001Now we're going to begin our regular meeting today. I'm going to ask trustee member Josephin Lee to lead us in a pledge. Please stand. Put your right hand over your heart. Ready? Begin. I aliance 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 for a moment. I thought the clock is going to stop. Okay. Um we going to start our regular meeting. The first item uh we have some presentation right like to in invite uh assistant superintendent Jason Bewa to present the employees of the month. Thank you. Good evening board president Wyn board of education trustees Dr. Mafi staff and community. I'm pleased to recognize our employee our April employees of the month. As you know,
002our district is filled with amazing employees, but these two definitely stand out. GGUSD's employee of the month program is designed to recognize employees who put others first, go above and beyond to make a difference in their role, carry out each day with a positive attitude and strong work ethic, and demonstrate innovation, leadership, and passion for their job. Our classified employee of the month is Ben Dung. Yes. Uh Ben is had joined the district in 1994 working as a subcustodian until 1997 and then as swing custodian first at Skylark and then at Simmons until 2007 and then in 2007 he joined the team at Barker as the head custodian. uh where he is really one who is one able to recognize staff who shared that he Ben is dedicated to his work is always ready to
003lend a hand with a smile and makes Barker a better place to work and learn. Yes, colleagues also shared that Ben is extremely hardworking and they know they can count on him to help whenever there is a need. He is always smiling, problem solving, great at communication and ready to support however he can. staff recognizes his dedication to the job and view him as an integral part of the Barker family. Congratulations, Ben. Come over here. Yeah, one second. Thank you. All right, great. Um, now I get to introduce the certificated employee of the month and that's Seen Chen. Sale joined the district in uh 2014 as a teacher at Fitz Intermediate Language Academy where she teaches English and Spanish. She was nominated for this recognition by staff who shared that she has a passion for
004her work and a natural gift for making her classroom fun, engaging, and supportive. She is loved by students who can see how hard she works and feel how much she cares about them and their growth both academically and personally. students know that they can go to her for empathy and understanding. It is clear to all who know her that she has an excellent instructional strategies, a heart for students and is committed to supporting students growth every step of the way. Congratulations to Ben and Sen who are joined tonight by family, friends, and colleagues. We'll now show a short or a quick video that is uh to spotlight all the exemplary things that these employees do. After the video, we'll take some time to take some photos. Congratulations once [Applause] again. Thank you for this recognition.
005I appreciate the honor of being the employee of the month. I teach because I genuinely believe in the power of education and how it can transform lives. It is incredibly fulfilling to help students discover the potential and growth both academically and personally. What I love most about teaching is those moments when a concept clicks for a student. That spark of understanding is so rewarding. I also enjoy building meaningful connections and creating a learning environment where students feel valued and inspired to take ownership of their learning. Congratulations, Miss Chin, for being employee of the month. Miss Chin is such a great teacher. She really cares about the trajectory of these students. She uh really cares that they learn and have fun while learning even when the topic isn't that amusing. And she's also the hardest worker
006that I know. So, thank you for everything that you do, Miss Chen. And congratulations. Congratulations, Miss Chin, for being an amazing teacher. I feel like you deserve this because you're able to socialize with students and you're also able to understand them in a way some teachers can't. and the struggles, ups and downs, and I feel like you teach a very good way so they other students can understand. Congratulations, Miss Chin, for being employee of the month. Miss Chin is the best teacher ever. She's one of my favorites. She's just the best of me. I love her and I want her to keep on going. She's like the best teacher. Proud of her for being, you know, the employee of the month. I want her to keep on going and not give up. Like she always
007tells us to not never give up. Even though she sees us struggling, she always asks, "Are you doing okay?" And she just makes us feel like welcome, welcoming. And I really support that because many kids are going through a lot, but she always asks us, "Are you okay? Do you want something? Do you need something?" And she always gives her that like time to, you know, control ourselves. And she just makes time. She just makes us more welcoming to our her classroom. First, I would like to say thank you to all the to the teachers that who nominate me for this award. There's a couple reason that I like to work at school. You know, I like to to make people happy, teachers, kids, the parents. I think also is my personality to to want
008to make the people to see the their faces smile every day. I think because I receive so much love and support from the teachers and the students and the parents that's does that's I think motivate me to uh come to work and I just do whatever they asked me to do without hesitation. Thank you again uh for everything that you guys uh spoke me love me and nominate me for this award. I I am very appreciated and a part of my heart is I feel blessed. They give too much. Ben has been such a a huge part and a consistent um integral part of our school community and he's gone above and beyond. Um he's always making sure that we have a clean and a safe and a welcoming environment for all our students and
009our staff and for our visitors. He's always here before school begins, before any kids get here, making sure that everything is spotless. At the beginning of the year, he's got his um spray wash just spraying down the whole cl school to make sure it's nice and clean, ready for all the kids. He greets them with a big smile and he always is so kind and patient and has such a positive attitude and we are so blessed to have him at our school. Ben shows up every day with a smile, a can do attitude, and a commitment to excellence. There is no task too small, no challenge too great, and no corner of this place goes unnoticed thanks to his care and attention. But what really sets him apart is his kindness and his humility and
010the connections that he builds with the people around him. Whether it's a quick hello in the hallway or just his reliable presence, he just he makes a difference. He makes this school better, not just cleaner or more organized, but warmer and more welcoming and better. So, on behalf of all of us here at Barker, we are so proud of you for getting recognized on something that we have known for a very long time. Congratulations and we're so glad you're a part of our Barker community. Okay, we'll um ask to come down for photos and we'll start with Ben. Right in the middle. Okay, big smile. One, two, three. Very good. [Applause] There you go. High school. High school together. [Applause] or two steps that way. Are we up to I didn't know what they were
