001foreign okay is everyone ready okay um the board is returning from closed session the board just returned from closation and no action was taken take it so I will call this meeting to order at thank you Mercedes and um roll call Mr Bell here Mrs Carroll here Dr Finley present Mr Figueroa present Reyna Diaz is present and our presence in prison I have s-a-n-a-r and I don't have your names and I always forget names forgive me for that so but let's hear name Audrey Audrey present in Sofia present okay thank you I'm gonna memorize the names I promise okay I will ask Mr Ed Hernandez to please lead us on the flag salute and then I'm gonna ask um Mrs Carol to uh after the flag salute and moment of reflection to read our beliefs
002our mission and our mission Mr Hernandez oh she's gonna do it perfect I like that being a volunteer okay I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all and moment of reflection thank you please be seated our mission our beliefs we are a community of Learners We Believe learning occurs in a culture of caring and respect we believe all students are motivated to learn when they are engaged in meaningful work that connects to their lives We Believe expectations do influence performances and outcomes We Believe learning increases when there are high expectations for performance and conduct we believe we have the responsibility to find Solutions and that enable all students to learn our vision
00321st century schools producing 21st century students our mission provide the knowledge skills and inspiration for each student for success in college career and life thank you this is Carol I need a motion to adopt the agenda so move move by Mr Bell I need a second second by Dr Finley any discussion all in favor aye aye okay we moved to report from student board members who would like to start first Okay Sophia hello everyone good evening so all throughout October not only breast cancer but all types of cancers have been recognized in the main quad we had a tree up and we had different colored ribbons that represented different types of cancer during lunch time students were able to write messages whether they were personal or just in general about the cancer that either affected
004them the most or what they thought would be the best to write about they were able to place it up on the tree and we also had an event the girls love mail where it's newly diagnosed women who got diagnosed with breast cancer and students were able to write them messages of Hope encouragement and just you know being that friend someone that they can count on and knowing that they're not alone and they're always supported on October 7th we had Joe Torre visit the campus the students were thrilled and so excited to meet him he graciously visited our ASB class gave a few words of advice and encouragement to our student leaders he stayed in the Margaret's room classroom during lunch time students were able to come in ask him questions he was once again
005giving advice words of encouragement pushing our students to make a difference and to really be a part of our community um on some more recent events we had Unity day on the 19th which uh we wore orange to support and show our stand against bullying we had a picnic during lunch there were games set out music playing we provided lawn chairs blankets students came out they were able to play games with people that they've never really had any relationship with before it created um new relationships since they were able to play with people with the games so it was a really fun event so fun that when the bell rang students didn't want to go back to their class to their next period today we have we participated in the great ShakeOut which the entire
006School um participated once again and while it was pretty hot the teachers and students followed instructions and every class was stationed at their designated spots for many it helped remind them about the importance of practicing these drills in case these drills do become a reality so everything went pretty smoothly in an old-fashioned and adequate Manner and for upcoming events we have homecoming just right around the corner tomorrow we actually have the homecoming rally and excitement grows because we have our homecoming tailgate game on the 28th which we invite all of you guys to come out and support and it's against workmen and our homecoming dance is on October 29th so this methods this month at MIT our film class went to screen Fest on the 11th and yesterday on the 11th students were able to
007do interviews with the people who worked on the short films or any of the bigger films that were played on that day and then yesterday students were able to were able to watch some of the short films made by the people they had interviewed and some short films from students the soonest made last year we played yesterday as well students were also able to work on workshops which included acting sfx makeup and storyboarding today people from Citrus College went to help the seniors apply for financial aid for those who want to attend college After High School our football season is also coming to an end and we hope our basketball season which is next will be just as fun some guest speakers that we had this month included Deputy Deputy Valenzuela Mrs Bowen from Simply
008Divine and the Marines for upcoming events we have a spirit week next week which includes many days of fun but the main days are twin day anything but a backpack day and costume day on the Friday before Halloween and on that day we will have a costume contest a barbecue and some fun activities for the students thank you we now move to superintendent report thank you madam president and good evening to our gerardi community uh just a couple of uh quick updates as Sophia alluded to today was a great California ShakeOut and and so this has been a a constant practice of making sure that all of our staff practices effective safety measures so that way when if and whenever there's some sort of a Calamity we we know what to do and we know
009how to properly respond so I want to say thank you to our to our students and staff for taking the drill seriously we also take the drill very seriously at the at the district office and so in fact we completely evacuated the district office today and we also stood out in the in the Sun but I'll add one piece we actually had a training by a fire extinguisher company where just hang with me there's it's not as bad as it's going to sound we were starting fires and then putting them out and so it was a controlled fire but we were starting and there's video and picture evidence of this starting fires I think Dr Hillman was the first one to start a fire and then put the fire out okay maybe she may not
010have started it but she did she did put it out but the point is that uh we took the opportunity to not only um take the Great America great California ShakeOut as an important drill to make sure that we're always practicing how to be safe but also through the leadership of our director of Maintenance operations and transportation Mr Shaw uh took the advantage of the opportunity to train Us in something that is a critically important skill and when when the gentleman who trained us actually pulled the group and asked how many people had ever operated a fire extinguisher there were only a couple of people out of a group of more than 20. and so now everybody has that critical skill and they know what to do and how to do that so uh really
