001Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. Hey, ah, ah, [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] gold. Yeah. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat up [Music] here. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Call this meeting to order.
002Can I have a motion to excuse board member Olgaras from the special board meeting today? So moved. Second. Uh, all in favor say I. I. Motion passes. Uh, can I have a roll call? President, Mr. Nishi, present. Vice President, Mr. Nyola, present. Clerk, Mrs. Yokiyama Buui, present. Board member, Mrs. Mendoza, present. Board member, Mrs. U, present. Can I have uh Tatiana Yoko board member Tatiana clerk Tatiana Yokoyama buoui uh come up and give us the pledge of allegiance. Sure. Please stand. Put your right hand over your heart. Ready? Begin. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Really quick before we start with uh everything else, I want to thank
003everyone who's here on a Saturday, beautiful Saturday today. our schoolboard members, our superintendent, um our staff that's here on a Saturday, uh to make a really important decision about the future of our community. Um a lot of people think teachers are 8 to3 job, right? It's easy job, got summer vacations and all that stuff. Um no, actually it's a 247 job. It's one of those jobs that uh as my wife keeps telling me, it's it it's a forever job. Um, and you have administrators thinking, well, I got a little bit more ability to do things to make a bigger impact over a larger group of people. And they think, well, that's uh just a nineto-five job, too, right? Isn't it? And then you find out, well, we got all these administrators here on a Saturday.
004Uh, so I want to also thank the the board candidates for coming in and sacrificing part of your Saturday in trying to be a big part of this school district. and uh and uh there are a lot of challenges that we face and so being able to have strong people to face these challenges is really important and as as a body I'm pretty sure I'd be unanimous in thanking you for coming in tonight uh today and thank you my wife also has to come to these meetings as well. So is there any public comments on this particular uh topic madam clerk? I see none. Thank you. We need a motion in a second to approve the following interview and voting process for trustee area 5 provisional appointment. Moved second. Niola. Okay. Candidates will draw from
005numbers to determine the order of interviews. The candidates will remain in the district conference room prior to their own interview. While the interviews are being taking place, the process will be repeated for each candidate. Each candidate will have 20 minutes to answer the questions, roughly two minutes per question. Candidates are able to be in the boardroom after their interview is completed and prior to the board discussion and voting. A roll call is required for is requested for each candidate and it'll take place after our interviews. That way everybody gets a chance to be voted on. Board members can vote yes on more than one candidate because more than one actually probably all of you are very qualified. Um the board me the candidate with the most votes will then be nominated and appointed. If there's
006a tie, um, if there's two people have the same number of votes, the after the initial vote, then the board will go through the same process of voting until the person who tied is the person who gets the most votes and a majority of the vote. So, I think we already did the motion and the second. All right. So, all in favor of what we just discussed, please say I. I. All right. Great. At this time, we'll have the candidate lottery um to determine the order of the candidates that will be interviewed. So, what we'll have you do is we'll have you state your name, uh, draw a number, and then announce your number. All right? There are one through seven in here. So we'll start with you. Maria Vgas. Number seven. Uh Mel Cortez.
007Five. Jeannie Mcaten. Three. Hugo Eniso. One tamarax four. Oh, Samantha Lawrence. Uh, six. Camille Wallace Flanigan. Two. All right. The lottery has been completed. You could go back to the board conference room. Can we have the restated numbers? Oh, never mind. Uh, so I will restate the numbers. Mr. Cortez is number five. Mr. Hugo and Ciso is number one. Uh, Miss Lawrence is number six. Uh, Miss McChatten is number three. Uh, Mr. Tamarax is number four. Mie is number seven. Okay. And you know what? I'm I was not a teacher, so I have to even put them in order. So, which one did we miss? Just start over. Yeah. Okay. Start with one. All right. Starting with number one. Mr. Cortez is number five. Do you want them in number order? Yeah, I'll do it.
008Okay. Number order. Mr. Eniso will be first. Miss Wallace Flanigan will be second. Miss McChatten will be third. Mr. Tamarack will be fourth. Mr. Cortez will be fifth. Miss Lawrence will be sixth. And Miss Viegas will be seventh. Are we good? I have two for Vaser. There's two for Vegas. That's an error. Okay, that's what I was going to ask my question. Thank you. Okay. We are ready for candidate number one, Mr. Mr. Hugo and Tiso That was fast. Should just stay here. It's okay. So, we'll go through each of the questions and the timer will be there for you. Um, we'll have 20 minutes and so make sure you're speaking into the microphone. We'll start with question one. What do you see as the basic purpose of public schools? What is the role of
009the board of trustees in the fulfillment of that purpose? Wonderful. Well, first of all, good morning. Thank you for the opportunity to be here. Um the purpose of public schools in my view is to provide education and resources for students and families to learn about our country, our region and develop good citizens who can contribute to society in all facets of life. Whether it may be as a future doctor, engineer, educator, communicators, athletes, business and policy leaders, nurses, computer scientists or for many or for working in many of the trades that our society needs. Public education is the first entry point for members of our society. Public education is the great equalizer in our society as well. And it is imperative that this foundation of American education for our society is provided with a sound
010leadership that encourages positive change that is future-looking and forward thinking. Even anticipating the needs for careers that today may not even exist yet. I believe board leaders must think about preparing students to adapt and rise to the challenges that the future will bring. Creating the policy framework, managing the finances and resources to plan for the future is what I believe a school board should do, while at the same time staying close to the communities it serves, listening to their concerns, and making the difficult decisions that need to be made for the benefits of children and their families while managing the valuable human resources that serve students and the community. Thank you. Question two. What are you proud of in this district? What would you like to accomplish as a board member? What is your highest
011priority and why? I believe that the diversity of ABC is one of the strengths that we have here in our district. Our children and families can learn about so many different cultures that enrich our knowledge and that create appreciation for others. This must be harnessed in a positive way to make our district a model for education. The brand that the district has with so many quality schools is also an important asset that can help to retain and attract new students to address the challenge of declining enrollment. The multilingual resources available here in the district with dual immersion programs is another asset that we should leverage to retain and attract students. My priority would be to focus on maintaining the high standards that ABC is known for. This is what makes the district attractive to families.
012We need to maintain this and build upon these these uh district assets. All schools in ABC should be a model for families that are looking for the best education for their families. Thank you. Question three. As a trustee, what do you see as the primary purpose or role? How will you fulfill that role both as an individual and as a member of the governing board? In my opinion, the role of a trustee is to be a voice for the community's needs as they relate to education and to the overall well-being of the students in the entire school district. It is also about making important decisions and providing stewardship for the most efficient and effective use of the resources available to provide services to the students and to the community while at the same time working
013closely with teachers, administrators, and classified employees to support them to create a professional environment that includes professional development, technology, access to instructional materials that will ultimately serve to provide students with quality instruction to meet and exceed academic standards for all students in the district. I would work closely with the board with other board members to build consensus on how the board can accomplish the educational goals for our students in the short term while planning for the future needs of the district in an everchanging environment. Thank you. Question four, what are the specific concerns of your community in regard to student academic learning and [Music] support? As a parent in a district and in my interactions over the years with other parents, the priority for families always seems to be to ensure that our district schools
014can provide a safe and positive environment in which students can learn and thrive. Every family wants their children to have the opportunity to succeed academically, to feel welcome in their classroom, to help them meet standards and prepare them for college or career, to provide them with options for extracurricular activities such as arts or athletics and now after school programming as well. At the same time, with the understanding that all students are different, parents want to make sure that the schools work with all students, whether they need a more challenging and rigorous curriculum, tutoring, support with reclassification for English learners, or support with student IEPs. Every family wants to know that their school administrators, counselors, teachers, and staff are all working together, focused on supporting all students in the district. Thank you. Question five. What would
015you do if you believed administrators had not provided you with accurate and complete information for making a decision? Well, I believe that in order to accomplish the goals set by the school board, it is super important to have trust with all those involved in the decision-making process. I believe that those who work in education, as Mr. Tishi said at the beginning of the meeting, it is a very 24-hour job. So those who work in education understand that they serve a higher purpose which is to put students at the center of everything we do. The reason my interest the reason I am interested in serving on the board is for the children. I would hope that this mission is ingrained throughout all levels of decision-making at the district. I would make it a priority to build
016that trust to ensure that we are all working on common goals. At the same time, I would also look at benchmarks from different districts in California with similar size, similar count, school count, similar demographics to evaluate our district's position in different areas, thus allowing to gauge different parameters and assist in decision-m. I would also re reach out to board members in other districts to gather more input in order to have more information available and be able to make the best possible decisions. Thank you. Question number six, describe how you would respond if a parent cornered you in the grocery store and asked for your support on a particularly hot issue. That's a good one. Well, as a representative of the school board, I would first hear out the parents and thank them for expressing their
017concerns. I would let them know that they should first bring the matter to the attention of their school site to provide their school with the opportunity to address their concerns. I would encourage them to follow up if their concern was not addressed being was not addressed by their school by bringing the attention the matter to the attention of the superintendent's office and then depending on the issue I would bring it to the attention of the superintendent. Thank you. Question seven. How does an effective school board ensure opportunities for students, teachers, staff, parents, community members to express their diverse range of views to inform board deliberations on important policy issues? Well, there are diverse ways for different groups to express themselves and make themselves heard. Board meetings serve a purpose to gather public comment on a
018broad range of issues and also put these issues on the record for all to be aware. Board members should also use surveys to gather input on relevant issues from teachers, from staff, community members. Site visits by board members are another excellent way to hear from students, teachers, staff, and parents. This can be done by attending school site council meetings that are usually attended by uh individuals from all of these groups. Um, district English learner advisory committee meetings, DAC meetings, and other advisory committee meetings are also great forums to hear from a good cross-section of the school community. These are forums where there is an exchange of information and open dialogue where much can be learned. Board members are liaons, as you all know, to some of these committees, and they all have the opportunity to
019attend. I've been involved in several of these committees and I it is always uh great to see board members there and be able to interact and engage with them. So I see those as important opportunities to deliberate and um interact with with the community. Thank you. Question eight. Please summarize the strengths you would bring as a new member of the board. I've been very involved over the years at ABC. All my uh four children have attended school in in the district here. My youngest is currently a senior at GAR. I have two grandchildren who are attending elementary here in the district. Thus, I continue to have a vested interest in making sure that ABC provides all students with the opportunity to excel. I've served on different committees as a parent leader. I've served on schoolside