011going to do. two. [Applause] Yep. Careful. Yes. Uh next we're going to um invite assistant superintendent Dr. Stephanie Heflin um to present our uh San Diego High School high school basketball CIF champions. At this time I'm going to go ahead and invite them up here so you can see who they are. Coach, captains, players, come on up. If I can have coach and Matt and Jordan right here and the players right over there. They're very tall. It feels nice. Oh, they are tall. They do. Yes, you guys are perfect. Do you want to face the board? Say hi to the board. Good evening, President Wyn, members of the board, Dr. Mafy, staff, and guests. We are here this evening to acknowledge a truly special group of student athletes. It's my honor to introduce to you
012Coach Matt Mohouse, captains Matthew RmIrez and Jordan De Laamora, and the 2025 Santiago High School boys basketball team, who on Saturday, March 1st, achieved a remarkable feat, securing the Southern Section CIF Division 4A Championship, a first in Santiago's history. While this championship represents a pinnacle feat, it's also a reflection of the consistent dedication and hard work that has defined Santiago High School basketball. Under Coach Mohouse's leadership over the past eight years, the program has maintained a standard of excellence marked by sustained success, including five league championships and a record of achievement within our district. This year's journey to the CIF title was a long one. While the team did place third in league overall, they climbed the playoff mountain each round with a win to get to the championship game. In fact, they faced Los
013Amigos in round one, beating out the Loos in a 45 to 42 victory, and then also beat Pacifica High School in an exciting semi-final game 50 to 43. The program's last semi-final appearance dates back all the way to 1970, 55 years ago. This victory holds significant meaning for our school community, our alumni, and the entire Garden Grove community, which Santiago High School is so proud to represent. We'd also like to acknowledge the individual accomplishments of Jordan Deamora, named player of the year for division 4A. Jaden Ba who receives second team allciff honors for division 4A. And in addition, coach was recognized as coach of the year for division 4A. While all these individual awards, the excuse me, while these are all individual awards, they're truly a testament to the collective effort of the team. Ultimately,
014the success of this team is rooted in the Cavaliers shared commitment, resilience, and the sportsmanship they've all displayed both on and off the court. This team has truly represented Santiago High School and Garden Grove Unified School District with distinction. Please join me once again in congratulating congratulating the 2025 Southern Section CIF Division 4A champions, the Santgo High School Cavaliers basketball team. At this time, we'd love to have the board take some pictures with our team. Okay. Tallest and the board will be in the front. The board the board gets the board's in the front. Yeah. Yeah, I used to hide everybody smile. [Music] Oh jeez. Don't forget the principal. I can't hide in the I'm gonna turn this a little bit out of the way. layer. No, I'm not. Nice work. Way to go. Good
015job. Congratulations. Thanks for being here. Thanks. Of course. All right. It's not very often that we have CF champions in our ballroom, but I know even you winner, you still have homework to do tonight. So, if you want to leave the meeting, uh you you can do freely to do so. Don't worry. Don't be We're going to break. Don't be stuck here. We take a break. We saw a break. [Applause] Yeah. Book. Okay, we're back to the routine thing now. So, next item on the agenda is a comment from the public. Uh, may I ask if we have any request to speak? We do have two. The first one is from Nicole Haimey. I didn't hear the name. All right. Um, ready when you guys are. Hi, I'm Nicole Himenez and first I just want
016to say thank you for video recording the board meetings and I think it would be really awesome if we also did that for the study sessions. And um the main reason why I'm here is because of Angie Bis. She's the principal at Stanley Elementary and it's the same issues with the IEP meetings and as well as with my son. So, we just had IEP meeting last week and I went to share concerns, ongoing concerns that has already been documented with her regarding, you know, another student continuously touching my son, jumping on his back. He'll be at Boys and Girls Club and he wants to touch over my kids shoes. My kid doesn't like it and nothing's really being done at Boys and Girls Club. Nothing's really being done at the school site. And so when
017I um wanted to make a goal, like a self- advocacy goal, Angie's came up with, you know what, next year we're going to have a dog reading program and he could always talk to me. So it was really type of like deflect I feel is deflecting the issue because I'm trying to, you know, this is something that's happened to my kid. He doesn't really know what else to do. It's not being resolved. And I was like, we're going to focus on dogs, which it's a great program, but that's not the issue at hand. And the other issue, continuous issue is um she doesn't allow the teaching staff to speak. So when we do a Zoom meeting, the GenEd teacher has to sit next to her. Everyone else could be by themselves, but she does all
018the talking. We were in person last week and um the special education teacher is, I guess, unavailable, so she wasn't there. There was a TOSA and then the GenEd teacher and I asked a question about Chromebooks. The Gened teacher, you know, provided a response and Angie says like, "Oh, well, good job. Thank you so much for speaking because I didn't speak." And the her tone and everything was more like she was, you know, so proud because, you know, her dog didn't bark at the door this time. It was very, very inappropriate. And after that comment, the general education teacher stopped talking. And so I have no idea really how my kids doing in the classroom because the only person who's allowed to talk was the Tossa who only sees them a little bit a year
019to go over the progress for the goals. So she's preventing the teaching staff from being full participants at the IEP meetings. So if we didn't have a trianual coming up, it wouldn't be so much an issue, right? But if I didn't have the try, that'd be huge. I want to know how my kids doing. and Angie's continuously changing the topic to something that makes Angie look better. So, um I think dogs coming in with the kids so the kids could read, that's wonderful. However, if a parent is trying to say, "Hey, you know what? This is going on. It's continuously going on. You know, my kid doesn't really feel comfortable speaking with you because when he follows your staff's directions, you pull him to the office and you chew him out." Thank you. Second request
020is from Mr. Nicholas Dibs. Uh Dr. uh first off, uh members of the school board, Dr. Moffy, I'm resubmitting this again. It takes two board members to put something on the agenda. I'm asking two of you to have the courage to do what's right. We need uh ethical and fair investiga uh uh options for when there's an allegation against the superintendent. I will be and any of the cabinet people. There should be an ethical way of getting an investigation done. You folks should not be investigating yourselves. I'll be turning in a complaint against what the district did during the last election of manipulating the election as alleged by hijacking, manipulating, rigging the election by spending thousands of dollars of staff time and school district resources uh just before the ballots went out and just after
