001Good evening everyone. Mr. Klein, are we ready? We on. Okay. Good evening everyone and welcome to the May 12th regular school board meeting. We are thrilled to have you all with us today and we are super excited to have Shambrell perform. We have a few uh little housekeeping items to get to before we get to our wonderful cubs. So, um, with that, I'm going to ask Sophie Bosek and Sha Ipal Ipali, if I hopefully I didn't butcher that, um, from Chapperel, the first graders, come and lead us in the flag salute. Please stand. and remove your hats as we say the pledge of allegiance. >> Place your right hands over your heart. Ready, begin. >> I pledge alce to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands.
002One nation under God, and indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay. How adorable was that? >> I have nothing to report out of close session. And may I have a motion to approve May I have a motion to approve tonight's meeting? >> So moved. >> May I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you very much. All those in favor? >> Miss Westerberg. >> Excuse me. I >> board those I >> I >> We have an agenda. Uh let's see. Approval of minutes. May I have a motion to approve minutes from the April 28th, 2026 meeting? >> So moved. >> All second. >> Thank you very much. Uh Miss Westerberg. >> I present. >> Okay. All those in favor board. >> Okay. Minutes passed. Uh superintendent board communication Dr. Ste. Madam President, we
003have two employees of the month to recognize and then we get to the main event with Chappelle Elementary. So if you join me at the podium. >> Madame President, members of the board, it is my absolute distinguished honor to be able to present to you our two employees of the month. we have uh when I think of these folks and and I also think that when summer break's coming soon, I think of the uh journey that they have taken their students on from beginning to end. Our classified in uh instructional uh assistant, a bilingual instructional assistant has done a marvelous job with K through five students doing amazing things with building their confidence uh their ability to interact and work with their peers and has really been an advocate for them. It's incredible to see
004their progress. And of course, we have a kindergarten teacher from Chapperel. Can we get some cheers for Chapperel? >> Oh my god. And it's been a pure joy to see the journey that she's taken her students on from being, you know, nervous on that first day of kindergarten to uh where they are now. Uh confident uh friends in a classroom community and on their way uh to the big leagues in first grade. So, uh, to talk more about these folks, we'd love to invite their, uh, principles up. We'll begin with our classified employee of the month. We'll bring up Miss, uh, Principal Liberty Logan and Miss Claudia Lamb. Round of applause, please. Madame President, distinguished members of the board, wonderful community. It's such a great to so great to see everybody out here tonight. Tonight
005it is my my name is Liberty Logan. Thank you so much for having me. And it is my absolute honor to celebrate someone who represents the very heart of Sumac Elementary and our Voyager community, Miss Claudia Lamb. I'm sure you do this too at Chapperel, but at Sumac, we talk a lot about what it means to be a valiant Voyager, about someone who leads with kindness and shows up for others and helps students feel safe, seen, and capable. Claudia does all of this, and she does it with humility, grace, and an incredible amount of heart. As a bilingual instructional assistant, Claudia helps bridge language, learning, and belonging for our students every single day. She does this work in our classrooms, but she also is a wonderful mother and valued member of our community. And she
006models passion, patience, and positivity in everything that she does. Claudia reminds us that sometimes the quietest voices make the biggest impact. And tonight, we are so proud to celebrate her voice, her care, and her extraordinary contribution to our students and their families. Thank you so much, Claudia, for all that you do. You prove every day that sometimes the strongest guides aren't always standing in front of the room, but they're walking right beside our students. You're the center of attention, not me. On behalf of the board of education, Mrs. Lamb, we congratulate you and we are so thrilled and thank you for the heart that you bring. If those of you that don't know, we have a dual immersion program in our school. Sumac Elementary teaches students in English and Spanish. I don't know how it's
007done. It's magic, but it's wonderful. Everybody loves it. And it's because of people like you with a huge heart. So, on behalf of the board of education, present you with this beautiful apple. And would you like to introduce your family and say a few words? Hi, thank you so much. I am so happy to be here. Um, I've been working at Sumac for about three years and every day is different. Everything, every day is a joy. I am here with my family, my husband, very supportive husband, Zin, and my lovely daughter. Um, I couldn't do my work without both of them. my husband, you know, is very hands-on, makes sure my overnight oats are done, and my daughter, um, she's also at SUMAC, so I get to see her. But it's such a joy to
008see her thriving in both languages. And that's just a testament to the staff that we have led by, you know, our leader, Miss Liberty. Um, so thank you so much for having here. This is an honor. Thank you so much. And I'm so humbled. Thank you again. and also for offering those amazing professional development classes that I've been so lucky to take part of and every day I learn and I you know put it back into the classroom and also my personal life. So thank you so much. >> All right. Can we have a warm welcome for and especially from this group here, nice and loud for our Chapperel Cubs, Miss Nikki Goldstein and Miss Eric, come on up. >> Thank you, President Stein and the board. All right, tonight we celebrate someone truly magical,
009Aaron Gory, our certificated employee of the month. For nearly 20 years, Aaron has brought a little fairy tale to kindergarten at Chapperel. And yes, people often compare her to a Disney princess. But I think we can all agree she's the real life version. No castle required. She turns classrooms into kingdoms of kindness where every child feels important, loved, and safe. She sprinkles patience instead of pixie dust, trades glass slippers for comfy classroom shoes, and somehow makes letters, numbers, and life lessons feel like the happiest place on earth. I can go on and on, but let's be honest, the best truth tellers are all of our five and sixyear-olds. So, I decided to ask some of her current students a little bit about Miss Gorly, and they did not disappoint. She works really hard. She reads
010great books to us. She's like Sleeping Beauty because her voice is calm. She got teach she got teacher of the whole month because she was taking care of us very good. She even taught us how to play nicely when some people didn't even know how. She reminds me of Rapunzel because she's got long, beautiful hair. I like how she talks because she has a cute voice. I like that she got us confetti when she won. And maybe my favorite, she's better than a princess because she's my real teacher. >> Where is she? >> Oh, you're right there. >> I also want to add Aaron somehow survived teaching my own sons, which may actually be her greatest heroic accomplishment of them all. And not only did she survive them, she loved them, guided them, and sent
011them home just a little more civilized every day. Thank you for your years of service, your heart, your magic, your patience, and your love. You have created a classroom where children feel valued, families feel grateful, and memories last forever. >> Mrs. Gorley, on behalf of the board of education, we also want to thank you for your heart, your spirit. We as board members have the wonderful opportunity in Los Virgin is to get out and visit our schools and get into classrooms. And one of the best pieces of advice that I ever received as a new board member that I carry with me is when I'm having a bad day, get into a kindergarten classroom. And so, thank you for the magic. It is purely if you don't ever get a chance, just let me tell
012you, it is magical. Thank you for being a special, warm, openhearted teacher and you're teaching them very well. So, thank you. and on behalf of the board of education, this is for you. >> You um well, first I just want to say thank you for this special honor. Um thank you to the district and the board for recognizing me. Thank you to Nikki for being such an amazing and supportive principal and my Chapperel family. You guys make coming to work every day such a fun and positive place to be. Um, and it's honestly why I've loved coming to work for so many years every day. Um, and I've spent 17 years of my almost 20 year career teaching kindergarten. And um, there's just something really special about helping kids start their uh, school journey. So,
013and seeing some of the faces of current and former students here tonight is just icing on the cake. So, um, anyway, thank you so much for this honor. Kids, >> if the board could join us down here for a picture. One more time for our employees of the month, please. All right, Chapel, we're ready for you. Principal Goldstein, take it away. All of us Take care. There are everyone. You guys are welcome to stay but also welcome to take off too. >> Thank you everyone for coming for bringing your children out. We so appreciate it. We're starting our meeting with a giant and a so have a Thank you because we're having um My job. I think we got more than 10 people. Got slice ready, Jim. Okay, I think we have everyone here. We're
014gonna continue on, >> Dr. Steppp. We're going to continue on with staff work communication or superintendent communication. >> Yes. >> Yep. >> Madam President, members of the board had the opportunity to attend Mary Poppins, uh, Mary Poppins, Agore High School put on the play. Uh, Mr. Lazar, Dr. Anderson, uh, Dr. Scott and I attended the opening night. Excuse me. >> Okay, we need we need quiet. Quiet on the set. >> Thank you. So we can all listen including you. Okay. Okay. Sorry. Continue. Dr. Steph. >> Of course. Uh Mr. Zar, uh Dr. Anderson, Dr. Scott and I had a chance to attend the opening of Mary Poppins last week. Fantastic. You can see the one of the climax scenes right there. Fantastic talent on the stage and in the pit. So much fun. Uh the
015very next Friday I had a chance to see Calabasis Vos de laita at the LA Master Corral in the Disney um Walt Disney Concert Hall. This was amazing. It was twothirds full of students from 40 high schools across LA. Uh the Calabasas choir was invited to perform. Uh so really was a small portion of the audience and mostly students just singing. It was I I have no words for how amazing it was and how beautiful it was. And um our director Michael Seagull was recommen was recognized during the ceremony also. So they did four songs that was so much fun. After that we had our youth leadership academy. Very um amazing program. I think it's year three. It brings students together from um all three districts in the area. Oak Park, KJO, Los Vess only
016program of its kind. Focuses on student leadership and student public speaking. there's a culmination with a community service event. So on the right hand side you can see one of our students Lily from Agora doing her presentation um on her service learning community project. We also thanks to Miss Chambers and Dr. Scott began something new this year. We needed something to add to a busy calendar. We added a middle school youth leadership academy. This was held at Lindere. We had 40 students from a Wright ACL and Linderea Canyon. Uh you might recognize one of the um young ladies in the bottom righth hand photo there. It's a might be a cipher. It was a blast. We had students from the high school come in, talked to them about leadership, talked to them about service, talked
017to them about public speaking, uh also gave tips for success as they transition to high school. And u I think we're going to expand it to the other three districts next year. Was a joy to see Miss Chambers and Dr. Scott in action around middle schoolers. Next up, I can't believe it, was the 16th annual Elka Gold MVP game. One of my favorite events of the entire year. It's where our students with special needs come out and play with our varsity baseball and softball players. Softball's been a part of it for a couple of years now. The band is there, cheer's there, dance is there. Uh students MC the entire game. And it really is um a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful event um for our students. And on a personal note, uh Sean, Sharon, and I
018fly up Friday to see this one here graduate um on Saturday. So super excited to celebrate that. number one public school in America. >> Yes, it took it back from UCLA. Go Bears. >> That concludes superintendent communication. >> Thank you very much and congratulations uh Miss Westerberg. >> Madame President, members of the board, Calabasas and Agora High School are getting ready for the end of the year. Both high schools recently had their annual girls juniors versus seniors flag football game with a decisive senior win at both schools. Agora High School student council hosted its last fundraiser of the year with seized candy raising over $450. Calabasas High School has been very quiet with AP testing, but seniors are excited for our night in Vegas theme prom at the Labraa this Saturday. Finally, our student council
019is planning its last spirit week of the year. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mrs. Mangus. >> Thank you. Um I want to reiterate what Dr. Stenoski said about Mary Poppins. It was a great play to put on and there were children from all um ages watching it and um it was it they did a fantastic job. And then I was able to be a fly on the wall at the inaugural middle school youth leadership um which was very fun to see. And then I was able to participate. The city of Weslike Village started last year with a kindness award and one of the teachers at White Oak Elementary um was surprised this past week by um city council and I went there to um congratulate her and it's Mrs. Bornehaft and she's receiving this kindness
020award this year and um the we had a meeting with the foundation to um talk about um the success of their event this year and and also their upcoming plans and it's openhouse season and I was able to go to aight and see their open house and this is such a fun part of the year. >> Thank you very much Mr. Lazar. Uh well, first of all, shout out to Miss Westerberg, who I recently discovered is going to be attending UC Berkeley in the in the fall. >> Oh, congratulations. >> Thank you. >> I also want to uh reiterate Mary Poppins. What a wonderful show. And uh one of the things Principal Leisto mentioned to me which kind of stuck with me, he was very proud of the fact that students did everything. I mean,
021not only performed in it, but they were the band, they were the lighting, they were the stage management, they were I mean, it was totally a studentrun show. uh and uh it was really terrific. I took the whole family. We all enjoyed it very much. Uh also had a a very nice data committee meeting, a long one um but very positive. Thank you, Dr. Anderson, for all the data requests we've been giving you. Um and that's about it for me. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Lawrence. >> Uh I I would just reiterate um I loved uh Mary Poppins. The Stephen Time uh production was something you would expect to have seen out of Broadway. It was I mean 60 choreographed dancers. It was amazing. So kudos to everyone there. Um I did also want
022to thank staff for what I thought was a really good data committee. We'll spend some time today talking about uh um some of the data we dug into. Um but I think you know we have a lot of people here today who are curious about uh how this board operates. I think it's important for you to know we spend an inordinate amount of time digging through data. We actually set up a specific committee just to look into data um and spent almost an hour just looking at uh screen usage time by websites and apps and classrooms and poking and proddding and poking holes and things. But um I really value the fact the district is confident enough um or that's probably the wrong word um uh secure enough, comfortable enough to to have such a
023robust dialogue with its board about data that sometimes could be warts at all. the data can sometimes highlight things that other districts probably wouldn't want their boards to see and I think that's a real standout thing that we do here. So I appreciate the time and effort on that. Um also particularly appreciated the effort that we're putting into vape uh issues. Um so thank you very much for that. We you know we've really spent some time digging into uh what is becoming I think an epidemic for this generation and that is vaping. Um and recognizing that we need to consistently stay one step ahead. So, I really appreciate the staff's time looking at what's being done throughout the state of California, throughout the region. Um, securing some new equipment, some new practices we'll be rolling
024out. Um, do we already have the equipment yet? Is it on? Yeah. So, afraid uh for vape detection and some new policies and coordination with the sheriff's department to bring a a stricter control on vaping in our community, in our classroom. So, um, again, those were big priorities of the board to be raised and I appreciate the staff leaning into that. >> Thank you very much, Mrs. Cup. Uh, I'll be brief because we have a long meeting tonight, but I want to thank Miss Thomas for a great safety and wellness meeting. She did a lot of work and brought a lot of great information about a number of things that are happening which you will hear about as things roll out. But, um, appreciate all that she's doing. >> Thank you very much. And I'm
025going to pass on comments and let's get right to um our first uh well, first we don't have any speakers on items not on the agenda. So, we have uh speakers for an item on the agenda. Um, so we're going to go right into our information item and I'm going to um let everyone know for expectations that we're going to hear the information on the item first on um screen time and tech committee update. Um we're going to hear the presentation, then the board is going to have an opportunity to ask questions and discuss. Then we'll hear from the speakers and then back to the board. Now, I want to also inform you that um but by our board bylaws, we allow 30 minutes of public comment for each item. We have more speakers than
026that. We do want to hear from everyone tonight. So, once the presentation is done, I will call you up one at a time and I will remind you, you have three minutes to speak. We can we will not be having a dialogue back and forth because you have three minutes to speak. Um and then we'll continue on with the next speaker. If your questions, your concerns are are addressed during the presentation, if there are comments, please feel free to pass or if someone else um repeats something that you're going to say. Um this item, just so you also know, um during COVID, everybody had to go to screen time, right? We were on virtual learning, virtual work, all of us in in our own as adults, as students, everywhere. And when we came back from
027COVID, and I'm doing this telling you this to give you some context. When we came back from CO as a board and a district, our priority was your children and our staff's mental health. And so we invested a lot of money in people and brought in lots of counselors. Right? That was that was our priority. The next step for us was examining screen time starting with phones. So we banned cell phones. We took a look at that. We spent time um educating ourselves, discussing its sites and we banned cell phones. The next step in this process which we we are aware of and have been working on is screen time inclass classes. Screen time has been rolled back significantly since co um and Dr. Anderson is going to um provide the presentation. Um but I
028just wanted to share that to give you some context. So with that, Dr. Stepp. Madam President, members of the board, um you know, I have the privilege of getting a chance to work very closely with all five board members and I can share with the entire room that this board has their finger on the pulse. They listen closely to the community. Parent concerns are important yet they also believe strongly in collaboration and as Mr. Lawrence mentioned uh you know our we've rolled up our sleeves. The team is working hard on this issue. We have three committees reviewing um screen time. There's safety and wellness, student safety and wellness committee, the data committee, and of course the curriculum committee. out of the curriculum committee as Dr. Anderson and Miss Thomas will share here in a minute.
