ABCUSD Board Meeting - August 15, 2023

001[Music] thank you [Music] [Laughter] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] laughs [Music] foreign [Music] thank you foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] oh this meeting the order of August 15 2023 roll call please Danielle president Mr Beach president vice president Mrs say president clerk Mr Nishi board member Dr Eugenio here board member Dr Rios board member misses you board member Mr noyola here thank you okay report out on closed session items this evening we will be discussing the following items in closed session conference with real property negotiator public facility joint use agreement and potential long-term rental of a district facility existing litigation special education settlement agreement oah 202307-0073 and

002anticipated litigation conference with legal counsel significant exposure to litigation pursuant to government code section 54956.92 matters uh clerk Nishi is not here but Danielle I don't see any public comments do you okay we'll close public comment and move to closed session may I have a motion please don't move by Sophia you're on your second okay Brown act parliamentary procedures training that's going to be open session right after this okay we're moving to closed session thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] thank you foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music]

003foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] five [Music] minutes [Music] thank you foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] thank you [Music] [Applause] thank you [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] parliamentary procedures training and we have James blocka Attorney managing partner with Atkinson Anderson Loyola Rudd and Rome O'Hara to give us a presentation thank you sir let me make sure this is on thank you president Beach and members

004of the board it's always a pleasure to to meet before you folks I guess I've been doing this for over 30 years now I started when I was eight nah 30 years now so um lots of you have gone through some of the training that we've done on the brown act I think it's probably a good idea to periodically do brown act training for several reasons I think from a liability standpoint if somebody ever contends that the board has not been well trained I think it's good to have it on the record that you did have training but I know that all of you are well versed in what the brown Act is periodically there are changes to the brown act we'll talk about a couple of little changes that have occurred but for the

005most part it remains fairly consistent and and constant I just got back from Canada I actually took a vacation this year I think my wife was prodding me to do so so we went up to Canada for a couple of weeks to Vancouver and then took a train across to to Banff so if I say you know why okay I just got back from Canada but I came back I think a much nicer person they're very nice people there so with that why don't we get started I'm going to try to finish by seven I know you guys have a busy agenda today um and this is stuff again I think that that most of you have probably gone through at some point or another I do I do want to have a dialogue with

006you so if you do have questions feel free to raise your hand I know there are some tricky elements when you're dealing with the brown act and when you're dealing especially with the idea of meeting outside of an official board meeting what you can and cannot do what you should avoid and what is perfectly fine I I have been at this for a long time so I am well aware that you are elected officials and you have a responsibility toward your constituents to your constituents so consequently there is going to be conversation that occurs outside of board meetings which is perfectly acceptable I think decision making and deliberations need to needs to stay in a boardroom or in a proper Forum but I think the representation of your constituents is something that is absolutely vital

007to the job that you're doing so providing information getting information from your constituents is perfectly acceptable and I think expected of elected board members so with that we're going to move through it relatively quickly um we'll start with kind of the intent of the brown act as stated on the screen the intent of the brown Act is that actions be taken openly and not only actions but deliberations uh be conducted openly um and the legislature indicated the people do not yield sovereignty to the agencies which serve them we are a democracy and as a democracy we're governed by the people so consequently we have open meetings laws we will almost always default to doing things in a meeting rather than doing things outside of meeting there are going to be exceptions to that of course

008you go into closed session you just came out of closed session and we'll talk about that closed session makes perfectly good sense if you think about it then we'll get to that a little bit later the general rule is that all meetings and meetings are just not this meeting but they can include other meetings for example meetings of advisory committees or standing committees can be subject to the brown act as well of the legislative body which is you of a local agency you are a local agency so the brown act does apply to school boards shall be open in public people should be permitted to attend all of the meetings of the agency except in very few instances and all of your meetings are subject to the various requirements of the brown act that we

009will be going through today legislative bodies can include commissions committees boards other bodies of a local agency whether they're permanent or temporary decision making or advisory um if they're created by resolution or some other formal action they're going to be very few exceptions to this the primary exception is if it's a committee that is made up of less than a quorum of the board your seven seven member board so Quorum is four so less than four people and that committee contains does has no other individuals other than the board members those meetings are not subject to the brown act and can occur outside of the open meetings laws and that would include for example if you're interviewing superintendents and things of that sort there there there is a provision that allows for boards to meet

010that are less than a quorum um examples of legislative bodies Personnel commissions there's obviously Board of Supervisors some auxiliary organizations if the committee was formed by the board then it likely is subject to the brown act that's important because sometimes the superintendent will also have committees superintendent committees are not subject to the brown act because they were not formed by the board and created by the board and that happens often just from an administrative standpoint it's necessary at times for the superintendent or assistant superintendents to form committees to assist in their governance as well what is not a legislative body as I indicated if it's advisory and composed solely and the word solely is important of members of the legislative bodies less than a quorum so that would be three or Less ad hoc committees

011are are advisory committees if it's a standing committee even though it may be less than a quorum of the board than it would be subject to the brown act but if it's an ad hoc committee that is advisory only then it's not subject to the brown Act um members of the legislative body any elected officials or if there are appointments to committees for example those individuals will be subject to the brown act as well um and those committee members that you form and um that you the people that you place on those committees must conform their conduct to the requirements of the brown act as well that becomes tricky at times because they're not elected officials so those committee members sometimes question why are we subject to the brown act because it exists in in

012legislation so if there is a standing committee and there's an appointment to the standing committee they are subject to the brown act as well legislative body may require that members who have been elected to serve but not has yet assumed office be given a copy of the act and would be subject to the brown act so if you're elected but not yet sworn in you would be subject to the brand act During the period of time that you were not yet sworn um meetings uh the definition of a meeting is important uh Congregation of a majority of the members of a legislative body at the same time and that's going to include teleconferencing there are Provisions for teleconferencing we don't have time to go into the specifics of how that occurs but if there is

013a need for teleconference and this board has done it many times the superintendent can arrange a teleconference by contacting legal counsel just to make sure that that that it's a properly agendized remember that not only actions but also deliberations are subject to the brown act and deliberations is collective acquisition and the exchange of ideas so even though it's just a discussion it potentially could be subject to the brown act there are going to be exceptions and we'll we'll look at those exceptions later action taken is obviously that collective decision that becomes important when we're discussing serial meetings meetings that can occur outside of a board meeting but there's a collective decision that is occurring and that is prohibited specifically by the brown act so we'll talk about a Serial meeting a Serial meeting is when

014a majority of the members of a body meeting outside of the regularly agendized meeting use a series of communications and that can occur directly or through an intermediary so the the prime example is board members talking to the superintendent who talks to other board members and that they develop a collective decision through that intermediary that would be a serial meeting and violative of the of the brown act to discuss and remember not only discuss but to deliberate and to take action so discussions deliberations actions are all subject to the brown act and if they're going to be discussions deliberations either through an intermediary or with the majority of the board there's a potential of a brown act violation again the exceptions to that rule would be things that were purely informational or things that are

015not part of the subject matter of what a board normally would take up what is not a Serial meeting employee of an agency and this is usually the superintendent or an assistant superintendent can engage in separate conversations with board members and those separate conversations are simply to answer questions or to provide information if they can it can be a dialogue a superintendent can have a long conversation with the board member about what is occurring at the district what the brown act just prohibits is the superintendent acting as an intermediary so if somebody talks to the superintendent and then the superintendent is talking to other board members at some point in time you're going to reach more than a quorum if you look at the brown act itself it discourages even the discussion of one Board

016of a conversation from one board member to a second board member even though wouldn't be a majority I would argue that in order to take the collective action it has to be a majority but the brown act discourages any discussions outside of board meetings through and through an intermediary um I give you some examples of what is prohibited this is not okay does anybody want to give a guess why this is not okay it involves a majority of the board one two three and four are all having a discussion since there's a majority of the board even though the conversations could have occurred just from one to two and then two to three and three to four that's a majority of the board and that would violate the brown act as a improper serial meeting

017this is something that is okay and that's the superintendent or some other staff member providing information even if that information is provided to all seven board members so long as it's done separately it's a and it's not shared with other board members this is okay as well the back and forth the dialogue that could occur even with seven board members so long as it's informational only or just purely for discussions sake providing information to board members that would not be improper and then this this is something obviously in today that is is more obvious is prohibited meetings by emails and the dreaded reply all um and I've been involved in lots of situations where a board member just accidentally replied all because it was going to each individual board member so I think you have

018to be careful that is probably not an intentional violation of somebody accidentally pushes reply all and I I've gotten board members out of messes in situations like that so I'm there for you if that would occur but nevertheless I think it's important that we are very careful about the information that we're sharing with one another either purposefully or accidentally as well that we are only doing things within the confines of a proper board meeting um and again I'd say even if members two and seven are just reading emails because that that's a form of discussion so potentially it could be a violation of the brown act so we have to be really mindful of emails um there are new provisions on social media legislation because we know that we can transfer information through social media

019as well I'm no expert at it I know enough to be a little bit dangerous my kids would say when it comes to social media but there are ways of trans transferring or providing information to one another through a social media platform that would be violative of the brown act there is a specific provision this is one of the new provisions of the brown act on social media legislation uh interestingly this is going to sunset in January of 2026. I'm not sure why it's going to sense that and it could be that the legislature is just going to rewrite it in some way I'm not sure but we do know that it is the law now that we cannot use social media Platforms in order to transfer information to one another so consequently what this