021the ballots went out regarding the CTE program. That's not even going to start till August of this year. That's clearly manipulation. Now, I'm asking that this board approve and adopt the policy that I've submitted, but I'd like two board members to at least have the courage to stick this on the agenda for a vote. that that when there's an investigation needed of the superintendent of allegations that you bring in an independent inspector general or ethics officer, whatever you want to call it, to do a credible independent investigation that has no ties to anybody here or to me to to look at the facts and the evidence. So, put please put this on the agenda. And on the other side is the policy that no district resources be used any time within six months of an
022election that might be perceived as giving an incumbent an unfair advantage uh either actual or perceived. So those two items I'd like to ask that you put those on the agenda. Now the I stand in solidarity. Last week, LA Unified ICE tried to get onto campuses at LA Unified. I I'm against that. I'm against what's going on in this country as far as arresting protesters and students and so on. And I assume all of you are as well. And you've spoken out of the the rights of our students not to be harassed and the parents not to be harassed on school grounds by immigration uh people. But you can't stand up for justice on one side and then on the other side ignore the fact that there have been some wrongdoing when it comes to
023these elections back in 2016 as well as 24. So keep that in mind. I also want to echo that we need to audio record your study sessions so that there's transparency of what you folks discuss at the study sessions and what is presented because we can't all be there at 4 or 5:00 in the afternoon. So, please put that on the agenda or ask the superintendent to record audibly those study sessions. Thank you for listening. Thank you to the speakers. Our next items on agenda is to approve the minute from the last meeting. It was on April 1st, 2025. Any comment, correction? Hearing none, let's call for the vote. Student trustee Josephine Lee, yes. Trusty Dana Win, abstain. Trusty Walter Money, yes. Trusty Terry Roco. Hi. Trusty Bob Harden. Hi. Chairperson Lenwin, yes. Item five,
024I'm sorry, on item three on the agenda public hearings presentation and report. On the public hearings, we have a the initial contract proposal from the Garden Education Association. We don't have any cards of speakers, but you do need to open and close the hearing. Okay. So, there's no request to speak. The hearing is now closed. Okay. Thank you. Uh next in presentation uh we have the initial contract more bank to close this. So close. Okay. Um next item is a presentation. Uh we have the initial contract proposal from the uh Gando district to the Gandro Education Association. Good evening, board president Wyn, board of education trustees, Dr. Mafi, staff, and community. I would like to present GGUSD's initial bargaining proposals to the Garden Grove Education Association. We'd like to um continue all conditions, terms, and
025agreements um of the 20 2024 25 agreement and then open articles as follows. Article four, hours of employment. Article five, grievance procedures. Article six, safety. Article seven, evaluation procedures. Article nine, class size. Article 10, transfer of procedures. Article 11, leaves. And finally, article 13, health and welfare. Thank you, Mr. Bawa. Um, item four on administration. We have item 4 A. I need a motion. the wall try to move 4 A in a way. I second the motion. Thank you. Item 4 A is on uh to approve the recommendation for amendment to the community advisory committee bylaw. Uh specifically with article four of the community advisory committee bylaw increasing the number of voting member from 11 to 15 for the school year 202526. Any comment question have no question. Call for the vote. Student trustee Josephine
026Lee. Yes. Trusty Dina win. Yes. Trusty Walter Munitan. Yes. Trusty Terry Roco. Hi. Trusty Bob Harden. Hi. Chairperson Lenwin. Yes. Uh item five on programs and instruction. We have 5 A and B. I need a motion. That's Bob. I'll move 5 A and B. Walter. I'll second that. Thank you. Item 5A is to approve the recommendation that uh the the the board approved the list of representative to the Carl Perkins grant advisory board for the school year 2024 and 25. Uh this board serve at the broad spectrum of the community member uh to advise the district on the CTE um programs. Item 5B is to approve the number of uh our district event. The first request is from uh Pacifica High School to allow 10 boys basketball team member to participate in the Palm Spring
027boys basketball tournament in Palm Springs, California on June 20th to 22nd of this year. The second event is to allow 25 eighth grade students from Fritz Intermediate School to attend the Washington DC historical trip uh to Washington DC and New York City on May 31st to June 5th uh to 2026. Any comment, question on any item? I just have a comment on 5B at a district events. I think that's so amazing that Fitz Intermediate students are going to be able to go to Washington DC and seeing here on the cost. The fact that they were able to do some fundraising for this definitely um is super um awesome to see. I think it's going to be a great experience for them and um I'm glad the community came together and fundraised for that. So kudos
028to the Fitz team. Any other question? All right, let's call for the vote and 5 A and B. Trusty Josephine Lee. Yes. Trusty Dina Win. Yes. Trusty Walter Money. Hi. Trusty Terry Roco. Hi. Trusty Bob Harden. Hi. Chairperson Lynwin. Immix and business. We have item 6 A to D. J. I move item 6 A to J. I second motion. Item 6A is to approve the resolution number 19 which uh in intent to grant the ease mean to install, operate and maintain electrical supply system toce uh to support our maintenance station uh at the Lson transportation center. Item 6B it to uh recommend uh approve accepting the the bid number 2410 to purchase the inwall cafeteria table and benches uh from Nelson Adams knack uh as a lowest and responsive responsible bidder uh to with valid
029from April 16 to April 25 to April 16 um 2026. Item 6 C is it to approve the completion of the project at Shapman Hinga Center um with a bit to AVI SPL LLC to uh complete a project at the Chapman Hinger Center. Item 6D is to approve that authorize the district to participate in a California multiple awards schedule contract number [Music] 3-20-70-1975R supplement number one to purchase hardware software and cloud computer services valid from October 21st 2020 to September 26 2029. N item 6E to approve the professional services agreement with Procure America Inc. for the review and identification of potential cost reduction opportunity for the district. Item 6F is to approve the ratification of the bid number 25-107 to25-112 under the California uniform public construction cost accounting act to Ben asphalt and maintenance company
030incin sun construction inc mod incorle Dbury and plies and RC man. Item 6G is to approve the application to accept the application for relief to present a late claim from Dolan Law Firm on behalf of uh their client Benjamin Fam for the personal injury sustained on April 26, 2024. Item 68 is to reject a claim from American Family Insurance on behalf of the client with lay for alle um auto damage sustained on February 13, 2025. Item six I to approve the uniform complant report summary for the period from January 1st to March 31st 2025. For this period we know there's no complaint. Item 6J is to approve approve the purchase order and check for a total amount of 63 million 7728,824.73. Any question on any of the item hearing? None is called for the vote.