020council at GAR and NEIS, the ad hoc facilities committee that recommended the school bond, the legislative policy committee, and currently I serve on the strategic planning committee. One of the best experiences that I that I had while serving on some of these different committees was as um as a president of the district English learner advisory committee, the DAC for a few years. One of the things that we did is that we worked as a group to start visiting different schools on back to school nights in order to connect with more parents and get more involvement and participation on um each from each of those schools. We went to Fetti, Ross, uh some of the schools in in Hawaiian, Aloha and others, Nemesis. And um the idea was to get more participation from each of these
021schools from parents to to serve on the local the school district the school site English learner committees. We wanted to create more awareness of the need to support students in the process of reclassification. And by doing this we actually double the number of parents participating in the in the in each school's um English learner committees. I truly enjoyed working with others and collaborating as a as a team to to find solutions together and address some of the challenges faced by English learners. I've also been very involved in athletics by providing guidance and support for student athletes to pursue college athletics specifically in soccer. In the last two years, as an example, I supported the GAR coaching staff with assistance in video anal video analytics and that eventually helped the student athletes to better prepare and
022um happy to um probably you know, but the school won the the league, the Mid Cities League, um with a record of nine and one, only one loss in the in the in the season. And uh the school was able to reach the quarterfinals uh in the CIF this past winter. It had been 19 years since the school since the school had one league and back then actually my one of my other sons was on the on the team. On a professional level, my recent work of five plus years in education technology allowed me to work with many districts in the state to support them with the adoption of digital instructional materials in the areas of science and social studies curriculum as well as providing support with um supplemental crosscurricular resources. This allowed me to
023learn how different districts uh integrated technology into their classrooms and allowed me to work closely with teachers and administrators in planning and delivering ongoing professional development to meet their needs and support their students. Working in this field also allowed me to gain a much greater understanding of teachers needs and insight on the challenges they face every day in the classroom. I work closely as well with administrators in budgeting from different funding sources for their instruction materials and professional development to implement at the time the new next generation science uh curriculum in several districts in in Southern California as well as in um Stockton. Lastly, having run for trustee area 5 in the past, it gave me some wonderful insight into our amazing community. From Norwalk to Cerritos to Lakewood, I walked many different neighborhoods, visited
024different schools, and got the support from many members of the community. And that was an experience that I truly valued and I cherish. Thank you. Question nine, what are your ideas to improve the district? Well, the current board leadership, I'm sure, has some wonderful and valuable experience, and I'm sure you've all explored many different ideas. I would look forward to contributing and supporting some of the ideas that are being considered to improve the district. There are also a couple of ideas that I would share. One is in the area of declining enrollment, which I believe is one of the biggest challenges facing all school districts in Southern California. Perhaps one thing that we could do is appeal to students currently in private schools whose parents may be willing to consider giving our schools the opportunity
025to enroll their children. The academic quality and rigor of our schools along with the recent investment in facilities may make them take a second look at our school, the schools in our district. Moreover, with the current economic climate, some families may need to reconsider paying high tuition, and this may be another reason for them to consider our public schools. Dual immersions, dual dual immersion programs are another potential enticement for families to come to ABC. These are some unique strengths offered at our districts that can be marketed to bring new families that may cons that may be considering private schools. Also, establishing creative partnerships with programs from music to athletics can be another good way to raise visibility and attract families to our schools. Thank you. Final question. Identify a recent board decision that you felt
026strongly about and describe how you would balance community concerns, student needs, teacher and staff considerations, state and federal law, and your personal values and beliefs to determine how to vote on the issue. I would say the recent facilities bond is an issue that I would cite in this case. Having served on the ad hoc facilities committee, it became obvious that the district had many infrastructure needs that required attention. Some were important safety issues that were of paramount importance. Others were technology related that were necessary in order to adapt to a rapidly changing technological reality that we live in education. and others were in athletics that addressed school pride and were important in also keeping up with neighboring districts to retain attract and retain students. There were many in favor of supporting a bond to finance
027some of these infrastructure needs. At the same time, there were many residents who were opposed out of legitimate and fiscal concerns with the increase in property taxes that would be required to fund the bond. As a resident, I advocated with my neighbors and other groups to support the bond. In my view, if we did not invest in the upkeep of our schools, they would deteriorate and property values in our area could be negatively impacted, which was not something good for the community. And this is what I share with my neighbors as I supported um the bond. Like any issues, you have to address the pros and the cons as well as the opportunity costs of not taking action. You have to engage in an open and sincere dialogue and then make the best possible decision
028with the information available while also weighing the consequences of action or of inaction. Thank you so much, Mr. Eniso. We appreciate your input today and sharing with us your thoughts. Um, we'll now transition to our next candidate, number two, Miss Wallace Flanigan. Thank you very much again for your time, for being here on the weekend, and uh, good luck with the rest of the day. [Music] Seven 16 22 23 26 Good morning. I think yeah, we should adjust the mic just so we hear you nice and clear today. Okay. Thank you for being here this morning. We'll go through a set of questions and the timer is there so you can see the time rolling. We'll have about two minutes per question. So we'll start this morning by having you share what you see as
029the basic purpose of public educa public schools and what the role of the board of trustees in is in fulfilling that purpose. Okay. So I think that public schools are to provide fair and um a a whole child education. Like we want to make sure that they're getting art and you know dance as well as the academics that are for all of the children. Like some children need extra tutoring and programming in that way and someone some kids need enrichment and programs for the you know like AP classes and the the classes that help them excel, start college early, all of those things. So I just think that we should be helping any child wherever they are, meeting the children where they are and for what is the role of the board of trustees, I
030believe that we help help make sure that's going forward by um I'm sorry, policies, budgets, and programs that we implement. We know the rules and everything that the teachers and admin are enforcing, but we help make sure that all the all the nuts and bolts are all in order and everything is working together. Thank you. Question two, what are you proud of in this district and what would you like to accomplish as a board member? What is your highest priority and why? I am new to this district and I really am enjoying this for my family. I have a son and a daughter and they go to two different schools. And first of all, I love that you guys let my son in because at first he wasn't in there was not a lot of
031room. But we went through the um appeals process and it was so welcoming and it was scary. I was like this is my first time ever. But I'm like, there are people like me and they care. And we had to sit for two hours, me and his dad, and listen to the stories, listen to the different cases. And you guys said yes to everyone. And it wasn't this district, but it was the larger school district like the LA County. And I was like, there are people, they care. And I was like, I would like to do that in my community. So then when this opportunity came up, I'm like, I can do that in my community, you know, and get involved. And I know that I'm a parent, but I also have a voice. And
032I c I actually care about what's going on. And what I most like about this particular school district is it is excellence. I feel like you guys do things in ABC or we do things in ABC with excellence as far as programming, as far as the teachers, the teachers of my daughter's school, the administrators. This is and we've we've been in a few school districts, so this has been my favorite one so far. Um, I feel like it's a sense of family, like they're looking out for one another. at both my son's school and my daughter's school. I feel like the admin are looking out for them. The counselors are looking out for them. We told them a lot of things that was, you know, important to us and they check in on it. They
033check in on my daughter. It's really a family atmosphere and I feel that no matter my goal is no matter what happens I know there's a lot of change budgets things that need to change because of the I I believe that there were low um student count student count and teachers moving around but I want to make sure that the students stay first. That is what I would like because a lot of times we end up having to make changes and we do what we we we do what's best but the kids if they're not growing and meeting the whole child requirements as you know we talked about in question one then what are we doing this for? They're the kids are the ones that are are the future. they're going to be here. Thank
034you. Question three. As a trustee, what do you see as your primary purpose or role? How will you fulfill that role both as an individual and as a member of the governing board? Okay. As the trustees, we are the bridge and the voice of reason. I want to be an active listener. I want to be I want to and I don't want to just listen. I want to take what the families, the admin, the teachers and the children, the support staff. I want to hear what they their concern. I don't know if we can do all that, but I want to hear their concerns if I'm able to and help address it. For example, I went to an assembly at my son's school and there was a line out of the door like they were
035giving away something, but it was for their assembly. And about 20 of us, we were at the end of the line. We didn't get to get in. And they gave clear instructions. They said if your child is from this day to this day, you come at the, you know, the noon day ceremony. If your child is from this day to this day, then you come at the evening. But people didn't listen. And when we came back for the evening, it was evident that they didn't listen. So I went in and I talked to the office staff and I was like, "What can we do about this?" I said, "Here, I have an idea. How about you give them a flyer that's blue if they're on these days and then they get a green flyer and
036they're like that's a good idea. Okay, but that didn't really I didn't know if they were going to listen. You know, they listened and they did that for the next one and guess what? Everybody got in. So, I would like to bring those type of ideas to this space. Thank you. You're welcome. Question four. What are the specific concerns of your community in regard to student academic learning and support? Okay, I'm new to my community. I just moved a month ago to Norwok. So, I'm not really sure about everything in that's going on in the community, but in my research, I found that learning loss is um an issue. And talking to some of the teachers, I've discovered that since co they're don't feel caught up yet as far as a learning loss. So, um
037I believe that that and for me it's the social media and the AI and being too technology based. Like all my daughter's homework is for the most part doable on mine, which is good kind of, but I want her to have writing and and and pay for assignments as well. So, I don't know if that's a Yeah, I think that's a student academic learning issue. I think that they need both. They need the AI. They need the technology. But let's not make all their homework able to do on tablets and able to be done with just AI help. Yes. Thank you. Question five. What would you do if you believed administrators had not provided you with accurate and complete information for making a decision? My saying is my home is my saying in my home
038is do it right so you don't have to do it again because I'm going to make you do it again. So not that you can make an adult do anything but I would I would tell them like I did not believe that this is enough to go forward with can you please add to this? So I would just ask them to since I believe that ACC is excellent. I would ask them to make it you know make it better like not in those words but please add more to this by rechecking your work rechecking your resources maybe we need to bring in another resource. So I would not just tell them oh this is not enough. I will give them some pointers or the areas in where I think that it needs more support in
