001Welcome. Now 10:02 a.m. on April 22nd, 2026. Welcome to the regular meeting of Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education including closed session items. I'm going to take roll. Ms. Newbell. Present. Dr. Rivas. Present. >> Mr. Melvoin. Ms. Grego. Ms. Ganas. Ms. Rodriguez Franklin. Present. >> Board President Schmerelson. Present. We have quorum. I will read through the purpose and authority of today's meeting. Um I'll be doing a lot of reading right now and I will do it slowly for our ASL interpreters. And then we will take public comment and then the board will recess into closed session. So, under tab one, student discipline matters pursuant to government education code section Tab two, personnel pursuant to government code section 54957, public employee dismissal, discipline, and release. And we have public employment for the following positions
002to be discussed, Director of Labor Relations, Chief Human Resources Officer, Associate Chief Information Officer IT Infrastructure, Inspector General, Executive Director Beyond the Bell, Chief Academic Officer, two positions, Executive Officer of the Board of Education, Chief of Special Education Special Ed Programs, Chief of Legislative Affairs and Governmental Relations, Director of Financial Finance Policy, Regional Superintendent, Deputy Chief of Procurement Deputy Deputy Chief Procurement Officer Facilities, Director Facilities Project Execution, Chief of Communications Engagement and Collaboration, Chief of School Operations amended as Acting Superintendent, Deputy Director of Facilities Maintenance and Operations, Director of Facilities Planning and Development, Deputy Director of Instruction, deputy chief procurement officer, general manager, KLCS, senior director office of the superintendent, chief medical director, chief information security officer, associate superintendent talent, deputy superintendent business services and operations, director of food services, chief of staff, director of
003environmental health and safety, deputy chief of staff, education transformation officer in the superintendent's evaluation. Under tab three, conference with the legal counsel anticipated litigation pursuant to government code section 54956.9D4, there's one case. And under pending litigation pursuant to government code section 54956.9D1, dot nine D1, 1776 Project Foundation V Alberto M. Carballo et al., Jane Doe C.A. V LAUSD et al., Y.N. P. V LAUSD et al., J. V LAUSD et al., California Charter Schools Association V LAUSD, LAUSD V Pang et al. Under tab four, conference with labor negotiators pursuant to government code section 54957.6, the negotiators Dr. Murphy and the employee organizations are Associated Administrators of Los Angeles, Teamsters 2010, California School Employees Association, Los Angeles County Building and Construction Trades Council, Los Angeles School Police Association, Los Angeles School Police Management Association, Service Employees International
004SEIU Local 99, Teamsters, United Teachers Los Angeles, district represented employees in contract management personnel. Okay. Thank you for bearing with me. We'll now go to public comment. Under tab four, we have one speaker, Mr. David Tokofsky. Come on up. Let me activate the microphone. You'll have 2 minutes to speak once you begin. Thank you, sir. >> CCL, CCL, CCL, CCL. You know what that means? Current contract language. Every time a bargaining unit goes into try to change the system, the response from the district staff is CCL. We'll keep it the way it is. Status quo is the term that the charter school association used to use. You have people, and today you learned yesterday from CSCA that they went in to start their new contract their new contract, and they got shut down. They wanted
005to find out about their tech people whereas SEIU got their tech people back, but CSCA didn't. CCL, CCL, we won't change anything. If the system is so good, why'd you run for office? You want to change things. And so today, you've got director of labor negotiations in there. You've got a bunch of staff related to the budget. You almost had an apocalyptic strike. And now we're proceeding as if the team was great. You pick one person or two people to not renew a senior contract. But you've got significant problems of rearrangement, and you don't want to saddle Mr. Chait, if he's going to be the new superintendent, with a team that may have not been his own team. Director of talent development, yesterday you passed all sorts of motions saying you had a shortage of
006talent. How could you continue to have shortages? You have budget problems. Nobody's flying up to Sacramento. There's 3 weeks left in the budget. What's going on? You have facilities cost overruns. You have a new food service project at $300 million and growing. The next boondoggle in this district. So let me say, congrats on getting these people in early. It's usually May and June May and June, but don't just set it up to be Leonard Britton redux. The last superintendent who came from super, and then there was a palace coup. So, today you have 1776 the wrong plaintiffs. Take a look at the issues. CCSA, a minority of three voted against that and now a judge has agreed with the minority of three. Get that out there. Meanwhile, suppressed evidence and finally the tip of the