031Student trustee Josephine Lee. Yes. Trusty Dina win. Yes. Trusty Walter Minton. Hi. Trusty Terry Roco. Hi. Trusty Bob Harden. Hi. Chairperson Lenwin. Hi. Item seven on personnel uh we have item 7 A and uh and B um at bay A to C. I want to report that on item D we had a close session earlier today. We got a discipline and with the superintendent and assistant superintendent Jason Bawa on a person um on the personnel issues and we have uh no reportable action taken and I need a motion on 7 A to C. The trustee Roco I move we approve items 7 A through C. Second. Thank you. Item 7 A is to approve the certificate certificate personnel report. Item SE 7B to approve the classified personnel report and item 7 C is to approve
032the declaration of need for fully qualified educator for the school year 2025 and 26. Any comment, question hearing? None. Call for the vote. Student trustee Josephine Lee. Abstain. Trusty Dina Win. Yes. Trusty Walter Metin. Hi. Trusty Terry Roco. Hi. Trusty Bob Harden. Hi. Chairperson Lenwin. I. Last item is closing. Begin with a comment. Begin with trust uh student member. Trust Finley. Over the past month, our district has continued to shine through student accomplishments, engaging community events, and creative celebrations across our campuses. From academic excellence on display at the Chemistry Olympiad to inspiring performances like Beauty and the Beast in Aladdin, DJUSD students have truly demonstrated talent, dedication, and passion. Career readiness has also been in full swing with CTE interview workshops and career days connecting students to real world opportunities and future pathways. We've seen
033schools foster strong community bonds through open houses, cultural festivals, and family events that highlight the heart of our district. Special recognition was given to our outstanding librarians, assistant principles, and special education students, all of whom contribute daily to the culture and excellence that defines GGUSD. And with initiatives like pastries with the P principal and the summer resource fair, we continue to build a strong foundation of support for both students and families. As we move through the month of April, it's an exciting time across our high schools. Prom season has begun and many seniors are starting to visit campuses and finalize their college decisions. The energy on our campuses is high as students celebrate milestones and look ahead to the future. As always, it's inspiring to witness how our schools nurture not only academic success, but
034also creativity, connection, and lifelong growth. Thank you. Thank you, Trustee Dina Win. Thank you. As always, I appreciate our student trustee for her uh all-inclusive updates of our students activities. Thank you. Um I just want to uh congratulate our boy basketball team from Santiago for such an amazing job to bring back that honor to GGUSD after so many years. And um I want to congratulate our classifier and certified employee of the months. I I know it's really hard work out there and to be nominated by your peers, students and parents, that's such an honor and I want to congratulate them. And I also wanted to um let the um union GGA and and the other unions who are uh negotiating with our staff that um I do see the proposal that they make and I
035um keep them in mind as we discuss negotiations. Um, and I want to thank the um, PLA for appearing today and presenting their um, side of um, pros of PLA contracts. And also want to thank um, Eric Christian for being here today to present his um, the other union side of um, their take on the PLA. So, it's uh very informative and educational, and I appreciate the time they've taken to educate um our board on how they feel um about us moving forward with our contracts. Thank you very much. Thank you, Trusty Metan. Yes. Thank you, President Nuin. Good evening, everybody. Um, first off, I just want to address uh some public comments that were made uh this evening um in regards to um accusations of foul play on part of our district. I'll go
036ahead and remind uh the speaker that there are plenty of avenues to take if there is a perceived violation of law and that entity would be the FPPC in the state of California. And aside from that, there are also other entities that we've seen being used um in jurisdictions that there have been potential foul play. So, I would advise those individuals to seek out those entities. I don't I I I've seen this person speak on this many times and I want the community to know that there is no foul play on our part of any type of election. and the trustee in question and all of us for that matter, we are elected to do a job and to go out and be present in the community regardless if it's an election year or not.