029Uh there's a subcommittee chaired by Dr. Anderson and Miss Thomas. And so we're excited about the work they're doing. They've already had one meeting. They've got much more work to do. Um but exciting, meaningful work. Hopefully will result in board policy recommendations coming before the board sometime in the fall or as soon as September. Um so that's the work ahead of us. It's important and meaningful work and I know this board is very serious about I know the senior leadership team and the admin team entirely are are focused and and into it as well. And again, I point to our success relative to cell phones. Very effective uh very meaningful work. When you visit campuses, it's so exciting for me to see the students are engaged with each other. Cell phones are away. They're talking
030to each other. And so we know the importance of interpersonal relationships and connections. And that's one of the most important things that comes out of the students time with us TK through senior year. With that, I'll turn it over to Dr. Dr. Anderson and Miss Thomas. >> All right. Thank you, Dr. Steinowski, board president, Miss Stein. It's opportunity to be here to present and thank you all for coming tonight. Um, some of you just shared some of my opening statements, so it's okay. Um, I'll repeat them again. With the way that the policies come through and the way they work, and I know the board knows this, but um, for members of the audience, is we have our committee process, and our board members are great. They go during the day, they meet, we have
031committees, we discuss ideas and then ideas are brought forth the board to decisions. And so two committees from that we formed a subcommittee. So from the safety and wellness and the curriculum council, we formed a technology subcommittee. And that's comprised of district and site administrators, teachers, and parents. And it's the parents that have been on the curriculum council um and are continuing on uh for next year as well. So as that's comprised, what happens is the technology subcommittee, I'll talk a little bit about where we started. we just began. They are beginning to talk about and to make guidelines. Those and there's no board members sitting on the technology subcommittee. Those will then go to the curriculum council and to the safety and wellness where the board will then able to interact and make comments
032about it before it ever comes back here then to a board meeting. So tonight I'm not going to be making recommendations or you won't hear the board make recommendations because that would completely supersede the point of having a committee and having a discussion about it and we don't want to be predetermined in our mindsets about that. Um and so it is a braided process. That's my um use of a braid up there of work between parents, students. Um we also have students on there and staff as we work together to make the best uh guidelines because we all want what's best for our students. So currently and I want to talk about where we are right now in Los Virgin. So California does not have explicit technology standards. I mean, they do if you're teaching
033computer science, uh, and you can't teach that in elementary school, but that's not something we teach. Instead, they've been embedded into the other content standard areas. And so, I just pulled out from the ELA framework the technology standards, and I broke it down by bands around K2, 3 through 5, 6 through 8, and 9 through 12 where there are technology standards based on all of them. K2 is around accessing. Um, 3 through 5 is where they need to start to produce writing, word processing, doing research on it. 6 through8's evaluating the digital resources and 9 through 12 is really the critical analysis that happens um around technology and the way we've designed and how things are currently rolled out right now is in the K2 platform we have purchased iPads for the classroom on a
034for every three students one iPad um and those currently are in the classrooms and that's K2 some second grade classes do also have computers that are in the classroom as teachers um at some school sites they begin to prepare the students for using a laptop. Three through five does have laptops in the classroom on a one-to-one basis. In grade three, nobody takes them home. In grade four, about it's a site decision. About half the sites, the kids take it home. Grade four. And then in grade five, the students do take those laptops home. Grades 6 through 8 and 9 through 12, the students do take their laptops home. At the high school level, students are allowed to bring their own device from home. about 65% of our high school students do not use a district
035issued device, but they use their own device that they bring to school um for their technology. So, as we're doing that, um a lot of the conversation is centered around elementary, but because it's one teacher, it is a little bit easier to gather data on that. There's only one district adopted core curriculum that requires technology that we have, and that is um the I Ready component, which is the digital learning tool. There are however other digital components that happen in the elementary schools. Google Suite is provided from the district grades um you know K through 12. We have a a license for all our students to have access to Google Suite. But the other ones are purchased primarily from our PFCs. And it's not I didn't mean to make it sound like our PFCs are
036going rogue and just buying technology, but it's in collaboration with the teachers and the principles at their school site saying these are sites that they need um or apps that they would like their students to use. So we do see different um technologies. They do vary school to school, but the only one that we do actually require our students and our teachers to use right now is the I Ready digital learning for English and for math. So there is just to add some clarity around what I Ready is and what I is not. So, California math room, California mathematics, I cannot say this correctly. Classroom mathematics California, thank you. Is the actual math curriculum that we have adopted that is not technology- based. That is uh curricular and print materials, workbooks, centers, kids moving around,
037especially in the lower grades, they use a lot of manipulatives. That is about 300 to 350 minutes a week. Then as part of that, there is a digital platform. So, I Ready is not the curriculum. That's the digital platform that the students use. There's two forms of I Ready that we currently use here in Los Virginist. The first is I Ready in form. This is a diagnostic assessment that our students take three times a year. Um they take it in grade and the elementary grades. It takes about 30 to 60 minutes to take the assessment. They have a be we call it a beginning of year assessment, middle of assessment, and end of year assessment. I'll show you a sample of what type of data that we do receive from that as we use it
038to monitor our student academic progress. The other one is the I Ready My Path. I Ready My Path is weekly. They could they have to do it about it says right there 30 to 49 minutes in English and 30 to 49 minutes in math. That's what it's recommended. The students answer questions and receive lessons immediately back based on how they answer their questions. Um some teachers will do about six to eight minutes a day. Some of them will do more just on one day and then not do it all at all on a different day. It is up to them how they do it. But that is their way of monitoring and allowing us to do the growth. So the digital time really is limited. It's intentional. It's tied to a clear academic purpose. Most
039of our mathematics instruction is through and mind you same company owns it all but through classroom mathematics California. That's where we're seeing the math happening in our classes. And this is an example of I already form. I cut off. It's a much longer report, but for the sake of the slides, the very top, it's small as you may not be able to see, but it says EOI, which is end of year assessment. We gave the end ofear assessment at the end of April. So, it's not quite the end of year, but we wanted to get it done prior to our CASP testing. The bottom smaller line is the beginning of your assessment. So, you could see in math and English, the students take a test. And at grade level, um, we had 27% of our
040kids were at grade level math to start the year. So now with technically the end of the year, about six weeks before the end of the year, we're already up to 68% of our students are at grade level. So it allows us to monitor and then it breaks it down by domain of where our students are doing well or not well. And I have this, this is for our district, but the teachers break it down by their um classroom so they know how to monitor their instruction. A lot of small group instruction happening and how they use it. And that is a way that they're using the IR radian form in their classrooms right now as um assessment monitoring. >> So just I want to make sure we don't miss the headline from that slide.
041So can you go back because as I understand one of the key things that we saw from this was the students that spend more time right. Am I is this the right slide for that or is that the slide that I better >> I I do not have the slide for that but I know what you're about to see. going to say it slightly incorrect. So, um on the previous slide right here, the recommended time per week for the I Ready My Path is 30 to 49 minutes. If students are in the recommended amount of time, they make the most amount of growth. We do find if they go over the 49 to 50 minutes that they're not getting any additional growth. Um and then if they are under, they're not making as much growth.
042So, it's if they're in the designated window, the recommended window. So, more is not necessarily better. it's sitting the right amount of time. >> But I think that that at least for me in our meeting last week was a big eye openener because that was focused on what grade level? >> Um that is K through five. >> So in K through five what the data is telling us is that because I I'm kind of starting from a position of well should we have no screen time of any kind? Uh and and what the data at least told us here is if you use the the prescribed amount that 30 to 49 minutes um you are more likely to achieve higher test scores in math than those who used less of the IR screen time. Now
043obviously with the point being using three times as much is not driving an increase in time but there is a there is a bandwidth that appears to be having a correlation to higher test scores. Is that correct? >> Yes. So, um, if you do in the recommended time between the 30 to 49 minutes a week, those are the students experiencing the greatest growth from the beginning of the year, um, to now. And that's based off of our LVUSD data. So, we're seeing that within our own students this year. >> Okay. >> Uh, I appreciate you clarifying that. Thank you. Um, but I I am speaking, but I have visited every classroom in the district, but that is different than being in the classroom daily with our students. So, I've invited some teachers and principles to
044come talk a little bit about how they are using technology in their classroom, how they're monitoring, how they're evaluating it, and how they're leading it to make their decisions to help us understand. I think it's an important place to understand where we actually are in Los Virgin as schools as we're going to make decisions. And so, I just want to thank first of all teachers and principles for coming. I mean, to say, hey, can you please come, you know, and parents actually too, but can you please come to a board meeting in the evening and and just share about your practices to people? is just very kind of you. So, first we have from Lupin Hill, Lena Adams and Ursula Dy who are a kindergarten teacher and a first grade teacher. Um, and then I'll
045introduce them each as they come. So, I'll clap for you because I very >> Thank you for having us. Um, we are primary teachers at Lupin Hill. I'm Ursula Dicey. I teach kindergarten. And Dina Adams. I teach first grade. We were asked to come speak about our tech use at the primary level at our school. At our level, there is sporadic use in a variety of ways. We use it to teach concepts and to develop skills and practice skills. Uh when we're teaching concepts, tech can be used to present topics and share information via informative videos or slides that pertain to our curriculum. There are so many options with great visuals and content available. For example, like along with our hands-on field trip to the aquarium, we also take a deeper dive by watching videos
046of the ocean animals in their habitat. You know, you can't really get that physically, but you can see it visually. So, we use tech in that way. Uh we also use tech to develop and practice the skills like we have access to the shared iPads. The children use it to navigate through school approved educational programs like I Ready. uh they quickly learned that our iPads are not like the ones we have at home that have unlimited you know YouTube access or you know graphic games like that. We are really using it for educational programs. Um for kindergarten we have the I Ready curriculum and with the technology component we use it to supplement both literacy and math. Uh we use the iPads diagnostic to help monitor the students skill levels and collect the data. We
047use it for differentiated um my path program to practice the develop and develop their skills. Our weekly goal is just 30 minutes in both subjects if possible. Uh we do it in a rotation model so that we can target instruction in different differentiated small groups. Our TKers also have access to usage with the iPads but it really is minimal. uh our TKers are just getting a basic introduction to logging in and procedures and proper school usage of the iPads. Uh at our school, they access a program called Kids Con Academy. And really, it's just got some learning activities to reinforce and build their literary literacy and math skills. All right. And then in first and yes, and I'm going to talk a little bit about um first and second grade, very similar to what happens
048in kindergarten. Um, we also use some technology in whole group setting to enhance our lessons and increase student engagement. Short video clips that go on with um, other things that we're learning in science. For instance, if we're learning about animal adaptations, we might see a video clip of an octopus camouflaging in a coral reef or an elephant using its trunk. It makes it come alive for the learners versus just seeing something from a book or hearing us talk. Um, our science program, Mystery Science, is an online curriculum uh that has video lessons and step-by-step directions for all the things that then we do hands-on in class. So, although some of the instructions delivered by video, then all of the exploration and experiments are done um in groups in class with all the nice materials for
049that. Um, as far as screen time, individual screen time for um, first graders and second graders, we use just the um, I ready diagnostic for testing um, to get them aligned to the proper place on their path. And then we use the my path for reading and for math. And we use the district guidelines. We target for first and second grade 30 to 40 minutes. The 49 is even really too much for us to get to, but we do try and make that 30 minutes at least. And um during the to get the reading minutes, most of us use it during our regular reading group rotations. So that's a a small group rotation where they rotate either with the teacher or they're doing word work or journal writing or um read to self. And then
050one of those rotations is also the um my path reading. And for the my path math, there's a lot of wonderful um games that are embedded into my path math with lots of manipulatives. So like what I do in my room is I have part of the class doing their My Path Math where while the other part is doing all the learning partner games and then I can kind of go back and forth and supervise both. So they're getting a little bit of technology, a little bit hands-on um collaborative with their partners and um it works out really well. Second grade does very similar to we what we do with the my path reading during their small group rotations and then um they sometimes do my path math more whole class and during that time
051they pull small groups for differentiation during that time or help students individually. So basically our tech use does have a purpose and a limit and a process. So we use it to present and share information to collect data to analyze areas what that will inform our teaching and we use it to reinforce and practice skills. Right. >> All right. Thank you very much. I really appreciate you sharing that. >> I have a question. Can you elaborate a little bit on differentiation because I know when I visit classrooms that's one of the key points that I see especially in in our younger students that many of them come to us with with great uh wide variances in their learning. Some are read at a very young age, some you know know some math skills. So you
052have students that are all over the board with their learning. So how does tech help you with differentiation? And can you explain what that is? >> I'm I'm also particularly interested in just differentiated learning simply because in public schools class sizes tend to be bigger. Um so when you're dealing with a very big class like how important is it to have differentiated learning for kids? So, and that excuse me, sorry. >> And that really means meeting each student where they are, >> of course. Okay. Well, since there was kind of two different questions there, let me take the tech part first. um when they do the diagnostic that sets them on the reason they call it my path is because once they do the diagnostic and they see where their strengths are the gaps in
053learning they might have what's happening with their what their my path time is it's tailoring the instruction to what they need. So each child if you would look at their computers if they're all on at the same time they're all going to be doing something different because they're doing their path. They're doing what's best for them. Um, as far as what we do with the rest of the time in our individual reading groups, all teachers, the reading groups that when the kids would meet with us are completely different. They're learning the skills that they need to learn. So, first grade, you might have some kids that are working on long vowels. You might have some kids that are just learning letter sounds. So, we group the children that come to us based on exactly what
054they need. Same thing with word work, any phonics work or whatever. that's also tailored to the skills that they need to be working on. Different groups could be getting different materials in their folders. >> And how does tech how do how do these programs and this usage and this data help you as a teacher both of you? How how does this help you? >> Well, we monitor it. So when they they do their diagnostic, we look we look at what levels they're at, what they need. It even has the program even has a button that can make groups for you. So when we divide our kids in we divide our kids into small groups and they're differentiated so that you know one group can be a parent led because it's 20 20 some odd kids.
