001Mhm. >> Testing gooseneck microphone. Testing the gooseneck microphone in the translations booth. 1 2 3 gooseneck microphone in the translations booth. Now I will jump over to the Spanish headset. Good morning and welcome. The date is April 10th, 2026. The time is now 10:01 a.m. Welcome to this special meeting of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education, including closed session items. I'm going to take roll. Um Ms. Newbell. Dr. Rivas. Present. Mr. Melvoin. Here. Ms. Graigo. Here. Ms. Gonez. Ms. Ortiz Franklin. >> Present. Board President Schmerelson. Present. Okay. I will read the purpose and authority for this special meeting, and then we will go into public comment, and then the board will recess into closed session under tab one, personnel, pursuant to government code section 54957. Uh public employment inspector general. Under tab
002two, conference with labor negotiators, uh pursuant to government code 54957.6. Uh 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, >> [snorts] >> Service Employees [clears throat] International Union SEIU Local 99, Teamsters, United Teachers Los Angeles, district represented employees and contract management personnel. All right. I'll note Ms. Gonez is here. Ben here. All right. And let's see, we have public comment on both items. I'll call on the folks who are listed as being here in person, and then we'll transition to those who are listed as speaking remotely. First in speaker in person speaker for tab one labor negotiations is Isabel Gonzales. Are you here Miss
003Gonzales? Come on down after Miss Gonzales is Maria Daisy Ortiz. And then after Maria Day Maria Daisy Ortiz is actually remote. After Miss Gonzales is Mr. Juan Magana. And then David Tokofsky. So come on up you'll have 2 minutes to speak once you begin. Oh momento por favor. She's going to speak in Spanish. Oh already okay. Gracias. Two languages. Two languages in case you do not understand. Perfect. Thank you. Last Tuesday we crossed the great Atlantic Ocean to witness the worst regime on Earth. We traveled far to see what this regime was capable of using using children and innocent people as cannon fodder. The union we face today in LAUSD is not different. We shouldn't have had to go so far to see the true face of this regime like union which uses our students
004as cannon fodder so to satisfy its own wins. Stop using our students. Stop using teachers who have a genuine commitment to their students. Stop using those who didn't ask for this strike. In Spanish? El martes pasado cruz Last Tuesday we crossed the great Atlantic Ocean to be witnesses of the worst regime on Earth. We traveled very far to see what this regime was capable of utilizing children and innocent people as cannon fodder. The union that we face today the Sindicato here in LAUSD is not any different. We should not have gone so far to see to recognize the true face of this group that looks like a regimen that uses our students like cannon fodder to satisfy their needs their wants. That's why each stop using our students. Stop using our students that have a
005compromise that we know with our students. Stop utilizing those who do not ask for this strike. Thank you. The next speaker is Juan Magana. I see you're out there. Please come on down here. You'll have 2 minutes to speak once you begin. And then Mr. David Tokofsky. Mr. Magana please come on up. Buenos días. Good morning. But it seems that there's a few stories I'd like to tell but I don't want you to take it personally. Yesterday I saw the bait. Well you miss Rocío. I saw the people that support you were also supporting the district one counselor that hasn't done anything and it's also the one that's had this trash happening and I was also the worst has the worst schools in all the West Lake. But they say that you are the only
006one that are able to fix this world this dirt that only send these that don't vote these people that don't vote these and for at least but if you have children oh okay then all right they're good enough to vote. But what happened yesterday is this is that we're in a world of which every time we forget why we are in a particular post and why we are elected for. Tell me. Really Mr. Chase. Do you believe that this negotiation or is this just a theater where everything has been coordinated how we are going to separate the balance? What is it? $5.6 billion that have remained which is just a piñata. And which each one of you are going to pass the garrote to be able to beat and see how much candy you're able
007to extract from. So what are you doing for our communities? What are you doing for the students? What are you doing for that lot of parents that are just wasting money just to come to tell you and just wash their brains give them brainwashed them talking about mental health. You're actually getting our people sick. And whenever I ask you a question Mr. Chase how many times have I asked you a question to see if you know you understand what the immigrant community is. You don't know a thing. And how many doctorates how many masters how many degrees do you all have? But you see yet you do not understand the people because you know what? You live in a castle of privileges and you do not know how the people actually live what they walk
