February 11, 2025 - 1pm Regular Board Meeting

001[Music] d la [Music] so we are just waiting for the tapes to be loaded love you there we are thank you for your patience the time is now 1:59 pm. yes good afternoon everyone and welcome to the February 11th meeting of the Board of Education what everyone please rise face the flag for the pledge of for the Pledge of Allegiance put your heart ready begin I pledge aliance to the flag it stands na hey okay thank you very much graas as you can tell we're having slight slight problem with the translation so give me one moment okay translations have you stopped translating for us over the speakers thank you very much okay here we go can I go ahead and take roll you may take roll all right let's do roll uh Miss nuel president

002Dr Ras present Mr Melo here miss GGO here miss conz here miss Ortiz Franklin present present Mr schmon present board president I mean maybe future board president student board member H Cortez Lopez pres all right all right okay everyone we're going to start our meeting from hearing from our labor Partners so who was ever first come on up it looks like utla come on up we also have a representative from SEIU and I believe at least one other hey folks um first thing I just want to introduce myself Alex Orosco utla secondary vice president I have here six representatives from various schools Flagship high schools they'll be speaking on the issue of not having enough money for next year to fund their programs their block funding which is going to impact incredibly uh you know

003their schools and dismantle their programs um as we know it I also want to highlight um that our brothers and sisters uh out there Al Camino High School the they are on strike you are the authorizing Board of that Charter and I'm going to leave this here for you all as information you have the authority to have that board reconvene and come back in good faith and actually um negotiating good faith with the AL Camino members so that they reach a a resolution this is their second day on strike and they're going to be out there as long as it takes so it's up to you to really put the pressure on the board as we know it you are an authorizing um board for that Charter also um we have we are waiting we

004continue to wait on the district to respond to our calendar proposal uh our teachers uh use take up 5 to 10 days at least during their summer to get their classrooms ready and uh at the moment we have not heard anything back from the district regarding providing much Essential prep time for our teachers so we ask you that you respond to us as soon as possible as you all know former teachers here on the day you know how long it takes to to get those room ready um we would appreciate the respect that our members deserve to be able to do the same um so I'll start with my first Speaker William Chavez good afternoon my name is William Chavez social studies teacher chapter leader at Wilson High School Neno I come to you today

005uh to show you some data on the impact overwhelming positive impact that this block schedule funding has on our graduation rates in 2021 our graduation rate was 85% 70% for our special ed population over the years because of this block schedule funding um it's opened up opportunities Credit Recovery intervention within the school day to support our needest students over 90% of our population is comes from socially disadvantaged backgrounds over the years our graduation rate has increased incrementally last year our graduation rate was 94% 85% of our English Learners graduated last year this year we're on track all our seniors 98% if we lose that funding right we are we are not allowing we're not giving opportunities to our students our needest students right to to possibly graduate open up their eyes and experience to a

006world that they've never seen before so I come to you today to respectfully urge you to continue this block funding hello my name is Mary Bane I'm a science teacher and the chapter chair at Banning High School Phineas Banning High School many of our students are three or more grade levels behind in reading or math or both and this special block schedule has allowed us to create intervention courses within the school day to support our students in literacy and numeracy we're very proud to report that we've had doubl digigit growth in our I ready test results as a result of these intervention courses from the beginning of the year to the middle of the year and we're really hoping to see additional growth before we administer I at the end of the year we would

007really appreciate your support in continuing this funding for these special Bell schedules good afternoon my name is Melissa Aras I'm a school counselor at Garfield High School here to advocate for the full funding of our existing counseling program as well as funding for our block schedule our alternate block schedule has resulted in students success with our 98% graduate graduation rate for class of 2024 and test scores above the district average nonetheless our counseling department is being affected as two Cas caring counseling positions are expected to be eliminated this upcoming year at Garfield counselors conduct individual GR plans with our students collaborate with teachers and to support students encourage attendance through S meetings and home visits counselers serve as administrative designes and IEPs participate in ssps and 504 plan meetings we support seniors with college applications

008writing letters of recommendations and provide financial aid application support we support with mental health check-ins risk assessments referrals to mental health agencies and regularly participate in Wellness team meetings counselors are an essential are essential in programming students with our combined 4x4 and 2 by2 master I'm sorry 2 by8 master schedule ensuring that each student meets their a through G requirement our two masters are an integral part of our students success as they allow for continued enrichment in honors and AP courses support our El and special education programs and provide flexibility for intervention and Credit Recovery therefore programming at Garfield is a delicate process that requires extra time from each of our experienced and necessary counselors I ask that the board restore the funding to retain counseling positions and the block schedule my hope is that

009our counseling programs and every counseling program in La USD remain intact and I hope that in the future our Pro counseling programs will grow thank you good afternoon my name is Drew Lewis music teacher at Ramon C Cortina School of Visual and Performing Arts and 24 California teacher of the year I'm here to advocate for continued funding of block scheduling and full funding of our arts program at cortinas our school has changed lives throughout our throughout extended Arts offerings rigorous academics and mentorship much of which is thanks to the eight period schedule we've had since the school opened in 20 2009 La USD made a bold investment in creating this Arts of high school as part of the Grand Avenue cultural Corridor to serve creative students districtwide and we've delivered in 2021 we were named

010a California exceptional arts program yet despite these successes we're funded as a standard high school with the looming thread of a six period day that would gut our arts program I've witnessed how our school transforms lives and closes the achievement gap for our Title One students with training resources and opportunities we help those with little to no arts background catch up to and often surp pass their more advantaged peers our graduates attend top universities conservatories and pursue Futures they once thought impossible our eight period schedule is vital to this success reducing it to six periods would devastate our programs we ask LUSD to fully fund our arts school permanently maintaining our block schedule and art staff while honoring its original commitment to this vital art school thank you good afternoon Dr Peterson from Verdugo Hells

011High School Lord M gones hello it's an honor to be here and I want to address the issue of 4x4 funding as well from a school like Verdugo with a pretty long distinguished storyed history our first graduating class was 1939 but something happened in 1998 when we went to a cernic block schedule which has slowly morphed into a 4x4 and I think we can all agree education is a deep and slow work and what the 4x4 allows Verdugo students to do is to go deeper and wider and especially lately as Verdugo has led the district in Innovation with things like going deeper and wider we're finally after 30 years almost of a block schedule we are a California distinguished School most recently we are one of two two California schools chosen as a National Distinguished

012School esaa Esa our two magnets have received top honors this year last year and the previous years what I like most about the California distinguished Awards as the academy coordinator is that the award is for the whole school and when you go deeper and wider you're taking every level of student up a level and so we received that award because our students at the low level middle level and the top level have all leveled up the 4x4 schedule has allowed us to do that with our work experience with our uh Sports we have City championship teams that are also full of scholar athletes our academic de cathlon over the years has only improved because of the 4x4 they are allowed to go go deeper and wider most recently just receiving the super quiz Champions a

013couple weeks ago our boys made it to basketball state finals for the first time in our history that was a big thing the 4x4 has allowed them in their practice to develop their athleticism and keep their grades up because we have the 4x4 finally I I really wanted to talk about our AP program and uh because we can go deeper and wider Verdugo Hills High School offers a tremendous amount of AP classes in social studies science and math and speaking of math we had a 100% pass rate last year in our first ever precalculus class that's first ever in the entire world when we allow our students with the 4x4 block to go deeper and wider we are setting them up to achieve higher thank you good afternoon y'all my name is uh Kevin damato

014I am the utla chair at Roosevelt High School I'm an algebra teacher and I'm also uh the egi champion for our school um we have been on a 4x4 for uh this is our fourth year um and it has significantly supported the uh academic success of our students our graduation rates have been Rising for all of our students our SBA scores particularly in math have shown tremendous growth over the past two years uh our a through G completion rate has improved significantly um and we've been able to develop our CTA Pathways as well two of the four are gold certified in linked learning one is Silver the other pathway is not yet is only in its second year um so because of our commitment to fund this uh the 4x4 we are going to lose

015an academic counselor we're going to lose our only restorative justice coordinator we are going to lose um our special ed inclusion coach and we're not able to fund our school psychologist full-time all of these positions are absolutely integral to the success of our students academically and as well as their mental health which as you all are I'm sure you're all aware of that so the funding for this the 4x4 and the block schedule is absolutely critical for our continued success with our students as well as the opportunities that they have uh beyond the A3 G courses so we appreciate your time thank you thank you very much utla we appreciate your coming thank you our next Labor partner okay SEIU come on up okay good afternoon board members and superintendent my name is Elizabeth Thomas

016Parker I'm a special education assistant for La USD for over 30 decades I am also the vice president of SEIU Local 99 in the past month students and staff have experienced a lot of challenges and trials it looks all looks like all of us through through the through the fire crisis and it's going to take all of us to recover I commend the board of celebrating the LAUSD emergency responders when the fire hit sciu Local 99 members were on the front line driving school buses to help students evacuate when schools shut down seciu Local 99 members were out preparing and delivering grabbing go meals as we prepare to safely reopen our schools it was seciu l n members who replaced the air filters and cleaned up ashes and Dees from our from our campuses and

017as students return to school special education assist assistance teacher assistance campus AIDS and others were there to provide comfort and safety and and support our work is essential and I urge you to remember that our work is essential every day not just doing it not just doing an emergency this is why I urge you to work with us to ensure that essential workers earn wages above prty level I urge you to work with us to Ure that essential workers is full-time work I urge you to Value the commitment of District workers and to end the subcontracting of student services to outside for not for-profit companies I urge you to ensure full Staffing for student services more than ever our students and families need stability and support let's ensure our schools are safe clean and supportive

018places for all every day thank you very much good afternoon my name is Aaron Jackson and I'm a school climate Advocate at phas Banning High School previously I was a special ed assistant I worked with LUSD for nearly 11 years and I'm a proud member of SEIU Local 99 as a school climate Advocate I work to create a safe School environment for all students my work involves a lot of intervention to support students before they get in trouble I do home visits to connect with students with chronic attendance problems I work with parents to help their students return to school I often speak to students about having a trusted adult on campus students connect with different adults on campus a trusted adult can be a student supporter a cheerleader or a tutor but most schools

019are underst staffed that means fewer people to connect with students and now we're hearing that Community Representatives who work with parents and cus AIDS whose support student safety may be cut next school year from my experience this is the wrong move many of my co-workers I know from various schools are struggling living paycheck to paycheck cutting workers means less trusted adults on campus who students can trust we need to build up our workers and pay us for stable living wages all of us are needed to create a a safe environment for the students both inside and outside the classroom that's why when students and workers are under attack we stand up and fight back hello my name is Monica madrano I'm an early Ed a at tare Early Education Center um I have been working

020with alasd students for the last 177 years I currently am in the Dual language program I help the teacher with um the lesson planning uh engaging with the children ensuring their safety and the well-being of the children itself I'm also The Trusted adult who takes the children to the restroom and helps them become independent our little ones need a lot of attention and a lot of supervision so many times in our classroom we are left out of ratio or not enough Staffing because our classified workers are being pulled to do other job assignments for instance when the principal and the SAA are out they pull our classified Aid out to cover the front desk when our attendants are out and we don't have a substitute now it is our responsibility to prepare the snacks clean

021up the classroom and make sure that everything's clean around them when they're ready to lay their heads down for their little nap um also and because of that you know there's not enough of enough of us that we get pulled here to there to cover every other job when we should be in the classroom with our students where were needed um that is why it is very worrisome for me and for my co-workers that all the essential workers are not are being told now that their positions are going to be cut or they might even get left off let um go next school year I urge you to consider what less Staffing will mean to our students and to our classrooms we are already struggling with the shortage any more Cuts will directly impact the

022students learning and the school environment students need more support not less we need more Staffing no cuts [Applause] thank thank you very much SEIU do we have another labor partner group to come up I think Maria Nichols is here Maria Nichols is here yeah there she is okay here she comes a AA welcome Maria welcome thank you good afternoon superintendent carvalo and board members I am Maria Nichols proud allaha Teamster's Local president thank you for allowing me to address the board today while I initially intended to discuss other matters give given the recent developments around prop 28 I believe that this is a critical issue to focus on first I want to briefly share my experience in the educational system in the school year 2324 I served as kosa and director and I work closely

023with 21 to 23 School principles I worked very closely during the allocations of prop 28 funds with the understanding that they would you be used as resources to increase Staffing and enhance arts program however when entering upon budget development a majority of my principles found that the funds that were received were primarily used to replace amounts previously allocated for for similar purposes rather than increasing staff or enhancing programs I know for a fact that if principles were not concerned about retaliations there would be a line outside this meeting with administrators speaking out about the many challenges and the lack of information that we had going into that budget development process in funding prompt 28 the reality is is that many of them are fearful of speaking up due to concerns and repercussions that is why

024I here I am the voice of my members despite receiving funds the net result in terms of staff and hiring was minimal to zero principles were asked to reallocate their existing resources to comply with prop 28 which left schools without the necessary funds to hire additional staff this led to confusion and frustration particularly with Elementary School principles who were who were unaware due to the lack of transparency and communication as to how these funds were to be used as a result hiring art teachers became nearly impossible my focus today is not on what might happen with prop 28 moving forward what the LA USD community the taxpayers and the public need clarification on is what happened during the 2023 24 school year with prop 28 funding there was no increase in staff or new programs

025as intended in fact Elementary Title One funding was gutted and iter arts position were zeroed out in the 2023 24 budget replaced by 28 funding prop 28 funding when this issue was raised superintendent carvalo you publicly promised that schools would get their funds back but by the time that occurred it was far too late for schools to hire new staff was the intent of the law to expand arts program and hire additional teachers implement it I know from my own experience as a school supervisor that this was not the case was the district's actions intentional and purposeful when tsp funds were previously paid for by the district and allocated to schools and they were zeroed out during budget development and principles were told to use the prop 28 funding to hire ex existing staff in

026contrast Long Beach was able to hire a 150 new teachers more than La USD with $10 million we received 77 million the discrepancy raises serious questions about how La USD managed its prop 28 funds how could this be we are left to wonder how this district with all the resources at its disposal failed to hire sufficient staff while other districts were able to do so I also want to raise the question of the all here AI program in the ongoing internal investigation there has been a lack of transparency and communication regarding this debacle as well we as a public school system deserve Clarity and accountability about what went wrong with this product which was poorly vetted and left us to question the $6 million undeliverable investment I've laid out two specific examples examples of how

027the top leadership in LUSD is losing the trust and confidence of its administrators parents and the public at large the handling and mismanagement of prop 28 funding and the a all here AI debacco demonstrate a leadership pattern of a lack of transparency consistency communication collaboration and inclusivity I urge the board to seek answers to these critical issues and ensure that leadership in La USD is held accountable for the decisions and actions taken so we may move forward with transparency communication and a clear commitment to do what is right District leadership has an ethical and moral responsibility to provide funding intended to build programs and staff Fe directly to school sites for the support and success of our students staff and community at large I've said it before and I'll say it again L USD you

028need to do better thank you okay thank you Miss Nichols a AA anyone else labor Partners here okay thank you very much for coming so what I i' like to do Dr Ras is transition over to you for your supposed 2:00 certain it'll be at 228 certain but we're heading it over to you now uh yes thank you board member uh board president scharon did you want to say oh go just wanted to point out that we're working on a a revised version which is at the de and is online and is in the back of the room if people would like like copies yes we have a revised version of this resolution which was introduced I believe in December and then postponed so now we're rning to bring it back um so for agenda

029item 21 we do um we're a little behind on our time certain um so the resolution strengthening Greening initiatives through Community Partnerships um after the board deliberates on this item um sorry reading through my notes um okay sorry so as chair of the greeting schools and climate resisten committee um I'm honored to honored and um very proud to bring this resolution forward for a lot of reasons working in being a chair of this committee for the past two years um this is an issue that has been was discussed in the committee for a long time we had focus groups we had members of the committee asking questions we had a lot of presentations we were trying to do a lot of work to address the issues that this resolution is um aiming to address and

030we worked very um closely not only with Mr Christos cilio but Christina toes but also our Greening um nonprofit partners and so this is why this is coming forward um our greeting schools and clim resen committee recognizes the powerful impact of our nonprofit partners and through ongoing engagement we have identified how to best Empower their work and to bring the benefit to our schools particularly our students in transforming our schools into green green spaces this resolution takes a significant step towards removing barriers and imp amplifying their impact as they bring in millions of dollars to the district grant grant money into the District our Greening nonprofit Partners have secured 50 over $57 million to create Greener healthier schools particularly for our Mo most marginalized communities but these efforts have been hampered by unnecessary fees and

031costs draining up to 20% of project budgets this inequity deprives our students of the green spaces they deserve and undermines our commitment the district's commitment to a sustainable future and green schoolyards I also want to commend Cal Fire who plays a critical role in protecting California's natural resources homes and communities from fire related disasters they also play a critical role in supporting Greening efforts and have partnered with LA USD providing approximately $50 million in Grants to nonprofit organizations working to Green our schools and ensure they're better equipped for the needs of our students as we prepare the consequences of extreme climate change these grants support vital projects but as recently as October 2024 the calfire has urged the district to streamline our processes to meet the objectives of these grants including addressing burdensome administrative fees

032my office also received yesterday from calire a letterer in support of this resolution indicating their commitment to Greening schools supporting nonprofit partners and removing unnecessary burdens that they have brought to the attention of this district for many many years later today in a separate resolution by board member gones and melvoin we are we will be honoring our First Responders that have risked their lives and also as we heard our essential uh workers in the district our classified workers protecting homes protecting our schools cleaning our schools as a consequence of the LA wildfires another way we can honor the those that protect us from these challenges and are in our schools addressing these challenges of climate change is to listen to the partners such as calfire and our Greening Partners in addressing our fee structures today

033this resolution ensures we use our public daughters effectively and efficiently by removing Financial barriers of to Greening our schools and also optimizing our TA our tax dollars from angelinos it allocates up to 3 million in District resources to cover these essential costs upholding our commitment to responsible stewardship every dollar should go toward improving our campuses not navigating administrative bureaucratic red tape I've introduced amendments that reinforce our commitment to environmental justice these changes ex explicitly acknowledge that historically undeserved communities of color have disp disproportionately experienced the impacts of class change and environmental hazards while often being excluded from the decisionmaking processes furthermore a friendly Amendment from board president scharon our co-sponsor strengthens the resolution by directing the superintendent to fully staff the ecos sustainability office and he will provide some comments providing the capacity to effectively

034support our District staff School communities and greeting Partners the superintendent will provide as indicated in the resolution by progress reports increasing transparency and accountability further finally another key addition prioritizes timely review and approval of Grant funded green Greening projects by committing a 10-day review process we ensure projects begin on time maximizing external funding and delivering much needed green spaces without unnecessary delays this resolution ultimately is about our students they deserve Equitable access to Green healthy learning environments not just in zump codes but in every single School throughout LUSD in our city Greening our schools isn't a luxury it's a necessity for their well-being fostering environmental stewardship and climate resilience inaction means our students lose out I urge my colleagues to support this resolution and invest in the future of the students we serve I'm proud

035to have been joined by board president Scott scharon and co-sponsoring resolution so now I will yield to to him so that he can offer his remarks as well thank you Dr Rivas and it's my honor to be your co-author of this resolution so colleagues I am proud to co-sponsor this vital resolution Greening our schools is incredibly important to me and this is a common sense measure that addresses a critical inequity our nonprofit Partners who are essential to this work are being penalized by unnecessary fees these fees siphon away valuable resources meant for our students diverting funds from Green spaces from shade and Outdoor Learning environments this resolution corrects that allowing us to fully fund our priori parties and ensure that every available dollar goes toward creating the healthy sustainable schools our students deserve and to

036further support this effort and after discussing with Dr rias I have introduced an amendment to ensure appropriate Staffing for our Eco sustainability office this amendment directs the superintendent to fully staff the office up to the maximum number of allocated position positions providing the necessary resources to effectively fulfill its Mission and to serve our District staff our school communities and Greening Partners the superintendent will also provide a biannual report to the school Greening and climate resilience committee on hiring process including any challenges on delays ensuring transparency and accountability and this will empower the office to effectively and efficiently carry out this meaningful work it's about Equity it's about responsible spending and most importantly it's about the kids I urge you colleagues to join me in supporting both this resolution and the accompanying Amendment and with that

037said I'd like to yield the floor back to the resolutions officer H sorry resolution author well you are the officer because we have some representatives of the community who are prepared to speak on why passing this resolution is so important sorry thank you president we're both excited as you heard uh to introduce a resolution and what now we want to share that excitement with you by bringing forward some important voices from our uh Community particularly our greeting nonprofit Partners first I'd like to introduce Miss Tori kajer sorry from the living schoolyards coalition Tor this floor is yours thank you Dr Rivas good afternoon president schmerelson board members and superintendent carvalo my name is Tori chair and I am here representing both the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust in the living schoolyards Coalition first I want

038to express our deep gratitude for the ongoing partnership between our organizations and La USD together we have made significant strides in transforming School spaces into Vibrant Community assets I'm here today to express our strong support for Dr rias's motion to explore the elimination of fees for nonprofit funded projects 29 Community Partners are here in support of this resolution as an implementor of school Greening projects I have firsthand experience with trying to accommodate these fees while also building a project that ultimately benefits the students first I want to explain how nonprofit partners are being charged to build Greening projects when a partner secures a grant to remove asphalt build outdoor classrooms and plant shade trees we are bringing in real dollars to support the district achieve its goal of 30% Greening on every campus to date

039project Partners have brought in over $50 million of funds to Green LAUSD schoolyards rather than looking at these funds as a benefit to the district partners are being charged fees to cover existing internal costs for staff time this significantly impacts our ability to implement comprehensive Greening projects as every dollar spent on administrative fees that would otherwise be paid for by the general fund is a dollar that cannot go towards playground equipment trees or Outdoor Learning spaces for our students for example our esperons elementary school Greening project has over $170,000 of fees that have been charged by the district and it sounds like a lot and it is this $170,000 can play for playgrounds dozens of trees outdoor classrooms instead we are being charged on each Grant we bring in to support the district to put

