001No, we'll come out and do a picture. Yeah, let it at the podium and then have Stephanie to trust the camera again. Yeah. teachers. Okay, we're going to begin our regular meeting today. I'm going to ask uh trustee din to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Now 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. Thank you very much for coming. It's not very often we have such many Hawk fan here today. So we're going to begin by asking Dr. Stephanie Heflin to uh to make a presentation. Thank you. Just Good evening, President Nwin, members of the board, Dr. MafI and all of our guests. Tonight, I have the distinct honor of
002recognizing an exceptional individual who has served Gardenrove Unified School District with dedication and remarkable grace as our student board representative for the 202425 school year. Miss Josephine Lee. Josie is joined this evening by her parents Con and Christmas Lee, her sister Bianca, as well as her aunt and cousin. Welcome. Josephine's tenure as a district student board representative has been marked by a commitment to amplifying student voices and fostering a more connected and understanding school community. She has consistently brought invaluable insight and refreshing sense of optimism to every discussion. Her communication skills both in addressing the dis and in meetings have been exemplary demonstrating a maturity and clarity that is beyond her years. Beyond her official duties as student board rep, Josephine has been a true leader among her peers, particularly within the board representative council
003where she has been an integral part of the group working with all eight high schools. The leadership, this leadership is not surprising given her extensive involvement in various organizations, including serving as co-president of the National Honor Society, vice president of the California Scholarship Federation, and co-secary for the Key Club, just to name a few. In athletics, she also demonstrated leadership as co- captain of the girls varsity volleyball team, and has also served her community and church. Josephine wraps up her academic career in Garden Grove Unified with an impressive 4.49 GPA, ranking number four in the class of 2025 at Bulsa Grande High School. She is preparing to embark on the next chapter of her journey starting in the fall at UCLA where her m major will be pre-statistics and data science to launch her into
004a future career of data analysis. On behalf of the entire Garden Grove Unified School District, Josie, we extend a heartfelt thank you to you for your educ dedication and leadership to this position. We wish you the very best in your academic journey at UCLA and are confident that you will continue to lead and make a difference in your community and the lives of others. Thank you so much for your service. Josie has a few words and then if we could if we could take a picture with Josie. Thank you. Hi everyone. As I attend my final board meeting today, I just want to take a moment to express my deepest gratitude. To the board, thank you for creating a space where student voices are not only welcomed, but genuinely valued. Serving in this role has
005been such an incredible honor. The conversations, decisions, and care that go into every meeting have shown me the true heart of leadership. And I've grown so much because of it. To Dr. Mafy, thank you for always making me feel like I mattered. Your kind check-ins, even when things were busy, meant the world to me. You've always looked out for me with such compassion and made me feel so supported. To Miss Nishiawa, thank you for always taking the time to talk with me and ask how I was doing. Your kindness never went unnoticed and you made everything feel a little warmer and more personal. And to Dr. Heftlin, thank you for being the steady, thoughtful support that I definitely needed. From day one, you helped me feel confident and capable in this position. Your words and
006encouragement grounded me and reminded me that my voice had value. Because of you, I walked into this room a little taller, a little more sure of myself, and I'm so grateful for everything you've done to empower me. To those in the audience who show up in care, thank you. Your presence at these meetings is powerful, and I especially want to thank a few special people here tonight. To my family, my mom, my dad, my sister, and my cousin and aunt. Thank you for standing behind me always, cheering me on, and for always believing in me more than I even believed in myself sometimes. This role has brought forth a better version of me. I've learned how to lead, how to listen, and how to speak up, not just for myself, but for others. I'm walking
007away more confident, grounded, and so incredibly thankful for every moment I've spent here. Thank you all for shaping this unforgettable chapter of my life. Here is the plaque commemorating your time here on board. And this tends to be the ever coveted name placard that everybody always wants and your name plate. Congratulations. You're welcome. I just want to make one statement. Thank you very much for serving on the board with us. You're not only only been the voice for the student, you have been an ear for us as well. I know I talked to me many student from your board out there. I know that you have been reporting to them what we're doing. So that very important so important we we have you as a an eye and ear for us. So that appreciate that
008very much. We wish you the best of luck uh in your endeavor. Uh always look forward to meet with you again whenever you come to town and this is the only chance we can take a picture with you alone. That's true. We can do it now. [Applause] One, two, three. Excellent. [Applause] Thank you so much. [Applause] Next, I would like to invite uh Mr. Jason Beva, the assistant superintendent. He going to present the classifying certificate employees of the year. Good evening, board president Wyn, board of education trustees, Dr. Mafi, staff and community. Tonight, we have two very special videos to share with you which highlight our nominees for the Orange County Department of Education employee recognition programs. I will give a brief summary of the recognitions and then we'll turn uh to the video presentation.
