November 19, 2024 - 11am Regular Board Meeting

001e e e [Music] he I'm I [Music] got [Music] n [Music] go through it all uh and uh some things will be taken out of order uh and I'll explain why when we get to them uh but if you are here from a charter and your Charter is put on consent that means that everyone will vote for it you can still speak if you want [Music] whenever you're ready Mr mle good morning time is now 11:03 on November 19th 2024 welcome to the regular meeting of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education I'm going to take role Dr McKenna here Dr Ras pres Mr schmon present Mr Mel here miss gones miss Ortiz Franklin board president Goldberg here and student member Cortez Lopez here okay we have a quum student Cortez Lopez is

002now going to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance would you all please stand flag I'm now going to call on Mr McLean because we have a retiring board member Dr George J McKenna I third and some people Dr McKenna want to say some things to you it is my very very distinct honor to um at least hold the Run of show to help honor this this retiring member of the board uh who I've had the privilege to work with for all to short period of time so we have a couple of videos and we have a couple of guest speakers and um let's launch right into the first video short bio video Dr George McKenna III board member Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education a scholar and athlete at a young age

003McKenna's passion for civil and human rights activism was nurtured in his hometown of New Orleans he attended Xavier University where he received his bachelor's degree in mathematics at the age of 20 he earned a teaching fellowship to Chicago's Lola University where he went on to earn an MA in mathematics he holds a doctorate of Education from Xavier University Dr McKenna began his career in education when he accepted a position in the Los Angeles Unified School District as a mathematics teacher simultaneously he also worked as an engineer for North American Aviation on the Apollo moonshot project but ultimately his love of teaching led him to completely devote himself to the field of Education while continuing his education at Loyola University law school UCLA and California State University Los Angeles he continued to teach at the secondary

004school and college levels within the LAUSD moving up the ranks of secondary school administrative positions during Dr George McKenna's tenure as principal of Washington Preparatory High School in South Los Angeles students parents and community members witnessed the transformation of an inner city high school that had been torn by violence low achievement and lack of community confidence into a school with an attendance waiting list and nearly 80% of the graduates enrolled in college because of his success Dr McKenna's programs have been widely modeled throughout the nation in addition his story of advocacy commitment and dedication to education has been documented in the award-winning CBS Television movie The George McKenna story starring Denzel Washington his accomplishments have been featured in a wide variety of media including time people and Ebony magazines the Los Angeles Times The Wall

005Street Journal the Christian Science Monitor and the Detroit news Dr McKenna has appeared on the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather Nightline with Ted Coppel the oper Winfrey Show night watch and the documentary film entitled chaos to calm produced by the California State Attorney General's office Dr McKenna has received International recognition for his work having received over 400 citations and awards from a host of Civic legislative and professional organizations he was also recognized by President Reagan who invited him to the White House to participate in a panel on school discipline the president further acknowledged McKenna's leadership at the 68th annual National Convention of Secondary School principles where the president praised him as a hero with faith in common sense values Massachusetts governor Michael dakus mentioned Dr McKenna's achievements during his presidential nomination speech at the

0061988 Democratic National Convention featured in the 1988 Miller Brewing Company calendar of great black educators Dr McKenna was the 1989 recipient of the Congressional Black caucuses Chairman's award and was inducted into the National Alliance of black school Educators Hall of Fame in 1997 he is the author of California legislation which permits parent release time from work to visit schools in addition to his well documented teaching and administrative career in the LAUSD McKenna served as the superintendent of the Englewood Unified School District Deputy superintendent of the Compton Unified School District and assistant superintendent of secondary schools in the pasaden Unified School District he currently serves as an educational consultant providing professional development and support to school districts and Community organizations throughout the country a strong advocate of building stable community communities from within Dr George McKenna

007believes that an educational system that emphasizes Justice equal opportunity and nonviolence is the primary vehicle for positive change in a pluralistic and technological Society Dr McKenna is also a member or has affiliations with a number of organizations including member board of directors Los Angeles Brotherhood Crusade 40 years former member board of directors Los Angeles Southern Christian leadership conference 25 years member 100 black men of Los Angeles Incorporated founder and member Education civil rights committee 10 years member California Alliance of African-American superintendant and administrators 15 years member Association of California school administrators 12 years life member National Alliance of black school School Educators 25 years member and past president twice Council of black administrators 38 years member Western Regional Council on educating black children member National Council on educating black children member and founder Los Angeles

008black school educators and to give us some continued context on what we've just seen uh we have two presenters to discuss the Washington prep effect uh we have Dr Delle bird joining us via zoom and then Alan kassie here in person so Dr Delle if you could please excellent thank you so much for joining us today and uh the floor is entirely yours thank you so much uh it is truly an honor uh to be able to give this tribute to Dr George J McKenna III uh the Washington prep effect uh with Dr McKenna um he is a Visionary educator in transform transformational leadership uh he's left an indelible mark on Washington Preparatory High School and the entire Los Angeles Unified School District during his tenure as principal from of Washington prep from 1979 to

0091988 his legacy continues to inspire and shape education today as his career as a school board member expanded his reach for not just Washington prep but the entire School District within board district one as well as a principal Washington prep Dr McKenna revolutionized uh the concept of inner city education that was high quality and high profile for all students to want to come to and Achieve he saw the potential where other saw hopelessness and he fought tirelessly to create Pathways for success for all students regardless of their circumstances his Washington prep effect was a blueprint for educational excellence in the community as well as Nationwide some of the key aspects of Dr McKenna's transformative leadership include high expectations so Dr McKenna instilled a culture of academic Excellence believing that every single student could achieve greatness

010with proper support and guidance Community engagement he turned a school that was plagued by violence and low achievement into a Beacon of Hope with Community confidence soaring to create a waiting list for enrollment this was done by engaging parents side by side in meetings where commitments were made by the families to entrust their children with Washington prep as being their educational source Al there was direct contact with Community leaders letting them know that a new general was in town and that he wanted the best for this area College preparation was another key point and already mentioned in the video under his leadership over 80% plus Washington prep graduates enrolled in college graduated from college and lived up to the expectations of excellence and service oriented individuals that contribute to society by giving back positive ways

011our students that my classmates uh were academically inclined as Pro he promoted Academic Decathlon competitions with the same approach to athleticism students arote to arose to the occasion um by excelling in all areas of academics as a result of this approach uh he developed a holistic uh opportunities for students where he created a mini College atmosphere on our campus with the emphasis on spirit with Friday Night Lights sororities and fraternities dances extravagances including solid gold and the prep's version of Star Search which produced many individuals and uplifted and showcased their talents also Washington prep had a vibrant arts program along with Athletics for ensuring that all students had a well-rounded High School experience he also spearheaded the community activism in students at the prep and the district as a whole with the annual Dr Martin

012Luther King Jr peace March as we walked around the community encouraging families to put down the guns and be peaceful individuals as well as a separate Symposium where other high schools convened at the prep to increase the peace efforts in our community Through workshops and student political panels he also promoted diversity and inclusion he celebrated the diversity and acknowledged and uplifted all student populations on the campus including the smaller population of our Mexican Americans who were also a big part of what he embodied career Readiness was also another key aspect of what he prepared us to do he implemented various programs that prepared us for Law and medicine and education in the Arts the magnet schools were often in competition with each other but established a family camaraderie that was unmatched to any neighboring School

013Washington prep under his leadership was a safe haven a nurturing environment where students could Thrive academically and personally because of the team of individuals that he built around him he ensured that they cared for each and every one of us otherwise it wouldn't be acceptable behaviors within the school walls he established tough love that had a whole lot of caring and room to grow from your mistakes a family atmosphere the motto for Washington prep stands tried and true we are family and it created a supportive Network amongst staff students and the community he would bring adult leaders to have gender alike assemblies to talk about how to become great men and husbands and for the young ladies to be able to be all they can be with style and grace lastly he continued with a

014model that widely has been replicated Nationwide influenc and educational policy practices Far and Beyond Los Angeles Unified School District as a student who experienced Dr McKenna's leadership firsthand and later becoming the principal of Washington prep and also his promises to always be a family I can attest to the profound and lasting impact of his vision Dr McKenna didn't just run a school he created a movement that has inspired many to follow his lead to help someone in need and to commit to the uplifting of others by any means necessary he showed us that education is not just about academics but it is about building character fostering community and preparing students for the challenges of rap of this rapidly changing world something we absolutely need to embrace even more so now he has guided me personally

015on my doctoral journey and has celebrated the opportunity to carry the Church of being my Sarah father for me not just me but all the many lives that he touched Dr McKenna's Legacy lives on in the countless lives of doctr lawyers Educators artists politicians and Community leaders who have walked the halls of Washington prep his belief in the transformative power of Education his commitment to equity and excellence and his unwavering faith in the potential of every student continues to inspire Educators and people across the world to you Dr McKenna your vision courage and dedication have shaped Generations you saw the good in every child especially the black students you serve and fought to create Pathways for their success your Washington prep effect is not just a model for Education that we need to continue to

016follow it is a testament to what can be achieved when we believe in the potential of our youth and fight to get the resources in place to make everything happen that is right by our children thank you for your lifetime of public service for being a Guiding Light and for showing us that with faith hard work compassion we can truly change the world one student at a time thank you so much love you so much and looking forward to being able to relax and continue to do the challenge towards meeting the goals of educating every student I come in contact with thank you [Applause] much for those words Dr bird and now we have Mr Alan Cassie in the room please come on up and yeah I'll P I'll pass those out thank you Mr

017Cassie George we've been together a long time I was there in 19 I'd been there since 1968 when George arrived in 1979 I'd seen the destruction basically the destruction of the school because of gang violence and a lot of apathy and uncaring on the part of the adults running the place um I'm proud to say that I was one of the people that was responsible for implementing a lot of his ideas and the vision he has is is great in itself but it's important to emphasize there needs to be people to implemented who share the same ideas and ideals that he represented there's one one aspect of this that I want to specifically emphasize and it was mentioned in many other reports about his legacy and it has to do with the media as some

018of you well know the media can be a a a sword of of good or evil it can bring it can bring hope and it can bring depression to schools uh I created a with Dr McKenna support I created a position of media coordinator and what made that special is I was able to deal with the media in a way that he couldn't and I want to be clear he's as maybe most of you understand he's not a self-promotional person he is someone who promotes his ideas and he promotes others but um he never really sought the spotlight that he's been in but it came to him and I'm proud to say that I was responsible for bringing a lot of the immedia attention in particular to him and I would I would like to

019to say that that's something of concern going ongoing here down too the media will give you positive or negative Co coverage and I I have a belief that all schools should cultivate a relationship around the local media in particular and and reach out with stories that are positive in particular because um there is so much good that is going on um I want to emphasize again a lot of the the the the the attributes of what main Washington prep successful are not cost items there's a mindset a mindset evolved here um Dr McKenna saw through the the institutional racism and Prejudice and always would shine a light on what was positive and good um I'm proud to have associated with him and one last thing and he said this at the and I'm I'm going

020to say it here because I know it it probably would seem out of place and it maybe it is to say this but I think he would exchange a lot of these acknowledgments just for your support for a peaceful schools in particular dealing with the issue of the school police on campus and one last attribute or a contribution you could give to him as a tribute would be to support giving the local schools safety committees a choice of having school police officers on their campus having work closely with parents as I know Dr McKenna has also there is a need for this issue to be put to rest once and for all and I think the best way to do it is to support the local schools having the discretion according to the guidelines from

021the State Department of Education districts like ours are supposed to support those kinds of local school district decisions and anyway again some of you might question might bring it up at this point but I think Dr mcken would see this as a a part of his legacy if you put this issue to rest there are too darn many good officers out there who have failed have been have been um demonized and uh I would hope in the future you'll and the committee I'm part of the safe School task force is probably going to bring forth another recommendation about this with more details and I hope the board will consider it and remember Dr McKenna and thinking about how to resolve this issue but again one more time George it's been a while and you'll always

022be in my heart and I know you know your compassion is endless uh I'll miss you but I I'll still see you around I'm sure thank you so much thank you very Cassie uh we have California Assembly member Mike Gibson from the 20 from the 65th Assembly District slated to be here um but someone may be here in his stad um unfortunately the member was not able to make it today since he is out sick ill but I am here on his behalf um and on behalf of the California State Assembly in the 60 F District we just want to congratulate you for all your hard work and dedication that you did with LA USD um and we see all the work and we congratulate you for your retirement and we hope you enjoy it

023as well so thank you for having us thank you for coming by California Senator Steve Bradford from Senate District 35 is also here thank you sir very much for making the time to come today and uh the floor is yours sir thank you it is truly an honor to celebrate a legend that in the person of Dr George McKenna an individual who has dedicated 60 years of his life not to just education but to our state our nation and the world and how to make us all better individuals thank you for being a tireless Warrior a Jedi and I don't mean Star Wars I mean a warrior of Justice Equity diversity and inclusion a champion for social change that we can all live by and all be proud of I stand here as an individual

024who calls you my friend I'm honored to do that I call you a mentor I honor honored to say I know George McKenna George McKenna is a friend of mine but there not many George McKenna in this world you're one of a kind and we need more individuals like you and many times there it's been stated I had a grandmother who was an educator I had three aunts that were Educators and I know the time and work and dedication it takes to be a quality educa educator and sometimes it's a thankless job but you did it with dignity and Grace and commitment but most importantly love and I know all the students that you've impacted those who are teachers today doctors lawyers and maybe even politicians that you've impacted throughout your journey and we're all

025grateful I want to thank you again for teaching our amazing past celebrating our incredible presence but most importantly defining our unlimited future that's who George McKenna is and that's what you will continue to be in my heart and so many more and I on the behalf of the State of California I just want to say thank you very much for your tireless service and your exemplary leadership to all of us God bless you thank you very much sir uh the honorable Steve Zimmer retired School Board member is also here to give some remarks please come on out Mr Zimmer good morning Madam chair Madam president superintendent board members um it's the first time I've been back here since 2017 and uh it's not only because it's biologically impossible for me to only speak in two-

026minute increments I haven't come um but it's out of deep respect for what all of you do um my great thanks uh to all of the board members it's a special honor for me to be speaking today Madam president on this day when uh under your leadership and the leadership of the superintendent in this board you will take incredibly important action later today to stand by the families and the students of this District the way we have um had to many times before but I don't think it's ever been as important as it's been in this moment thank you president Goldberg thank you to the board and uh I also want to just take a moment Dr McKenna before I I speak about yourself to um give a thanks to your staff and to the

027staff of all the board members um not many folk understand what our staffs do to support us and to support this work and uh I got to know your staff very very well and have great love for them and respect for them and I pay honor to them today as I pay honor to you board members I just want to bring us again to the moment at which Dr McKenna joined the service of this board it was a moment of Crisis and a moment of grief one of the reasons why Dr McKenna and I I think came so close together is though our paths were different we both didn't really aspire to this this role and you stepped into this role at a time where the constituents and the schools of District 1 needed you

028more than than could ever be imagined we lost margarit board member Lamont who who was like a a grandmother to me a friend and and and there was an incredible void and then there was a moment at which politics tried to step into that void and you stepped above those politics and every moment of every day that you have served on that on this board you have maintained that Integrity to which you approach the service of this job and what I want to share is that the iceberg theory of Education applies to boards too what we see in these meetings these public meetings is the top of the surface it's it's only the tip so much more happens so much more comes at the board words in moments where the cameras are off ties are

029loosened you're often asked to do things that deeply test our heart and our soul and more than anything else George you taught me how to keep my heart and soul intact through the most challenging moments I I want to speak for a second to our friendship a writer once told me that he had interviewed you and asked him asked you about me and and and he said he said um Dr McKenna you you you and Steve were close she said yes and and he said but but it seems that you disagree on many policy issues and you said to him I wouldn't say we disagree and he saidwell what would you say and you said Steve has not found the wisdom yet to understand how wrong he is and how right I am but I

030have great faith that his Enlightenment shall be forthcoming I um I I know you're still waiting on number those six George uh but more than anything else you taught me to always do what I thought was right no matter what in any situation do what I thought was right you taught me to always look don't be fooled by the data you told me look deeper into into that data those aren't just numbers I'm a mathematician you told me those aren't just numbers look for the Injustice within those numbers look deeper find where the institutional and direct racism is in those numbers and make policies to root it out and finally and most importantly George you taught me about the importance of mentorship and I didn't fully grasp it at the time but as I've been

031blessed to work in different contexts since our term my our time together here ended that idea of mentorship true authentic mentorship matters so so much and I've seen its power but I've never quite seen its power as strong as you embody it as a mentor as my mentor as I as I come to a close I I want to say that we walked through some fire George and I'll never forget one time I came into your office and I I I was beside myself and I was you know saying all this stuff and Dr McKennon was in his office and he had one of his long legal pads there and he he was he was writing and kind of looked up a couple of times I said well I'm trying to do this for my

032constituencies and and and and and they're coming at me with this and and and I'm and I'm trying to do this and and don't they just see this it's the right thing and I know that that we know so much about Dr McKenna's stories we all have our favorites first black astronaut is my favorite by the way and uh but in this moment you just looked at me and you cut through all of it and you said Steve they hate you and then you went back to riding on your pad and I yeah I walked out and um it it was just you had the ability to check me to to be able to to remind me to to get get out of my head and get outside myself George you you you were like

033a second dad to me and I could not have made it through my board service without you and certainly not those two years as board president um friendship matters in this world love matters in this world education matters in this world and you embody all three of those things and I'll love you forever thank you for your service Dr [Applause] M would Mr John Moore come on up Jordan High School alumni Mr John Moore come on up Sir the floor is entirely yours Madam president a member of the board my name is John Moore and uh I'm actually representing the students of my graduation class of 1963 that's little over 61 years ago and so I wanted to kind of set the record straight that uh we don't hear a whole lot about uh 1963

034but that was a year that Dr McKennon came on board at Jordan High School is that not correct sir okay and so uh that's what's more important to me right now when he came on board uh there was this little rumor running around that there was this cool new guy that was on campus and I said well who in the heck could that be he was unknown so uh as it turned out uh I went to my first class so someone said oh he's a new teacher wait a minute he said this he's supposed to be a student so as as the new teacher in class uh Dr McKennon here uh he it was my math class and up to that point most of my educational experience was what I got at home going to

035the library so forth and so on so um halfway through Dr McKenna math class and I'm still I mentioned this one on a few other occasion I don't think you still remember that uh but uh probably Midway through the uh first semester in his math class he pulled me aside and he said you do not belong in this class you don't remember that do you no okay and so um he said you should be taking algebra and I said Algebra I I had never even heard the word before but it's you know it's the upper level math class and so I went on I took algebra did very very well in it went on I took uh geometry and tri and chemistry and those math classes but a reason I'm really here is because of

036all the attention that uh Dr mck Dr McKenna paid to us student our class that our graduating class of 1966 was one of the L the largest graduating class of Jordan High School uh so he's been around us for the past 60 some odd years think about that and some of the other things that he supported us in individually and collectively is that we have had a class reunion since uh 20 oh anyway it's oh it's way over 60 years but he's he's been in attendance at every class reunion and all so that's been very significant for me and many of our classmate I don't know is there any other Bulldogs in here this morning oh no I guess not okay so um that's a part of the history of Dr McKenna that sometime at

037these meetings and things I I never hear anyone speak of that those early 60s the other part of it that was uh important and significant for us was the fact that we had a horrific Watts Riot in 1965 I know some of you may be too young and you don't remember that but it was a very uh stressful time for us happened during the summer August of 1960 and then uh we we had some trepidation about going back to school but we had dedicated falcony members or teachers such as Dr mckennis and many others who um was there when we uh arrived on campus and they they help us smooth the road in that in that classroom and all the other things that have been going on nationally Statewide about the the watt's Riot and

038uh but the fol was still on education and and this is sort of emotional for me because Dr McKenna was the one that gave me the little nudge that um I was a pretty good student you don't belongs in the basic math class you should be taking algebra so oh and behold I move on go to college and then I have a a beautiful family my beautiful wife that's here and and uh I speak on behalf of especially the class of 1966 and uh because he was so impactful and significant for our class so we kind of own him in terms of the teacher of the last 65 years or so um the other thing that uh I wanted to leave with you folks or share with you um well I know there's a lot

039of speakers I'm not going to take up too much more time uh and all but uh Dr McKenna I would like to present something to you on the class of 66 to remember us by is a little signific certificate are you able to come and I'm going I'm going to read it sir okay um it's a proclamation certificate presented to Dr George McKenna III in grateful appreciation for teaching us encouraging us inspiring us challenging us and spending time with us the winter and summer class of Los Angeles Jordan High School 1966 the Le Shure Les Del Quan congratulations on your legendary career and contribution to the Los Angeles School Board of Education thank you sir [Applause] I won't forget to deliver this I'm just going to announce the next person Mr David tolkovsky please come

040on up retired School member School Board member thank you Mr McAn if you'll set the timer uh for more than two minutes I'd appreciate it um it's an honor to be here as always um it was an honor to be able to speak at um our distinguished Ron Prescott's uh Memorial at this district and also to Dr Ted Alexander to leaders of uh his historical proportions in this district and this is the first one I've been able to speak while somebody's alive so I appreciate that too as Dr McKenna likes to always say it's better to be seen than viewed and I always remember that I'll call that story number seven I think Smithsonian is packing all of his stories into numbers um and I'm glad it's the Smithsonian because this weekend I thought that

041the dinosaur that they were driving around La unified and around the city in the Natural History was you but it's you're alive along with board president Goldberg you to are iconic educators of major proportions and this city and this District we're blessed to have you both come to the board at the same time Dr McKenna to me embodies all that happened in the late 50s and 60s with respect to math and science and Equity M Goldberg who will honor soon fought for every issues of civil rights and desegregation along with Dr McKenna in their own way in their own way always not necessarily with the group of thinking and no matter how many times we disagree perhaps with either of you but particularly with Dr McKenna there are people who often disagree with him there

042is no question at any time that he always has Integrity as he approaches and the dignity and respect for our students and their learning so I thank you as a young man when I came to this District at 23 as a utla activist a friend a son of an utla activist I heard all sorts of stuff about Dr McKenna and I'm glad to have found out that it was the wrong stuff principles across this District taught me that this man was a hero among principles just like the great haime Escalante there were stories of negativity about him but at the same time if you got to know the person you knew he always had students at at the center Mr Dan Isaac brings greetings to you today as well as so many of those great

043eras of principles in this District when we talk about restorative justice hearing you this weekend we know that Justice was restorative and you were thinking about it as the students talked about being suspended or expelled by you and then seeing them on the streets and then thanking you for giving the structure and commitment to their lives I remember the same thing was true with rose fil High Principal when we walked precincts people would come out and say what are you doing out here Mr principal and they too respected the commitment to community and your efforts on math and science and the discussions of data here before anybody came up with the phrase of the soft bigotry of low expectations your life embodied the fight against low expectations and so when I think about you and

044I think downtown and I see all these buildings declaring their corporate names all over them expressing corporate values I think as we retire you and later miss Goldberg that this building should have signs on the top and those signs should be words like Integrity Justice courage Equity education and urban peace those values that you have given to this district and to me and to all of your colleagues should be proclaimed on this building not an empty building and believe me I voted against buying this building when I was on the school board but it's an opportunity to proclaim the values that you're proclaiming in motions today and in the lives of these two people two iconic leaders Dr McKenna I thank you for your guidance and uh I I love political campaigns but your campaign

04510 years ago was one heck of a race and this uh team that you have that asked me to speak came out of that fire and it was your leadership um and the reverend's support as well that has made you such a memory to all of us in the school district thank you very [Applause] much thank you for your time we now have a brief second video presentation from student board members past and presid so the team is going to cue that up and please enjoy it hi Dr McKenna I just want to say thank you so much for all that you've done for the students of L USD and for the Legacy that you've left behind you have been instrumental in shaping leaders of today and I'm so grateful to have been represented by

046you as my board member but also to have been able to sit next to you and learn from you um all of the things that you've taught me have really contributed to the leader I am today and I'm so grateful to have known you and thank you so much I hope you enjoy your retirement and are able to you know rest easy knowing that everything that you've done has really left an impact in this entire city thank you so much hi board member McKenna thank you so much for all the work that you've done for our school district it was such such such an honor to represent bd1 with you and your staff um I really really appreciate all the wisdom that you had to bring to the boardroom it was really impactful just to

047hear everything that you had to say based on your experiences and your struggles and how that really really impacted um everything that happened in the boardroom so thank you so so much thank you so much to your staff who was absolutely amazing and supportive um you guys were always welcoming faces to me and I'm really really grateful that I was able to serve with with you on your last term as a board member in the school disted board member in Kenna thank you so much and will really really miss you we hope to see you again um but please do not forget us here at the district please come back I know I will um but thank you so much congratulations Dr McKenna on a well-deserved retirement it's been such a privilege to know you

048you're a master class in leadership and it's so wonderful to hear you speak your vocabulary your experiences your stories I wish you all the best in your next chapter and hope to see you soon I want to thank Dr McKenna for doing an amazing job serving on the board in LD over all these years all your efforts are really appreciated by students districtwide and know that your legacy will continue to be implemented and supporting students thank you Dr McKenna thank you so much for all your leadership throughout the years you have made such an impact on the lives of millions of students in La including mine enjoy your retirement and thank you so much Dr McKenna thank you so much for your years of service to the district it was so Lely being on the

049board with you just hearing you speak um and the commitment that you have to students and to the district as a whole um it's really inspiring and it gave me a lot of motivation in my own role as student board member Dr McKenna thank you so much for all the time you spent here on the board of education your Testament and your commitment to the promotion of public good is truly recognized by all the students of L USC as a new 2024 to 2025 student board member and on behalf of all of L USC we thank you all right now we're going to have comments from staff uh former colleague of all of ours doct Sharon Robinson Dr mckennon's former Chief of Staff please join us via Zoom great to see you Dr Robinson are

050you muted Dr Robinson pretty please pretty please unmute that thank you for facilitating this so I could provide recognition of the goat we when I look I took the position as Le T McKinna I knew him for years his authentic Integrity his honesty his deep commitment enthusiasm for underserved students his defensiveness for those most rable his fight for and more Justice Society more school resources and an increase of course in student achievement what I didn't know was that he wanted to do all this immediately when he became board member truly he built a team that worked selfishly for the betterment of our schools and communities and what we learned from him was never to be satisfied to celebrate both large and small accomplishments but never be satisfied until Educational Funding was adequate for training and

051resources for the students and our teachers and that student achievement was high for all so we learned to appreciate and our courageous teachers and principls and staff members who stood for all our children we follow passion and hope everywhere and encouraged it throughout for district one we celebrated important things schools were doing to empower our students we thank all of those that were involved we worked on every resolution with his advocacies in mind see McKenna was in this together through a family and we kept hope along in closing I want to thank Dr maren for's leadership we thank him for letting us be in his district and inspiring our schools and communities to handle situations with passion and Hope for the future and as we move ahead we will always keep his spirit with Service

052as thean that guides us individually and collectively we love you to death we love you from here to the moon and [Applause] that Dr Robinson and we now have Miss Charlotte hendy nubil bd1 policy adviser and and board member elect please come on [Applause] up well good morning uh to the board to president Colberg and all the board members and Dr McKenna um it's not fair to go last on this um and to be able to share because now I'm all emotional listen to the students listen to uh Dr Robinson but this is definitely a moment in time where I am so honored to stand here before you Dr McKenna um we have cross paths in many different ways um where uh we were at dorsy high school but not at the same time we're

053at Xavier University but not at the same time uh we ran for the board seat at the same time 10 years ago uh and it has come full circle um at that time we finished third you were in a runoff we endorsed your campaign and you won the seat at that time and it was an honor to watch and to see uh just you work and fight for this community and it is an honor now to be able to come after and for you to endorse me to be a part of this team and the team McKenna as mentioned by so many here is the A Team okay they're the a team and when they put a plan together and in the words of you know love it when a plan comes together and it

054has and so I wanted to just think of a quote I was like what could I share and one was from Dr Martin Luther King Jr and it says if we want a better life and a better world the path requires love and light the function of educ ation is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically intelligence plus character that is the goal of true education and you have embodied that for us here in Board District One and for La unified your love your light your compassion especially for students of color has been enormous and as I stand Here on your shoulders to move forward as you pass the Baton I am honored I am greatly um just moved by what you have shared with me along the road and the stories

055um and many of you know you go into communities and you say Dr McKennon they're like the Dr McKenna and I'm like yeah the Dr McKenna uh and just to hear stories of when you were at Washington and of students who were on the bus and got off that bus because you were that principal with the megaphone saying you got a perfectly good school right here and they believed it and they got off the bus and are doing amazing things in their communities because of the words of which you spoke and so I am so honored to be able to continue to Champion that for the community of board district one to be able to uh highlight those of color to be able to highlight those that are impacted by so much that even Zimmer

