001Oh, [Music] Welcome. The time is now 50:01 p.m. on June 24th, 2025. This is a special meeting of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education, including closed session items. I will take role and then um I will read the purpose and authority it looks like for a single a single item to be discussed and then we will recess into close session. Uh Miss Newell I see is here. Dr. Rivas present. Mr. Melvinne here. Miss Grigo. Uh Miss Gomez. Uh Miss Ortiz Franklin present. Thank you. And board president present. Thank you. We have a quorum. All right. There is one item uh to be discussed in close session. 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,
002California 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 Union, SEIU Local 99 Teamsters, United Teachers Los Angeles, and District Represented Employees and Contract Management Personnel. We have 10 folks signed up for item specific comment. As usual, there is no general public comment at a special meeting of this board. So, let's see. The first person is Maria Louisa Palma. I see you are there. Please come on up. You'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. This is the routing system you and your predecessors built. You begin labor negotiations with a ball and chain with the existing obligations dragging down the budget, continuing the deficit. You've talked about implementing zerobased budgeting, but you can't do that with the existing
003bargaining agreements in place, right? You have to start with that. Now, we have this special meeting. That's an example of the ex exorbitant power that the unions must have to force you all to call this special special meeting. UTLA SEIU come here. They're brazenly stomping, yelling, violations of the rules of decorum, Mr. McLean. But everybody allows it and smiles upon that. Let's contrast that with the power of the parents. What power? Parents have no power at all on the committees. Parents are supposed to be stakeholders, but that's a complete farce. Their parents are treated like a compliance checkbox. There's a lack of substantive information to for the parents, and the comments for the LCAP have zero incap um impact on what actually comes out in the LCAP. Your responses don't even ever say if you
004concur or not, although we haven't seen you this year's responses, I can't wait to read those. Now under the law, yes, the unions in California are allowed public sector collective bargaining, but parents also have supposed to have rights under the law. Title one requires two substantive consultation with parents. The LCAP and the LCFF process are supposed to be a trade-off away from categorical funding. Yet, you are abusing that power by using the flexibility to use the funds that you wish, but not taking the parent demands seriously. So before you continue to bargain away our children's future, think about this power imbalance. Unions do not represent the interests of the parents, the students, or the taxpayers at large. They represent their employees interest only. And for them to say they represent anybody else is a complete
005conflict conflict of interest. That is not possible. So what will each of you do to correct that power imbalance? Please think of that when you have this conference with labor negotiators. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Diana again, I see you're there. Come on up. You have two minutes to speak. Why don't you begin? Members of the board, we are here to today doing extra hours or overtime just because the uh unions just asked for it because so you can negotiate our students future because you're not negotiating um academic improvement. You are negotiating the salaries of all these employees and creating and telling the students that we will have dream centers for what? so that to create other positions because you will need to make cuts in what is teachers but why don't you
006negotiate for better academic achievement because right now UTLA want you to give them 21% more of increase in salaries when they know that student funds are um depleting because you think that with time you will create other type of taxes so you can take money from the community and then we pay while you pad your um with your your wallets with friends and with associates. It's all that you do. We are tired as parents to come here and talk about returning school police right now. I was told that at 2 p.m. very close to the Grand Community School, Robert Kennedy. Someone threatened a police with a weapon. They were threat a police officer threatened. Imagine how are our students being threatened and how will they be protected? Miss Grigo just talking to a counselor saying
007that to behave. No, that does not work because the crime is outside. Uh gangs are outside. The uh trafficking is outside. Everything is happening right before your eyes and what the immigrant community is suffering that they are being um hunted like animals and what you say, oh we are with you. That is not being with the community. It's just making a difference in the education of our children and taking into account the parents because the parents are the only ones that advocate for us. There's a lot of kids coming here uh speaking on behalf of the union and they don't even know it. They don't even know that they're speaking on behalf of the union because they talk about BAP and BAP. How is it approving? How is it helping our students? We want to
008know the results of that BAP program. You gave them more funds, but where are the results and how they are improving in that program? We want to see those results. Miss Grigo, you are so supporting this BP. How are you supporting these students that supposedly Maria Daisy Ortiz, I see you're out there. Come on up. You have two minutes to speak. Once you begin, good afternoon. Just like my colleague said, we are here on overtime and it is because we love our children and we believe in the intelligence of every single one of them that you pull them apart with so much personnel that you negotiate for that does not even moni that you don't even monitor or evaluate in reality with who you need to negotiate is with us because we are volunteers but
009We put the capital in your hands and those are our children. And not you don't take them out with red numbers because to look nice for you, you graduate them with a a D and then you do away because you're done with them because we have because we have 86% of graduation. But that is a false that is a lie. Stealing dreams. Why don't you negotiate with us? I was with Miss Carla Grigo telling her that there needs to be a committee established for lowincome parents because it is a large district and we need the information to flow from the bottom to the top and from the top to the bottom because we as partners we need transparency. We need inclusion. And then she just started to make up a bunch of stuff and lastly
010she told me and how do you want us to do it? And how do you want us me to say it? Oh, well, very easy. To get to a place, you need to have a way and the way that we want for there to be transparency so that there's communication and so that there is inclusion. We need to make a parent committee and Mr. Scott knows and many of you know, but just because parents we you don't like us because you don't like for us to make those difficult questions. But it is our children. It is our future and I would like for you to be in the parents shoes and if there's no safety how are students able to learn. So it is very important that safety is a priority and not just a