055I can't access every single one of them at a time. So we'll give a parentled group had some parent volunteers in there. We'll have a kid groups doing the my path. We'll have another group where I'm leading it or if there's an aid in the room. So that's where we can really gear our lessons to whatever level they're at. also the um when they're on my path, we can monitor the minutes that they're working on. We can also monitor the percentage of questions they're getting right and what task they're doing and how they're passing those levels and it'll alert us if they're having trouble with anything. But if I see like kids, you know, they're getting 100% 100% and then somebody's getting, you know, 70% or something, I will call that child up separately and
056say, "Okay, let's see. Let's see the areas that you're struggling with. that says you need a little more help with, you know, something in number sense or whatever. Let's work on that together. And then what's cool is then you can see them go back and even if they go back on my path, you'll see their number. They were at 70% and like, oh, I got it. And now you see their their score going up and up and up. So, you know, okay, we got over that little hurdle. It also alerts us if you know they're having trouble with a certain area. And so, they need to we have to visit it or check it check in with them before they can even continue. Thank you. Question. >> Yeah, I have a question. I I still
057need some clarification on I understand what you're telling me about how you're using it. And if if a child in your class is working with something, even if it's like set up for them, what I'm trying to figure out is how often is a kid sitting alone with a screen. That's what I Does that make sense? Even if it's like a lesson that they've we've broken out into during like it could be in group just during the day like how often are they or you know if you're showing a clip and you're talking to the whole class that to me is a very different thing than if a if a kid is reading a lesson by themselves with a screen. That's that's to me a a a distinction with a big difference. Right. So, I
058want to know like how often do you think they're there where there isn't like a a parent helper or someone who's even if it's prescribed for them? >> I would say about 15 or 20 minutes at that time. So, like at in a reading group time, they don't even go on the iPad every day during reading group. It would be every other day and it would be for a 15 or 20 minute time >> every other day >> about every other day because they rotate through all of those things. So, they're not on the iPad every day during reading group time. So, >> and they're not on the iPad every day during math time. It would be about twice a week for math. And same like you know how if you go through rotations. So
059some weeks in reading it might be two times a week. The next week it should be three times but no more than 15 20 minutes. By the time they get their headphones and log in and do all of that log out it's probably more like 15 minutes. So, one of the things that we heard a little bit um in our committee that we dug into is there's the direct instructional usage time where you're using where you're actually using technology actively as an instructor with the student, but then there's the okay, we're done with the lesson. You now have three options of what you can go do. You can go do this, you can go do that, or you can take an iPad and go in the back and read something um or color something on
060iPad or play a game on the iPad. Um where does that come into this? You know, how are we quantifying that time? The time that's not your actively led instructional time where you are using >> technology. It's but where you've complete where the students done and now they have now it's still part of the instructional minutes, but we're saying now you're going to you have three choices. Like we talked about this a little bit. So >> allow them to use the iPads over except for what they're doing on ietting. So once they've reached those minutes, there is no playing or drawing or doing anything with the iPad. >> In kindergarten, we do have choice time and iPads could be one of the choices. However, it's the only uh available thing they can do is on
061the math my path, there's an option for some math games. And so they can select the math games if they've already completed their minutes. They can play a couple of math games that are in that program. And that's the only time they are able to access that. Is it is it presented as a reward to them? Because I think that's what some parents are reacting to as well when you know anything on screens is presented as a reward. I I can see if it has educational benefits. >> Guppies catching you know bubbles to add up the number three and they earn coins and then >> the intrinsic reward of the digital game. >> Right. Right. >> There are some rewards in there >> digital game. Right. but it's, you know, from the I the I
062Ready program and it's just a few math games that are available to them. >> I do have an upper grades teacher here as well. If you want to save some of your questions, >> that's Thank you so much. >> Yeah, class. We don't use iPads for anything else, just the minutes that go. >> They usually don't pick it anyways. >> Yeah. >> All right. And then from Shapperell, we have a fifth grade teacher, Kendra Napier. So to hear a little bit, it looks like we have in the upper grade. So >> yeah. >> Hello. My name is Kendra. I teach fifth grade at Shapprell. I was asked to come speak about tech use in the classroom. Um and I want to start by saying um as teachers, as parents, um as members of the school
063district, our common goal is to do what is best and in the best interest of the students um in terms of learning new standards and skills and ultimately in their development as individuals. Um, so we can say that tech is a tool like any other, but it's constantly evolving and changing. Um, and so we have to continually evaluate how we're using it in the classroom. As teachers, our goal with lessons is to be engaging, to include choice, student voice, collaboration, differentiation, and tech can be a useful tool um, in meeting some of these goals. One of my favorite uses of tech this year has been simply taking a picture of the students workbook as they're doing their math problems, coming up with creative and unique ways of demonstrating their learning. Um, airplaneing those to the
064board in our classroom and allowing them to use um like a special pen to annotate and share their thinking with classmates. Um, we also use it in terms of differentiation. The data that you saw up there allows us as teachers to create um small groupings where we're able to work with students intentionally. Um, and as has been already addressed, um, it does create an even more individualized pathway for students. Another way we use it is to provide students with immediate feedback. Um, so they're able to see right away if they are truly mastering a skill um, or not in the moment without having some um, delay and some lag time. Um, while tech is a very useful tool, much of our day is spent with hands-on um, experience-based learning. So that might look like students
065um coming into the classroom and seeing a crime scene set up of the Boston Massacre, being told that they are now detectives. They need to work together to find evidence which is all leading up toward to a mini mock trial that models one of the first trials that took place in our country. Um students are gathering together reading the book a long walk to water. They are discussing the experiences of someone completely different from them on the other side of the world which is ultimately leading to them um having a lesson on entrepreneurship creating many fundraisers um and there have been numerous wells that have been built in southern Sudan um funded by the fundraising efforts of students in our school district um this might look like students gathering together during math cent's time having
066a very challenging problem in front of them working together collaborating analyzing breaking down the problem and coming up with really unique ways um to solve these math problems even before the standard and the skill has even been presented or addressed. And finally, this might look like students out on the trail at outdoor ed um learning about animal adaptations and seeing the foliage from this area and learning about it right in the moment because truly there is really nothing sweeter than um experience-based learning. So, all of that said, um ultimately I think it's really important, especially now more than ever, that we as educators are taking seriously um evaluating how, when, and why we're using technology in the classroom to make sure that it is a tool, um for learning and that ultimately we're doing what's
067best for the students growth and development. >> So, can thank you for that, by the way. Um um how can I ask how long you've been teaching LBSD? >> Yes, this is my 11th year. >> Perfect. Great. I was hoping that was the answer. Um um so so um can you go back in the time machine 10 years and tell me how you would have done all of those things with the same fidelity and passion you just brought here today because it's clearly you're passionate teacher about this and students are lucky to have you. How would you have done that without the technology being used in the classroom without without the iPads or without the without the Acer laptops without going to YouTube without using Google classrooms or those types of things? How would you
068brought that level of connectivity into the classroom? >> That's a great question. Um, when I started, we had one computer in the classroom and then I think we eventually had two. Um, look, a lot of the things that we're doing, we are still able we were still able to do then what we're doing now. Um, but I think what I've seen is um, we're able to kind of move at a quicker pace. Um, we're able to be more efficient with things like Google Classroom where all the information is housed. We're able to get to things quickly. Um, I do believe our level of efficiency has increased. Um and I think the level of specificity and that um individualization piece has also increased um due to tech. >> Thank you. >> All right. It was funny
069when I asked them to speak they asked me they said do you think the board will ask me any questions? And I said no. So >> I really apologize. you guys ask great questions, but they're great teachers and so of course they're able to respond. Thank you very much. Thank you. Um, >> and then I also asked uh Nikki Goldstein and Dr. Victoria Marzuk who are principles, you know, one of the things we talked about and you said this in your opening comments is when we were coming out of virtual learning, there was a lot of technology in our schools and each year we've been scaling back is to find the most efficient and the best use of our technology. And so I asked them from a macro perspective as principles, what are they doing
070to monitor as they're working with um supporting teachers of this is an effective use of technology, this isn't. And so you may talk in whichever order you deem necessary. >> Our teachers were awesome. So I'm so proud of them. They shared a lot of the things that we wanted to share. So thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate the opportunity to be part of this very important conversation both as a principal and a parent of young children. I think that this is a national conversation that I too have concerns about and so um it's great that we have an opportunity to really figure out what is the best practice for our children. Um as educators we share the same concerns of so many parents. We want the same thing. We want healthy,
071engaged children who are learning in meaningful ways. Um at the same time I think it is really important for us to also acknowledge that um technology is a nuanced thing. It's not a simply we use it or we don't use it. We use it a lot or we use it a little. Uh the questions for schools now is how is tech being used. Um when it is being used and whether it is genuinely improving student learning. Uh at our school we do not you view technology as a replacement for strong teaching. Uh the core experiences of elementary are those lived experiences. I tell my teachers that they are the heart of those classrooms and that their skill and their professionalism is really what makes learning come alive. Children learn best through interaction, discussion, collaboration, creativity,
072movement, hands-on learning. It's funny because we actually picked the I Ready curriculum because of its focus on student discourse, using manipulatives, on interaction, collaboration, turns and talks. So, it's interesting that this is kind of the curriculum that is the one being really focused on a little bit. Um, the reality of today's classrooms is also that students needs are more diverse than they ever have been. As somebody who was in the classroom 20 years ago, I know that we taught in a one-sizefits-all model and we taught to the middle and we had very focused leveled classes that right now our goal is to really meet every student where they're at. Um teachers are supporting students with a wide range of academic levels, language needs, learning differences, social emotional needs, all in the same classroom all at
073the same time. Because of that, one of the most valuable uses of edtech is helping teachers better understand their learners. They need to know where they're at to teach them where they're at. Assessments and progress monitoring tools provide timely information about where students are succeeding and where they may be struggling and what support or intervention may be needed. Um, some amount of technology allows teachers to identify learning gaps earlier, to differentiate instruction more effectively, to provide more targeted support for students. It gives teachers access to that information quickly, and helps them guide in instruction in a more responsive and individualized way. It's also important to recognize that not all screen time is equal. Um, we agree that putting kids on an iPad to watch YouTube videos is not productive. It is what is causing some
074of the the concerns that parents have. It's what I worry about at home, too. Um, passive entertainment and excessive recreational screen time are different than what we are using it for as structured teacherg guided academic use. Uh, while technology can be a valuable tools, teachers remain the center of instruction. technologies does not replace those relationships, the critical thinking that we're working on, the executive function that we're working on, the asking the great questions, the discussion, the meaningful classroom experiences. It supports the teachers. It's a tool for the teachers to use. As a principal, one of my responsibilities is ensuring that instructional decisions are balanced, developmentally appropriate, and aligned with what is best for students. It's these teachers that are in the classrooms every day trying to teach every student how they learn best and what
075they need to know. That means that we continually reflect on how technology is being used. We make sure it enhances learning without replacing the essential human elements of education. Ultimately, our goal is obviously not to put kids on technology all day. Otherwise, we would be like not we wouldn't have jobs, you know. um our goal is these student centered classrooms, but for a classroom to be student centered, we have to know our students. And so that tech is what tool we use to know them best. Um and so we we want to support our families. We want our kids to be happy and healthy and well balanced. And we feel like our schools really provide that foundation for what is balance and how do I use tech in the most meaningful way. >> Thank you
076Dr. Mazoo. >> So Dr. Mua um are you I assume from what you said you were having these discussions with your teachers, right? I mean like you said this is a national this is a local issue a national issue. This touches us all personally whether we're adult using tech but more importantly our children and and their classroom experience or school experience. So are you having these discussions with teachers? Are you in classrooms? >> Yeah, we definitely have started you know there's been a fire lit under us to have these conversations. We're also noticing that focus and inattentiveness and the you know desire for immediate um happiness or excitement. Sorry this isn't on my paper. um is is a thing for kids. We know that and we are concerned about that too. And so we have
077also put in a lot of effort, you know, coming off of COVID, you know, everything was on technology. Um and then there was this big need to make sure kids are feeling okay and to make a big change would have been really hard. But now we're also seeing that hey, when do I really need it versus when is it a crutch or when is it something that kids just want? And that is something that we really are having those specific conversations about how do we phase all of that out and we really focus on the most important things. Like I shared earlier, we're picking curriculum that focuses on student discourse, on collaboration, on using tools and manipulatives. So we are everything that we're doing is really focusing on how do we get kids to be
078the biggest thinkers that they can be? And we know that passive technology use is not the best tool for that. So we are having those conversations. >> And I'm and I'm going to repeat myself. I just think the differentiation meeting each student where they are and knowing their strengths, where the gaps are. I mean that's important for every parent and and I know that was important for me when my kids were in school. I mean, that's what we want for our teachers to have that information at the ready and really filling in those gaps for kids and kids that are accelerating that are off the charts that are reading, you know, when they come into TK and K. Some kids are. We want to be able to challenge those kids, know those kids, challenge them,
079and give them the work that is enriching for them. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you. >> All right. And then Miss Goldstein from Chapperel, the school of the the board meeting, I suppose. I don't have paper, but I have technology where I can write notes, so it it works. Um, I want to just talk about um I am a special ed teacher at heart. I identify as a special ed teacher. I started in this district in 1987 as a kindergartener. Um, and then in 2007 began my journey as a special ed teacher and almost 20 years ago, I can't believe that we didn't have the technology that we have to bring access to our kids with special needs. So, I really wanted to focus, she said everything beautifully. Um, I really want to focus on our
080students and advocate for our students with special needs. Um, I remember walking into my classroom at Yerbuena Elementary School and I had students with fine motor deficits. They couldn't hold a pencil. We were working on their hand strength, but in the meantime, they also wanted we wanted access to the education system. They had alpha smarts which are you I don't know if anyone here knows what those are but they are clunky and they're big and you can only see two words at a time and I had students who are non-verbal trying to type to me so I can understand what they were saying and it was literally two words at a time. So imagine the frustration tolerance the lack of verbal communication that they had and the lack of access and now our special ed
081students they have all the same technology that all of our general ed students have. They have books that can read to them. They have bigger fonts. They have where it can highlight for them. So they don't have to carry around a separate thing. So it can so when they have dyslexia or disgraphia, it does it for them. It does it on the technology. Uh they can write in Google Docs. They can get that immediate feedback. They can have um correct spelling uh spell check and all of that great stuff because of technology. I'm also a parent in the district. Um, I have a student in the middle school and I have two in the elementary school and I was expecting my middle schooler to come home with a lot more on the computer. But most
082of the stuff that he's coming home with in his classes is hand paper pencil um writing a lot of art. Um, especially in his language arts class, it's a lot of making a visual out of learning what they're learning about which I actually was blown away by. So, I just want to give kudos to our middle school as well as our amazing elementary schools. Um, I also want to talk about data because I am a special ed teacher and as Dr. Anderson hears me say all the time, without data, you're just another person with an opinion. Derek, I um and I was actually just looking up the data for our I Ready last week and I and most some of our classes don't have my path data because we did the diagnostic. But for those
083classes that finished, I was looking up to see how they did last week. And in one of my fifth grade classes, 96% of the students in that class was in the green, which is that 30 to 49% sweet spot. and 4% were right below the green probably because they were finishing up their diagnostic and had a little less time. 0% were in the 50 to or above. Uh so our teachers are really using the guidance of the program to make sure they're not going over, they're not going under, they're hitting that sweet spot, which is that differentiation that President Stein was talking about. Um we I can go on and on. Should I keep going? Keep going. >> It's just my mind. Okay. Um, talking about data. So, I actually talk about, you asked about
084how I monitor it in the classroom. Going on a tangent. Okay. Um, we actually just did a PLC um at one of our staff meetings where we all documented and we talked about the technology that we use in my TK classrooms. Only one classroom even uses iPads at all. And it's once a week for 15 minutes because that classroom actually has some students with special needs who can't hold that pencil yet. And they have a tracing app. So they have access like everybody else to learn their les their letter formation top to bottom um learning the sounds and the letters because it also can talk to them once a week 15 minutes that's it um in K through three most of them it's one center a week um it is 15 to 20 minutes of
085their my path for ELA in math and it's about four times weekly and then in four and five fourth grade it's less than 3% of their whole week is spent on tech and In fifth grade, it's about 20% of their school day. But you have to remember that in fifth grade, they're learning skills like research skills, credible sources, valid sources, opinions that are in database and things like that. And they're also learning Google Slides and Canva. And um using goo the Google Suite that we talked about. Um, I just made a Canva presentation and I wish I knew that my fourth grader had the skills that she had because I could have done it and not been done at 2 a.m. cuz I was not understanding how to use it and she helped me the
086next day in literally 15 seconds. So, I was very grateful that she knows how to do that. Um, because I don't. >> Um, anything else that I mean, one of the things that I saw when I visited your school with you was teachers using it. AI brings up this whole thing of, you know, you look at a picture and even for us adults, you don't know whether it's real or not. The critical thinking skills that are being taught even in elementary at the elementary level are just amazing. I mean, I I saw some great thinking and questions being asked by young students. And so, thank you. >> Yes. And also the CAST test. So, our state's test, it's all tech based. And so we need to prepare these kids for what the state is asking
087us to do. And as I tell parents on tours with TK and K students, we're teaching kids techn like skills that we would never we don't know what they're going to have to know because if you think of all of our jobs and what we do in our jobs, our parents and in our grandparents generation would never have dreamt of what we use and the access that we have to be more efficient. Um, I mean, I'm sure back in the day, a teaching job in a principal job or an admin job, it ended at 3:30 when the day ended because there was no access to emails and and things like that. And now we're 247 on, you know, we're available 24/7 to help in a crisis if a student is in need because they can
088communicate with us. Um, which is something they didn't have decades ago. So if you think about it, we're preparing kids today for things that we have no idea what we're preparing them for. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you, Miss Goldstein. And thank you, Dr. Maru. Um yeah, so that's very nice. We should applaud for that. The final slide that I have here is so as we're doing the meetings, we met on May 6 uh last week, we discussed the current beliefs. So Don led them in looking at some questions around where are current beliefs and we asked them what data they would like us to bring to meetings, what data they would find that's important. So our next meeting is in two days time on May 14th and we're going to bring qualitative and
089quantitative data regarding the current practices in LVUSD. We're also going to bring in uh research from American Psychological Association, American Medical Association, Gemma Pediatrics, World Health Organization looking at questions of um relationship between screen use and students cognitive, social, and emotional development. We're going to look at different types of screen use, whether it's passive, interactive, or collaborative. Does that influence outcomes? And other factors such as age, duration of use, and instructional context affecting the impact of technology in the classroom. Um, most of that will be looked at making the research. Our next meeting after that is scheduled for June 4th where hopefully then we're prepared to begin drafting guidelines that can be taken to to curriculum council and safety and wellness where we'll receive further board input there. And if we need more additional meetings,
