it all together and explain why we'd be losing more than just a school if Sters is closed. Thank you. Thank you. I'd like to quickly recognize the mayor of Cerritos, Mr. Franco Yokoyama. Go ahead. Who's the next speaker? Irene. Me. Okay. Good evening, members of the board and Dr. Z. My name is Irene Sheay and I am a proud ABC alum and parent of a rising first grader in the Mandarin immersion program at Sters. On May 21st, 2025,
050the California California's Department of Education released encouraging news. The long-term decline in school enrollment is slowing. Notably, the report highlighted the growth of dual immersion programs, stating, "As the number of seats increases, they are filled. These programs, the report continues, offer a potential pathway to reversing long-term school enrollment trends. What's described in that statewide data is exactly what's happening at Sters Elementary. Yet, that success was not captured in Schoolworks report, which relied solely on outdated and inaccurate figures. Tonight, we're here to correct that record. In this section of our presentation, we will share updated enrollment data and future projections for Sour along with key factors driving its success. Most notably, the unique pairing of two high demand and specialized programs, international baloria and Mandarin immersion within a well-rated and successful school. Our team analyzed the
051historical and current enrollment data from over a dozen Mandarin immersion programs across Southern California and compared those trends to what we're seeing at Sters. The pattern is clear. Mandarin immersion programs tend to grow steadily, often adding entire classes of students as demand increases. But what stands out about Sters is that it is growing faster than most and with greater momentum. Looking at slide three, we examine three case studies. Two longestablished programs, Fletcher Elementary in Orange Unified and Berguson Elementary in Capistrano Unified along with one newer program in Anaheim, Roosevelt Elementary. Berguson and Fletcher both launched in 2012 and took many years to expand. Specifically, Berguson maintained three Mandarin emerging classes per grade for many years and only added a fourth class this past school year for a total of 80 kindergarten students. Meanwhile, Roosevelt Elementary,
052which launched its program the same year as Sters, has struggled to build enrollment. Its first class began with just 14 TK students. This year, they were unable to fill a new cohort, leaving them with a single kindergarten class. Moving on to slide four. In contrast, in just two years, Ster's Mandarin immersion program has nearly tripled in size. Next year, 74 students are already enrolled in the kindergarten cohort, and enrollment is still ongoing. With a three class per grade cap, we conservatively project 450 students enrolled in that program alone by the 2030 to 31 school year. These comparisons highlight that Sters is not just growing, it is outperforming established and new programs alike. But the potential goes even further. Given the program's rapid growth, regional demand, and its alignment with the IB program, Sters is well
053positioned to exceed these projections. The synergy between IB and Mandarin immersion not is not only attracting families from within the district, but increasingly drawing students from neighboring communities as well, which the next slides will cover. Thank you for your time. Good evening members of the board and Dr. Zitlo. My name is Jasmine Weis Zapu and I'm the mother of an incoming TK student and rising first grader in the Mandarin immersion program at Sters. As noted earlier, Sters is uniquely positioned to not only compete with but outperform other established and emerging IB and Mandarin programs across Southern California. I'd like to call your attention to slide five in your handouts. The California Department of Education's Global California 23 2030 report sets a clear objective to establish 1,600 dual language programs statewide by the year 2030. That
054goal signals increasing competition among schools to attract and retain family seeking language immersion programs. Stus has a strong ability to succeed in this competitive environment with its combined IB and Mandarin immersion programs. Carpenter Elementary in Downey Unified School District is a great example of how coupling IB with the dual language program can drive measurable growth. While Imperial Elementary in Downey, which launched a Spanish immersion only program in 2022, has held steady at 50 kindergarten students over three years. Carpenter, on the other hand, launched its IB immersion program in 2019 with 75 kinder students and has since seen an average 25% year-over-year growth in enrollment. In speaking with our office, the kinder IB Spanish immersion enrollment and weight lists at Carpenter for the 2526 school year have been capped at 125 students. The demand for enrollment
055exceeds their capacity and they are turning away new applicants. Importantly, ABCUSD ranks higher in academic performance than Downey, which means Sters is poised to deliver even stronger enrollment results if given the support and opportunity to grow further. The IB program plays a critical role in the success of the Mandarin immersion program. not only in the alignment of teaching principles, but more importantly, it is the only means for most inner district students to successfully obtain a release from their home districts. With the everinccreasing competition to stabilize enrollment numbers, surrounding school districts such as Anaheim, Buena Park, Orange, and many others make it nearly impossible for students to obtain inner district permits but for specialized programs not already existing at their home district. Many neighboring school districts have already implemented Mandarin immersion programs. However, none have paired
056their Mandarin programs with IB. The IB program is the key for interd district students to obtain a successful release to hours. Lastly, I would like to call your attention to the map on slide six. This map indicates all of the IB primary year programs in surrounding districts which are marked with yellow stars. The green flags on this map represent surrounding Mandarin immersion programs. What this map tells us is that Stars is truly unique. It is the first and only elementary school with both IB and Mandarin immersion programs in all of LA, Orange, Riverside, and San Diego counties. As a pioneer IB and Mandarin immersion school, Stars has an unprecedented advantage, giving it prime access to a wide market share of families and students looking to join an academically excellent school district. Thank you for your
057time. Good evening. My name is Rich. Can you your name? Okay. Yes. Okay. Go ahead. Oh, good evening. My name is Richard Cow and I'm a proud parent to a rising first grader in a manner immersion program. Tonight, I will be speaking to slide eight. We're often searching for what's working in education to find what succeeds and build upon it. With Star Wars, we've done exactly that. We found not one but two thriving programs, the international backet and the mandarin immersion program. These programs are drawing families, building trust, and giving our district something rare, momentum. And yet instead of nurturing that success, there is a proposal to to disrupt it. Risking everything these programs have worked to achieve. Family and educators invest in programs they believe in. And that trust has been earned at sters.
058Disrupting these programs creates uncertainty. You make it harder for families and staff to stay committed. That uncertainty doesn't just slow momentum, it erodess trust in the district's long-term vision. Building that kind of found that kind of foundation takes years. displacing it now would risk losing program integrity and other families confidence in the program. These programs cannot be moved and expected to thrive. Establishing either programs require years of training, leadership development, and staff trust. Starters has built that foundation and no other school currently has it. For example, implementing the IB program at a new site takes a minimum of two to three years, including a required one-year teaching trial phase. If the application is not approved, there's an additional 2-year wait to reapply. This process introduces significant uncertainty and potential delays, making it even more difficult
059to rebuild what is already working at Star Wars. Disrupting these programs wouldn't be a continuation. It would be starting over. And during that trans transition, enrollment will decline. When that happens, other programs like reading intervention will be put at risk. I reiterate, no other school has the infrastructure or institutional knowledge needed to support and grow both programs. And let's be clear, demand is not the issue. While 96 sixth graders are exiting this year, the largest class size in the school and other grade levels are averaging at 62 students. The key point is this. Manor and immersion and IB program are planning to enroll close to 100 kindergarteners this upcoming year. that is surpassing the current grade level average and projected class size. That is not a that is not a sign of decline. That's clear
060measurable growth. Stowers is succeeding in a challenging environment. Other districts are tightening their transfer pro policies yet still attracts families because of its strong programs, experienced staff, and trusted reputation. That success is not easily replicated. We can't assume other sites will deliver the same results when you move these programs. So I ask, why alter what's already working? Stars isn't a struggling campus. It's a proven model of what happens when strong programs are given the chance to take root and thrive. Thank you. Hi, my name is Aaron Schaw. I am a director of a school district with 38 school sites. Um, but here today I'm just a parent, community member. We actually bought a house within the ABC school district last year specifically for the Mandarin immersion program. And I met someone else in the audience
061who who did the same thing. Um, so we uh today I'm here to talk to you uh about the financial benefits of the program. Starting on slide 10, um, according to the 2023 24 unudited actuals, um, every student within ABCUSD generates around $18,500 per year. Um, now in 2024 25, Sters had 157 interd district transfers. That's the third highest in all of the district elementaryaries. And it represents 29% of the students enrolled at Sters. Just in last year alone, that's a $2.9 million revenue for Sters's interd district transfers. Over six years, uh I'm sorry, at full enrollment, that's a $3.2 million uh revenue. uh over six years we see that financial projection uh going out to $16.9 million in additional revenue from out of district transfers. On the next page, slide 11, you can see
062uh what happens if we accept the proposal to merge Mandarin immersion with Gonzaleves. Gonzalez has a capacity and the Mandarin immersion uh if it's if it continues with its projected growth in just three classes, we're going to have to cap that enrollment starting in the 202728 school year. So just one year after the move. Um moving on to slide 12, we can see the financial impact of capping the program. Over six years, we would end up losing $3.6 million in potential revenue. we would have to close the IB program in order to get it reertified, which would be a $5.5 million loss over six years. If we are able to successfully get the U IB program up and running and reertified within three years, that's still a $3 million loss. So together, that fiscal impact,
063that loss is $9.1 million over six years. Now, when we look at the net loss, meaning the comparison between the potential uh financial benefits versus the potential financial losses, that's a $26 million revenue difference over six years. So, not only is Sters really good for the community, really good for our families, um but and really good for the ABC Unified School District, it just makes simple good financial sense to keep the program. Thank you. Hello, my name is Irwin Irwin Tuis on Crito's resident and parents of rising fourth and second graders at Star Wars Elementary. Uh for my discussion, please turn to slide 14. A statement was made in the previous board meeting that resonates with our school that it doesn't have to be Sour Elementary. We would prefer that no school is closed, though
064we understand that change at times is necessary. But change for the sake of change is not something that should be made. Closing a school with a proven track record of growth and excellence that has seen its Mandarin immersion program grow immensely in just two years and projects to have nearly 700 students by the 2030 school year is not a change that should be made. Closing the only international bachelorette program in ABCUSD removes a key reason students at the youngest levels are able to transfer into our district. Why cap this potential by moving this program, this successful program to another school that doesn't project to have the capacity to fit its growth? Why restart an IB program somewhere else that could take years to implement? Why close the only school in the LA, OC, Riverside, and
065San Diego areas that has a combined IB Mandarin immersion program? Why close a high-erforming academic school? My youngest actually asked me the simplest form of this question. Why are they closing our school? Money. Everything costs money and there's a need to save money. Though every financial expert will tell you it's good to save, but it's better to invest. Stars is an asset to ABCUSD. It's a blueprint for combating declining enrollment. With 29% of our students being out of district transfers, Star Wars brought in 2.9 million of revenue from this group of students alone. Overall, as Aaron said, losing Star Wars and its programs projects to an over 26 million loss in revenue over six years. If one of the goals of consolidation was to attract more out of district students, closing an elementary school that
066brings in those very students is not a way to save. Closing a school that already has double the amount of students that a potential Whitney Middle School conversion would offer is not a good way to invest. Instead, why not invest long-term and keep sters open? Add IB at the middle and high school levels and create more ways for students to transfer into our district. Don't cut costs just to save and not have a long-term plan to invest in our whole community. This news has hit our kids hard. With the district's updated timeline, our rising third graders won't be promoting the school they grew up in. They won't be with half their friends. They won't be with us with the teachers they've come to know and trust. But they will be in three different schools in
067three consecutive years. Please don't gamble with our kids' education, their futures, or their childhood on a plan with insufficient research and evidence. Please invest in their futures instead. Thank you. Good evening, esteemed members of the school board, parents, educators, and community members. I am honored to be here today to speak on behalf of my peers and my community. My name is Maya Ramirez. I just promoted from Stars Elementary Magnet School of International Studies and I'm excited to move on to Carmenita Middle School. I'm proud to say that my family's involvement with the ABC school district demonstrates a deep rooted commitment to education and community. My father graduated from Cerrito's High School and was deeply involved with our PTA throughout my years at Sters. My aunt graduated from Whitney High School and currently teaches at Bragg
068Elementary. I stand before you today as the voice of the children. And although this decision will not affect me, it will affect my community and my friends. The proposed school closures and consolidations are not merely administrative decisions. There are choices you will be making that will have a lasting impact on our students, our community, and our future. As an international bal laora learner and award recipient, I have been taught to value community and humanity to create a better and more peaceful world for everyone. And that is why I am here today. As a student who had the opportunity to be a sixth grader at Sters Elementary, I want to talk about why sixth grade should stay in elementary school and not move to middle school. First, sixth graders are still kids. Sure, we're growing up
069fast, but emotionally and socially, many of us aren't ready for the big changes that come with middle school. Staying in elementary school gives us one more year of stability, structure, and support. We're with teachers who understand us and in a setting that feels safe and nurturing. My sixth grade teacher, Mrs. Abala, made me feel like I can do anything. Second, in elementary school, sixth graders have more leadership opportunities. We can be role models, mentors, and young and leaders for younger students. This boosts our confidence, responsibility, and school pride. For example, we have a TK buddy program where sixth graders are matched with a TK student to mentor throughout the year. Third, academic consistency matters. Staying in elementary school means fewer transitions and consistent expectations. We benefit from long-term relationships with teachers and peers, which helps
070us focus better, behave well, and learn more effectively. Finally, let's not forget the emotional side. Many sixth graders aren't ready for the social pressures and fast pace of middle school. Giving us one more year in a supportive, age appropriate environment can make a big difference in how we handle the future. I felt safe at Star Wars Elementary. I looked forward going to school every day and didn't have to worry about older kids. So before we rush sixth graders into middle school, let's think about what's best for our development. Not just academically, but emotionally and socially. I want my peers to have the same opportunity I had in sixth grade elementary. Why? Because I am confident. I am brave. I am empowered. And I am fearless. So the answer is letting us stay in elementary school
071where we can lead, learn, and grow with confidence. Thank you. [Applause] Hi everyone, my name is Arya Magpaya and I'm a soon to be fifth grader at Stars Elementary. First, I would like to thank the ABC board members and everyone here for giving me a chance to share my opinion. Today, I speak as a young Filipino student who has attended Star Wars since kindergarten. During COVID, I was homeschooled. My mom taught me about my Filipino culture and traditions, as well as math and English language arts. Starting in first grade, I learned Spanish from my teacher, Miss Pigan. Besides being a Spanish teacher, she was also Filipino. One thing I love to say was it means hello, how are you? So, I got firstirhand experience with talking with an adult in another language. After she left
072though, I started learning Mandarin. I had Mandarin class once a week and also after school. Now, that is another language I have experience with. I remember in the beginning that I love to say or what's your name? I really like learning languages in school. But now that I find out that Star is my clothes, my school world feels like it's crashing down on me. I keep thinking, what would school be like if it didn't have my teachers, my friends, and Mandarin anymore? If Star Wars closes and we didn't have the same teachers, would I still learn as much as I know now? This question has been haunting me. I also heard that it takes them more than two years for another school to have our same international balora program. Why wait and move our program
073to another school when you could keep it because it has already been approved and has it going successfully? My friends and I don't understand. There's a saying that I like and it goes like this. A society grows great when old men plant trees into shape they know they shall never sit in. It means that if you leave something good such as the Ivy program in our Mandarin class, you are helping future kids like me and adults like my parents. Before I end my speech, I would like to ask a question that I will say in Tagalog and Mandarin. Why replace it if it is not broken? In Tagalog, it is. And in Mandarin, it is. Thank you again for giving me this time and have a nice remainder of your day. On behalf of my
074Star War schoolmates who couldn't be here today, I would like to present the board a set of letters and drawings to show how much Star Wars means to them. [Applause] Yes, go ahead. Thank you. Good evening, ABC community. My name is Phoenix and I am an incoming fourth grader at Star Elementary. At a time where many of us should be enjoying our fifth day of summer break after nine and a half months of working hard to make the school year a su success, we are here pleading to save our school. People say that children are resilient. Yes, we are. It's because that is what's expected of us with the situations we are put in. You don't ask what we think, how we feel. You think because we are whining or complaining that we are fine.