040a finer point on it of the approximately $31 million in the recent calfire funding secured by living schoolo yard Coalition Partners 12% or $3.7 million is allocated to La USD fees now I want to be clear that we understand that these fees cover real and actual costs we are not not under any misconceptions that staff time for review inspections and the cost for asphalt testing is free that said we do not understand why these fees are being charged to project Partners bringing real dollars to the district how are these fees paid for by other District initiated projects are they covered on a school modernization project on a nature Explorer project finally we just want to understand that L USD or clarify that La USD stands loone in charging these fees as part of this work

041we've done research and we have been unable to find another District that charges fees for nonprofit Partners on school funded projects the living schoolyards Coalition Partners have already invested over $50 million in school Greening projects throughout the district imagine how many more we could accomplish If These funds were directed entirely towards enhancing our children's learning environments thank you for your time and consideration thank you Mr next we have Mr Ed Eduardo air um parent at Esperanza Elementary thank you for coming um the speaker is going to speak in Spanish so if you'd like to hear what he's saying in English as he's saying it please put your hands up and we'll get these headsets out to you e okay gracias good afternoon everybody my name is Eduardo air thank you to do Dr Rivas and

042Mr schmon I represent esperans parents at esperansa elementary I've been board member and president for different boards in the uh neighborhood Council and I the time that I've been representing the community we have done Advan Greening advancement projects family Parks Greening spaces and different locations to improve the system or The Greening spaces When Miss I heard the project Green from Miss Ras I was very excited and I want to read something as all parents I want my son to go to a school in a safe and healthy environment but when our campuses I see a lot of asphalts there's not enough Shades or green spaces our children spend hours in these conditions playing learning and growing and you understand how difficult it is to live in a city and we call it the concrete and

043asphalt jungle so it's necessary to have green spaces for them we parents want to help our schools so that they are Greener we are committed to uh raise funds be volunteers and to interact with the organizations that have the necessary funds to get these uh projects off the ground but it's a lot of times the process is more difficult because instead of assigning these resources to purchase trees implementing a Gardens for students to create uh Outdoor Learning spaces our schools are faced to pay different cost and very complex procedures of approval that delay the process in completing these projects this are a solution it is a simple way to eliminate the barriers that are not necessary so that schools and our partners nonprofit Partners can really focus on what really matters here is so that

044these projects happen for our children the funds that we uh raise I think need to be assigned to improve the existing spaces for a better uh development of our students in our community and in that way from the heart I ask you to support our parents our communities to support support our schools to support our learning spaces so that it is greener that it's healthier for our students and not in a um mental space they they used to say a mental mind within a healthy body and I think that with the implementation of these um Greener uh uh things I ask you that you support and approve this resolution thank you and good afternoon thank you for sharing your experience Mr a so these stories underscore the need uh for this resolution and the profound

045difference it will make in the lives of our students um before I move yield back to board me uh board president sharlon I just want to add that there's been one more addition to the resolution on the second resolve on the second sentence where it says we're feasible we're going to add we're feasible and legally allowable up to 3 million in District resources so we're just adding the phrase and legally allowable so back to your point okay thank you so as far as board rules go before we have a discussion I have to have a member who will make a motion to discuss tab 21 strengthening The Greening initiatives through Community Partnerships 2025 do I have someone making the motion Miss gones move to oh you did go ahead we're all eager I'll move it

046and do I have a second I'll second it thank you Miss GGO okay so we have it moved and seconded let's have discussion who would like to go first okay the request is public comment first so you're first we're going to do public comment so we're going to do the public comment on the folks who signed up to speak on the resolution and there's method to this madness which is the board is going to hear what the public has to say before they make their ultimate decision on it so that's the underlying principle there um let's see we have uh LS Lopez or Luis Lopez are you here okay uh bevon Ashen Miller are you here Bon or is that Luis are you coming up okay Luis come on up you have two minutes to

047speak once you begin then after Lise is Bon and then after Bon is Lake sharp you have two minutes to speak when you begin thank you good afternoon board members and superintendent carvalo my name is l Lopez and I'm with the organization Alliance For A Better Community I came here today to support board members Ras strengthening Greening initiatives through Community resolution this resolution will ensure a more streamlined and cost-effective way for organizations to plan and execute much needed Greening projects at our local schools by L USD removing their internal fees for Greening projects nonprofit organizations can save from 10 to 20% of planning and construction cost of their projects this will ensure organizations save money and potentially use those extra funds saved to create more Greening projects I appreciate board member Ras and schmon for

048working on this resolution and bringing this to a vote ABC looks forward to collaborating further with your team and engaging the community and ensuring an increased Greening projects at our local schools and while this resolution is a wonderful and great start we must continue to explore how we reach the highest need communities with expediency I wholeheartedly support this resolution and ask you all to vote yes thank you thank you for your time Bon are you here um will they reset the downtime thank you hi um I am also here in support of this resolution my name is Bon Ashen Miller I um I was an LA USC parent for 16 years I spent 14 years with a student at Eagle Rock Elementary um and I am a college professor uh and I study environmental economics

049and climate adaptation policy um I just want to say that in 2011 I started in this area um because parents at my school asked me to join work that they were doing on a proposition 84 Grant which was to Green Rock Elementary School which um many of you have called The Jewel of La USD um that project took us uh five years to complete and included um external Council for our community partner um and a lot of really frustrating meetings with uh board members who none of whom are here but were very always very supportive so I just think this is an amazing um proposition and I really feel like we have come a long way um am not a community partner uh per se I don't build projects I just do research around climate

050adaptation um but in collaborating with the Community Partners and looking at the data that they have on the fees that are charged I want to point out that um our partners are paying somewhere between 8 and 36% of construction costs in fees to the district uh they um have an average uh charge of 18.5% of their construction costs that are paid in fees to the district um you can get better numbers than I can because you are the board so I feel like because these projects are now part of our climate adaptation policy they are part of our resolution as board members um and we have for-profit contractors who are building projects it seems very clear to me that our partners or Community Partners who have been working in this area for a very long

051time who are bringing money to the table should be treated um as transparently as possible thank you so much okay so Lake sharp and then Maria Sanchez Lake sharp are you here Lake all right U Maria Sanchez are you here I think she's coming up Miss Sanchez is going to speak in Spanish so if you'd like to hear what she's saying yeah thank you thank you if you'd like to hear what she's saying in English please put your hands up and we'll get you these headsets good afternoon good afternoon Mr Scott and Dr Rosio rivz I'm a member of my name is Maria Sanchez and I'm a parent of Melton School member of AAC with all the parents I I want my school to be at a at a healthy school but when I see

052that my campus I see a lot of asphalt and less shade and green spaces our children spend many times in these conditions playing and learning and growing and the parents are the ones who are helping for our schools to be more green spaces and we want to take a step forward to patiently obtain those that work as volunteering as volunteers obtaining funds we are partners with organizations that have the experience so that these projects can become reality but in many frequency this process is more difficult than what we should do we should have a space that destined with green spaces trees and outdoor spaces out outdoor space learning and we are obligated to pay a lot of money and go through a long process and in this resolution this is a very simple way to

053eliminate barriers so that schools so that they can focus on what is really important to realize these projects to come through with these projects for the students and in these spaces for students and for us not to be charged additional funds and for us to have green spaces for our children please approve this resolution thank you thank you for your time okay Mark krow are you here Mark K come on up you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin and then after mark is arelia Valia and then Michaela Rand good afternoon board members superintendent carvalo my name is Mark Krauss I'm a resident of Board District 2 in Els Sereno and I'm also the co-chair of the Democratic Socialist of America Los Angeles chapter I'm here today to speak strongly in support of the

054strengthening Greening initiatives through community resolution and I want to thank Dr rias and board president merlon for bringing it forward the climate crisis is such a pressing and dire issue for our school community and our city we recently experienced one of the worst environmental disasters in recent history with the LA fires L LUSD has made commitments to being part of a historical movement to transition our public school system to a green and climate resilient public Institution and that came about because of the amazing organizing of many of the organizations and activists here present today Greening art campuses is a core pillar of actualizing sustainability in LUSD and nurturing the social emotional development of our students as a green Campus in my opinion is a much more welcoming and enriching space for LUSD students that being

055said there are millions of dollars at hand and organizations that are ready to get to work to to meet the moment and to do something about the climate crisis by helping LUSD green our schools we need to maximize the amount of partner dollars being directly allocated to Green transition and transform our school sites every dollar lost to District fees is not spent on materially Greening our schools we need a streamlined implementation plan as soon as possible and I hope the LUSD Greening committee chaired by Dr Ras will hold the superintendent accountable to having a thorough implementation plan within 120 days the climate crisis is escalating every day and LAUSD needs to clear the path to move quickly to transitioning La schools to a sustainable place for all kids community and future Generations please vote in

056favor of this resolution thank you thank you for your time arelia Valdivia arelia come on up you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin all right thank you uh hello board members my name is arelia Valia I am the executive director of reclaim our schools Los Angeles we are a coalition of students parents and educator Educators anchored by the alliance of Californians for Community empowerment the Los Angeles Alliance for a new economy students deserve and utla um I'm here to encourage you to support item 21 strengthening Greening initiatives through Community Partnerships and I want to thank uh board member revas and scotch Schon board president schurman for their introduction of the resolution uh we regularly engage with our base including parents like Maria who just spoke earlier on their priorities for La schools and

057we have heard time and time again from parents students Educators how important shade and green space is for the health well-being and learning outcomes of their students um in the last survey that we did of our parents and uh ed student educator Community uh School Greening was in the top three of all of their priorities for L USD schools um communities of color are often the most impacted by uh environmental harms like extreme heat and air quality issues and therefore often have to be the leaders in these issues all students deserve green spaces to play rest have Outdoor Learning opportunities and we have prioritized Healthy Green Schools as part of our work we're also working on it firsthand on the ground uh we are proud to partner with the LA Neighborhood Land Trust at 93rd

058Street uh working with the community school coordinator to Green their campus through a calfire grant that the land trust secured for the district um and we're doing that the land trust is doing that on their own time and they're doing that in a way that's respects the community school model that engages parents and stud students and Educators on want what they want to see for their campus um 93rd Street has less than 5% uh School Greening it is a campus where 80% of the population is Latino and 12% is black we need more projects like this and I think it's more than reasonable for the district to give an in-kind donation to make sure that we can continue to maintain Partnerships like this so I urge you to vote in favor thank you thank you

059for your time Michaela Randol and then Audrey lieberstein and then Stephanie M the floor is yours good afternoon my name is Michaela Rand off I'm a proud parent of a student that attends school in Board District 4 I'm a lifelong consti of Board District 1 and I'm here to speak in support of this resolution I'm also the associate director of regional programs for Green School yards America an organization devoted to the transformation of asphalt covered schools grounds into parklike green spaces that improve children's well-being learning and play while contributing to the community's ecological health and climate resilience we applaud board member Rivas and board member schon's resolution to urgently facilitate a more efficient and transparent approvals process it cannot be stressed enough in The Last 5 Years alone seven living schoolyard Coalition organizations have raised

060over $57 million to plant trees and or transform 52 LAUSD schoolyards in districts 1 2 5 6 and seven this money helps the district meet its own goals stated in the green schools for all plan many more Greening partners are actively securing Grant funds to initiate Greening projects our involvement is critical to the to the success of the green schools for all plan and should be valued as such we are providing a service that helps the district meet the goals set out in the green schools for all plan we I'm asking for your support and full adoption of this resolution and for example in District One figuroa Street and 52nd Street have already received funding and if the fee structure follows the current pattern as it currently is it will result in $400,000 in District

061fee L USD is a public school district public dollars go to the district and I'm certain the public wants to see more Greening for the for the dollars that have been awarded to the district not monies being used to pay District staff I urge your full support thank you thank you for your time Audrey lieberstein Audrey L okay we'll check to see if she's calling in she listed is um we we'll check on online Stephanie minetto we'll check online for that person as well now we'll go to the ones who listed themselves as calling in uh Maria Martinez are you on the line I see you're on the line please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Maria Martinez Maria Martinez please go ahead Maria Martinez

062please press star six to unmute yourself and you have two minutes to speak when you begin hello hi see when good afternoon yes I'm Miss Maria Martinez I'm a grandmother of a student Malibar Malibar has and a an open lot with no benefits to students and now thanks to these uh this parent assistance is now transformed into an ecole Learning Center and this Eco Learning Center now has benefited the students where the students have literature and academic learning activities so they've benefited quite a bit from a space that used to be an abandoned lot as some would say so so the teachers take them when they see the students maybe stressed they take them there when in that environment and they de-stress they like to read there and learn they study in this area a

063bit so this motivates them quite a bit and these things are what we need in schools and there is another uh lot in Malabar so it would be good that in that open lot there would be another ecole Learning Center because the one we have there is a bit small so we need another one because we've seen as parents the difference between the students when we're there and we see how the students are motivated when it's time for reading so if possible that this resolution could assist us to achieve this possibility of another Eco Learning Center in Malibar this is why I I'm supporting this resolution if possible so thank you very much Elizabeth Hernandez can you hear me now yeah we can please go ahead perfect hi my name is Elizabeth Hernandez um I'm

064I'm a parent of the LA USC uh schools um also I'm a I'm a a member and an organizer and well I mean it's very clear all these organizations want to help out uh you know just give them the chance and stop all these barriers we really care for our communities we really want to see better spaces for children to learn to you know get all that stress out it's going to help them so much with their mental health especially nowadays with all the stuff that is going on it's so important that you guys approve this resolution or pass it like it's it's really really necessary um if you know got to take a lot of uh you know work from the district because honestly the district every time they got to do something in

065the school it's a huge process it's it's seriously sometimes I don't even think it makes sense uh you know we have to be able to you know just you know give a little bit of you know a little sech for this this organizations that are willing to help all these parents we as parents we want to help our schools we're always advocating for them we want the best for our children and here's the huge opportunity that the district has you know to let others help without so many barriers like it's super super important for our little ones uh think of their mental health think how much better they can do how much is these green spaces are going to mean to them you know just the trees and flowers it makes the difference in our

066world we've seen what has happened with all these disasters and we don't want them to keep growing with this issues that we keep seeing day you know after day after day you know let's give them A Little Piece of Heaven A Little Piece of of of Peace in their own school so they can feel really comfortable and you know I really thank you Dr R and um Scott because it's you know you guys are actually seen you know how can we help you know as parents community and organizations to the schools we want to give a piece of ourselves thank you very much for your time we appreciate your time thank you so much uh Roston Woo you're also online to speak remotely Roston woo please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have

067two minutes to speak once you begin rostin hello can you hear me uh we sure can please go ahead great okay hi my name is Ros wo um I'm a parent of two students at Latona Elementary in Lincoln Heights um it's a k36 school that serves 90% latinx students it's 89% economically disadvantaged and it's also 97% paved um these kinds of projects are really critical um not only for creating a safe environment um and a healthy environment for our kids but also just for the overall Greening that is necessary for for Los Angeles um it's a it's you know just critical for climate for the livability of our city um so at our school we partner we have great Partners at Northeast trees Northeast trees and EPI and we've actually been awarded calfire grant were

068in line for a seeds Grant but but despite having raised you know thousands of dollars hundreds of thousands of dollars you know there's really no groundbreaking in sight there's just so many great uh road blocks in the way things like soil testing or Bungalow removal and so it can feel really discouraging to have spent you know years applying through these grants getting these grants and then having the clock ticking on them and feeling like um they're still uh all these things in the way to actually making these things happen so I fully support this proposal I think it's a really wonderful uh step in the direction to support these Partners who are really trying to do right by L USD schools to create these spaces that are you know priorities you know not just for

069parents but I mean they're the stated priorities of L USD so if these are the things you need you want to have happen you know we need to remove those roadblocks and make sure that they're actually able to do that um so this is a great step in the right direction um it particularly benefits schools that have trouble you know raising other other kinds of resources so things in board districts one and two and in South Central where there's not um you know wealthy ptas to kind of figure out ways to make these happen other other other sources um it's just really critical and it's an equity issue so I I fully encourage you to support this resolution thank you thank you for your time all right Dr Michael Mendes you signed in to speak

070uh remotely but I don't have you online in front of me are you in the room Dr Michael Mendes uh antoneta Garcia you are online please go ahead and press R six to unmute yourself and you have 2 minutes to speak once you begin antoneta Garcia um hi you can you hear me yeah sure can please go ahead yes good afternoon board members my name is antona Garcia and I'm a parent at Griffith Ste Magnet Middle School like all parents I won my child to go to school in a safe and healthy environment but when I look at our campus I see ashall and not enough shade or green spaces our children spend every single day in these type of conditions playing and learning and growing I also have seen that many of other communities

071such as like the east side and South Lake they lack of green spaces is this fair for them and is this fair for us parents want to help make our schools Greener and we red parents have stepped it up we have stepped up our game by helping our school club call the mindful gardeners the mindful gardeners is a club that was created by students during covid-19 the pandemic and this club helped our students with uh mental health and also learning about more about native plants this club has helped my daughter a lot it has helped her with her mental health and learning how to love the environment and also helping her community we have also um partnered up with other organizations who have ex ex you know experience to make our project happen our community

072rep is currently seeking and exploring partnership with organizations also as well we are asking you to support parents support schools and support A Greener schools healthier learning environments for our children please pass this resolution thank you thank you for your time okay we have Lake sharp on the line Lake sharp please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Lake sharp Lake please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin I see you're online push that star six combination and you will be ready to be heard hello hi hi there hi everyone uh good afternoon board members uh my name is Lake sharp and I am a parent at Lona Elementary and I'm one of two Scrappy parent members

073of the green schooling initiative there and uh I know firsthand as Roston mentioned uh working with our wonderful nonprofit Partners how difficult it has been to move forward with already awarded um grant money um a lot of the times we'll we'll see what we can do see about breaking ground and then we will find that there's all these other Hoops that we have to jump through in order to get to the point where the kids actually benefit from these projects um as a parent I have to point out too that because all these projects take so much time and there's so much bureaucracy uh a lot of the times it's really difficult to stir up that momentum Within These communities because our kids age out before they ever get to see any of these projects

074come to fruition and it's really disappointing especially in uh district one District Two in Title One schools it's really hard for us parents to make time uh to take time off of work to be there and it seems so critical to hear our voices in these matters and anything that can be done to make it easier to get buyin from Community stakeholders and from parents so that we can see the benefits in our schools while our kids are there um is well worth it so I would like to wholeheartedly support this resolution and um just uh uh join with all the voices that uh are saying that this is an equity issue um and I really look forward to seeing this resolution pass and I look forward to seeing those trees at Lona Elementary thank

075you so much thank you for your time okay Stephanie manetto are you on the line Stephanie manetto please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Stephanie hi I just want to make sure can you hear me we sure can go ahead okay uh good afternoon UA sardes board members and superintendent carvalo my name is Stephanie manetto Jackson and I'm a parent at Buchanan Street Elementary and former Bobcat myself I went to banon the trees there now were planted over 30 years ago when I was there and no other improvements have been made since then in terms of Greening other than small parent future projects I want my children to go to school in a safe green and healthy environment I believe we all know the benefits

076of a green space and now we just have to make it happen parents want to help make our schools Greener and we are stepping up to do just that unfortunately the process is harder than it should be instead of putting resources towards green uh Trees Gardens and Outdoor Learning spaces our schools are forced to navigate costly fees and complex approval processes that slow things down abukanan these efforts started years before I was back and I decided to take it on when my oldest was just an etk and by the time this project even breaks ground he will be in fourth grade our school was supposed to break ground two years ago and we just received another update this week that it won't happen yet due to additional red tape funds were about to expire in

077March luckily we received an extension so from the lack of coordination between departments lack of consideration for timing um this resolution makes it a simple way to remove these unnecessary barrier so that schools and nonprofit Partners can focus on what really matters getting these projects done for our kids the funding we raiseed should go towards creating better spaces for students not towards administrative fees this would benefit schools in both Board District 2 and board district one which are Central and South areas where there is less Greening we don't have enough shade or green space so I'm asking and urging you to please support parents support schools and more importantly support A Greener healthier learning environment for our children please pass this resolution thank you thank you for your time and our last caller is Audrey

078lieberstein Audrey please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Audrey lieberstein hi my name is Audrey lieberstein I'm a parent of two children at Dixie Canyon Community Charter and a moderator of the advocacy group parents supporting teachers I'm here today because I believe in the power of green schools at my school Dixie Canyon like I imagine most La USC schools we are a community that strongly sees the potential of Greening but our project all pretty much all of our projects continuously hit a giant wall built by the district this resolution offers a path forward and I'm asking you strongly to support it for context Dixie has been under construction for roughly 5 years we have two more years to go until the students will have any

079form of a normal campus the plans for this project were made prior to any of the district's scening resolutions while this of course is no one's fault and it makes perfect sense that Greening was not in the original plans we thought as a community this would be a great time while asphalt was already being removed to further green the school the PTA went ahead and raised funds hours of fundraising times we went through proper channels worked with admin and the district to designate areas where a garden space could be added instead of the asphalt we found a wonderful Community partner to do the work this is a long-standing trusted La USC vendor who was ready to step up and had many conversations himself with the district about this space in the end what transpired was

080this we handed the district $225,000 and a community partner and they said no because it would be too complicated to reopen construction plans the lip service answer was that a rainwater system was in PL PL was in the plans and could not be changed in the end this area on our campus is asphalted leaving a Barren and unuseful space that has no sh shade no green space and no learning use the rainwater collection system that seems so important to the district does not even work I collected video this last rainfall of stagnant puddles which needed to be broomed into the drains the entire process has left left the community Beyond defeated it seems that nothing anyone does to better the schools can actually be completed the red tape that Meers the district is not only

081hurting children but also the district as a whole as I've had countless parents say they chose Charters and privat because of our school's lack of Breen space the project was perfect opportunity to improve the school environment and the message it sent to the children and the parents about the district's actual commitment to sustainability is that it is fake and it is LIF service thank you for your time that completes a public comment okay and as we had uh Miss gz move this item and Miss Grio second this item we're going to have board discussion now and who would like to speak firsto yes um first thank you to all the folks who showed up today all the community members who are in support of this uh resolution um let me just find here it is