011appreciate uh the leadership of Mr Shaw and our and our team at the district office I'm also pleased to to share that I had a wonderful visit with Dr Greg Schultz who is the president of Citrus College he visited Duarte high school yesterday and walked the campus and saw all the wonderful programs and all the wonderful things that are happening at Duarte high school and we found ourselves in in one of our English classes listening to quite a great conversation on The Great Gatsby and the level of critical thinking and Analysis that our students were engaged in was was truly truly special Dr Schultz at uh communicated to me that he didn't want to leave the class he actually wanted to stay and continue to listen to the to the lesson which is uh which
012is a testament to our teachers and students I also want to piggyback on the conversation about the visit by uh by Joe Torre so many times when there is somebody of you know celebrity status and anybody who's been the manager of the New York Yankees and the LA Dodgers I would call that a celebrity status if they come to visit school or visit a campus you sometimes expect that maybe they'll hang out for 30 minutes and take a couple of photos and then they'll then they'll they'll be on their merry way Mr Torrey was there for multiple hours several hours um and what I what I really appreciated about what he did and Sophia captured this in her comments he gave lots of words of wisdom and encouragement to our students which I think is
013always a positive thing but not only that even when talking to a large group of students he was doing that but the authentic interaction he had one-on-one with students where he would take off his New York Yankees championship ring and allow the students to wear it and take a photo with him and and then talk to them about you know what they're doing and what they're excited about and what's happening in school uh was it just a testament to the work um that he's doing and that he and his wife were doing with Margaret's place which is in an international organization that provides a safe space for students on on campus on on campuses and so we're really excited to host that program in collaboration and partnership with the LA County Office of Education and
014the Community Schools initiative uh last thing I'll just share I had the opportunity to spend some time at Westminster gardens today and provide a district update on all the programs and things that we're doing for the community with our residents over in Westminster gardens is great opportunity to hear these stories about these these folks who have committed so much time and energy to actually volunteering in our schools there they we heard stories about science programs and tutoring programs and mentoring programs that many of these residents were doing 10 15 20 years ago and we want to take the opportunity to revitalize some of these programs you're talking about people who are experts in their fields that want to come back and give back to our students and so we we certainly want to want to
015build on that so I was very very happy to to provide that that visit at Westminster gardens in their Hospitality was was really off over the top they did a great job of welcoming welcoming our our team over there today and with that Madam president that is the end of my report thank you Dr Amerson we continue with requests to address the board do we have any requests yes we do Madam president I'd like to invite first to speak uh I think it is Julissa Esparza hi Julissa you will have three minutes okay hello um so I come here to the board to represent Duarte GSA um so we did have a situation where basically we have a non-binary student who ran for homecoming court and because homecoming Court was under king queen prince and
016princess they were presented by none of these terms because of this we suggested to the ASB board that perhaps we could run under royalty which they did and we are incredibly thankful for um but the thing is that we saw a lot of homophobia faced towards our club because of the situation a lot of students were unhappy that we were taking away um the terms king and queen from the voting and um I just want to say that even the Google form was made that suggested that we isolate our non-binary students into a completely separate Group which would make no sense because not only would it out them if they were not ready to eat out but also it may cause them to face even more homophobia at school but um GSA it was advocating
017for these gender neutral nominations so that when non-binary students come to Duarte they know that they are safe here they are welcome here and um a lot of students are saying that it violates tradition however the UCLA Williams Institute produced the report in October of 2017 that says that over 10 percent of California's public middle school and high school students do identify as lgbtqia plus and it makes no sense to not allow these students to have the same opportunities that their CIS Street fears have peers have and um basically we just want to say thank you to our ASB and um we just wanna address that to the board thank you thank you Julissa next we'll invite to to speak Tony Navas galdemus and Tony you have three minutes all right oh I'm sorry good
018evening my name is Tony Navas I will also be speaking on the behalf of GSA of the GSA idhs and for the queer students that which to be viewed equally by everyone else at the school I am a bit emotional on this subject so well because it affects me personally so I'll start by saying the facts all these statistics are from the Trevor projects website as of 2020 the teen suicide rate for transgender non-binary kids is four times higher than their cisgender peers in 2022 it was found that more than 50 percent of of trans non-binary kids seriously considered suicide in the past year 2020 peer-reviewed study by the Trevor Project shows the trans and non-binary kids were 2 to 2.5 times more likely to have depressive symptoms or depression than other kids including their
019cisgender lgbtq peers none of these studies in fact to even factor in people of color which a vast majority of students at dhsr these statistics show that students will be benefiting from the changes to homecoming especially if they stay for the upcoming years rather than the mild discomfort that some students have experienced due to the changes these changes have allowed trans and binary kids to feel welcomed and participate in different school activities without feeling rejected or unwelcome by the community I know that these changes here have helped me and I hope that they'll help other students as long as they stay in effect along with any following events that come from this thank you for letting me speak tonight and well good night thank you Tony next we'll invite to speak uh Priscilla Banuelos hi
020Priscilla you have three minutes okay good evening I like I'm coming from beersley parents staff Association from bpsa and every year since we've had the Dual program we've done a Day of the Dead celebration and it says six years since we've had the program and every year we've been growing and growing and growing and since the pandemic happened we decided to do it in the evening and we're going to keep it in the evening it's going to we'd like to invite everyone here to attend we have our invitations it's going to be Wednesday November 2nd from 5 to 7 and it would be really nice to come and see the students have been working all month long doing many altars larger alters and since we have a sixth grade group of kids have been with