009Following the video, employees will come forward uh to receive their certificates and take a photo with the board of education. The first video honors our nine nominees for OCDE's 2025 classified employee of the year program. And this includes Jennifer Birmingham, a lead IBI, Isabella. Yes. Isabella Tronaki, uh, Cook Baker at Lintita High School. Gabriella D'Angelo, a behind the wheel instructor for our transportation. Alisa Gonzalez, school community leaison at Russell Elementary Language Academy. Shannon Lacy, secretary at Peters 46 Elementary School. Kurt Lucas, head custodian at Crosby Elementary. Nancy Monores, a student supervision assistant at Lawrence Elementary at the time of the nomination. Hold on one second. And now serving as a PAR educator uh IA2 at Brian. So congratulations. Yes. Uh Shannon Underwood, software and application specialist. Jesse Apprentice, a painter for us. We are absolutely
010proud to celebrate our nine outstanding nominees and especially thrilled that Kurt Lucas was selected as one of the Orange County finalists from a pool of classified employees across the country. He then went on to be named one of California's nine classified employees of the year. Then Kurt was one of only two classified employees selected by the California Department of Ed education, excuse me, uh for consideration for the national US Department of Education Rise Award. Kurt was dedicate who has dedicated 46 years of service to GGUSD. He is a homegrown employee. He is known for his exceptional work ethic and unwavering commitment to students, staff, and families. Congratulations to Kurt. Yes. Yes. As well as all of our classified employees of the year. So, congratulations. Now, we have a second video. This second video highlights our
011three nominees for our Orange County Department of Education's 2026 Teacher of the Year program. Our nominees include Kristen Quarter, first grade teacher at Rosita Elementary, Suzanne Russo, an English teacher at McGarvin Intermediate School, and Kate Septum, a fifth grade teacher at Patton Elementary, who was selected as one of only 15 semi-finalists in the 2026 Orange County Department of Education's teacher teacher of the year program. So, congratulations. All right. Congratulations to all of our exceptional teachers of the year. And I think now we're ready for the video. [Music] Hello, my name is Kurt Lucas. I've been with the district for 46 years and I'm the head custodian here at Crosby. Dayto day I open up the campus, get the day started. I open gates, doors, put out signage in the parking lot. I get the office
012open, NPR open. I pick up trash. I do a lot of things and try to get everything done before even anyone even gets here. So, I have the day ready to start soon as somebody shows up. This award means a lot to me. It's a real honor and it's because I have 46 years in here that I look at this award as a lifetime achievement award. I've been with the school district for 46 years, but also I went to school here and that's another 10 years. So, I have 56 years invested. So that's where I'm coming from when it's I say it's a lifetime achievement award for me. I really love my job here. It's been a real pleasure. I met a lot of people over the years I've been here. Every day is a
013a different day. I meet people with a smile. They give me a smile back. I work with some great people. The teachers, the principles, the students, everything is just been outstanding here at Garden Grove and I really appreciate them working me along to get this award. Hi, my name is Isabelle Chinaski. I'm working for over 26 years cook baker at Lakinta High School. I'm cooking in a pot days. I cook all the breakfast uh in the mornings. I make muffins every day. Over 200 muffins. cooking for over 1,500 meals just for lunch and around 900 for breakfast. I love my job because I love cooking but the more important I love the kids. I totally I feel complete around all these kids. They are wonderful. I have four children. Everyone go to the Garden Grow
014Unified School District. This award is a lot to me uh because I never been receive nothing. So, thank you so much. Hi, my name is Alisa Gonzalez. I have been working for Garden Grove Unified School District for the past 19 years. I am the school community lison here at Russell. I serve as a bridge between the school, students, parents, teachers, administrators, and the community, facilitating communication and support for students and their families. In addition, I am able to refer families to different types of sources that provide clothing, food, bus passes, just to name a few. I also find great joy in teaching parenting classes every year as well as assisting with translations and interpretations when needed. Being able to assist students and their families is truly very rewarding. This award means a lot to me
015because my husband, my daughter, and my son are all GJUSD homegrown, and I know that receiving this award makes them very proud of me. I love my job because it gives me the opportunity to establish amazing relationships. It gives me great pleasure and satisfaction to assist our community in any way I can. Hi, I'm Shannon Lacy and I am the elementary school secretary here at Peters 46. Um, I've been here for 23 years. Dayto-day my job is taskilled as any other person's job would be. The best part of my day is I get to manage people all day. I interact with the kids, with the staff, with the parents, my principal. The award means a lot to me personally because I do have a sense of, you know, self- pride in a job well done.
016I've always felt like I have a good work ethic. When I am having a bad day, just go out to morning recess. You are going to feel so much better. Fourth grader is going to come up and high five and hug you. Fifth grader is going to share about how amazing their baseball game was over the weekend. And if you're really lucky, a sixth grade girl might say, "Today you slay." Our district talks a lot about the three goals of the district and I really take pride that our office and our school community is goal two. We are a social emotional haven and we work hard to be that for anyone who walks through our doors. I do want to say thank you to the district for nominating me. Um it's weird to be nominated
017as an individual when you're really part of a working team. So, I do accept the award for myself, but I also in spirit share it with everyone that works at Peters 46. Hi, my name is Shannon Underwood. I'm a software and application specialist here in the IT department. I've been here at the district for approaching 18 years. There's a variety of things that I do on a day-to-day basis. One of the things that I do is I support the student information system. I ensure that the uh students have the access to all the things that they need. I support the teachers, the school secretaries, and other office staff and make sure everything's running smoothly. Well, getting this award has been a truly humbling experience, and I'm grateful for the recognition. This is not just about
018one person or myself. It's really uh goes to show the hard work and dedication of so many people around me. It's a reflection of what a great team we have. I love working for GGSD because of the great people I get to work with. you know, it's like they're a family away from home. They're always willing to support me and I feel welcome. Uh, you know, we're here for a bigger reason than just ourselves. You know, GGSD's values are not just, you know, words on a wall or a poster. They're just something that drive our daily work and interactions. And we get to to touch the future when we support the students for today. Hi, my name is Gabriella D'Angelo. I've been working for Garden Grove for uh 9 years already and uh my school
019bus driver and behind the wheel trainer delegated. Daytoday I start at 6:00 a.m. doing my pre-trip as a bus driver to make sure that the bus is safe to bring the kids to school. When I come back, I have my other job that is behind the wheel trainer delegated where I train the new people to drive a school bus and all the responsibilities that they have bringing those kids to school. I like work for gardening grow because uh they give me opportunity to grow. This is the best district that can have it. They saved my life and thanks for the board for Gabriela Mafi that trust me for my instructor Valerie Matt Thomas the director of transportation my husband. I'm pretty sure that in a short future I'm going to be instructor and I keep
020going and thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much garden Grove. I'll be always be grateful and try to do my best. This year I'm going to Sacramento to represent Garden and that's going to be my present for Garden in respect for everything that you guys always did to me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Hello, my name is Nancy Monet and I am a student supervising assistant and I've been at the district for 5 years. So my day-to-day job required to keep the kids safe. Uh make the kids feel welcomed at school and have a very positive activities for them set up. This award means an immense joy and honor to be nominated for. I'm actually homegrown, so it's very special to me to be able to give back to the district that has
021done so much for me um all these years. And now I get to bring my children to this district and have them go through what I went through. And it's an amazing process of learning and education. I enjoy my job. I love working for this district. It's been such an honor to be here with the families, with the administration that we have. And I just couldn't be any more proud to be part of the Garden Grove Unified School District. Uh my name is Jesse Apprentice. I've been at the district for 20 years, a little over 20 years. And uh my position is painter. Oh, day-to-day I do all kinds of different painting. Especially now that I'm in the shop, I do a variety of different things like furniture refinishing. Sometimes I preaint things that are