082I heard uh parent Stephanie speak on the phone and um it reminded me I used to teach at Buchanan Street and I was a teach teacher who organized with parents to remove the Bungalows and to demand then board member ref Rodriguez to replace the Bungalows with green space that was a long time ago I want to say about eight years ago and I ran into somebody who has a Community member who's been working hard to try to make this green space possible at Buchanan Street and she shared exactly what this resolution is trying to fix that there are so many fees so many tests that it becomes nearly impossible and as Stephanie just raised in her call um it seems like it's still not going to happen so I want to thank uh Dr Rivas

083and uh uh Scott because uh you're bringing this this resolution that will hopefully address these issues that I'm sure are happening not only at Buchanan Street but at other um School sites um I want to I want to say that you know these like everybody said green space should not be a luxury it should not be something that only some folks get and in Board District 5 we know that there are a lot of schools that don't have green space and then if they do have some green space that's the only space the kids have in their neighborhood so it's very important that we uh reach our goal of Greening our schools um and like folks said this is a priority that is shared by families and community members so again this resolution is responsive

084to the urgency being expressed by the community and we cannot afford to delay and so I wholeheartedly support this resolution and I'm very grateful for you bringing it up thank you Miss gones yes I I'll Echo many of the same comments I appreciate all of the speakers I thought they raised really excellent points um and would love to join as a co-sponsor of the resolution um thank you Dr revas and board president scharon for bringing it um it's a really important topic I have several partner projects in the works in my Board District at Haden um Telfair sharp omin and Vis and the East San Fernando Valley I know there were several communities noted as having needs the San Fernando Valley is a community probably most directed by most directly impacted by extreme heat and

085and La unified and um environmental Injustice issues lack of Green Space Etc so this has been an ongoing priority for me despite um efforts to bring Partners into our communities and successfully being awarded these grants they have not been able to start their work um they their orientation was to start in summer I visited Telfair Elementary in early April and they were there showing plans ready to get started um I visited last week and no work has begun and that's largely due to self-imposed barriers um and it and it's truly an injustice and a tragedy because the students who lose out are those students at Telfair the students at all of our schools throughout the district who are not seeing those Investments during their careers with us um so it's really really critical and I

086I want to particularly point out the calfire green schoolyards grants um those uh are due to be completed by March of 2026 and these delays that have been experienced seriously threaten whether these projects will get completed at all um so I I greatly appreciate just the overall uh focus on here I I just would add particular urgency around those projects to ensure that they can start construction next month and be completed by March of 2026 so that the funds don't returned to the state and that our students actually see these Investments um overall besides the the fees issue which I think is a really important one to address um we have to align our standards our oversight and our requirements with the type of projects that these are um these are landscaping and Greening projects

087they're not the construction of buildings and I think there's a fundamental mismatch in how we as the district are approaching these projects and treating them as though they are building construction projects when in fact they are outdoor uh projects uh providing Green Space um so I hope that our new language uh will will address that mismatch and that orientation um will also keep us to the review times that are required so again that we can proceed with haste um and we know you know the board boldly set a goal of 30% Green Space on all of our campuses by 2035 um that is a priority and we know that we cannot reach that without the support of Partners it is absolutely essential and the district needs to be a good partner in this work the

088last piece I wanted to addressed is cost because of course um our general fund is impacted that's how we pay um for our teachers and our other staffs instructional supplies Etc I hope that in the long term we can work together with our Greening Partners so that we can utilize our bond dollars uh specifically for these projects um we have in measure um measure us 1.25 billion towards Greening um but it we have to meet certain requirements to be able to utilize those funds so I I hope in the long term we can work together um to partner on these grants moving forward so that we can utilize those Bond dollars and provide some relief for our general fund overall though very supportive um and grateful for you all bringing in forward thank you Miss

089gones uh board member Cortez Lopez would you go please yes thank you uh I would like to begin by echoing the sentiments of uh past board members just really extending the heartfelt thank you to Dr R Rivas and board president uh schmon for allowing the streamlining of green initiatives on our campus seeing so many students just really happy because of the fact that they see these initiatives on campus when I when they see that it's actually taking place and they have a place on campus that allows them to thrive that is not just as someone mentioned some of our community members had me had mentioned uh was a concrete jungle so I greatly appreciate that and I look forward to see how the student role can play into a greater part of this perhaps uh

090serving as climate Advocates or students acely participating in their school sites I know many schools on campus have uh climate clubs and climate resilience clubs so I'm looking forward to see how we can integrate the student voice considering how impacted the students will be directly by the benefits of this resolution so just want to extend my heartfelt thank you and back to you board president scharon thank you thank you Miss Ortiz Franklin thanks yeah I think there's you know a lot of common ground here around prioritizing equity and transparency and our Greening projects working with our partners and getting to better Solutions um I I do have a question about the cost and I'm not sure if this is for staff or for the authors but given that you know we've seen kind of the

091future of the district's budget um over the next several years and we'll want to be um really smart fiscally over the next few months as we prepare to approve our next budget um $3 million is what's listed in the red but I was curious with the Staffing and with any potential like reimbursements if the um budget impact would be much greater than that or sort of what we should anticipate with this so again I don't know if that's for staff or for the um authors of the resolution um but it would be helpful to get a ballpark of how much this might cost well I'll I'll just ask well the three million as it says is to look at different resources apart from just general fund uh which is what also the plan is helping

092to indicate in in identifying these the funds or the resources so I understand that bring using Bond dollars complicates things but you know we have to be creative we we can't just keep doing the same thing over and over again when addressing a green project so that is that's what we have here uh to develop an implementation plan to think creatively um I think that the for instance in the board today we have initiatives right and they're asking us to spend $3 billion so when it's a district initiative there's money but when it's a community initiative there isn't any money so I think we need to start changing that um and prioritizing how we're spending our money and that's why you know the goal is for the planning the implementation plan is um which will

093come before the green committee and eventually the board is to start thinking looking at different resources of funding so it just does rely on the general fund or Bond but just how can we look for these funds um and be creative about it so that's the Dr would would 3 million be like your bottom like spend at least 3 million or would it be the top like no more than or that's sort of like the range somewhere around 3 million somewhere around 3 billion I mean million I should say um billion oh my god um just yeah it's just you know as we were taking into account all of the fees it seems like it's like a range um so yeah okay thank you thank you Miss newbill yes thank you um and again I

094want to say thank you to president Scott schmers and Dr Rivas for bringing this forward and as we know we want to be great Partners um and for all those organizations who have spoke today on behalf especially bd1 where we know um many of our schools are in dire need um as we mentioned often in conversation as we were talking we are interchanging the word fees and cost and so in just moving forward totally support but there are some language where we're saying fee removal like there is no fees at all and whether that can be an analysis in this plan versus just the removal of fees if their language can be changed to an analysis of various process to improve and a cost reduction strategy so we know what we're working with so we're

095kind of looking at what we've already worked with to have an analysis of where we're going if that's possible and then also in the same same paragraph where we're talking about maintaining um we're talking about streamlining the project supervision if that is still there can we maintain compliance with the district and state school building requirements and as mentioned uh where gonz was mentioning the language of greens space if that could be identified in this uh document that we receive from the superintendent so that it's clear what we're talking about when we say green space or we say a building so it's all clear and we're not mixing words because right now we in this conversation we've interchanged fee and cost often so it's can be very specific so that when we look at this document

096and we use it to our advantage to make these processes go faster we're actually talking the same language that's it thank you Miss new Mr Mel thank you um thanks Dr Rivas and Mr smarson uh for bringing this important resolution I'd also like to be at as a co-sponsor thank you to our partners who are here it's great to see friends and colleagues and folks we've been working on Greening and also Community School parks and and similar issues I do have a few I wonder if Miss toes is here superintendent or someone because I do have some questions I'm asking to coonor I'm supportive I just want to better understand some of the funding and also try to get at and I don't know that we'll do it right now maybe in in Dr rias's

097committee maybe in my facilities and procurement committee but actually try not to just reallocate where the money is coming from but actually to reduce the cost of these projects which I know my colleagues and Miss gas was getting at but as Miss toes comes down you know we usually get budget impact statements for Resolutions and I just want to confirm that I didn't miss anything but I don't think I got a budget or I I don't think the board got a budget impact statement on this so I just want to make sure that that's correct um do you mind repeating your question the budget so the budget impact statement that we usually get with the resolution I didn't remember getting one for this and I just didn't know if that was a change of practice

098or if it's just because there have been amendments to the resolution but I wanted to understand why we to miss um orti Franklin's question too we didn't get a sense of kind of what this would cost the district um I can't uh answer why you might not have received a budget impact statement um but in terms of what the budget impact statement may be for the facility services division I think that we would determine that as part of this analysis of where the funding may come from whether it can be bond funds um General funds cops funded elop funded all of those would be analyzed as we do that analysis and so is the $3 million and maybe this is for Dr R too but is that just is that our um estimate of what

099partners are spending in fees annually right now or just where did that number come from I don't know I would turn that over to the authors or the ecos sustainability and again Dr I'm not I'm I'm not um I'm just trying to understand because I think we all want to not only just save Partners money but reduce the cost of these projects well we looked at all the different projects that are in are in process now and the accumulation of of of fees so they could be 30,000 and then Mr Christos is here so it's just a ballpark figure based on the projects that here and up potential projects that are coming and then the I guess the range of fees at each project um encumbers so there's one project that could have 30,000 and

100another project can have $200,000 depending um you know on the project scope or what what the impact is so Chris is this anticipated as like an annual cost or is this just a one time for like all the projects that are in the queue yeah so the three M 31 million that initially was was estimated was based on uh the certain amount of projects so we looked at the cire projects and we have approximately about 43 cire projects out of those 41 sorry 33 are they're going to move through construction out of those we estimated the soft cost that we make reference to and I think the uh the 3.1 is identified based on those costs now those costs includes any anything from design reviews during the schematic design development and construction documents it includes

101site assessment and set implementation in terms of if you have any asphalt or asphalt removal it includes inspection cost and it includes the O the owners authorized representative in terms of managing the project through the pro through the construction process process and I have a few more questions on that point but just while I have you up here too the um the last resolve that was added that says uh the board director super intended to take all necessary steps to hire staff for the E ecos sustainability office up to the maximum number of positions allocated in approved funding allocation what is the approved funding allocation is that a prior year budget and we just haven't been able to staff your office or is that a new allocation the money we're we're directing to we're trying

102to fund uh we're trying to uh right now fill the positions so we have funding allocation for this year and uh we're working with budget to be able to determine the following year in terms of funding those uh positions that we have not fi right now so that resol that's not adding more money that's just saying we've already as a board funded positions in the ecos office they're just vacant and we're saying with all deliberate speed fund them that's correct so I guess the bigger question and and maybe Dr R this is something to agenda at The Greening committee but I think you know what I hear when I hear folks say 8 to 36% of fees or a percent of a project are fees on one hand I think this resolution is saying okay

103the partners won't pay those 36% the district will pay but there it's kind of funable and that like okay so then the partner's money is going to The Greening but we're still paying the fees I know we talked about this when I was on The Greening committee around asphalt removal too and folks didn't want to support asphalt removal with their dollars because maybe it it wasn't Greening but it was a prerequisite of Greening and so I would like to try to understand is just like you know the things that are listed here that this $3 million will go to which is owner authorized representative fees project fees Ada retrofits District staff time testing design reviews inspections like let's take an example project of like a piece of we just did short Avenue Elementary in my

104district we did a greening project like how much of that budget are these things what is the peer cost at NE neighboring districts I know we have that comparative review coming to the board um District staff time are we allocating it this is something I know the superintendent has pointed out a few years ago is that sometimes for projects we allocate staff time and then we get to above 100% of their salary so we basically say we're attributing if I'm a you know a project engineer every project is part of my salary but once we get to 100% of my salary I'm done but instead we're charging you know this next screening project so so that's where I do think there's not um nothing nefarious but there is an inflation of this and so it's

105great that what this resolution does is I understand it say Partners your money we want to stretch it we want it to go to Dollar like we want these Cal fire grants to be spent but it still means that we're paying these same things is just as coming out of the district fund and so what what might be helpful what I'd love to see is a breakdown of one project to figure out how does the district stff time retrofits testing design reviews and I know that folks who are nodding the audience have been talking about this for a long time and have said that we're we're an outlier when it comes to that so you know I'm I'm supportive of kind of Shifting but I just I worry a little bit we're just rearranging deck

106chairs and in sense of like okay partners are now not paying this fee 100% of their money will go to The Greening but the district's still spending 8 to 36% of a uh project cost on things that that maybe should be capped at 10% or something like that and and that's this cultural change that we're definitely trying to p pushed through the facilities and procurement committee the comparative study that actually was just completed at the end of January and will be shared with the board I think this month or next who'll be helpful so that that is where I think this is a great step and I'm I'm proud to support but I think we still need to this like it's just in some ways this is just acknowledging the frustration and saying okay fine

107we'll take it but I still am continually frustrated and say like let's bring the cost down so that we can stretch the dollars further so board member Melo I think that's that's the work ahead of us and it's also part of the work that we initiated in November um when we convene with the living schoolyards Coalition um Mr Chris Hulu and and a number of team members to really identify where the opportunities are to kind of reduce those oversight costs one of the key gaps that we definitely identify I think this comes down to just effective partnership between district and nonprofit Partners is that we need to identify from the GetGo when we apply for Grants jointly to serve our schools is that we have full awareness of what those fees and costs are um

108and they're built into the grants themselves and what we've found is sometimes grants are applied for but then something wasn't captured as one of those oversight fees and then we're having to solve for it on the back end and that's where you know we we have been working to do that um the other thing is being strategic about how we leverage dollars and and projects um building off I think there's a desire to think about how do we use Bond dollars how do we use the L op how do we use other resources that are available to us that have some level of restriction but identify an opportunity if we're going to do a modernization project is there an opportunity to actually marry that modernization project with a greening project from a nonp uh nonprofit

109partner and actually use some of the oversight fees that are going towards that broader Bond project to actually offset the cost it wouldn't be actually a burden that our nonprofit partner would be experiencing so so no this is how we're really approaching the work when we look at the 120-day kind of plan and assessment it is really trying assessing what that feasibility is um but but know that it's heard and it has been the strategy as we've been working with our nonprofit Partners thank you Deputy superintendent and I you know I think and Miss G has mentioned this understand Greening projects versus building projects but there are certain things where we might tag on because there's an efficiency to say oh we're doing Greening so let's do an ADA retrofit but it might not always

110be required and if it is I think we have enough advocates in this room let's go to Sacramento let's go to Washington and talk about exemptions for Greening project give it the climate crisis and then also and I want to give kudos to miss toes and um Miss O'Brien and their team who are already looking in this but like just because testing is listed here my understanding is that you know there is a industry standard or a requirement around testing like 10% of the soil before you do a project and the district does like 100% because that's just what we do and that that's not necessary and that's adding cost and time and so so that's where we need to recalibrate like you know and I think a lot of that is what's inflating the

111costs and the time so anyways thank you I appreciate you bringing this and I think it's the start of an important conversation exactly that that's exactly what I to say this is the start of something that the district has been dealing with this is nothing new right this has been going on for decades since The Greening project so it's a first step in addressing these challenges and barriers um that our Community Partners have been dealing with and it also has deterred other partners from working with the district because of this so we could have even 20 more Partners in helping us green these projects and have 50 $50 million more but because of these challenges that have been reoccurring over and over and over again um this is why we're we're here to at least

112initiate this first first step and these three billion is just for the current projects and ones that are lined up um and the plan is to address this for the future projects the fees so I just I I just um have a question I don't know if Miss toes can come back up here but um just wanted to know how does this District cover its own fees these fees from um District initiated projects right how do we cover that and how is that different from the uh projects that are coming from our partners how do you does it District cover the fees sure um whenever we bring a project to the board for approval it's inclusive of all of those project costs so that would include the DSA costs the testing costs the design management

113costs those are all but for this project those are the costs of the project so that's that's they're included in the project cost when we bring them to the boc and the board for your approval so they're covered by Bond dollars correct okay one okay thank you just wanted to ask that okay before I speak last I'm going to let our superintendent speak thank you very much oh I just miss sorry I just had a quick followup question for Miss to since she was here um because I think it's an it's an important Point um apologies to make you keep walking Christina um just the the the challenge or like what we should figure out in and I think it's a it's a 60-day window now for the plan correct okay um when it's it's

114the discret Ser so for asphalt testing only we wouldn't be able to utilize Bond Bond dollars just for that it's because it's coupled as part of a larger District project that we can cover those utilizing Bond dollars is that correct correct when we bring projects to the board it's all inclusive of a capital project um so those fees are associated with that Capital project um and that actually doesn't matter the funding source when we've brought in um projects that are funded by elop or for cops um we include the total project budget in those so that the uh board has transparency of what the total cost will be for the district um in the case of your specific question of could we just uh use funds for let's just say the testing if there wasn't

115a capital project my understanding and this is what we'll vet over the next 60 days is because there is no Capital project then we wouldn't be able to use the bond funds for that it's a challenge that we have to because we have our our own office Bond dollars so I know it's something that I've I've navigated and trying to support schools as well it has to be a a a comprehensive project um so I think that's just part of part of the charge of um the next 60 days is to try to navigate those and and then think long term about how we could partner in maybe deeper ways um with our partners on these thank you that was all sure okay superintendent please thank you actually so I believe some of the comments

116made by board member gones sort of sold my thunder I think there's value in Greater efficiencies greater partnership and actually recog izing within projects a reduction of total cost uh that underlies those projects as important and we can navigate that meaning to the extent that uh there is a significant project that's Bond funded then obviously a supplemental Grant fund or uh you know third- party entity investment uh would be absor absorbed within that project because the bond would pay for it because we're already committing those dollars so um I want want to add that piece in addition to the fact that this is not only an important step but uh it certainly is a compliment to what we already declared as an intent specific to measure us you heard board member gon speak about a

117$1.2 billion investment out of that uh out of that measure with 700 million of those uh Investments uh being uh committed addressed by this board within the first two quarters of this year so there is urgency behind this board priority we recognize the importance in lives of kids in our community particularly in areas within Los Angeles that not only the school but the surrounding Community does not necessarily have sufficient Green Space or shade available to students their parents and their families thank you okay as the last speaker I have a few words to say and I have a funny feeling that this is going to pass I don't know why but let me just uh give you a few more uh comments that I have I'm from Board District three we're from the hot hot

118hot San Fernando Valley and Greening is very important to me too there's one thing that I cannot stand when I visit my schools and that is empty tree Wells they drive me crazy seeing empty tree Wells trees that had died because of a disease or because they were not watered so one of my goals is to plant trees in every one of those empty tree Wells right I hear you students deserve Green Schools I hear you that too also I just have to say too in my opinion AstroTurf is not Greening AstroTurf is plastic and I I try to convince my schools all the time let's have real grass oh but you know it involves sprinkler systems and watering well you have to water astr Turf too when it gets real hot you have to

119cool it down and it's not sanitary in my opinion so I'm a big supporter but this is what I want to say Dr Evas I heard my name mentioned 26 times today because of you 26 times as the co-sponsor but I have to say this is the lady who did all the work this is a lady whose Blood Sweat and Tears made this happen so I give the credit all to you but thank you for mentioning me too thank you so much well thank you for that but I really want to give um all the glory to my staff um Alejandra and also Rudy and and our partners as well and then all the parents we talked to a lot of folks this is you know this is not just me this is every it's

120a community my name was mentioned but it's you you and you so can we vote all right okay voting on Tab 21 Miss nuell yes Dr Ras yes Mr meloy yes Miss Grio yes Miss gones yes Miss Ortiz Franklin yes board president scharon yes Miss CZ Cortez Lopez yes okay unanimous it passes so what we're going to do is just take one minute and Dr Rivas and I and The Greening committe we're going to take a picture in the front for this successful event right outside of the boardroom okay just one minute folks just one minute one minute time us time us okay okay I'll be responsible for the timing of this minute I last be e e e the the minute has lapsed by 30 seconds so it's now 1 minute and 30 seconds

121just so everybody knows all right so next we have committee reports well next we have oh time starting sorry sorry okay all right okay all the board members are back shall we uh proceed proceed Mr M one I think it's perfect thank you we have a Time certain for um tab 24 which is my resolution with Miss gones celebrating our emergency responders and I want to note the board and the public has a slightly amended version that just adds some language about thanking our school and operation staff got everyone safely on buses and and just is more inclusive about the evacuation effort on January 8th and then also acknowledges the teachers and paraprofessionals who um who are working so tirelessly not just the week of the fires but um throughout the year so I if

122it's okay I'd like to speak I'd like to start Mr McLean with our speakers and then I'll speak and ask M mgon to speak and I know um I think one of our speakers is also a labor partner so she goes over her time I hope we can indulge uh Miss Salazar so I'll turn over to Mr McLean okay so we have four speakers well we'll flip it we'll do the callers first and then come back for the inperson folks um let's see I have uh Maria Louisa Palma for tab 24 I see you're online please press star 6 to unmute yourself and you have two minutes to speak once you begin on Tab 24 celebrating our emergency responders Maria Louisa Palma good afternoon my name is Maria Lisa Palma and speaking on behalf of

123oada a nonprofit organization during the fires and the evacuations I know I trusted and I think the community also trusted the fire police department even the National Guard to keep order and to help keep us safe when we were in trouble and I completely agree with the spirit of this resolution thanking and celebrating all of our emergency responders across the city however it would be better if we could have a more genuine thank you to these first resp responders in law enforcement uh we have a narrative unfortunately in our schools and in the curriculum where police and including school police are considered to be the oppressors that they are vilified but our First Responders as we saw during this huge emergency are essential they should be respected we should be helping our students respect what