021the Dual program there's 15 students still with the Dual program they're in sixth grade and it's beautiful to see how they've grown so far speaking Spanish and taking down this tradition so there'll be there'll be food there'll be by Le Folklorico there'll be a mariachi band that we're getting entertainment by the students as well they come and they sing and it'd be really nice to see our board members come and see the program and how much our students have been growing from the TK program to the sixth grade where they're at currently okay thank you thank you Priscilla next we'll invite to speak our our last speaker is Steve Fernandez good evening Steve you have three minutes uh the first thing I wanted to address is the Pledge of Allegiance um I grew up in
022this country you know I shouldn't say completely grew up in this country but in this country I have experienced discrimination bigotry everything everybody else has never let it change my mind on who I am what I am or why I am and I've absolutely used it to better and this is something that I also appreciated about Lena Valenzuela who was a neighbor of mine and we often talked about this and uh but you know I I've never believed in protesting in a manner that basically insults or degrades what it is we stand for but when I went into the military I made it clear that I was going to be a conscientious objector because I would not say the Pledge of Allegiance that did not mean I would not stand and salute the flag that
023I felt was respectful but the Pledge of Allegiance to me I take personally because it is a it is probably just about the worst form of hypocrisy I know of because the last sentence in that holds no truth in this country it's not equal and it's not Liberty for all it's not Justice for All and when those things change I would be more than happy to recite that pledge I respect what it stands for and I'll I'll hear it from anybody who has to say it but I myself will not until I find it meaningful it's just like prayer to me it's something that you you say with meaning and with heart and something that you believe in and it's hard to believe in something that doesn't quite exist yet but my part is to
024do my best to turn that around and the best way to do that is by example and that's what I try to be in the community is that example what I really came up here to talk about though now that we got that out of the way is that um we reached a milestone this year and that is the first time in decades that we did not lose students to another school we actually broke even and that really is a turning point for me because that's always happened and I'm actually a part of that because when my kids were old enough to go to school there were so many rumors about how bad the schools were that I wouldn't put them in the public school here I actually put him in private school and kept
025him there until the oldest was five years old and then by that time thanks to Marcia McVeigh which actually insulted me and embarrassed me and humiliated me brought the point home that I had nothing to say unless I got involved which I did and I learned to love the woman and I have I've been involved with the schools for as long as I can remember and for this the city council and I think that when people especially running for office start talking or even continually talk badly about the district talk badly about the board or any of its members or it's schools it's not something that just sits there at that moment and goes away when the election's over it's something that stays and that's what I've always observed is that it's always stayed and
026as a result people just did not feel safe especially on the North taking their kids across Huntington Drive and um my kids graduated from Duarte schools they did very well in Duarte schools and I still believe in Duarte schools and I just want to say that I hope that this trend continues because really this is what we need this is what will bring kids into our district that aren't from here and that again is another part of our problem and that is that there are people here that believe that the schools in this city belong to this kids in this city well we don't have a lot of kids but I can tell you right now Arcadia Glendora and Walnut Valley would love to have them and they take them when we basically bash our
027own schools so I want to congratulate you guys for what you do thank you thank you to all of you who have addressed the war I Madam president uh I'm gonna be a little bit out of order if I may okay all right so I just wanted to say thank you for the students that came up and uh made the their comments presentation I I know it takes a lot of Courage so thank you for making your point in your case and I appreciate your your comments okay thank you Mr Figueroa I also Echo Mr figueroa's comments um Now we move to General functions approved the minutes of the regular meeting of September 15. I'm gonna need a motion and I will suggest Mrs Carol to abstain tonight please so and I need a motion
028so move move by Mr Bell second second by Mr Figueroa any discussion I'm just going to make a comment that the reason that Mrs Carol is abstaining is because she was absent from that meeting so all in favor aye thank you For Eyes one abstain approve the minutes of the special meeting of September 28th May I have a motion second by Mrs Carol any discussion all in favor all right thank you and now we move to the next item of business is the adoption of the consent calendar does anyone want to remove any item from separate discussion or action uh yes Madam president I'd like to pull I believe on on my agenda it's item number 12. um the letter of agreement with uh Joe Torre safe at home Foundation Margaret's place okay okay if
029um if we if nobody else has any other uh pulling any item from the consent calendar I would ask uh for um motion to approve the rest of the consent calendar motion Mr Figueroa and second second second by Mrs Carroll any discussion all in favor aye aye aye okay now we move to item number 12. in the consent calendar okay go ahead Dr Finley I do do we need to oh I need a motion to approve I'm sorry motion to approve um uh item number 12. Summer by Dr Finley second second by Mr Figueroa all in favor discussion discussion excuse me you see I'm not used to get any kind of people from the consent account okay you take me by surprise yes I'm sorry madam president no no that's okay yes I I just
030was um wondering the Margaret's place did not exist when I was at DHS and I unfortunately was not able to attend uh what the his visit to the school so I was wondering if either Dr Emerson or someone from your team could explain a little bit about the history of this program how it came to be at DHS and and sort of the benefits to the the community that exists because it's there absolutely Dr Finley so the the concept for for Margaret's place was a part of the the partnership and the collaboration that we have with the LA County Office of Education so a few years ago there were Grant funds that were available to start um was called the Community Schools initiative and Duarte Unified School District and more specifically Duarte high school was
031selected to to receive the Community Schools initiative Grant which provided funding um in in the way of resources and both fiscal resources and also Human Resources so there are two staff members at Duarte high school that provides support around the Community Schools initiative additionally on top of that there was the opportunity for funding to support another initiative called Margaret's place it's it's separate and different from the community schools initiative but it was all all emerged around at the same around the same time and so what mortgage Place provides is uh is a space on campus where there are counseling and support services uh and it's a it's a safe space where students can go when um they have mental social emotional needs that they would like to have met or addressed the actual the actual