090we'll schedule more additional meetings because our goal is to bring back as early as possible September 15th after going through the committee process uh something to the board. And that is my update for you. >> Thank you. >> I have a lot of thoughts, but who wants to go first? Um, >> you want to go first, Angela? >> I'll go first. Yeah, sure. Um, I'm glad we're doing this process because I think what we have to do is understand where we are now before we make a change. Um, I hear a lot about what LA Unified is doing. I have to tell you, it doesn't consume much of my attention in the way that when they did a phone ban, they announced, "Hey, we're going to have a phone ban by February 1st." And quite
091frankly, it's a hot mess because LA Unified is just a completely different animal. They have 55 times the number of students we have. They have uh 75 times the number of employees. And so watching them there, it's like trying to watch an aircraft carrier try to turn quickly. When they jumped into tech, you remember they spent 1.3 billion on iPads >> uh for which kids in rough areas were stolen. they did no PE professional development, they they didn't really know how to do it. So, I don't um when people bring that to me of an example of what to do, you know, the same the same with their cell phone. We really wanted our cell phone betoell and be effective. And you know, they they basically said to the schools, do what you want. And
092so, in some cases, they just have the cubbies. So, 12 times a day, kids have their phones out to walk it to the cubby, to walk it back. You know, they they haven't really changed that culture. Um, so I say all that to say I like that we are a small district and we have the time to be thoughtful and look at what's useful and what isn't. Um, and I'm so I'm happy that this work is done and being done over the summer. Uh I'm concerned about in the ven diagram of entertainment overlapping with learning uh that what's in that middle is not necessarily justifying um everything that we're making available to kids, you know. So I want I hope as the subcommittee because I'm not on curriculum council as well that you look really
093the the big difference between engagement and retention, right? they're not the same thing. So, kids being engaged um is less interesting to me than what are they actually taking away from that? What's being embedded? Because guided instruction outperforms sort of trial and error every single time. Um, I really want to know like the times when a a kid is alone with a screen. Even if it's a this is this is the lesson for you. It's really exactly at your level and spend 10 minutes with it. Those 10 minutes are really especially in the younger years. So that's that's the kind of thing um Dr. Anderson and I have had conversations about like what am I looking for as one individual board member? I'm only one board member out of this process and I'm um so
094I'm very interested to know kind of where we are now and it Dr. Marzuk is right. It's a very nuanced conversation, right, about how we use this and I I want our teachers to have the ability to discern how to meet kids needs, but um are there other ways we can do that and in the younger years. So, I'm I have no agenda to drive at this point. I'm just glad we're doing a process that I think is actually fairly accelerated for us to come back with a board policy. um you know and some districts are doing resolutions. I want to be clear when we do we have some resolutions we do that are procedural but really when the board does a resolution like what Beverly Hills did they say you know we believe that
095this should be done which to me is astounding like but that's you you're the board so that's why we're doing this in l a resolution just says we believe in something and we rarely do them because they're kind of just a statement of feelings and I'd rather do something that's more um concrete and less about feelings. And it's important that we have our teachers, our professional educators that work for us and know the kids in the classroom be part of this process. Uh and our administrators because um my understanding districts who have just passed a resolution saying, you know, we're going to dump tech and you don't have your teachers on board. It's a problem. You know, you have to be thoughtful. So I appreciate that we're doing it in this manner. those are the
096the nuances are the are where the real details are for me. So um I will be interested as the work of the subcommittee and the committee happens and this is also coming to safety and wellness. So um >> thank you. Sorry no thank you. I'm gonna excuse me Mr. Lazar you were waiting. >> Um yeah I tr I truly agree with so much of what Miss Katp just said. Um I'm very excited about the tech committee and really looking forward to the culmination of the process when you bring recommendations to the board in September. Um like M Kut I also just think it's it's great in that it includes many stakeholders in our district. There's many teachers on board and you and I can see from the teachers who spoke tonight and our principles that
097you know teachers are in the trenches in the classroom and they often actually all the time have a very deep understanding of when technology works and when it doesn't work for educational purposes and that input is just absolutely vital in crafting um a very you know nuanced policy. I'm glad our curriculum council parents and students are involved and very confident that Dr. Anderson and Dr. Thomas' leadership uh is going to make for a very fruitful process. Um I I also want to shout out to all of the parents that are here tonight. Um I I truly greatly appreciate everyone coming. Uh I'm an LBUSD parent myself. Uh I have an 11 and 15year-old daughter. Uh both in LBUSD schools, of course. Uh and I I understand where all of you are coming from. Um, you
098know, like so many families, we are just constantly navigating battles over screen time and tech and I think we're all concerned about the effects on focus, on attention, on social development, uh, sometimes on mental health and we just want to ensure that when tech is used in our schools, it is always for clear educational benefit and nothing else. Like I know all of you probably have very strong opinions on things, but at the end of the day, you are here to advocate for your kids. Uh and I think that is uh a wonderful thing. Um I want to be clear. I'm not anti-tech and I think everyone up on this desk uh our teachers and all of the parents here tonight, we're not anti-tech. We just pro-ch child, pro- attention, pro- human connection and pro-
099learning at the end of the day. Um you've >> you um I just want to reiterate you know what other folks have said about data and how important it is. We've spoken about it on data committee just accurate verified data on how much screen time our kids are actually getting in school because we can't make informed decisions unless we truly understand what we're dealing with. Um, I hope the committee relies heavily on this data informing your recommendations. Uh, and I also hope that the board can get ongoing period periodic updates on uh, how screen time has been used because there's a sort of tech creep that happens. All of us as parents know at home, you give a device and before you know it, there's another 10 minutes on the device and it just keeps
100on going, you know. >> Um, but this data can really help answer a lot of these important questions that I think we're facing with this committee. you know, when exactly is a laptop better than paper and pencil? Uh, should tech be avoided completely in TK through two or are there beneficial uses for it? Um, and are onetoone laptops truly necessary for grades 3 to five? Uh, should they be taken home at the end of the day? Um, you know, and I also hope that the the committee can rely on just contemporary independent studies. I've been digging into a lot of the original research um that shaped onetoone laptop policy and a lot of it is quite outdated now. You know, a couple of decades ago, there was this very utopian idea of the internet. The
101idea that students could just be set free online to learn from all of the collective knowledge of humanity in the information age, you know, but honestly, much of the online world today is just distraction-driven. It's commercially motivated. It's algorithmically optimized and it's increasingly filled with AI slop and um it's not always an environment which is designed for healthy learning and development. Um I also encountered an idea in some of the earlier studies that teachers no longer needed to be sources of direct instruction but instead could be facilitators of learning through technology. And I I got to confess this notion just really bothers me because there's nothing in education which is more powerful and wonderful than the connection between a great teacher and their students. >> Thank you. >> I I see this with my own
102kids. I remember it from my own education. That relationship has just always got to remain at the center of our classrooms. Um, I do also want to note that a lot of these earlier studies on laptop use, they talked a lot about major gains in test scores that would happen. And you know, honestly, our scores in ELA and math have actually dipped a little bit since a decade ago when we started all this tech use. I looked at the data and so it's fair to ask difficult questions about exactly when and where we are using tech, you know, and why. Now I do want to say when when independent studies and the data that we draw from our district not from outside of it and the input of our educators okay clearly show educational value
103I am absolutely supportive. Um I think some of the data we've seen tonight on I Ready does show meaningful benefits in our district particularly in differentiated instruction for large public school classrooms. So at at times it can help teachers really meet students where they are academically. Um I hope the committee will also develop just a clear rubric for evaluating software and platforms moving forward including a lot of those which are adopted at individual school sites so that decisions are just always grounded in evidence and educational value. And I think as parents, a lot of us are also concerned about student privacy and data collection practices with a lot of these platforms. And we need to make sure that it's all good uh when we authorize new platforms. Um indulge me, I just have to mention
104YouTube specifically. Um as someone who works in the entertainment industry every day, I'm very aware it is the biggest entertainment platform in the world. Um it it's great if it's been used for specific educational purposes. That's one thing, but unrestricted access to a platform which is optimized around engagement algorithms basically, you know, really raises legitimate concerns. Um, and you know, I know we have a separate AI task force underway, which I'm also very excited about. Um I I do hope we can also see thoughtful and detailed policy recommendations regarding student access to tools like chat GPT Claude and Gemini during school hours. Um students absolutely need AI literacy for the future workforce. I think about this all the time with my kids. But we also need to ensure that these tools are enhancing learning rather
105than just replacing critical thinking and independent work. Please. >> Um, finally, I I just want to mention that I hope the committee will also consider recommendations around professional development for our teachers and educators because technology evolves very quickly. I know I struggle with Thank you. Um, techn you know, every day I struggle with tech in my own in my own world in my career and I just think ongoing support for educators is just a really important part of this this conversation as well. Um so yeah I think we all have responsibility to ask these difficult questions you know what systems are we placing around kids every day. It can be a very powerful educational tool which we are hearing from our teachers and principles but when the use is constant passive addictive or developmentally misaligned
106we just have to have the courage to to reassess what we are doing. Um so again I'm very much looking forward to the committee's recommendations. I am rooting for you. uh confer for September. Uh and thank you very much and thanks to everyone for coming again. >> Thank you, Mr. Lazar. Thank you, M. >> Um I agree with everything that's been said so far. I think um I think clarity is important for staff to hear from the board and I think it's important to hear that all stop students have too much screen time. Uh and that's just the fundamental reality. Uh we feel it as parents. We hear it from our students when they come home and they tell us about the third day in a row where they've had 40 minutes of screen time
107in one classroom or we hear it because they are sharing anecdotal time of what they've spent uh that week in some sort of online testing platform. Um and so I think it's I I think we need to start from a position of the pendulum swung too far. uh and it and the big takeaway for me is what we're seeing and my biggest concern is that we started with technology being used as a tool to technology becoming this omnipresent environment in the classroom. Uh and and that is a and I think the challenge with that is that it it is replacing the direct instructional time that our students need. And I think that what we're seeing in the data committee when we dig into the data is that we had look we had uh Miss Capell's
108absolutely right. This district had we take our time to think about things and do them strategically. So 13 years ago we launched our first technology plan. We did not have a district-wide technology plan for this district. It was a hodgepodge. It wasn't being used consistently. LA USD knee-jerk spent a billion dollars on iPads that they then basically chucked 24 months later and and lurched from one thing to the next. Um, we do take our time. I'm thrilled to see so many parents here. I wish you were all here for the cell phone fight. We could have used you. Uh, some of you were here. I see you. Uh, uh, but uh, I'm glad you're here now. Uh, but uh, parent voice is really important. I bring up the cell phone fight because I I I
109want you to I hope you don't feel like this is a boy, we got to get the board to do something and hope they would, you know, care about screen time. We've been caring about screen time and thinking deeply about this for years and trying to understand both how we can create the right environment for screen time, how we can limit it and in some cases completely eliminate it from the schools. Uh and let there be no mistake, the science is completely clear on this. Um, we know the damaging effects of screen time. Uh, we also anecdotally and now measurably know the impact of taking cell phones out of our schools. Student performance is up, bullying is down, attendance is up. When you get these poisonous things out of the hands of our children, they
110grow better. We know this. This is a fundamental, right? So, but I say that because we all understand that. Um, so, so this is not a us against them environment. So this is a we are trying to take a strategic approach to get there. Um I have some very like clear things I'm frustrated with. Um I am frustrated that we have such a hard time analyzing exactly how much screen time is being used for classroom. It's unacceptable to me that we can't have an answer like this with technology today. We should be able to know exactly how much time a student is using our internet in a classroom on our device to use content. This should not be hard. And it seems like I'm asking someone to reinvent the wheel when I ask for this
111data. So, I know it's a it's an effort. We're going to get to it, but we have to have that data. And if we can't have it, I think we just shut the damn internet off. If we can't figure it out, we shut it off because because something tells me if we shut the internet off, you guys will find a way to measure the data for us. Uh so, we have to have that data. Uh, I just I feel we've asked for it every which way to Sunday and it's and and I understand it's complicated and tough. Come to the board. If you need funding, if you need resources, if we need a headcount to come in, if we need a consultant to come in, we're willing to do it. The number one pain point
112of parents today is screen time. It is the number one argument in the household. It's the number one thing doctors are telling us is degrading our children's brains, not letting them develop. We need the data. So please, please, please, I am not going to feel comfortable moving this forward until we have hard data that we can defend that shows us exactly how much screen time a student's having that accounts for both the direct instruction time, but also the nondirectled, hey, you now have free time. You can go in the back of the classroom and just be quiet so that I'm not bothered by you screen time that we all know is happening in our classrooms today. Um, and then I would I would really also ask um I think it's fair for us to to
113say to have this conversation without feeling like technologies under attack. Um I I think it's I think it's a fair question for us to ask exactly how much time is the right time. Like I love that we identified that for I Ready 30 minutes is seems to be about right. 45 minutes not good. 22 minutes not good. there is a sweet spot there. But I also think there's a fair question to ask is when is technology too soon? Um and and is the science telling us that that these that we just the reason why I asked the question about what did we do before is I I I my oldest who's now 17 didn't have any technology in K through two. Now, in fairness fairness, I one of the things I love about this district
114is that is that we offer choices to parents and we have a school that has no technology. Um, and that's Mariposa. And I chose to put my adult in Mariposa because we wanted a technology-free environment. That's a choice and it's something that I'm very proud of this district funding that we agreed to do. Um, but I will tell you, she had no technology K through two and she is just fine. Um, and so and you know, majority AP courses is going to send off and do something in the world and then she's going to make her mark. Um, so I would love there to be a a nonjudgmental discussion about when it should be introduced for the first time into our environment with an open mind that says maybe it is second grade, maybe it
115is third grade. Uh, I don't know the answer to that. Um, so all that is to say, I'll reiterate what Miss Cupill and and Mazar said. I'm very thankful for the process. I'm I I know that it watching the sausage made from that side has got to be frustrating because it's slow. Your kids are in classrooms now. You're frustrated. I I I will tell you just to go back to the cell phone policy. Uh Miss Cup was our board president when we introduced this. It didn't complete till I was board president. It took 13 months, 14 months. Um, but we put in place, I think, the smoothest implementation of a cell phone ban you will see in the United States of America. I don't think it's been done more smoothly with better results with complete
116buyin and feedback. We had a lot of opposition. It was loud and it was angry. We got buy in. We had teachers who were opposed. We got buy in. We had students who were nervous. We got buy in. Uh, we had administrators that were scared. We got buy in. Um, and now if you walk onto one of our campuses, you see kids playing ping pong and basketball. Um, and so we're going to take that same approach to technology in the classroom. Um, I would just ask you be patient, but I would also say keep showing up. Don't let this be the last meeting you come to. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mrs. Jenga. >> So, I agree with everything that my fellow board members have said so far. Um, I do, um, so I'll be
117very brief. Um, I think that technology should support learning and not dominate childhood. And but I also don't want to micromanage our teachers. I I I respect their profession. I respect their abilities and I'm glad we're going through this process um to come up with good guidelines for the district um that are long ranging. And u Miss Goldstein mentioned um going back how 20 years ago it was so different. Well, I think also looking forward, we can't put policies in place. We don't know what 20 years from now is going to look like. We need broad-ranging policies um to intentionally use technology in the classroom. >> Thank you. And I'm just going to summarize that I I hope that um that you that parents really hear that we uh take this seriously. We the goal
118is tonight not to make any decisions, right? We're waiting. We have a committee looking at it and like we all said, we're thrilled. It's all stakeholder groups because we value everybody, every stakeholders's opinion. Um, coming and looking at everything and bringing some recommendations back to committees, bringing it back here. The goal is to have a policy in place for the fall. Correct, Dr. Anderson? >> It would not be in place before school started. That would not be possible. Um, but if we were to bring it back, I think the most efficiently we could do it by running through committees would be September 15th. That's very aggressive. Um, >> and put in the date on my calendar. you put it on there. That's the goal. I mean, you say go publicly, right? So, you hold yourself
119accountable. >> No, I appreciate it and that's what I'm talking about like the beginning of school year. So, um just so that you know that now um so please know that we all you heard our questions, you've heard our our comments. Um I I think we all agree on this. This is an important conversation to have. We live it even with kids of different ages. We live it. We see it with our friends kids. We know how, you know, technology is is, you know, harmful for kids. So, we're with you. We hear this. I'm going to now enter the speaker card phase. Now, I probably have about two hours worth of speakers and we have a huge meeting. I am allowed, this board is allowed, and it's in our bylaws, to limit um speakers to
12030 minutes on an item, but I want everybody to feel like they've been heard. So again, I'm going to reiterate that if your questions or comments um or position has been expressed already, please feel free to say pass. Uh you can go under three minutes, but um I do want to give those who want to speak an opportunity to speak. So first up is Nicole Perkin. And if I mispronounce your name, please give me some grace. But uh Nicole Perin, you have please state your name and the microphone. You have three minutes to speak. Thank you, board members and distinguished members of the uh the school board. Um I have the dubious honor of going first. >> That's okay. You're breaking the ice for everyone. >> My name is Nicole Perkin and I'm a parent
121of two elementary school children at Chapparel Elementary. Full disclosure, I'm also one of our outgoing PFC presidents. I'm here tonight strictly as a parent. I've struggled with where to focus my comments tonight and hearing from everyone. It's very my brain was all over the place with where to start, but I'm going to go to my notes with what I had jotted down as kind of my two main priorities. First, we have to look at banning and restricting YouTube on these devices. From grades three on up, LVUSD is providing devices that in the fifth grade have to come home in order for my student to be able to complete her homework. Those devices do not restrict YouTube access. There has to be a way technologically where you can create a different network, a device restriction, something
122where I can tell my daughter, please go do your homework, and I know that she can't get on YouTube. YouTube was just found liable for creating a program, creating an an application that is addictive. We're now providing those devices to fifth graders to bring home. That's unacceptable. I can't let her do her homework without fear that she's going to go on YouTube. Thankfully, I have a rule follower, so it works okay. >> But I don't know what's going to happen with middle school, and not all children are like that. The issue with the YouTube, the access to YouTube and being forced to go on a device to do the homework brings me to my second point. All of her homework this year has been on the computer. Okay. I have the utmost respect for our
123teachers. I think that's evidenced by the fact that I devote hours in my volunteer position. Okay. My mom was a teacher. I completely admire what teachers do. But this year, in contrast to last year, everything switched online for homework. So last year, she didn't have to bring her device home. This year, she has to. >> This year, she has to. >> Fifth grade, >> she's tasked with doing 30 minutes on every night for math. There's no checking of whether she's actually learning anything, doing the problems right, what problems she's getting wrong or right. I can't check that. I can't look at a worksheet. So, I'm forced to either sit down next to her and do it >> and she hates it. So, um that brings me to my second point which I'll just briefly we
124have to look at the loss of learning with the loss of pencils. >> Thank you very much, >> Dr. understand. Um, will you please take notes on some of this because I know the board's going to want to address questions about it. Okay. My next fe our next speaker is Carmen Shane. >> Hi, my name is Carmen Shane and I'm a parent of a second grader and an incoming TK student at Mariposa. Um I um am actually gonna go off cuff because I was so impressed by this meeting. I feel like we are all after going through this meeting I feel like so supported by our board in our district. Um I'm so happy to be here. I feel like we're all on the same team. Obviously Mariposa has we are a school of choice.