056shared in the numbers and the data that you continuously effortly push with Integrity Against the Grain no matter what you were able to do that and I am honored to continue and Champion that for our students and so I thank you for bringing me to team McKenna when you did and for me to be able to continue the legacy of the McKenna history within LUSD and so I want to close with one of your quotes is that you have dedicated your life and career to being an educator because there is no greater investment that we can make in our society thank you Dr [Applause] McKenna and now I believe it's appropriate to hear comments from the board and the superintendent talk Rivas please um well what can I say that hasn't already said um by

057uh the kind of human being and person you are um you've inspired you've motivated you've changed lives and um you know that's something to to say about um an exemplary person that you are beyond words um you've always been very respectful toward WS me very kind very gracious I remember the first time we met um I think probably be 2018 and I was running um for bd5 with yeah again jack with Jackie Goldberg and I asked you you know any suggestions or any advice for me and you said make sure your lawn sign is in the right person's lawn and I never forgot that and I made sure that the next time I ran that that was is um that I made that possible and it helped it was a great great advice and um

058and I never thought that honestly that I'd be sitting right here next to you um it has been my honor and I just want to thank you for just being um that inspiration for me I would ever would love to be as as just a little bit just like you um to be an inspiration and to uh be the board member that you have been the universe for putting us thank you um well I want to thank you Dr McKenna for your Decades of service to the children's and families of Los Angeles and the stories we've heard today have been so moving and obviously such a testament to the leader that you are and the incredible impact that you've had had on our community um throughout your career you've worked to better public education for

059students who've been historically underserved and because of you we have initiatives like heat which are investing in our students and uplifting their achievement and that would not have happened had you not been in the seat um so I think it just speaks to um in addition to your years as an incredible principal and administrator and teacher um you've made a mark through your role on the board um and working with you as a colleague for the last seven years I have appreciated your sense of humor um your Insight and your willingness to ask tough questions difficult questions always with the goal of making the district stronger and uplifting our students you've brought an independent voice and a strong moral compass for what's best for students families and communities while we have not always agreed um

060I just have such deep respect for your wisdom for your lived experience um and for your incredible passion to serve our students well here in La unified um though you're leaving the board your legacy will live on in Board District 1 but all throughout La unified and I hope that we can continue to stay in touch um and hopefully you're writing a book that would be like I would really benefit from that thank you so much Dr McKenna Mr SCH yes so we all know how brilliant Dr McKenna is he is he's a brilliant educator he's a scientist he's everything but he also has a terrific sense of humor a terrific sense of humor and I'll tell you about that in a second um when I first came on the board I connected immediately with

061him there's sometimes you know when I became principal at a school you know you're all by yourself at the you're the principal no friends yet and sometimes you connect with people and I connected with George right away right away I connected with him well maybe it was his uh idea that uh he was a teacher and I was a teacher and he was an assistant principal and I was an assistant principal and he was uh I wasn't the superintendent but he sure was in charge of the T 10 school program along with Ted Alexander and I was a principal at A T school so we had a lot a lot together and uh some funny things you know we went to the Martin Luther King parade and everybody knew Dr McKenna thousands hi George remember

062me hi George remember me you suspended me but I still love you George that's what you would hear all the time and once in a while I get one person said hi Mr shlon I remember you from cochr middle school one okay but that's fine I I I get it I get it um George and I have the same philosophy of education we work for the kids and we work for their parents first before anything else we work for the kids and we work for the parents and it's true and it's true thank you thank you um uh you know George well did you know the George loves to talk I don't know if you knew that did you know that and you know we're alike in many ways and we're opposites in many ways

063I do not like to talk I am not a great orator like you are I am not I do not have the Gift of Gab like you do I do not have that but we both want the same things for our kids we we want the best for the parents and the kids and the best education possible for all our kids and we have our favorite saying George and I oh by the way you know speaking of liking to talk I used to get nervous when the clock was ticking and he got a little reminder you know time is up and I said oh my god oh don't say that and George said I don't care what time it is and you would keep talking and it's fine it's fine but we do have a

064little expression among ourselves and because we are both principles and it's uh when parents would come to school or other people come to school and throw their wait around and think that they're going to boss us around so this is our joke the parents would say do you know who I am and our answer was no who are you and that ended that problem real quick so thank you George we miss you I'll miss you I just just love you George I really do thank you so much thank you president Goldberg uh and first I just want to acknowledge and recognize my predecessor and someone I deeply admire Steve Zimmer thanks Steve for your service to the district as a teacher and a counselor and a board member and a board president and uh since

065that time to the city and the state it's nice to have you back and we hope to see more of you there's definitely a happy meum between not coming and coming every day like David dakovski so maybe we can find that uh but uh would appreciate you being back uh well George it was a pleasure to join you on Sunday for a celebration of your work and life and it would not have been a McKenna event if it didn't last 4 hours um but as my tribute to George I thought i' I'd emulate his speaking style so I'll be brief stick to my notes and won't go on any tangents um but of all the things I'll miss about my colleague and friend Dr McKenna and maybe his tangents the most he'll start talking about

066uh something and at first we all think where is he going like how does the fact that he can beat box have anything to do with cell phones and schools but then we sit back and we say oh oh interesting then I'll be okay I agree with him and then enough time inevitably passes that he loses me again and I'm thinking you had me until that point George but then he brings it home and I'm back and the thing I love about these soliloquies is that we never know where he's going next and then maybe half the time his vote on the item seems to follow logically from his points and half the time I'm like what just happened um but tangents George is the wrong word for what you do at this horseshoe every

067week sermons is the more appropriate word and as a congregant as of the Church of George a Jewish congregant no less uh let me just say a few thank yous thank you for your life of service thank you for your willingness to sometimes be in a hopeless place and just be a witness to Injustice thank you for your courage to stand up to those injustices be they in the segregated South of your youth or the segregated Los Angeles of your adulthood thank you for your dissatisfaction which I might say is your greatest contribution to our discourse in our district you I think were born to be discontented and it is the of your Genius and your persistence whatever exists George believes can be changed and must be changed for the better thank you for reminding

068US Weekly of our duty in loc locco parentis and on behalf of the millions of children the hundreds of thousands of Educators me included who you have mentored and have truly felt compassion for as if they were your own children thank you and I know with many of them like me you see us as children who constantly disappoint you when you expect so much better uh but working on it and so let me close with maybe I would say my last public disagreement with George but we're about to have a board meeting so there will be many more public disagreements uh but uh I've heard George quote General MacArthur who said old soldiers never die they just fade away but unlike the old soldier of that ballad you will not fade away because even when

069the VHS version of The George McKenna story does fade away on my old VCR your presence will be felt in this boardroom and our board meetings may be shorter but they will be far less fulfilling so thank you George it's been a true privilege thank you all right we're now going to hear from our student Board member Miss Lopez thank you as you've heard in the video you have impacted so many students past present and future and I just want to say that we are deeply grateful for your unwavering commitment to wish the best for the students even when they do not wish that upon themselves you have not only honed our perspectives at students but also met us where we are ensuring that every student a matter of their background socioeconomic status ethnicity their

070zip code understand the power of Education your work has been nothing short of transformative changes the trajectory of so many lives across this District I listen to the stories of resilience compassion and empathy through everyone here and I don't believe that anything better can be said besides thank you for your work oh George oh George well we've done a lot of things together and I'm really proud to have worked with you I'm really proud to have followed your leadership um I remember when you tried to get the board to appoint you and said if they appointed you that you know you wouldn't run after that and then they didn't and I'm glad they didn't because otherwise we would have only had you for a couple of years you know the thing about George McKenna is

071because he's lived so many different parts of the fight for equality in his own life he is able to present to the world an understanding to people who weren't alive when he was going through the fact that he couldn't go to the same bathroom as everybody else else when he couldn't get on to the same street car as everyone else when he could not in fact find a way to a school that would be integrated ever really I think in your youth ever but you know what that did to George McKenna that added to his resolve it added to his ability to say my life will be committed to changing this and I'll do it various ways but one of the ways you picked was post in my opinion was to be a teacher teachers

072I believe and I believe it in my heart and my soul are the salvation of a country or they're not or they're not you always said that you believed in that message that you can be the salvation of this country by what you do how you love your students how you insist that they perform well how you don't give them a chance to say I can't do this you say yes yes you can and I'm going to take your hand and I'm going to show you how I think that that above all for me is why I love you I have so much enjoyed serving with you we have had our battles but I will tell you on everything just about everything that values come to play in we have no problem at all we

073have no problem at all and I just want to thank you for being willing to share in so many ways I was on the board a part of the board that did the 10 schools I was on the board that said it is time for us to stop fooling around and saying kids can't do things they can do them we need to be able to find the ways for them to be able to do them I am so proud to have spent time with you on this board because it gave me another opportunity I remember working on your campaign I as soon as I knew you were running I called your office of your campaign and said count me in because the kind of legendary life this man has served gives him insight into what

074we are dealing with today in terms of problems facing us and that will always be important contribution and legacy to this district and then I remember that when a board member was corrupt in the fifth district and uh I tried to get them to appoint me and said I wouldn't run I remember you saying to them uh deny Jackie Goldberg at your [Laughter] peril and I said the same thing about you exactly almost The Identical words so let me say to you George I know that your health has been impaired by some things but your spirit and your wisdom and your intelligence and your integrity have not been harmed at all and I want to tell you that I look forward to having time to spend with you on a very different way than we

075have in the past because we will both have a more time than we've had in a very long time in our lives so thank you Dr George McKenna III for who you are and for what you chose to do with your life thank you very much friend Ken thank you very much Madam president um I guess there are very few if any individuals amongst us who have done so much for so many for so long um I spoke at your event recently an event that it took a lot of people to get you to considering it was your event to convince you to show up and I understand it for individuals who actually make significant contributions to humanity as a whole to education do it for intrinsic reasons not for external recognition or praise they

076stand for that which is right righteous and rightful all the time not just some of the time they do it all the time even when no one is looking they do it when the wind is favorable and they do it when there is opposition it matters not for being right and fighting for right stands on its own so Dr mcken I had a a chance to to think about what I said at your event and I I treated almost like a roast I will not do that today it occurred to me that there are some similarties between our paths you know we both are Educators but neither one of us consider ourselves politicians we both start our careers in education we both taught math we were both assistant principles and principles of schools we've been

077superintendents in two different districts interesting commonality we're both passionate in supporting teachers and students and anyone who believes in the power of tomorrow through what we do today for our children uh we like data but we also rely on our hearts we are data informed not data driven we were not born in Los Angeles we were both born in foreign Nations I across the ocean and you in New [Applause] Orleans but we both chose La as our home we both enjoy good food and M good music you cannot be born in New Orleans and not like both Dr McKenna much has been said I stand as one alongside this esteemed group of speakers who recognizes your magnificent unparallel contribution to the history of education this nation to the power of Education this nation for the

078incredible belief that you have had that through the power of public education you can in fact Serve and Protect democracy you are an individual whose belief system whose values whose Journey are unparalleled and I hope as unparalleled as they are they can be replicated and Amplified to be lived and experienced by many of those around us I close by saying that uh you will never know the impact as a teacher as a principal that you had on dozens of thousands of individuals you will never know the impact that as a superintendent and board member you had on hundreds of thousands if not millions of individuals whose lives no doubt are better today because of you thank you for a life of service thank you for a life of Education thank you for a life that

079only George McKenna could have lived and I'd like to end on the parallels between Dr McKenna and I he got a movie about his life I will never have that congratulations Dr [Applause] McKenna Dr McKenna do you wish to make a few comments yourself you're welcome welc to do so sir yes I do I'll be here for about two hours I I first want to thank the board members for everything you said staff and the people that came down here from wherever you came from uh some of the greatest experiences of my life had to do with I was at Jordan High School I wasn't but about two maybe three years at the most uh old old than my own students I had never taught in a classroom in my life I had student practice

080teaching in New Orleans but I come out here and I had to take some classes at Cal State LA they was still building Cal State LA they only had one building you had to park up the hill on a muddy slope and walk down and it didn't have many many uh buildings at all and I had to get a a certificate to run a motion picture projector was called audio visual aids and it had a big spool and and wheels that went around and I had to learn how to do that in order to be a teacher long story short uh I am not going to take a lot of your time I had an event yesterday that I opposed but I was grateful that it was given to me despite my objections because I

081have a staff that they say you were going to say no anyway so we just went ahead and did it and uh but when you know you when you when you do it anyway you you do it without asking for permission you just do it they haven't they haven't said they're sorry yet so I don't I don't think they are uh and I wouldn't want them to apologize I believe that uh I have lived many years here for a reason uh over 60 plus years in the public education Arena including my teaching in in teaching and administrative experience between other UniFi Englewood Compton and Pasadena most of my time has been s La UniFi I was seriously injured in in an accident so my my shoulder had been been reversed in the the bone and

082I can't use my right arm I wore a sling yesterday to keep people from trying to reach out and shake my hand and me trying to reach back and this hurts like heck can't tell you about the pain it is but I have have learned to come in touch with many uh Physicians never had so many in my life never had any quite frankly I was always healthy uh I now I have an oncologist a radiologist a uh neurologist a gastroenterologist a proctologist a physical therapist and a dermatologist gastroenterologist I think I said that the one thing I'm fortunate that I've not yet acquired as a gynecologist I'm going to get some of the board members you you can call the uh what's that little magazine that post out that's always telling lies the what's

083it called no the other one the one that's in New York inquir The Inquirer the inquire yeah and man gives birth to frog and stuff like that but uh I want to say this to my staff I'm grateful F I am to you this journey for 10 years Sharon Robinson aggravated me so much I had to say yes I will run and I met so many other wonderful staff members of my my board colleagues and the board members no we have not always agreed but I I don't expect everybody to agree with me if everybody did we' all be wonderful but uh I'm not so wonderful but I am I am able to observe what is unfair I was born into unfairness and it was palatable it wasn't it wasn't subversive it was just uh

084it was obvious that I was a second class or third class Citizen and I made it my my my decision along the way that education was my way I tried being an engineer for North American Aviation um in finesse un and Downey where it was putting a man on the moon I did that but it wasn't appealing to me to bring back moon rocks I saw wonderful children and I was at in high school and I said I can do something with them and change the world uh and they can change the world I can't but through them uh because my teachers taught me very well and I was segregate I had no white classmates from kindergarten all the way through my back degree at Z University first time I saw some white students I

085was teaching on a teaching fellowship at loli in Chicago and I had a classroom full of white children they didn't know what I was and I didn't tell them right away either I just let him let him AB absorb The Gospel According to George McKenna and and then I revealed to them that I was not a white man and it wasn't a crime to be but I realized it was it was important to them and it shocked some of them because they hadn't seen that and they hadn't heard about that anyway um I am thankful to all of you but I'm thankful for the opportunity I had in my life whoever I can thank the heavens that be that allowed me to be a teacher for so many years and R rise up the ranks

086of being a teacher and just serving at different levels it wasn't I wasn't going to be a more powerful person I never had any power I just had more responsibility and I enjoyed that responsibility because people say I'm going to get a promotion I have more money and more power you don't you might be giving you more money but it's not power it's responsibility from my my de with Al Cassie and other people that have worked with me in the schools and training in high school that people were afraid to go to and to a school that they were fighting to get into it literally happened uh turning people away uh when they were fighting you know not not go at all to Washington High School not change it to Preparatory and fought to get

087the kids off the bus the powers on wasn't the B went for1 nor Grand they were I I offended them they said you're taking the bringing the teachers out of the school the teachers need need the the the kids to come out there to give them the jobs I said well I want the jobs to stay inside this the city where the the neighborhood where they're born and they can get a great great uh great education right here at Washington have I had to prove that anyway the point I'm making is that education is a powerful tool for change uh and change is always changing we see the we're in right now in this country has proven to me that it really hadn't change that much I know there are people who would destroy as

088much as they could as long as they'd be in charge of what was left and that that's okay with them they'll they'll destroy the school district if they could as long as what's left they're in charge of it they can make exploitation out of it they can make profit from it um and there in there people around and this this person who is now the president uh is just getting ready to do that how we stop that I don't know but you must fight you must resist you must not accept your plight of being told that you must obey do not obey what's wrong you can't afford to do that it reminds me of the song of Step sonheim sending the clowns and one of the r line says uh isn't it rich isn't it

089C losing my timing this late in my career but sending the clowns there ought to be clowns don't bother they're here and so we still have the clowns in high places and the clown in charge right now did not he did not create these people they were already there waiting for him to come forward and see what they've already felt and so the danger we have is that there are people around us amongst us who feel the way they do about the others who are not them and they don't even have to meet with each other they just feel that way all the time they don't have to have a meeting they don't have to put a hoood over their head with eyes in in the top and call themselves an organization they already organized

090in their culture they're inherited their Birthright to be the top the alphas and the rest of us have to be grateful to be in their presence I had to learn not to accept that because I accepted it too when I was a child I took my good seat in the back of the bus because it was illegal to sit in the front so I took my good seat in the back of the bus and I realized that the best way to fight that was not to protest and go to jail but just not to ride at all I was very young at the time so I had to take leadership from other people but I've been in stins and protests and I've been jailed a couple of times which I thought was for the right

091reason and I wasn't I'm not apologetic about it now because I knew it was all unfair and I realized that as offended as I was by white supremacy I realized as I left Louisiana that all white people are not my enemy and all non-white people are not my friends either so you have to pick and choose people not based upon what your eyes tell you because when you're looking you don't always know what you're looking at I know when people look at me most of them if I keep my mouth closed they don't know what they're looking at they have to say well he looks like one of us let him in here until I get in there and open my mouth say how the hell you get in here but it happens that way

092so I have I have a lot of experiences that some of you have not had and I have not had a lot of experience that some of you have had so I am grateful to you and the Expressions I saw come out yesterday I was shocked so many people there the thing went on and on oh my god um how did this happen because my staff made it happen and brought people out I had forgotten they were still alive um but I'm so grateful that they were and that they were here and I'll finally close with this you know when you you you read through history you say I I lived in in the time of Achilles I lived in the time of Plato I lived in the time of others whose name I lived

093in the time of Martin Luther King I lived in the time of Martin Luther King I lived in the time of malcol X I lived in the time of John Kennedy I lived in the time of Franklin delanor Roosevelt I lived in the time time of Barack Obama I lived in the time of Harry Truman who Dropped a Bomb and murdered millions of people he thought he was doing the right thing and that's the way he was celebrated he stopped the war there is a war going on it's mostly inside the souls and hearts of men and women and I do hope that this country ultimately believes that women are capable of doing anything men can do and they can have children they yet they yet do not believe that a woman can be president

094we saw that twice both had qualifications both running against weakened people both running against the same person who we thought there was no way this person can be president of the United States Hillary Clinton found out and our recent candidate found out a woman is not yet ready to be president I'll take that back the country is not yet ready for woman to take leadership and every group that I've ever been in in my life when I had women in the group we were successful when there were men only men in the group we did a lot of talking and pontificating and and very little got done nobody wanted to take notes nobody wanted to bring a report always no report no report we we're just talking and we thought because we're men we're supposed

095to be in charge we weren even in charge of ourselves and these are well-meaning people they thought they were doing the right thing they expected dinner to be on the table when they got home I can tell you that it's been a journey of love I never had a bad day I never miss a day of work unless I was injured or deathly sick but I when I did retire from St strs State teachers retirement system I had two additional two and a half additional years of unused sick time which added to my pension so I get paid a little more money because I they added that on and the factor of multiplication the time some factor I I get paid very well to be not working um but that's not going to be enough

096for me I've got to find something to do so I haven't figured that out Jackie I haven't figured that out yet what am I going to do we're going to make some good trouble together that's what we're going to do but thank you thank you all very much I appreciate it so much thank you [Applause] thank you all very much thank you that we're going to make are we ready here we go Dr McKenna we right here in front with the board members and the bell you get a we're going to ring your bell oh no we're not going to do you okay right here one two and three [Applause] people will Dr Mna Dr m all the food he has here okay right over here one two don't know [Applause] so at this point

097we usually have a board president's report and that would be me but if you're keeping track this is actually my last full board meeting as a school board member I've loved every minute of it did I really I'm not sure but I am ready to retire and you'll see me in early December but this is my last board meeting for me it'll be a doozy I'll tell you but I'm going to do the best I can to try to keep us on track and with that I'm going to call on board member gones for her motion which is tab 32 and first I'll move I'll move the item move by Miss gones I'll second it seconded by board president Goldberg um and we have representatives from the San Gabriel band of mission Indians and the

098Fernand Dano Tavian band of mission Indians who are here today to speak on the significance of this resolution so I won't take a too much time but I do want to share a few words to begin with um the Los Angeles Unified School District is responsible for educating our future generation generations and it's our duty to empower our students with an accurate and complete understanding of our history this includes acknowledging the histories of the First Peoples of Los Angeles specifically the land now inhabited by the Los Angeles Unified School District which was originally and still is inhabited and cared for by the S Gabriel band of Mission Indians and the Fernand Danel Tavian band of mission Indians the history of native peoples in Los Angeles is a painful one as colonization brought land seizure disease

099enslavement forc relocation and genocide it is only relatively recently that the California public education system has acknowledged this history in its curricula and our institutions this resolution today would create a forthcoming land acknowledgement as well as further resources for the public our schools our students to put that land acknowledgement in historical context and to better understand not just the history but the fact that members of those original tribes continue to live on and serve their communities and honor this land My Hope Is that the forthcoming land acknowledgement and educational Campaign Will further the work already being led by our multilingual Multicultural education department in collaboration with local tribes and to better serve our native and Indigenous students um it's been truly an honor to develop this resolution in collaboration with this Gabriel band of mission

100Indians and the fernandeno Tavian band of mission Indians um with that it's my pleasure to invite our respective Partners to speak about the resolution first president Rudy Ortega and vice president Mark vior to come up to share a few words J hello everyone my name is Rudy Orga Jr I'm the Trav president of the fern and Daniel Tav man m board president board member thank you for allowing us to come speak today as board member gonz has said this is long overdue and for us our tribe that are non fily recognized here in Los Angeles still continue to exist we come from multiple villages in the San Fernando seami Santa car valleys and ano valleys so it's it's important for us to be known and recognized and seen and be visible we've gone through a

101100 years and 200 years of invisi and changing of identity to become something now that we aren't even to today and after 150 years of being part of the state of California part of United States my tribe still struggles with the financial fiduciary to operate business and government Affairs today we're being questioned by the state of California Franchise Tax Board as non-federally recognized tribe what position did we take as they make us into a nonprofit which exempts and pretty much eliminates our sovereignty as a tribal Nation especially a tribe that's right currently right now petitioning and I thank you for supporting our resolution 2021 for federal acknowledgement as we fight for that purpose this acknowledgement that United fi School District pretty much a relationship that we long overdue and want and desire to continue to

102build that bridge so that we can continue educating the children's not just our own tribal people childrens but the childrens who come and learn about our first peoples is pretty much with the legacy of Mr McKenna Dr McKenna has said in his life is to change those hurdles and pths and so that's something we honor and would like to continue to do with you all thank you board president president board members um you know for us I know some people look at land acknowledgements like checking a box you know they're like oh it's the woke thing to do in our tradition in our culture we honor those that came before us our elders are ancestors you know you grow up with your grandparents and you love them and you know well okay some people do

103some people don't depending on your relationship but you know our grandparents and our ancestors the ones who taught us who kept our culture alive who kept our Traditions alive all these things matter to us and so out of all the missions that or all the villages that were taking to Mission San Fernando many no longer exist we honor their legacy and that's the importance of a land acknowledgement because we acknowledge that our people were once whole you know all these different Villages were all independent families and peoples with their own similar traditions and similar languages and similar cultures when most of them have you know either died out were converted out and lost their culture you know so we are the legacy of those that came before us and for that land acknowledgement to be

104there it's nice to have that representation speaking toward those ancestors that you know we no longer have with us nor will their families be with us it's a tradition that we we have done for a very long time we've always said this before you know always honoring our ancestors and always honoring those before us it's a big part of our tradition big part of our culture and always has been and we really appreciate support on our federal recognition petition like President Ortega said um but that's to me the importance of a land acknowledgement is honoring those that came before you much like how you know you honor your family and your traditions and the culture of your Community this is one way that we do with ours as well thank you thank you both so

105much and now I'd like to welcome up Chief Anthony Morales and Mona Morales Ral to the [Applause] podium greetings uh my name is Chief Anthony Morales I'm accompan with my cousin mono raldi and uh first of all I just like to uh congratulate you Dr George McKenna it's it was an honor to be here this morning long morning but anyway again uh wish you well and uh I'm not in the movies but I am on YouTube plenty of them believe me in all my years too so um again uh uh it's an honor want to stand here before you and why why is Atlantic knowledgement important to us well as youve heard heard uh uh we need that we we need to continue that culture that identity so that it'll never be forgotten our ancestors

106uh in inhabited a major Village which is a village of yagna which is Los Angeles and we stand here in Los Angeles and all the schools under your District are on our ancestral tribal land uh I was honored to do the uh cut ribbon cutting at the over the weekend at the um Natural Museum here and um as you walk into the main uh hallway there's a beautiful beautiful mural there and it's a timeline and in the middle of the timeline there's a big logo says the rea the Los Angeles which is Los Angeles but at the beginning of that timeline that story is our ancestors there's about four photo segments of different uh uh one depictions of our ancestors uh an ocean photo and and and then just just overall the beginning because they're

107telling the story of Los Angeles and we are the story of Los Angeles because we are the direct linear descendants of Los Angeles of yagna and thean acknowledgement for us is very important so that our culture will never be forgotten so that uh we continue because I being that you're a a education institution the children need to know who was here before they need to know the history and there's a story that I like to share uh it has a children's story and it's very very important not only to me but to all of you the chief of the village got all his people together and he says we need to do something about our culture so they they'll never become extinct or lost what do we do their tribal members say we know what

108to do chief let's hide it he goes let's hide it hide it where let's hide it in the Rocks let's hide it under the trees and this fragile elder lady in the background say Chief I know where to hide it let's hide it in the children and it's so important because it's the children that are going to continue our culture once I take my final journey to my final resting place so it's important that all the children not only from my culture from other cultures that they learn their culture so that it'll never become extinct because that's what happened when they put us in the boarding schools they wanted to take our culture away they wanted to erase us and therefore um and where did they start they started with the children but to no

109success thank God no success so the children is very important to continue learning the education of who was here at one time and it was us you're on our tribal land again uh this is why it's very important for this land acknowledgement and I thank you very [Applause] much Mona Morales foral first of all I want to say thank you all for considering this resolution I want to say thank you to you and your staff for the thoughtful resolution and the time and effort that went into it our history is hard and it's challenging and being here today is a sign of Hope and I want to thank you guys for the hope that you're giving our people and future Generations by even considering and hopefully approving this resolution there is so much work that

110we do with LAUSD and this is generational work we work with teaching teachers we're working with teaching students we work with helping with curriculum this is all through your mmed department that has been a wonderful partner with us and we've been doing this for years our tribe has been doing it with LAUSD for decades I would say the partnership that we have with mme right now now is the best partnership that we've ever had with LAUSD for the length of time that we've been working with you guys because of the intentionality that you guys have and I want to thank you guys for that um it's interesting when we do land acknowledgements usually we start by telling people that it's important that they're not performative and you guys are doing it Opposite you guys have

111invested into US invested into tribal relations and it's not performative because you're doing the hard work now and so it's interesting that we're doing it Opposite that being said I'm grateful I'll take it however we can get it so thank you um but you know our tribal lands are within the LAUSD boundaries and we are the historic tribes of Los Angeles and so having this acknowledgement for us is a moment in history and it's generational work and so with that I just want to say thank you so much for your time and your consideration and I ask that you please approve this to hear from the speakers who have signed up to speak on this item Mr McLean yes uh Chrissy Castro are you here Chrissy Castro come on up you'll have two minutes to

112speak once you begin hi um I'm Chrissy Castro I am den and chikana and the executive director of the California Native vote project I would like to thank the board for its work um over the last five years in a lot of different steps uh to working more closely with the native Community including this land acknowledgement resolution um it's a significant step forward and we want to keep building on that um at the same time um I don't know that it's appropriate to go into all of the details now but I would really like to request that we also have an agenda item that speaks to the American Indian uh indigenous comprehensive plan and its implementation um we have made great strides we have built a great relationship with mme uh at the same time

113um you know we would love the initiative to go both more deep and to go more quickly um there are a number of things that our community has come together to want to implement I'll just give you a few examples um one is that we've talked about creating a districtwide steering committee and so this would be made up of tribal Representatives students parents community members uh to support the district in the implementation of the initiative um we've also talked about the need to create more infrastructure within the district to be able to implement so right now mme and the staff are doing a phen phal job but really this initiative is going to require more cross function that includes instruction and other um areas within the district to implement it um effectively um we're really