032Margaret's place is a part of the Joe Torre safe at home Foundation now this is public publicly known information Joe Torre started this safe at home Foundation many years ago to provide funding and support to families that were in crisis um women who may have been trying to get away from an abusive relationship and trying to get children out of a traumatic situation and so he started this Foundation to to support people who had those needs more directly and this is also public information Mr Tory himself and I call him Mr Tori because he's just Joe Tori but um nevertheless Mr Tori his mother's name was Margaret and again publicly known information he witnessed his father you know physically abused his mother often so he created Margaret's place as an as an as homage to
033his mother's Legacy and his mother's memory uh so we're very fortunate to have the program we're very fortunate to have a space that has been created that has such Noble purpose and value and now Margaret's place is starting to to spread and it's now an international um now an international organization there are other markets Place satellites you know programs at other districts excuse me at other high schools in LA county as well as uh regionally throughout California but also it's now across the United States and also abroad as well so um Mr Tori is doing very very very significant work and we're fortunate to have the program and we got just absolute glowing recommendations growing glowing uh accolades from him and his team about the work that we're doing so we're very proud thank you
034very much for the ones that don't know who Joe Torrey is I know he's very famous he is very famous I don't know yes so Joe Tory was a very famous he was famously the um he was a professional baseball player then he went on to be a very very very successful Major League manager for the New York Yankees and the Dodgers and got really close to winning a World Series Championship with the doctors but Dodgers didn't quite get there but he did get there with the Yankees uh and uh I happen to have spent time with him when I played in the Yankees organization the same year when he was managing there so um so when I saw him I did call him skip because he was at one time my boss so there's
035that we forget you used to play baseball yes yeah in my former life yes sir go ahead how did we get connected to it oh so so when when the Community Schools initiative came down the pike there was also this other thing like Margaret's Place uh and I didn't know anything about it and they just said well do you want to do that too and I'm like sure not even you know not realizing it if they said would you want to have a safe space on your high school campus yeah that sounds great would you want a place where kids could go to get support when they did absolutely and and so not knowing that Margaret's Place had any tie to Joe tour it wasn't about Joe Torres about hey this is an opportunity to
036provide us a social support and service to students at Doherty High School um and you know I'm certainly not Clairvoyant but this was pre-pandemic when the conversation was starting uh and so now there's an opportunity to not only have done this beforehand but now based on all the impacts of the the covid-19 pandemic we know how important Mental Health social emotional supports are and we have those things now already in place which is which is wonderful and welcome continue to look for opportunities to build these types of resources and supports for students so yes so how does it look like during the given day like in the high during the day is it open during lunch hour or yeah so there's there are multiple times when it's available it is staffed by a counselor and
037uh and they students can come in at lunch they can come in after school they can make appointments so the space is there right in the middle of Campus directly adjacent to the the cafeteria it's right there kind of right in the middle of the Hub of the of the Quad so it's really accessible it's very visible for students and it's a very very welcoming space but students can opt in to going and getting that support as they as they deem necessary thank you Dr Amerson and board members there is any other comments since none um all in favor aye aye thank you we'll continue with accept the gift and donations and I thought they were quite of a lot of names of donations so may I have a motion to to receive accept okay
038Mr Bell yes second second Dr Finley any comments or discussion all in favor aye thank you moving to a first reading of board policies may I have a motion so move move by Mr Bell second second second by Mrs Carol any questions or discussion since none may I have a oh I'm sorry all in favor uh second reading approval of board policies may I have a motion so move more by Mr Bell second second by Mr Figueroa there is any questions or discussion since none all in favor thank you okay moving to item number seven board representatives to the Community Education Council appointment of members to the Community Education Council so for me may I have a motion move second by Mr Figueroa second by Mr Bell any discussion yes Madam president um could we
039just have a quick uh recap of what what this committee does and their their impact on the school Community how about if I ask you each of you the name of your rep and then I will let Mr Dr Emerson to uh give okay you may notice that there is not a suggestion there for me and as you know that my work here is through the end of December and so having a person come in for one meeting I thought maybe would not be uh productive but I hope to continue to work with you as a board as you consider other representatives in the future thank you Mr Figueroa Dr Finley yes and my uh designee is Jody scholes who's on the Duarte City Council thank you um Mr Bell yes my representative Mr Eddie
040Howard one of the fathers in parents of some of our local young people go to school here thank you and CeCe Carroll my representative is kelpner Shaw and she does a lot of she's a parent has a daughter in school here in Doherty and really involved with interact right now at the high school and other organizations Community the rotary also and that's my representative thank you and my rep is uh Sandra Salgado in she's a nurse in one of our schools and she is also Lydia Carswell daughter so okay continue with the same item uh can you please go ahead and say the duties of the right thank you madam president so the Community Education council is is another advisory body that supports the board and the district they meet I think we meet four
041at least four times per year and they provide input and feedback and and guidance on really important information really important topics like for instance the lcap and so before we actually bring the lcap to this board for approval we would have vetted actually the lcap through the Community Education Council we would have sought input and feedback from them as a part of that feedback loop that we also reach out to our our Union associations as well but the Community Education council is there to represent the board as more of the kind of the boots on the ground as their specific interest may be that they have a student um they may represent another Community entity like the city council they may have a unique or interesting interesting perspective that will add value and represent this