125We're so lucky that we are supported so much by our district. Um I'm also on our PFA. Um, and I prioritized living in this district when I found out about Maraposa. And at that time, I had heard rumors that there was this onetoone device at most schools in the area in L L A USD. And I prioritized living in this district so I could go to Mariposa. I feel so blessed. There is a petition that these parents in white have signed and there's 520 parents and caregivers that recently signed a petition asking LVUSD to reassess its screen learning process, which you were doing. Thank you so much. Um, but not every family in this district has the opportunity to attend Mariposa and our school is at near capacity. Um, and there are real benefits to
126like building community. Like we drive 20 minutes to go to school. There's bene there's so many benefits, but there's also a real benefit to being able to walk to school, which a lot of these families can do. Um, and uh, I don't want to take up too much time. You're doing an amazing job. Um, and I'm really excited to see what's going to happen. But specifically even at Mariposa, my understanding is that we get introduced district issued Chromebooks in grades sixth through 8th. And I, as much as I trust Mariposa's administration and curriculum to continue taking a hold this child approach, I'm very concerned about the safety right now of those Chromebooks, even those books, even at Mariposa. Um, I'm specifically asking the district to, if it hasn't done so yet, block you, which it
127sounds like it hasn't, block YouTube and other video streaming platforms on student devices, disable access to generative AI tools and social media on schoolisssued devices, restrict gaming and entertainment content, and require instructional apps to be adree. And of course, deal with privacy and data collection. Um, as in my home, we're not providing screens to our kids. So, if we are forced to have a district issued computer um that my kids are going to be doing homework on, I want them to be safe and I think you guys will get there. So, thank you so much. >> Thank you. Okay, I'm gonna now I'm going to announce the next three speakers. So, if you can line up, uh Jamie Bashaw, um Maria Kyle, is Jamie here? Okay. Maria Kyle and uh Stephen Wakeakeman, if you will
128line up. >> Am I ready to go? >> Say your name in three minutes. >> Hi, thank you so much. My name is Jamie Boff Show. I'll be going to Lupin Hill and I'm so excited. Madame President and members of the board, I'm here to speak about the district's continued use of I Ready and whether we actually have strong independent evidence that it meaningfully improves student learning. Across multiple investigations and analyses of I Ready, a consistent concern appears. Despite being used by millions of students nationwide, there is still limited rigorous independent evidence proving that it works as advertised. Critics point out that Curriculum Associates has not conducted a randomized controlled trial considered the gold standard of scientific research and much of the existing research is internally funded, limited in scope or mixed in its results.
129Some researchers argue that I may primarily improve performance within its own system rather than demonstrating clear gains in broader academic achievement. Education policy researcher Patrick Graph described some supporting studies as weak and full of measurement tricks to make their product look better. Even some supporters acknowledge it is difficult to separate the impact of I Ready from the impact of strong teachers or other instructional changes. But this issue goes beyond research methodology. There are articles coming out literally every day. And NBC News reported today that um there's widespread frustration among students, parents, and teachers. One speech therapist described a child becoming so frustrated with the software that he punched his Chromebook. Parents report children crying and saying they hate school. Um in LA, as you know, with the resolution, uh one eighth grader said, "I'm losing
130brain cells every time I do a lesson." Students frequently describe the platform as repetitive and disengaging. There are also concerns about transparency and actual learning. One parent described the platform as a completely closed blackbox system. Uh teachers and tutors also report that many students disengage entirely, muting the audio, randomly clicking through lessons, or intentionally failing questions to receive easier material. The concern is that students may be learning how to navigate the system rather than mastering concepts. I don't have much time, so I'll try to skip ahead. At a minimum, these concerns deserve serious scrutiny, and the question is simple. Do we have strong independent evidence that I meaningfully improves student learning and classroom outcomes enough to justify its academic, emotional, and instructional costs? or are we relying on a system that primarily produces the appearance
131of progress? Okay, in my last 20 seconds, you know, we all of us uh parents, you'll see a lot of us are wearing white. We wanted to show you that we're here um in solidarity. We have the petition of the over 500 people. Um just so you know that we care and we're here and we'll keep showing up. And lastly, we want you to know that we're not anti-technology. Uh just like our teachers um have said and our principles, we are pro-child, pro-learning. >> Thank you. >> You can if if you have a copy of the petition, you can leave with Miss Chambers at the end there. >> Thank you. >> Uh Dr. Anderson, at the end of this, will you address I Ready and how the district uh the process used to adopt it
132and research that you're finding? >> I think we could I'd rather have that I'd rather >> I'd rather have because I want a lot more detail on that than you're prepared to do. I don't think that's fair to put you on the spot here unless you're ready to defend already. But I'd like to I want I that's one of my questions I have. So I don't want to put you on the spot here for it. But >> I think he's ready. >> Okay. But not right now. >> Sorry. You are here to speak on something completely different. I've got a stack of them. >> I also have information. Oh, is the microphone now? >> Yes. Good evening everyone. >> Okay. You have three minutes. >> I also have information about what you are discussing because
133I am also a teacher for Los Angeles Unifi School District and I'm part of the monster you described. child does have a a computer in the classroom and we usually do 10 minutes three times a week for I Ready and I Ready is based on what lesson they pass on the different domains not how much time they spend but the lesson that they pass and they do give us a little acronym on the side and discuss we pull them off from the computer and then we give them micro lessons in regards of that area they are not passing okay I lost uh two minutes of my time but basically I'm here as a mother Um my three children graduated from Las Virginia Unifi. Uh they are very uh successful adults. But in the past I
134had a really strong problem with the bus system. The bus system here is costly and it did gave a big dent to my budget back then putting three kids there and the fact that there was no bus stop in Liberty Canyon Road. I've been living there for 43 years and my three children were forced one, my oldest one was forced to go to um to um uh Calabasas High School because the bus was not available. I am here as an advocate for those parents that have younger children now that are need to use the bus from Liberty Canyon. My children were not able to and they went um to Calabasas leaving all their friends at Agora High School. with my two children. I had to do like a bus system uh kind of on an
135array of different parents there serving as ridegivers because Uber was not there either. So I was stuck and I saw the frustration of my children not following their friends and then I had to pay extra insurance for my children, my younger ones to start driving at 16. That way my daughter can move from Kalabasas to Agora High School. So I do I'm proud of graduate of three wonderful Agora High School um graduates like I said professional adults but we need a bus in and the exit for the Liberty Canyon residents and I'm here as an advocate for that because I suffer too. I saw my kids crying because their friends couldn't go to the same high school as they did and I had to I'm a teacher so I had to be at my school
136teaching in Kenova Park. I couldn't drive on and we have a construction for the wildlife corridor right now off of Pagora Road and that just measured the amount of traffic that is coming each way is completely unacceptable but that is a project for um the the Santa Monica Mantos Conservancy and I did work for them for 10 years while I was younger so I'm not going to put it down anywhere for but yes traffic is horrible. We need a bus stop in Liberty Canyon. Please, please consider that for the residents there. >> Thank you very much. Yes. >> Okay. Next up is is Stephen Wegman. Then we have uh Kevin Bren Bren and uh Oh, brother. Um >> Okay. What's this name? >> Ryan. Ryan Neth. >> N. Okay. And Mallalerie Ree after that. So,
137Stephen, welcome. Thank you, Madam President, members of the board, my fellow parents who showed up for this. Uh, many of my talking points were addressed by Mr. Lazar. I really appreciate him uh conveying that view, but I'm still going to put out a few bullet points uh because I think the board as they are taking it seriously should take it as seriously as possible. Uh I'm going to start out by saying I'm pro-s science. I'm pro technology. That doesn't mean that I wanted to run wild on my children. Either one of those things. The inventors of these technologies, the Steve Jobs, the Facebook executives, the people who run the stock market who built these machines don't allow their children to have access to this technology until they're teenagers. It's well documented and there is a
138reason. Let's not be the guinea pigs and let's not be the sheep that end up sacrificing our children for the purposes of making things easier. I have two older children. One's at Agora High School as a ninth grader and one's at Calabasas as an 11th grader. Both of them are in AP classes. Both of them are scholars of their GPA. My my daughter has a 4.2 plus. My son has a 4.8 plus. My son got a perfect score on his math SAT. He grew up without this math technology. Pencil to paper. Pencil to paper. That's how we've learned for thousands of years. Why are we letting our kids glaze over and stare at a TV screen so that when they come home, they don't want to go out and play. They want to stare at
139more TV screen. It is awful. I see it in my youngest son who is a second grader at Chaparel and it hurts me and I do everything as my wife does to make sure that he's learning, that he's focused and that he pays attention. I have my kids in sports where every parent that I know says, "Are you crazy?" My second grader wrestles and he does judo. He gets thrown around. So the other day he came home with a hurt neck. So I go, "I'm about to take all my lumps. We take him to the to the to the doctor and the doctor says, "This isn't from wrestling. This isn't from judo. This is iPad injury. I've been seeing this everywhere. He was out of school for a week because he couldn't turn his neck
140back because he's sitting there staring down." And he doesn't get that from me. And I love his teacher. And I'm not blaming his teacher. But the iPad, the technology, the addiction, it's there. It's absolutely terrible. It's not just hurting his neck, it's hurting his mind, it's hurting his soul, it's hurting his personality. His friends come over for playdates and I say, "Go outside. They want to fight me." I say, "Go outside. I am not going to let my kids be behind LA USD. We move here for this school district." >> Thank you, >> Kevin. Madame President and members of the board, my name is Kevin Brennicki. I have a incoming student at Lupin Hill and we could not be more excited to have her have her go there next year. Um I'm here tonight to
141talk about something that uh affects really us all but should not affect our children. Um it's a specific part of this greater conversation and that is data security. And we just hope that you will give that the same level of attention and discernment that you've uh you've shown in every other topic in in this greater discussion. Um and we appreciate all the work that you do. Uh we are allowing to an entire generation of our children to be turned into data products in the name of education. EdTE companies market their platforms as innovative, personalized, and necessary for modern learning. But behind the screens, many of these tools are functioning as surveillance systems that collect, analyze, and monetize children's personal information at an alarming scale. According to research from Internet Safety Labs, 96% of school apps
142send student data to third parties. 78% share data with advertisers or analytical companies, and nearly a quarter expose students to digital advertising. Some even use retargeting systems that track children's browsing behavior over time. This isn't speculation. Researchers analyze more than 1,700 school apps across 663 schools and nearly half a million students. Their conclusion was stark. Schools are introducing children into commercial surveillance ecosystems. And this week, we saw exactly why this issue is so urgent to all of us parents. The the massive Canvas data breach affected thousands of schools and universities worldwide and exposed students sensitive information. Some reports estimate the breach may impact data tied to hundreds of millions of users. This is the danger danger of centralizing enormous amounts of sensitive student information inside private technology platforms. Once that data exists, it becomes a
143target and the data being collected goes far beyond homework submissions or attendance. Investigations by the markup found edtech systems collecting information including citizenship status, religious affiliation, medical diagnosis, disciplinary history, family family history, family structure, LGBTQ interest, and even behavioral data like typing speed and reading speed. One district reportedly maintained nearly 7,000 separate data fields per student, family member, or staff member. Parents often don't even know this information is being collected. They frequently cannot access it, cannot correct it, and it cannot track where it goes after it leaves leaves the school system. The core problem is this. The incentives of many edtech companies are not aligned with child welfare. Their incentives are data extraction, predictive analytics, platform growth, recurring contracts, and at the end of it all, monetization. I'm out of time. I think you get
144the point. Our students deserve education and not surveillance. Thank you, Ryan. I actually have a a quick question for staff on this one. So, uh I mean this is the space I live in. So, I'm in the adtech, advertising, data technology space. Um I've asked this question in the past when we've been looking at these contracts. I'm fairly certain that most of the ones that I've seen come before have very stringent data protection. I mean, I've asked this question about whether or not uh the data that comes in, we're able to analyze, but nothing goes back out. Do we have that as like a um uh a prerequisite for our approvals? Whether it's for the curriculum, we do a new book and it has an online curriculum. Are we ensuring that they have a zero
145data sharing policy on the way back out or if it's at the very least it's severely anonymized? >> Uh that is actually a requirement of the state of California. That's what I thought under CCP that this >> actually built into all the contracts that we uh we take. uh and when we find a contract to be lacking, we actually attach a writer to it which demands more severe restrictions on the data. Uh when we uh integrate our systems into these outside systems, we actually have the ability to control exactly what is shared with them. We do not share most of the data that was mentioned there. Uh most we share typically is, you know, first name, last name, grade level, that's about it, school. Um so we have pretty extreme controls over the amount of
146information that we're actually sharing with these systems. I guess more broadly, do we have a just standard policy that ensures this is not kind of oneoff that it's like across both at the district level and the school level that we're looking at this stuff? >> Yes, absolutely. >> Okay, >> thank you Ryan. >> Ryan, hi, I'm Ryan Roth. I am an incoming TK Bural and thank you all for your time tonight. Concern over student technology use has become one of the last truly bipartisan issues in this country. Parents, teachers, researchers, and lawmakers from every background are increasingly asking the same question. Are we improving education with technology or unintentionally harming it? Across the nation, people are mobilizing. Districts are re-evaluating device policies. Parents are organizing, teachers are speaking out, and even large school systems are
147taking action, including LA USD, as we've discussed, which recently joined a class action lawsuit against Google tied to student technology and digital safety concerns. And the reason for this growing concern is the data. For more than a decade, academic performance has been declining, not just in the United States, but globally. International Psis scores in science peaked in 2009. Reading peaked in 2012. And here at home, the results are alarming. In 2024, US 12th grade math scores hit the lowest levels ever recorded. Nearly half of students, 45% are below basic proficiency in math. Reading scores are now lower than they were in 1992. At the same time, students screen use has exploded. Research consistently shows that students using screens for more than five hours a day score dramatically lower in math than those using them for
148less than one hour. Even just 30 minutes of classroom device use is associated with lowing with lower reading performance. And now emerging research suggests that the concern goes beyond distraction. It may affect cognition itself. In a recent study published this week by researchers at Oxford, MIT, and UCLA, participants who used a GPT powered AI assistant for just 10 minutes show significantly worse independent problem solving once the AI was removed. They were more likely to give up on problems and struggle to think through solutions on their own. Teachers see this every day. More than half report that offtask device uses use is a major classroom distraction. Students can lose up to 38 minutes of every hour on devices and the disruption doesn't just affect one student. It spreads across across the classroom. The evidence on learning
149is equally concerning. Students who rely heavily on device take fewer notes, retain less information, and perform worse on tests. Even the mere presence of a phone reduces attention and focus. Meanwhile, handwriting improves memory and comprehension. And print reading consistently leads to better recall and deeper understanding than reading on screens. And this is not just about academics. Student well-being began declining around 2012, the same period smartphones and social media became dominant. Nearly half of students now report anxiety when separated from their devices. Yet, despite these outcomes, schools spent roughly $30 billion on educational technology in 2024 alone. Large international reviews have found that educational technology of often shows little or even negative impact on academic achievement. Simply increasing device access does not improve learning and online instruction consistently underperforms in-person education. This does not mean technology
150has no place in schools. Digital literacy matters. >> Thank you. >> Next up is Mallerie Green and on deck is Stacy Radkkey about bus stop. Sorry I didn't take you earlier. And Shirley Bob show on deck. Um, good evening. My name is Mallalerie and I'm a parent at Luben Hill Elementary, um, a school that I love. My daughter's fifth grade teacher spoke today. I love her. She's learned so much from her. I love our principal. Um, I've spoken before about my concerns about putting small children on wired headphones on gamified learning apps. But tonight, I want to speak about my concerns about what's coming, which are probably my biggest concerns. Um, I want to be clear from the onset that I'm not anti-technology. I'm not asking the board to eliminate technology from our classrooms as
151it's been discussed. I'm asking for that intentionality. Um technology that's used deliberately at the right ages and the right amounts in service of learning. Um and this is precisely one of the reasons I believe that the daily and weekly screen time maximums built on the framework LA USC adopted are so important in addition to optouts and rethinking some of these onetoone device policies. Research shows that internet connected devices inhibit discussion, promote distraction and erode the focus and attention skills that are foundational to learning anything. Well, um, studies show that students on internet connected devices spend about 38 minutes of every hour off task. Um, I've seen this firsthand. I teach undergrads at UCLA and even motivated, high achieving young adults can't focus when the laptop is the default in front of them. I can't teach
152with it because it's demoralizing. But it makes me like deeply concerned about what we're doing to younger children whose capacity for attention is still being formed. Um the devices that are district issues now come embedded with AI that prompt children to offload their thinking entirely. That steps in before a child has the chance to struggle to search for the right word to work through a hard problem. Um AI routinely bypasses that process meaning that children never can build the cognitive foundations that they need to begin with. Studies have shown that students who relied on AI assistance performed significantly worse once it was removed. Um, as our petition states, families should not be forced into using emerging technologies with unknown developmental and ethical implications by default. A fifth grade parent from my school who had to
153leave said that her daughter was writing a paper for school. She asked the AI on the students issued Chromebook, how many words, what's the word count of the introduction? It immediately offered to write the entire paper for her. Um, generative AI tools should be disabled until this technology has been proven safe, legal, and effective. I don't want a Chromebook sent home with my child in fifth grade that has that technology on it. Our kids deserve a learning environment that builds focus, not one that undermines it. This year, I've heard from a high school teacher who had to require students to look up from their Chromebooks just to greet her and their classmates in the morning because otherwise they wouldn't do it. I've heard from parents of middle schoolers whose children's grades begin to plummet because
154they can't stop watching YouTube during the school day. during the school day. Um, I've heard from parents whose children don't have friends to socialize with at lunch because their friends are playing video games during this downtime. This is all subpetition addresses. This doesn't have to be inevitable. More than 500 families are asking you to consider the evidence on how children learn to prioritize giving our kids a school experience that isn't mediated behind a screen, but give them space to focus, socialize, and learn from human beings. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Daisy. You have three minutes. Such a great topic and I hate to be the one that breaks the flow of it. >> Okay. >> Good evening uh to the distinguished board members, President Leslie Stein as well as Vice President Cut Bill.