022then picked up and taken to the school site. And then when those times are not very busy, I go to uh school sites and do work orders there. Oh, this award means a lot to me. I've been here a long time and I try and have a good work ethic and it's nice to be recognized for that and I try and do a lot of extra stuff and many people are always appreciated, principles and even co-workers, people that I work with. I do love my job. I've been painting for almost 40 years and for the district it's been 20. So I spent half my life doing this and this paint crew particularly is actually a lot of friends. We do stuff after work. I've been mountain biking with a couple of the guys. I've I
023go hiking and camping. One of my co-workers, we climb Mount Whitney together. It really is like a friendly family atmosphere and the camaraderie during the day is it's uh makes it fun. Hello, my name is Jennifer Birmingham. I've been with Garden Grove Unified School District for 17 years and I'm currently a lead IBI. My dayto-day can vary depending on what I'm doing. I go out, I support our students, I support our staff, as well as checking in with teachers to see how our students are doing um both behaviorally within classrooms, outside in the community, as well as interacting with their peers on a daily basis. Receiving this award uh is very special to me. This job can consume quite a bit of time. It means that the district is seeing how much I'm putting forth
024in regards to our students, our staffs, and their well-being. I am a Garden Grove homegrown individual. I love working for Garden Grove Unified School District because I love working with the students as well as with the staff members. I can be an integral part of the team and supporting how a student accesses their curriculum, accesses their community and accesses their peers. The students I work with typically require a bit more assistance and being able to see their individual growth. It's it's an amazing feeling. I am so thankful to be able to work with Garden Grove. Thank you everyone who has recognized me and thank you to the families and the workers that I get to work with on a daily basis. [Music] I've been teaching for 28 years. Most of those years here in Garden
025Grove and I've spent about half of my career in the gate program here at Patton. The best part about Patton here working with this community, uh, first and foremost, the families. We have an incredible PTA that is a huge part of our school community. They make so many wonderful things happen for the children that that go to school here. We have uh an incredible team of teachers. They care deeply about the work that we do. The best part about teaching are the relationships that are made each and every year with the students and their families. It's fun to get to watch them grow and come back and return and visit and share some of their favorite memories that they had during the small time that they were in my class. One moment that stands out
026is a former student sent me an email to let me know how much her time here in my class impacted her growing a passion for writing. And actually, we did a really fun unit at the end of the year, a medical school unit studying the human body systems. and she wrote to let me know that she was receiving a full ride scholarship to Yale to become a medical doctor. Pretty rewarding moment. I think I've always known that I wanted to teach. I think my family would even say that as a child that was uh something that that I was destined to do. I I fought it in college. That was not my first choice. I wanted to go into business and about halfway through I this is what I want to do and there isn't
027a a year that goes by where I regret it. I look forward to getting up and coming to work every day. The students are curious and creative and so excited about learning. There's a lot of joy to this job. No two days are the same. And I I'm I'm very thankful that this is the career that that was chosen for [Music] me. I've been in Garden Grove School District for 32 years. Honestly, it doesn't feel like that long. And all of my years I've been at Rosita. I always tell my students that we are a family and that we are going to spend our year. We're going to learn about each other and build build upon each other and support each other. And I think that family feel just kind of extends even past the
028classroom. It travels into our school and then into our district. I feel like I'm around greatness. We have great teachers, great staff members, great parents, great principles, great leadership teams. And I've always felt that Garden Grove has always given me many opportunities to perfect my craft, to go to professional development, to um learn about new strategies so I could meet the needs of my students. I think when you love what you're doing, time goes by really fast. What I really love about teaching is the connections that I have with the kids. Teaching so is so much more than just teaching academics. It's building those relationships, finding out what the kids really like, what interests them, what interests them outside of school, what makes them smile. It never gets old when you see a student's face
029light up, when they are super excited to tell you if they were in a dance recital or they went to a birthday party. So, it extends past the classroom. It's also very exciting to see their face light up when they understand like a tricky math problem or they finally get that letters become sounds and sounds become words and words become sentences and then they just take off reading and that is so exciting. I think all of those small little moments of building those connections that's what makes my [Music] why. So this is my 36th year teaching in Garden Grove and actually I've been in the district most of my life because I went to Stanley Elementary, Ralston Intermediate and Garden Grove High School. So the district has really been an important part of my life
030both personally and professionally. I think the thing that excites me most about teaching is when students understand that their ideas really matter. Um maybe they've contributed something insightful to a class discussion or um to a group project. Maybe they've used uh we've used their newspaper uh headline or their yearbook page design uh in a certain issue. Um those are the things that really motivate kids and inspire them to keep working. It gives a sense of of purpose to what we do in the classroom and that's just so gratifying to see as a teacher. One of the main things that we focus on throughout the year is solidifying students foundational reading and writing skills. Um, I want them to have a strong set of verbal and written skills that they can rely on to help them
031tackle the new and complex things that they're going to encounter in in high school and beyond. It's about giving them that confidence that they need so that they really feel prepared. Over the years, I've just been so lucky to teach in a community and in a district where learning is valued. Our district is committed to student success. the students and parents in our community have always made education a top priority and that's really made a tremendous difference. Uh I've been fortunate to have outstanding fellow teachers and administrators uh who were extremely dedicated and they've just inspired me and it supported me each and every year. It truly is a team effort at at MacGarvin. We have so many great programs for the kids and um everyone, office staff, maintenance staff, teachers, our counselors, our administrators,
032everyone just pitches in and works for the good of the students. Um it makes McGarvin a very very special place and I'm I'm just so extremely grateful to be here. [Applause] Okay, we're going to start one at a time. We have some pictures now here. Photo time. Uh, we'll start with Sorry about that. Jennifer Birmingham, will you please come up? Jennifer. Okay. Now, now we'll ask for uh teammates, admirers, family, all to come up. Jennifer's family. Anybody here for Jennifer? Come on up. [Applause] Don't be shy. Ready. Okay, Isabelle, please come on up. [Applause] Isabelle, two. Okay. Team Isabelle. Team [Applause] Isabelle. Ready? Gabriella. Congratulations. [Applause] Thank you. All right. Now family team Thank you, Alisa. Alisa Gonzalez. [Applause] Oh, yes. Team Melissa. Come on over. We have more room over here. Yes. Sean can
033do it. Have Sean do it. Oh. [Applause] Yay. [Applause] Okay. Shannon Lacy. [Applause] Yeah, that's true. All right, family entourage everyone. Yeah, I think so because of the number. Sorry. No, no, you're good. This push in. Just come on right here because that way you can find a friend. [Laughter] family. We'll do a couple. One, two, three. Shannon Shannon [Applause] [Music] Shannon get back. [Applause] Yeah, sure. Thank you. All the former principles over there. [Music] Man, your hair looks great. Thank you. Not so long. Thank you. [Applause] Yay! NY's family and team. Even the volume. Yeah. Yeah. Getting closer. [Applause] Okay, Kurt, come on up, Kurt. [Applause] All right, Kurt's family and team supporters. Oh, she's doing Come on up, family. Okay. Shannon Underwood. Yes, Shannon. [Applause] All right. All right. Fam Shannon's family and
034friends and teammates. We're not that creative. That just means you're smart. [Applause] Great. Thank you. [Applause] Okay, congratulations Christine. Christine Christine Corder here tonight. I'm her proxy. You're accepted. Put it over your face. [Applause] Lisa, Lisa, Lisa. Oh, I know. Uh, Bill's here for Suzan Suzanne Russo. [Applause] All right. Thank you. And Kate, come on up, Kate. [Applause] All right, Kate's family and team. [Applause] All right. One, two, three. All right, That were quite a grand finale for the school year. Thank you very much for the for coming. Sorry. We're now back to our routine stuff. Would you free to leave if you wish to do so? Congratulations, [Music] Gabriella. Gabriella, congratulations. Thank you. I want to say hi to you, but it was so busy there. Thank you. You did great. I loved it.
