001Good morning. Check. Check. Good morning. Welcome. The time is now 11:04. The date is June 24th, 2025. I'm going to go ahead and take role and welcome you to the regular meeting of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education. Miss Newil? Present. Dr. Rivas present. Mr. Milo here. Miss Grigo here. Uh Miss Gomez present. Miss Ortiz Franklin present. Board President Schmurson present. Okay, we have a quorum. I believe the pledge today is going to be led by Mr. Schmurson himself. Okay. And now we are um going to have the land acknowledgement read onto the record. We acknowledge that the Los Angeles Unified School District is located on lands traditionally stewarded by the Gabriel Leno and Fernando Tatavium peoples. We recognize the Gabrielle Leno as the original caretakers of the Los Angeles basin and
002the Fernando Tatavium as guardians of the northern valleys. As we learn and grow, we commit to understanding indigenous histories and cultures, fostering relationships with these communities, and contributing to healing and unity. Uh, thank you. Thank you very much. We'll now have our labor partners. First labor partner to come up. Hey, come on up teamsters. And as a friendly reminder to our labor partners, we request that you keep it to five minutes or less per labor group. We appreciate you very much. Thank you. You good morning, superintendent, school board members. My name is Adriana Avula. I am here on behalf of the health benefits uh labor unions. As um most of you know, I have the privilege of chairing our health benefit committee and we're here to talk about the budget um and a letter that
003was sent to board members yesterday. We are disappointed to see that the proposed 2526 budget contains an irrevers irreversible and unnecessary allocation to the OPEC trust that will seriously hinder the district's financial outlook over the next three years. specifically the $336 million and a total of $1.1 billion projected over the next three years. This is not the allocation to cover the actual annual cost of retirey benefits. It's an additional discretionary allocation to a trust fund that is neither required nor responsible. District officials are trying to squirrel away an extra $1 billion into this restricted reserve while claiming to be in a structural deficit and then proposing $1.6 billion in cuts to our schools in a fiscal stabilization plan. We strongly object to this provision of the budget and believe the board should not make any
004ad hoc OPED trust contributions during a fiscal stabilization plan. The district should return these allocated amounts to the general fund budget for 2526 and the projections for the fiscal year 27 and 28 and resend an equal amount of the proposed cuts in the fiscal stabilization plan. We believe all of this is fear tactics and misinformation provided by former CFO Chris Mount who recently quit LUSD. Mr. Mount stated last week that most districts have fully funded OPED trusts. This is simply not true. Only 7% of districts have trusts that are fully preunded, meaning they could cover the full cost of retirey health benefits if every single eligible employee were to retire tomorrow. Most of these preunded districts have fewer than 1,000 students. And the majority of school districts with an OPED trust are partially prefunded just
005like LAUSD. And sadly, these trusts are often used to manufacture a crisis and not protect our benefits. To be clear, our retirey benefits are not underfunded. The board practice in 20 in the 2024 actuarial report was to contribute of $40 million to the trust and the past practice has also been to withhold these contributions during a fiscal stabilization plan. The 2024 report states that with that policy if the district had to pay benefits out of the fund the trust would last until 2038. The district has never had to dip into the trust to pay for retirey benefits. Mr. Mount also said these contributions are necessary to cover the unfunded liability of retirey benefits. Again, the liability figure it's a theoretical cost if every single LAUSD eligible employee were to retire tomorrow. And in fact, there
006has been no underfunding of these benefits on an annual basis. and the trust has only grown. Meanwhile, since 2017, the future net liability of retirey health benefits for LAUSD has shrunk by 33% which is over $4.5 billion. LAUSD does not have the luxury of stashing extra billions to earn investment income like private universities or other private nonprofits with endowments not accountable to the public. So, we are asking you to please take action to amend this budget and protect our schools from these unnecessary and irresponsible allocations. And this is on behalf of Associate Administrators of Los Angeles Teamsters Local 2010, CSCA Los Angeles, Chapter 500, Education Workers United, SEIU Local 99, Teamsters Local 572, United Teachers Los Angeles, Los Angeles School Police Association, the LA Orange Orange County Building Trades Council, Los Angeles School Police Management
007Association. Thank you very much. Thank you. Do we have any other labor partners who wish to speak? Mr. Gil. Thank you. Then I see uh Miss Parish is going to follow you. Thank you. Good morning. My name is Gil Gomez. I'm the school police union president. Um, we have a pretty packed room, so I don't want to miss the opportunity to brag about our officers and our police department. Um, our police officers are getting trained through the LAPD Police Academy and consistently score highest in the academy. Um, one of our individuals even got the number one recruit. And I'd like to point out that many of our police recruits are LA Unified graduates. Um, and I think it they're doing I know they're doing LA Unified proud. Um, dur at the mighty LAPD Academy, they
008were scoring tops and uh top recruits in in my world and in the police world. This is this is a great thing. Um, what I would like after graduation would be for members of the community, students, board members even, and staff to come and and and help with professional development. Um, they they're going to graduate a police academy and they're going to be sworn police officers in the state of California, but how are they supposed to serve the unique um entity of LA Unified? How are they supposed to protect children? uh they do a good job, but I think that the stakeholders, the children, the students and the staff should have a little bit more input than what they do. I think this would be very helpful. Um my my LUSD my in my personal
009my wife's a counselor at Griffith Middle School. Um most of the people in my family work for LAD or worked or retired. And my mother's a retired administrator. And one thing she said when I I came over from a few different police departments, she says, "Be good to my people," meaning the staff, the students, the community of LUSD. And I think that that message should be continued with um to our officers when they're getting ready to go out and patrol and protect the students and staff of LA Unified. So, I invite board members or or groups to come and speak with our officers um after they graduate and after they they do LUSD proud by scoring tops like they always do. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Gomez. Next, we have uh Franny Parish
010from CSCA. Come on up, please. Start that clock yet. A hot fear for that clock. Those are uh copies of all the positions that are currently listed in CSEA. I know people don't seem to know who we are. You think we're just library technicians and office techs and a few financial managers, but we are more than just that. There's pages of people. Okay. Oh, he started the clock, didn't he? He restarted that clock. Go back. Set it to zero. All right. Good morning. My name is Franny Parish. I am the political action chair of CSEA LA 500. I am also a library technician. Very proud one. Difficult know where to start and try and do this in just a few minutes. 2008 CSEA LA 500 had over 7,500 members, almost 8,000. By 2011, cut down
011to 4,800. Next round of cuts, we were minus,700. When board member Monica Garcia was confronted on the steps of Bodri by Connie Moreno, our labor rep, about how our union was taking more hits percentage-wise than others at the expense of saving others. Miss Garcia said flippantly, "Well, somebody's got to take the hits." And we've been taking them ever since. We now have 44 members. So the ones you say are going to be cut are union members. Just who do you have in mind, Mr. Carvalo, we have 24,045 members in central offices. Which 40% are you thinking of cutting? It has been a ghost town and skeleton crews for years uh there and at school sites. Most work done by fewer people. H norm ratios h created in 2008. You know, this fact about uh most
012work done by fewer people was borne out last week by a CS uh SEIU member who stood up here and spoke to you who said they are often sent to the office to do our work. Our work. They say it all the time. It's happened all the time. I've told all of you board members about this because they're short staffed. Where there should be two to three office techs, there is only one. That is how LSD, LUSD funds the positions. We are also a union made up of mainly women, women of color. Don't be fooled because I'm white and I'm standing up here. We are mainly a union made up of women of color. The average salaries of our people are not enough to buy a house, nor is it enough to support a family
013of four on their own. Our president gave uh you board members our own budget analysis. And if you bother to read it, you know that our analysis shows there are holes you could drive a whale and a train through in your own budget as presented last week. Ah 600 million in outstanding outsourcing. Well, it's not at all schools. I had a great laugh at that when I was watching at home. that made us all had a good laugh. While taking away jobs of our own people here in the district, all for a cheap deal, expediency on what you think is a deal in order to do union busting or to not have to pay for benefits. Shame on you. Contracting out translators to a company in South America. Did you know that? Contracting out our
014work. Period. Enough is enough. And a cola. A cola. 2.3%. That's what you're offering right now. We're not even in negotiations, but for my brother and sisters, why not just give what's already given from the state? What's so wrong with that? And the projected colas of 3.2 3.42%. Why make us all gravel? That's what you do when we go to the table. Why not just give what's given from the state? And of course, you know, I'm not going to leave this podium without a mention of libraries. God forbid I should do that. You know that. Under capital outlays, part four, page 23, being specific, books and materials 0000. It was overheard at the table during budget developments that any person in by a certain person in charge that the libraries in LA don't need any
015more books. No, they don't need any more books. They got plenty. They got plenty of books. In the words of a dear friend of mine, Dolly Parton, you can never put enough books in the hands of enough children. The average age of the books in our libraries in LUSD is 2004. Now, you put that in your crawls and you've kind of spin it around a few times. If you want to just budget $10 per student per school, maybe $3.5 million to continue to update collections at the schools. Imagine how happy the children could be. They love physical books, not online books are okay, but a physical book. If you support student literacy and reading, then you support updating library collections. Otherwise, otherwise, maybe you deserve a big fat zero on your report cards. And where
016are you going to find the money? Well, maybe you could go to that parking lot that was mentioned last week with a billion dollars in it and find some money for the children because it was taken from the schools in the first place when they rake it back. That money is not given back to the schools. That was another big fat Pinocchio lie. Thank you very much. Any other labor partners who wish to speak? Maria Nichols, come on up. I'm going to respectfully share my time today if that's okay. Superintendent Carvalo, President Smeiran, board members. I am, Maria Nichols, proud AALA Teamsters Local 2010 President. I am here today united in solidarity with our parents, teachers, and administrators of Broadway Elementary School to express our strong objection to the district's unjust and unlawful decision to
017nonreelect principal Rashelle Garmin as she completes her second year at Broadway Elementary School. Principal Garmin is a 20-year veteran of LUSD, a dedicated educator who has served Broadway for over 10 uh a decade and various capacities. Since assuming the role in 2023 24 school year, she has led the school with professionalism, integrity, and a deep commitment to all students, navigating complex challenges between the Mandarin and Spanish immersion programs, which have been longstanding. Her leadership has acknowledged not only has been acknowledged not only by her school community but also in her most recent performance evaluation conducted on May 14, 2025 where the regional director discussed working together for the upcoming school year. Less than two weeks later, the district abruptly issued her a non-reelection notice with no warning, no due process, no investigation of any violation
018of district policies. Let's be clear, the decision to non-reelect principal Garmin was not due to her performance in final evaluation grounded in the school leadership framework. She received an effective rating for contributions to student outcomes, an effective rating in staff feedback, and a combination that states, "The collaborative structures you have put in place support the instructional demands, and by setting goals as a team, the staff will continue to take ownership of the work." It further goes on to state the director will continue to support your leadership growth and marks the next evaluation period for 202526. The evidence that we have suggests that the decision to non-reelect was the result of a targeted discriminatory campaign led by a small group of individuals who opposed her leadership due to her race and her perceived linguistic background. She
019was subjected to derogatory comments and repeated attempts to undermine her authority. The district's failure to defend her and instead act on these discriminatory v voices is indefensible and in violation of district policy and the law. Compounding this injustice are unfounded allegations related to $57,000 in booster club funds. These funds were never in the possession of Principal Garmin or the school. Let me remind you that boosters are separate entities, third parties. Booster meetings are not school sponsored events and any expectation that she police the content of parents speech at such meeting raises serious first amendment concerns. In fact, retaliation for not silencing critical speech may itself be a constitutional violation. Board members, Superintendent Carvalo, this is bigger than one administrator. This decision sends a chilling message about how LUSD treats their new and developing district leaders.
020It tells principles that doing everything right, leading with care, following policies, building community, building trusting relationships is not enough. It isn't enough if others decide that for discriminatory reasons they simply don't want you there because you don't speak Spanish. We call on the board to do the right thing. We call on the superintendent to do the right s thing. Conduct a comprehensive investigation relating to these matters. We sin the non-reelection of principal Michelle and institute her earned permanency. If the district does not reverse this decision, we are prepared to pursue all available legal avenues. Thank you. And now I ask you respectfully to allow Principal Garmin a few minutes since you have really damaged her current career at this time. So give her the courtesy of speaking, please. We love you, Michelle. Good morning, Superintendent
021Carvalo and Lust board members. I am deeply humbled by the support I've received and honored to share a few words about my journey at Broadway Elementary, a school I proudly serve since 2010 as a third grade teacher, categorical program adviser, TSP coordinator, instructional coach, and now principal. Over the years, I've worked hard to bring innovation and opportunity to our students for both dual language programs, introducing activities such as the spelling bee, math kangaroo, science, robotics clubs, overnight education trips. We reopened our library. We painted a new mural and updated the playground, creating a joyful, enriching environment for all students to thrive and to earn their optimum potential. We've also built strong partnerships, launching our first local school leadership council, uniting parents, teachers, and administrators around key issues and collaboratively making decisions in the best interests
022of all stakeholders. Through this, we've built trust, strengthened relationships, and shaped the shared community vision to be the best and brightest for all of our students. One of my proudest achievements has been building morale and uniting our staff. I can say with confidence, I have the hardest working teachers in L USD. They plan, collaborate, and care create daily to give our students their absolute best. This work would be impossible without their dedication and trust. And as principal, I supported my selfless teachers by creating systems and structures for meaningful collaboration and ensuring they have the time, tools, and resources they needed to achieve extraordinary and accelerated student outcomes. And our results speak for themselves. On the recent summitive Smarter Balance assessments, 86% of our third through fifth grade students scored at or above grade level in
023ELA and 79% in math. Our parents and guardians are the heartbeat of Broadway. Their passion, commitment, and constant support uplift our entire community. They show up, they speak out, and they give generously of their time and energy to ensure the success of their children, and our school. I care deeply for our students, our staff, families, and community. Broadway is more than just a school. It's a magical one-of-a-kind place that continues to thrive because of our entire school community. It needs and deserves your continued attention, investment, and care. Thank you for your time and thank you for believing in Broadway. [Music] [Applause] Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Any other labor partners? Oh, thank you. Okay, we are now up to our superintendent reports and I'll turn over to Mr. Carvayo. Thank you very
024much and good morning everyone. So, we're going to start with uh some um recognition of individuals who committed decades of their professional and personal lives to the improvement and betterment of our great school system. Um this is a timehonored tradition where we recognize individuals and provide them with that uh much appreciated uh bell that celebrates their incredible and powerful contributions. And this year, members of the board, we are uh sending off some remarkable leaders. The first person that I'd like to recognize today, and I guess what I'll do is I'll do all individuals who will be retiring and then bring them all on and provide them with their bells for their years of service. First is Mr. Jose Werta. Mr. has been serving as the region E superintendent. Today we honor in Jose a remarkable
025leader with a powerful legacy that has shaped the lives of thousands across Los Angeles Unified. Jose has worked with Los Angeles Unified for 34 years, serving students and families, including nine impactful years, leading region east as its superintendent. Mr. Werta is retiring and leaving behind a lasting imprint on public education. Believe it or not, uh, Jose began his service with Los Angeles Unified as a TA, then a classroom teacher, grounding his leadership and firsthand experience with students, an experience that has never left him. He progressed through various leadership roles with humility and excellence, serving as an assistant principal, an administrative operations, and eventually region superintendent. If you know Jose, you know that he is a champion for the underserved student, parent, and community. He's always paid keen attention to those who suffer, those who need
026a better reality. During his time, he has strengthened instructional leadership across the region. He has mentored principles and empowered school leaders. He has helped uh schools navigate major transitions through the pandemic, recovery efforts, shifts in instructional practices, always with courage, compassion, and clarity. He has led with heart, always reminding us that every every child is something more important, someone more important than the data that some choose to define him. He is admired for his quiet strength, his warm presence, and his deep respect for the voices of students, families, and educators. We will miss you. We will miss you. And congratulations on your well-earned retirement. Your journey with us may be ending, but your influence over the thousands you have served will continue to guide them for years to come. Congratulations, Jose. [Applause] Next up is
027uh Deb Lockxton, executive director of Beyond the Bell branch. This is um Deb is one of those people that uh you know she's the real deal when you first meet her. She has a quiet demeanor. She is strong. She is exact in what she does and she's so good at it. Uh, Miss Lockton began her career with Los Angeles Unified in 1979 as a Beyondthe program worker. Those of us that know her know that she doesn't just do her job, she has transformed the job as we know it. She moved through the ranks with determination, with brilliance, with compassion, and just the right amount of sass, eventually leading one of the largest expanded learning programs in the nation as its executive director. You've always believed that kids deserve safe, enriching, meaningful time before and after
028the bell, including during the summer. Your leadership has been fierce but joyful. Whether you were building out afterchool programs, collaborating with city leaders, pushing the superintendent around, or breaking into interpretive dance in the middle of a meeting. Yes, she does do interpretive dance. Um, you've always been the best of the best. You've shown up for our kids. You helped build LA's best, secure critical funding, and shape policies and politics that made LUD a model for afterchool learning in our state and across the country. One of your biggest strengths is the fact that you exemplify that concept of servant leadership. You demonstrated that during the Eaton and Palisades fires uh when your home was directly impacted and all you could do was concern less for yourself and dedicate dedicate despite the challenges you were personally facing
029more time to our community, our school district, our kids and our employees. that defines you as the incredible human being that you are. Your legacy is enormous and bountiful in love and respect by everyone who has worked with you and the students and families who have benefited from your grace, your dedication, and your professionalism. Congratulations. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] And then there's this uh I still call him a young man because you know his hair is lighter than mine. He's about to retire and he's got a youthful joyful face. I don't care what conversation you have with Mr. Dean Tagawa, you're going to hear I hear true dedication, true passion, true compassion because Dean is a true legend. Um, for 32 years, Dean has been a steady, patient, sometimes impatient, and kind kind presence in the
030world of early childhood education. You will never know how many thousands if not millions of children have benefited and will benefit in the future from your vision, your professionalism, and the environments you so successfully created for these kids. Over the course of 32 years in Los Angeles Unified and 11 years as ex executive director, Dean has championed kids. Dean has championed access, equity, and quality in early learning for the children of our community. Under his leadership, we've seen a transformation of outdoor spaces. I will never forget my first field trip to one of those. and becoming mesmerized by kids all covered in mud playing outdoors and you attempting to explain to me all the science behind that and it made so much sense. Thank you for teaching me and thank you for elevating my interest
031in outdoor learning and the incredible power of early childhood education. This man also believes that early childhood education is not an expenditure. It is the best investment and the best predictor of higher graduation rates. Your journey has been fantastic. Much like your predecessors, you began as a TA at Germaine Elementary. You became a teacher and then principal at Lafayette Park Elementary and then Glassell Park Elementary. You've done everything for a long time, for so many, for absolutely the right reasons. Thank you for your years of service. Thank you for your calm demeanor. Thank you for believing in the power of children. Congratulations on your well-earned retirement. Last but not least, uh, Miss Mary Louu Kamacho. Mary Lou is the senior administrator IT customer support. Um, Mary Lou is one of these quiet storms. Now, she
032is a distinguished, quiet, strategic leader who's done it very, very well for 36 years of dedicated service to our great school system. Her incredible career spans a variety of roles including teacher assistants, uh teacher, counselor, administrator, counseling coordinator, executive coordinator to the superintendent and deputy superintendent, and currently senior administrator for IT customer support. Uh in her current role, she oversees IT technical field support, the enterprise help desk, and the overall customer experience across information tech services. She leads really cool initiatives like I dream, secondary esports, adopt the school, and the women in IT mentorship program. Uh, Miss Kamasho is widely recognized for her dedication, her camaraderie, always having a listening ear to colleagues, just for the way you work as a source of inspiration to everyone around you. Thank you. You lead with humility, with
033integrity, with a clear sense of purpose, and we never hear you say no. always after a challenge is how shall we do it but no has never been in your vocabul vocabulary. Thank you for making a meaningful difference in the lives of so many. Congratulations. And I know you plan to travel the world. I thought LUSD was the world but I guess there is a world beyond Los Angeles Unified. Congratulations. [Applause] We'll go downstairs and have each one of these remarkable professionals ring the bell. [Applause] That's what I said you do. could only give you the top three the top three ranks. Yes. So, you can interview all people But I wouldn't necessarily know and if not I'll just get the res. So is that right? 35 they should come in a little just to
034see. Okay. Okay. That's good. Where's the baby? [Music] You're not going anywhere. [Music] There we go. [Music] say that [Music] [Applause] [Music] Okay. One, two, [Applause] Thanks for coming. Yes. What's going But uh it comes from you and we have a presentation also. Three slides. All right. Thank you. That's an I don't know if the board wants to make any comments. No, understood. Correct. We're good. We're good. for the budget. Make my comments about the budget. We'll do the budget presentation. Okay, that was a wonderful recognition of some fantastic district personnel. We appreciate it very much. And now I'll go back to the superintendent to talk about our budget settled. Thank you very much again. Uh so what I'd like to do is uh we do have a presentation specific to the district safety plan.