155Good to see you guys again, Dallas. Um uh I have had the pleasure of working with and getting to know many of you through previous campaigns and community efforts. For those I have not met um and had the opportunity to meet, my name is Stacy Radkkey. I am a resident of Liberty Canyon and a proud parent of an LV USD student who has been fortunate to attend Sumac Elementary. Now she's at Lupin Hill Elementary. She will continue on to AE Wright um next year and eventually she will head on to Agora High School. Tonight I am also joined by several parents from Liberty Canyon um whose children proudly attend schools within the LVUSD as well. In fact, our neighborhood has over 35 families with over 45 students who attend LBUSD. Recently, we became aware of
156a board policy stating that students living within 3.5 miles of their school are not eligible for a school bus transportation. Liberty Canyon falls just under that 3.5 threshold and we were told our students currently do not qualify for school bus uh for a school bus stop and wouldn't be considered for one either. We are here this evening for two reasons. First, to introduce ourselves and remind you that the families of Liberty and Canyon are very real and active members of this district community. and second to respectfully ask for your consideration in helping establish a muchneeded school bus stop for students attending Ahite and Agora Hills, our slated schools. Uh we have researched um public and city transportation as well as discovered we actually fall right in the middle of two current school bus stops, the
157in the Saratoga neighborhood and the Chzbro neighborhood. We are more than happy to work with the district on this and are willing to listen and if necessary we would be happy to invite the board, Dr. Dan, Dr. Gleason, anybody who's willing to come to our neighborhood and let's walk the walk that you say that our children should be able to walk. In accordance to Google, it would take my daughter 48 minutes to walk from my house to a right to this very building right here. Um, and that's in the morning and then again in the afternoon. It's a little too much. Um, we thank you for your time and consideration and our apologies for breaking into this really big important topic. We have opinions and appreciate all your work on this. Um, but this is
158one where we feel like uh for our kids, we would really appreciate consideration and to consider Liberty Canyon for a school bus. >> Casey, will you give your contact information to Miss Chambers and she's going to give it to Dr. Gleason. He's in charge of buses. He's our he's our Uber. Um so, uh Dr. Gleason will get in touch with you, >> please. Thank you. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Next up is Shirley. >> Yes. Shirley Bob show. Good evening, everyone. Uh thank you for giving us the opportunity to express our concerns. And so much has been said through the board members tonight, which I think hit on a lot of the concerns that the parents have about just being able for the children to develop critical thinking, to be able to have
159some type of autonomy, to be creative. When you're given tools that give you the answer that are a shortcut, of course, we all appreciate them, right? as adults. Maybe many of us didn't grow up learning through uh the all of the internet uh tools that are available, but how many of us pretty much know how to maneuver our way through the virtual world? We can do it. The thing that I'm concerned of as a grandparent to someone in the school district is that I want to make sure that you all know when you pass a rule or you say, you know, you could use these tools in the in the classroom that you know exactly like M I think it was Mr. Lawrence who said, I don't even know what the metrics are. You know,
160do we know how much time they're spending? How can we expose our children to the virtual world which MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT it is a world it is a entity in itself. We are dual citizens. We live in the real world face to face but we also live in a world where it's like a black hole and WE GO INTO THIS BLACK hole and it transfixes us and it gives us answers. But one of the things I don't like about our black hole is that because it gives us such fast information, we don't know how to be patient, how to rally through a problem and learn to stay until we get an answer because it's so available to us. We are developing a whole generation of humans who will not think the way you and
161I process things. Those of us who were here before the advent of the internet. So I just want to make sure that as board members when you're voting on such important things as to what world are we going to allow our children to be a part of a citizen of do we want to expose them to this 24/7 they go to school what will happen they will lose respect for authority if you can ask your uh chat GPT what disease do I have here are my symptoms many people will go go to their doctors and argue that maybe they're not listening or they don't have all the information that chat GPT does. That erodess respect for authority. Teachers are authority figures. Don't allow children to believe that because they can ask a question online that
162they will know just as much as what a teacher has labored many years to learn and to teach them. >> Thank you. Okay, next up is Rachel Gordo, uh Ryan Horn, and Isabella Gonzalez. >> Welcome, Rachel. >> Um, hello. My name is Dr. Rachel Gerard and I'm the parent of two children uh who are currently in second and first grades at Chaffarel. Uh my husband and I moved to Calabasas in 2020 in large part to be zoned for LVUSD. We were both surprised that when our eldest son started kindergarten that the teacher had him completing iPad lessons in class and recommended that kindergarteners work on edtech programs like Lexia and Raz kids at home. The use of edtech ramped up in first grade and we tried to be more accommodating permitting some use of these
163two reading programs and even the math game Prodigy. So, however, it was the introduction of Prodigy that really worried us. Um, our son became addicted, focusing conversation about acquiring and evolving pets, and he threw tantrums when his time using the program was over. He obsessively talked about Prodigy for months and begged us to give him a paid membership, having been inundated with inapp membership ads. We are now seeing the same pattern play out with our younger son. In the current school year, both of our sons have been using I Ready and they both complain about how boring it is except for the games and how they feel they do not learn much from it. Uh while on one hand I understand that this program can be a useful diagnostic tool for educators and administrators, I
164am also alarmed that so much of the math and language arts curriculum now focuses on I Ready. We do not allow our sons to use I Ready at home. Looking toward third grade, I am alarmed and anxious about the escalation in digital device use in edtech and it was really scary to hear about what happens in fifth grade. Um I'm also a professor. I've been a professor for 15 years and I have seen the many changes in study habits and and the preparedness of our students. For example, many of the students in my 100 level general education course come to class with earbuds in with their phones out. Okay? Most don't take any notes. Okay? They don't even come with paper and pens or pencils. They do come with tablets and laptops, but when I
165walk around during class time that's dedicated to discussing our class reading in small groups, many of these students are texting and watching reals on their phones or engaging in other non-academic screen use. So sadly, I can also relay that many of the students who are graduating high school and starting university are not as prepared academically as they were prior to the rise of uh in use of edtech and personal devices. And I can I can see this. It's just so obvious and it's sad. Okay, so I'm I'm very concerned about my own children. I don't want this to be their trajectory. Um I would like to have something more sensible. I do not want them to be handed a laptop with um AI uh generative applications inside it. I think this is really going to
166stunt their their minds from from developing. Thank you. >> Thank you very much, Ryan. Hi, I'm Dr. Ryan Horton. I am not anti-technology either. I actually am a digital research specialist in the office of advanced research computing at UCLA. >> So, um yeah, if technology goes away, I'm unemployed. Um I'm also a father of three children in LVD in Liberty Canyon. So, thank you bus us people. We do need that. My neighbor's here, so that's pretty cool. Um, and I've been working with the intersection of computer computers and AI and learning since well especially AI since 2005 and I can tell you that I feel has absolutely no place whatsoever in any kind of education setting higher ed or in lower ed we know very little about what AI is doing now. We do know
167some screen time and I'm very glad to see the board is talking about data and about what's actually happening. We know that uses of computers, excessive use, um, undisiplined use, edutainment is leading to lower outcomes. We don't have the studies yet for for a lot of AI, but what we do know is terrifying that using AI really cuts off engagement, it cuts off cognitive recall, it cuts off um, basically any kind of attention span and retention that when you are using AI, it's effectively you're just a conduit. You're just pushing things through and it's going away. So I would highly encourage the board to not allow that whatsoever until we actually understand what we are doing. And I can tell you again for 20 plus years working that we still don't understand what we're doing
168with this stuff. So I'm really glad to see that we're working on this and I or hope that you push that some more. And I want to push a little bit further on that screen time that I'm I'm glad to see that you're concerned and I'm I'm glad to see that the teachers were talking about very meaningful use of technology. Yes. Where it works where makes people efficient. fine, but this is has to be supervised. It has to be high engagement. It has to be technology that's used in ways that increase engagement and human engagement, not replace it. And I would I would think that for this board and for really the priorities, focus on more teachers, smaller classrooms, more engagement, support for teachers to for professional development, how to use these tools rather than
169just buying tech. I think we need to be very concerned about what is going into that. So, thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Is it bell upon himself? I >> I would I value everything everybody said, but I would just love to encourage the last speaker um to take a look at our curriculum committee and our other committees that have parent slots where I mean this candidly. I mean this candidly your experience and uh at the intersection of things we're dealing with would be greatly needed in that committee. >> Um someone here can if we have your contact probation can get in touch with you doesn't meet that often but that is where the rubber meets the road where that type of insight is absolutely critical to how we establish policy at this
170district. So not to sign you up for more than coming to this meeting but I'd love having you >> for the for the AI task force as well. >> Yeah for the AI task force our AI task force sits within the curriculum code. Okay. Uh before you start, Isabella, I'm going to ask uh Hannah Sperling and Juliet Rosenberg, they're together. You still only get three minutes total. Um Simmitri Mandra and Jessica Sperling to come forward on deck. Are these >> not really? >> No. Three minutes. Sorry. Okay. Thank you. >> Uh, so is >> go for it. You're up. >> Good evening, Madame President, board members, district staff. My name is Isabella Gonzalez. I'm an LVC parent, also an AI startup co-founder. Um, so I I wanted to make a a comment or a question
171about the data committee and and those results. Now, we we've seen the I Ready assessment data from the beginning and end of the year showing improvement in English language arts in math in K through five. Um, however, I know around the same time in the last couple years that I Ready was adopted, many of the elementary schools in Calbases also adopted Secret Stories, a supplemental phonics program designed to help early readers decode words by explaining the why behind letter sound correspondences through short and engaging stories. So, it seems that the teachers led this adoption. I I'm not sure if I'm wrong, but I haven't seen it in the minutes of the of the curriculum council. Um, but that leads me to question whether there's a confounding variable that complicates the correlation between I Ready and
172the Endofear assessment data. In 2013, the state of Mississippi made significant reforms and investments in early childhood literacy aligned with the science of reading, including phonics. And what we know from the data in Mississippi, which had rising math scores alongside the scores on rising math scores and reading scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress between 2013 and 2024, the only state that had that. And you know, Alan Lazar mentioned that during the same time period, our scores decline. There's a significant spillover effect between reading and math. I mean, math has a lot of word problems. So, kids that can read better, they're probably also going to improve in math. Uh, so I don't doubt the academic improvement and and I applaud it. I'm h I'm very happy about it. But I do wonder if
173it had more to do with the teachers and their specific efforts in literacy instruction and intervention than it did with 30 minutes of I Ready. Thank you. Thank you, >> Hannah and Juliet. And then on deck, is Symmetry still here? No. So, I'm gonna take her out of rotation. Jessica Sperling here. Jessica. >> Good afternoon. My name is Jessica Sperling and I'm sorry I don't I'm gonna peruse through because I don't want to be repetitive and I appreciate this conversation and I appreciate everybody's um you know feedback and I think it's really important that um we talk about this so I appreciate it. My name is Jess Sperling. I'm a lifelong Calabasis resident, the daughter of a retired LVUSD employee and the mother of two students ages 9 and 12. I'm here today because the
174gap between our district's digital policy and the reality in the middle school, specifically classroom, has become a conflict. Um, I'm mostly just here to talk about those issues. This middle school, the data is clear. Screenbased learning is not improving outcomes. And the LVUSD speaker series recently featured neuroscientist Dr. Jared Horvath, who reminded us the number one determinant of learning is attention. Human beings cannot multitask. When we force children to juggle multiple tabs and devices, we aren't teaching them digital literacy. We're teaching them a permanent state of distraction. I've seen the consequences firsthand. While volunteering at the middle school library, I've watched students use Chromebooks for everything except school work. The level of dysregulation is shocking. The addiction to these devices is so profound that students frequently ignore redirection from authority figures entirely. Furthermore, we are
175facing an integrity issue big time. My daughter reports that cheating via Google Lens, ChatGBT, and AI is rampant. By providing these devices without adequate restrictions, we are essentially handing children the keys to a car before they know how to drive. Paradoxically, because these are district-owned devices, parents are locked out of the very privacy and security settings we use at home to protect our children. It is disturbing to think that my daughter has more access via her unrestricted schoolisssued Chromebook than any device that she has at home. This isn't just about grades. It's about the developing brain. High screen time and technology overuse has linked to negative structural brain changes and inhibiting healthy brain development. Digital dementia is real in kids refers to cognitive deficits such as poor memory, reduced attention span, cognitive skills, anxiety, depression,
176and emotional regulation issues caused by overreiance on digital devices mimicking dementia-ike symptoms. Our children deserve better. Even the tech gurus of Silicon Valley famously send their children to screenfree schools because they understand these risks. Silicon Valley coders have coded their way out of their jobs with AI. The future is unpredictable. We know. I think it's important to focus more on developing human skills than the tech skills. Building connection, empathy, music, and arts curriculum and a moral code which AI cannot replace. It's an opportunity for this district to set itself apart to steer away from more tech, but foster learning centered on critical thinking skills that will allow children to grow, find purpose and meaning, and not be afraid to face overcome adversity. I'm urging the board just to provide an alternative. We need a pathway
177for families who want to prioritize traditional pen to paper deep focused learning and that can't get into Mariposa at this point with older kids. Um I just want us all to be on the same page and you know to focus. Thank you all together. >> Okay. Oh, okay. So this is Hannah. Okay. Hi Hannah, welcome. You have three minutes. >> Good evening. My name is Hannah Sperling and I'm a sixth grader at ACEL and previously attended Bo Elementary. I'm here today to explain my experiences on a day-to-day basis when it comes to screen use. There are days that I feel more exhausted on edge when my Chromebook is required for most periods of the day. I'm constantly asked how I exist without a phone. I wish to socialize at lunchtime while all my friends wish
178to play wish to play computer games or browse the internet. I feel uncomfortable when peers ask me to share my work when they know it's a simple click or screenshot even after I've turned the assignment in. I'm frustrated that when I work hard to receive an A average that I'm asked if I cheated with Google Lens to get there. I feel my friend at a right in the gay program is equally frustrated with the chatter routine and using chatb to basically think for everyone. I cringe when we are forced to do group assignments because I know nine times out of 10 there will be people in my group that will zone out on a screen game during class and have no motivation and will fall all on me to complete. It all doesn't seem right.