075Our silence doesn't always mean we are fine. Star Wars Elementary, our second home, is threatened to be taken away from us. Many of us feel anxious and scared and traumatized, and we all feel sad. You are displacing and breaking up our community. As an IB school, we ster students practice empathy. Please put yourself in our shoes. Please don't take our second home from us. Please keep Sters Elementary Sters Elementary. Thank you for listening. [Applause] Well, that's a tough act to follow. So, uh, good evening, President Nishi, members of the board, Dr. Zitlo. I'm Jennifer Holmes. I'm a teacher at Wararez, and here we are again. Uh, just like we were last year, our community showed up. We spoke passionately. We begged for real solutions, and we asked asked to be heard. Instead, the decision was
076made to hire an outside consulting firm only to repeat the same process and reach the same conclusion the community challenged just a year ago. And here we are again facing school closures. It's frustrating. It feels like our voices don't matter. I get it. Like we are checking boxes instead of engaging in genuine collaboration with people these decisions impact the most. Our students, our families, and our staff members. Let's be clear. It's not about a building. This is about neighborhoods. identity, equity, and opportunity. At these schools, we serve a high population of English learners, low-income families, students with disabilities, foster and homeless youth, students who face barriers to success every day. In the last meeting, Dr. Rios, you asked why school these schools are underperforming. The answer is not a lack of effort from students or
077teachers. It's the reality of the challenges our students carry with them. They don't need closure. They need investment. And despite these challenges, we are making progress. Our STAR benchmark scores show a 7.4% increase in reading and a 4.2% increase in math proficiency this year alone. We are showing growth, and growth should matter. If we're truly seeking solutions, let's consider reforms that level the playing field. Let's fix schools of choice so that it's more equitable. Let's allow families to use grandparent or caregiver addresses for enrollment, something other districts are doing to support school stability and access. We're not asking you to ignore the financial realities. We are asking you to look beyond them, to consider the human as impact, to explore creative alternatives, and to engage with us as partners. Please don't just close the door,
078open it to better [Applause] solutions. Good evening, President Nishi, Dr. Zitlo, esteemed members of the board, and our community members. My name is Iris McPay and I'm a mother of an incoming fifth grader at Sters Elementary. It doesn't have to be Sters. These six words have been echoing in my mind since May 20th, the board meeting where Schoolworks presented their recommendation. I hope you all heard that as clearly as the rest of us during the meeting. Star Wars is an international balorate primary years program school. I actually contacted the IB Global Center in Washington DC this morning just to get the most accurate data. As of 2025, there are only 2,464 IB primary years program schools worldwide. And Sters has the privilege of being one of those 85 schools here in California. And out of
079those 85 schools, Sters is only one of the few that actually teaches Mandarin, making Sters even more unique from the other ABC schools and other schools across Southern California. To be an IB school, as the rest of my my community um mentioned, it's a process that takes several years to complete, but it also means to be a school that provides highquality education that is internationally recognized. The IB program complements the Mandarin program in that it fosters multicultural understanding. The initial goal of ABCUSD is to create worldclass schools among the diverse communities served in the district. Has this core mission changed? I hope not. Like many families in Sters both inside and outside our district, our family chose sters because of the well-rounded school education offered there, meaning the IB and the language immersion together. It
080is a difficult combination to find as you have heard in other nearby schools or districts. Despite the loss of the Spanish immersion program during CO, we decided to keep our daughter at Sters because of the community and the distinct benefits of the IB curriculum with the language component. These benefits promote stronger academic performance that reflect ABC's goals. Why dismantle such a distinct school program that ABCUSD can use to attract more students with growing families, which can in turn help improve our declining enrollment program problem. As a Cerrito's taxpaying resident, I would like to see us ABC Unified work with the community to reallocate funds to support successful specialized programs like those of Stars. In doing so, ABC Unified would promote academic enhancement for the purpose of long-term sustainability. Schoolworks recommended that this district allow out
081of district students to attend middle school, Whitney Middle School and High School. Great. Why not develop and me and modernize the current Whitney campus to allow this to happen while helping promote the growing community at Sters? Again, Schoolwork said it doesn't have to be Star Wars. Thank you. [Applause] Good evening, President Nishi, Dr. Zitlo, and esteemed board members. Thank you for allowing me to speak tonight. My name is Mark McPaio, and I'm the father of an incoming fifth grader at Sters. Today, I'd like to touch on an issue that's been on my mind since this recommendation first came out, the lack of financial analysis. I realized that Schoolworks was hired to make some recommendations strictly on demographics. That recommendation was accepted at the last schoolboard meeting and during questions from the board a question about
082financial impact was raised. The conclusion to that question was that the financial analysis would be done after a decision for action was made. I raised this question to President Nishi at the T he hosted a few days later after the meeting and was given a similar answer. You've got a report based on demographics and right now you're holding a public hearing to listen to our concerns. But in my opinion, you're leaving out key analysis to have a complete view of the situation and that is a financial analysis. Now, I realize that having numbers in hand is difficult without knowing what kind of items need to be analyzed. But every couple of years, we are given the opportunity to vote on propositions to make decisions that affect us all in some way. And what is on
083the text of those measures? fiscal impact. So if we as citizens are provided a section on fiscal impact when we vote, why should it be different for the school board? I believe you should also have a sense of fiscal impact when making a decision. It seems backwards to me that we decide on closing schools and shifting middle school grades first and then consider the cost later. I realize um I realize that knowing the exact fiscal impact on school closures and changes is difficult. I'm sure that when local and state measures are put on ballots, knowing the exact fiscal impact on decisions for entire cities, counties, and the state is even more difficult. And yet, an attempt is still made to provide potential fiscal impact so we can make an informed decision. I don't see why
084that should be different for the board here. One last point I'd like to raise. During the tea with Mr. Nishi, Mrs. Buouie mentioned that in her role on the board, the thing she hears the most is budgets, budgets, budgets. I empathize with Mrs. Buouie and I think every adult in this room does because let's face it, we all have some kind of budget to consider. And when we run our own numbers for our personal budgets, we don't always know how much things are going to cost. But we do our best to estimate costs before we spend our money. Why can't we do that here? If these decisions are made without finances in mind now, what happens when these decisions push you to the brink of your budget later? To sum up, before you make any
085decisions on recommendations, I urge you to consider fiscal impact before making the decision. If the state asks us to consider it when we vote, then why can't we ask you to do the same? Thank you. respected members of the school board. Good evening. My name is Hector Ruiz, a third grade teacher at Sters Elementary, speaking on behalf of our teachers directly impacted by the proposal found in the report. We've been told any actions moving forward need board approval first. Yet ample evidence exists that some plan of contraction dates back several years. So given the rapid proposed timeline, it beggars believe that the district didn't have something brewing and just needed the report to backfill a predetermined conclusion making all of this a formality. So let's talk about plans. The success of a school experience comes
086through the fornowledge of our students and pre-planning for them. In the pronouncements about the report, there is little of any mention other than prepare about the displacement that would occur amongst the teaching staff at Sters other than hearing and passing that are Mandarin program winds up at Consolves and the IB program winds up at Cerritos. Depending upon who you ask, we'd follow the students to those new sites. The alternative is is teachers at all sites to be closed to get scattered not knowing of a landing spot until the process was much farther along. This is a huge concern at the macro level. That's an impact to established staffs at the sites still open. That would see reshuffleling in seniority. If seniority becomes the basis for staff reallocation at the micro level, teachers want to pre-plan
087for whoever they're assigned to teach. Not knowing at either step creates a troubling uncertainty. Starting over at a new site involves transition for the students, for the parents, for the teachers. It's worrisome that the people component is notably overlooked. And what people that are considered are a group that hasn't even arrived at ABC yet. This plant offers no guarantee that they'll even show up. And I got to tell you, after 28 years in a classroom, my goal each year is to teach the kids I have in front of me, not the ones I wish I had. The proposal doesn't appear to be so much of a plan than a wish list. Build it. The it being Whitney Middle School and inner district students will come. It's not unlike the classic meme of cartoon characters pursuing
088a threeprong success plan. Phase one, acquisition, phase two, and phase three, profit. What's in phase two? In order to get the students you wish to have, what happens to the students already here? What is the impact to them at Star Wars and at the other proposed sites? What if sixth grade teachers expected to switch from teaching general ed to more specific content demands in middle school? Meanwhile, TK5 teachers in elementary either at current sites or new ones. Are they going to be in a permanent building or a portable? Is the district prepared for the potential disruption to the quality of instruction due to uncertainty, not to mention construction dust in pursuit of a hypothetic hypothetical inner district middle schooler? Like all educators, Ster's teachers feel the duty of care towards our students. We feel that
089our campus is the best place for them right now and in the future. We know these kids and frankly we don't want sters closed down. We also know we can teach our kids anywhere. Any proposal that would see us following our students to the new schools would be welcomed if that comes to pass. Any timeline relying upon rapidity to meet its goals will see better success with stakeholders, students, parents, teachers committed to seeing that transition actually working to benefit all involved. We are aware of reality and understand it. But please allow us directly impacted to have direct roles in any outcome. Take care of those of us in front of you right now. We are the people that you are waiting for. Thank you. Good evening members of the ABC Unified School District Board, superintendent
090and esteemed community members. My name is Suha Patel and I am the proud parent of Aayish Patel, a thriving student at Towers Elementary. I I stand before you not just as a concerned parent but as a testament to invaluable opportunities Towers and its uh international balorate program provide opportunity that now are under threat. My family's journey to showers highlights both challenge and a success story that's deeply relevant to tonight's discussion. We live in Bua Park School District. In 2019, we sought for sought an interd district transfer to Serritos Elementary, but because it didn't offer a specialized IB program, a request was denied. Bua Park's policy is clear. They will only release student if destination school offer a program that they don't have. Um that's when we discovered exceptional IB program at Towers Elementary. We reapplied
091for a transfer at this time citing Star Wars unique IB program as a as the release. It was approved and my son's education journey was transformed. The result I has not just succeeded, he has soared. He won the first place in Star Wars Elementary spelling B and took the first place in ABC USD district spelling B and ultimately placed fifth in the LA County Regionals. This isn't just about the child's achievement. It's about vital proven role that the Star Towers IB program plays in our district. It's about teachers who go above and beyond and deeply cares about their students and the program that truly unlocks student potential. Uh it's also important to understand that Baddy Elementary cited the reason for IOS's initial denied transfer never achieved IB authorization and another attempt at Pedleton Elementary was
092also discontinued. This underscores a crucial point. IB accredation is not a simple label you can move around from one school to to the other. It's a long years of rigorous process. um other district like mine won't approve transfer to schools that are only in the candidacy or tasting phase. Star Wars is already a fully authorized IB world school. Closing it would mean losing a hardearned status and the opportunity it provides to families like mine. I understand the budget constraint you face but closing stars and relocating the IB program would set back years of progress. disenfranch disenfranchising families who rely on this specialized education. It would send a message that proven excellence is expendable. Please do not close Star Towers Elementary. Let's protect our uh future of our children and the legacy of this exceptional program.
093I'd like to emphasize that Star Wars is the only handful school in California that provides both IB and dual immersion Chinese program. Thank you. Good evening board members, board president, board members, superintendent, and administrators. My name is Michael Coup, and I am here to speak against the closure of Sters Elementary. While I agree with the need for measures to address the district's declining enrollment and loss of funding, Sters is not the right choice to close. Not only is Star Wars bucking the trend of enrollment decline, it's one of the strongest centers of growth for ABC Unified as evidenced by the data I provided at the last meeting two weeks ago. We have a growing thriving program due to the two symbiotic programs of Mandarin dual immersion and international bakalorat as Mr. Patel very uh eloquently
094stated earlier that complement one another to drive enrollment and an excellent admin and staff and active and supportive parents. I have three kids, the oldest entering Mandarin emerging kinder next year and I have two more that will be following in the years ahead. There's many factors that people like myself chose Sters. I'm a I'm a taxpaying resident in Star Wars boundary and that's that choice of in of location is intentional. I also know many out of district parents who chose Sters. Why? They can choose from any school anywhere. Yet they choose sters for all the factors described earlier. Sters is the example right now successful still growing despite already high numbers and that shouldn't be disrupted. That that includes any suggestion of breaking up the mandarin immersion in international barker laura programs. You have something
095that's working well. Any disruption will certainly result in an adverse effect causing loss of students and district revenue. One concern about the proposed collocation to Gonzalez. Star Wars as a whole has more capacity than Gonzalz as a whole. The proposed co- collocation site, how can the combined Gonzalez site accommodate classroom space for um 100 to 150 kindergarteners, 200 to 300 first and second graders. You have to think about lunch, recess, classroom space. How's that going to work? Third, a point was made that border schools should not be considered for closure and thus Star Wars was targeted. If you look at the map for Gonzalez, just for example, is bordered by industrial complex and the closest school district is Norwok La Marada. It's unlikely we will lose students due to the border with at that border
096with the strength of ABC Unified and that's thanks for decision makers like you that make us so strong. Also, location should not be a factor because if you consider even the next closest two schools, they're all within half a mile. So, that I think is negligible as well. If that was one of the reasons why Star Wars was chosen. So, none of the reasons why Star Wars was chosen makes any sense. If Star Wars is closed, I can say not all families will stay, which will ultimately result in enrollment loss and loss of revenue, which is what you're trying to cure, right? So I urge you not to make the mistake you have first mover advantage. That what that means is Star Wars is the established program. It is the model. Don't break it up.
097Don't move it. People want Star Wars and others want to imitate Star Wars and you want to slaughter the golden goose. Thank you. Good evening board members and Dr. Zetlo. My name is Patty Kildall and I'm the LMT at Ferguson Elementary School. I came up with a little title and it's called Don't Close Ferguson. Reimagine it. Invest in the future. The impact of school closures on a community's perceived vitality is a critical consideration. When a school closes in a community, it signals a diminished commitment to local investments and a less optimistic future. This is not something we wish to wish to perpetuate in our Hawaiian Gardens community. Research shows that school closures can adversely affect property values by deterring prospective buyers and eroding property values. Additionally, families within the community are burdened by escalated transportation
098expenses and strained access to essential child care services, particularly in areas reliant on interconnected support systems. We know that our Hawaiian Gardens community relies heavily on each other for support in this area. There also exists a strong correlation between a school's walkability and elevated housing prices in our community. A vast majority of our students are walked to school by family members and friends. Once again emphasizing the reliance on these interconnected support systems. Furthermore, it's important to consider and remember that closures may not be equitable as they can disproportionately impact students from lowincome communities and students of color. And I know we've heard this before. Students from these groups may be less likely to be placed in higher performing schools after closure, exasperating existing inequalities. I know we can agree that we all share a common
099goal to ensure every student achieves at the highest possible level. Relocating our students to schools such as Melbourne and Hawaiian which share a comparable academic profile offers no discernable academic advantage to our students or our community. Nor will it support property value appreciation. Maintaining Ferguson's operation on the other hand and reinvisioning it as an international dual language school for example or a similar innovative model presents a more strategic and beneficial alternative for this community. This strategy represents a significant long-term investment in our community's future. And this is what I hope we hope you will consider as you make some very difficult decisions. I thank you for your time. Uh, good evening. My name is Edith Corales. I'm the dual immersion literacy coach at Ferguson Elementary. I'm here to speak on the destructive impact that the
100current school of choice system is having on specific communities that you serve. The numbers I'm sharing come from the resident school totals document and school consolidation report shared on the district website as well as the California dashboard. Our current school of choice policy has created a system that benefits the elementary schools located in Cerritos at the cost of our schools in Lakewood, Artisia and Hawaiian Gardens. Thank you. If average, the top five ranked elementary schools, all located in Cerritos, Leel, Whitman, Gonzalez, Critos, and Nixon, each rece receive an additional 238 students from district schools. That equals approximately seven additional classes per school. When I reviewed the capacity totals shared at the May 20th board meeting, Cerrito schools averaged 81% full, Artisia 77%, Lakewood 50%, and Hawaiian Gardens 38%. Next, I considered home resident students in
101each school site. None of the schools receiving the largest number of intradist transfers are in the top third of home resident student numbers. Interestingly enough, Whitman, Nixon, and Gonzaleves are three of the last four in home resident student totals. It feels like a case of borrowing from Paul to pay Peter. The top five schools losing the most students are Huarees, Aloha, Melbourne, Carver, and Sters. Please note three are recommended to be closed. As a district allows affluent Cerritos elementary schools to fill to near capacity, we shrink other school sites in Lakewood, Artisia, and Hawaiian Gardens. Is that equity? We are continuously funneling students out of their home schools as our enrollment numbers decline. The consolidation report even gave a recommendation, number six, to look into capping enrollment at schools to limit transfers. Why do it
102after you close schools? Which community does that benefit? Why do parents leave bad schools? Because there is a belief that our children will do better in certain schools. However, consider Ferguson students at these better schools. 76% of them are not meeting ELA and math standards based on the CASP data of the past year. Why does the leaving, I'm sorry, what does the leaving do to our schools? Our remaining students are often the ones with the most need. Where are the highest socioeconomically disadvantaged students? Hawaiian Gardens in Lakewood, Melbourne and Hawaii 94%, Ferguson 96, Aloha 88, etc. Whereas we see rates as low as 33% or 37% in the schools with the highest intra transfer rate numbers. And yet we are told, why aren't your schools performing better? It must be your teaching. And thus the
103cycle continues. We perform low, we lose kids. Our current school of choice policy has created a tiered system where tier one schools in Cerritos benefit the most while our tier three schools bear the burden and sters bears the burden. Where weren't policies changed in the 2010s to rectify the unfair enrollment practices at Whitney High School? Weren't our district policies changed to create trusty areas in 2017? Why not modify school of choice policy? Policies and systems put into place at the district level will bleed into schools and into the classroom. Put in protections for your most vulnerable student populations. Protect sters. Don't use the need of these schools as a justification to close them. Good evening. My name is Christina Ball and I am a literacy coach at Ferguson Elementary. Dr. Rios, at the last board
104me meeting, you spoke to the fact that you were disappointed with the low performing schools in our district and that we need to get the performance issue figured out. Since our beloved Ferguson is rarely recognized for all of the amazing work that our staff and students do, I'm here to share with you and the rest of the board that Ferguson has actually become a part of that solution and a catalyst for change. This school year, we were fortunate to be awarded the literacy coaches and reading specialists educator training grant through the California Department of Education. The goal of this grant, which is supported by the state superintendent of public instruction's goal of all students reading by third grade, is to develop training and provide professional development for educators to become literacy coaches and reading and
105literacy specialists and provide support for the eleas that received that allocation. Ferguson received a total amount of $450,000 based specifically on our high number of unduplicated students which includes our English learners, foster and homeless students, and students with from low socioeconomic backgrounds. This money is to be used through the year 2028. Schools with a high population of low socioeconomic students tend to get the short end of the stick. Yet, these students are the ones who need the most consistency. Literacy has become a social justice issue and this grant is just one of the many things that the state of California is currently doing to address this. Through this grant, we have developed and implemented a school literacy plan with goals of improving our students literacy outcomes. We are developing the knowledge and skills to become
106literacy coaches through training provided by nationally renowned literacy and coaching experts. We have developed knowledge and skills in literacy instruction through the California Reading and Literature Project, which is focused on evidence-based reading instruction and assessment. We are building a strong foundation and supporting the active implementation of the literacy framework provided through this training. Throughout my 18 years in education, I have worked at several schools and I can tell you without hesitation that I have never worked with a more dedicated group of teachers, staff, and community members. With the hard work and dedication of all of our teachers and staff at Ferguson, specifically to the work that we're doing in literacy, our students have made notable improvements as reflected in our star reading data. At the start of this school year, 59% of our students were
107at a level one needing urgent intervention. By the end of this school year, we have cut this number to 37%. That is a 22% decrease in students needing urgent intervention. This is only after one year of implementation. Our work here is not done. We are just getting started in this work and we still have a lot of work to continue doing. The purpose of this grant is to build capacity within our staff to ensure all of these practices are sustainable for the foreseeable future. If Ferguson Elementary were to be closed in the 2627 school year, as recommended in the report, all of the leftover money would have to be sent back to the state and our work would be wasted. As stated in Mrs. Codales's report, families leave Ferguson hoping that a high performing school
108will be able to support their child. And the data shows that is not the case. Our Ferguson teachers are equipped to support the needs of these students through highquality evidence-based instruction. This grant provides a unique opportunity for ABC to make systemwide changes by scaling this work up and making district-wide literacy improvements. That way, disparity across the district doesn't exist and parents don't feel like they have to make that choice. I will leave you with this quote by Dr. Louisa Moes. Just about all children can be taught to read and deserve no less from their teachers. Teachers in turn deserve no less than the knowledge and skills and supported practice that will enable their teaching to succeed. There is no more important challenge for education to undertake. We, the staff at Ferguson, are equipped with the
109knowledge and skills needed to support our disadvantaged students and willing to take on this challenge. So, please don't take that away from our students at such a crucial time. and I would like to Good evening. My name is Anthony Rico and I am a proud parent of two Ferguson Elementary students. I'm also someone who's benefited from the district's open enrollment and dual language immersion program. I'm here tonight not just as a parent, but as someone who believes in the power of public education when it is rooted in equity, access, and trust. That trust is at risk. The proposed closures of Ferguson, Aloha, and Huarees elementary schools would disproportionately impact families and working-class communities of color. I understand that the district is facing declining enrollment and financial pressures. But the path we choose in response will
110define how serious we are about equity. Not in words, but in action. Let's look at the numbers. Ferguson Elementary in Hawaiian Gardens is 95% Hispanic. 96% of students qualify for free lunch and reduce free and reduced or reduced lunch. Aloha Elementary in Lakewood is 62% Hispanic, 17% black with 79% economically disadvantaged. Huarees Elementary in Critos is 63% Hispanic with 67% qualifying for uh reduced meals. Compare that to ABC uh district's wide average of is just what 38%. These schools are serving nearly double the number of e economically disadvantaged students. They are not just schools, they are lifelines in historically undeserved neighborhoods. And while I recognize the pain that Starders Elementary uh community is facing, there's a critical difference. Sters has long depended on intra and inner district transfers to keep its numbers up. A community
111show report shows that 244 to 450 students have transferred out. What's that 42%. Its strength has come from program demand, not local density. Ferguson, Aloha, and Horus by contrast serve resident students. These are true neighborhood schools rooted loc rooted local and consistent. Closing them is not a reallocation. It's a displacement. And yet despite these hardships, Ferguson has shown that what's possible when belief and investment intersect. Just this year, the state of California awarded Ferguson Elementary $450,000 to support literacy development and community engagement. The state believes in our teachers. The state believes in our students. But what about the ABCUSD board? The state believes in our students. But do you believe these children are worth the investment? Let's not forget Assembly Bill 1912, right? The districts are legally required to conduct a npoint equity impact analysis
112before closing schools. What do we get? A PowerPoint presentation which is not sufficient. The law demands transparency and accountability. Our communities deserve a clear explanation of how this decision serves not harms equity goals. If you believe in these students, let's talk about what's within your power, not just what's on the chopping block. Under California, under California Education Code 335160.5, the board has the authority to cap outgoing transfers and your if the schools closed, you said in you will cap open enrollment to prevent um you know schools being uh overpop populated. So you can stabilize enrollment at Ferguson, Aloha, and Horses right now, not by closing schools, but by limiting the number of students transferring out under open enrollment. Pair that with targeted investment, magnet programs, bilingual pathways, arts integration, and these schools just don't survive,
113they thrive. Instead of treating these campuses as liabilities, we could position them as models of inclusion, creativity, and equity. Thank you. [Music] Good evening. Self-determination, traditions, cultures, rigor, and the desire to never give up are some of the values that we, the Ferguson families, teachers, and students hold dear and are determined to protect for the benefit of our students. We are not just the numbers. We are a community where every child is everyone's kid. as an African people uh believe and it says it takes a village to educate educate and raise a child. That is when it essence is Ferguson a village where the students and the community are respected and appreciated. Many students and families are increasingly feeling unise with all of the change uh ch changes that we um encounter at this time.