011band-aid just like you are managing it. The police is necessary because it creates respect looks after the sale of drugs, gangs and crime. But since you here you here do have it. So, why do you have police? Okay, gracias. Thank you and have a nice afternoon. Okay, David Tokovski, you're next on the list. I don't see you in the room, but I also do not have you online, Mr. Tokovski. Uh, let's see. Jenna Noise, 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. Jenna Noise. Good evening. Um, my name is Jenna Noise, former special ed teacher, PTA executive board member, and incoming president of Valley Health Council, PTSA. So, nearly every comment made this morning and afternoon has emphasized the same
012issues. A lack of transparency, a lack of meaningful engagement with families, teachers, and staff, and a lack of accountability from this board. These concerns are not new. They've been raised repeatedly. Yet, we continue to receive the same dismissive responses. So, when will you truly hear what we're saying? We are asking for change. We are asking to be heard. We are asking you to genuinely consider and act on the concerns we bring forward. We have submitted petitions, no response. We've offered partnership letters, silence. Even when my neighborhood council or 31st district of PTSA sent letters in support of schools having a choice, there was no acknowledgement. We've submitted a resolution asking for transparency and accountability and creating a safety accountability plan. Nothing. So, what will it take? I've heard board members speak about budget priorities, increasing
013support of our most vulnerable populations. And while I agree with that in principle, I also heard you say that schools should foster a sense of belonging, safety, and support. So, I ask, how are you truly achieving that? So, to many of us, these statements feel disingenuous. Our district is large. richly diverse and spans communities with vast different needs. These regional differences must be recognized and respected. I strongly encourage the board to consider giving more autonomy to schools or at the very least the regional leadership so that decisions reflect the specific needs of those they affect such as training, safety, leadership, and personnel. We need more than words. We need action. Thank you so much and have a good evening. Thank you for your time. Norma Gonzalez, are you on the line? Norma Gonzalez. All right,
014Isabelle Gonzalez, I see you are on the line. Isabelle Gonzalez, please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Isabelle Gonzalez, I'm sorry. One moment, please. I'm having a technical Isabelle Gonzalez, please. Isabelle Gonzalez, yes, please go ahead. Did you notice the meeting at 11:00 a.m. There a clear example of when a teacher, a principal, or any other employee that belongs to a union, when they're not no longer useful for the interest of those few people, they are fired without any justification. The only crime of the principal is to do an exemplary job. And of course it doesn't go align with the interest of the union. Is that how we want a teacher or a principal that uh increases the averages and the students to be even
015more competitive? But it seems like the unions the only thing that they want is to have more budget for parasites bureaucrats that graduate our students with a D. Why do you want to hire more staff if our students are even more so worse? Why do you want more work workers? We need qualified teachers and train and that's it. Why are you hiring even more personnel if there is less and less students at LUSD? Why are the unions requesting so easily and can manipulate all of you so easily just like UTLA or SEIU Local 99? Why do you owe favors to them? Why do you listen to them? When when are you going to be in agreement and hear the voice of the parents, students, and school staff so that we can return school funds to
016school for qualified and trained um officers in case are you going to take into account the resolution presented by the parents or are you going to wait for more student deaths in school? What is it that you want so that you can return the funding for school police? Thank you. Abraham Romero, you're signed up to speak remotely, but I do not have you signed in. Are you in the room, Abraham Romero? Nope. Isabelle Agira, I do see you on the line. Isabelle Agira, please press star six to unmute yourself. You'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Isabelle Agir. Good afternoon. My name is Isabella Gir and the labor partners are charged to document a lot of the events and requesting social justice programs and it seems like they are the bosses of the
017district and you members of the board of education are just their puppets because many of you here represent your interest of the union. The parents are outside of the of this and that is not fair. We need for negotiations. Do not lose focus. Our students are even more behind with this situation. We need for you to focus in the academics and are improving our student academic achievement. We need direct support for our children and we need to see the progress of the programs before we invest more money in them. and an observation just like you have little flags to represent the LGBTQ uh community. We want and we request support for students with disabilities because they too have been targets of the current administration attacks and they have been uh rejected by our society and
018even the district. Thank you for your time. Why don't you begin? Concerned parent. Good afternoon. What is the purpose of labor unions? My understanding is that the purpose is to improve their salary benefit salary benefits and working conditions. As you go into close session to discuss contract negotiations, I ask that you please don't bargain parent and student rights away. In previous negotiations when certain uh labor unions are requesting um additional programming or additional committees to be uh brought forth at the school level so that they can have more input. It seems that it also includes taking parent input away and that is not fair. It is not fair because parents are the second largest stakeholder group in the district. Now, that doesn't mean that our voice is more important, but it also doesn't mean that
019it's less important. I understand that as you all um are appointed into your position, you renounce every anything that you had previously. However, you wearing your red shirts, which is not an attack, but it lets us know who you stand with. And it since parents don't have a color to represent and I don't think that you would wear one. It lets us know that you are not with the parent. We are continuously ignored. Um you bargain our rights away and that needs to stop. Focus labor contract negotiations on working conditions and not taking parental and student rights away. Thank you. Thank you for your time. That concludes general public comment. Time is now 519. We're going to recess into close session. Good evening. Welcome back. The time is now 6:39 p.m. on 6:24. I'm going
020to take role after having come back from close session. Miss Newell present. Dr. Rivas present. Mr. Melvinne here. Miss Grigo here. Miss Gomez here. Miss Ortiz Franklin. And board president present. Okay, we have a quorum. I have nothing to report out. The time is now 6:39. If there are not any objections, the meeting will be adjourned. And we have gave out. Thank you very much.