035Uh but we're going to uh continue now with a very short uh two slide presentation. The first slide is something you've seen before. The second slide uh does reflect some amendments. The budget is is a dynamic um instrument that reflects a combination of strategic priorities, resources available, and then the liabilities that crew over time. A budget should not be a static instrument that does not adapt to newer, better information. A budget should recognize today's realities, but also anticipate and be able to be modified in accordance with shifting trends, increasing or decreasing liabilities as well as revenues. We've had a lot of meaningful conversations with the board as well as the community about the uncertainty of what's happening in our country. The uncertainty associated with the availability of what we once believed were the steadiest of
036all revenues across the country. federal programs like title one or title two, title three ora, these are programs that we've always assumed have always been there, at least going back to 1963 to 1965. Various adoptions of these federal entitlement programs and have been tested over time. Multiple entities within Congress have tried to modify them, reduce them. They've never succeeded. But this year, unfortunately, it appears that there is a ground swell for modification of these ones seen as immutable funding streams. And I want to be very clear, these are not superfluous, superficial investments. These are necessary investments that protect and elevate the needs of the most fragile amongst us. Who would argue against funding for students with disabilities? Particularly recognizing that IDA doesn't even come close to the promise of 40% of the average expenditures associated
037with students with disabilities, never even having reached 50% of that. Who could argue that with the fact that children in poverty need additional resources and support? But that's what Congress is debating and that's what the administration is advancing. is not only a revision of the policies that have guided those investments, but a possible massive reduction to those programs. I want to be clear, those programs support thousands of kids in our school system and employ thousands of the members of our workforce. I mention this because that is the greatest liability and the greatest the greatest unpredictable force there we're dealing with. As your superintendent, I try to strike a balance between being somewhat risk averse, but not so much that we don't innovate and do right by our kids and our workforce. So the budget that
038we're bringing to you today reflects some changes and these changes adapt to what I mentioned earlier. A good budget is a budget that changes over time based on additional information but also based on a full recognition of what our district needs and wants. the full perspective of this board listening to all voices and equally important the voice of our community and last week we heard from the community. Last week we had the budget hearing. Last week I also made the announcement to the board and to the community that based on what we heard and what we know that we should expect some modifications moving forward to the final adoption of the budget today. You will see that reflected in the amendments as I go through them. There are two elements I'd like to address. First,
039I'd like to restate for the record what this budget does not do. You may not believe this, but I'm going to give the LA Times kudos. There was a budget article recently written that detailed the fact that LUSD does not find itself in the same position that many other districts around us and across the state find themselves in a position where indispensably important programs are being reduced where they're laying off employees where furlows are a reality. We're not doing any of that. In fact, we had guaranteed to this community that for this year and next fiscal year, there will be no programmatic reduction, no reduction in SNI, no reduction in BSAP, no reduction in arts funding, no reduction in TK programs, no laying off of employees, no exercising the right of furlows, no reduction to
040English learner access and support programs, no reduction in community school investments, and certainly not a single dollar of reductions in mental health supports for our kids. This budget, however, does reflect some new additional investments based on key priorities and emerging needs as we see conditions impacting our students, our workforce, and their families. And I think these are very self-evident. I'd like to bring up the next slide, which is a slide you've seen before, but now rather than simply declaring what we knew in terms of new investments going into last week, we do have one additional budget highlight investment. And I'll begin with that. for FY26. Should the board approve this budget, we will be earmarking $2 million of additional protections at school sites. And what I mean by that is a series of elements including
041the role of advocacy at every school site to address the needs of the LGBTQ plus community. Additional training, awareness, professional development across the board in our district. Secondly, since you last saw this, we maintain our commitment to BAP, but I'd like to add a couple of comments to BAP. PAP was a program that initiated with an investment of hund00 million. Within the first year of this administrative team's work, we increased that funding to $125 million. But we've known all along that writing historic wrongs require more than funding, more than one-time funding, and certainly an expansion of services to target every single student in communities that have been overlooked for far too long. That is why we initially recommended an increase of $25 million for FY26 and then we declared a supplemental increase of $25 million
042in equity investment for FY26 utilizing supplemental resources following the same guidelines and protocols for BAP programming across the district. I know of zip codes in our great community that currently do not have a BSAP presence. Board member Kelly Gonz can point some out. This is the right investment at the right time for absolutely the right reason. My commitment to the community is that we don't do this work in asylum, in a silo, or in isolation of the voices in our community. That is why the participation as we add a $50 million investment to BAP, our commitment is that we will work collaboratively collaboratively with a steering committee for BAP to decide on the better way, best way of investing and monitoring the utilization of the additional resources that we are recommending. Arts in schools are
043important. This district already makes a massive investment into arts in education, but this budget reflects a $26 million investment into accelerated arts for fiscal year 206. This is above and beyond last year's commitment and it serves to send a clear message not only of our commitment but also our desire to settle whatever perspectives, differences of opinion may have existed and normalize moving forward in providing arts education for every kid in our school system. We should not be utilizing taxpayers dollars in unnecessary fights when all we're trying to do is do the right thing. We commit once again to the $700 million into Senny. Budgeting through equity practices is the right practice. Period. We commit $186 million to TK education. We just recognized Dean Tagawa. Want to improve graduation rates? Invest in early childhood education. Want
044to prevent the gaps that many of our kids experience later on in life? Invest in TK education. Want to have proficient readers by third grade? Invest in TK education. Want to have a better community? invest into the youngest amongst us, student family centers. I think any one of us who turns on our TV and reads the paper and considers the stress, the trauma, the abuse, the persecution that we see in our community recognizes that we need to be that alleviating element in our school district. providing support to some of the most fragile kids and families in our school district who right now fear coming to school, fear asking for help, fear being seen. Period. Not on our watch. That is why we are increasing we are increasing the allocation for student and family centers to
045$5 million with a clear intent at first interim revisiting that amount and making decisions that could lead to an expansion of an additional $3 million into family and student centers. The need is there. Next, when we talk about federal the possibility of federal reductions, we're not talking hyperbole or without a context in which we've already seen some of these reductions. You see, the federal government has promised to do certain things. And for those who still doubt as to whether or not they will happen, look what has happened because the best predic of future behavior is past performance. And we already saw critical reductions to Medicaid investments into school districts. We've already seen reductions into afterchool snack programs in our school districts and farmtotable healthy fruits and vegetables initially financed by the federal government. We are
046adamant about protecting some of those investments and protecting the workforce. Therefore, we are investing $46 million into staff and programs that have already been reduced by the federal government. This is in advance of what I referenced earlier is the imminent threat to title one, the other entitlement programs as well as IDA. We're also adamant about creating normaly and protective measures through the budget to put our workforce mind at ease considering the threats they face. During the pandemic, this district staffed up. And some will argue, and I agree, that even though that staffing up was done with one-time money, it was probably the closest we've ever been to adequacy and funding for a district like ours. Unfortunately, that one-time money, those $5 billion of federal investment through ESSER and COVID recovery have vanished as of September
047of 2024. What did not vanish are members of our workforce who depended on that funding. The workforce protection program at $60 million for FY26 will guarantee safe employment for every member of our workforce who's currently in an unfunded position. In addition to that, greening of schools is important. We cannot green schools without partners. That is why we are operationalizing actualizing a $3 million investment driven by a previously approved board resolution. I want to make a small comment about this. This is a $3 million investment first declared as a million dollar per year. We are looking at means by which we can actually advance forward funding uh at least part of that funding if not its totality to be consumed in one year to maximize the impact of these dollars particularly considering available grants statewide and
048the viability and the vitality of our greening partners in our community. that declares basically the new investments that we are advancing with a board. These are declared in the brief description of the budget and I believe some of these elements have been passed out to the board. We deliver on the promise. A promise made in my book is a promise kept. These reflect school district priorities, district prior priorities, student priorities, workforce priorities, and family priorities. But they define above all ethical and moral priorities that our school district should embrace. Doing the right thing despite the opposition, despite the challenge, despite the possible consequences. We are not inviting a fight through this budget. But if there is a need for a fight in protecting our workforce and our kids, you better believe we are ready for
049it. We are on the right side of history as we make these budgetary investments. I'd like to uh close by speaking about two last topics. one, not opt for the board's vote, but as I told the board last week, as you courageously, not an easy thing to do, voted to approve the fiscal stabilization plan. We find ourselves in opposition not because of any wrongdoing by anyone, current or past. This is not an indictment of practice. is first and foremost a recognition that this district has never and it continues to not receive the necessary investments to deliver on the worldclass education our kids deserve. This district has never and continues to not receive the appropriate investments annually with the appropriate increases reflected in terms of cost of living adjustment for us to recruit, incentivize, and maintain
050the workforce we need. Those are the culprits. Those are the culprits. Anytime we decide to aim the cannons at someone or entity that is really not responsible for the creation of the problem, we're doing something wrong and undermining our own strategy in doing right. So I said to the board last week as you were poised to approve the fiscal stabilization plan that we were going to continue to review the data. What does that mean? We are approaching the last week of this fiscal year, meaning we're closing the books. We are observing trends. We are looking at the deployment, the hiring trends in the district, but also retirement, separations from positions. It is no mystery that across this district annually, we hire anywhere between 1500 to 2,000 classroom teachers. And by classroom teachers, counselors, PSAs, PSWs,
051etc. Certificated personnel. Remember when I talked about the fact that we have 1,400 people currently in positions that are unfunded as a result of the sessation, the elimination, the sunsetting of the esser COVID recovery dollars. We're adamant about protecting those individuals. That's why for FY26, they are protected. No one is losing their job. But we do have a problem for FY27. But as a result of our deep dive and understanding of the data and understanding of attr attrition rates, we will be revisiting this issue at first interim in December. We believe that we'll be poised to reduce the reduction. And I know that sounds odd, but there is an element in the fiscal stabilization plan that would reduce that $60 million workforce protection program to zero. We believe we can prudently and reasonably reduce that
052to 30 million on the basis of expected movements and shifts of individuals who currently occupy unfunded positions into funded positions, particularly at school sites. We do this after observing what is obvious. If we are an equitydriven district, we need to recognize that the lion share of those positions unfunded positions are occupied by some of the lowest wage earners in our workforce. In fact, 1,200 out of the 1400. It is incumbent upon us to do our very best. We will use the next four, five, six months to realize this commitment at first interim. But I want to thank the board for your vote last week. The right thing at the right time, although difficult, just as I want to thank those who chimed in and allowed us a deeper dive into some of these issues. The
053last point is probably the most complex and it deals with postemployment benefits that our remarkable workforce and their dependence depend on. I remember when I first arrived in Los Angeles Unified, you the board told me about the nature of the unfunded liability inherent a net liability inherent to OPED. At that time it was at $9 billion. A few years earlier it was at 11 billion. The trust that basically receives these contributions and manages appropriately towards the protection of benefits postemployment after retirement for people like Mr. is one that requires careful monitoring but it is a set of budget transactions and as I told you at the top of today's meeting a budget is like an accordion it expands and contracts on a basis of availability resources consumption of those resources emerging increasing or decreasing liabilities
054over time but also the exigent need of today's priorities that need also to be satisfied. So a number of things that we have detected. OPED is still a big problem for the district. I do not want to understate or diminish that reality. We ought to be honest as we speak about this. Should we be concerned about what may happen years after any one of us has left this district? Absolutely. kicking the can down the road or simply throwing money at it is not the strategy. So the work we do and my recommendation is not a reflection only of what is expedient for me but what is right today and what will be right in years to come for our district. But I find it prudent on a basis of a number of recognitions beginning with
055what we see is an evolving trend of OPB stabilization. The trust is operating well. Secondly, I am deeply concerned, as I've stated earlier, that despite the investments that I detailed in terms of highlights for FY26, the biggest threat to us is the unknown associated with state and particularly federal economic conditions. A simple shift in Title One and IDA combined could deprive our district of two to 300 million dollars for next fiscal year. Will it happen? I don't know. But I've heard it discussed in Congress and I've heard it discussed from the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. So we ought to pay attention to that emerging unstable fiscal conditions coupled with the fact that our workforce needs to remain our workforce and we need stability associated with our workforce. And we need to recognize the
056cost of living in our community, the level of inflation in our community, the level of housing costs in our community. And we should prevent our hardworking members certificated and classified alike. We should avoid their migration elsewhere because of economic conditions within our community. So considering the uncertainty of federal funding, the anemic performance of the state's economy coupled with the need to stabilize our workforce now and in years to come, I find it appropriate coupled with the fact that OPE the trust is performing well. I am recommending and the budget documents have already been amended to exact a retraction of funding from OPEB particularly what would have been a contribution from general fund into the arc of the trust. This will generate in excess of $600 million over the next three years to address, as I
057said, the needs of our workforce and whatever other areas of uncertainty may lie ahead based on my description of federal action and its impact on federal program funding. Our commitment is that as we go into first interim, we will report to the board where we are. We will actually finalize the transaction because today's approval does not automatically result in the transfer of the funds that is accomplished at first interim. But we will be able to begin in earnest the process of fund allocation considering the liabilities, the needs of our workforce and whatever other emerging liabilities from the federal government may come our way. I believe this is the right move at the right time again for the right reason. And what I promised the board is that, and I know you've heard this before, each
058year over the past 5 years has been a year without precedent. And this one is no different. This one is no different. There's a tempest ahead, uncertainty, instability, a threat to public education as we know it. But this budget reflects your values, your beliefs, your principles. And I believe strongly it also reflects budget practices that strike a balance between the immediate need and the longer term reality our district faces. One last thing about OPED that I think is important to mention is that one may be tempted, despite the fact that I just committed to the board via the approval of this budget as reflected in your paperwork to back out actually a $645 million over three-year contribution to OPE and still maintain the trust funded to the level it is actually with some increased contrib
059contributions over time. But our concern is we should not do anything that would compromise further our budget position. What I mean is, should we be more aggressive than what we're recommending, we could invite a reaction from the financial markets that then could imperil our ability to sell judgment obligation bonds and then being forced to pay as cash settlements, legal settlements, many of which go back decades. That would be a travesty of transaction if we were to capture uh OPED money and then have to use that same money to then satisfy these litigation costs. We believe that maintaining a very low contribution to the arc at 20 million per year over the next three years as opposed to 30 or higher. 20 million per year over the next three years will put us in a position
060we where we can address reasonably our workforce needs the stabilization of our workforce as well as prepare and be prepared for the uncertainty that awaits us. So board members to recap as any teacher would do one amendment to the fiscal stabilization plan that has already been approved which shall be realized in first interim and that is the reduction of the 60 million to the 30 million of the work workforce protection fund. Speaking specifically about the budget before you, an increase to the student and family centers to $5 million, an increase to LGBTQ uh programs, particularly at the secondary level of $2 million, and of course, we've seen this before, the 25 million supplemental uh equity funding for BAP. And then lastly, specific to OPED, a $645 million recapture of uh the initial investment considering the
061trust's performance and the uncertainty that we are about to enter and our deep strategic need to stabilize our workforce. I appreciate your attention. I know this is heavy matter and I'm not speaking physics. It is dense, a dense conversation, but it was important for me to declare not only our recommendation after listening to the board carefully, listening to the public speakers at the budget hearing. That's why the budget hearing happens before budget approval. It still gives you time for you to mature, for you to marinate over some of some of these decisions and attempt to do the rightest of all right things. And I believe that's what this budget final recommendation represents. Thank you very much, Mr. President, members of the board. [Applause] Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Superintendent. We'll go to consent calendar. We
062can set the consent. Consent calendar. Okay. Okay. We have 12 items on the agenda today. Some will be uh set for consent, which means the board will take all the items at once. It's a procedural efficiency rather than having to take uh each item individually. Uh items marked for consent will go on the consent calendar and items marked for discussion will be discussed specifically. Um okay. Can I have someone uh move and second the consent calendar? Moved by um for president seconded uh by Miss Gomez. Okay. So, um, I'll also note that tabs one, two, three, and four, or I mean one, two, and three are somewhat related. Um, tabs two, and three must be voted upon before tab one. I apologize for that confusion. Next year, we'll list these in the proper order in
063which they're meant to be taken action on. So, um, tabs two and three must be voted on prior to taking action on tab one, just so we're clear. All right. So, I I'll read the tabs and then we'll hear discussion or consent. Tab one, adoption of the proposed 2025 2026 budget. Discussion. Discussion. Uh, tab two, adoption of the 2025 LUSD local control and accountability plan. Discussion. Discussion. Tab three, adoption of the LUSD affiliated charters 2025 and accountability plans and presentation. Consent. Consent. Tab four, approval of routine personnel actions. Consent. Consent. Uh, let's see. Tab five, I do not believe is for action. One moment, please. Is for receipt. So, this item is not for consent. It's just acknowledges that the board has received this information. Uh, tab six, report of correspondence. Consent. Consent. Uh, tab
064seven, uh, minutes for board approval. Consent. Uh, tab eight, reappointment of member to the school construction bond citizens oversight committee. Tab nine, uh, reappointment of member to the, um, school construction bond citizen oversight committee. Consent. And tab 10, another reappointment to the bond oversight committee. Consent. Consent. Uh, tab 11, another reappointment of member to the bond oversight committee. Consent. Also consent. Uh, tab 12, 202526, uh, board and committee meeting schedules. Consent consent. Okay. So, I'll read through the items that are on consent and then uh make sure that my work is correct. So, tab one is discussion. Tab two is discussion. Tab three and four are consent. Tab five is not for action. Tabs six and seven are consent. Tabs 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 are all consent. Does that sound right? Okay. So,
065the consent items do have public comment associated with them. Uh we'll go ahead and take that public comment now. So on uh let's see item three, tab three, we have four folks who are listed as calling in. The first caller is Mr. David Tokovski. I do not see you on the line. Are you in the room, Mr. Tokovski? Okay. Uh Gina Nanho, are you in the room for tab three? Gina Benjamin, I see you're on the line. Benjamin, for tab three, please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Benjamin, hello. Hi. Hi. Uh, my name is Benjamin. Uh, I'm kind of addressing the principal Garmin issue that was spoken about earlier. And as a parent of Broadway Elementary for six years, I support the leadership change
066at the school. Broadway has been deeply divided and segregated for many years. Both the Mandarin and Spanish immersion programs have legitimate issues such as managing funding, finding and keeping qualified teachers, and not integrating students across programs. In my view, Miss Garmin has not been effective in addressing these issues. My daughter, who just graduated fifth grade in the Spanish program, had a terrible experience at Broadway this year. For nearly two months at the beginning of the year, the school had no teacher for fourth and fifth grade Spanish. When the teacher was finally in place, she was not qualified to teach the fourth. He was not qualified to teach at the fourth and fifth grade level which resulted in learning loss, failing test score, falling test scores as well as various social emotional issues with the students
067despite repeated complaints from parents and many promises to to support the teacher. Miss Garmin was unable to effectively address the situation. My son completed kindergarten this year and will continue in the Spanish immersion program. I hope the new principal will be committed to making two fundamental changes. One, integrate the SI and MI programs at Broadway through ideas like mixed English classes, mixed lunch tables, mixed activities, or a buddy system. Two, eliminate or restructure the Friends of Broadway Elementary School booster club. This organization has been a source of widespread anger and blatant disrespect. As a public school, all donations should support Broadway as a whole. Rather than continuing a cycle of blame between LUSD and the school, our new principal must act quickly and decisively to strengthen both programs and unify our community. Thank you very
068much for your time. Uh, normally the public comment is directed specifically to the to the item on the agenda. So if tab three is adoption of the LU USD affiliated charters 2025 and accountability plans that the public comment should be specifically directed to that although I know we have a lot of advocacy in the room for that. I just want to remind everyone that that is one of our one of our board rules and I believe that we're going to hear some more advocacy in the next tab under um personnel which um is appropriate. Okay. So we have another speaker to tab three. Let me find the person. Alejandro Canterero. Alejandro, please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Alejandro. Hello. This is uh Alejandro Canterro.
069Um last year, Principal Garmin allowed my daughter and multiple other girls to be sexually harassed on campus during school hours for weeks. I have been a Mandarin immersion parent at Broadway for seven years with a child still at Broadway Elementary and one at Mark Twain. The issue was discussed in person with her by one of the parents. It was reported to both teachers who confirmed they spoke to Miss Garmin directly and multiple emails were sent to her that were not filtered out by district filters. The harassment went unressed and continued for weeks. It was not acknowledged until a parent confronted Miss Garmin at school with a legal letter threatening legal action and demanding a response. Even then, most parents did not get an official letter from the school in response, but only emails. Last year,
070a child with a physical disability was bullied during the morning assembly. They were pushed to the ground, their mobility device was taken away, and they were made fun of in front of many students. The mother was never able to get a conversation or meeting with Miss Garmin after multiple attempts. This year, a child was repeatedly harassed at school. The mom tried to talk to Miss Garman multiple times and was un able to get any resolution. She ultimately withdrew her child from the district. I have spoken to many other families with similar stories of bullying and harassment. They were reported in Miss Garmin and she never spoke directly to the parents. Parents are afraid to come forward. Either they are exhausted from the effort required to get a response from the indifferent administration or they fear
071retribution from families and fellow students. I spoke to many families who sent their kids to school at the end of the year and read not in support of Miss Garmin but because they were worried their kids would be harassed. Miss Garmin has created a toxic and unsafe learning environment at Broadway Elementary. Myself and many parents look forward to the pending leadership transition, knowing that our children will once again be safe and have a friendly learning environment while on campus. Thank you for your time. That concludes public comment on tab three. We'll move to tab four, approval of routine personnel actions. And before we take public comment on tab four, I have senior management contracts that I need to read out. uh presented to the board for approval as part of the routine agenda item are
072the employment agreements for three certificated employees appointed on June 4th, 2025. Government code section 54953 requires the board prior to taking final action to provide an oral summary of a recommendation for final action on the salary salary schedule or compensation paid in the form of fringe benefits of a local agency executive including certificated employees during an open meeting in which the final action is to be taken. The following certificated employees the board is considering will receive regular health and welfare benefits accorded to 12 month certificated administrative employees of the district. Standard senior management district vacation and illness days which are 24 vacation days, 13 full pay illness days, and 87 half-pay illness days. um use of a district automobile or monthly car allowance of $250 for a term commencing on July 1 uh 2025 and
073ending June 30, 2027 and with an annual salary as follows. Uh Denise Collier, regional superintendent at $260,500. Uh Lordis Ramirez Ortiz, regional superintendent at $234,714. Pasadmal, chief of transitional programs, $278,25.54. Uh Francisco Serato, chief human resources officer, $278,25.84. Andre Spicer, regional superintendent, $260,500. Before the board of education takes action, we have speakers to this item, including other routine personnel actions. Um this is uh on consent. So motion has been taken. The employment contracts will be available upon request and finalization of the contract. Um okay. So we have 10 speakers to this item. I'll begin taking them now. I'm going to call on the folks who are in person first and then we'll transition to the folks who are remote. So the first speaker is Michelle Chen. Are you here? Michelle Chen. And then after Miss
074Chen is Matt Rothel and then uh Kazuko Golden. So the floor is yours. Miss Chen, you'll have two minutes to speak. Why don't you begin? I'm sorry. Let me activate your mic before we Okay, you're good to go. Good afternoon, members of the board, Superintendent Carvalo. My name is Michelle Chen. I am a parent of a rising third grader at Broadway Elementary School. Today you will hear from parent after parent after parent about the broader issues underlying the unjust removal of principal Roshelle Garmin and the continued failures of Region West to meet its responsibilities and its shameless attempt to shift blame. Let us all rightly understand Principal Garmin is not being removed because of poor leadership. On the contrary, as you can see, she has the support of teachers, families, and students, people who see
075her work every single day. And the truth is, Region West is attempting to scapegoat her to deflect from its own inaction, mismanagement, and lack of accountability. Region West has failed to provide consistent guidance. It has failed to support Broadway's multilingual programs with adequate staffing, resources, or vision. It has failed to engage with families in good faith, choosing instead to silence us, ignore our concerns, and unilaterally dismantle a thriving school community. Rather than take ownership of those failures, Region West is targeting a principal who has done nothing but hold the line for students in the face of instability, neglect, and top-down dysfunction. And if in the face of overwhelming parent, teacher, union, and community support for Principal Garmin, this board still allows Region West to scapegoat her. Then let me remind you that unlike the district
076administrators, this board serves at the pleasure of its constituents. This isn't about just one leader. It's about a culture of blameshifting at the regional level that punishes success, alienates communities, and erodess trust. Please do not reward failure by sacrificing competent leadership. You don't want to look at a room full half full in red in support of Mrs. Garmin. Imagine what's in store for you come the fall. Thank you for your time. Matt Rufflin, please come on up. have two minutes to speak. Why don't you begin? And then Miss Golden. And then after Miss Golden will be Fred T. Uh good afternoon, superintendent and board members. My name is Matt Raley and I am a parent at Broadway Elementary. Uh, the district continues to ignore a growing crisis, the complete lack of a teacher pipeline, and
077Region West's ongoing failure to build one or take meaningful steps towards a towards long-term solutions. Broadway is struggling to find qualified teachers, especially for its Mandarin program. Rather than support innovation, the district has actively undermined it. Through our booster club, the parent community initiated a scholarship program with students at Loyal Mry Mount University to address this long-term teacher recruitment and training uh issue for Broadway. But instead of exploring this potential and its benefits to the Broadway community at large, Region West shot the proposal down without even reviewing it. No meeting, no discussion, no curiosity. Worse, we were told that it was dismissed because it was strictly for the Mandarin program. That is false. The LMU partnership was designed to benefit the entire school's teacher pipeline, an easily verified fact that had Reason West conducted even
078basic due diligence instead of relying blindly on uninformed hearsay. Region's west conduct in complete is in complete violation of the district's core values of equity, collaboration, and excellence. What's more egregious is that it regions West has offered no substantive alternatives to fill the gap. Their answer, as I told you all in an email over the weekend, is that they're talking to HR. That's not an answer, guys. The anemic teacher pipeline for Broadway is an is a product of the district's inaction. Broadway parents are working hard to build a strong, stable school that serves its student. That work should not be should be supported, not sabotaged. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Kazuko Golden, come on up. And then after Miss Golden is Fred Talasiori, Tatasiori, I'm sorry. And then Alyssa Sandraki. Good morning, members
079of the board and superintendent Carvalo. My name is Kazak Golden. I'm a proud parent of an entering second grader at Broadway Elementary School and I appreciate this opportunity to speak with you today. As I reflect on this past year, I'm reminded that the heart of a successful school lies in strong leadership and united community. At Broadway, we've been fortunate to have both anchored by an exceptional principal, Miss Garmin. Miss Garmin has led with warmth, vision, and deep cultural understanding. Whether welcoming students by name and nurturing both the Spanish and Mandarin immersion programs, she has consistently shown what it means to lead with excellence, empathy, and integrity. Even in the face of limited resources and complex challenges, she is not just a good principal. She is an astounding one. I am at this point going to
080put the rest of my speech behind a trophy that I will now award to the board with your permission, which is a petition that the students have signed on her behalf. And the question that they have asked of you and of region west is why and it has not been addressed and we wanted that opportunity but they canled our our meeting with them. Now you have just heard from two testimonies on on the line today which gave some very um accusatory remarks if she was actually if she is actually going to be let go for harassment. Region West has not even provided that. They have not told us anything. You have asked us to move to the balcony. Why? We want to know answers. We want transparency. That is what you are supposed to represent.