039the report. Thank you. You're welcome. Question six. Describe your response if a parent cornered you in the grocery store and asked for your support on a particularly hot issue. I laughed at this one because I used to be an executive assistant and because I was so kind. Everybody would always come to me and ask like if they talk to me and ask me to do things for my boss that I would just do it and I would listen to them and you know for a specific amount of time before I shut it all down and I would let them vent and say oh wow okay but never agreeing. So that is kind of my strategy. Like I acknowledge what you're saying. I understand and we have to consider it, but I'm not going to say
040yes. I'm not saying no. But I always feel that we should listen though. Especially when it's a concerned parent and a concerned child. Like the kids are talking now. And I love that because my daughter pulled me to the side the other day and she said, "Mom, it's not fair what they're doing in politics and doing to our nation and they're going to leave it to us." And I was like, "That's so true." So, I do want to hear I want everyone's voice to be heard just like I want mine to be heard. But I I know that we can't not just agree. And just because you corner me, I'm not I'm not intimidated by that. So, thank you. You're welcome. Question seven. How does an effective school board ensure opportunities for students, teachers, staff,
041parents, community members to express their diverse range of views to inform board deliberations on important policy issues? Okay. Okay. Well, I know that we need to meet people where they are. And I like the idea of town hall meetings. I know that we have like a few meetings set up like that. I've been to one or two um the you know, PTA, things like that. the for the parents that work, virtual Zoom meetings, surveys, um, and listening sessions where we allow people to voice their concerns and really talk about what's going on. And some of the issues that we have will affect, you know, the the school closures that I'm hearing about that's going to affect people in their commutes, especially parents, children who my daughter has been researching her middle school all year that
042she wants to go to and if one of those schools and I don't know how quickly the school closures are happening, but I couldn't Imagine if she did all this research and it's like I'm going here because they have van and they have this and then it gets shut down. So giving people the opportunity through the town hall surveys and listening sessions I believe that's a great way. Thank you. Question eight. Please summarize the strengths you would bring as a board member of the board. Okay. Well, I'm a parent and I'm actively parenting younger children. My son is in third grade, my youngest, and I'm going to be here for a while. So, it really is important to me what's going on and how things are going to continue to um develop with all the
043changes that are going on. I am a writer. I'm an author. I love to be involved in my community and I'm resilient. I love to come up with plans. Like I am a survivor, but more than that, I'm a thor. So, I get in there and it's a, oh, okay, let's figure it out. You know, that is just who I am. And I feel like this is our home base now. We moved a lot. We got to tultuous little time there in our life, but this was the goal to get into the ABC school district, get in this area. I'm connected to my family. I'm connected to community and I'm ready to work. Thank you. Question nine. What are your ideas to improve the district? Okay. I want to make sure that the families feel
044like they're involved. There's then like several things that like just letters that I've received as a parent notices and I'm like okay that's happening. So maybe some more pre-in information before decisions are made. I would want families to feel like maybe they had I don't know if it's a way to incorporate them in more of the voting process in some of the policies and more transparency with the school consolidations and what's going on. Um, and I don't know how we can make families feel a part of the process, but that would be great. Um, secondly, I want to make sure that we're being very clear about where AI is going and how we would like to use that in the schools. And with I I'm not scared of AI. I use AI but I use
045it very carefully and I want to make sure that we are not letting our children rely on it and it be a tool and teaching them how to let it be a tool instead of a crutch. So I would like us to do workshops on how to use AI, what's safe and not just one like an ongoing like maybe we can make that a part of like an ongoing series that we can do for both the staff and the students and I want to empower them with AI not let them waste it like you can really waste the the opportunity that we have there because it's going to be here. It's a part of who we are now. So, those are the ways I would like to help improve. Thank you. Final question. Identify a
046recent board decision that you felt strongly about and describe how you would balance community concerns, student needs, teacher and staff considerations, state and federal law, and your personal values and beliefs to determine how to vote on an issue. So, I've mentioned it several times, the school consolidations that has been the um issue that I've been following and listening for because like I said, I'm going to be here for a while. And um if I were voting on a decision like school closures, I would first recognize how emotional it can be for the students but also the the staff and the families and I would study the, you know, enrollment budget and tax. I would study all the numbers, all the um outcomes like what as much as I'm able to do all of that and
047I would while I'm I'm I'm considering their emotions and everything, I know we have to make the decision that's best for the district. So I would stay rooted in wisdom and justice and making sure that we make the right decision to affect everyone. The final vote would will balance that compassion, practicality, legality, and most importantly what's truly best for our students future. What will impact the students the most? Thank you so much. We really appreciate you coming and being part of this process this morning. And so at this time we will make our transition and we will transition to candidate number three, Miss Jeannie Mckaten. All righty. 11 14. Good morning. Just a second. Okay. Thank you. [Music] Thank you for being here today. Thank you. We're going to transition to a set of questions.
048You'll have 20 minutes to answer about two minutes per question. And so we'll start with question one. What do you see as the basic purpose of public schools? And what is the role of the board of trustees in the fulfillment of that purpose? Uh just to clarify, I can refer to my notes. Is that all right? Okay. I've not been in an interview like that, so it's all right. It's a little bit different. Okay. Um I see the basic role of the school board as making sure that um all students receive the best education possible and um and the school board is um plays a crucial role in that. So they set policies uh and procedures making sure that that uh students receive a good education that there's safe campuses that there's um u if
049there are suspensions or discipline um issues that's all very well spelled out. um they hire the superintendent and evaluate her. Um so we're looking of course for a very good leader to to lead the school district. Um the school board also um looks at and and um approves the uh the budget. Um they also approve uh curricular materials materials and um make sure that they are um approved according to the state standards. Um the board also is responsible for being engaged with the community. We're really the ears of the community. We want to be out there listening to um what parents and um the community as a whole thinks are important issues in education. Um and if we're not servicing a certain um group of students, we want to hear that. Um we want to
050make sure that we have equity and inclusion for all students. So those subgroups that we somehow somehow miss sometimes uh in providing a good education for we want to make sure that we we see them and um the school board's accountable and we need to be transparent in everything we do all for the benefit of the best education for every student in the district. Thank you. Question two, what are you proud of in this district? What would you like to accomplish as a board member? Which is your highest priority and why? This was a really hard question for me because I went to the um ABC um state of the school uh lunchon with Gina and um she was so excited about every single school and and what was important at every single school. It's
051it's hard to bring the list down. So, I'm going to just highlight a few things that I think um are really important in the district. Um lots of devoted employees. um regardless whether they're certificated or classified, maintenance workers, uh administration, everybody's uh very devoted to their jobs. I love the working relationship with the unions um with the administration. I just think that's a super positive um thing in a district. Uh the numerous specialized programs at the elementary schools, so all themies at the different um elementary schools are very impressive. uh the remediation programs that are going on since COVID for um students in the elementary for um and I'm sure these occur at the um um middle school and high school also, but getting kids up to grade level um the afterchool programs that also
052provide additional educational um exposure. Um well-developed athletic programs. We have spectacular band programs from um elementary, middle school on up. We have numerous AP classes um offered at all the high schools. The um I love to see the uh career pathways that are becoming more and more popular at all of our schools. Um the early college and the dual enrollment I think are at like three out of the five schools at this point. Three, three out of the five high schools at this point. So I'd like to see that more developed, but I'm very proud of that. um activities coordinated with the community like the science olympied and the um the track meet and um then ABC um foundation and ABC cares uh PBIS and AVID two great programs in the schools uh mental health
053professionals that are present in the schools, English language um counselors, reading by third grade, the migrant end programs and I could go on and on and on. Even last night I was on Instagram and I'm like I didn't know this this program existed at Fetty the Genius program. So I just I feel like I'm just like at the tip of the iceberg just knowing you know I've got a general idea of the of all the great programs but I need to know more spec more specifics. Thank you. Question three. As a trustee, what do you see as your primary purpose or role? How will you fulfill that role both as an individual and as a member of the governing board? So, as a trustee, I see um working together with the other board members to
054make sure that the governance of the district is is appropriate. Um as an individual, I feel like you uh you're the eyes and ears of the district. So like what is actually going out going on and um just just being out there being willing to be at events. Um Gar would be I know my only my only school in my uh trustee area. Um but I certainly would there are going making my way down student there's there's other areas and I'd certainly want to reach out to those parents and know what their concerns were too. So I really like that's a major responsibility. So with along with all the things I said for question one like looking at policy and and approving curriculum and approving the budget budget and all that um I just feel
055like that there's two important things that we work as a board together and that individually we really find the strengths of the school district and and let each other know those. Thank you. Question four. What are the specific concerns of your community in regard to student academic learning and support? Okay. Well, they were kind of all I talked to several people and they were kind of all over the place. So, um my next door neighbor talked about phone use in the classroom. She's really concerned about phone use in the classroom and she also feels like she has she at this point her son can turn everything in on the computer and she has not a clue whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. So um and I I guess this is a
056mindset that we have to kind of get used to that we're not going to probably see our students work so much because it's assigned on a computer. They do the work on the computer. I know when my grandson gets in the car after I pick him up after school, I'm like, "Uh, do you have any homework?" "Uh, nope. I've turned it all in. There's no paper." So, she was my neighbor was concerned about that. Um, I just I think it's just in in reality, it's the way we're we're moving towards. Um, I I heard that there would like uh people would like to hear more support for things like the bands versus athletics. Athletics gets a lot of a lot of support, but maybe not so much for for bands. So, they'd like to get
057equal representation um from um some parents who are very concerned that their students aren't at grade level um and they really want to know what are those programs that you've got during the school day after school that can get those students up to par. Um more English uh early college and dual enrollment programs. Um and then I also heard from a gate parent who felt like uh we could expand the gate um programs at the school. So kind of kind of all over the place, but basically basically very happy with the school district. Just some little some just little tweaks. Thank you. Question five. What do you what would you do if you believed administrators had not provided you with accurate and complete information for making a decision? Um, so if we were like at
058a board meeting and I felt like I there was not complete information, I definitely would ask for more. Um, I had asked for some clarification, um, documentation. Um, I I certainly wouldn't vote on anything. I would just say that I I felt uncomfortable with voting. I want more more information so that I have a very very clear picture of um the proposal or the budget or whatever the item happens to be. I want more information and if that information came back and I still wasn't satisfied, I'd ask for more. Thank you. Question six, describe your response if a parent were to corner you in the grocery store and ask you for your support on a particularly hot issue. I would um tell that person that I would love to talk to them about that, but