020says is you can solicit information from your constituents through social media you can even respond to constituents through social media you just can't respond to one another in Social through social media you can if it doesn't involve something that is within the jurisdiction of the business of the school district so consequently if it's purely social or ceremonial that would not be improper but if it has to do with the business of the school district um then it's within the Juris your jurisdiction it could be violative of the brown act um so take a look at that the government code by the brown Act is at 54 900 of the government code so it not only is going to apply to school districts but other other agencies as well this is just the disclaimer on the

021future legislation when it will be sunsetted um several situations where a Congregation of board members would not constitute a meeting so consequently would not be subject to the brown act um individual Communications between members board members and and another person who is not a board member for example your constituents are are not subject to the brown act so you're free to have discussions with your constituents so long as a constituent is not used as an intermediary of course um attendance at conferences attendance at other meetings with other organizations attendance even at meetings that are subject to the brown act are okay and it's even okay for you to go to those meetings and speak at those meetings so long as you are not discussing amongst yourself the business of the school district at those meetings

022sometimes it becomes a little tricky because you're going to if you go for example to a city council meeting and there's a discussion about the school district and then there's there are board members there who are having discussions with council members that could be tricky I think our mindset has to be if it has to do with the business of the school district a better check with with Gene or Jim just to make sure that we're not violating the brown act but for the most part you can speak and provide information in those kinds of meetings as long as there's not deliberation and discussion going on between two board members more than certainly more than three board members um meeting material you guys are really good with your agenda about as good as any school

023district um and Danielle and I were talking about minutes as a matter of fact your minutes are extensive and and very very thorough um probably even more so than is required by law but it is something that is somewhat unique sorry Danielle um but very very well down your minutes are very very well done and very very thorough so the agenda is something that is required under the brown act and that's just to provide the public with information about what is going to occur at a board meeting and there are certain guidelines with respect to agenda items so you shouldn't be more than 20 words and they should give kind of a brief description of what's going to occur and a faction is going to be taken on that particular item um people are permitted

024to request the agendas be sent to them and there's just Provisions there that we won't go over extensively notice of meetings how many hours before a regular meeting 72. you guys know that so within 72 hours at a location where the agendas posted must be publicly accessible now we know that everything is on websites so consequently it needs to be posted on the website as well so and it specifies time and location of regular board meetings we went through the pandemic and you know the Hoops that we had to jump through during the pandemic to make sure that the public was aware when meetings were occurring and being given an opportunity to speak at those meetings as well you can't change an agenda within the 72 hours preceding the meeting there are three exceptions to

025that if an emergency exists and that would usually be a national emergency or a local emergency and then the the way that in normally occurs is the second way two-thirds of the board members present determine that there's a need for immediate action and the need to take action came to the district's attention after the posting of the agenda that would sometimes involve a contract that needs to be signed but the contract was not ready and available for the board until after the 72-hour period the board could add it to the agenda with the two-thirds vote so long as there was a determination that there was a need for immediate action and then of course if something is is postponed or if a meeting is adjourned you can take it up at another board meeting without

026agendizing it if if these exceptions don't exist it has to the item has to be postponed at least 72 hours or you can call a special meeting um a special meeting um requires but we don't have that special meeting requires a 24-hour notice rather than the 72-hour notice at a special meeting you can only take up the items that are on the agenda and public participation can only be about items that are on the agenda at a regular meeting a member of the public can talk about a general business of within the jurisdiction of the school district and the board at a special meeting they can only talk about what is on the agenda and not general information as well here's the provision about a brief description and then there's public participation members of the

027public should be allowed to participate in the meeting either before or during the board's consideration of an item to not do that would be violative of the brown act so public participation is critically important in the structure of the brown act every regular meeting shall provide an opportunity to do that the no action can be taken until it's noticed and people are given an opportunity to speak um even at special meetings the public needs to be provided an opportunity to speak but only on the items on the agenda the board has adopted rules and regulations to ensure the proper functioning of meetings if you look at your 9000 Series I've worked on your your board bylaws for many many years and so at 9 300 of your bylaws is the governance provisions of the school

028district all in compliance with the brown act so if you are just complying with your own board policies you're compliant with the board act or the brown act excuse me response to public statements that comes up a lot what should board how should board members respond to the public my recommendation is that you say very very little when responding to the public because very often the public is talking about things that are not not agendized and you cannot take action nor should you have discussion on things that are not agendaized so if a member of the public is speaking and there's a need for clarification my recommendation is usually you turn to the board president and ask the board president if they can ask a clarifying question I don't have a problem if you're doing

029something that is purely informational but be careful that you're not walking into a brown act violation by discussing something that hasn't been agendized it's okay for the public to talk about things that have not been agendized because it's the business of the school district and within your jurisdiction it's just not good to have a dialogue about something that is not on the agenda you can imagine the potential abuses that could occur if that if that happened so just be mindful of that and you know there are times when abort president or board member can ask for example the superintendent to can you get more information for us at the next board meeting about the item that a member of the public has brought up closed session we'll talk about closed session for a little while

030and what's permitted in closed session and not with respect to closed session it's fairly common sensical the things that you can go into closed session seem to make sense and it really is something that is within the jurisdiction of the school district but you're protecting or adhering to your usually fiduciary responsibility to the district so for example Personnel matters are confidential and kept private the courts have universally held that Personnel matters employee matters can be held confidential and decisions can be made in closed session not only can be made in closed session but should be made in closed session so that you're not violating a person's privacy or confidence um discussions with legal counsel obviously there's the attorney-client privilege that is something that should occur in closed session very often it's matters that could be

031about liability or risk to the school district and it's important that you can freely discuss with your attorney the potential risks that are occurring with it with a certain legal matter there are requirements with respect to going into closed session with legal counsel it has to be pending or or actual or threatened litigation so you can't go into closed session to talk about your attorney's trip to Canada but you can go into closed session to talk about litigation or even threaten litigation potential litigation and then usually things that are uh uh with respect to negotiations for example labor negotiations can occur in closed session uh property negotiations can occur in closed session contract negotiations can occur in closed session and obviously you're adhering to your fiduciary responsibility if you're negotiating for example for Real Estate

032you know how real estate negotiations go that should not occur in Open Session you shouldn't say let's just offer them half the amount they're asking for and see what they come back with obviously you would not be adhering to your fiduciary responsibility to the school district to get the best price you possibly can so those kinds of negotiations can occur in closed session so when you think about going into closed session all of them make sense make good common sense that you would go into closed session one of the things that's critically important and I know I don't have a slide on this but there's a specific provision of the brown act and it's at government code 54 963 and that's disclosing things outside of closed session and it is critically important that matters that

033should be in closed session stay in closed session and not be disclosed outside of closed session that particular provision does have penalties for violation of confidential information revealing confidential information which can include injunctive relief disciplinary action certainly disciplinary action with respect to employees but also board members as well so it can be referred to for example the district attorney and the district attorney can take action against board members who have revealed things out of closed session that should remain in closed session obviously we we have responsibilities to the district as a whole and we have again fiduciary responsibilities to protect the district from unnecessary risks so consequently it's it's critically important that matters that are in closed session remain in closed session as we indicate here no person may publicly disclose information that is received

034in closed session unless it's authorized by law to be disclosed so there are a couple of exceptions for example if you're called before a grand jury or if you're subpoenaed then there are those exceptions but those are are are fairly obvious I think um yeah um Safe Harbor is just how things are agendized especially closed session items there's a specific provision of the brown act called The Safe Harbor act and it tells you how you're supposed to agendaize closed session matters because the public has a right to know that you're going into closed session and that you're going into closed session for a generalized reason and that generalized reason may be meeting with Lego Council and there are certain provisions of their provisions of the brown act that that detail how that is supposed to

035be agendized or if you're meeting for example to go over an evaluation evaluate the superintendent you would say a valuation and then in parentheses superintendent so you identify the individual without getting into the specifics and and the public has a right to know that as well prior to going into close closed captioning not available so you have to reveal who voted and what which way if no action is taken in closed session for example if there's a disciplinary matter that comes to closed session the board chooses not to take action then nothing has to be reported out you don't report out the negative you don't report that you did nothing so you just come out of closed session if you do take action then it needs to be reported out that always becomes a little

036bit confusing and I've been at board meetings when that question has been asked um a settlement of pending litigation there's some tricks to that because sometimes you're in the middle of negotiations so you don't want to report out an offer that you're making to settle litigation until the matter is actually settled once the matter is settled it has to be reported out sometimes it can occur at that meeting sometimes it has to occur at a subsequent meeting because they're still negotiating that is going on um enforcement of brown act violations there are several remedies there's a long process that the board would go through if there's a contention that there's been a violation of the brown act there have been contentions almost at with every school board that there's been violations of the brown act