114and the possibility of closer schools is one more difficulty that many people will confront. I've always had a great admiration and respect for a free community, not only for the culture, richness, and the that they bring to the table, but also their tenacity, perseverance, hard work. Yes, hard work. Um, parents at Ferguson are hardworking and they do care for our schools. Our learning community is also made of unselfish, dedicated, and well-trained teachers. Something that was placed in doubt in a recent meeting or pedagogies and abilities to teach in Spanish was questioned. for material deduct. This is why for many years our district has sent other schools such as Star Wars and um Nimz to see and visit our viol or bilingual education. The question is brutal here. Are we in favor of Ferguson students? Are
115we in favor of their well-being? I don't want you to mis mis misunderstand my presence in here. I am not here to defend our teaching staff. We are for you to ignore who we are. I'm here to ask you to take a closer look at our schools with a very closer with a with a open lens. We are value. We are citizens and we deserve a chance. Um do do we want to hear the translation? She was was she saying the exact same thing in English as in Spanish? No, but we have a translator. We do have a translator over in the back. The problem is maybe Well, she's gone. Well, typically if they're speaking Spanish, they get double the amount of time and we should be able to understand what she's saying. Oh, I
116can just Okay, thank you. Because that would be part of your time. It would just have to be fair, right? That's what the the rules say. I said that our ability to teach in Spanish was questioned. Therefore, simply to demonstrate that we the teachers and I'm translating directly from Spanish into the English just just for those that question our capacity and ability and see uh therefore we are able to uh teach in the Castellian language the same as we do in the Spanish applying those strategies and ped pedagogies that they could be um that they could enhance the learning that was mentioned in their earlier language Spanish and and English and also not to mention that it also helps develop the English at the same time. Any one of the teachers that we teach at
117Ferguson, we are ready to debate in any language if that is to ask for. With this, I want to say very clearly that our teachers, those of us that teach at Ferguson's school, we could teach with any pedagogical and manipulatives or any um other materials if that is requested. Teaching is teaching and that's what we do. I didn't say that before. Oh, is it is a it is uh it is it is hard to see that the the well-being of students is is talk and discuss in the table when it when we talk about closing or forging school is school is a place where the students can be themselves without being afraid is a hypocrisy. when we talk about well-beings of the students and we talk about closen Ferguson. Thank you. Sorry, I feel like
118it's going to hit me. Okay. Good evening. My name is Janette Ortiz, a parent and community member of Ferguson Elementary in the city of Hawaiian Gardens. Lack of reliable transportation has a substantial negative impact on school attendance, engagement, and ultimately success. The cost of transportation, including public transit or private transportation, can be a significant expense for our lowincome families. The impact that our families will face in Ferguson I if Ferguson is consolidated will be huge in many ways. Did you know that more than 70% of our kids walk to and from school? We have parents, grandparents, babysitters, relatives, and even neighbors walking to pick up our kids. Coming back from the pandemic, our absetism rate was 30%. Now it's 7%. That's a decreased amount of absences by 23%. In case of an emergency, because we
119know they do happen, how will our kids be picked up in an effective matter? What about the kids that stay for after school interventions or even after school program that ends at 6:00 p.m.? Will they be provided a bus back home? Again, many of our children walk to and from Ferguson every single day on their own with pride, with purpose. But if this school closes, what happens then? What happens if they miss the bus? Truth is simple. They'll end up missing school. Absences will rise. Our kids will be left behind. We are not just consolidating schools here. We are creating barriers. We are talking about children who want to learn, thrive, be someone in life, but are being pushed out by a system that should be lifting them up. Thank you. [Applause] Good evening board
120members. My name is Marita Reyes and I stand before you today as a proud advocate for our school Ferguson Elementary, our student, our community in Hawaiian Gardens. I come with a message that is both urgent and long overdue. Our students have achieved great things, measurable, meaningful, and powerful achievements. Most recently, most recently, we were awarded with significant grant from the state of California. funding was especially intended to support students from low socioeconomic backgrounds and their reading developments. Because of that investment, we have seen a real measure of gains in our reading scores. That growth didn't happen by accident. It comes from hard work from our teachers, dedication from our students, and support from our families. Despite of these accomplishments, our school has been overlooked. We do not see board members visiting our campus as they
121do with other schools. We are not invited to showcase our progress and speak publicly about our success stories. The silence is not only disheartening, it's harmful. Ferguson Elementary is a dual emerge language school, a program that should be celebrated and marketed as a unique asset to the district. Families across the region are actively searching for schools with this offering. Yet there is little to no outreach or promotion from districts to that highlights what we do. We have when we are excluded from the district narrative, our accomplishments are not amplified. It directly affects our ability to bring new students and to retain the families within our community. In fact, the a another district came to Hawaiian to Ferguson Elementary in Hawaiian Gardens to learn from our amazing teachers. They observe classrooms, study their methods, and taking
122practices back to improve their own schools. Think about that. Ferguson Elementary is helping elevate education beyond our district. Yet, we are struggling to be seen and supported within it. And now we face a risk of closure. Let me be clear. Closing our schools will not only erase years and and heart one progress. It will send devastating messages to our students and families. It will tell that despite long doing everything right, everything right. Despite growing, improving and achieving, they are disposable. We're not asking for favors. We are asking for fairness, visibility, and respect. Our school, it's located in a city that often suffers from negative reputation, but we're not defined by that. We are bright light in our community and we are proved that excellent exist. If only someone is willing to support. We need your
123support, not just behind closed doors. be out loud in public and on records. Stand with stand with us. Speak for us. Fight for us. Because closing a school with our because closing like our school is not just losing it is not just a loss for our city, it's a loss for the entire district. Recognizing our efforts, highlighting our achievement, and doing better marketing on your social media, which is free, supports Ferguson Elementary. Please do not turn their lights off. Thank [Applause] you. Good evening. My name is Robin Rico and I am a proud parent of two students at Ferguson Elementary. And I want to talk to you about a rebuttal to the ABC Unified School District School Consolidation Recommendation Report. This big giant packet you guys gave us and I might go over. So I
124have this that I would like to give you so you guys can see what I have put together. So, the Schoolworks Incorporated report presented to the ABC Unified School District board on May 20th proposes a plan for school consolidation based primarily on declining enrollment trends and projected financial constraints. While the report raises real concerns, it lacks the transparency, depth, and community specific analysis necessary to justify such drastic and disruptive decisions. I offer the following rebuttal points for the board's serious consideration. Thank you. Now I can breathe again. Okay, so number one, lack of transparency and cost analysis. The report repeatedly references budget shortfalls and the need for cost efficiency. Yet no detailed financial breakdown or costbenefit analysis is provided. This emission is alarming. Critical questions remain unanswered. What are the actual projected savings from each
125proposed school closure? What are the short and long-term costs of relocation, staffing changes, busing, and facility re reconfiguration? Why were these costs excluded and who instructed school works to omit them? as noted on page five. Without this data, the community cannot fully assess the tradeoffs being made. Number two, misuse of enrollment projections. The report heavily leans on enrollment decline as justification. Yet, the projections are not clearly sourced or peer-reviewed. There is no demographic or economic analysis that includes new housing developments, immigration trends, or future regional growth. The report fails to separate natural population shifts from policydriven outcomes such as district transfers, barriers, or program cuts that may have discouraged enrollment. Moreover, the district still retains over 7,000 intradist students suggesting families choose ABC for a reason, reasons that are being ignored in favor of cuts.
126Number three, disregard for educational and equity impacts. The closures disappropriately affect schools in workingclass, multilingual, and racially diverse neighborhoods like Ferguson and Aloha. These schools have provided cultural culturally revalent programs and consistent support systems for vulnerable populations. The closure plan does not address the loss of oops established community trust and stability, the academic and emotional toll forced on school transfers, the impact of programs like dual language immersions which are not guaranteed to continue with fidelity elsewhere. You guys can read what I have because it's quite illegal what you are choosing to do. Thank you very much. Thank you. Hello. Hello. Okay. Good evening. My name is Elizabeth and I am a Oh, I'm sorry. And I stand before you tonight as a concerned parent and educator. We are here tonight to discuss the proposed school
127closures specifically targeting schools like Ferguson. While these decisions are often framed as budgetary necess necessities, I want to clearly state that we are witnessing that what we are witnessing is the crushing of famil family's dreams for their children. Let's be clear, education at its core is political. Every decision made by this board has profound implications beyond numbers on a spreadsheet. And when we look at the school slated for closure, a deeply troubling pattern emerges. you are disproportionately targeting schools in lowincome neighborhoods, communities that consist predominantly, if not entirely, of Latino communities. This isn't just an observation. This is it's a stark reality that demands accountability and a transparent explanation. The closure of schools like Ferguson doesn't just disrupt education. It actively perpetuates harmful stigmas and stereotypes about the Latino community. It sends a message that
128these communities are disposable, that their children's educational futures are less valuable and that their dreams are secondary to administrative convenience. This is not just an educational issue. It's a moral and ethical one. We are talking about the futures of our children, the well-being of our families, and the integrity of an entire community. We urge you to reconsider these devastating proposals. Instead of dismantling schools that serve as anchors in these communities, we demand you to invest in them, to uplift them, and to recognize their inherent value and potential within every single student and family, whether they look like you or not. Do not let these decisions define our community by perpetuating inequality, because that is what you're doing. Let us instead work together to build a future where every child, regardless of their zip code or
129background, has the opportunity to achieve their dreams. Thank you. [Applause] Do we need a translator? Great. Thank you. Thank you. Perfect. Okay. Express instit. forific. A principal. inclusivas. [Applause] [Music] Gracias. Good evening, school council, school council board. Thank you for the opportunity for giving me um this opportunity to speak publicly. My name is Adida and as a mother who's dedicated to Ferguson school, I am an active member in the community in the Latino community. I'm here to express my concern, my deep concern and the possibility of this school closure. This institution not only represents an academic space o but also a safe space an effective and fundamental space for the development of our children. That's why I'm here to express my opinion along with other families to share with you the following message and to
130share it with you with solidarity. We are here to defi defend the rights of education. The school not only is a physical space, it is also a learning environment, an inclusive environment and also is there to help our kids emotionally and to develop socially. It's a place where each student needs support, needs to identify themselves and to also have opportunities for future for their futures. Closing this institution would imply going backwards and it would affect our education. It would affect mainly our vulnerable families. This would generate interruption in the pedagoguy process, the social and effective processes of our families and students. This would impact in a negative way our community, our community inclusivity and also the quality of many lives that depend on this education service. And it would also affect their access to education.
131Education should not be looked as an expense but it should be looked at as an investment an investment to the future and to the now of our society. Defending our school would is it means defending our rights defending our rights that include inclusivity and our our dignified rights. I say no. No in closing this school because every child deserves a place to be seen, to be loved, cared, and supported. I say no. Don't close this school because our community needs this school. Without this school, we will have an incomplete community. I say no, don't close these schools because our future depends. Our kids depend in our in their future. And this is not a game for them. These decisions are admin decisions. Please hear our voices. We are here so we can ask for you
132to support us and we're here to defend our kids. Thank you. My name is Adam Khan. I'm a parent and tenure professor at Cal State Long Beach. I co-chair the university's institutional and program assessment council and lead faculty programs focused on student success. Like you, I care deeply about making equitable, datainformed decisions. That's why I'm urging you to keep sixth grade in elementary school. I understand the district is facing tough choices, but please don't address them by adopting a structure that research shows will harm students academically and developmentally. Peer-reviewed studies involving hundreds of thousands of students across thousands of districts have repeatedly found that students who transition to middle school in sixth grade fare worse than those who transition in seventh. A Duke University study found that sixth graders in middle school scored lower on
133state tests and were nearly twice as likely to be cited for discipline problems, effects that persisted through at least 9th grade. A Colombia University study found learning losses equivalent to five months of instruction with no recovery by 8th grade. Harvard and UC Santa Barbara researchers found that sixth grade transitions led to persistent achievement losses and lower high school graduation rates. And a Syracuse University study found that sixth graders entering middle school felt less safe, less connected, and more vulnerable to bullying. This is just a sample of the lasting academic, socioeotional, and behavioral harms documented for students who transition to middle school and sixth grade. Research finds this most pronounced for lower achieving students, compounding the equity concerns already raised by the consolidation process. This research directly contradicts the schoolwork's claim that middle school is more
134developmentally appropriate for sixth graders. Anecdotal stories of student success or other districts models cannot outweigh rigorous largecale evidence. Adopting a six through eight model would be like abandoning the science of literacy for balanced reading. Balance science of reading for balanced literacy. We've seen how ignoring evidence hurts students. There is no peer-review research, quantitative or qualitative, that would support moving sixth grade to middle school. On the other hand, the evidence of harm is unequivocal and equity gaps will widen. I urge you to preserve the current configuration at middle schools with healthy enrollment. You might consider converting underutilized campuses into TK through8 schools. Expanding the scope of closures may be unpopular, but research shows that K through8 schools yield stronger and more equitable outcomes. This approach might close buildings, but not communities, allowing them to merge in
135their entirety and remain intact without dividing elementary attendance zones or reassigning transfers. This reimagination is more efficient, equitable, and innovative, and could improve the experience of consolidated schools without district-wide harm to sixth graders. Middle school reconfiguration only entered the discussion recently. Please follow the research, delay any action items, and use the summer to devise a more developmentally appropriate and truly equity-minded plan that keeps sixth grade in elementary school. Thank you. Thank you for being respectful of the speakers. Thank you. Hello everyone. My name is Lee Johnson and I am a Ster student who just promoted to 7th grade on Thursday, May 29th. This next year I will be attending Whitney Middle School and I want to address the chance of Stard closing down to become that school. Start should not be closed down because of
136how diverse it is compared to other schools. It's the only school in this district to be an international balorate school. Not only that, but it's the only school in the district to have a dual immersion mandaring program. Do you know what the phrase Guany and how means? It means happy new year. But I never would have known that if I didn't go to Sour. Not only that, but our staff at Sour is great. Mr. Z, our librarian, our librarian, is one of the nicest and funniest people I've ever known. Or what about our principal who's helped us kids all the way since kindergarten? And also our teachers, and some of them are back over there. Wait. Of course, the main reason Star Wars has the potential of closing isn't because of the reasons I stated
137earlier. Sters might close because of attendance problems, which to me doesn't make sense because at Star Wars, I see new faces every day. It might seem weird how I've been at Sters for over seven years and still see new people. But that's a huge part of what's makes this school so great. As 90 kids leave, a 100 more will join. As a hundred kids leave, 120 more will join. As I leave, a new generation of Sour students will join kindergarten or TK and have the joy of promoting here in sixth grade 7 years later. And lastly, as a new Whitney Middle School student, a large part of why I wanted to go to Whitney is to be at Whitney, not my old school. In conclusion, Ster should not and will not be converted into Whitney
138Middle School. Thank you and have a good night. Good evening board members. My name is Sydney Rascan. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share something that is deeply personal and meaningful to me. why you shouldn't why you should keep Sters Elementary open for our children. Um, when it came time to choose schools, I didn't just look at the test scores or ranking. I looked at the place that felt like home, a place where my children could truly be children from transitional kindergarten to sixth grade without being rushed into the pressures of junior high too soon. Because I believe that when we send our children to junior high in sixth grade, we're asking them to grow up fast. We ask them to grow up too fast. We're rushing them into a world of older
139kids, bigger expectations, and less time to just be children. At Sters, our kids get to stay in an environment that builds for them, that's built for them, where they can lead as sixth graders, not follow as youngest in the middle school. They get to build confidence, take a leadership role, and enjoy one more year of being surrounded by teachers and staff who truly understand the needs of elementary age children. I believe that childhood is precious and fleeting. I wanted my children I wanted my kids to have the time and space to grow, explore, and enjoy being young. Sters offers that. But my connection to Sters runs even deeper than that. This school is part of my family story. My ma, my mother, my brother, and I all attended Sters. And now years later, our children
140walk the same campus we once did. It's more than just a school. It's a tradition, a legacy, and a community that has shaped who we are. When my husband and I were looking for a home, our number one priority wasn't the kitchen or the backyard. It was the school. It was a house. If the house wasn't zoned in Stout for Sters, it didn't make the list. That's how much the school means to us. We worked hard to be able to live in Cerritos. And Sters was a big part of that dream. Sters isn't just a place where children learn math and reading. It's a place where they learn kindness, confidence, and community. It's where they make lifelong friends and memories. It's where they are allowed to be kids. So when people ask why I chose
141Sters, the answer is simple. It's home because it's where my children can grow up at their own pace, surrounded by love, support, and a legacy that spans generations. Thank you. Good evening. I'm Celia Spitzer. I see these recommendations as having four parts. One, closing Aloha, Ferguson, Wararez, and Sters and consolidating their students with other ABC elementary schools. Two, changing the elementary and middle school grade ranges from the current TK6 and 78 to TK5 and 68. Three, repurposing Sters as a Whitney standalone middle school. And four, making Whitney a true 912 high school. regarding closing the four schools. Three of them had been suggested for possible closure by the ad hoc committee a year ago. However, I I I have changed while I was sitting here, so now I really need my glasses. However, I do
142not think Ster should be one of the four schools. I understand the need for and support the closure of four schools, but not those one of those four. The schoolworks report recommends that displaced students attend specific neighboring schools. Those students should not be limited to choosing just those schools. They should be able to choose any of the schools that will remain open as long as there is space at the school. They should be given top priority in the schools of choice process for the 2627 school year. Furthermore, as is the custom, the school they attend for that year should become their home school for the duration of the grades span. In addition, the district should draw new elementary boundaries for the affected schools by the end of this calendar year or early next year. The
143displaced students would then know what their new homeschool designation would be for 2627. So many of them would not even have to go through the schools of choice process. I have no problem with the recommended change for the grades span to go to 68 for middle school. Both my granddaughters did that in San Diego and I consulted with them. They're way beyond that now and they said it was fine. Regarding repurposing Sters, I oppose changing it from an elementary school to a standalone Whitney Middle School. If Sters is repurposed in such a way, there would be no savings to the district as the school would remain fully operational. In fact, it would be an additional expense to the district for the conversion. Science labs would have to be constructed, lockers would be needed, and athletic
144facilities would have to be built to meet the state requirements for middle school. Making Whitney a true high school would allow for expanding its high school student enrollment from 700 to 900 as suggested in the schoolworks recommendations. This could include numerous outofd students. The five comprehensive middle schools could easily absorb the 350 students who might have attended a Whitney Middle School. While closing schools is a difficult decision for school board members to make, ABC is not unique. School districts throughout California are closing schools in many cases without going through as detailed and comprehensive a process as our district. The board began exploring just about done elementary school closure in May 2022 over three years ago with the form for formation of the ad hoc committee. The current proposed school closure is even more necessary now
145due to ongoing decreasing enrollment accompanied by decreasing revenue. And I was going to give you all copies of my speech, but now that I've changed it, I will revise that and send it over to the superintendent so that you can all get it. Good evening esteemed board members and community leaders. My name is Naranjan Janadan and I'm an upcoming sophomore at Whitney High School. Good evening. My name is Omar Sureshwar and I also am a rising sophomore at Whitney High. We would like to express our concerns regarding the possible adverse effects of splitting our Whitney High School into two campuses. This will result of the addition of Whitney Middle School at St. at Styles Elementary. Currently, Whitney High School is an environment where middle schoolers and high schoolers alike are able to collaborate together and
146learn more from each other through communication. Middle schoolers look up to high schoolers and learn more about the high school experience and learn what exactly the opportunities there are present. Another major drawback in the loss of is the loss of crossgrade academic interaction. Middle schoolers currently are able to take advanced classes such as accelerated math one plus and begin world language classes early often alongside with high school students. The issue about splitting campuses isn't just about whether these classes will continue from middle school to high school, but about what will be get gotten lost around between these students from middle school and high schoolers. As I was in Spanish class in my eighth grade, I had many ninth grade and 10th grade students in my class. But every day the daily exposure inspired me to
147gain insight into the high school experience. If we were support if we were to separate the campuses, we lose not only academic momentum but peer connections that fuel ambition and confidence. A big unique part of weeding culture is a selection of clubs that allow middle schoolers to get involved early to find opportunities and establish long-term communities. Many clubs hold general meetings monthly where anyone can get involved. And by the time students graduate middle school, they're able to learn much more about their school and what exactly happens. And by the separation of the campuses, this would be very bad. Specifically, I'd like to bring up Whitney Robotics Club, which has a strong middle middle school presence in the form of two competitive first Lego League teams, which have competed for over 10 years and have advanced
148to world championships over three times. Our FL teams help Whitney Robotics establish a strong middle school foundation that helps us continue this club into high school. In fact, most of our cabinet and high school competitive team all start their careers in Whitney Robotics's middle school programs. We also have a profound community impact and we impact hundreds of students each year through our programs such as the ongoing robot camp and robotics principles explore which is a during school year camp. We also demonstrate our club in conferences like UC Riverside's SoCal RO Robotic Symposium. If our campuses are split, we would not be able to effectively run our middle school programs, especially since everything is studentrun by high school volunteers. We would love to implement a greater involvement in Whitney, but we suggest expanding our current campus
149instead of splitting in half and promoting division. Thank you on the behalf of two passionate Whitney High School students. Good evening, uh, school board members. My name is Marvin and I am here uh to advocate on the on behalf of the community of Hawaiian Gardens. Um although I am fairly new to this community, I have spoken enough uh to my neighbors to recognize that the city of Hawaiian Gardens is an extremely resilient place um and is deeply committed to giving our kids a better future through various community programs. With that said, uh I am extremely surprised to find out that the district is planning on closing several uh schools across my community. As someone who has been in educational leadership for over 12 years, I know when the words reconfigure and reimagine start to get
150thrown around, it's because decisions have already been made. I hope, however, that um the voices that you hear tonight can shift your moral compass in the right direction. Tonight, I know that the best outcome that can happen is for you to hear our community and keep our schools open. But again, from my experience, I know that some decisions have already been made. And that board members is where the problem is at. If this transition does happen, all of the material that has been available to the public fails to show what will happen if these schools are vacated. this rec uh reconfiguration has not been thought through. So why disrupt the lives of so many kids and so many families? In one of the documents you mentioned that building more housing would be an option. Sure,
151that sounds good on paper, but have you ever been to the community of Hawaiian Gardens? There is literally no parking. At this current time, when you drive around the neighborhood, you have to be extremely vigilant because the streets are so narrow and you're at the mercy of other drivers and pedestrians. Can you imagine what would happen if you if you decided to build more buildings in a city that's already at capacity? Another option was to leave empty buildings for future enrollment trends. This doesn't really make sense either because you already have students in those buildings. If you vacate these schools, you're going to risk having an empty space that will quickly become a hot spot for criminal activity. Why do this to the city of Hawaiian Gardens who has already invested so much uh time
152and resources to protect our youth and citizens? Again, board members, I urge you to hear the community and keep all of our schools open. Do not sell our kids for more buildings. Do not sell our kids for hypotheticals. On the contrary, our kids need us to invest in them today. Keep our schools open and let us continue the work of uplifting them. Thank you for your time and [Applause] consideration. Before we bring in the next group, if there's anyone with a number, if you could please to speak on this item, if you could please make your way outside so we could bring you. So, if you have a number to speak, please make your way outside. Uh, do do we need a break? Can I um get a consensus for a break? Yeah, because I
153don't want to lose our board for that. Should we take a five minute break and come back? We can extend time another five minutes. So, um, there's about a dozen. Yes. I make a motion to Do I need to make a motion? Yeah, you would need to make a motion to take a break and also extend uh the public comment by another five minutes. In terms of I make a motion to take a five minute break and extend the public comments to 10:05. No, just another another five minutes. Yeah. I mean, sorry. All in favor say I. I. Motion passes 6. We'll take a five minute recess. We'll be back at in five [Music] minutes. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat.