008with the war with marijuana with the drugs and everything that were that's taking our community Thank >> Thank you very much for your time. that you're able to use the money when bon appetit because we already know that you have everything. >> speaker is David Tokofsky. I think I saw you there you are. Come on up Mr. Tokofsky. You'll have 2 minutes to speak once you begin. Thank you very much. I thought the agenda changed and eliminated the Inspector General but let me briefly uh speak to that and I will stay to the topic of uh I the first item but the Inspector General is very important for fraud waste and abuse like the federal uh law. Um you should all interview all the candidates. Uh not only should it be facilities focused but it
009should be general fund focused as well. Um and you should be using the IAU and Mr. McLean um not just the the General Counsel which is important to sign the contract but to get your pure support of a strong Inspector General in these times. Governor Newsom on January's budget announced that all he had was a $3 billion statewide deficit and borrowed 5.6 5.8 billion of Prop 98 money which is legally entitled to school districts. If you add those two up it's $9 he was basically saying he was short which was much improved from the independent the the uh the ledge analyst office. Since then it did not include December January February and March money's. Okay? When he announced that is over $10 billion 10 and that is last year's money. Okay? Additionally April May and
010June are also part as well as extensions that go to August for last year's money. That will be over $14 billion above what the governor thought it was going to be. There is money booming in California. The billionaires are not moving to Texas. They're staying right in Silicon Valley and they're making a lot of money and they're paying corporate as well as individual tax. It's volatile of course. I was on the board for 12 years and each and every year we gave a pay raise because we focused on making that part of the budget. And so as you approach the budget in June make sure you put 3% in each of the years. School services which advises your team is making it so that anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Fix the salary
011schedule. It is an absolute idiotic point system that does nothing to improve the professional development. It's paying for units in a way. UTLA may not have the right answer to the salary schedule but where's your proposal? Thank you for your time. All right. We have remote callers. Victor I see you're on the line. Please press star six to unmute yourself and you have 2 minutes to speak once you begin. Victor. Okay. Hi please go ahead. Hello. I have two matters to convey to the board. First it has come to my attention that the acting superintendent is related by marriage to two high ranking UTLA leadership officers and his wife is a teacher and UTLA member. And so this raises the appearance of a conflict of interest and should be considered in any final agreement. If
012a contract is approved which provides the union with higher raises or concessions than what was recommended in the independent fact finding report which sided with the district and not UTLA could that perceived conflict of interest become a liability by exposing the district to legal and financial consequences and lower public trust. Second the district has a staff level that it cannot financially sustain due to the declining student population. The district CFO predicts further layoffs in the next few years due to a continuing decrease in state revenue. The district should consider offering UTLA the raise that they are asking for with the understanding that there is a trade-off. The extra funding needed to pay for raises may need to be offset by an increase in teaching positions the district will need to eliminate in coming years. The
013money has to come from somewhere and as long as the union is okay with that arrangement then the raise is all theirs. This is only possible if the district can be fully transparent with its finances and long-term budget projections to adequately demonstrate to the union and independent fact-finders that it does not currently have sufficient unrestricted funds and the teacher layoffs are inevitable in the coming years due to a lack of revenue from declining student enrollment. If so, LAUSD educators may have a change of heart about their demands with an understanding that their raises may come at the expense of their lowest seniority union brothers and sisters losing their jobs in the next few years as a result. Thank you. Thank you for your time. The next speaker is Maria Daisy Ortiz. Please press star six
014to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Maria Daisy Ortiz. Miss Ortiz is going to speak in Spanish so if you'd like translation simultaneously Buenos dias a todos. Mi nombre Good morning everyone. My name is Maria Daisy Ortiz. It's a shame having to come before you now that I you've shown me the corruption that you have on your skin. I believe that you have it in your DNA that you're there in those positions just for political reasons and for a control of power but in reality it's not so much for the children. The strike that's going to affect directly is the children. All of you have unions that defend you just to continue to operate the same way and the parents it's just one of the things that you do
015for the parents. That's why you don't that's why you don't want committees with parents because you don't want to be listening to everything that you don't like in reality. It you need to stop to try to use our children to you look good. To try to reduce the graduation rates. You graduate the students to look good you all. You need to eliminate eliminate I-ready because it makes the children seem as if they're not reading at grade level. You graduate them without being prepared and now as a way to try to use the strike to say after oh it's for the strike because always you always use an excuse just a ball of inept people of incompetence that like to use our children to be able to use their positions and their salary and their retirement