037and that usually goes to legal counsel and legal counsel will work with either the district attorney or if it's a private council with private Council to get the matter resolved there is an ability to cure and correct violations of the brown act so if something happens inadvertently that can be corrected a relatively easy without penalty if it does go to court there's the potential that you have to pay the the attorney fees of the person who is filing the complaint if you don't Prevail in the long run so it's best to probably cure correct um legal action can be commenced against the district but and it has to be commenced within 60 days of responding that it's not an issue or after the 30-day time period for the board to respond and that's all in

038the statute as well and these are the enforcements of what happens if a complaint is filed again the plaintiff is entitled to recover attorneys fees and the court can award costs as well so with that I know I hammered through this thing okay but I know you guys have a long meeting and I did want to give at least a few minutes if there are any questions that you might have I know you've heard me speak on this before I admire the members especially of the audience here who are here voluntarily you know to to listen to this and so I hope I dazzled you so and if not I apologize so Brad any questions thank you Mr Baca I'll bring it back to the board if there's any comments or questions sue you can

039you review the Parliamentary emotions guide don't have the Parliamentary emotions and something that um there we go um yeah you folks are governed by um by Robert's Rules and that's in your board policy so under Robert's rules um that the way that emotion comes before the board typically is that uh if it's on the agenda a board member the board president will ask if there is a motion to adopt something and then if there is a motion to adopt something he asks for a second under the brown act now there has to be at least a roll call on every single vote that occurs if action is being taken by the board under Robert's Rules there's all kinds of different procedural amendments that can occur under Robert's Rules there are times when meetings can be

040adjourned or postponed so it really is I mean that if uh this isn't going to be a presentation on a Robert rules I've done it before a board member you where we go through through Robert's Rules I don't think we have time to do that now is there any specific question that you have okay yeah yeah so and I think this is a really good motions guide just to give you an idea of when something needs to be seconded and how actions are taken especially with respect to amendments in a in a tricky action item sometimes it's good to have counsel there to take you through the trickiness of of how you're going to get something adopted and then what I like about this parliamentary motion guide is it gives you an indication of things

041need to be debated or if the immediate action can be taken so when whenever for example you want to extend debate there is no debate and I thank them the matter is taken up immediately in most instances you'll see that there will be debate on things especially if that involves either an action item or amending an action item all right Dr Rios Mr board president sorry from my voice can you elaborate a little bit on action taken um is this something like I I understood this page as sometimes the violation of of the brown act and a little bit about what steps one can take um when there are situations that you know we feel like you show up and there's an item on the agenda that it becomes incredibly obvious that there was discussion

042about how votes were going to go so sometimes it's just an assumption other times there's you know a lot of evidence to back that up but yeah so talk a little bit about action taking is that some is that what one is in violation of the brown act or is that yeah yeah any any Collective action that is taken deliberation that occurs outside of a board meeting in order to get to a collective decision is a violation of the broad act potentially so discussion that occurs about a particular vote that is occurring outside of a board meeting is improper for the most part if it's informational only then it's not improper but if it's leading to a collective decision it would be a Serial meeting in violation of the brown Act and what would steps

043what would the steps then required to I mean like who do we report it to or like what do we do about it yeah if it's a board member that is questioning other board members and whether or not a collective action would has been taken the appropriate thing to do is to bring it to the attention of the board president and have the board president take it up with the board itself that is not a closed session item that is an open session item so something of that is occurring then I think it's something that the Board needs to discussion in Open Session where there is serious violations of the brown Act of course the district attorney is usually the agency that handles serious violations and a follow-up is that done in an actual meeting

044or when is that done the board president no it probably would not would never add a board meeting it can occur at a board meeting you could ask a question of the board president at a board meeting um but it usually would be taken outside of the board meeting and brought back to the board so an email would be appropriate yes got it thank you Mr noyola thank you president uh Mr Bach vodka I had a question um for myself specifically like I plan to collaborate a lot with you know the local city council can you elaborate more when uh collaboration or partnership could could fall more into a violation of the brown act okay um so so long as you're communicating directly uh with another agency there's not a violation of the brown act

045when you're trying to come to a collective decision with other members of the board for example if there are two or more of you that are in a meeting with the city council so long as it's not a quorum you can argue that there's no Collective action that is occurring the brown act discourages that although it would not be improper for two members of the board what the brown act does indicate is there should be very limited discussion about the item amongst the board members but you're your collaboration with the city council or your collaboration with your constituency normally is not an issue vice president say thank you president I will real quick question about tax now how would nowaday no more email text is much easier among each other's if we have like group

046chatting things would I be okay for as a board what no not if it's not if it could lead to a collective decision of the board then group chats are an issue and something that we're dealing with more and more so I I would recommend against it against group chats that involve more than a majority of the board because it could be that you accidentally move into an area that is within the board member uh jurisdiction and consequently potentially could be a violation of the brown act if it's purely informational if for example the superintendent is sending information to the board that's fine I think where where you have to be careful as if there's the potential of some action being taken or some discussion occurring on that matter in an open forum thank you

047all right Mr Baca thank you very much for the presentation thank you for those in the audience we're going to take about five minutes 6 59. yes sir we did it you did it and we'll be back at 705. [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Laughter] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] conduct the regular board meeting May I have a motion so moved by Sophia all those in favor aye any opposed motion passes 7-0 for those of you in the audience please silence your cell phones if you haven't already closed session report out tonight in closed session the board discussed the following conference with real property negotiator public facility joint use agreement and potential long-term rental of

048a district facility in closed session the board discussed and approved a special education settlement agreement in the amount of 32 500 7 500 attorney fees and 25 000 reimbursement for private school occupational therapy applied behavioral analysis therapy speech and language therapy parent mileage for oah 2023-070073 by a vote of six zero and clerk Nishi was not voting the board also discussed anticipated litigation conference with legal counsel significant exposure to litigation pursuant to government code section 54 956 two matters Pledge of Allegiance please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance sounds one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you very much at this time we'll move to presentations Spotlight on teaching and learning student support system Dr Carol Castro being board members uh tonight we're going to be talking about our

049multi-tiered systems of support and I'm going to be sharing out some information regarding our recent teacher professional learning days as our presentation starts to gather together let me just give you a little a few reminders about our multi-tier systems of support we focus on three areas the academics the safety and social emotional areas of our district last year and continuing this year we have our reading by third grade and Literacy for College and Career initiatives which ensure that our students are receiving support with reading and writing and we also have our math steps program in our math steps program is really designed to be an all-encompassing support system for both students and staff to make sure that there's a Continuum of support for students from TK all the way up to their senior year in

050high school thank you we need a faster moving screen there we go here it comes under the leadership of our superintendent our theme this year for our teacher professional learning as well as our district professional learning for our staff was learning and leading together where together we not only lead and support our students but we learn together about the best practices in each of these areas to make sure that we Implement support for our students on August 8th and 9th we had our district-wide professional learning for all ABC USD teachers and nurses and this is just a few facts about this two-day professional learning we had a total of 677 certificated Educators that attended and you can see the breakdown there from elementary secondary Child Development teachers Adult School teachers special education administrators and nurses

051that attended this took place at Artesia High School I want to do a shout out to Artesia High School for hosting us and for their principal Sergio Garcia for being so gracious in supporting us with that we had and thank you to you for attending we had several board members who attended including our own president Brad Beach who came to hear our general morning sessions in which we had keynote speakers and one of which was our very own Dr Gina zitlow our superintendent here's a few more images from our teacher professional learning it was a great event they had music playing in the morning you can see some of the cheerleaders cheering on the teachers coming in and really we just tried to make sure that we set up an environment that was conducive to

052learning but also excited it ignited our teachers to be ready for the school year our keynote speaker Dr Clay cook really emphasized the importance of that positive environment and supportive culture with this quote creating a positive environment supportive culture leads to a climate that optimizes learning and that really was the focus of our professional learning and that is the focus of that multi-tiered system of support that we always talk about right that our staff and the adults in the system in the school system we need to make sure we give them the tools the skills the motivation and mindset to create a positive learning environment for our students so that when students come in as they started yesterday they can then really learn the math the English the science in a positive learning environment here

053are some of the sample sessions we had over 111 different sessions that were offered across the two days and these were some of the ones remember when you uh we would have action items on board items from consultant groups that would provide a professional learning and these are some of the ones that you approved so Dr Catherine Spengler did presentations on teaching struggling readings during whole class instruction primarily for elementary schools we had Jason Willoughby who's one of our Consultants from leveraged learning on creating a robust learning environment using engagement empowerment and evaluation of learning we had Jessica Mejia a director from L.A County Office of Education doing a training for our secondary schools on data science and the implications for high school which is part of the new math Frameworks we had opal Dawson

054from ascd which did a session on grading smarter not harder assessment strategies that help motivate kids and help them learn and then Pam tupi from Novak education did an introduction to mtss overview for all of our teaching staff in addition to the Consultants that you had approved and supported in this professional learning we also had presenters from our very own certificated teaching staff and from our administrative staff so I want to give a shout out to a few of them Linda Boss who did who's an ABC teacher who did a guide to teaching designated ELD time effectively for our elementary teachers Matt Johnson and ABC USD teacher who talked about chat GPT and AI as teachers Little Helper and how to make sure that you use it as an aide rather than be afraid of