059I really don't want to talk to them in the in the market. Could I meet them for coffee? Um Ernie's done something. He's had some meetings at the district office to um to get people's input. And I really like that idea. So, I think I would set up some coffees at the district office and um hear from people, advertise to people in my trustee area and get their input. But um that way we can hear the pros and cons on on her hot issue. Thank you. Question seven. How does an effective school board ensure opportunities for students, teachers, staff, parents, community members to express their diverse range of views to inform board deliberations on important policy issues. Um, as a trustee, I think you want to hear and the board in and whole wants to
060hear comments and um the opinions of all people. So, um the meetings are open and to public comment. So, we do get public comment that way. Um, also advisory committees and councils exist and that's one way for people to who are appointed to those committees and I'm sure that those probably I think those committees are open so people can and can also come and give their opinion um community forums and uh listening sessions. So, um kind of what happened although it wasn't really effective the town hall meetings that we had for the um the closing of schools um I mean we did get we got information maybe not have been at the right time but um having uh forums where people can voice their opinions about um uh issues that are are very upfront in
061the district. Um we we need to have a student representative on the board and I think you do we do have student representatives who do come to the meetings. Um just transparent communication, lots of um open communication, Instagram, Facebook, the website looks really good. Just making sure that um that people are all people are informed. So, not even so, um, even though I'm not a parent or a grandparent at this point, how do I get information about the school district? Thank you. And, um, and one thing I wanted to share, and I know this was, um, Scott's, um, I think this was Scott's idea that um, about the ABC um, um, your next step is as easy as ABC. This is really, really catchy. Um, and um, I and I've seen it on several billboards
062and then I got it also the postcard, but I like it's so catchy that I wish we could do it for other programs other than adult school because I think that it would really draw attention to some of the great things going on going on in our schools. It's just a a a catchy t a catchy little tune and um I think if you saw it on a bus or on a billboard, it definitely would bring attention to the school district. Thank you. Question eight, please summarize the strengths you would bring as a board as a member of the board. Well, my husband and I have lived in um ABC school district for 50 years. So, obviously, we loved the district. We moved here because it was a a diverse um school district. And um
063we've loved it ever since. We have not moved. Um our our kids went through here and our grandkids are going through here going through the school district. Um I hang on I got to go back to the question. What are summarize the strengths you bring? Strengths. Okay. Um I also have been ed involved in education all my life. I hate to say that uh going back to like 1967 when I started out as a teachers aid in Long Beach. uh and then becoming a teacher in Norak Lamarada. Uh going from there to Paramount to be an assistant principal, then to Whittier City to be a principal um and to Whittier Union to be the director of curriculum. Um so I've had lots of experience and um I retired in um in 2011 or 2010 2010
064and immediately um went to work for um um for Whittier College as their director of student teaching. So, all that to say, I love education. I love kids. Um, I now work for Cal State Long Beach, um, and for Calpali, um, supervising their student teachers and teaching a class. And so, education has been my whole career. I obviously care. So, it's my background. I feel like I feel like in the next year, ABC is going to um have some difficult decisions to make. Um, maybe merging schools. Um, and I think that my background would be very helpful. Thank you. Question nine. What are your ideas to improve the district? I would say um I think the district is definitely moving in the right direction. I would go back to maybe advertising like I said a
065little bit more out there. Um, I would like to see some more programs with the city, some cooperation with the city. Maybe perhaps we can use each other's facilities. Um, I like I very much like the CTE programs with the with the community colleges. See more and more of that. I did meet with the principal at um, GAR this week. um Dr. Moore and he was so excited about the CTE pathways um and I I just I felt like wow okay um if all the if all the high school principles are that enthusiastic about those pathways it'll it's great um and I think maybe we need to I think some of the middle schools also have those pathways so they can feed right into the high school pathways and then they've got a jump right
066into college makes total sense to me. So, I think um continuing to add those is is a big step. And then um just being as a board be uh out there at events and and um be I just I feel like I'm like I said before just at the tip of the iceberg of knowing about what's all the things that are going on at the district and um that would definitely be one of my goals to make sure that I really know what's happening all over so I can talk intelligently about that. Thank you. Last question. Identify a recent board decision that you felt strongly about and describe how you would balance community concerns, student needs, teacher and staff considerations, state and federal law, and your personal values and beliefs to determine how to vote
067on the issue. Okay. So, um, back in May, the facilities committee came to the board and said that, um, through a lot of anguish and emotion, they were not they were recommending that no no schools be closed. And so, um, it that having been on that committee for for part of the time, it was very emotional. We looked at data but but it wasn't um it was hard to tell the direction exactly we were going and so that's what happened in May. Come November the board recommended that they hire an outside agency called school works and have that um p that agency really look at the data um from an outside source. So going back to the first committee, the facilities, I think people I think people had heard that there might be school closures,
068but you know, they they kind of pushed it off to the side and that kind of brought it to reality. Okay, so this is like something that probably is really going to happen. And so all those emotions came out. having somebody come from the outside um is is a different kind of view um because that person doesn't have a tie into the district, right? They're going to come with a a much more um middle of the road. Here's what I found. Here's the here's the data that I looked at. Here's what I found. This is what I'm going to recommend. I think people can live with that much more easily coming from an outside agency than from from people in the community trying to make suggestions. Um the results may be the same. Um I
069think that it's not going forward. Um if if if the board decides that they are going to go with the recommendations of that gentleman, the consultant, um it's not going to be an easy it's still not going to be easy. It's going to be hard. Um, uh, when I talked to Mr. Gear, the president of the teachers union, you know, he said that there's they're already talking about a memo of understanding going forward. When I talked to Tuan, he's talking about I said, "What about things like, okay, how are teachers going to how's that going to how how is that going to look?" Like, if you're a teacher at a school and you're the oldest, you're the you've been the teacher there the longest, you get first choice of where you're going to go. there's
070a lot of a lot of little things that could that are going to have to be ironed out. It's it's going to be a difficult decision. So, going back to the question and um let me make sure I covered everything. I think that it's really important for the board not to let me reph rephrase that. I think it's really important for the board to look at how if they decide to to merge schools that you look at the positives at what's going on in the district right now and how you can merge those things together to make it a stronger a stronger school district. um looking at maybe the configuration of a 678 uh because we've got the TK that we now have at every school and and and even younger ones coming in. Um
071so you're you're going to have community concerns, you're going to have student concerns, you're going to have teacher concerns, you're going to have staff concerns, you're going to have state and federal law that you have to follow. And we're going to have to consider all those things when making that decision. It's okay. Is that you can finish? I I did. I did. Sorry. That's okay. Thank you. So, we appreciate your time today and letting us hear from you and what you have to say about just the questions and the topics that relate to our school district. So, thank you for being part today. Thank you for your time. At this time, we will begin our transition to candidate number four, Mr. Themurax. Take my phone. We'll get started. We'll get started in just a moment.
072Thank you for being here today. So we'll walk through the set of questions um and um you'll have about two minutes to answer each one. We'll have 20 minutes total. And so we'll begin with our first question. What do you see as the basic purpose of public schools? What is the role of the board of trustees in the fulfillment of that purpose? Uh to make sure I keep within the time limit, I will answer based on my notes. Public school public schools are meant to provide every student the opportunity to learn, grow, and develop into capable, responsible citizens regardless of their background. Their role is foundational to building strong and informed society. Uh the board's responsibility is to ensure the district stays on mission by setting clear direction, supporting leadership, and overseeing decisions that keep
073the students and teachers at the center. Trustees are here to represent the community, maintain accountability, and help create an environment where academic success is expected and supported. We need to remember that we are raising future adults and not just children. Thank you. What are you proud of in this district? What would you like to accomplish as a board member? What is your highest priority and why? I am proud of the ABC long-standing academic strength. I'm a product of ABC Unified District and so I'm pretty proud to be within this district myself and my top priority will be to gain a better understanding on how each school functions on a day-to-day basis, the inner workings of it, and what is working, what is not. um and how we can help raise standards across the district. That
074means uh by doing a lot of listening and learning from all sides, not just the staff and administrators, but also parents and students. I want to help make ABCUSD an even more desirable than it already is as a district for families to bring their children into. And I mean, Whitney High School is uh number two in the state. Um, it wouldn't be the worst idea to try move to move all the rest of the schools up a notch. Thank you. Question three. As a trustee, what do you see as your primary purpose or role? How will you fulfill that role both as an individual and as a member of the governing board? Um my role as a trustee is to help shape the direction of the district and ensure decisions support the students success. Uh
075fis being also being fiscally responsible and reflect the values of our community. As an individual, I'll do my best to talk to as many families as I can in my trusty area and be able to bring those issues to the board and help improve the overall uh situation in the district. Thank you. Question four, what are the specific concerns of your community in regard to student academic learning and support? Uh so since this role was opened up not too long ago, I haven't had a whole lot of time uh to speak with many parents in the district, but I fully intend to. That's something I take seriously because listening to families is essential to understanding what is really happening on the ground. From what I have observed and heard in a broader community setting, uh
076there's a strong interest in raising academic performance across all schools, making sure students are wellprepared for college and careers, and ensuring that support systems whether it's academic or behavioral are accessible and effective. Uh there's also concerns for students who are falling behind due to the schools schools closing uh during co 19. Uh some so some of the parents did voice that uh to me that they're worried if their kids will ever be able to caught up. So and as a board member, I will prioritize ongoing conversation with parents, students, and school staff to better understand their concerns and how the district can respond to them. Thank you. Question five. What would you do if you believed administrators had not provided you with accurate and complete information for making a decision? Yeah, I would respectfully ask
077more questions and follow up as needed to make sure I fully understand the situation. That's one thing about me. I ask a lot of questions and uh getting to the heart of the issue is essential especially when decisions have long-term implications. I believe it is the board's responsibility to pursue clarity even if it takes extra time because the trust the communities plays on us depends on us making informed decisions based on facts. Thank you. Question six. Describe your response if a parent were to corner you in the grocery store and ask you to support um a particularly hot issue. I respectfully listen and thank them for sharing their perspective. Then I'll encourage them to voice their opinion through the proper channels like public comments or written input so that it's part of the official record.