035We We watched it and cried with you. It was so badass. You did good. Well, by the way, we win first place team at Sacramento. No way. First place. See, you said you were going to bring it back, but they won first place. Yes. She She told me on the video, "Hey, we're going to bring this back to Garden Grove, and you did it." Yeah. Way to go. Awesome. Congratulations. Congratulations. Get a few more cool shots. Whoa. Pretty much cleared the room, huh? Yeah. Call McDibs is real quick. What's more like funny I'm sure. Did our staff shrunk? You guys shrink? Our staff shrink. Oh, okay. Yeah. That door. It may be traffic jam out there. I know I'm going to condense. Don't worry. Okay, back to work now. Um, next item on the agenda
036is to for the public comments. May I ask if we have any request to speak? We have two. All right. Thank you. And the first one is Miss Christine Ort Otega um president of representative from the CSEA. Thank you. Good evening. Um President Wyn, board of education, Dr. Mafy, staff and guests. I would like to thank um the board and Dr. Mafy and all the admin and classified that partic participated in um CSEA chapter 121's first ever um ACE program. ACE stands for appreciating classified employees. The ACE program um paired board members and other admin and dignitaries with classified employees and they went out and shadowed the classified employees at their jobs and um we had a lot of um participants. We had 36 classified employees sign up from bus drivers, mechanics, pair educators, IT,
037custodial, pest control, the maintenance trades, clerical, food service, and payroll. We had 25 administrators, two board members, one council woman, and we had a district director from the US Congressman Derek Trans office that came in um shadowed employee. Then we held a reception on May 22nd. It was really incredible to hear all the stories that we got from the um participants, the admin and the classified alike. And it was seemed like it was a really great experience for everybody that participated. Um, I think that people want to do it again next year, so we'll talk about it next year. But I also want to thank the food service department, Maria Deafonte, Agnes Li, and the kitchen staff at Garden Grove who catered for the event. The food was not only delicious, but it was beautiful.
038And I want to thank you guys for your time. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Next, we have Mr. Nicholas Dips. Uh, members of the school board, Dr. Moffy, my name is Nicholas Dibs. First off, I'd like to recognize the CSCA, the uh, classified employees. we were recognized here at this meeting is a a testament to the dedication that each of them have and without our classified employees the schools couldn't operate. So thank you to all of them all all all of those classified people. I want to ask that the district and I brought this up I think last year our seniors our graduating seniors are have a wealth of information. and they have have gone through in many cases 12 years of schooling. Why not do a survey just before they graduate and ask them?
039They're the best qualified to ask the question, what ideas do you have to help improve the school district? So, why not do a ask the seniors just before they graduate or just after? You probably have their contact information. Send it out. Ask them. Uh they're the best qualified to answer that question. what what what would you like to see changed or improved or added or deleted or whatever? Any suggestions to help improve the district? Another idea is to allow those who cannot attend, especially those who have a disability or medical condition, you you're discriminating against those people. You're not accommodating people like Craig Dery who have have worked hard to bring ideas forth, but he and other people can't be physically be here at a meeting. Other school districts allow like LA Unified and perhaps
040Long Beach, I'm not sure, but other districts allow people to come or allow people to call in. Why can't we have people call in and improve the civic engagement of our district so you can hear from people who can't be here instead of refusing to accommodate their disability or their uh their seniors they can't make it whatever. Anyway, lastly, something I've been bringing up for over eight years, which is why I ran for school board three times is the last is we our 10 intermediate schools lost our wood shop, metal shop, and welding classes and and other things. Uh over at uh Bell, we used to have uh welding. I believe they taught that along with uh wood shop and metal shop. The steam classes are great, but they are not a substitute for learning
041hands-on trades. And in the Sunday register, students gain hand-on skills. This past Sunday, June 1st, uh it says here, as fewer high school graduates in California choose pass heading straight to four-year colleges, uh fewer the enrollment in CTE programs has surged, but we need to have bring back the trades. I'm not saying cancel the C the steam classes, but bring our wood shops and metal shop. I've been asking you to do this for over eight years, probably nine years, 10 years, and nothing happens. So, thank you for listening. Thank you. Next is to approve the minute uh this time for the last meeting on May 6. Any correction, comment on the minute. Hearing none, call for a vote. Trusty Dina Win, yes. Trusty Walter Wington, yes. Trusty Terry Roco. Hi. Trusty Bob Harden. Hi. Chairperson
042Lenwin. Yes. We now go on the public hearings presentation and report. Uh first on the public hearings. The first item from the public hearings is on the initial contract proposal from Gypsa. I'll stand for Gandro Purple Pugo personnel. Any personnel student association okay any member wishing to speak on behalf of Gibson will open we have no submitted comments all right hearing none the public hearing is now closed the next item on the public hearing is proposed annual budget for the year 202526 the proposed annual budget was available for public inspection and posted on the district website from May 27 to June 3rd, 2025. U the public hearing is now open. We have no submitted comments. There's no comments uh from the public. The public hearing is now closed. The next item is next public hearings
043on a proposed local control and accountability plan to year 202526. The proposed local control and accountability plan was available for public inspection and posted on the district website from May 27 to June 3rd, 2025. The public hearing is now open. We have no submitted public comments. There's no member to speak. The public hearing is now closed. The last item on the public hearing is a proposed special education annual service plan and special education annual bud budget plan. The proposed of special education and annual service and annual budget plan was available for public inspection and posted on the website the district website from May 16 to June 3rd, 2025. The public hearing is now open. We have no submitted comments for this. No member to speak. The public hearing is now closed. That conclude the public