055artificial intelligence gar high school team Adam Taylor Lisa Yoshimi who are teachers and their new administrator Nikki bear did a session on The Writing Center and then Google forms for differentiated teaching was done by one of our teachers take him Angelica Diaz naraja and Nancy Romero are district administrators did a session for teachers on show up attendance matters and motivating students to attend school and Dr Myra Lozano our district administrator did a session on understanding the SST process which makes sure that we individually look at students data to see what kind of support systems we need to provide as I mentioned we had a number of sessions 88 sessions specifically available for elementary 89 sessions available to secondary teachers some of them overlapped some of them were specific to each level and we also had

056specialized sessions available for our child development teachers our nurses Adult School teachers and special education teachers and here are some samples of those autism for nurses supporting augmentative and alternative communicators in the classroom and project learning for ABC excels which as you know is our Extended Learning opportunities after school program so a lot of learning happened over the two days and in essence what we wanted to make sure that we provided our teachers and our certificated staff was a Common Language around tier one here you can see the three different tiers of the multi-tiered systems of support where a hundred percent of our students should receive differentiated support for their needs and so that was the focus of those two days was all the different ways that we can support students with tier one instruction

057in the classroom and in the environment one of the key things that we talked about during the session and that we've rolled out since late last year was our four pillars of ABC unified's instructional framework with environment engagement empowerment and evaluation of learning so I'm going to give you an overview of some of the tier one practices in ABC and again this is just an overview this does not it's not comprehensive quite yet because we are working on finalizing and developing this and I'm going to point out only a few key things that might be of interest to our parents and communities that they might be interested in so for example for environment that could be for a parent asking themselves what or who is available at the school to support my child who do

058they go to in this environment to get help so you can see there in the middle we have supportive and caring adults available to all of our students because all of our schools have mental health professionals we now have English learner counselors at all of our schools including Elementary and you this year we have assistant principles for our Title 1 elementary schools as well for additional support so those are some of the areas that a parent can say well you know when my child needs help these are the different adults that they can go see on campus and receive that support [Applause] for engagement how are our schools helping students stay engaged and focused on the learning and a lot of that engagement means that they want to come to school that they're looking forward

059to coming to school and very rarely do students say I want to go to school because I want to learn math today they say they want to go to school because they really enjoyed something in the class such as the Visual and Performing Arts so prop 28 some of the work that's being done there in implementing prop 28 they want to go because of the enrichment programs such as what we offer during ABC excels which is free for qualifying students and then of course there's the additional support that we provide for students who are struggling such as our literacy intervention specialists at elementary schools and various technology tools that would engage students this could also be some of the tutoring support that we provide usually during the first four weeks of school since we just

060started yesterday schools are reviewing their tutoring programs and establishing those some use outside consultant groups as you've seen before like Tudor Zone and some like to use their own teachers to stay after school and help Provide support so they're pulling all that information together and I can provide you an update at a later time on specifics regarding when and where tutoring support is available for students across our schools the next key area is empowerment and for this I want to make sure that we talk about how do we Empower our parents to look for resources and support for their students and so some of the ways that we can do that is by having parents participate in our district and site elac meetings as well as our black and Latino family circles and how do

061we make sure that we include students and that could be through our student voice forums where we go out and interview students in person to ask them about the programs and services they're receiving and coming soon new to this year in the fall we've done this before is our ABC showcase for parents which was also known as our parent leadership conference which used to take place in the spring but we're doing it much earlier this year on October 7th to make sure that we are providing those resources to families early on next is evaluation of learning in the first month of school we want to make sure we know where our students are at right so that they can receive the help and support as soon as possible so you've heard other districts like LAUSD

062has I ready in our district we use star reading and math assessments and this is a universal screener to make to check in on students and check on their progress so we right now up until September 1st students in elementary and secondary are taking those initial assessments so that teachers have information regarding their students as well as receiving the cast score information and then we'll do it again about mid-year about November December and then again towards the end of the year so we can monitor the progress of our students so all of this information was provided to teachers was also provided to our administrators and is an ongoing process of trying to figure out how what systems we have in place what's the implementation level like and how can we improve those systems and at

063this time going back to our professional learning I want to make sure that I point out the hard work of our two departments that were the lead of our professional learning which is our elementary and secondary curriculum and professional learning departments led by our directors Dr Christina wise and Dr Christine bobwena if they would be so kind to stand up to be acknowledged for their hard work over preparing for those two days you know this this event happens in August but they're preparing all the way back in January and this year we've even noted we need to start preparing earlier so it's an ongoing process to just get ready for those two days you can see though from the ratings from the surveys from teachers that we've had real pretty high ratings you can see

064the three questions these are just a snippet of some of the questions that were asked about the mid 90s for each of these so overall how would you rate the session 95.4 percent of respondents were satisfied or very satisfied a key area for us that we always ask ourselves when we do professional learning is you know we want to engage teachers but then we want all that knowledge and engagement to then go to the students right when they go back to the classrooms we want to make sure what they learned is being applied so question two today's professional learning provided me with relevant information on topics I can use in my classroom 94.5 responded in the positive as well as question three I am likely to adapt the information and practices from today's professional learning

065to meet the particular needs of my school and my students this year and again 94.3 percent of respondents stated strongly agreed or agreed although we are happy with those numbers we always want to improve and do better for our teachers and our students and so we have some next steps when it comes to professional learning around the multi-tiered systems of support one is that we're going to we have a tier one rubric to assess if we've been implementing all the things we said we are right across the schools and see in what areas can we help increase the support for our schools we will continue to work with our district mtss committee which has representatives from across different School sites where we share best practices on how we can support our students and then we

066will continue to work on personalizing the professional learning opportunities for our schools depending on what area they might need some of our schools want more support in math somewhat more support in English some one in science so it just depends on their population and their Community needs and then of course we want to make sure that all staff understand the resources and processes that exist in our systems such as our Student Success team what tier one supports are available and making sure that we're constantly going back to data analysis and really monitoring whether our students are making progress so I'll be happy to report back on these later on in the year as we report our cast scores and District benchmark scores and we can provide you with greater detail regarding all the different mtss

067supports that we provide any questions at this time um is this the first time that something like this happens the professional learning yes no we've done this professional learning for the last I want to say three to four years because even during the pandemic we still did a two-day online professional learning for all of our teachers what I would say was different about this year was that it was specifically focused on mtss and the tier one engagement and instructional framework okay so I guess we can't take much credit Ernie and I were like we've been talking about this and we were trying to Advocate and working with the Union that you know sometimes we would go things to things like the parent leadership and think like the entire District needs to listen to these speakers

068in the entire District needs to you know have access to this kind of knowledge especially our teachers but good job I mean it probably felt to them like what we feel when we go to conferences and get exposed to again the latest on what's best practices and how to improve in the in the different areas I especially like the columns I know we've talked about them in the past awesome um I did have a couple of at least one question that came up for me we talked about the family the black Family Circle and the Latino Family Circle and I know we no longer have an equity officer so I'm wondering who is leading those at the moment um well actually that approval of our Equity officers on tonight's agenda and so I'll be meeting

069with that person tomorrow because they start tomorrow pending your approval and we'll be meeting with those families upcoming in the next few weeks okay so they will be reinstituted yes great to know the last one is star I know star has been around for a long time and I'm just wondering if that really if our staff truly believes that that is the best assessment of our students literacy given that literacy is our one of the main goals that we have reading by Third because when you mentioned Universal screener I've been exposed to other Universal screeners and I'm just wondering if we really are using what's research based and backed as to be the best yeah thank you for the question I I think one of the things that we strive to do is evaluate these

070programs year to year and certainly one of the highlights or positives for Star reading and math the reason why we decided to continue with them for at least this year and then we'll reassess at the end of next year because as the state has moved towards Universal screening for everyone in California right more and more programs are now becoming available because more and more Publishers and companies are creating these things so we're open to exploring other avenues but one of the reasons why they liked it is because it's one of the assessments where you can have a Continuum from TK to 12. not all assessments have a Continuum like that and so that helps teachers because in the transitions from elementary to middle middle to high school we're all speaking the same language and they

071receive similar information and that's frankly been missing for a long time for uh within our school systems but we have that now one of the key things with the star Renaissance program that we as part of this package is that they come in and they do data analysis meetings with the teachers and they help break it down so that is another reason why we feel that they're a good group for us is because they don't just give you a program and say good luck with it we'll see you at the end of the year it's an ongoing continuing support of a service in helping you analyze the data and really using that for Action in your classroom foreign vice president say thank you president I just want to say thank you to the staff every

072year you looking for something improved and I remember back about three years ago when we were at Tisha High School I remember the staff the two they have to go the teacher had to go out for lunch and Dr Weiss and Twan and I we worked together we find a meal for them from there we have a meal we always asked to undo him money for that he said sure money for the teacher will do so that was so I want to appreciate and now the food's getting better and better I remember that time was a pizza one time thank you and so you're always looking for something you prove I want to thank you Dr Castro what I remember you know every time when I go to this kind of professional learning thing I

073always learn something for myself I remember the three things that I learned one thing is mindset a lot of time we walk in the classroom where they have our mindset already there we would just say this is the trouble kids oh my God we have why we have this children so we stand we have some kind of mindset focus on those students which is not fair and one of the things they also said to do to do to better than to no that's what I said to be better than to do which is true though you know you want what do you want I remember um um Dr Zila was a keynote speaker for the second day and she mentioned what she wanted she said I want to be a principal and she already have

