001Good morning all. The time is now 10:02 a.m. and the date is August 5th, 2025. Welcome to the regular meeting of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education, including close session items. I'm going to take role. Miss Newell >> present. >> Dr. Rivas >> present. >> Mr. Meloy >> here. >> Miss Grigo >> here. >> Miss Gonz uh Miss Ortiz Franklin and board president Schmelson >> present. >> Okay. So we have a quorum of five members. I'm going to go ahead and read through the purpose and authority for this close session. Then we will take public comment and general public comment and then the board will recess into close session. And at the request of our interpreters, I'm going to read the close session items a little slower than I usually do because
002they say I go a little bit too fast and I always want to respect our interpretation unit. All right. Tab one, student discipline matters under education code section 48918 CF. Tab two, personnel pursuant to government code section 54957. This includes public employee discipline dismissal and release, the superintendent's evaluation, and the inspector general's evaluation. Tab three, conference with legal counsel pending litigation pursuant to government code section 54956.9D 1 CS VLAUSD, John Mfdo, VLAUSD, Jane RD do VLAUSD and Martha Gonzalez VLAUSD. These case numbers can be looked up on our website at boe.lusd.org. Uh there are two anticipated litigation cases pursuant to government code section 54956.9D4 and 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
003Employees Association, Los Angeles County Building and Construction Trades Council, Los Angeles School Police Association, Los Angeles School Police Management Association, Service Employees International Union, SEIU Local 99, Teamesters, United Teachers Los Angeles, and District Represented Employees and Contract Management Personnel. Now, we're going to go to public comment on each of these items. Public comment, folks who are signed up to speak to an action item uh are to speak to the topic of that action item and those on general comment can speak on any um topic that is germanine to the business of the school district. So, under tab one, we have um Dr. Jame Fetzer, tab one. And let's recall that tab one is student discipline matters. Okay. Please press star six to unmute yourself, Dr. Fetszer. And you have two minutes to speak once you
004begin. I see you're with us. Uh Mr. James Fetzer, please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. I'm speaking out because continuing to partner with Sandy Hook Promise, that's a bad example for our students. For nearly three years, I've been in communication with two of the players in the Sandy Hook event. The party's cast as student Emily Parker and the teacher Victoria Sto. If you partner with Sandy Hook, you're financing a fraud at they have told me is still raking in a million a month even though it was a FEMA drill where nobody died. This was faux terrorism that instilled fear in every parent in America to advance a political agenda. These women reached out to me because they did not like my being subjected to
005judicial abuse by means of a fabricated lawsuit where I was unable to secure an attorney and as a consequence was treated like a pinata. They could communicate with me because they had both been cast by their mothers and had not signed non-disclosure agreements other participants had signed. They've informed me that it was not even an elementary school, but a special needs school. That Eric Holder, who had become a current general, came to New Town in 2006 and offer the community $114 million to participate, that they held auditions for roles, and that participants continue to benefit to this day, such as paying no taxes. Review the entire story via my online talk, Sandy Hook. What we know now that we didn't know then 2024, it's all there. Let's see. The next caller is for tab two.
006I'll call on the folks who are actually in person first and then I will cycle to those who are speaking uh remotely. Uh let's see. So, Mr. David Tokovsky, I saw you were out there. Mr. Tokowski, come on up. You'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Let's just make sure that uh microphone is working under tab two. There we go. Operating. >> I think the first speaker wasn't speaking to the item. >> Tab two is personnel. Go ahead, please. >> Yes, I'm here to speak on um personnel. um both the superintendent's evaluation, a direct report to the board of education and the board of education only evaluating the superintendent and the inspector general. A direct report of the board reporting directly only those are the people that should be in the closed session
007and only the people in the closed session should be the people who are doing the evaluation. Congratulations on your coni continued evaluation of the superintendent for various uh successes uh some growth in the test scores. But that uh assessment has to be an evaluation like we do with our elementary school kids in a variety of different areas from math to science to social studies from budget to transportation to uh relations with the community, relations with parents, relations with bargaining units and so on. That is up to you. who you need to communicate what the evaluation is concerning in the general areas where the progress is, where the needs to improve are. With respect to the evaluation of the inspector general and office uh that I along with three other board members created, uh this is
008a direct report to the board. It is a time to not only evaluate but to hear from the inspector general uh who we know has a shortage of staff because the staffing is not being funded significantly by the general fund. It is primarily from the facilities money. There are a number of areas that need uh uh that look. Um clearly the budget areas are not facilities. The mental health behavioral health over $und00 million could have been obtained at this point through CYBHI. $100 million in contrast to negotiations today where you have a 2% pay raise which is I believe roughly only $40 million uh ongoing for 2%. So take a look at uh the inspector general's uh needs assessed and and continue your good work and welcome back to the new school. >> Thank you