081If you say that the budget is in line with our principles, our principal is not in line with letting go a beloved principal who is a leader for our ch for our school. So I will give to you this petition on behalf of children who she welcomed when their houses burned down during the fires. Her family is from Aladena. And I would like to for you to also answer the question why she is among one of four other black women principles who are being let go in our region. Thank you for your time. Fred T. Fred T, come on up. Thank you. You have two minutes to speak. Why don't you begin? Thank you so much. Good morning, Superintendent Kawario and members of the LUSD board. Thank you for your work. My name is Fred
082Tatashore and I'm a new parent at Broadway Elementary. I'm here today to express deep concern over the reassignment of principal Rashelle Garmin and what appears to be a troubling pattern of principal removals across region west. The presence of so many parents and teachers and union here today is a testament to our confidence in principal Garmin. If this were a performance issue, would this many of us be standing in support? We are understand that transparency can be limited due to privacy concerns, but we believe that with open dialogue and commitment to partnership, we can find a way forward together. Broadway is one of LUSD's highest performing schools ranked number 11 in the district. It's home to a rare dual language immersion program in both Spanish and Mandarin. A school this complex and culturally rich needs steady,
083culturally competent leadership. Principal Garmin exemplifies that. She served for years as Broadway's instructional coach before becoming principal during that time. Uh she built trust with families, supported academic excellence, retained talented staff, and unified our diverse programs. Her sudden removal without transparency or community input puts all of that at risk. Even more troubling, she's the fifth black uh woman principal lost to us from region west this summer along with leaders from Pia Vista, Baldwin Hills, Marquesher, and Prescott. These were not struggling schools. This pattern calls for urgent review. At Broadway, over a thousand parents and community members have signed a petition to keep Principal Garmin in her role. We've also seen repeated breakdowns in communication, uh, procedural inconsistencies, and decisions made without input from the community. This is no longer just a personnel issue. It's a
084crisis of leadership and trust. Um, so how do we move forward? All right, we want help. Let's come together, families, educators, and district leadership to rebuild trust, restore stability, and collaborate on a shared vision for success at Broadway and across Region West. Um, until then, we respectfully request that Principal Garmin be retained through the 2025-26 school year and that an independent investigation be launched into leadership removals across region West. Our children and our schools deserve better. How can we solve this together? Thank you. Thank you for your time. Alyssa C. Alyssa Srassi, come on up. You have two minutes to speak. Why don't you begin? Hi there. Thank you so much for listening to us today. I know we're a lot. Um, but we love Principal Garmin. Uh, my name is Alyssa Synindrowski. I'm the
085parent of a rising third grader and an incoming kindergartener at Broadway. I'd like to tell you a story. It's about a beloved principal who's sitting behind me who spent more than a decade serving our school community only to be removed abruptly without warning or explanation by region west leadership. Parents, teachers, even our children were left stunned and confused. Why was she removed? What did she do? Or as my own child asked me, "Mommy, why isn't Principal Garin coming back? She's the best." I understand the need for discretion and personnel decisions. That's critical. But there's a huge difference between respecting privacy and completely shutting out a community. What's worse is that we've been tr is how we've been treated for asking questions. We've been dismissed, we've been patronized, and we've been talked down to. Sadly, Broadway
086is not alone. As you've heard, we're seeing a troubling pattern across Region West when it comes to transparency. principles quietly removed at other schools and recent confusion last year about new admission rules at Mark Twain and Walter Reed. You know, we teach our children to look for patterns in reading, in math, in history. The pattern here is clear. LSD and region West leaders repeatedly disregard the voices of the very people who make our schools successful, teachers, parents, and students. But this story doesn't have to end this way. There's still time to make things right by reinstating Principal Garmin and rebuilding the trust that's broken. Our kids are watching. You know, they chanted in front of Broadway just a few weeks ago before school let out, "Save our principal." And they believe their voices matter. Let's
087please show our children that their voices do matter by changing the end of this Broadway story. Thank you. Thank you for your time, Michael Shen. And then Curtis Hammond, come on up. You'll have two minutes to speak. Why don't you begin? Hello. Uh, good afternoon, members of the board. My name is Michael Shen. I'm a parent at Broadway Elementary, and I'd like to talk to you about something very simple, money, and how we're wasting it. Removing a successful school principal is expensive. It doesn't just happen. There are costs, real ones. As you know, LUSD's own estimates and national benchmarks place the price tag for recruiting and onboarding a new principal somewhere between $30 and $50,000. Add another $10,000 to $15,000 a month for interim leadership while you search for a replacement. That's the cost of
088indecision. That's the cost of disruption, of doing this badly. But the check doesn't stop there. Disrupted leadership means disrupted classrooms. It leads to teacher turnover costing 20 to $30,000 per position and jeopardizes the programs that make our school special like dual language immersion. That means fewer students, lower enrollment, and yes, lower per pupil funding. When leadership collapses, it creates a financial sinkhole. All of this is money we don't have to spend. Not when our students need counselors. Not when our teachers need support. Not when parents are fundraising for basic supplies. So here's the question. What's the cost of keeping a principal who has the trust of her staff, the support of our community, and the results to prove it? Zero. Zero dollars, zero disruption, zero lost momentum. And yet instead we are being asked to
089absorb not just the confusion but the cost without a clear explanation without transparency and without a plan. If there has been wrongdoing then say it. If there hasn't stop wasting time and money on a mistake we all know is going to cost us far more than just dollars. This isn't about Broadway Elementary. This is about how we lead and how we spend and whether this board is prepared to be accountable for both of those things. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Curtis Hammond, are you here? Curtis. Curtis Hammond. Okay. The next folks are listed as speaking remotely, but they're not signed in, so I'm going to check to see if they are in the room. Giovani Garcia, are you here? Giovani Garcia. Uh, Amanda Torres, are you here? Amanda T. Okay. And on the
090Zoom, uh, we have, uh, Nicole Fefferman. Please press star six to unmute yourself. And you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Nicole Fefferman. Good morning. My name is Nicole Ferman and I'm an educator, parent, and co-founder of Parent Supporting Teachers. As a teacher and parent, I understand that all things flow from the budget. As a teacher and parent, it feels like the budget doesn't always make it to the classrooms or school sites. For years, I've spent my money on my own classroom and for students while also supporting my own children's teachers. And for years, we have fought for fair wages for all school staff. Four, on this agenda today raised my interest in light of the more intense budget conversations being held this year. As an admin of parents supporting teachers, I've been
091receiving an increasing number of messages from frustrated and angry district folks who work inside Bodri. These employees have shared that over the last three years there have been more higher level staff positions created in various divisions that are simply redundant administrators, directors, etc. It simply bloated the bureaucracy without any added value for students and schools. Secondly, last week the superintendent said that as a matter of moral principle, there would be a moratorum on raises and benefits for senior staff. However, in today's materials for this agenda, there is a list of senior staff who will be getting a car or an auto allowance while making hundreds of thousands of dollars. Also in today's list, Kurt E. John is being offered almost $270,000 to replace Nberto Delgado as a deputy chief financial officer. Norberto made $215,000 in
092that same position. How can district leadership declare a moratorum last week based on moral principles and then bring this to the board for approval this week? want the school board to have a list of all their location, their titles, their pay, and the funding source of their pay. We want the school board to have a list of all contracts, outside consultants and programs, the cost, the funding sources, and managers. Only with this information can the board make righteous decisions for our children and our schools and our classrooms. Thank you and please return Principal Gorman to her school. Thank you for your time. That concludes public comment on tab four. We'll now go to tab six, which is the report of correspondence. We have one speaker to that item, Miss Emily K. Miss Emily K, please
093press star six to unmute yourself, and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Hi. Hello. Hi. Um, so I am going to be speaking for Gina Navaro. Unfortunately, for some reason, she wasn't able to um jump on when you called her name. So, her um so her statement is, "My name is Gina Navaro and I'm a parent at the Spanish immersion program at Broadway Elementary. I want to speak today about the harm caused under the previous principal's leadership, both Principal Wong and then followed by Principal Garmin. harm that continues to impact our children, our classrooms, and our community. In conversation with Principal Garmin, I brought up the fact that the Mandarin immersion program had nine classroom aids, while the Spanish immersion program had just 1.5. Her response that if Spanish immersion program wanted
094more classroom support, Spanish immersion parents would have to simply just raise more money. This is not only deeply unethical, it's a violation of L USD policy and public ed public uh education law. No student should receive more or less academic support based on their parents' fundraising capacity. The findings from the UCP report confirm these systematic inequities and validated what many of us many of us have been experiencing for years. Under both former principal Wong and principal Garmin leadership, we saw a school where privilege, not policy, seemed to dictate deci decisions. A school where the booster club parents were allowed to influence staffing, resources, and school culture, often at the expense of equity and unity. The principal did not push back. The district did not intervene for years. and Spanish immersion families were and have been
095left to fend for themselves in a system designed to be excluding of us. So I ask you now, who has been running our school because it hasn't been the district. It hasn't been the principal. Control was handed over to those with the loudest voice and the most money. Even as the principal's re rein assignment was announced, parents I'm sorry, reinstatement was announced, parents turned our school into a circus and she's done nothing to stop it. to the district. Now that you are selecting a new principal, please do better. Appoint a principal who brings vision, backbone, and fial responsibility. Someone who understands how to navigate budget within the district to Thank you very much for your time. Okay, that concludes public comment for tab six. Uh let's see. Tab eight has two folks who wish to
096speak to it. This is reappoint of the member to school construction bond oversight committee. Uh, we have one person in person. That's Diona Guen. I think I saw Miss Guen out there. Miss Guen. Okay, Miss Guen is going to speak in Spanish. And if you'd like to hear what she's saying in English, please put your hands up and we will get you these translation headsets so you can experience simultaneous translation. So again, she's going to speak in Spanish and what you'll hear coming out of the speakers here is Spanish and then what you'll hear coming out of the tiny speakers in your ears will be English. members of the board. My name is Yen and I applied to be a parent, right, to be part of this committee since about a year ago almost. And
097I've been here on my notes that in September of 2024, I sent my application, I sent my resume, and you all still have it vacant and have not considered the res the resume. I am a parent that has been here in the district supporting the students on behalf of their parents for about 10 years now at the district level and I've been president four times for the English learners and I've also been president I've been president of the committee pack and it has not been considered regardless you all there was also another position for a member of the community for the people for the for for the elderly people and now they changed it that it needs to be an administrator, a retired administrator. I think that looks very bad because these are people that
098have worked with you all. So, I think you all it's sort of a conflict of interest since a lot of those that have retired return to work with you all again. So, the committee needs to be independent. That money belongs to all the workers from all the people that live here in California and the ones of which their money that subcommittee is to guard that money from the workers from all the people that contributes in this state. So you all are not wanting to listen to the voice of the parents because I sent this resume a long time ago and nobody's considered my petition that to be in this committee and you all are the ones that are supposedly have to make that decision. And so you're putting us to the side, the parents voice
099to the side. And and so now that this vacant position, it's been there for about a year and you have not wanting to fill that position. So I'm asking you to reconsider since I'm a person that is very capable and I don't have any conflict of interest. I'm not going to be in favor of the teachers or the administrators or any other parts besides the community because that money is for the people for them to be for it to be utilized for them for whatever is necessary for our schools. Thank you. Uh, we have Monica Razola signed up to speak remotely, but I do not have her online. Uh, are you in the room, Miss Arzola? She's not here. So, that concludes public comment on item number eight. And that also concludes public comment on
100the remainder of the consent items, which are 9, 10, 11, and 12. No comment associated with those. So, it's now appropriate to take a vote. Um, member Mr. Smurlson moved and Miss Gone has seconded. So, here comes the vote on the consent calendar. Uh, Miss Newell, yes. Dr. Rivas, yes. Uh, Mr. Melvin, yes. Miss Grigo, Miss Gomez, yes. Miss Ortiz Franklin, Mr. Yes. Okay, that is a majority will come collect the votes for Miss Grigo and Miss Ortiz Franklin. And now that brings us to tabs um one, two, and uh let's see one and two. But remember, we're going we got to take tab two before we take tab one. So I believe we have 10 speakers to tab two um which we can take now. Um Keith Morrow are you here? Keith Morrowan Muhammad
101Laquan Juan Mandhi I feel like I saw you here. Come on up Mr. Mandi. You'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Mr. Mandi is going to speak in Spanish. So, if you still got those headsets, please slap them on. If you would like, you don't have a set and you would like to hear what he's saying translated into English as he's speaking in Spanish, please put your hands up and we'll get you a headset. [Music] Uh, good morning. Before they told me a story that was called Alibaba and the 40 thieves. So they said this story, right? It had something to do with reality. That's what I've always asked myself, right? And how is it that we have been able to accumulate so many resources and then we don't know how to share
102what we believe is an honest share because we're not thinking about the people. It's a sad thing because this school that has green and blue colors because it's they're working to raise the standards, the academic standards. They're removing a person that wants to do good. That's what you all do. You are the prime example of mediocrity. You all like that. You are trying to have a bunch of parasites here for more than three $3,000 for what? To do what? To have an army that will give you coffee to whoever gives coffee and to make coffee. And right here, we need better teachers that are that give quality education that can elevate the the the life the level of life here at school. That's what these schools needs. What are you all doing in exchange for
103that? A bunch of positions, right? It's a shame that that how is it that we're talking about that for the funds of talking about the title, title this, title three, title two. Oh my god. Honestly, how can I feel that your tongues your tongues can even get cancelled from such hypocrisy? Since our communities are the most that are left behind and we want to see that that people want to do something, what do we do? No, it's that we can't permit for the people to get educated. We want ignorant people. We want fearful people. People that are afraid to be able to do and have all that money that we all pay all the constituents so that way we can retain what we have, what we call the the the LUSD. It's time for this
104person just for being an African-American. You're not giving her that post and she has the quality, the qualifications, and the parents were going to support that person to be able to get to where she needs to be. And hopefully I wish there would be more principles like that that are so interested not people are interested in a check because they're not interested to do anything for the community. Thank you for your time. Uh Lupita Martinez, are you here? Lupita. Okay. Are you okay? Come on down. You'll have two minutes to speak. Why don't you begin? Good afternoon, superintendent and board members. My name is Marielleen Cody. I'm speaking on behalf of Lupita Martinez and I'm the proud daughter of immigrants. I'm also here on behalf of Chiraa, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights. First, I'd
105like to thank the board and the superintendent for your continued commitment to protecting our vulnerable students and families. And thank you to Dr. Divas for your leadership on last week's resolution. Today, I urge the board to take the next step by expanding funding for student resource centers to support our immigrant students, our black and bipok students, our queer students, disabled students, and other historically excluded students. Chila already staffs four dream resource centers with curriculum and workshops that include information on immigrant students rights and strategies for navigating higher education. These centers are tools of empowerment and expanding funding will help students navigate educational barriers and feel empowered to become agents of change in their schools and communities. Immigrant students are navigating fear, uncertainty, and systemic exclusion. As federal policies grow more hostile, militarizing our communities and
106targeting families, schools must be places of safety and belonging. Immigrants are the past, present, and future leaders of our community, and we have to continue showing up for each generation. Thank you for your continued support. Thank you for your time. I will now transition transition to folks who are remote. So, Erinda Marita, I see you're on the line. Erinda Marita, please press star six to unmute yourself. And you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Miss Marita is going to speak in Spanish. So, if you'd like to use those headphones now, now would be a good time. This is everybody here. We want funds for the school police so that they look after and that they are available in case that there are any emergencies in shootings, drugs, weapons and knives, fights and bullying.
107And also there has been an increase in uh criminal threats. they have found evidence of shootings and also uh have uh gotten uh weapons. That's why we want our officers back in our schools. The supervising people or the safe passages are not prepared or trained and they have not had an aggressive training. We we don't want LA USD and the board to return our students dead uh fearful with traumas that affects them throughout their life because they don't want to provide safety. If we're not taking into account our signatures, we're not taking account our voices because why don't you respect our rights and in a threat we call the police? We need more police in the academics. You need to focus on instruction that benefits all students that are underperforming and to help them to
108have an excellent education. We want teachers with passion to be uh to teach. At this moment, I was able to see that Mr. Jose Werta, you are giving him an award because he is retiring. Mr. Werta, I mentioned to him that I did not have an engineering teacher for my class in for my son's ninth grade. I gave him my phone number and he never answered that call. What type of hero do we have? What recognition do we give those heroes that did not listen to parent voices that did not help us? Here we see that there are people that are advocating for a principle that works well. Why do we remove why don't we remove those principles that do not work well? There we go. There we our awards. So we want you to
109help us to support us. We want you do for you to do everything for our children with love. Thank you. Uh let's see. The next speaker is Eduardo Castro. Eduardo, you're signed up to speak remotely, but I'm calling just to see if you're in the room. You are not here. Channing Martinez. Mr. Martinez, are you in the room? You're listed to speak remotely, but I want to see if you're in the room. I do not see you. Uh, Marcela Garcia, you're listed as speaking remotely, but are you in the room? I do not have you online in front of me. Uh, Raquel El Diaz, I see you are online. Please press star six to unmute yourself, and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Raquel, good morning. Well, good morning. Good morning, members
110of the board. My name is Raquel Diaz and I am a mother of two students in LA USD. Please, we are talking about LCAP which is the accountability right and the only thing that we ask and we wish as parent is that you please be a little bit transparent and so that we are able to support each other. So in that way that we are able to have better communication between you clear communication about the benefits for our children to be able I think that to be able to have a better control a better performance and to be able to work in the benefit always of our students our children um grandkids and everybody else. So, I uh request that you are a little bit clearer and that you're able to better explain and to
111together work with you. Thank you. And Karina Lopez, you're signed up to speak remotely, but I do not have you signed in. Are you in the room, Miss Lopez? Okay, that concludes public comment for tab 2, which I believe there is some discussion on. This is the adoption of the 2025 LEUSD local control and accountability plan. Are there board members with question on uh tab two? Yes. Um so on slide six for tab two it says uh this is from the executive summary PowerPoint and our 4-year cohort graduation rates have increased across the board from the previous year. So, can someone help me to identify the specific strategies that have been implemented to contribute to this increase in graduation rates? I think we'd all like to know what is the secret sauce or many secret
112sauces. Good afternoon, Board of Education. Thank you for that question. So the increase is due to a strategic plan uh with uh that consists of a multi-tered system of support starting with providing our students with first good instruction. It's our teachers and then after that supplemental support uh and then of course one-to-one support as well. And so our students have an opportunity to take uh various courses that meet the A3G requirements. So there's there is um a large there's a list of uh options that students have to complete the A throughG requirements that's in language arts in math in history and arts and social science and service. Uh we have a dedicated staff at schools the counselors who meet with the students and um they uh create an individualized uh graduation plan uh to ensure
113that students know what the graduation goals are. Uh we inform parents as well. the counselors um meet with the students regularly and we also provide many opportunities for students to make up classes when they're not passing classes. It's called academic course extension as part of the ed code and we provide that through winter academy, through summer school, through spring break. Um we also offer our students many opportunities uh to take classes uh during the year as well. So retake classes um as at the region level the uh region teams meet with schools regularly and have data conversations on the progress of students. Um they look at uh dashboards and look to see which students are uh missing one to two classes, three classes, four classes and develop strategic plans right away to implement to ensure
114that students get what they need to close those gaps. Um, we've also provided teachers professional development and equitable grading and instruction. So, teachers are familiar on how to grade students based on targeted standards. Um, and then students also gain a lot of ownership on what they're required to learn to track and progress their own learning and um be owners of their their progress and eventually to get to to graduation. It's a multi-prong approach. Uh at this point it's it's working with all the gears that are are that we have in the system are working together from the central level, the region level, the school level, parents and community. It's a complete wraparound support process. Well, it's obviously working. We appreciate that very much and the parents and the students appreciate it too. Thank you, Francis.
115Thank you. Anyone else with comments, questions? Tap two. Has this been moved? You have a question. Go ahead. Uh, I had one question. uh in seeking input for decision-making and collaboration from page uh three section three of the accountability dashboard. It states that the SSC team committee parent leaders have opportunities to attend training series. Wanted to know uh what does the training series look like? Eric Hansen, good morning. Good morning. Um, so with uh with our engagement for the LCAP, we have LCAP ambassador trainings in each region. And so that's where we go out, we present on each of the goals of the LCAP. And the regions also present how they are working towards those goals. And so that's attended by parents and uh school site council elac and any parents. And then how often
116will it occur? Would they have these for the region ambassador uh meetings that we have? We do three per each region. So it's it's throughout the uh the school year, but three per each region. Thank you. Anyone else for tab two? Okay. All right. Can I have a motion? Someone move it. Move it. Moved by President Schmuren. I'll second. Seconded by Miss Gonz. Uh, Miss Newell. Yes. Dr. Rivas, Mr. Melvinne, yes. Miss Grigo, yes. Miss Gomez, yes. Miss Ortiz Franklin President Schmuren, yes. Okay, that's five. I will come back and collect the other two. Brings us to tab one. We have 10 folks uh ready to speak to tab one. We'll take that public comment and then go into the discussion. Uh let's see. Maria Louisa Palma, are you here? Come on up. You'll have
117two minutes to speak once you begin. And Stephen Sue and then Belinda Ma and Mercedes Younger. You know what to do. We're gonna We're going to pretend that didn't happen. Please go ahead. Okay. This here is the system that you and your predecessors have built. It was built by and for those who benefit financially by the allocation of funds of this district, the budget, which you are voting on today. But whose interest does that serve? So when people out in the world like myself and others have a child, their entire life, my entire life becomes consumed with educating that child, with figuring out how that child will survive, grow, how I can impart values so that child will thrive independently out in the world. But this system built by this bureaucracy, your system fails these
118families, fails our families in our community. The focus that you continue to have, the only clear hard data that we ever see is the dollars that are budgeted, of which the largest expenditures of course are salaries and benefits. So the focus here is on the dollars on their way out. But where in the bargaining agreements are student academic outcomes? Anywhere? Nope. Nowhere. It's not mentioned. There is no evaluation of effectiveness anywhere in the bargaining agreements. That little anemic discussion you just had on the LCAP, that's where the effectiveness and the accountability is supposed to come from. That's in the name local control and accountability plan. What is it with this one week to review the budget and the LCAP? That's nonsense. We need at least a month to pour through there if we're supposed to
119give any input. Now you continue to have decreasing enrollment and you have of course due to dismal academic outcomes and for poor fiscal management. So your system that you created is rotting from within. My name is Marisa Palma from Oolada. I am here to remind you once again you are here. You have the power to vote at the highest level but you are the agents promoting this disease that is rotting our district from within. and only you can stop it. Only you have the power to change it. Please remember that. Thank you. Thank you for your time, Stephen. Sue. Good afternoon, board and superintendent. My name is Steven Sue. I'm a parent of a child at Broadway Elementary School. I'm here today with a major concern. I'm honestly surprised by Region West's recent inaccurate and
120unclear communications. And think about this. Before you approve today's budget, realize that many of the issues that we discussed today could have been avoided with consistent funding for Broadway's dual language programs. Regarding the FOB's budget, which is Broadway's elementary booster club, Reason West claim that our budget didn't approve it is untrue. Our FOBES board actually unanimously voted yes on the forecasted budget, but it was us parents who voted against it. Why? It's because we don't know who our principal will be after June 26. How can we approve a budget without even knowing who leadership is going to be, especially with our trust in Region West so low? Even Mr. Melvoyne called Region West's communication unacceptable. This budget mess and our school's challenges stem from the district's inconsistent financial support. We lack basic support such as
121teaching aids. Our curriculum is 15 years old and parents even funded all of our own library books. Our community's trust is shattered. Region West isn't opening or isn't open or listening. The sudden unannounced removal of our beloved principal Garmin solidified this. We're tired of excuses and delayed taxes. It's frustrating. Many families come from other districts. Are you willing to lose them in their tax money? Must we sue or chart our own school to cut through this red tape? This is infuriating and insulting to taxpayers who demand accountability and real actions, not more excuses. Thank you again for listening. Thank you for your time. Belinda Ma, come on up. You have two minutes to speak once you begin. Good afternoon, school board members. My name is Belinda Ma and I'm another another active parent of a
122rising third grader at Broadway Elementary. I was one of the parent representatives on the principal selection committee for Broadway two years ago. The committee was led by Agnes Camau who personally se selected Michelle Garin to lead Broadway Elementary. She believed in Principal Garmin so deeply that she chose her other over other more experienced candidates. A decision that reflected Miss Camo's confidence in Michelle's ability to lead, inspire, and strengthen a diverse and complicated school community. Every single other person on that selection committee to this day still believes this ability to be absolutely true. However, Agnes Camau has suddenly and inexplicably done a complete 180 turning against the very leader she was championing up until a few short weeks ago. This reversal is either a result of a nefarious intent or a tacit admission of a serious
123lapse of her judgment. If it's the former, then the district has a duty to act swiftly and transparently to reverse this mistake because corruption and personal agendas have no place in our children's education. If it's the latter, then the district must still intervene on behalf of Broadway because someone who makes such consequential misjudgments cannot be trusted to lead one school, let alone an entire community of schools in region west. Either way, the situation demands accountability accountability and respect shown to teachers and staff, students and stakeholders alike. The overwhelming support from teachers and parents, which you see here today, makes it abundantly clear that Principal Garmin's removal is rooted in a calculated and unjust decision, not merely a lapse in judgment. Michelle was and still is head and shoulders above any other candidate that you could
124find to lead our school. She leads with strength and a compassion for her students and staff. And today, you can clearly see how just how deeply ingrained that mutual respect is. Please don't compound Region West's myriad mistakes and allow them to fool this board to make another costly, short-sighted, and poorly thoughtout move. Doing so will only accelerate staff departures, drive down student enrollment, expose the district to multiple legal challenges, and push more families to consider the charter route or leave the district entirely. Shuffling principles around to high District West failures will continue to cost taxpayers and the community dearly. So, please do not allow this egregious decision to stand. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Mercedes Younger, please come on up. You have two minutes to speak when you begin. Then John Paul R
125and Sienna. I'll remind folks this um is related to the budget. So please go ahead. Thank you. Yes, I will relate this to the budget. Uh hello members of the LUSD board. My name is Mercedes Younger. Obviously, I'm a parent at Broadway Elementary. I urge you to reconsider the decision to remove principal garden, not just for fairness, but because it's fiscally irresponsible. Shuffling principles without transparency waste taxpayers money. It creates instability. Principal Garmin is an experienced leader with deep knowledge of Broadway's dual language programs. Replacing her means unnecessary recruitment and onboarding costs and it risks unre unreing the process of our the unre it risk the progress that our school has made. So why is no one being held fiscally accountable. The decision also reveals serious flaws in district west leadership oversight. A inaccurate UPC
126complaint was filed just six weeks into her tenure. Yet most immersion families and board members were never consulted. Over twothirds of our school and community had no voice in this. Why? We had partnerships in place with LMU and Pepperdine funded by parent raised dollars to support a scholarship pipeline for student teachers. An initiative that was strategically researchbased and forwardinking. Region West abruptly canceled it last minute, throwing away a fiscally responsible solution to a teacher pipeline problem that directly benefits our kids. Broadway is a unique school. It requires leader who understand its complexity. Yet, decisions made by Miss Camo and MMD leadership, including Miss Aosta, who recently lost a $2 million lawsuit for discrimination and retaliation, have deepened community riffs instead of healing them. We value equity, financial responsibility, and student success. We have a We
127must keep the leadership that is working. Don't discard it based on flawed and opaque process. Thank you. Thank you for your time. John Paul Arcanaga. John Paul Arcanaga. Come on up. You have two minutes to speak. Why don't you begin? Hello, Superintendent Carvalo and board members. My name is John Pauline and I'm a history teacher at Edward R. Roy Ball Learning Center. I'd like to thank you for the investments you have decided to make for our most marginalized youth today. I urge you to continue to protect black, undocumented, and LGBTQ youth in the coming fiscal years by investing in care, not cops. I would like to live in a world where we no longer invest in systems that perpetuate criminalization like the LAPD, LASD, ICE, and the Los Angeles School Police Department. These agencies do
128nothing but spread violence and instill fear in our students and families, and they detract from the work of creating healthy and vibrant school communities. Imagine what LA USD could look like if we took the funds for tasers, tear gas, pepper spray, and non-lethal ammo and put that money into our classrooms. Carvalo, you talk a big talk. I've seen your words in Time magazine. And I'll admit, even a cynic like myself was touched by your story of being a once undocumented immigrant youth who found success through education. But your rags to rich's story will never be enough for my students. Put your money where your mouth is. LA USD must guarantee sanctuary protections by fully funding dream centers by $10 million. By providing vital services to undocumented families through Dream Centers, we can stand up to
129the authoritarianism of the Trump administration and save families from kidnapping and st sanctioned violence. It has been the pleasure of my lifetime to watch my students and hundreds of others throughout different school sites organize walkouts, pass out over 17,000 stickers and info sheets, and create a list of concrete demands to protect black, undocumented, and LGBTQ youth. They are leading the way with vision and vigor and the 2025 to 2026 budget and every budget afterwards must heed their demands. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Scott Achilles, Scott A, are you here? Scott Achilles, let's see. Chelsea Duran, are you here? Chelsea Duran. Itel Himenez. Itel, we'll go to folks who are listed as speaking remotely. Elizabeth Hernandez on tab one, are you in the room? You're not online, but are you in the room, Elizabeth
130Hernandez? and Denanishia Jordan, you are online. Please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Denanishia Jordan. Thank you. Good morning um members of the school board. My name is Denanishia Jordan. My very first memory as an LUSD student was at Shirley Avenue Elementary. After being introduced to my new class, as soon as I wanted to take my seat, another student pulled the chair out from under me and I fell to the ground. I was in the third grade. It was my first day and I was the only African-American in the entire school. When my daughter was a student at Lawrence Middle School, she was assigned a history project where she was actually tasked with reenacting an American slave auction. For decades, LUSD has ignored the needs
131of its black students and the issues that have been that we've been forced to deal with. One of my most proud moments as a member of United Teachers Los Angeles and as a member of the bargaining team was the day when LA USD agreed with U with um UTLA place BAP into our contract making it permanent. We as educators understand the value and the positive impact that BAP has for our black students and um our school communities, but BAP can only be successful if it's funded adequately. I appreciate the board's decision to provide another 50 million for the next year, but we're asking for 100 million, which will allow BAP schools to have more resources and the supports needed to close the school experience and achievement gaps at the rate that is needed. 100 million
132can provide, for example, culturally responsive school professional development, safe passage partnerships, parent workshops and community fairs, Spotify math and music technology, a black culture arts passport, a black student union grant, STEM maker space labs, flexible school grants, a six-hour community representative in addition to counselors, PSWs, PSAs, school psychologists, restorative justice teachers, and school climate advocates. It has been said that an organization's budget is reflective of its priorities. I'm asking for you, LUSD, to prioritize the needs of our most marginalized and vulnerable students. Please contribute 100 million to the BAP program. Thank you. Thank you for your time. That concludes public comment on tab one and I believe there are a number of board members who wanted to have a discussion on tab one. Mr. So, I just wanted to speak to the budget adoption and
133it's always difficult when we start budget discussions with any future cuts to anything. So, I want to take a moment to commend all the folks who advocated for the past few weeks, couple of months maybe, for our most marginalized populations in LA USD and especially in this time when we knew things were going to get bad and now we see it. It is. I want to commend the folks who did not give up, who spoke at every meeting, who wrote letters and emails, who met with folks and time and again you let us know that this was a priority, that this was something necessary, that now more than ever, we need to commit to our students and to giving them a sense of belonging, a sense of safety. And those particular students are our immigrant
134students, our LGBTQ plus students, and our black students who are literally under attack right now. So, I'm glad that we're making these investments and I know that it is not what we want fully, but it is a step forward and I'm glad that we have this commitment in our budget. And I think that as a next step, the most important thing is to make sure that these monies are implemented well. That our staff works with committees, steering committees that are already in existence to do this work, that we hear back how the money is spent, that we celebrate the progress of our students because of this investment. So, I'm happy that we are making these investments in our students and I want to commend again and ask the folks who came out to advocate not
135only for themselves but for others uh to celebrate this because you did this. You moved people with your stories. Our students moved us with their actions and their stories of their fears for their parents, for their families, and how they needed us to step up. So, I I think we have this is not the final budget ever. We still have a couple of more years to go. And I think that this is an invitation to always stay involved and stay engaged and to not give up. Even when things come back in the beginning is not in your favor or in the favor of the majority or in the favor of the most vulnerable. We don't give up. We keep coming back until we are heard. And so, thank you for that. And um I'm hoping
136that my colleagues are also feeling that sense of of a good feeling in ensuring that our most vulnerable students are protected uh through these investments. Thank you, Carla. Thank you, Mr. Meline. Sure. Thank you, Mr. SM. And few comments and um then a few questions. And I think Chris is hiding behind the column there. Um but uh I along with my colleagues asked a lot of questions last week and before last week and since last week and most of them have been answered. So thank you to the team um for answering those questions and you know as I've said many times I think this process is not perfect but it's improving. It's still given the conversations we have about priorities. The fact that there's really only a week and a half to have conversations. I
137appreciate what the superintendent said about um good policy is evolving policy and responding to dynamic concerns in the public. And so what you heard last Tuesday to this Tuesday will change when we are having those conversations, but it should still be more iterative and longer an opportunity for the public and us to us to weigh in. Um few thoughts, some of which are reiterations, but one is, you know, I don't think we're doing enough to focus on the revenue side of the balance sheet. Um that includes the work of Martha Alvarez and our wonderful government relations team. Um but also thinking through other sources of revenue that aren't going to make up holes in future years, but will help on the margins and help our school sites. I appreciate the creation of a new centralized
138grant system. Uh and I hope it's in um collaboration and not intention with what might be existing burdens at school sites. But I also think uh I want to think how we can utilize district assets more um lucratively. This year we earn less in leasing fees than we had in prior years. Now a lot of that is attributable to the dip in funding that's happening in LA, but there are other activities and ways that we can lease spaces. I have schools in my district that are used as parking lots on the weekends and generating revenue for schools. We have flea markets. Uh, and the district is having a broader conversation or I should say the board is around community school parks and other utilization of our land. But, um, with the Olympics coming up and
139with trying with the governor and others trying to bring more filming back to LA, I'd like us to think about how we can generate more revenue, whether that means hiring more folks in the leasing department or real estate to think strategically or I've advocated for a long time modernizing our system so that it's easier for the public to use it. I think we can do a better job there. We've also, you know, heard uh from our labor partners advocacy about our economies of scale to the extent we still use that warehouse. Are there ways to service other school districts in the surrounding area? How do we just think on the revenue side? And then also in this conversations that I know Miss Gonz has been having as well with the city is, you know, measure