154N. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Five minutes is good. Hello, President Nishi and respected board members. My name is Nikil Rahhat. I have just just graduated from Whitney Middle School, which for the first time was ranked number one in the state, and I will continue further into Whitney High, which is currently ranked second, but is usually first in the state. I'll be speaking on the matter of the split of Whitney Middle and High School. The Whitney program is more like a journey where middle schoolers become smart high schoolers only due to the inspiration and mentorship from our upper classmen. New students as seventh graders bump into high schoolers in the hallways by asking for directions
155to class or asking to join the pickup basketball games during lunch. These interactions soon lead to friendships which inspire the new students to navigate many beneficial pathways. For example, as seventh graders, they're inspired to participate in clubs. As eighth graders, they join the club and work towards the club's initiative through independent motivation. Then as ninth graders through leadership roles, they have a bigger impact when compared to other freshmen in other schools who have to start from scratch. When they become upper classmen, they embrace the role of the mentor where they guide seventh graders onto the path of success just just as their 10th, 11th, and 12th graders mentored them. When the seniors gain admission into Ivy League schools, it directly motivates the middle schoolers who suddenly feel that an impossible goal is within their horizon.
156This symbiotic relationship between middle school and high school is a cycle which has proven to work not just in Whitney for the past decades but also other top schools. For example, Oxford Academy have implemented the same system of having a combined middle and high school keeping them at a top position in the state. Another example, the current number one school in California, Riverside STEM has a system from fifth grade. There are many variables that make Whitney the number one school. Even if one variable is changed, Whitney will be a 10 out of 10 school, but may not be in the top 50 schools in California. My school, Whitney Middle and High, is a flagship of our district. Many families come here just with the hope that their children attain a spot at Whitney and make
157big in life. If this split brings Whitney down, our district will no longer hold its top position and become an average district. Just like the surrounding districts, all all the previous board members of ABC Unified School District have worked hard to bring Whitney to this prestigious level. Now it's on your shoulders to take this responsibility further. We may get more funds from the state, but at the massive cost of not only losing our top ranking, but the diamond of our district. Thank you. I'd like to uh recognize the mayor of uh Hawaiian Gardens, Danny Depala. Thank you for coming. Good evening, Dr. Zitlo, President Nishi, and fellow board members. I'd like to express my deep concern regarding the proposal to relocate Whitney Junior High School to the campus of Sters Elementary School. While I empathize
158with the families and communities affected by the difficult decision to close elementary schools and possibly shift sixth grade to middle school level, I'd like to speak specifically from my perspective as a Whitney graduate, a parent of two incoming Whitney 7th graders, and as the spouse of a longtime Whitney uh teacher. My concerns about this uh proposed move center around both the adequacy of the facility and the unique educational environment that currently exists on the Whitney campus. Uh number one, the facilities at Sters are inadequate for a middle school program. While the Sters uh campus is a wonderful campus for elementaryaged kids, it lacks infrastructure necessary to support the academic develment developmental and extracurricular needs of middle school students. The absence of lockers, changing rooms, a gymnasium, science labs, and other age appropriate facilities would severely
159limit the students expos experience. Retrofitting the campus to meet these needs would require significant financial investment. Iron, ironically, undermining the budgetary savings this plan is intended to achieve. On the other hand, uh making only minimal adjustments would result in subpar campus offering little incentive for families, especially those from outside the district to apply. Number two, the Whitney High uh Whitney Junior High students already have access to high quality resources. Currently, Whitney Junior High School students benefit from being on the same campus as the high school. They have access to facilities such as lockers, gymnasium, newly renovated science labs, a theater, and even a broadcast studio. This access not only enriches the academic experience, but also prepares them more thoroughly for high school level coursework and expectations. Number three, the Whitney model proposes unique opportunities for
160mentorship and growth. Uh perhaps more importantly, the integrated nature of the Whitney campus fosters a one-of-a-kind mentorship culture. Junior high students can build relationships with older peers, join high school clubs, participate in award-winning programs like robotics, mock trial, and perform alongside upper upperassmen in theater, music, and STEM competitions. These opportunities cultivate confidence, ambition, and a sense of belonging that can't be replicated on a standalone middle school campus. Students are allowed to explore their interest at an advanced level. uh they see students who look just like them except a few years older doing things they didn't realize they can do and this is empowering and unique for that population. Students also benefit from forming early relationships with their future high school teachers, counselors, and administrators, something that has a meaningful impact on a student success. Number
161four, the current schedule maximizes uh instructional time. Whitney's unified bell schedule allows junior high students to receive nearly an hour more of instruction each day uh compared to the other peers in ABC junior high schools. The additional time is a significant academic advantage and helps ease the transition to Whitney's rigorous high school curriculum. Relocating junior high students to a separate campus would likely necessitate a different schedule, reducing instructional minutes and limiting the ability to coordinate staffing and programs between the two levels. Uh my wife uh began at Whitney as a seventh grader and I met her two years later when I joined Whitney as a ninth grader. We've had many discussions back and forth about how those additional two years uh was uh an advantage for her. Thanks. Uh, honorable board members, uh, President Nishi,
162uh, Superintendent Zilo, my name is Margaret Saitto, thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak on this subject. Um, according to the report, there's $4.1 million structural deficit. Okay. You're proposing to close four four elementary schools. That's 3.2 2 million at $800,000 a school. That's what we were told that it costs to maintain a school. That still leaves.9 million uh missing. Now, the report doesn't tell us anything about any staff uh teachers or staff layoffs. So, I was wondering like are we going to be laying off people, you know, and um in terms of that, I think that is important. It does not mention uh anything about cuts to administration. If we had cut eight admin, that's six-digit salaries, that's equal to uh one school safe because that would be uh 800,000. And but
163I think we should consider all these things first before we close the school. Okay? We need to really I mean like we are looking in times it's really rough because the federal government is looking at cutting back, the state is cutting back, the county is cutting back. We're all looking at deficits. Okay. So maybe we have to look to private industry. Maybe they will be able to help us with funding. But right now we really have to tighten our belts and make every dollar count. So everything that we do, I want to make sure that it moves the needle. Okay, that it improves the academic process in terms of it's going to increase reading scores, it's going to increase math scores, okay? So, everything we do, let's start, if you haven't done it already, let's
164start evaluating. If it doesn't move the needle, we don't need it, okay? Because look at all this trauma that's being caused by closing this schools. These kids are so traumatized. So, we need to start looking at that if we haven't done it before, okay? And really let before we close a school, I want um want you to cut admin. Okay? Admin at least 10%. Okay? And for the buildings, we close them, I don't know what you're going to do, but maybe we should sell them. Sell the property because if we're anticipating future losses in terms of revenue, we'll at least have some money to back it up. Okay? So maybe if we're going to close a school, maybe we should should consider selling the property. Okay. Thank you for your consideration. Hello board. Um my
165name is Sarah Werta. I'm from Well, I am not from Aloha, but I'm representing Aloha um elementary. My son is Vincent Gallardo. He is a second grader at Aloha Elementary. I'm sorry, Victor Gallardo. I have two V's, so I always mix them up. Um, you might recognize him as Hercules Beetle from the bio biomes um play from the second grade class. Um, today I am representing not just myself and Victor, but all parents, even the parents that couldn't make it today. You know, Aloha is a title one school. Um, we have a lot of parents that do not drive, that walk their kids to school, that bike ride their kids to school, that rely on neighbors, family members, grandparents to take their kids to school. And today I want to talk about the vital role
166elementary schools play in our communities. These institutes are not just buildings where children go to learn. They they are a very foundation of our society. Elementary schools provide children with their first instit institution that form education. Here they acquire essential skills such as reading, writing and arithmetics. More importantly, they learn to think critically, develop social skills that will serve them throughout their lives. These fundamental years are crucial. They shape not only academic abilities but also character and values. Moreover, smaller class sizes in elementary schools are essential. Research shows that when students are in smaller classes, they receive more individual attention from teachers. This personal interaction fosters and supports learning environments where children feel safe and valued. In smaller classes, teachers can better identify child's strengths and weaknesses. This tailored approach allows for early intervention, ensures
167no child is left behind. Additionally, smaller classes, smaller class sizes promote engagement. Children are more likely to participate actively when they are in a setting where their voices are heard. They participate building builds com confidence encourages and love their love for learning that can last a lifetime. In conclusion, elementary schools are the cornerstone of our educational system that not only equipped our children with fundamental skills, but in instill values and social skills that are crucial for development. Let's help advocate keep to keep classroom sizes smaller and ensure that our youngest learners receive the attention they deserve. Don't take away this from our smaller learners. Thank you. Hello, my name is Tiffany Jimenez. I'm a former student of Ferguson Elementary. I have a couple questions. My questions are how would this impact the students, families, and
168staff members if their schools were to get closed? Like most of the students that go to Ferguson and mostly walk. So like I was wondering if there would be transportation provided. And my other question is what would happen to the teachers? Like would they lose their jobs? Like would many of them be cutting out? Just curious. Hello, my name is Natalie Himenez. I graduated from Ferguson Elementary in 2023. One thing I know about Ferguson, it might not look like a lot like a lot of them are helping, but they do help with but they do help with each other a lot. Because when I went to Ferguson Elementary, I was very bad at reading and talking at this. I was very bad at reading and talking turned out one teacher who pay attention to me
169noticed that I I need glasses and because since I didn't since I didn't know because I didn't tell nobody because I couldn't speak correctly in class. So when they got me glasses, my vision improved a lot with my speaking and reading. They decide for Ferguson Elementary, they decided to put me in RSP and in speech to help me improve on my English and writing. And for Ferguson Elementary, I know that a lot kids from Ferguson Elementary are mostly attached like they really enjoy to be with the teachers because most kids they have a great connection with the students and knowing that if Ferguson shut down a lot of kids with who have great connection with teacher we're going to probably destroy which kids are going to end up feeling sad not knowing that their favorite
170teacher or like whoever they have great connection with is not going to be connect to be with them any longer. Okay. And because I know most of the time nearly most of the whole time Ferguson Elementary, they usually walk by themsel or walk with like a parent to get to school. Even though if they shut down Ferguson Elementary, most children are going to have to walk a bit longer than usually because some children live closer to Ferguson or they live closer to the school. And if the school is shut down, then they're going to walk a bit farther so they could go to the destination. That's all I have to say. Thank you. Uh, hi, my name is Franko. I go to um Ferguson Elementary and I am in the school's um recycling team after
171school program and also in advanced band. Um the reason I don't want Ferguson to close is because most people that go to Ferguson uh live closer to the school and some of them will walk walk to school um by themselves or with um family members. Um, so if Ferguson closes, then um more people might arrive late and tired to whatever and at whatever other school they might go to, like um Melbourne or Hawaiian Elementary. If they miss the bus, they might have to walk in the rain or hot sun and um be exhausted when they go uh to school. [Applause] Good evening, distinguished board members. I have had a very long relationship with our district uh over 50 years as a student, former student who has graduated from CTO schools as well as being a
172parent, a resident as well as an employee. And um I would like to encourage our board members to really look at the facts that are all around because I know there are impassioned arguments for keeping their schools, but this situation we're in is really unsustainable. I do believe and you do have to take bold action. We have had school closures in the past in our district. Cabrio Lane in 1985 did close. They were consolidated as well. It is now an adult school as you know. We have also had the discussion of sending our sixth graders into the middle school. That was like third year of my employment. Um at that time there was quite a bit of community push back for that. But the vast majority of the districts that surround us do have a
173middle school configuration. And as a sixth grade former sixth grade teacher, the vast majority of my time as a teacher has been in sixth grade. I can attest to the fact that it is highly appropriate to put our sixth graders in middle school. They really are much more middle school. Our curriculum is middle school as well. And these are bold dis very difficult decisions to make. I realize but I would like to encourage you not just speaking for myself but also speaking on behalf of many colleagues who do believe as well. They see the writing on the wall. They do understand that bold steps have to be uh made and we do have to make that decision. In the past, our board had acquiesed to the pressures given by our um individual schools and I
174listened to all the impassion please and realize and think to myself, these are very dedicated parents, very engaged and I know they would do well in any setting. they would do well. And we have had other changes and I know change is difficult and as a uh teacher at Carver, we were at once considered for closure closure as well because we were at one time the smallest school in the entire district before we did um recover in terms of our numbers. But if that had come to pass, then it's a decision that our staff would have accepted. We we didn't quite fight that at the time, but it was fortunate that we were able to attract more students to it. So, I do encourage you to make um very informed but bold steps in addressing
175the shortages that we are continue are likely to have. This will continue and there's it's not going to be a quick fix and I know that we do have to make bold decisions. So, please take that path. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Um, we are at the end of time. How many more speakers do we have? Um, uh, it looks like we have about five speakers left. Five speakers. We we also have other business of the board that we have to consider which is including the budget and LCAP. So I am uh looking for the to the board for guidance on this. Can I suggest that maybe we'll just cap at five? No more we'll just close at five and then move on. Sure. Yeah. But that will also leave less time that we have to
176consider the budget and the LCAP and the other things that we have on the agenda that need to get approved. Can we and also takes away from our time to speak and talk about and consider. So I'm thinking maybe reduce the time and we have until about 10:05, right? So maybe at 10:10 close it what does the board want to do? Yeah, we do have other business that we do need to get and we also need to talk about this. Yeah, we need a board discussion. We know that. So So um how about allow each of the five speak but just for one minute one? Yes. I I move to allow all five speakers for one minute each as they all have been here. They've waited their time. We'll give them a chance to speak.