009for your time. Uh next speaker is Sophie Ryan. Then after Miss Ryan is Cesar Chaparo Caesar Chaparo. So Sophie Ryan and then Cesar, please come on up. You have two minutes to speak once you begin. >> Good morning esteemed board members and superintendent. I stand before you not to only discuss the superintendent's evaluation but to speak of a child welfare and attendance crisis touching the very students we are sworn to protect. Imagine a child not in our classrooms were trapped in the grip of unimaginable hardship. immigration rates, brutal realities faced by a large number of immigrant students and their families. Parents are kidnapped, exploited, and suffering. Students absence from our classroom is a gap in wound in the heart of our district. This is a child welfare crisis, plain and simple, and it demands immediate
010compassionate and strategic intervention. We have the power to bring these students home to rebuild their lives and to support their shattered families. We need five PSA counselors per region on the front lines to reach into the darkness and recover our lost students and provide a vital first link to safety to give them hope and provide them with information on immigration basic needs and monitor their progress. We also need five PSWs and five healthy start navigators. So look, I do home visits for a living. So many in a week, it's hard to count. And I was delivering food to families of these immigrant undocumented children. And I spoke to a parent who told me her kids are sleeping with her and they are in the bed and they are scared of coming out. I saw a
011woman who had everything packed because she wasn't sure she will go back if she went to work, scared of being kidnapped. I spoke to a grandparent who was taking care of the kids and had no food because she had no work and she was scared of going out to sell. We did this for a few weeks and the next story was worst. This is difficult and we want these kids back to give them the safety they don't have at home to give them the normaly they need and to give them support to survive these horrible times. Please give these students what we need. It's a very small investment but it's going to change their lives. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. I'll note that uh Miss Ortiz Franklin was here just a few
012minutes after we started and then um we have Miss Kelly Gonz showed up at least by 10:06. Uh Miss Gonz, did you want to chime in real fast? >> Yes. Um just that I'm appearing remotely utilizing the child care exception today. >> All right. Thank you so much. We'll move on to the next caller. Um Mr. Chaparo was listed as being remote, but I see he um is actually I mean listed as being in person, but he's remote. So, we'll just go in the order that folks are the call-in sheet. So, let's go to Matt Wley. Are you on the line? Mr. Matt Wley, please press star six to unmute yourself. You have two minutes to speak once you begin. Matt R. Matt Reley. >> Good morning. This is Matt Raithley, a Broadway elementary school
013uh parent and also a Mar Vista Elementary School parent. I'm calling today to speak to the matter of the review for the uh superintendent and I'm going to talk for a minute here about uh allocation of resources. One of the responsibilities of the superintendent is to make sure that resources are being allocated in a fair and equitable fashion uh between different schools and different students and I prepared an analysis which I will send to the board secretariat after this uh specifically for district west and specifically for uh language immersion and some non- language immersion schools But I tried to pick up all the manner or the language immersion schools in uh the West District and was not surprised, but then again maybe surprised to find out that our school Broadway is sorely underresourced. I'm coming
014up with that because I'm looking at the enrollment of the school per the budget and I'm dividing that by the number of full-time equivalents that the that we have uh listed in our budget. We're at a ratio of 12.64. of all the other schools in all of District West that I that I prepared this analysis on, I could not find another elementary school that had a resource allocation that high. Uh, a lot of the other schools close by, Bradock, just as an example, 9.42. Overland, which is not title one, 10.31. Clover also uh not title one, 10.33. seems to me that part of the problem here with our school is that we are not getting our fair share of resources. I think that the board should put consideration on this when talking to the superintendent
015today about his review and make it a point that the resources need to be allocated in a fair and equitable. >> Thank you very much for your time. We appreciate your time. Thank you. >> Okay, Caesar Chaparo, Cesar Chaparo, I see you're on the line. Please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Caesar. Honorable board members, the absence of grade students from our classrooms is a significant wound within the core of our district. It is a clear child welfare emergency. It requires an urgent, empathetic, and strategic response. The district possesses the capability to bring these students back to help them reconstruct their lives and to support their fractured families. We require five PSA counselors or people services and attendance counselors on the front lines to recover