007iceberg, you have the the construction fraud, but it's the tip of the iceberg and you need a strong strong IG, not just somebody who manages the office, but somebody who pursues these issues. >> for your time. Next speaker for general public comment is Maria Luisa Palma. I see you're out there and then following Ms. Palma is Deonna Guillen and then Juan Mongandi. Come on down. You'll have 2 minutes to speak. Won't you begin, Ms. Palma? Well, good morning everyone. My name is Maria Luisa Palma. I'm here speaking on behalf of Oleada and the taxpayers, all of us not parties to your very top secret bargaining negotiations. And the big question as you well know on the street and in the media's mind is where is the money going to come from for the salaries and
008the benefits for the contracts you just negotiated. Will Governor Newsom and the legislature cough it up because we know you don't have it. And as far as we can tell you're going to have a new fiscal stabilization plan requirement here come your June budget. Am I right? I don't know. Mr. Samaniego's back there. I think he'll agree with me. In the meantime, when you have the new contracts up for ratification by all of you, we better see in those calculations that get disclosed to you and to the public, all of the additional dollars for benefits, right? Isn't SEIU getting additional benefits? Different people now qualify for full health benefits? It looked like it to me. We better see those numbers in there. And of course we had the new information that came out of the
009bond rating agencies that the outlook for the district for your judgment obligation bonds and for your certificates of participation are now have an outlook of no longer stable but negative. So, how much is that going to cost? Did you know about that? Did they tell you that? Well, it's all over social media. So, we're wondering how it worked out that you were able now magically to keep 200 IT positions. Are you in compliance with the June 2025 fiscal stabilization plan? Because there you said you were going to have all these cuts. Well, apparently if those cuts are not going to materialize, are you in compliance? How does LAUSD feel about that? How are you going to spend that? And what if the students and therefore the taxpayers, the parents of the city, what did they
010get? What did we get in the negotiations? Because I haven't seen any of that. All I see is UTLA's point of view. So, please show us the money. We want to know where it's going to come from. How much more are you going to be in our pockets trying to get money from us? That's what we are all dying to know. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Deanna Guillen, come on up. Ms. Guillen's going to speak in Spanish, so if you'd like to hear what she's saying in English, please put your hands up and we'll get you these translation headsets. And then immediately following Ms. Guillen is Mr. Juan Macias. Buenos días miembros del board. Mi nombre es Deanna >> members of the board. My name is Deanna Guillen and I represent the Parent
011Network for School Safety and we have been advocating here at least 3 years so that students at the police could return for students and yesterday there was a great big show with uh the group of Beyond Screens that they say they are parents, but it's teachers. They are uh allies of UTLA because according to Ms. Diego, all democracy starts with parents, right Ms. Ms. Diego? No, the democracy of listening to them and say when a policy is wrong, well, we need to make a step forward. How many years have we been coming here to say that your policy about safety is wrong? And how many times have you listened to us? Why? Because we are immigrants? Is that why you don't listen to us? Because we don't vote? Is that why you don't listen to
012us? That is the reality, right Ms. Diego? Because you only are seeking out voters. Or just like Ms. Rocio to say that she doesn't understand what I-Ready is for, that she goes to school, that the parents or the teachers or anyone understands. Let me tell you Let me give you a little class. When someone buys a weighing scale, they want to know if they are overweight or that they're right at the weight. But you get up to the weight scale, you can say, "Oh, yes, I'm okay. Oh, no, I need to gain a little weight. Oh, I'm 30 lbs overweight." So, what can I do to be at a healthy weight? That is what I-Ready is. Is to know how our students are performing and how it can they can help and how a parent
013can support their child, too. It's not just about what it means to the I-Ready, Ms. Rocio. Really, you have not even told the parents what are the uh metrics of that assessment because you uh you they don't tell them the level that the students are and that is the way that parents know what grade level our students are. I don't know if you are just sadistic or perverted because you do know well what it's useful for and then you come here and say that you don't and that it's the UTLA interest that you are managing, you Ms. Carballo, you Mr. Melvoin. We thought you didn't, but yes, with that screen beyond with that group that is pseudo parents because they are not they come here that they say that they have a bunch of titles.