177Yes. All in favor say I. I. Motion passes one minute. Apologies. It's just we have to get business done. Okay. Thank you. Um, good evening Dr. Zitlo, board members, and the community. Um, I come to you be today regarding the proposed reconfiguration separation of Whitney Middle School from Whitney High School. I currently have a high schooler attending Whitney High School and another child preparing um to begin the same middle school in the fall. When my eldest first entered Whitney as a seventh grader, I wasn't sure what to expect. After all, joining a high school environment such at such a young age seemed possibly daunting. However, over the years, I have come to truly appreciate the unique advantages of a middle school being integrated within a high school setting. This structure fosters a dynamic learning environment
178where middle and high school students grow together, learn from each other in meaningful ways. The mentorship opportunities and social connections across grade levels create an invaluable experience. Club involvement is a core aspect of Whitney culture where younger students can engage with older peers gaining confidence and leadership skills that might not develop in a separate Miss Your time. Your time is up. I'm sorry. The one minute. Thank you. I have to think what I can say in one minute. I've spent my I'm Carla Santa Cruz. Congratulations, Genie. We're so happy to have you. So, instead of being formal with my introductions, I would like to tell you that two weeks ago, I listened to the board presentation and I have not been able to sleep since then. I feel a responsibility to be part of the
179solution and I'm asking you to let me do that. What I'm asking for you now is to please take considerations of all the things that you've heard. I would urge you to please read my sixpage plan that I've been uh writing day and night. I looked at the data for every single school on data quest and I've been trying to think of how we can have some alternative plans to the plan that was submitted by schoolworks. In my plan, I outline a summary of my proposed amendments, a rationale for them, suggestions for how to preserve our Ferguson and Sters programs, and looking forward to other alternatives. I urge you to spend the time to take our input into consideration and have a study session. Thank you. Good evening. Um, my name is Araf Favor. I
180was born in Whittier, raised in Cerritos, went to Kendy Elementary, went to Fairy Ross Junior High for a year, and then went to Whitney from 8th to 12th grade. I'm also UC Berkeley graduate. The point is that it's not all it's cracked up to be. Uh growing up there was a severe lack of diversity and inclusion uh which led to severe bullying and isolation and a lot of other issues. Not much has changed moving back five years ago and now I'm a parent of three children, a nine-year-old, a seven-year-old, and a year and a halfyear-old. Uh I am a Leo parent, but I'm just as concerned as the Sters and Aloha and the other uh families that are here today. By adopting these changes, it will actually decrease diver diversity and equity in education. Um,
181by closing these schools, you're actually prioritizing and exceeding enrollment in Leo and all these other elementary schools instead in instead of making everything more equitable. Um, and you're putting too much pressure on children in terms of their academic advancement and it can lead to depression, anxiety, cheating, suicide. Um, ultimately sixth and eighth grade should not be consolidated. It's a bad idea and the children aren't ready. Thank you. [Applause] Good evening, Lord. Um, I'll make it very quick. Make the hard call. Dr. Zitlo, thank you for your video. We need to explain to the parents of why we're doing 6 to8 gradually. We've expanded our schools from K6. Now we have TK. We will have pre-TK. We can't accommodate all the grade levels. So, we need to diversify our schools and thank you for allowing external
182students to go to Whitney. It has been the greatest injustice that we've done to those students. Thank you. Good evening, president, superintendent and members of the board. Good evening all. Um, I wanted to um put um comment on two items. Item D, item F, item D is the proposal of reconfiguration uh reconfiguring district middle schools to six to include sixth grade and the other one to reconfigure Whitney High School. While I acknowledge the district's significant challenges with declining enrollment and budget deficits, I firmly believe that moving sixth graders into middle school is not the optimal solution. The report itself validates some of my concerns. On page 15, it states, "Students have shown the sixth graders in middle school settings exhibit more behavioral problems than in the elementary schools." And the other one, research indicates the
183students transitioning to middle school in sixth grade may experience a decline in educational achievement compared to peers who remain in K6. Okay. I propose that the district must evaluate the performance and operational efficiency of our existing middle schools. If there are under underperforming middle schools, the board should consider consolidating middle schools um than just the elementary regarding the Sorry. Thank you. One minute. I'm sorry. Thank you. Thank you. Um hearing no further comments, I will close the public hearing. Now we need to have u board comment. starting with board member Sue Yu. Thank you, board president Ernie Nishi. Um, tonight all the comments that I heard that we heard were very thoughtful. I mean, it was very convincing and each point made sense and they were very compelling and I was and I do appreciate
184each person who spoke and your passion and it showed that each I was so proud to hear the community standing behind the each schools that that we have parents who are so dedicated ated and so passionate. I mean that that's that's amazing. I was as a board member I was really proud of our district and I really thank everyone for coming out to speak on you know to on um behalf of your each of your school. Um it's a testament it's a testament of our district. However, uh this is very tough. On May 20 when we received the report, it was shocking shocking by the consultant. However, I do need to uh ask our staff to answer a few questions. Um Tuan and uh Dr. You know, Carol, I wanted to ask you, um, you
185know, for schools that are Aloa, Ferguson, Huarez, and Stars, all the schools, um, you know, the resident students transferring out inter uh, inter interdist transfer. Can we I mean what what is the parental rights and and the legitimate policy because I mean it is ideal to to encourage the students to stay at their home school then we would have a less of attendance you know problem. Can we restrict them from transferring out of their home school to other schools? What is the policy? What can we do? Thank you for the question. I just want to make sure I understand the questions. You're asking about the resident students of certain schools or those schools transferring out under either under a school of choice policy to other schools within the district. Um so that is um operation
186under the current school of choice policy where [Music] Heat up here. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] We're back in session. I need a motion to extend the meeting. I am estimating that we have the budget, we have a lot of other specific items, and we have the LCAP budget, which is the whole purpose we're here, which is education. And that's that's uh a thick report. It's this. So, um I'm thinking we need an extension of I motion we extend for 1 hour. I that is not going to be enough. I I respectfully I have work tomorrow. So, maybe we have a part two. So, um I don't think that's going to be I'm sure that's not going to be enough because otherwise we're going to give short shift to the
187budget and short shift to this other thing. This is you know it's important. We have to set the time. We do because we can only do this once. Yeah, I see. Then just extend the time until 12:30 and just end it earlier. Okay. That risks that we don't get this done. Can I get a motion? I make a motion to extend the meeting until 12:30. I hear a second. Second, Tatiana. All in favor say I. I speak fast. We may need to um have another special session to go over some of these items, which is a whole another day. Just letting you know. Okay. All right. Next, let's go through this. Uh board member Dr. Rios. Okay. Mike, we do have one more board meeting, Mr. President. Um okay, I guess I'll try to concise
188make my um comments a little more concise. Um, when I first joined the board, I just want to point out that we called for a demographic study because we started to see these numbers that to me were alarming and and that hasn't changed. And so the reality is that we're here. The reality is that a lot of these schools are at 40 50% 56 42% of the students that could attend that school choosing not to attend. And I know that one suggestion has been to limit, but as parents, we know that we're going to send our kids to the school that we want to send our kids to school. Ideally, it's convenient to send it to the neighborhood schools. Um, but again, that's a choice that that we make and with declining enrollment and there
189being competition among the districts, it it's almost on the benefit on behalf of parents that have a variety of choices. Um, I kind of put that back again on the district because I think as a district we should have stepped in. Like again, these transfer rates should have been something that we acknowledged and we did something about instead of just continuing with business as usual. Um, I mean, one of the schools here is in my area. The fact that 41% of their students, and I brought this up because when I was walking trying to get elected, they would tell me, "My kids don't go to this school. They go to a school in another district." Um, was a problem. But again, regardless, we're here. Um, I'm glad that the Ferguson school, which by the way
190has the lowest transfer rate. They're at 33% compared to the other schools. Um, talked about a CDE grant. Again, something that we continuously talk about um having uh LCAP money and talking about investing in our schools so that they are schools that people want to attend that even attract people from outside. And I know I make a lot of comments about outcomes because I know that ultimately our goal is to prepare students to be college and career ready and that requires that they read and write well. Um, and so the fact that they had to go out to get a CDE grant, I'm I'm glad. Congratulations to them. But my question is, why aren't these programs being offered through the funding that we get um through through the LCAP for all of our schools? You
191know, they're telling us, the Ferguson staff, that they're going to see amazing results. I'm rooting for them and and if they do, as was mentioned, let's scale it up because ultimately whatever decisions we make and they are going to be incredibly difficult. We want to see our students succeed. We don't want to disrupt students learning. We hear from, you know, the stars how terrible that change is going to be. We heard it from the people, well, all the schools, Aloha, Ferguson, Huarees, and Sters that are that are on the on the chopping block for lack of a better word. Um, it's very unfortunate. I echo a lot of the sentiments of the people that came up here. We know that closing schools in poor neighborhood has a disproportionate effect. Um, we know that it's going
192to affect our vulnerable students the most, but again, here we are. Okay, I'll stop there. Thank you. Thank you, uh, Vice President Francisco Noya. Uh, thank you, President Nishi. Uh I just want to start by you know recognizing the parents the community that came out and spoke and and you know support of their own schools but also of all students here at ABC. Uh this decision that we have to make isn't an easy one and not one that we really want to make. Nobody here I can say would want to close a school. Um but looking at the reality um on average we're losing 500 students per year and in the next four years that's you know 10% of the student population and that's over 10% of our budget and that budget equals you know
193teachers staff. We were very lucky this year that we didn't lay off any permanent staff. But the people we did let go, the temporary teachers, the temporary staff, the consultants, the contractors, I know a lot of them. A lot of them are ABC alumni that went to college and came back and wanted to be teachers here at ABC. But because we didn't make a decision earlier, now they don't get to teach here. I think we have to make a decision as a board. Unfortunately, we have to be, you know, the ones that make those that tough call because eventually we will have to make cuts to staffing and that's going to further ingrain the problems that we have at these schools. The issues that people point out or the people that the program that we
194that we enjoy that we love, they won't be there if we don't make decisions. So, my my recommendation is that we have had a lot of great ideas and positive ones. So, I'm glad that you guys came out and shared those positive ideas on how we can increase enrollment. And I think there's some very good ideas that we should be considering. And I would like to see staff incorporate those ideas and how we not only do we think, you know, negatively and how enrollment is affecting us, but think asset based. How can we, you know, use the dual immersion programs? How can we, you know, shine lights on some of our programs here at ABC to draw more students as much as we can in the time that we have. So, that is my recommendation.
195Thank you. Thank you, board member Jean McAden. Um, I'd like to echo the comments of of um the other board members. The um comments that were made were very, very heartfelt. Um, you did offer lots of good suggestions and um hopefully we can incorporate some of those as we move forward. Um, having been the principal of three different schools, I understand what you're saying to me about culture and how the administrator, the teachers, the parents, the kids all work together and you feel like it's a community and you're all pulling together to to um give the be the best pathway for the students to succeed. So, I I definitely understand where you're coming from, but we're at a very difficult time in in ABC. Um, we have a problem. The district has declining enrollment, thus
196declining budget. We can't continue to operate in the same manner, nor should we. It's the 21st century, and ABC should continue to be on the move to prepare our students for the future. Instead of looking at this negatively, let's try to put a positive spin on solving the problems. I understand every every school has a special culture and teachers, kids and parents who who are united are interested in the kids. Excuse me, let me try that again. I understand every school has a special culture and teachers, kids and parents who are united, but in the interests of kids throughout the district, we need to look for the best financial and academic solutions for all at this time. Thank you, board member Leticia Mendoza. Thank you, Mr. President. Um, we we've been through here. We've been
197through meetings where we listen to our our community and I was on the the committee of declining enrollment um and facilities. And I I was the one who made the motion to recommend no closures. um it really hurts me and and thank you to all the parents and and the community members who who gave us all of these um packets and information. But there's this one that that I got and I don't know if we can get a copy and upload it to the families. And it's the same question, the same concern that I had back then is that they're title one schools. Um they're predominantly socioeconomically disadvantaged students. They're English learners. And if you look at Hawaiian Gardens, if we close Ferguson, there's just one left one school left in Hawaiian Gardens, which makes
198me really sad. And it makes me sad as a teacher because I I understand all the consequences. But as an elementary school teacher, my school is my happy place. That's where I go. That's where we provide services to our students. We do wraparounds, of course, right? We want to make sure that we're not just providing an education, but we're providing services like mental health, like lunch. Um, for some of our students, that's sometimes maybe the only hot meal they might get. And so, it really really hurts me, and I may be the only one on this board who's going to go against everybody. Um, but I I want to say to you guys, everything comes with consequences. Every decision that we make from now on is going to come with a consequence. Um, you heard
199my my fellow colleagues say that if you know we don't close then, you know, it's going to be a financial impact on us. But from the beginning that I got on the board when I went campaigning, my my whole campaign was no school closures. Um, we got a report last board meeting that kind of threw us, you know, a curveball that I wasn't expecting. Um, and I may be unpopular on my schoolboard members, colleagues, but I I just feel like there's there wasn't a sense of urgency to do things ahead of time. Um, I'm a little discouraged that I had to come on on the board and this came to me because you've had many years, my former colleagues on the board before me had many years. We talked about this when I was on
200the school board and it seems like now is the urgency and it just I know there's going to be a consequence. I know my my my the way I view things is going to be different from my colleagues, but I'm okay with that because I was there through all of the town halls. I was there and I heard the students and I'm just going to end there cuz you know how I feel. Thank you. [Applause] Yeah, go ahead. Uh, Suyu, I wanted to ask um Juan, what what is the consequences if we don't consolidate according to the consultants's recommendations? What will happen as a result? Should the board decide not to consolidate any of the schools, SAP will work with that. You know, we will survive. I'm just going to make that statement. It will
201be difficult uh like surrounding districts. There will be cuts that we will have to make. Uh we may not be as competitive uh compared to surrounding districts in offering compensations. Uh but we will survive. We will make it work. Mhm. However, it will be challenging. Mhm. And and in the long term as explained by the superintendent. Uh parents will need to understand that when a school become too small, there will be combination classes. there will not be enough staff to offer all the different programs out there. There will be that challenges. There will be that spiral if we keep declining and and within our school of choice policy that by law, I want to say this again, by law, parents have the right to choose the schools to send their students to. this will perpetuate
202until until you really have to do it, right? So, so my my concern is it was just on the news very recently that Santana laid off like something like 400 teachers, but laying off teacher is one thing, but if we um we can't keep up with the program and combine classes, that's going to affect the students uh achievement. And our model is student achievement first. And so that is that is a responsibility as a board that will really affect the students with a you know we don't have enough budget to manage a school so it's going to impact the entire district too not just one school right yeah so it's tough but I would like to um we hired a demographer we spent couple years uh with the ad hoc committee to study the the
203consolidation and enrollment so we did all that in the last three four years and now with a deficit declining enrollment California budget deficit you we do need to make a very tough decision uh that would benefit the students today tomorrow and five years down the road because the district has to stay strong even if when we leave the board. So, um, after your comment, I'll make the Thank you. Um, I'd like to make a short comment because I know we don't have a ton of time. Um, so I know that schools are a place where we hold our hearts. I went to the biome show and I didn't look at the students so much as I looked at the parents. The parents whose heart is going out to the kids. They're crying. They're so happy.
204I've never, you know, it's it's such a joy to see your kids there. And where did it happen? It happened at Aloha. You see the parents crying and you see the the at Ferguson, you see the kids at the performance where they had great performances and the parents are seeing their kids perform on the stage, things that they never seen them do before. They're growing and they're making change and they're being so such they're growing and um that's where our heart is. That's where our school is. But we have to know that although school is a place that holds our heart, it's the people that make this happen. It's the teachers here that need to support their families that make this all happen. It's the staff, the guy who cleans everything, who's loved by this,
205the staff, they can't afford work for like $5, $20 an hour. It's just not feasible. And they will leave because they have to support their families. They're not being mean. It's just the way it is. and not having the critical mass of of kids is not just about elementary schools. This is about our trends in middle school. We have two middle schools with less than 360 school students. That's less than Leo. How can we offer a great education? It's about money, but it's also about primarily about education. It's about doing right by these kids. It's painful. We don't have it all worked out. I get that. This is But tonight, it's the beginning of facing change. It's not the end because tonight if we if we we can we have two choices. Uh there was
206a um a superintendent in Oakland which they didn't make the decision. They decided they lay off the teachers instead. the needed teachers, the ones that teach the kids how to read and write by third grade. The teachers that get the grants to do all these things, the teachers that um provide all the services that we need. We can forsake them. That is very possible, easiest thing for us to do. We can be, as that superintendent said, weak and push the can down the road like it's been pushed down quite frankly for for a while now. I'm sorry that it's an emergency. It's not an emergency. Twan is right. We could hobble along, but there are consequences to that decision of hiding under the sand and hoping for a better solution. I am I see hundreds
207of pages of good solutions here but we can't even get to those solutions unless we provide staff direction. We can't even start the analysis sufficiently in a real way without making a decision. I would love for us to change the law at the state level and make those guys at Sacramento really understand what we're going through here, but they can't and they won't. That's fine. We live with what we have here today. Um, but I uh I would be remiss if I said that we had tons of time. Time is not something that we have the luxury of. time is something we had maybe seven years ago, 15 years ago, but it's we are not going to gain courage. This is not a time when the cuts come to the teachers, we are going to
208lose courage because I've seen that happen in other places. We will still exist as ABC, but we will be a shell of what we are. Tuan is technically right. will still be ABC but just in name only. The program of IB gone because we can't afford it because we can't afford to pay the teachers. The teachers that had the program the Mandarin program gone. You have to have money to afford programs. If we don't have that, that's that's not something that we can sustain. I would love for us to do all of this in a miracle world. We don't go to the school board to to make these hard decision. I I didn't want I wanted to when I first got elected, I wanted to be the hero, increase the population. That's what I wanted
209to do seven years ago. That was my thought. It's not as easy as I thought. Um so obviously we will all vote in our own conscience or we may not vote at all. That's up to each one of us as a board member. I bring it to us so that way we can make a choice. So that ends my comments. Uh board member you I'd like to make a motion. Feel okay? Yeah. But before I make a motion just three things uh to the board to the staff Dr. Castro. Um, I would like the staff to work with the demographer, the consultant to see what can be done to improve the academics on title one schools because the scores have not really, you know, reflected much. And for Star Wars, the IB and the mentoring
210immersion program, that has to stay together. and the presentation that the parents brought today. I would like the demographer, I mean the consultant to look into all of that. Right. And here's a motion that I'd like to make is I make a motion to bring back consolidation and reconfiguration back to action item at a future meeting with staff and consultant to incorporate today's public comments. Um, so just to clarify, um, as a board, you would make a decision on if we're going to consolidate schools, if we're going to reconfigure grade levels. Once that decision's made, then we would work with staff and families at the sites on the process and what that would look like. Um, and we would do that. Um, we would have to put a presentation together, share with the board the
211direction we're going to go, and then we would work with the actual families and staff of those schools. Board member McCaten. Gina just said what I was going to say. Okay. Should I simplify my motion? Yes, if you could. I make a motion to bring back this item consolidation and re reconfiguration back to action items at a future meeting. We're not making any decisions, but we want to bring back as a action item to move forward because the staff and everyone we need to get the staff need to start working. Tatiana decision. Tatiana seconds. Thank you. I'll call for a roll call vote. Mr. President, can I can I point a voter? Can I I I'm not really understanding. I think I'm a little confused. Um, we listened to public comment and we got some
212really great ideas. Are we incorporating those ideas into the action item or are we just looking at consolidations? So, I believe will the action item be just consolidations or will it be more more detailed? Dr. Zel, you want to clarify? So it would have to be um just the consolidation and reconfiguring of the middle school or anything like that. Um those would be in the purview of the board and then the actual function of how that is rolled out would we would work directly with the staff at the schools the families on that process. So all of the ideas that they had they would bring into that process. Okay. So that would be first action item, vote on it, and then we could talk about the details. Details. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Mr. President.