179I recently showed my mom that when I asked Google about a planet characteristics it provide the AI generated explanation along with videos from Facebook and YouTube as their inter interpretation of the plans as well. It's sad that our science lab involves simulated virtual science experiments when I was looking forward to a more fun and hands-on experiments. My teacher spends so much class time trying to redirect everyone not doing what they should do on their device. And the crazy thing is is that when kids are called out, they don't care or are too distracted by the screen to be faced. In my perfect world, there's no Chromebooks. >> Thank you so much. I I just I just want to say that everything you just said is what I hear from my sixth and seventh grader every
180day. Um so I think it's very important for staff to hear this. Um it is not 5 to 10 minutes a day in these classrooms. It is it is over and over and over and over again. And and I and I I think especially the issue around I mean I have heard the group assignment drama so many times my friend. You're not alone. Uh but but I I think that it's I I I really hope staff heard that because I I know you're we have so many amazing teachers that aren't that. That's not what happens. And I think in some cases those might be the ones who are leaning into our processes which is great. But we have a lot of other experiences that are exactly like what that young lady just shared. I I
181just want to thank you for coming out. I thank everybody for coming out. But for a student to take the time, you've got homework homework on your Chromebook. You've got uh you've got a lot you've got a lot on your plate. So to come down here and share with us your experience is especially meaningful. So thank you. And thank you your mom for bringing it. >> And we have more speakers to go to. And um as we're getting on deck, uh Azita is uh James Hollerin, a student. Are you here, James? Oh, you're second. And Ivonne Wall. And um I just want to say parents and students, I hope that you're hearing from us. We want to help you. We want to help our students. We want to help you. We need to do this
182thoughtfully, which we are. And uh but we do. Our goal is to get some help. >> Hi. Thank you all. Um uh my name is Lazita. I'm a chapperall parent. I'd like to start by acknowledging that everyone in this room. Um, everyone is here because we care about children's education, their well-being, their safety. We all have the same goals and we appreciate the work that you guys are all doing here. Um, I would also like to reiterate as many people have said today that we parents are not anti-tech. We would love dedicated tech re ed education but in a computer lab setting um we are not in favor of uh schools giving our children free access to tablets and laptops encouraging them to use these devices for their schoolwork and their homework and then asking
183the children to behave responsibly. That just doesn't work. It's not realistic. Um, it especially doesn't make sense because there's not a lot of sound scientific research showing a huge benefit to kids having tablets and laptops and being forced to use these edtech products. In fact, the research suggests the opposite as you've heard tonight. Um, but let's say even for the sake of argument that tomorrow some scientific research comes to light showing that there is a benefit to children's test scores when they're using these tablets and laptops daily in their education. At that point, the as the adults responsible for these children's education and well-being and safety, before we allow devices and edtech to take over our classrooms, we would still need to stop and take a look at the drawbacks and the dangers and decide
184if the benefits outweigh the drawbacks and dangers, many of which you guys have heard about tonight. um including subjecting our children to technology that's explicitly designed to keep them hooked, priming our children for screen time addiction, disordered sleep, and an inability to focus. Um exacerbating depression and anxiety among our children, giving strangers and pedophiles on the internet access to communicate with our children. Giving our children access to group chats that are very popular and provide a safe space for bullying. exposing our children to pornography, violent videos, deep fakes, and other explicit online content. Um, exposing our children to the AI tools that are, as you've heard tonight, stunting their development of their critical thinking skills. And allowing tech companies to collect and sell data from our children and about our children, including uh information about
185medical diagnoses, mental health assessments, disciplinary history, family structure, etc. The perceived benefits of schoolisssued devices and tech edtech products if any and I don't know if there are any even if they existed they do not outweigh the proven harms and we are the adults that are tasked with doing this risk assessment and taking action to protect the kids from these harms. So, I encourage this board to take a close look at this to please adopt the proposals outlined in the schools beyond screens petition and in particular at a minimum um guarantee a meaningful opt out procedure for parents. >> Thank you guys. >> Jane, Miss Chambers, can you make sure that James's mic is so we can really all hear him. Are you ready, James? You got this. We are really, really thrilled that you're
186here to speak to us and we're listening intently and we care. Hello, my name is James Hollerin and I and I'm in fifth grade at Mariposa. And I just wanted to say that um I came to Mariposa from kindergarten to fifth grade and we didn't use any screens um to fifth grade and it I felt pretty good when um we didn't use screens because it because it's um very addicting And when and I'm ve and I know that I'm very addicted to screens sometimes and I feel like I should not do screens that much anymore. And yeah, >> that's great. >> Thank you very much. You did a great job. >> Great job. >> Ivonne Wall, is Ivon here? Okay. >> Thank you, James. Ivonne and then Sandra Lewis. >> I just want to bring
187up because it reminds me, do you I think you all were able to see it, but when we went and visited that high school um that had eliminated all the screens. >> Um and the high school students came up to us and said they know they're addicted. Uh and they they basically were begging us to get the screens out of their life. And the one girl who talked to us, I thought was the most powerful thing she said. She said, "When I got the screens out of school, I realized I didn't need them so much at home anymore either, and I stopped breaking the cycle." So, I just think that that what you said is really powerful, and I really appreciate you coming. Like, it's it's not fair that you're being these things are addicted,
188but we when we spent time at these schools, the students were telling us this that exact message repeatedly. So, thank you for coming. >> Okay. So, we have Ivonne Wall, then Sandra Lewis. Is Sandra here? >> No. No. >> Okay. and Natalie Amarl. Natalia, are you here? Okay, you're up after. And Michael Kezwick. Michael, are you okay? So, and the last one is Grace Fischer. Okay. Okay. Natalia, you are our last one. Okay. And Ivonne, you're up. >> Good evening. My name is Ivonne. I have a first grader at SUMAC and a soon to be TKER as well as a six-month-old. I'm here tonight as a parent and community member with a series of questions that reflect a growing concern about the direction of technology in our classrooms and its impact on student learning. I
189don't expect you to answer all these questions now, but it just shows the expanse of our concerns. How are edte products evaluated, vetted, tested independent of corporate interests before our children have access to them? What will be done to accommodate families who aren't comfortable with their children using these apps and who are unable to attend Mariposa? Why are the tech companies harvesting our children's sensitive data and selling it to third parties without parental consent? How many third parties have access to this data? Why does LVUSD permit adver permit advertisements on schoolisssued devices during class time? How much money is LBUSD spending on tech contracts compared to money spent on human teachers and aids? If these technologies are so effective, why are tech forward countries like Sweden and Finland returning to analog learning tools after declaring
190computers in classrooms a failure? Why are the wealthiest and most techsavvy families sending their own children to techite private schools? Why are organizations like UNESCO and the ACLU warning that edtech is exacerbating the equity gap? And then how are we regulating and measuring the additional screen time beyond I ready in the classroom? Because on a personal level, my first grader frequently recounts the educational TV that she watches in school each day, which includes what I can only describe as cartoons that have not been seen by me, vetted, heard of, approved. And just a short list of these TV cartoons that she's watching in school. Pink Panther, Pete the Cat, Puppy Days, Dinosaur Train, Llaya and the Loop, Peppa Pig, Xavier Riddle, Wild Cats, and that doesn't include all the YouTube that she watches in school
191as well as a first grader also watch who was in TK and kindergarten. So, and I have another kid who's also going. So, just thank you for listening. >> Thank you very much. Thank you. >> And our last speaker of the night is Natalia. Welcome. >> Hi. Thank you for your time. Um, my name is Notoria and I go to a Right Middle School and I've been like going through a lot with technology. I feel like it was a big jump from elementary going into middle school with technology because we started using our computers more with every single class we had. And I've seen people like on YouTube during class time and it like like made a difference and I saw it and I think it influences people to go on their computers more often.
192Um and people go on YouTube shorts and watch stuff that isn't restricted and can be really anything because there's like no restriction on content. And um I've seen a lot of people been playing games in class when it's time to do work and whenever teachers walk over they um they switch tabs and it causes commotion in the classroom and I just like think it's really distracting and AI has been doing a lot because I feel like people are using it to cheat and it's not helping anyone learn and when people take tests, they happen to fail because they're using AI. They're not um learning anything. And it's always like um Google Lens they're using to get their assignments done. And I think that that's like not a good thing to do because it's distracting and
193you don't really learn and you're not learning what you're supposed to learn. Um, and they're not asking their teachers for help and it's like AI is their teacher, but it's not teaching them anything. >> Thank you very much. Great job. Thank you. >> This is all very poignant information for us. We appreciate you coming out. Board has any um closing statements? >> I have some questions for >> questions. I guess I if I just give my feedback, I heard five things I'd like to make sure you capture in whatever process you're doing this summer. Sorry. Uh, first I I just I haven't really understood how to con articulate this as a parent, but hearing it here, I'm just going to say it. I think YouTube has become just an unbelievable crutch in our classrooms. Um,
194and I would like it when you guys take your assessment to to come back and let us know what would be the impact if we just banned YouTube uh from the school day. Um, that it's not allowed to be used for curriculum. it's not allowed to be used uh on school campuses that are their or internet protocols will block it. Um I mean teachers, we're not saying they can't use video. They'll do what they always used to do. They can pull video clips, they can download them, they can rip them, they can put them into a Google slide if they vetted it that thought that it's worthwhile. But all three of my kids will tell me that it not a day goes by where they don't sit in the back of the classroom and see
195other kids watching YouTube videos that are not related to what's going on. So this is definitely happening. So I think almost my time up >> very subtle Jim. >> Well I I would like to know like like I don't have a problem if a teacher uses YouTube in front of a class. >> Agreed. But I have a problem if she's a >> but I have a problem with them going home with a Chromebook with a with a YouTube on it. >> So So that's that's I guess one if you guys could give come back with like a coherent recommendation on YouTube. Um, I'd also like to know know how do we I think Miss Cable was sitting on this. How do we address the homework issue on the screen at home? This isn't something I've
196thought that much about because my kids are out of elementary school and they were both in a Spanish version school and then and then at Sumac and then at Marosa. So, there wasn't a whole lot of screen time at those schools. Um, but I certainly hear from other parents that at least in K through five, I'd be curious to know if we could just have a complete uh if the screens did not go home. Uh, if the one to one was classroom use only. Um, and again, I'm not I'm not speaking for the board here. I'm more asking as you do your research, could you investigate what would that impact be on that? because I'd like to know >> what and what percentage of homework at each grade level is is required to be online
197>> and I you know we have different we have guidelines we have so many minutes per grade we have that that's a board policy but is fifth grade is um 30% of their home I mean quantify what's happening not what we're supposed to be doing like >> I don't >> we don't have policy on what's what's online homework but I'd like to know at each grade, what what percentage of their homework does require them to be online? >> Um, just a couple more that I had. Um, I I um really have not been comfortable about how we've approached AI at the district. I I feel like we have um allowed this mindset to grow that says, well, that's an AI world, so we better teach them AI or they won't be ready for the world.