016our disconnected students, establish that crucial first connection to safety. to serve as our guiding light, welcoming students back, offering essential information on immigration, basic needs, and monitoring their progress in collaboration with our healthy start navigators ensures their ongoing well-being. The trauma these families experience inflicts profound scars. This is where our psychiatric social workers play a pivotal war. They are vital in providing mental health referrals and essential support directly within our schools, aiding students and families in their journey to healing and stability. This holistic approach will not only bring more students back to our educational environment, but also extend a lifeline to communities in dire need. These are our children, our families, and their suffering is a violation to their humanity. Ali USD, you possess the resources. You bear the responsibility. We urge you to allocate
017five dedicated PSA counselors, five compassionate psychiatric social workers, and five essential healthy start navigators per region. Now, this is not an indulgence. It is a fundament fundamental necessity. It is inhumane to deny our students and their families the support they agency require. Their futures, their very dignity hinge on our prompt action. Let us act without delay now. Thank you very much. >> Thank you for your time. Let's see. Sarah Ruse, I see you're on the line. Sarah Ruse, please press star six to unmute yourself. You have two minutes to speak once you begin. Sarah Ruse. >> Hi. Uh, thank you very much. I'd like to speak to this proposal for staffing an immigrant unit in each region. And I apologize in advance. I haven't prepared any any uh remarks. I just want to speak as
018the mother of two LA USD graduates. I I I I want to tell you how very clear it has become in the past maybe 15 years that my children have been in and graduated from LA USD that the prime value of their time in these public schools, the second largest district in the whole country, is not somebody teaching them uh you know how to add and write. Well, though that happened too, but it is from their colleagues who are from all over the world and who possess a wealth of ways of interacting and expressing and hugging and bringing into society and making a society. this this canopy, this complete kaleidoscope of ways of being that is an absolutely unique thing that LUSD and indeed America provides to my children. I cannot tell you how bereft
019they are now at what is going on in our society out there snatching this all away. This thing which has been their life and which has been the biggest buoy of their life is being obliterated. Anyway, I'm sorry. Everyone knows and agrees this, but the fact that LUSD can do and should do something about this by resourcing this capacity to support institutionally these families who are being chased and terrorized by our own people and tax monies. Please, I request that my tax money that goes to support LA USD that some of this should be going and uh specified to help in this way to help protect this piece which is so important here. >> Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. >> Okay. Uh Corine Seiya hire Corine, are you on the line?
020I don't see you on the screen in front of me. Are you in the room? Corine? Corine is not here. Moment. Let's see who's next. Is David Dea Cruz. I see you're online. Please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. David Dea Cruz. >> David, I see you've unmuted yourself. Can you hear us? >> Yes. Can you hear me? >> Yes. Please go ahead. You have two minutes. >> Honorable board members, my name is David Lac Cruz, teacher at Young O'Kim Academy in the heart of Korea Town, serving the MacArthur Park community. This summer, instead of rest and respite, our communities endor fear and trauma. ICE agents descended upon our neighborhoods, turning summer break into a season of terror. We witnessed the militarized siege of MacArthur
021Park. We witnessed the kidnappings of our students families. We saw workingclass Corneleros leave their homes unaware they would not return. As we prepare to welcome our students back on August 14th, we must do more than open our doors. We must ensure that they know that their community stands with them. Educators across the city are ready to greet our students with open arms alongside our entire school staff. But a one-day welcome is not enough. The harm inflicted on our communities runs deep. The trauma families have endured this summer leaves scars. emotional, psychological, and educational. This is where our school social workers, PSWs, become essential. They offer mental health referrals, emotional support, and school-based care that helps students and families begin the long process of healing. This is why a holistic response is not optional. It's urgent.
022We are calling on the district to allocate five PSA counselors, five PSWs, five healthy start navigators per region. Now the needs are real. The time is now. Let us meet this moment with the compassion, courage, and commitment our students deserve. Let our rail rail guards show our students and our families that we have no room for hate or fear in our communities. No hate, no fear. No hate, no fear. Thank you. >> Thank you for your time. The final speaker to tab two is Louisa Bari. I see you are not signed in in front of me. Are you in the room, Louisa? Okay, Louisa is not here. All right, let's go on to uh tab four, conference with labor negotiators. I have Mon'nique Lukans calling in for conference with labor negotiators. Please press star six
023to unmute yourself. You have two minutes to speak to a conference with labor negotiators. >> Good morning. And good morning UTLA. I'm requesting your assistance. I I've been taking meetings with L USD to continue teaching on the online virtualmies at home on a religious exemption and I'm religiously opposed to the content of the formerly mandated co shots due due to the cruelty in the vials animals human neurotoxins transhuman technology which continues to be transmitted said it to others maybe for a lifetime because it was and always has been a gene therapy and it was contaminated. I'm opposed to going on to fully vaccinated campuses even though it was a few years ago. I wish to miticate daily exposure UTLA to this diabolical that causing white fi fibrous clots as long as 30 in and contagious.