074mindset they already say this is what he wanted to be and not rather than say I'm going to the classroom this is what I want to do this is my list to-do list I I like the way Mr cook I think Professor cook and he said he does go around the universe to talk about those kind of things he also mentioned one thing the cause effect he said we are the teacher we are the cause and students in fact which is true you know we are the role model for them anything we do or lie with what would do a lot of things I mean I'm saying teacher does I'm just saying myself anything we will make this to which will make the difference on the children's life we are you know teacher are the

075greatest person I believe in myself I'm a teacher I feel we can do so much and which most teachers that's what they want they want to do something you know they want they want to be something they're greater than just coming and say this is what I'm going to do and I'm also attending uh the the speakers one of the section I went there he he mentioned to me he said about 15 I think students ready to go when they're attending class but 40 50 student doesn't know anything when attending the class so then you can see the difference that the teacher working so hard dealing with a different level students and that is a great things I think for me I'm teaching college I see some hardships already but I can't imagine how's our

076preschool and kindergarten into the second grade is a tough tough job to be there when you go home I bet they're exhausted they can't even take care of their family so once again I want to say thank you that was great to Kino speaking I wish my colleague also tendency Dr Zito's picture when she was young thank you though I appreciate all your hard work Mississippi thank you president Beach and thank you Dr Castro that was very uh thorough presentation and so encouraging to know that our district that I know that you guys are our cabinet and our staff are making the most with the resources provided just wanted to share my um you know deep thoughts on some of these uh you know practice especially with the mental health we know that uh and

077one thing that kind of uh bothers me and Disturbed is uh you know a lot of these problems that our youth are going through has to do with the tech the shift in culture is not really just any one person or anyone you know a factor this is the the whole social media the time on the tech you know devices addiction game the girls with the social media and you know we know that this Young Generation suffers from anxiety so many and that's why we have a lot of mental issues too so what are we doing because I don't hear anything from anywhere about regulations or policies on these issues and I'm just wondering if our district can as we are the leader to do something think out of the box and come up with

078programs besides just the you know mental health treatment or engagement inside the classroom but to now that we have a little bit more money from the Arts to to engage in the expand the sports music art to to help some of these kids that teachers identify because you know if the kids are failing it's more than just academic issue and they're suffering and of course the parents are suffering even more because they are so helpless they don't know what to do and it's it's really um for young people it's not like really severe mental problem it's just we just need to help them and help them to snap out of that for that time being and if we can think about something like that that would really help so many families take the cell phone

079away for a day and put them go to a beach trip or go clean up the beach and something creative because I'm sure that uh most of our you know staff and teachers are parents and sometimes the parents and the teachers and the cabinet members who have parented so many kids their own they have common sense that they know that something's got to be done different so that's just my two cents thank you thank you thank you clerk nashee thank you Mr President Yes actually I like this tier one effective practices in ABC the environment is really critical as to and we're improving the environments right with the the bond funds that we have here school safety plans positive greetings I mean something as simple as saying hi to the students to the kids that

080are um have troubles and just something as simple as acknowledging their existence is important mental health professionals a couple question questions the technology device is also important and how we address that is board member Suey was talking about uh regarding assistant principal or Title One elementary schools I'm guessing there's a specific role for them is it going to be all elementary schools that have title one uh how many of our elementary schools have assistant principles I can answer that Dr Frazier um at this point we will have elementary schools part-time at 10 of our our 10 Title One elementary schools and then we have three elementary schools for four four elementary schools that have a full-time assistant principal due to the large number of students okay so 10 part time so and this is a

081full full assistant principal not a toaster or anything like that correct okay and so we decided that that was a more important investment uh in terms of their duties what they'll be doing yes the investment there is to provide space for the principal at the elementary schools to actually be in the classroom working on instruction and supporting teachers so that's 14 elementary schools that will have some sort of assistant principle yes and the other ones will not so the other ones are smaller but they're serving different needed needs of different populations okay all right thanks and actually one more thing here what is Project kinship so project kinship is a mentoring program that many of our high schools have adopted and that the board has approved and so it helps Mentor our students who are

082struggling who are at risk from staying away from things such as drugs gang activity other things cyber bullying that maybe interfering with their school day and may keep them away from being engaged in attending school and so are we going to be measuring the effectiveness of that from a baseline point to now yeah we look at attendance and suspension rates as part of our metrics for that and we also look at survey results from those that participated in the program great thank you Dr Castro thank you very much for the report okay we'll move on to approving the agenda may I have a motion to approve the agenda for the regular meeting of August 15 2023 all those in favor please say aye aye aye any opposed motion passes 7-0 approval of the minutes may

083I have a motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of August 1 2023. all those in favor aye motion passes 6-0 and all abstain Daniel okay moving on to the Board of Education president's report I want to start by saying it was a real honor to attend the summer uh professional learning training the keynote speaker was excellent the teachers were definitely paying attention and we had the majority of them there I appreciate that as well and uh it seems like that training really started this year off on the right foot and I appreciate everybody's hard work I'd like to say Welcome to our students parents families teachers and staff welcome back to school on the first day I visited Nixon Academy and also Stowers Elementary we shot an episode of 30 and 30

084and we got to see the first ABC dual immersion Mandarin class in kindergarten at Stowers and it was really something to see there's excellent teachers there I was very impressed and I'm glad we brought that to ABC Unified I'd also like to remind our community that kids are back in school school buses are everywhere please slow down in school zones I saw some people driving a little fast today speed limits 25 miles per hour while kids are nearby thank you all right superintendent's report Dr Zelo thank you so it's been a busy couple of weeks since our last meeting we had our new teacher orientation which many of you attended on the 2nd of August where we welcomed our new teachers and worked in collaboration with our Union Partners to welcome them and help them

085with the features of what it is like to be a new teacher and what you might need in those first few days of school we then had our district Leadership Institute and we did a full day with all of our principals and directors setting Direction together and collaborating and then on the 4th of August we did a full day with all of our management and confidential employees again moving everyone in the same direction we were very blessed to be able to have Dr Cook who spoke with our teachers also lead and have those conversations with our management confidential and on August 7th I was able to uh step in a little bit in the morning where he was doing some tier two work with our mental health professionals and our English learner counselors so I'm

086trying to move everyone in the same direction around the same ideas of having the adults ready in the room to support the students and meet their needs so that they can learn um on August 8th I was at the teacher and nurse professional learning as well as I was invited to do a welcome and an update at the City of Lakewood and so I I was able to go and meet with the city council there and just give them a little update on ABC and then of course yesterday was opening day and so we were busy at schools district administrators were out helping elementary schools there's lots of little ones and families that need to know what the room is and how to get there and so that's what we've been up to since our

087last meeting thank you thank you all right moving on to employee representative reports Ray gear ABC ft president good evening president Beach board trustees superintendent Dr zetlo administrative cabinet teachers nurses support staff students and parents in the ABC community my name is Ray Garren president of the ABC Federation teachers um this is my 13th year as president as many years as I was in the classroom I am now have been the president in one of the one of the things that keeps Labor Management steady and going is that you have steady leadership and we've seen that here on you know at the administrative level level we've seen that at the board level we see that the union level and that helps to provide some continuity in what we're doing um first off I want to

088welcome back parents and students and you know hope uh we're starting out great having a great year so far and we're only two days in but it's been wonderful um I I hope parents and students are able to see uh especially at the high schools some of the the your support of the bond measure BB is really starting to show in our high schools and our middle schools right now and we're still in transition we're still doing a lot of construction but if you are able to visit those schools in some capacity over this year I would absolutely hope that you take the opportunity to do that you're you're support through through measure BB is really improving our classrooms and it'll improve the experience for all of our students so you know I I want

089to thank the community for supporting that measure because it is making tremendous difference in our schools and people are proud to be in their schools um I want to publicly welcome uh trustee noiola and uh well you know uh this is a great experience group up here and you know uh we're glad to have you on there's lots to learn and lots of people to meet and see um but happy to have you on board here welcome uh professional development that we did last week as I'm just I'm not going to repeat it was a great thing uh that happened for you know just staff in general and support staff was there to help out um you know thank you Dr Castro and her team for putting all that together thank you for the board

090for you know making that possible over the last couple years I think it's always been important it's something that um it sets the tone for the year in many cases we had almost 600 teachers and nurses there that's two-thirds of our our teaching staff and there was a lot of great information not that there isn't every year but it seems like we're getting better at it and um I just you know can't say enough you saw you saw the results of of the surveys um miss you I totally want you know mental health we were when we uh dipped into lcap and and made mental health workers kind of a Mainstay for all of our schools that was definitely Cutting Edge and different at the time and we really moved into PBIS and at the

091same time and I I think one of the discussions has been happening over the last year or two is that tier one tier two and tier three um you know tier one being uh the first level of you know when you're meeting with challenges with a student tier three would be the extreme and when we first started doing all of the the mental health work schools had to opt in for the training for that so you had a limited number of teachers and support and staff that were involved in that process and so some of the discussions that we're having is that um because I think what has happened through the pandemic it's important that every employee is aware of tier one and tier one supports and how they work together for students and and

