001Good morning. Welcome. The time is now 10:01 a.m. on April 13th, 2026. Welcome to the special meeting of Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education including closed session items. I'm going to take roll. Ms. Newbill. Present. Dr. Rivas. Present. Mr. Melvoin. Here. Ms. Graigo, Ms. Gonez, Ms. Ortiz Franklin. >> Present. And Board President Schmerelson. Present. Present. Okay, we have a quorum. I am going to read through the purpose and authority for the closed session today. Uh then we'll take item specific public comment on the closed session items and then the board will recess into closed session under tab one, conference with labor negotiators pursuant to government code section 54957.6. Um conference with labor negotiators. Negotiators, Dr. Murphy. The employee organizations are Associated Administrators of Los Angeles, Teamsters 2010, California School Employees Association, Los Angeles
002County Building and Construction Trades Council, Los Angeles School Police Association, Los Angeles School Police Management Association, Service Employees International Union SEIU Local 99, Teamsters, United Teachers Los Angeles, and district represented employees in contract management personnel. Under tab two, personnel pursuant to government code section 54957, public employment, Inspector General will be discussed. Okay, we'll go to public comment. As usual, I will call on the folks who are listed as speaking in person and then we will transition to those who are speaking remotely. First speaker today is Maria Luisa Palma. I see you're out there. Please come on down. You'll have 2 minutes to speak once you begin. And then Diana Guillen and then Juan Mongandi. All right, welcome Ms. Palma. You have 2 minutes to speak once you begin. Let me get that timer set up.
003Okay, 2 minutes is yours. You know what? Let's start that all over again. I'm sorry about that. Okay, please go ahead. Good morning. Well, information on the financial condition of the district. Goodness, who knew that that would be important for bargaining and messaging on behalf of the district? Hmm, did anybody know that? So, I just keep wondering, can you afford the raises that have already been negotiated or will we still see potential teacher layoffs next year? To be continued, right? So, aside from the structural deficit of course that's been talked about here, at June of 2025, your audited financial statements showed unrestricted net position of negative $11.4 billion. Unfunded liabilities, $7.1 billion. Unfunded other post-employment benefits, the dreaded OPEB, $8.2 billion. And yet I never hear you discuss that here in open meetings other than
004Ms. Tanya Ortiz Franklin brought that up a couple of times. Uh curious thing happened, um Ms. Devorah in the back row. There was a meeting last week uh for parents with Reclaim Our Schools LA last Thursday. Parents were told we wonder how this got out or if it's true, we don't know. Pay attention, please. This one's important. They were told, parents, that they were going to be protesting tomorrow on behalf of UTLA at the homes, your homes, of Ms. Newbill, Mr. Schmerelson, Mr. Melvoin, and Ms. Ortiz Franklin because there had been votes against UTLA. And so meaning that the rest of the three of you had voted in accordance with UTLA. I don't know if this is true. You probably all know if this is true, but how did this information get out? This was
005told to parents. Okay? So, whether or not it's true, you all know. Where are your leaks? Are closed sessions maintained as closed sessions? We wonder. Please figure that out because the rest of us in the public don't have that information that you're privy to, but apparently UTLA is sharing that out there. Thank you for your time. Diana Guillen, come on up. You'll have 2 minutes to speak once you begin. Ms. Guillen is going to speak Ms. Guillen is 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. Okay, listos. Gracias. Good morning, members of the board. My name is Diana Guillen and I represent the parent network for school safety and we would really like for you
006to come to an agreement. Even though we think that you've already come to one beforehand, but the students don't have to suffer or you don't have to put them on the negotiating table. And the principals and the teachers really would be interested in our children. They would not put them as something to exchange with. And that is what's happening. And just like Ms. Palma said, here UTLA wants to control everything. And we were reviewing in those negotiations if they had something for parents. If they had included something that oh we want parents to be trained or we want them to be informed about their rights. Nothing. Nothing absolutely is for parents and yet they want us to support them. They want us to oh you are very important part of this. Or what did they
007do? They just blame us about their poor poor instruction that they give to the students. They want us parents to give them the instruction when they're not even to advocate so that parents know their rights. And that is what's happening. That the teachers and I don't say individually teachers, but the uh UTLA, the teacher union, because we know that the district does have very good teachers engaged with the students, but we're talking about many of those that do not do their jobs and that we have come here to report their poor performance and their contracts are protecting them. They're you're protecting people that are not doing their job and that is your job to improve education so that those teachers that are not giving instruction to our students that they do it. That do not
008blame us as parents because a student doesn't pay attention, because they have a phone. No, it is your policies that are doing this. Many parents are complaining about girls what they wear and Ms. Rocio Rivas, when in one of your uh schools when they wanted to change the dress code, you said no, no, no, don't change that. Even though parents wanted to. When it is good to have an appropriate uh clothes uh because it's not a public place. >> on up. I see you there. You'll have 2 minutes to speak once you begin. Mr. Mongandi is going to speak in Spanish. So, if you do not already have translation headsets and would like to listen, please put your hands up and we'll get you one. Okay, gracias. Listos. Good morning. One of the things that