213Liz, uh, Mrs. McCaten, I'm not sure what we're Oh, we're voting on staff recommendations to bring it back as an action item. We're voting on staff recommendation to bring it back as an action item. Mrs. Mendoza, yes. Dr. Rios, yes. Mrs. Yu, yes. Mrs. Yokoyama, yes. Mr. Nyola, yes. Mr. Nishi, yes. Motion passes 70. Thank you. All right. Next item is 2.78. May I have a motion to approve the 20 2025 20226 declaration of need for fully qualified educators in the ABC Unified School District? So move. Second. Mendoza. Dr. Frasier. Thank you, Mr. President. We're bringing forward um tonight the 2025 2022 declaration of need for fully qualified teachers. This is something we do annually pursuant to education code 443000. Um, and so just making sure that we have all the the teachers uh in
214the right spots. Is there any public comment on this item? I see none. Any board comment? Then I'll call for a vote. All in favor say I. I. Any nays? The motion passes 70. Can I have a motion to approve the memorandum of understanding between the board of education and California school employees association and its ABC chapter 24 amending article 13 calendar and modifying article 17 personnel necessity leave of absence with pay for the 2025 2026 2026 27 and 27 and 2028 school years moves second thank you Dr. Frasier thank you Mr. president. Uh tonight we're bringing forward the three years of calendars um agreed upon by CSEA and ourselves. We want to thank uh the work of CSEA and just putting together three years of calendar is never easy. Um but we uh were
215able to agree to it. So we're presenting that to you tonight. Thank you. Is there any public comment on this particular item? No. No public comment. Is there any board comment on this particular item? All in favor say I. I. The motion passes 70. Can I have a motion to approve the memorandum of understanding between the board of education and California school employees association and its ABC chapter 24 amending article 13 calendar and modifi Wait I just did that it's a it's a it's a repeat let's try this 2.9 now have a motion to approve the tenative agreement between the board of education and the management confidential employees regarding duty calendar for 2025 26 25 26 27 and the 2027 28 school years. So moved. Dr. Frasier. Thank you, Mr. President. Um, similarly to our
216CSEA um agreement, we're bringing forward the management confidential compensation committee um agreement for duty um dut duty calendar for the following three years. Thank you. Is there any public comment on this item? I see none. Any board comments on this item? Seeing none, call for a vote. All in favor say I. I. Thank you. The motion passes 70. Item 3.8 A. Can I have a motion to approve a submission of an application to the Los Angeles County Office of Education for new Head Start portable modular and outdoor play area and parking lot at Neimiz Elementary School. So move second. Dr. Castro. Yes. Thank you. In partnership with LA County Office of Education. This is a revenue to our district in which we will be able to open two classrooms and serve 16 children as part
217of our Head Start expansion. Thank you. Do you have any public comment on this item? I see none. I see some board comment. Uh Dr. Rios, how many Head Start programs do we currently have in our district and where are they located? I believe we have a total of uh Twan, can you correct me on this if I get the number wrong? About four or five at different school sites around. So we have one located near District Office West. We have one located at Carver Elementary School. We have another program located at Kennedy Kennedy. Um, and I believe this would be another addition to that program. Wilson. Okay. Uh, Vice President Nyola. Uh, thank you, President Nishi. I just want to, uh, congratulate the parent advisory committee for the Head Start. They've been advocating for
218this for for a long time. So, I'm glad to see this project come through. Uh, board member Mendoza. Thank you. Can you just kind of give me like uh I know we don't have like a layout, but can you kind of give me where this is? I know it's going to be near 166 Street, so it will have its own parking lot, its own entrance. Uh, that is correct. What is that going to look like? I'm just 166 is already congested with Neimus. Um, so it's on 166. It's on the very west side of it. It will have its own entrance, its own parking. uh we can uh send through the board briefing this week the whole uh rendering of the uh of the uh proposed uh buildings. So this is um like Dr. Castro
219has mentioned a grand uh brand new funding uh opportunity for us to improve uh our service for the students. They're going to get brand new buildings with their own parking, their own playyard, playground area and uh um entrance. So it's on 166 the very west the most west side furthest out from correct. Okay. And so a park its own parking lot like how many? You can send it to me afterwards. I'm just curious to know because you know I live right across the street. I know the congestion there. Um and it's going to be done by June 30th. We will try our best to meet the timeline um within this uh the project will I'm sorry the we need to get the plan in to the county by June 30th. Okay. And then it will
220take anywhere 18 months to 24 months to to build. Okay. Because it says June 30th, 2025. It it it's just the it's just the proposal. just the the plan. So projected completion would be next year. I'm 18 to 24 months. 18 to Okay. Okay. Well, yeah, I would love to see the plans for that. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Can I call for a vote? All in favor say I. I. Any nays? Motion passes 70. A motion to open a public hearing and adopt the special education local plan area annual budget and service plan for the 2025 2026 fiscal year. So moved. Dr. Castro, thank you. To give you a brief overview of our SULPA plan is our SULPA director, Dr. Rochelle Chavez. Good evening. Um, good evening. Board President, um, Nishi, can you hear
221me? I don't know. It says it's on. Do I hear you speak louder? Maybe. It's good. You're on. Okay. Good evening uh board president Nishi, vice president um Noyola, clerk Yokyama Buouie, distinguished board members Dr. Zitlo, and community members. This evening, I'll be providing an overview of the SULPA annual budget and annual service plan for the ABC Unified School District SULPA. As a reminder, ABC operates a single district SULPA special education local plan area. SULPASS are regional systems designed to ensure that students with disabilities receive a full continuum of services. Some SULPASS include small um multiple small districts, but ABC manages all responsibilities for students with disabilities independently within its own boundaries. The SUPA local plan and budget were presented to the community advisory committee on April 9th, 2025 for review and feedback. And following
222that, the plans were submitted to the Los Angeles County Office of Education and were certified without any modifications. Um, it's important to note that the format for these documents are a template to make sure that we're complying with all of our responsibilities. So first um section D is the annual budget plan. So thank you um Mr. Wen and uh Miss Aurora for their support in um developing the plan for the SULPA. So if you look at the budget, it uh reflects the cost of providing services across the full range of disabilities from low incidence disabilities and non- severe to severe disabilities ensuring that all students with disabilities are served in the least restrictive environment. So the budget plan includes uh revenue sources for federal, state and local funding which are restricted funds designated specifically for
223special education. It also includes expenditure showing how these funds are used to support students. Um you will notice that um on page uh let's see page D5 um this page is blank and the reason for that is we are a single district SULPAPA. If we were a multi-dista it would reflect other districts information there. Okay. So um these this um plan also includes supplemental aids and services budget for low incidence disabilities and low incidence disabilities are students who are deaf, heart of hearing, blind, visually impaired or have an orthopedic impairment. So that is the budget plan. The service plan outlines the special education programs and services currently available to students with disabilities in our district. These services are driven by each student's individualized education program, ensuring personalized um and legally compliant supports. So you will
224notice in this template that um the boxes are either checked that the service is provided or it's not currently provided. This is just a snapshot in time um saying what we're currently providing. um if a student was to move into the district and we weren't currently providing that service, we wouldn't need to provide it immediately. And um additionally, you'll notice in the definitions um it will say that um this service is consistent with the CalPADS code sets definition. So the state requires us to provide services consistent with the CalPAD's definition. I included those definitions for your reference. If for some reason we were providing a service that was not defined that way, we would have to include that definition in the plan. So upon upon um board approval, the annual budget and service plans will
225be submitted to the California Department of Education by June 30th. And once submitted, both documents will be published on our ABC SULPA website for public access. So, this concludes a presentation of the SULPA annual um budget and service plan. Thank you very much. Are there any public comments on this item? None. Is there any board comments on this item? Uh, Vice President Noya. Uh, thank you, President Nishi. I just want to thank you, Dr. Sanchez, for your report and everything your team does u to help our students. I know the the need is only growing and your department is always, you know, trying to meet all the variables and do everything you can. So, I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Rigos. I actually just have a question. I know that sometimes we're able
226to bill um for some of these services and there's revenue that is brought back to the district. Is that reflected in these budgets? Um I I don't understand what you mean by by Oh, you're talking about medical billing. Yes. So page 75 of the report um and thank you for the question. So it's give me a chance to explain this. I know it's late but um it's important. So how much do we receive in terms of funding and how much we spend in special ed? That's on page 75 and 76. So expenditure is 43,740,000. That's how much ABC spent on special education. But on page 75 is the revenues. And as you can see, there's the the align items say 19 million. That's the local contribution. That is what the district is contributing to the
227program. That is the short in terms of funding shortage from federal and state government. So to answer your question, we do bill for the medical billing program, but it's outside of this and it's not part of this. But the revenues that we receive goes back to the program and support our students. Thank you. Uh, clerk Yokoyama Buoui. I would also like to thank Dr. Chavez for her report. Um, I've had the opportunity to attend um some of the Sulpa events. Um, I know the the community very much appreciates all the efforts and work you do for um our students. So, thank you. Thank you. Any other board comment? Seeing none, I'll call for a vote. All in favor say I. I. Any nays? The eyes have it 70. Thank you very much. Can I motion
228for the local control accountability plan LCAP and the preliminary budget for the 2025 2026 fiscal year? Tatiana moves second. Niola. Thank you Dr. Castro and Mr. Nuin. Thank you. Good evening President Nishi, distinguished board members and members of our community. I'm going to refer to the presentation to several documents. I'm going to take a moment to show you those while the screen comes down. First of all, we have available for the public and for you our proposed uh ABC educational partners guide which is an executive summary of our proposals and reflection from this year. This is a brief that is provided for the public to reflect the 205page document that you've been provided in a workbook form. We also have this in Spanish. So I during the presentation I will be referring to pages in
229this booklet in the English booklet. You also have received the uh larger uh multi-page document that reflects all the required components of the state in regards to reporting not only the activities with the LCAP but also looking at our budget which Mr. Win will present following my brief presentation on some of our actions for this year. So, as a reminder, the 2526 LCAP is year two of a three-year plan and it represents not only compliance, but a commitment rather our commitment to opportunity and high quality education for every student in ABC Unified. If you open the educational partners guide to page four, you will see this graphic in better detail on your document. And simply this uh graphic in this page explains how the LCAP is how we plan, implement and reflect on the use
230of the state funds and align those to our eight state priorities. And of course, as a reminder to our public, it is focused on our specialized populations, which include low-income foster youth, long-term English learners, and English learners. It also ensures that we're holding ourselves accountable to the voices of our community, our students, families, and educators. And this year's plan builds on some measurable successes we've had while focusing on area of urgent needs. And I'll be pointing those out during the presentation. On page five, you can see um how we have partnered with our families for the input on this LCAP. Their input was gathered through surveys, advisory committees, and student voice forums and also to help us create these very student focused actions across every goal. You can see that in the educational partners guide,
231we've also provided you with metrics, but as well as sitebased stories because I think the stories are just as important as the numbers that are in these documents. And I just want to give a big thank you to our LCAP pack parents. Many of you have attended our LCAP pack meetings this year. We changed the structure and we had four meetings throughout the year quarterly and we provided updates with every goal at every meeting and gathered input along the way so that as we were implementing actions we could on the spot make adjustments as needed based on our parents' feedback. So here's a few quotes from some of our family members that were part of the LCAP pack. Fernandanda Kuriel from Palms Elementary, a parent said, "I have enjoyed attending the meetings. I leave feeling
232empowered and with good information and look forward to attending more meetings and it helps me learn how to continue to support my son." Mon'nique Adessa from Nixon Elementary says, "As a school site council member, attending these meetings was valuable. It was a true shared partnership between parents and district staff, allowing us to work together." from Dulce Medel, a Brass Middle School parent and our DACA co-chair. Participating as a parent in the LCAP was a very valuable experience. I would love more parents to be involved so that we can have more voices heard. I feel proud and grateful to be part of LCAP and I believe that we can make a bigger impact, but we need more parents to be involved. So again, a big thank you to all of you who attended, to our directors,
233to our EEL counselors, and to all the staff and parents who were brought together and made some very thoughtful decisions and input on the process of our LCAP. So we'll start by reviewing our goal one academics. We have aligned goal one in academics with Hadtie's visible learning research, particularly emphasizing collective efficacy for teachers and targeted feedback for students. We have seen measurable growth in early literacy and math fluency across targeted sites based on our local benchmarks in the spring of 2025. On page seven, you can see some highlights for goal one, particularly discussing how we've strengthened our tier one and tier 2 supports with a district-wide math fluency program, the implementation of literacy coaches and intervention teachers at our highest needs sites, and providing book fairs for elementary students so that they can begin to
234build their atome libraries, as well as allowing schools to keep some of those additional books in their own libraries. And notably, high school students receive TI 81 calculators, which if you're not aware, are necessary for highlevel math classes, but they are very expensive. They cost about $200, or you can get them on sale at the beginning of the school year sometimes, but uh we wanted to make sure that that was uh accessible to our high school students to level the playing field. And then of course our EEL students had access to our Saturday school and summer learningmies focusing on steam and writing activities to build connections to their school day. On page nine you can see um this is just a brief synopsis of the different types of input we received from our students, our
235parents and our staff. Uh students definitely want high engagement options. Parents want those additional resources and interventions, particularly around math and literacy. And staff want to learn more about universal design for learning to enhance student choices and support further EL curriculum supplemental supports and adoption. Again, continuing on uh the input provided from staff, you can see that staff is also uh providing similar input that we've seen from our parents and from our students. We definitely want to focus in on our high impact strategies like formative assessments, teacher clarity and collective teacher efficacy. And you can see from the table provided that when we have surveyed our students, they feel that staff has provided them with very high expectations actually having an increase from the prior year and that they feel that school staff really wants
236them to do their best. And as you can see, that's increased for secondary students to 79%. Mr. Wyn will go over the budget in detail, but in order for you to see how we've aligned our work with the proposed adjustments, our proposed adjustments emphasize a targeted site support. We specifically are looking at providing those supports at schools that have high eel, high lowincome, and special ed populations around math and English. Notably, uh, previously, I believe someone talked about the, uh, literacy grant at Ferguson Elementary. That grant was specifically created by the state based on law that required us to follow specific metrics. We had already began to implement some of the programs required by that grant. And so, we had scaled up in different ways. Uh, we doubled down our efforts on Ferguson. And as
237a result of the success we've been starting to see, we're going to try to replicate some of that for our secondary schools. So as you can see the first line up there says literacy implementation coach at Artisia Fetty and Ross to try to create some of those double down efforts at the secondary level. You can also see that we're going to do further work with progress monitoring our students but where most of our funds have really moved to um was that we had to move most of our funds to the high need sites where we needed to maintain staff. And this was to help offset some of the costs in the base in order to make sure that our schools with high needs were able to retain some of their staff members. And again, Mr.
238Wyn will review that with you during that time. Goal two is really looking at safety and connectedness. And this is now on page 11 of your educational partners guide. I want to highlight here for this goal that our tiered mental health systems are aligned with castles which is the framework for the state and aligned to California's multi-tered system of support guidance which is all research and evidence-based by the CDE. In addition, um, some highlights that we have for that is that we can see that ABCUSD's use of care solace second step PBIS aligns with California state recommended traumainformed and restorative practices. And you can see that 94% of parents report that school is a safe place for their child. So, they're happy with some of the um measurements that we've taken to provide counseling supports,
239safety measures, and ensuring that there's anti-bullying uh processes in place to support their students. Next, um I wanted to refer to some metrics here because uh the student perception of safety definitely looks different than what parents state. Parents state 94% that they feel it's safe. But when you look at the two middle bars there, elementary safety is reported at 79%, secondary safety is reported at 67%. Although those numbers are not as high as our parents perception, we do see an increase um 2% for elementary and 5% for secondary. So we have made improvements from the prior year in that they do feel safer and feel more connected and therefore um we tie that closely to the supports that have been provided at school sites particularly by our mental health professionals that have provided over 3,200
240intensive interventions and 566 classroom and SEAL sessions. Again uh you can see the different uh inputs provided by the students, parents and staff. Students really appreciate onampus counseling and the availability of that. Parents support the anti-bullying initiatives that we have provided and we were able to get feedback from parents during our LCAP meetings and staff want more support in restorative practices and behavior modification training in order to better support our students. Again, this is just a summary of some of the areas that we've been focusing our investments. Most of our investments go towards our students mental health with 3.93 million being invested into our mental health professionals. And as you can see, as part of this goal as well, sitebased funds are provided to school sites directly in order to provide enrichment and additional opportunities
241for students who are eel foster and low income. So, those enrichment opportunities can take various shapes. And I'll be providing you an overview of a story from Ross Middle School on how they took advantage of these dollars and expanded some of their programming. Goal three is about college and career readiness. And most uh of our community think that college and career readiness only begins in secondary schools or in high school. But the way that we have approached it in ABC is to look at it from the lens of elementary, middle to high school and even post-secary helping students to successfully transition to college and career. The American Institute research shows that students that are in CTE programs have higher graduation and post-secary enrollment rates and therefore we make sure we have doubled down and increased
242our efforts with career technical education and with early college programs. You can see we've expanded to 23 CTE pathways and based on student input wanting more real life experiences and engagement. We've decided to expand by adding entrepreneurship pathway at Haskell Middle School. Expand our esports CTE pathway options, theater options, and aviation at Gar High School coming this fall of 2025. Again, on page 17, you can see the various types of input that were provided by our various uh groups. Students definitely want more opportunity to expand their real world application, and they're now accessing more dual enrollment classes, earning credits, and building real world skills earlier than ever before. We have several cohorts of early college programs. one at Whitney High School. Uh we have one at Artisia High School and we are about to start
243another cohort in the fall at Gar High School. And we are beginning to develop um partnerships with Cerritos High School to consider what type of programming they would like to offer as well. And of course, we don't want to forget about Tracy Continuation School that also has a very strong dual enrollment program. Uh we saw at graduation for those of us that were there that they've earned uh over 60 credits. uh and they had a very small graduating class, but that small graduating class was able to achieve a lot of early college credits as part of their uh work there at Tracy High School. Again, this is just to give you uh a summary of some of the investments. Some of the key investments you can see are for AP classes, advanced placement, CTE, and
244one notable change, I know that in the past we've talked about EL counselors. Um, and we are changing our phrasing to really think about this more comprehensively. As you may be aware, last year we fell into differentiated assistance for foster youth. And so we realized we needed to provide more support to connect services to our students directly and uh not place that just on one person but on a team of people at the school site. And so our specialized counselors, our specialized support counselors, which were formerly our EEL counselors, are now going to be available for our foster youth and our EL and long-term English learners. We also are investing money in dual immersion and site tech access. Part of ensuring that our foster youth and homeless students are able to do their coursework is
245by providing them the access to technology at home. And so we're going to extend our access for those specific groups. The next two goals are beyond the scope of the LCAP supplemental, which is the first part that I presented to you for goal one, two, and three. Goal four is a unique goal for us because it is it is from the base of our LCAP, but it's important because we know that we need to continue to invest in our special education. As you as you can heard earlier from Mr. W that there's always a shortfall or deficit in funding for our special education students. And so we want to focus in more on our inclusive practices, universal design for learning training and effective progress monitoring tools like goal book. Again, the same process as we
246did before. We actually looked at disagregated data specific to the needs of our uh special ed population. We saw that from our teachers 93% of our users were reporting Goldbook to be effective in monitoring and they were seeing stronger academic pro progress in those inclusive settings. So we want to continue doing that work. We did however see that only 51% of our teachers rated themselves at at three or lower on the implementation of UDL. So we're committed to providing some targeted professional learning to expand that at specific school sites. Goal five is another set of funding that has been braided into the LCAP and that is the equity multiplier funding. The only school in our district that qualifies for this equity multiplier funds is Tracy High School. This is on page 23 of your booklet.