140W uh to help green our schools while create um reclaiming valuable water or tap into public funding for housing as we have that initiative and we have RFPs going out. So I just would like us to have a conversation about kind of revenue generating opportunities as we're always just focusing on understandably with the expenditures. Secondly, um I and my colleagues asked some questions over the last few weeks to clarify the broad swath of contracts that we've been being we've been asked about. Most of them are school-based and they include professional services bucket. Um and these contracts just for the public are ratified or approved by the board each month as part of the board's agenda, usually in that massive procurement bucket. So over the course of the last year, a lot of those contracts come
141whether it's a contract for transportation for special education students or tutoring or um uh after school providers or what have you, but we understand that it's tough to then roll it all up and we've had questions around transparency. So I do hear from the team both procurement and something we're going to take up at our procurement and facilities committee next year um but also the budget services that we're going to have systems in the coming months to make it more accessible. Um and so I just want to read off some of the things we've been told because we got some of these answers back just in the last few hours. But um the district does plan to launch a public-f facing transparency tool that will detail contracts and other non- labor expenses procured by schools
142and offices. Um they've also committed to uh semiannual audits of contracts at the central office over $50,000 to identify overlap with other existing district functions. And then also we'll be launching this public facing transparency tool. So I don't know Mr. Mount or if there's somebody if Mr. Freeman's here. If someone could just briefly talk about what the public can expect. I know that doesn't satisfy concerns in the next few minutes and hours of like how do I click on that contract line and see them all, but I appreciate the commitment going forward and also will clarify that all those contracts were ratified by this board in public. But is there someone who can speak to those? Not you. Is there someone who can talk about the procurement and transparency tools that are the public can
143expect? paging Mr. McClean. Yeah, that's in the control pan. If all the lights go off, we know who did it. [Laughter] Oh, it seems to be working now. So uh not not in really much more detail to what you've said uh having formerly run procurement and also uh developed with Tony all of the public facing dashboard dashboards as well as the internal ones that you have access to it is a possibility. Um however the toughest part is with the volume that the board passes uh under 250 over 250 service contracts commodities contracts is trying to differentiate them in the system to usefully report them. Right? So transparency is helpful when it's useful and understandable. Uh but there hasn't been like a marker for a contract of one type of contract versus another. So there are
144thousands of them in the system to try to differentiate between. So they've got to figure that part out before they actually can put out a useful tool. But that is in their work plan uh for this coming year. Uh but it's going to be so the board will get access to more raw data. Uh but to make it useful is going to be more of a of a challenge, right? So because of the number the sheer number that the board passes one of the things I'd suggest is that as this tool is being um created and maybe this is for Mr. Salceto engaging the um advocacy groups and parents and others who have reached out about what is helpful and that's one of the things we did with open data and I'll note that not
145all the open data sets are back up where they should be but engaging to say what are the types of things when you say and you advocate the board's getting these emails about these contracts what do they have in mind and how do we make it as transparent as possible. Um, another thing about transparency while you're up here to clarify is we've talked a lot or we hear a lot about the books and supplies line or you know the instructional materials and supplies sachs object code and one of the answers that the board got back was that the vast majority of this is actually not at school sites. It's school versus non-school. It's about a billion non-school 300 million school. Um the GF restricted balances at non-school locations are ELOP 263 million ongoing and major
146maintenance 82 million. Can you just clar because this is such a point of tension every year and I think we've usually said oh it's all at the school sites. This seems to suggest it's not like you got that breakout from my office. Yeah. So I'm I'm clear on it. So that's also a So first of all a lot of it is books and supplies. That's the actual actual books and supplies. Absolutely. Materials and supplies. Uh and then the rest of it is a holding. So when people uh want to change or they don't submit their budget on time, remember that every budget throughout the district, we go in and we enter in for the new budget. And so if it's not done in a timely manner or if indeed there are changes past our deadline
147for being able to make changes, that is a very timeintensive practice. So what we do is we note it. we have what we call a ledger uh that we electronically note the changes that we then have to implement after the sachs open back up again which is in the new fiscal year July 1st and so that is a holding area that both schools use and that anybody making changes or submitting budgets late we hold their changes there until it opens up and we can make affect those changes effective July 1. So that includes like some of the ELOP carry forward that you're noting as well as other uh department or program budgets. So the the ELOP carry forward that is a holding for general ELOP. That doesn't mean that it's instructional materials and supplies specifically
148under correct. Is there a reason that that we can't create another object code that just says you can't you can't create No, you can't create an object code that doesn't actually get attributed to a portion of the SAX code. So it requires you to to hold it somewhere until the system reopens again and then we have to track it on one of our ledgers and then we make the changes effective reopening of budget July one. So is this just been LA Unifi's practice or is this a un no this is now everybody might use a different place like I know some districts that put everything in uh not that we would do this but the superintendent's budget until July one when it opens again but the practice in LA has been uh in that line
149until the budget reopens again July 1. Remember, development actually ends ended for us this year in February 12th. We continue to accommodate a lot of changes much later because we we did as much as we could, but stuff that comes in too late because we're already in fiscal close for this year. So, we are now trying to close the budget on time. So, we have a period that we have to hold any changes until the new budget reopens. Um, so yeah, I mean that makes sense. It also is understandable where the public's coming from when it's like this is not all books and supplies because it's not all books and supplies. Um that that has been the LA specific practice. Uh like I said it's held in other places in other districts but it does
150have to go to a department and and a code structure. Um thank you. That's helpful. Another um one of the other responses we got maybe this is for you or I don't know exactly. If not I have my team. Yeah. Um it's been a unfortunate that we have not gotten our M staffing back up to pre-recession levels and granted we have lost enrollment but we have not lost acreage and so from a cleanliness and we hear from our our labor partners on this as well and so we are closing some vac what we have been told are vacant M positions because we haven't been able to hire but I've heard from some of our labor partners that the um theus we've had with them or the collective conversations. We have been able to hire all
151those folks. And so I don't know where the disconnect is, but I think it's something like 70 or so M positions that are being closed in this budget. And it was a surprise to some of our labor partners that we had vacancies. So So I would do two things. So we say M sort of like it's a it's a thing, right? It's but they are separate functions. So the maintenance and operations operations are the custodial that you're speaking of versus maintenance are mostly our specialty workers like a a plumber or or a craftsman. Uh and so sort of have to treat them differently because they're a different situation. First of all, uh custodians are one of our hard to fill positions. Uh that was also in the in the notes that you got uh from
152my department. Um, and so instead of holding multiples of them open, more than we can fill at the time, we open them as we find them and identify them to fill. What we don't want to do is leave money that could be used actively by the department and just leave it on the sideline for potentially a whole year and not have money available for other expenses. So, you don't want to leave more positions open than you can actually find people to fill. that would just be an unwise use of money because we have to fund that position and then we leave it there for as long as it takes to find it and that can be a year. So that is part of the operation side of it. Now the square footage requirement and the
153number needed is decided by the operations department and that changes based on what they have under management. So they they provide that number to us to to help with that correlation. They being district facilities operations operations. Yeah. And I'm speaking specifically about custodians given this um uh I don't know if it was an MLOU or agreement or commitment with uh some of our labor partners to fill 500 building and grounds workers positions and then seeing some of those positions closed. So I understand what you said you same thing with buildings and grounds as well as specialty workers. So we use plumbers hypothetically. This isn't a real example just because I'm not looking at the ledger so I can't give you one right now. But if there were 10 openings and we haven't filled more than
154three of them a year for the last 5 years, then to keep 10 open means that we have seven FTE of money that we're leaving on the side uh that the department could use, right? And so we have committed to and we have a process to open positions as they are able to hire and identify people. So there it's not that they're not able to hire, but we don't want to leave particularly in a deficit situation. and you don't want to leave money on the side that could be addressing each department's deficit. So, it's dynamic and that if they Yes, we've gotten much more dynamic with those practices. Y last one maybe for you and then just a couple programmatic or instructional questions. Um, appreciate what the superintendent was saying about OPED. Um, I think
155we do need to contribute something to the trust uh to keep promises to employees and I know we've been told different things over the years. Um, and appreciate kind of what the what the board and I hope the public's been given in terms of the specifics when it comes to contributions. I do think going forward uh we should also amend our fiscal policy to align with the action today because those have been intentioned and maybe when this comes back at the first interim we can have more specifics and an updated fiscal policy. The one question I think I'm not sure superintendent if you address is just where as we pull out some um money that we're going to be those OP contributions where are we parking that money? Where is that money going in the
156short term? Yes. So I actually detailed that. So when we pull out that $645 million of expected three-year contribution to OPED to the ARC, it's going to go into a fiscal and workforce stabilization fund similar to fund 17 but different uh in terms of its uh uh potential purpose. And the potential purpose just like the title of the fund declares, there's uncertainty ahead. There's also uh an interest obviously on part of the board and this team of stabilizing our workforce and ensuring that we have the workforce we need moving forward considering the cost of living pressures in our community. But that would be a commitment as opposed to an assignment or a reserve or so. So when you're passing the budget today, you need to pass it with the friendly amendment of the changes that
157are being described so that I can make it so in the system on July 1st. you'll then have it reported out to you at the next interim. Um, great. Thank you. And I think for Dr. Estrada, I guess just um I do uh I think that's it for you, Mr. Matt, if you want to go back to the shadows or wherever you were hanging. Um, thank you. Uh, the Oh, okay. Um uh prior to the um pandemic and creation of the ELAP program, I had brought a resolution looking at after school um uh create a coherent plan around before and after school. And I still think that despite the the increased investment, we don't have the best cohesive plan. in part. I know we've seen some crosswalk documents, but um I uh would like to
158have, you know, and maybe we align this with some of the public hearings and committee of the whole meetings that Miss Gonas's resolution uh alluded to, but a public conversation as we did last year about the ELO plan. Um I know I think it has to be approved every three years and we approved it last year, but still both in the interest of transparency, but also just um understanding how we're making these investments. So, if we could have commitment to that as long as cow leadership allows us to to do it, but yes, we will. So, hopefully there we go. I got a thumbs up from Dr. Riz. I just think there are more that we can be doing with that. I also um you know I'll just make one of my plugs that I'
159I've articulated a bunch and I don't know well I do know we have we have never it's never come to fruition but um we have staff on campus who are instructional aids during the day and then um leave and then we are always scrambling for staff when it comes to some of these afterchool providers and I think there could be the creation of some new job classification where you have instructional aids that then seamlessly transition to afterchool providers um and there are ways to then create long eight hour positions and give people benefits. And so those are the types of things I'd like us to think creatively about as we're exploring the ELAW plan. And then finally, um just because there's a decrease in tutoring um in this budget, uh and it seems like the
160questions the board have asked, it's it's been a true up because we haven't utilized the tutoring. But my concern is that we're kind of we're lowering our ambitions and saying, "Okay, well, we only spent x on tutoring, so next year we're going to calibrate versus who actually needs tutoring? Is tutoring effective?" I still don't think we've ever seen any outcome data. This has been, you know, globally one of the post-pandemic strategies that's been touted is high dosage tutoring. Um, and I I still think, at least as in the public articulation of our tutoring program, we have a ways to go. So I don't I see I'm looking at Dr. Bayas, so maybe you can say a few words, but just can you explain the decrease in the budget for tutoring and does that represent just
161the reality on the ground or are we changed our framework or how are we making sure that kids are getting the services they need? Sure, I'm happy to to um uh respond to that question. So last year we had uh a spend of about 90 million, but we had budgeted 110 million. Um and then what we've seen this year is that we have about 70 million and so what we're noticing is that the impact the reason why there's a decrease and less of an allocation is because of the attendance. So as we're we are meeting with our providers regularly to review uh data to review the impact data from the pre and post that they administer themselves and we review attendance and we invite them to the table and say you need to help us
162to ensure that our students attend and participate in in the um high dosage tutoring on the campus. Um at the same time the approach to ELOP and the allocations throughout the year they're dynamic. So where we're seeing an underspend, we are reallocating funds throughout the year from program to program. So while you may see that at this point, uh we have about 15 million earmarked for tutoring. Um if there is an increase, we will um reallocate dollars from other programs that have an underspend. Um and at that point, that's how we'll be addressing that. But um know that this is much um in part because of attendance. Yeah. So I guess my request or question maybe for this ELOP update that we're going to have, but also I'll suggest and I know we can't use
163the LOP dollars on it, but a lot of the research I'm seeing is about the effectiveness of during the day high dosage tutoring. Um, so maybe we can get an update with that is that if we're saying that, you know, if we've determined that $110 million is the right allocation for what kids need and we are having attendance issues, the solution should be, as you seem to allude to, let let's figure out how to get kids to show up and tutoring companies to either fulfill their commitment or cut that contract as opposed to just saying, "Oh, because it seems like we're we're again, I don't want to say lowering our ambition, but maybe I mean maybe it is or lowering our expectations based on the reality on the ground not based on this is what
164we think needs to happen from an instructional standpoint and just so you know that we have been um implementing that strategy where there is tutoring during the school day we do not use the LOP for that but we have been using that as a strategy as well um when we've noticed for example in our high need schools that students aren't staying after school even though we've offered transportation and and provide different types of intervention to ensure that they come we have also introduced um that strategy as well. Thank you. And there will be a round two. Okay. I know you are waiting um Miss Newville right? Yeah. Right after. Yeah. So I had a few questions. Um I know we are have been talking about norming and in section 3 page 39 it outlines uh
165staffing norms for elementary schools, secondary schools and magnet schools. I notice there is no staffing norm outlined for our span schools. Anyone can answer. So uh board member the staffing norms are the clearer. are the pre-existing ones. Uh, as you know, we declared in our fiscal stabilization plan a desire to further norm, but we have not began that. We have a year of planning, conversations with labor entities and the board itself before we move on further norming any positions. So, currently, how are our span schools going to I guess since they're not normed, how are they allocated staff? Sorry, I was I was uh board member new bill. I was looking around for my norming specialist, but I will take a wing at it because she'll say you already know this stuff. So, we use
166the same norms as we do for our elementary and our middle grades, but we blend them get together depending upon enrollment and the actual span that that school serves. So, it's included in the in the elementary and the middle school norms. So, they would go with a hybrid mod. H how does that the average because if it's a elementary school they'll have a certain number and if there's a middle school they have a certain number but if they merge if they blend how do they get that number still still by enrollment in that grade level and the contractual and the norm requirement for that grade level so middle would be by itself and if they don't meet the number for say an additional administrator right well and also at the grade level right so middle
167uh so like I'm a 7 through 12 certified folks that's different than the K through six. So middle's already a little bit of a blend because it serves both primary and secondary. So like for PSW if they were short because that average say middle school say elementary. So the elementary maybe say they have 500. Yeah. We also though we also engage the in norming conversations. So we use the hard cut offs but we also engage in two weeks of conversations that's actually facilitated by my office. uh with uh uh Mrs. Strada's office as well as the region offices to look at those close calls or where there might be a cuto off that the region or the site wants to preserve something. That's what norm day is about. And so it's a back and forth
168that we facilitate to make sure that we fund the right number at the right school of which staff is staying there and indeed which staff might be moving to another school. So that's actually done collaboratively uh prior to norm day and then we finalize it on norm day. Got it. And I had a question regarding I know and I want to say um echo the sentiments of what we have been able to provide for our marginalized students and I think we've shared this over and over especially for our black student achievement program just the numbers and how we've seen the progress and just the amount and I know Dr. McKenna would be proud as we've started out with our heat program to be able to phase into BAP. But I did notice in our program
169in the budget that there is some allocation for BAP and heat which is that separate from our BAP program. So in our in section 3 page 2829 the budget says for 150 which we discussed today. However, there is 10 million investment for heat schools which is considered a heat BAP. So that would be separate in addition to so that would mean 160 million would be allocated to these particular schools. Speak to it. Here you go. Good afternoon. Travis Brandy, senior director. So yes, $10 million is a separate allocation that is uh provided to heat schools primarily for uh strategic staffing and stability as well as a select number of out of classroom positions including instructional coordinators, I'm sorry, instructional coaches, but those monies are separate and aside from those VSAP funds. So we do have
170schools that are BAP group one schools and our heat schools such as uh Krenshaw, Ottabon, and Tom Bradley. Those are our heat schools. Those are about 16 of them at there. There are 16. Yes. Okay. Just wanted to make that clarification that there's an additional $10 million. That is correct. Got it. Okay. Thank you. And then wanted I know we talked about OPED and just wanting because I know the number has come up. What is driving the number? What is the annual required contribution for OPED? Is there a formula that is used or Yeah. So, uh and and people are using the terms interchangeably. So, it's a it's a great question. So, uh there's first of all pay as you go. Pay as you go means the amount that we are currently paying out of
171the general fund annually to pay for benefits of our current retirees. Uh so, I was asked earlier, how much are we currently at pay as you go? I had the number 300 in my head. It turns out I looked at the actual it's $315 million this year. So that's the actual coming out of the general fund currently to pay for retiree benefits. To give you sort of a concept of where we've been when the board chose to open the trust uh which I think was in 2014 it was half that amount. So you can see it's actually escalated fairly quickly. Uh what the actuarial study does, which is where the idea of the ARC comes from, um is it identifies based on an investment program of how much the board would have to invest each
172year so that the trust generates enough money to pay that pay as you go instead of taking out of our general fund, which is intended for that year's students and employees. And so the total uh total amount needed would be about $9 billion. we have about a billion in there. So somewhere between uh seven and a half to eight more would be needed to fully fill that. And what the arc does says in the next x number of years that the that the contribution would have to be this amount of money. So that's the arc number. It's the number that we'd have to invest each year. It's it's a lot. It's between four and 500 billion. That's why I said the other day we've we've never done that. What we do is we do a
173per employee uh contribution um that is uh for 26. It's only $2,000 for the whole year per employee. It's not a large amount and it's paid uh by that employees or meaning office or school in equal payments depending upon how many paychecks they get and their equivalent to being NFTT. Uh and then we call and this is where we sort of misuse the term the additional payment. We also call in our budget the arc. So anything over and above that that we want to make is is called locally in the budget the arc. The amount that we we should be contributing if we were to get to fully funded in a certain period of time. As I mentioned last week, we've never actually met that. It's sort of the number identified in the study of
174what we would have to do. Got it. Okay. And I think that's it for now. and there is a round two so don't worry. Go ahead, Dr. Rivas. Thank you, board president. Um, first I want to um make some comments before I have just a few um questions. Um, I am very grateful for the investments that were added um to the budget part that were already uh mentioned by our superintendent. And I just want to acknowledge and express appreciation for the critical investments um that are in the budget and mention that these commitments reflect the reality that our students and families are navigating not only from the academic and emotional fallout of the global pandemic, but also the recent escalating attacks on their identities, histories, and their rights. Uh, black students continue to confront systemic
175barriers that limit their access to opportunity and achievement. All LGBTQ plus youth are facing alarming rise in political and hate attacks, policy rollbacks, and social hostility that threaten their safety and well-being. immigrant families um are living in fear amid renewed threats of detention and deportation which I will say are happening right now as we speak and across all these communities families are dealing with intense trauma, housing insecurity, economic instability conditions that threaten their ability to thrive both inside and outside the classroom. And the same can be said not only of our students and families but also our employees. Um our public schools must be places of safety, belonging and support. And this is um reflected although we would love more um in the budget but um this is a significant step in making sure that
176we are addressing the needs of all of our communities here in Los Angeles. These investments help us meet the promise by funding the programs and the people that build trust, stability, and opportunity. Finally, I want to offer my deepest thanks to the students, the advocates, the school staff, parents, community based organizations, every single person who raised their voices and made made their needs po impossible to ignore. Your advocacy, especially in these incredible trying times, is what made this possible. and which what will continue to guide us forward. So, thank you. Thank you all. Um with that said, I have a few questions. See, um that's done. Just had a question uh regarding uh the first one is on adult ed on the Well, first of all, I want to thank um board member Melvin for
177bringing up the custodial staff. I had the similar question. So I thank you for bringing up um that area. So I won't ask that. But um on page on section two page 10 um just notice that we are down 24 uh adult ed teachers. So um and then previous year we were up 17. So we were up 17 last year and this year we're negative 24. And given the fact that um we're expanding access to adult ed just kind of wanted to understand um that change and also for our adviserss and counselors last year we were up 24 and this year we're negative 13. So could you help us understand why this fluctuation um in our adult ed staffing? Thank you uh Dr. Revas. My name is Matthew Oberlander. director for the division of adult
178and career education. Um the reason it looks like there's a negative change in those categories is because that snapshot in the budget book is during budget development and at the time we hadn't processed uh all of our assignments because our assignments work on a different schedule. So where it looks like we're down 24 um FTE, we're actually going to be processing 29 more positions. So we will be up and we'll be able to meet that need. Okay, great. And same thing for our counselors, correct? You appreciate that. And then the other question, I guess it will most likely be the same answer is for our dual language education. I see that we increased 2.6 million in the budget, but yet we're negative 48 and staffing. um given also that these are very popular um programs
179that are you know our teacher our parents uh really um seek out and add strong advocates. So just wanted to understand um why we're down negative 48. So it's probably do also because of enrollment or budget development. Afternoon board member. Uh which page were you on? I'm sorry. Uh page 8, section two, dual language education. It's um the six row down 48. Um do you want to add to that? I I don't have um a response to you. I'll have to get that for you. I think L could add some more color to that as well. I believe she has a response. Oh, thank you. Oh, there you go. Hi, Miss Chevier. Hi everybody. Uh Sarah Shiovalier, deputy budget director. Uh that is because of fewer norm allocations as we see enrollment decline, as we
180see those changes at our school sites. As a result, that's also impacting the positions at our dual language sites. Okay, great. Um and I do understand that our strategic uh office is looking for hopefully solutions to increasing those enrollments. Um okay, let's see. um question on linked learning. Um it's not listed here in um central administration, but when I was looking at last year's 2425 budget book, it was listed. So just wanted to know if maybe link learning was lumped or added to another um distribution of central administration. Just wanted to know what happened to our link learning. Where are they? Hi. So, they're here. I just want to know where in the numbers. Yes, they are there. Uh, there was a reorganization. There used to be a category um in last year's budget book
181that was, I believe, prek to 12 curriculum and instruction that sort of combined positions that were under the elementary umbrella as well as the secondary umbrella. Those have since been moved to their respective places. Oh, so they're in different areas in here. Yes. Yes. So, they're probably in I'd have to curriculum and instruction K through 12 or something like that or if you can let me know just so I can I because link learning is such a valuable program and I just want to make I just want to know how many are staffed in that department. I do see here Miss Esther Daj. Okay. Thank you. Um just a few more just a in general for everybody on the pages you're referencing. This is a local report that was developed by LA USD so that
182they could see from one point in time to another point in time changes but it does not account for exactly what people are saying which is that their hiring might be different or that they've changed staffing models. So the report is static and that it's just one point in time to one point in time. Uh but it doesn't go into a lot of the nuance. So this is fairly typical. It's also why uh one of the views that the that the board has that's going public is really helpful. It's our staffing report so that you can actually look at this staff in real time department by department. I really appreciate all the educational departments showed up because they knew that you might have questions about this because their hiring is off but that is typically
183the answer in in general. So the the report's not a super elegant one. I think the new dynamic tools a little bit better. Yeah. Thank you. Well, I like to look at last year's and this year's just to see where the shifts were and the changes. So, I just want to make sure that's clarified. So, thank you for that. Um, and the next is our ELOP um budget. Um, again, I I compared it to last year's, and I really do appreciated last year's because everything was really disagregated. And I noticed that this year everything sort of clumped in. So, it's hard to decipher what program is what. For instance, in our 2425 uh beyond the bell, all of the um I guess different programs and uh budget was specified and I really appreciated that and
184now they're so I just want to say that that now it's sort of seems to be all clumped in. I do appreciate having it disagregated so I know what are the different departments. Um and uh once again I want to thank u Mr. Milvoin for asking about the high dosage tutoring. I also have that same question but I got the answer. So um so I appreciate that. Um so I did notice is notice some a lot of differences in where the allocations are this year as opposed to last year. One significant change um was for athletics. Last year 700,000 was allocated for athletics. And this year we have 24.5 million. Um so I just would like to understand what was sort of the thought process and I'm glad I'm not complaining. I just want to
185know um you know athletics are so important and I am glad to see 24.5 million. I just want to understand um sort of what what went into that decision. Good afternoon board members. David Estrada budget office. Uh the program for athletics was moved over from general fund to ELOP. We worked with the department under district operations to fully fund athletics varsity CIF with a ELOP for the 2526 year. Great. And grant and does cheerleading go under that or drill team I'm just kidding. It does. Oh yes. Awesome. Thank you. Appreciated that. Um now does drill drill team. Yeah, I think so. Right. ual team and or color guard. Anything that's considered a CIF sport would receive funding from there. So if it's drill team and it's competitive drill and they're having tournaments or having competitions,
186yes, if it's something like the color guard, more than likely that would not be funded out of IAD, which is what this is. Really question before you leave and how do you determine what school or what sport will get certain allocations is it what sort of metrics do you have or identifying that? So what I does every summer is they put out a call to action to each school and they basically say please let us know which sports you intend on fielding teams for or individual athletes for in the coming school year. And then once the school declares and says this year we're going to have swimming, basketball, football, so on, whatever sports they select, IAD will then fund. Great. Thank you. One more question and I'll pass it along to whoever's next. Most of
187them were answered. I think I'm done for now. And there is a round two, so don't worry. Okay, let's go. N really advertising that round two. Um, well, thank you all. I appreciate the comments that others have made. You know, I think that this budget is reflecting the challenging realities that our district and many districts across the state are facing as we um are dealing with the expiration of federal emergency dollars and the continuing trend of declining enrollment, just really putting pressure on our ability to maintain essential services and supports for our students. Um I think that we are in some ways in a stronger fiscal position than nearby districts. So I appreciate you know the prudence of the team in maintaining um our financial stewardship um and safeguarding our essential school supports. Um I
188also um want to appreciate you know the superintendent's comments at the beginning. I think this is about uh intentionally responding to this political moment and uplifting our most vulnerable students and communities at this time. um appreciation for those who have spoken up, especially our students who have called for these investments. Um we know that there is always space for more, but I think this really highlights that even in a time when um we're facing reductions, we're not facing we're not receiving huge amounts of funding from the state or federal government, we can still make choices um that uplift our values, that reflect equity, and that invest in our students and families who are hurting at this time because of the attacks levied by the federal government. Um so appreciation for responsive leadership um on the
189school district side and for advocates for being here for being present and for uh making these changes possible because without your voices we would not be here. Um and then I do have some questions for the for the team. Um I think first on page six of attachment B um which is the financial projection dart board on the May revision it notes in a small asterisk and I think this has been also presented to the board that um the California state preschool program is proposed to be excluded from the state's COLA in 2526. Um, I was curious if you could explain a little bit more what the financial implications of this proposal are to our CSP programs in the school district, which you know, serve our three and four year olds who are I'm very
190interested in always. So, the May revise uh in net uh all of the all of the items that they re that they reduced mean uh that in 26 we have $92 million less in revenues to support those programs. Uh in 27 uh it it's about 52 to54 million less and in 28 uh about 60 to64 million less. And just the amount for preschool reduction, do you have that disagregated by any chance? Okay. We don't have it yet. We don't Okay. Okay. Um and just curious, and this is probably not you, Mr. Mount, but whether this is being included in our state advocacy. Um obviously there are a lot of we're in a protective position in Sacramento and wanting to ensure there isn't any further erosion of our um our public school funding. Um but are
191is this something that we're advocating around to restore that cola for our CSP programs? There is heavy heavy advocacy and of course that's why we've reminded the board that July will will get real numbers from where they land at the state. Um and then if it's significant we'll be bringing it back in August. Okay, great. And and do we have any sense of the outlook for a cola in future fiscal years or is that still to be determined? The the current cola is still posted uh as as is as on the sheet that you described on the dart board. So that has not changed. They typically won't change the outy years until they start the the budget cycle in the following years. Uh so currently we are not hearing much about what's going to happen
192in July. Uh the state is being very clear that they're under financial stress as well. uh but they are not committing one way or the other on any of the open items. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Mount. Um and then to follow up on the ELOP, I know um I look forward to a committee of the whole discussion um just focused on that. I think there's a lot to discuss. Um I know that Dr. Rivas um highlighted kind of the athletics piece which is new and an expansion. I wondered if the team might also be able to uh identify other changes um that are being funded. New programs are newly funded by ELOP particularly since um this is a different way that we're listing the category since last year. Sure. And you do have a detailed
193crosswalk that was provided but the team is here. I know I do. It's for the the the good of the order of the public to also know how we're utilizing these these funds. Yes. Thank you so much for that question. So um with respect to the um diversified programs of academic um expanded learning programs that's an example um we have a program for gifted and talented students. Uh we have a program we heard you loud and clear recently when you said well where is the allocation for our students with special needs. So we have a program specifically for our students with special needs um our foster youth. We also have school mini grants. I think um um board member Gonomez that was the question you once had is can schools request um ELP funding. So
194there is a uh component on school mini grants um there is a um uh adult ed career empowerment academy um and so multiple other types of programs that at the next committee of the whole when we present I'd like to be able to provide you those updates. Um but we have provided more programs um for the academic excellence. Um the the way that this has been distributed, it's actually more detailed than it's been in the past. So you're able to see uh the uh beyond the belt program as the first category as you know that's the base program. Um the arts enrichment, culture arts passport and non-cap field trips, the highdose tutoring, the inter session, those are have been part of our strategy. Um the extended school year, this is the first time that um
195we've included extended school year in this budget. So currently at this time of summer's program, is um being paid out of ELOP. Um so that's another um addition. We've expanded the number of internships. So that's uh an additional um investment there. Um and so those are just um a few of of the additions um since the last time we talked about ELOP and the input that you gave us all. Thank you, Dr. bias and I appreciate um you know be the comments being made and then there being adjustments made and I think that there's been progress certainly in in spending down more of the funds and ensuring that we're really utilizing them. But great to hear about like for our foster youth who we know have been um have not seen the same increases on
196state testing um specific investments for them. So appreciate that. Thank you so much. Um and then Mr. Mount I do have some more questions on uh I believe it's section two the uh kind of the chart that you gave some caveats about. Um so I I will one just uh more of a comment. I appreciate the questions on the custodial and maintenance positions. Um I had the same questions and same concerns. Um I will say I I better understand um you know how this may look like a decrease but is not necessarily a decrease in staffing from last year. Um my point is more that even last year staffing was not sufficient. Um I you know I think that there's been a trend over the years of underinvestment in our custodial staff. Um even based
197on our own calculations of what's really required to maintain our campuses for our students. Um, so along the lines of what we discussed last week when it came to the fiscal stabilization plan, I hope we can look at really providing that baseline of services meeting that minimum cleanliness standard to ensure, you know, at the bare minimum that we're providing safe and clean campuses for our students and staff. Though enrollment has declined, you know, I think the figures we are provided highlight like a 70% decrease in custodial hours at school sites and um I I don't believe that that's sufficient. So that's that's my comment on that one. Um and then uh Mr. Mount just in general there are some areas I noted where the uh budgeted amount is higher but then the FTEEs are lower
198and is that just due to as you described like the inelegance of this report? I'll maybe point out like I think transportation was listed as an increase 58.9 million higher but a loss of 59 FTEE. So, if you could just help clarify that. Uh, just like schools and we talk a lot about schools and how their budgets tell a story, so does each of their departments that you have aggregated up in that report. Right. So, specific to transportation, they have more supplemental contracts uh to support uh the transportation of special education students and routes not not necessarily covered or for field trips. Uh so that's where you see an east increase of funding versus a lot of their uh office staff positions that had been vacant for a very long time uh were closed. Uh
199and so uh now that helps fund their increase in their contracts, but it that's why you see a difference like that in a single year. Okay, that's helpful. And then just a few other ones that popped out at me. uh reduction in teachers in the TK through 12 instruction category minus you have to cross reference a lot of these and so look at the line directly above above that uh so we did and TK in in my mind but see people think differently about these things is now part of TK through 12 notice that there is now a separate category for TK and so we were asked to create that category separately uh and so that has TK classroom instructors and and the assistants and so they are taken out as a negative in the
200K through2 teacher line and then they have their own category so they're a positive in that line. Ah okay I see I see what you're saying right good to know. Um and then the for afterchool programs it's under whole student on the next page a reduction of 283 million. Is that due to ELOP or uh why does it look like a reduction there for after school services? So well as you know actually after school services have gone up. So their employees in ELOP uh not in EOP pardon me beyond the bell which we're now funding with largely with ELOP. Uh remember that the largest number of their employees are hourly. Um they're also uh uh sometimes at will or sporadic. So they could be college students home from school uh in the times that colleges
201are not there. They could be folks working part-time. And so their numbers go up and down rapidly depending upon the time of the year that the report uh is is is provided. Um and the budget matches whatever their need is. So to staff appropriately, they have access to uh and and that's supervised um by Francis as well. So she makes sure that the budget fluctuates to make sure that they have the money that they need for the employees they need at the time. But that but the number of employees there really fluctuates dramatically. A lot of them, like I said, are hourly for a specific program at a specific site. Then it might be somebody new or they might combine them. It it really is a a program that fluctuates quite a bit. Got it.