009I've always asked myself, what is all these employees doing here? Seriously. They're always here and they're almost like a photograph. Them and us is what breathe life into this auditorium, but the matter here is that what we're doing is bread today, but hunger tomorrow. We are spending funds that tells all about political corruption or a corruption in the administration of the taxes that we all pay for you to do your job. And I ask myself, each one of you, are you executing the work that you were elected for or are each one of you taking our people to uh somewhere where we don't want to be? I was at Franklin and I was able to see today that Ms. Rocio, this goes for you, of what the safety measures are not the school police, but
010is ex-gang members, ex- uh people that used to be in jail, that is in Ed Green, that is a private organization that does not have responsibilities because the also Mr. Che, there cannot be a agency of with about safety because it goes against the protocols for LA Unified. And we also had children that are in those same grid programs that when I went into the restroom, they smelled like marijuana because I know that smell and I know that smell of a skunk. I know how to distinguish between the two. And those types of people are what we're bringing in. You, Mr. Operations, you needed to review this. So, today our safety is in the hands of organizations that work with second opportunity. And I'm not against of everything that is out to give second opportunities
011to people. I am against the political and abusive use of people like Ms. Rocio who are creating this jointly with the uh council member from district one and we just get the scraps in the schools and for the parents. >> The next in-person speaker is Monica Arrazola. I see you here, Monica. Please come on up. And then after Ms. Arrazola is David Tokofsky. Good morning. My name is Monica Arrazola. I I a mother of two children in the district, and I am here I have said, right, that we do not need to increase salary to teachers because they have not done a a good job, but now we know here that were you guys are all for increasing their salary and the um leader of the city uh uh also is advocating even though the
012city is also backwards. There's um assaults, there's robberies, and she says she's worried. Um they don't worry about the homeless being outside of our schools, living there, and the students couldn't even cross the street because homeless was there. It took 2 years for the homeless to be gone from Hollywood High School. For 2 years they were in encampments there, and now they say that now you are interested to increase the salary, but the two children, no, they're not interested in their safety. Uh they will be but there she is the mayor. All of the union uh meddling so that they increase teacher salaries, but the unions, they don't even increase their own employees' uh salaries. The everyone's concerned about teachers. Because there is money, but they're not concerned about students. And this about the union
013they always want to do it in April. Their uh strikes in it's it's kind of funny. They strike because why in April? Because those are testing so that they don't see that they haven't been doing a good job, and then they blame the strike for it and that the students are doing poorly. That is a trap, and I still ask that you don't increase salaries, but now you've already deci- decided because now you are mostly of you are for the unions, and there's people that are with them. So, it's so sad that you don't really care about students because the ones that are affected are the students. We have not seen anything academically as you 2% is not Thank you for your time. David Tokofsky, come on down. You'll have 2 minutes to speak once
014you begin. Through respective negotiations, obviously we knew since January when the governor contradicted the legislative analyst numbers that tremendous revenues were coming into the state of California. In fact, the amount of money in January, February, March, and December has has exceeded $10 billion above what the governor said. So, that is tremendous progress. We hope it can maintain itself. With respect to today on the Inspector General, which is about waste, fraud, and abuse um and it's important to distinguish waste, fraud, and abuse from just a political advocacy. So, it would behoove this district to respond to these allegations of $10 billion of contracts and to put out specifics whether or not there is such an amount of money. And if there are problems beyond waste, fraud, and abuse, it's communications and then the public integrity. The
015district attorney maintains a website that anybody who's making complaints about a particular aspects of Brown Act, they can register their complaints right on that website. Hopefully this week you've also scheduled Mr. Superintendent and board leadership a trip to Sacramento. There are still significant weeks in front of us with significant revenue that you can advocate to assist this district and other districts. Particularly, the cost of living adjustment is at a statutory level and can be raised even though you have gotten advice that it can't. It can be raised beyond the statutory. And of course, the biggest item is the $5.6 billion which is legally due to school districts. Those should be advocated strongly as well as facilities for the 0 to 3-year-old so you can convert some of your emptier spaces in declining enrollment for the