042board as an extension of being able to help us make good decisions to set direction for the district so that's the purpose of the Community Education Council thank you Dr Emerson thank you Dr Amerson is any other question or this question I was going to say that's where I started um I was asked back in the elementary school days to be a representative which I had no idea what I was going into but I'm going to tell you get a lot of information before you're right before the community knows about you know a lot about the schools and what's going on and it was actually my favorite Advisory Board to be on and I was sad whenever you became a board member a member I was like oh I'm not going to be able to
043go anymore so but it's a great one to be a part of thank you CeCe I just remembered that I started a cc2 rep yeah okay um all in favor thank you moving to uh personal student services okay we're now moving do I um public hearing regarding the USD sunshining of initial bargaining proposal for 2022-23 reopener do I have a motion to open the public hearing for item 12.1 so move move by Mr Bell second second by Mrs Carroll all in favor to open the public meeting thank you the public hearing is now open since no one approached the podium do I have a motion to close the public hearing so moved second thank you okay all in favor aye aye aye thank you okay eduarte educate unified Education Association the UEA initial bargain proposal
044for 2223 is just to receive for information no access no action is required the USD sunshine in of initial proposal to the Duarte Unified Education Association duea 2022-2023 reopener negotiations may I have a motion second move by Mr Figueroa second by yeah any discussion any questions um I'm just gonna say um probably I don't know Dr Emerson or Mr Crosby just for the public to know what is a sun shining it sounds so good thank you madam president Mr Crosby yes uh sunshining is a a legal comment that we are opening to let the public know what we will be negotiating about um with our our union members and uh for our contract we have to make sure that you and the the uh because we are using public monies and so that the board
045and the public know what all of our bargaining um pieces that we're going to be talking about this year so if it's not part of uh what we Sunshine then we cannot talk about it and bargain for in our contract if there are additional items that come up we would have to bring those items to the board and do this process again for you so that you would see it before we can start talking about it at the table thank you Mr Crosby any of the sketch any other question all in favor aye okay item number four amendment to superintendents Employment contract may I have a motion move second move to approved second Mr Bell and Dr Finley okay any discussion Mr President okay go ahead with permission thank you uh so I just wanted
046to take a moment to talk with the board and explain items number four five six and seven which are amendments to the superintendent and the assistant superintendent's contracts they are for consideration for the board's approval tonight and we are hopeful that you will approve the amendments to these contracts we are also working with legal counsel as we speak to do the amendments to our directors contracts as well and we will be bringing those director contracts back for board approval in the month of November so I just wanted to share kind of what the next step in the timeline are going to be for the approval of those for the for the proposed approval of those with the board's permission that will be tonight for these and then November for the director's contracts thank you thank
047you Dr Emerson okay there is any question or discussion since none all in favor thank you amendment to assistance superintendent of personal employment contract may I have a motion so move second move by Mr Figueroa second by Mr Bell any discussion in your position all in favor thank you item six admin Mentor assistance superintendent of business services employment contract may have a motion second by Mrs Carroll any discussion any opposition all in favor aye aye motion is Gary item seven amendment to assistance superintendent of educational services employment contract may I have a motion so moved moved by Mr Figueroa second second second by Dr Finley any discussion in your position all in favor and scarier Educational Services Duarte Unified School District Master Plan for English Learners may I have a motion so move move by
048Mr Bell second second second by Mrs Carroll any discussion yes thank you um so it is it's customary for uh for as we're doing our work as a school district to to have comprehensive plans and and this is another one of our District's comprehensive plans around our master plan for English Learners and this is work product that is directly out of Dr Hillman's office so I would I would ask Dr Hillman she didn't prepare a presentation like she might normally do with something like this but I would ask if she could take just a moment to do kind of a 30 000 foot kind of big picture the big Concepts that are a part of this master plan for English Learners happy to do it and happy to do a presentation anytime you want them
049yes this is a comprehensive plan what's putting together in one place essentially all the work that's going on in our district for all of our students who are English Learners it captures um everything from identification to instructional program to reach classification and funding and teacher qualifications it's in line with all of the legal components that that were required to have in place for the State of California as well as the acceptance of federal dollars for title bring title III for English learners but more importantly it really captures in a narrative form what's really happening and is is happening for our students who are really quite quite frankly fortunate to be on the road to biliteracy but who are coming to us as English learners thank you Dr Hillman any other question or comments since then
050all in favor aye thank you item number two 2022 2023 single plans for student achievements for old water unified school districts may I have a motion moved by Dr Finley second by Mrs Carroll um may I have a mush I'm sorry any discussion or comments Madam president yes sir so again these are Big important uh Concepts and and work that we're doing so I'd ask Dr Hillman just again uh from a 30 000 foot level the importance of our single plans for student achievement um if you could please these plans are a product not certainly not of my office they're they're a product of the schools our school Skype councils which exist which are consist of school staff the principal teachers and parents in some cases students as well are involved in developing these plans
051that kind of address the the identified need for each school for achievement so really what you're seeing here is a description once again of what's really happening in the services that are being provided for students to ensure that they have meaning their educational objectives I was going to say it's very detailed every school is you know they talk about percentage and everything from um even for I looked a lot at the Doherty High School since my child was there but just the graduation rate and so it's very detailed so there's a lot of like I said it's it's a package you have to read through it very closely and just it's really it's amazing you guys can put all of that information together it's very detailed it's really it was well done so thank you