024Dr. Joseph Sandstone claims he had cardiac arrest due to shedding transmission. Dr. Anna Mahala MD has some suggestions on dissolving them. Mahala M I H A L C E I've been speaking for 5 years to the dangers of the shot. I was fine once with returning to campus not after knowing all this. May you please help UTLA. I prayed the answer is simple. Just stay at home as I have been teaching. I believe there may be another person speaking out about the clock. a retired Air Force major. I ask the audience to support me. If L USD says no to my religious belief, that means a lack of civil rights care. Also, I support the first speaker, Dr. Fetzer, receiving a school board agenda item. I support the community being made aware of the truth
025behind Sandy Hook Promise whom L USD has partnered with. Audience, please support Dr. Fetzer in getting his community item. Thank you everyone and blessings. Thank you for your time. Now, moving on to general public comment. I'll call on the folks who are listed as in person and then we will start calling on folks who are listed themselves who listed themselves as being remote. So, the first person to come on up, Birdie Lee, are you here? Birdie, come on up. You'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Let me make sure your microphone is on and we're good to go. I'm Brighty Lee, the organizer of Phone Free Ivanho and a member of Schools Beyond Screens. On LUSD's new Google app consent form, YouTube is characterized as providing quote only content designated as educational by
026Google and improved channels by LUSD. When I read that line out loud, my 8-year-old son cracked up laughing. While misleading parents regarding this important issue is no laughing matter, the absurdity of this claim is indeed laughable. In the two years my son has been an LUSD student, I've heard numerous reports of the violent, sexually suggestive, inappropriate, and harmful content our young students are being exposed to on a regular basis during class time. Instead of reading, writing, and arithmetic, our students are spending class time watching videos of a woman trying to kill a child, car crashes, unauthorized cartoon parodies with partial nudity and violence, penis rashes, and more. a far cry from the alleged educational content, which I'm assuming comes as a surprise to literally no one. So, what are we doing? This is not about
027learning a skill. Any toddler can navigate an iPad. This is not about challenging young minds. Any child can watch a YouTube video. Ultimately, I'm left asking, who really wants this? Do schools want YouTube on every classroom device? Do teachers do you? Why are parents being asked to consent to a big tech company exposing our young children to distracting and harmful content when they are supposed to be learning? Here's what I consent to. I consent to our precious class time being spent on core subject areas. I consent to a developmentally appropriate educational environment free of addictive apps. I consent to repurposing money spent on big tech contracts to teachers and all the resources our schools so desperately need. I consent to LUSD being a leader nationwide not just in phone free schools but in iPad free
028classrooms and YouTube free learning. Thank you. >> Thank you for your time. All right, let's see. The next folks who are in person uh are going to require Spanish translation. So uh the next two speakers will be speaking in Spanish. If you'd like to hear what they're saying in English as they're speaking in Spanish, please put your hands up and we'll get you these translation headsets. So, let's see. Da Guen, come on up. You have two minutes to speak. Why don't you begin? Danna Guen for parents for five years or the past five years. Today, I'd like to welcome you to a new school cycle. I hope everyone is fresh and open to provide changes. As chairperson for PAC, we have received responses from the superintendent and I'm assuming you guys would know what those
029responses are and where clearly it is shown that you don't want to make changes. PAC has been functioning that way since 2016 and clearly we've been giving responses that will be about not changing anything even if parents are asking for it. Another thing that I'm listening here is that there's concern for immigrant people, right? I live in MacArthur Park and I don't like that here there is promotion for the pity for people. I don't like that there is a promotion of pity for people that live there because we don't deserve that. We deserve dignity. We know this is happening and we are living through a very difficult situation due to immigration. But do you know what? All these PSWs, all these counselors, the community doesn't trust you. Not in you, not in the counselors because
030the first thing you do is call the social workers to take our kids away from us because you're also teaching them things that are not the curriculum of instruction. So if you want to know, ask the people. There are teachers with good intentions that come here to speak about these topics and people do it with good intention but they don't understand because they don't have that connection to the families. Please have that connection and don't impose what you want accomplished. Listen to the people and what they need because you're in the 20 24th floor and we're down subterraneously because we need to be hiding because we're always here wanting to improve. We're resilient and we will come out of this crisis and we will survive. But you please don't fake helping us. Please help us
031with what we really need and not what you want and what is convenient to you and your unions that you represent. Thank you. >> Uh Maria Louisa, I'm sorry actually she is remote. Maria Daisy Ortiz, I see you're out there. Maria Daisy Ortiz, please come on up. And then after Miss Ortiz will be Mr. Juan Jose Mande. So please, please all be ready to come on down. Bueno. >> Good morning everyone. Happy school year. It's a new school year and just like uh the speaker before me said, I hope that you come energized with an open mind so that we are able to innovate and create changes. Well, you're going to start the new school year with different deficiencies and things that you don't want to change. Number one is that there are a lot
032of combo classes. This is not fair for students or for teachers. Number two, with a high rate of teachers that are misassigned teaching classes that they're not supposed to. And that was within the audit and we have not receive what changes you've done. Number three, with they negligent school safety plan due to lack of police officers in schools putting at risk students uh and employees. Number four, a high number of English long-term English learners who have a lot of time in the program. And why is that? Due to implementation or monitoring or really is it that you truly are incompetent? Number five, the lack of instructional material that is bicultural that characterizes our students learning even better. Number six, the lack of empathy, respect, and value or valuing of parent engagement. The authentic VO voice