078That's a more effective way to ensure their voice reaches all board members and becomes a part of a formal conversation. Thank you. Question seven. How does an effective school board ensure opportunities for students, teachers, staff, parents, community members to express their diverse range of views to inform board deliberations on important policy issues. Uh there's always the your typical input formats such as public comments, written feedback, surveys, and community forms, but I think we need to go above and beyond that. And we need to think of more creative ways uh so we can reach people who don't typically speak up. There's always a different kinds of uh parents out there and people out there. Some people like the public forum, some don't. And uh they don't they don't want to be the one that's always raising
079their hand, making loud noises. Uh so we can try to attempt to do that by doing more outreach events, uh school visits even, and or targeted surveys so that it's not always the squeakiest wheel that gets the oil, if you get what I'm saying. Uh, good decision comes from understanding the full range of perspectives, not just responding to whomever makes the most noise. Thank you. Question eight. Please summarize the strengths you would bring as a member of the board. Uh, so I bring a combination of professional and community experience. Uh, I believe I'll serve the board well. Uh, my background is in the hospitality industry. I managed resorts and hotels for the past about 15 years or so. And so through that experience, I I'm able to resolve conflicts calmly, navigate high pressure situations with
080professionalism. Uh hospitality teaches you to serve others without losing focus on standards and results. I've also spent the past three years in startups. My startup experience sharpened my ability to work across multiple teams, collaborate with different departments and solve problems quickly. In a startup environment, you have to make decisions efficiently, but always based on the best available data. You also have to be willing to pivot if something isn't working. A mindset I would bring to the board. Through my nonprofit work uh at the ABC Education Foundation, Serto's Optimus Club, uh I've stay grounded in service to the community, especially in in supporting students and families of the district. Uh together, these experience have shaped me into someone who is collaborative, responsive, datadriven, and committed to practical results. Thank you. Question nine, what are your ideas
081to improve the district? Before offering solutions, I would like to get a better understanding of the challenges the district is currently facing whether as school site level within administrations or among families. From there I work work to collaborate with all involved teachers, staff, parents and students to figure out the best way to move forward in a way that is practical and truly impactful. I believe good decision comes from understanding of the full picture and working together that to improve outcomes where they are needed the most. Thank you. Question 10, our final question. Identify a recent board decision that you felt strongly about and describe how you would balance community concerns, student needs, teacher and staff considerations, state and federal law, and your personal values and beliefs to determine how to vote on the issue. Uh,
082I'm taking a page out of my startup experience. Um, I don't really have strong personal feelings about any past board decisions because I understand that every decision is based is made based on information available at the time. There's no way for any of us to go back and decide on the same issue differently. But there is value in learning and adapting. As a board member, I would weigh each decision based on what is best, what best supports students learning, respect the work of our staff, reflects the community's value, and follows the law. If I later, if I later find out that a decision is no longer aligned with our mission or is producing unintended consequences, I'd be willing to pivot and course correct, staying committed to the mission, not just the position. It is what
083I believe will ultimately serve the district best. Thank you so much, Mr. Tamarak. We appreciate your time and just hearing from you today your thoughts on the questions for this position. Thank you for the opportunity. At this time, we will transition to candidate number five. Mr. President, can I request a bathroom break? We've had a four candidates. Yes, that's I don't want to miss any. We'll take we won't start with you. Thank you. But we will transition. Um, our next candidate will be Mr. Mel Cortez. Thank you. Don't give your day away. Wow, Sophie. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. Ah, hey. Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. [Music] day. Hey, hey, hey. [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]
084[Music] Candidate five, Mr. Mel Cortez. Good morning everyone. Good morning. Thank you for being here and participating today. We'll go through the set of questions and we'll ask them in order. Um we'll have 20 minutes for you to respond, a couple minutes for each question. And so we're glad you're here. We'll begin with the first question. What do you see as the basic purpose of public schools and what is the role of the board of trustees in the fulfillment of that purpose? The role of public schools um is to provide free education to every child regardless of their socio economic background, their ability to pay um and give equal opportunity to every child. um the role as as the board is to set policy to make sure that Austria and federal laws are follow and
085um approve budgets but to make sure that the budgets are approved based on the schools and the students needs and when I talk when I see all of you up there and this role that you provide is that no child is left behind the main role of the school board. Thank you. Question two, what are you proud of in this district? What would you like to accomplish as a board member and what is your highest priority and why? I'm proud of this district's performing academic performance. Um it's great to to hear different names of schools and D school district all over um the nation. um high performing schools. Um diversity, multiculturalism, it's great. Um uh the diversity in the district is almost second to none. Um we're lucky to have uh such multicultural um district.
086Um it's advanced academic uh programs um and the schools um uh magnet schools um going and knowing all the different magnet schools. A lot of times parents do have different opportunities to enroll kids in different schools because they all look great, especially with the magnets and dual language. That's also another thing that I'm very proud. I always tell people about the dual language program on ABC and uh even also sports achievements. We have some great uh great schools with uh that are great with sports. Uh the second part, what would you like to accomplish? Um, I want to make sure that every school in the district from the north to the southeast and west is as desirable as the next. Um, I want to make sure that that the parents choose their home school because
087it's great. And uh that that that's one thing that's that's my what I visualize um one of the things I would like to accomplish and my highest priority um make sure all students perform academically at the same level. Um not all students in the district perform at it meets or exits u standards um and but there's some do but there's a lot of room to improve. So that's one focus I would like to to see and work with uh with the district and with the staff, teachers and schools to make sure our students perform and are able to reach meets or exceed standards. Um one thing that noticed when I was looking at the accountability report cards is also attendance in some schools. I I notice at least one school with 24% um chronic absentism
088and that's one thing that will bring students closer to perform well in academically. So the absentism is this one thing that uh we had to focus and in trust area five there's I think the minimum was about 10% I was looking even though we have one school where the students actually attend 10% and one of the highest with 24%. So that's one thing that uh I would like to accomplish and make sure that we work on that. Thank you. Question three. As a trustee, what do you see as your primary purpose or role? How will you fulfill that role both as an individual and as a member of the governing board? It's educational policies um to ensure compliance first of all but also to ensure that every student is counted and care for and is
089seen as u the most important person in the district. Um I want to ensure that the budget also reflects that reflects the student needs and the school's needs. Um and be a voice for students, parents and teachers and staff. As a board member, I want to make sure that their voice is also recognized. Um, how will I fulfill the role? First of all, by doing my homework. Uh, reading every single uh part of the the agendas and asking questions. Um, the most important people in the district are the people that are going to be helping you and helping me. So, we need to make sure to ask questions before any decisions are made to make sure that we have all the the um we hear what's uh uh from different parts of the district. Um
090and another way is to visit schools, talk to parents, um not in this setting, but out there on the school sites, talk to teachers, um listen to public comments when we're here. uh work with everyone including the local cities uh elected officials. Thank you. Question four. What are the specific concerns of your community in regard to student academic learning and support? Um I ran for trusty area 5 in 2020 and I met tact with many parents and community members and recently also um and one of the main areas and in the district but mainly in some of the schools I talked to were academic um performance from the students tutoring after school programs that support students needs. Uh um they want to see because when they know that this kid needs help, they want to
091see after school programs that are going to is going to help with that, including summer programs. Um also nurses and more support in the in the in the school. uh nurse was one thing that allow the uh people because you have a healthy child they they'll perform better and support in a classroom with teacher assistants and also counselors or psychiatric social workers whoever is going to make education and learning easier for the kid. So treat the child as a whole as a as a whole with not just the teacher but also the support that they need. So parent that there are other people that could support their educational learning. Um so that's that's that's one of the things including um um classes for parents on how to support their child at home. Thank you. Question
092five. What would you do if you believed administrators had not provided you with accurate and complete information for making a decision? I I will ask again. I will just um imagine that it's a mistake and um if it's not, I would just look at this repulsy and go up the chain of command to to make sure that we get the right uh information. Thank you. Question six, describe your response if a parent cornered you in the grocery store and asked for your support on a particularly hot issue. I would just listen to the parent um keep shopping and ask I get my card and ask them to make an appointment with me if so I could be a better listener and also invite them to the board meetings uh to speak during public comments so
093we could not just one person listen but uh all the board members be able to hear what they had to say. Thank you. Question seven, how does an effective school board ensure opportunities for students, teachers, staff, parents, community members to express their diverse range of views to inform the board board deliberations on important policy issues. We had to interact with everyone. Um I think the most important part of the the board members listen to every group from the district, parents, community, students, teachers, staff. Um listen to their needs. Um visit schools to make sure that we get to listen to them. Um we have uh town hall meetings. Um invite people from different places to come and ask questions um during public comments. invite people to public comments and listen to what they have to
094say. Um, uh, go to teacher meetings and make sure that if there we get invited so they could to listen to their needs. Um, even city council meetings from the cities that are part of the district to see what else is going on in the community because it's important for us to know what else is going on because we work as with partners. Thank you. Question eight, please summarize the strengths you would bring as a member of the board. I think I could bring people together. I have done brought people together in the past in many occasions. Um uh the city of Critos for different reasons especially um um crime. Um I know the community need not just also Norwalk. I follow Norwalk. I follow Guardian San Lake. I'll make sure that I know what
095goes on on another different cities um in the community. Um I believe people as as strange people trust me. Um when people ask me to to help or have questions, I'm able to follow up and I'm able to help people. Um if I don't know the answer, I know where to find the answer. Um I was part of the uh legislative policy committee here at the district for a few years and and I saw that that's one very important part of being a board member knowing the policies and from the district how to find how to do things the thing that the documents that tell us the process of how to follow how to do things in the district. Um I um work with uh uh school unions uh also work with uh parenting groups.