052Mrs Carroll any other comments all in paper all right thank you business and finances approval of resolution 101-02-3 I'm sorry two two twenty two twenty three for Education protection account EPA may I have a motion so move move by Mr Bell second second second by Dr Finley any discussion yes and I already see I already say Miss Bell wanted to dive underneath the the table there um but uh misspell would would you mind uh explaining a little bit about what the EPA is uh and and just sort of how how that affects or doesn't affect the district we have this Kismet because I look at you and you look at me if it wasn't him I was going to ask him well the educational protection act is another source of funding and it's a component
053of the lcff and the funding the revenues come from state tax and personal upper class tax and we put that into an account and the account is usually we put that into account and the revenues are taken out of that based upon the lcff and we use that basically for our salaries so this year was about 11 million dollars so at least a little bit less than one-third of what we pay our salaries and benefits great thank you very much that's a that's a that's a decent chunk of change it is any other question okay since none all in favor aye aye aye okay item number two is beat number 2122 Dash d u h o six six dash one contract change of order change to order number one for Duarte High School new tennis
054courts project division one General construction crepe warrant incorporation DBA Sandalwood construction may I have a motion motion motion by Mrs Carroll second second by Dr Finley any question just a little yeah yeah what is this all right I'll start off and then I'll hand it over to well you go ahead yes I wanted to make sure that I knew this was going to be a question so I wrote down exactly what it is so this is our tennis courts and so there's a trenching project so I want to read exactly what the construction firms it so it's trenching and soil oh good sorry watch out now watch out now trenching and soil export it's a revised route that had to go much deeper but will provide an overall cost savings by making the electrical feed
055wire approximately 200 feet shorter less conduit less wire less demolition of existing concrete and asphalt so we have to do a change order for that because of what we found when we started digging that was kind of a weird area back there anyway so I kind of figured it was going to be something that happened the things we found underground yeah so just so just to clarify if I heard Miss Bell correctly it's going to reduce the The Distance by 200 feet Yes of 200 feet less conduit yes got it okay thank you so that that means there will be it looks like there will be an initial extra amount of almost 65 000 but then over the life of the project that will reduce the overall cost of the processing okay sounds like a
056good good change then but I I want to know exactly okay so I besides all the Nitty Gritty on that but the tennis courts and how they're going to look I I want to know it's being we have the old ones and then being the new ones so what updates are are going to be on the tennis courts well or go ahead well they're going to be a nice blue and the two sports are green so there's a blue color that there's concrete seating there's the water faucets that are now the ones for your hydros for the kids and there's and it's chilled um there will be security cameras there's lights and there's um outlets for the announcers for music to be played it's gonna be really nice so it's gonna be more modern yes
057so much more modern yeah so much and one thing to add on to what Mr Miss Bell just said when the tennis courts are done I I feel really confident in saying that Duarte high school will be the only High School anywhere in the surrounding area that has the ability to host every single one of their Outdoor Sports at night wow that's amazing yeah yeah right whether it be tennis whether it be soccer football baseball softball all of those events would be able to be held at night and this is it's a really cool thing that you can go out and watch Duarte High School baseball game under the lights every kid wants to play Under The Lights right so so that that's a really cool feature that uh that we've added and we'll be
058able to to showcase been great thank you okay if there is any other comments or since none all in favor aye aye thank you we moved to item number 15 which is non-agenda items for board members Mr Bell I have very very very energetic and information that was just excellent doctor Amerson today at Westminster gardens I wasn't sure exactly how all of that was going to turn out because you know sometimes you get there and you just have some different opinions but the way you explain everything and the way that the presentation was put together it was I needed to see what you presented today and I'm glad the community had a chance to see because it gave a good overview of the whole school district and again I want to thank you for the
059way it was presented not only information wise but the professional way that you did it and so again I left that feeling really good and we had some really I don't think more important than anybody else we have some really Choice people in the audience who have given a lot to Duarte Unified and this community and for them to hear you and how uh things went so well the way that you explained it made me feel very proud that they many of them who have worked very hard in this community and done a lot of good things I mean Doug Edwards mom was in the in the audience and that kind of stuff when you look at that one of our former board members president and his mom was there and you see different people
060who have been here and the way you explained it and it gave just a good upbeat how daughter unified is moving in that direction so thank you very much I was very pleased to see it and hear it thank you Mr Bell uh Mrs Carroll I was going to say it's the greatest generation of people you were speaking to today and um a lot and I work for the Royal Oaks Manor so a lot of Westminster they come over and visit the manor there so there a lot of these residents are some of them could be ex-senators I mean there's just a variety of people that really have done a lot for the communities or Community surrounding communities so it's amazing to hear about their stories sometimes you know being up there and knowing who
061they are but um what I was going to say too is um I got to read to the kiddos yesterday I was at the preschool Sophia Valdez and it was a lot of fun I I got to read two three of the classes a little kangaroo book that I read with the mommy pouch and um and I'm going next I'm going to beersley next I'm going to hit all the preschools right now read and I thought that was just a joy right there there were the adorable and and they're really were great listeners I was really impressed by it you know and they loved being read to so and I'm going to say that's pretty much it but I'm excited for the high school right now I really am when it comes to um just
062the changes progress that are going on with the facilities and um I think overall I you know it's exciting time we're finally you know we have kids that have said well you know other gyms are better and other schools and are playing or we can't do this here so we're finally going to get to that point where they're going to be proud they're going to have pride in their school I mean they already do but they're going to have the facilities to work around now so I'm really happy thank you thank you Mrs Carroll uh Mr Fiora thank you madam president you know I had a uh an opportunity to visit uh speaking of the high school I had an opportunity to visit with Mr Haro um several weeks ago and he shared about some