033and advisement from parents creating committees with um meaningful consultation at the region central level where the information flows in its p uh accurate and that the parents do receive the information not that you have us with uh bandage or blindfold. when well you make the changes to make it right and have better results in in the academics because our students are intelligent but what they lack is that you have failed them and you have failed them because you do not want parents who have knowledge the the respect is certain with the results and not just having operational guidelines which is to censure the authentic voice of parents Mr. Juan Jose Mandi, I see you're out there. Please come on down. You'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Good morning. I always see the
034same employees occupying these chairs and sometimes it's even difficult to get in. It's always the same employees and it's it would be so good if I could get paid also to just sit there and I want to start today and you see they told me what are you going to go in the district if nothing ever happens there and you see your children and you are between two predators because you are only prey the unions and the corporations that are called contracts and those hypocrites and those false who takes Marxist socialist capitalistic uh speeches which is just a mixup but that has to do with the uh style and conditions of life where they yell they consent and things emptiness that you don't feel because you're not experiencing them. You are just hypocrites and are
035false because we just like another person in order to feel pain you need to be with those down there and not to go and impose it in a way that is per uh that is we're going to say this to you because you are so ignorant you don't even know what we want but we too will know what we want and this is what's happening we live in a world where the prey right the predator we are together with the prey We know each other and it's as if you don't eat us or you don't send us or you don't disappear us because we are part of what this call here is to come and do the same thing. But see that you're doing this. You're not doing anything. What's happening with immigration now? There's
036so many lies and falsehoods at MacArthur Park where they made the true im uh the undocumented high to come and tell them those activists that those organizations are being paid that they told them that they are the advocates for immigrants and provoking. Why? Why? So that we are further criminalized as undocumented. So what is this called? This is called being false, being a hypocrite and you are hindering the community. And today we are here with parents who do not want students in their school because they're fearful of immigration to go and to have the records of the addresses of the students and we hope you do something about it this year. >> Folks who are listed as calling in. Anya Mex, I see you're on the line. Anya Mex, please press star six to unmute
037yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Anya Annayia or Ana Mexen, I see you're on the line. Please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Okay, we will come back to you. The next caller is Marcela Garcia. Marcela Garcia, are you on the line? I don't have you on the line in front of me, but are you in the room? Marcela Garcia. Uh, Laya or Leela Bak, I see you are on the line. Please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Uh, Laya B. >> Thank you, board. I'm Leela Bio. Uh, I'm a parent of two LA USD students and founder of the group Schools Beyond Screens. for members of us here today.
038Uh, I founded this group because I was shocked to learn how much time my sixth grader was spending on a schoolisssued device and I had questions about how it was being used. That was seven months ago. I now have hundreds of other parents and teachers in this mission with me and more questions than ever. Here are a few. How can I help my son focus on learning when his sixth grade classmates are watching Squid Game, playing Fortnite, or even viewing porn on their schoolisssued devices? Why is my son being forced to do I Ready lessons during band and PE? What is LUSD doing to mitigate screen addiction when students are using internet connected devices all day during school? Why doesn't LUSD collect data on how much time students are spending on devices during the school
039day and which sites they're actually accessing? Why is there no master plan for the use of technology in LA USD classrooms? Why is there money for tech contracts but not enough for human teachers? 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? And how can we ensure that it's safe from cyber attacks? What will be done to accommodate families who aren't comfortable with their children using these apps? Why are we still relying on devices in the classroom when test scores in reading, math, and science have been plummeting ever since these devices were introduced? Where is the science that shows screenbased learning improved educational outcomes? If these technologies are so effective, why are tech forward countries like
040Sweden and Finland returning to analog learning tools after declaring computers and classrooms a failure? And why are the wealthiest and most techsavvy families sending their own kids to techite private schools? Why are organizations like UNESCO and the ACLU warning that edtech is exacerbating the equity gap? And finally, how can we expect our own kids to use screens responsibly when their schools are not modeling responsible use? Thank you for your time. >> Thank you for your time. Okay, Raquel Diaz. Raquel Diaz, you're signed up to speak remotely, but I do not have you on the screen in front of me. Are you in the room, Miss Diaz? Okay, Karina Lopez, you're signed up to speak remotely. Are you in the room, Miss Lopez? Because you're also not online. Uh, let's see. Araeli Cabraa, you're signed up
041to speak remotely. Are you in the room? You're not in the room or online. Erin Craig, I do see you are on the line. Erin Craig, please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Aaron Craig. >> Hello. My name is Aaron Craig and I am also with the schools beyond screens organization. I'd like to address um a number of steps that specific steps that uh LUSD can take immediately to speak to some of the issues that uh my colleague brought up earlier today. Eliminating one-on-one device programs completely for elementary schools and limiting their use in middle and high schools to time SK screens provide a unique benefit. Often computers belong on carts or in a tech lab, not in a classroom. monitor the amount of time