247The goal looks a little different because it has to be metricbased. And so you can see the four goals that we came up with last year include increasing that graduation rate by 10%, improving our English learner progress rate by 10% plus, increasing our ontime supports by 25% and reducing suspension rates by 5%. Tracy's journey uh to this uh point has been tremendous and I really want to thank and commend the Tracy leadership team which included staff, teachers, classified, certificated, the administrative team in the spring of 2024 when we were developing this very uh goal. Um the teachers knew they wanted something different and so they were willing to take three subdays to go out and visit other continuation schools across uh Southern California to see what models could successfully work. And of course every community
248is different and so we didn't just copy another district's model. We took the best from each one to try to implement that. And uh we really are seeing the results of that and of their hard work. We are now projected at a 77% grad rate for Tracy High School, which is an increase from prior years, which was 69%. So, you can see that that um goal of increasing the graduation rate is really coming to light for Tracy High School. One exciting thing I'd also like to note in terms of improving the English learner progress rate that Tracy High School has beat that and doubled it as they improved it by 24% already in this last year. So, uh, I'm very excited for the work that they're doing. And also another one that was bolded up
249there that I wanted to point out is their student connectedness ratings. Students who feel connected to their schools and their teachers and their administrators um, will want to come to school. And so, you can see that student connectedness rating at Tracy High School through the California Healthy Kids Survey increased by 19 points and is now at 68%. So, we will continue to embed the improvement science principles that we've been using across our district, which included looking at the structure of our home visits, uh, the type of elective classes we offered and how students were able to access those SEAL supports. You can see an image here of how we have been able to establish a new wellness center at Tracy High School so that there's more accessibility for those supports. and Tracy has decided to
250offer AVID, AVID emerge as an elective program to help support students who would like to go to college um who are the first in their family to attend. And so these are all practices that will continue to grow Tracy High School um and make sure that their students have continued success. So from our community's voices come action in 2025 26 our community spoke and we responded. As you remember, we have approved already our AP African-American studies, which was the input from our LCAP pack. We have expanded new math and writing intervention supports based on success we've seen in other uh schools. We have added new CTE pathways, expanded restorative practices training among uh the few things that we're going to continue to do this school year. And last but not least, I will quickly go
251through some of these. I just wanted to highlight some great um data that we're seeing coming in. Now, we do not have the results of this year's spring 2025 CASP yet. We are slowly but surely getting some results and they look positive, but I don't have any confirmed results. But based on what we're seeing, um we know that some of these LCAP actions are not only shaping our district, but they're really changing lives at the site level. And so, for example, at Willow Elementary, we utilize these wraparound services of professional learning supports for structured literacy training, coaching support, datadriven instruction, and AVID to really show some marked growth. We see that in early literacy, we have a jump of 13% for their students. And we were able to implement their first math field day for
252fourth graders, which they had not experienced before. So, that was exciting for them to be able to have that. The next school I'd like to highlight that I previously mentioned is another way that we can use our LCAP funds to engage and expand student progress is at Ross Middle School. They decided to use those enrichment funds to braid in Prop 28 and expand their band program. So they now were able to double the size of their band program because they offered an elective as well as having a full-time band teacher. And that was in combination of the principal using LCAP funds along with Prop 28 money. And so you saw the results of that because they were just recently here being honored for the awards that they received at a recent competition. And last but
253not least, we have Artisia High School. You can see there's been a number of things that we've been uh doing with Artisia High School in order to support the wonderful work of that school. We have two cohorts of the early college program. We have ninth and a tth grade class. We have expanded our efforts with schoolwide focused note-taking, which is a strong AVID strategy that combines writing with reflection. We've provided multiple opportunities for students through CTE enhancements. And you can see uh and in the image here, two students that won an award at an auto competition. And we have new opportunities launching in 2526, which includes the expository reading and writing program for 9th grade. This will take the place of a regular general English 9 class. It is UC approved and it was created
254by Cal State um professors who wanted to make sure that students were ready for the rigor of college work. And so uh we already have ERWC in 12th grade and we see a lot of success with that at Artisia High School. So now we're going to begin a pilot program in 9th grade in partnership with Westad hoping to continue that into 10th grade and then in the future 11th grade. And that concludes my presentation. And I hope that you're able to see that this plan reflects a student- centered vision rooted in our belief that the students have the right to make choices and build on their portrait of a learner as problem solvers, communicators, and leaders. I will now uh pass the presentation along to my colleague. Actually, what I'd like to do is get
255some public comment and then board comment and then we'll go to the budget. Sure, no problem. Thank you. Is there any public comment on this item? None. Is there any board comment on this item? Thank you. Uh Jeannie McCannton. Uh Dr. Castro, thank you so much for this report. I have a couple questions uh specifically on Well, I think it's goal one. So the um the reclassification rate is 17.7% currently. Is that an increase? It's estimated at 17.7 at this point. We still have to finalize a few of the uh last minute changes that have happened with that. It is somewhat of an increase. It's kind of a flat. Usually with reclassification rates, if I were to show you a five-year trajectory, it goes up, it goes down, it goes up, it goes down because
256you've pulled a a big portion of those fours off by reclassifying them. And so the focus turns into pulling more students up to level four on the ELPAC and then you reclassify those. So this is actually the highest of that dip that we've had because it'll be a very small dip. So we're proud of that that we've continued to expand reclassification across our district. Okay. And then my other question is you mentioned the grant at Ferguson and that the strategies are being used at Artisia no at Artisia Fetty and Ross is is are those um strategies also being used at other elementaryaries? Yes. So the uh grant that came out of AB 181 at Ferguson was actually uh awarded or uh provided to us the opportunity was provided to us after we had already implemented
257our cesace coaches which is similar which has a literacy coach plus our intervention teachers. So we have three coaches across the district that work with various elementary schools and we have intervention teachers at e at each of our school sites currently at the moment. So we do have this model at elementary. We did not have this model at the secondary. We had been focused more on providing district-wide training around writing, reading, and UDL. And so, because we knew that we needed to uh look at the success of what's happened at our CISA schools as well as at Ferguson, we wanted to make sure we added this to our secondary school. So, it's not in current place. This is what we're recommending for next year and that will work will begin this coming year. Okay. Thank
258you very much. Mhm. Thank you, Vice President Nyola. Thank you, President Nishi. Uh, thank you, Dr. Castro, for this report and also all the work that went into this uh, LCAP plan. I know you were working on it even up until graduation. So, I appreciate that and your team. I do see a lot of the student voices and the parent participation and even the staff voice in this report. So, I'm glad to see that our plan is is inclusive. it is data driven or data informed but also um that we're seeing a lot of growth in the areas that we were focusing on last year. Um caring adults in school. I'm glad to see that grow by that grew by 8% 4% and 8% for middle school and high school. Um I'm glad to see
259Tracy um have more school connectedness. I was at their graduation and there I can honestly say that the Tracy students probably celebrated more than any other high school. Um, so I'm glad to see that they really care about their their school and the staff care about Tracy students as well. Um, going back to page 21 on uh the 51% of teachers that rate themselves at a three or lower, uh, can you like explain a little bit more on why that might be or or what are some of the things that we're we're doing to help them, you know, feel more confident in in that area? So yes, you know, uh, of course, like we've talked about a lot, change is difficult. And so when wherever we're learning something new, it takes several cycles of training,
260it's never a oneanddone. So we've provided over an overall overview to our teachers about UDL. Some have gone to their own specific training, and now we're going to provide targeted support in the um in the view of coaching. So, we will provide a coach who will come in and work alongside our special education teachers to help them implement some inclusive practices. And that's really to help our special education students have more of a general ed experience and be ready for inclusion as they move higher on through the grade levels. Thank you. Thank you. Uh Dr. Yos, thank you. So, I'll just take a a moment to highlight that um the graphics are are great, but again to use every opportunity to emphasize the urgency in having more and more of our kids reading at grade
261level. I mean, it was nice to see a lot of our parents and we know that nationally when you ask parents, how do you think your school's doing? 96% will say that their schools are doing great. Um but yet the latest um statistics from the National Education NAP tell us that 33% of fourth graders are reading at grade level. And um you know I know our scores here look better, but I also know that that's because we have some very high performing schools in our district that when you combine all the 19 elementary schools boost our grades up. Anyway, um highlight the urgency of getting kids to read better because or reading at grade level because we know the the statistics for when they don't. It has lifelong effects, right? It affects their performance in
262in later grades. The gaps continue to grow. We know that they're less likely to graduate if they're not reading by third grade. We know that the earning potential is significantly less. And not to mention the fact that you go into uh they've done studies of people that are incarcerated and a huge percentage if not the majority is because they didn't do well in school. So again, um you know, people threw out the word moral imperative. Um a lot of things out here, yes, you know, we we we do have this sense of urgency to improve outcomes. And so I like to see these plans that push for that. And I want to challenge us to, you know, I mean, it's nice to see four or 5%, but again, you know, how about doubling our percentage
263of students um that are at grade level, especially in those vulnerable areas um for a number of reasons, those mentioned, but because we know that our parents look at scores when they're looking to where they're going to send their kids. And so you, you know, we're dealing with a lot of issues. Um, it comes down to outcomes. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Rios. Thank you, uh, board member Mendoza. Thank you. Uh, Mr. President, I do have a couple questions. Um, this is is this a draft that we're we're still working on before we send it out? No, this is not a draft. It's proposed because, um, at the next meeting, you will approve the LCAP and then I can make it official. Okay. So, it's a proposal. There's just like a couple things that I
264would like to see in it. Like on page number four, we have total staff. Can we add I I don't know if you can total student population like how many students we have in the whole district. Um that's what I was looking for. And then if we turn to page number 12, can you tell us what the district is doing um for chronic absenteeism? Yes, we have several coordinated efforts particularly out of our CWA office using some of our improvement science. We have worked specifically with school sites much in the way that we've worked with school sites with literacy intervention. We've provided intervention on attendance uh looking at creating uh SART meetings with our families to help them understand the importance of attendance, increasing home visits. We've had uh two coordinators up at CWA that
265have been very extensive in providing um monthly data to our school sites as well as helping to conduct those home visits and coordinating with local agencies to work with families to provide them resources and support if there is a particular reason why their child cannot attend school on a consistent basis. Okay. And what is the goal? What is that an average or what is the what is our goal? Is it to lower it? is what is yes it is to lower it. We're looking to try to lower it by two to 3% every year. Um if you would look at the uh larger document it is part of goal two and there's a long list of metrics that show what the goal is in three years because as uh a reminder this is a three-year
266plan and we've just completed one out of the three years. So it'll show you what the goal is by the end of year three specific to each metric. So that'll show specific to chronic absenteeism. I I don't know if we have like a a campaign. Um in the district where I work, we have what's called I attend. And so we have posters. It's always it's always um on social media. Um because our parents need to know and understand how important it is. If kids aren't in school, they're not learning, right? We don't get ADA for them. So I don't know. I mean, I came up with ABC attends. I mean, let's let's we have our campaign going for adult school. Let's do one for for you know our TK to 12. Let's have a campaign
267that we go out. It doesn't cost a lot of flyer. Put it on a on send it po Let's do the work for our schools. Let's have a campaign make posters, make flyers on Canva, whatever. Send it out to the schools so that they can post it. They can put it on their social media. It doesn't cost us a thing. It cost us, you know, some time. We have an amazing communication right here sitting right here. Um but I think I think we need to do our part to to kind of help schools. I think it that's that's part of our responsibility. So, I'd like to direct staff to do that for the next school year. Um the next page is page 13. Um this one kind of um oh it's under connectingness with secondary
268only 59% of students feel connected in high schools. That that that hurts me. Um and I know it went up from 2% and I I just would like to see a little bit more done to see if we can get our our secondary. We know, you know, there's a lot going on in in high school, secondary, but I want to see that number go up. I think our schools at our schools, our kids should feel like they belong there, that they're welcome there. Um, do ABC welcomes. I don't know something something. Um, and then the next one is page number 17, uh, which is college and careers educational partners. Again, meaningful participation was 27%. I'm just looking at percentages and and it looks low. I don't know if that's I don't know if you can
269explain that. Yeah, the if you look at the bottom, it's because uh it's the percentage of students who responded most of the time or all the time. So, it changed from strongly to agree to disagree and so it changed some of the metrics. All the other ones were uh strongly agree or agree. Um and then meaningful participation meaning did students feel that uh they were meaningfully able to participate in the coursework so that they felt like it was a connection to real world. Um and that is definitely an input we saw in our student voice forums and that's why we were working towards increasing the CTE pathways, increasing experiences like the band programs, increasing uh early college so that they can see how their school can provide those uh real world experiences beyond just the
270classroom walls as well as adjusting our curriculum to reflect that. So we're hoping that next year that that percentage will go up higher for sure. That's our goal. I'm just looking at percentages. Page 19, the California parent survey results, 48% of parents feel welcome to participate. Um, just to me, that kind of feels like it's low. Um, and then again, if you turn to page 21, uh, motivation for special education is 56%. Um, so I'm just looking at the, you know, the percentages, and I'm I I hopefully next year we'll see an increase in those. And I just I just want to I don't know if our our our community knows, but this is kind of like what our school this is what we follow the ALC cap. And so we need to make sure
271that we're spending our money so that we see those percentages um continue to rise year after year. Um and then if you could send us in a board report, what is the ethnicity of all our English learners? If you could send that um over to to the board members, I would like to see that. And then I think that's it. I think I got all all of the things. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you. This is a really important document. So we have to ask these questions. Uh Su. Thank you, President Nishi. Thank you, Dr. Castro. That was a very extensive report presentation. So we have to go home and review more to understand. Um for the goal one on page nine I think for your PPT presentation the for the literacy and math that's
2722.12 million that's support for the core academics and 2.22 22 million for English learner learn learners and I know that there's a literacy um consultants and literacy support and so forth which is great but I just wanted to go back to the basic and see um for English learners vocabulary is probably one of the tough obstacle because for English learners you know um if you speak another language at home sometimes the students do have difficulty and especially I saw the standardized test we call it California assessment test. Yes. Yeah. That's really tough because now the math is like English reading comprehension and vocabulary. So I'm just wondering if um what happens in the classroom is probably the most important if the teachers can or does have any standards where for the English learners there's an
273emphasis on vocabulary weekly like not how many words do they study or kind of give a little pressure to memorize and I that's so important. Yeah, there there is a strong emphasis in that with our English learners who develop academic vocabulary. I think one of the bigger issues in looking at the data and how we responded to that is that uh English learners struggle with how to use that vocabulary. Once they know it, they need to know how to use it and apply it. And that's why there's an emphasis in writing because with writing, you're now showing your comprehension and showing how to use that vocabulary. And that's why and just to clarify, all these funds are for direct school site support. So these are uh individuals, teachers that are directly at school sites. These
274are not uh personnel at district office necessarily. These are all directly at the school sites that will work sidebyside with teachers to do just that to implement vocabulary strategies and supports and hopefully expand that in the coming school year. I mean I don't like to I don't want to m micromanage but do they have like certain number of words that they will you know I mean if if the students are not English learners I mean there's no need to limit like 20 words a week but for English learners I think if we increase the number that will really help especially in the elementary school because when they go to middle school they're it's already difficult in all the subjects they're going to have a challenge So, thank you because we have the budget. So, yes.
275Thank you. Thank you, uh, board clerk Yokyamui. Thank you, Dr. Castro. Um, thank you for the comprehensive report and, um, I would like to, uh, also say thanks for highlighting some of the schools that are putting into action um, where where our focus is. Uh, I was able to attend Tracy High School graduation. And I was very inspired um that day by all the by all the ecstatic students um celebrating their graduation. I was also able to attend Willow Elementary and um I I I was astonished. I I had attended Willow Elementary once before, but the the number of awards and the the commencement speakers really blew my mind. They they were just so um happy and wonderful and and I'm really seeing what has been placed in action. Um they were there on stage.
276Um additionally uh Artisia High School I attended the senior awards night and um it was about an hourong ceremony of stage full. You could not even fit everyone on the stage. They had to stand on the bottom of the stage because there were so many award attendees, CT pathways, everything. So thank you for that. Um I I did want to ask about goal for special education on page 21. Um there is student voice student want more students want more opportunities to feel included and connected to schoolwide events. I understand that there are some schools who have bigger classroom sizes with special education. Um do we know how how we want to implement this specific want by students because I do feel sometimes they're they're separated. Um I know I know some schools will incorporate them
277into performances um you know different different type of uh initiatives. So, how how can we really work with those schools and those sites to ensure that that's helping the kids? Thank you for the question. So, one of the things that we noticed in taking a closer look at working with our special education students, most of those comments came to us from our secondary students because in elementary um our students for the most part are in the gened classroom uh with the exception of some of our SDC classes, but our RSP students are in GenEd. Then we get to middle school and then in middle school now they're separated out for math and for English. So RSP students take a separate math and a separate English class. Um and because they have to have a lab
278class, sometimes they don't have the opportunities to take the electives that they would like to take that include that CTE intro. So that was part of the further information on how they wanted to be included. So, we're looking to work with our middle schools to try to create schedules and looking at inclusive practices where students don't have to take all those separate classes, can be included in the gened environment and still have the opportunity to take those CTE intro classes that would keep them connected and have them feel like part of the general ed population and the rest of their school campus. Thank you. Um, I have just one comment and one question. So the comment relates to the uh chronic absenteeism which looks like we've done a pretty good job. We've reduced it down
279from 16% down to 11% and those are really difficult numbers to get down. I mean all the districts in all over the state have had a really high chronic absentee rate. It's still higher than pre pandemic but I think we're doing good. I saw what they did at Palms. They reduced theirs by 8% and just simple programs um incentives and things like that. So I that's just wanted to mention that and once you get there and to actually show up they do better. I did have a question regarding Willow Elementary though regarding the star early testing shows increases in reading and increases in this and math intervention showing an increase which is great in the star testing but what is the difference between that and the the dashboard because the dashboard seems to show declining.