114happy that their um data collection and Reporting is is improving so we're seeing First Steps in that regard but we want to make sure that we do have the data metrics to be able to identify how Native and Indigenous students are doing in the district we'd like that to continue um uh lastly we request that there are annual updates with benchmarks both at the system and student outcome level so that we can make sure that we continue with meaningful progress um so thank you so much for your time thank you thank you for your time all right ponche manaat laka come on up please feel free to correct my pronunciation there hello okay um yeah so thank you board for this opportunity to talk to you about the land acknowledgement U my name is B

115manua I am is shika and and I was born and raised in Los Angeles County yeah um so yes I would like to I would like to encourage the board to prioritize the actions to promote equity and inclusion for American Indian and Indigenous students and representation of the California Indian tribes who originally inhabited and cared for this land known as today as Los Angeles La USD has a unique responsibility to ensure all students including indigenous students are provided with the resources representation and cultural re relevant education they need to thrive um one of the one of the very implications that I believe I something that I've seen um in La USD um basically like you know some of these colleges they just be like brown people to do uh land acknowledgements you know not necessarily

116like people who are part of that tribe or anything else um so yeah in that we would like for there to be an increased support for indigenous students to establish dedicated programs dedicated staff and resources such as student indigenous student Liaisons and mentorship programs to support academic Pro academic success mental health and college readiness for indigenous students another thing another thing I would like to list is the expand of consultation and engagement with indigenous communities developments and robust consultation processes with local tribes and urban indigenous organizations to guide to guide District policies and initiatives regular engagement will ensure that indigenous voices are not only heard for integral to decision making I acknowledge and horror I acknowledge and honor indigenous lands and people's Incorporated land acknowledgements as scho events and within the district's Communications to recognize

117the original stewards of the land which LS LUSD operates practicing land acknowledgements honors history communities and cultures and LAUSD specific case implements implementing this policy serves as a reminder of unchangeable truth that the land you are on was originally home to multiple Sovereign governments that coexist the land with each other the people the knowledge and the traditions of these tribes are still thriving today in Los Angeles and Beyond to acknowledge these communities and cultures is eraser and colonization thank you so much and I appreciate the time that I had thank you thank you for your time Marcos Aguilar Marcos agalar please come on up you have two minutes to speak once you begin I'd first like to recognize that in addition to the tribal leaders that are here uh we also have a tribal leader

118tribal council member from the gabino Shon nation of Southern California so we'd be so kind to allow her time to speak as well in support of member Gus's resolution to calling on LUSD to recog with our past honoring our present developing a Los Angeles Unified land acknowledgement I'd like to acknowledge the work that's been done by the board members and appreciate that uh my name is Marcos Aguilar I serve my community in many capacities but mostly as a Mexican indigenous educator for the past 35 years I'm a co-founder of the indigenous educational Coalition of native ways to college and of anaak meak and I'm here to express support for the L usd's long overdue recognition of indigenous peoples in the Los Angeles Basin territories that your campuses occupy I also respect your intent to apologize

119for the past and ongoing harms towards indigenous peoples caused by the LUSD its policies and its personnel as a co-founder of L usd's Sanctuary schools policy and L's only indigenous people school and the only school that teaches any native language from a through G college preparatory level uh we and as an adviser to the gabino shash nation I recognize that today's resolution calls for the district its Administration and staff and its student body to respect the presence and continuity of native nations that originated in the lands We Now call the Greater Los Angeles area anaak was founded by Chief With the blessings of Chief Yana Viro roacha head of the gabino shishoni nation of Southern California over 20 years ago but I wonder today what does it mean to apologize for something you may not

120personally feel responsible for in the past if you do not face what you must correct today and act upon that more imperative to date so I'll just point out a couple of things that would be important first of all I'd call your attention to the fact that there are more than two tribal nations in Los Angeles today that you can begin to support the positive me meaningful engagement of all indigenous tribal Nations by starting with at minimum the list provided by the state histor Native American Heritage commission uplifting indigenous educational models such as the tavium nation's education department which is the California Department of education's American Indian education center and alak set aside facilities space resources across the district to be dedicated to indigenous peoples and tribes to advance indigenous language knowledge and Community Advance

121your initial steps towards tribal consultation by providing transparency and meaningful opportunities to engage with real district budgetary and performance data LUSD fa occupies the largest swath of land in Los in the city of Los Angeles voters just endorsed $9 billion in facilities property tax increases which raises concern about the District's history and its pattern in practice of administratively exempting itself of tribal consultation and oversight with regards to tribal cultural resources and Environmental Protections this practice should stop and lastly given the realities we'll soon be facing on a national level I would remind you that the district still has far to go to meaningfully recognize and respect indigenous students who fill our classrooms from Guatemala Salvador and Mexico who seek Sanctuary but so often find the hard bigotry of invisibility and silence in schools that still

122ident ify our students families and communities in ways that reinforce the principles and Legacies of genocide linguicide and epistemicide that L USD was founded upon thank you very much like to thank board president Goldberg for her leadership on this section as well as Dr Rivas and uh Kelly gones for listening to our recommendations and I'd ask you to give time to the tribal council member that's present okay I'll read go through the list of the rest of the folks who who showed up and signed up thank you uh juny Pon are you here juny come on up you have uh two minutes to speak once you begin thank you um I'll be taking jun's place hakan Joy Gonzalez pin hi hello everyone my name is Joey Gonzalez I am Chumash and fernandino Tavia and I

123am here to address the board on how practicing land acknowledge land acknowledgements honors history communities and culture in L usd's specific Case implement in this policy serves as a reminder of an unchangeable truth that the land you are on was originally home to multiple Sovereign governments that coexisted with the land and each other the people knowledge and traditions of these tribes are still thriving today in Los Angeles and Beyond to not acknowledge these communities and cultures is eraser thank you for the opportunity to address um to address this um steps that I believe we should take forward within this is a knowledging and honoring indigenous lands and peoples's incorporate land acknowledgements in at school events and within the districts Communications to recognize the original stewards of the land on which La USD um operates thank

124you so much for your time thank you for your time and uh as the last person and we have some remote speakers but if you're in the room and you you wanted to speak I didn't catch your name but please come up in uh two minutes is yours if you'd like it and then we'll shift to those who uh appeared are appearing remotely Roa Nika do chief Verana Roa hello hello good afternoon my or good morning good afternoon now uh my name is j Ro I'm a tribal council member uh with the gabina Shoni nation good to see you again Mr Koo and congratulations on your retirement too as well um I am here to speak in support of this resolution and I like to con congrat congratulate my relatives with the ganga Andi for

125the hard work that you do um in you know um providing the importantance of why we need this land acknowledgement as L USD is directly on our ancestral lands um I also I just do have a recommendation and a request into not only um you know including the gab look out all the seever the other um Sovereign Nations that you know are actively still on this land such as us as the gabal Shoni Nation um um as um Marcos agular said earlier lsusd is the biggest land owner um in here in the late Greater Los Angeles area and uh therefore you directly benefit from indigenous knowledge and Indigenous um um peoples here and um and I really really really want to stress to um acknowledge that several groups have done work to preserve our lands

126and our sacred spots um so I feel like the AL you have do our responsibility to acknowledge a sovereignty and to acknowledge a self-determination all the groups that call um Los Angeles our ancestral homes oh wisha and thank you very much thank you for your time okay Kimberly Jones I see you're on the line I'm I'm sorry Kimberly Johnson I see you're on the line Kimberly Johnson please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Kimberly Johnson thank you so thank you so much and thank you B I really want to take um a moment just to say that we fully support and I encourage La USD to adopt this land acknowledgement not only does it promote our visibility from a landscape and community that has erased

127us but it also brings our name up currently every day the LA County harms report and the LA County Land acknowledgement our name is spoken at various meetings throughout Los Angeles County and LA City and as La USD does this it does that thing again but with the kids and as a former educator I'd like to say that the children are what bring are is our continuity the children are what continues our Legacy our future generations and for us as native people it's very important that the future Generations know who we are please don't contribute to the ongoing genocide of our people by not speaking our name it kind of goes along with some of the the movements we've seen L say our name say our name and with this current Administration that we're going

128to all be up against we need to ensure that ethnicity is spoken and celebrated diversity um Equity Arts all of it is included to continue the voice of our indigenous people thank you again for your time and I truly hope that you do adopt this resolution thank you for your time uh Victoria Jones Victoria Jones please press star six to unmute yourself yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Victoria Jones good afternoon my name is Victoria Jones legislatively aison for the Gabrielino Kish na for the record I'm giving public comment on item 32 by reading the video and letter that was sent to board member Franklin from chairman Solace of the Gabrielino Kish Nan request and revision and opposition to this land acknowledgement as it states I'm writing regarding item 32

129of today's agenda which pertains to the proposed land acknowledgement as a direct lineal descendant of the Gabrielino people I respectfully request that before proceeding on any decisions in this matter you take the time to review the attached video this resource has been thoughtfully prepared to provide an accurate understanding of the history culture and identity of the indigenous people of the LA Basin for the record the gabino kich nation are the documented tribal identity entity of the Greater Los Angeles area the video addresses the cultural issues of historical mismanagement and Mis misre representation and Distortion by receiving this material the LAUSD can make a meaningful step toward preventing the elimination and continuation of misinformation and the Eraser of the true indigenous peoples of this land these practices have been caused engaging harm and perpetuating atrocities against

130our community continuation to the cultural genocide that persists today it is also deeply concerning that individuals claiming to represent the First Peoples of Los Angeles County are attempting to bypass the essential process of providing their ancestry this circumvents a crucial standard of accountability and verification potentially leading to the misrepresentation of indigenous Heritage by relying on agencies to advocate for them at face value these individuals undermine the Integrity of legitimate efforts towards federal recognition thank you so much okay that concludes public comment on Tab 32 so uh board member gonz you we moved and I seconded but I moved and seconded the the amended form which has all the red in it that's the form we have before us now okay all right other things to say or no um I know we also have uh

131board m M schmon and our student board member who have co-sponsored the resolution so I don't know if they would like to start with any words and I'd like to join as well great Mr schmon I'm just so honored to co-sponsor I mean the speaker fantastic history is so important that we don't make mistakes again and I I appreciate this resolution thank you so much Miss gones Madam chair I like to co-sponsor as well okay we got everybody I think yes go ahead I I want to thank everyone here and thank you all for your words and your continued resistance as someone who has roots from indigenous regions of Mexico I just want to thank you all for your representation here and by recognizing that Luz operates on tribal land we honor your resilience and

132contributions despy centuries of attempted eraser it is our duty to preserve your history and I believe it brings us all together to elevate the indigenous voices and ensure that every student understands the history and value of respect equity and inclusion of the groups acknowledged here today I believe in building a future that acknowledges all parts of your community and all parts of the attempted Erasure especially of students that belong to Native and Indigenous communities that we currently serve here in L USC so thank you and uh dma is uh what the dialect Chino is uh which is where I'm from so dma [Applause] thank you m g I'd love to join as a co-sponsor as well and I appreciate you for bringing this um and also for as Mona said bringing it in opposite or

133bringing the substance and not just the the the symbol um and and nice to see you Mona and chief Anthony we met at uh the sacred Springs adjacent to University High School and I appreciate all of our speakers and presenters and thank you for both articulating the importance of of lend acknowledgements and recognizing those who came before but also the need to be substantive and and not make you know make sure that it's not just a token which is is undoubtedly not um you know Board District 4 uh a University High School we have um the sacred Springs that we've worked in in Partnership and in community to revive and when I was there just a few weeks ago it struck me you know there were some folks who were touring uh local students around

134and they had said you know thank you board member for allowing us to have this year and struck me how opposite or how upside down the world is I mean thank you it's your land so thank you for allowing the school district to uh be in Partnership um and uh for educating us uh on this and so I appreciate that we can acknowledge you know while we can't change the past we can take action to repair the harm uh to the uh existing indigenous communities and I'm proud of the work that this district is doing through this resolution um I'm also really proud of the educational cultural center and thank you to miss gonz for accepting our friendly amendment to look at maybe some Financial Resources the district can put towards that um that Revival

135because it's really exciting and I would just encourage my colleagues and everyone to come and see that come to UNI um or come on the weekends the Springs are open uh to the public once a once a month we'd like to see that uh more frequently but see the work that's being done to educate to restore and I think it's a great model not just for the rest of La unified but for uh for the rest of the country so thank you all for being here and thank you Miss gonz yes please also add me as a co-sponsor um so this resolution is a powerful step towards acknowledging historical injustices inflicted upon Native American and tribal communities and sets a vital president precedence in our district um it demonstrates a crucial commitment to truth healing

136and Reconciliation um I additionally would like to encourage the district to collaborate with organizations such as a California Native Plant Society who recently presented at our Greening um schools and climate resiliency committee and to to incorporate knowledge and practices related to native plants into our educational programs um also I'd like to encourage us to think about how we can provide comprehensive support to all the indigenous students especially those who are new to our country from various countries throughout and America uh plus more that are um that are living here in our communities it's essential that we feel supported and included into our communities I know mme is doing amazing work particularly as uh we're embarking on uh creating the multilingual Multicultural master plan um and I encourage the board to prioritize moving forward and as

137a Chana and a descended of the mishika I'm very very very proud um of the collaboration I've been able to support the indigenous um education Coalition and also I look forward to continuing being support and uh raising the voice and U uplifting all indigenous communities uh in Los Angeles thank you I have just a couple of things to say as well when I was first on the board in the 1980s we had a Native American commission we also had African-American Mexican-American we had ethnic commissions that were helped advise us about curriculum the federal government and its in its wonderful wisdom said that these were not possible because you couldn't do anything about a race however Native Americans are different in that they have standing in the federal government and because of that I would like

138us to look particularly at perhaps having a Native American commission re uh formulated because it was a tremendous they did powwows at different place parts of the district so that children could see what that was like they did information about culture they did information about protecting the land it was a terrific thing and it got killed because of the other measures but I think that's the one we can bring back I also want to say that as a history teacher in high schools in California that many children believe that Native Americans only existed at the beginning of the of the uh conquest of this uh uh uh land of the colonization of this land they don't know that Native Americans still exist I remember having a a little debate in one of my classes about

139that by bringing in some Native Americans I really couldn't believe it I think that's hysterically wrong um I also know that third graders when I was a child at amiso elementary school learned about the youngna and it was an experience I will never forget because I had no idea what you could make out of acorns I had no idea that acorns were a part of a culture and it changed me in terms of how I thought about things so that when I got to the state legislature I tried to get rid of for six years I introduced legislation that never passed that would require schools to get rid of mascots that were in my opinion insults to Native American peoples I will say as a result of that fight I never could get a majority

140of the assembly to vote for that and why they were afraid the parents of athletic programs would be so angry that that they couldn't call themselves Aztecs anymore or they couldn't call themselves Warriors and wear hats uh that were obviously not earned by the people who were in the uh in the in the in the uh band uh and I heard testimony of parents saying that they would take their child to a football game and their school that the parent was in were called the something Indians okay and on the other side of the aisle his son could hear people shouting kill the Indians kill the Indians as if there weren't any Indians it was just myth or something these are real issues and they are not issues that we have resolved and I hope

141that we will continue to do so and I thank you so much all the three of you who brought this I thank you for bringing it and now Mr superintendent then we'll call the role thank you very much uh just very briefly I want to thank board member Kelly gones and the co-sponsors of this important resolution for the work that's been done I want to thank The Advocates uh the representative entities that uh have elevated this as a top priority for our school system we cannot foundationally move on into a better future without recognizing uh the destructive elements that history has proven existed and were perpetrated against many amongst us in a not so distant past with that said we have a an opportunity as we live out this moment in the present to advance

142Justice to advance that which is right by the right people so this is one important step we remain committed in working collaboratively uh with the entities represented here today to ensure that in the presence we lead with Justice and fairness but also with acknowledgement and Truth to be to to ensure that we build that foundationally just future for our children and for our community thank you very much B bones call the roll okay calling the roll on Tab 32 Dr McKenna yes Dr Ras yes Mr schmon yes Mr melin yes Miss conz yes Miss Ortiz Franklin uh board president Goldberg yes and student member corz Lopez yes pass by a unanimous vote thank you very [Applause] much to uh continue taking some items out of order uh because they have speakers that could only be

143here at a certain time and the next one will be a motion that I'm bringing uh item number 39 uh reaffirming the LA unified districts will be a sanctuary district and safe zone for families threatened by immigration and enforcement and I'd like to have the original author who is here today I believe former board member Monica Garcia to come up and speak first on this [Applause] motion loser Monica Garcia she might be out there I saw her well while she is coming I'll just introd the motion if I may don't have AUM right now oh okay too many people went out to take pictures we don't have a quorum so we'll get it together here brief pause until we have at least four board members here [Music] there she is there she is nobody ever

144said they ready we have only two board members here so we do have to wait a minute to get two more seats Corum yeah let me go do some wrangling and we'll get very good I know there's very good happy to wait everybody breathe or something call while we're waiting I will invite you know Freedom schools teaches us to build community and focus by breathing together so I'll just invite you breathe in love exhale fear Breathe In Hope exhale down breae in strength lots and lots of strength whatever is challenging You In This Moment Freedom schools.org look it up they have some nice CHS [Applause] [Music] so while we're waiting for uh board members to come back I want to explain a little bit why I bring this resolution uh because it was originally passed

145as resolution 93 in 201617 and it was passed uh with the help and direction and writing of it by then the president of the board Monica Garcia we've only D taken what she's written and added a few new items given the current circumstances politically in America but I wanted to make sure that she had an opportunity to speak because it is she who first started Sanctuary with her board at that time uh which included by the way one of the uh former board members who spoke earlier for Dr McKenna but we still have to wait cuz we don't work without four all right here we go we got three and a half CU you don't count yet I wish you did but you don't okay here we go all right former president Monica Garcia please

146come forward thank you madam president hello board members hello superintendent hello Los Angeles Unified I am so pleased to be invited to express my support for the amazing work that this District does thank you for rising up and sharing with our children and families that they belong here and that this district will follow hello board member Cortez Lopez uh that this district will follow our nation's law welcoming every child to come to school my purpose for being here is one to support the action of the board today two just to remind us what the court said so many years ago implier Vio the court explained that educa I quote education has a fundamental role in maintaining the fabric of our society and provides the basic tools by which individuals might lead economically productive lives to

147the benefit of all of us we survived the pandemic because we stood together this district has increased reading and writing and graduation because we have stood together it is so important that as we may see policies that we do not support supp but nevertheless become what we must address that we stand together in response to the times the good news is that we have seen it before and we are in position to act the challenge like the challenge today there are families who are separated and traumatized because of the fear of what is to come and we will continue to ask them to come to school and give us their very best and so today um whether it's two years or four years it's every day that we exercise love and the power of this

148institution on behalf of our children and families and means that means our employees too one of the most important lessons I learned in the first Administration is that we need to be clear with our employees they do not have the sole discretion of just deciding how to respond to any kind of request they are supported by this organization our general counsel and the training that we will offer so while we all may be uh still conflicted about how to get to 100% graduation in Los Angeles or the pace of that work we all all do stand together in support of immigrant families and their right to have their children come to Safe supportive and excellent schools thank you for allowing me and inviting me to be here miss Goldberg obos uh there's a whole community

149of people who stand uh shoulder-to-shoulder with you as you take on the leadership of demanding for our children and their civil rights gracias a motion is in order for this measure I'll move it okay been moved and seconded was that seconded by Dr Ras thank you what I did here was to find her resolution and to read it and say well you know what that was 1617 and the guy's back and he's going to try even harder to disrupt families to disrupt people to disrupt our communities and so my resolves only add a couple of points first that we affirm our reaffirm our policy established in 201617 that this is indeed a sanctuary School District secondly we are asking the superintendent within the next couple of months to develop and share with the then board

150a policy of strong implementation from the beginning of the next Presidential ad Administration less than two months away further we want to include training for all teachers administrators and other staff on how to respond to federal agencies and any immigration Personnel who want to get information about students their families about our staff or who are attempting to enter school property as well as through uh through the effort to communicate the district's Sanctuary policy and plan to all district families in the language they speak and that's that's what we're requesting of you is the plan and finally that this district will aggressively oppose any effort to create federal laws Federal policies Federal practices that require school districts to cooperate with any federal agency and immigration Personnel in any way related to immigration enforcement actions I think

151that we know what's coming they've said that what's coming and we want to tell our students and their families and all of our Personnel that you are welcome here and that we will do everything in our power to protect your right to go to school or to work in this District thank you very much uh any any yeah we'll have public comment and then I'll ask if board members have comments as well okay let's have public comment okay taking public comment on Tab 39 uh let's see Cody aalos are you here Cody for tab 39 I don't see okay how about Alejandro huarez ugal uh let's see ilsa Escobar for tab 39 hi everybody my name is Ila Escobar I am a Daka recipient current staff at United teachers Los Angeles um when I graduated

152from high school when I was 18 I never thought I'd be able to work legally I had been working at a restaurant so um I'm excited that for today in La there are two uh affirming um ordinances and sanctuary policy being voted on in LA City they are also having the LA Sanctuary ordinance so we hope that that passes today and today here at the school board it's an important day for immigrants um I I wanted to say um two I wanted to say a lot but instead I'm going to read two um comments from students submitted to one of our Educators the day after uh Trump got elected and had won enough votes this is from Valeria Salasar um uh period two it says she says I want to cry and go home I

153need my mom I'm so sad and scared for my family my friends my teachers for everyone for me I really don't see a future Kevin ptis from period 5 says what will happen to my family if my parents are deported I will need my family and hope and I hope I have hope the thing I have hope in is my family so um these are the students that we are fighting for uh this president has said there will be mass deportations and so we have to be ready to defend our communities with policies this is great that this is happening now next what we need to do is make sure we have a fund a legal fund for the students um uh having newcomer students students who just crossed the border with difficult um cases

154immigration cases are going to need some legal help to fight against back uh Trump's expediated removals and anybody who he dares to put in tents at the border or any or into to fight against a National Guard who might be deputized as um immigrant um as immigration agents um it's going to be a lot but we've seen this before and we we know what we're doing this time we and we need to put together the resources thank you thank you very much thank you for your time Maria Miranda two minutes to speak once you begin good afternoon my name is Maria Miranda I currently serve as a util Elementary vice president on behalf of UTA I'm here to show our support for item 39 which reaffirms that La USD will be a sanctuary district and

155safe zone for families threatened by immigration enforcement my educ my many Educators students and families walked onto school campuses on November 6th with heavy hearts knowing that the election of a new leader in this country would compromise their safety history has shown us that mass deportations are possible that this country is guilty of of separating children from its parents that they are willing to put children in cages and much much more if the incoming president follows through on this on his promises of mass deportation we know that our students their families and staff members will be negatively affected this resolution reaffirms that L USD will not be the place where families are pers persecuted students have under the 14th Amendment the right to a free public education and we need to fight for that for

156immigrant students and their families this means that USD has a responsibility of providing a safe educational environment free of fear of immigration enforcement in preparation of any large- scale immigration enforcement it is imperative that the district follows through with training teachers staff and administrators on its District Sanctuary policy as outlined in the 2017 resolution we hope that the district does this best to provide resources for students and families and staff who are detained due to their immigration status as well as work with immigrant rights organizations to educate students and families about their rights we must ensure that our school campuses are safe places to work learn and congregate regardless of immigration status I urge you to continue this work and to continue finding ways that you can support our students our families and the Educators

157that work for you and that serve those families thank you so much thank you very much thank you for your time uh Keith Delila come on up you have two minutes to speak once you begin good afternoon board members I'm Keith delaquil with the California Charter Schools Association thank you for this resolution um it is needed we have seen what happened in the past in 2017 when raids began in Los Angeles those raids didn't care what types of schools students were attending um in Highland Park one of the first major raids impacted a charter school student and their families we stand shoulder-to-shoulder with you uh on this ready to partner um and support this um and Dr McKenna thank you and congratulations to you you there have been times when we've come to this uh

158dayas and not always seen things eye to eye but I've always seen the end goal and I congratulate you on the end of a chapter and I'm excited for the rest of this conversation thank you again thank you for your time uh Blanca guado come on up Blanca you have two minutes to speak why you begin oh she's she's listing okay she's listed as in person but I'm going to I'm going to change that for my records yeah Blanca gado will call you right now please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Blanca I see you're with us online please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin I'm ready good afternoon my name isan element School Community

159feel threatened stressed and worried about the new incoming government to the year 2025 families are worried about ice deportation National wise they are afraid the school will be at Target by ice so they will not send their children to the school for the fear that they will be arrested and then deported paring are concerned that immigrant student will be discriminate again in a school and deny education parent are asking for say a school song that protect a student and their families please I ask I ask that you vote Yes on this resolution thank you for having me thank you for your time Angelica RZ Angelica RZ are you here come on up you have two minutes to speak once you begin um hello everyone my name is Angelica re I'm an ethnic studies and history

160teacher at Santi education complex this is my eighth year teaching um I'm here to speak in support of this resolution um we need to make sure that we have a sanctuary district and safe school zones um today the city is discussing a sanctuary ordinance and I support that as well so I hope that we can um get this language together um I'm a Dhaka recipient as well as a bunch of other Educators here in Ali USD and we're looking for our we're looking for our district um to protect us um because of the work that I do because this brings so much fear and anxiety to me and to my students um even before I started teaching I was one of the people who started the dream centers in um La high schools we started

161the first one in Lincoln High School called the bako Dream Center we're continuing that work um we do things like supporting uh resources for undocumented students and families doing know your rights workshops and legal clinics I'm also a member of the Immigrant support committee with utla and L USD we've already started a lot of the important strands um to support immigrants and newcomer students um so I hope that the superintendent um will continue to work with the district and UA to establish um the collective bargaining and the language that we need to like protect our students and actually like fund it um the the reason that I'm here is because my babies um El read some of these for you all and since he was elected my kids are really scared and so I'm dealing

162with this every single day and I need you all to hear my baby's words um so Oscar told me Miss I'm worried about my sister um what if they take my dad if he gets deported what's going to happen to her what's going to happen to me I can't stop thinking about it how are we going to be impacted Brian told me I keep thinking about how Trump said he's going to deport all immigrants so I need you all I have so many more but I need you all to really think about protecting my kids because they're not going to learn if they don't feel safe so please do everything you can to protect my babies thank you thank you for your time okay Jessica bero your signed up is speaking remotely but I don't

163have you signed in right now are you in the room oh there you are I will note that thank you very much no you're good um good afternoon everybody my name is Jessica buto speaking on behalf of kisan the Central American Resource Center um and we I wanted to begin here to applaud gold uh board member Goldberg for introducing multiple items on today's agenda that aim to reaffirm and strengthen our commitment to some of our most vulnerable students um and I am here obviously to show my support for item 39 but I would also like to add our support for item 34 um during this time there is a huge sense of urgency to act and it carries a heavy reminder of the work we continue to face despite years of advocacy from immigrant rights

164groups lgbtq plus organizations and countless others and after securing significant victories we're still in a position where we must once again reassert the basic rights and the safety of our communities there's also a slight sense of relief in knowing that there are members in this board who understand the importance of publicly reaffirming these rights for over for the over 500,000 students served by the second largest school district in the nation the Los Angeles metro area there are 1.6 million children with at least one immigrant parent over 20,000 newcomer youth attend La USD schools and our district provides a critical safe space for countless lgbtq plus students it's vital that we pass policies that like these that show the Next Generation and their families that L USD stands firmly with them we must send a clear

165message that this district will defend the rights of every student regardless of their immigration status their gender identity or gender expression they have the right to exist the right to feel safe and to receive a quality education thank you thank you for your time all right we have remote caller Ben McShan please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Ben McShan Ben McShan are you there yes hello can you hear me we sure can please go ahead you have two minutes perfect my name is Ben McShan I'm a dad of two at monar elementary steam where I chair the School site Council I'm a strong support of our principal Mrs marosan uh whom board member who whom board member gones knows well um I call to

166speak in support of this resolution but I plead to you that it is not enough and I plead that it requires intense and Urgent follow through by the board in the district um last week at coffee with the principal I posed a question to our principal Mrs marosan what would she do if armed ice agents or deputized sheriffs came to monlux to collect a child she responded in perfectly good faith but in contradiction to standing District policy that she would be required to comply with the agents and turn the child over her good faith ignorance in the policy is a troubling signpost for this coming year and I I must say she responded in good faith this resolution gives the District 60 days to provide guidance January 17th is 10 days too late and would