014They came here to speak all I have a title I have a masters. Thank you for your time. The next speaker is Mr. Juan Magandi. I see you're out there, sir. Come on up. You'll have 2 minutes to speak once you begin. Okay, listo. Gracias. Buenos días. Good morning. I don't know if we are special or if we Well, those little animals that we go and see over there we call them those animals that are little bit strange in the zoos. It is incredible. Three third 3,000 student teachers, parents because they're doctors and I don't know and theology and educational theology or something like that they have uh degrees in. Doctor in education, does that even exist? Because because they're giving me an honors doctorate because I'm stubborn to talk to speak here, but you
015don't care. Now you're saying that we don't have money to pay for everything we've been giving away. We're celebrating in a party that does not cost you anything because who pays us and now we are, right? We will change the police and now we will put a safety force that is called ex gang members and ex jail members or people that were in jail. Is that beautiful Isn't that beautiful Mr. Rocio? Because the gang members They have a social control program in a control over our communities. I'm not saying that the police are good people. They also have their faults. But can we bet against that? Because that's what he's you're saying. And why is this for our most communities that are the most poor? Why don't you go and put all these ex gang
016members and ex-felon that have in places where they're good like have good houses like Highland Park. Go put them over there. See how it goes. But no, you have to put them in MacArthur Park. You have to put them in Westlake and all of these areas where you know perfectly well that we have a lot of social problems and political problems. And now you have all this money and now are we going to do anything to bring more money for the district? You know how? To put more so that people go better in the casino to more drug use, more marijuana use to have more money for corporations and pharmaceutical companies because we need time to pay so many privileged people and that is what we're doing right now. All right, Javier Esquivel, are you
017here? Javier Esquivel. Not here in person. Let me see if you are online with us, sir. >> [clears throat] >> No, and now we will transition to the remote callers. Let's see, concerned parent, please press star six to unmute yourself and you have two minutes to speak when you begin. Concerned parent. Concerned parent, I see you're with us. Please press star six. Good morning, board members. >> [clears throat] >> So, after some of your policies that were passed yesterday, I want to point out something from the limiting screen time. So, now we have this policy that is going to ensure that students are monitored and that they're not going to be using screen time and that it it's supposed to be more intentional. Okay, that's the policy. That's That's the purpose of the policy, but
018how is it going to be implemented? And that's where a lot of your policies lack a lot of your oversight. Board members, let me remind you that it is your responsibility to ensure accountability and maintain oversight and maintain effective- effectiveness of these programs. Now, let me tell you, I-Ready already has recommendations on how screen time can be limited. But, what happens is that parents are not informed. I just recently became informed of this and I advocated for this for my own child because it wasn't working in terms of um how the the program was being implemented. If students are just expected to join the program and practice, and that's it. But, part of the policy is that stud- teachers are supposed to hold small instruction within their class settings. Now, is this happening? How is
019this happening? How often is this happening? And how do we ensure that it's actually happening because we see that it's not making progress and again, it's not the I-Ready program. It is the implementation of the policy and the requirements of the district not following curriculum. So, what happens now? What happens now and how will parents be informed? And how will you ensure accountability, which is your main job? So, again, you need to make sure that when policies are being provided to you and actually the data is being provided to you, that you ask questions and that you get actual numbers. We cannot just have the shiny Thank you for your time. All right, the next speaker is Maria Daisy Ortiz. Ms. Ortiz, I see you're online. Please press star six to unmute yourself. Maria Daisy
020Ortiz. Sin My name is Maria Daisy Ortiz. I want to talk about or how they do you do contracts with people that are at your preference and I come up I want to ask you and I'd let you know that I vote and I pay taxes. And the financing of Camino Seguro, this doesn't provide a safety for our schools or around the schools. And the contrary, they it is a bad in they're bad influence for our children. Therefore, I would like to know how much is it that the district pays for that district for Camino Seguro to contract and or safe passages, excuse me. And they're doing this so that our children are victims of organized crimes that these people practice. And I would also like for the $250,000 that they will pay for the
021people also be utilized so that officers are around the schools knowing that the school police has an appropriate personnel and capable of dealing with delinquent of problems around the school like drug selling and gangs and also for the pedophiles. Stop having political favors with people that have connections with that that have with people that don't have a good reputation. Our children's safety can be placed on a negligence in which this is what is taking place as of now and they're with people that that need to pay political favors like for example the campaigns that are being held and this is what I'm asking the board for and also I would like for you to tell me how much funds you pay for safe passages and who contract these people. Thank you. The next call-in speaker
022is Karina Lopez. Karina Lopez, I see you're online with us. Please press star six to unmute yourself. And you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Begin. Karina Lopez. Yes, good morning to all. My name is Karina Lopez Zuniga and this comment is to ask of you and more than asking I want to tell you that you should do remove the budgets for these organizations for the safe passages and the integrity of the morality and the construction of this organization or this entity is not convincing us and we want the peace and the security for our children. And this is how the teachers that you contract, apparently they are very professional teachers, they're educated and they have a lot of good things going for them, but they have a retroactive mind. They've abused our