037If I am not out there, if neither of us are out there, we are not doing our job effectively and we need to be visible. So, that's all I'll say on that matter. I want the public to know um that we all hold a high standard of each other and ourselves. And there's a reason why there are some board members that have been on for 20 plus years because the consistency has shown and history has shown that we run a well uh maintained school district. So, I just want that to be on the record. Um, I do want to address um a concern that I definitely do have and I'm sure that my colleagues feel the same way um in regards to the incident that took place at LA USD about a week ago um
038where government immigration agents visited two elementary schools, not middle schools, definitely not high schools, but elementary schools. two separate front office staff were very were very well prepared and those two principles were very well prepared to handle and resolve that situation and kudos goes off to them for I'm assuming that they and I and I did um see the report from their superintendent that they were trained so kudos to them for receiving the training but also for executing the training. A lot of us, you know, I worked in in government um for all my eight years um postMSW and everybody receives professional development. We all do. Everybody here, everybody out there, we all receive professional development. But when you when you actually execute it to perfection, then that speaks highly of of that agency. Um
039these agents were said to have used deceitful tactics to try to gain access to students. the staff utilized their training to put an end to that. Um trying to receive uh appropriate documentation which were not able to be fulfilled. Um I know that we have trainings in place. Um and I would just like to remind our administrator that we that trainings takes practice and takes time for it to be able to be used in one of those situations. I would hate for that to ever happen, but I remember a month ago thinking that agents would never show up to an elementary school and here we are now. So whether they come to one of our schools tomorrow is can be likely. You know, I would say that it's not likely at all, but I want
040us to be proactive rather than uh reactive. So I I think these conversations need to be have and I think I'm going to be having these conversations for however long it takes uh to have that. So, um, I'll just say in the words of my colleague Bob Harden, I stay the hell away from our schools because we are going to stand up for our students every single day. So, just want that to be said. Um, in regards to some events that um, I attended over the past couple of days, it's been a very uh, eventful couple of days. I feel like the closer we get to the end of the school year, the events just start piling on and um can get very busy, but I'll go ahead and and lightning round some of these
041events. Uh Disney musicals, that's always a great season, right? I know a lot of our administrators in the audience love to attend those as well and get to see our students in action. I personally went to two of them. one at Stanley Elementary for Beauty and the Beast, which they did a really great job and really enjoyed uh seeing their performance. Um, and as well as Eisenhower, which never fails to amuse uh doing Aladdin Junior. And I believe when they have a junior next to the title because that it's like at a higher level. And I can tell because of the time difference as well. It's about an hour and a half of time. And I want to give kudos to them for doing so, but I also want to give kudos to my kids
042for sitting so patiently for that one hour and a half. I was think I was like, okay, I want to see how they do. But they they did pretty good, even Andres. So, got to keep my eyes on that boy. But that they did good. And overall, a great time. Um, another event that I attended that was my first time attending and I'm so glad that I was able to make it was the GGUSD CAC awards. Um, I loved that that event. I I loved it. I I had texted Dr. Mafy earlier that morning just to kind of get a feel for what should I expect. Um, but I wasn't expecting what I expected. One of the um, one of the only events I can think of in my past eight years as a board
043member where I actually cried at an event after hearing a mom. And and if you all if some of y'all were there, you know I'm talking about Maymay from Warren after hearing her uh daughter's story, it was just really tough to hold back tears. Um you hear about uh tragedies happening pretty often, right? Uh but to see a grieving mother um just was really really tough. I I applaud all of our staff for for being there for her, for still acknowledging her daughter, uh, keeping that spirit alive. Um, but it definitely made me reflect as a as a board member of of the the hundreds and thousands of of students that passed by every single year, right? Um, so yeah, definitely was a great event and I know that this is a great community partnership
044that we have with a lot of those parents um that were there. Um and then also having um an opportunity uh to be with one another and and also for uh the MafI family as well to be recognized um in in that event. I just think it was a combination of of remembrance of honoring of prosperity of the future um and and knowing how many um lives that our district impacts and how we're all in this together. like it it doesn't matter who you are or where you come from, we really are a close-knit community. So, I'm glad that that happened. Um, I went to Walton open house. Um, and that I got to say it was definitely a really fun time. Walton staff knows how to throw a party. It was literally a full-blown
045party that just happened to be called an open house. Uh, they had a great time. They had good music. They had delicious food for sale that all went back to their uh school. And you have moms there that don't even have their children at Walton, but just the fact that they have that legacy that they once were a part of that Walton family, they they didn't let that go. That identity stayed with them and they're still giving back tenfolds uh to that community. Um so I just love the fact that they were so uh tight-knit and that they had a really great time. I I really enjoyed it. So, please give kudos to Walton Intermediate Staff for hosting such a great event and having such a good time. One interesting thing to note about that
046um uh open house is I got to see one of my former math teachers uh who was at DOI but ended up transferring to uh Walton. Um, and this was my chance to ask him, "Why did you leave DoI?" So, it was uh it was really as a joke though. I was just giving him more time. Um, but yeah, it was it was cool to see him again. Um, I attended the uh city hall uh city council meeting over at city hall in Garden Grove for their Soniago High School recognition along with trustee Bob Harden. Um and I I jokingly told him like it feels interesting to be on the other side of the dice. It's like sitting down um there. I felt like me and uh uh Bob were about to complain about something,
047you know, that's why people go to city council meeting to complain. So I like what are you going to complain about today? So that was interesting to be um on that side of the of the dis. But it was nice to see Santiago get recognized. Um, and I think two cavaliers that serve on the city council now had a lot to do with making sure that they got recognized. So, kudos to to them. Uh, recently I attended the chamber of commerce uh meeting the city of Garden Grove, the government affairs committee meeting. They have this meeting once a month. Uh, we actually are well represented there. We have our CTE uh staff there that that go and and serve that role uh to be a liazison between our um business community and I had a
048lot of business owners and board of directors from the chamber come up to me afterwards and just speak very highly of our district. They are very impressed with what we're doing. Um and I think a lot of that has to show that what we're doing here has a very profound impact on the local community. It's not just within our classroom walls, uh, but also the fact that, uh, these companies hire a lot of our graduates. These companies, um, seek the level of expertise that our our students can offer them. And a lot of them spoke very highly of our district. So, that's always a really good uh, plus to go somewhere where you're like, hey, you're you're doing a great job. So, kudos to everybody here uh, for doing that. Um, I want to thank