167render the guidance reactive we must be proactive our schools need this guidance in training this week they need it today they need it now pardon me I support the intent of this resolution with my strongest voice but I implore you provide this new guidance and training no later than Monday December 9th to give our school staff time to prepare last last paragraph uh board members our schools are supposed to teach our children history this year excuse me this year the history has come to teach us our teachers and administrators they deserve every incentive to make the strongest moral choices when they are faced with the armed ghost of history that will come to the doors of our schools and only you the board may give them those incentives urgently thank you so much thank you

168for your time that concludes public comment on Tab 30 9 okay I believe that uh a board member gones has an amendment to this and I'll ask you to present that now yes thank you so much Miss Goldberg um we we did have a conversation at the committee of the whole uh which a lot of the discussion was directly about what we could do to help support our immigrant students families and employees um and one of the points that I raised during that conversation is what can we explicitly do around protections for our employees who are DACA recipients TPS um status holders or who are in other uh vulnerable immigration statuses so it's just an amendment to include that it it isn't mentioned in the prior policy and that's why I feel that it's important

169to include it explicitly today I appreciate it and I accept it as a friendly amendment is now part of the uh entire uh measure okay anybody wish to speak on this Dr Ras go ahead um well um I would like to be added as a co-sponsor as well um this resolution represents a crucial step in ensuring that all students staff and families feel safe respected and affirmed within our schools uh thank you uh for taking a concrete action uh board member Goldberg to protect the rights and dignity of our immigrant and lgbtq plus community members and I I know fully well um take a breath I was trying to control myself through all this time I know fully well the fear that your babies are feeling because I was an immigrant myself and I did

170not become a citizen until I was 22 years old and all throughout my education and even I was at UC Berkeley um I always felt that fear um and I know Philly well what it is to grow up um undocumented and knowing that at any moment um the life that we have here can be taken away and so I've been um I know that many of our students in my district and throughout the whole District they're very afraid of even coming to school and being torn apart from their families and it just breaks my heart um that a country that has been built on the blood and sweat of immigrants who has opened its doors to so many to have a better life than what they were and to be scapegoating on human beings um

171that the things that are going on in their own countries are because of political social and economic implications that go for his that go beyond what we can say here now because it's something that they're living because of how we're our diplomacy and and in action in our countries uh Latin American countries and so I stand firmly committed here and my staff as well and fighting tooth and nail for our families and our students and we will be here to resist and fight back because that is what be owed to our students here in in Los Angeles and I um I'm firmly committed in making sure they we're safe that all of our students and families are safe so thank you thank you very much anybody else wish to be heard um well just thank

172you Miss Goldberg for bringing this reaffirmation I'd love to be added as a co-sponsor absolutely um you know this is like Dr Rivas was saying it's an unfortunate uh re not just a repeat of what happened four years ago but when I was a kid in this in this city growing up it was the days of prop 187 um and I think the district going far back to that time when Miss Goldberg was on maybe the board the first time has been very clear that it's going to protect all students regardless of the way their families came to this country and so we're um you know continuing a legacy and I think it's a fitting uh unfortunate but fitting book end Miss Goldberg maybe your career but to continue this fight and we'll be sure

173to continue that you know carry that torch in your in your absence and so proud to support this I'm sorry we have to do it but I know that we all Stand United on a lot this board does and this is definitely one of them so appreciate it but else wish to be heard Mr schmon yes thank you Jackie I before you start I just got past the note the city of Los Angeles has now passed their Sanctuary motion thank you Jackie I too would like to be considered a co-sponsor and nobody can say it like you can and that resolution is a Jackie Goldberg resolution thank you so much all right thank you anybody else there are a lot of charter schools here I hope that when you come back to your board you

174ask them to make your Charter School a sanctuary charter school I hope you will all do that I think the only thing I would add is I am so sick and tired of people calling people who have come to this country from terrible situations that they had to flee and calling them Crooks and murderers and all of that other stuff I don't care what anybody says immigrants built this country and everybody in this room is related to an immigrant unless you're Native American so all of us are immigrants and it is is time in my opinion wherever we are to say that over and over and over and over and over again because the people yelling on the other side yell really loudly we've got to yell louder all right call the roll please was

175there some I'm sorry go ahead I'm sorry I didn't see your hand go ahead I'm sorry we're not going to call the rooll we're going to hear from our students thank you I would also like to be added as a strong hondor to this resolution I believe that it is vital seeing the emotional turmoil that students are experiencing within our schools I've had the honor of speaking with various students uh following the results of this November election and students just to reaffirm what our public comments have stated here today to say it in short they're scared and growing up in a district where this is the second time it's happened there is a profound silence in classrooms following uh when the results are released and I believe this is also moment to address the mental

176health concerns particularly within our undocumented youth following this and I believe it's something to look into um because when you have someone on megaphones and groups advocating for your eraser in this country I believe that the mental health repercussions of that are extremely important to look into thank you thank you very much for that Miss gonz I would also love to be added as a co-sponsor and I I think the student board member speaks very eloquently about the the trauma that it it's fear and its trauma that it has caused for our communities Beyond already feeling like you're living in the shadows and um I spent time with parents and teachers and students in my district the week of the election and the days after and um the the stories and and the concerns are

177heartbreaking and so real and so I just I appreciate us reaffirming um our Legacy as a district which is standing for immigrant students and families and communities and making it clear that we will do everything in our legal power to protect them no matter what and that for our our students who are feeling this level of fear that there are 60,000 staff members who Stand United to protect them um here in La unified I think that's something we can all be very proud of thank you thank you very much Mr superintendent thank you very much uh Madam president uh I want to be very clear that as we speak about these important topics we know exactly who we are what we stand for these are precisely the times uh in history that present themselves as

178gifts for us to be able to Define who we are and not shy away from who we are so as a school system and in absolute agreement with this resolution and comments made by the board members thus far we stand in protection of the entire community of students and Workforce we stand in defense of everyone in this community regardless of immigration status we stand in the fense of the dreamers of the Daka protected we stand in defense of those who currently live in a shadow of fear on the Bas of rhetorical political commentary that has imped them has imputed their Humanity has impune their being we are far better than that and as a school system I can tell you we will remain strong in the implementation of plans protective measures that will bring individual

179uals Out of The Shadow of fear into the classroom of opportunity they all deserve and that includes those Daka recipients who may be members of our Workforce that includes the families of our students that includes certainly our beloved children we have both a professional and a moral responsibility to do so not only professional but moral responsibility to do so lastly and I want to be very clear when people speak about the The Immigrant the illegal the undocumented the presumably soon to be deported I want people to know exactly who they're talking about I am that person I was undocumented this country so to deny those under our care today and not say it's about me too Is Not Having the courage to admit who you are and the journey that brought you here so Madame

180President members of the board and anyone who's listening this is personal we are professionally committed morally committed to doing the right thing and right now is the moment to do the right thing for many in our community we not allow politics of fear politics of fear to subjugate our children our Workforce or the families of our children and our colleagues thank you very much thank you very much all right seeing no one else being asked to be recog oh I'm sorry Dr McKenna there is someone else asking to yeah I apologize for coming in after the superintendent but he motivated me um most important thing is to remember that Unity is a strength really that challenge will be do we have the strength to be unified because the words we speak here are spoken in

181a safe place if in fact the dangerous people that are trying to and seem to have take control of our government start acting on this it will require more action than you probably are accustomed to having been in that fight when I was a child and a young adult in college uh I experienced that it wasn't so much about immigr ation but it was just about segregation and wanting to maintain it even though the law had changed they didn't want to implement it so there were always people saying there's the other the other needs to be stay in their place or be excluded be redlined be unemployed be subservient and know your place standing up against it was a danger and the danger could always be um you lose something and separate it from your

182family I heard the newly appointed uh director of I don't know what his title will be but I think it's immigration and when he was asked on he was 60 Minutes on one of those shows how do you justify separating a family that we're not going to separate anybody everybody can move so in his mind the whole family can go what be separated so the two adults the parents who came here and still haven't been certified as a citizen have children who if they don't want to separate from their children they have to take them with them wherever they're being sent that's a hard-hearted position to take for a human being but you find out as I said there are people who don't mind being hard-hearted and destructive as long as they're in charge of

183what's left and you and I don't matter but we have to matter if in fact we remain we will matter if we remain unified so when the rubber hits the road and the stuff hits the fan um we will need our unity and I hope that I will say it in this I hope that we will rethink our need for our own security our own school police to stand in the wall in the Gap and stand on the wall cuz we talked about last time I remember that when the previous board member was here and on the board we talked about if if Ice immigration custom enforcement comes to our school and wants to challenge our children we have the right to at least resist but I know we don't have the authority because federal

184law supersedes state law local Law School District policy Federal if this man in the white house now intends to use the military which he's talked about I'm reading the newspapers and federal law enforcement to go into schools especially in California because he has a a Vengeance for California because we do talk bad can we back it up that will be the test so we're listening now and an appreciation of what we're saying to each other from the heart the test will come when they show up and they will show up what that will look like I have no idea the last time I saw them show up like this was during the integration of schools when they showed up at the front doors had to had to either turn people away or protect children who

185were trying to get into the schoolhouse and growing up in the segregated South I learned learn law I learned information and behavior that I didn't even understand I didn't know all of the ramifications I was a good reader but I was still young I didn't know what all that meant and the consequences the consequences here are worse than I've ever seen in my career in my life and I'm an octogenarian I'm past 80 years old but please don't turn our back on our own security people if we think something's wrong we can reform not remove it but we chose to do that and I still my colleagues know I stand against that because nobody else is trained to stand against them nobody else is trained to break up melees and disturbance we're not trained to

186do this not in my credential it's not in the principal's credential it's not in the council's credential and we may have some of that and demonstrations and all of that I'm not willing to call LAPD that's Municipal Police that's not the same as our police our safety our family members while I'm on that subject I want to really publicly thank uh the school police for supporting me when I was ill and and had to go to the hospital in in an ambulance they escorted me to and from and made sure I was okay to stay up all night making sure I came out of surgery all right nobody asked him to do that they didn't get paid to do that this is the first time I be able to thank them and I know that

187the officer sh can take that back to the to the men and women that were there that were helping me and I could hear the sirens and all of that escorting me and I'm saying I'm being escorted because I'm a board member who else could get escorted like that and there are lots of people who need their support it feels so sad that we would we would remove them from the from the services and the safety that they provide when they're on campuses and and makes kids feel safe by them being there we have a lot of soul searching to do board members this is real this is real the clowns are here it won't be next year and maybe it will start next year they said maybe next year next year right around the

188corner and maybe that's when they'll all show up with their legal justifications for implanting themsel in the Vengeance of uh agenda that one person finds an army of cants you don't know what that means look it up it's applying it's applying your lips to other people's Anatomy uh that's what it means uh F right I have no I have no tolerance for that the only time I'll accept lips on my animation if I give permission ahead of time but myy so anyway let's please let's please be unified and by the way as terrible as this looks and it is keep a sense of humor keep a sense of humor a day without at least one good laugh is a wasted day don't waste your day find something to laugh at even when you have to

189turn on the comedians at night it can only tell jokes and make you feel oh that's that's funny but he's still a fool and he's still there the Fool on the Hill is still on the hill and getting worse it's going to get worse but we must maintain Unity to maintain strength thank you thank you very much call a roll hey did you want to uh take the rule 72 aiver simultaneously I no I'll do that next you should okay oh oh I see I'm sorry this one has that okay yes I I will request a board rule 72 waiver someone make move it move second okay okay mve by Mr schmon second and by Miss gones and we'll take the role um simultaneously for the waiver as well as the actual resolution Dr McKenna

190yes Dr IAS yes Mr schmon yes Mr Mel yes M gones yes M Franklin board president Goldberg yes uh Miss Cortez Lopez yes all right pass unanimously thank you very [Applause] much all right so let me tell you where we are in the meeting we're going to hear briefly I hope from our labor Partners after which time the board members will uh talk about their committee shair reports then we're going to complete the remaining resolutions and then we will go to the consent calendar the consent calendar is where you will find out if you have an item on the agenda whether that item will be heard uh once uh for all the consent items or whether it will be off consent and be heard individually so let's start first with labor Partners come on up

191good afternoon again my name is Maria Miranda I am currently serving as uta's Elementary Vice President we are relieved that agenda item number eight has been pulled from today's agenda you all should have received a letter sent from util president CES Meer Cruz and co-signed by Ace a well-respected community organization that is citing our concerns about be sters uh appointment to the district and utility housing task force in case you have not read that letter here are a few um of our asks we recommend the following actions by the Board of Education betus staler should be removed from the housing task force and replaced by someone who is not attending to um to do real estate business with the District Two that the board should adopt a clear conflict of interest policy for the members

192of the housing task force prohibiting members from holding interest in enti entities that are seeking to do real estate business with the district three that a transparent and data driven approach to affordable housing on District land should be presented to the board by the housing task force as man mandated by theou before any developer partners are identified by the district and four a public bid process for nonprofit developer Partners should be initiated after this plan is presented to the board although the item is pulled we hope that you use the information provided in the letter to make a well-informed decision when the item comes back up and in the meanwhile that we do we do believe that Miss sulzer's appointment to the task force is a conflict of entrance and needs to be replaced immediately

193I would like to thank president Bard uh president Goldberg for bringing forward resolutions today that will ensure the safety of our students their families and employees our immigrant and lgbtqi plus Community are no strangers to attacks from the far right but with the new leadership of this country beginning in January we know that these two marginalized groups will be further under attack some will admit that they are experiencing fear right now but I will share with you that today I am absolutely living in fear yet I know I am fully aware that we need to turn that fear into courage that we will need to be courageous and fighting back against these injustices that we will we will have to resist and most importantly that we will have to organize in our communities we thank

194you for your commitment to our immigrant and lgbtqa plus communities and we stand with you as Educators we need to continue to do all that we can to ensure that our school communities are a safe welcoming and inclusive space for all I am here to ask that you support the Motions presented by President Goldberg um I also want to take a minute or some time to thank Dr McKenna um Dr McKenna before you go I want to thank you for your kindness your empathy your courage but most importantly your leadership the mam mono community in 2012 needed you and you were there for us we will always keep you in our heart and in our memories thank you so much for all the work that you have done for our students here in La USD

195and for the adults as well thank you so much the other labor part Partners here any other labor Partners in the room okay you will now see from time to time board members leave to go get something to eat in the back room uh they can hear everything that's going on in that room it's all programmed into it don't think they're avoiding you it's that we have many more hours to go and we didn't want to recess for lunch and have you all go away and come back so we're just going to work right through it okay now we will hear from committee chairs and the first committee is Mr schur special education committee okay the special ed committee met on Wednesday November the 6th 2024 at 3 p.m. we had three presentations the first

196of which was from school Counseling Service administrator Brenda pensamiento on how special education students can earn a diploma with alternate assessment this diploma now includes students with severe cognitive disabilities and joins other students who also fulfill diploma requirements such as Foster Youth and homeless students counselors will identify students who meet the requirements for the program and who will work with the IEP casew workers counselors will have virtual and in-person training throughout the school year in all regions in November January March and may to support the implementation of this program webinars and dropin sessions are hosted every month for gened teachers from September 24 to May 25 our second topic was from the director of gifted and talented programs Advanced learning options on gifted and talented education gate for students with disabilities supporting twice exceptional students

197students can be identified twice exceptional through AC through academics the Arts math and many other subjects anybody can make a referral for twice exceptional including students themselves they can self-identify as gifted the percentage of students with disabilities who are identified as gifted stands at 4.6% students with disabilities who are identified as gifted need differentiated instruction and need to be around other gifted students to enhance their experiences our final presentation was from Dr Keith Abrams the executive director of student integration services on magnet opportunities for students with disabilities magnet opportunities the modified consent degree 12 1319 had succeeded in increasing the number of students with disabilities who apply the no Mash policy hindered students with disabilities opportunities to attend magnet programs due to the lack of special ed programs this policy was dissolved and students with

198IEPs can now apply for magnet programs every year the number of students with disabilities or the percentage of students has been met with growth in the magnet programs thank you right thank you very much next we will hear from Pro procurement facilities Mr milbo thank you Miss Goldberg last week on November 12th we held our second facilities and procurement committee meeting of the year we started by thanking the public which I will do again so thank you all for voting to approve measure us the largest uh School construction Bond at $9 billion in the country's history uh with 67% of the vote so thank you to our community for supporting our local schools uh and the committee looks forward to its role in making sure the public is aware of and that there's board oversight

199and how we plan to spend those dollars we heard from the facilities team about a significant Endeavor to review the district's construction specifications which are very detailed guidelines we give to contractors about every aspect of construction from how to apply paint to which metal must be used uh for the wiring of the bolts on the doors our deputy chief facilities uh officer Alex O'Brien shared a process for their initial Focus um which included bringing in Industry experts and District contractors to provide feedback uh and it the work so far has already resulted in changes like you know moving uh an adjustment of the design reviewers from 40 to 20 to reduce the length of the review process specification updates you know that change the requirements to galvanite uh for galvanite fence parts to bird Spike

200requirements it all seems and is a bit esoteric and Technical but it's a way to streamline our processes one of the examples that Miss O'Brien gave uh was that you know the industry standard might be something like testing 10% of the soil before uh doing a greening project and the district might test 80% um and why are we testing more of it when the industry standard is 10% when it just takes more time and money so we hope to get in line with best practices um and along those lines we also heard a preview of an upcoming study that the board approved at our prior board meeting last month that will be comparing District practices with other districts and public entities across California to see where we are aligned with best practices and where we

201may need to modernize our process that audit which again the board approved last month will be coming back to the board for uh Public Presentation in um January so not too long of a turnaround to see where we can improve to make sure we're putting your dollars at work uh as efficiently as possible and that the programs that we're approving as this board are done in the lifetime of our students uh and not um their children so our next meeting is on January 28th uh and we'll have more then thank you very much next we'll hear from The Greening committee Dr Rivas the green committee uh The Greening schools and climate resiliency committee met on Thursday November 14th uh the topics we discussed were updates updates from the ecos sustainability office presented by Chief ecos

202sustainability officer Christ cilio including initiatives such as increasing Energy Efficiency reducing water consumption and promoting waste reduction I presented um the 2324 green committee summary report reviewing the major discussions and accomplishments of the committee over the past year the benefits of incorporating native plants into school Landscapes presented by Jennifer Aguilar from the California Native Plant Society emphasizing the role in supporting biodiversity conserving water and providing engaging learning opportunities for students and also professional development for our Educators um also the topics we discussed were environmental health and safety concerns at Hillside Elementary School um and also nearby uh schools will be affected as well presented by Michael Henry Hayden from the Lincoln Heights Community Coalition and Angela Gonzalez Torres from the Highland Park neighbor Council detailing the specific issues affecting the school and surrounding Community um

203stemming from a development that's coming across the street from Hillside and if you want more information please visit my social media and you can learn more about um supporting Hill Side Elementary School the committee learned about the district's progress in implementing sustainable practices and ongoing challenges in these areas Su successful initiatives of the past year areas for future work and how Native plans can support biodiversity conserve water and promote and provide engaging learning opportunities for students the urgency of the environmental issues at Hillside Elementary School and the need for immediate action to Pro to protect students staff and um the residents in the nearing areas the next meeting will be on Wednesday January 29th 2025 thank you very much next we'll hear from the committee of the whole the board's Committee of the whole met

204on Tuesday November the 12th at 10:00 a.m. we had two presentations the first was from Chief of legislative affairs Martha Alvarez who described the district's upcoming legislative agenda for the school year this year lausd's office of legislative affairs and government relations tracked 678 bills and five were signed into law in January the office of government relations will use guiding principles to indicate support or opposition to certain bills to advocate for better flexibility in continuation schools if a student seeks greater opportunity ities outside of the classroom such as internships or CTA courses to fit their needs the federal government helps fund various support activities around LAUSD such as special ed and professional development for teachers and we are waiting guidance for the new presidential Administration regarding these funds the second presentation was from the chief of

205school operations Mr andrees Chate on providing a phonefree school day all school districts in California must have a cell phone policy by July 2026 students who need translations emergency services or medical attention are exempt under the current policy cell phone use is strictly forbidden during instructional time but students can use their phones during recess and lunch the new policy will change that practice most of the parents were thankful that the district was engaging them in developing a policy the policy will be implemented in three phases before the school goes on winter break the students will select the option that they will Implement at their School site any policy adopted must follow sorry must allow students to maintain access to their phones in case of an emergency situation implementation will like will likely be conducted during

206the middle of February thank you thank you very much and the final report will be from the charter schools committee Dr Rivas uh the charter schools committee met on Wednesday November 13th the topics we discussed included a status update on the charter school renewal process including an overview of the process timelines and data considerations presented by Mr Jose keris and Miss Dana edas uh the newly revamped Charter Schools division website with a focus on its features and benefits for improving transparency and accessibility to information for stakeholders uh also presented well presented by Mr Jose goerz and Mr Taylor Wick manowski um a spotlight on Cleveland High Cleveland Charter High School showcasing his achievements Innovative programs and positive impact on the school Community presented by principal Cindy dong uh the committee learned the progress of the

207current Charter renewal cycle with 54 Charter renewals upcoming including 30 independent and 24 Affiliated Charter renewals the features and function functionality of the new Charter Schools division website designed to enhance transparency and access information for the LUSD uh community and Charter School stakeholders and lastly the successful initiatives and programs implemented at Cleveland Charter High School contributing to Student Success and Community engagement and I really want want to say that the presentation was just wonderful um if anybody is able to um look at the recording um Cleveland the principal dang has just done remarkable things there the next meeting will be on Wednesday February 26 2025 thank you very much um I don't see Mr M Dr McKenna here his resolution is next but I think that we have the uh uh director of AA uh

208Miss Nichols did you wish to speak under labor Partners come on down thank you so much for your flexibility appreciate it good afternoon I am Maria Nichols a hopeful and optimistic allaha president for the Los an uh Associated administrators of Los Angeles uh and first I want to thank um Mr McKenna wholeheartedly for his selfish years of advocacy and service and his Relentless commitment to public servant our students and communities and he will be very missed um I want to start off this morning sharing that in the last months I have dedicated my work as Allah president to examine the root cause of the current reality of my Workforce the essential question being what is increasing the workload and working hours that have led to my members reporting unsustainable working conditions that have resulted in

209a negative impact in my Workforce across my six departments which include Early Education Elementary secondary adult ed school support and classified unit J one of a number of surveys to memberships went out in mid October after our first first Allah representative assembly meeting where close to a 100 members attended and it became Crystal Clear during our discussion that many of our members were reporting struggling with with the workload trying to stay above water at the time compounded by pool teacher assignments and school budgets being used for unprocurable evaluations and the amount of time used to develop plans for safety crisis PBIS attendance clap with school teams what teams the increase in iar data with threats aggravated assaults and student behavior and escalation has increased by double digits and the endless hours of using the multitude

210of dashboards for data inputting are examples of why my members are feeling unheard heard unseen and dismissed again I respectfully remind you that with the reduction in force of 400 APS or so including apis a great number of sites are being led by single site administrators Additionally the demand for data collection for the five expected classroom observations on my ipgs the last minute invitations for meetings additional data digs additional pdsa Cycles without consideration for existing school schedules has resulted in unsustainable working conditions the survey results are alarming to say the least most disheartening are the close to 700 members that took the time to write and depict and detail their current working realities I want to thank my courageous leaders for participating with over 50% of vaa members reporting a total of approximately 1,400 members

211the highlights and results of the data in formed surveys are the following 88% of members reporting working 50 hours or more a week of the 88 44% are reporting working 60 hours or more a week that is the norm the working conditions are so horrendous that 43% reported thinking about voluntary displacement self- demotion due to their well-being and psychological health and as Allah is exploring options to strengthen our Union in voice and numbers 90% of members expressed the desire to affiliate with another Union Union to further Empower all the members I am now engaged in a series of town halls focus group Zoom meetings with the intent and purpose to inform and educate my members about labor law and their allaha Union and opportunity for affiliation as we enter into collective bargaining agreement and negotiation

212we will be prepared to negotiate and demand notice to address our current unsustainable workload that has led to burnout dissatisfaction and a loss of work and family balance I thank the central staff the board members the region superintendent and my labor partners for our monthly meetings with the intent to address issues and problems and find Collective problemsolving Solutions I'm going to try and ask you to finish up because we have about six hours worth of people who want to speak yet about 225 I can finish up right now thank you very much but unfortunately this is falling short with my hopeful expectations so I welcome implementing monthly meetings with superintendent carvalo if his schedule permits on N our number one commitment so we say is to help and support students I welcome that opportunity with

213you I am here to work with you I here to provide support but I'm also here to Advocate and bring voice to from the fields thank you very much thank you um I'm don't normally interrupt uh our labor Partners but we still have many hours left and I'm just trying to see if we can keep us moving along I apologize I don't normally do that uh Mr schmon are you thinking that you might be willing to start us off on the resolution 33 that you joined with Miss Dr McKenna because uh I think he's out of the room now and I would like to take yours next do you think he would object if you started okay I can go okay we'll go check we'll go check if not uh we'll I know that's why

214I'm asking you rather than saying go do it all right so instead I think what we'll do is we'll skip that for a moment and we'll go to item number 34 uh which will require a waiver of board rule 72 to be heard so I would ask that happen move by uh Dr Rivas and seconded by uh Mr melvoin okay um this particular motion really is again one of the things that I'm doing at the end finishing up as I leave office and that is I went back and looked at this wonderful idea that we passed years ago uh well not so many years ago but last year that talked about making sure that we uh are enforcing the idea of respectful treatment of all peoples and what we're doing is in that resolution we

215left out things that we didn't talk about when this resolution first came up which is gender identity and gender expression so those two things are added it's a small item but I think an important one because when the first resolution was passed we didn't really talk very much yet about those two uh groups as having been uh in in the need of protection so uh will someone move this resolution please all right is there any discussion on it so can I just confirm that it was moved by Mr Schmelson and then seconded by Dr Ras right and that this will be done in conjunction simultaneously with the waiver of board rule 72 is that right well no we already passed the board rule 72 great yeah they did that okay okay so uh does anybody

216wish to speak on this this is number 34 this is the one that simply adds to the existing list that we had already had uh two groups that were not yet named which is gender identity and gender expression so we're going to say we do not want anybody to be disrespectful of people because of their gender IDE Identity or gender expression okay seeing uh nobody else wishing to speak uh nope okay then that's just call the rooll no nobody signed up to speak two items you know doesn't there there's there's four folks oh they did I'm sorry I was told that they hadn't okay go ahead thank you so we'll do the public those who signed up to speak on Tab 34 in person ma tro um let's see inperson Katherine Muro Katherine millo uh

217Dian guen Di guen and Trevor Ladner signed up to speak remotely I'm gonna see if he is here now Trevor Ladner is here uh please press star six to unmute yourself Mr Ladner and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Trevor Ladner hi uh my name is Trevor Ladner I serve as the Director of education programs at one Institute the oldest active lgbtq Plus organization in the US where I work closely with K12 teachers and high school students across LUSD to preserve and study lgbtq history I previously taught High School history in in downtown Los Angeles uh and I want to thank Miss Goldberg for her lifetime of trailblazing leadership on behalf of our community and vo my strong support for this resolution to include gender identity and expression and respectful treatment towards

218all persons uh Nationwide including here in California trans non-binary gendere expansive and TWP Youth and Educators face hostile environments in and out of school I witnessed this firsthand with my own trans students in downtown Los Angeles not very different from my own experience growing up uh as a career kid in rural Mississippi uh for many these challenges have worsened in recent years uh given political attacks on queer students and teachers uh and given the president-elect's commitment to Def fund and Target schools that support trans students uh I am concerned about the uh investment of the district and supporting queer and trans students and teachers over the next four years uh so I implore the board to take an active stance in strengthening lgbtq plus resources including by working with the division of instruction to clarify

219assess and expand implementation of the fair Education Act which requires that the experiences of people of all genders and lgbtq plus americ Americans are included uh in kindergarten through 12th grade uh and I want to voice uh my strong support for the 2019 Pride resolution which was passed by this board um which enumerates very great commitments in this regard and would encourage you all to revisit that resolution uh thank you all for your time thank you for your time that concludes public comment on Tab 34 shall we vote uh let me just motion that this is adding to was passed in the 1980s when was first on the board so for me this is like a bookend we're going to say now we're got to keep that but we're going to add a couple more

220items call the RO okay Dr McKenna Dr Ras yes and can I be added as a co-sponsor absolutely yes Mr schmon yes and co-sponsor Mr melin yes and co-sponsor GZ Mr D Franklin board president Goldberg yes and uh Miss Cortez Lopez student yes and co-sponsor okay that's a item passes okay we'll go to item number 36 uh which is to study the feasibility of establishing a contemporary and I'm going to call it political education no no that's 38 I'm sorry 38 I read the number wrong oh boy I'm a little out of it here uh the study of feasibility of establishing a temporary and we want to call it now political education course uh and that will require a rule 72 so is there a motion including 72 second been moved by Mr schmon seconded