042students spend on screens and establish specific limits. Uh schools must also adhere to manufacturers guidelines for the safe use of digital devices, including all ergonomic and eye protection measures. Allow individual teachers and schools to opt out of district mandates or guidelines for the use of edtech products like I Ready, provided their students meet reasonable benchmarks for progress. Allow students to opt out of computer-based activities if requested by a parent and or a medical or mental health professional. Eliminate computer-based homework, which results in students spending more time on distracting non-school activities at night, potentially contributing to sleep loss at and which makes it harder for parents to monitor their children's online activity. establish a technology advisory committee with parent and teacher representatives to evaluate both existing and prospective edtech products to deter to determine whether their
043educational value outweighs the harms delineated above. To make these determinations, the committee must rely on independent research regarding each product's efficacy rather than studies provided by the companies themselves. And finally, use a limited number of edtech products altogether to maintain a manageable workload for curriculum coordinators and administers. We'd love to meet with you all as a group or individually and we'll be sending out emails to that effect. Um, but on behalf of our children, we implore you to take this issue issue seriously. Thank you. >> Thank you for your time. Karina Lopez, I see you are with us online now. Karina Lopez, please press star six to unmute yourself. You have two minutes to speak once you begin. Miss Lopez is going to speak in Spanish. So, if you'd like to hear what she's saying
044in English and you do not yet have translation headsets, please put your hands up and we will get them to you. Senora Lopez, my name is Karina. >> Good morning. My name is Karina Lopez. A greeting to every single person on the uh board of the LA Unified. The reason for my phone call to make this public comment is due to the necessity to implement in the increased number of school police officers so that they can protect the integrity and safety of every one of the students because it is necessary every now uh more there's a higher rate of crime inside and outside of schools. The intoxication due to poison and drugs that is highly uh it's deadly. >> Yeah. >> And fentanel to be exact. It is urgent for parent engagement. It is necessary
045because we are seeing that it is more and more There are less opportunities for parents so that they can advocate for children, for students, and those that represent us. the interpreter with a state license for IEP meetings because the students go without service because they don't have a appropriate interpreter that really knows the language the law uh educational law with students that have an IEP document or that they might have. It is urgent to increase the number of interpreters with a state license within the school district. Also, you should monitor non-public school where sometimes students are assigned with disabilities or with uh will with defiant behavior. It is necessary that you monitor the students because there is no operational team. There's just people that are assigned but there is no operations team. So we hope
046that you can really meet these and and sometimes you know listen to us and value our voice and I hope that that is it. >> Marcela Garcia I see you are now with us. Marcela Garcia please press star six to unmute yourself and you have two minutes to speak once you again begin. Marcela Garcia. >> Good morning. Can you hear? >> Good morning everyone to all the uh boards to all the members of the board. My name is Marcela Garcia and I am here speaking because again also for school safety because we will begin a school new school year. We need enough safety outside of the schools as well as uh in the surroundings of the schools because there have been incidents that are very serious where students when they return home, they go return
047their backpack and they go back to sports. It's so dangerous for them because sometimes there isn't enough surveillance from LA uh school police. We need enough we need enough personnel uh police personnel so that they can surveil and to take care of our students. I am also here because I am concerned quite a bit due to the combination classes combo classes second third fourth. I'm very concerned because at Aldama Elementary they found a solution to leave two languages of no having uh combos. That's good. I am so thankful for that because my student benefits but what happens with other students in the community that in the regular program they will have combo classes. I think that you do it because maybe it is convenient for you or because you don't want to reduce uh the
048ratio in classes but for us parents is not convenient because it's our student achievement of our community of our future. So please we do not need we don't want combo classes. We need you to find a solution because as I say again it is the future of our children of our community. You and us are already on the way out but our students are just coming in and we want you to find a solution and it's not the solution is not combo classes. I thank you so much for your attention and here we are as parents not because we don't have anything else to do but because we know what happens in every single school in our community and that is why we bring our voices. We bring the messages from other concerned parents. Uh,
049but I don't have you online. Are you in the room, Miss Palma? I do not see you in the room, Miss Palma. The next caller is listed as concerned parent. Concerned parent, please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Concerned parent. >> Good morning, Morers. Welcome back. Um, I want to focus today's comment on equity. Equity has been the buzzword around LA USD for years, which just means throwing money at different programs trying to obtain a different outcome. Well, what we're not looking at is it's not just throwing money around, but seeing the implementation of the programs and the outcomes that are resulting from these programs. I want to focus because there's been a lot of use of, as other callers have said, I ready a