096I led have led um workshops with parents. So I'm a person that can work with any group uh with a smile and be able to listen and that's one strength that that I have. and um being able to uh follow up with uh the experience I have also in schools. I taught elementary elementary school, I taught middle school and I had a high school. So I have experience on all the three levels of uh the school sites and that's one strength to be able to put myself in the shoes of the parents and the teachers and students. Thank you. Question number nine. What are your ideas to improve the district? I want to see ABC Unified School District be the leader in AI. I don't want ABC to be a follower. So AI people use
097AI everywhere right now at work and um we I want to make sure maybe say that committee or a task force how can ABC use AI to help teachers plan to help students learn not just AI write my essay but AI as a learning tool because that that's the future we cannot ignore we cannot ignore um artificial intelligence so that's One thing that I would like to see, how can we use that as a learning tool? I want to see um um electives in coding um maybe since middle school, high school, and some of these uh classes there. There students that could graduate from high school and start earning six figure salaries right after high school if they learn coding in high school. Um, also, uh, I wanna improve the schools so parents don't have
098to rely on school of choice for when they're enrolling their kids in school. I want to make sure that that that improves work with the citizen partners um, as partners. Um, and an idea to work with CDs is because I know the enrollment is declining. I know that's the one of the a big issue and every city has um a housing element the future housing and future housing is going to bring more students to the district. Um I know Norwalk has a has planned like 209 homes by Alandra and uh Mason. There's new new homes coming near Nimis Elementary. Also um Burbank and Articia uh there's some apartments that brings students. So I want to make sure that we know where the homes are being built to make sure what um the future's going to
099look like also and work with cities to make sure that there's planned. Let's help out and make sure that the homes are built. Um I want to see um the social media use sell the schools social media use by schools not just by the district by the schools to sell the schools to to show the best that every school is doing. Um and not just you not just provided by staff or adults students could be also part of this because um uh teach them the best uses of social media. If we do something great at the school site, don't just put it on the ABC um uh websites or social media. Make sure that the schools provide that to the to the neighborhood and to the people that follow. Um that's how we're going to
100attract more parents and students to the to to the schools. Also, the websites at the school. I want to see um I'm not 100% sure if only adults work on it, but I want to see a class like the newspaper, the the website where the students actually work on the website, learn how to write websites, how to how to make websites, but at the same time run the school's website, make sure that they learn how to do that. That's something that could also help students get a six job right after high school. Um, and one thing that um I want to not improve, but one thing I I I want to see is a an alumni hall of fame out here, one of the walls. Um there's a um national elected officials, athletes that um
101that we're part of this great district and it would be great to have a um hall of fame somewhere in the district to to to make sure I was follow Marcelo Baldwis uh uh uh that went to Serio High School and he was in the World Cup. So that's um one of the things I one of the few things I want to see the district improve. Thank you. Final question today. Identify a recent board decision that you felt strongly about and describe how you would balance community concerns, student needs, teacher and staff considerations, state and federal law, and your personal values and beliefs to determine how to vote on the issue. One of the recent board decisions, or maybe not decision yet, is student enrollment and school consolidation. That's probably going to be the biggest
102vote any school member ever takes um when deciding on um school consolidations and how to improve student enrollment. Um I know the last time the report was made to the board was in May and there was talk about uh this also in October but it needs to pre uh be brought back because um the way um this decisions are being made students keep the district keeps losing about 500 students a year um in about five years will be about 15,000 that's allowed teachers and staff members that won't that won't be here anymore. And that's also less um I don't know about about $56 million less. That's programs that the schools have right now that they won't have in 5 years. So that's one thing that we need to work on and this this white elephant
103that keeps coming back to the district and how we're going to make sure that decisions are made. Listen to the community. um have meetings uh as a committee. I think it was talk about having another committee. Um and don't just meet here. Meet at different school sites so the community could be part of the process. Um invite um different groups to to this process. talk to students including elementary school students because this decision includes mostly includes elementary school and it uh when if anything happens eventually this decision you have to listen to students because it could affect them mentally if they had to move from one school to another from one year to the next. So listen to what they have uh to say teachers um the staff that will have to move be moved
104and if consolidate if it consolidates. So there's a lot of different groups and people these are good example of listening and paying attention to what everybody has to say and then follow state law with assembly bill 1912 to make sure that we follow what the law says. And uh I'm glad that schools were not consolidated consolidated last year because we need more time. Um find through these groups federal law. Maybe there's someone that has a great idea to make sure that schools are not consolidated consolidated that schools are not affected. Maybe there's a different way to to do this. Um, trusty area five only has Gar High School in the area, but it fits into uh at least two schools, Willow and and Aloha that are on the on the list of maybe consolid consolidating
105and those parties are worried. So I listen to some of those parties what they had to say and they want to make sure it doesn't happen. But whatever happens, that's one way to make a big decision. um my uh personal values and beliefs would probably have no determination on this if I had to follow state law to save money. But the partners are the ones that are going to determine my values, the students and the teachers. So that's one of the uh decisions that um will have to be made soon. Thank you so much for your time today and for sharing your thoughts on all of these questions. We really appreciate you being part of the process. Thank you. That was 20 minutes. Felt like three minutes. Thank you. Thank you. At this time, we
106will transition to candidate number six, Miss Lawrence. I appreciate it. Thank you so much for being here with us. Of course. And so we'll go through a process. will ask each of the questions for you. You'll have 20 minutes total, but a couple minutes per question. Um, so we'll just get started with question one. Please share with us what you see as the basic purpose of public schools and what the role of the board of educa trustees is in the fulfillment of that purpose. Got it. Um, well, like I put in my application, um, I feel like public schools uh serve two main functions. There's a social function and an individual function. Um the general population having free education benefits obviously benefits everyone in society. Um this isn't something we can quantify always. Um sometimes
107these social benefits are uh less you know that they're more of the humanistic side. But I really do believe uh down to the ground that the schools need to be a place where the community comes together and feels more like a unified community as opposed to just a place where people go to get services, right? Um and that can just increase the cohesion and pretty much everything about the community improves if that is what the school uh one of the purposes the school serves. Um, individually as an educator, um, I hope that public schools also provide a place where students can develop and explore and begin to understand who they are. Um, set themselves up for future opportunities. Um, and I mean this both in the idealistic and in the more practical pragmatic kind of
108way. Um, uh, career oriented and internships are fantastic, but all students need to become critical thinkers so they themselves can understand their world and make sense of their world as they move through it because we don't know what it's going to be like 10 years from now. We certainly didn't imagine everything 10 years ago, right? Um, how the school board fits in and how the uh, trustees fit in is a little bit of a trickier question. Um, you all operate on sort of a different level. I'm used to operating one-on-one with students and uh you guys are operating on a more organizational level. Um, I think the board uh and my experience with the board in my own district um provides infrastructure for serving the needs of each site. Um, and the school board provides
109a venue for the wider community to be involved in the work of the district as well. Um each school site has its own challenges obviously and they have to be sort of dealt with at that level I think. Um but the board should essentially make it a less a process with less friction so that they can meet those needs I would imagine. um making sure that resources are distributed and there are structural elements or procedures that district administrators, staff, teachers, community members can all use to make sure that their voices are heard. Um and that seems to me to be sort of a key function of the school board. Thank you. Question two, what are you proud of in this district? What would you like to accomplish as a board member and what will your
110greatest highest priority be and why? Well, um I lived have lived in this area for over 40 years. Um I went off to college for a few years of course, but ABC I I've always known has a lot of strengths. Um I think that uh it's small enough to be fairly responsive. Um but it has a lot of uh resources within that small size. um not the least of which being the diversity of the community that it serves. Um I would also say that the district's openness to bringing in outside talent is a real benefit to the district. Um that's something that I think every district should really uh be open to bringing in outside talent to get fresh ideas and um perspectives. Um, I also think that ABC has a reputation for offering students
111a lot of opportunities for scholarship and career oriented programs. Um, I think that educators in the district have the opportunity to be innovative in ways that they can't necessarily be in other places from my uh experience and understanding. Um, there's certainly some sight specific issues, chronic absenteeism, English learner communities. If you look at the California dashboard, those are clearly things that we could improve on. Um, big picture, uh, ABC uh, faces problems and is situations that are similar to other districts in some ways. The future is the biggest issue. Obviously, um, the realities of future enrollment and, uh, looking at how, uh, our resources are distributed in terms of falling enrollment. I am, like I said, an educator. falling enrollment is affecting all educators. Um, and so understanding how to deal with that while making
112sure everybody has a voice in whatever happens with that is going to be really one of the probably the highest priority honestly because it affects everyone. Thank you. Question three. As a trustee, what do you see as your primary purpose or role? How will you fulfill that role both as an individual and as a member of the governing board? Um well I would start off by saying first of all my own opinions on any particular topic are frankly not that relevant. Um obviously they will guide what I tend to see and look at and will shape what I focus on. But my main purpose is to represent the needs and concerns for my area. I mean, I can't imagine it would be any other way. Um, and in that I would need to work with
113uh staff, superintendent, teachers, community members to make sure that uh the decisions are made and implemented with the capacity of the district and make sure we're using our resources fully uh to serve those people. So, I think that's pretty much the purpose. Thank you. Question four, what are the specific concerns of your community in regard to student academic learning and support? Well, I spoke a little bit uh previously about concerns about uh um chronic absenteeism. Uh certainly also um if you're looking at I was surprised to see that particularly in NEAs we would probably benefit from an ELA specialist as well as math specialists across the board or in many places in the district we would probably benefit from some math specialists. Um I also think that uh in certain uh schools maybe a little
114bit of a focus also on a sense of belonging and an idea that that social emotional component uh creates more unity on the campuses themselves and so sort sort of having that uh cohesiveness. [Music] Um yeah I think that's my answer there. Thank you. Question five. What would you do if you believed administrators had not provided you with accurate and complete information for making a decision? This is a very interesting question. Um, one of the things I would probably or how I would approach this particular scenario, um, is is the inaccuracy deliberate or result of being misinformed or just a result of different perspectives? Because, um, if I think it's inaccurate or, um, not complete, that's not necessarily the fault of the person telling me whatever it is, right? Um, so I would probably think
115if I'm not if I feel like I'm not getting a complete picture, whose perspective am I getting? and how can I get uh more variety of perspectives on the situation? Um it's been my experience that perspective is limited by vision and curiosity. Um if people don't ask questions about the situation or themselves, they're not going to under uncover their real reasons uh for whatever is happening in the particular context or situation. So, you really have to investigate uh why you're being told what you're being told and not just assume that the person is being disingenuous necessarily. Um there are always other stakeholders to learn from and there's no one story to anything. Thank you. Question six. Describe your response if a parent cornered you in the grocery store and asked for your support on a
116particularly hot issue. I'm going to be honest with you. I'm very single-minded in the grocery store, but I will take this scenario as it comes. Um, I will tell you that this I work at Long Beach Poly and I work with uh very um invested uh community members and my first priority is to make sure that people feel listen to particularly if they're upset. Um if you can allow people to feel heard and actually listen but also make them feel heard that can really help to turn down the heat somewhat. Um, I would probably then suggest uh well I would be sympathetic, probably non-committal but sympathetic and inform them at the next board meeting and probably also the process for public comment and uh involvement. And if they were even more persistent, I would suggest
117that the decision is not going to be made in the grocery aisle and it certainly wouldn't just be made by me because clearly we have a variety of people up here would also be involved in the decision-making. So I would again encourage them to come and make public comment. Thank you. Question seven, how does an effective school board ensure opportunities for students, teachers, staff, parents, community members to express their diverse range of views to inform board deliberations on important policy issues. So I've already told you and you already know from my application uh that I teach uh the subject that I teach is AP research and in research one of the key components is understanding that there's not two sides to anything. There are 12 sides and really just acknowledging that the effect the board
118members they have to ask questions and see connections between influences that might not be readily apparent. So having that curiosity, asking those questions and I think the most critical thing is diversifying the streams of information you're getting, making sure that everyone uh has had the opportunity to be heard. Also, um if some if some group is not being heard, it is very likely that that group feels some kind of barrier to being to coming to the table. So figuring out what that is. If parents aren't comfortable coming to school meetings, why is that? are they not comfortable being on campus uh for whatever reason? We need to make sure that we've re uh removed as many barriers as possible to people being involved so we get those diverse streams of information. If for instance we're
119not hearing from a particular quarter. Um, I would also say student involvement is critical. Uh, because if the students involved, it's more likely their parents are going to be involved and also if one student involved, probably their friends and their siblings will be involved. That will all help any kind of deliberation because when you're hearing from the students, you're hearing from the community we're supposed to be serving at at the bottom of this, right? I mean, that's who we're we're all here for. Um, yes. Thank you. Question eight, please summarize the strengths you would bring as a member of the board. All right. Um, so I'll say just as a to set this, you know, to let you know sort of how I I think about this. I feel very strongly about things, but I