202So that might explain why it shows a like a significant reduction, but then there's an increase of almost 900 FTE, right? And again, remember it's a snapshot. So the the report shows you a single day and time in two different years. And so it's just where it was during that day and time and and compared to this year, a day and time. Okay. Um and then just one more question on this one. There's a line uh in that same section, school operational support and a reduction of 300 FTEES. Can you what like what types of positions might that one off the top of my head. Uh, a lot of these I know just because I've reviewed it so many times, but that one's skipping me. So, I'll look back to Nu and say, could you,
203if you know that one off the top of your head, I'd appreciate it. Yes. Hi, um, board member. These include our IT support tax um, previously that were funded in this category. There was a reduction. I believe there's intent to restore some of these positions um, as part of the school stabilization fund. We also have some reduced clerical uh purchases in this category as well that we're seeing that schools are using less of their discretionary accounts to repurchase um these uh positions. Thank you. Got it. Okay. And those and just a reminder those IT supports those were provided by ESR dollars I recall. Yeah. um and and intent to restore is connected to the so if the funding didn't go if the funding went away like ESSER did uh then the opportunity was there for
204schools to pick up folks and so there will be a delta of those that schools uh did not pick up or offices in this case now because we are not doing layoffs then those would we call that that's that's just a very local term we call it restored which means that they didn't have funding but because we're not doing an annual reduction in force for folks that don't find a spot. That means that we are then picking them up centrally out of the general fund for the time being. Part of that $60 million unfunded piece. Okay, I'm good for round one. Thank you. And there is a round two. Okay, I'll finish off round one and then we can go to round two. Um I guess this involves cyber security. So we don't really think
205about cyber security until we need cyber security. Unfortunately, you know, that's how it works. So I noticed that um the uh cyber security improvement program was at 285.5 million which stem from the task force recommendation. So I'd like to know uh if we know how much of that budget has been allocated and spent so far of the 285.5 million. Do we do we know that? Could could you clarify? Was that for the uh fiscal year 25 or or projected 26? Oh, that was what was listed on tab one page 159 for those with the book. I'm asking uh because if it was 425 then I can get an actual from you. If it's for 26 that's the but just the budget figure that they've submitted. So, I'm just looking for clarity. Uh 159. If you
206want to move on to the next question, they'll look it up. So, when we figure that out, what's the plan for the remaining funds for cyber security? So, so uh I I see uh that soil is coming up. So, uh for fiscal year 26, that's the budgeted amount that you're seeing uh which of course we program into the system. And so, did you want to add any color to what that cyber security budget covers? Good afternoon. U chief information officer. So the total um original estimated budget for the cyber security program is amount to $285 billion. Um as of uh now we u spend over 70 um I believe 7273 million from cops or coop um general fund spending. Uh I expect u budget can provide the response to the general fund. Um in to
207in totality we are two years uh into the we still have two years to complete the program. So by we're going to complete the cyber security program. The remaining funding we are waiting for the budget to allocate those funding for us uh because it was part of the phase 2 cups which we defeased that program. So now we relying for the future funding as we allocate. Thank you. And you know, speaking of cyber security, I was hoping we were talking about the bond oversight committee, and I noticed there's not a member of the bond oversight committee who maybe is a specialist in cyber security. So that in the future would be a good uh representative. We have people from the trades and I think someone from cyber security would be a good addition to the
208bond oversight committee. So I'll talk to Mr. Pope Joy about that. Thank you. I have a couple more questions. Okay. Uh, Mr. Mount, how much wiggle room do you think we have to navigate uh around projected increases coming up in salary, benefits, other additional costs in coming years? How much wiggle room? So, currently there's no wiggle room on salaries and benefits. We projected actual right now. That changes as soon as you agree to any new negotiated agreement. So right now it's actual and we are less I mean we're less than a quarter percent variance on our on our compensation. Uh so we're very good at that. Now other areas uh typically in the past you would see more of a variance. This last year when I reviewed the year prior I showed you the variance
209in what was originally budgeted versus what was spent. Uh we've tightened that up too remember. So as part of strategic budgeting any department centrally that were not spending 100% of their funds uh over the past three years we identified the difference and we removed that authority from the department because they were not appropriately utilizing the the funds that were allocated to them. And so that has been tightened up as well. So you're going to see a much tighter spend to budget and folks are very aware that if they continue to underspend that that money will be taken away as well. Okay. Thank you. So, we do have a $600 million deficit coming up and after we start cost cutting measures, any analysis of any programs, any contracts that have not yielded the desired results, I
210don't know if that's a Francis question or a um Dr. Estrada question about programs that they're just not working out and Okay, go ahead. Yes, I'll take it. I think we declared that actually in the fiscal stabilization plan when we reference a $200 million reduction and that reduction is to be accomplished by targeting evaluating analyzing for results and targeting programs, initiatives uh and all the resources that support those that uh have proven to be less than effective in producing the desired outcomes. So that's the work that lies ahead over the next year as we actualize that uh that perspective $200 million reduction going into FY27. Yeah. Especially uh this coming year really being strategic about those uh contracts that we have are not just re they're just not working out for our kids and for
211results. So I hope we'll look at that. last member uh last time uh uh last meeting I guess uh board member Gonz's resolution on equitable funding uh how will district staff help to safeguard the investments that we have in mental health resources for the coming years I don't know how we're going to do that mental health resources can you answer that too okay so if you recall one of the first of the two slides that I presented today the things that This budget does not do uh one of the bullets reflecting that slide is it does not reduce in any way, shape or form in terms of programmatic investment or staff professionals uh investments into mental health supports. Obviously, as we move forward, considering the fluctuation of enrollment, there may need to be some degree
212of adjustment. But for FY26, we're safe. Again, uh we will begin right now evaluating need as well as budget needs going to FY27, but uh for the immediate future, those programs are safe. That's good news to hear. And we're going to go to round two, but I was thinking uh Miss Newil about you're talking about span schools and allocations. I have a K12 span school. That's a interesting alloc. I don't know how they figured that out to be honest with you, but they do somehow. They do do that. Okay. Round two. Who's ready? Guess we got all the questions out. Okay. Okay. So, I I heard board members uh making statements about the budget and I too would like to make a statement about the budget and anyone else who would have a statement about
213the budget in general, you know, you're free to uh do so before we vote. So let me just say that uh we all know that the budget of every single organization is the clearest expression of its values and the LAUSD budget is no different. We are living through very difficult times and as we have heard time and time again we may be facing even more difficult times in years to come. So still we share a strong commitment to do everything we possibly can to protect our most sacred spaces and that's our schools. We are committed to maintaining continuity in our BAP program by investing $125 million this year and an additional $25 million in 2627. We are investing an additional $26 million in art programs in our schools and we will be investing an additional
214$4 million for the important expansion of support for our student centers. And these are just some of the investments. But even with the rest, we know it's still not enough and the need is too great. So, we have also heard our CFO say we may face larger cuts in the next two years due to federal and state government pressures on spending. And I'm going to vote to support this budget because we retain the ability to adjust it if we need to. And that's what's so important to me. We have the ability to adjust it. And I know that voting against the budget doesn't change this reality. And I'm also voting to support this budget because as our former president Jackie Goldberg once said, we're doing the best we can to do in these difficult times.
215And I agree with her. Thank you. So, a motion. Oh, yes. Nobody raised their hand. You are ready. Go ahead. Yeah. Thank you. Um, I just wanted to bring up a couple of things. One, we've been talking about OPE. So, Mr. Mount, if I could um ask you a couple of questions again, just to clarify, my understanding is that the both the per position um funding or allocation that we receive and the that we that we collect that we collect. Exactly. That's already budgeted with the position with the cost of a position. That's correct. and any other money that we decide to put into the ark. Both of those are optional. The amount that we put in, correct? Uh the the amount it optional. Um so the the per employee amount is is pre-programmed. That's
216been the contribution that we've been making. So this coming year it's at 2,000. Any additional contribution is is up to the budget process, right? So that's what the board would would vote on. Um and so we have it at the at the full arc and I heard the conversation at the beginning that uh the proposal is to to amend that. Exactly. So that is the reason why we're able to amend it. It's because that is a decision that we can make here. Right. It's not something that is even though it has the word required in it, it's not something that is dictated by an entity that says this is the amount. No, there's no trust policed. Okay. So I just wanted to be clear that that is something that we have some some uh not
217just oversight but also decision making and as to the amount. Um, the other thing I wanted to bring up, and I don't know if this is for you or for perhaps for um the uh mental health and wellness folks, uh because I I shared with folks that I did a budget conversation and the number one thing that came back from all stakeholders, parents, students, and community members is the need for mental health. And I know that this budget at least um what was said was that there aren't any cuts to mental health. However, when you look at the numbers in here, there are some you know negatives. And so I want to just clarify where where that is. So on page uh part two section two page 12 I see here student health and human
218services and then it says here the changes minus 52 FTEES and then I see student mental health and wellness services 42. So is has there been a change in in the department or what's so remember it's a snapshot one year to the next and what you're seeing in that case is that we're consolidating departments. So you see a minus one place and a plus another. Okay. And then the difference the 10 I that part I I I wouldn't be able to speak to um Whoops. A couple folks are coming up to speak to it. Here we go. Can you um repeat your question? Sure. So um in the budget book under central category central administration it says here student health and human services minus 52 the FTEES for this coming year and then student mental
219health and wellness services 42. So there is a difference of 10. So if you're consolidating or if you're moving, you know, one group of folks to another department, why why the change though of 10? We haven't um had any any cuts, but we have had some resignations or some movements and we haven't been able to backfill. So that might be part of why there is a 10 uh position difference. Okay. What are some um issues that are happening that it's preventing from filling those positions from? Some of it is just purchase time that we had a little bit of a reduction in that but otherwise I think we're generally sustaining most of our positions as much u and going and we haven't finalized those assignments. So we're actually looking that we're going to be able
220to fill all the requests made even post uh budget season. So we should get up to 52 again at least at the central right. Okay. And then there was um the one thing I just want to add is you know when you see this snapshot here is that we haven't seen a budget reduction. So the budget authority to sustain 52 positions the total positions that would uh are reflected here um those will be realized as there's new assignments and allocations that come post July 1. Thank you. Um and so I think that's when we talk about this being a snapshot. This is a snapshot of budget development that reflects the current FTE at that time. Um it doesn't include vacancies and some of the other positions that have been swept as part of our 180day
221policy. Um those get reinstituted after July 1st and staff will look to reassign and reallocate resources on that end. Okay? Because that is a concern as I'm sure you know it's your department. uh the need is very great and I know that we have PSWs in various departments throughout LAUSD and BAP the HRDE program and um so if anything that is one department that we should not cut if not augment add more to it right um that's it for mental health that's uh what I've got and thank you so much thank you but I do have a question about special [Music] Oh, sorry. I thought it was going to be Mr. um depends on what your question is. That's what we're waiting to hear. Anyway, um, contracted IEP services. What are those? What What are
222the contracted IEP services that are listed here? It's section 29. Hi, board member. Those are our non-public services. Um, so they're twofold. We have uh nonpublic schools that we send our students to and then we also have our nonpublic agencies that send providers directly to our school sites to u support our IEP services. Is is uh is the latter BI? Yes, that is correct. I see. Nonpublic agency. Okay. Because it did go up to 507. Um and what is that based on? Because it was 220. Well, actually there's an error here because it says 219.6 in 2425 and then 220.1 in 2526 and it says the change is 507. I I'd have to look at that row. Um I can explain the math behind that row, but th those dollars are directly driven by what
223what the IP requires. I see. Okay. And then in professional development supplies and additional time, it looks like there's been a negative change of 15.3 million. So I am concerned about that because I know that one of the um the asks that came out of the listening session was more professional development particularly uh for teachers, educators who work in the inclusion model uh and also parents have been asking for more professional development. So why the change? Uh board member, that's because of timing. Um so as you know, we had an early budget development this year. Uh those dollars are sub uh supported by our medical funds. And so because we received the medical plan after budget development closed, those dollars will be restored uh when the fiscal year opens. Oh, the 15.3. It's a timing
224issue. Oh, okay. Okay. Well, that's good. I'm glad. Uh let's see what else. Um in the um also it looks like in whole student school operational support. What is that? What does that entail? Because it also says minus 300 FTEES. Yes. Um that sorry it's it's fine. Um so those include our IT support tax um that were previously funded under that category. I know many of them were eliminated. Um there's an intent to reopen some of those positions under the school stabilization plan. And another element of that category is also our uh we had school purchases for clerical staff uh that were not refunded in the school year. So again um any incumbents that may have been defunded will be reopened under the school stabilization fund or the workforce stabilization fund, forgive me. All right.
225Okay. Well, I think that's all I had. Um, thank you so much. Go ahead, Miss Newell. Just clarifying. I know we mentioned a report and I just wanted to be clear on the the budget line items that we have in section uh three where we were just referencing a negative on one FTE versus and I know we're saying it's a snapshot. When will we know what is actual as far as uh line items? Because if they're moved around, where do we know they moved from? How do we gauge that? Because I know that's why this is a challenge for us as well because it's not a standard report. I I would suggest for board offices, you actually can see real time how much staff each department has in the in the electronic tool that you
226have, which is much more accurate on a day-to-day basis than just a snapshot from one day each year. Uh so the one day each gear gives you sort of an idea but it's it's very vague, right? Versus just looking in the tool and seeing how many are there. Now what you're also hearing is that there's a delay in actually seeing money in some areas because remember our budget doesn't open till July 1. So this is all held in a program until July 1 when we open everything and then we have the list of all of those changes that we received after we had to make that submission. And so we then hurried to get those in there as well. Uh and so you'll see that true up and so that's where July really helps us
227because it gives us time. That's our our one month that uh people aren't submitting budget changes typically so that we get everything chewed up in the system to open school and that's going to be revealed in our transparency tool that we are able to see. You already have it. Yep. I'm just verifying that's uh the I don't know if that's public view. I know that the internal and the board has the view. Where's Tony? That's the board view is what I'm in. Board view. The board view. Yes. And then the tool for our public, what will they be able to see in July that will be helpful to them from this document? So they uh the public tool shows district departments from year to year as well as each school. And so you can look
228at the school and see both uh discretionary spending, what's decided locally through title one and by principal decision. And you also get to see non-discretionary, what we allocate that to them centrally. And it also gives you a window of exactly what positions that equates to at each school. Not names, but the actual number of of each type of position. FTE and the number. Correct. Okay. And then they'll be able to school sites obviously have discretion on what they will select for that year. They they do every year. They've already done that. So they completed that for us by February 12th. And that's what we start aggregating into the very budget that you're looking at. And then that tool is going to be launched July one. July one. July one. Yep. Okay. And I think that
229was it. I did have a question about the I know we mentioned the tutoring. Was there a budget line item for the push-in tutoring? I know ELOP was one area, but the push-in tutoring I'm not sure if she mentioned what Yeah, the ELOP was before and after school. Uh Francis or Okay. with pushin it's not we're not using ELOP right um that's before and after school it could be uh a a school fund that they're using uh or it could be seen dollars because these are in high need schools where they're implementing that um daytime um highdose tutoring support so the school will be able to select that from their budget on whether they needed that that's correct okay thanks that's it thanks Kelly. Yes. Just on on the questions around, you know, how things
230are still developing, folks will be hiring. Um, when the unodudited actuals come in September as well, will that also give us kind of a more complete and and real-time picture of where we are for the coming fiscal year? No. No. Wrong wrong year. So, your previous fiscal year, it's the Yeah. Oops. Feedback. Uh, so your unodudited actuals are actually providing you with a snapshot of what was budgeted and actually spent for the year that we just finished. So the reason that there's a pause in the budget system that we're referring to and the reason that we need everybody to get their budgets as complete as possible by the deadline is that we then have to close the system for any further activity while we aggregate and close all of the transactions going on this year.
231You can imagine how large of a process that is. So essentially, we don't allow any changes from April all the way until we open the new fiscal year because we have to aggregate all of those and report them out to you in that September report, which gives you sort of I I call it the post-mortem. This is how we did in budgeting versus what we actually spent for the year we just completed. And then that gets audited. Uh we usually complete verifying all those numbers by December. It gets turned over to the auditor and then you get the audit report for that year in January. Thanks for reminding me. Sure. Um, and then one more question on the operating budget uh, year-to-year comparison chart under whole student. There's a school safety line item about 235
232million. Um, one kind of what is aggregated as part of that line item and then there's a a reduction in FTEES of almost 70. Um, if you can help me understand, you know, what what positions those. Sure. Those include our community reps, um our campus aids and our school supervision aids. And as you know, these are largely school purchased. So if there are changes in the school purchase purchases, it shows up in the delta of that line. Got it. Non non-normed school purchase positions. I know we're going to be having a school safety presentation, but um you know, obviously I think you know those are essential for supervising students. Um will those be part of the uh 60 million? That is correct. So if there are any incumbents um if they they will be I
233I believe personal commission will assess if there's any vacancies that they can move those unfunded positions too and if there are not then they'll be refunded as part of the uh work workers stabilization plan fund. Thank you. Thank you Carla. Yes. I just have a question about what we're going to vote on uh before we vote. I want to know are we voting only on the top part of the the first amendment which is 2526 fiscal year since this is the 2526 budget. Is that what we're doing? Yes. In addition to uh consistent with the comments that I made uh at the top of the meeting today specific to the budget, the amendments uh that were reflected in the document that was passed around and those include um the retracting of the $645 million from
234OPED uh contribution to ARC into a newly established uh fiscal and workforce stabilization fund. They reaffirm also u the expansion of the student center budget to $5 million for this year specific to FY26. But then as I stated uh at first interrum in December, we will revisit this line to evaluate an additional $3 million for the future cycle. Also, um you're voting on the amended expansion to include the $2 million of investment into LGBTQ plus support systems, particularly at secondary schools, uh training, uh etc. So, that's all included uh in in this vote. What's not included, but I put it on the record officially is pursuant to the board's vote last week on the fiscal stabilization plan that uh on the record that we will be reducing the $60 million uh reduction to unfunded positions
235down to 30 million based on trend data and attrition. That will be done uh at the first interim um budget meeting in December. Last chance. Okay. Yeah. I'll move the the budget with the amendments the superintendent articulated and I'll second them. Okay. So moved by Miss Gomez and seconded by board president Schmurlson. Uh Miss Newell. Yes. Dr. Rivas. Yes. Mr. Melvinne. Yes. Yes. Miss Grigo. Yes. Miss Gomez. Yes. Miss Ortiz Franklin. Uh let's see. Board President. Yes. That's six eyes. And if I could collect some votes on prior items on the consent vote. Uh Miss Grigo on the consent calendar. How do you vote? Yes. Okay. And then on tab two, uh Dr. Reevas, that was the um 2025 LUSD LCAP. Yes. Yes. And Mr. Tis Franklin is absent. Okay. So, that concludes tab one.
236Um we have a statement from superintendent. Yes. Thank you very much, Mr. President. Uh just a very quick statement. And I want to extend my gratitude uh to the to the budget staff uh to the internal uh budget committee staff which represents all divisions uh for the hard work over many many weeks if not months. I also want to thank the board for your support but also for your advice and your your comments provided to this team. A budget is a is a quantification of an entity's values. A budget is a a material reflection of what we believe in, what we stand by and for. And I believe that this being my third uh budget as recommended to the board that despite the challenges, despite the headwinds, this has been a process that certainly does
237not make everybody happy. But as you correctly stated, it is the best showing of values and principles in a quantifiable manner considering the challenges we're facing. It represents courage. It represents determination and it represents deep alignment to the priorities of this district as reflected in our strategic plan but also the values and the principles that this district represents. Lastly, I want to express my gratitude to the uh advocacy entities uh with whom we have met uh time and time again uh not only for your voice but also for your contribution to this process. Thank you very much. Okay, the time is now 2:52. So, we've arrived a shade early for the general public comment. Can I by a show of hands see how many folks are here who have signed up for general public comment?
238Let's do this. So, that's just so just for the record, you can't see the cameras can't see. I'm only seeing like three or four hands. um which is uh Bow has used two hands, three or four hands which would only get us to not even quite three o'clock. So uh let's do the we'll go ahead with the safety presentation followed by general public comment at 3:30. Yeah. All right. Good afternoon, folks. Uh Andreas Ch, chief of school operations. Uh thank you for the time and opportunity to present an update around safety for the school district. taking us very quickly through a table of contents for my presentation. Uh we will take a look at a snapshot of our most current data uh AR data, school experience survey data, which I'll spend a little bit of
239time on. Uh I'll spend some time going through the community engagement that we did around safety in the school year that just completed. Uh we'll look at what we currently have in place and what we do right now to support our schools and our communities. visav safety and then of course I'll preview some of the investments uh some of the pieces that we'll be putting in place for the following year for the year to come giving you a general overview but before I even go there I did want to call out very specifically and clearly something that is not in this presentation and that's by design not by accidental omission you won't see anything in this presentation related to preparedness around emergencies uh wildfire response and so on Of course, as you can imagine, we've
240done extensive work in that space post the fires in January and and in fact, I think the majority of our system stood up quite well in January when we had the fires. Uh, separate from this presentation, we have a board informative that you'll be getting that will speak to the more robust uh preparation that we've done for this coming wildfire season. Uh, as we know, we're basically already I don't want to spend too much time here, but we're basically already in wildfire season for all intents and purposes. We're already monitoring. So, of course, we have systems in place. So, if you don't see that here, again, please know that it is obviously something we're actively working on and will be uh sending information in the near future. Uh my best educated guesstimate would be in
241the next two to three weeks. So, in terms of what is here, just giving you sort of the the reader digest version of what you'll see. Again, when you look at the relevant data and and for us in the world of operations and safety, our our most relevant data sets other than those anecdotal engagements with the community, those conversations that we have when we go out are school experience surveys. So, you'll see snapshots there. And I know that our presentation was originally slated for last week, so you've had an opportunity since last Tuesday to hopefully dig into the data, if not a little bit earlier. Um, again, I I I know that it's critical for all of us, myself very much included, to engage with the community around safety, to have those sometimes, to be
242very candid, uh, difficult conversations with folks with different viewpoints about what constitutes a safe environment, what doesn't constitute a safe environment. We need to do that engagement so we know what's working, we know where the needs are at, and you'll see that we we continue to be committed there. Um we'll talk about again the fact that we see some some positive outcomes from what we have in place as borne out by the data and again uh I'll speak to some of the the upcoming uh investments and changes. Okay. So let's do a little bit of level setting around the data first and foremost. So uh many of you I think just about everyone here has had a presentation before from uh yours truly or maybe some of my team members around data. Um you know
243a as we all know incident system tracking and accountability report it's a digital platform. It's been around in a couple of different versions uh but for at least the last 10 years it's been a digital version. Originally it was intended as an internal platform for reporting of incidents. So for example when I was a principal if something happened on my campus if a student fell on the playground apparatus and hurt her ankle then I would file an IAR to to note that and so on. or if I had a disruption to the campus. The the proverbial rule of thumb that we give our administrators because most IRS are filed by administrators is to file an IR when something occurs on or near your campus that disrupts the normal operations of your campus. Now, obviously there's
244some subjectivity there, right? What I may consider a disruption, maybe uh my fellow administrator down the street may not. So, that's AR in a nutshell. two, the data that you see in front of you, when we do talk about safety, we tend to focus on these five categories as again are sort of our proverbial canaries in the coal mine as far as what's going on on our campuses. Specific to today's presentation, we hone down even a little bit more. The data that you see in front of you is incidents that involve students. Student could be a victim. Student could be a witness. Student could be uh I don't like to use the word suspect when we're talking about students, but student could be the one that initiated whatever triggered the ice, right? So students are
245in one way or another, they're involved in these incidents and they're onampus incidents. So when you cross reference this with prior data, you may say, "Hey Andreas, when you showed this to us a few months ago, there were more stars in this specific category." That's the why. any IR for example we do have incidents related to ideiation to suicide risk that may involve only adults so if that were the case that would not be reflected here in in this focus uh what we're focusing on here is student safety so that's one piece I wanted to point out a and the last piece that I really wanted to ensure because we have such a long snapshot here right you have all the way back to 1819 we often refer to 1819 as sort of our last
246normal year in the district but if you really look at it we had a strike that year So even that year was impacted. 1920 I think all of us who were at schools remember that uh Friday March 13th was the last day that kiddos were on campus and then we shut down for March 16th on. You'll see that 2021 is not on because uh basically we were uh completely remote until I believe April of that year. Uh I always remember because that's when my girls started kinder. And then uh the following year was we were back on campus but we had a lot of protocols and so on. So again, the two years that are not up there, it's not because we couldn't fit them on the slide or because we chose to emit them.