092parents and so that we can really focus on on addressing tier two and tier three with our Specialists and so our Specialists have been spread pretty thin over the last two years and what we want to do is we want to make sure that every employee is working for tier one supports for our students that we can really address the mental health needs of our tier 2 and tier three so it's mental health for everybody but everybody should be trained on how to provide that kind of structure and so we are Cutting Edge in the fact that we're we're going to support the whole staff to to learn about that and how to support students so thank you for bringing that up uh first week of school of course one of the things that's really

093important in Labor Management is is maintaining a culture and so maintaining a culture means you you have to have a lot of training so you have a lot of new people coming on new principles new site reps new teachers and so one of the most important pieces is communication so I want to thank Scott for putting out something on Monday you know something he puts out a newsletter that goes out not only to the staff but to the community and that shows kind of a our culture that we have here we were able to do the same thing on the union side and that's just one little piece of kind of training people what the culture is here how we are transparent share information look for solutions to difficult situations that happen and so that's

094something that we're focusing on with the administration so we call it the pal pal is partnership and administration and labor and next month we'll have What's called the pal Retreat we do this every year it's something we've been doing for over 20 years it's something that's been uh been taken up by other districts and been successful what we do is we take all the principles and all the site reps on the ABC ft Union put them in a in a building away from away from the district for a little bit so they hear a uniform message about what's the latest challenge last year was really about reconnecting finding projects at your individual School sites that would help students and the staff and you know that's that's one way you Foster how your your culture and

095so we're going to be doing that again in the September um open invitation right now to I I know we just got the brown axle only so many can come but we would love to see your face at the at the pal Retreat um you know it's it that doesn't happen without you participating and and you know kind of saying hey I believe the partnership is a way that we can really make successful things happen in ABC so um again I just want to thank you for always supporting what we do and have a good rest of your week thank you Ray now we have a couple of public hearings these are union proposals initial proposal from ABC ft I'd like to open a public hearing on the initial proposal submitted by the ABC Federation

096of teachers local 2317 ABC ft California Federation of teachers American Federation of teachers AFL-CIO to reopen negotiations for the 23-24 school year copies of the initial proposal are available for the public to view clerk nashee are there any public comments I do not see any hearing none public hearing is closed District response to ABC ft initial proposal I would like to open a public hearing on the ABC Unified School District negotiating team responds to the ABC Federation of teachers local 2317 ABC ft California Federation of teachers American Federation of teachers AFL-CIO to reopen negotiations for the 23-24 school year copies of District response are available for the public to view clerk nashee are there any public comments I do not see any hearing no comments the public hearing is closed initial proposal from afsme I

097would like to open a public hearing on the initial proposal submitted by the American Federation of state county and Municipal Employees AFL-CIO local 2229 Council 36 asked me to reopen negotiations for a successor collective bargaining agreement for the 23-24 school year on article 7 compensation and article 8 Health and Welfare benefits copies of the initial proposal are available for the public to view clerk nashee are there any public comments I do not see any hearing none public hearing is closed District response to afscme I'd like to open a public hearing on the ABC Unified School District negotiating team response to the American Federation of State County Municipal Employees AFL-CIO local 2229 Council 36 afscme initial proposal for master contract negotiations for the 23-24 school year on article 7 compensation article 8 health and where flood

098benefits and article 11 calendar copies of the district response to initial proposal from askme are available for the public debut clerk nashee are there any public comments I do not see any hearing no comments public hearing is closed all right now we'll move on to public comments clerk Nishi thank you Mr president president person's wishing to address the board should fill out a card located at the table and Jordan's place it in the silver tin speakers will be called in sequence during public comments section which is limited to one hour each speaker to one presentation of five minutes unless the board wishes to waive the time limit those who have a group concern are encouraged to select the spokesperson to address the board persons wishing to address the board on a specific agenda item at

099the time the item is under discussion are limited to five minutes each and will be called upon to speak following the staff comments and prior to the board's discussion and taking action adverse remarks about a person's race ancestry ethnic group identification religion color national origin sex sexual orientation gender mental or physical disability age may not be made please avoid comments or remarks or charges which reflect upon the character motives qualifications or ability of any school district employee concerns are presented to this board will be followed up and present addressed by the appropriate staff we have a public comment from Rudy Krauss vaccines that are detrimental to their health maim their body and cause adverse reactions and sudden death myocarditis I was writing the science for kovid I've written over half a million words I've solved

100covet at the mitochondria level I'm the first person in the world to be able to explain what happens with myocarditis with um at the mitochondrial level with the adenosine triphosphate you guys don't know the science you guys were just engaging in gibberish with pronouns and to me it's really quite shocking so now as I'm writing my my book right now this is the third book the great reset that's Cloud Schwab World economic Forum I'm looking from the top down at who did this with Pfizer and moderna and all the vax companies and then the government Vex transhuman chimera so the trans are really the vaccinated they cross the species barrier what they did was they mixed the covid virus parasite with the humans that got vacs they're human hosts to Chimera now they injected it

101into their DNA with the crispr gene technology that opened the door to the DNA so the trans you guys are talking about the trans kids they're not they're not these kids that are putting lipstick on that's like putting lipstick on a pig it's still a pig nothing genetically has changed but with the vaccinated they crossed the species barrier and you're all mutating that's why they're letting out this trans agenda right now because they're like foreshadowing what's coming when the spiegelvarian hits Spiegel means mirror that's the mirror variant that's when you look in the mirror you cannot deny that you're turning changing so what's happening here is Klaus schwarm uh Klaus Schwab World economic forum and is eugenicist Harari who's a real good friend of Obama who's in charge of the U.S plan for the deconstruction

102of the United States he's in charge of this whole transhumanist agenda where they're going to transhumanize everybody and they've already done it because they've vaccinated 5.5 billion people you're going to see it over the next well it's the first one to two years then two to five years then seven years then 10 years for the mutagenic effect to take place it's not over I just saw a report now today uh one million adverse reactions in the United States like 200 million dead same thing in the UK and this is like only one percent of the Bears reporting so Schwab what's he all about depopulation is a depopulation agenda we got 9 billion people count one two three four five six seven eight nine eight gotta go nine billion down to one billion by 2030. it's

103right here in his in his book they came out covid 19. the great reset it's right here and these four billion useless eaters shall be illuminated they already eliminated two I heard him bragging they're now down from nine down to seven and then Harare talks about the useless people you know who they're going to eliminate first all the white people in North America and Canada and the Western Europeans yet you guys are going along with the program with the Dei suicide program causing the ego death in the kids this is a black racist agenda there's the trifecta power pyramid there's two elements the black racist agenda the homosexual agenda and then the 76 percent enablers that's you guys you guys are implementing these programs because Newsom tells you to do it you're going to bring

104about your own destruction Thank you Lisa Ramos I don't know if I can follow that act right it's pretty intense but um I just want to say first of all I went to I went to this school to take um computer classes so I'm familiar with this campus it's been a while though it's been a while um okay you know we live in a great state California is a really great place right I mean great weather we had really good weather today and um you know it's fun to come back to old schools I love doing it I love coming here I should take a walk back to where I used to take classes it's fun um but you know some of the things he said sound radical I'm gonna try to make it more

105understandable you know first of all California and the U.S we are facing a crisis this country is facing a downhill slide right we can't ignore that that's a fact um you know I want to say too that this doesn't matter like what race you are what your economic level it or your religion and myself I come from like a really you know varied background I'm um multi-ethnic multi-religious all that um I come from not really a political family but um an old school Democrat family if you want to call it that um but in the recent years I'm seeing like um what do you call it like I'm seeing like the different parties Democrats Republicans are really like going crazy okay we know this so so much for that but it's kind of going towards

106a socialist path and what he's talking about with a wef world economic forum is real I mean that's not a delusion you could look it up read about it it's very real so basically um now I know we have five minutes I'm gonna try to put it um condense it as much as I can so we know that in a lot of our institutions in this country and all over the world you know a lot of agendas are being implemented like he was saying um and a lot of them could be called and I hate the word woke I hate it okay but I don't know what other word or term I can use woke okay so or Progressive which is an offense it to me Progressive is like an offense to Progressive right progressiveness

107I don't like using that either but I will so you know a lot of the things he was talking about like um uh CRT lgbtq curriculum curriculums in schools and I don't know if you guys are doing that and I'm not judging here I'm just saying I know it's Statewide I know it's National to implement this so whatever okay I'm just talking very generally um but they're not these topics the subjects are not really appropriate for young kids that you're when you're growing and developing your mind just can't grasp the meaning behind this maybe if you're older and you have a better filter in your mind you can understand and make your own personal assessment but if you're a kid forget it or a young person you're not developed enough to make discernment um with

108in relationship to these topics so anyway um you know a lot of these are agendas that to me you know if you're born a man or a woman I'm male or female that's who you are if you feel like you need to change your gender um I think that's fine if you're an adult and you know what you're getting into but a lot of these agendas are to get young children that have no discernment to to think well do you really know what you are and they're like young they're like I think you know this is why we have this gender identity crisis in this country because they're too young to understand these topics okay um same thing with the the racial thing you know um I just want to wrap it up kind of