221by Dr Ras Dr Rivas uh and were there speakers on item number 38 uh yes we have eight speakers listed okay let me let me just basically explain this motion it's really quite simple um most of us board members have student advisory Committees of one sort or another and in discussing the student advisory with my student advisory committee before the um election of November the 5th several of them said that they thought it wasn't important to vote because California doesn't matter in the presidential election we had an ensuing discussion in which we realized that on that same ballot were people who affect their lives directly City Council Members supervisors of the C of so forth school board members and we began to realize that unlike most European nations our school curriculum really does not deal

222with political education and let me be clear about what we're talking about we're not talking about you get to be a Democrat or a Republican or a socialist or a reactionary a conservative it's about understanding the actual way government works as opposed to what the Constitution says and there's a big difference and we think at least I think as a teacher of government that it would be nice for us to have a course that's taught sometime during the uh high school years it can be an elective or a requirement depending on how the research is done is what we need but I don't believe that this country does much of anything to help young people understand what's really going on in the politics of their country and I I think some of that we saw

223recently in effect this is again I want to be very clear it's not to tell people what party they should join it's not to tell them what ideology they may want to subscribe to it's to tell them what politics are like in this country and how those political decisions made by elected officials really affect them and so that's what I would ask you to join me in asking the superintendent to explore this to see if there's something already existence somewhere where where we could pick it up and use it or whether we need to invent it and to see what we want to do about it and then to come back to this board and explain to them uh here's what I found out okay anybody have any uh questions or comments they wish to

224make go ahead I want to thank you for bringing this up to the board I believe it is the points brought up are vital to understand especially as we saw in this past November election uh working as a election clerk myself and being among my peers um who done so um the research and the understanding of our political landscape in the United States is vital in our schools and as we continue as the change makers of tomorrow I believe that this course will ultimately bring that to fruition so I appreciate it and would like to be out as a co-sponsor all right uh go ahead we'll hear speakers in a couple of seconds go ahead no I just want to uh reiterate uh my support for this resolution um the resolution wisely recognizes the urgent

225need to equip our students with the skills knowledge necessary to navigate an increasingly complex political landscape by exploring the feasibility of a political contemporary political issues course the district Tes takes a proactive step towards uh fostering critical thinking media literacy and informed civic participation essential tools for our Future Leaders as well um I wholeheartly support this initiative and um I only wish that this was a course when I was a student in La USD because I know that although my political Consciousness was growing was developing it didn't really uh come into fruition and understand the political my my need for becoming uh politically involved until I was in at UC Berkeley so I know this is a course that would definitely definitely um improve um the lives of our communities but if anything to make

226sure that our students understand Civic um responsibility and also to be become the leaders in their communities thank you thank you yeah you alluded to this m SCH excuse me but I was just going to ask and I know the superintendent's report will undertake it how we do have a requirement that student seniors take US Government I know when I back in the day took I think it was AP usgov it was basically a political issues course and so I'll be curious for the superintendent and his team to look at hey P usgov usgov and and so did you want to change the name to political education yes I do I want to call it political education believe it or not I couldn't think of the word so should we just writing this accept that

227can we just make that a friendly how do we Okay um but but yeah so I I support this I think it is needed and just see again how the existing offerings can be improved or if there's something new we're going to need so thanks yes we would like to amend it to say contemporary political education and again okay uh hearing no other requests let's now go to the speakers on item number 38 okay got it I'll everyone is an inperson speaker uh allenson Delgado are you here Joel Jeff Brennan Higgins Jade Dominic G Dominic Gara uh Jessica Robinson come on up you have two minutes to speak once you begin welcome thank you good afternoon I wholeheartedly support item number 38 political education my name is Jessica Robinson I am a graduate of el

228Los Angeles Unified School District also I'm a mother I am the uh auntie I am all the above I am a community um activist I excuse me I'm a community activist more more than anything else at this point and what I am here to do is to speak on behalf of the women's leadership project where I am the program director and we are Stu a feminist black feminist Le organization student Le organization where we are creating the future political Leaders of Tomorrow I also stand with students deserve and we are calling the LAUSD board to take immediate action to reinstate black student popul population as a Criterion for Bap School allocation honor your commitment to black students by immediately restoring the factor in reaffirming Bap as a reparative program designed to address the Decades of

229racially discriminated discriminatory practices that have been violated the Civil that have violated the civil rights of black students we want to commit to data sharing partnership share dis disaggregated raw data on education disciplined School climate and safety budget personnel and facilities in real time with community-based research Partners including the Bap steering committee to ensure ensures transparency and accountability empower the Bap staring committee grant real decision-making power to Bap to the Bap staring committee and agendize the quarterly board reports from stering committee appointees to ensure auth authentic collaboration on the growth and implementation of Bap permanently thank you thank you very much your views estaban Zaragoza are you here estan uh Leo seron Leo seron are you here we had uh one board member uh go to the rest room so we have dipped below aquarum

230so I'm going to I'm going to go see if I can make sure that they're coming back one moment please thank you though um too many went to eat so we'll get somebody back so we can continue business I apologize [Music] all right we have four back thank you very much I apologize for pushing on you okay all right so anybody else wish to be speak on the idea of having a contemporary political education course looked into hearing none call the rooll please Dr McKenna Dr Ras yes Mr schmon yes M Mel yes M gonez uh Mr Ortiz Franklin board president Goldberg yes and student board member Cortez Lopez yes all right all right close the roll on that one too please item passes okay now we'll go to item 40 if I can find

231My Notes I'll do item here item 40 is a resolution by myself again uh that LAUSD will remain an inclusive safe and welcoming environment for all this was uh the uh item that we all participated in I believe around La unified 2025 uh because we wanted to make sure that people who have other plans for 2025 know what the plans are in this district for 2025 and so what I'm asking with this resolution uh is is that uh and I will read the items that we did at that press conference about the LAUSD 2025 and I ask that this become known as the policies of this District to do these things that are enumerated R board rule 72 needs to be moved along with the motion move it second Mr smon moved for both and

232uh Dr Ras move for both is that correct Yeah so basically we held a press conference uh in sometime I think in late October and we said that this district will continue to embrace the following we will embrace the diversity of our city and our schools in all of its forms we will welcome and support immigrant students and families we will protect the rights of girls and women we will celebrate our lgbtq plus students and employees we will provide free and reduced price meal programs for students ensure all students see themselves represented in their books in our libraries and classrooms advocate for the rights of our Workforce to engage in collective bargaining and other protected Union activities advocate for the importance of the Department of Education and keep the conversation about education as a human

233right at the Forefront proudly support diversity equity and and inclusion practices strengthen restorative practices and social emotional support in our schools support and celebrate students employees and families with different talents and abilities Elevate the voices and the histories of our communities through culturally responsive curricula and teaching protect Health and Welfare benefits and fight climate change and imp Implement meaningful ecos sustainability policies and initiative so what this motion says is that while we said this at a press conf confence we're actually going to adopt these items as part of La USD uh were there any of you who wish to be heard on this go ahead just a few words um this resolution um is and I please I want to co-sponsor I guess we're all co-sponsoring this is a bold and necessary Shield against the

234looming threats to public education a public good that we must uh protect fiercely and defend L USD stands as a beacon of inclusivity a safe harbor for all and this resolution fiercely declares that we will not cower in the face of those who seek to undermine the very Foundation of a diverse and Vibrant Community I wholeheartly support this unwavering commitment to protecting our students families and staff thank you board member Goldberg all right anybody else wish to be heard we have speakers oh I'm sorry doc okay superintendent just very briefly uh the thank you board president for this important resolution I believe this resolution elevates and encases under the protective guise of policy the values and principles that Orient uh this school district uh values of protection values of representation and uh principles that quite

235frankly uh humanize everyone under our care so thank you very much for transitioning from idea to pronouncement a couple of a number of weeks ago to now policy that will Orient the practice uh of our school system the speakers in the in the community okay Damen Cruz coming up Daman uh Iris Suarez kibu Hutchinson she come come on up you have two minutes to speak once you begin good afternoon board my name is AA Hutchinson I'm a parent member of students deserve and I'm also with the black lgbtq plus parent and caregiver group and the women's leadership project which provides prevention education programming for black girls girls of color and black queer youth I stand in Firm support of this resolution to protect our most vulnerable youth communities from the onslaught of fascistic right-wing public

236policy as a parent of a non-binary Hamilton High student who has benefited from the black student achievement plan I'm also standing with the community to demand that you not cave to racist white supremacist attacks on the initiative which stem directly from the project 2025 regime the district's decision to provide BP resources to all students threatens to further undermine the considerable academic and social emotional gains black students have made under the eges of Bap black students across gender and sexuality have benefited significantly from culturally specific trauma informed Mental Health Resources that redress the harm inflicted by systemic anti-black racism sexism homophobia and transphobia under Bap our students graduation College Prep College admission and gate assignment rates have increased and they have thrived with the support of dedicated psws and other staff bucking the historic anti-black toxicity

237they've experienced in the district systemically due to the vilification of Bap by white nationalist groups Bap professionals are fearful for their jobs in the affirming School climates they've helped create our in Jeopardy we are calling on you to permanently expand Bap funding by 100 million and give the Bap steering committee real decisionmaking power not tokenism under Bap our students have been able to imagine they've been able to dream they've been able to Blossom in their creativity through HBCU tour field trips Community mentors safe passage programs and wellness events as the black queer poet Langston Hughes once wrote what happens to a Dream Deferred does it dry up like a raising in the sun hell no we will not allow this dream to dry up be deferred derailed defunded or dissed black students and families will

238not tolerate your inaction and complicity with regimes of criminalization that seek to erase us be on the right side of history and put the black back in Bap thank you for your time uh Drew mcnight Drew mcnight Emily Vasquez Emily Vasquez uh deanii Turner uh Elizabeth VI aobos Connie Emory uh Devin beard okay and Maria Daisy Ortiz is listed as speaking remotely but I do not have her signed in are you in the room Miss Ortiz okay that concludes public comment on Tab 40 uh shall we vote Yes all right nobody ask uh call uh Dr McKenna Dr Ras yes Mr Schmelson yes Mr mevin yes Miss gones Miss orti Franklin board president Goldberg yes uh Miss Cortez Lopez yes all right item passes all right we go through well I'm sorry I think I'd

239know by now wouldn't you um the consent calendar means that everybody in that is a board member receiv received books that look like this we had a chance to read them we had a chance to ask questions of staff and uh many of the items people have agreed upon as board members that we going to pass and so rather than call them one at a time we take them all together on the consent calendar if you have a question or a comment on an item we will take it off consent uh so it doesn't mean that by the way even if it's off consent it does not mean the item won't pass it means one or more board members still wants to talk about it before we pass it or not okay so item one

240approval of procurement actions all right that's a QE uh approval of facility contracts consent consent uh Define and approve two projects to provide critical Replacements and upgrades of of building sites and compon components consent item four Define and approve two accessibility enhancement projects and amend the facility services division consent item five approve 16 projects funded by the expanded learning opportunities program and 13 projects funded by medical reimbursement question item six Define and approve three charter school facility upgrade projects and amend consent item s seven Define and approve 26 Board District priority and region priority projects uh item eight has been withdrawn item nine donation it's been postponed oh I'm sorry not withdrawn thank you very much for correcting me postponed withdrawn would have meant it would never come back postpone means it's being delayed uh

241item nine donations of money and materials to the district item 10 report of cash dispersements item 11 establish fund 17 Special Reserve fund for other than capital outlay projects item 12 approval of routine Personnel actions item for 13 provisional internship permits item 14 strengthening Career Technical educ act the per Perkins 5 Grant item 15 recommended adoption of textbooks for Arts dual language ethnic studies and English language arts question okay item 16 has been withdrawn item 17 approval of the renewal of uh petition for Global education Academy questions okay okay that's off consent item 18 approval of the renewal petition for ednovate USC hybrid High College Prep consent uh item number 19 approval of the renewed position for ICF VI Park Preparatory M middle school that's off consent 19 is off consent item 20 approve the

242uh renewal petition for citizens of the world School Silver Lake item 21 approval the renewal of provision petition for ednovate uh Brio College Prep consent item 22 approval of the renewal position for ednovate esparanza college prep consent item 23 approval of renewal petition for par Nino's Charter question okay and again remember even if there are questions it doesn't mean it won't pass it doesn't mean it will but it means that there's more discussion uh item 24 approval of the renewal P petition for downtown value item 25 approval of the renewal petition for equitus Academy 2 item number 26 approval of the renewal postition for Gabriela Charter 2 item 27 renewal of the petition for mon Senor Oscar Romero Charter Middle School item number 28 approval of the renewal of position petition for Santa Monica Boulevard

243Community Charter item 29 approval of the renewed petition for Synergy Charter Academy item 30 approval of the renewal petition for Fenton Avenue Charter consent item 31 approval of the renewal position for Fenton Primary Center uh oh which one 31 I'm sorry it's not on consent 31 is a question off consent we've done 32 we're waiting for Dr McKenna to do 33 uh 35 is an initial announcement 36 is the reappointment of the member of the Personnel committee consent consent item 37 report of correspond including Williams re uniform complaint quarterly report summary and we've done the rest of them so we have uh on consent the following items make sure everybody agrees item two three 4 6 7 9 10 12 13 um 18 not 19 yeah 30 36 37 and that would be it everybody

244agreed that those are the ones okay that's what I've got so uh what we should do next now is we will now begin to hear the speakers on the various items that are on the consent calendar comes Dr McKenna oh well no we're not we're going to do Dr m can's resolution first when do you want to hear Rec recusals now so we have one recusal that will take place when the discussion actually happens on that particular item all right all right so if you are here uh for items number 18 21 22 and 30 and you have speakers here you are still welcome because these are public hearings to speak but you won't affect the outcome because it's already Beyond consent so you can take up your own decision on what to do Dr

245McKenna I am calling upon you to present your resolution number 33 recognizing November as National runaway and homeless youth prevention month thank you very much I apologize for being out um pardon me I'm introducing this motion to recognize November as National runaway and homeless youth prevention month pressing issue of our time is the crisis of housing affordability particularly here in California we also know that our mayor is working with elected Civic and Community leaders to address the issue she's working outside of the classroom but we have important work to do here in our classrooms for there are no Simple Solutions to our housing crisis we are charged with educating our students without consideration to their addresses every day there are employees in our district who do everything in their power to provide support and resources

246to students who may be housing insecure we want our students to learn grow and thrive in school we affirm that our schools are safe places and will work to eliminate barriers to academic success I thank Mr schur for his co-sponsorship ship and ask for your affirmative vote you thank you Dr McKenna I have some comments on that also uh we refuse to give up on our homeless youth during this difficult time the district is implementing services such as laundry trucks Mental Health Services among other things however we will always seek to provide more resources for our students to assist them during their hour of need so thank you Dr McKenna Dr Rivas yes I'd like to be added as a co-sponsor as well and I am very thankful for you bringing uh Dr McKenna Mr

247schmon this resolution I appreciate the resolution and recognizing November as National runaway and homeless youth prevention month and bringing much needed attention to the challenges faced by this vulnerable pop potion thank you for highlighting the district's commitment to supporting homeless youth through education and targeted resources and supports thank you comments from other board members Mr melv just I'd love to be added as a co-sponsor excellent thank you thank you okay so we're going to we have uh any public comment from that we have no public comment on that item okay so we'll move on to item one is that well we should we can vote on this on Dr mcken okay yes go ahead yes I'll move it okay uh yeah let's have a motion in a second so moved by Mr schmon and seconded

248by um Dr McKenna okay I'm GNA call the role Dr McKenna yes Dr Rivas yes Mr schroen yes Mr mvo yes Miss KZ M Otis Franklin board president Goldberg and miss Cortez Lopez yes okay the item passes yeah we can clap for that uh and if you'd like to we can move to the uh speakers on consent okay speakers on consent so we have a speaker for um item two we have Miss Robina Su speaking to item two approval of facilities contracts actions uh please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak when once you begin Robina Su hi good afternoon rabina Su executive director of California safe schools and the environmental representative on the IPM team I'm here to express opposition to providing an extension to the blankin ship

249contract and to express concerns about a possible conflict of interest with the IPM independent experts in August of 2023 blankin ship entered into a contract with LA UniFi for 95,000 that promised the district that they would provide a revised IPM procedures manual in 90 days now 15 months later blanken chip has failed to provide a draft or any copy of the revised IPM procedures manual to members of the IPM team parents teachers the public or even the IPM ad hoc committee why would the district allow this and where is the document blankin ship request of $5,000 includes a request for an extension through July of 2025 in additional nine months a total of almost two years without a product being produced notably this means that the LA unified will also be later in responding to

250issues raised by their own Inspector General report on behalf of parent and environmental IPM team Representatives we respectfully request La unified legal council review any potential conflict of interest regarding the independent IPM expert who serves on the IPM team is paid by La unified and also receives payment through the LA UniFi blankin ship contract for the same and similar activities under a 5050 contract agreement with blankin ship as a member of the IPM team I'm concerned about the delay and the critical health and safety issues especially when it comes to La UniFi children teachers and staff thank you for your time and consideration thank you to board member McKenna for all of your great work and thank you for your time thank you for your time okay that concludes comment on tab two uh we

251do not have any on Tab uh three or four we have public comment on Tab six six Define and approve three charter school facilities upgrade projects and amend the facility services division's strategic execution plan to incorporate therein Natasha Bara are you here Natasha B Natasha okay uh Hillary goyal Hillary goyal are you here uh both those folks not here AB seven we do not I'm sorry so one of the tricky Parts about our system is if someone list thes as in person um I don't always check online so n Natasha Bara you're you're online please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak hi thank you so much for president Goldberg members of the board my name is Natasha and I'm calling on behalf of Camino and Noel Charter Academy

252number four wanted to take a moment to say thank you uh we are so deeply appreciative of the district's use of bond dollars to enhance the outdoor space for our students uh we know they will enjoy the space for years to come and we are grateful for your support and commitment to all students so again thank you so much just to thank you uh thanks for your time appreciate it okay uh let's see tab n 10 11 uh tab 12 approval of routine Personnel actions we have uh one caller Troy Xavier Leonard so that's tab 12 Troy are you in the room you're listed as calling in uh and you are not and you're not here so we'll move along have consent speakers for tab 18 the public hearing so I'll read some public hearing

253language and then anything that's on any of the uh Charter petition renewals are part of uh public hearing so before action is taken on tabs 17 through 31 a public hearing must be held these are approval for the um renewal approval petitions for the following Global education Academy ednovate USC hybrid High School High College Prep ICF View Park Prep middle citizens of the world Charter School Silver Lake ednovate Brio College Prep ednovate Esperanza College Prep paros n Charter downtown value equitas Academy 2 Gabriella Charter 2 monor Oscar Romero Charter Middle School Santa Monica Boulevard Community Charter Synergy Charter Academy Fenton Avenue Charter and Fenton Primary Center this constitutes a public hearing on tabs 17 to 31 and a maximum of 15 individuals who wish to address the board on each each of these items will

254be heard those who wish to speak should sign up online speakers will be called by name some of these items as you have heard in the audience are on consent and some are not so I'm going through the items on Tab 17 through 31 uh Charter petition renewals that are on the consent calendar which also have folks signed up for public comment just for clarity so this is tab 18 uh Don Al Bailey if there is anyone in the audience coordinating organizing activities who knows that this entire group is left that would be very helpful to me uh Clarissa palaos Marita Ramirez NATO Oliver cat okay so I'm I'm okay great so it sounds like these folks have already left I'm going to read through them just in case Leslie Hernandez Rod Lopez Lorena Gomez

255naria Lopez Marita Ramirez Estella Hernandez Danielle mahz Estella Hernandez Jenny AAS Michael Gaspar Ryan ranesi and Melanie Lea I'm told they're all gone I've read their names it sounds like they're not here so that item is complete and going on to consent uh let's see so tab 21 approval of the renewal petition for ednovate Brio College Prep there are 15 speakers signed up all in person um Nathan ala you're waving time okay I'm being told they waving time so I will um I will close this out for the folks who are just listening clo uh waving time means those folks who signed up to speak on this tab are choosing not to speak despite having the opportunity to do so uh because the item is on the consent calendar pending uh just basically awaiting approval

256so tab 22 approval of the renewal petition for ednovate esparanza college prep um I'm being told also that they're waving the time lot of hand waving so those listening again the same thing is happening uh folks have signed up to speak but are waving that right to speak because the item has been moved to the consent calendar for approval have tab 30 that's uh Penton Fenton Avenue Charter also waving I appreciate everyone's patience I'm marking I'm marking the waiver for our records thank you sir I'm just going to call the names of folks who didn't list themselves as coming from that organization because I would hate to uh miss someone who signed up to speak on some other topic within this issue Monica castanera great Kristen Kian Angelica Ramos Jessica Diaz yena yenia Al alferez

257Donna fetu okay uh and then Crystal Martinez are you in the room no and Jan M Chan okay item 36 is also UNC consent but has no speakers item 37 report of Correspondence including Williams uniform complaint quarterly this is a public hearing so I'm going to go ahead and read the public hearing statement for that tab 37 before action is taken on the report of correspond regarding the Williams uniform complaint quarterly report summary from the director of the educational Equity compliance office a public public hearing must be held this constitutes a public hearing on the report and a 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 do so online speakers will be called by name

258Mr David Norman Tok kovski there you are come on Don you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin thank you very much speaking both on litigation and the Williams compliance very happy to see the incredible surge of complaints on Williams yet in every classroom still there is not the compliance that Jackie Goldberg wrote as a state legislature and before she leaves me we can honor her by putting her name up in every classroom I say Williams complain so when the heat spell came you see in the valley on those documents there how many Williams complaints suddenly surged because the air conditionings weren't working and a few people knew that you could file uh a complaint form so it's still inadequate in the number if you if you're a valley representative like Mr Schon or

259M gonz you know the numbers that were happening they're not that high right there um so that's one thing is there's some success but it would be much better if everybody if I were the head of an organization or a union or something like that I would have these filled out because as Miss Goldberg said to the superintendent over a year ago because she wrote the letter legislation rather than having people calling you up about each item in a school that's not working they should just fill out the form and the system should kind of work but it's not working that well until we have a 115 degree Surge and all the machines are breaking number two litigation uh tomorrow in close session you have a case uh on special ed that is really remarkable

260uh the district fought a family with a kid with a Down syndrome and that kid was asking for being included in regular summer school and we were told that the kid has to go to the esy summer school okay the administrative hearing officer sided with the district but the superior court judge said no that kid deserves a rich education in a regular summer school so today on itm five you're taking some of your elop money which can be very flexible but why don't you enrich special Leed students with some of that elop money instead of buying rubber mats and playground equipment with with your your elop money it's flexible a lawyer said it's okay but it isn't really the right instructional Focus to make sure we can enrich programs that we know need support like

261special ed thank you okay Mr Juan Jose mandhi I see you I thought I saw you in the room um Mr Mandi is going to speak in Spanish so if you'd like to hear what he's saying in English as he's speaking Spanish please put your hands up and we'll get you these translation headsets so they're going to bring them out right now so please put your hands up if you'd like to experience s aneous translation just like the UN we're just handing out a couple more don't be shy okay graas good afternoon listen how how how fun when business are big the rivals are in accordance and everyone agrees I believe that you're very generous La us is very generous Miss Charter Better Business you could have had it could have been better than this

262day the Rival the Rivalry has ended because everything has to do with business just like the new president says we will we will fight we will fight for anything except money and business great job Charter you did it and good to you too because what you care about is business our business you do a lot of resol resolutions but you're never protecting parents the parents complaints within the charters and L USD do not exist because you what you do here is your incumbent Hypocrites and you cover the problems the parent the parents problems that are the problems that the parents are going through at the schools let's remove the hypocrisy and see ex and listen to the people precisely listen to us the parents because we are the real representatives and all those children that

263make business for you have this type of life that I wish I had your life how many millions do you does a charter school take how many how how much money do they take right Miss Rosio I want to I want to be owner of a charter school and I will take advantage of all Latinos because I will manipulate manipulate them I will tell them lies and I will tell them that we fight against Injustice that they are included and that we will protect them so that nothing happens to them but what we really want are the children that are the future votes and that are the future business for the LA USD this is the point try to be coherent with what people want not your personal interest thank you for your time uh

264Diana guen I see you're right there miss gu 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 if you didn't receive a headset and would like one okay it's all yours thank you good afternoon members of the board I've been a representative of parents the last 10 years within the central committees and honestly this is the topic of the Williams case how many parents know that this exists no one know it no one knows about this and this is inequality that exists in the District I love all the resolutions that you mentioned and that you made we will protect the families The Immigrant families but when have you heard us when we want change our children's education when have you

265heard the proposals that we've made Mr smon H when have you heard you've heard us but you haven't made any changes and the the St that's right behind you I'm not sure what his name is he said he would make changes and he hasn't heard us you simply allow us to waste our time to get tired of us to implement the law of tiredness and what you want from us now is say oh we are with the Immigrant Community when we come here to speak and talk about the Necessities for our children that are being taken to the low area of academic and when elpek has asked us for information as how funds are being used then you can't give us you even gave us a letter I hope that this year things change and

266that you are very transparent with the funds that are given to our students why because bar it's so pretty to see I support but what happens when our children are doing well inside the schools all these parents are taking their school their children to Charter Schools why because the district is not succeeding that because you're doing well because you have failed this public students so how is it that these parents don't know about the importance of the Williams Law they don't know what a UCP is they don't know what it is to to make a complaint it's a Discrimination Act you are discriminating against us not giving us the information that we need and not listening to our voice because you listen very well when you talk about immigrant people because you want votes but

267honestly you don't represent us at all thank you thank you for your time okay I believe that concludes public comment for everything that was on the uh consent calendar I'm going to double check very quickly okay that does conclude the public comment on the consent calendar we need a motion in a second to take the consent calendar and then to move it who was the second I second okay that's uh board member gones I'm going to read through the items that were on consent just for uh Clarity sake that the the board is going to vote on right now so on consent for the vote on which we've already heard all the available public comment is item 2 3 4 6 7 9 10 12 13 14 18 21 30 36 and 37 so I'm

268going to take role Dr McKenna yes Dr Ras uh Mr schmon yes Mr melne yes M gonez yes m orti Franklin board president Goldberg uh Miss Cortez Lopez yes okay that's four eyes the consent calendar passes wow even some clapping for the consent calendar that's great um we now have a number of items that remain on the calendar for either questions or discussion um Jackie right here I see Jackie is coming back all right questions on item one before we get there I have a recusal statement to read for uh board member schmon okay thank you uh so under tab one report 78 uh 24/25 approval of procurement actions um if since item one is placed uh for discussion um if either item P or item R of tab one is pulled for discussion the

269conclusion of setting the consent calendar but before discussing either item tab one or hearing speakers you will need to publicly recuse yourself and leave the room so the board may discuss and vote on those items uh Mr Schon you may return to the room after the items have been voted on by the remaining board members and so I'm going to lay I'm I got to lay I got to lay the recusal language on you right now and then um and then we'll move from there in accordance with section 18707 of the California code of regulations board member Schmelson is publicly recusing himself from discussing or taking action on either tab one so that's attachment B item p c 5898 ifb pound sign 20 3692 and tab one attachment B item R c451 piggyback contract of

270the board report 782 24/25 due to his interest in uh stock interest in Ford Motor Company so to be clear you're free to vote on everything uh except those items and you're free to discuss everything except those those two items under under tab one so um all right and since you did you call it off consent just for the recusal or do you have question go ahead ask your question so tab one attachment B that's correct yeah then no question on no question would be allowed on that okay that'll take care of that problem uh any anybody else have any items yeah but she just finally went to lunch uh anybody else have any items uh on item one that be asked about all right so hearing none Let's uh hear the public speakers on

271item one and maybe Dr Rivas will be back to ask her question by the time they're done okay we have five public speakers on Tab one approval of procurement actions duli Rojo dul doy Rojo uh see Laura Basquez laa Vasquez yabi Valdez uh Jasmine Gonzalez and natim natima Angus okay so none of those folks are are you coming down is no this is for procurement actions Fenton is is not up okay okay um just so folks know there someone in the audience was asking is this for one tab that is not this tab uh so they are signed up on the incorrect tab so we're going to we're going to move on um so one two three four okay the vote can take place on Tab one absent uh Mr schmon do we know uh