049um, Abby for connecting with the Viet Rice uh, nonprofit organization that's going to um, hopefully do some great work uh, with our Vietnamese community and ensuring that they get uh, timely access to community resources when it comes to immigrant rights and immigration um, issues. So, thank you Abby for following up. Uh, today I had a couple of meetings. Today I uh first thing in the morning I was able to go to a meet and greet at Woodberry Elementary School. So thank you so much Lisa for helping me get connected with Woodberry and get to meet some of their parents and overall have a really good conversation and have a really good time. Um afterwards I had a meeting with uh Groundswell. Uh Groundswell is a nonprofit organization that helps us with our bridges program. So,
050I met with them and I got a lot of insight and a lot of great things that they um offer which our district takes advantage of and some other things that they're looking to partner with us on. So, at my next meeting with Dr. Mafy, I look forward to bringing those up and seeing how we can further um partner make our partnership um even better. Um the reason why I had so many meetings today is because I'm on spring break in my school district, Long Beach Unifi. So, I don't want people to think I'm just skipping work and having all these meetings. So, it's my spring break, so I'm having a good time. Um, another meeting I had today, well, not really a meeting, just an event. I went to the Orange County Fire Authority,
051what's called a push in ceremony. Station 81, which is right next to Garden Grove High School or or near Gardening Grove High School, just received a new apparatus. Cost them 100 cost them $1.2 2 million apparatus um that is fully equipped with all the bells and whistles that you would see in a firetruck. It was super awesome to get to see um this uh ceremony was open to the public. Everybody was invited. Um and um yeah, it was really great. I was able to get a tour of the fire station afterwards and I wanted to bring up uh two things. One, number one, and this is nothing that somebody brought to my attention and just something that I observed. Uh they're very uh proud of the garden grow heritage seeing that that's kind of like
052the mothership station in in the city. Um and they're um each I I think each firehouse kind of has like um an emblem or a moniker that they kind of go by and they really do like the Argon knot kind of theme with theirs and they're very proud of being close to Garden High School. One thing that I not I noticed on the wall they have a Garden Grove High School football jersey and they and they proudly display it. The only thing is the jersey looks like it was from the 70s. It looks a little older. I'm thinking maybe as a courtesy if we can try to find a way to just in honor of what they do for our community, maybe give them a a new one. They didn't request this. This is, you
053know, this is just something that I that I noted because everything they've recently uh modernized some of their stuffs and that was one thing that stood out that seemed a little bit outdated. Maybe we can, you know, try to treat them for something. And then secondly, which is something that they actually did bring up that they would love to partner with us on is um so far uh division chief Kovi, which uh oversees division one, which includes Garden Grove, mentioned that um in another school district, they do what's called the MAD demonstration and not mad as in like ah mad, but mad as in mothers against drunk driving. They do demonstrations where they will show the impacts of impaired driving. And they do this by having a full display and everything like that. They me
054uh he mentioned specifically that this is something they would love to do with our district that they haven't done. He said that from his recall that they used to be done several many years ago um and he would love to see how we can partner um in the future. Dr. Mafy, do you have anything to Yes, when it was the Garden Grove Fire Department, we did it quite regularly. They haven't reached out to us, so I can reach out to them and ask about it. Yeah, please. Yeah, it would be division chief uh Kovi. Um I'm sure you all are aware of him. I know I've seen on their social medias that they come to our schools all the time, all our elementary schools, and I'm sure our staff appreciate that. So, just one thing
055that I wanted to note. And last thing in my long list of items today, um you know, as you all know, uh Yenia serves on the city council. I don't plan to give you all highlights or updates every single time that I believe that she does something. Um, but one thing that I'm really really proud of her for doing at the last council meeting, and the reason why I know because I was there in honoring the Soniago team, um, she brought up an ordinance, her first ordinance, um, that was able to get, uh, passed because community members had complained. Um, if you're familiar with the Crosby Elementary area off of Chapman and West, there's a liquor store right next to the Pony Baseball Fields. And adjacent to the wall facing the street, right in front
056of the Crosby community, there is an ad there that highly promotes alcohol. And the reason why you can tell alcohol, it's alcohol because it has like 11 point something alcohol volume. Clearly an alcoholic beverage. uh a lot of community members brought that up to her and said, you know, we shouldn't be a city that promotes drug and alcohol use. Um, so at that council meeting, she brought up that issue to the council and received the majority vote to ultimately make an ordinance that's going to ban drug and alcohol advertisements that will be in certain juris jurisdictional feet away from an elementary school or a youth center such as a baseball, a boys and girls clubs. So, I just think that's going to super much impact our local school community because many of our families walk
057to and from school and home and they don't need to be seeing these types of advertisements um at their face. You know, the societyy's already messed up as is. We don't need to be promoting this. So, I just wanted to share that with my board colleagues that um by having an educator on the council definitely makes a difference. So, I'll end with that. Thank you. Uh, Trustee Roco. Yes. Uh, first I'd like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to the employees of the month um for going above and beyond the call of duty as they all seem to do and um just what they do to serve their school's community, not just their students, but parents and employees and people who live in the community. Um, and a congratulations to Santiago boys basketball CIF champions. Uh,
058that was an amazing achievement and they're winners. But beyond that, I looked up a champion. A true champion is an athlete with specific qualities of character, mental discipline, and physical skills necessary to generate and keep increasing. And I thought, "Oh, I like that. That sounds even better than just being winners." But uh congratulations uh to them and uh district events. I think I I attended the uh classified uh employee job fair and I always talked to people who were there. But this time I decided to focus on the employees who were manning the tables and um they did such an awesome job uh of reaching out and welcoming the people who were there to look for jobs, the job seekers to inform them and to encourage them in such a warm and welcoming way. It
059was a true display of what we call the Garden Grove way where we treat people like they're part of our family. And um it's just such an awesome um inspiring thing to see. And so that was my focus. Last time I focused on the people who were there looking for jobs, but we have a lot of folks there that are path. I saw some students, uh some parents and people who live in the community. So um what we're doing I think is is awesome. So kudos to the people who put that together and to those employees who did such an awesome job. Um, I attended the parent leadership academy uh for the first time in a couple years. It seems like every year something or other comes up and I haven't been able to go.