044hearing portion of the agenda. Now item five on the minute. I'm sorry. On the agenda is the programs and instruction. We have That's why I missed that. Huh. The item B on presentation is uh we have the initial contract proposal from Garden Road District to Gypsy. Uh I'd like to ask U Mr. Jason Balka, assistant superintendent uh superintendent for personnel. Good evening, board president Wyn, board of education trustees, Dr. Mafi, staff and community. Um we would like to um present our initial proposals to our Garden Grove Pupil Personnel Association. The district proposes that all terms and conditions of the 2425 agreement be continued with the following items to be negotiated. Article four, hours of employment. Article seven, the evaluation procedure. Article nine, leaves, and article 11, health and welfare benefits. Thank you. Thank you very
045much. Uh, next, I would like to invite Miss uh Christina Ortega, who represent CSEA to present the initial contract proposal to the district. Good evening again. um for CSA chapter 121 Garden Grove. We would like to continue with the contract that we're currently in and then also uh negotiate the following articles. CSA has an interest in clarifying and modifying hours of employment under article 4. Um article 9 leaves. CSA has an interest in clarifying and modifying or uh leaves. CSA has an interest in increasing leave acruals for its unit members. Article 10, health and welfare benefits. CSA has an interest in making enhancements to medical plans and managing employee contributions. Article 11, wages. CSA has an interest in salary increases and professional growth and development. CSA has an interest in negotiating fair compensations for differentials
046for working out of class. And we have an interest in negotiating fair compensations such as stipens for special skills within classifications. Thank you. Thank you. That will conclude the public hearing presentation and report. Now moving on to item five on the agenda with this programs and instruction. We have item 5 A through E. I need a motion. Walter, I'll move 5 A through E. Trusty Roco. I'll second the motion. Thank you. Item 5A is to approve the recommendation of high school athletic team or individual athletic qualifying for the CIF sanction uh both season uh competition to participate in those event during the 2025 and 26 school year even if the event require overnight. that basically give the waiver to any team that win the CIF playoffs so that they can continue on to the postseason
047competition uh without seeking the ball approval for the travel to play on the CAF playoff. Item 5B to put a memorandum of understanding with instructor inc to provide uh digital transcript from our school district to various uh university and college around the nation. This umou will um with the arrangement will cost the district for in three years will cost about one $162,77251 and thisou is for the to be valid for the school year 2025 2028. Item 5C C to approve the memorandum of understanding with the Orange County uh United Way to connect the career to make career connection with summer internship for the school year 2025 to 26 between the Gondo school district and uh O County United Way. There's no cost to the district. Item 5D it to uh approve and ratify Miss Curtis
048Bruno as the incoming principal at Rancho Alamidos High School to serve as a Gando school district representative to the CIF of Southern California section on Grove Conference for the school year 202526 and item 5E to approve the out district event this time to allow 14 dance team members from Bell Intermediate School to participate in a USA dance camp at not belly farm in Weno Park on July 14 to 16 of this year. Any comment question from any of the item hearing? None. Just call for the vote. Trusty Dina W. Yes. Trusty Walter Money. Hi. Trusty Terry Roco. Hi. Trusty Bob Harden. Hi. Chairperson Lynwin. Hi. I'm six. Honor business. Uh we have 6 A to K. Trustee Roco. I move we approve items 6 A through K. Walter. I'll second that. Thank you. Item 6A
049to approve the first extension of bid number 2315 with full engineer inc uh for for the period from June 19, 2025 to June 18, 2026 uh with no price increase to provide the poor supply material. Uh 6B is to approve the completion of project at various school site uh to next month incur and also mural for schools at Linta High School and a notice of completion will be signed and fired and invoid to be processed for payment. Item 6 C to approve a memorandum of understanding with about food care would provide mutual understanding of responsibility for providing food recovery program for the school year 202526 beginning on July 1st 2025 to June 30th J uh 2026. Item 6 D is to ratify uh the award in the in informal bit the contract with the bit
050number 25-113 to 2517 and 25-121 under the California Uniform Public Construction Costing act to circle city electric incor France Inc. JM Installation Inc. Mayer Construction Ink ultra sound audio ink and wallet electrical ink. M6 is it to approve the request for proposal number 2401 for expanded learning program. It is time to to have theou with the elo and rockettologology uh doing visit at professor egg for steam for the period from August 1st to July 31st 2026. Item 6F, it to approve the request for proposal 2413 for fresh bread and bakery product for food services to Galaso Bakery, Gold Star Food, Bimbo Bakery. Item six J it to approve a recommendation that the the to extend authorization for use of the San Bernardino County Superintendent for school bit number 23/24 IP 005 for the means to
051purchase furniture system and standalone from school a vocal in School Equipment Company, Lake Shaw Learning Material LLC, Hot Furniture System LLC, CN School and Office Solution Inc. and School Specialty uh LLC. The contract valid from July 1st, 2025 to June 30th, 2026. Item 6H is it to approve the appointment of Martin Conan and reappoint of Joanne Tran to the major P citizen bond oversight committee for two-year term effective May 25 May 20 2025 to May 2027 in connection with the general obligation bond election of November 8 2016. Item 6 I is to approve the destruction of obsolete record as specified in the list available at the office um of business services. Item 6J is it to approve the the student insurance uh to be offered by mayor and Stevens and Tuli uh and company available
052for purchase by district student for the school year 2025 and 26. Item 6K to approve the purchase order and check for the total amount of 78,619,000 $166.76. Any comment, question hearing none, let's call for the vote. Trusty Dina Win, yes. Trusty Walter Wita, I. Trusty Terry Roco, I. Trusty Bob Harden, I. Chairperson Lenwin. I item seven is on personnel. We have item 7 A to D E. Uh we had a closing session earlier to discuss employee discipline uh with the superintendent and and assistant super attendant devour and and there's some existing litigation matter and there was an act okay the first one right there's no action there's no action taken or report out that way so need a motion for 7 A to E. That's Bob. I'll move 7 A through E. When I second
053the motion. All right. Um item 7 A is to approve a report from certificate personnel and 7B on a classified personnel report. 7C in consideration the ratification of a tenative agreement between uh district and the bargaining units of uh gypsa that been gone pup people and personnel uh student association. Item 7 D is the pro provision for the classifying certificate retroactive pay benefit and 7E is on the 2425 salary is scheduled. Any question? All right. Hearing none, just call for the vote. Trusty Dina Win. Trusty Walter Money. I. Trusty Terry Roco. I. Trusty Bob Harden. Hi. Chairperson Lenwin. I. Now down to last item on the agenda. Begin with the discussion board member and would still remember member. We now trust we have trustee Dina W. Thank you, President Wyn. Uh, I want to acknowledge