280So what is the difference between those two? So the dashboard is a year behind. So, that's a reminder to everyone that our dashboard reflects spring of 2024 scores. The scores that I presented to you reflect our district benchmarks, which is our latest local benchmarks. We try to provide an assessment that mimics the California assessment, but it only mimics it because they could only be given a portion of it. It's not the entire test. They have finished obviously none of the schools out. Uh, but we are still waiting to receive all the official scores from the state. So we don't know currently how those scores translate to the California state scores. We would we are hopeful that they translate directly but they do show us good signs that the work that we are doing is showing
281progress from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. So the increase you see is we measured students at the beginning of the year and then we measured them at the end of the year and we saw that much percentage improvement between the two. Got it. So like the dashboard is um consists of the star testing. That's what what's one of the components of it and therefore that's why and it's also older or the dashboard consists of the state tests the California assessment tests which is separate from that. Okay. Um and it is a one-time event during the school year which usually happens in the spring and it's usually a year behind. So the dashboard you see right now if you were to log in reflects last year not this year's school
282scores. And the star test is an entirely different thing, right? It is what we use as a way to progress monitor to check in on students throughout the year to see if they're making progress towards the standards. Okay. Yeah. I just I was wondering because like I see different numbers and I'm like, "Oh, which one should I rely on?" I rely on the better one obviously, but um Okay. Thank you. Uh so we're done with board comments. I'd like to hear now the financial report. Mr. doing. Thank you, President Nishis. Tonight, um I'm presenting to the board the preliminary budget for the 2526 school year. And this is a two-step process as required by law. we are required to conduct a public hearing and present the preliminary budget to the board and um at the
283next meeting hopefully the board will adopt the budget. So where we are at this in term of the state of California um they have I'm going to go straight to the bottom line. They have a 12 billion deficit this year that they have to deal with. Uh why? Um there's policy federal policy impacting revenues. There's also expenditures in the medical programs that are just um higher than anticipated. So as a result, they have a 12 billion dollars deficit as a state. So how are we how is the state of California addressing the deficit, right? uh uh usual the usual solutions five billions in reductions three 5.3 billions in revenues and borrowing and 1.7 billion in cost shipped to other programs and funds. So that this is how the state of California addressing the 12 billion
284dollar shortfalls at the state level. This is just a quick rate. Unemployment rate in the state of California is 5.3% is about 1% higher than the national average of 4.2. Inflation is still a pro a concern. It's it's going in the right direction which is down but it's still higher than what the Federal Reserve like to see. So um we still seeing um about 2.4% 4% inflation. In term of real life, it seems a lot higher than that, but it's about 2.4%. So, there's still policy that impact the state revenues. There's tariffs issues. There's immigration policies. There's a lot of reductions in different programs at the federal levels that will impact the state of California. So, uh this is at the state level. How much money or revenues are they expect to receive? So, I'll
285go through the straight bottom line $214.6 billion. This is the state general fund uh for next year. However, they will they expect to spend about $226 billion. So, it's about $10 billion more in terms of expenditures versus revenues. So as you can see that's create about the the the the the different in the deficit and the different um solutions that the state have to come up with. What does it mean for ABC and education? So I will just again we will get a cola next year of 2.3% and the state is also providing pro support or funding for all of his um the governor's um legacy programs if you will the elop program the universal mills and the TK program. But at the same time because of the deficit the state is fully withdraw about8
286billion in the reserve to support Prop 98. There's also deferrals of $2.3 billion in payment and one of the key concern is that the state is using one-time fund to pay ongoing programs. It's not on here, but that will create a future deficit again setting us up for another um potential deficit in the future. So, I want to quickly talk about this program. It's an afterchool program. Again, we uh next year if this come to pass, the state the ABC is required to offer this program to all students, not just unduplicated count students. So after school program until 6:00, 20 additional days in the summer. So 20 or 30 30 I I apologize. Take it back. 30 additional school days in the summer. So again, I want to repeat that 6 o'clock the school will
287extend it to six o'clock and 30 additional school days in the summer. So with that, this is the governor proposal to move um ABC. If this come to pass, we go to tier one funding and someone was asking me about this. If this were to pass, there's additional funding in this program. Yes. Instead of about $1,600 per student, we will get 27.50 per student. And this will potentially bring in an additional $6 million for this program. And the key thing is the bottom uh um line there. We can use this funding to uh offer attendance recovery uh and hopefully bring in additional funding on the LCFF base because uh you can now uh recover attendance on an hourly basis versus Saturday school. So this is um an important uh uh addition to this program. Universal
288meals. I'll talk about this. All students are required. We are required to offer all students a free breakfast and a free lunch. So at every school, all 17,500 students, we required to offer that. They don't have to take that, but um uh we have to offer that. So on a daily basis, we serve about 16,000 plus meals per day. And that's breakfast and lunch to our students. Transitional and kindergarten. Again, next year, the state is effectively adding a grade level to our system, our program. So, if a student turn four by September 1st, they will be eligible to um the TK program. We have our TK program at all of our schools, all 19 schools. We are we will have at least seven schools that will have two TK classes. So, we are expanding the
289program and hopefully we'll have every school will have at least two classes. So that's the goal but right now every school has at least one with seven school next year we have two u again uh the class for TK can't be more than 24 the ratio between adult and students is 10 to one so every 10 students you have to have a teacher and then it just 10 to one the 11 students come in you have to have a second adult in there in the budget the the governor also proposed a block grant for the district. It's about $1.7 billion uh for all school district. This is discretionary. So uh we have full control of how to spend that money. If this come to pass is about $5 million for ABC this is the enrollment
290and this is the question was asked. How many students we have right now? again 17,510 is projected to go down by another 400 students next year to about 17,129. So we still on this declining in enrollment um until the year 2930. Um as you can see here, this is um data from the state of California. Uh the bottom line is the green the blue there that's the county of Los Angeles and we are they the c the entire county is expected to decline by almost 19% in the next 10 years. So ABC it just similar to um the county where unfortunately enrollment is still continue to decline for the next 10 years. This is our funded ADA or this is how much you know the state is funding ABC based on our average daily attendance
291and for next year it's going to be declined by 512 ADA. So our revenues our CFF funding will be impacted by this because of declining enrollment. We talked about attendance rate and how to improve it. Precoid we were at 96 and a half percent. Uh after COVID we dropped down to 93.22%. We have been going up every year. This year um not as much as we hope. There was many different factors. If you remember there was a fire, there was a bad flu season. There was um the protest on immigration policy. So those factors impact attendance. But um even with those um factors, we still went up a little bit. And again, we are working toward um going back to 96 and a half. And we hopeful with the new attendance recovery program next year,
292we are looking at at least our goal is a 1% increase uh for next year. So, in building the budget together, um what what does the revenue look like and what's the expenditures look like? Because of the declining in enrollment, even with a 2.3% COLA, we are looking at a reduction of about $1 million in LCF funding, which is a lot better than the current year. If you remember, it was a $9 million reductions. Unfortunately, our health benefits increase um is Kaiser, which is um have about twothird of our employees uh participate in that program. Uh 15% increase, 15.38% increase. It's an actual increase of $3.2 million um in in in our program. So, uh this year we had a $4.1 million structure deficit. Next year it'll be 1.7 assuming that the board will uh
293approve about a $5.7 million in in solutions. This is our pension cost. It's it it has been flat. So, this is good news. At least it's not going up. So 19.1% for Calsters program and 26.81 for CalPERS which is classify employees and the Calsters is 19.1 which is for certificate employees. So how much are we getting and who's generating the funding? So the base grant is all students right? So the 17,500 students that we talked about um at 95% ADA we are generating about $200 million in the base grant. The top two the supplemental and concentration grant that's is about $30 million and that's the LCAP report that you just heard from Dr. Castro. This money again is to be used toward unduplicated count students. Those are low-income English learners and foster youth. That's the
294supplemental and concentration grant. And those two add up to about $30.1 million. So in total, our LCFF funding for next year is about $230.5 million, which is about a million less than the current year and about 10 million less from two years ago. So this is just um a calculation from Figmat or the county and the state. The bottom line if you look at there is the LCFF funding as you can see right 240 million in 2324 231 in this year and 230 next year. It'll go back up gradually eventually. Um um 232 the year after and 237 uh the year after that. So uh we present this to the board um a couple of board meetings ago. Uh this is as the requirement of the county that require us to put a budget reduction
295plan together because we have been uh we are deficit spending and this is built into the budget. So, we are um looking at about a $5.7 million budget reductions and these are the items that was presented to the board um from reducing department budget to reducing management staff to reducing TOSA to uh hiring freeze to reducing contract for consultant and services and and and do uh reduce the contribution to the defer maintenance and the postemployment health benefits programs. So if we were not to do this, our structural deficit will be a lot higher than the 1.7 that you see. So uh we need to do this. Um if we don't if we don't do this, we are risking um a possibility that the county will not approve our budget. So I want to repeat that
296if we were not to implement our budget reduction plan, the district is at risk of the budget is not get approved by the county. So how much money are we looking at in term of total revenues for next year? Um $37 million. Total expenditures $319 million. So, we are deficit spending uh by about $12 million. If you add um with the contribution to other programs, that's another $4.6 million. So, it's $17.2 million. I know it's late, but I want to explain this a little bit. So, our deficit, as you can see there at the very bottom line, is $1.7 million. So, we still need to address that in the future years. our restricted program. We are spending down another $15 million, right? We will keep spending down this restricted funds until um we spend it
297all down. Once we finish doing that, then we will reduce our expenditures and and we'll go back to a balanced budget. The reason we can afford to do this is because we have the fund balance and we need to spend it down. Otherwise, we have to return the money to the state. So, we don't want that. So, the negative 55.4 for it is a good thing. We are spending the money to support our students. So, um I want to make sure the board understand the negative the the deficit and the reason behind it on the restrict on the restricted side. That's that's the concern. It's down to 1.7. Um it's manageable, but at at some point we need to address that. So, this is a summary of of our fund balance and how much we
298have in um in in our reserve, right? uh $12.8 million in unrestricted and 62.7 in restricted. After this year, we'll be down to $11.1 million and $47 million in restricted. Um so the unrestricted reserve is a concern. It is low, right? So um I I'll talk more about that. Uh part of the requirement is the projection out in three years, right? So how much are we receiving now? and how much we receiving in three years. This is the unrestricted program. So revenues hopefully still continue to go up because of a higher cola. Next year is about 3% and the year after that is about 3.4%. Expenditures if we keep it steady then it's about $1.7 million in deficit. So um we will have sufficient reserve to offset that um in the futures. This is assuming
299I want to repeat that that there will be no change in compensations. This is assuming that we'll give no raises for the next three years. This is the restricted programs about $97 million each year and we are spending more than that. Again, this is spending down the reserve. After the third year, we'll be done and we'll go back to um a balanced budget under restricted programs. Uh this is the combined budget that I just shared with the board three years out 307 307 311 million each year in terms of total revenues expenditures we are spending more every year but like we talked about we are spending down the reserve mostly in the restricted programs. This is an important page because you need to know this. We are required to have a minimum 3% or $9.7
300million and you can't have more than 10% which is about $32.4 million. At the end of next year we are looking at about $5.6 million in reserve. This is assuming and I want to say this that there will be no additional payments because of two AB28. If we have to settle any more cases, it will come out of this fund. So, um, as we share with the board, we have settled and paid out about $7 million. Uh, and we have still outstanding cases, um, under 22 to8 and we working, uh, hopefully we'll settle all those cases next year. The average unified school district has about 24% in their reserve. ABC has 5.6%. We are spending money to support our students and our programs. So in summary, the budget built in a $5.7 million in budget
301reduction plan. Even after that, we still have about a $1.7 million deficit. However, it is balanced. Uh we will be able to meet our financial obligation for this year, the budget year, and the next two years. Um so um it should be able to meet the county requirements in term of reserve with the implementation of the budget reduction plan. That is the end of my budget presentation. Mr. President, thank you Tuan. Are there any public comments on this particular item? No comments. Thank you. Are there any board comments on this? No board comment. Oh, spoke too soon. Dr. Rios, I just trying to understand the different numbers. Tuan. So on page 22 you say that the expected income for 2526 is 230 million but then on page 25 you say that it's 307. That's right
302restricted. Thank you for the question. So if you look at page 32 right the LCFF funding is 230.5 million right? So carry on to page 225. So that's the first number there that 230.5 million that's under where say local control funding formula. So that is you know the majority of our revenues and then there's other state revenues and then there's local revenues. So that add up to the total of $242.9 million and that match up with the budget book. So this is our total revenue for next year for the unrestricted program. I hope I answered the question. So restricted, unrestricted, what will a fund balance be June 30th of this year? Thank you for that. So, if you look at on page 27, it'll tell you this year, this June, June of 2025. That's going
303to be our fund balance where it's a beginning fund balance, $12.8 million in unrestricted, 62.7 in restricted for a total of 75.6. This will be this June. Next June it'll be down to 58.4 million because we are spending down the money. Thank you. You're welcome. Board member you Oh, so on page 31, Twan, thank you very much for this uh budget presentation. It's very complicated, but I'm trying. page 31. Uh the red font is the deficit. That is correct. Yeah. So 2000 this year we have one 15 million deficit. That is correct. The budget year 2526. Yeah. And then next year is 16 like 9 million. That is correct. Deficit. And then as a result of that would be our um reserve is at this June is uh unrestricted is 12.869 million right? Yes. Okay.
304So, can you um explain what AB28 is for the public and why the money I mean we need the the money to spend for that? So, AB 218 um is a law that was passed um by the state on January 1st, 2020, 2020. And that law basically um allows um victims of um alleg um improper um I want to use sexual misconduct uh against them uh going back as far as possible. So it's basically lift the statute of limitation and allow plaintiffs uh who um believe that they were um allegedly um improper conduct uh by either the perpetrator or the districts to go back and file litigations or lawsuit against the districts. uh for anything that happened to them um as far back as possible. So for example, we do have a case that went
305back to 1975. So that's how far back that could go. It could be further, but u further that that's basically that's the law. So the district now have to address those lawsuits and and and and and look at the u the merit of the the cases and and try to settle. So that's the California law. Yes, ma'am. And so we already made some payment and we have more pending and that comes from the general fund. So the board has approved this year about four cases and we have reported out every time uh totaling $7 million that's public informations and yes it it um we we we tried to go back and find insurance coverage uh for those cases for those years. Um, in some instances we do, uh, we were able to have insurance. In
306some instances we don't. And if you don't, then you have to pay for it out of the current general fund. Board member, you we have 15 minutes. Okay, that's it. I just want to say, are we going to meet the Lakos LA County Office of Education requirement by June? Yes. Based on the letter by the superintendent to the board, yes, we are. Should we approve the the the budget reduction plan as part of this budget? Thank you, Vice President Oila. Uh, thank you, President Ishi. Uh, thank you, Tuan, for this report. Uh, just really quickly, the on page 23, the student uh, support and professional development discretionary block grant, is that are those funds in uh, included in your budget, preliminary budget or is that something we're hoping to get later on? Uh, that's a
307great question. We will adjust the budget once we know we get the money. So right now it's a proposal by the governor as you know right it's in his made revision the legislature right now currently I'm sure they they are debating this should they approve it and it's become the final budget then we will include that in our budget but right now the direction from the county is that you don't include any grant until you know for sure you get the money. Yeah. And estimated you said it was about $5 million correct? Yes. Yes sir. That's correct. Thank you. Thank you. I'm going to ask a few questions. Um page 23, uh you expect we're going to get a cola of 2.3%, but you hope that we get a 3.02% cola next year despite the
308challenges with the headwinds in the economy and all that. Yes, that is um recommended by the state department of finance and the county of Los Angeles. But uh we depend on that. This is all this been a 3% cola, not a 2.3% cola. Correct. So next year in 2526, right? And the same page, the 2.3 is is now law. So that is is is fixed and that won't change. The 3.2 guess will will change. It's a projection. It's a projection. It will change. Yeah. Okay. Next one. Chart 31. We have uh um uh Kaiser. They went up 15%. But uh it looks like your projection for the next year is only like back to single digits. Is that right? That is our normal trend. We will um I don't want to say we have a
309bad years but we have a year with high utilization. Uh but our normal trend is that you know it should be high single digit but this year we had 15%. We're hoping we go back to a lower percent but we're hoping that happens. Right. Correct. Okay. Thank you. The assumption is based on the trend. Okay. Right. Page 30, we have um this is really strange. I was going like what is a contribution like a charitable contribution. Uh and that's part of our three-year projection of restricted budget. Yeah. What is this $32 million of contribution? Who is that? I know the contri that the term is used by by the state. So we have to use that. That is actually um related to an item that I was trying to point out earlier. The contributions to
310the restricted program. It means that this is the fund that we contributed to the restricted programs that are um it's a general fund helping the special education because special education is super expensive right as if you remember it was 19 million uh is part of the 32 and then there's transportation and then there's the rest routine restricted maintenance program right so yes so it's it's the extra money that we pay for the special ed kids that need the help and it's coming out of the general budget. So actually our general budget helps our restricted budget because we required to we required to because those you have to provide a service. Yes. I have a bigger question here though. Um so I see that we run a $15 million uh $1560$60 million deficit every year to
311spend down the uh reserves. So we go down from $47 million in the restricted fund. Yes. next year to $30 million in a restricted fund and 27 28 $13 million in the restricted fund. Right? And so obviously the following year the the we'll have zero in the restricted fund. Negative -2 -2 but so that that is the projection. So after 27 28 when we completely out of money then we will just stop right. But where do this money so 90% of our budgets salaries and that's people are we going to have to find $15 million of people cuts. No we will so knowing this projection so we will work we have a three year to react to it. So we'll work slowly to um review the program and adjust accordingly. There's a lot of we
312talked about this. There's a lot of programs and services that we are still using one-time funds to pay for. Once the onetime fund is is is all spent, uh we would have to uh reduce those program and services. And some of the things that you have heard, specialized support counselor, um literacy tutor, TOSA, all those uh a lot of those are paid for by one-time funds. So that's people, correct? So in three years, it's correct. $13 million of people that we will not be spending either people or consultants or programs, right? But services that we really need to give to our kids, but we don't have. Correct. So we have to find a good plan on how to adjust and have a soft landing. We are doing that. So we are expanding that already. If
313you recall this is an extension of the esser or the co fund. It ended this year. I understand what happened. Yes. Thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah. All right. That's all I have in terms of questions. Um seeing no other board comment, I will close the public session. Uh oh. So, can I have a a motion to close the public session? Sorry. So, moved. Second, Sue. All in favor say I. I. Okay. Now, we close the public session. All right. On item 19, board member reports. Um, so they're going to have to be a little bit short because we do we have any public comments? Second, public comments. Yes. Um, Mr. President. So, we should reserve at least five minutes for those two, right? They they are related to the prior agenda items. Okay. But
314they still get their time. Yes. So, uh board Dr. Rios, I'll make mine short. Just want to wish the um want to say congratulations to all all our um 202 graduates and congrats to all our staff for making it through another year. Yay. Vice President Nyola. Uh thank you, President Nishi. I also want to echo congratulations to all the 2025 graduates. I attended a lot of graduations. I want to thank staff for making each day special and I also want to thank staff for staying up tonight. Thank you board member U. I had the honor of attending Whitman Sters and Cerrito's elementary uh promotions. Good job principles, Mr. Spread Miller and Marco and teachers and parents. Um I heard two names several times at Carmenito Middle School, Mr. Hua and Mr. Woodbury who are both
315history and social studies teachers. I appreciate how these teachers are making an impact on the students lives. Thank you. As for today's public hearing, I invite the public to visit our district website and look over the preliminary budget and school consolidation and reconfiguration. This is not an easy process for any one of us on the board. Changes are always difficult, especially disrupting a community. However, we do need to be prepared for the declining enrollment and students academic programs. The last thing we want to see is the combined classes and cut programs and layoff teachers. As our model says, we want to put student achievement at the forefront and I want to assure the public that tonight was a public hearing and we will consider and take into account all the comments by the public. As
316California is faced with several crisis of enrollment and budget, ABCUSD is making every effort to make the plans and decisions for the best welfare of our students, not just right now, but also for the next 5 to 10 years. Thank you, board member. Um I attended Wares and Neimus' promotions and um at Neimis there were eight students I think it was about eight who received the biiteracy certificate which was um a great accomplishment. Um I also went to Gar's graduation with Miss Mendoza and Dr. Rios. Um and I congratulate them for the their one and a half hour speedy graduation. There we go. Board member Mendoza. Thank you uh Mr. President. I also attended Gar's graduation and it was a bittersweet moment because um it's my last child and he graduated. Um and so I'm
317done. I have no more I have no more kids in the system, but I do have godchildren. Um, I h I was had the the great honor to attend the California Distinguished Schools and Blue Ribbon Blue Ribbon Schools with not only ABC with Cerritos Elementary and Whitney High School, but I also attended um because my school where I teach got uh California Distinguished School. So, my my worlds collided again and my my my boss got to meet the district over here. It was it was Yeah, it was an amazing day. Hot. Um, I want to thank our staff for the reports for today. I know it was a lot of work, um, lots of details, but I also want to thank the community for coming out and and, uh, voicing their concerns and their suggestions.
318And I think it's important for our staff and our community to be able to come out and have a voice. Um, I also want to celebrate, uh, June is Pride Month and I want you to know that as a schoolboard member, um, you are seen. If you identify with LGBTQ, you belong here at our district. You are seen. And I also want to thank the my city, Artisia City Council because they um this month they put up the pride flag. Um and I want to end with wishing our staff um an amazing end of the year. I know they're all hopefully on vacation. Um but thank you for um making this year amazing and I know there's tough decisions to come up, but um I think we can all work together to come to a
319a resolution. Thank you. Thank you. Your next regular board meeting will be Tuesday, June 17th, 2025 at 700 p.m. District board office room. We have committee meetings. Citizen Oversight Committee, Tuesday, June 10th, 2025 at 6 p.m. District conference room. Strategic planning board advisory committee Tuesday, August 26th, 2025 at 5:30 p.m. District office boardroom. Legislative policy board advisory committee will be Wednesday, August 27th, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. District conference room. Second public comment section. Yes, we have two comments. First is Naha Agraal. Second is Nikita Agraal and thank you for coming. Um we have about two minutes minutes for each of you. Okay. Good evening esteemed board members. Mr. Nishi, Dr. Zitlo. Uh, thank you for being here so late and hearing our thoughts. My name is Niha Agarwal and I am a rising senior at
320Whitney High School. I was part of the class that joined Whitney during the CO lockdown year. Our entire seventh grade year was spent in online school and I know for a fact that I would not be the person I am today without the support and guidance of my upperassmen. The concept of a combined school makes a much easier transition for seventh graders coming into Whitney. In my online year, I joined multiple clubs such as STEM club, which helped me make a lot of friends with like-minded interests and connect with my seniors. When we finally went to in-person learning in my 8th grade year, I continued to learn from my seniors throughout my high school years. Having the kind of support I got from staff and older kids in the school was invaluable and helped me
321transition smoothly into the new environment. I never felt like I was in a new place because they familiarized me with the school campus policies and teachers. Their confidence inspired me and made me stronger. I am now holding the same leadership positions they did. Next year I am serving as president of STEM club and the mental health club on our campus. And because of the leadership positions that older high school students hold, it allows clubs to organize larger events such as competitions that students of all grades are able to participate in. Realistically, this would be much harder to execute in a middle school campus. Furthermore, being in the same school from grades 7 through 12 exposes us to a multitude of new experiences early on. Incoming 9th graders can join clubs and programs for high schoolers
322such as science olympiad. This helps students pursue our interests from a young age instead of waiting until high school to finally discover our passion. It makes us more college and career ready, making us better students and better people in the long term. Trying to manage school and extracurriculars while being thrown into a new school environment makes the process much harder for students. They do not have the same opportunities to grow and develop their skills. Having a strong base for the full six years reduces the anxiety that can come with moving to new schools and allows students to focus more on on more important things, their academic, social, and emotional growth. One of the reasons Thank you so much. Thank you. Um hello board members. Thank you for being here. So uh my name is Nikita
323Agarwal. I just finished 9th grade. So I'm a rising sophomore and so just completing nth grade. So I I can say that um attending middle school at Whitney really did help me prepare for um high school because it's really hard for somebody who's just coming in knowing what to expect. But I had so many peers that I could look up to and they told me what the course load would be like, what AP classes are like, which is something most people discover in high school itself. And then also um what even learning a language is like and so I was exposed to so many opportunities like clubs like STEM club and then also competitions like different math competitions, science competitions and that helped me explore different career options and um other classes that I can
324take later on especially through the counselors because you also get to know your high school counselors early on which is really important for you. Um, I was also able to coach a middle school science bowl team, which I think is really important because I would not have been able to interact with these middle school students if we do separate the two campuses. And I would just like to mention that they did make it to nationals. So, I'm very proud of them for that. And so, Whitney's model has worked for a really long time and it's been able to maintain its status as one of the top schools in California. And so I think if this model is removed the students will struggle and um instead of splitting Whitney if if I would like to mention
325that we should try to even expand the campus or try to make other schools like this because the model does work and it produces highly academic students with strong social and personal skills and this is really really important for me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Can I get a motion to adjurnn? So moved. Second. All in favor say I. I. Motion adjourned. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat.