001Hello. That was We're going to begin our regular meeting today. I'm going to ask our student members to lead that in the 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. So good evening again. We're going to continue on with our regular meeting today. Uh first we're going to begin our meeting with the presentation. Um I understand we going to present I'm going to ask uh Dr. Lorina Sanchez the assistant superintendent cro of educational service to present the first impression art awards. Thank you. Good evening president Lan Wen members of the board superintendent mafi staff and guests. On Saturday, March 8th, we
002celebrated the 47th annual First Impression Student Art Exhibit. Two award ceremonies were held at the Garden Grove Community Center. One of one was for pre uh K through sixth grade and one was for 7th through 12th grade. We had lots of families there, too. Over 1,000 students, parents, and family members attended these ceremonies where we celebrated artists of all grade level levels all across the district. Over 600 pieces of student artwork were on display at the Courtyard Center representing multiple visual art mediums taught in the Garden Grove Unified School Districts by our wonderful teachers, including but not limited to drawing and painting, s ceramics, sculpture, photography, and digital art. As part of our ongoing partnership with the city of Garden Grove, large prints of select artwork are still on display at the Village Green Park
003and have been for over a month, celebrating the art work of our students or our student artists and highlighting it to our community. The flourishing visual and performing arts programs in the Garden Grove Unified School District not only help our students to accomplish the academic aspects of goal uh district goal number one, but they also address goal two, helping to develop student motivation and the personal skills necessary to achieve goal number three, which is lifelong success. Now, Stacy Harris, our wonderful coordinator of visual and performing arts, will introduce staff and students who played a very important role in our 47th annual First Impressions Art Exhibit. Stacy, come on [Applause] down. Thank you, Dr. Sanchez. Good evening, members of the board, Dr. Mafy, and guests. Before we present a few of our students, uh, would like
004to talk a little bit about Mr. Franklin, Mr. Matt Franklin. Matt is the teacher on special assignment in the visual and performing arts office and was responsible for coordinating the entire art exhibit from start to finish, from the jurying of the artwork all the way through the design and the installation of the gallery. Matt had great support from a number of people, including the Dawn Wash Auditorium staff and a large number of our teachers across the district that volunteered their time to help in this process. I'd like to take a moment to thank Matt for his tremendous work on this year's art exhibit. Each year, students in grades preK through 12 submit artwork to be juried for first impressions. Tonight, I am proud to be here to represent or to present to you several students
005chosen for special recognition for our 47th annual show. The first student I am presenting to tonight is Rachel Paris. Rachel, will you please join us? [Applause] Rachel submitted her piece appreciate GGUSD to the district contest for the program cover artwork for this year's state of the district that was held last night and her work was selected for this year's program. Rachel is in the sixth grade and attends Warren Elementary School. Her classroom teacher is Amy Satras and the principal at Warren is Kyle Benham. For this contest, students were asked to submit work that represented our district goals. And in her artist statement, Rachel said her art represents the love and the support she feels at school and how much support our district gives her to be a smart, awesome, and really appreciative student. Congratulations, Rachel.
006The next student I'm presenting to you tonight is our cover artist for first impressions, Ren Escalante Hua. Ren, please join us up here. Ren's artwork entitled Aven Royalty was chosen for the cover artwork for the programs and the posters for this year's art exhibit. Ren is in the 12th grade and attends Lita High School. The art instructor is Gina Zom and the principal Lita is Amy Aina. We're also joined here tonight by assistant principal John Doss. The ceramic piece was selected as part of our as our as our program cover art due to its striking use of color, interesting details, and exceptional craftsmanship. We're very happy to be able to present to Ren tonight as well as um the teacher Gina and the school office at Lita posters this evening to commemorate this honor. Congratulations,
007Ren. Our next student artist will recognize as the recipient of the president of the schoolboard award, Ian Jang. Ian, please join us. Ian is in the first grade and attends Patton Elementary School. His teacher is Brick Wright and the principal at Patent is Kai Chang. Ian's artwork is entitled Hungry Fish and when and was created using paper, paint, scissors, and glue. In his artist statement, he shared that his artwork is funny and makes him feel calm and that he made the fish eat the seaweed because he likes seaweed, too. Our judges liked the whimsical nature of Ian's work and the creativity with layering the materials. Congratulations, Ian. Our next student artist that will recognize tonight is the recipient of our prek through six best in show, Jonathan Navaro. Jonathan, please join us. Jonathan is in
008the sixth grade and attends Brookhurst Elementary School. His teacher is Michelle Fam and the principal at Brookhurst is Nicole Van Wilgan Moore. Jonathan's artwork is entitled 1942 Chevrolet. His artwork was created using graphite pencil and he shared in his artist statement that the inspiration behind it was his grandfather, a huge fan of Chevrolet cars. His grandfather bought and restored this rare car, which is special to Jonathan for many reasons. He knew drawing it would be challenging, and it took him three weeks of hard work to complete it. Our adjudicators appreciated the detail and the outstanding technique demonstrated in his work. Congratulations, Jonathan. Our next student artist will recognize as the recipient of the mayor's award, Lauren Tran. Lauren, please join [Applause] us. Lauren is in the seventh grade and attends McGarvin Intermediate School. Her art
009teacher is Brian Bixby and the principal at McGarvin is Bill Gates. Lauren's artwork is entitled Tropical Tiger. The artwork was created using colored pencils. Lauren shared in her art ma artist statement that she layered the colors gradually and even scored her paper in order to achieve the effect of the fine whiskers. She chose to make the setting a pond with liies to demonstrate the innocent nature of an animal in its own habitat. Her insp her her inspiration came from a conversation with a friend about the misconceptions about animals based on their appearances. and she wanted to convey in her artwork that animals that may be considered dangerous can also be beautiful and elegant. Our adjudicators were impressed by Lauren's technical skills in layering and shading to create this beautiful piece. Congratulations, Lauren. Our next student
010artist that we'll recognize tonight is the recipient of our 78 best in show award, Angela Lee. Unfortunately, Angela could not be here tonight, but we wanted her work to be recognized as well. Angela is in the eighth grade and attends Rston Intermediate School. The art teacher Rston is Sabrina Martin and the principal's Feather Hawking. Angela's artwork is entitled Silenced Resilience. The artwork was created using charcoal, ink, and paint. She shared in her artist statement that the piece represents being silenced, whether by society, personal fears, or external pressures, while also representing resilience. She focused on creating shadows and highlights with the charcoal to bring depth and emotion and then added the ink to create a chaotic effect and finished the piece with dripping gold paint which appears almost like tears or melted chains. Angela noted that
011she hopes viewers can connect with the piece in their own way, reflecting on the strength it takes to find one's voice. Our adjudicators were struck not only by Angela's outstanding technique with the materials, but for her ability to convey such depth of emotion in her artwork. Congratulations to Andrew. Our next student artists that were recognized tonight worked as a team on this stunning piece you see here and they were selected for the superintendence award. I'd like to invite these Santiago students to come to the front. Emily Barono, Freda Gaspar, Jose Gonzalez, Sebastian Guerrero, and Eduardo Lopez. The students you see here in front of you are in the 11th and 12th grades at Santiago. The art teacher is Tina Highland and the principal at Santiago is Christine Pile. Pariso and El Contio is a large
012mosaic. It is over 4 foot tall and is striking in person. Just that's like this tall. Very very big. Um, the team modified a large canvas out of recycled painted wood and then began to collaboratively sketch their design. Each of them added to a quadrant of the drawing. Once the design was finished, they discussed the colors and the textures they wanted to include and worked to select and hand cut hundreds of pieces of glass as well as to find other symbolic materials to include. As part of the process, they learned how to make and apply grout. A process that they shared with us was messy but fun for them. Once the pieces had all been placed, they cleaned, framed, and sealed their masterpiece. After months of hard work, they collectively created a vibrant mosaic from
013broken shards and found pieces to represent that life can be constructed out of seemingly nothing. I want to add that in all my years of having the privilege of serving in this role, I think this piece has gotten more questions about whether it was for sale or what was happening to it after the exhibit than any other piece um we've had before. It's easy to see why this stood out to our adjudicators, especially if you had the chance to see it in person. It was breathtaking. Congratulations to this wonderful team from [Applause] Santiago. Our final student artist to recognize is the recipient of the 912 best in show award, Yura. Yur, please join us. Year is in the 12th grade and attends Los Amigos High School. Year's art instructors are Eric Kavakane and Emily Mondreon
014Mondreon. The principal at Los Amigos is Todd Nerk. Year's piece here is a ceramic work that utilized several materials and techniques. The inspiration comes from Yur's love for food, history, and culture. She wanted to create something that reminded her of home and who she is and and it and it is inspired by Asian side dishes that she loves and that make her feel comfortable and safe. To create the piece, she used wheel throwing and added resin to make the soup, green tea, and the sauces look as realistic as possible. Her hope was to bring the idea of home into something that you can see and feel. Our adjudicators were impressed by the craftsmanship demonstrated in each piece of this artwork and the skill involved in creating such realistic pieces utilizing multiple techniques and materials. Congratulations
015here. I know we'll take a moment for photos in just a um in just a minute here, but I would like to thank our board for your continued support of our visual performing arts programs and for having us here tonight to celebrate these exceptional students and our 47th annual first impressions art exhibit. Thank you. [Applause] Say again. Yes. Okay. So, we're going to bring the students up one at a time in the same order and then we're going to have them come up with their family, their principles, teachers to come have some photos. So, we will start with Rachel. Come on back up. And then family, principal, teachers Um, and Ren, please come back up front. Congratulations, Rachel. Family, teachers, [Music] admin. Congratulations, Ren. Let's have Ian come back up, please. Okay, family. Edmond, come
016back in. Congratulations, Ian and Jonathan. Please join us. Yeah. And family, teacher, admin. Congratulations, Donovan. Lauren, please, family, teacher, administrators, everybody. Congratulations, Lauren. And let's have our Santiago team join us, please. Emily, Freda, Jose, Sebastian, and Eduardo. And family, teachers, administrators Congratulations team Santiago. and here. Please come join us. All right. Family, teachers, administrators. congratulations. You're Thank you again. That was Did I get everyone? Did I miss anyone? We got I think that's everybody. We got them. Yeah. [Applause] Thank you so much. Now we done with our presentation. Thank you very much. But this is a time you can quietly move out. Uh if you have something else to do at home, we can continue our meeting. Thank you for coming. Congratulations. Don't Don't jinx me. You jinx me, I'll cough on you. It was
017like It was just walked down. Okay, we're going to continue with our meeting. Now, the next item on the agenda is the public comments. Do we have any requests? Yes, we have two. The first request from Miss uh Christine Ortega of the CSEA chapter 1 22. Right. Good evening, President Nin, board members, Dr. Mafi, GDUC staff and guests. My name is Christine Ortega. I'm the chapter president of CSA Garden Grove chapter 121. Our chapter was selected as one of 10 chapters throughout the state of California to participate in the ACE program. ACE stands for appreciating classified employees. The program allows schoolboard members, superintendent, admin, principal, city officials, and other dignitaries to shadow classified employees during the week of classified school employee uh week, which is the third week in May. on May 19th and or
018May 20th, we invite you to take part on an opportunity to join us. We will be sending more information out to you as we have already sent information to the classified employees to sign up if they would like to have somebody shadow you. So, we invite you to come see us and participate in that. On May 22nd, we will also have a receptionist party to talk about the experiences that um part all participants had, including the classified employees. And we hope that you guys can make it. And thank you for your time. Next request from Mr. Nicholas Dips. Members of the school board, Dr. Mafy, my name is Nicholas Dibs, teacher, educator. Uh, I'm here. I You each have a handout. Each board member has a handout double-sided with two board proposals. There's two ways
019to put something on the agenda, as you already know. One is for the for me or the public to submit requests and the other way is for two board members to do that. So I'm asking for two of you to have the courage to put both of these items on the agenda. The first one is that no GGUSD taxpayer funded resources such as but not limited to equipment administrator and or staff time is to be used within six months of the November general election in any way that could or might provide any actual or perceived favorable publicity andor favoritism towards reelecting any board of education member. Then the second one on the back is to have the the board engage a ethics officer when needed. could be under contract so that when there is a
020need to investigate the superintendent andor people in the cabinet that there's an independent person to do that. So I ask that this reform I've submitted them before. I'm waiting for a response but in the meantime two of you can put this on the agenda. Senator Corey Booker of New Jersey recently did a marathon on the Senate floor of the US Senate and he he says these are not normal times in our nation. The threats to the American people and American democracy are grave and urgent and we must do more to stand against them. The election of 2000 of November uh 5th 2024 was basically hijacked and uh I've talked about this before. It's been an erosion of democracy of our nation as a republic. When Benjamin Franklin left the constitutional convention, someone asked him as
021he was leaving, "Dr. Franklin, what do we have? A democracy or a republic or a monarchy?" He said, "A democracy or a republic? A republic if you can keep it." when taxpayer funds are al are are allegedly used like it was. I experienced it between the middle of September and the middle to end of October by the superintendent with the acquiescence of the board majority to give Terry Roco undue favoritism and extra publicity. This is wrong. It's just simply wrong. And so I'm asking the board to have an ethics officer, an independent person look at this. Have somebody that has no ties to me and no ties to anybody in this district look at this issue. Look at the evidence and the facts and get at the truth. Was this unethical or not? Was it
022unfair? I think it was based on the evidence. So please put these items on the agenda so we can have better re improvement of the district. Thank you. Thank you. Any other requests? Having none, we will continue on with our next item on the agenda, which is to approve the minutes from the last meeting um on most before I do that. Um do we need to take roto Floyd want to announce that trustee denawin is absent today due to her illness. So we watch her with her speed of recovery. So we are going to take role now. Student trustee Josephine Lee here. Walter Money here. Trusty Terry Roco here. Trusty Bob Harden. Hi. Chairperson. Thank you. Chairperson Lenwin here. All right. Uh back to the approval to the minute from the last meeting on March
0234. Any comments? request for correction. Hearing none, I would need a motion to approve it. Motion I'll second the motion. Any that mean so we call for the vote now. Trusty Josephine Lee. Yes. Trusty Walter Money. Hi. Trusty Terry Roco. Hi. Trusty Bob Harden. I cherson Linland. I uh item three on the public hearing presentation and report. Uh we have no public hearing but we have the presentation which is the initial contract proposal from Genro Education Association. Good evening board of education Dr. MafI uh our esteemed uh staff and community. I'm here to um sunshine the proposals for the 2526 school year for the June Garden Grove Education Association. I um want to thank the board for productive bargaining in our last session and we completed our contract and ratified it and I'd like to
024hope that we continue to have a productive session this next time. So, we're going to open the following articles, article two, recognition, article four, hours of employment, article six, safety, article 9, class size, and article 12, wages. I'd also like to share that we're going to be focusing next year on safety. We want to have safe students, safe teachers, and safe schools. Thank you. Thank you very much. Um, we have no other item on the presentation. We have no report for information item as well. So now to item four on the administration. Uh we have item 4 A. I need a motion. Rockco. I move we approve item 4 A. Second. Second. Um yes. This is item 4 A to approve the revised uh board meeting date. U uh we recommend to change the meeting
025uh the board meeting from December 2nd to December 9th and also another one from January 6 to January 20th 2026. Any comments on the change to either of those date? Having none, let's call for the vote. Student Trustee Josephine Lee. Yes. Trustee Walter Mington. Hi. Trustee Terry Roco. Hi. Trusty Bob Harden. Hi. Chairperson Linwin. Yes. Thank you. Item five is on programs and instruction. Item 5A to approve a number of outistic event. The first one is to request for 16 medical core student from Los Amigos and Pacifica High School to attend the UCI camp mass. I'll move 5A. A second. Second. Now we got motion and second. Thank you very much. Um item 5A is to approve uh the number of our district event. The first one is to request from four 16 medical core
026student from Los Amigos and Pacifica High School to attend the UCI camp Matt uh in Idawawaii uh PI in California on March 28 to 305. The second event is to allow four key club members from Garden Road High School to attend the Key Club District Convention in on Ontario, California from April 25th to 27 of this year. The third event is to allow uh 20 wilderness adventure club members from Bones Grande High School to attend a stewardship project in Sacramento Clement State Beach in San Clemente, California from March 31st to June 3rd, 2025. Fourth event is to allow 35 cheer team members from Pacifica High Schools to attend a USA cheer camp at Rick Wolf Lodge in Garden Road, California from July 27 to 29, 2025. The fifth event is to allow 12 dance team
027members from Pacifica High School to attend a USA dance camp at Not Re Resort Hotel in Wen Park, California from August 4th to 7, 2025. And the last event is to allow 232 leadership students from all high school, Bona Grande, Garden Road, Linta, Los Amigos, Pacifica, Rancho, Alamos, and San Diego High School to attend the Orange County leadership conference at the University of California, Santa Barbara, um, California on August 5th to 8, 2025. Any comment on any of those event? Hearing none, I call for the vote. Student trustee Josephine Lee. Yes. Trusty Walter Mington. Hi. Trusty Terry Roco. Hi. Trusty Bob Harden. Hi. Chairperson Lenwin. Hi. Item six is on business. We have 6 A through F. I need a motion. Walter, I'll move 6 A through F. I'll second. Thank you. Item 6A to
028accept the Egay -ray uh request for proposal number 2412 for the network cabling system for hair continuous high school uh for the period from April 1st 2025 to September 30th 2026. Item 6B is to approve the memorandum of understanding uh to for the partnership with Second Harvest Food Bank of O County uh under the school pantry program to allow currently four school site Brian Heritage Simmons and Wakeham to continue their uh uh school pantry program at the school site but it's open for more school site if we have any other schools coming on board. The uhou will be valid from July 1st uh 2025 to June 30th 2028. Item 6 C is to to extend the board authorization to participate in the California multiple award schedule with Tricore Enterprise Inc. DBA quiet school size U
029under the CMS contract number 03- 1066 supplemental number two to purchase LED display size and system uh which is valid from March 26 2024 to December 29 2029. Item 6D to accept a number of gift uh on as a report on a board report on date April 1st, 2025. And item 6 C it to approve the use of two district bus uh and bus driver for the 2025 strawberry festival parade. Uh this year it will be on May 24th, 2025. And item 6F to approve the purchase order and check for a total amount 69 million47,450.72 any comment question on any of the item I have question item 6A on the E rate um I understand we normally have a you uh had a sort of yearly annual e- rate with I'm very proud of school
030district to do that but this is kind of different it only for the installation of cabling thing at cabling network for the hair school what is that what is so what's unique different about this project here so for decades stemming back 20 over 20 years since I was principal um we had an annual rate the rate is not present um in the funding mechanism that has been in the past. So now we're just applying for specific purposes. We're actually at a place in terms of district infrastructure where the decades of -ate have actually um provided us um the infrastructure as as we know to be the county backup for um our uh bandwidth. But this is specific to hair. Hair um was one of the schools that um was ineligible for modernization due to some
031technicalities when we went out to bond. And so we're going to be doing some other modernization projects, but they didn't have the opportunity to have those upgrades through the modernization. Okay. Thank you. Did I see something about our district maybe unrelated this our district getting the rate money for million dollar something on the competitive projects? Yes. naughty rate, but you did read about the cyber um security grant and Stephen Nuin just recently informed us of this. We were the only one in the county to receive it. And um we'll have more information. We just got the initial notification um that I shared in the board letter, but we'll have more information about exactly what that will entail for the board in the weeks to come. What I we're very excited of that at least a
032win on the competitive bit and then we got that big big chunk of money for that cyber security that very excited. Congratulation Mr. Stew. Any other question? All right. None call for the vote. Student trustee Josephine Lee. Yes. Trusty Walter Minuten. Hi. Trusty Terry Roco. Hi. Trusty Bob Har. Hi. Chairperson Lenwin. Hi. Item seven is on a personnel. We have item seven A and B on um seven C. We have a close session earlier today regarding the existing litigation uh with the superintendent and the assistant superintendent Tony Fan and we have no action to report. And now we need a motion on item 7 A and B. Walter, I move 7 A and B. I second the motion. Thank you. Item 7 A is to approve the certificate personnel report and 7B is to approve
033the classified personnel report. Any comment question on either item? None. Let's call for the vote. Student trustee Josephine Lee abstain. Trusty Walter Munin. Hi. Trusty Terry Roco. Hi. Trusty Bob Harden. Hi. Chairperson Lenin. Yes. All right. Now, uh, last section on the agenda, closing, uh, begin our discussion by board member. We're going to begin with, uh, student member Joseph Lee. Over the past month, our district has been bustling with student achievements, community engagement, and celebration of the arts. Our Vietnamese heritage language class celebrations at Excelsier and Post Elementary showcased students cultural pride while Patton Elementary wowed audiences with a spectacular performance of the Lion King. Students also shine in the arts with the first impressions art exhibit displaying the incredible creativity of students from across the district as we saw earlier tonight. Academically, Bulsa Grande's
034academic decathlon team made an impressive showing at the state competition and Walton Intermediates Arlo Favian secured second place at the National Civics B Regional Competition. As students continue striving for success, they are also receiving valuable support from online resources like varsity tutors and Konigo, which provide extra academic guidance. Additionally, ReadAcross America brought local readers, authors, and educators into our schools to foster a love for literacy. We also celebrated global connections as our sister city exchange student ambassadors returned from South Korea, having gained invaluable cultural and educational experiences. And in music, GGUSD's honor choir concert highlighted the district's commitment to arts education. Last night, we gathered for our annual district dinner where we reaffirmed GGUSD's three key goals: academic and personal skills, working together to create lifelong success. And with that, prom is also just around
035the corner and students are looking forward to celebrating the end of a memorable year. With college decisions finalized, seniors across our district are celebrating their acceptances and preparing for the next chapter of their lives. It's an exciting time as students commit to their future schools. And in fact, I'm thrilled to share that I have made the decision to study data science at UCLA in the following year. Thank you. Looking ahead, our students and families can look forward to the upcoming summer resources fair, ensuring students stay engaged and active over the break. It has been another incredible month in Garden Grove, and I'm excited to see what we accomplish next. Thank you. Thank you, Josephin. Uh, Trustee Walton Minan. Yes. Good evening, everybody. Thank you. Uh, first I want to um acknowledge our CSEA president. Uh
036thank you so much for being here. Um so glad to have you all back in charge of the local chapter. Look forward to working with you all and you know seeing the great things that you do. Definitely am interested in the ACE program. Um and I would uh seeing that I kind of work similar hours since I'm a school employee. I'd love to maybe consider like an afternoon or evening janitor uh shadowing opportunity. I think that'd be really cool. So hopefully we can set that up. But excited for that. So, thank you. Um, have a quite a few things on my list. Um, so bear with me this evening. Um, I want to start off by applauding the staff for their tremendous effort and hard work for the state of the district which was just
037yesterday. So, um, that was overall an amazing event. Over 600 people, I believe, uh, were in attendance. a very large event that probably required hundreds of of hours of planning and organizing. So kudos to everybody uh for working on that. Um additionally, I want to give major kudos for bringing resolution 20 to the forefront during the presentation. Um by placing it on the slides and reminding the community where we stand, we ensure that we stayed aligned with the core values of inclusivity and equity. Um, and if you all have ever heard of the term mic drop, that was a mic drop moment. The fact that we placed the resolution 20 on the slides in front of over 600 people uh showing our commitment to um a inclusive community um was very powerful. I believe I
038think it was a very monumental uh statement. If if you looked at it, you might have really not paid too much attention to it, but just it was big. I I for me at least it was um I think it's important uh especially in times like this because of things that have been going on nationally uh statewide and locally. um a lot of instances where I've seen things that have been injustices at least in my opinion uh recently I've seen instances where US citizens so these are people who were that have citizenship have been detained uh by uh federal agents uh instance Jensen Machado a Virginia native uh was pulled over with guns drawn and detained by ICE ultimately when he was allowed to prove his citizenship agents were still skeptical that he was a
039citizen, but eventually he was let go. Uh, also, Native Americans have been unjustly detained, which has led to the Navajo Nation Council to speak out. In one instance, the council mentioned a Native American woman who was held without access to her phones or personal belonging to prove her her citizenship, but agents ultimately allowed her to have access to the phone, which was then able to allow her to demonstrate her Indian blood heritage to showcase that she was a citizen. I think that's just very powerful seeing that she's a Native American and having to prove that she's an American citizen. Another instance of Yung Sao Chung, a student at Columbia University, seeing that she was a high school validatoran and currently a 3.99 GPA student was detained by ICE after speaking in favor of Palestinian rights.
040She's a legal permanent resident since she has been since the age of 7 years old when she came here from South Korea with her family. Her crime was attending a sitin in support of Palestinian human rights. And if you've seen nationally, universities and colleges are cracking down on anything that they consider student protest or student um activism. For me, I've always thought of universities and colleges to be like the mecca of students showing their voice. Like I remember uh in class in high school learning about the different wars that our country has been a part of and students have voiced their opinions uh with a lot of the wars in this country and it was always considered okay that's that's okay that's your first amendment speech that's allowed but now that's no longer seems to
041be the case here on the board we have board norms that we typically only talk about local issues that impact our students and all of which I've just mentioned do impact our students because we have received as a board uh and I thank our staff for doing so uh reports on our own immediate families who are impacted by detentions or deportations. Most recently, I attended a press conference with the Harbor Institute, uh, Viet Rise, the Orange County Rapid Response Network, and various organizations, uh, where where I was, um, asked to be, uh, speaking on the topic of the social emotional impacts that these detentions and um, deportations have on our students and especially our Latino and our Vietnamese communities. Um, so I think it's super super important um that we continue this conversation even though
042we do have resolution 20 and we all know where we stand as a district. The fact that um things are still happening, it it just shows us that we continually have to be showing our students that we are supporting them in every way that we can. Um it's just going to be a very difficult couple of years. So it's just a matter of showing our support. Um, I also note that today, April 1st, um, is a start of a of a month known as Black April, where we acknowledge all the sacrifices that the Vietnamese community has made in search for democracy and in search for better opportunities in this new country uh, since the 1970s and all of the great accomplishments that the community has made here in our country. Uh but sadly, we've seen
043our Vietnamese community now under attack for new families who also want to have the same opportunities as the families prior to uh 1995. Um so it's really important that we continue to advocate for all of our families and our communities during this time. That's pretty much what I wanted to say on that matter. By the way, I made my mom really really proud when I when she saw me on Uni Vision or Telmundo, which is our Spanish news uh companies. She was able to see me at 6 p.m. for the news, and she was very proud of me because I did really well in speaking Spanish. It's not my it's not my strongest suit, but I I tried my best, so I made her really proud that day. Um, so just kind of going across
044the list of some of the events I attended. Um, we had our last board meeting a month ago and me and Terry were just talking about how in a month's time there's so many events and that we could if every single day we wanted to go to an event, we could because there's always something going on. Um, so I'll just try to be brief. Uh, a community event that I attended uh was the Norththeast Garden Grove Little League opening day ceremonies and this is located at Pioneer Park right behind of Warren Elementary School. And I want to give a shout out to the outgoing president. Um his name is Ray. He's a parent of ours, a proud parent of DJUSD. Uh has children that attend Santiago High School and he was holding down the presidency
045in that league for the past eight years now. Uh but has since decided to step down and now there's a new president named Eddie. And the reason why I bring up these two gentlemen is because both of them speak very highly of the relationship that they have with Warren Elementary. um especially now with Kyle. Uh so I do want uh Lisa to please relay that information that they see them as a very trusted partner and seeing that we um work really closely because that property is part of GGUSD. You know, it's always good to have those relationships and they're uh speaking very highly of us. So that's always very nice to hear. Uh the GGUSD first impressions show which we just saw showcased here was very lovely. Um great time. A lot of people in
046attendance. It was standing room only um after if you didn't make it on time and I was able to present a seventh through eighth grade best in show uh which we saw here and I personally really love that that art piece. I think it's very relevant for the times right now. Um I attended the Garden Grow High School open house a couple of weeks ago and I was really in love with the the program that Mary Jane is is is running over at Garden High School. like she had that open house on lockdown. Everything was running smoothly. Um just beautiful event overall, performances, everything was really wonderful and I was really impressed with first time meeting her. Uh Kelly Choy, the assistant principal there. She was on it. She uh gave me a really good
047rundown. She kind of uh went with me, gave me a quick little tour, introduced me to people. I think uh an a good administrator uh also has the skills to work with parents and students, but a even better administrator is able to bring the community together and if they see a board member like, "Hey, let me introduce you to so and so." So, I just want you, Stephanie, if you can please give the the team at Garden High School a kudos for a greatly run open house. Um I wish Kyle was here. here. I know he was here earlier, but I want to give him another shout out for um having me over at Warren for the parent meeting that we had together. A really uh great meeting. He was able to uh bring some
048parents over and we had a really good discussion and um were able to break bread and and have some drinks and talk about some of the issues that were uh very important to them. So, that was a really great time. Um, most recently myself and President uh Luin attended the DOI mural unveiling um right outside of Santiago High School. Um, and I personally love it because it kind of shows the transition of my K through2 experience because it's literally Clinton Doy and Santiago. Uh, so that was really really nice to get to see outside. uh the more my opinion the more art that's outside in the community really deters graffiti and other things uh because people will respect uh that because it's very close to them. So it was really nice. Um and then last
049but not least 11 California Distinguished Schools, right? 11. Uh so major kudos to us and everybody that is in our district because everybody plays a part in having that doesn't matter what position you hold in our district. Um very happy to see two schools well three schools in my trusty area Peters and Eisenhower uh being recognized. Um so major shout out to those schools. Um as well as I was talking to Gabriella as well as Beth even though she's at Clinton. I know she had a lot to do with the great work that is still holding strong at Eisenhower. So, kudos to all of them uh for that. And um it just gives me and the board bragging rights to other trustees in the county that no one else does it like we do, right?
050So, I'll end in that positive note. Thank you, Trustee. Uh Roco. Uh yes. Uh we had a study session today on CTE, career technical education. I just want to thank um the director, Ulysus Garcia. Um I think he's only been with us what three months and uh he gave us a very nice comprehensive um overview of uh the program, the pathways in a way that was um easy to follow and understand where we are now. and his visions for the future and things that um uh to come. And so we're very excited to see uh that program grow and flourish, but more importantly to make sure that our community is um informed of what we're already doing and where we're going. So that's going to be great. Um I attended I had the opportunity to
051attend the classified new employee orientation. um where Dr. Moffy gave a warm welcome as well as our cabinet and other leaders to our new employees. Um they saw the video of the Garden Grove Way, which is a great way for them to see and feel what the Garden Grove Way is about and about our district goals. I think it's important for all of our employees to come in with that grounding. And then they had breakout sessions that I visited uh new employees to our district. Uh went to I think they were broken into three sections like instructional support those that in support instruction in the classroom like aids of all kinds uh clerical secretary and office support and then other classified areas um that uh bus drivers, transportationists, see what else uh warehouse different things
052like that. While I was in the uh clerical secretarian office support group, uh a person came up to me and said, "I met you last year and you gave me some words of encouragement because I applied for a job and I didn't get it, but you told me maybe that wasn't the right job for me and guess what? It wasn't and I'm here now." So, it was very cool to hear that, get that feedback. We don't often get to hear, you know, things like that. So, uh school events wise, Rancho had their open house. uh rained like crazy. So I felt bad for the kids who were prepared to be out in the quad, you know, doing um entertainment for us. Um but it was still a good open house. Uh there were many things
053going on, many sessions for parents, for summer school, for CTE, as well as classroom visits that are always good. And uh so that was really great. Uh Rancho also hosted I think a week or two later the roadmap to success uh which was phenomenal. great workshops um where you know parents and students could get information about admissions to college uh applications, financial aid, scholarships and again CTE and uh very comprehensive uh information session for parents and students and uh also information and resources for our uh families of specialty students to see the possibilities out there for them in terms of higher education and community colleges. I remember not that terribly long ago, there wasn't a lot out there for them, but there is now. I think just about every community college has some support system
054for our kiddos to get into programs there. So, that's very exciting to see. Um, there were a number of visual and performing arts events. Um, the Disney Finding Nemo Kids at Allen and The Lion King at Patton also that I went to. Just blown away at how these productions are something that I keep saying I would pay good money to see these. They're just so done so well and so much work that goes into it from the entire school's community, not just the staff and the students, but the parents. And um I think at Patton there was so many kids involved and they told me that their cast included about 125 kids. Some now some rotated but how wonderful that that many kids had the opportunity to participate in this this um this is one
055of those events that they'll remember the rest of their lives for sure. Pacifica had a talent show too that was very well done and uh of course the first impressions art uh exhibit and uh attended the also the awards of ceremony and just kudos to Stacy Harris and Matt Franklin um and the VAPA office staff those behind the scenes folks um and everybody else that's involved in putting these kinds of events together. They're huge. And of course, congratulations to to the awards winners um for showcasing their their talent and their creativity. And they're just a small slice of how much is out there. When you look at the program, there were pages and pages of kids who, you know, submitted um artwork that was um just exceptional. So, in terms of community events, I attended
056the Garden Grove City Council community spotlight uh in recognition of the Sister City Association of Garden Grove, the exchange uh student ambassadors that were there from our district getting ready to go to Anyong uh Korea. So, what an awesome opportunity um and uh to have the the the ability to immerse themselves into a new culture and um and history and um stay with the families of the students who stayed with them. So, it's really an awesome program. Uh so, I would like to hear about their adventures though. So, I don't know if they're going to have a recap or anything, but that would be really neat to hear. Um, I attended the PTA administrators dinner um called the Garden of Thanks. Uh, and they celebrated the incredible collaboration that we have with PTA administrators and
057our district have with PTA um and just highlighting the impact of the work that we do together in supporting our students and families. So, it was a very upbeat and of course um last night's state of the district was I think spectacular and I know people around me were saying this was like the Academy Awards is so big. It's amazing. They were blown away. Actually, I was too because every year it gets bigger and better. But I think what struck me in speaking to some of our community members uh who may not be in our district but in in Garden Grove was that this was a celebration not just of our district but of our city and um the wonderful collaboration that we have and the pride that we have and the Garden Grove way