247It's because they're not really good comps. So, here's where I'm going with this. The number of IRS that are reported in all categories, because I know sometimes we see these numbers, particularly when we talk to parents, and I get it. I get that visceral reaction of like, oh my goodness, why are there now, for example, from 1819 to the year that just ended, there's basically double the amount of fights being reported, right? I understand that reaction, but to give you a couple of comparison points, utility failures, which obviously for the most part have nothing to do with safety, in 1819, we had 274 stars related to utility failures. In the year that just ended, we had 971. or when it comes to uh accidents on campus, which could potentially relate to safety, but could also
248be slip and falls and so on. Uh in 1819, we had 2,700 stars related to accidents. In the year that just ended, we had 6,729. So, in general, the field is reporting more, which again, in my estimation, is a good thing. We want to know what's going on on our campuses. We want folks to let us know so that we know how best to serve those of us that aren't on the campus anymore. When I was at a local district, now that I'm in this role, this data helps me to help our schools. But again, I wanted to level set that picture. But again, what we see in terms of trends, if you look at the last two years, is we're seeing that decrease in AR reporting. Now, this is always a a a two-sided
249coin because when folks aren't reporting things via AR, like when I was again when I was in uh administrative operations, if I saw a school that had very few IATA stars, I'll give you an example in athletics. If you have a high school that has zero eyes or very few ISARS related to injuries during their athletic programs, that's probably an indication of under reporting. doesn't mean that they've miraculously managed to solve the problem of athletic injuries. So, we have to be mindful here of that. Right? If I saw if I as chief of school ops saw a huge decline in ITARS all of a sudden, I wouldn't necessarily throw a ticker tape parade. I would have some questions for the field. Help me understand what's going on. But what we are seeing is consistent with
250our trends and does show a decrease. Right? As you'll see in the sort of the big five categories, each and every one of them shows a decrease for the entire district. We also drilled down across elementary, middle, and high school. And again, you'll see similar trends for all of those. For elementary, you did see an increase from I'm talking now 23, 24 to 24, 25, you did see an increase in fighting physical aggression. I do want to mark as a former elementary principal. When you file an IAR about a fight in elementary, it certainly could be a serious fight. I don't want to diminish that, but it could also be a conflict between two first graders that may not necessarily lead to significant injuries. Middle school, again, you'll see that same trend uh from one
251year to the next. You'll see a decrease in all of the major categories uh that we track when it comes to student safety. And then similarly in high school with the exception of threats where we saw a slight increase again from one year to the next you're seeing a decrease in ITARS. So my professional estimation is that we're seeing sort of a I I I don't think plateauing is the right word but I feel like we're kind of level setting when it comes to right we had potentially less reporting than we needed to have maybe four five six years out. We had COVID where we had fewer kids on campus. There were fewer uh things happening physically on a campus. Then we had folks getting back and reporting and now we're kind of getting back
252to sort of sea level for lack of a a better metaphor. As I referenced earlier, the other data set that we look at uh in school operations when it comes to safety is the school experience survey. You know, I understand that the SCS is a snapshot in time. I I want to mark this year that just concluded is the second year in a row that we uh administered the survey in February or basically in the sort of late winter, very early spring, I guess, versus we used to do in October. Uh for those of us that have been on a campus, we know that the way folks feel about how things are on their campus in October tends to be a little bit different than February or March if we're being very candid and honest
253with ourselves, right? there's certain things that come to a head in winter or spring for any number of reasons. All that said though, you'll see the summary uh you know on the screen in front of you and obviously I'm not going to read it to you, but in general again we're seeing those same positive trend lines. We're seeing more and more of our community members report that they feel safe and this includes students of course that they feel safe on campus and that they also feel safe in the environment near their campus. So specific to students and again I want to mark the last two years 23 24 25 were the two years where we administered the survey in the February window. So again you'll see a slight increase for the entire district. In elementary
254you see an increase middle you see an increase and in high school it's pretty much static. Okay. And again this is how students report that they feel in school or for those who participate virtually in online sessions. Now, for our students in terms of how they feel in the neighborhood around this school, again, you see some positive movement. You see a 4% increase at the middle school level. You see a 2% increase in high school. You see a 2% increase in elementary. Moving to our parents and and Bill Johnson and team shared that this year we had the highest rate ever of participation by parents in the school experience survey. We know that uh we tend to get higher results or higher outcomes from students and from staff because they're essentially a captive audience, if
255you will, with parents. There's a little bit more of an ask in terms of getting them to participate. And we had the highest rate of participation that we've ever had. And again, you see the the trend lines for parents are moving in a positive direction for our employees, for our staff. Again, uh the the numbers have always been uh I would say pretty high in the 90s obviously and again you're seeing across the district you're at about 95% you're seeing about the same at elementary but it's pretty high to begin with with 96% and in middle and high school you're seeing that positive movement. And last, when it comes to the neighborhood around the school, again, you see that positive movement for the most part when it comes to our employees, about a 1% elementary,
2562% in middle, and pretty static in high school. So, that's what the data tells us. That's what the data captures for the last year. And again, with AR, we gave the four, five, uh, sixyear snapshot there. Now, where I'd like to take us again is to around community engagement. And one of the things that I really emphasized to the team when uh superintendent asked me to to come on board in this role back in uh October of 22 now I believe uh was getting out with the community. Uh you have to talk to folks. You can have the the best intentioned ideas. You can have your own life experience. You can have your own experience as an educator, but if you're not talking to people, if you're not asking them the hard questions, if you're
257not willing to take the feedback, if you're not, frankly, willing to have somebody wag their finger in your face, then you're not really, you know, figuring out what's working and what's not. So, we've done some extensive work in that area and we'll continue to do so. So, over the past year and and obviously I'll dig in a little bit here. U we've had engagements with students, parents, and families, employees. you know, some of the categories that I did not put up here. Uh, you know, obviously we've met with some of our key community groups. We have a series of meetings with superintendent, with students deserve, community coalition, other key, uh, community partners. Uh, we also obviously meet with our our city and county uh, counterparts. You know, I've met with the deputy mayor for the
258city. Uh, we've have we've had engagements with the county. So, we're out there. We're talking to folks. In terms of what this actually looks like for our students, we had uh we were happy to host our second annual student safety summit. Again, this was something that we started just a couple of years ago. Uh it's for our initially when I was finalizing this presentation, I was going to say it was for our high school kids, but my team not ready yet. My team reminded me that we had an eighth grader sneak in. So you'll see on the snapshot that it says eighth grade and that that was a student from the virtual academy uh who was sent by his school but he had some great feedback. Um by design it's small. We invite a number
259of schools across each board district across each region. Uh we try to keep it to about 80 to 100 kiddos. We break them up by groups. We have conversations as you'll see in the video. Um, for next year, one of the ideas that we are playing with is bringing in that middle school voice and potentially having I I had an idea. It's not fully baked yet about maybe next year having this be for eighth and nth graders because, you know, obviously eighth grade, you know, they're they're sort of the queens and kings of middle school. They're the oldest kids, right? And then you have their ninth graders where all of a sudden a year ago you were running things and now you're the new kid on the block. So, getting that experience, but again, not
260quite fully developed yet, but it's one of our favorite experiences that we do all year. So, uh hopefully you enjoy this very brief video. So, we're here for the second annual LA USD student safety summit. This is a gathering of about 95 of our high school students to discuss key topics around safety both on campus and within their communities. Whether it is crime around our schools, issues of safe passage, or the attempts by some at dehumanizing just because someone is different, we will protect. Here today at the Beehive, we want to voice our opinions to Mr. Carvalo, the superintendent. It is definitely from the student perspective, what's happening to them at their school and within their community as well. We're talking from really about student safety. So from mental health to restorative justice and things
261of that sort. There's a lot of people representing their own schools, talking freely about how they can make school better for other people, not just themselves. I've experienced a lot of like bullying throughout my academic career the past 4 years. And I want to just let the superintendent know that hate should not be tolerated in any form. We just want to make the world a better place for every single one of our future generations of kids. you could listen to how each school like operates and how each school like feels about like their own safety. And then through all those ideas, you're able to discuss like, oh, what could we do to make our school safer? We understand that we need to calibrate with students to make sure that the supports that we're putting out
262there are actually meeting the needs of our learners. And so this gives us an opportunity to really hear directly from students. If a student doesn't feel safe, they're not going to learn. If a student doesn't feel safe, they're not going to come to school. And we need our students in school because we know this is where their future begins. I'm so inspired by the youth of this community. How bright, how brave, how committed, how compassionate you are. I'm so inspired by the dreams that will inspire your bright futures. Nikas [Music] All right. And again, this slide, and I I suspect you've had a chance to already look at it, is just a visual representation of some of the feedback that we that we gathered from our students. Now, this past year, the the student safety
263summit was in February. So, this was, you know, without venturing into the world of of politics too much, this was obviously after a change in in administration, and our students very clearly voiced to us their concerns already. And what they and this was after many of you all may remember we also had a number of walkouts in January. So this was you know sort of after walkouts before immigration enforcement writ large that's been happening the last month plus and our students said to us very clearly that this is an area where they needed support that they knew if it didn't impact them it would impact their families it would impact the folks that they lived with and so on. Uh and again you'll see some of the quotes that are highlighted there are are some
264of the feedback that we gathered from students that led directly to some of our actions uh for the coming year. We also had again our second round of region safety town halls. This is also something that we brought back. I I remember many years ago when I was a principal we used to have these. We hadn't had these in a number of years prior to this mainly you know due to COVID and the pandemic. Um we had one per region. We had about uh a little over 300 folks participate for a district of our size. That's not a lot, right? To to put it mildly. So, one of the things that we're looking at for next year is how do we make it uh more palatable, easier for for parents to access. Uh two years
265ago, we did it about six o'clock. Some of the feedback that we got then is that it was a little late. They would rather kind of do it right after they pick their kids up from school and so on. One of the things that we're looking at for next year is potentially a hybrid option so that folks can zoom in. makes it a little bit trickier because you want to make sure you're able to have those authentic conversations. But again, we're very open to changes in format, changes in platform. We want folks to come because that again, that's the whole intent. And what you'll see is again some of the feedback that we got from folks around what parents need to be educated on in order to help their children. For example, working with our
266students in terms of what's safe around social media, right? and knowing that our students, particularly when you start getting into the secondary grades, it's it's no longer an if. It's pretty much a given that students will have some interaction intersection with social media. So, how can I as a parent better control that? How can I support my child? Another critical piece around our engagement uh is the task forces and committees that the district maintains on a yearly basis related to safety. Of course, we have groupings for any number of topics. These are the three that relate uh to the the work of my team around safety. We have the safe schools task force that came out of a resolution uh back in 1819 I think authored by Mr. Meloyne. We have the school culture climate
267and safety task force uh that's related to the discipline foundation policy and the work around PBIS that that task force is uh very aly led uh by Laura Zev. And then we have uh board member Ortiz Franklin's subcommittee of the board that relates to school safety and climate. So, I'm going to take us through those pieces in terms of the recommendations uh that were rendered by those groups. So, again, the safe schools task force, I think I already uh pretty much spoke to this, so I won't spend too much time here, but uh we had uh not only the four general meetings, but it's not reflected here, but there's subcommittees to that task force. So, each subcommittee met at least twice. So, by the time it's all said and done, you have a cycle of
268about a dozen meetings per year. And as you'll see at the the bottom right of the screen as I'm looking at it, there's a link to the more extensive uh list of recommendations from the task force. I wanted to highlight uh a couple of the key ones. And again, I want to mark our role in terms of school operations as staff is to take these recommendations, look at the ones that are consistent with current district policy and implement them to the extent that we can. There are some that are not currently consistent or not consistent with current district policy or board direction. For those recommendations, my role is to render those to you and if it's something that you'd like to explore, then there would be a dialogue and potentially board action. I call that
269out because of course I know you've had uh many folks speak to the third bullet on this slide that talks about schools potentially having autonomy to have a school police officer on campus if they would so choose. Again to be very transparent that is not consistent with current board direction. So that is not something that superintendent or certainly not I could do uh unilaterally or give direction to the field. Something to that effect would require board action. On the other hand increasing mental health supports and activities sure that's something that we internally can look at. We can look at the data. Where are the areas where we're seeing higher I stars around suicidal ideiation? Where can we put additional resources? even security cameras. We can work with it. We can talk about potentially strategically where
270cameras are are placed on a campus when there's already a camera project going on uh when it comes to maybe theft protection and so on. But again, I wanted to mark that uh that's I think the only one of the three slides that highlights one that is not consistent with current policy. Again, the school culture, climate, and safety task force. Uh this is the task force that goes handinhand with the discipline foundation policy and with our uh positive behavior interventions and supports. Again, much like the safe schools task force, they meet four times a year. Laura Zeff, Paul Gonzalez, other members of the team lead this work. We have very good dialogue at these meetings. And these are just a couple of the recommendations. And again, I I I very much invite you, if you
271haven't already, to look at the link for the more extensive list of recommendations. Uh, one of the the pieces that I really want to focus on and this was brought to us by this task force and obviously I've heard it elsewhere is the level of awareness particularly by parents around PBIS, right? And we've had parents who, you know, there there are obviously like many parents that are very savvy and you can tell them, you know, what's PBIS and they can give you the primmer on PBIS. They know more about it than you do. There are other parents and this is no fault of theirs, right, who say, I don't know what that is. So our role is to make that come alive for them. So, for example, one of the things that we're going to
272be doing this year is really leaning in in those PBIS committees that each school is supposed to have, providing agendas, uh, making sure, you know, some being very honest, some compliance pieces in terms of making sure that schools certify that they're having these meetings, making sure that they're inviting parents at least a week in advance so folks can make arrangements and so on. And then the last body that I want to recognize, of course, and and it's uh board member Ortiz Franklin's uh school safety and climate uh committee, which again, I apologize for not having the dates here, but we had at least four meetings throughout the year. Um and again, that's something that I'm I'm privileged to serve on as well. Um and again, th this committee looks at a number of issues around
273safety. Uh we invite external partners. We have folks from the county. Uh Deputy Mayor Lane from the city is on the committee itself. We have partners from cadre that come and and give us their feedback. And of course, we have schools present as part of the safety committee of this committee. And again, there's an extensive list of recommendations uh that was submitted. Uh board member Ortiz Franklin and her team bucketed it into, I believe, seven key categories. And each category has uh sort of sub recommendations, if you will. Um but again, I wanted to highlight a couple of them. uh one and and this is almost uh there's some relevance here to the budget discussion that you all were just having around providing opportunities for students to be engaged during non-instructional times, right? How do
274we keep our kids engaged beyond 8 to 2:30, 8 to 3:30 when they're on campus or maybe when they can make that affirmative choice whether to stay on campus or maybe go home. So again, I I before I move on to this section, I I certainly humbly hope that that illuminates the amount of community engagement that we will do and will continue to do uh as we go forward. Every year we learn more. Every year we do things a little bit differently, even with the region town halls. One of the things that we heard two years ago at the town halls is we want data, IR data specific to our region. The district data is all well and good, but we want to know what's going on in region east, region west, region north, region
275south, and so on. We brought that this year and folks said, "Thank you for bringing that. Now, we want the data for our school, right?" Which is that's the question that I would ask. I'm a district dad. I would want to know what's going on in my kiddos school. So, that's another piece that we're looking at. How do we provide our constituents, our parents with the data specific to their school sites? So, what are we doing right now to support our schools? Uh, in in short, many many many things. Frankly, uh it's an everfluid situation, but I wanted to highlight some of the supports and and and like any good educators, we tier our supports. We look at our tier one, which are our baseline supports. We look at tier two, and we look at
276tier three. One thing that it's very important for me to say right now, I I even wrote it down in my notes, is there is no such thing as a tier 2 school. There is no such thing as a tier three school. I wanted to be very mindful of that. I didn't want anybody to to walk away from this presentation saying, "Oh my goodness, my child attends a tier three school." No, there are supports that are provided to a school based on need. So, you may have a school, for example, that is generally uh calm, placid, you know, like the overwhelming majority of our schools are. And then there is a specific day where they need those tier three supports. So, I wanted to mark that. Uh and again, this list is obviously not comprehensive.
277You'll see again there's there's a link at the bottom of the slide that that will give you the the sort of the omnibus list if you'd like to see that. But some of the ones that I want to really highlight again for us it's it's PBIS and TFI. Um I would say short of Laura Zeff and Paul Gonzalez, I'm probably about the truest believer you're going to get in PBIS in this district. And I don't say that to laud myself, but it's because I believe in it. I believe in it as a teacher. If you deal with tier one, if you create those systems again when you were a classroom teacher, then when you had that one kiddo that was a little out of pocket, it's okay. You have the time and the resources to
278deal with them. So, we're really continuing to put a lot of energy into PBIS, TFI, our supervision plans for our schools. And I know the board member Gonz referenced campus aids and and I do reference it later in the presentation. One of the things that we do already with schools, but we're going to amp it up a little bit more in the year to come, is sit down before school even starts and look at their supervision plans and talk about who do you have out there? What are your key areas? Are there sort of pockets of a campus where maybe that's an area that you want to, for lack of a better term, make it off limits during nutrition, lunch, because maybe you don't have necessarily the best eyes on that area. and having those
279conversations, training of staff. Uh my team so that you all know uh specifically trains campus aids, school climate advocates and also through the every school safe blueprint. We also provide general training uh to all staff and then of course to parents and students we provide provide presentations uh in terms of our tier 2 supports again. So when there's a higher level of need, we have our uh school mental health and wellness support. I know that uh Dr. Mahotra and Miss Marquez were up here a minute ago. But we continue to work handinhand with our PSW teams and you'll see a little bit more about that later on. Uh one of the things that we're looking to bring into this is kind of a new practice but also not is those sitewalks. Uh couple years ago
280I know that superintendent myself and a team went out to a middle school uh obviously I won't name the school but it was a school that frankly was in in crisis when it came to supervision. and we went out, we walked the campus, we saw the things that were going on or frankly the things that were not going on that were leading to a lot of the issues, right? So, we want to make sure that we provide those opportunities for our staff to go out and see what I would consider, for lack of a better term, model schools. See schools that have high functioning uh supervision strategies and they can say, "Oh, okay. You see that? Okay, I'm going to adopt that for my school and give them those opportunities." Um you'll see some slides
281uh down the road just a bit around comm the community based safety program. You know that continues to be a significant investment for the district not just as part of BAP but also uh outside of BAP per direction from superintendent but with I want to be very clear here with some very strong guard rails in place to ensure that those programs are yielding the results that we would like. And I know I've mentioned this in prior presentations we now have anou with grid with a gang reduction youth development program. We're finalizing literally while I was uh in the back I just got the latest draft of the theou with the office of violence prevention. So that's LA County. So we hope to have that uh before summer ends or frankly before school begins. Moving on
282to tier three. Again, right now we have our mental health evaluation teams and our psychiatric mobile response teams and and again I'll speak to those a little bit more when we get to some of the new supports. We have that in place. That's not a new piece. and the MET team. Uh, for those of us, I know there's many of us here, just about all of us have been site educators at one time. I don't know how many of us were sight educators when MET existed. I was not. I was gone as a principal before MET was. And sometimes you would have students who would be having a mental health crisis, what we sometimes call a 5585, and you were looking for a placement, you were looking for a bed. You know, we would talk
283about we need to find a bed for this student for the night, and you had to rely on external services. The mental health evaluation team, as you I'm sure most of you know, all of you know, is a partnership between a psychiatric social worker and a school police officer. The reason that combination is so critical is because the psychiatric social worker can make the essentially the diagnosis that the the the bed is needed and the school police officer can make the connection to get that bed. So now again, instead of those calls that we used to get when it would be the assistant principal who's still on campus 10 o'clock at night, sometimes later waiting for a placement for a student, through the MET team, we're able to get kids placed much more quickly. Uh
284we obviously have a robust crisis team response as needed. We deploy our operations coordinators both from the region and I have a very small but mighty team here centrally that deploys. And then specific to school police, school police uh their their sort of default model is what we call directed patrol when they have a each officer or each car has a group of schools that they monitor uh driving by, stopping by as needed. Uh but you know, delegated authority from superintendent gives me the ability as needed to authorize short-term onampus deployments. To be very crystal clear, a short-term deployment is no more than 5 days. Uh and when we do send school police officers, we also send additional supports, mental health, supervision from the region and so on. Okay. Specific to community based safety program
285because again I know that that's something that's front of mind for a lot of folks. Uh we I know we are in excuse me and forgive me I might get my years wrong. I'm I'm getting older. I believe we are in year four of BAP and we are in uh if we're being very candid we're in year I would say year two of really robust implementation of CBSP. Uh prior to that there was some implementation. I don't want to you know denigrate that the work that was done before uh but it wasn't at this level of investment. So what you see in front of you is just a very simple visual representation of the programs that we've been able to implement when schools request programs. Of course we prioritize group one and group two. Dr.
286Whitman and Dr. Brandy also authorized us uh to go ahead and extend the support to group three schools as needed. And you'll see that for the most part with literally two exceptions and the only reason those programs weren't executed is because the request came in very late in the year. Yep. Um we've been able to execute these. Similarly, superintendent authorized uh an allocation of about $3 million uh for quote unquote non BAP schools. To be clear, that's group four BAP schools. All of our schools are BAP schools. And again, uh you'll see the work that we've been able to do in that space. Okay. And I already mentioned grid, so I'm not going to spend too much time here. Now, where are we going for next year? Okay. So again, um we're tiering our supports.