063of the programs um that they have been expanding over the years and one of the programs that really caught my ear caught my eye was the collaborative partnership between the high school and USC and so uh it's in its second year and so I invited Mr Hara to do a presentation to our Kiwanis uh uh members and so he he provided a presentation uh yesterday excuse me on Tuesday uh and you know exciting as Miss uh Carol just mentioned there's a lot of exciting things happening at Doherty High School um he provided an overview of uh staff provided an overview of student numbers you know our student numbers are are increasing or or kind of a stain even to to last year but you know it was a really great reminder you know I graduated
064from Doherty High School so it's a great reminder that the high school experience has changed and the needs of the students has changed and I think it's important for us to continue to be self-reflective and be self-critical and I appreciate the the students that came today and not only shared about the the decisions maybe a little bit of the the discussion the debates but how you ended in a good place and you uh celebrated the um kind of the outcome of a very what I would imagine a difficult uh issue but nevertheless an important uh item so thank you again for uh coming out and and providing a presentation here to the board um but just to highlight on this collaborative program with USC so 50 percent it's it's a full-time um counselor at the
065high school her name's Charisma and 50 percent of her funding is from USC and then 50 percent is from Title One and she's on site working collaboratively with our other counselors on Guiding the students on applying for um uh going through the application process of University application and you know it's uh is it difficult process and the great thing is it's not only for USC but any University so uh it's uh again just wanted to say thank you to Mr Haro for taking time uh out of his day and providing the Kiwanis members providing the presentation so it was very welcome well received and yeah I also had a chance to um to walk through the program at that was talked about today Margaret's place I had a chance to visit the classroom very welcoming
066I don't remember the name of this staff member there but uh yeah you can just feel it in the air that it's uh it's a very welcoming program so that's um it for me uh thank you Mr Figueroa Dr Finley thank you madam president uh yes I I want to briefly talk about perspective a little bit um and and how that really can Enlighten your your life um so I'll I'll tell you why I was thinking about perspective it's two reasons actually uh first of all a couple a couple weeks ago we were I worked out at City of Hope and our department was taking our annual Department picture we've got about 75 or so people in our department and uh I said hey you know all you know we've got a fairly big group
067um I will I'll bring my my drone down and so we can get a good shot and fit everybody in the picture and so I was I you know the whole group was in front of me and I was kind of lining things up and I was the Drone was kind of behind me and um there's there's parts of your head that you never actually get to see yourself and the Drone was behind me and it was pointing down right here and I I said to the crowd I said who who told never told me I was this bald I had no idea and so it was it was just that that shift in perspective was uh it was a little bit eye-opening uh not in a great way uh but it was it was
068eye-opening to me and and the second thing that made me think about perspective was uh this week I attended uh at Duarte High School uh the financial aid application Workshop um because it's it's been it's been a minute since I was at Duarte high school I graduated in 99 so a couple of things have changed there uh in the last 22 23 years something like that and so I I told Brielle my my oldest she's a sophomore at DHS I said I'm going to go to this thing and I'm gonna I'm gonna learn all about uh you know financial aid because uh apparently that college cost money and so I I went there and I I was so it was so interesting to be on the parent side of that discussion you know when when
069I was a kid I was you know just kind of thinking about I just assumed that college would happen right and and now sitting on the other side of that I'm kind of going how did my parents remain so calm and collected when when they knew they had five kids to put through college uh so it really gave me a great amount of respect for all parents that are going through this process now and who are going to be going through this process and I'm just incredibly grateful that Duarte High School in this District you know put together this workshop on financial aid because it it's something that uh is is some it's it's kind of overwhelming and unless you kind of have someone that'll guide you through it and tell you don't worry this
070this is going to work out you can reset your password you can do this you can do this um it can really just kind of feel like so much where you just throw your hands up in there and just say you know what Brielle you're on your own um but but uh I I got some encouragement while I was there and even though you know she's not applying to to college yet I wanted to get in there early and start to to learn some of the the tips and tricks of the trade and so just really grateful uh that the DHS put that on and and I hope that uh even more parents can take advantage of that because it was really a great experience thank you Dr Finley [Music] now have Audrey I don't
071know what we're talking about you can talk about anything whatever you want this is [Music] okay thank you Sophia hello okay um I just want to say thank you to the GSA representatives for coming out and communicating with the whole school ASB working together and just being so understanding and um for definitely just advocating for those who aren't as confident yet to talk about the topic for bringing the change to our school so I just want to say thank you and personally I'm happy that you guys are comfortable with our final choice so thank you for coming okay thank you so it's my turn I will tell you the last week I was able to attend a learning walk at Maxwell School it was like a movie it was so nice to go to kindergarten
072kinder and then they were doing some math and then you go to first grade and they will continue in doing the same thing at different level second grade and it goes up and up and it was just so great to see the teachers on board with the kids they were teachers were sitting on the floor making sure the kids do the right thing and I was wondering how did she's gonna do how did she's gonna resolve that and it was just like a magical touch for the kids but it was great to see how they will they continue and I mean it was mad right and it was so thank you for inviting me to that walk it was amazing to see how the kids and teachers are together and and all the teachers you
073know from different from different grades are in the same boat so thank you for that wonderful experience and I know that many of the board members had experienced that before so that's one thing then um I will also say that the bursley Dia de los Muertos is an amazing experience we had the fortune to attend last year and it was wonderful it is nice to hear the Mariachi but to see the work that the kids put together to make the altars is is an amazing so thank you for the invitation and we will be there um I was I I met the girl girl recently that she was one of the first students from the high school that graduated from early college and we went to Citrus College and that was in 2011. and she