109by saying like uh I was seen earlier you guys have like black and Latino circles and I'm thinking well I'm like white asian Spanish how do I fit into any of those groups it's almost like it feels exclusionary I don't think that causes the division in our country when you sit there go okay we're gonna have this group this group well how do we feel like we fit we don't okay we don't we okay a nation all right thank you we don't fit and that's all of us we don't fit into these circles because the circles are meant to psychologically like tear you down like well I don't belong in that group how come I'm over here why is my friend over there that's not cool okay so anyway um I guess I'll just wrap

110it up I just want to thank you guys for letting us speak it's very important that the public is able to speak and thank you very much thank you Matthew Duncan hi my name is Matthew Duncan I am a retired teacher from ABC unified taught 30 years in this District 29 of which were at Ross Middle School after one year at Artesia High School I'm here and I retired 11 years ago I didn't expect to be back speaking to the council but that all changed when I watched video on the Artesia for artesians now Facebook page a few weeks ago of the bullfight conducted at the Artesia bull ring which is right across the street from Ross Middle School and so I watched it and I didn't like it I don't like bullies I don't

111like people who bully other people I don't like people who bully animals I was bullied as a skinny little seventh grader by two High School guys who took my books and taunted me and threatened to throw my books over the wall and wound up throwing them out in the street so I ran out picked up my books and one of these big guys came up and kicked me in the butt so I just don't I don't deal with bullies very well and as a teacher I didn't as a coach I didn't as a private citizen I don't whether it's humans bullying other humans or humans bullying other species what we might commonly call animals well in the case of this bull fight in Artesia it's considered a bloodless bull fight because they don't kill the

112bull but they abusable I watched on video at the Artesia thank you at the Artesia for artesians now site I watched eight adult men jump a smallish obviously scared non-aggressive little bull got him in a headlock two guys took turns twisting his tail yanking on his tail and then ultimately the other the seven guys backed off in the one guy's spun the bull in Circles by pulling on his tail it's totally humiliated the bull and it made me think back to those two High School guys who totally humiliated me so I spoke to the city council didn't get anywhere but I think it's important I talk to you you're thinking why what's this about what does it have to do with ABC Unified School District well what it has to do with is that this

113District contracted with the organizers of the make sure I get this right of the Artesia Des organization to have this bull fight and the our school district was paid almost fourteen hundred dollars uh 1391.50 to use Ross Middle School facilities including the staff parking lot uh District Personnel to monitor the parking lot uh law unlock and lock the gates so the district was involved in this and I spoke with a city a district official last week he said well we didn't promote it yeah you did you're part of it you're part of the problem you're part of this bull fight so I would respectfully ask this District to not participate in any more celebrations over there no matter how much the city council from Artesia likes it Dr Zelo you I see you you met

114with City officials from Artesia yeah tell them you heard from Matthew Duncan they know me they're not they won't talk to me they won't answer a simple question like are the Bulls mistreated thank you just a simple question can I just get a quote from you do you believe the treatment of the Bulls was Humane or inhumane won't answer it they won't even talk to me at least you guys are looking at me these guys were just ignoring me so that's what it is what it is I'm not going to worry about that the problem is this school district which is highly respected should not be participating in a bull fight call around to other school districts and see if they're participating in bull fights I bet you I know what their answer will be

115thank you thank you I don't see any other uh public comments thank you clerk nashii all right consent calendar May I have a motion to approve the consent calendar is there anyone that wishes to remove any items or have any discussion before we vote Yes Mr President I'd like to pull item 2.1-c for further discussion okay clerk nashee yes and 3.4 and 4.3 okay Dr Rios on 2.1 do you want to ask a question or right you just want to vote on it separately yes please okay clerk nashee do you have questions yes uh really quick uh for 3.4 the gift and talented budget of this is not the entire gifted and talented budget right 18 000. no this is not the entire budget for gifted and talented okay so there's more that's that's out

116there yes how much more approximately I would have to look at our different budgets that we used for that but off the top of my head it's around 48 000. that's what I thought it's an estimate okay thank you it's great and 4.3 I just want to thank all the people that have been donating to this District it is an amazing thing not all of our district has a lot of money so that they are donating 1 000 a hundred and fifty dollars whatever amounts that these uh individuals and groups are donating is amazing particularly like the you know pull out leap Foundation which I was a part of long time ago and it's an amazing donation I know it's it doesn't come free because it's a lot of work so the way to make

117our district the best District that we have here is these people that take the extra effort so I know it's consent I know it's uh it's a boring regular item but all those groups and parents and community members that commute say and do these things extra work for free public education which is not free I applaud you you deserve this extra thank you so that's it that's all Mr President thank you clerk nashiki all right we're going to vote on all consent calendar items except for 2.1 C all those in favor aye aye any opposed motion passes all right consent calendar 2.1 C Dr Rios thank you so my first question before I go into my um discussion would be where is the money coming from to pay for the assistant principles so if the

118question I want to make sure to clarify that is the assistant principal for the title one schools the assistant principles in general yes so the Lord so we have to as discussed earlier right we have full-time principles for those large elementary schools namely Nixon Bragg nemus and Leo those come from the general fund the base general fund the five that we just added to support the 10 Title One schools those would come from the one-time Esther fund and ongoing we are looking at Title One funds and also lcap funds the supplement concentration because they can be used to support Title 1 schools thank you because yeah I did notice that only some of the title 1 schools are getting assistant principals and I get you know that the numbers are an issue and from personal

119experience having worked at Title One schools and now I'm a principal of a non-title one schools I get that larger schools need that level of support but I would argue that even small schools need that level of support I would say that all Title One schools need an assistant principal because at a title one school and for example I didn't see any of the schools in Hawaiian Gardens receiving assistant principles you can talk to you know any of us we've visited these schools they have a hundred times the issues that non-title one schools have and warrant and assistant principle regardless of the of the number of students and given that we have such a large I don't know what thing to use 23 million at last count I think in l-cup funding that all Title

1201 schools should have um have the need I I don't know that that can be argued um but absolutely warrants we know that the pandemic has brought on a lot of issues Behavior you know I like that instruction is our new Focus but again I would say that all of our schools can benefit and our students can especially benefit from having an assistant principal on site now I will concede that maybe you know it doesn't warrant for full-time although like sure if you ask principals they would argue that they absolutely can use the full time but definitely at least the part-time in all of our elementary especially our Title One schools so actually they are shared between the schools they're listed with one school because that's what the system can handle for that's where their

121pay stub will be provided to them at but all of our elementary schools that are Title One will have a part-time so the two schools are sharing an assistant principle at all of the schools so Palms Hawaiian will all of them it's just only one is listed because that's what the system can handle it can't handle us listing both sorry someone uh the equity officer being on our agenda today is that yes he is in here if you look on um page 17. thank you Dr Rios do you see page 17 of the agenda his name is uh Blaine Watson right above your finger here thank you no more no further questions or discussion okay we'll vote on 2.1 C all those in favor aye aye any opposed passes 7-0 action item 1.2 a I

122have a motion to approve request to subscribe to therapy notes LLC nonprofit monthly subscription plan for online electric medical records HIPAA complaint documentation and secure file storage to be used by the district mental health professionals under the supervision of the district social worker for the 23-24 school year so moves Mr Nguyen thank you so much in working with our mental health professionals they um I have a need a software system that where they can take notes on students where it's consistent and it's also protected because there are certain privacy issues or HIPAA law that we want to make sure that we have you know a system to support them with that so that's why we are asking the board to approve the contract with therapy notes for this this will really enhance the ability to

123support our students in ABC thank you Mr Nguyen clerk nashee any public comments uh I don't see any all right I'll bring it back to the board Clerk nashee really quick what other school districts use this system say that again I'm sorry what other school districts use this particular system I don't have that information I can provide that for you this is not a brand new uh system though correct no no it's not there for how long I again I would think about that the the mental health professionals in working with uh Miss Tina Porter recommended this after they're doing their research on this so we are you know making our recommendation to the board for approval on this this is something they would really need to help them to do you know uh to

124keep notes on students and also to be in compliance with HIPAA law thank you it's it's very likely that this is used in other counseling settings and that's why they are aware of it thank you all right all those in favor aye aye any opposed motion passes seven zero 2.3 a man I have a motion to approve the new job classification job description and range for coordinator nutrition services range 16 with the annual salary of 85 836 through 97 764 on the management confidential salary schedule effective August 15 2023. I have a motion Dr Frazier thank you Mr President um we are bringing forward the um the new job classification and job description range for the coordinator of nutrition services uh due to the universal feeding and the increased services from our nutritional program we

125feel it's necessary to bring forward this position to help support our nutrition services some of the responsibilities of this position would be inspecting the kitchen area on-site inspections of kitchen area monitoring food production and preparation safety and sanitation developing training for our employees as well supervising and evaluating nutritional service personnel and assisting in the supervision of the summer service session which we know is pretty busy as well so um in order to continue to meet the needs of our our increased production and servicing our kids and the foods we are bringing this forward as proposed clerk nashee any public comment I do not see any all right board have any questions Clerk nashee um yes I have a few questions so this is uh there's no requirement that they actually have food service industry experience