124these First Responders do for us and not view them under this viewpoint uh including when we used to have school police on campus when they were assigned to high schools and middle schools I'll remind you once again the changes the increases to discipline and safety incidents from 20178 when we move that forward to 2023 to 2024 an increase 186% in fights 173% in threats 117% in illegal and Controlled Substances increase of 90% in weapons I say that this is can be defined as a crisis whether or not we can prove definitively direct causality between those two changes the changes of removing the school police from campus now we know that utla as the teachers union we know that they have control over the curriculum and we don't know what our kids are being taught what

125are our kids being taught in the classroom are they being taught to fear police to be against police so this these are very big concerns and we hope that this resolution cannot just be a one-time thank you but to honestly be willing to work with law enforcement and our First Responders thank you very much for your time appreciate your time okay let's see Miss Aila are you out there come on up you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin I'm getting old I need glasses now good evening board members um my name is Adriana Salazar Avila I am president of Teamsters Local 572 Teamsters have a long proud history of helping communities in need during times of disasters we've been around for more than a hundred years and in that 100 years I just

126want to share a couple of instances where the teamsters stepped forward when called upon specifically 1906 during the San Francisco earthquakes and fires Teamsters were there on the ground helping people helping livestock and helping save San Francisco Teamsters also helped deliver vaccines Not That vaccine the Spanish flu vaccine back in 1920 Teamsters delivered them throughout the the nation in record time to make sure that people were healthy and safe teamers has continued this tradition over these hundred years we are proud of the fact that we make it to hurricanes before FEMA does specifically in New Orleans and Puerto Rico so it is no doubt in our minds that Teamsters were here to help La when La needed help I had the opportunity of joining uh Christina toes and deputy director Dennis Bradburn as they toured

127the the city and the campuses thanking plant managers and assistant plant managers but I want to thank both board member meloy and gones for sponsoring this bill extending those thanks and extending that gratitude for every LAUSD employee who helped La unified get through this crisis our members were amazing they were phenomenal members of all labor unions volunteered they all stepped forward but I'm here to speak about our members at local 572 specifically our food service managers who staffed and manned your grab and your grabb and go sites specifically our members in M who call when called upon they showed up it may not be um known but we had been in contentious thank you we had been in contentious negotiations with M and had just signed a tentative agreement with them where the district was

128prohibited from asking assistant plant managers and plant Managers from using their personal cell phones while at work so it was no surprise to us when we got a phone call from the district saying hey by the way we need help documenting the destruction for FEMA reimbursement you think you can ask your assistant plant managers and plant managers to take pictures we did not hesitate absolutely we can because Teamsters step up we step up when we are called upon we step up when we are asked to we step up when we're not asked to we are there we are there to help we were there during covid we are here now this resolution does so much more than thanking just members it thanks and recognizes every single La USD employee who stepped up when they could

129have stepped back so I want to thank you thank you Mr melin thank you Miss gones thank you for recognizing and honoring all labor unions and all District employees who helped thank you all right thank you uh Maria Daisy Ortiz I see you are listed as calling in but here you are in person uh m is going to speak in Spanish so if you'd like to hear what she's saying in English please put on these headsets and you will experience simultaneous translation okay yeah okay good afternoon everyone my name is Maria orz and I here to support this resolution right this this um this petition to recognize all the Departments that in some way or form has assisted during the fires like in the areas such as Altadena and it's the time for us to

130also recognize the value that every department has and I want to include the school police since they need to return our our school police because we're seeing that students are leaving school grounds because there are none there are there is no school police no one will arrest them and when the schools don't have a department of security like the school police which is different than the Municipal Police then the schools become very vulnerable to all Mal inent such as drug drugs pedophiles and uh uh human trafficking because I had to do a report uh because there was someone who was promoting jobs in front of the high school and and it was a it was a person who was trying to take advantage of our community needs passing as a student so I wanted to

131say that school police is a fundamental component for safety in schools and right now that the students were going out uh parents drop their kids off and once something happens it's the school's responsibility to guarantee the safety of every student if something happens to one student who do we make responsible we need to make best practices and we need to understand the value that us parents have because I had a meeting with all the state and you are the only ones that are opposed to having involvement of parents and a Committee of low income parents thank you very much for time so I think everybody needs to be sensitive to this call thank you for your time bre us Julia Fisher Julia fiser are you here in person you're signed up to speak remotely but

132are you in the room Julia fiser okay that uh concludes comment on Tab 24 thank you Mr McLean thanks to our speakers and Miss salar Aila and to your members my wife is a proud Teamster so I appreciate that history as well um I'm bringing this resolution uh which I urge the board to support and I have a feeling they will um to ensure we recognize all the people who stepped up for our schools and communities in different ways from the moment we had to evacuate schools on uh Tuesday January 7th to the ongoing recovery efforts Following last month's devastating wildfires and we know we'll be in that recovery mode for months and years to come um we're all in agreement as we heard that our firefighters and First Responders save thousands of lives with

133their heroic efforts during the fires but we all wanted to make sure we extended our gratitude to The District employees and labor Partners who worked to keep our students and school Community safe uh and supported our community during this unimaginable tragedy including the bus drivers school police and employees who leapt into action um on the day of the fires to evacuate thousands of students to safety from our schools and around the Palisades area uh the school staff who dropped everything to join students on the buses as they evacuated many of them leaving behind their own vehicles and other personal belongings to comfort and support students during the evacuation efforts the staff at receiving schools who had to adapt at a moment's notice to welcome the displaced School communities uh the custodial staff who worked around

134the clock to get schools clean and ready for a safe reopening and continue to work tirelessly to keep our kids healthy and safe every day the employees who helped staff the district grab and go sites and supervision sites when schools were closed to make sure students who needed meals could still be fed and families who needed Child Care would have a place for their kids to engage in Virtual instruction the teachers who showed up for their kids in New Way ways and were there to support those who were displaced and had experienced so much trauma the facilities and O oehs staff who work literally overnight and uh over the weekends to relocate two schools um we know we have employees uh who are among the families who lost everything in the fires and yet they

135continue to work on behalf of their students uh and provide the support that their school communities need uh so even in crisis uh and even when their physical campuses were damaged uh or couldn't be accessed our schools um were still there for the communities they serve it was crucial to our efforts to provide students with stability and support they needed in a time of so much uncertainty and we can remain committed uh to supporting families as we rebuild and we recover together um and I I just want to um uh thank everyone um for their support and before I turn over to miss gonz also just acknowledge you know I think at least in in the areas that I represent in the Palisades but also Altadena and Pasadena this has been a real moment where

136there's a crisis of confidence in our government and our ability to do hard things and to protect our communities and I think amidst a lot of the frustration and disappointment that many of us felt as residents and as lifelong angelinos uh the school district was a real bright spot that stepped up and relocated to elementary school campuses within a week uh evacuated schools um had the best uh in class cleaning and air quality standards and there's always work to be done as we're evolving to a climate reality that we addressed in Greening resolutions and uh at one point six different fight fire is Raging in La uh but I'm I'm really proud of the work that this District did all of our employees and our labor unions and um you know was proud to be

137on the board during this crisis and with that I'll turn over to miss gones thank you very much Mr meloy for your leadership and for bringing this resolution forward um we know that January was just one of the most significant disasters our community has faced in a generation and still all across the city folks are are reeling and dealing with this fires brought Devastation danger and so much uncertainty for our families and staff this was true for those tragically affected by the Palisades and Eden fires as well as families in Silmar in my Board District who were displaced and evacuated due to the Hurst fire and other fires in the city and county but amidst um this chaos and tragedy I was inspired and heartened to see all of our La unified employees who went

138above and beyond to meet the needs of our students our families and our communities throughout the crisis um as Mr meloy noted including by managing school evacuations under dire circumstances volunteering to staff grab and go food distribution sites cleaning up hundreds of campuses over just a weekend so that our schools could safely reopen we know that our schools are the hearts of our communities they are a lifeline and that was uh truly made real um during this crisis um I just want to applaud all of our employees for their Herculean efforts to meet the needs of our students and families um in this traumatic time we know that it's because they are so committed and dedicated to the children that they serve that this was possible and I want them to know that they are

139celebrated and their sacrifice and dedication does not go unnoticed thank you great thank you for your co-sponsorship I'll turn it back over to Mr Schmelson may we go for comments go ahead Dr revas um I would like to support uh very thankful for this resolution and be a co-sponsor if you can add me please um your resolution or this resolution recognizes the incredible bravery and dedication of our emerc responders and District essential employees at all levels uh most especially during these recent fire outbreaks uh their selfless actions protected our community saved lives and were there for our school communities without hesitation uh their selfless actions protected our community save lives um I said that already sorry it's vital that we not only express our gratitude but make sure that the recognition is made publicly loud

140and clear um and I thank Mr mvoy and Miss gones for bringing this forward and and making sure that we recognize all of our employees thanks Miss nuil I doo want to co-sponsor this because I do believe as mentioned just publicly acknowledging just as when crisis happens this District definitely rushes in and those individuals that did such and um we know that I don't know January felt like 6 months uh but nonetheless uh as we come to this time now to be able to recognize those individuals who have put their lives on the line as mentioned you know leaving behind without question without even thinking about it and then going on to further making sure that our safe our sites were safe for individuals to return and so definitely want to say thank you again

141for bringing this forward and for those that have helped and those that have spoken today thanks thank you Miss Grio yes um thank you Nick and Kelly I appreciate this recognition of First Responders and I also want to recognize the teachers which were added here in um in your resolution the campus AIDS support staff and administrators and even parents who were there on Wednesday who showed up uh to support and to work and parents who brought their children to school in spite of the clouds of smoke the Fallen trees and the debris on the roads um all of our employees who were on campus that morning kept our students calm they were communicating with families when schools closed and when children needed to be picked up they were making those calls supporting admin and in

142calling families um some of these side employees themselves were in evacuation warning areas without power in their homes and as we recognize the efforts of so many of our employees who helped during the closures I also want to acknowledge the many concerns from families in my district um close to 150 families employees and students responded to a survey that I put out to hear their thoughts about how we responded to this emergency situation and their response is clearly and overwhelmingly call for an improvement and transparency in how we respond to these emergency situations in a quicker and more efficient manner they want plans and they want assurances that we will handle things better the next time um I want to thank you Nick and Kelly for recognizing our employees again I think they are truly

143the ones who who kept peace in the in the schools and yet I do think we need to do better because it was a very stressful situation I still have a vision of principal struggling to try to keep kids calm and parents calm so I want to recognize that and I I'm hoping that we continue to work um so that we could create more rapid and efficient responses to all types of emergency situations thank you this Cortez Lopez thank you just want to echo on the sentiment share today so many students during the tragedies that occurred during the palage fire all across Los Angeles County experienced height and anxiety due to evacuation school schedules wondering what the future of their school is going to be it was almost like a a relapse of what quarantine

144was like no one really knew what was going to be of their future but selfless actions to those who assisted during these scary times um really made a difference and I want to acknowledge their bravery and assistance not only physically but uh social emotionally in the way they assisted counselors teachers everyone who extended a hand parents volunteers to ensure that our students were well aware of their safety to ensure that their wellbe were intact as well and I would also like to be added as a co-sponsor thank you thank you thank you I guess I'm last um I just want to tell you that uh the day that our school opened I went over to Hazel te Avenue School and it was just amazing to see the kids so calm and so happy to be

145in school I made sure I went over to the plant manager and thanked him for what he did you couldn't even tell there was dust on the ground he did such a great job the cafeteria manager anxious to feed the kids get things ready of course the teachers the SAA the whole staff everybody was there to welcome kids and make them feel safe but my biggest surprise is when I went over to um mohola Middle School where we're having the uh grab and go and who did I see our Chief Information officer Mr soal uh Catal sorry soil Catal right there at the uh feeding Center along with with school police and other upper District leadership people and it was just amazing to see everybody working together helping the kids and I too would like

146to co-sponsor thank you thank you great Mr Schmelson if I may just one I appreciate the support and the kind words I also uh in addition to our labor partners and the folks on the field I do want to thank uh folks in this building who worked around the clock to during those um you know still but during those first few days from the super intendent of course uh who's been leading our response and also was with me on the ground in the Palisades the next morning to our our chief uh police chief who's here and Deputy Chief Bender and others who were there supporting the community uh Deputy superintendent saledo and his team Dr Murphy who was negotiating side letters with our labor Partners to make sure kids had a continuity of instruction and

147then Mr Chate too I know is in the back and the school operations team who I don't know if Andre slept for like four or five days cuz I was getting texts like every hour about winds and fires went to open and so I just want those folks to go uh not not without notice and then finally just closer to home my my immediate staff we have a small but might team in Board District 4 and uh they were working around the clock uh for those first few weeks still are supporting the folks in the Palisades and nearby community so just a lot of gratitude and thanks for all the support and don't forget Dr Webb I see you through the glass there Dr web thank you too thank you too Mr Carval very briefly

148I want to join the uh the CH of celebration in recognition of uh our brave uh First Responders emergency responders both external to our organization was certainly as you just correctly said board member melvoin those within our district who stepped up stepped in and did all they could during very trying times I think we've all learned a lot during this very difficult time and as a community uh we will build on our resiliency but today is a day of recognition and celebration for those men and women who put it all out there on the line on behalf of many in our community so thank you I and I know we'll always leave people out but the other folks I just need to mention region West uh Dr U Denise Collier the superintendent of region West

149Deborah Bryant her office coordinator uh the Ops director have been incredible and are still I think I talked to Denise probably every 20 minutes still on on response so I just want to make sure region West in particular and Dr Collier and Miss Dr Bryant get shouted out as well thank you so much Mr McLean okay so first we'll vote on the rule 72 waiver which is a waiver required for a resolution that wasn't introduced produced in the month prior it's for basically a precatory resolution or one um heaping Praise on people who deserve it so uh can I have a move in a second for the rule 72 waiver I'll move it second by Miss gones seconded by for president schmon so on the rule 72 a Miss Nill yes Dr revas yes Mr

150melin yes Miss Grio yes Miss gones yes Mr Franklin yes board president sharlon yes and analy Cortez Lopez yes all right and now for the underlying uh principal motion can I have a motion in a second I'll second okay now you can so we got Miss KZ and M Mr meloy yes all right Miss nuel yes Dr Ras yes Mr melne yes Miss Grio yes Miss gonez yes M Ortiz Franklin yes uh board president scharon yes and student member uh Cortez Lopez yes unanimous so we're we're running a little bit behind um so general public comment is usually approximately 47 4:00 it's 4:17 so we have one more thing we're going to do before the general public comment we're going to present a farewell to one of our valued employees that's you Veronica Veronica [Applause]

151Arin we want to thank want to thank you for your years of service to the students to the staff and to our district I remember you were principal at mlay and I was principal at Lawrence Middle School so I remember I remember all the work that you did there and I appreciate that very much who do we have to present um Veronica is it you oh of course so uh as you correctly said Mr President today we honor an extraordinary individual uh someone would is not only a a great leader she's a force of nature her intellect her heart her passion her compassion are without parallel in this organization she is a teacher teacher she is a leaders leader she has a friend she is a mentor she is a one-of-a-kind individual but we all

152know that um all great things come to an end but this is not an end it's just a beginning of a new chapter Veronica on behalf of this entire organization we wish you well you have been a remarkable remarkable trusted source of information of comfort to many a shoulder to cry on for some you always elevated you always are thoughtful about what you do and say your work uh through our strategic plan development your work as a principal and as an assistant principle delivering gains the likes of which are really unparalleled I put you in a class of your own so thank you from the bottom of our Collective bottomless heart as a district thank you be well don't go too far because we have your cell phone number thank you so come up to

153the uh Mike if you would Veronica comments oh miss gones I know you went first go ahead um well I will just Echo what has already been said it's been um what a gift to be able to work with you Veronica um back in Local District Northeast I'm going back to 2017 um an amazing team and I had the chance to witness um Bonas work up close um working with principles directly some of our schools that were really struggling and I just I have a very vivid memory of um the Deep and intentional work and support you were providing to them and we saw those benefits for students because of the support and efforts and your leadership um and whether you were the principal of mlay middle school and I know so many student I

154run into youth in the community all the time and they remember you from mlay um or your work at Northeast and now your work centrally as our chief strategy officer it's been such a privilege to see you elevated to the ranks of the leadership of the district because that's what you deserve um and throughout all that time you've been grounded in community grounded in the ities on our school sites you're such an advocate for our community and I've just been really grateful to work with you I will miss you um and I hope you will still come around and say hi every so often um but thank you for everything you've done I'm I'm really really grateful thank you thank you so much Miss gones you know um the adjective I would think about you

155is brilliant you are the most brilliant person that I know sorry everybody in L USD you are it I just want to tell you Veronica it's the truth it's the truth I just want you to know go ahead Dr Ras um I know this district is losing someone so dedicated and loyal um and I gave so much to this District I know you have worked here for decades um and from the moment that you know the interactions that we've had I know that La USD or this district is dear to your heart and it's like your family you dedicated your lives to many students and employees and just your colleagues are going to miss you so much and I know your shoes are going to be very very hard to fill because of that love

156and dedication that you've uh demonstrated to this District um but I know you have a big heart and you have a beautiful family that you want to get back to and and spend time with um but I know that this district and L USD schools will always be your home and I want to thank you for everything that you've done and your love and dedic ation to just everything that you've done I know that um it's it's something knowing how beautiful it feels for you being here is something that is just warms everyone's heart and wants to work with you and have that connection as well that you've had so I want to thank you for everything and you're going to be very missed thank you thank you Rosio Mr meloy thank you you know

157I wish this were an action item cuz I'd vote no you know um I don't know how this slipped through us but hi um we so appreciate you uh and you know we have a a mantra in our office that hard things are hard and when I think of hard things being hard your portfolio the work that you've done around strategic enrollment and open data and cohesive strategic plan and all the hardest things within the district um all within your portfolio and actually as we think about all the work that we need to do we're all thinking okay how's how's any of that going to get done but I know I mean part of your legacy is that you built a team and incredible leaders many of whom are nodding behind you um and and

158uh so your legacy will continue it's also just such a pleasure you're someone you know like my colleague said we love running into you in the elevator bank or in the hallways and she's always put a smile on her face I know during Co I was also envious of like your home office situation uh your home bar situation so we'll uh hope to continue to see you in those capacities of course um but uh but just thanks for not shying away from the really tough things and moving this District forward and a lot of the success that we all try to take credit for over the last few years is thanks to you Veronica thank you Mr Mel Miss nuil well I'm one of the newbies on the Block but I do want to say

159thank you for the onboarding because I think just the connections that you made for me just being able to hand over and I think that's excellent just as you've done for this District um and being able to be brought up through the ranks I think it's so appreciative because we get to see through your lens and you been able to walk the walk and talk to talk and so I just want to say thank you and that I'm kind of envious cuz you're going to have some free time time that we don't but we will continue to be in touch and we will continue as the president said tap on your Brilliance so thank you for your service thank you Miss nuel Miss GGO yeah and I just met you Veronica and um but I

160want to appreciate how you were very open to sharing your knowledge and all that you bring to the table not just with myself but with my team um I learned from you and I'm bummed that it was so short that we got to know each other because not only are you very knowledgeable but you have a great personality and are very kind and friendly and open so but I'm very happy for you that you will be hopefully doing something you like and enjoy and um and also appreciate the fact that you are from our district you went through the ranks in our district and and that's very special so thank you so much and best of luck to you thank you Miss grigo Miss Cortez Lopez just want to all the sentiments here the lives

161you changed the students you served will not go unnoticed and I believe that it's a sentiment shared by all today and I look forward to even though we haven't officially connected too much yet but just hearing all these sentiments I know that students lives were impacted immensely by you and words cannot express how much impact you had and so I wish the best for you and on your professional Journey thank you and make sure that when uh there is time I I'll go work for you fingers crossed and I'm still still around but I'll go work for you anytime so Veronica before we come down and see you how about a few words for us thank you well thank you and I wrote this out and I actually timed it for two minutes but it

162may take me like two and 30 seconds we will not ring the bell don't you worry um thank you thank you for your kind words and um this recognition um making the decision to retire after more than 30 years of service to this district is Bittersweet um LD as you have said um has been more than just a workplace it's been a majer part of my life um it is it was my life right um and it is a home uh most recently uh within the last uh yeah distant past I've had the privilege of uh leading alongside a champion of students and I just want to publicly thank and recognize our superintendent um Alberto carvalo for never losing sight of what matters the most and that's our students um it has been so refreshing

163to work alongside a leader with experience knowledge and heart so thank you for that um I also want to extend my gratitude to the board members um the board members but you for your continued dedication and commitment to ensuring um that the best uh that we create the the best LUSD for our students and Community um you are their voice um but you are also the voice of the folks sitting behind me and I appreciate the balance that you do every day when it comes to that um serving alongside amazing school teams School leaders and District staff has been an incredible privilege my tenure at bury has given me the opportunity to work alongside exceptional people um and leaders and to my colleagues some of them that are here and others that are my phone's

164buzzing um thank you for your Relentless dedication to keeping the district moving forward no matter the challenges we face and to my team thank you for your professionalism commitment and unwavering support of our shared Mission it has been an honor to support you and work along work over alongside you for the last six years um I stand here on the shoulders of a lot of leaders and teachers in this District many who have also retired but many who are as equally as envious as some uh to be uh retiring as well and I am in many ways always tried to represent that voice of our leaders and our school staff and most importantly our students being an ex uh ex L Unified School District student and my family still living in the community that I

165was so privileged to serve um it is important that we don't lose sight of the folks that we are privileged to serve so thank you thank you for the recognition and thank you for everybody that has supported me along the way [Applause] gracias for [Applause] yes thanks for giving us stage Direction they want us to come they want us to come this way how do we do this no no oh that's smart no we don't actually should we do it by we need to balance out create get close get close for me all right here I love this because it covers [Laughter] [Applause] than you sir e okay the triumphal exit okay all right we're now ready uh we're going a little backwards today but we're now ready for our committee reports which we usually

166do first but um we're going to hear from special ed which is me children and families and Early Education committee committee of the whole procurement and Facilities committee and of course our student board member report thank you so let me start with the uh special ed committee the board's special ed committee met on Wednesday January 22nd 2025 at 3 p.m. here's what the committee learned the parent and Community engagement opportunities for families of students with disabilities the special education virtual parent workshops are available by monthly during October December February and April and they are 75 minutes each parents are informed of the virtual workshops with messages sent an hour before the meeting begins various methods of communication are utilized such as emails posting on the website text messages and a monthly report for the community