120tend to deliberate very slowly. And I think that that is uh something I've had to learn as you age. You know, you don't make decisions on the fly. You really want to deliberate. Um my family is in education. My my parents were both elementary school educators for uh um LA and Compton respectively. My husband works transparently for ABC. Um, and uh, I have a number of other educators in my family. Um, I've worked as a high school teacher for 22 years at Long Beach Poly High School. Um, I started out as an English teacher teaching 10th grade English in 2014. I, um, there was an opportunity to teach AP Capstone. Um, there were less than a 100 schools in the country that were even being offered this opportunity. I jumped in with absolutely both feet
121and in our district next year we will be replacing um the honors uh 10th grade with AP capstone and so when we're thinking about like my involvement with that uh right now I'm involved with my own district but I'm also been involved with ABC in their own roll out of the AP capstone program. I do not know. I think actually uh you guys are implementing it in 10th grade or 11th. Um that's something I've been really involved with. I've also served on a WASK committee and ran the entire WASK process for a school of over 4,000 students. Um as well as a staff of over 200. Um so and I was in charge of that entire process for the 2018 Was of Long Beach Poly High School. um that level of involvement as well as
122uh leadership in terms of being department head. Uh I was pathway lead at of PACE um for a good few years and honestly I'm working with the pathway lead to kind of make sure that everything continues to go right. Um this includes interviewing for teaching positions, uh curriculum and course of study, recruitment for the schools and school of choice. Um as well as working with teachers in the pathway to make sure that their voices and needs were met. Um additionally, I've served on site council for Long Beach Poly. Uh the it's limited to two years. So I served on there for two years. Um, I would also say that, um, I have, as I said before, been in the area for four decades. Um, I think that we have, um, an enormous amount of resources,
123cultural resources. Money is one thing, but the cultural resources can't be bought. Um, and I think that uh we don't always leverage those as as maybe as often as we should, but I do think that uh a focus on that that would be part of my focus. Thank you. Question nine. What are your ideas to improve the district? Um, I already think it's a really great district to be honest with you. So, but I will say just as I said in the beginning, um we need to consolidate some resources so that that the uncertainty of the future we can manage with a little bit more um steadiness, I'd say for our community. Um and that would be to accommodate the probably obvious falling enrollment that we'll be dealing with. Um I also think uh student
124advisory for the board would be appropriate. We have that in Long Beach. It is not an uncommon thing. Um I would love it if students were more involved in the board and not just as somebody to lead the pledge, right? Really to have them involved in their voice and agency um involved with the board. Um I also think that connections as I mentioned before within the community, cultural resources um in Critos are just unmatched. We we have a tremendously for such a small district we're we have a tremendous diversity. So uh they should be these should be leveraged as well as community resources the Critos library the Critos art center um I think between campuses as well um connection between the campuses uh developing identity within the campus but also between the campuses um there's
125a uh code jam where uh Whitney and Cerritos they collaborate but more there should be more of that and there should be more collaboration between the schools Um, I would also say Cerritos as a city and the area even outside the bounds of Critos, we have businesses that could easily also be brought on board uh to help our students see uh opportunities and see where they would like to go like postgraduation. And so all of those things I think uh more connection that would be very helpful as well. Thank you. Final question today for you. Identify a recent board decision that you felt strongly about and describe how you would balance community concerns, student needs, teacher and staff considerations, state and federal law, and your personal values and beliefs to determine how to vote on
126the issue. That is a lot. There's a lot of people and and institutions in there. Um, I think that one of the things I saw, um, was the, uh, externships for the ABC adult school that you guys talked about in December. I really love that. I particularly for that, uh, for that community and serving that segment of our community. Uh, bringing industry into the process at that level is fantastic. Um I also uh was looking at your work with bringing um the ethnic studies into uh fruition at ABC. Um so this is obviously a state law. Um in LBUSD we have given the students opportunity to take uh these courses before it was a state law and I'm just going to say the student interest and growth was phenomenal. They were invested beyond and it
127affected the rest of their classes. I saw it as a classroom teacher. So when you're thinking about implementing this, I know there was some discussion about it, but it can absolutely serve the community, particularly when it is uh driven by the community and driven to serve the community and fit the community. I know you guys are implementing it in um your history classes uh at this point and I think it's fantastic. I think uh uh leveraging, as I said before, the community to help support that would be uh would be great. Um, I know teacher and staff considerations are involved in that, but I also think bringing thing people outside of history would also probably be a good idea. Looking at uh it these um the ethnic studies as like a whole uh component including
128the arts and including uh language, all of these things would be a real benefit. Um, but I know I know you guys were working with what you had trying to implement it just the ethnic studies class as it was. Thank you. No problem. We appreciate your time and just sharing your thoughts and um feedback on the questions. Thank you for being part of today. Of course. Thank you. At this time, we're going to transition to our final candidate number seven, and that's Miss Maria Vagus. [Music] Three. It'll be just a minute. Thank you so much for being here today with us. We appreciate your time. Um we'll go through the set of questions with you. I'll ask each question. We'll have a 20 minutes, a couple minutes for each question. Um, but we'll have you
129just start today with what you see as the basic purpose of public schools and what you believe the role of the board of trustees and is in the fulfillment of that purpose. Great. Thank you for having me. Um, I believe the basic purpose of public schools is to produce u well-prepared and welladjusted individuals that will go on to lead um productive lives. Um, this obviously would include students um who will pursue college admissions, but it it also is um students that are ready to enter the workforce. Thank you. Question two, what are you proud of in this district? What would you like to accomplish as a board member? Which is your highest priority and why? I'm very proud of the acade academic achievements and high expectations of the district. I'm also very proud of the
130caring staff and the great facilities that the district provides. Um, as a board member, I would like to continue to support the district's initiatives and efforts in advancing academic and mental health initiatives. Um I think my highest priority is academic achievement and the reason for that is because um I feel that um students need to be well prepared for whatever goals they have in life after high school. Thank you. Question three. As a trustee, what do you see as your primary purpose or role? How will you fulfill that role both as an individual and as a member of the governing board? So, my primary purpose would be to ensure students have the opportunities and resources they need. Um, also to support uh families, uh, schools and staff. Um, I would fulfill that role by being
131well informed in making decisions. is based on the best interest of the students and the community that we serve. Thank you. Question four, what are the specific concerns of your community in regard to student academic learning and support? So, um, one of the main concerns I feel in my community is, uh, budget deficits. Um and budget deficits are always a concern because it affects every aspect of the school. Um budget deficits affect programs, safety, resources available to students and for that reason students students academic uh achievement suffers and and the opportunities to um to offer school uh students and their family supports also suffer. Thank you. Question five. What would you do if you believed administrators had not provided you with accurate and complete information for making a decision? Um, I would definitely ask for
132additional information. I would ask for clarification uh on my own. And I would also do uh additional research uh to ensure that whatever decisions I make would be uh made with the most complete information. Thank you. Question six. Describe your response if a parent cornered you in the grocery store and asked for your support on a particularly hot issue. Um I would definitely listen to their concern or their um hot issue topic. Um I would uh ask them for additional information. Uh I would get back I would let them know that I would get back to them once I uh researched uh more on the topic. uh I would not commit support until I had all the information needed to make a uh to make a an informed decision. Thank you. Question seven. How does
133an effective school board ensure opportunities for students, teachers, staff, parents, and community members to express their diverse range of views to inform board deliberations on important policy issues. So the first thing I feel it would be to uh the board members have to make themselves available to the people that they serve and represent. um they have to be open to uh to feedback and considering and consider differing points of view. Um this can be achieved by being present at uh events uh community meetings uh that would be school events, community meetings uh also by active listening at uh at public comments such as this board at this board meeting. Thank you. Question number eight, please summarize the strengths you would bring as a member of the board. Well, I have almost 30 years of experience
134in education. Um, I started uh in uh I started as a teacher's assistant and then moved on to teaching. Uh then I became a school counselor and now am I'm a school administrator. Um along the way um I have also served uh in different committees. I have uh I have been in support roles uh at school sites um supporting EL students uh special education students and so I feel that these 30 years and time flies because I'm here uh these 30 years have uh allowed me to gather a lot of information um that I would use uh uh here if I was appointed to this board. Thank you. Question number nine. What are your ideas to improve the district? So, with um decreasing enrollments, I would like to make the the district more appealing to
135more families. Um, and what I would how I would make it more appealing is I would like to see uh more offerings of uh more academic offerings such as dual language programs, early college programs and CTE pathways for students. Um, additionally, it would be awesome if we could have some more uh afterchool programs at our schools. Um I think I think that uh when parents and students are choosing where to go to school uh these are the these are the kind of um programs and opportunities that uh they they want for their children. Thank you. Our final question today for you. Identify a recent board decision that you felt strongly about and describe how you would balance community concerns, student needs, teacher and staff considerations, state and federal law, and your personal values and beliefs
136to determine how to vote on the issue. So, um I know that a big concern right now is the budget um shortfalls that are projected in the incoming years. Um I was very glad that the board uh was proactive in forming a committee and holding town hall meetings um to gather community feedback and poss about the possible school consolidation um to decide how I would vote on something like this. uh there would be uh there would be so many considerations that I would have to take into account uh because it affects not only um the the comm the school community but also the surrounding communities. Um so in in order to determine my vote, I would use the findings of the committee but also take into account community and student needs in order to make
137a decision. Thank you. We really appreciate your time today and being willing to share with us your thoughts and feedback on the questions we have. Um at this time we are going to um transition and have a 10-minute break and then we will come back for board discussion um prior to voting. Thank you. Thank you. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Hey, [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] down. Heat up [Music] here. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] N. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. [Music]
138Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] At this time, we're going to move into a time for board discussion. Um each of our board members um can buzz in when they are ready to share and each will have five minutes to share their thoughts. Um and then after that we will transition to a time of voting on each and every candidate. Board member Tatiana Yokoyama Buouie. Thank you President Nishi. Um I would like to commend all the applicants candidates on completion of the interview process. Um in fall of last year I was in the same situation. I was asked um questions by various organizations related to why I wanted to run for school board. So I um appreciate all of your preparation in this entire
139process. Um I have myself not done an interview professionally in quite some time but I believe uh when you provide your responses as full as and complex as they may be it really gives us an idea of who you are as a person, your life experiences, your education, why you are here and um while obviously we cannot anticipate um how you would respond in every decision potentially we will make in the future. It really helps to um determine how we could work together as a board uh based on your responses. So, I greatly appreciate um the time and effort involved. Um this process is definitely much more difficult than I thought it would be. Um, so, uh, I I, you know, in in taking notes, there were times when I really really just had to
140star a response because some of the responses were very stellar and and and I, uh, it spoke to me so much. Um, so I appreciate that as well. And ultimately, um, I think what I'm hearing and and I I greatly appreciate this is the applicants who understand that while you may have your own viewpoints, while you may have your own opinions on certain things that are presented to us here at the board, ultimately we think about our kids, our students, our community, and so that um is why we're all here. So, I appreciate that. And um for me uh yeah I I would like to say thank you all for being here. Thank you uh Vice President Mr. Noella. Uh thank you President Nishi. I just wanted to thank every single candidate for taking the
141time to apply taking the time to be here today. Uh as somebody who is an appointee uh I understand all the sacrifices that you made to be here today. All the preparation that goes into this moment. I just want to thank you guys. And quite honestly, if I was a candidate, I would be very nervous going up against each and every one of you guys because you guys did an amazing job. I think the way you guys answered each question was right on from my perspective exactly what we're looking for for a board candidate. I think you guys' experience, your thought process really speaks to what our mission is here at ABC, which is, you know, focusing on children, giving them those opportunities. So, uh, this is going to be a very tough decision, but
142I again thank you guys for taking the time and wanting to step up and these challenging times that we're going to be going through together. So, um, once again, Thank you. It says Dr. Rios, but I think it's Miss Mendoza. Am I doing the wrong one? I think it's Miss Mendoza. Here, let me cancel. Unless she just kind of showed up here. Sorry. I'm sorry. I'm It's I'm not used to the seat. Thank you, Mr. President. I again I just want to echo my my colleagues. I want to say thank you to all of you who applied for this position. It's not it's not an easy thing to um to take this on because knowing that if you become a schoolboard member your life becomes very public. You know everything your family your finances and
143everything. So I know this was not an easy decision to do. I think all of you are more than qualified to you know take this position on. Um, but ultimately I think we all need to vote um for the person who is who we believe is going to be the best fit for the district. But saying this again, you are all more than qualified and I appreciate that you're here. I think it goes to show how how how important you think this position is to be here during spring break. You know, our district is on spring break. You're here. Some of your your kiddos might be, you know, at home waiting for you. So, thank you again and I look forward to whoever this next school board member. I look forward to working with them.