054the communications from GGPPA and CSEA and I will keep in mind uh those notes when we do the negotiation and I want to send out my uh congratulations and gratitude to the classified employees of the year and congratulation to their families as well and I hope that they will have a great summer. So, I have Thank you, Trusty Walter Munan. Yes. Thank you. Good evening, everybody. Uh have a couple stuff on my list, but I'm going to lightning round a couple of them uh just to kind of go on with the program. But before I do that, if you would indulge me in just a few moments. um seeing Peter's um elementary and you know their little signs and the faces and stuff like that and I was thinking maybe just maybe in a couple
055of board meetings from now our lovely staff out here can get picture uh cutouts of the board members and when we have our board member comments at the end whoever's speaking you put up you know the the little sign up just so we can have some fun especially during the summer. I don't know just a thought just throwing it out there but yeah now back to business. um open houses. I went to a lot of them. Eisenhower, Warren, Woodbury, Crosby, Peters. Some of them involved um also celebrating uh the distinguished school um awards. So, that was really nice. Um graduations definitely uh were a lot of fun. I um was able to go to Santiago and Hair and I know my colleagues were able to go to their respective schools and you know, I always
056like to see the videos. Uh thankfully we we live streamed them and we have them. So I'm able to see, you know, the videos from the other trustees and I'll just say I'm very impressed with uh Lun's triilingual uh speech, English, Spanish, Vietnamese. You need to give me a sit down and teach me Vietnamese so I can also uh have at least a couple of lines. Okay, L, you got to help me out here. Um California Distinguished School Awards or at Disneyland Hotel was able to go to that. I know some of my colleagues, well actually just yeah Terry was there as well. Um and then uh lastly on the lightning round uh portion of my agenda um parade was able to do the strawberry festival parade with my colleagues. Uh another kudos for Lun.
057Um every 10 minutes or so uh a Vietnamese reporter would go to Lun and and record him uh right as we were walking the parade. So, you know, if you're if you get too busy line, you can always tell them, "Hey, that man over there, Walter, he he's ready to take an interview." So, that's why you got to teach me Vietnamese. See where I'm going with this? Come on. So, that that's the end of my lightning round portion of today. Uh, first part I want to uh deep uh dive on is I was able to uh attend a policy roundt. I was uh invited by the Orange County Harbor Institute and other uh nonprofits and organizations uh specifically around immigration. Uh so I was able to uh serve as a representative and talk a little
058bit about what we're doing as a school district. Want to thank Abby for getting me last minute some of those talking points. Um and I was able to use them. Uh so thank you. I want to talk a little bit about the CSA ACE job shadowing opportunity. I know we have Christine Ortega here in our audience. I was personally able to shadow um Mr. Andy Lee. Um he is one of our um M uh mechanic assistants over at transportation and he works during the night. So I thought that was really cool that he you know we have staff working really around the clock when it comes to working on our school buses. Uh he is a family man, a union man and he attended Garden Grove Unified School, graduated from Lintita. Uh so it was
059really nice to be able to get to hear from him and his colleagues. What was really cool is that they have a very small team, you know, about five uh individuals, some mechanics, some mechanic assistants, and they're very tight-knit, and they they look after one another, and they were able to collectively kind of tell me a little bit about their jobs and their roles, and, you know, it's one extra uh job role that I now know that I didn't know before. So, I think that's the purpose of the ACE program, I would assume. So, so love that. Um and then subsequently attending the ceremony that was uh con um done uh for the ACE program where I was able to acknowledge Andy and all of his hard work. Um and then also speak about um
060Sel Selena Gomez uh who is a custodian over at Garden Grove High School, which my wife was able to uh shadow over at um in that in that aspect. So it was really nice to be able to speak about both of them and acknowledge them. Um, and I'm really um happy to see a lot of our our staff, a lot of y'all that are out here were able to do it as well, right? So, um I think collectively we were all able to learn something and it was really cool to see some of the videos. I don't know who it was that went and did like pest control. Okay, there you go. That was a pretty cool video. Kudos to you. You should get like a pest control badge saying I did it. So, that
061was that was very cool. So, kudos to you. next next time I'll try to seek a more thrilling type of uh job. So yeah, kudos to CSEA for hosting this and inviting us. So thank you so much. Uh obviously with the parade of the Sharre Festival, there's a lot of other events that go on through the uh festivities. One of which I was able to attend uh was the festival cake cutting. Uh this is their annual tradition where they cut cake and they pass it out to the community members. myself and Lun was uh there. Um one of the really nice moments that I had during that that opportunity of passing out cake to community members. Um so you have to physically stand up and stay on this really long line down Main Street to
062be able to get your slice of cake. You can be there for several minutes to get this cake. And I noticed off to the side there were two elderly ladies that one of which was sitting on a wheelchair and one of which was like on a walker and they weren't going to be able to get a cake. And they were in awe just seeing everybody get cakes, children, adults, etc. And I grabbed them some cake and I walked them over and I would you all like some cakes. And they like lit up super happy that I was able to get them a cake. And I thought that was the end of that. But during the actual strawberry festival parade and I think Abby saw um those two ladies were on the route on the parade
063sitting down and watching everybody pass by. And when they saw me, this is how I noticed they were there. They were like, "There's that very nice young man who got a strawberry cake." So, I thought that was cool. And then I think Abby mentioned that he left a lasting impression on them. And just an act of kindness of how it goes a long way. So, that was really neat. Um, before the parade, I did the Strawberry Stomp, which is a 5K run that you do before the parade. So, I was able to do the parade route numerous times throughout that morning. So that concludes uh some of the events that I did. The last thing I do want to say is for all the thousands of uh viewers that watch our board meetings um there