023children and why is it that we are giving space? We are fighting for school safety and one of them is for it not to be more drugs in the schools. Why are they hiring and allowing uh direct access to these types of people that are not I can't generalize this, but we are giving space to these people and we want to let you know that we don't agree. You make it seem like we agree, but we don't. These organizations that we don't even know what formation these people are carrying and this can never be compared. Never will it be like school police. It would never compare to that, not even as a reborn. Uh school police and the police in general, they are formed with lots of discipline and lots of disrespect. They respect the
024law. Safe Passages have shown us that they don't care about the law. This is why they're ex-convicts. And above everything, the people that allow and defend these type of people so that they can also be in the schools where children are. Put them in your house. Let them take care of your own children at your home, not ours. And all these vulnerable children, we demand for school police to increase the budget and remove Safe Passages. Time. All right, the next speaker speaker is remote Victoria Antonio. Victoria Antonio, are you on the line? Victoria Antonio is not on the line. Uh Marcella Garcia is the next remote speaker. Marcella Garcia is on the line. Please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Marcella Garcia. Buenos días, miembros
025del board members. >> Good morning, members of the board. Well, good morning to all. My name is Marcela Garcia and I am here once again. And we are asking uh for a budget for school for police school police. They are trained. They are capable of treating the children, specially the children the high school and middle school children because they're they're the ones who are at most danger. When they come back, they go back to home, they go they walk to a certain sports and when it gets dark earlier, they're in more danger. Why? Because there are a lot of bad people, even with firearms and they are the ones who are the most vulnerable to be attacked, to be assaulted. Therefore, because this is the future of our community and our country, we want you
026we want them to protect our children. We want them to be protected by people that are educated to protect children, not other people. Please, I ask budgets for school police and also we want more school police. What does this mean? If we have more school police, there are more work for our young kids that I have studied and that will be trained by the school police academy. I also have a question for you. Have you asked yourself, why is it that parents don't participate in the schools? What will you do because there is a lot of uh we hear a lot uh a lot of things that parents aren't being aren't participating. What's the strategy? Parents aren't involving themselves. Why aren't they part of the schools? Have you thought about that? Parents, we need to
027be involved. In February, we had a class of how an i-Ready can be read for parents so that parents can be aware that how many parents were there. We it was less than 10 parents that showed up at a high school. What does that mean now? That means that the community reps aren't doing what they're supposed to do. They're not working with parents. They're not letting parents know. They're not letting them know how important this these workshops are. Why? Because Is it because they're not interested in their job? Is it because they don't enjoy their job or they don't want to do their job? >> [snorts] >> And what plan do you have so that we can involve more parents? Is there a plan or are you just listening to us? Are you just listening
028to us talk every time because we fill a space of participation from parents? Okay, the next speaker is also remote. Raquel Diaz, are you on the line? I do not have her on the line. Uh I think we have two folks who signed up recently. So, one moment, please. Uh Carmel Levitan, Carmel Levitan, please press star six to unmute yourself. And you'll have 2 minutes to speak once you begin. Carmel Levitan. Hello. Thank you for letting me call in. I'm Carmel Levitan. I'm a parent of two LAUSD kids. I went to LAUSD and I'm one of the admins of Parents Supporting Teacher, which is a large group of parents who are really excited to to help our kids thrive and to work with LAUSD to help us. I'd like to thank all of you for
029settling without a strike and special thanks. I know behind the scenes, especially Rocío and Carla. Thank you for both meeting with your constituencies to know how concerned we were and working behind the scenes to do things like getting us more food distributions and things like that just in case. Really, really important. I'm so glad this happened. I really don't want this to happen again. So, there was a strike when I was in elementary school and we somehow went 30 years without doing it and we got really, really close to a third one in seven years. So, I don't know how we're going to have a better bargaining relationship for next time, but I think that has to be something we really look carefully at is what is the culture of how we're treating people. And
030yes, some of the problems are local LA affordability. Those aren't your fault, but the reality is where we are, we need to be in a place where everyone feels valued and is supported to thrive in LA. I also think it's really important that we have transparency and accountability to make sure that our resources, which aren't enough, are going to classrooms, to kids, to the things that keep our schools safe, to the things that help us thrive. So, I do think a lot of these programs like um safe passages and kind of community safety are really important to get kids into the schools of America every day. And I think every single program needs to be looked at in terms of how is this actually helping our families thrive? And are we keeping our resources within
031our district instead of sending them out and beyond? And then the last thing, okay, so I just said affordability. I know you're making choices today about staff salaries. There was a really interesting analysis last year that kind of compared LA to New York. And for some of our highest paid staff, we were actually high relative to that as a comparison. And so, in a moment where I'm really preparing to work with you to hopefully go lobby with the state to increase education, I do think we need to show good faith that we are putting money as close to our students as possible. And so, I really hope that we're going to focus in the coming year on transparency, accountability, budget presentation that we can understand. >> you for your time. Okay, let's find out who
032the next speaker is. Um calling folks again who weren't here. Victoria Antonio, are you in the room? No. Raquel Diaz, not in the room. And Javier Esquivel, not in the room. Okay, that concludes public comment. The time is now 10:30 a.m. and the board is going to recess into closed session.