016and the unions that are children that are assassins of children because they kill the education of our children because if they were really for our children they would not be on strike and affect the education but see you only think they only think about themselves. They don't think about these children because they're not even their children because some of them are not even parents and using you see in reality as people I don't know how you're able to sleep and having your conscious a blacker conscious. Thank you. Have a great day. The parents the parents we support we're going to be on strike to use us oh because so that way they can get increased their salary. We're even poorer. Thank you. Thank you for your time. The next speaker is Marcella Garcia. Marcella Garcia
017I see you're on the line. Please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you get begin. Buenos dias. Me escuchan? Good morning. Can you hear me? Buenos dias. Good morning. My name is Marcella Garcia and I'm here once more and I do not agree with the strike because the only ones that are going to suffer and that struggle with their future are the children. The ones that are in our public schools. Because children the ones that you have I'm not sure if you have your grandchildren or great-grandchildren they go to schools private schools and you do not care if they go on strike or not so please don't go on strike. We need time. We need our kids when high school graduate when it's 100% 100% learning we
018need we need to understand that our our children to to have understanding of the classes that they're taking. Please please this strike is going to be it's going to be a disaster. We need children in the future to be well educated to be in the academic sense. Please we don't want a strike. There are lots of children that are in danger. Why don't you all stop this strike? We don't need a strike. Thank you very much. The next speaker is Karina Lopez. You're signed up to speak remotely but you're not signed in. Are you in the room? I do not see Miss Lopez. And the final speaker in this is to tab two is Diana Guillen. Miss Guillen come on up you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Miss Guillen is going to
019speak in Spanish. If you'd like to hear what she's saying in English please put on these translation headsets. Okay. Listos. Gracias. Buenos dias miembros del board. Mi nombre >> My name is Diana Guillen and I represent the group of parents for school security and I was known myself in the Inspector General because I know they have the mission to protect the integrity of the education system. Their work includes realizing independent auditoriums expose frauds known myself in the Inspector General because I know they have the mission to protect the integrity of the education system. Their work includes realizing independent auditoriums expose frauds and also review contracts programs to guarantee the responsible use of the resources. But we've noticed Mr. McLean that since February or even before that you are the Inspector General the interim but but
020you're also work of the Board of Education. Look how nice that is these conflicts of interest they continue to be exposed because how is it that you are able to do this work independently and also work for this Board of Education? That is what we are trying to denounce all these conflicts of interest because yes we do have a group of parents that inform us this network of persons that tells of all these things that happen here and we are going to keep talking we're going to keep raising our voices because our children need to be educated in one way or another not how you're doing it. A strike that has no makes no sense because the teachers unions by force they want what they want and they don't care the children that are going
021to suffer. They don't care about the families that [snorts] don't have where to take their children. They they're not interested in that. Oh take them to the babysitter put them in front of the computer and really I'm telling you the children academically they're not going to suffer because when they go the first month into school 30 days they don't do anything the first 30 months and then after some vacation time the last week they don't do anything and then the last month before school they don't do anything then either. The teachers have several days festive days. They only work 180 days of the 365 days a year. They have a good salary. It's not to be a millionaire but the 10% that you're offering them it should be so enough for them and we tell
022you to LA stop playing with the lives of our children. Thank you. Thank you for your time. That concludes public comment. The time is now 10:20 and the board is going to recess into closed session. I told you want you to stay here. I'm sorry. Excellent. >> [snorts] >> All right. Coming back. The time is now 3:02 p.m. on April 10th, 2026. We do have four board members present for quorum. Dr. Rivas? Present. Mr. Melvoin? Here. Ms. Gomez? Here. Board President Smallsan? Present. >> Okay, we've got got a quorum. Uh there is nothing to report out at this time and unless there is any objection, um the meeting is adjourned. Fantastic. The time is now 3:00 03 p.m. Thank you.