064is an event I would like to invite uh these folks to community members and anybody's invited. Um, this Saturday, uh, Yenya is going to be having a walk-in talk, uh, event that's co-hosted with the city of Garden Grove, uh, where she will be there, the city manager, the police chief, fire chief, and several staff with the city are going to be walking around West Haven Park. So, at 8 a.m. sharp uh, at West Haven Park, we're inviting members of the community to come out and do a oneb block walk around that community. So, we'll be walking near the areas of Crosby, Violet, Walton, etc. And it's going to be a really great opportunity to get to meet city uh leaders um to be able to provide a service to our community. And this invitation goes
065out to our board as well if anybody's uh available. And yeah, that concludes my comments. Thank you, Trusty Metan. Uh Trustee uh Roco. Thank you. First of all, I want to congratulate our teachers of the year and our classified employees of the year um and thank them for their dedication to our district, to our students, um and to the community for all that they do. And there's a common thread running through there, the passion they have and the the the kindness and the willingness to to go above and beyond the call of duty. Um I think this has been a month of um culmination, celebration and achievements. Um so many um wonderful activities and um going on. We had um AXA um honored Lydia Machado as an administrator of the year. Um very welld deserved.
066And our own Dr. Mafy was also honored at the cal at Kelsa for superintendent of the year. And uh of course the the celebration for our California distinguished schools. And um we uh also I had the opportunity as Walter said to participate in the ACE program and I shadowed a bus driver Patty uh Okmpo uh who picked me up at Northcut and we went over to the other side of Santa Ana close to where I used to teach. Russell is familiar with the with the uh community and picked up a bus full of kids. I I didn't count them, but there were several from TK all the way to sixth graders. Um and then took a trip over to Marshall. So, it's a little bit of a distance, but those kids were getting on the
067bus. It's the first time I've seen them use their ID, little badges where they swipe to get on and boom, boom, boom, boom, just like that. Even the little TKs, I was impressed. and they were on the bus and they were well behaved. And I said, "Patty, how'd you get these guys trained so well?" She said, "I used to be an instructional aid." Ah, classroom experience. But no, it was wonderful. I I just love the way our bus drivers are so protective of our kids and so caring. And this these are the first people our little guys see before they come to school. And how are you? How she notices. They notice. I've ridden on other bus rides before and they notice the kids how they respond and if they don't, you know, they keep
068that in mind so they can talk to them later or give them a, you know, just a pat on the shoulder, have a good day. So, uh, and and I think that the the reception that you had the week later was really good because it allowed us to come back together and share our experiences. And I think that was of great benefit for all of those who of us who were able to participate and to hear each other's stories as well as the employees, the classified employees to feel proud and and valued in a big way. So, thank you so much for extending that invitation and I'm really looking forward to next year. Um, obviously we had an awful lot of graduations uh starting for me with TK. I was really lucky to be able
069to attend from TK all the way to Adult Dead and the TK uh class at Garden Park for the first time did an art exhibit because often um you know there's so many of them and they don't get that opportunity. Um, and so the TK teacher did an awesome job of of displaying um, gosh, probably four or five pieces of art from the year of the TK students and invited the parents to come in and they walked through. The kids each stood by all of their pieces of art. She had this all arranged in the multi-purpose room on like voting booths. Very well done and very well received. The kids were so proud. and then after that went into the classroom and did their little ceremony kind of like closing the year for TK. I
070guess you could call it kind of a graduation of sorts. Um it's very exciting for the kids and for our parents to take that next step into kindergarten. And so that was fun. I was I really enjoyed that. And uh also attended um obviously our high schools um my high schools are Rancho and Pacifica and um great graduations. We have so much to celebrate this year. So many accomplishments and achievements collectively from all the high schools really. Um they keep doing more and getting better and better and it's great. It's just um it's so uplifting for everybody. I also was able to attend the adult ed graduation at Lincoln which I always enjoy. Um they they started something new last year having a dinner where they come together and this is a time where certain
071students will come up and share their inspiring stories because for a lot of these folks they either can make it to graduate from high school and they had to work extra hard to do this and they have a lot of barriers. This is why they can't and they share that. That's like they're opening their heart. But uh just the determination and the and the persistence on their part and some older adults even who've been looking at trying to do this for 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, but things happen, life happens, and um prevents them, but they don't give up. And it's just like I I challenge you to go in there and listen to those stories and and not cry. It just brings a tear to your eye, and you're just so inspired by
072their stories. So, like I said, I I feel very blessed to have had all of those opportunities. And then I also did the senior exit graduate um interviews at hair. Um and here's another group of students who have to work a little bit harder because of circumstances in their lives as well. But boy, hair does an amazing job of preparing these kids for life after high school, right? Uh lifelong success. They do a lot of work with them on um writing a resume. um having some kind of a um a plan for after high school and then have this exit interview where we give them feedback um and they you know they give us a list of questions to ask them what are their plans, what was their experience at hair and they were very
073good at coming back with responses and they were very nervous but I think as I was walking out of the office I heard one student say to a teacher, "It was great. I was so nervous, but they're so nice and so they that the feedback we give them just does a lot goes a long way. We don't get we don't know I don't real I didn't realize until I heard that student talking just how important this is. So if you ever have the opportunity to volunteer even an hour to go do this I would tell you it is so worth it and it's so valuable for for the students at hair. Um, I think the only other thing I'll bring up, there's a lot of other things, but I'm know we're short on time here
074because people are getting tired. But, um, yesterday I had the opportunity to do the summer meals kickoff at Chapman Library and when I pulled up there was a line wrapped around the library and I thought, whoa, what's going on? Uh, but the library has done an amazing job of coordinating. They had an event where they had uh a touch tank there and uh so they had the parents and the kids come in for that activity then stay for lunch. So we served over a hundred kids lunch and they were happy and um it was amazing. We never the food workers and I were like whoa. We were just giving those lunches out and they had choices uh to make and uh everybody was happy. I spoke to some of the parents and some of the