272whether Dr rias's questions well I I'm I'm not going to wait we we just have to move on so we've got four at the at the table Yeah so go ahead and nobody has any other questions and we've heard the speakers call the roll please we let's let's move it and then I'll move it second so mooved by Mr mne second by uh Miss gones Dr McKenna voting on number one now just tab one sir yes that's yes Dr revas Mr schmon definitely no uh Mr melin yes Miss gones yes M orti Franklin uh board president Goldberg yes and Miss Cortez Lopez okay that's four it passes please close the roll okay all right we're now up to where's my I lost list which one what's the next item I'll get there one more pieces

273of paper Scott had questions on okay let's let Scott know he can come back I'm going to go get board M okay God too much paper but I had a list I lost my list I can't find my List's my list oh had it here a minute ago okay want me to yeah move five I will move item five second CH five okay and we had uh questions on item five from who is that Scott that's not going to help all right so let's hear the public comment on item five since Scott's not here the item was moved yes and seconded thank you uh okay so we have one speaker on this item is that correct yes we have one speaker it uh looks to be uh Mr David Norman tolkovsky come on up you

274have two minutes to speak if some of you are wondering why why Mr toosi has managed to speak on two different items one was one was a public hearing so uh folks are allowed to sign up for as many public hearings as they want in addition to one uh public speaking slot so that that's the rules that's the rules and if you sign up on time you could speak on all the public hearings on Charters and give a sermon on Charters but I didn't do that thank you sir you're welcome okay so item five is $2 million from elop Extended Learning opportunity program and $20 million from medical reimbursements they're being because this item was prepared months ago we hadn't passed the facilities bond for $9 billion and so instead of playing for rubber mats

275and playground equipment out of $9 billion we're taking it from instructional causes so let me just be very clear I'm sure a lawyer approved these things I'm sure there's plenty of gray area in them board members were probably not asked how they would like to spend elop money but every senior person was asked hurry up we got to spend elop money and so somebody came up with rubber mats and and and playground equipment where that could be paid for if if somebody amends this or the superintendent team just move it to the $9 billion so you can use the elop money for instructional purposes for for learning similarly the medical reimbursements there's three different categories so we got to make sure this is the right category being flexed this can be used for psychologists social

276workers counselors uh Wellness coaches AP assistant principles of for training and learning for special ed we could enrich the summer school which you'll read about in your closed session for special ed kids they get a minimum federal requirement you can enrich it with medical money so there's all sorts of instructional goals that I think are important especially now that we've passed $9 billion for facilities and so I recommend the superintendent or board change it avoid the embarrassment of all of this avoid uh not doing the best for special needs kids put this money towards instructional goals it's as simple as saying do oh no that means division of instruction sorry okay thank you for your time uh maybe we could have someone from staff talk about the fact that we didn't know that bond issue

277was going to pass and whether it does make a difference to them that it did in terms of how we fund these things because if it does make a difference maybe we can postpone but if it doesn't make a difference anyway we can go ahead good afternoon Christina toes uh Chief facilities executive um we have been working very closely with the cfo's office and division of instruction to make sure that these projects are in alignment with the district strategy that includes scening projects and others I know that you'll be getting a presentation on elop at the next cow um the way that these are funded is that they are just with funds that will expire depending on when elop funds were received and so we are earmarked to spend these as they are planned um

278if there is a recommendation at some further date to see what we could pay with bond funds now that we know the bond funds could do that we can always do that at some point in time so you're saying even if you'd already known that the bond fund would pass that that we put on the ballot it wouldn't have changed this item at all correct thank you anybody else have any questions or comments yeah I want to Dr McKenna go ahead Dr yes yes yeah I just I'm talking I had my head turn um now we know now that we know that measure us was us was successful would it makes sense to fund these projects from the bond dollars and save these money for projects or Investments that are closer to the classroom I

279think that that's um well let's say approving these Now does not uh preclude the Ford from changing these at a later point in time um I think the challenge will be is how you find a way to spend elop funds that are expiring quickly um given that these um are one-time funds and we don't want to use them necessarily on labor when we know that they are going to end at the end of this fiscal year or the next fiscal year and the same with the medical it's a one-time fund so we're looking at Investments that we can quickly expand that have a significant impact to our students okay thank you very much any other questions no I'll just just will add that um I mean this is why we've been asking for the elop

280overview for a while now I know we're getting December I will note that we did as we did the budget adoption a few months ago the elop spending for some of these things playground I'm just looking right now but um playground uh UPG upgrades and playground restoration portable pools outdoor education center projects was something we approved so we did have this discussion but appreciate the team saying that they'll come back to us to see what we can change we also have the outstanding cops um going forward and um we do know that lot of districts are are returning elot money we're not going to be one of them so I'm glad that we're continuing to spend them for students but but I think it's a worthwhile point and something we can discuss and that's why

281we've been asking for this elot plan that we're finally going to get in a few weeks so I I would just I would just add well I think I think those are all great points and I think a a universal discussion of the different funding sources and prioritization um for our facilities project makes a lot of sense I will just say there's also a timeline benefit of these projects you know these are when you think about the uh the playground restoration projects which are bringing much needed Green Space and shading to our schools um they're going to be completed in less than a year um which is not the norm and that's a huge benefit to be able to utilize those funds to quickly turn around those projects in a way that is not necessarily

282always true with our bond FedEd projects or others that have to go through the state division of State architect um and then I also wanted to highlight just as far as the medical reimbursement um speaking to the special education programs I think that the investment in culinary arts is a hugely important one I was really excited to see that at lman special education center and CTC in my district this is an instructional investment that will directly benefit um our students both in terms of learning but also Pathways to careers so um I really appreciate the staff bringing that forward I think it's going to be super beneficial for students thank you just following on Kelly's excellent points I just want to um there were excellent points thank you but I am in addition to the

283timeline line I also noticed and you don't have to come back out Miss toes but the cost seems lower and that might have to do with what Miss gones was saying when it comes to bond projects that's I mentioned in my facilities and procurement update earlier that we have this audit but when looking at some of these like for the field uh new fields or new play structures it does seem like not only is the time Horizon much shorter than with our bond dollars but the cost is lower so maybe we can have a conversation about why that is and there are things that we can be advocating at the state level with Bond dollars that we're not able that we're able to do with elop dollars so thanks for raing those points too if

284I may also uh at the Cow where we are going to go over elot we'll be clear about how where those facilities expenditures also align to the instructional elements because even for some of our students on playgrounds things like that the outdoor education that's aligned to instructional strategy efforts that we have as well especially to expanded learning opportunities we'll be very explicit at our presentation very good anybody else I just want to make a pledge a plea for E uh for the uh play structures I have at least one school that had their play structure removed because it was unsafe about 10 years ago and it has not been replaced so they have still no play structure and there are other schools as well so I would hope as we take a look going forward

285as to ways we can spend uh money uh for kids that we take a look at at at those structures as well hearing no other request to speak call a roll on item number tab five here we go five Dr McKenna yes Dr Ras uh Mr schmon Mr Melo yes M gonz yes m t Franklin board president Goldberg yes um uh board member student board member Cortez Lopez yes all right if that's four four eyes passes all right the next item I believe is item 11 establish fund 17 special res Reserve fund for other than capital outlay projects there I don't believe any speakers but somebody wanted to ask some questions about the item 17 I have I have Dr Rivas and Mr schmon both having questions and I I'll uh I'll go then let's

286hold item 17 uh I mean item 15 rather uh who called item 17 off the the the remainder of the items that are not placed on consent are I I'll either called for question or discussion by Rosio or Scott I mean Mr Schon and Dr okay so in that case I'd like you to begin going through the consent item um uh okay here's Dr Rea so we can um what I just said we can uh Dr Reas to catch you up we're on Tab 11 tab 11 Dr Rivas and no you don't get to eat it's a fund 17 being set up to uh primarily to provide for an accumulation of general fund monies for General operating purposes other than capital outlay in other words it's like a savings account seems like my notes are

287all over the place sorry um Jesus here it is okay so sorry okay um so basically just wanting to know uh given the complexities of the financial matters and recognizing this as a learning opportunity for the public I'd like to request the further information regarding proposed fund 17 additionally dis discussion oh just because the um the board report was very you know vague just wanted to help us explain what this fund is about and what it's for sure uh fund 17 is provided by the state to allow Boards of Education to set their reserves and multi-year commitments aside from the general fund balance to eliminate the confusion of just seeing a lump sum in the general fund so the only funds that can be transferred into fund 17 are by board action from the general

288fund and and again out also takes board action so it's just a place for you to hold your reserves there are no revenues to fund 17 other than we put in from the general fund um would this be most ideal to discuss at the board retreat that we're having uh next year to really fully understand what what this um what the fund will actually entail so we have a better understanding rather than before we establish it so the the item that the board has actually is theate description of the fund it is brief because it is not an expenditure or a revenue fund it's literally a place for you to hold your savings account that's separate so most districts for example would use any local Reserve that's where they would hold it or long-term commitments

289multi-year commitments that the board has made rather than just holding them in the general fund and say you know uh we eventually do vote on this fund um how will future Financial audits ensure transparency and accountability for this fund so fund 17 is audited with all other funds annually um and the other thing to note about fund 17 is that you actually have to take action to move money in and out of it and so for example the first time that we would be utilizing it is at the first interim part of the first interim report would be to tell you here's our recommendation of what to put there and the board can of course accept that recommendation or they can change it or they can deny that recommendation and why are we doing at

290this time and what are the benefits of establishing this fund the benefits are are transparency and Clarity so our ending fund balance particularly in general fund people just think it's a a the technical term it's a blob of money and they struggle to understand what those different pieces are even though the board has identified things that they want set aside there and so having it somewhere else so it doesn't confuse what's actually available uh for expenditures help helps clarify things and why are we doing this now uh we actually used to do it and for some reason one of the CFOs in the past decided to stop using it so it's just gone away so we're reauthorizing we don't know why the previous CFO wanted a uh it tends to be a communication tool whether

291a CFO or a superintendent finds it helpful for the board to make better understanding of the budget uh and the amount of conversation and confusion about our general fund balances has Illustrated to us that there is some confusion there and just last question just want to make sure that the finance office will commit to providing regular reports to the board on fund 17's activity including balance income expenditures and intend and purposes um and also provide us with uh a report on this yeah so actually fund 17 will be part of your interm reports and and as will the request to move money in there specific to the purpose that it's moved there for and the time that it would be taken out and only the board can make that that's correct sort of that um

292official transfer of funds into fund 17 correct so so theoretically if I were to say move a $100 million because you've committed that money to do XYZ and the board would say maybe approved or no or they might say approved but we only feel like $80 million was the commitment we made so all of those things are possible when we actually are doing those those uh transactional reviews during the first interim and would you be providing the board recommendations as to which fund should be moved into this fund absolutely yep okay that's all my questions for now thank you anybody else has the item been moved moved okay hearing no other requests and I didn't see any people to want oh there's one speaker is there no that's on the next item so on the

293established fund 17 Special Reserve fund uh call a roll on item 11 Dr McKenna yes Dr Ras abstain Mr schmon no uh Mr MN yes Miss gones yes Miss Ortiz Franklin board president Goldberg yes that's four eyes one no and one abstention for a pass and board I mean student board member Cortez Lopez okay okay item 15 the textbook adoption for Arts dual language ethnic studies and English language I believe we have one speaker okay so for tab 15 we have two call-in speakers okay Edwin wac Edwin wac you're signed up to speak remotely are you in the room no and we have uh Miss Maria Daisy Ortiz um Miss Ortiz is going to speak in Spanish so if you want to hear what she's saying in English through the speakers despite being her being

294remote please use these uh headsets if you need headsets please put your hand up and we'll we'll get you a headset um they turn on automatically when you open them and to hear English they should be on channel two in case you are not hearing uh that language okay all right Maria Daisy Ortiz please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin my name is Maria Daisy Ortiz and really I was not registered for this um item I was for 40 and I'm going to talk about 40 because I was online and they did not allow me to speak unmute myself I was saying that that it was about inclusion the resolution about inclusion inclusion with um or being assigned is not the same thing because if

295there's no appropriate accommodation for all our children it is not inclusion safety so the school police needs to return to schools because the school police was a department that was placed there for a reason you are reactionary and you took away the police without having a solid structure so that our children are able to be safe also inclusion means that in that narrative about that resol resolution Miss Goldberg you said families students and staff and are you afraid to put parents because the students that you serve have parents they are not orphans and we parents need to be included not only to give recommendations but also on the decision making process so to be included you need to include parents as well and that is what you have not done you do not represent us

296as parents Latino parents as immigrant parents as parents who are frustrated due to the negligence and safety that the district L USD has done with our children and because of this reason it is the moment now to make that resolution to not have a narrative that is just on paper because the paper can um face anything but to implement it in an inclusive and Equitable man and it for it to be a mutual commitment we parents have been ignored we have been used and not included it is the great difference and so for that reason the resolution I'm an agreement but who's going to monitor how will it be implemented I hope that you truly every single one of you can show that you are here so that you are a have an inclusion that

297is for everybody including parents thank you and have a nice afternoon I'll move have a question I have a question I'll have I'm happy to Move It I second I just have a question ahead okay has it been moved and seconded great are the new materials aligned with our current English learner e and Standard English learner SEO master plan that was adopted in 2018 18 have number here hello good afternoon uh Kimberly balala administrative coordinator for library and textbook support uh yes they are um aligned uh we follow the rubric that goes with the California CDE and it um part of the standards of what we're uh aligning it to addresses those items good thank you for that response I appreciate it thank you thank you okay Dr Rivas I thought you okay I didn't

298know you had questions go ahead yeah I I think I was one of the ones that um had a question here I just want to know how um closely are you working with the ethnic studies committee and the selection of of materials for the ethnic studies how is that relationship going good afternoon good evening excuse me Stan Le a coordinator for ethic studies matters related social sciences so we work throughout the year with the committee and ethic studies we are um tied to the contract language though of what the committee's overviews or what their input is or what their um U support entails and to that end within the contract language there is no mention of the textbook or textbook approval process but this is a big butt is that is that we do take

299a lot of input throughout the year for example input on on um what a course might look like the definition was for for example an ethnic studies was was created uh very deeply in collaboration with the committee so we use a lot of that understanding that framing to to um review the textbooks can we have just your name for the record just so everyone of course yes sorry I said it kind of fast estan Lea the reason I asked because as the board informative on March 14 2023 it indicates um to lead discussions with the LUSD UT ethnic studies committee to provide input on the development of a list of recommended lit for grades utk and 8 that elevates ethnic studies Concepts res representation and diversity um the the recommended list will highlight literature that

300includes the principles ofer self-determination humanization and also facilitate collaboration between um okay no that's not yeah so that was the that was the one point I mentioned there also I mentioned I re the reason I mentioned is is we received um a letter from the committee um expressing deep frustration and lack of collaboration and transparency and so I wanted to ask this question to make sure you address that and and the and address the letter that that was sent to us and to the collaboration and transparency and within the ethnic studies development course and and also materials that are being used thank you for that what I can say is that every one of the uh requests in terms of uh request for a number of meetings has been exceeded from the utla uh portion

301of the team the the uh input for course uh development for example the new newly revised Cho studies course the committee had deep input in that the development of the professional development rubric which I believe is the first in the state of any for any District also had deep uh collaboration with the uh UT members of the committee uh we even had uh additional meeting times just to ensure that they had any had any questions uh any questions regarding the the the potential for a certificate also it included very deep discuss questions and input from the committee so um we believe that every one of the points tied to the contract I mean we're tied to what the language is in the contract so we exceeded a lot of that but we can't really go

302beyond the bounds of what the contract States so but u in terms of what the outcomes have been they have been uh very strong and other districts have used our the work in this District as an example of what can happen in a distric of the scale and scope and size of La unified well I hope that is true and um I would also like to request an updated board informative this was from March of last year just to provide us some updates particularly on the next steps that are mentioned here okay thank you anyone else on 15 I have a couple of questions myself uh one of them is uh have you reached out to the Muslim parents Association about issues on that and uh can they be invited in to discuss maybe doing

303a some kind kind of additional material that could be added to any existing courses have we done anything about that I would like to request if you haven't that you do meet with them I we have received uh suggestions from other members of the division of instruction I believe the uh Human Rights Commission uh committee excuse me has had some input uh we haven't made any specific appointments with any one group but we have had conversations with with members of the community well I'm requesting then that you meet with the Muslim parents Association my office has how to reach them uh but I've had several meetings with them and I believe what they could do would be to write maybe a unit that could be used by any of the courses but it would be

304clearly uh representative of what Islam is and what it isn't okay the other thing I would request is that every time you bring in an idea of adoption of textbooks that in our little blue room you have the books so that they are they here I asked that before they for you okay thank you I I've had heard from parents all the time that they'd like to see them so if they're at the meeting where we adopt them if you wanted to see those books are they still out there all right thank you that's all I needed anybody else my question from last time is could we have them in the Regional Offices also that was my question from last time yes uh I am reaching out to the vendors right now the Publishers they're

305going to send them to me and then I will send them to each region so they will be there all right this has been moved by uh guest uh member gz and seconded by member melv call the rooll on item 15 please Dr McKenna yes Dr yes Dr Ras Sor Mr schmon yes Mr mevo yes board member gonz yes uh Miss Ortiz Franklin uh board president Goldberg yes my apologies I don't know student member uh Cortez Lopez yes item passes all right we now move to item 17 now um on the uh approvals for um these uh Charters uh did any I want to know how many people wanted to speak on each one of these that have been called off because if it's only one I may ask you to do all your questions

306if it's more than one we'll take them separately so how many people asked to speak about uh item 17 just Dr revas right okay item 19 oh were you the only one item uh 20 23 4 five 6 7 8 nine right we're the only one on all of those okay uh because in the interest of time I'll Scott Mr Schon has a question on 31 okay so we won't have you okay we'll take we'll take 31 separately but what I would like you to do because I want the folks uh from our uh Charter School group to come up I'm sure that they're here and so we can have you ask your questions on all of them and then we'll take the public comment on each one of them one at a time and

307you'll get the last word because it's on the last yes I wanted to know if I could ask a a a generalized question before Mr Co Gutierrez comes up to help me understand better about the whole uh renewal process if I if I could I think it's the same person okay so may I ask the question Jackie I can ask the question okay so my question is not specifically about global educationmy renewal but some general questions about the charter renewal process this past September state state controller Malia Cohen released a 50-page audit report titled audit best practices for detecting and curtailing Charter School fraud after reviewing the report many rules will apply to the independent Auditors however the state controller found an alarming oversight breach from some independent Auditors during the whole process and my

308question is how do we fast check the Auditors we should able we should be uh able to review their findings independently and is there a process for doing that or is there one forthcoming there's more there's more another question I have concerns the legislative analysis office and fiscal management assistant team's recommendation on thirdparty contracts and possible conflicts of interest so this might fall under the state legislator's purview however some of the reports states that authorizers are responsible for ongoing oversight so do we consider whether businesses associated with the Charter Schools board also impact the Charter Schools operation and and should we not consider that when deciding whether to approve or not approve and if a board member sits on a Charter School's governing board how do they report potential conflicts of interest is it self-reported

309or not and can you explain to the public what a sweeps contract sweeps contract at a charter school is sweeps and can you identify any schools on this list who have this type of contract with a vendor they do business with and lastly out of the 15 Charter Schools up for Renewal 14 have academic benchmarks fiscal concerns or Ela or math performance issues so what are the charter schools division's plans to monitor their progress and ensure that they have all the necessary resources to ensure students do not fall further behind so that's a whole bunch of questions and I will repeat them if you have a question thank you and on the last one I heard you say 14 there are fewer there probably about five with the bench marks for clarity but I'll address

310that that question okay thank you first of all good evening Madame board president superintendent board oh good afternoon well you know what the time change Jose Cole Gutierrez director Charter Schools division board vice president thank you for your questions I'll try to be brief and responding to them first we through regard to the audit uh study that you mentioned as you noted most of the recommendations are for Auditors and certainly our team reviews every single independent audit for all of our independent Charter Schools each year December 15th they're due and thereafter we we uh review that every item uh reports on those audit findings so in short while we're still reviewing the whole of the report in terms of any other changes that we need to make I would say that in most of these

311are align our practices are aligned with those recommendations to ensure accuracy accountability and the like and physical solvency okay now um we also gave input earlier in the year on another anti- fraud effort throughout the state so this is a topic of great interest to us and we have professionals on our team many of them that are certified fraud examiners that are also doing this work so I'm confident in their work and we're always trying to learn and be better to the to the fmat of recommendations in fact our team and our lead fiscal um administrator Miss lilan Lee and all of our oversight administrators review fmat recommendations and in fact many of our oversight um items that we check for are aligned to those very uh recommendations we pay close attention to um expenditures

312we do random sampling of check balance registers credit card expenditures and the like most Charter Schools do very well but in the past we have had concerns and we've raised those concerns and have taken appropriate action as part of renewal if there are any significant fiscal issues that could be a reason for denial of the renewal okay so we we pay close attention to those um recommendations and and to inform our oversight okay uh in terms of the um the sweeps contract if I might may may we talk a little bit more to uh and then maybe provide a response in Wy us to that uh for greater Clarity okay and uh I think I've oh and then the benchmarks in this set of materials we do have four with academic benchmarks and one with

313fiscal benchmarks and the fiscal benchmarks to your point deal with our review of the audit among other things uh we can talk about that at that time uh the academic ones each year regardless of a Benchmark or not we're reviewing schoolwide performance and the performance of every student group regardless of numerical significance statistically we we we want to make sure that every single child is being served uh so should the board approve these benchmarks we will assess those on an annual basis document that in the oversight report and then review that as part of our renewal process at this time okay thank you so now turn your mic on Goldberg uh item number 17 uh Global education uh Academy your question Dr Rivas or questions well first I would like to preface with some remarks

314just to uh for everyone to understand and also for the Charter School Division and my colleagues to understand why uh I have questions and just want to highlight some things on on these Charter School renewals it's not that I'm not going to vote no but I think we deserve to have a discussion on The Middle performing schools uh today we address the renewal of charter schools within our district this is an opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to the success of every student in our care when our Charter Schools Thrive our students Thrive and let us be clear let me be clear the students enrolled in charter schools within our district are our students and I recognize that uh we share Collective responsibility for the well-being of our students and their academic success as uh we

315Embark in the review process process I want to emphasize the importance of comprehensive and Equitable approach as we learned in the charter school um committee that the state places the charter schools in the middle performing because they're not either High performing or low performing it's like a default category that was created um we must delve deeply into the data because the reason they're middle performing is they uh perform the state at least by one indicator which doesn't necessarily mean that all of the indicators that they're performing well so I think that we need to do a a deep dive into the data examining not only the overall academic performance but also the experience of specific student populations this includes closely monitoring the academic achievement suspension rates chronic aism of our students of color particularly black

316African-American students Latino students students with disabilities socioeconomic disadvantaged students our foster Youth and our homeless youth as well furthermore more um to ensure Equitable access and opportunity I urge us to incorporate disaggregated disenrollment information into evaluations this is data this data is essential to painting the complete picture of what is happening in charter schools it allows us to identify any potential patterns of discriminatory disenrollment and intervene swiftly to ensure that all students have an equal chance to succeed in the next round of renewals I would I expect to see the disenrollment data included as a standard component of the evaluation process with this in mind I am pleased to to to just want to ask some questions in some areas that must be closely monitored and provide some benchmarks for some schools you've already provided

317some and I just want to recommend some or ask you to closely Monitor and have oversight on some of these benchmarks in these schools these benchmarks or areas of of concern are informed by the recommendations and also the data that you provided and the dashboard and I really do commend uh your work and your staff in the Charter School Division your arduous work and support of the charter schools so this is no way trying to throw any um negativity what you provided it's just me as a board member feel that these are areas that I think that I would love for you to continue U monitoring significantly based on the data you provided understood I have added uh some recommendations and I hope that we can work together and Achieve greater progress for all of

318our students I'm confident that working together with the support of the district our dedicated Educators administrators involved students involve parents and and students themselves we can achieve them uh to ensure these benchmarks translate to tangible improvements we must follow a clear and robust accountability framework um in addition academic academic progress through academic progress this accountability framework should address how schools are leveraging community school funding particularly those uh charter schools that are receiving Community Schools Grant from the state uh to support their broader efforts to improve outcomes for all students with a particular focus on those student groups we've identified a needing additional support so these are recommendations for yearly targets uh that I'm asking the Charter School Division to pay close attention to uh by embracing this challenge collaborative holding ourselves accountable we can ensure

319that our Charter Schools truly live up to their promise of providing Innovative and high quality educational opportunities for every child that they serve within this District so now so for Global Eon um Global education Academy with that said um just wanting to know why um any fiscal benchmarks knowing that um they're reducing their enrollment um and any potential concerns that may that you may have that that wasn't mentioned in your report thank you uh bo member Rivas to to the issue of uh fiscal benchmarks and then I may make a comment on the academic a further comment um therea there's a few I want to put in the context of our full review um and we we use a tiered intervention process pursuant to policy and so in oversight we may find for example an

320issue that may warrant a notice of concern and then if that issue so for example maybe there's a small finding in an audit then we want to see the next audit and then if that there's an issue notice to cure could lead to other challenges certainly if we see concerns about any inappropriate expenditures and the like that could Elevate very quickly to a notice to cure potential revocation proceedings um so we try to take that tiered approach uh and put it in the context of the Verity of the issue okay there could certainly be a myriad a myriad of benchmarks in various aspects so we're trying to be as judicious as we can looking at a variety of things but to say here are the the areas that we're looking to really highlight so in

321this in this case the the school with the the benchmarks um this this this didn't rise because of the there was the audit finding related to some federal funding and misclassification our team follow up they have a plan for that and some other checks and balances we will look at their audit this year should the board approve this this this renewal to assess if it's a systemic issue not seeing that in our view we noted for the board and the public for transparency but didn't feel it it it Rose to the level of of a specific benchmarks however um for this conversation and any item in here we will continue to monitor closely but we'll take note that you've you've raised that another concern is there's student achievement educational performance um last year it was

322proficient and 20 well 22 23 was proficient and 2324 it's developing you did mention uh that 2324 was a result of the average score um Califor School dashb workg indicators is specifically uh low ratings and chronic absenteeism and suspension rates so this is an area that we I want you know to have oversight and making it proficient they were proficient now they're developing so there's a concern there and then also in the um organization and Management Programs proficient on 2223 and 23 24 it's developing and also was based on non-compliance with appropriate credentialing and assignment of certified employees um so while this charter school did provide responses and addressing I know that you will monitor this I just wanted to highlight these concerns um that you know and there's also you mentioned the fiscal which

323was you know was proficient now developing so that's why I brought this to um ask these questions and raise concerns and for you to follow up on addressing this and briefly this is why the staff recommends five years for this school it's categorized based on the latest classification as high performing by the state but based on our factors uh we recommend only five years for it um and you also noted earlier about the disenrollment data I just want to make a brief note because obviously materials have been submitted there's a broader conversation and understanding with the state on that so I'd like to confer further with our team to State and then assess the the timing of that the material I just wanted to at least briefly note that uh but we are working to

324obtain um better understanding and usability of the raw data that the state provides um and just lastly on global education just have concerns and would love for you all to have um stronger monitoring on the socio eonic Improvement on the performance of socio economically disant student disadvantaged students and also students with disabilities and Ela so that was and as as I mentioned addressing their chronic absenteeism and their suspension rates so that is all but my vote is yes I would like to thank you yes I just want to highlight some areas that have concerned justy to and yeah may I just ask yeah do does the public know what disenrollment means it's kind of a unusual word what what does disenrollment mean thank you for the question in in short first if a parent or

325student make the choice to disenroll from a charter school by law uh no one can be forced to attend a charter school and so um what the state has in intended to do is capture the data of think about student disenrollment leaving the charter school and the numbers of such occasions to try to I think in the state's View and under the new legis newer legislation to see are there issues here that raise concerns about inappropriate enrollment practices or access and Equity issues at Charter Schools so that's one way you can find disenrollment another one that could come to mind and certainly this would be a concern if if it were the case is a charter school disenrolling a student inappropriately part of our oversight is to assess the the systems the the documentation etc

326for the enrollment practices certainly if we ever had evidence of of an inappropriate disenrollment uh we would address that so those are a couple of uh responses I would offer what is an inappropriate disenroll because I was a principal too and I had loads of kids waiting in line for me at mid-semester disenrolling from the school not on their own valtion well they were dis if such were the case and there is uh for example obviously you have a extreme cases under the law in terms of exposures we're not talking that we're talking about um a disenrollment of a student maybe for I won't speculate the reasons and so here's what we do about that board vice president when we learn about that from our regions for example we receive information as you're saying we