198And the most recent study I saw that scared the be Jesus out of me was brain scans done of uh adult humans um before AI doing their tasks and then after AI doing their tasks. And we're starting to see medical scientific proof that it's it's literally shutting down parts of the brain that you're no longer accessing those parts of the brain. So I I I the gentleman who spoke in the back I I I feel like again to put on our list of things what would be the impact if we just had a complete ban on the use of AI through K through eight and then what would happen if we did it in high school um I I and we can always change the policy in four years if we find out AI is
199the best thing since sliced bread. We just don't know enough about it today. And then my last two um uh I'd love to know what the real world impact would be um of um actually the last one is I think this is what you're talking about. I don't remember the last time either one of my middle schoolers had pen to paper homework. Um I would love to get a sense for uh and what's interesting is I know they're being required to do pen to paper in class for tests because the teachers now know that AI is being used for rampid cheating. So, they're requiring it for the tests, but not for the homework. Um, so I'd love to get a sense for I guess basically what you were just asking for, but if we could
200dig a little deeper, what percentage of of the homework is pen to paper is actually being turned in today versus is being done where you're typing it out on a Google doc and sending it in because I think what that what we know from science is your brain learns a little differently when you're writing things out. So, those are my questions. I have no predisposed well, I do have some predisposed conceptions. But but but I but I >> Yeah. >> I would like you guys to dig it up. >> Yeah. And anything with advertising on it, YouTube, you know, why? Yeah. Why? And why? Because that brings up why YouTube. >> Yeah. I I just think also in in grappling with a lot of these questions that Mr. Lawrence has just mentioned um it's probably
201best to start from the starting point of not how do we use YouTube in the classrooms now and what do we need to keep. >> The the better starting point is imagine if we didn't use it at all then would we need it and if we did what exactly would we need so that it's a we only using tech for specific educational purposes. >> What do what do we struggle with if we take it take it away? Can that be replicated in some other way? That's >> and if students are, you know, you know, at the media centers or lunch, you know, really not supposed to be on their devices doing whatever, you know, so can we can we, you know, look into that as well. >> This was the struggle when we when we
202did the phone ban was yes, they could still be doing things, but it wouldn't be as apparent like if they if you know, especially in secondary, if they can all whip out their phone, they can much more easily be doing things. But I'm not sure how we do this. How do we get a sense >> of how students are using other devices to be the standin for their phone? >> That's that's I think a question that we haven't yet wrestled with um now that we've because we were very thoughtful about we we banned the earbuds as well because kids were disengaged, right? Um, and we wanted them fully present, but are we replacing, you know, iPads or Chromebooks as as the phone? I don't know how we how we quantify that, but I would like
203us to look at that >> and what we can filter out, you know, as a district at school sites. What exactly can we filter out that students are able to get? Don't you think kids are like, you know, oh, everybody's got their Chromebook at lunchtime cuz, you know, I'm going to be working on my homework and now we're just texting watching YouTube, which is not what we wanted with the phone band. So, um, that has to be looked at. >> And, and I think as well, just on AI, an AI policy is not about how our kids use AI or the technology they use. And AI policy is actually about what English language arts and math curriculum is going to teach them deep critical thinking and is going to teach them judgment and taste and
204the ability to look at text to read text to write text in a in a critical way. So when they're dealing with text from AI, they're not just embibing it. They're actually looking at it all really critically. That that critical thinking component is just so vital in all of this. I I heard someone say something that I thought for me framed up how I'd like to think about this. Somebody said tech light. Um and I that struck a chord with me because that that means that means to me deliberative that we're we're using technology in a deliberative manner to do something better than we cannot do with the human in front of the classroom. That we're actually flipping the script and saying no I want you to justify why you're using tech for this. Because
205I think where the pendulum swung at one point is we said, "Oh my god, our teachers are so techiterate, not our teachers, teachers in general, that they're so we got to get them all on Google. We got to teach them everything and so tech tech." So teachers were taught in this mindset of being, boy, I better be tech first. Everything I better be tech first and I think that was not the right way for this to go. So I I like the concept of embracing tech light. We're a tech light district. We use tech deliberately, but we also know that we have the best teachers in the country teaching here, and we want them doing what they're best at, which is not supervising AI, it's teaching. >> The other point I want to make is
206down the line. Now, I'm jumping ahead, but I will ask this, you know, months, you know, as we get down the line. So, I'm going to prepare you now. We need to communicate with parents. I think we need to do a better job of communicating with parents. We have a sample a small sample of parents that came today need to do a a better job I think from what I'm hearing is communicating with parents what is used in the classroom how it was vetted and again we have those questions we don't know how things are vetted um but you know how what is it used what is the purpose what are they trying to accomplish and that needs to really come from teachers and principles to parents and having this um dialogue and this um
207information because we're going to adopt a policy. >> I'm not sure what you're saying because I'm thinking they're telling us how it's being used. >> Well, no, but I think they're hearing it. They're living it. >> I'm talking about down the line we adopt a policy. Okay, we adopt a policy here. How many people are aware of >> and you know to a point that was made at the DES earlier that we we don't know what it'll be like in 10 years. Then then if our policy is wrong, we adopt we change it. We do that all the time, but we have to do what's right now for these kids right now. I can't anticipate that like Mr. Lawrence said, okay, you know, AI turns out to be wonderful. I'm sorry. Right now, we we
208have to adopt a policy for what we know now and we have to work with what we're given. >> Okay. And with that, >> work ahead of you. Not much of >> Thank you to everyone for coming out. This is important. you can see that we're aligned with with your values. Our values are the same and we will continue this and Dr. Anderson and Miss Thomas have a giant job ahead of them and they are they're on it. >> But you didn't have summer plans, did you? >> Stay engaged. >> So they're on it. So yes, so stay engaged. Um but please know that we we share your concerns. We're aligned and we are going to make some progress, significant progress. So thank you. And with that, >> are we joured? >> No. With that,
209we're moving on to um consent. >> May I have a motion to approve consent a >> motion to approve? >> I'll second. >> Thank you. Any comments or questions? Hearing none. I'll call for the vote. Miss >> She said I. >> Okay. Board. All those in. >> Okay. >> Motion to approve consent B. >> Thank you. May I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Great. Uh this is a board only vote. All those in favor? >> Okay, that passes. >> Motion to approve items 1 to eight. Wait, wait. Stop. >> I have to load it first. >> Let's do it. >> No, I pass but >> Okay. Item number approval of updated transportation contract with first student. We had the RFP or whatever last last meeting. The something I'm just going to go right
210ahead to Dr. Gleason. I think we can do these with elacrity since we've covered the performance. >> That's all alone now. Dr. Gleason. >> H you should slow down now. Gleason. Geez Louise. Damn it. I I thought they'd all wait for my Cupca item. >> That's all. That's the last item. >> Okay. >> Madam President, members of the board, uh as you know, we've been had a very transparent thorough process for uh procuring transportation services. Uh this is uh the uh third time I believe we brought this item forward because we continue to evaluate uh our transportation needs with the goal of serving as many students as possible while making sure as many dollars as possible go to the classroom. Uh the reason I brought the contract forward tonight uh the contract was approved in
211the RFP. The material change in this contract was um instead of going with 10 24 passenger buses uh as we have engaged in sales, we realized up till this point with the exception of our Liberty Canyon friends, uh we have been able to uh meet and reroute uh all meets thus far after two rounds of emails uh if we can have two uh 79 passenger buses in lie of the 224s. So the fiscal impact of that is 1.4 4 million uh as compared to what was three million. Um and so of course all those dollars will be red directed toward the classroom. You just take a second to talk about um I know they're not here but I was curious the I I know all the reasons why we made bus changes. It cost us
212$7,000 per student to try more almost half the the ADA we get is what we're spending on busing these kids. So >> can you talk about the what year the level of funding we were at? >> Yes. So 1979 uh is the benchmark for reimbursement rate. That's not a joke uh for anyone watching. Um a lot of our ED code is rooted in 1979 1983. >> Uh so our reimbursement rates from the state roughly $600,000. Transportation uh after uh closing the last RFP would be about $4 million. Uh the delta is um is so significant and writership has gone down 35% over the last two years. Uh so the smart play was to really evaluate all root routing. I'm excited to report to you as we've redirected and and really worked creatively over the last
213month. we've been able to um shift our route routing under this current structure to serve as many families as possible because any additional family under the old structure would uh would cost about just to get them to school 2/3 of the total aortionment we have to educate that full student. >> So, so just because they came to speak and I want to make sure I put it on my own brain here. So, um Liberty Canyon had a stop and lost a stop. Is that correct? Liberty Canyon is served uh for elementary for middle school. Those students are like smack dab in the middle of Lindereo Canyon and Right. Yeah. So the demand has not been such to >> every route we add is $170,000. >> So yes, but my question was so did did they
214used to have they used to have a stop there and it was just for elementary to take them to Lupin. >> Still do have a stop for elementary. It's for the middle school that is the issue. When was there a middle school's bus stop? >> Not I I don't recall anything. >> This is not a change. They're just this this was more I thought they were raising issues that we change something. This was more just they've never had it and they want to have it. >> I I definitely want to understand what the speaker was sharing. The only thing that um I have received thus far is an anonymous email from an anonymous Gmail explaining the issue. So I look forward to the dialogue. Um the um you know the bigger issue for for Liberty
215Canyon right now is the installation of that wildlife bridge is creating uh the absence of >> um sidewalks. >> Uh and our board policy is rooted in uh transport that includes bikes and uh walking for less than a certain mileage based on the developmental age. So I think their concern is rooted in uh the construction and the pathways that are uh exist. >> It's a pretty decent hill to go up too. >> Yeah. And so um yeah, I got from the first speaker I got the impression Did somebody leave their purse here? Uh oh. Um I got the impression that she has older children is what she said and they didn't have one either then. So that goes to your point. But with the construction, lack of sidewalks, you know, will you will you um
216as you're talking to them and looking at numbers again, do you take that into consideration that um >> sorry, we don't know how many we're talking about, right? So, we have to quantify like, >> right, >> are they saying there's 30 kids that want to go to middle school out of Liberty Canyon? That would be I'm not sure. >> She said 45, but you're right. We need to confirm that. >> She said 45. Okay, I missed that. So >> she said 45 I I have no reason not to believe that. But when you siphon off the elementary families who have a route and you're left with splitting middle school and then you're left with who's who needs a bus and not carpool given writership is down. My fear is there's a lot of other high
217demand places. It's it's it's not a good position. We don't want to be there but we want to redirect as many dollars to the classroom. >> Exactly. that I don't want kids in the classroom to lose out because we're taking on the burden of transportation that we really can't afford. >> Fix class size and stuff. >> Absolutely. >> Proof. >> Can I ask how many uh riders How many riders actually signed up um for uh I know you put out the call a couple weeks ago, >> roughly 300, which is down uh about 35% from this past year, which tracks. So, we're just seeing a significant decline in writership. And the and the uh one of the speakers mentioned that the bus fee is prohibitive for some and uh that don't qualify for free and
218reduced lunch. I don't disagree. And the other challenge of that for anyone watching at home is that bus fee is a drop in the bucket towards that multi-million dollar encroachment. So, >> it's coming out of the general fund which affects uh teachers and classizes at the end of the day. >> And as Mr. Lawrence said so quickly, which I think is worth repeating, is it's $7,000 a student to transport. >> Yeah. And per the board's direction, I look forward to engaging with the parents that showed up tonight and uh gleaning more data and I can bring a more informed >> and tell them you are not the Uber. >> Yes. So, we have a motion. We have a motion. Second. >> We have a motion and a second. >> Yes, we do. >> Okay. Yes.
219Uh student, are you in favor? I >> board. All those in favor? Hi. >> Hi. >> Okay. Next up is uh booster clubs. Dr. Gleason, >> Madam President, members of the board, we very much approved. >> Yes. >> Just >> I've lost control. Did I ever have I lost control? Okay. Dr. Gleason. Madam President, members of the board, uh as uh as the board knows very well for the public watching at home, we have great partnerships with our booster and PFA organizations. Uh annually we uh go through a rigorous process to review their bylaws, their elected officers, as well as their tax returns, uh just to make sure that everything is kosher and there's an extra set of eyes. It's just one layer of support. The groups that uh are on the attachment for the
220board tonight have completed that process. We will bring in August if there are other groups that have not yet completed that paperwork, we'll bring an amended or vended item forward. Uh this is a very um a very important process we don't take lightly and I just want you to know that any name that is on that list has gone through a very thorough vetting. >> I I have a quick question. Um so I see Coyote Club. I know Agora has not had Charger Club for many years, which used to be a blanket booster that did some of the sports that did not have their own standalone booster. How would Agora do they or do they not really require that extra fundraising arm? >> They do require it. And the challenge is is they go through
221you'll see they have a water polo club and a tennis club and a volleyball club and um and they've talked about the coyote club model is um really effective and I I believe there's interest on a global level um but it's very it's it's been very challenging to um have the dialogue with the respective teams because some teams make more when their booster is separate and some don't and Um, so I know Mr. Listo is having those conversations >> and and what happens to uh the school schools school or schools and booster clubs that are not on here? >> You said August but they're not if they're still not >> they can't operate on our campus >> in in August. What does that what does that actually look like? If they're not uh if by
222August we have not had the uh if I'm not bringing amend amended item forward to and I anticipate doing it with a couple groups I don't want to call them out here of course um then they would not have um all the privileges that are exist within board policy cannot um communicate uh through our captive channels that are publicly funded and do not have um facility fees and other rates that are aligned to the board policy that are favored for our booster groups. And thank you very much for staying on top of that. This is really important. So >> to approve. >> Thank you. May I have a second? Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Hearing none. I'll call for the vote. Student, do you approve? >> I board. All those in favor? >>
223I. >> Okay. Next item is uh authorizing design for approval of summer construction. Dr. Gleason. >> Madam President, members of the board, the last couple summers uh we have uh the board has passed this resolution. Don't take that lightly. I'm seeing a not to um to move uh fast. We do not have a board meeting in July um because we do significant construction and want to maximize the work that we do especially for measure S. Um there is day-to-day decision-m that requires change orders. This um this resolution would give Dr. Steinowski and I the authority to approve knowing that the board would have to ratify those or uh change orders um and uh and associated things just like we've done in the past. I move we approve. >> Yeah. I only joke to before because
224we've done this three times a so we know this will be yet. Yes. I I second. >> Any questions or comments hearing? None. I'll call for the vote. Student, do you approve? >> I board. All those in favor? I >> Okay, that passes. Uh college and career pathways with Pierce College. Dr. Scott. >> Madame President, members of the board. Um this is an action item. At our last board meeting, we brought it as an information item. This is just the next step in the process of our CCAP agreement with Pierce College. >> Thank you very much. >> Approve. Second. Okay, perfect. Student, do you approve? >> I board. All those in favor? >> I everyone take notes on how Dr. Scott did that. >> That was wonderful watching for wondering. You get you get a
225start. >> Uh this one is uh approval of um of uh addendum number three to the school facilities joint use agreement with Agora youth basketball. Dr. Gleason. Madam President, members of the board, uh we have a great relationship with AYBA. That joint use agreement, as you know, does not expire into the until the 2030s. However, uh in the spirit of making sure that our facilities are clean and um and uh thoroughly uh evaluated for safety, AYPA and the district have both agreed to use district custodial staff as would any other renter. Uh because that's not in the original JUA, we have uh bringing this addendum forward. >> Thank you. May I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you very much. Any questions or comments? Hearing none. I'll call for the vote.
226Student, are you in favor? board. All those in favor? >> I That passes 5 Z with students. >> Can I ask you a quick question just about outdoor basketball courts? Um, >> no. >> Well, only only because our AYBA team has had to go up to Oak Park to use their cages for practice. >> Uh, do we not allow ABA to use the AE Wright basketball hoops here or others for the coaches if they want to do pract? Is there a reason why we're a lot of us are hiking it to to Oak Park and beyond for practice courts? >> It's not part of the joint facilities. So I would assume it's more um the conversation discussion hasn't happened as opposed to um they certainly could go on Facilitron or we could do another amendment
227to the JUA. >> So they haven't paid for it. >> That's right. Mr. Lumps, I think the issue was is Oak Park's outdoor courts are lit. Ours are not lit to the extent you'd utilize them. Ah, so none none of ours are lit. Okay. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Okay. The next item is >> what we like at AYBA dead. >> Been there. >> The next item is the approval of resolution 45 or 43-25 authorizing >> Did we already vote on the basketball one? >> Yeah, you still vote on it. Sorry. >> Authorizing the decision not to remploy certificated employees. Dr. Cypress. Madame President, members of the board, during our February 24 and March 10 uh board of education meetings, resolutions were adopted authorizing the reduction of particular kinds of service. All
228affected staff were notified of the reduction, and resolution 4325 is a follow-up to those particular reductions. It is regrettable that we bring the resolution forward, but these are necessary at times when situations occur where there is lack of work or lack of funds. With all that said, staff is bringing forward resolution 4325 for approval. >> Thank you very much. it is very difficult to lay off our valued employees but like you said we take um interest we take enrollment numbers interest and budgetary factors into consideration so with that I will call for a motion >> I'll move >> a second >> second >> and any other questions or comments >> just to to note as well that there's very small numbers involved here compared to what's happening at a lot of other districts and uh
229I'm very proud that LBUSD was able to keep it to a very very low number. >> Thank you very much. >> Yeah, I guess I would just say um uh I hate the way we have to do this that um I mean I I think all of us have had a student who has been taught by one of these um or one in the past. I know I have and I know that that individual was amazing and is amazing and this process does not allow us to take that into account which just drives me nuts. um that we have to do this. So I appreciate the process you had to go through and I just I it it should be so clear that in no way shape and form does this have anything to do
230with skill or value the individual gives. It's just the law that we are forced to work under in the state of California. >> Is that the truth? Okay. Um with that I >> we have to vote on it. >> What >> we have to vote on it. >> Okay. So student are you in favor? uh board. All those in favor. >> Thank you very much. Next one is not to re employee classified and uh who is that? >> Miss Chambers. >> Thank you, >> madame president, members of the board. Staff is bringing forward resolution 44-25 authorizing the decision not to remploy or reduce the hours for classified employees. This is a step required by law to finalize the resolutions that were approved previously on February 24th and March 10th, 2026 regarding changes to personal staffing.
231So, STA staff is seeking approval for resolution 44-25. >> Thank you very much. And like I said before, we all we all do this with a heavy heart. Um it's very hard for layoffs and to do layoffs. affects individual employees and um it it is very hard for us to do this. Again, we have to take into right sighting the district and our budgetary constraints. So, with that, I have a motion in a second, please. >> I'll move. >> Second. >> Thank you. Any comments and qu uh questions? Hearing none, I'll call for the vote. Student, do you approve? >> I board, all those in favor? >> I. >> Thank you very much. The next item or which is actually the last item is it's loading is approval is approval of 4525 confirming continued participation
232in the California uniform public construction cost accounting act and adopting informal bidding procedures for public projects. Dr. Flea, >> Madam President, members of the board, you see the large audience here for this item. This is the California Air For public contract uh cost accounting act annually. Uh we need to bring a resolution forward to the board. This allows for us to engage in informal bidding in accordance with the public contract code um and allows for much greater efficiency for low dollar construction items. Uh we've been part of CUPA as long as I know at least uh 10 years I'm sure uh far be before that. And so this is now an annual resolution that is recommended that the board adopt. >> Thank you very much. May I have a motion and a second? >> I
233move we approve. >> A second. >> Thank you very much. Uh any questions or comments? Hearing none, I'll call for the vote. Student, do you approve? >> I. >> Thank you, board. All those in favor? I. And with that our meeting is adjourned.