060So, I was very excited to go. Uh, Dr. Moffy did a wonderful job um uh providing this opportunity to opportunity to give our parent leaders um accurate information. That's how parent leadership academy started was when the charter schools came in. But then we decided, you know, it's very important for our parents to know what's happening in our district at the same level our employees know um because they talk to other parents, they talk to community members and we want them to spread the good word. We want them to be telling the story of our district in an accurate way and they do. Um and so they got to hear about our our district's accomplishments and some uh videos with our students. Um, and I think it it inspires them to even be better leaders and
061u become parent ambassadors. That's one thing we're focusing on. Um, men me mentors to our new parents to the district, to our parents who are there but never thought about going into leadership positions that need that encouragement and support. Um, so awesome. Again, a great uh event. We had the summer resources fair uh that I went to and I want to of course give a shout out to parent and community outreach for a job well done. It's a huge event. I really know what goes behind coordinating all the vendors to be there and setting up and getting the interpreters there and and all the staff it takes to just pull it off. It was very well done and parents had the opportunity to um to explore what's out there in the summer for their kiddos.
062always free and lowcost programs and um things to keep kids engaged and and have fun at the same time. So, uh also want to give a shout out to the CAC. I attended their their meeting. Uh their business they have a meeting where they have a business segment. Um and they have done an awesome job I think of working together to um to build that comm uh committee to make it their their board meetings look every bit as professional as ours. uh they've really come a long way in in working very very hard and uh they always have a guest speaker who comes with topics that are very relevant to our for our kids our parents with special ed kids. So kudos to to the um the CAC board for such a good job. And
063on the same note, they did an awesome job with the awards um event that they did for our kids in the K12 special ed programs. And uh it was very mean, as uh Walter said, it was a very meaningful uh ceremony and a successful event. I've been going to those gosh probably for 10 years. So when they first I first started going, they were much smaller and in an NPR and um uh and I thought it was good there and that they recognized kids, but over the years it has evolved into like the Academy Awards. It was we're now at this at the community center. Kids have little uh swag bags and they they're treated like uh like VIPs and so are their parents as they should be. And so it was um it was
064great to see them being um recognized for their accomplishments and for the proud parents that were there um to to share that moment with them. So good job. Uh there's been um it's the open house season and it will continue through this month. I've attended three already at Belline and Stamford and um our staff has done an awesome job of not just their rooms, the environment that the kids work in and the displaying their work that they've been doing all all year, but also engaging with the parents in a very meaningful way. Um and parents are always going to ask, "How's my child doing?" even though open house is not the time to do that and they're always so gracious uh and and always giving some type of a positive response to parents um because
065that's important to them. But they've done an awesome job and the schools are doing you like you Walter just said it's kind of like a party you know they'll have food they'll have kids performing they they uh I like that Bill and other intermediates are inviting the sixth grade incoming seventh graders from sixth grade to come to you know open house just so they can get a feel of the campus and explore the rooms of those seventh grade especially classrooms that they'll be going to. So um I think it's really great. It makes for a lot of people there, but it's a very positive uh a atmosphere, I think. Um I attended uh Santiago's Army JOTC awards presentation where cadets were honored um for their outstanding leadership, their academic excellence, their exemplary character, and their
066contributions to the GOT program and uh was very very impressive. Uh I've had two career days that I attended, one at Russell Elementary School and one at Alamita's Intermediate. Both were very well organized. Um they kind of frontloaded people who uh were volunteering to come about what they wanted to see happen and why they were doing this. You know, talk about your job and and what you like and what's kind of hard and what preparation it took for you to have those that job. Um, and just also to share any barriers that you overcame and things like that. So, we could give kids a really good look at what's out there all in 15 or 20 minutes, which goes by like that. But, um, you know, we're given a very warm welcome at both schools,
067all of the presenters, and they had, I would say, 25 to 30, uh, people from every walk of life there. I think there was even a mortician at one of the schools. Uh, but you never know. But police officers, uh, people in the science world, somebody from NASA, screenwriter, I mean, it just the list went on and on and just a varied amount of of professionals there. And I just think that these are so important these career days because they expose kids to the endless possibilities out there. I remember when I taught first grade and asked the kids, "Draw a picture of what you want to be when you grow up." It's the same thing. Teacher, fireman, policeman, because that's all they knew. And these kinds of events expose them to so much more. And
068sometimes they'll grasp onto something they think, "Wow, I didn't know I could do that." And because the people who came were so diverse from every walk of life, every um nationality, every age group, uh it it really it's real. It makes it very real. So, I'm hoping that other schools will catch on. And I know there are some other schools that do this, but it wouldn't it be awesome. This is in the perfect world. Every school in our district did a career day from the TK kids to the 12th graders. Think of how many how many careers kids would be exposed to by the time they get to the point where they really need to be thinking about narrowing the field. So that's just my dream. But uh anyway, it's been a great month and
069thank all the departments for all that they're doing because there is a lot going on. Thank you. President Bob Harden. Uh just a I want to call out a couple of things. One, again, congratulations to the San Diego basketball team. Champions give their best performances on the biggest stages. They step it up a notch. And that's exactly what this group of kids did. I saw them play, I think, five times this year. And I'm sure Coach Mhouse would disagree with me. But they played a perfect first period. I'm sure he I'm I'm sure from if I if I was a coach, I'd probably say, "Yeah, but what about that, that, and that?" They couldn't have played a better first period. They couldn't have played a much better second period. And when things got a little