050lot of digital programs. Giving students access to a computer and just giving them access to programs does not equal to providing instruction, practicing programs. Um, thank you for board members for talking during comments um and not paying attention to parents. Um, but I want to um really encourage you to look at what we're doing to students. We're not in they're not being they're not learning. There is no there's very little instruction happening and we're giving them access to computers. And I don't know if you know, but I recently had an IEP meeting for my child who has an IEP. And the response when I asked for a typing goal was all students type horribly. So, and there the that wasn't the only um comment. it was they also write horribly. So now we have students
051that don't know how to write and don't know how to type and they also are not learning. So are we really giving them an equitable education? Are we really giving them access to equity e equitable education? I don't think you really understand what you guys are doing to students. All of you um are looking at outcomes but you're not really looking at the implementation. You're looking at numbers but not skills. And we need to go back to that. We need to go back to providing students with skills and educational and um programs and learning. This is what >> Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. The next caller is listed as uh Isabelle. I do not have you on the computer in front of me. Isabelle, are you in the office? I mean
052in the I'm sorry, in the boardroom. >> Yeah. >> No. Uh Chris Readington, I do see you're online. Chris R. Please press star six to unmute yourself and you have two minutes to speak once you begin. Chris R. >> Hi. Uh good morning board. Uh my name is Chris Readington. I'm the father of two students at uh Stag Street Elementary School and I was calling on uh the basis of the hiring freeze. I know last year there was a hiring freeze for both uh for for several different types of teachers including elementary teachers and secondary English teachers. and it made it so that my student last year started the year without a teacher uh in the classroom and just a series of subs. Um the the freeze, as I'm aware, was reversed August 1st, 2024
053last school year. Uh and that did not give the district enough time to find um or did not give the school enough time to find a competent teacher. So, my students started without a teacher. And it's my understanding that this year the same freeze is still in effect on August 5th, uh, five days after it was reversed last year. We're nine days out from the start of the school year. I'm not sure how a school will be able to find a competent teacher in time. And so I was wondering if the freeze is going to be lifted sometime this week or if not, why is it still on uh on on freeze basically? So that that's my question. Thank you. >> Thank you for your time. Looks like Raquel Diaz has arrived. Raquel Diaz, please
054press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Raquel Diaz. >> Buenos. >> Yes. Good morning. Good morning, members of of the board of the central office. I apologize. I'm a bit nervous. I want to welcome you to a new school year that we will start uh in this school new school year. I just ask that I ask for a lot uh in advance. I ask that you protect our children. You help us with everything that has to do with immigration. We're going through very sad uh moments. Uh this is something very frustrating and I would like for school police to come back and for you to please put that forward. There are many children that unfortunately uh we know that there are immigrants and we ask for
055precaution for help with that matter. I put my heart in your hands and they're the ones who we love the most. there are children or grandchildren there are nieces nephews uh ne neighbors friends and I also ask for protection more than anything protection because there's a lot of uh anxiety and if you would only you can only see the the frustration the sadness in the heart of the families and we are living a sad reality uh unfortunately what this is what we're living but please uh in advance I ask the district to we ask protection. That's what we want the most. We love our children and our kids and we ask you and we beg for you to protect them. And we ask for you not to allow nothing bad to happen to them or
056for them to be taken because I don't even want to imagine or think of how painful and sad these moments are. And we trust in you and we know that. And we know we know well you we know that you do everything that's in your in your advance, but we know that you can do a lot more that's at your hands reach and we know that this can be accomplished. We want to be united and we want success to protect our students, our children. Thank you. Okay, >> it looks like Isabelle has shown up. Isabelle, please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Isabelle. Isabelle, I see you're on the line with us. Please press star six to unmute yourself and you have two minutes to
057speak once you begin. Isabel say >> well. Good morning. I want to welcome you all to a new school year and let's hope that we are stronger this year for us to want to work even more so and more strength to help students help them academically help them in their in their safety with inside the schools but more than anything I want you to focus in the students we are very low and let's remove that blockage that we have let's help each each other. A lot of students want to go out of state once they graduate high school and they're not prepared for that. Therefore, I want you to you can prove it. You look and see the data. You can see how many students graduate from college after they leave LUSD. Therefore, I want
058to ask you for that favor for you to focus on the students academic. And you, the board members, let's stop being uh puppets for other people and let's do what you're here to do for the children. uh because you the board members can you have L USD kids therefore we're all the same and if you are supporting L USD kids so show it and thank you so much and welcome to the new school year have a great day >> let's see Anna Mexen I see you're still on the line M please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin >> good morning uh my name is Ana Mexen and I'm also a member of schools beyond screens a parent group which represents hundreds of families in LA