287I'm going to go in the interest of time, I'm going to go directly to sort of the three critical investments uh that we wanted to highlight, but of course, if you want to bring me back to this slide when we're in Q&A, please feel free to. Uh one that we are really going to launch uh I believe in late July, probably consistent with superintendent's address in July is our unified against hate campaign. Uh we know that we have had via AR data, we have had hate related incidents across our campuses. Uh this is something that's modeled off of something that region north did uh no room for no room to hate I believe. Um and again we're taking that campaign districtwide and it it encompasses all of our constituencies, students, parents, employees and so on
288and you can certainly expect more information. Uh the uh another initiative that I want to focus on and I believe it's been renamed uh since I did this slide, but essentially it's about formalizing our parent volunteers who assist with supervision, providing more specific training. It'll be a three-part training with essentially a certification that they receive at the end of the training. Those trainings will be provided by my teams and they'll be able to support with supervision on campus. This is something that came to us directly from parents when we had region town halls. And the last again I mentioned the mental health evaluation teams and the case management teams. This is a a request a directive that was given to us directly by superintendent and it's deploying these resources as proactively as possible. The MET
289teams, the case management teams uh and I don't say this poratively but they they react uh it's a reactive strategy. So, how can we based on AR data, based on dialogue with our school leaders, more proactively deploy those resources out to campuses so that instead of not that anyone is waiting for a student to go into crisis, but instead of waiting for that crisis to happen, we can address some of those needs in anticipation of. Uh, so again, I I know you've had a a week to look at this um in a very busy time for all of you, I'm sure. Um, but I'll stop here for questions uh that you may have. Thank you all for the time. questions, board members. Okay, I'll ask first and then I'll go to you next. Okay. Um,
290so Andreas, 95% of the teachers stated they feel safe during the day. Do you know what the biggest issue that the teachers have stated that compromises their safety? That 5% problem. Do you know what it is? I would defer to Mr. Johnson, but I don't believe that as part of the SCES we capture that sort of information. It's just sort of a yay nay kind of vote, so to speak. Okay, that would be good. Thank you. We can look into it. And um I wonder what the principles think is the biggest safety concern at school. I know we have teachers view of course and the principles you maybe that we can capture. That would be good. Yeah. Um let's see. And I see that um students feel safe at school has increased by 1% since
291last year. What do you think we have to do? And I kind of have an idea what you got to do for to get 5%. And that's all that training that we have for parent volunteers, etc., etc., right? Right. I It's very hard to diagnose because again, you know, what makes me feel safe may not be what makes you feel safe and so on. So, it's looking at that. For us, it's it's making our resources as visible and transparent and clear as possible. So again, this may seem like a simple thing, but even for our parent volunteers, them having a specific vest, right? A colored vest. I know it seems kind of silly. It's it's the elementary educator. I think for our kiddos, they see that and they react positively to it. Thank you for
292that. Just a word of advice for school sites, you need to get out to supervision before the bell rings, not after the bell rings. That's one of the keys I found to making sure that the campus is safe. be out there before the and it's hard. Everybody's busy at school. Everybody's busy, but before that bell rings, you need to be outside at your duty station. Personal opinion. Carla, um, thank you for the presentation. Um, I'm very excited to see that we are focusing on community based safety programs and also supporting the school, the students on the inside. Um my schools for the most part I think I have group two a couple maybe or group three and then I have some nonB group four schools and um they've been asking for community based safety programs
293and uh we've been able to use some of the funding and it's um it's according to the principles it's been helpful but I'm wondering um have there how many of the group four and beyond have asked for this kind of support and we're not able to accommodate them at this time. The only ones that I'm aware of where we weren't able to accommodate them, it's because the requests came in very late in the year. So, they made requests in April or May. Um, we did a two-part strategy in terms of getting the word out. We did a number of presentations at principal meetings letting principles know that they could request uh this support. And then we also did a more targeted approach where when we would look at certain schools and look at their IAR
294data, we would reach out to that principal and say, you know, we were looking at your IAR data based on your safe passage incidents, you may want to consider this resource. Uh we're we're still pretty well budgeted there for the next year, maybe even year plus. So I think we're knock on wood, we're in pretty good shape. Okay. And then you mentioned anou with the LA county and I know we have theou with the city and um district 5 has a lot of schools in the southeast cities and so their county they're they get support from the county. Will the county be able to support uh these schools like say grid supports some of the schools in the city of LA. What does the county offer? It's a very similar model. So, uh, OBVP'sou is
295is frankly kind of modeled on the grid, uh, work that's been done in the past. To be very clear, they don't have that same sort of footprint in terms of the number of operators that they have within OBVP, but yes, it would be the same kind of support. Okay. And then, um, so, and it's going to be the same process. So, if my schools in the southeast cities are asking for something like that, I would call. Okay. Yes, ma'am. All right. And then um I was part of the task force, not the task, no the committee, the the yes the committee. And um we heard from a lot of schools. I think they had great presentations. But one of the uh key elements that was common amongst all of them is that they did the
296work of safety in schools as a team. It wasn't just one person's job to do the work. it was and it was the principal, the assistants or the campus aids, uh, out of classroom personnel, counselors, whatever it was from elementary all the way up to high school. And so I think it's important to see the supports at a school in that way. And one of the things that they also shared was that there were regular check-ins that they would check in on a regular basis like daily, okay, what happened, you know, and then you could hear what's going on with the students and you can offer more support. So do a lot of the work ahead of any sort of issue issue that might rise and as you know as a person who was at
297a school site you know when things are about to happen. So you know it's I I but I think the communication has to be there and then the the structure has to be in place for them to work together. So, um the other thing I I wanted to um share is that um in my survey that I I passed out to folks in my district, 77% of them said that they wanted more investments in safe passages and um 73% said they want more investments in school safety teams. And it's that model of having folks and they you know they talked about a coordinated vision of safety where school climate advocates work with mental health providers with educators and others and um one of the most important asks was training everybody school climate and I know
298you said that there is training but when I heard from folks who do the work on the ground are they're saying that there's not enough training and so um I feel like there needs to be a calendar and a schedule of training for um for school safety teams um throughout um our district. The other thing I was going to ask is I'm sorry. Oh, in the unified against hate campaign, who is going to be doing that work? It says a call to action for the entire school community of students to focus on increased awareness, training, curriculum and review of district policy. So will it be your office or who do so? So so my office will be the lead. We'll obviously work with the regions to get information out to get training out as needed
299to our site administrators and so on. Ultimately the work at the school site is designed to be done by the stakeholders there led by the principal and by a team very much to your point board member Grigo. We're designing it kind of like um similar to what we've done with the every school safe blueprint where there'll be uh modules or trainings that are designed for students, pieces that are designed for in-classroom use by teachers and so on. So yes, it's essentially a three-part in terms of the work. Okay. And when will uh principles and school sites be aware of the funds being there for them to start uh calling the community based safety programs or anything that uh any programs that they can bring to the school site like the peace building now we're already
300in in dialogue. We since we know that principles are going off basis I believe it's next week since I went off eBasis. I don't I don't follow ebases anymore. Um we are pro we are frontloading a lot of the information with them around those programs now so that again when they come back on basis in late July then we can get those programs up and running. Our goal is to have as many of them as possible in place for August 14th. Okay. Wonderful. I appreciate that. And yes, thank you also for acknowledging that really we've only been doing this work for two years, right? And really this past year has probably been the one where we're like really using all the funds. So, I'm hoping that next year we use up all the funds and
301we can get some some data that shows um how this is working for our students. So, that's it for right now. Thank you. Thank you, Kelly. Um well, I'll I'll echo uh some of the same comments that board member Grigo raised. Um I know from conversations in my community, school safety is really top of mind for parents and staff and students. Um, I think the concerns that they have shared vary from, you know, ensuring safe routes to and from school to responding to incidents that are happening on campus, building in more partnership programs um, and from our students because we held specific student listening sessions on this, really wanting to see a sense of belonging for kids and not feeling alienated. So that uh, adult caring adult relationship was really central. So, I I really
302appreciate the emphasis on PBIS um because I think while it's been a long-standing part of our district, I don't know that the implementation is at 100% at every school site and I think that there is much more investment and support we can provide on that front and being preventative before any issues happen. Um I know that our schools are also bringing on more supports on the socioeotional learning front which I think also complements PBIS and really um investing in students wellness emotionally and um socially which I think will help prevent some of the incidents we see in the ITARS. Um I also am happy to see the safe passages um increases here. I know that um some of my schools in the northeast San Frernando Valley have had significant needs for safe passage support. Um
303I I know we've gotten those up and running this year. So I look forward to greater expansion on that front. Um and also the inclusion of our parent volunteers as being a part of this effort. I think we have parents who are active and ready um to help support in these ways. And it's about um having again caring adults, a team of us on campus to support and oversee our students. Um I want to thank you um Mr. Ch and also Superintendent Carvalo for just engaging with me on this topic over the last year as we've had different incidents arise. Um and I appreciate the new supports. Okay, a couple of questions from me. Um one, you know, we have discussed limited funding um the fiscal stabilization plan that recently passed. Um one priority for
304me is ensuring a minimum level of staffing. We know we know that having um supervision staff um whether it's during recess and lunchtime at dismissal period is really important to prevent incidents from occurring and ensure that students feel safe. Um, so was curious about kind of the campus aid related piece here. There's a note in the tier one supports additional campus aid positions allocated as needed. Are there more details you can provide on that? Yes. Uh, so part of the work that we did leading up to the presentation was around how campus aids are allocated presently. So currently the the baseline allocation and this goes all the way back to uh, Superintendent King to Dr. King is a minimum of two campus aids for elementary and a minimum of two campus aids for middle school.
305There isn't necessarily a baseline allocation for high schools. Doesn't mean schools don't purchase them. I'm talking about allocations that are made centrally, right? So, that's kind of where we're at now. Uh in terms of the current positions across the district, the data that my team pulled, which I was looking at some of the budget stuff earlier, is maybe a a little bit of a difference, but I think it's because we were counting actual human beings versus FTEES. We had about 2,200 campus aids across the system in this year that just ended. Uh we had I think we counted about 89 vacancies. So to me when I see a a workforce let's say of 2200 and only 90 vacancies then to me filling the positions is not necessarily the problem, right? It's more about how do
306you allocate them and how do you allocate them uh more strategically. So part of the work that we're doing uh under the direction of superintendent is developing just a more general formula based on square footage of the school enrollment and a number of other factors to say this is how many folks you should have for supervision. Now, I intentionally said folks, not campus aids, because campus aids would be part of said contingent, right? But we would also look at campus aids, school supervision aids, administrators. Obviously, we want to make sure that we're staying within all of our labor bounds in terms of who's allowed to do supervision and who's not, but looking at who you have on campus. After we've gone through that process with our schools, again, every single operations coordinator will meet with
307their principles before the school year begins to look at their supervision plan. If we identify a need and the school cannot fund it themselves, then we would look at additional allocations around campus aids. But we want to go through that entire process first. Okay. Um that sounds quite thorough and um I I think it sounds very helpful. So look forward to hearing more as the process continues around what additional supports may be needed at particular school sites. Um and then I think it just brings up also the question of training which I know um my colleague also asked about. Can you talk about what types of training we're providing? Um, as we have a community-based safety approach, we want to ensure that all of our relevant school site staff, whether that's school climate advocates or
308campus and supervision aids, um, are are really prepared to implement that in their roles. So, as of last year, every single staff member on a campus gets training on deescalation strategies. That started in I believe it was the module for November. I think August was welcoming environments, November was deescalation. I want to be very clear here when I say deescalation, we're talking about verbal deescalation. Kind of like what board member Gdiego said, looking for those indicators like, you know, the student the shoulders start to go up. There's there are certain physical indicators that we know as educators that maybe something's about to happen. So looking for those cues, looking for those pieces, the language that staff can use. So that's sort of the baseline. We provide that to everybody along with training around welcoming environments.
309Then for specifically for campus aids, for school climate advocates, we provide deeper training again around deescalation. But again, it's mostly about it's it's pretty much exclusively around that verbal deescalation and how to ideally prevent I think it was Dr. Rivas who said it prevent a situation versus waiting for it to actually happen. And then just a last question on this, there's a reference under new new tier one supports to coordination of service team meetings. Can you share more about what exactly that is? Sure. Um, so right now when there is a student on a campus, and this is not universal. There's always going to be schools that do it a little bit differently, but in general, when you have a student that is having maybe academic issues, socio emotional issues, uh, whatever, attendance issues, we
310tend to route those students to SSP. That has become sort of the universal process for those students. Now, I'm a big believer in SPT. My wife's a teacher. She's on the SPT committee at her school. So, it's a good thing. But we used to have and we still do have cost, right, which is about coordinating services, some internal, some external to meet maybe nonacademic needs. So, part of the work that we're going to be doing is bringing that back and saying this is a student that potentially you can address her needs better through SSP. On the other hands, this is a student that maybe is better routed to cost where you're looking at other resources. Very helpful. Thank you. Sure, Dr. Rivas. One of my questions was the um coordination with service team. So, I'm
311writing down what you said. Uh okay, I'll finish that later. Um so, thank you for the questions that have already been asked. Some of them have already been answered for me. Uh, but going back to the United Against Hate campaign, is is that based on a pre-existing program or um curriculum that you're going to be basing it from, but contextualizing to LA? It It's a little bit of both. Uh, so it is based on a campaign uh that Region North did. Uh they kicked it off first semester of this past school year called No Room to Hate, you know, North. Um, and it's pretty much a lot of the content that we're getting, we're getting from what they developed, obviously working with our mental health practitioners, working with teachers, working with folks that have the
312content expertise in that area. So, it's mostly an internal product, meaning a district product. Uh, but it's based on again what uh region north developed in uh August, September of this past year. Oh, okay. because I asked because there is uh we stand united against hate and it's more like a California um based and they have a lot of toolkits and information. So I was just wondering if that's it would be good to look at it because it's based and I think LA County is one of the ones that are um that are part of this program. So that's great. Um and so for the um just some of the questions have been asked but for the past program the parents assisting the student safety so there is this for at all grade levels elementary
313so they'll be parents elementary middle high um the the prerequisites if you will the parent has to have that highest level of volunteer I believe it's tier three where they can be on a campus on a regular basis so once they've gone through that obviously It's mutual interest. So the parent want has to want to do it. The administrator on the campus has to say yes, I have a need for parent volunteers. They would register with us. The trainings will be at the region. It'll be a three-part training. Part one will be sort of basic district policies and then part two and part three will be around uh active supervision, proactive supervision and so on. Um and is are you working on a campaign to notify parents that this is happening? Yes. And you're going
314to like um sort of initiate it at the beginning of school or prior to school? A little bit prior to the beginning of school. I I I I want to be very I don't want to overpromise and underdel. So I'm not saying we're going to have folks on campuses on August 14th. Although to be clear, we already have parent volunteers that help with supervision. This is just kind of a cottifying it across the district. But our kickoff on this will be late July uh early August. Maybe uh superintendent can put in a good plug for me in his address in July 22nd. Um and you mentioned I don't know if you you mentioned some training but I wasn't sure if this was in reference to this program. So the you mentioned training district policy but
315would also be deescalation conflict resolution restorative justice so they sort of know the yes as part of that training Dr. Grievous, but also just in general as part of the every school safe blueprint. Uh you'll recall that all the modules that we do, all the topics that we do are for staff, students, and parents. So parents are that same module that we do around deescalation, parents get it. Welcoming environments, which include includes elements of PBIS, parents get it. So that way moms, dads, guardians are getting the exact same content as everyone else. Wonderful. And will they be working along with school climate advocates or just I mean I I see it's only for Reese's nutrition and lunch but um because the school climate advocates they do a lot of sort of activities during these times.
316Yes, absolutely. What part of the the training would be around coordinating with campus aids, school supervision aids, school climate advocates. To be clear, as we all know, school climate advocates don't do supervision per se, but they are out on the yard during nutrition, lunch, and so on. so they can connect with kiddos in that environment. Um, thank you. And I just want to reiterate um gratitude to you and your staff and um for listening to us as we're all facing different, you know, scenarios in our schools and wanting to amplify what school safety means that infrastructure and that means personnel and training and you know all of sort of everything that that comes with um making sure that our schools are safe, welcoming and just wonderful places to be. So thank you so much. Appreciate
317it. Thank you, Dr. Rivas. Miss Newell, uh, thank you very much for the presentation. Wanted to just kind of clarify with the training that was mentioned. Is that a module training or is that an in-person training specific to which one? Board member to the training for our parents assisting with student safety. Those would all be in person at the region unless there is a critical mass of parents. Say for example, you have a school that has 10 or 11 parents that want to volunteer, then I would send folks to that school to do the training. But on the other hand, if you have a couple of parents here, a couple parents there, then we would ask them to come to the region or maybe one site that's close enough to everyone to get the training.
318It's important that it be in person and it's an in person. Yes. And then that training is done prior to them being onboarded to come on board. Now, what is the process to come on board? Because often the parents are asking is it a six week uh process as far as from beginning to end how long does it take for them to get process? So uh just kind of bifurcating here in terms of becoming a parent volunteer in general there's a process with you know folks have to get fingerprinted and so on that's uh governed by Mr. Placencia and his team. Our process in terms of going through those three trainings we would be looking to get it done probably in about two weeks because we want to onboard folks as soon as possible. We
319also want to be respectful of folks schedules if they have work schedules and so on. But our our sweet spot would be about two to three weeks like a couple trainings one week the final training the following week something along those lines. Can you explain just a little bit the difference between what penc uh he's doing versus what your training is doing. Sure. So Mr. Placencia and his team uh speak to the general process for anybody who wants to volunteer on a campus as a parent for any purpose. So, if you want to volunteer in your kiddos's classroom, if you want to go on field trips, so on, that's uh S-face and the the work that that team does, I'll be sort of, for lack of a better term, a subset of that where if
320a parent wants to volunteer, but they specifically want to volunteer on the yard, then uh we would do the certification. Got it. Okay. Got it. And then just to clarify with the deescalation training, that training is done in how many modules? How many face-to-face uh meetings and how is and when is that due or done? So for all staff on campus it's one time per year. I I believe last year it was in November. I think this year it's also in November because there's essentially one training per month different topics for school climate advocates and campus aids. With school climate advocates we meet once a month. So we do multiple deescalation trainings throughout the year. And then for campus aids, we offer four different trainings per year. So deescalation is embedded into those training modules.
321So this deescalation is for every staff member. Correct. Right. So we provide that baseline for everyone. And then again for those folks who may be, for lack of a better term, sort of the front line when it comes to deescalating kiddos, we provide more in-depth training. And that's done in November. The initial training. Yes. Because what we're looking at in terms of the modules we do in August we do uh welcoming environments which includes elements of PBIS includes elements of how to create that environment that kids want to come back to. In September because September is suicide awareness prevention month we do modules around uh suicide and suicide prevention. So then we tee this module up for October, November. Got it. Okay. And then kind of to the statistics that were shared from the task
322force. Uh you mentioned I know there's three that we saw the task force and the committees. Now there were numbers of weapons and I know the task force was kind of created to kind of track gun safety. Right. That was the original genesis of that task force. Correct. Now, originally, were there desegregated numbers of guns that were found based on that original premise for that task force? I I can't speak to the work that happened uh you know, when the the task force first came online in 1819. For the last two years, uh when I've been in charge of the task force as part of the meetings, we do provide data around weapons as part of our AR data that we share. Now, were the weapons specifically state guns or not? When it comes to
323AR, no. You know, it could be anything from a knife all the way up to, god forbid, a firearm. Um, obviously within the AR narrative itself, it will say what the weapon was, but the actual category is just weapons. Just weapons. Okay. And then an anonymous tip of a firearm that comes in through LAR, how is that monitored over the 247? So all tips from LAR go to the watch commander because the watch commander is the only office in the district that's open literally 247 365. So they're monitoring LAR. So if a tip comes in their job uh in many cases is not necessarily to respond but to route the tip. So in most cases the tip you know not necessarily something like that but most tips would go to the principal to say hey
324someone reported that there's a a gate on your campus that has a big hole in it. you need to address it. If it's something like that where we have a an anonymous report of a weapon, uh we that tip would go to region operations and to the principal to respond. Got it. and had a question about currently um there's a plan and safety committees and school site that rate their tier 2 and tier three interventions and not just tier one as TFI currently measures is that how the plan works now so the the tiered fidelity inventory is the tool you know you and I may remember the ROY the rubric of implementation uh it's basically a tool that's used essentially it's a self assessment by the school to look at how they're doing in terms
325of PBIS implementation the the big change and actually it's not a change it's something that we're bringing back uh for next year is to have sitewalks led by operations coordinators where we essentially validate the TFI so that we have additional eyes oversight on it so would we be able to get a like a report on that or data based on the TF okay yes um and Then we mentioned grid and the use of grid. Now are those participants in that program able to go on campus or there's outside campus or how do they work with uh both because of theou with the city for grid. Grid can respond both on campus and off-campus. So, for example, if you have a school site that maybe doesn't have safe passage support, but they need it because of
326a critical incident that happened, Grid can do about 3 to 5 days worth of safe passage support outside of the school. They can also respond on campus as needed. Um, and not just for critical incidents. Part of the work that we're going to ramp up with them for this following year is prevention work. uh students that maybe staff members identify as maybe kind of being on the road to potentially being uh in that space of of gang activity, bringing in folks from grid that can meet with that family, meet with that student in advance. And then our grid, they're fingerprinted and background checked through the district or through the city? Through the city. We have anou with the city, but the city governs the actual operators for grid. Okay, that's all I have right now.
327Thank you. Thank you, Miss Newell. Anybody else? Mr. Melpoint? Sure. Um, thanks, Mr. Chait for the presentation and all that you do and like my colleague said, just your responsiveness given the the many crises that we deal with. Um, on almost a daily basis. Uh, appreciate uh what you discussed. I also want to I know it's been discussed, but shout out Dr. Baka North for the no place to hate um no place for hate um and their t-shirts and their awareness campaign and there's a lot of great stuff happening in our regions that it's good that we're kind of learning locally but but kudos to them. Um I guess three quick uh questions. Um the first is uh thank you for mentioning uh well of course you're going to mention the task force and the
328board committees. Thank you for one of which came out of my um resolution and uh one of the challenges I think with the three venues is sometimes they're not talking to each other. Um and I think even just as evidenced by kind of who is speaking at this board at a 9:00 a.m. versus a 3pm or 4 p.m. is we have difference opinions on this critical topic. And I wonder if there's an opportunity through either consolidation or just collaboration between those three task forces to try to build some alignment. And I don't know if you can speak to that or if just there's a way to streamline some of that engagement so that because when I when I or my team are at those various committee meetings, it are distinct group of stakeholders with different
329perspectives. I just want to be frank about that. And I think it could behoove us all if there's an opportunity to get diversity of voices in the room. I I frankly would very much welcome that. There is a little bit of a ven diagram between the three. There are some folks that that attend two or maybe all three of those convenings, but to your point, for the most part, you do seem to and some of this may be just by virtue of the time, the days that these meetings are held, you do tend to get different constituencies at each one. And we've even had parents who who want to participate and they, you know, they ask me, "Mr. Ch, which one should I go to?" And I, you know, I tell them sort of the
330purpose of each one and I say, "It's essentially up to you in terms of your scheduling." So I think it would be great if we could look at some uh manner of consolidation. That's good to good to know. I think would be helpful. Another thing is just asking about elementary school because those students aren't part of your feedback cycle for you maybe obvious logistical reasons just given the age of the students. But there seems to be an uptick in fights and some bullying that we're seeing in elementary school. Um and I think if we address some of those things then we'll have fewer problems. And I say this as a former seventh grade teacher in the district. So, can you speak a little bit about ways we're engaging our youngest students in the elementary model
331around restorative justice? So, a lot of the engagement that we do with our elementary students goes back to the the trainings and the presentations that we do for students as part of the every school safe blueprint. Um, we beyond that, we don't have a systemic way to connect with fourth graders, fifth graders. Uh to your point, a as a former elementary principal, I think if you talk to fifth graders, maybe second semester, maybe even first semester, I think you could get some pretty key feedback from them. It's a little it's a little trickier uh with with younger kiddos. Um but I think we can look at some opportunities there. Great. And then finally, um I would argue anecdotally, and I know that we're collecting empirical data, but and I'll admit my own bias, but that
332the cell phone restrictions have helped improving school climate, particularly at the secondary level. Um, and so I just want to note and elevate something the superintendent committed to earlier today, which is just in the budget in in the next few years having, you know, a few a small set aside for the refresh for either the pouches or the lockers. I think it's something we've discussed at various board meetings, but we implemented it last year. I think if there's wear and tear at the school level, they'll be responsible for that. But just like our device refresh, if something's working, I don't want that burden to fall on the school. So, I just want to thank the superintendent for that. um and and mentioned that I appreciate the time and effort, you know, you in particular and
333your team um and the uh staffs at school sites that are making that successful as we close out the first semester of implementation. I I do think it's working um and appreciate uh the team's implementation. Thank you. Anyone else? Carla. Oh, I'm sorry. We ha I I'm sorry. We have Miss Ortiz Franklin waiting patiently and then we'll get to you. Thanks, Mr. and um and thanks for accommodating my emergent uh child care situation this afternoon. Um thanks Andreas for the presentation and for serving on our board committee and and leading all these other spaces. Um I know this is the last board meeting of the year that we're getting this. So this is fine to share as a follow-up for next year. Um but I' I've shared with you and I'll just share with my
334colleagues. I think it's important to note who's on these various task forces. not just to the point um that was made about you know where should people plug in but I think it also reflects some of the recommendations and how they might be at odds given who's in the room. So, um, even as just a quick update to this group, I think it would be helpful to note, you know, there are two parents from Region East or there are three community members from these organizations. Um, we did share who's on the board committee, so that should be out to everyone. Um, and it's also, I think, either posted on the board of ed website or on our website. Um, but I think that that lens matters and to your point, we're constantly trying to get,
335you know, more representation um, to hear the diverse voices, to land on the right decisions. Um but particularly when we're making recommendations, I think it matters just you know who's making those recommendations. Um and the other point that I have shared with this group and I'll just ask it again. Um the data would be so helpful by you know 1,000 students um or some indicator that takes into account the declining enrollment um because we are seeing some some swings and it could be even better either increases or or or worse decreases whichever way it is. um just given if we considered enrollment as the denominator um which has been missing from some of these presentations. So maybe that's a part of next year how we approach the work um but I think it would again
336give more clear concrete um you know understanding of of the fuller picture if if we could add that for for next year. So I know I've shared these with you I'm sharing them with my my colleagues here to in hopes that we can make those adjustments for next year. We'll make that sort of a default for future presentations. Thanks. Yeah, I really appreciate it. And then just on the um various task forces and committees, um and I know you and I have talked about this again too, but maybe Mr. Mr. Maldo, since you wrote the task force uh or the resolution that called for the safety one, um and then I know you know, Miss Garcia had done the other one, maybe the board and the the board committee could look at um kind of
337consolidating so that we're maximizing staff time and um come in the fall, I'll just let you all know, so that um we're potentially um streamlining some of those spaces. Um I think hybrid makes a lot of sense if people can participate remotely or in person. Um, but we want to make sure that staff is using their time as best as possible and community voice is an important part of that. Um, but we don't want to be replicating or duplicating too much. Um, so again, I want to try to be helpful there with our our board committee. So, um, thank you and look forward to the work next year and invite people to the board committee and the schedule is going to be one of the items coming through today. Thanks. Thank you, Miss Ortiz Franklin.
338Can we get a vote from you for uh, tab one, the budget? Oh, yes, please. And you know, thanks to the superintendent and budget team for meeting with me individually on all of my questions. I'm a yes on tab one. Got it. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Carla. Yes. I was just going to ask, are the PDs are I'm sorry, the trainings for staff on campus, are those on Tuesday PDS or Okay, they're uh during faculty meetings. Oh, faculty meetings. And um the other thing is one of the other comments I heard from families is that they want this kind of training at their school sites. So is that possible that maybe through the parent center, through the community rep or you know they can provide this kind of information to families as well like
339deescal you know just maybe not in the same manner that you would present it to educators or campus aids but one that is appropriate for parents. We we actually do as part of the blueprint, the every school safe blueprint. Anything that we do as part of that for employees or students, we also do for parents coffee with a principal, maybe with a community rep, you know, uh partnering on that. Obviously, we tailor the content a little bit to more of a parent audience, but we definitely do do that. Okay. And then just one uh suggestion and I don't know if you already do this but um when there's going to be a um a community based safety program in place put in place at a school site. I wonder if we could support the schools
340with guiding them like make sure that you have meetings with parents to let them know have assemblies with students to let them know how the staff so that there's complete awareness from everyone that this is happening and that there's an effort to try to create safety in the schools. Um, and just I I just think that sometimes that's the part that is missing sometimes is the communication piece and that's why people think nothing's getting done. But if we communicate and we say those are the folks who are actually doing this work, then you know people start to say, "Oh, okay. We're doing that." And then just lastly, I think that um some of my schools asked for support inside the school as well. And and the schools that asked for that were group four schools.