126it's just preferred is um or like they don't have to have uh had any cooking experience I guess because it's a coordinator position I believe you're correct yes so it's more of a manager your own supervisual uh position so not necessarily that they would have the food experience but they do have the managerial experience okay because obviously preferred is you know that's what we're looking for preferred but it's not required right it just seems like uh they're going to so we have sometimes people that uh want more tasty food and so sometimes if you have more Cooks that might help in the actual achievement of that particular goal um and then I see there's no requirement for any college degree is it based upon the the salary range that we don't feel that we could

127get a college level person who's in nutrition services it's just this coursework yeah I think it says an experience in addition to customer service related field so I think it says four years the four years of experience so a lot of times what we're doing now and sort of in these industry related jobs that we don't necessarily require school but necessarily just job related experiences is we're looking at that as being a an appropriate level of experience for us to bring in place okay it just again seems like um you know somebody has some degree in nutrition services and that type of thing it might be a more more able to bring a better quality food to our our students but I know that this is just a coordinator position all right um and you're

128playing on uh recruiting in the jet where are you are we planning on including this position well pending board approval we'll get it up get it up and running as soon as possible and start recruiting for the position I'm like where where are we gonna uh post it a lot of times on edjoin we'll post it we also have um Publications that we post our classified positions as well it'll be up here in the district we'll circulate it around that way so I'm hoping that we can do it in you know some of the other venues that are not just Ed join so that way we can get a broader range of people that uh might be able to serve some really delicious uh lunch creative and good lunch thank you all right all those

129in favor aye aye any opposed motion passes 6-0 3.78 may I have a motion to approve request a contract with make math moments Inc to provide in-person and virtual professional learning services for the district elementary and secondary curriculum and professional learning departments for the 23 through 26th school year MAV emotion so move d by Clark nashee second Dr Castro thank you we're requesting approval of Contracting with make math moments as part of our math steps program we want to provide comprehensive support to our school sides and one of the key aspects to that is making sure that our team of coaches and directors and supervisors who support the school sites also have the latest in instructional instructional resources and support and so making math moments is actually an international company that not only works across

130the United States but it works across different countries to really support the latest research on teaching mathematics and how to best provide training to adult Learners around mathematics so in in other words into our teachers Clark nashee any public comments I don't see any any board comments or questions Clark nashee I have to ask so if number one I think this is a great great program so that's uh we definitely need to have these math moments I'm presuming you've done all the research to determine that this is these there's going to be a measurable gain out of this it's all the Baseline and uh something else like that um do we pass these by our strategic committees that we have now typically we work with our district committees and we work with our like for

131this one our district mtss committee we had a group of directors this Summer that met around our math Improvement science looking at different data analysis results and then we vet programs through our teams here when those programs directly work with teachers we include teacher input into that but because these this program works more with our district office and how we then provide the services out there then we worked with our district team to gather their input for that so the mtss committee and the teachers and things like that but not necessarily the the community committees because that might not it's a it's a consultant so it might not be the right venue right they do not work directly with students or the community they work directly with our District staff and our who then work

132with teachers so it's more primarily for the leadership that drives the professional learning for math okay thank you all right all those in favor aye hi any opposed motion passes 7-0 4.4 am I have a motion to approve requests for allowance of attendance due to emergency conditions to the State Department of Education so moved second oh that was close all right Sophia's first all right Mr Nguyen I'm assuming this is gar High School no no okay I missed that one we did have our high school already the boy proved that if you recall Whitney High School um there was a Thursday there was a threat there where we work with um the local sheriff department to ensure the safety of our students the following day we experienced a drop in attendance because of concerns from

133from students and parents so anytime there's a drop of more than 10 percent due to an emergency then we can apply for a waiver and this is what we asking for the board to approve is applying for a waiver for the Friday not not the Thursday but the Friday after that where a tenant would drop more than 10 percent at Whitney High School any public comment I don't see any any board discussion all those in favor aye any opposed motion passes 7-0 4.5 a map of motion to approve bid award ABC 1622 copy paper and other paper bid to Southwest school and office supply and Liberty paper as lowest responsible bidder for the 23-24 school year with an option to renew annually for an additional two years any public comments I don't see any any

134board discussion all those in favor aye aye any opposed motion passes seven zero four point six am I have a motion to approve bid award ABC 1624 testing of fire alarm systems to telenet VoIP Inc as lowest responsible bidder with an option to renew annually for additional four years any public comment I don't see any any board comment all those in favor aye aye any opposed motion passes 7-0 may have a motion to approve accent action youth America to provide the before school expanded learning program ABC excels to Carver Elementary School for the 23-24 school year with an option to renew annually for up to two years in a second any public comment Clerk nashee I don't see any any board discussion all those in favor aye aye any opposed motion passes 7-0 board member

135reports start with Dr eunyo thank you Mr President I'd like to welcome everyone back for another school year I hope all our students and staff had a wonderful and relaxing summer break now it's time to get back to work with a fresh start with a new superintendent a new school board member and a new school year it's also that time of year for my family last year we were a transition household for a foreign exchange student from France for three weeks until a host family was found for this year our family will be hosting a foreign exchange student named Taya a sophomore from Romania for entirety of the school year I'm amazed at the level of maturity intelligence and boldness these young students have to leave the comfort of their Homeland and venture out to

136a foreland to study at such a young age I'd like to thank the Artesia Cerritos rotary club for making this Arrangement and allowing our family the opportunity of this experience once again and I'd like to thank the parents of Taya for entrusting our family with the care of their daughter over the next school year I am deeply humbled and honored by their trust in US once again I'd like to wish all our students and staff a safe and great school Year and may God bless you all and keep you well Mr President thank you Dr Daniel next up will be vice president say thank you president August 2nd attend the new teacher orientation August am I attending summer professional learning for orientation August 10 I attend the city of Cerritos open house of city council

137chambers viewed a new technology advancement and I don't know when we're going to change ours here and I asked before we should have your own computer here and we should not use so much paper there was just change to be paperless and everything right here so hopefully it will change right thank you and my report thank you president all right Mr noyola uh thank you Mr President I just wanted to thank Dr Castro for putting together and her team the professional learning I was able to attend and the second day where Dr Zelo was a keynote speaker and I'm glad to know a little bit more about her and especially where he comes from and her vision for all of us I also wanted to welcome all the ABC families and all the ABC staff

138I'm here to learn with you guys so uh thank you all for taking me under your wing and showing me the way thank you next up Dr Rios I'll keep my comments brief just welcome to all of our students our staff our families just the entire ABC community and I wish everyone a fantastic 2023-2024 school year thank you Clark nashee yes uh I got to play Pickleball first time ever I found out what it means to get injured playing pickleball uh actually the second file I fell at the uh did a lot of events I think this year is important right parents this is the start of a new year and um what you put into it is what you get out of it um I talked about people who have donated their time their

139treasure their talents all to the betterment of their own students and their kids and their um and their own future basically the more you give in this case the more you get back so parents and community members even grandparents out there were listening um this is this is us donate to yourself make our own Community richer we can reduce crime and fix a lot of the problems in this world by helping our schools our teachers who are on the front line people who are The Hope also of of fostering a better tomorrow um as you probably know this is the last two weeks that you guys could win money for a scholarship uh the tuna Canyon detention station um if you want to contact me go ahead and contact me through the district but uh

140in the event have a great school year this is the chance to make everything great and uh more power to all of us thank you thank you clerk nashiki last up will be Mr suyu hello everyone and welcome back to new school year today August 15th is actually Korea's Independence Day this is historic because uh it um ended the misery of the colonization by Japan uh that was 1945 August 15th U.S and the Allies I mean I think U.S joining the Allies was providential because that ended the World War II and as a result Korea experienced the freedom and um it ended the Tyranny the Fascism and the killing of innocent which was dictated really by the few individuals of these countries very greedy power hungry that ended the war and um few people dictating

141the lives of millions of people is always wrong and prior to the uh Japanese colonization Korea was under the kingship you know the king the royal family and slave the slavery was horrible these human beings were not even considered as human worthy of human they were considered like animals before the Japanese colonization yeah Korea at that stage and Korea is forever indebted to U.S and the allies and also the many missionaries and the American soldiers who did come and gave their lives for the freedom because did you know Korea was the poorest country in the world they were number two at the bottom but today they're reaching the top reaching the top and all because the first president of Korea studied at Princeton he studied to be a pastor but he saw what was happening

142and he changed his course of life and he actually brought the American Constitution and brought that to Korea so he's actually the American form of government We The People by the people that brought Freedom so Korea alliance with the U.S is a blessing to Korea they should always keep up with the alliance the new president understands and appreciates what U.S have done for Korea that is the end of my report president thank you Mr suyu okay announcements next regular board meeting Tuesday September 5 2023 7 pm here committee meeting school facilities capacities declining enrollment ad hoc committee Wednesday August 16 at 6 PM legislative policy board advisory committee Wednesday August 30 6 30 pm strategic planning board advisory committee Tuesday September 26th at 6 PM clerk nashee are there any second public comments I don't

143see any all right Sophia say predicted we'd be out by 8 30. it looks like we're about one minute late I thought she was going to jinx us but I'll entertain a motion to adjourn that's that you did a great job president second by Sophia all those in favor aye all right meetings adjourned thank you Starbucks [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music]