167advisory committee the CAC the district utilizes special education region ambassadors for both iners and online meetings who answer questions who distribute flyers and who engage with the community and more the special education parent newsletters are sent out in three three to four volumes annually with a spotlight on the work going on at schools and parent workshops in early childhood special education Ida part C covers children from birth to age3 it emphasizes natural environments provides services for children and families and defines the individual family service plans the ifsp we discuss collaborative classrooms which have 12 students within their settings we discussed early low incidence programs which are available at home and hold family support groups clinics American Sign Language and bilingual support there are 600 referrals done every single month and they come from parents Community

168organizations doctors and others 600 referrals every month and after today Miss Carla Grio will be the chair of the special education committee but I'm going to stay as a member of the committee if that's okay with you and that's my report thank you so much who would like to go next Cal okay uh so the committee of the whole uh meeting took place on January 28th 2025 we had um it was a long meeting but very very formative and uh great presentations we had three presentations the first one was on the district's Housing Initiative uh we learned about its progress and a survey which clearly indicated which we all know that there is housing insecurity throughout our district uh including our employees and our families so the presentation provided a scope of the housing insecurity

169among um LD employees and Families um also we learned of uh the district it's exploring funding sources P public and private Partnerships and the nine um identified lots that um we'll be using for Housing Initiative secondly we looked at the support for immigrant families uh including a presentation on the we are1 2025 initiative and its goals the implementation challenges and inconsistencies are across our schools in uh providing training but that it's ongoing we're continuing to part um provide training for our schools and and resources um as well collaboration with Community Partners for resources and support and all of this is on the website we are one website you can find all this information part and also links to the red cards in various languages uh lastly we heard from our community engagement and collaboration from

170our uh partners the role of Labor Partners in supporting students and staff the importance of community organizations in providing resources and the need for a unified and coordinated efforts across the district also um it was highlighted or just um the communication from our partners were also about the ongoing um fears and uncertainties from apprehension from our community community ities based on the um political climate under which we are experiencing right now and also the critical role of community organizations um in partnering with the district so we are very um grateful for the work that we've been working together in making sure that our communities have the resource and services and also the information that they need to not only keep themselves um informed and safe but knowing their constitutional rights and that as all thank

171you so much uh procurement and Facilities with Mr melvoin thank you Mr Schmelson so the facilities and procurement committee met on January 28th U Miss toes briefly outlined the impact to our facilities from recent fires and the general process that the district will engage in to support the repair and rebuilding for our Palisade schools we then heard an update from The District's Inspector General Miss Su Sangle including an overview of a recent audit into a few of the district's design build projects she highlighted some procedural improvements that are being Incorporated by the facilities team as we continue to strengthen the Streamline bidding and building process uh we then heard from our Deputy facilities officer Miss Alex O'Brien who shared information regarding updates to the district's requirements or specifications for construction including some of the cost

172savings we will see from changing those requirements to meet industry standards uh one example that we've discussed is by moving from rolled painting to spray painting where appropriate we can save 177% for for interiors and 12% for exteriors on cost and in the case of painting the savings is less about the bottom line and more about freeing up time for our painters to get to more schools as we know one of the requests I know all the board members get is about painting schools uh another example is a change to using the sheet metal and air conditioning contractors National association's best practices and how the district conducts duct leakage including in HVAC systems and the district could save around $50,000 per project so we know these sound esoteric I mentioned earlier the soil sampling has

173it relates to Greening projects but we know that these changes add up and this is how we reduce the costs on our facilities project so the review of these specifications to modernize our requirements is ongoing the committee will hear an update uh in a few months and we're also getting an update either at a committee meeting or at the committee of the whole uh on the comparative study that we undertook by a thirdparty provider to look at how our costs compared to peer districts um our next meeting is March 18th we'll hear a brief update on housing initiatives more on the measure us projects and more and as Mr smarson has rolled off the committee Miss uh um Hy nubil is a new Committee Member along with Mr Ortiz Franklin thanks fantastic student board member

174report thank you board president scharon the super inent advisory Council connected on Tuesday January 21st 2024 and we connected regarding important information on the students role on the lcap funding priorities and newly introduced information on the we1 campaign and how our student leaders can best engage with the communications department and the we one team on how to best contact and distribute information to students all across the district another prominent issue that I would like to bring up recently uh in light of recent uh political upheave is uh student School site walkouts that is very prominent actually today actually um if you are not familiar across social media Lu students predominantly high school students have connected to amplify their voices through School site walkouts these actions stem from Deep concerns felt by many students and families

175in our communities and at the heart of these demonstrations is a message and it's a message that students wish to be heard and looking for various Avenues to lead change in their communities for many federal policies have Federal policies have created a sense of uncertainty about their Futures and the future of their families for students I would like to emphasize that the district has taken important steps to support students regardless of immigration status which includes the safe Zone and Resource Centers initiatives uh which ensures that schools remain safe spaces where immigration enforcement is not permitted and where families can access legal and social support as well as board resolutions affirming L's Safe Haven school-based mental health and legal resources uh as we've seen with the newly rolled out red cards that have been distributed on

176campus as well as newly rolled out telea health district services for all students this also includes Partnerships with Community organizations that offer legal aid counseling and advocacy for those who have concerns regarding their documented status um these efforts demonstrate the district's commitment to ensuring that every student regardless of background feel supported valued and safe I implore the district to continue seeking Avenues to uplift the student voice promote active Civic engagement and dive deep into p student-led movements it is important for classrooms to actively engage in discourse and allow students to express their feelings in a supportive classroom environment I encourage us to remain proactive in our efforts with students and communicate and continue strengthening our protections and to my fellow students I say this your voices matter and I urge you to continue engag in

177conversations that will directly shape our future attend meetings engage civically join local community school and District advisory councils and connect directly with District leadership to find meaningful and tangible Solutions thank you back to you president Schon thank you very much and now we're coming to the consent calendar is that a correct statement that's not a correct statement I think it would be time for a general public comment okay so uh it's time for general public comment we are 43 minutes in a rear on when we said it would appear on the agenda and we apologize and I thank you for your for your patience I'm going to call on the folks who are listed as being in person and then I'll switch to the people who are listed as speaking remotely we have 20 speakers

178today most of whom are in person all right so I'll call on the first four folks come on up to the podium when you hear your name and then um if you're after the person at the podium just kind of be ready to come on up so Josh a Henderson come on up to the podium Josh a if you're hear and then Emanuel n then Sai and then Melissa palasio so Jos Emanuel Sachi and then Melissa come on up if you're here Josh are you here's beautiful thank you so much and then amanuel and then Sai and then Melissa come on up and the 2 minutes is yours good evening my name is Josh a Henderson I'm a senior at Washington High School and a youth leader with Community Coalition I'm here today because I

179refuse to say silent while the district strips away the very foundation of the black student achievement program removing removing the black as a factor in Bap allocation is not just a policy change it's an act of systemic racism the reality is black students in ilos have faced Decades of racial discrimination neglect neglect and lack of resources Bap was meant to be a reparative program a step toward Justice and closing the educational Gap but by making it race neutral you are ignoring the lived experiences of black students and turning your back on your commitment to us I personally know how important Bap is it has given me opportunities I wouldn't have otherwise college tours exp exposure to new environments and most importantly a safe space a space free from hate speech racial bias and discrimination all

180the things I have personally experienced on campus without Bap resources will be spread too thin leaving black students without the support we deserve how is that fair we all are aware that the outside world isn't race neutral so why take away one of the few spaces where black students are prioritized supported and given the tools to succeed if LD truly cares about black students it should be strengthening Bap not dismantling it instead of taking away this program expand it invest in it create additional programs that uplift other communities without taking away from ours thank you thank you for your time Emanuel come on up you have two minutes to speak once you begin hello everyone um 100% what has said um but my name is emmanu waly a singer at Nathaniel norbon high school and

181a leader with students deser today I speak on on behalf of the black student achievement plan a program specifically designed to address systemic disadvantages faced by black students and underrepresented communities due to historical factors that have long inhibited black students growth in their respective communities Bap offers a community for black students like me to communicate take advantage of free tutoring opportunities something invaluable for meeting class and graduation requirements and indulge in resources tailor to their individual academic needs and accommodations Bap serves as a catalyst for closing gaps and academic achievements for black students in Los Angeles School due to structural inequalities brought on by in inadequate access to educational opportunities that are available to us additionally La USD has taken the daring initiative to ban cell phones in the next upcoming week throughout all LUSD

182schools disrespectfully this disastrous policy will only inhibit the needs of LUSD students and not uplift them if needed I can emphasize the ongoing societal struggles and World challenges that impact LUSD students as of now Donald Trump has been elected our nation's next president Mass deportation policies have been implemented and targeted across LD schools I mean across Los Angeles schools communities student protests have taken place in light of President Trump's policies safe passage has still not been fully implemented across LD schools given the increase in uproar of our community due to current circumstances I call on LUSD to overturn the decision to ban cell phones across all LC schools as well as restore Bap to its original Foundation we need to put the black back in Bap because that's what it originally should have been we

183need to prioritize black students because they are the pillar of our growth as well as other students of L USD LUSD needs to do better for its students and strategize better policies and plans for these students for us and for all of us thank you thank you for your time Sai come on up hi my name is Sashi hamura I a senior at gala and I am a leader in students deserve I demand you to put the black back into Bap to address the Decades of intentional discrimination and oppression against black students who have practiced and still continue to practice unlike what many schools teach segregation in schools didn't only exist in the Jim Crow South it existed in school districts all over the country including in Los Angeles according to the Civil Rights Movement

184archive in L District officials and politicians strategically Drew School District boundaries so that they mimic the already existing residential segregation in the city they did this to ensure that the majority of black kids were pushed into schools separate from non-black kids pushed into schools that were typically crowded underfunded and under resourced then when desegregation was finally ordered of California schools proposition one passed and was upheld in California's Supreme Court which blocked all court order desegregation plans in the state today California is is the third most segregated state for black students in the country black students continue to experience the effects of years of discriminatory practices practice in LUSD schools with high population of populations of black students continue to be largely underresourced and underfunded not being able to provide students with the same opportunities as

185schools with higher populations of non-black students achievement gaps between black and non-black students are ever present and black students continue to be targeted and criminalized by the school police superintendent and board members you decided to take the black out of Bap out of concern it violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in the equal protection Clause of the 14th Amendment because it creates unequal opportunities as it provides resources specifically targeted towards black students but the truth is throughout all of Le's history black students have never been given equal opportunities to their peers and black students have never been treated the same as their peers the truth is black students are not not equal this is why it is absolutely necessary that you put the black back into Bap thank you for your time all right

186Melissa Palos are you here Melissa all right Devin beard are you here Devin beard Emily Vasquez oh Devin oh come on up the 2 minutes is yours sir sorry about that hello my name is Devin my name is Deon beard I'm a senior at Washington prep and a Coco youth leader the blackest student she plan was created because black students are being failed by L USD we had lower test scores grades graduation weights and college attendance Bap is a step towards making sure that the black students have access to student service Mental Health Resources and programs to support black students why are you letting people who have never stepped into a bd1 school decide the fate of Bap how can it be racist to ensure that students have cons you have consistently failed are doing

187well within School allowing individuals from Virginia to decide that black La USD students should fail only after four years of the program is unjust through Bap we have staff firers who make us feel comfortable at school Bap is designed to ensure that black students succeed because of disparities and performance compared to other races programs like Bap are just about academics they're about belonging and opportunity Bap must be fully funded and protected thanks to Bap I was able to go on a HBCU tar Atlanta visi visiting schools like morehous clarkland and Clayton it was a fantastic experience opening my eyes to options Beyond CAL States or uc's since Bap started I've seen a real change not only in myself but also in my peers students who were once disengaged find a reason to care about school

188because they felt supported I would love love to see more black students experience the benefits of Bap it's frustrating and dis hardening to hear the features about black students being made by people who don't understand our lived experience when you defund programs like Bap you're sending a message that black students don't matter and our our struggles and successes are secondary instead of scaling back you should Double Down baps is an investment not just only in black suas but in the future of L USD as a whole when one group succeeds we all succeed this isn't about taking away from other students it's about ensuring that everyone has a fair shot at success thank you thank you for your time sir Emily Vasquez Emily are you here come on up you have two minutes to speak

189once you [Music] begin hello my name is Emily Vasquez I attend George Washington Preparatory High School and I'm a youth leader with Community Coalition I stand here today as someone who believes in Justice and an account ability and the power of specific when addressing s time and C La L decision to remove the black from the black achievement program is not progress is AER let me be clear Equity is not a zero sum game when we dilute programs created to repair Injustice we perpetuate more harm than we do good Bap was born to help address historical harm and to support la la schools with the highest proportion of black students who face the structural challenges caused by generations of systemic oppression and systemic racism and oppression by La stripping the programs Focus La is not

190expending Equity you are avoiding it you are wanding down resources Distributing limited funds without expanding the budget and leaving black students to bear the consequences that isn't inclusion that's Injustice let's talk about the process Ally made the changes un laterally without consulting the bisa committee this summer there was no transparency no respect for the community that fought for this program when you exclude the voices that most impacted from these decisions about their lives you're practically sending a message your expertise doesn't matter that's not collaboration that is Condes that condensation to the board and superintendent carvalo to the board and superintendent Alberto carvalo this isn't about Optics it's about ownership you cannot claim solid solidarity with marginalized students while dismantling the structures with designed to protect prot them Justice requires specifically Equity requires courage thank you

191you for your time Ian kiry are you here Ian I think I saw you come on up you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin and after Ian will be SEMA and then lose Rosalez so Ian then SEMA and then loose thank you uh good afternoon uh my name is Ian kiry and I'm an organizer with students deserve I want to start by saying put the black back in bap LUSD cannot claim to serve all students while continuing to fail black students Justice demands that the district take responsibility for the harm its anti-black policies have caused black students parents and families deserve a formal apology not just in writing but in a public hearing where accountability is clear and not just accountability for the history of anti-blackness but accountability for removing race as a

192qualification for Bap I want to ask you how can you address specific harms with non-specific funds you can't so and apology is the first step but an apology without action is empty to make your word worth believing LUSD must expand and strengthen Bap by permanently increasing funding by $100 million annually and empowering the Bap steering committee to shape its implementation I also want to take a moment to stand to shout out to all the students and name that we must protect all of our vulnerable communities we stand in solidarity with students walking on support of undocumented immigrant communities their fight is just and la and La USD must listen to them we demand that LD protect black students that protect undocumented students and that it protect protect queer and transgender students this moment is a

193test of lausd's moral leadership will the district stand for uh what is right or will it continue to uphold the same injustices that have been perpetuated in this country and continue to be put forward today by the current Administration the answer is in its actions put the BL back in B out thank you for your time Sema are you here SEMA okay thank you uh loose Rosales are you here loose uh let's see Steve bar are you here Steve bar di guen di guen I think I see you out there okay Miss guen is Gonna Come On Down Miss Ken is going to speak in Spanish so if you'd like to hear what she's going to say in English please put your hands up and we'll pass out these headsets the headsets activate when you

194put them on your ears and they should be at an appropriate volume if not you can adjust it higher or lower using the dial on the body of the device okay gracias good afternoon members of the board my name is Diana guen and I am here to represent the parent Network for school safety and first of all I'd like to ask you why aren't there public comment available in the contracts that's something very important for the parent Community we have a lot of interest in having our opinion be heard before the votes uh come out for you all like number one the contract for utla teachers at number 27 that has to do with the the lcap midyear update and the contracts with the school police number 32 which has to do with the contracts

195with the unions and we're not given the opportunity to have an opinion and it's there in the agenda but there is no public common opportunity so I barely got the opportunity to obtain one myself because it was a 30 second window and the district is not going to endorse or suggest students to participate in any of these walkouts or during the school hours speaking about protests but I think this is something that concerns us because we're talking about the safety of our children we are also grateful and supporting students that are our families to fight for the community and the Immigrant Community but truly we're seeing an anarchy in front of us because they're going to protest without anything that supports us immigrants you're not asking for like a an immigrant reform you're just protesting

196you don't like President Trump I think these people that are being that are guiding them a lot of a lot of parents are saying that teachers are saying to go out and protest that's not something the district should be doing they should sanction these teachers that are encouraging this because parents we want our our children to protest why don't you do it after school hours why does it have to be during the children need to be prepared and the and the best Rebellion is to study and be educated to be ready thank you for your time Anthony Marquez Anthony are you here Anthony Marquez Anthony Davis are you here Anthony Davis come on up you left two minutes to speak once you begin um good evening steam board members I am really hearing a different

197compacity but I feel compelled uh I just want to thank you for this time and I just want to know that my name is Anthony Davis and I stand before you today as a 30-year-old a 30-year black male educator one of the mere 2% of the teachers who look like me that statistics should alarm us all it is not just about representation it is about survival if we do not act now to intentionally support the success of our black students we will see fewer black college graduates and even fewer returning as Educators to uplift the Next Generation we cannot afford to let black Educators become extinct we must invest in our black students not just in their ability to pass tests but their in their ability to thrive drive that means mentorship programs targeted academic

198support and Pathways that lead them back to L USD as the future teachers administrators and leaders our district so desperately needs the pipeline from LUSD to college and back to our classrooms should not be a dream it should be a commitment when black students see black Educators they see possibility let's make that possibility a reality Let's Build A system that does not push black black students to uh push not push black students to graduation but propels them into a lifelong success the future of L USD depends on depends on it and let's make this investment today in our students and our future of education for black students thank you for your time Joseph Williams come on up I see you out there come on down Mr Joseph all right Mr White come on down you'll

199have two minutes to speak once you begin for those that couldn't hear it Mr Williams yield this is time to Mr White good evening um hold on let me get my notes so w hello everybody my name is Eric White I'm a parent in region South also U organizer of reclaim our schools La um um yeah so I just wrote down that L USD will be setting a precedent that any program that the district is found liable in terms of discrimination by some random group of people for anywhere with no contribution to this um to this District can impact something that has nothing to do with them right and um I just wanted to say that we are the taxpayers and the constituents who uh contribute to the revenue of this district and our input

200should be more uh considered and value um I want to say that we are asking you to fight for the rights to protect black students um and it and that and um fight for the right to protect black students this District was found guilty of dis discriminatory practices against those students so that's what I wrote down and I just want to just continue to urge that because you know um this isn't like something that just came out the blue this is a reparative program for something that was uh necessary that that was that found to be a necessity right so we just encourage you to make sure that um that you do what you can to make sure that you keep this program in existence and if if if you ever were found in a

201similar situation then this could set a precedent for how every other program will be treated in every other program somebody can come and submit a some complaint and then all of a sudden now it has to be gutted from the the Integrity of what the approach what the program was intended for so um yeah that's all I want to say thank you put the black back and be S thank you for your time sir G Gypsy Vasquez Ayala are you here come on up you have two minutes to speak once you begin and then it's trise and then Amir and then Eugene the floor is yours hello good afternoon board members superintendent and esteemed community members my name is ipy Vasquez aala and I am honored to introduce myself as the manager of advocacy and

202engagement for for aspired public schools in Los Angeles region my connection to to Charter Schools is deeply personal I am both a parent and an advocate I have proudly graduated two of my own children from a charter school and one of my students was accepted to pittser college and I am a parent founder of seas and anawak mechak the only indigenous Charter School in Los Angeles I understand firsthand the power of educational choice and transformative opportunities that high quality Charter Schools provide to students and families and communities Aspire La serves 11 schools across Huntington Park Southgate and South Central Los Angeles and I am here today to uplift the incredible work happening in our classrooms and beyond our students are not only achieving academically but are also engaged in critical thinking leadership and self- advocacy

203our families are deeply involved championing their children's education through parent and Community advocacy efforts additionally aspar laa is committed to anti-racist and equity-driven work ensuring that every student regardless of background has the tools and support to succeed we would love for you to witness this work firsthand on behalf of aspire La I extend an open invitation to all board members to visit our schools meet our students engage with our Educators and see the impact of our Collective efforts thank you for your time and we look forward to welcome you soon gracias thank you thank you for your time uh trainees come on up you have two minutes to speak once you begin and then Amir and then Eugene hi um hello Schoolboard members my name is Chenise Thomas and I'm a junior at King Drew

204and a student leader within students deserve you are once again failing your black and brown students why did LA USC administrators make this decision about Bap without the decision of the community you cannot say you support black and brown students then go back on the one good thing you've done for us some something everyone in this room should know is Bap was a direct response to L's lack of care and support for black students you constantly act as if you support us then do stupid stuff and act like we're supposed to be so thankful when you do what we ask of you even though you make us wait years to see what we fought for what we fought for actually be in Play here's what students deserve is demanding of you take away the decision

205that remove the race or regress that we all work together to intentionally include as a main element of Bap as that was the whole point to support black and brown students we have shown them to the school board met with school board members and fought for programs the people who overturned this weren't in the streets fighting for their students or their future students we were sorry Lao is D not taking into account the impact Bap has had on black and Latino students is a disregard of our advocacy efforts we deserve a public apology at every time we make it seems like you're working against us every student in this room outside in your schools feel like the district works as a whole or the the district as a whole does not care about us we

206are more worried about you are more worried about what a student can record on their phone if your corrupt teachers and officers but not worried about how a student feels in your schools even reintroducing random searches at my school to push the phone policy instead of putting energy into a program that has proven to helped so many students with the current climate of the world um all the fires and the evil Soul people call our president affecting our future the least you could do is show the love I hope you have for black and brown students all across your District have a nice day thank you thank you for your time Amir come on up you have two minutes to speak once you begin good afternoon Schoolboard my name is Amir Casmir I'm an alumni