070a little tough in the in the third period, a couple of kids stepped up uh and they they they built that lead in the first half. They kept it pretty consistently through the second half, took home that trophy. But clearly that team had what it takes to be a champion because there's kids who stepped up and probably played their best basketball of the year on the biggest stage. So that was kind of cool. Um couple of uh open houses last week. Lintas is always fun because I spend more time there than anywhere else because I live across the street and so I know some of the teachers and it's kind of catching up with catching up with friends at open house at LQ. I had a good time there at Los Amigos. Food was amazing
071and the performances as always were good. The thing that stood out to me, um, well, there are a couple of things. One is they now have a lion dance program at Lowe's first year. Uh, so what we saw was one of their first performances in public. Uh, and there's nowhere for that to go but up. Uh, and and we thank uh thank Kea over at LQ for helping them get that program off the ground. uh because I think it's going places. I got to meet the young lady uh who sang the national anthem at the state of the district event who's only a freshman. Um so I I assume we're going to be hearing more from her uh hearing seeing more of her and hearing more from her. and also her younger sister who's a
072seventh grader over at Fitz um who will be rolling into Los in a couple of years. Uh, but I think the thing that stood out to me the most was seeing a small group of parents who I got to know at Russell. um who drove parental parental engagement at Russell, who then moved on with their kids to Fitz and drove parental engagement at Fitz and who are at Los Amigos this year and have started the first ever or the first in a very long time PTO at Los Amigos. Uh, and it's it's been interesting over time to watch the parental engagement increase at Los. It seems like there are a few more active parents every year at open house and back to school. Uh, and and to know where that's go going because I know
073where that group of parents is going to drive it. So, that was another thing was pretty cool this last week. Thanks. Thank you very much, Mr. Harden. Um, okay. So, first of all, I want to congratulate our very own superintendent. She was chosen as superintendent of the year by the Southern California superintendent association later on. You need to tell us what it is. So, congratulations. Can't we proud of that? And also some of my uh colleague were congratulating on the Disney musical. Uh I think we come down to the end of the season, right? Uh I I think every year I always appreciate it will amaze me of how our kid can get together and put to together such a perfect act every time and I I for many years I seen them so I
074don't see anything article fell off even you know once in a while the hat fell off but but it's so perfect that they execute everything you know it's very precise so it's all amazing. me of of the school and they have so many kids so many performance acting running around so many moving part there and I don't know they anything f so it amazing but look behind the scene I will see it's such an opportunity for them to learn about uh theater I mean working together and all the little piece come into play everyone has important role to do that and then so that they can appreciate uh what they saw on TV, what they saw the door. And and looking back at at me, I wouldn't see I never had a chance to see
075uh to see a theater play, musical play until I went to law school. But only then uh I had to kind of volunteer at the usher so that when I empty seat, I would sit in to play that that then I realize what it is out there. uh that I I learned that and then kids here have uh opportunity to learn all this and this is the wonderful uh then they grow every year and I I want to to let the the the musical performance have to understand that the the power that all this program bring to our kid the pride that you should see them performing being a part of that how big or more small role they playing the parent must be amazed that their kid can do do that. I have one
076kid and it's difficult to get them to do one act but now I had that many kids put them do one play that kind of the kind of cool thing then uh but I I look at the the educational value to them uh go through the year and then it must be a very maybe lifechanging experience for many of them uh going forward and that we grow our our appreciating program and our kids get that the program coming to an end this year I think but I think somehow much less the the the staff the the administrator the parent there know uh how much opportunity they had a chance to learn something that I myself many of us didn't have it when we were growing up uh and also I join my colleague to congratulate
077the the Sant San Diego High School in the CAF champions just I normally I don't understand much about CAF world but she look at the history the nature of that it's a very proud of fact our kid pulled off like that and and very proud of fact that that they they did it so that's a good experience good learning experience for them and then it make her proud and I don't know uh I I have just congratulate uh the San Diego community to bring bring it to that higher level of knowh sportmanship there and today is April uh 15 the day 50 years ago that uh I I saw the first company tank roll to my town my town it's not April 30th we our town in the central fell before April 30th so this
078is the day We we were packing to get on the boat to escape the walls were coming down. So when we got out to the to get in the car and we saw the come tank roll into the street that's said that's it at the end of it. We unpack and we just pretend like nothing happened and we delay our trip for four years later. We did get out again uh by boat. So this week in April is we're going to mark on April 30 going to they're going to the community is going to mark the 50th anniversary of the for Saigon. There's a lot of thing going on in the community. Uh so I think our district can have a chance to kind of observe what's going on. Our student will have a chance
079to see what's going now going on around them. Uh so this is that will be very special because it's a 50 years and now the time that a community really want to go move forward to what's next in the next 50 years. So that I just want to uh announce just mention that uh that conclude my statement. So uh I want to announce the next meeting. The next one will be on May 6 and we're going to start at uh 5:00 pm for the close session and the one after that will be June 3rd, 2025 and we start at 5:30, right? Is that does that need to be because of graduation schedule? No, just um I don't think the study session will go that long, but I'll confirm it but I anticipate it'll start at
0805:30. All right, with that the meeting is