341So, I'm wondering, is there going to be any funding for schools that want to not just do the community- based safety or safe passages outside, but also do some some peace building and and conflict resolution type support inside the school. Let me take that back to to deputy superintendent and superintendent, and I'll I'll get back to you. Okay, I believe everyone has spoken and we're going to get to our patient but very patient public comment now. Right, Mr. McClean? Okay, thank you. Okay, here we go for general public comment. I'll call on the folks who are listed as being in person first and then we'll go to those who are listed as being remote. So, I'll call the next four folks and uh please be ready. Uh Marquavius Moore, come on up. You'll have two
342minutes to speak once you begin. then Lel White, then Eric White, then Ian Kirksy. So, uh, Mr. Markavius. Hi. I'm yielding my time to Vanessa. Come on up, Vanessa. You'll have two minutes to speak. Why don't you begin? Hello. My name is Vanessa. I'm an 11th grader. I'm Miguel Conturus and a leader in student deserve. I want to share with you the demands I have. In the past few days, group chats have been filled with panic. Students are sharing locations of eye sightings, warning each other to stay safe. Others sit through the day feeling numb, distracted, and afraid. This fear is not just on the outside. It follows us. That's why we are demanding 10 million in this year's budget to expand and fully fund stream centers across LA USD. We appreciate the $5 million
343being invested in dream centers, but we, the students, know that we need more. These programs aren't just optional. They're essential. Dream centers give undocumented students real tools. Legal support, mental health resources, college help in a space where we feel like we're not like a threat, but like human beings with potential. Right now, too many students go without the support. We are asking you to meet this moment with real investment. A true sanctuary district doesn't just say the right things, it puts money behind them. That's that's what it means to protect undocumented students. This investment puts forward the investment put forward already is a good step but and L USD students need more. The time is now for L USD to take a bold stand and protect undocumented students. That's why you must also fund BAP
344by 10 million and fund LGBTQ affirming training and staff. So LUSD protect undocumented black and queer students. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Lel White, come on up. I'm going to yield my time to Scott. Come on up, Scott. You'll have two minutes to speak. Thank you. Hello everyone. Uh my name is Scott Achilles. I am a teacher at Man UCLA Community School. I teach seventh grade, 8th grade, uh 11th grade, and 12th grade. Um also coach, uh so most of our teachers are definitely having all this time and stuff. and I just kind of wanted to share a little bit about our story at man and how BAP has been um very helpful and and for our students. Um starting uh four years ago, you know, we got our first PSW and that
345first PSW was demanding and fighting for uh the black student achievement plan and little by little, you know, it started working out more and more. Uh just kind of fast forwarding to this year, you know, we did get um the safe passage program. Uh the the people with the orange vest and you know, has been helping our students a lot more. Uh one of our main concerns as teachers are definitely our is the safety and we've seen a lot of the safety in our students have been improving as well in the schools. Uh but most importantly also them being proud of being from South Central. You know, one of the main things is that I start our school in the very beginning asking them how do they feel about South Central. I always tell him
346the same thing. You know, the same words and everything and by the end of the year, we get to ask them the same question. You know, one of the students uh replied, "I'm not going to let anybody diss South Central anymore." And they were dissing South Central the whole year. Um well, besides that, you know, I know that one of the main concerns also for y'all is test scores. And we were able to improve our test scores uh last year uh because of the improvements that we had. We had people coming in uh our te our students were able to have a boys club and a girls club especially our middle schoolers because we have a really great relationship with our uh high schoolers but it was our middle schoolers that are the ones that
347are that need the most support. So right now I do want to make sure that we demand more money for BAP uh because we do see get to see that it is very helpful for our students and uh ultimately it's not just a safety we also see that um their test scores have also been improving and which is something that I know that y'all are aware of. Thank you for your time. And Miss Ortiz Franklin, can I collect your vote for the consent vote? Uh yes, please. And I'm a yes. Okay. Yes. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Okay. Uh, Eric White. Uh, I'mma yield my time to Maria Maria Vid Rial. Thank you. Go ahead, Maria. You have two minutes. Good afternoon. My name is Maria Via Real. I am a dreamer and LA
348USD alum and I was a part of starting the dreamers club at my high school that led to the creation of our dream center which helped me get to UCLA. I am also a member of the Dream Allies network, Urban Visionaries, and a member of Reclaim Our Schools LA, which is part of a larger police free LUSD coalition. Over the past few months, our coalition of parents, students, educators, and community members have been having very productive conversations with the board members, and district folks to put more funding into the Black Student Achievement Plan, and to invest in real resources for immigrant students and families such as dream centers, student success centers, and LGBTQ students. While we can all acknowledge that our communities need so much more in these troubling times, we do want to recognize
349that the district is taking steps in the right direction, particularly with what was just passed in the budget today. But we want to highlight um that can't stop there. Our voices need to stay at the table as decisions are being made and as these items are being implemented. Dream Allies Network is a grassroot network of students, educators, parents, and community organizations that facilitate dream centers and programs for mar marginalized students and families in LUSD and AUSD. We have been on the ground and doing this work in public schools and have an in-depth understanding of what works and what is missing. We encourage the district to consult with these folks, students, families, and educators on the framework and processes for funding and how these funds are actually spent. We believe that if the goal is to
350effectively meet students need, the district has to keep working with us and listening to those closest to the ground. We're asking that the community voices continue to shape how these resources are spent, not just now, but throughout the process. Thank you so much. Thank you for your time. Ian Kirkson coming up. Ian, I know I'm almost certain I saw you. Hello. I'm going to yield my time to Chelsea. Thank you, Chelsea. You have two minutes. Thank you. Hello. My name is Chelsea Duran and I'm an uprising senior from Maywood Academy. First, I would like to greatly appreciate the $5 million that you have given us to um the dream centers. I am a leader and students deserve and I stand by a police free LUSD coalition within our community especially Los Angeles. There are several
351ICE trades occurring just this weekend. Immigration was on our streets terrorizing people. Although LA is meant to be a sanctuary city, which it clearly isn't, we ask LA USD to make a stand. Don't be quiet and just accept what's in front of you. One of our students from Maywood Academy was taken into a detention facility. For all we know, she still continues to be there, frightened and unsure of what her future is now. Her name is Joanna Gonzalez. She was illegally detained by immigration enforcement. Her family were legal asylum seekers who did everything correctly. Yet, they were immediately taken into LUSD into ICE custody and transferred to a detention center in Texas. What you don't know about Joanna was that she was extremely involved in her studies, top student within her class, and athlete performing
352as a star within the sport she played while participating in various clubs. For all we know, there are more likely more students within LUSD who are being held within immigration. You sit in your chairs when we demand you to fight. I don't ask you to fight back as in means of violence. I ask that you stand up and use the resources that you continue to hold back from us. You have the power, means, and money to make dream centers happen. Your students shouldn't have to live in fear over the prejudice we are now facing here today. You have billions within your reserves and only gave us two dream centers throughout the entire Lusd. Carvalo, you came on behalf of our graduation ceremony for the class of 2025. With several cameras in your face, you gave
353an apology for the world we live in today. The thing is, we don't need an apology. We need actions. So if you truly are sorry for the world we live in today, start off by doing something with the power you hold. We don't deserve an apology. We deserve actions. We need dream centers within every school. If you believe and really do care for your students, then you need to implement these dream centers now. After all, dream centers are meant for undocumented students. And within the prejudice thousands are facing even now gives an urge for these dream centers even more. You saw several of your high schools perform in student led walkouts. You see our passion and morals. You are led by students and we need dream centers for undocumented students to feel safe in the
354world we live now. I'm here to demand LUSD invest in expanding dream centers all across our district. After hearing about Joanna's detainment, several students were devastated where we were all fearful for our own safety and our families. Despite the fear, students rose together and supported her and her family. We ask you LUSD and board members to rise with us. We expect and urge you to take action in increasing resources for BSAP, dream centers, and support for LGBTQ students. Thank you. Thank you for your time, Aelia Bolivia. I'm yielding my time to Kenetta Gray. Good evening. Um, my name is Kenetta. I am a mother of six kids at LA USD schools, Carver Middle School, and 49th Street and soon to be Santi High School. I am a member of Reclaim Our Schools LA. My daughter
355was involved in a fight where she had to defend herself at Carver Middle School. The principal at Carver tried to get her convicted of a felony charge due to this fight that her and another young lady had. My son was also dragged into this. As a mother, I was very disturbed when I received a message from one of my sons letting me know my daughter was arrested and I wasn't informed by the school of anything I had to call and didn't get an answer. So, I had to show up to the school to find out not only was my daughter arrested but also my son had to be very scary for them. Not knowing and not having an adult present that was there to protect them. I feel that the school police and principal did
356not show any concerns about the mental health or well-being at the moment. My kids are still traumatized due to this situation. As a result, my son, a young black man, is facing criminal charges due to the principal and school police trying to criminalize my son and daughter. These are middle schoolers. My daughter is a straight A student and my son has never been in trouble with the law. I am very on hands mother and communicate very well with the school. So, I was very confused on to why the police was involved without my knowledge. This broke my trust with the staff at Carver Middle School. I am saying all this to say that 11year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy do not deserve to be convicted nor arrested over a fight that could have been prevented
357if they have more safety staff instead of calling the school police. There were 62 arrests across LA USD schools, two of them being my children. When are we going to learn more mental health and counseling services will help instead of handcuffs and jail cells? Thank you for your time. Mao Tjo. Mao. Mao Tjo. I think I saw you, sir. Okay. Joseph Williams. I'm almost certain I saw Oh, there he is. Come on down, Ma. And then after uh Mr. Tjo is Joseph Williams and then Amir Casemir. Um you'll leave my time to Keith. Thank you, Keith. Two minutes is yours. Got you. Hello, my name is Keith Marorrow and I'm going into my second year at West LA College. I'm also the proud recipient of the Dorothy W. Peacemakers Award for the work we did
358within Our Dream Center Student Union. And I want to take you guys all back to a time just one year before Our Dream Center arrived when our school experienced one of the most terrifying events I can personally recall. It was a massive student fight that over escalated, leading to over 15 adult gang members coming outside of our school armed and posing an immediate threat to not only the staff who are there to protect us, but the students such as I who are walking in the halls those days. This this incident instilled such a deep sense of fear and trauma within me. I wasn't just scared. I was petrified to even walk the halls, much less attend the classes that I loved. It's very easy to think, "Oh, we just need to bring back school police
359to help the students feel safe." But that approach misses the fundamental issue. From detention to expulsion, the school only asked, "What can we do to punish these students actions instead of posting instead of posing the most crucial question? What can we do to address the root of these students actions and prevent them from happening again?" This is precisely what our dream center not only questioned but accomplished not just with a phony mission statement but with tangible action backing every single step throughout the way. Their approach slowly started as they built trust within our students. They began creating a safe space for us to gather and relax, offering snacks so that we wouldn't be hungry during our class time. Uh they created a space so that we could do our schoolwork in and provided immediate access
360to families who are struggling financially such as hygiene products and essential school supplies needed not to just not just to survive in a school environment but to actually thrive within one. As the months passed, this initiative evolved further. We started having weekly meetings where we were educated about the vibrant community we cultivated with our immigrant brothers and sisters. This wasn't just theoretical learning. It was about how we implemented that knowledge. This this commitment led to our school now hosting not one, not two, but over five different cultural cultural days within our school grounds. These cultural days that truly uplifted and celebrated the diverse community that we live in. They fostered a profound sense of community and togetherness within our school. And that very sense of community helped me overcome the deep-seated fears that gripped me
361one year prior. Supporting the funding of dream centers directly benefits our immigrants. I'm gonna keep going. The immigrant students, thank you for your time. When we create an environment where every student feels safe, seen, and valued, where their unique backgrounds are celebrated, we not only address the trauma and barriers that we face, but also build a stronger Help me create. Joseph Williams. Come on down. Joseph Williams. And then after Mr. Williams is Amir Casemir and then Christy B. Hello Superintendent uh Carvalo and school board members. Um firstly I want to say as I think many of the folks that you've heard from today um we are really encouraged and uh appreciate that you all have heard from students from parents from educators from community members not just today but for months who have been demanding
362that beyond you know resolutions and statements and press conferences that this district take real meaningful action and put resources real resources and funding behind protecting black, undocumented, and LGBTQ students. We hear that. We hear that. We see that action today, and we appreciate it. It is seen especially at a time when our communities are under attack. Especially at a time when students have been demanding through these walkouts, through public comment, through passing out 17,000 buttons at over 50 schools, through coming here every single month, through meeting with many of you individually have been demanding these things over and over again. And we appreciate you all for hearing them when so often we know that young people feel unheard. I want to also say that that was only right today is only a first step. It's
363a meaningful step, a very meaningful step. And we know that parents and community and students need to be involved in how these BAP funds are spent. Need to be involved in how these dream center funds and these LGBTQ plus resources are spent. This isn't something that should live here in the central office and not be connected to the folks who have been hosting dream centers with no resources, who have been providing support for immigrant students, sanctuary spaces on their campuses for LGBTQ students under attack. Right? You need to be working with the folks who have been putting in the work to protect students. And I also want to say that we know that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice any everywhere. And so, yes, it's important that we celebrate these very meaningful steps forward
364and we appreciate and acknowledge your actions. And when we hear a mother saying that her 11 and 12year-old children because of this district's employees are facing criminal charges for a fight happening that happened at school, that's not okay. We still have not come far enough. Thank you for your right. We still have not come far enough. So, we are very deeply excited about doing the work to implement dream centers, about doing the work to implement BSAP and the other programs that we know are so deeply important in our schools. And we know that we have so much more work to do. And we hope that you will continue, right, that today marks a day where you have heard and listened and you will continue to hear and listen and work with students and parents and
365community as we move forward. We appreciate y'all. Thank you for your time. Amamir Casemir. Amir and then after Mr. Mr. Casemir is Christy B. I'm either my time to Kan. Good afternoon superintendent and the rest of school board. I stand before you today with a clear and urgent message. The Black Student Achievement Plan must be protected, strengthened, and fully funded. It is not just a program. It is a lifeline, a promise, and a path forward for thousands of black students across the LA Unified School District. In the face of persistent systemic inequality, BAP is making a real difference. It is lifting up our students, bringing cultural relevant oh curriculum into classrooms, increasing access to mental health support and building between bridges between schools and communities. These are not small wins. They are essential foundations for
366equity, healing, and academic success. For me, BAP helped guide and lead me down the right path and direction as a black man getting ready for the real world. It opened up opportunities and new doors for most of black for most us black students wouldn't even get to see or know what it's like to have without BAP. It takes away the ability for black students to have potential access to new opportunities and ways to navigate through a system of inequality. That's why I'm demanding an investment of 100 million into BAP. Let me be clear. The 50 million is a step in the right direction, but it's not enough. This investment is not just about dollars. It's about justice. We cannot skimp on justice. It's about giving our students the tools, the support, and the opportunities they
367deserve. It's about ensuring that BSAP is not only protected from attacks and underfunding, but empowered to grow, expand, and meet the urgent needs of our students. We must meet this moment by fully funding BAT by 100 million, by fully funding Dream Centers by 10 million, and fully funding support for queer youth by 3 million. Thank you. Our students don't just need it, we are demanding it. Thank you. Hey, Christy B. Christy B, please come on up. Hi, my name is Ki Baronal. I'm the teacher librarian at Clinton Middle School. I'm also the UTLA chapter chair and a member of the police free LUSD coalition. I'm also a parent of two students in the district from Dorsy High School and the Girls Academic Leadership Academy. Our communities, as you well know, are under unprecedented attacks. And
368I, like others who have spoken, I'm very encouraged by the board, the budget that you all passed. Um, it shows that we're not just talking and we're investing in protecting our most vulnerable youth, our black students, our undocumented students, our LGBTQ students. And we've needed this support without repeatedly needing to come in front of this board parading our trauma to here and in front of the news media. And we need more support. And if what you all need is more stories, we have a lot of stories. So, Friday, June 6th, after ICE began attacking innocent civilians in LA, when I went to my school's library, the group of newcomers who always come in the mornings to play games and read books and just have a safe space to be in, never showed up. Um, after
369the ICE raids, 25% of our students didn't come to school that that that Monday and Tuesday, mainly because they feared for their safety. After Trump got elected in November, I responded to students fears with and we did. We conducted know your rights campaigns. We passed out red cards. We learned how to respond to ICE, right? Uh for students and parents. We shared resources and we did that all across the district. So now it seems like a lot of that means very little. ICE is not respecting fourth and fifth amendment rights. they are not um honoring due process. And so to protect students and families, we need to respond urgently. I'm unclear in August who's coming back to school. To be very honest, we need you all to guarantee sanctuary protections for undocumented students and fully
370fund and expand dream centers by $10 million. We need you to stop criminalizing students and the schoolto prison to deportation pipeline and create real sanctuaries for students fully fully staff and protect schools. We need you to allocate Thank you for your time. I am just going to take a second to finish. We need you to allocate more resources for BAP and provide more supports for LGBTQ students and end school policing and expand school-based community safety. And we also need you to work with educators, parents, and school communities in implementing these initiatives because as we know the details on the ground in each school community are important to actually making this money work to protect students in meaningful ways. Thank you. Okay, Sachi Sachi and then Amanda and then Emanuel, please come on up. Um, hi.
371My name is Sachi. I am a recent graduate of Girls Academic Leadership Academy and a leader in students deserve. I demand that you continue to take action as you just did to protect black, undocumented, and LGBTQ plus students. The groups of students who are most vulnerable as they are facing incredibly unjust attacks from the Trump administration. Funds supporting students of color are being taken away. Curriculum is being centered and students are fearful of attending school because of the increased ICE presence. And as you just voted on the budget for the 202526 school year, thank you for deciding to make meaningful investments in the groups of students who are most v vulnerable to ensure despite everything going on in our country, schools are a place of not just safety but growth and prosperity for these students.
372However, as you didn't meet our full demands, you can still do more. Reflecting on my own middle and high school experience, my school can serve as an example of the enormous impact that truly investing in the students can have on their outcomes. Because my school is an all girls school specializing in STEM, we have had the privilege of receiving grants from outside organizations that have allowed the school to invest in additional resources and programs that support us students that they wouldn't have had otherwise the money to invest in. The impact this investment has had on students at my school is evident in the 100% graduation rate, AP enrollment rate, and college attendance rate, as well as the over 4 million awarded in scholarship and 4.05 05 average GPA of the most recent graduating class. And
373I share this all to show the power that real in financial investment in students have. If you invested more of your 18.4 billion budget into services that actually support students instead of spending millions and millions on the policing and criminalization of students, all LUSC schools be could become a place that truly supports the growth and prosperity of students. And right now, real investment in students means investing more in support services for the students who are most vulnerable and most in need. Real investment means increasing your investment in BAP by a full 100 million. Real investment means guaranteeing sanctuary protections for undocumented students by fully funding dream centers by 10 million. And real investment means creating queer affirming spaces and curricula and implementing and expanding an LGBTQ plus liaison program. Thank you for your time. By
374making these real investments into services for the students who are most in need, you will ensure school is first a safe haven for every LUSC student, but then also a place of support for every student, no matter their race, ethnicity, citizenship status, or identity that will allow every student to grow, prosper, and succeed. Amanda B. Amanda Bonito. Amanda B. Then after Amanda is Emanuel. Hi, my name is Hide Mandola and I'll be giving a statement on behalf of Amanda Bonito who couldn't come and make it this afternoon because of safety concerns due to ICE raid that was conducted near her neighborhood this afternoon. Hello, my name is Amanda Bonito and I am a rising senior in Wilson High School. I am from Elseno and I am a proud product of two immigrant parents. Lately, it
375has been very difficult for me to focus on anything other than the worry I have that I won't see my friends and family again due to current immigration raids in Los Angeles. It is clear that the Trump administration is attacking our immigrant, queer, and black communities on a federal level. I urge all of you to stand with me and my community as we fight back and advocate for increased funding for the black student achievement plan, undocumented youth, and LGBTQ students. When I've struggled with my mental health and needed support, it wasn't the police that helped me. It was the care and support of my family, friends, and community. Those are the connections that have truly made a difference in my life. I hope to see more funding allocated to bringing mental health resources to my
376campus, as well as investment in community- based safety. My experiences with police have been intimidating and have not made me feel safe. For many of us, police presence doesn't bring us safety, but brings us anxiety. For many years, our communities have been targeted and imami intimidated by police, and our schools have suffered from chronic disinvestment. Undocumented, queer, and black students continue to struggle to feel safe in this community. The least we can do is to make sure that they feel supported and safe in our schools. That's what we demand the expansion of dream resource centers to 10 million full staffing to support undocumented students and strong sanctuary protections including ensuring that the district's LAR app does not collect or report immigration status. I urge the board to include three million to implement queer affirming spaces
377and provide support for LGBTQ youth by expanding the human relations diversity and equity certificated staff. We also call for the abolish abomilation of school police and full expansion and implement of safe passage programs and community- based safety alternatives. Increasing BSAP to 65 million to fully support our black students. This is your opportunity to protect, uplift, and invest in students who need it most. We are counting on you all to make the right decision for our most vulnerable students. Thank you. Thank you. Emanuel [Applause] Malozi. All right. Leo Cerrone. Leo. Um, my name is Leo Serrone and I'm I'll be a senior this fall at MIGO contra um and a leader with students reserve. I'm here to urge the LA USC board to protect and invest in black undocumented and LGBTQ students across the district. Um
378nearly 60% of students in the LA county have at least one immigrant parent and have incidents uh targeting Latino and hate incidents targeting Latino communities rose by 19% just last year. Undocumented students deserve to feel safe, supported, and empowered in their schools uh free from fear. That's why we're demanding full funding of $10 million in dream centers and the expansion of these safe spaces throughout Luz. We're grateful for the five million already added for the student deserve centers. I mean, uh, student centers, but we deserve, uh, but we know it's not enough in the moment when immigrant students are facing rising threats, stream centers must be prioritized and protected. We're also calling for deeper investments in the black student achievement plan. BAP is working. Black graduation rates have continued to rise and AP enrollments among
379black students up 11%, but currently only about a third of black students have access to a the full BAP resources. This means that the majority are still waiting for the support they deserve. That's why we're calling on an increase in BP funding to 100 million so all black uh black students can benefit, not just some. Um and for the LGBTQ students, the data remains clearly 60% report being bullied or mistreated at school. But when students have access to protective uh support uh supports like inclusive curriculum and mental health health awareness and the affirming staff, the the risk of self harm and isolation drops dramatically. That's not just a a statistic, that's a lifeline. And we we ask that the district continues to grow these supports. Um this critical moment as uh as LED finalizes next
380year's budget, we demand that black, undocumented, and LGBTQ students be protected and prioritized. We know the district has the funds to do the right thing and this is the time to show it. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Haria Daisy Ortiz. Maria Daisy Ortiz, please come on up. You'll have two minutes to speak. Once you begin, Mr. is going to speak in Spanish. So, if you'd like to hear what she's saying in English as she's speaking in Spanish, please put your hands up and we'll get you these translation headsets. And then after Miss Ortiz is trainee and then Alejandro Casillas. Okay, gracias. Are we ready? Okay. Good afternoon everyone. My name is Maria de Ortiz. And seeing that you are now with a big agenda, I was left sad with the fact that Elcap
381only had two questions. So I don't know if you didn't understand or you just don't care because in reality you're the ones that have the future of our kids in your hands. And with this budget, let's not even begin there. Yes. Because since here we have nepotism there you were negotiating different pos you know positions for a friend or a family member I don't know but you're not thinking about the investment and 70% of the budget in positions that are not yielding results because currently our kids are English learners low income special education and the African-American uh children are under 40% in math and English. So what does that have what does that mean? It's not about money because you can change you know regions community schools but you keep doing the same vice like
382traits which are positions not because you're doing a good job but no one monitors it but the budget that's why for it to be an efficient budget has to have a subcommittee specifically related to budget for the board to monitor how the money is being spent and a well spent budget has to have data. It looks like they're going to increase to have more money. You need to have data. What is the need? You need to have a plan. Where are you going to assign the calculation where that will be reflected and you have to have an evaluation because you've had money from the pandemic and we have not had any results. superintendent said we increased two points, but in the pandemic we were down 30. So you didn't go up. You were just recovering
383two points and we're still down 28 points. So we truly need transparency because parents are tired of the incompetency and the dumb questions you're doing here because you don't care about the kids. Thank you. Have a good afternoon. Thank you for your time. trainees. Trainee, are you here? Come on up. You have two minutes to speak once you begin. Thank you. Hello, schoolboard members. My name is Chenise Thomas. I'm a rising senior at King Jrew and a student leader within students deserve. Recently, students have been leading the charge from organizing walkouts to launching our sticker campaign, making it clear that we will no longer accept your inaction. It's time for you to step up, follow our lead, and take real concrete steps to protect and invest in students you serve, especially on our campuses. As
384you vote on the 20 2526 budget, we are asking for more than just performative words. We are demanding direct action. We deserve a budget that truly invests in our safety, our well-being, and our future. The BAP has already sorry, BAP has already helped countless students across LUSD. I've seen it make a difference, and I wanted to continue uplifting black students like me. Fully funding BAP means continuing that impact, not cutting it short. Let's talk about undocumented students. Some of Let's talk about undocumented students. They are some of the most vulnerable in our district at the moment. We are calling on the board to guarantee sanctuary protections during this time of crisis. That includes expanding dream centers which provide vital resources, guidance, and community support for undocumented youth. Yes, we applaud you for the $4 million
385for student success centers. That's a start. But as students are under as students are under direct attack by ICE and other systems of criminalization, we need more protections, more safe spaces, and more intentional care. Which brings me to my critical point. We must end the school to prison to the deportation pipeline. Stop criminaliz stop criminalizing immigrant students. Stop criminalizing black students. Stop criminalizing queer students. We need real sanctuaries that are fully funded and fully protected. Today we are asking you to increase funding for BAP. Expand dream centers. Ensure real resources for and protection for LGBTQ students. If you remember one thing from today, just let it be this. L USD students are facing unprecedented harm. And now more than ever, we need your action. Not just your words. fun these programs protect your students. Please
386do the right thing. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Uh Alejandro Casillas, so nervous. Anyways, good afternoon. My name is Alejandro Casillas and I'm a student at Hamilton High School and a member of CIS's LA's student leadership committee. I want to take a moment to make Miss Handy Newell for coming to our program at our school. I'm here today because I want to speak up about budget decisions being made because actions of the superintendent and all you board members affect thousands of students like me every single day. I want to talk about the fiscal stabilization plan and about how equitable funding changes students lives. Seni helps schools like mine invest in counselors, mental health services, and support programs like CISLA, which has been a huge part of my own journey. After the pandemic, I
387struggled with social anxiety and an array of mental health issues. I was told I needed help or I would be forced to leave school, which is where I found CISLA. With their help and their support, I started therapy, joined a peer group, and eventually became a student ambassador and a part of CIS's LA's student leadership committee. Today, we see a growth in students struggling with with mental health, which can cause other issues like chronic absenteeism. I believe that funding and flexibility schools have to support um support students based on real needs is crucial. My story is one of many. There are thousands of students across all of LASD that just need the right targeted support to move forward. I urge you to do what is right and provide every student with an education that sees
388their full potential. invest in their needs and provides the resources to success. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you for your time. All right, let's see. I have Isabelle Gonzalez 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, you are making right decision, especially a decision that's informed decision as a people that's in the district for LA USD also somebody who's a taxpayer. I hope you hear my voice and the voice of the other parents that thank you. Thanks to our taxes, you all are able to put food on your tables. And because of that and this budget that our taxes, we want them to be used as they're supposed to be used, also with transparency. We've been
389discriminated by the members by not listen. They're not listening to us. The information, the data, the information is all there. and also the index of violence at school. You're able to see that and simply you all you all don't care the life of one child. You don't care about the life of one child. It's incredible that you don't have the sensibility for the the day-to-day life of the students. You don't have the sensibility for the families that have been destroyed. The only conclusion that I can have because of this is that you all, the members of the school board, support the sexual abuse as we saw today, the sexual harassment. You support the sale of drugs. You support the sale of fentinel, alcohol, cigarettes that they take to the schools, the bullying, the stabbings. And
390after creating the illness, we have to be able to look for more funds for more of these things. We need to get more funds for more programs for LGBT plus students. We need to get also more funds for more uh discriminatory things to like BAPs that we able to benefit from them. Why is it that for us there isn't any justice such as that? Why is that? Our children are vulnerable at schools. We need to advance and also we leave the financing of the police in your school in your totality. Okay. We have concerned parent on the line. Concerned parent, please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Concerned parent. Good afternoon. I have a quick question. Does the two limit apply to only um callins
391or does it does it not apply to inperson um speakers? And will I be given the same latitude? Thank you. So, good afternoon. In 2019, during the UTLA strike process, LUSD was audited and one of the financial experts stated that they found that LUSD, quote, LUSD doesn't have a money problem. LUSD has a spending problem. End quote. This proves to be true as for years the district has wasted educational dollars with very little to no accountability. You have adopted a budget and LCAP, but let the record show that the LCAP did not provide sufficient data to show student outcomes and efficacy of programs. Let me give you an example of my child's school I Ready scores. These are middleofear scores because end of year scores were not provided to the parent yet. 381 students are
392three or more grade levels uh below. 29 students are two or grade levels below. 250 students were found one or one grade level below and 184 students are on grade level and 126 students are um above grade level. So are these the outcomes that we are looking for board members? Are these the outcomes that we are we were expecting after spending all of the er funds that were provided for pandemic learning law? And is this where we want to continue to go? We have students here that are saying, and mind you, this is a majority Hispanic student um population. No BAP programs are available at this school. So where what are we doing? And who are these programs and who are these funds benefiting? It certainly doesn't look like it they're benefiting the students because
393during the LCAP and during all of these budget discussions, most of the questions have been, do we have enough for teachers? Do we have enough for benefits? Thank you very much for your time. A local education a Thank you for your time. Okay, let's see. We have Bertha Terron is signed up to speak remotely, but she's not online. Are you in the room, Bertha? and Maria Vtoro, are you in the room? You're signed up to speak remotely, but you are not online. Uh, and that concludes general public comment for the meeting. I I that person is not. So, thank you. Thank you very much. That concludes public comment. Um there is no more action to take and um with the uh permission of Mr. Smirson, I would just like to say a quick thank you.
394Um I know thank yous are a little bit burdensome, but uh KLCS, they show up and they record these meetings and they distribute them publicly. Rohan has been watching this meeting forever. I just met that man. He works over at KLCS. What's up, Rohan? And all the KLCS staff, it our computer folks help keep this thing running smoothly. Um, when there's not a mistake, that means everybody is communicating and participating. That means we that's a win. Our translation folks, that's Bert, who gets the most steps ever in a meeting, running the running the translation headsets around and uh bringing our meeting to the people who mostly attend our schools. Um, and then I would like to uh personal thank you to my staff, Ebony, Lisa, Miriam, Leti, Raina, James, and Myra for helping helping us
395get through uh every single meeting. They are the folks who who face the public and process a lot of this important public comment. So, thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Objection to adjournment. No objection. Okay. Thank you. And [Music]