207of L USD and an alumni of Augustus F Hawkins High School and a concerned Community member I want to bring to light a pattern that I'm seeing within this District of not paying attention to our schools dismantling our education and disregarding the students that are most impacted last year I was in school board a lot and I heard a lot about re uh collocating schools right and we understand that our schools that are being collocated are the ones with highest populations of black students while I'm a moderate guus Hawkins is actually a threat being threatened for re for collocation it's a it's a relatively new campus when I went it was only four years old and now it's been it's been uh changed uh the the structure of the school has been changed quite a

208few times in order to best meet the needs of the community and seeing the school now being up for collocation raises a flag to me that there was never about concern for the students that would be going there to that school La fover in Vermont it was for students that would be coming from Charters right it was for most other students that are not at the school yet but when the school is shut down those people that will be taking over it's the same thing that I see see with our black students right with Bap this policy that was created to better our students to serve black students in La USD who have been historically underserved is now being gutted and being changed so that's not going to serve black students I'm seeing this pattern

209repeating through the school board and it really has me makes me have cause for fear I've seen students teachers and parents fight tooth and nail for all of these for to keep their schools and for programs like Bap and the fact that school board school boards like yourself School Board members like yourself have still taken the Liberty to disregard those attempts and not give the students what they need the teachers what they need and separate our schools from the resources that students deserve is truly appalling I hope that we can come to a consensus you hear all these student voices and hear my voice as a member of your District a former member of your District a person who keeps coming back to tell you the things that I see wrong and continue to you

210one put the black back in Bap and Empower our schools and communities to remain the way they need to be the way they deserve to be and our teachers to get to have the resource they deserve to serve our students thank you thank you for your time Eugene fiser Eugene are you here Eugene okay thank you and then we have some folks who are uh waiting to speak remotely Cheryl koono I see you're on the line Cheryl koono please press star six to unmute yourself you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Cheryl koono Miss Cheryl koono I see you're signed in online uh press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin oh got it okay I just start six right now um I also have

211on the line part of the time I'm um going to be sharing with Eddie um Eddie why don't you go ahead and start hi my name is Edie alasco a senior from naron high school I am visually impaired and I would like to advocate for the importance of mental health in schools uh with these situations that we're leaving right now the massive deportations this could affect kids mental health especially kids in elementary that have friends and family that could probably be deported also with the recent fires that we had in California you know many families lost their houses you know some kids have to change uh schools and you know leave what they knew you know they had to learn how to make new friends again in a different environment different Community I I left

212my sight a few years ago and that also affected me a lot mainly because it was during the pandemic and what helped me to get back and stand up again was the help the mental health gave me and the support everyone around me also gave that's why I acknowledge the importance of mental health and psws at schools thank you thank you Eddie um again this is Cheryl um I'm a psychiatric social worker at the school that Eddie goes to school and just in light of that I just wanted to share that um heartwarming story and in terms of thank you very much Miss thank you very much okay we have one last person on the line Carmela white Carmela white please press star six to unmute yourself you have two minutes to speak once don't

213you begin hello my name is Carmela white um I am one of L USC's school-based PSW one of the district's leading priorities is joy and wellness last year La USB School mental health made great progress in contract negotiations and were awarded guaranteed centralized funding for all schools that have 600 or more students while employees are grateful for this funding for schools with 600 or more students as it ensures that the district's priority of joy and wellness will continue to thrive we'd like to point out that the California School Board Association actually recommends a ratio of mental health work workers should be employed in schools as one worker to every 250 students last year utla psws ask for contracts to guarantee funding for one worker to every 400 students which is still higher than the school

214board association's recommendation however during negotiation the num number was set to 600 we ask why why only schools with 600 students many psws are assigned to multiple School locations the combined amount of students of the locations equals 600 or more in many cases the negative trickle effect of this lack of funding is apparent either the school chooses to cut the position of the mental health staff or the administration have to make other choices and cuts that no matter which choice is made causes negative outcomes for the student whether this looks like less time for the mental health worker less classroom AIDS and younger grades less supervision staff or other difficult choices this oversight in our contracts impacts our students tremendously please help us correct with oversight in the way that the contracts are written award

215Central funding for mental health staff to all schools even if having to look at what percentage this mean for each individual School of the already existing awarded 600 number of students thank you so much thank you for your time that completes general public comment okay we're going to go to the consent calendar now but I just want to read a statement so everyone is pretty sure and that includes board members everyone's pretty sure what the consent calendar is is so the cons the consent calendar is a procedural device that the board uses to vote on multiple items at one time and these items are typically the kind that come before the board on a regular basis as part of its routine business consent items are also items that each board member has had time to

216review and research and they have decided that they'll vote Yes on the item and they do not have questions and do not need to discuss that item consent items are taken in a single vote meaning several items are batched together into a single vote on the board now if a board member wishes to make a comment or discuss an item then that item is not placed on the consent calendar and the item will not and the item will be heard individually following the hearing of the public comment associated with that item if at this time the board decides to put an item on the consent calendar then that item will receive a majority yes vote by the board and the item will pass so those who wish to make public comment on consent items will

217be heard before the vote on the consent calendar as a whole if a member of the public wishes to make a comment on a single sorry on a consent item in order to support them then by all means they're invited to do so you can make a comment on the consent calendar however please keep in mind that that item is already passed by virtue of its placement on the consent calendar items can be um uh items placed on consent can be subsequently removed from consent if there is desire by a member of the board to make a statement and does not have a question on an item the item will not be placed on the consent calendar just as if the board member had a question on that item and instead will be voted on

218individually following the hearing of public comment for that item so public hearings and some other items as delineated by Statute cannot appear on the consent calendar so if you are on the consent calendar you passed but you're not on there yet if if just so you know just so you know Mr McLean all right so I'm going to read the tab number and the brief title and then board members will let us know if it's going to go on consent or not uh tab one is not an item for consent it's just a sunshiny agreement uh tab tab two approval of procurement actions question tab three approval of facilities contracts actions consent did you say I didn't hear yeah okay uh Tab four to find and approved 21 projects to provide solar photovoltaic systems that

219a question all right so that goes on to discussion uh tab five uh adoption of resolution to make certain determinations and findings pursuant to California government code section 4217 it's also a public hearing um public hearings can go on the consent calendar but we will by necessity hear all 15 public comments if they're there Define and approve three tab six Define and approve three projects to provide critical Replacements and upgrades of school building site systems consent okay tab seven def find and approve 11 Board District priority and region priority projects consent tab eight consideration of Street lighting maintenance assessment for the 112th Street in Central Avenue lighting District consent uh tab nine consideration of Street lighting maintenance assessment for the 112 Street in Compton Avenue lighting District consent uh Tab 10 to find and approve

220six sustainable environment enhancement developments for for schools projects consent consent consent tab 11 donations of money paid to the district consent you might not hear the board member saying it but I'm just repeating consent so the whole world knows I'm not determining whether or not it's on consent tab 12 report of cash dispersements consent consent tab 13 approval of routine Personnel actions consent tab 14 approval of non return non nonroutine Personnel actions consent tab 15 provisional internship permits consent tab 16 March 15th notice to administrators consent tab 17 is a public hearing approval of the renewal petition for Discovery Charter Prep two tab 18 approval of the renewal petition for Mont Charter Academy for the artarts and Sciences also a public hearing consent [Applause] consent the renewal petition for Watts Learning Center also a public

221hearing consent [Applause] consent denial of the proposed new Charter petition for the future is now Career Technical education Preparatory uh pardon me for a second that item is being pulled okay so I'm sorry so that was I'm sorry tab 20 has been pulled correct that is correct thank you sorry got to turn down that mic real quick tab tab 20 was withdrawn um okay tab I'm sorry there's an error in the sheet in front of me I have two tab 20s listed so I'm just going just a clarification the item is being pulled based on a request uh made by the petitioner oh thank you thank you so much okay so um the real tab 20 approval renewal petition for Kip Scholar Academy also public hearing wait what no I'm sorry I have m is

222listed on my sheet okay so there's just error on my sheet everyone else has thank you so tab 20 is uh report number 19524 sl25 has been withdrawn um at the request of the petitioner so thank you so the other tab 20 I I read is incorrect that does not belong on the paper in front of me all right so let's go to tab tab 21 was already voted on Tab 22 yeah Mr M I'd like to um withdraw the resolution this was on housing and if I may just for a second thank you to Dr Rivas for agendize housing at last a couple weeks ago committee the whole and I'm frustrated that the board has engaged in this for many years but I appreciate the work that the district is doing to put out

223rfps and utilize our vacant land for the regional housing crisis and I know that we'll be meeting periodically and getting updates from the superintendent's team on that important initiative so thanks to their um uh the updates and the cooperation I'm going to withdraw the resolution which number this is tab 22 so tab 22 has been withdrawn by board member Mel all right tab 23 celebration of Black History Month just have a comment but comment yeah so it'll it'll be on consent but all the comments will will be made actually I think we should actually go on discussion because that way the comments are made in a relaxed fashion and it's voted on in a determined way and I want to co-sponsor yes all right tab 25 report of Correspondence also a public hearing tab 26

224minutes for board approval consent okay and tab 27 is for discussion only and as is tab 28 that's the midyear annual update to the 2425 District local control and accountability plan and also tab 28 for discussion on the mid annual update to the 24 25 Affiliated Charter School local control and accountability plans tab 29 motion to adopt a revised 2425 board meeting schedule discussion and T 30 motion to adopt a revised 2425 committee schedule inent and then the tabs 31 and 32 are uh Union initial proposals which are also with our materials so that's tab 31 is the Los Angeles school police management association initial bargaining proposals for 2025 successor negotiations and tab 32 is in Los Angeles orange Count's building and construction trades Council initial bargaining proposals for 2025 successor negotiations those things aren't

225voted on but they are sunshin or put into the public view for for review so um after we've set the consent calendar we're going to take public comment on it uh read the consent yeah I'll go through the consent items just to make sure I didn't get anything wrong tab two is a discussion tab three is consent Tab four discussion tabs 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 and 19 are consent 20 is not an issue 22 was withdrawn 23 discussion 2 5 and 26 are consent 29 is dis discussion and 30 is consent does that sound right everybody okay so we can I'm sorry one moment okay so we have public comment associated with the consent items and so we'll go through that right now uh let's

226see the first public comment would be on Tab five so for discussion items we so tab five is a public hearing and we have one speaker Mr David tolkovsky let me read the public hearing announcement uh tab five board report 1672 24/25 adoption of resolution to make certain determinations and findings pursuant to California government code section 421 7.10 Etc and authorize entering into Energy Services contracts with energy contractors for 21 solar photovoltaic projects before action is taken on board report 1672 2425 um a public hearing must be held this constitutes that public hearing on report number 1672 24/25 and a maximum of 15 individuals who wish to address the board on the item will be heard those who wish to speak should sign up online speakers will be called by name Mr David toosi come

227on up for tab five please thank you very much I'm speaking on the nearly $200 million of bond money uh being spent for solar panels uh these solar panels follow follow a previous expenditure of solar panels in this District to five companies there is nowhere in this public record and presentation whether or not those 15 or 20 years of solar panels have been cost savings you would think that if you're expanding by 200 more million you'd have the record before you of what happened with the previous ones um as the board has set out in its motions it's supposed to be cost neutral and everything presented to you is about alleged cost savings it is not cost neutral if you are about to spend a fifth of a billion dollars on solar panels wasn't even

228presented in any way in The Greening presentation additionally I hope the Inspector General and your staff has done due diligence on the two huge multinationals that are receiving these contracts a quick glance will show that the US government government has had numerous literation with one of these uh finally uh you have in item 20 that was withdrawn um by both sides both by the superintendent and the charter petitioner an effort to build upon uh IBEW the Electrical Workers if you are doing solar panels everywhere it's an great learning opportunity for students from physics uh to engineering ing to stem rather than just having little vans drive around and perpetuate stem education this is a real Career Technical education if you're going to spend $200 million you should engage the students to help build back America

229the way President Biden designed thank you thank you for your time all right tab 13 approval of routine Personnel actions we have seven speakers let's see ebony weaton are you here ebony weaton okay come on up and then after after the doctor Megan Bart are you also here in person all right please proceed sir the two minutes is yours good afternoon board president smarson members of La unified board and superintendent carvalo my name is Dr Peter watts and I serve as the CEO and co-founder founder of the Watsa power foundation and I leaded an initiative called teacher Village initiative and our mission is to recruit train retain and place black men across La unified and Beyond ensuring that black students see themselves reflected in their classrooms and first I want to express my gratitude to

230the board the superintendent and staff for recognizing the importance of black Educators and for taking steps to strengthen educator diversity LUSD has been a leader in these efforts but we must ensure these commitment translate into measurable impact the data is clear students who have at least one black teacher are significantly more likely to graduate high school and attend college yet black male Educators make up less than 2% of the teaching Workforce but through our initiative we're working to change that we currently support 17 black male Educators in our pipeline 41% of them are current l l USD employees we have an additional 14 current black teachers in L USD who we support pursuing National board through our program additionally we support eight Mentor teachers who are guiding the next generation of Educators and the further

231remove barriers we provide affordable housing to our Educators right now 11% of our fellows live in affordable housing through our teacher Village housing through our initiative ensuring that they can live less than a mile away from the schools that they serve however the stakes are high and without intentional investment we res risk perpetuating a system where black students lack representation and advocacy they need that's that's why in partnership with local and National organizations I urge the school board and the superintendent to provide biannual updates on the Recruitment and Retention of black Educators as well as on academic and social outcomes for black students this commitment must Mo move Beyond just mere symbolism but it must be measurable and sustained thank you for your time and thank you for your commitment time uh Megan Bart come

232on up you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin right uh good afternoon um members of the board and superintendent carvalo my name is Megan Bart uh currently I'm the deputy director of campaigns with Educators for excellence we represent nearly 6,000 LAUSD Educators and are committed to uplifting educator voice to drive excellence and equity and education and I'm happy to speak on behalf of our Educators today um we want to express our gratitude to the LA unified board superintendent and staff for being a leader in education diversity in both LA county and the state of California Eddie fre we believe strongly in the impact that black Educators and inclusive classrooms can have on all students we're thrilled to have our Educators partner um with HR and the district in creating the curriculum for lausd's

233anti-racist micr credential and are happy to support all efforts to expand opportunities to recruit retain and support black Educators personally I was impacted by a black educator at a young age my first grade teacher Mrs Lee was the first educator that I had that made space for all the kids in her class and had Direct conversations with families about social emotional supports that students needed I know I wouldn't be where I am today without her and so in partnership with our Collective local state and National Partners I urge the LA unified Board of Education and superintendent to continue to support Embrace and name black Educators and black students as essential to the district specifically we ask the district share biannual updates on the district's progress towards the Recruitment and Retention of diverse Educators including black

234Educators and biannual updates on the district's progress towards improved academic and social outcomes for its black students thank you thank you for your time the remaining folks are speaking remotely so Laura mcgaan Laura mcgaan oh there you are come on up you have two minutes to speak once you begin thank you the board and superintendent our receipt of a letter that we sent previously esteemed board members and superintendent carvalo my name is Dr Laura McAllen Robinson CEO of diversity and Leadership Institute and I serve as a member of the charting Nia Equity Coalition at DLI our goal is to build a pipeline of diverse culturally responsive education leaders I'm also a black educator and a mother of a first grader in Los Angeles I'm a granddaughter of Sher croppers a y sixth grade educated grandmother

235and an illiterate grandfather who wanted more for his children I'm a product of the power of having strong parent advocacy and parent and black Educators who believed in my full potential and I believe that every child should have that experience three years ago LAUSD board members led by board member ortis Franklin unanimously voted to support black students and all students through the intentional preparation Recruitment and Retention of black Educators what the board knew then was that to make a public statement in support of black Educators was not to the exclusion of other Educators quite the contrary it was a recognition of black Ed the role that black Educators play in success of black students and all students over the course of the last two years I've witnessed District leadership Mak strives to recruit and prepare

236black Educators we must continue this work in the face of attacks on public education and attempts to roll back progress our Coalition is multi-racial multiethnic includes immigrants lgbtq plus communities all support the district's ongoing efforts to recruit and prepare and retain black Educators we all agree that we need black Educators so we ask you remain steadfast in your commitment to Black educator through through providing two updates a year at public meetings on progress towards Recruitment and Retention of diverse Educators including black Educators and twice a year at a public meeting share the district's progress on improved academic and social outcomes for its black students to our board members and leaders now more than ever we need black Educators and we need your support of black students and your commitment to stay the course on the

237work you've already begun thank you thank you for your time Let's see we have Crystal uh calling in remotely Crystal please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have 2 minutes to speak once you begin Crystal I see you're online with us Crystal good afternoon members of the LA unified board and superintendent carvalo my name is Crystal go I am a proud black educator in La USD and advocate for all students serving as a middle school teacher in addition to my leadership in the classroom I am also a proud member of the black educator advocates Network I work alongside students families and fellow Educators to create learning environments that affirmed identities and lived experiences of diverse communities today I stand in full support of La UniFi black Educators and the CCC black educator gratitude

238campaign first I want to express my gratitude to this board the superintendent and La USD for their ongoing leadership in advancing educator diversity across LA county and the state of California representation matters especially for our black students who Thrive academically and socially when they have access to Black Educators who reflect their Brilliance affirm their cultural identities and advocate for their success the data is clear black Educators increase academic achievement improve School climate and support the retention and engagement of black students but beyond the numbers I have seen firsthand the transformative impact of black Educators whether the mentoring students fostering culturally responsive classrooms are advocating for equitable policies black teachers and leaders are often the backbone of their schools and communities yet we remain underrepresented and face systemic barriers to Recruitment and Retention L USD must

239be intentional in prioritizing black educator retention because what is at stake is more than numbers it's a future of black students who deserve to see themselves in their classroom who deserve teachers to understand their lived experiences and who deserve an education system that truly values this in today's political and economic climate failing to invest in black students Educators means failing our students in partnership with local state and national campaign Partners I urge the board to take concrete steps to support black Educators and students by one providing by anual updates on the district's progress towards recruiting and retaining by diverse Educators including black Educators and two sharing biannual updates on efforts to improve academic and social outcomes for our black students thank you so much for your time for your committed your continued commitment to ensuring

240that black Educators remain at the heart of La USC's vision for educational Excellence thank you very much for your time thank you all right Javier Guzman Javier Guzman I see you're on the line please press star six to unmute yourself and you have two minutes to speak once you begin Javier Javier please press star six to unmute yourself and you have two minutes to speak once you begin I see you online with us can you hear me we sure can please go ahead good afternoon members of the LA Unified School Board and superintendent carvalo uh my name is savet Gusman I'm the CEO of Center for powerful public schools for nearly 30 years I've been um serving communities relegated to the margins black Brown poor anyone identifying as other from the streets of East New

241York Brooklyn to the in the 1990s to Los Angeles today I've had the privilege of serving brilliant youth in many capacities as a teacher as a Founder as a transformative schools leader and agent in my current role and I can say that everywhere I've been I've witnessed the draw and gravity of black Educators in our schools their presence and their importance to public educ ucation is undeniable it is key to delivering on the promise of a true democracy today I speak in support of and in solidarity with LA UniFi black Educators and the ccc's black educator gratitude campaign we need courage during trying times and I see the enormous potential for LUSD to continue to be the leaders in this space I urge the LA unified Board of Education and the superintendent to continue to

242support Embrace and name black Educators and black students as essential to the district specifically we ask the district that they share by anual updates on the district's progress towards Recruitment and Retention of diverse Educators including black Educators and biannual updates on the district's progress towards improved academic and social outcomes for its black students thank you for listening and thank you for your ongoing support of black Educators and Families thank you for your time uh Myra I see you're on the line Myra please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak when you begin Myra good afternoon members of the board and superintendent carvalo my name is MAA L I'm a former La unified high school English teacher I taught in the district for 10 years and currently I am the

243director of Southern California Partnerships and engagement at atrust West we are a research and policy advocacy organization focused on education equity and resour Justice in education across California and in LA county today I speak in support of and in solidarity with LA UniFi black Educators and the CCE black educator gratitude campaign I want to Express gratitude to the LA unified board superintendent and staff for being a leader in educator diversity in both LA county and the city of California at a Trust West we support educator diversity because a body of research suggests students experience the greatest learning gains and educational attainment when their teachers reflect the rich racial ethnic and linguistic diversity of their communities in fact a recent study found that black students are 133% more likely to go to to graduate from high

244school and 19% more likely to enroll in college when they have been taught by at least one black teacher be clear black educators are assets not only to black students but to school communities at large their work and presence helped to boost students academic outcomes reduce suspension rates and raise expectations recruiting and retaining black Educators and diverse Educators in general is a strategy that districts across the state should engage in to support California's diverse student populations in partnership with our Collective of local state and national campaign Partners I urge the LA unified Board of Education and superintendent to continue to support Embrace and name black Educators and black students as essential to the district specifically we ask that the district shair by annual updates on the district's progress towards the Recruitment and Retention of diverse

245Educators including black Educators and by annual updates on the district's progress towards improved academic and social outcomes for its black students thank you for listening and thank you for your ongoing support of black Educators thank you for your time I have one more caller I'm just not sure I don't see them online but I'll call them anyway uh Carmen oeta Carmen Carmen okay so that concludes comment on Tab 13 have tabs 17 18 and 19 are all public hearings and all carry with them public comments so I'll read the public hearing statements they are on consent and slated for approval uh so tab 17 board report 1922 2425 approval of the renewal petition for Discovery Charter Prep 2 before action is taken on this board report approval of the renewal petition for Discovery Charter Preparatory

2462 a public hearing must be held this constitutes that public hearing and a maximum of 15 individuals who wish to address the board on the item will be heard those who wish to speak should sign up online and they already have speakers will be called by name if they wish to speak so so for tab 17 let's call on folks uh lus Rosalez I think lose waved her time on another item there lose here uh okay Anthony Marquez we are waving all our rights for item number 17 Discovery Charter Prep okay okay great I'm just going to read out the names as a matter of course because I don't want to miss anybody who I Don't Want to Miss a voice Anthony Marquez is that a wave from uh someone named Anthony Marquez let's thank