074was telling me that she went to Citrus College she didn't pay a penny for tuition or for any books and she said that she's the person who she is now her name is Monica if I'm not sure Monica or Norma I'm not good to keep names I'm telling you but it was so good to hear that someone has been you know personally know someone that has done early college and she see the benefit of it and she said Reyna my parents did a pay didn't pay a penny even I got some kind of she said she got some coupons to ride the bus from Duarte to Citrus College so it is it is good programs that that we have in our school district and and I can see after the years the the person grew
075up and they realized that they did the right thing that they choose to go to early college classes in Duarte also um I wanna I wanna say that um this District recently I have hear comments that we are in crisis we are not in crisis we are not it's not fair we have to say that we have quality of students quality of teachers and our excellent superintendent and assistant superintendents who are responsible to manage everything in our school district it's not fair to say that and I will tell you something if I was not sure a hundred percent that this this district has changed lives many many people that I know many many of the students that I know I would not be in here spending 24 years of my life almost 25 my life
076is is gray and to be part of this district is amazing and that's why I'm here if this District was in crisis I would not be crazy to be here I would not be crazy to do that so when I made sure that everyone knows we are not a crisis um also the the students that came today I will tell you that I had about five I have five or six of my grandkids who went through Duarte unify one of them is my oldest grandson who I am very proud of him his name is Richard Rachel Ricker Alexander but he's he like to be called right right car so I just say Alex and he graduated from MIT from Mount Olive his struggle he he did it he didn't believe in himself about a school
077but I told him always remember who you are and no matter what gender you are you are a human being and you deserve respect and so I always since he was a little bit boy I told him you are an amazing person I will tell you all of you you're amazing to be able to come here and kids keep doing what you believe keep doing what is to do to respect each other to ask for respect and to give respect so I am very proud to see that you came tonight and approach Us address the war thank you for being here tonight um lastly I will mention that um that uh though Edwards was a board member for eight years I think I believe I run that yeah yeah around eight years and he passed
078away recently and his service is gonna be on November 12th but we don't know we don't have the details yet but I just want people to to uh to put in their calendars that that his service is going to be and that they also Mrs Rosa Urias uh Bryant uria's mom and Brian's Urias was the former mayor in Duarte and she is inviting the community of Duarte Community to attend a memorial Mass on Sunday this coming Sunday at San Luis of Friends Church to commemorate his first anniversary it went fast so she asked me to share that and with that I think that I will that's it for me so Dr Emerson thank you madam president I forgot to mention in my superintendent's report earlier today that we're excited that tomorrow we have the Citrus
079College Community day where we will have representatives from our district that will be going over and representing Duarte Unified School District at the Citrus College campus where they'll do a luncheon they'll do a tour and it's an opportunity for our representatives from our high school principals are going to be there as well as our our partner principal at CS Arts Dr Greg endelman will also be there and so they're going to go over and they're going to talk about our programs and talk about the Partnerships and this is another opportunity to create Synergy and connection and relationships so we're really really happy to to go over and represent our our district at Community Day and then just my final comments uh for this evening is just a reminder of kind of a core value that
080uh that I have and that really really focused on on equity and um we're champions for student voice we're champions for student voice evidenced by the fact that we have student board Representatives who sit on the diocese with us and we rely on them for counsel and for insight and for wisdom to keep it at the Forefront of the work that we do which is on behalf and for the benefit of of students and I'm reminded tonight how important agency and advocacy is by the speakers who came forth to share a perspective and I think that's really important and and thank you for uh being bold and being champions for expressing your uh your perspective on a really important topic and so I just wanted you to hear that directly from me that I think
081you did a very very nice job representing and advocating for your school community and so thank you for that and with that Madam president that is all I have for this evening thank you and I forgot to chair that um that um we had a student that graduated two years ago from the high school when she was almost 16 but she was still two days before turning 16. she graduated and she graduated with early college credits and she went to Mount Sac and she is gonna graduate in six months as civil engineer she's a Cal Poly Pomona thank you thank you Cal Poly Pomona and she's gonna graduate uh in six months before she turned 18. she is already working as a civil engineer with uh Edinson company and she's right now working with other
082um engineers at Universal Studios so that's a product of our Duarte Unified her brother is at Maxwell school he can you help me with that uh do you know about it that please go ahead he was he he was at fifth grade and he was ready to be in six what was the deal with there so at without a whole lot of detail I can just share with you that this is a another child in the same family who um is a very high accelerating student and like we do with most of our students we try to accommodate them and sometimes it's time to There's an opportunity to advance um and I I believe that's what the team is working on right now thank you Dr Hillman also um there was a these kids that
083I'm talking about they live in the County area and um there is there was another family that her son was thinking that graduate high school diploma was not important nah he can do it he was going to be a musician he was going to be playing on some kind of group but he didn't care about getting the diploma but he was at High School and so uh his mother came one day we were talking with some parents and she said well my son doesn't care about the high school diploma how can I help him and I say contact someone in the high school the high school and so they did and the other day she with tears and her eyes to say thank you to Duarte Unified thank you to the high school and the
084people who make possible that my son now can enjoy the high school and can enjoy his future that he is playing some kind of instrument and he's very happy to do it and now he knows how to read learning how to read music so he has purpose in his life now and that's what we do in Duarte Unified so with that I need a motion to adjourn a memory of though Edwards second move by Mr Figueroa second by Mr Bell any discussion any opposition meeting adjourned thank you thank you thank you board thank you Mercedes