327investigate those we'll contact parents we will discuss the the the nature the specific facts and circumstances uh that led to that and then we will assess if there is an issue there of the charter school taking inappropriate actions of disenrolling a student I will say in some recent cases where that's happened parents have told us I left because I wanted a different option so we also try to dig deeper how often is this happening when is this happening because we've also heard concerns that it happens at certain periods of time in the year so we are also assessing that information but a lot of it comes from uh parent complaints we get information from our colleagues in the field uh and then we try to do our proactive checking through their processes of enrollment okay

328all right now we'll call on people who are here to speak on item 17 uh for on behalf of global education Academy well would we have uh one presenter Linda Lee from the organization please come up and give your two-minute presentation I don't I don't have a presentation material for you right you're just going to give a chat excellent go right ahead Miss Lee okay good afternoon members of the board and superintendent carvalo my name is Linda Le and I am the principal of global education Academy a high trck Charter School located a few blocks south of USC that serves 360 TK to 8th grade students 94% of our students are identified as socioeconomically disadvantaged 44% are English Learners 133% are students with disabilities and 95% are Hispanic GAA has earned various accolades for closing

329the achievement gaps such as being named an honorable school as well as a top public school in Los Angeles Dr Rosio Rivas we've heard your questions and concerns and we will work closely with the Charter School Division these are areas that we've already identified and started um addressing we appreciate your support and to Dr McKenna and president Goldberg thank you for your years of service to our students thank you very much uh do you want to have further speakers on this you'll you're you're fine all right so a motion is now in order on Tab 17 uh uh which is to renew the petition for Global education Academy moved by Mr schmon second by Mr melv melvo Excuse me call all boy I'm gonna really blow this all together Dr McKenna yes Dr Ras yes

330Mr schmon yes Mr melin yes Miss KZ yes M orti Franklin board president Goldberg yes uh student board member Cortez Lopez yes passes all 18 is on consent so now Dr Rivas will let you ask your questions about the renewal P petition for ICF VI Park Preparatory middle um so for this middle performing school I know that there are some benchmarks that you have uh set in place and I'm not going to argue with them um or have no concerns but I do have a concern that at their last renewal they did have also benchmarks um so this is a school that keeps coming up with benchmarks and having to address um you know certain deficiencies or concerns or challenges that they're facing so with that said how confident are you that these uh benchmarks

331that you've set in place will be um addressed or completed by the time become in 5 years sure you know first for the historical perspective as noted the material this school was recommended for denial the last renewal was then ultimately approved to be recommended with benchmarks the materials show uh how they've done they've met some partially met some did not meet others then we had to re review it based on the updates in law and those criteria and I will say based on that the school while there's obviously area for improvement and they they uh we provided benchmarks based on how we're uh reviewing those a student group below the state and red as its color um and so that made that criteria for those specific benchmarks I would say they've made significant progress but

332they still have to make more progress they're verified data met the the criteria um that the state has set and the vendor has set for the the growth metrics uh certainly the school will be most responsible I had the the pleasure of visiting the school unannounced one day and appreciated the team showing me around and I could see that there was a change in culture uh hearing from students seeing the classrooms walking with the principal and uh so I think um you know the school is showing some signs of uh positive gains but still has a lot of work to do uh and ultimately uh the school will have to show us that um that they'll able to meet these benchmarks and we'll be monitoring them very closely uh the other two areas of concern

333are the English learner progress um as I see it it need to increase percentage of El's making progress towards proficiency and also their chronic absenteeism um suggesting to reduce chronic absenteeism rates by at least hopefully 3% annually if possible particularly for black and African-American students and those with disabilities and also you know want to hi you know want to also mention the concern and the still developing they're still at the developing stage in student achievement and educational performance so just yes wanted to highlight those concerns and um recommendation for strong oversight for the school understood I uh Dr question because I do remember the last time they were here there was a recommendation and and I I I cast a deciding vote I remember that to keep them afloat and they had a new administrator

334there that had some confidence in but he transferred he left and left the district um I noticed that they're requesting a decrease in enroll 120 students um pres to decreases in current enoma capacity from 450 to 330 that's 120 students 20 students uh a classroom I'm just using as a benchmark as six teachers U I'm not sure why they are requesting this said current trends and all of that there are great number of changes going on in that Community the train keeps coming through they're building more apartment buildings up and down the block they're building them so fast I can't remember what was there before uh and I travel that that's my neighborhood I live within blocks of that I could walk there from where I live and I'm not really sure what the expectation

335is I think that when they put these high risers up and they they're popping up all over the place these men I'd be child age bearing parents with kids in those apartments so we may not be growing at all because of that they may not be growing at all because of that uh the high school across the street is crunch your high it doesn't have 800 students in it uh otan is the Middle School it doesn't have nowhere close to what we used to have in what shall we say the olden days before I had gray hair uh and I know they're trying I don't think there's a lack of uh enthusiasm a lack of professionalism keeping that Community wanting to come to school is a full time job they've had different principles at different

336times uh the enthusiasm of the children are sometimes only because their parents say this is where you're going to go because you're not going to go over here and I'm sending you to charter school because I know you don't want to go over here they feel safer there I understand that whatever their motives are I don't contest that there's reality and all of that even in mythology there's some reality um but I'm very concerned as to whether or not and then there's the high schoolers uh around the corner close to it and all of that but it's competition or just growth it takes away from other regular school takes away from otan takes away from crch o High takes away from some of the elementary schools and so we are in a competition is it

337is it a political competition I don't know is it an economic competition I don't know it's certainly a perception competition of they what they believe is better for them and their children um because I don't know too many children have never been to a charter school that say I must go to that charter school it's a parent decision I understand that uh and I want parents to have choice I really do I'm not a devotee of charter schools but I'm not an enemy either hope uh because I think that a charter school has an advantage because it has the ability to say these are our standards when you come to the school if you don't want to meet these standards then you can't come they can try to check in but they won't last Public

338Schools can't do that public schools said we'll take you no matter what your expectations are and we're require if you live in our neighborhood we're required to take you so Charter Schools can recruit from 10 miles away and still have enrollment uh and I don't know what this this new Administration in Washington is going to do to put a fear of safety about will I be deported will I I mean I don't know the number of non-citizen type families that are in there and I'm not asking that question I'm really concerned as to whether or not they can hold the line when they asking for a decrease in enrollment go ahead thank you uh board member McKenna uh first to your last point and this connects to m board vice president Schon schon's question if

339a school has any prerequisites prerequisites for enrollment that would be inappropriate and would have to be addressed that's the first part secondly minute wa I don't say that's a prerequisite but these are expect they tell them I said we have uniforms here you're going to wear a uniform sure we expect you to come so many days a week we want you to do that so they let they know that going in sure right uh most of our Traditional School don't have a school uniform some do most don't understood other schools do they understood yes some do and then they will set their expectations parents this a School of Choice parents and students would make their choice uh to your broader question about the enrollment well first the data show across our region and including the

340charter schools that there is decline in enrollment and and while we do have some schools that are fully realizing their enrollment other schools are haven't and I believe this leadership and organization are looking at the data that we're looking at and since 2019 have gone from 319 they're approved for 450 uh from 319 in enrollment you know steady a little downward to about 261 uh based on the last audit they're they're hovering around that I think they're trying to uh make sure that they remain uh responsible um the financial picture shows that the school can stand on its two feet and uh as the numbers show on page 346 of the material uh certainly any school every Charter School's enrollment is reviewed very closely by our team each year at the time of Norm enrollment

341and throughout the year there are some schools we need to follow up on because they may be slightly over enrolled other schools that are under enrolled will are te will ask them depending on their fiscal situation please provide us an updated budget show us how you're going to remain viable those are the kind of oversight actions that we take with very close monitoring with the data to assess so every charter school that is under enrolled by a certain percentage we're paying very very close attention to it to ensure that that they have a plan moving forward for viability and most importantly to provide a program that this Board of Education has appr proven their Charter for students got it thank you thank you anybody else on this item okay hearing none a motion is in

342order I'm sorry we have presentation to be made by oh I'm sorry I didn't I forgot okay uh a presentation by somebody from ICU Park Preparatory I have Mr Dwayne joh Washington Dwayne Washington the principal yes that's correct my name is Dwayne Washington I'm the proud principal of viar prep uh Middle School uh number one uh I think it's still afternoon so good afternoon um uh thank you um I want to say number one that I'm honored to serve um approximately 260 um brilliant Scholars at vpart Middle School um just our population consists of about 93% African-American uh Scholars out of that 99% of our Scholars are academic or um are uh economically disadvantaged uh and about 18% of our Scholars are students with disabilities uh so again with that um you know our mission

343is to educate and Empower courageous leaders to embrace their full potential uh for college career and life I believe in the last three years that I've been the Principal I'll say again the proud principal of vup part middle schol School we've been living that Vision so just seeing our Scholars grow um academically uh We've grown uh 13.4 points um in ela and 20.1 uh had a 21 20.1 Point uh gain in math say that say that again you jumbled it up yes uh we made 13.4 Point gain in ela and a 20.1 point gain in math so we're very proud of the progress that we're making uh we are seeing growth we are seeing our Scholars grow uh and we are seeing our giving our Scholars leadership opportunities um that's not only helping them academically

344but also helping them social and emotionally uh so we are a true asset to our community uh we understand our benchmarks and we understand that we do have a lot of work that we still need to do uh but we're doing that work every single day and we're working hard our Scholars are working hard and again um uh we use our community school model as a way to partner uh with the community so that we're all growing and thriving together um and again I'm proud of the progress that we've made so again I want to say thank you uh to every one of you for your continued support and your belief in us and I promise you if we're not done we're we're continuing to work hard we're going to prove and and let you

345and show you uh that we deserve uh this 5year renewal thank you seeing no request to speak uh do you have other speakers on this item all right so motion is now in order on item number 19 the approval of the petition for ICF View Park move it been moved by Mr Schmelson seconded by Mr melin call the rooll Dr McKenna yes Dr Ras yes Mr schmon yes Mr yes Miss gones yes uh board member uh Miss Ortiz Franklin board president Goldberg yes uh Miss cortiz Lopez for the day all right passes okay uh thank you next item is item number 20 approval of renewal petition for citizens of the world Char School Charter School Silver Lake item 20 I go ahead and ask my questions over okay um okay so again uh for citizens

346of the world uh concerns on academic performance particularly for Asian English Learners and socioeconomically disadvantaged students concerns on their suspension rate and also here um there's still let me go here um on the academic the student achievement and education performance uh the ratings are developing they were proficient in 2223 and now 23 24 they're in developing and you've mentioned here in your report um which was a result of the average score of the California school dashboard indicators and then you will continue to Monitor and your annual oversight but um yeah still concerns on Asian particular Asian students last year they were doing well and then 23 24 this seem to have dropped and our also our English learner progress uh there needs to be an increase in the percentage of El's making progress towards proficiency

347you know at least 7% each year so wanted to know if you have particular benchmarks or metrics by which you would like to see Improvement on um on different areas particularly subgroups is it you know if they're making a 1% is that positive they're making so how do you know you know sort of assess um their progress annually thank you for the question one of our first areas of data we would look at is the latest dashboard we've looked at the cast minut exceeded we will be looking at the dashboard that comes out for 2324 and assess how are they now doing compared to the state and then have they increased or increased significantly we those will be our markers uh Dr revas versus other percentages we want to really see their um their growth

348or or if they have declines declined or declined significantly or maintained based on that dashboard then we'll dig a little deeper in ter okay you you said you're going to do X how are your plans coming to fruition um so that'll be work that'll be uh our team will be reviewing those data and preparing for our next oversight visit uh should should the board approve this renewal um and that'll be the case for all the charter schools reviewing their dashboard data whether they're high middle or low performing to assess those very questions it just seems that a lot of middle performing schools have a lot of areas of concern and I know that takes a lot of work from your staff to Monitor and you know provide some oversight um so that's you know the

349other reason why I'm bringing this up because there's there's more areas I could have that I could have um sort of pinpointed but I I focus specifically on the ones that I saw um either drastic reduction or not making any progress at all um so yeah so I just wanted to bring that and so that I mentioned suspension rate um you know having them reduce their suspension rate at least by 2% annually um these are my suggestions and I would uh like to um you know work with your and your staff in monitoring monitoring you know some of these areas be great thank you down by about 400 students in uh in their enrollment uh from what they've been approved for and we've seen uh I think at three Kip programs close uh on suddenly

350are we monitoring those that are declining enrollment to make sure we don't get surprises like we did when the Kips closed yes I I will note about uh so the short answer is yes okay I mean I think that's really all I wanted to say because I know that we're all down so I'm not saying oh my God you're down forget it but I think there are some ways that you can tell when to your annual reports whether they're really in trouble or going to be in trouble and they aren't and I think the Board needs to know that because sometimes like Kip they don't notify us until they call one day and say we're closed right now and unfortunately that was left a lot of kids high and dry yes so we'll monitor that

351closely as okay and this site also is mov has moved to a private site now is on a private site versus the collocation uh so we'll continue to monitor that and their finances are noted on page 385 okay is there someone here from citizens of the world Charter that wants to represent them and speak on be make a presentation come on down we do have Melissa Kaplan Moren L morina tatsui and James ban oh skipping the slides we're going to hear whoever wants to speak no need to feel bad if you we are not trying to turn anybody away we're going to hear whoever wants to speak um so let's hear from those had parents who sat here all day come on down really you've been here all day just for my records when you

352begin your two-minute talk please uh state your name into the to the mic there and um I'll mark you as speaking good afternoon superintendent carvalo and members of the board my name is Alex Matthew and I'm here as a dedicated parent and advocate for citizens of the world Silver Lake my son Logan started at CWC in kindergarten and is now thriving as a seventh grader I'm here today to strongly urge you to renew CWC Silver Lakes Charter and allow this invaluable School Community to continue serving its students as a parent um one of the most impactful things I've witnessed in Logan's Journey at CWC has been the power of the school's constructivist project-based approach Logan has truly developed into a incredible collaborator bringing his unique strengths to a project while working respectfully along side diverse

353Learners each with their own perspectives and styles the skill is something that I can't imagine him gaining so deeply elsewhere CWC Silver Lake also places a profound emphasis on social emotional learning this is evident in how Logan deals with everyday conflict and challenges he's developed an even keeled ability to navigate difficult situations with empathy and maturity qualities he started cultivating as early as kindergarten as he's grown this Foundation has proven essential and he has the skills right now to face the complex dynamics that come with adolescence managing complex dynamics that come with uh managing friendships and classroom situations with resilience and ease frankly I was surprised at how smoothly he transitioned into Middle School into this new beautiful building and I credit cwc's consistent support and approach toal for that success another reason that I'm

354advocating for CWC is that it has fostered a newfound sense of rigor and self-motivation in Logan challenging him academically while nurturing his own drive to excel I recently witnessed this in a project he was working on about a historical figure even when very much behind schedule he took ownership catching up at home and creating a slide presentation he was uh incredibly proud of in the end this sense of responsibility and work ethic are results of the school's high expectations and the care with which they guide each child towards meeting them thank you so much for your time and your consideration [Applause] don't good afternoon board members superintendent friends my name is Lori socks and I'm a proud parent of a CWC student I am here today because the world needs schools like CWC to create

355a foundation of diversity and inclusion and ensure The Narrative of our children community and World be a place of belonging for everyone my son Liam has an IEP and requires supports to access his curriculum from the time he was three years old we were told that he did not belong in a classroom with his peers we were mocked for believing that he did we had to hire lawyers to fight for his equal education our IEPs lasted days and cost thousands year after year Liam's IEPs were violated and he went without services and supports causing him to fall behind the school blamed his disability and told us nothing would be done differently the attitude towards his disability was unjust and archaic the toll on our family was emotional mental and financial Liam was being forced down

356a road that they were forging for him based on misperceptions and not the student who stood before him when Liam was in the fifth grade his previous School denied his Civil Right to an education we were hopeless and felt helpless until we found citizens of the world this school has changed the course of Liam's life when Liam arrived at CWC we were immediately welcomed and made to feel like Partners in our child's educational experience Liam was included for the first time and treated with care and respect they never made us feel like they were doing us a favor by meeting Liam where he was and giving him the differentiated support he needed CWC has created an environment where every child feels valued and empowered to reach reach their full potential and has access to Innovative

357curriculum as a parent I've seen the profound impact this school has had on Liam the growth confidence and enthusiasm for learning that he now exhibits are a direct result of his time at this school after years of watching him struggle you cannot imagine how amazing it is to see him collaborating with classmates on projects and being held to the same standard as his peers to know that he is seen this year Liam will be graduating from the eighth grade headed to high school on curriculum CWC has prepared him for this transition they have supported him in closing a large learning Gap and nurtured him to become a confident in his abilities I understand that the board has many factors to consider when deciding about this Charter's renewal but I beg you to think about the

358students who will be directly affected by this decision students like Liam who need a school like CWC especially with the unknown that lay before us in the next four years the opportunities and experiences that CWC provides are irreplaceable the loss of this school would be a tremendous setback education especially inclusion directly affecting students with IEPs inclusing I ask that you Ren know CWC Silver Lakes Charter so that it can continue to serve as a Beacon of Hope and opportunity for students like Liam and their families thank you for your time and consideration thank you Dr McKenna it's an honor that we are trying to follow in your footsteps thank you Madame President I hope one day I can say that again thank you for your time thank you for that very emotional presentation uh anybody

359else from this school okay uh Mr Co gutier I did have one quick question about this and it's very quick uh their school population uh racial ethnic is different than the surrounding area do they have any special requirements for getting into that school that is causing that or it's just the way it worked out no no we we don't have concerns about their practices but we do monitor these closely for for schools uh where we see those numbers Etc so no there's no nothing that cause us to to all right to have a concern at this a motion is now in order to adopt item number 20 move it move it by Mr Schon second by Mr meloy call the rooll Dr McKenna yes Dr Ras yes Mr schmon yes Mr meloy yes Miss gonz

360for Miss or Franklin for president Goldberg yes all right that's five item number 23 paros ninos [Applause] chapter Dr Rivas item 23 yes um my concerns for pilotos is uh academic performance there has been a declining Trend in ela and math performance um and then also English learner progress has actually declined um significantly and The Chronic absenteeism is in the red and there's um fiscal operations um you noted here um some some areas of concern and their fiscal operations let me just get to um the fiscal operations are still developing from 22 uh 2022 to 2023 and also from 2023 2024 um primarily due to audit findings reported in BOS noos independent audit reports and um so wondering if you can provide more um information on that and also um the English learner progress what

361you see there um and why there wasn't um any benchmarks for English Learners foros thank you first when we looked at their uh Ela and math to start there uh we did see that there were some declines as you noted in both areas um however even considering those in looking at 2122 and 2223 in ela they were still higher than the state and all students and um student groups and then in mathematics uh a similar a similar story then we looked at as you noted the declines did it cause any student to be under the state which we're seeing no B based on the latest data we have or in the red in terms of the color uh and since we did not have that um for for for for Math and Ela there's no

362Benchmark there doesn't mean we won't continue to monitor with the upcoming data we certainly will for English learner uh progress indicator um certainly that's going to be an era we're going to monitor closely the the our differentiating factor for The Benchmark uh Dr Rivas in these cases was uh there's lower very low and for The Benchmark we're doing we we focused on very low doesn't mean the school um we're we're going to monitor very closely to ensure that they're making progress based on the latest dashboard data um and and I visited this school uh as well and saw some of the supports uh that the principal was sharing to make sure that they're really focusing on every single student uh and it was well as a community schools model to support them so I think

363that uh we'll monitor those efforts to see them produce results in those areas and The Chronic absenteeism yeah and let me let me address that broadly our our team discussed that U thoroughly because many schools as you note have uh some schools are okay others showed some declines I mean some increases in chronic absenteeism It's a larger issue and so at this time we're going to monitor with with uh an oversight we did not uh elect at this time to offer benchmarks because we want to a little bit more data come in on these though uh that that's a that's a topic of conversation at every oversight visit so we will continue to do that here as well and and I will foresee that that The Chronic absenteeism is also in the location that they're

364in they're right by Skid Row they're right really um supporting students from you know low social economic status really um what was it commuter they're a lot of commuter parents so you know that is area but I'm hoping uh since it is a community school that they will look to the community the immediate Community to help address and provide some support for their families as well and the fiscal operations oh yes and to that yes the the the reason there and our team has noted it to the school related to um some of the late fees that are incurred uh in in their credit some of their credit card expenditures candidly it's not Material hence it didn't get to a of a benchmark but we've talked to the organization about this uh we know that

365their board has discussed it and I and I trust they're will take efforts to mitigate that I think at times what we've heard is that there's systems they want to make sure that they're uh thorough in review and it takes a little bit longer at times and because the fees are are not as material uh they may accept that um but we we're we're continue to encourageing that's why we noted in our oversight report to address that more fully so I'll reiterate that message here publicly to the organization as well thank you thank you all right I just noted that on page 527 that their primary Charter has closed yes is is the regular K5 School in any trouble of any possibility of closure based on their current uh their financial picture short answer is

366no okay uh but let me make one broader point because organizations uh including some of the examples you made earlier have strategic conversations board president about are they supporting the schools a lot with their money is it going to work out so all organiz some of them are having those types of conversations but here right now we don't see that uh financially as an immediate issue all right so Mo move by Mr Schmelson and second by Mr mvo on the renewal for paros ninos Charter any questions or comments yet okay call the rooll oh sorry oh oh we have to hear from them I'm sorry well we we we give folks the opportunity go ahead so for tab 23 try get point point I know what you're saying but I'm assuming they understand and we

367keep telling them this that it's on consent which means it's going to pay not on consent but we say go ahead and come up and talk so they keep coming but they don't have to I know but this one's not on consent the oh these ones are not on consent and so they they're given the opportunity for leadership to give a two-minute presentation go right ahead good afternoon and I'll will be attentive to the not needing to speak that much um good afternoon uh board members for president Goldberg superintendent carvalo my name is Drew faretti I'm the president and CEO of paralos ninos and I will just by way of passing off the microphone to Norma Silva our principal I will just say um I hope you saw in the reports more about our 45

368year history of working with families uh across Los Angeles but in the area of B Lo n charter school for the last 20 plus years doing everything from Early Education and head start start K through education as well as youth Workforce Services and all the pieces that go between to make sure wellness and success is a possibility for all of the uh Children and Families we work with so normous good afternoon La USD board members superintendent garval and members of the public my name is Norma Silva and it is an honor to be presenting to you as founding principal of paralos Nino Charter Elementary School our school's opening in 2002 was a response to the needs of families whose children attended our early childhood education center on Skid Row over the 23 years of our

369elementary schools operation I have held the principal ship for almost almost 14 years as I've returned as principal in 2018 during my time I have witnessed our ongoing commitment to providing a rich educational experience for our children one that promotes high levels of academic achievement through an integrated in career approach and provides holistic comprehensive wellness support for children and our families through this presentation we would like to describe our educational philosophy pedagogy and practices as a California Community School the next slide there were slides so we should be on the third slide oh thank you slide three L you can see the demog traic information and data BOS ninos addresses the needs of families working or living in the downtown area by creating a safe haven for Learning and a hub for community and family

370support health services and enrichment programs at 7 a.m. you will find a carpol lane in front of our school with children waiting with their families for drop off 77% of our students participate in our own expanded learning program with with Services until 6:00 p.m. many of our students face adverse childhood experiences or ases and paralos noos invest tremendously in the child and family as we believe in the potential of every child through our multi-tiered system of support referrals are reviewed and monitored by our mtss team by the way I'm being deferred by several people so I I believe I can continue to speak correct thank you very much um an interdisciplinary group of paralos noos program leaders who work together to respond to the academic social emotional and physical needs of our children the team

371builds trusting relationships with our children and families and provides a wide range of services our paralos ninos programs collaborate within our school including mental health we believe in hearing the voices and strengthening the community by working in respectful Partnerships with families while advocating for their children the next slide please our model approach and commitment is being elevated and strengthened as we were awarded the California Community Schools planning and implementation grants through 2029 through these grants we are revising and fortifying our systems and structures to use our data to respond to Trends and needs more strategically efficiently and effectively this year we are digging deeper to address absenteeism and the needs of our multilingual Learners as a community school strategy our own paros n expanded learning program partners and enhances experiences for students beyond the school

372day and creates memories to last a lifetime Partnerships include young musicians foundations Robotics and the curn school other Partnerships Central in providing students with additional daily and year-long support include reading Partners as intervention and enriched experiences are also provided through our long-term partnership with inner city arts our interdisciplinary and inquiry based pedagogy has been the heart of teaching and learning since the beginning we strive to promote a democr democratic Learning Community through our paralos n declared uh paralos n rights for all respect for differences and seal are a part of our daily work to ensure the development of critical thinking identity voice and social skills in learning through our instruction high level questions are expected and Universal discourse is promoted and supported mistakes are opportunities for learning through reflection and collaboration as part of our

373continued structure teachers receive professional development every Tuesday and plan together every Thursday we create multiple Pathways for Teacher growth and development within our school and and through partner programs such as Advan residency with Lola University the next slide our teaching teams Specialists and interdisciplinary staff support all Learners especially our Equity Scholars collaboration is key at our school we have our own highly skilled occupational therapists speech pathologists and school psychologists who know our students our mtss team helps to guide our work for support in classrooms through intervention for students in academics behavioral social and emotional development at paralos NS we promote a safe Democratic learning community that addresses the whole child in the context of the family we promote engagement through inquiry plant the seeds of activism promote Innovation and creativity through Steam integration the pedagogy

374our longtime Partnerships and Community Schools strategy coupled with teacher growth and development have resulted in a more robust effective implementation of our core curricula and most importantly fully engage our students as we instill a love of learning this could not be done without our Dynamic teachers School staff and through the support of our paros ninos interdisciplinary teams as a result our school has demonstrated academic achievement that exceeds those of neighboring district and state schools in closing paralos n Charter Elementary has served family since 2002 and we we seek to continue uh through the next 5 years and Beyond and I thank you all for your service to all children of Los Angeles I'm going to encourage you not to speak as we are headed to a 5 o' where we have to take stop all

375of the charters and do something else Davis San Jose bery me the opportunity to start English classes and start math for high school that is why I ask you from the bottom of my heart that you please support the re the renewal of paros it's not just a decision for a school but the future of our children since they have the right to a quality education that prepares them for their goals of tomorrow thank you for your time and your cons consideration your support marks a great difference for our families and our community thank you we wave all the risk okay thank you the rest of the speakers have have waved um all right anybody have any questions or comments more Mr Melo moves Mr Schmelson seconds call the rooll on world citizens of the

376world Charter no p parlos n sorry parlos n I'm one behind Okay uh drenna yes Dr Ras yes Mr schmon yes Mr mvo yes uh Miss gones uh Mr orti Franklin board president Goldberg yes that's five eyes passes all right we are now up to item number 20 24 downtown value item number 24 downtown value okay Dr Rivas all your questions go no actually for downtown value um the benchmarks are you know on point so sorry about that underst that should have been a consent thank you okay we have a presentation for downtown value uh lorine Riley you want to wave your time they were waving they told okay so they they wave their time we can all right a motion is in order uh and Mr schmon has not left the room so I

377guess it'll be Dr Rivas will move and Mr meloy wol second for downtown value item number 24 Dr McKenna yes Dr Ras yes Mr scharon yes that's a yes from schmon uh Mr melin yes Miss gones M orti Franklin board president Goldberg yes that's five eyes pass item number 25 eatos Academy number two any questions on eatos number two um yes I see that um eatos is also um you also uh provided them with some benchmarks any concerns here um with equitas particularly with um the fiscal operations it didn't R rise to the level of concern to recommend denial at this time a big piece was we sent them a notice uh to cure months ago they did respond uh thoroughly and have already taken steps we've seen some positive signs but we need to

378continue to watch it closely so at this time uh barring no significant changes we think that they will move move in the direction that they need to and we're seeing some signs we'll look at the audit that comes out December 15th Etc looking over again at your benchmarks because I um have here chronic absenteeism um which was was red so wanted to see if you added any of that no we did not for for any any of these schools um provide benchmarks and chronic absenteeism we're looking at all of them very closely given some of the numbers covid past covid and seeing them stabilize and we'll see next year with more data if we need to include benchmarks for that group of schools but this year that's been our current uh recommendation well it seems

379like last year it was um you know stable and then it became red so just you know the inconsistencies of you know what's the support that they're providing they're providing it one year and then next year it seems to be going back up so just noting some you know some irregularities there uh and that is it for equitus just wanted to know about the fiscal operations thank you but anybody else have questions on equitus a motion is do they speakers absolutely uh do Dr Sophia roiti and Robert Spencer would you like to come up and give your two minutes W are you waving okay all right a motion is an order to approve the equi academy 2 moved by Mr schmon seconded by Mr melin call roll Dr McKenna yes Dr Ras yes Mr schmon