144Thank you. Thank you uh board member Suyu. [Music] Good morning everyone and I want to thank my fellow colleagues and also especially the the candidates who uh you know for taking your time to apply and each one of you uh hearing your answers I was very impressed and wow so many qualified people. So we are so thankful that our district we this district is just so blessed to to to to have all these qualified people uh including my fellow you know board members apply to serve in this uh community for our next generation and our district our community uh we are faced with important and tough decisions in this coming months and years which will impact the future welfare of ABC district. As you all know what our state is faced with uh with the
145budget throughout the entire California declining enrollment. We all know that by now and so it's going to be not a fun work but tough decisions to make. And um uh right now our board is made up of um two educators, two teachers, you know, one of them is in the admin. We are so blessed because they're the insider and so they're very um understand and they know what's going on in the district in this classroom. So that that's a real blessing. And serving on the board is really a sacrifice. It's a high calling. It's a noble calling. And that's why we are called public servant because we're serving the different stakeholders. And going forward, it is so important to have another board member who is connected to the community, who grew up, who have children
146in the district and uh who also have a strong um leadership and a B business mindset that can look at the data uh that can look at professional uh studies that was done that can connect with uh administrators and the community as a whole and to make the tough decision for the best welfare of our district. I'm just going back to, you know, reminiscing about uh when we were um campaigning for the bond and uh you know, as a conservative, um it was a very tough decision. I was very torn and I know a couple of my fellow board members really um we had a lot lot of discussion. Um but at the end of the day um you know I supported the bond and that was when I was a president of the board.
147It was very tough. Um I had few a lot of people who didn't speak to me for many years. But when the pandemic came and we had all this um shooting incidents all over the nation, you know, the first thing we did with the bond was uh with the facility, we put cameras and uh fences and secured all the schools. That was the first thing we did and that was the best thing we did initially you know and that that was really what really you know made me very very very very happy and also upgrade the bathrooms you know some of the decisions that we make as a board will have an impact you know down the years and uh so appointing a board member at this time is also I take it very seriously
148because uh making decisions should not be. We need leader who can make the tough decision without so much personal feelings or who you who you're going to hurt, who you're going to offend, but what's best for the big picture for this entire district that will affect impact the community as a whole and all the you know seven cities under our district. Okay. So, thank you very much and uh whatever the decision is, you know, we have to work together. Thank you very much. Thank you. Um, board member U. So, I have a quick uh uh statement. I don't know if it's quick, but everybody here did a good job in being short and to the point. Everyone here very much qualifies. Not just because um you uh applied and you're in their particular area, but
149because of all of your backgrounds. I think each and every one of you have a lot to offer to this school board. And I just love the fresh faces. Actually, it's refreshing to see whole new perspectives that I haven't seen before. Um, saying that this is a crazy job, right? We're going to throw you into a situation where there's no training. There's no um baby steps. Here's how to do it. You're going to be right here on the dis. Um, and normally it's a a situation where we're all together, but we all come from super different backgrounds. We all have very different political beliefs. Um but up here we have to act as one body. Up here uh we set those differences aside. We have to believe that each one of us have the same
150motivation which is education and doing the best for our kids. And working with people we might not work with outside of the outside of this boardroom. You know, it's good to have an outside relationship, but it's it's more important that we can work with people who are different than us. And so, that I think is a key factor that we have here, experience within the specific needs of our community and um and our ability to work with each other um and basically not saying all the things I necessarily believe about the other person. I those are the key factors I think we have. And um and so that's the difficult decision. I don't want anybody here to interpret um a no vote as something a diss against them cuz it is absolutely not that. And
151I know it's going to be hard because you've put your beliefs and everything on the line um with what you've said, but it's it's not that you are all qualified for this job. You would all do a great job. It's just at this particular juncture in our schoolboard history um we're going to have to make certain decisions that uh um that are not going to be that much fun um and bring our community together and that's that's going to be critical. There's a lot of little details but a lot of it is what we can do to bring our ourselves together. So, uh with that I think I've uh exhausted my five minutes. Would you like me to do this? Sure. Well, I'll start with um I guess we're going to go right into voting.
152So, let's have a She's going to I have a question. Sure. Okay. For voting, are the board members are we going to have yes, only one? Yes. Or can we say yes or no on each candidate? Go ahead. So, as part of the process, we'll do a roll call vote for each candidate. Um, in this process, you will vote on every candidate and you can vote yes on more than one. If we have a tie, we will then revote on just those that are tied. And we need a majority. Correct. And a majority of those present or the majority? No, we'd have to have a majority, which is four, which is our normal majority. Right. So, even though we're short board members of the full board of the full board. Correct. Further uh yes, President
153Nishi, further clarification. We can vote for more than one person. Correct. Up to how many can we vote? There is no limit. Okay. Thank you. The the only s restriction we have is that we get to a majority of the entire board. Mr. President, another question. Once a candidate um has the majority, we stop there. Do we continue voting or We continue voting. Okay. And then the and then if there's two candidates that have majority then they go to a runoff. Correct. If they are tied then we go to runoff. Thank you. And I should be letting the superintendent say that. You're fine. It's two different voices saying the same thing. It's perfectly fine. All right. All right. So we will now conduct the roll call vote for each candidate for the provisional appointment of
154a board member to trustee area 5. Board members will just vote yes or no on each and every candidate with no further discussion. Um, Liz Sue, roll call vote, please for candidate number one, Hugo Eniso. Mrs. Mendoza, no. Mrs. U, yes. Mrs. Yokayyama, no. Mr. Nyola, yes. Mr. Nishi, no. Two, three. Two eyes, three nos. Thank you. Candidate number two, Miss Liz Su. Roll call vote for Camille Wallace Flanigan. Mrs. Mendoza, no. Mrs. Yu, no. Mrs. Yokoyama, no. Mr. Nyola, no. Mr. Nishi, no. Zero eyes. Thank you. Roll call vote, please. Um, for candidate number three, Jean McChatten. Mrs. Mendoza, yes. Mrs. Yu, no. Mrs. Yokoyama Buui, yes. Mr. Nyola, yes. Mr. Nishi, yes. That's 4 Z. Thank you for candidate number four. Roll call vote for Nyios Themurrax. Mrs. Mendoza, no. Mrs. Yu, yes.
155Mrs. Yokoyama Bui, no. Mr. Nyola, yes. Mr. Nishi, yes. It's three, three eyes. Thank you. Roll call vote, please, for candidate number five, Mr. Melcortez. Mrs. Mendoza, no. Mrs. Yu, no. Mrs. Yokoyamabui, no. Mr. Nyola, no. Mr. Nishi, yes. Thank you. Roll call vote, please, for candidate number six, Samantha Lawrence. Mrs. Mendoza, no. Mrs. Yu, no. Mrs. Yokayyama Buui, yes. Mr. Nyola, yes. Mr. Nishi. Yes. It's three eyes. Thank you. And candidate number seven, roll call vote, please for Miss Maria Viegas. Mrs. Mendoza, no. Mrs. Yu, no. Mrs. Yokayyama Buoi, yes. Mr. Nyola, yes. Mr. Nishi, yes. Three eyes. summarize result of all the votes or just one um just the one that had enough four four eyes for Miss Jean McCaten [Applause] can can you say it officially is that is she well Okay.
156Turn. All right. Based upon the vote and the great people that have applied, um, can I have a motion, a second to make the provisional appointment of Jeannie Mcaten in accordance with education code section 5091 and ABC board bylaw 9223 to fill the vacancy in trustee area 5. So move Mendoza. Second, Tatiana. So, let's have a roll call vote. Mrs. Mendoza, yes. Sorry. Mrs. Mendoza, yes. Doc, uh, Mrs. Yu. Yes. Mrs. Yokoyama? Yes. Mr. Nyola? Yes. Mr. Nishi? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Uh at this time we'll call on Dr. Zitlo to administer the oath of office to the trusty area 5 board member and that she was selected. We'll have Miss McCannen come on up. It's okay. Congratulations. You'll repeat after me. I Jean McKaten. I G. Maten, do solemnly do solemnly affirm that
157I will support and defend. Make that a smaller solemnly where am I? Do solemnly swear or affirm that I will support and defend. Am I supposed to have my hand up? You can. Start again. There's no laws about that. It's okay. Okay. Your words are what matter. Okay. Um, you will support and defend the Constitution of the United States. I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic. against all enemies, foreign and domestic. That I will bear true faith and allegiance That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California and
158the Constitution of the State of California that I take this obligation freely That I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion. without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion. And I will well and faithfully And I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I'm about to enter. discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter. Thank you. [Applause] You may make a comment from the dis. Okay. Well, thanks for the instructions. Well, I am so glad to be here. This was kind of a herring uh process to go through, but um I enjoyed um responding to all the questions, thinking them through. Um I I think this board does have a lot of important decisions to make within the next year and I'll be very glad to
159be part of that. Um I love this community. I love the schools and so um you know my heart is definitely in the right place. It's all about kids and and doing the best thing for um kids um whether they be high achievers or or struggling. So um I'm just so glad to be part of the ABC district. Thank you so much. Thank you. [Applause] All right, we have uh our last number on the agenda, which is adjournment. But before we talk about that, I just wanted to thank everyone again for coming out and and again uh a vote of no doesn't mean you weren't qualified. It means that just a different situation. Um and also that we have uh uh some sort of GAR event happening next week, I believe, before our school board
160meeting uh I think on Saturday at 9:00. So uh look on our website for the GAR event. I think it's a pop-up market. Um, motion forjournment. So, moved. Second. Noa. All in favor say I. I. I. We're journ. Are we taking a picture? Yes. [Music] Yes. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music]