247you uh Tanya also a wave great uh David Richardson also a wave Leslie Gonzalez scanning for Leslie also a wave uh Kimberly Valencia wave okay great I see you Pamela Yahira Kos all right waving uh Melissa CA okay thank you Ashley uh Vios thank you uh soier Chavez right Anthony Valencia okay Isabel delv that's a not here uh another Tanya I think that's the same person Mercedes Hernandez all right waving okay Joseph Ramirez yes okay great all right that's the 15 folks for T 17 um we'll go on to the [Applause] next we'll go on to tab uh 18 tab 18 similarly a public hearing that is placed on consent for approval uh let's see before action is taken on board report 1932 24/25 approval of the renewal petition from montue Charter Academy for the

248Arts and Sciences a public hearing must be held this is that this is that public hearing um a mix a maximum of 15 individuals who wish to address the board on the item will be heard those who wish to speak should sign up online speakers have signed up online and speakers will be called by name so I'll call the name if you wish to wave just give me a literal wave and we'll we'll uh move on Brendan V okay Brandy Alvarez Carlos aracha Tanya again all right got it thank you Salvador Torres wave uh Sarah casarez wave Rosario Juan yes wave vieta Chavez wave all right Janette Montes wave thank you Amy gansi gansy thank you Luna napes Luna oh oh there she is appreciate it thank you Alexander Munoz all right thank you David

249Richardson suum wave uh Maria Tara all right thank you Manuela Caro I'm looking all around I do not okay great thank you and all right that's 15 waved on that all right so let's move on to let's move on to tab 19 it's also a public hearing all right before action is taken on board report number 1942 2425 approval for the renewal petition for watt's Learning Center public hearing must be held this constitutes that public hearing and a maximum of 15 individuals who wish to address the board on the item shall be heard folks have signed up online speakers will be called by name all right I I'll I'll read uh actually I got to check online to see if we missed anyone so tab this is tab tab 19 okay we have one remote

250caller and then we have folks in person so Sema wave wave Anthony Davis David Richardson wave Eugene fiser my name is Eugene Fischer I'm the chairman of the board of Watts Learning Center I just came down to say thank you thank you sir appreciate it t not here Let's see we have Nicole Peterson on the line Nicole Peterson please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Nicole Peterson I'm here can you hear me we sure can please go ahead okay thank you I'm making these comments on behalf of my husband Carl Peterson last night it was reported that superintendent carvalo is being sued for improperly Distributing funds under props 28 while is encouraging that he will finally face accountability for his actions I find it ironic

251that his predecessor excuse me Austin Butner is behind the litigation during his time with the LUSD Butner was responsible for his share of fiscal mismanagement this included wiping away $7.6 million in debt owed to the district from Charter Schools this money was for over allocation penalties when these publicly funded private schools took more space from LUSD schools than was allowed under prop 39 under District policy 90% of this money was slated to dis directly benefit the students who were affected by the theft of their space board member Schon referred to this as a shady deal that was made by the previous superintendent last month one of the beneficiaries of this gift came before you asking for renewal of its Charter despite some of you pledging during your campaigns to look into this giveaway to the

252Charter School industry not one of you asked about $28,155 wiped away from what Kip cor Zone owned for penalty mandated by state law today you have another chance the gift to the Watts Learning Center was even more significant with $169,800 wiped away without any explanation to the board or the public why weren't these students appropriately compensated supporters of La us supporters L USD of the charter school industry spent almost 6.2 Mill in the November election trying to avoid accountability the voters rejected these candidates and provided you with a mandate to end the corruption and poor performance of these publicly funded private schools will you step up today and ask questions about this apparent St of fund thank you for your time thank you Alma Rubio wave Heaven Fisher Heaven wave thank you uh leiri Barry

253thank you Derek hubard thank you sir Jayla stanel stanel thank you Keith Delila wave Monique Woodley uh selda I mean SEO Maris Sol monano and looks like we have David kovski thank you I want to thank uh the watt Learning Center for setting a an example of uh rigorous academic uh history and curriculum Focus um I also want to raise again the Affiliated Charter model uh as you celebrate Veronica AR's retirement tonight you ought to be asking yourselves why are we not developing Affiliated Charters within the district Mr schon's predecessor pushed 50 60 70 Charter Schools towards independent status in the end they became Affiliated and the West Valley is the largest grouping of Affiliated or District run Charter Schools they're in the district there's been little to no advocacy to increase the number of

254IND District Charters do not consider Closing one school in the upcoming years if you're not attempting to grow the population if you don't pursue you'll end up with situations like we have now Santa Monica unified is taking dozens and dozens of Pacific Palisade students into their school district because of the fires Downey Unified is taking dozens and dozens of students out of Southgate in Huntington Park under open enrollment you have some tremendous models of instruction that don't exist in other school districts Miss grigo comes from one of those why not make all of those open to students from other districts to come and benefit from either the Carlson Hospital School uh the continuation schools and so on if you don't advertise and push the growth of your schools you'll be constant ly on the defensive

255talking about attendance only there used to be 780,000 kids there are kids all over the county who are looking for good programs open your enrollment the governor has allowed you to do that now under the crisis of the state advertise I know the superintendent believes in the market economy show what you have and let others come into this District thank you thank you for your time Mr dakovski all right that concludes public comment for that item now move on to public comment for tab [Applause] 25 okay tab 25 report of Correspondence is a public hearing so I'm going to read the public hearing statement for tab 25 four actions taken on the report of correspondents including the Williams uniform complaint quarterly report summary a public hearing must be held this constitutes that public hearing and

256a maximum of 15 individuals who wish to address the board on this item will be heard those who wish to speak and have not already signed up should sign up online speakers will be called by name okay I'll call up the folks who are here in person first uh Maria Louisa Palma are you here Maria Louisa Palma she is she is online I'm going to call on the folks who are di guen I see you here come on up you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin after Miss guen will be Mr toosi and then Juan mandhi um if folks are wondering how people any one person is speaking multiple times during public comment it's because on public hearings that does not count against the total number of times which you can appear before

257the board typically you can choose either either one item specific comment or one General item comment to sign up for but there is no limit as to how many uh Slots of folks can sign up for when it comes to a public hearing so miss gan's going to speak in Spanish if you'd like to hear what she's saying in English please pop on these headsets so you can experience simultaneous translation okay thank you members of the board my name is Diana guen and I'm a mother who is always active in these meetings and I'm also the president of pack committee and in regards to the Williams complaint I think there is no way and no form that the district has given a training in regards uh this complaint how it works how they do and

258who are the people responsible there is no answer parents have came here and said that there aren't teachers and it's been more than a year at least at this downtown magnet there's a mother who asked me for support she came here and the whole year went by and there was no teacher in in the physic class these are the things that the district is not seeing where they are limiting porn to be able to help the students parents don't know that what a UCP is they don't know what a Williams complaint is Will's uniform complaint is there is no way to where parents can go and they can rece receive help we've asked Mr carvalo that they should have created this uh for many years and they've ignored ignored us they've created many problem many

259pro programs that aren't working for the people and for the district uh this complaint is not just for us to come in complaint it's to find a solution and an office for parents so that parents can come and have a solution to the problem and to let them know what's going on in the district this doesn't exist esface uh the office of esface is something who manages the Sun control committees but they don't represent us this is Mr Antonio Placencia he completes a mission of what parents should do and everything that we want to change therefore in this Williams uniform complaint no one speaks why because this is something so important so that students can have the accurate material so that they can have the appropriate installations and so that they can also have the

260appropriate teachers with appropriate credentials but who knows about this who understands this no one therefore you are the respons once about this please we don't want demands after demands after demands to come to you because the students budget will be used because of all the demand thank you for your time uh Mr David toski come on up you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin forms thanks to Mr are available right out front but they should be in every classroom on on every wall in every school so that if an air conditioner is not working we don't have to hear it here 30-day requirement you fill out this form that's available if you have a teacher who is not a physics teacher teaching physics you can make the same concern and if you don't

261have a one-on-one computer textbook or curricular materials the board the district wants to rectify and fix these things so you just fill it out the district is large but right now the only districts that are doing any of these are Board District 2 and three of any significance uh District South and district West hardly a form has been filled out next to hear the great efforts of the Bap program and the concerns and then to know that this board has not in 14 months filled out the children youth Behavioral Health Initiative applications in a way that should be bringing in 150 million per year reimbursement for uh the counselors for the social workers for all of the support services in special ed these are all available to you I don't want to see in a

262couple months a a report of Correspondence where there's a another piece of litigation that is saying that the district has failed to meet the needs of the support and instead become like you San Diego unified where they're laying off or Santa Ana or West Contra Costa they're laying off the very people who can be reimbursed by this children youth Behavioral Health Initiative the signature program of Gavin Nome in 2022 it is now 14 months since La unified could have been well agenting or doing much better in getting this Revenue it is embarrassing thank you thank you for your time Juan mandhi are you here in the room Juan mandhi okay well go to the folks who are listed as calling in this is for tab 25 Maria Duran Maria Duran I see you're on the

263line please press star six to unmute yourself and you have two minutes to speak once you begin Maria Durant Maria Duran and we will come back back to you all right uh Maria Louisa Palma I see you're on the line Maria Louisa Palma please press star six to unmute yourself and we'll have you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Maria Louisa Palma good evening my name is Maria Lisa Palma calling for oada Inc a nonprofit organization Williams complaints a UCP what are these ask any parent they have no idea what these things are I had various conversations with a number of parents when we were having the Heat Wave and broken air conditioners they had told me that they had been making complaints at their principal at number of different places Departments of

264operations and been given the runaround weeks had gone by but they were never told they could file a Williams complaint for these facilities issues so this is the issue Mr carvalo If the parents have no Outreach parents are not being told that this is one of their rights we've talked a lot here about the lack of information on parental rights it's not enough to just have the form sitting in a classroom the parents don't know and if they're calling an office at the district and saying I have a broken air conditioner why doesn't that person tell that parent you know you can file a Williams complaint why is this being hidden perhaps because of the time limits that get structured that get uh turned on once this Williams complaint is filed now in the board

265package here this evening there's no information in the materials on how what type of complaints these were for facilities or for any of them uh how they were resolved the time limits we don't know what schools had issues like we know we had a lot of broken air conditioners so we have a lack of information to the public the parents don't know they can file these things so this is why you see not that many complaints that are filed it sounds easy but when parents are not empowered when they don't know their rights they don't know how to advocate for their kids so if we also don't have the information out there on which teachers are fully qualified to teach the class classes that they're teaching it happened to me I had no idea Williams

266complaint existed a few years ago I should have filed one but I had no idea my son didn't have a qualified teacher didn't have any assigned teacher for a whole semester I never had any idea before I started getting involved at this level that such complaint existed so please do a better Outreach uh and train parents and give the parents the information once they even say they have the problem in that type of subject area thank you very much for your time appreciate your time okay Norma Gonzalez I see you're on the line Norma Gonzalez please press star six to unmute yourself and you have two minutes to speak once you begin Norma Gonzalez good afternoon my name is nor Gonzalez and I am a mother of three students that are in this La USC

267the Williams complained that complained many parents like me at the beginning I did not have any knowledge about this about what is a Williams complaint or a UCP and having to go through things in the school in the same manner because it's something that was missing that is uh so important for students and to know that you can make a Williams complaint and that you don't have the information and it's something that it's just spread word to word uh mouth to mouth from parent parent but that the district does not want to hear the complaints from the parents even less a uh Williams complaint or UCP and we're going to talk about um uh uh buildings does it have to happen in accident just like the fires for schools to have what is necessary so

268that they can make new schools so that they have everything that is essential so that you can see the parents go to South Central and see schools that are just patched up they're just patched up which is in the classroom rooms even in the play areas for students and many many of the schools elementary schools the parents themselves have to deal with um substitutes that are not credential or teachers that don't go to the classes that are missing we can go see South Central students uh School see that are poor areas that are schools that are patched up and it's the same in the east in the East there's also a lot of schools in that way that are just patched up but you are not seeing that I think that it is important for

269you to hear the voice of the parents and for you to really give us the willings complaint if you don't want us to really make complaints and complaints after complaining this office thank you thank you for your time Maria Daisy Ortiz I see her on the line Maria Daisy Ortiz please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Maria Daisy Ortiz afternoon everybody uh my name is Maria Daisy Ortiz and really the Williams complaint for parents has been something that has been ignored and that is why there is no compliance not only in uh buildings but in schools because there's some schools that some sometimes the bathrooms are not working they're broken the uh water fountains sometimes are not are broken as well and more than anything

270teachers when teachers get sick there's so many uh substitutes and uh dur under the law there a student cannot have a teacher for three weeks if they're not highly uh qualified and you need to do investigations of how many schools are having these Williams complaints and what is the action being taken because if you do a Williams complaint and the same thing remains or like they said it's just patched up because with the air conditioning during the summer time there's a lot of school it they you know get broken because they're just patched up so it is so important that we start to train the parents about the importance of the Williams complaint because it encompasses all all that is in buildings the uh teacher quality and also uh textbooks and of course and the

271parent centers just like at Franklin High School the uh sinks we don't have a sink and even before the pandemic we were working we sent a letter to Mr Miguel signs and up to this day we don't have it so what do we have to do to start making complaints not only at this level because it seems like this level their family and they all coincide with each other and we have to do it at another level where they take action have a nice afternoon Maria Duran last call for Maria Duran I see you're on the line please press star six to unmute yourself and you have two minutes to speak once you begin Maria Duran hi good afternoon my name is Maria Duran and what I've been listening to the other people and that

272is happening in all schools we have been many parents we are engaged in committees and we have listened how they just hurry through the budgets but we also have seen the buildings are in bad repair the uh girls bathroom right there there's no toilet paper there is no paper towels the issue is that you they can get an infection while they are SE uh sitting on the toilet that is creating a lot of discontent and with parents and sometimes they ask what is going on and they don't give us an answer and that is what we as parents are asking ourselves what is the difference between a UCP and a Williams complaint and unfortunately the administrators do not want to give us that information and so that is very concerning aside from that staff School

273staff do not have empathy towards us as parents so that we feel welcome and so where is that code that they say that we are equal partners and this is also concerning there's teachers that do not have the ability or I'm not sure they're not trained so that they are able to have provide equity for students that have special needs and students that are typical and that is also causing a lot of problems that parents complain and then just like I had mentioned before they do not give us that training or they don't provide us with that um training on what is a UCP a willing complaint and well in the trainings they mention it to us in the district but in schools they do not want to mention it mandhi are you in the

274room Mr mandhi you're also not online so that concludes all the public comment for the consent calendar so we should get a a motion and a second to vote on the consent calendar moved by Mr melin seconded by board president Schmelson and we'll now vote on the consent calendar Miss newbill yes Dr Ras yes Mr melvoin yes Miss grigo yes Miss gones Miss Ortiz Franklin yes there she is thank you Miss Franklin board president sharlon yes okay consent passes how's [Applause] though remaining business before the board now are tabs 4 uh 23 and 29 so we have uh one public comment on tab two that we will hear so tab two Mr David tolkovsky come on down for approval of procurement actions thank you very much I don't usually ever speak on this one but

275there are a couple items that are important item I is a celebratory one that is the inspector General's uh efforts uh to make sure the district was not incorrectly paying sales taxes on certain items and so this is a small for four or fiveyear contract renewal um it's important that you recognize that the inspector General's return on investment is significant the second item is more uh challenging which is item J is a $20 million uh no bid contract U to uh one company that has never been in the district it's a piggyback contract um that apparently may have been used at you CLA or Riverside or it may be the department of General Services it is not when it's a piggyback contract a definition of the lowest responsible bidder you don't know whether there are

276other biders on this and in particular uh this this one is paying uh out of certificates of participation and bond monies for soft costs they are not paying for capital goods bonds and cops by and large need to be capital goods this is paying for managers and Engineers associated with the it that is an IRS question that I'm sure the lawyers have looked at closely but it is a lot of money and it certainly did not come to the bond oversight committee uh to spend uh this particular money finally um in the the package is um the um mobile Labs which is item L uh this is $4 million for nine Vans my daughter said to me this morning she'd sell her van for a lot less than $700,000 per van but I guess they're

277not stem or magic Vans uh we should focus on teachers more than Vans and finally the gendler contract which is an item three hopefully Mr Melo and the committee will have a copy of that but it's obviously finished and available thank you okay that concludes comment on that item Dr revas you had a question or a comment on tab tab two yes it is on J so my question um there's a cons well two things now that um the comment was made um there's a concern about potential over Reliance on Outsourcing for critical it functions with that in mind and for the Public's knowledge can you share what specific needs or circumstances necessitate such a large investment of 20 million in temporary IT staff augmentation um through inside from the inside Global rather than building

278internal capacity uh through permanent tires good evening I'm so Kettle Chief Information officer um the uh entire size of our infrastructure project is over a billion $ 1.1 billion over the next five eight years it's a significant investment that districts make every I would say 5 to seven years to make sure school network systems is school camera system School PA systems and intrusion system are fully updated not up to standard to especially with the measure us investment that's coming to the board some of them came to the board already board approved those project more are coming within this year uh to the board for the remaining uh size of the school which we have about I would say between five to 700 projects that need to be done within the next five years they coming

279to the board for approval and to complete all of these projects we historically had the staff augmentation contract these are not replacing our staff in any way or shape this is when we have a spike in a specific Time of the Season that we don't have enough a staff to do the temporary work so temporary work is not more than one or two years these are not permanent assignment the contractor provide the resources for the project management or engineering job that we need they work under our staff they're being oversight we are oversight of our staff going to be on the work and they perform the project that way and the size is uh calculated based on the previous experience that we had with the consideration of the growth on the new uh Bond and

280uh other projects that we have and to the comment that was made earlier why are we using cops and bond money for something that's a non Capital um expense these are capital expense both are capital it's infrastructure as this is directly impacting a student experience what they are experiencing at the school and um they are both went through the capital planning or either through the uh cop or through the bond but majority are Bond and it didn't why didn't have to go over the bond oversight committee these are contract contracts goes to the board not the bond oversight Bond oversight approves the projects and they already recommended this projects to move forward this project they both they all have board approval and bond oversight committee recommendation for the bond so that's all for are there

281any other questions all right should we move and second the um the item for a vote okay move on Tab Two by Mr mvo second by I didn't thank you Miss Newell all right voting on tab two Miss nuell yes Dr revas yes melb yes Miss uh grigo dinner Miss gones Miss Ortiz Franklin yes board president schmon yes and student board member Cortez Lopez yes five eyes Les Miss grego will come back at to collect her vote Tab four uh board member Newell you had a question yes um for the schools that are listed um do you identify the wondering who'll be able to answer this question he's coming good evening Chris CH Chief equ sustainability officer for the projects that are listed what was the analysis for each project site did they go through

282an analysis and then what is the project because each site is different that's correct so the way that we do the the selection criteria for those sites we identify School sites that have the highest energy use that's one of the criterias that we've used in terms of energy the second item that we use is uh sites that they they're having the end of life of the roofing installation so we have to replace the roofs on those sides that became another part of the criteria because we wanted to make sure that we align the replacement of the roofing with the solar installations so we can avoid any challenges in the future based on lessons learned that we learned from the previous installations that we had and um and based on that we identify the the top

283schools and we try to distribute the schools throughout all the different board districts and regions so with the roofing so some of these schools are rather old so they went through a feasibility test that they can sustain so we did an initial test based on uh the as build documents that we have so the uh the uh contractors they were provided with that information and they've done their assessment based on the actual as Bill further investigation will happen in the field but based on the information they received they they pretty much share that they could have those installations on those sites and then for the projects moving forward how many schools have been completed already so we have uh in the past we've installed approximately we had 68 installations solar installations soling approximately about 21

284megawatt of uh solar capacity this one uh these ones that we have now moving forward is 21 sites that will be able to give us 15 megawatt of capacity with our schools and then how many are outstanding and then are we on track to meet our goal our goal is to achieve 100% clean electricity by 2030 based on the 2019 resolution so we are aligning our goals with the U utility companies both lwp and Southern California Edison so as we're aligning our goals and we're looking at the how many megawatt we have to be able to have by 2030 we come up with an estimate that we need to provide another 85 megawatt of Power by 2030 to meet our goal so the the actual capacity that we need at our schools it's approximately 345

285megawatt of power so this will give us uh we have existing 21 we'll be able to install another 15 megawatt our goal is to be able to um have a little bit over 100 megawatt by 2030 of our own electricity production um the dwpn um they're also planning to um meet their goals their target is to meet 100% clean electricity by 2035 both both of them by by 2030 they'll be able to achieve 75% of that goal so they're 75% of their goal and based on how much power we use from them then we're estimating the remaining 25% that 25% is what we're trying to achieve of approximately 100 megawatt by 2030 then we have statistics of our savings once we reach this goal so we do and actually we do the actual um cost

286benefit analysis we do the return of investment to be able to understand in terms of what the production is per system so the actual 4217 the government code uh that you should be able to have a copy shows the actual School based on the um production data that the companies assured us that these solar installations will be able to produce per site and each site will give give you the actual uh production and then per year and uh there is a what we call the onm operations and maintenance and a performance guarantee that they guarantee their production uh for so many years so basically that performance guarantee become our document that if they don't be able if they're not producing that energy they have to be able to cut us a check for anything that

287they're not producing and that's how we we estimate to see what the production is over 25 years we look at year by year and then we produce over 25 years and then we also do the actual analysis in terms of what's the payback in terms of our investment both on the bond fund uh amount of money that we're investing also the general fund thank you you're welcome um just a quick question in terms of the two companies that were selected centria and ameresco um first did we look into when we look at when we select these companies any litigation that they're facing and if is when is found how do we look into how um the litigation can affect the contract um or at least the viability of the company or any moral ethical issues

288that are taking place in the in theany a contracts procurement does that analysis any for any vendors that we have they do check their licenses to make sure they're current and they do a a background check um for ourselves we've uh we just uh know these companies from coming through a solicitation and going going through the the actual qualifications that they have during the process that we established to select the the most qualified vendor but the contract procurement will typically do the analysis on that and I don't know of any litigations on any of those companies I know they typically some companies may have litigations that Clos in the past but I don't know of any current litigations that they have right now I just did a quick search and it at least mesco is