016issues that Ms. Gonez and others are working on as well as special education. Finally, two critiques. Class size and 11th and 12th grade reduction is the most cynical structural thing I've ever heard in my life. In 13th grade, kids have 100 to 1. I had in 14th grade, I had a class of 800 to 1. You should be reducing fifth and sixth grade in core subjects. And finally, that table Thank you for your time. >> must be affected by the content of those courses >> there, not the number of rows there are. Appreciate it. Uh the next speaker is calling in Carina Lopez. Are you on the line, Carina Lopez? I see you're on the line, please press star six to unmute yourself. And you'll have 2 minutes to speak once you begin. Carina Lopez
017I am Hello, miss Kusha? Si se escucha. Si, hola. I am Carina Lopez Zuniga, and my comment is thank you for the opportunity, and good morning everyone. Yes. So, the comment is related to directly with the absolute disagreement against the teacher strike. Why is it the teachers do you have that possibility and that intention? And why does the school police when they guarantee the wellness, credibility and the life of every single one of the students? It is hypocritical all this behavior. It is a open hypocrisy that we're allowing for all of this abuse on behalf of the UTLA union. It is sad how they're taking advantage in consequence or with the destruction of education because they are causing a a criminal act because we are taking away the opportunities of all students. If this if
018we cannot get to an agreement as we can, please because the district should ensure that the students are safe within the classrooms. And how they can improve their academic achievement putting uh safety cameras within the classroom, it is critical. It is vital. It is necessary. Just like the school police has body cams, it should be inside the classrooms as well. It is very important. We don't want any more abuse of teachers inside of the classrooms. Thank you. Thank you for your time. And the next caller is Maria Daisy Ortiz. I see you're on the line. Maria Daisy Ortiz, please press star six to unmute yourself. And you'll have 2 minutes to speak once you begin. Maria Daisy Ortiz Buenos dias, me escucha? Si se escucha. Buenos dias. Good morning everybody. My name is Maria Daisy
019Ortiz, and first of all, I want to say that I'm in agreement with all of my colleagues that have spoken. And really right now it is be a very great impact, academic impact for students if the district has the obligation to look after the interest of our students. And just like you say put children first, but in these negotiations, you are putting the economical interest of adult people. Because the teachers say that they can't pay an apartment for one bedroom, and that is why they need an increase. But within those negotiations you are not talking about increasing academic achievement of students because that is the future, really. Right now, the district should make a very strong clause so that the union does not take advantage and abuse and use our students to be able to
020have uh salary increases when they don't increase the results and they just blame the weather, the parents, everything, the dog, and everybody else. The mayor she should go after all the problems that she has with homelessness because all of these issues that happen about homelessness, it is because a school district, Los Angeles Unified School District, is not working for our children. Where do you think that they take our students with these kinds of actions? That they are themselves homeless again. Because all those homeless people that are in the streets went through LA Unified, and that is called negligence and incompetency. We need to stop using our students for your political interest and economical interest. Give results so that you earn that increase. Be it for our children, for their safety, for their academic achievement, and
021for their welfare. Thank you, and have a beautiful day. time. The next speaker is identified uh remotely only as concerned parent. I do not have you on the line, concerned parent. Are you in the room? No concerned parent in the room. Uh Marcella Garcia, you're signed up to speak remotely. Uh but I do not have you signed in. Are you in the room, Marcella Garcia? Nope. Okay. That concludes tab one. Now going on to tab two, personnel. Um Jeremiah, are you in the room? Jeremiah? Jeremiah is not in the room. All right. Uh Isabel Gonzalez, I see you're here. Come on up. You'll have 2 minutes to speak once you begin. Ms. Gonzalez is going to speak in Spanish. So, if you Español, gracias. In in Spanish, so if you would like to hear what
022she's saying in English as she's speaking in Spanish, please put your hands up and we'll get you a translation headset. Okay. Gracias. Listos. On March 5th, I went to a meeting of the Board of Education uh Board District 5 meeting with Ms. Carla Griego at the Maces at school Maces. I'm not sure. This meeting was called listening to families planning for success. Beautiful topic. But when I asked a very basic question, they did not know the answer to it. And up to until today, I have not received a response. I don't know what the response is. But just like there just like you're sitting there, you did not hear what other parents said, Ms. Carla, right? It is good that you came here so you asked this question and know the answer for the principals
023that you oversee in the district. When, how are going to notify or what way are families going to be informed when a student changes their name or gender identity in schools? Will you answer this now? I hope that you do because I need that answer in my school. Just like the uh Secretary of Education, Ms. Linda McMahon, she said, "The students do not belong to the state, they belong to families." And or in English so you understand I want as a parent from the district, I want an explanation about what you called out safe school. A clear overview, concise explanation about what does that ID means when that many workers carry in the school. Many of them uh at the I display it as an achievement. I want that answer as soon as possible for
024schools and for parents in my school, please. Thank you for your time. Okay, we have one more speaker you in the room. I do not have you online, Barbara Walker. Okay, that concludes comment on the two items. The The time is now 10:23 and the board is going to recess into closed session. Thank you.