075kids and uh I think they're going to be doing a special activity like that. They'll be doing lunches every day, but a special activity on on Mondays. So, I maybe go back on another Monday because I thought that was really cool. But that's it for me. Thanks. Thank you, uh, Trusty Roco, Vice President Harden. So, it has been a busy time and just a lot of events, concerts, open houses, promotions, graduations, uh, three or four highlights for me. Um, visual and performing arts, uh, is outdoing themselves at the, uh, at the elementary level. Uh, and what I saw over at Northcut was a highlight for me. Uh they did they did a concert and the thing that really stood out for me was that they performed a piece called Patchel's Cannon. Um and I see
076some nodding heads here and most of you who aren't nodding or those of you watching on video at home if you heard the melody you'd know it. Um you've heard it. You've heard it probably many times. Uh, and I heard it performed by a string quartet in London um about two weeks before I heard it done in Northcut. So when when the music instructor said, "We're going to perform this," I thought, "How are you going to do that?" Um, and I talked to him afterwards. It is actually a very clever arrangement uh where the difficult parts are played. They're actually in a recording uh piano and the kids play the backing part of the piece and it just it sounded did not sound like fourth graders um playing the violins and cellos and uh it's
077just it was amazing and and the music that kids continued to be exposed to. I was at another concert where um the kids sang a piece by Nat King Cole. Well, none of those kids had heard of Nat King Cole until a couple of months ago. uh then the fact that they're getting exposed uh to music that they would never hear otherwise um is just enriching for everybody that's involved. Um then there was the open house at Anthony. Uh and what stood out about that was that um they did their California Distinguished School ceremony there. Um, so Blue Ribbon School, now a California Distinguished School. I don't know what comes next. Um, uh, and then, um, third one that kind of holds a a special spot for me, um, because of the community is at
078Russell. And this year was the first group of kids uh, to go through the entire dual immersion from kindergarten through sixth grade. Um it's hard enough to I mean it was hard enough for me to learn speaking English. Uh and these kids were learning a second language and they were doing it during COVID over Zoom. Uh and to see these kids now are proficient academically proficient in English and Spanish. Uh, and it's it's the first group, the first of many, um, that will be going through Russell. Um, was kind of a special moment for me. And I I I got some dust in my eyes or something towards the end of it. Um, it was it was a pretty cool moment. And then there's there's the graduations and and I had Lois and Lita and
079um, and then over the weekend I I had a nephew graduate from high school in Wyoming. Uh, and I'm not partial or anything. And the the kids the kids all did a great job on on the speeches, the kids who spoke, especially one in particular at Los Amigos. Um, but the best speech I heard this weekend was from Finn Richards in Lander, Wyoming, who spent four minutes explaining to his friends that you need to live in the moment. This moment's going to be gone too soon. And you need you need to live in the moment now. um which is something I need to be reminded of from time to time. So anyway, and now my sister's going to be really excited that her son got mentioned in a schoolboard meeting in California. And thank you.
080Thank you, Mr. Harden. Uh first of all, I want to recognize my legal intern from my office, Richard Chung. He's actually went to Linta. He now attended UC Met and he want to go to law school. So I want to see saddle me to see what a lawyer do what what lawyer work and the daily. So I've been taking him around to see the different activity. Um and um yes we we now sort of officially get an over the school year. We just attend a series of graduation uh that will really showc the best that our uh uh district have uh produced and now just a one wave out. There's another wave coming in. We attend some intermediate school and this a new harvest, new flock, new group coming in. So they're very excited to
081get into high school. So uh at this time I want to uh and also not not not to underdo that and we have another group of employees and uh teachers for uh of the year today and then that was really to me a grand finale for our school years and it night. Thank you very much for our district uh making the effort to recognize the employees uh classifying certificates so that we can also showcase our staff as well along with our student for what an um an exciting achievement we have the year and then I know everyone deserve uh a break for the summer to get on to get ready for the next uh school year and I speaking of that. I'm excuse I want to shout out to the CSA for give us a
082very beautiful plaque here and not very often we get appreciation from our bulking unit. So I want to call out for that. Thank you very much for making an effort to come in and recognize and and that very nice that I missed the chance to kind of shadow our our employees uh to during that week. But I'd like to confess that I when I first came to the uh to the US when I even before I enrolled BA I was working with uh classified employees I mean my first English teachers were Vim Frank he was working in a painter thing I was stuck in between the driver and him big guys he where he taught me all the English He when I learned how to speak English with him and then doing all kind of
083custodial and then all kind of maintenance work during the summer. I learned a lot from that. It's my first dose of exposure to to English learning and to culture shock and all those thing going on the same time. I appreciate my first experience. Not only I sat on them for the one day or I sat on them saddle them to like for the whole summer that's where I learned a lot of stuff that my first is the connection of uh and uh appreciation of our staff that's where I really learn I really know about what they doing during those time and appreciate the classified uh work employee now this district they do it when they not being seen, not being and observed. on their own. They do a lot of stuff that that keep our
084school going and thank you very much for that CCSA for please send out regard to uh to your member and to our staff to say how appreciate uh we are for their work because a lot of time the school district they when they think of school they think of teacher they never think of all uh employee all trade all the weird stuff that they do uh to keep everything running. Um now, uh that conclude my statement. I want to announce the future meeting. The next meeting will be on June 17. We going to begin our study, uh session at 5:30 and the one after that will be uh on July 15. Uh we we have some fun something up from noon to Yes, we'll have our work with CSBA on um from noon till 6:45.
085That'll be our midyear session that we have every summer. Okay. So, I just want to announce also that after the next meeting on June 17, Dr. Mafia will be out to her her journey first out the country. Good luck and have fun with your trip. With that, the the meeting is