289facing it's pending uh bankruptcy and bankruptcy court is being being sued by another company so just you know that popped up right away yeah and I'm not I'm not aware of that and I know that U we have the companies with us we can double check and verify it but I wasn't aware of that well I'm sure the contractor the procurement contract you know addresses any potential backy so just wanted to put that for public knowledge thank you thank you any else all right can I have a mo move in a second for tab four second moved and seconded uh Miss nuel yes Dr Reas yes Mr melb yes Miss GGO yes gonz Miss Ortiz Franklin yes board president sharlon yes student board member corz Lopez yes all right so that concludes Tab four oh

290we actually I'm sorry I missed a public speaker who's been online for tab four Lauren Akim so Lauren uh please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin I apologize for missing your your comment hello can you hear me we sure can please go ahead great hi my name is laurum and I'm the climate campaign co-director for the LA Alliance new economy and we are working to support Le's investment Healthy Green public schools for a safe future for our kids and I'm also a parent and um appreciate you taking action on this important item as you all know um solar energy and Ed charging are critical to the district's progress on its 100% clean energy goal and help bring clean air um and mitigate the harmful climate

291impacts that our students and communities are facing um and local action is all the more important at a time like this of federal inaction and so appreciate your um vote on this item and um we stand ready to support what resources or policies are needed to advance projects like this in future and to secure additional funding to support these projects thank you thank you for your time okay that brings us to tab 23 would you like to introduce the motion sure um just obviously this is um really proud to be able to bring this resolution to celebrate Black History Month um to the board and obviously to the committee uh this is important to recognize and celebrate the achievements of black people throughout history in United States and as we know especially during this time

292uh Dr Carter Woodson established negro history week back in 1925 and for this reason it was expanded to Black History Month back in 197 6 while this month February is only 28 days it's certainly a time to highlight and bring attention to contributions of black people that have helped shape the foundations the landmark and history and culture of American society in countless ways and we could think about it when you drive the traffic signal when you get dressed whether it was an iron board whether you left your home and you had a home camera security system and whether this weekend 3 days you go golfing the golf tea or you take a snack and you think of the potato chip all of these are contributions of our black historians and so as the association and

293study of African-American life and history Asa has annually highlighted aspects of black history and established now this year in 2025 the theme of Africa afcan Americans and labor this organization was established by Dr Woodson widely known as a father of black history to collect and curate the document and research contributions and accomplishments of black people in America and key figures that Americans African-Americans in labor include Hattie kanty Mary MCL Bon fenny Lamer Ella Baker just to name a few and fortunately we here are able to see leaders in our local labor movement such as those as Ivon wheeler with LA County Federation of Labor Kyle Patterson with our Southwest Carpenters our very own CES Myer Cruz with utla and Laticia Fox with our CSA chapter 500 and so it's just a great honor to be

294able to share just as an educator as we talk today about Educators and being a black educator to work within this District to bring about diversity and to be alongside those that have worked at schools at dorsy high school with members like coach Davis coach Dobson who's brought history as well as longevity in the movement for African-Americans Black History Month is a time to reflect on significant historical events that have shaped our present day lives such as Civil Rights Movement the Montgomery Bus Boycott March on Washington and the black power movement and there's many lessons that we've learned from these events that can be applied to contemporary issues such as racial profiling police brutality systematic racism voter oppression suppression and educational disparities it is also time to celebrate the cultural contributions of African-Americans in such

295a way in their music the dance the cuisine the literature the art the fashion the language which we got to see glimpse of that just this past Friday here ways to celebrate Black History Month includes supporting black owned businesses attending educational events reading Black authors watching documentaries we get an opportunity to in Los Angeles experience the panafrican film festival as well as engage in discussion about racial Justice Black History Month is a time to focus on black history but it's important to continue learning and discussing these topics throughout the year and to support racial Justice that causes us to look all year long as always we we constantly as Educators know that black hist history is American history and education is a key so thank you for be able to share this and I know

296I have a revised copy around there were some revisions made between the introduction and the resolution in the resolution that is as it is being presented now the changes are uploaded online and being passed out to the de right now and we have uh copies for the public in the back if they if they would like to thank you thank you thank you Miss nuel I just wanted to uh make a comment about um on the 24th floor which is the board members flooor and we share it with others there is the most magnificent display of African-American history that it's worth charging admission just to come in and see how beautiful that is and that was done by James Perry Mr Perry is a longtime employee of this District he's our Sergeant at Arms he

297is and he's the best but besides being the best he he set that all up himself and it's so fascinating to see the pictures the artifacts so many things I didn't know I I got here an hour early because of the big traffic jam on 405 and I'm glad I got here early because I must have spent an hour just looking at all the displays that Mr Perry put up it's worth seeing if you're working in this building on the 24th floor it is worth seeing so I wanted to thank you for that and I want to be a co-sponsor thank you Scott and I believe we have some public comment oh yeah sorry go ahead oh okay so um I whole hardly support this resolution thank you Miss um hendy newbill for bringing this

298to um the days for us to vote because as you said black history is American history and it's a history that um impa had impacted me throughout my political my education life and my political Consciousness as well and this resolution is a crucial step toward acknowledging that truth on uh the contributions of black Americans is present in our curriculum our schools and as I said in our political conscious Consciousness um I appreciate Miss Newell's leadership and will be honored to co-sponsor so please add me and I'm eager to discuss or work together on making sure that these commitments that are present in your resolution are fully realized throughout the district thank you Mr mvo thank you excuse me I'd also like to be added as a co-sponsor um and appreciate and thanks Mr smelson for

299mentioning James and the wonderful display up um up on the 24th floor but I just want to you know acknowledge um the backlash that we're seeing uh just in the last few weeks to Educators interests in teaching our full history and not whitewashing over it and teaching the uh difficult Parts along with the wonderful Parts uh and proud that this district is standing up against that and understanding um that we're stronger when we're in this together when we celebrate our uh black history not just in February but throughout year the Year and we when we understand that this is a district PR predominantly of students of color of educators of a color um and that we're not going to uh capitulate to the attacks whether that's in how we employ our staff how we train

300our staff or or what we teach our kids so proud to support this and appreciate you bringing it at a very important time thank you Mr Mel Miss Grio yes thank you um Miss Newville for bringing this and I'm so um so excited to be a co-sponsor as a child when I learned about black history I've it it really just inspired me to become an activist this my whole life I've always leaned on the lessons of black leaders and um and now more than ever we must celebrate by black lives of all generations and backgrounds in home countries especially as we deal with the attacks on immigrants we must also recognize that there are many black immigrants from Latin America the Caribbean from African countries who are also in fear of deportation and separation from

301their families and through this resolution we also C celebrate Black immigrants who like all immigrants have contributed and continue to contribute to our society this year's black lives matter at school's theme is celebrating and centering Collective value the black lives matter at school guiding principle of collective values States we are Guided by the fact that all black lives regardless of sex assigned at Birth gender identity gender expression sexual orientation economic status ability disability ility Education location age immigration status religious beliefs or disbeliefs matter none of us are free until we are all free and so as we continue to celebrate um black people from the US and abroad who have contributed to the economy and the culture of the US um who have contributed to the fight against discrimination and Prejudice and social injustice we

302stand on their shoulders as we continue to organize and resist attacks on all marginalized and oppressed groups in our society and this is why we must defend and preserve programs like the black student achievement plan because it is programs like these that are a step in the right direction to repair past harms of our black parents and students black lives matter at schools also celebrates the joy that black people have brought to our society like charlette share poets and writers musicians and singers comedians athletes thinkers creators orators and chefs the list is endless and so as we honor and celebrate black history and black lives centuring Collective values and in the month of Valentine's Day I leave you with a quote from B hooks who has a whole book on love and uh one of

303the things that she said is for me quote for me for forgiveness and compassion are always linked how do we hold people accountable for wrongdoing and yet at the same time remain in touch with their Humanity enough to believe in their capacity to be transformed and quote thank you Miss nuell and I'm so excited to support this thank you Miss Grio next we have Miss Cortez Lopez followed by Miss Tanya Ortiz thank you I also would like to be added as a co-sponsor I truly believe believe in this resolution and how we continue to amplify the voices of our black students on campus not only our black students but as a senman shared today continue supporting our black Educators because their presence on campus truly makes a difference in hearing the support from students regarding

304the new Bap allocation towards the funding and seeing how happy they are to see people like them in schools really makes a huge difference so this is included in in the resolution and I look forward to continuing to support our black students as we go through I see all my campus and through other campuses Bap Spirit Week seeing how different cultural attire shows out and how we continue to see the beauty of uh our district and how diverse it truly is uh I would like to end also with a quote um from Dr Martin Luther King Jr I remember this vividly from my kindergarten class uh which is Darkness cannot drive out Darkness only light can do that hate cannot drive out hate only love can do that end quote that is all thank you

305that's beautiful thank you thank you so much Miss Ortiz Franklin thanks I'd love to also be added as a co-sponsor and I just wanted to appreciate the robustness of the language in this resolution you know we often do declaratory um resolutions celebrating certain times of the year um but this one in particular I think reminds us that black history is embedded uh throughout uh all the courses that we teach in our district and even our social emotional interactions um it mentions the Arts uh it mentions social or sorry um School culture activities like what you heard from uh Miss Grio about black lives matter at at school week um and I really just want to emphasize that so many of these opportunities we have are not just about the day or the week or the

306month but the the day or the week or the month does remind us that we can be integrating so much more throughout the entire school year so thank you for bringing this Miss dub and I'd love to be added as a co-sponsor thank you Miss Franklin Mr McLean oh sorry superintendent carv just very quickly I'd like to U add my voice of Celebration uh not only February is a black history month but recognizing that while we celebrate the contributions of African-Americans in February we teach it at L USD and we celebrate it we ve it and respected all throughout the year that's what makes this District the district to watch for its respect it's reverence and its insistence on the teaching of that which is true and honorable to all of us thank you thank

307you superintendent Mr McAn We'll add to the conversations uh public comment uh we have 10 folks signed up for public comment uh I'll call on the folks who are here in person and then we have one person waiting on the line uh zulma are you here uh Sierra Leon she's yeah I think a lot of these folks actually left unfortunately Mar avus Moore Mara Doss ma Micha Dalia alasco uh doia Blasco is on the phone okay we'll come back to miss Basco uh Valerie uh Peter Watts okay and then let's see I have folks on the line Diana deor I see you're on the line please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin hi can you hear me yes please go go ahead hi can you

308hear me yeah please go ahead good afternoon superintendent good evening superintendent carvalo and members of the board my name is Diana deor and I'm senior manager of collective action with GSN a nonprofit intermediary organization dedicated to improving Los Angeles public education for students of color and those living in poverty prior to joining GSN I was an LAUSD teacher serving at Augustus Hawkins High School and King Drew magnet today I'm here on behalf of the over 80 organizations in GPS n's Collective Action Group this group represents nonprofits across Los Angeles County that come together because of their shared interest and commitment to advocating for better educational outcomes and opportunities for Los Angeles Unified students we recognize and applaud LAUSD for exceeding teacher diversity rates in our County and state we credit the gains the district has

309made over the last few decades especially increasing High School graduation rates to the diversity of its Workforce especially in the classroom we know there's a teacher pipeline shortage impacting public education across our state and Country we worry these impacts will eventually come to La USD as the charting the course for Equity Coalition has warned the district may find itself losing its high levels of diversity especially if the rate of black Educators retiring or leaving the district exceeds those joining the district we cannot let politics get in the way of the district's achievements and trajectory we stand with the district as it continues to celebrate and take action to maintain a Workforce that is reflective and inclusive of the population it serves now more than ever we must all remain maintain our steadfast courage to protect

310and realize our promises and commitments to the students and families of Los Angeles thank you to the team of board district one for this resolution and thank you to board member Ortiz Franklin for introducing the black educator resolution and to the full board for its support and its passage thank you superintendent and District staff for your work implementing the resolution we look forward to continued collaboration to protect and Advance educational opportunities for Los Angeles students thank you thank you for your time now we have Dalia alasco Dalia alasco please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Dalia Velasco good good evening board members and superintendent carvalo my name is Valia Velasco and I'm the director of strategy at Alliance For A Better Community ABC and also

311a resident of Board District 1 ABC is a Ley Latina advocacy organization advancing social economic racial equity and justice for Latinos across LA County I am here to express ABC's support for board member new Bill's resolution on the 2025 Black History Month celebration and its important theme African-Americans and labor this theme reinforces the critical role that black Educators play in our public education system by nurturing the academic social and emotional development of all students we can draw upon numerous National research studies that have shown the impact that teachers and leaders of color have on increasing academic achievement and decreasing disciplinary actions we also know that we have a responsibility to ensure that those leading our classrooms are as diverse as our community ABC applauds the recent gains that La unified has made in increasing the

312percentage of newly hired black Educators and the participation of black Educators in the teacher and administrator pipeline programs today ABC also stands alongside its Partners in the charting the course to equity coalition to urge the district to continue to do all that it can to protect protect black Educators and black students at a time when many are divesting from initiatives intended to Foster diversity equity and inclusion for vulnerable communities we implore the district to stand firm in its commitment to diverse Educators and students which necessarily includes those who are who identify as black we ask for the district to double down on its commitment to educated diversity and black student achievement by the following providing updates twice a year at public meetings or public reports on the district's progress towards the Recruitment and Retention of

313black Educators including Educators in the early childhood educ education division providing updates two times per year at a public meeting or public report on the district's progress towards improved academic and social outcomes for its black students thank you for your time and Happy Black History Month may we celebrate today and every day thank you for your time that concludes public comment on Tab 23 so we now just need a motion and a second to vote I move I move all right moved by board member Grio seconded by board member melvoin uh let's see we have we do have a a quorum because Miss Ortiz Franklin is on the line and I think uh board president schmon is grabbing a bite to eat uh so we'll come back for his vote uh Miss nubel yes Dr

314revas we come back for Dr revas uh Mr Melo yeso yes Miss gones Miss Ortiz Franklin yes board president schmon and student board member Cortez Lopez yes um and before we move on Miss GGO may I collect your vote on Tab I believe it was the procurement actions yes tab two is a yes thank you that brings us to all the way down to tab 29 motion to adopt a revised 2425 meeting schedule Mr M I believe you had some questions or comments on that I did um and I I see that the board leadership is out of the room but I think you I'll assume that they're watching as we've been eating but I I was just a bit confused and disappointed by the calendar because former president Goldberg had worked with the board

315to craft a meeting schedule for the rest of the year that I think was accommodating of board members calendars um and without consultation we reverted and I'll note that we don't have a full board attendance right now and it's almost 700 p.m. and we're not done and have been on this board for days where we don't get to a budget vote which is maybe the most important thing we do till 9:00 p.m. and then we have 5 minutes of discussion and so we're a full time board I think we should act like one in terms of our meeting schedule and not rush things or have to schedule special meetings um and so I was just I was confused so I I don't plan to support this calendar I thought we had one that worked and

316that uh board members were consulted on I was I might be alone I was not consulted on this change including today's meeting um so I'll definitely show up for the meetings of course but um but I don't support this calendar and then while on the subject of calendars I just want to note for the record again that I think it's unacceptable we don't have an academic calendar for next year yet I know it might be coming soon but it is mid-February and parents are planning for their Summers and camps and next school year and constituents and educators are reaching out to us and I think it's been a few years in a row of some unforced errors uh when it comes to getting out a calendar and the district's also tried to incorporate additional school

317days um not only because of the pandemic recovery or as we just saw on nape results but because we lost two days of school to the fires um so I plan when the vote when that calendar does come I plan to vote no uh but I just want to project that now because I think these are two calendars the board calendar and the academic calendar that I I just it's disappointing both the process and the outcome so I just I guess I'm just anti-c calendar today um but that's why I pulled this uh and just wanted to be transparent about where I'm at on this item and then the academic one as well so thank you I'd love to chime in as well um I think it's it's evidence that Mr melne mentioned you know

318a couple of us were missing and part of why Miss Goldberg you know re T reached out to every board member when she was president was to try to accommodate um those of us with small children who are doing badtime and bath routine usually at this time um as many of our parents are as well and so you know I agree with Mr meloy we're a full-time board we should be using our full-time daytime hours to the extent possible for board meetings um I I think it's too much to pack on a closed session and a general meeting on the same day that's why we made the shift I would have loved some engagement on this um and so I too won't be able to support today um Mr schmon if you'd uh consider you

319know reaching back out and and having more discussion with the board I would be appreciative of that but if we need to vote on it today um I also won't be able to support so um thanks for making the space any further comment okay let's take a vote on it can I have a motion and a second got to move it before we can hear it moved by Mr schmon [Applause] um M um Mr smarson I think um would you be open to having a conversation about this before we vote or you or do we want to vote today well we don't necessarily have to have a conversation today we could have a conversation at another time but my idea was thinking that we devote one day a week where we know we're going to

320be here a long time which has been in the past for Clos session and then Open Session and just know ahead of time that it's going to be a long Tuesday and uh what to expect so we can certainly discuss it and can I ask what was the reason for switching if we were if we had this schedule the whole time right and then we switched what was the reason this was a Miss Goldberg schedule but before we had one day a week and uh we can have five days a week if everybody likes we can come here every day for a few hours I mean I don't it doesn't matter to me but I just wanted to avoid people coming down too often to to bodria they didn't have to come down too often

321that was it yeah but I'm willing to discuss of course just a comment from the student board perspective this was a first year the 9:00 a.m. start time schedule was implemented so for future student board members this schu schedule does take out an entire school day for student board member past student board members only had to miss half a school day so for few student board members if that's something to take uh account of um of how much school they're missing to come to these board good point good point good point Miss n yes so in obviously bringing us to discussion here because the time spent obviously it's a long day um but there is a lot to cover when we're in Clos session which has to be crammed so to speak so if it

322is possible to have a discussion to go back to what it was to be able to accommodate um dialogue and discussion that we're doing things in Fidelity so we can kind of Thoroughly have questions and not feel like we're constantly looking at a clock um I think that's something to consider as well and that's fine I will consider but I think you're still going to be constantly looking at a clock no matter what you do true but then we know that this one day is set for one thing and another day is set for another willing to discuss yeah do we table move to table or just I don't know does someone have a motion on how they would like to uh arrange the board meetings one day a week for closed one day a

323week for I'm sorry one day a month for the close and one day a month for the uh open board meeting if that's the wish I should we just keep the schedule as is and not change it because it's already said we already voted on it right so there's a couple of options before the board now one a motion has been made to alter the calendar that was approved some months ago uh and a vote gets taken if a vote is taken and it does not pass then the existing calendar Remains the Same the other option is we have a motion there might be no second in which case the motion does not even get voted on uh that's another way um it would die and then just remain with the calendar that was voted

324on and approved some some months ago so those are the options before before the board now so do I hear an option suggested for board meetings so the there's a the motion has been made to hear it if we don't get a if there's no second then it dies so is there a second to this motion a second to modify the board meeting times is that what you're saying second so procedurally right off the bat the motion has been made by by you to alter the calendar correct yes okay so um we did miss one procedural step would be which would be handing the chair to Dr revas because if you're the if you're making the motion as the president it's toward for you to to do it as president so um you are now

325the the the board the board president for the time being uh board president Schmelson uh not acting as chair has made a motion to alter the calendar and so if there is a second uh the motion will be heard and voted on if there is not a second the motion will die here at the table and the calendar will remain unchanged so do I hear a second hearing none the motion dies dies there's no second so we're on the record there's no second the calendar Remains the Same and if I could be so bold it sounds like there might be discussion at a later date or engagement okay so that is tab once a month session so for for the viewing for the viewing public what happened is nothing happened the calendar is going to

326remain the same as it has been published and um Mr schmon will now retake the chair and the vice president has done her Duty thank you for doing your duty can you just explain now what the new what the calendar is because I'm still not sure certainly the calendar remains exactly the same as it was when we walked into this room the one that was approved many months ago and the change to do both meetings on one day did not successfully pass okay okay okay I get so the calendar that exists on the Boe website is the calendar that controls there is certainly not a closed session tomorrow it would can you change it well website that's change it it doesn't need to I don't think I need so what about the hours of the

327uh Clos session and the hours of the regular board meeting uh sometimes it was 10: sometime it was 11: sometimes what time is it going to be as a fixed time so the Tuesday meeting starts at 10:00 and then the the Wednesday meeting starts at 11: okay okay whatever you like it's okay with okay yes and all all these approved times are updated on the Boe that's correct that concludes the active business we have an adjourning motion I believe from Miss gonz yes oh are you are there going to be presentations on the ELC caps okay so tabs 27 and 28 will not be discussed tab 29 has just been dispatched that concludes uh our voting business today um there is an adjourning motion from Miss gones Miss gonz's office okay just one moment we're

328going to hear if there's a presentation to be made or not so just bear with us as we get all our ducks in a row so for for our viewing audience we're do we're doing the discussion of tabs 28 and 29 27 and 28 27 and 28 Eric Hansen and Dr Eric lward from the Strategic initiatives office and uh we're are for the midyear lcap uh update uh per state statute uh this is required uh for the midyear elcap update the district elcap and the Affiliated Charter lcap and so with the um with the updat update what you will see in the uh infographic that we have there's not a state template we've developed an infographic you will see an update on state lcff revenues after the 2425 lcap adoption which was back in June

3292024 you'll see budget to actual expenditures for lcap goals 1-8 as of the first interim budget and you'll also see implementation highlights by goal oh chief chief ARG no it's just here I just want to be clear we're just here if there's any questions that the board may have there is no discussion we're just obligated to just uh provide you with this so if there are are no questions um the items presented are there any are there any questions I have none okay thank you that concludes the voting business and the um presentation business uh there is an adjourning motion presented by board member gonz I'm going to verify whether I'm not the uh Miss gonz we'll do the adjourning motion another time another time okay all right so is this the end of the

330board meeting so this would be the end of the board meeting if there are any objections to an adjournment um everyone is free to go okay this meeting is adjourned at 7:07 p.m.