059USD who are all extremely concerned about the everexpanding use of screenbased learning in our public schools. Our children are already spending an enormous amount of time on screens outside of school, averaging nine hours per day for high school students. Having them on screens most of the day at school is simply unacceptable. Why? Because excessive screen time has been linked to many maladies including anxiety and depression, executive functioning disorders, eye disorders, sleep loss, neck pain, and screen addiction. It's for these reasons that LUD recently implemented the new ban on phones and personal devices, a policy we applaud. But it's also time to acknowledge that schoolisssued devices present urgent problems of their own. Unfettered internet access on classroom devices can fragment students attention, making it difficult for them to stay on task. Indeed, numerous studies have shown
060better comprehension and retention when students learn on paper versus screens. And classroom devices also create new behavioral challenges for teachers, requiring them to police online activity instead of teaching. EdTE apps pose a massive privacy risk through their collection of student data. And by gamifying the learning experience, these apps can undermine children's ability to focus on work that doesn't trigger short-term rewards, thereby diminishing their capacity for deep thinking. And now edtech companies are trying to push AI companions and large language models into our schools, even though using AI has already been shown to impair cognitive functioning, spread disinformation, and exacerbate bias. Additionally, computer-based homework can be a gateway to unsanctioned online activity, placing an undue burden on parents to look over their children's shoulder at home as well. You have already heard from several other members
061of our group here today on this topic, and I hope you will take our comments to heart and consider how the board can move this district toward a more responsible and researchbased tech policy. Thank you. >> Thank you for your time. And the last caller is Thomas Havland. Uh, I do not see you online in front of me. Are you in the room, Mr. Havland? No. Okay, that concludes item specific and general public comment. The time is now 10:58. The board is going to recess into close session. Uh, and when we come out, I will report on any action taken, if any. Thank you. Yes sir. Thank you. >> Okay. The time is now 3:03 p.m. on August 5th, 2025. All board members were present in the close session as was the superintendent. I'm going
062to take role and then I will read out the uh reportable actions. Then I believe we have two adjourning motions. So Miss Newil will be here momentarily. Dr. Rivas >> present. >> Uh Mr. Melvinne >> here. >> Miss Ggo >> here. >> Um Miss Gomez, >> Miss Ortiz Franklin >> present. >> Okay, we have a quorum. So Oh, and board president. >> My apologies. Um, I'll now read out reportable action from tab one, student discipline. The board of education approved the expulsion of student case numbers uh one, two, three, and four with the recommended dispositions. The vote with seven eyes. Under tab two, personnel under public employee discipline dismissal or released. The board of education authorized the dismissal of three classified employees. The vote with seven eyes. And here is Miss Newell. Also, Miss Newell
063is here also. Um, let's see. We all the board of education authorized the motion demotion of one certificated employee. The vote was seven eyes. Under tab three, pending litigation, the board of education authorized the settlement in the following cases. CS VALUSD, John Mfdo, VALAUSD, Jane RD do VALAUSD, and Martha Gonzalez VAUSD. Terms and conditions will be available upon the finalization of the agreements and the vote with seven eyes. That concludes the items I have to report out. And now on to the adjourning motions. Thank you, Mr. McClean. I'd like to adjourn today's memory in honor of Barbara Ellen. Excuse me. I'd like to adjourn today's meeting in honor and memory of Barbara Ellson who passed away from multiple myoma on July 15th of this year in the love and company of her family. Barbara was
064an accomplished public school teacher who positively impacted countless children and their families. In addition to the teachers she helped train and mentor. She spent the majority of her career teaching at Cordelane Avenue School in Venice. She taught early education literacy programs and traditional um kindergarten and created a lending library with thousands of books to help encourage reading and lifelong learning while also volunteering after hours to keep the school's garden thriving. in honor of her extensive contributions to the school. Upon her retirement, the school named its garden in Barbara's honor. Barbara also became one of California's early National Board certified teachers, an honor few California teachers had achieved at that point, and taught many teacher education classes. Following her retirement, she devoted significant time to supporting a new charter school for homeless children, eventually resulting in
065Barbara receiving their lifetime achievement award for her incredible service there. She has survived by her husband David who also worked for Ella Unified for a while. Siblings Bob, Bruce, and Belinda. Daughters Elizabeth, Emily, and Carrie, son-in-law Michael, and grandson Josh. May her memory be for a blessing. Thank you. And I would like to honor Don Dustin. Don Dustin was co-founder of the world famous LAUSD Allist High School Honor Band. He passed on in 2025. Born 1937 and he was an LUSD student. He graduated from Eagle Rock Junior Senior High School. He started his teaching career at Samuel Gumper Junior High School in 1961. He worked as a co- music teacher at Elaine Loy Lock High School with Frank Harris to develop the music program upon their opening in 1967. right after the rot the Watts
066riots. The program went on to produce artists like Patrice Russian Lean Nugu Chancellor Gerald Albbright and many other leaders in the music recording industry. And again I say he co-founded the LAUSD All District High School Honor Band with John Deickman, director performing arts and Frank Harris. The band was designed to allow students from LUSD the opportunity in marching in the annual Tournament of Roses Parade and performances at other high-profile de uh events. And we still do this. And he also was the director of the performing arts, now known as Arts Education, from 1983 to 1999. Thank you, Don. I also just want to know while we're here and we'll do an adjournment maybe at our late August meeting. Um but we also lost a couple weeks ago Frank Baxter who's a longtime advocate for kids
067uh in LA ran um was the board chair of After School Allstars worked with Judy Burton on the founding of Alliance but was just a lovely man uh who passed away on July 15th um from uh um ALS. And so we're thinking about uh Frank honoring his memory as well. And I'll do a more formal adjournment uh at the end of the month. And with that we are adjourned. The time is now 3:08.