058doesn't just apply to our district but it applies to our city and everybody who lives here and works here. So, uh, it was a great event and, um, just very upbeat. People were talking and talking all the way out the door. So, thank you to Dr. Moffy and to cabinet and all of the people that go into making this happen. And Abby, talk about behind the scenes. I think we need to have a special day to recognize Abby as our employee of the of the month. It's just uh lots of things that our district didn't have before are possible now um for people to be a part of and to know about. So, thank you, Abby. Thank you, Vice President Harden. Yeah, I think I think you underell that event by comparing it to the
059Academy Awards. Our our per our performances were much better and the speeches were much more inspirational. uh and uplifting. It It really is an amazing thing to see every year. And I think the thing that stood out to me this year was how much about the students it was. The students were the star of the show. Um, starting with the national anthem and the pledge of the flag and uh the the color guard from Pacifica, uh, the performers, uh, the the speakers and the students sitting at the table, Stephen, I think you'd agree with me, the star at our table wasn't either one of us. It was it was a junior from Lita High School, um, who I think I think during the evening probably lined up a summer internship Um it it was it's
060an amazing it really is an amazing uh display of what's going on here. Uh and um it's inspirational to be a part of every year. Um I could go through a long list of things. Um actually nothing's hap nothing interesting's happened in my life since the last time we got together, right? PE and people who know me are laughing right now. Um, I will mention that my daughter's gotten engaged. Um, I will I will mention that I'm in the middle of living out a Hallmark movie at the moment. Um, because I've spent 69 years as only child until I did a DNA test on 23 and me. Um, and I spent an hour on a Zoom call Sunday night with six brothers and six halfb brothers and sisters. Um, so personal life has been a
061little hectic the last few weeks. Um, and a month ago I was an only child. Now I'm part of a ginormous family. Um, which which my wife is unhappy about because she didn't she did not sign up for a large family. Uh, so um, but I did I did want to mention we three of us were together on Friday with Friday. Thankfully, we didn't discuss any school business, so we didn't violate the Brown Act. Um, but we were there to watch uh to have lunch together with Cesar Loya, the principal at uh Monroe Elementary, who was receiving the Cababe award for the school administrator of the year. And like I said last time, it's about time that Cababe figured out what we've known for a long time. uh and was happy to be a part
062of that and to en enjoy that uh that ceremony with Cesar. And I think I think there are there's several other things I mean I look at my calendar next week and I don't know how I'm getting to all these events. Um and it's it's that time of year for all of us, right? Um city council to celebrate Santiago High School's CIF championship open houses at Los and Lita next week. Um, and I know everybody up here has the same kind of schedule over the next two, three or four weeks. So, I'm looking forward to all of that. Thank you, Mr. Harden. Um, I want to uh join my colleague to congratulate the staff for putting up the wonderful uh spectacular members say uh about the uh state district event uh yesterday. Uh I'm very
063proud the fact that we all come together put up so to showcase our our students our kid and our achievement and and good time a good u way to to to brag not to brag but but to showcase our achievement and we have every right to be proud of uh being a member of the Gando Unif district and uh I want to shout out to Abby for putting up this this this uh spectacular show and of course uh Dr. Mafi is always behind the scene always running around doing that and then nothing happened without her support her finger print on it so that thank you very much Dr. Mi and RB of course everyone else to put in that kind of show you must involve everyone cannot be a few people uh show and I'm
064glad that they went through uh with such a good impression and as uh trusty Munetan mentioned earlier uh today beginning of April it's beginning of the what we call black April uh commemorating the the fall of Saigon in 1975 and beginning of April 30th uh or April 2000 one 1975 it's the beginning of the afflu people living refugee live in Vietnam I was among those wave of both people and I end up at Bones Grande in 1980 and then went on from there and here I am. So it has been for 40 year for me on that. But uh this just at the end of this month and April 30th, the Vietnamese community from all over the place will be uh uh commemorating that 50th anniversary of that uh faithful day, April 30th, 20 1975.
065IMESA will be in Sacramento uh organizing the first event ever at the Capitol to com commemorate also the 50th anniversary of the Black April and thing will happen in Sacramento in Sacramento on that day and uh my comm the Vietname community from all over the place will be working together to commemorate uh that milestone event as well and um that conclude statement uh on this meeting. Now um I want to announce the next meeting. Uh the next one will be on April 15 and also start at 5:00 pm for the study session and the one after that will be on May 6. Uh also begin at 5:00 p. p.m. for the post session and the regular meeting will continue at 7 after that. President meeting is now adjourned. President may sorry I just want to
066bring up two points if I may. Um item 4A uh I'm not going to say anything that's going to alter that in any way. It's already been done. But I will point out that uh for the CSBA, it looks like this is going to be the first year that it's in Sacramento. So, cabinet and staff, if you have any lists of complaints to Sacramento, me and Bob Harden will gladly take them to the Capitol for y'all. And secondly, I I I do also want to say because now we're live streaming our board meetings, today is my mother-in-law's birthday, so that's all. Thank you. Happy birthday. Happy birthday to