380yes Mr melin yes Miss gonez Mr Ortiz Franklin board president Goldberg yes five eyes passes all right uh the next item uh and it will be the last one before we hear public comment is item number 26 the approval of the petition for Gabriella Charter 2 item 26 any questions Dr Rivas no actually um I would like to just move forward with monor Oscar Romero but we can vote on Gabriella I have no okay there's motion is an order on Gabriela second second first we we do they want to speak is uh would you like to speak Gabriella U we wait you wave okay so call a roll on Gabriella charter number two can we have the motion in the second uh yes I think Mr Mr M already seconded right oh great uh Dr

381McKenna yes Dr Ras yes Mr schmon yes Mr Mel yes M gones Mr T Franklin board president Goldberg yes five eyes passes now oh one more uh what your last question R is it just on the is it just on the last just on Mon sior and then I'm good with Santa Monica and just a all right so let's do mon senior quickly go ask your question please um so there were several concerns with one senior um I know you provided them with some benchmarks but my concern is they're significant decline in enrollment and they're also a school that is collocated right with bendo yes at bendo so um just my concerns because as as board member Goldberg mentioned there's been some closures sort of you know um not abruptly but there's closures because of

382fiscal concerns and um just wanting to know if there's an enrollment plan for this school do they have one and um any concerns that you flag in terms of fiscal um operations or fiscal um liability viability thank you thank you the the enrollment has declined as noted in their report they are still with total net assets of over 21 million um part of the uh declines in the the net losses were due to some uh depreciation accounting um so in short uh not an immed no concern at this time regarding their viability that that'll be something that we'll continue to Monitor and briefly on the academic pieces uh we obviously look very carefully their verified data past muster uh and I will say also that we looked at the cast and exceeded that recently came

383out and they showed increases in those areas um so we'll continue to monitor closely they have six benchmarks and um we'll continue to uh be very Vigilant in this I mean for English language arts they were read and all Latino English Learners social economically disadvantaged students that's what really raised my alarms um red red you know declining enrollment um so yeah it just just feel real concerned about the viability of the school just overall you know um and also in comparison to the performance with bendo you know just concerns there the schools aware this is a a Clos call yeah they're verified data uh gave us three years of some positive growth we looked at it um to compare with other schools in terms of growth it was comparable um so and again the cast

384men and exceeded did show gains across the board except one slight decline those are signs they have the six benchmarks for those reasons you just noted and I've had discussion with their leadership and they're encouraged about some of the results they're receiving right now but we'll need to continue to be very very uh close in monitoring this which we will right I mean you gave them a rating of un unsatisfactory and this is the first school that I've seen unsatisfactory out of all of the middle performing schools so yeah this was the one if anything this is the school that gave me really red red red flags so um just wanted to raise that concern and I'll wave my comments or my suggestions for Santa Monica and Synergy just in the consideration of time and

385F primary Fenton was Scott oh okay all right so a motion is now oh speakers on from monor Oscar Romero yes we have a couple of speakers um I'm sorry IET kingberg are you here to oh there you are okay do you have a question on monsen Oscar Romero Scott okay we'll come to that all right so motion is made by uh Dr Rivas and seconded by Mr melin to approve a monen o Oscar Romero with its benchmarks uh Dr McKenna yes Dr Ras yes Mr schmon yes Mr melne yes M gz Mr Ortiz Franklin board president Goldberg yes that's five eyes all right Santa Monica Boulevard do you wish to speak Santa Monica Boulevard do you wish to speak all right Santa Monica Boulevard waves it's motion is now in order for item number

38628 move it renew the petition of Santa Monica Boulevard moved by Mr schmon second and by Mr Dr McKenna yes Dr Ras yes Mr schmon yes Mr melne yes M gz Mr Franklin board president Goldberg yes student member Cortez Lopez okay that one is passed five eyes passes item 29 approval of the renewal petition for Synergy Charter Academy item number 29 there are no questions I don't think so it is moved by Mr may I just may I just seek the presentation and if you choose to wave thank you very much they chosen to wave moved by Mr Melo second by Dr McKenna call the r please Dr McKenna yes Dr Ras yes Mr schmon yes Mr Mel yes scz Mr Franklin board president Goldberg yes and student Cortez Lopez yes all right five eyes

387passes Mr schls I think you had a question on F Prim a very fast question go right okay so Mr Co Gutierrez the last bullet point states that um the Charter School Division staff recommends renewing for five years but that the school should prioritize addressing the limitations of pair and share what is pair and share great question because this is a primary Center tk2 they don't have grades to test in terms of the Casp so the state guidance is they'll give the them the scores of the school where the majority of their third their their second graders matriculate that's actually one of their other schools Fenton Avenue that's the parent because you don't have those scores you get ascribe those others so it's for them to continue to look strategically at that issue that's all

388understood thank you thank you is an order primary moved and seconded by Mr mil you're good second Mr mil thank you very much caller roll one second let me get to my page so item number 31 yep who was the Mover moover Mr schmon second by Mr Mel Dr McKenna yes Dr Ras yes Mr schmon yes Mr Mel yes M gz Mr Franklin board president Goldberg yes student member Cortez Lopez yes that's five eyes passes it passes you're done right okay board members where we are now uh is you're very welcome sir thank you thank you where we are while people are moving is we're going to go to public comment thank you we're going to go to public comment Now understand that if you are here to speak on an item that's on consent

389you will not get to do so until after we've heard public comment okay cuz that's how we do it I mean oh it's already we've already done did we move in and pass them oh I'm sorry that's probably why I was at lunch so so we're going to wait for folks to filter out of the room and then the the folks for general public comment are going to make their way in we're not going to we're not going to rush things and start without our general public comment folks I you um but the uh the consent calendar has closed so folks were signed up to speak on the consent calendar I didn't know we had on some other item all business is is concluded except for the general public comment just so we're all on

390the same page and I thank those folks who are here for general public comment for your patience we had a long agenda and we had a lovely presentation for Dr McKenna which put us a little behind today I like donut any please take it please take it we go I've been eying this whole time yeah don't have to don't have to go hungry F okay we have a a Full Slate of folks who signed up for general public comment so we will begin now uh josi Henderson are you here Josh okay again is Jos pronounced Jos J um okay can you hold on one second cuz there's people being a little a bit loud in the back just can we we're starting general public comment folks thank you I am I good wait like we

391can't okay two minutes is yours okay hello my name is josha Henderson I'm a senior at Washington High School and a youth leader with Community Coalition first of all taking away the black and Bap is so disrespectful to the black students across La USD district and the people who created Bap specifically for people who look like me but this is also systematic racism the type of racism that many people of color will face or have face something that you all should be helping to prevent removing race as a factor would definitely lead to resources spreading too thin leaving black youth without how is that fair I know firsthand because a lot of things a lot of times I've been able to get opportunities because i' am I'm in Bap but this is also removing a

392safe space from this is also removing a safe space free from haast speech and creating a toxic environment I have experienced plenty of race racial bias discrimination and hate speech on campus but having an environment filled with people who look like me has made my high school experience better I don't understand trying to make Bap race neutral when the outside world isn't so you would think that if all of you care about black students you would try and make life for us easier before leaving High School many youth like me rely on resources Bap provides like having exposure to college Expos College tools or even discovering other places outside of Los Angeles discovering that they they can be a part of something bigger than themselves and experience new environments and opportunities these are things that

393would have made a huge impact on black youth an impact that is needed from years of neglect and little to no resources for black youth but more importantly this is taking the focus away from black students which is removing your commitment to us instead of taking away a program that betters the community why not make it stronger or Outreach to other schools or even make other programs that will focus on other groups of people this completely disregards black students and ignores the importance within the black the black student program to begin with so I ask you will you make your commitment to black students or will I have to come here and speak again thank you thank you for your time uh Britney Figaroa Britney come on up Britney are you out there uh Nardo

394toess Nardo are you out there isn't here but we're going to be here to represent for him we can't hear you I'm so sorry can you you just pull the mic down yeah get it right close to you okay um so nardos isn't here so so we will be speaking for him since we are also students from morall okay that's fine yeah I'm U don't start the timer yet normally what we do is because uh public speaking is sort of a um a big a big deal if someone speaks up I mean signs up to speak up they write their name in a column and then they come and and they show up I get nervous and the board gets nervous when folks when a different name is speaking other than the person who signed

395up just is a matter of right because if if Nardo shows up and and says hey I signed up to speak we have deprived that person of their of their right to speak so uh we take that pretty seriously uh I is this Mr kiry we've worked together for a while now um so uh it seems relatively calm and respectful in here and you you've come up and and taken the time but um uh no I I understand that I'm just going to make a quick consultation to make sure that it's okay to have folks speak who didn't actually sign up to speak it though we are glad you're here I'm not trying to say I think we should let them speak but I think we need to begin to say why we're concerned about

396this sometimes people come without the person who's giving the time away and we don't know whether they actually meant for someone else to speak for them so I think as long as someone is actually here who's on the agenda to speak and they want to give it to someone who is here I that I think we can do that until we have a rule change or a discussion amongst the board members okay let's do it so the so between the two of you you have two minutes to to speak so so yeah please go ahead thank you for coming he sorry okay so hello my name is alen Delgado and I'm a student at robbal Learning Center I'm going to start off by saying that in the creation of a contemporary political issues course it

397will be important to focus on the work of student organizing across the country and even here in L USD LD students have made a transformative history with Bap and that is why I demand it to be um protected now I want you guys to really ask yourself these questions do you all really believe that you are making Justice to anyone here by disregarding everyone's efforts and what it took to get Bap up and running and for what because you CH you chose to listen to people that wanted an in on it too when they realized that there was money being funded you guys claim to Value fairness you're making the work of many black people that hope for equality unavailing I came up here to ensure that my words and the words of everyone else

398speaking here are heard because we are making it very clear when we say that we want the black to stay and be sa to affirm its value and the difference in it makes in the black community I know you know about the great impact that um the black student achievement plan has made throughout many uh black students and their families and how much uh many have benefited from this but you still attempt to remove this not caring whatsoever about what it took many to get this program where it's at it's honestly so revolting to think that you're supposed to imp uh employee accountability measures to guarantee that all schools achieve their objectives yeah here we all are because there are so many people like you guys up there that are trying to remove the point

399the main point in the whole reasoning of this program what makes things worse is that you guys kept the Bap steering committee out of this when you decided to make this decision so why go behind the backs of the ones that started the plan unless you knew that they would all disagree against your choice this is very wrong of you guys and you everyone here an apology after your actions of completely disregarding everyone's efforts this isn't fair and I no you know it's not this program has done so good to many uh and I've seen how impactful it's been to students and how letting a girl would be of so much benefit of many of my friends as well for example who come from multiple backgrounds and ethnicities and that from what I've noticed could

400really use the help of B that could really use the help that Bap has to offer so put the back so put the black back in Bap thank you thank you for your time okay Maria Louisa Palma are you here I think you are please come on up you have two minutes to speak once you begin good evening information is currency and information is power your resolution today item number 32 reaffirming the commitment for respectful treatment of all persons it's a little bit of a farce isn't it because anti-immigrant sentiment has been rif here at this District continuously at schools at school district committees it's what I talk about all the time isn't it we have lack of a clear accessible information for all parents but especially for immigrant parents who don't speak the language

401you withhold information there are secret committees across this District we have jumbled up school budgets elap you know that we didn't get the information we've asked for you should watch the the presentation made by Mr Elward a couple of weeks ago November 7th to the pack that information was lousy okay it is inexcusable that this continues continued evidence of disrespect for the Immigrant families no one at this District knows what Sunny is we have the well-healed parents that recently protested at Walter Reed you promptly all created a town hall for them and then took back the changes to that program that you had made but here the Latino parents come here with a parent Petition of over 4,000 5,000 signatures to bring back the school police and all of you ignore it completely then of

402course we have the academic results which are dismal the ultimate disrespect to the Latino Community you have you issue High School diplomas with a d average what do those numbers look for the Latino Community for the Immigrant community so what how what is the worth of this resolution that you have here because words are cheap why the outrage now why not the urgency on an ongoing basis you are telling the Immigrant communities that you will protect them but you're not telling them that you will Empower them for academic Su success on an ongoing basis for the rest of their lives for their families that's what's missing words are cheap what is this resolution worth this is garbage garbage thank you for your time uh Emanuel nooi Emanuel braxon Jordan oh Emanuel okay all right so

403I'm just I'm just gonna repeat it like moving forward we're gonna have to figure out something because if uh Emanuel did show up we're like well we've given away your spot because cuz you're not Emanuel I know I know you're yeah um so I I appreciate the respect and so uh two minutes please and we'll move move along hello my name is Cody I attend Garfield High School in East LA coming from the organization inner city struggle and I'm here to demand to put the black back in Bap the two ways you can do that is by committing food transparency and giving decision-making power to the Bap steering committee this will ensure you superintendent Karlo you are doing your job of helping black students my brothers and sisters to be successful my school does not

404utilize Bap funds due to the low enrollment of black students however I do know that the black students at other schools have benefited from this program unfortunately I have witnessed black anti-blackness on my campus displ black students not being a majority in in the school they are my brother and they are my brothers and sisters Bap will give them the funds they deserve these students could achieve more and be encouraged not only to be successful but Thrive with Bap which is the ultimate goal the east side will always support black students and we will continue showing up for them until they get the funds they deserve today we call L USD to support black students too by committing full transparency you should you should always let the community know about the decisions and actions you

405take on Bap through active communication and sharing decision-making power with the Bap steering committee we are your people not folks from Virginia who are from 2,000 miles away from us you should not care about the opinions of other states listen to us the youth to put the black back in Bap [Applause] now thank you for your time uh Braxton Jordan and then after Braxton is uh Valerie monzo and then Brenda Maldonado floor is yours hello my name is Braxton Jordan I'm a leader with students deserve and a member of the bab steering committee I'm here today to hold superintendent carvalo to his word during yesterday's meeting superintendent carvalo stated multiple times that he was not removing race as Criterion for the black student achievement plan also known as Bap he also claimed that no funds

406would be taken from the program this would be good news if I believed you were a man of your word unfortunately in the past experiences I have known otherwise you often say one thing in meeting to keep the peace but act in direct contradiction afterwards for those who are unaware of what I'm referring to the superintendent once held a meeting with students deserve where he agreed that school police should not be on campuses and aligned with most of our demands but yet a month later he placed school police on 20 campuses in La USD when confronted about his decision he defended his actions by pointing to additional res resources for those campuses I'm I'm here to be honest we're tired of your empty promises you have yet to hire a communitybased safety expert or Implement

407Community Based safety as the program it is attended to be across L USD you want recognition for the bare minimum of progress in funding towards Bap a program we have been advocating for for many years but we do not want to hear about gradual changes we want meaningful results superintendent carvalo as a student of La us I call on you to honor your word and commitment to black students uphold Bap as a reparative program designed to address the Decades of racially discriminate discriminatory practices that have violated the civil rights of black students in your District have a nice day thank you for your time Valerie monzo Valerie come on up hello the floor is yours you have two minutes okay hi my name is Valerie monzo and um I'm a sophomore at Manu s Community

408School it's great to be here um I believe in equality but there is one thing I believe in more than equality and that's Equity black students have the lowest test scores compared to other racial groups in LAUSD and it's clear that black students are in need of some academic help given that black students only make up 7% of L USD it shouldn't be that hard to provide resources to my peers I believe that there's multiple reasons for black students not doing so well in class and one of them being the material they're being taught it's boring them it's not something they can relate to I had this experience last year in my history class um there was these two boys that would come to class maybe once once a week sometimes not even at all

409um and we would learn about stuff like the Boston Tea Party Wars just stuff that really didn't interest them and none of us either um and at some point my teacher decided to do a unit on the Black Panther Party and when we started this unit they happened to be in class and these boys were so engaged and interested in what my teacher had to say I have never seen these boys so in interested in what she's had to say um they started coming to class every day and all this to say that Bap is needed um Bap provides these same kind of studies and the same kind of encouragement to be great when those boys heard what they were hearing they felt empowered and they could relate to what they heard and Bap provides

410that to them also um I realize that it's not about these students not wanting to learn or not wanting or trying to act tough It's they want to succeed in life but they just don't feel the motivation or the support to um yeah I want to see my my peers graduate I want to see them be interested in class just like those two boys were and we don't need you guys to spend $7 million on Yonder pouches I mean we come up here every month telling you guys what we need you you guys aren't in these schools you're not in these classrooms you I'm demanding you to hear my words we need Bap and we need you to expand Bap funding thank you for your time Brenda Maldonado Brenda Maldonado uh Channing Martinez uh good

411afternoon Channing Martinez co-director of the strategy Center and member of the black student achievement steering committee police free LUSD Coalition um first of all I I'd like to start um today is Gana settlement day and the Gana are indigenous folks uh a lot of them are in Los Angeles in fact in Los Angeles we have the biggest concentration of bans um in Los Angeles and a lot of those folks are garifuna and so when we're talking about immigration rights uh we better know that we're also talking about a big group of black folks that are potentially going to be uh deported by Trump um and all of which are also uh benefiting from the benefits of the black student achievement program I'm really grateful that LUSD is moving to try to uh help immigrant folks

412help lgbtq folks and maintain the black student achievement program and I am here to say that it's not enough to give your word that you're not going to change the black student achievement program when there's nothing legally written that says this is going to be the black student achievement program and that race is going to the thing that is going to be considered we know that we came in 2020 because L USD spent 20 years directly oppressing black students a lot of which were ban a lot of which were G of folks right a lot of those folks if you do not do something to put your words and your promises into writing will be at risk of not just being deported but also losing the very benefits that you said that you claim that

413you care about in the black student achievement program so we're asking you um and I say with this last point one thing I I don't like Trump but I have to give him credit at the end of his term he spent every single day passing every single motion and putting everything into power that he could and then he left and then he left the president with you know months and months of trying to go through Court trying to undo what he does we have a month left in the year before he becomes president and this is your opportunity to really stand for black student do [Music] something thank you for your time uh say hi Mings or CJ please um if I pronounced it incorrectly let me know CJ thank you sir all right so

414hi my name is CJ Mone I'll be I'll be giv de my time oh understood thank you the time is yours Deon please use the mic okay my name is Deon beard I'm a senior at Wasington prep and Community cess Youth Theater I'm here to speak on item 40 the school board wants to make sure L USD is a safe and inclused spaces for all but how are you meant to achieve that when taking the B out of Bap black student achievement plan started off the basis that black students were being failed by La Westy black students had lower test rates lower grades and lower graduation rates and not attending college police free LA USD is is the movement that helped us get Bap back in 2020 they help reduce the $70 million budget for

415school police back in 2020 to 55 million that $25 million cut was put towards Student Services mental health resources and programs to support black students why are we letting people who have probably never stepped in a B1 School deciding what we do with Bap what do you mean it's racist to make sure students who you have consistently failed are doing well in school letting people from Virginia decide that black La USD students have fail only after 4 years of having the program through Bap we actually have staff members that make you feel welcome to be at school how are you going to make a student achievement plan for all when all other groups don't need support like we do it's comparison like C we need to make sure we get more funding and it's secure

416programs like Bap aren't just about programs like Bap aren't just about academics they're about belonging due to my Bap program I was going on a HBCU tour to at landage of VI schools like morous Clark Atlanta and clayon add a great experience and consider schools that aren typically pushed towards you la it felt good to hear that were other options other than cow States or uc's why would you want to take that experience away from anyone since Bap I've seen a real change not just in myself but in my peers I've seen students who are once disengaged find a reason to care about to care about school other than just being at school this indes about special treatment it's about leveling a playing field that's been uneven for far too long to those who think

417Bap is that decisive and unnecessary I ask how can you call Equity racist how can you argue against students that sorry how can you argue against giving students that tools that they need D when for so long those tools have been withheld it's truly frustrating and assarting to hear that decisions about the future of black students are being made from people who are might may not understand our lived experience when you defund programs like Bap your sing and message that black students don't matter that our struggles and successes are secondary instead of scaling back we should be doubling down B is an investment not just in black students but in the future of L USD when one group succeeds we all succeed this is about taking away from students it's about ensuring everyone has a

418fair shot of success thank you thank you for your time okay Randa [Applause] Smith Randa Smith Jennifer Miller Jennifer Miller uh Juan mandhi come on up Mr Mandi is going to speak in Spanish so if you'd like what he's saying hear what he's saying in English please put up your hands and we'll give you these headsets if you'd like to hear Mr Mandi is saying as he's saying it uh we'll pass out these headsets if you'd like to listen when is when is start this good afternoon okay okay L okay want to start this good afternoon it seems that today you're very generous today you're you're giving everybody their wishes everything that was written to Santa Claus will be given everything thing they ask for doing a piñata with money that doesn't cost you but

419we're the ones who pay for it right to uh allow for these these expenditures so these brothers that are afroamerican yes we're brothers and you know what we are the most behind academically and we're not getting opportunities and as Latin people we're even worse than you it's only one day that we we need to combine our dialogue to see how we can go forth and we can't allow us being as Parents separate from our children and that they're here that you be indoctrinated because here all they do is distribute the money that is supposed to go to you any program that is meant for your progress academically and for your materials and socioeconomic needs are welcome but please don't take advantage because they're elitist they discriminate against poor people not just afroamerican La people are

420the most discriminated against we need to unite to do something good and invite to to take away arrogance and I just want to say today I felt for the first time the hate of a white person against a parent because they discriminate against the indigenous appearance for the charter for being white I don't know if there is a word that can be defined for a woman who hates a man just because of his indigenous features or because they consider uh them less this is language that we must not be victims of hate and racism that still persists that we still need to defend against so let's Unite uh Brothers um a africanamerican and Latino thank you for your time uh right we have uh six more folks to speak uh Jamia fields and then after

421Miss fields we have Sable Ramos and then Brianna Casiano after Miss Fields it'll be Sable Ramos then Briana casano and then Robert Spencer thank you the floor is yours okay my name is jamaah I'm a junior at Washington rep high school and I'm a youth leader at Community Coalition and I came here to discuss the school boards and especially superintendent carvallo's neglegence of black students now this time I made my spee shorter for y'all since I love to try and us when you hear something y don't like to hear we deserve the space to hold you guys accountable so anyways me and other youth youth leaders from Coco had a meeting with carvalo Mr Brandy and Mr Whitman about the topic of Bap and why we need safe passage stuff carvalo say he was put

422his name and title on the line for and when the student from Horsemen said advis you guys to hire safe past people carala and other adults in the room just assumed they were already at Horsemen when there wasn't Washington Washington also hasn't had any safe people ever since last year since Elijah died and like I said last time y'all couldn't give us actually train safe patch people but y'all just stop hiring them all together instead the school police got added again and the fact that there's even more police stand before and yet they're so useless black students can't couldn't cross the street without five police cars surrounding them and all this he brought up to carvalo and he just brushed off continuously by saying there's nothing could do about it and also make it it

423seem as if there's oh shoot sorry it also make it seem as if it's the principal's fault when it's their job to make sure the principles do so but this is the same person who said he put his name on the line for this so how does that work if y'all can sit here and spend Millions on Yonder pouches I know y'all can spend money a safe passage but y'all just choose not to and we know what it is now I'm saying against someone thought it was funny to me my mic last time with st in my demands for Calo St making these empty promises and start actually committing to them like what you should have been doing before and for the school board weand an apology from you guys a public apology out that

424and at least acknowledge the impact Bap has had on black students and prioritize your black students as a whole thank you for your time Sable Sable Ras Sable are you here Brian casano Brian are you here Robert Spencer Delia Orwin Delila Orwin and then after miss or will be Anna Chavez and then Khalil Smith hi good evening we'll be sharing our time I'm saying no over the summer and without any public notice the district removed race as a criteria for targeting resources through the black black student achievement plan we are here calling on the LAUSD board to take immediate and determining action to reinstate black student population as a standard for bsta school allocation I want to emphasize the importance of maintaining the black student achievement program this is initiative is just not about academic

425support it's about creating an En environment where black students feel seen heard and valued Bap provides essential resources like mentorships cultural enrichment and academic assistance that help CH help close the achievement Gap and Foster a sense of community removing this program sorry removing this program would be a step backward in our efforts to promote equity and inclusion this program provides targeted support to help close the achievement gap between black students and their peers these programs offer academic assistance mentorships and cultural enrichment which can significantly boost students confidence and academic performance for example me I wouldn't be able to have the assistance I am getting right now to be able to apply to colleges like I am without bap bap play a big role in fostering a sense of community and belonging which is essential for

426us and all students so please put the black back in [Music] Bap thank you for your time Anna Chavez Anna Anna Chavez Kalo Smith hello hello I attend dorsy high school with khil Smith and he won't be coming today so I will be speaking for him what's your name his first name uh Brennan thank you good evening my name is Brenan Higgins I attend dorsy high school and I'm a leader and students deserve as a black student at a la USD board one school I do not appreciate Bap no longer prioritizing black students Not only was race removed as a considerable factor for the program but this change was made with without even Consulting the Bap steering committee this is unacceptable Bap was created to move toward making up for the Decades of racial and

427educational inequity that black students face this should not be taken from us without so much as a notice Bea has assist to me in obtaining Early College access and unique learning opportunities such as traveling to New York to learn about black history going on college tours and field trips and providing services such as counselors and social workers I would have never been able to experience such if not for Bap and we and students deserve demand that La USD resend the decision to remove race as a considerable factor for Bap black students have been denied enough we should not have to lose a program that our community fought so hard to implement black students have had our civil rights violated for years if La USD is so passionate about keeping things equal then where was our

428equality where was our equality when we were being randomly searched pepper sprayed and targeted in our own schools we got that eliminated we did the work so why are you listening to opposition in Virginia we are right here students right here who are actually impact Ed by this senseless decision are demanding it to be undone we black students deserve Equity after being denied equality and our education time and time again enough with the sneaky side plots in the summertime put the black back in Bap thank [Music] you thank you for your time that concludes general public comment this is went out that I've appreciated hearing your views over the months and years that I've been here and I wish all of you very well I have was a student activist myself and I'm always always

429excited to see students be involved in a trying to achieve the goals that they have set than so all right so now we have some adjourning motions I oh hold it uh we have had a board member board members that whose child was ill and that's uh Kelly gones she had to leave early to take that child to urgent care if you do not object I'd like to open the roles that we closed to let her be able to vote on the various things that she missed is there any objection from board members to my doing that none hearing none role is open on those items that Kelly Gomez G Kelly gonz was not able to vote for okay I see you on camera with us miss uh gones is there are anyone over the

430age of 18 aside from you in the room no okay I'm just going to read through the tabs to collect your vote and if I move too fast you just um tell me to slow down please okay so on uh tab 20 approval of renewal petition for citizens of the world Charter School Silver Lake yes uh tab 23 approval of the renewal petition for paros n's Charter yes tab 24 approval of the renewal petition for downtown value yes uh tab 25 approval of the renewal petition for equitas Academy 2 yes uh tab 26 approval of the renewal petition for Gabriella Charter 2 yes uh tab 27 approval of the renewal petition from monor oscard Romero Charter School yes tab 28 approval of the renewal petition for Santa Monica Boulevard Community Charter yes tab 29 approval

431of the renewal petition for Synergy Charter Academy yes okay and then we have a couple of resolutions we need to capture your vote for um after the charters but we have a one more Charter approval of the renewal petition for Fenton Primary Center yes okay um and then I've got tab 33 uh by resolution by Dr McKenna co-sponsored by Mr schmon recognizing November is National runaway and homeless youth prevention month how do you vote Yes and if I could be added as a co-sponsor I'd appreciate it okay that's done and then as to tab 34 from uh Miss Goldberg's office reaffirm our commitment to Immigrant students families and staff and update the district's policy to enforce the respectful treatment of all persons to include gender identity and gender expression how do you vote Yes and

432I'd like to be added as a co-sponsor okay Tab 38 from Miss Goldberg study the feasibility of establishing a contemporary political uh education education course yes and I'd like to co-sponsor okay you voted on Tab 39 for the sanctuary school zone um tab 40 uh from Miss Goldberg's office affirm that L USD will remain an inclusive safe and welcoming environment for all how do you vote um yes and I'd like to co-sponsor also okay please uh bear with me I'm just going to make sure that I captured everything properly okay that's all the votes I needed to get and we all wish the speedy recovery of your child thank you so much I really appreciate it okay any other adjourning motions besides the one I have okay we were planning to stay here all night

433so one more comment won't make a difference uh I just want to take a brief moment uh on behalf of the over 70,000 full and part-time employees of Los Angeles Unified I would like to voice their appreciation to both our president Jackie Goldberg and and Dr George McKenna um today was once again an example of the Courage the purp purposeful leadership ship and righteousness with which for decades you've done your work on behalf of kids and those who believe in public education so a lot has been said today A lot has been said for a long time considering your imminent departure and I just wanted to once again on behalf of our Workforce extend our heartfelt appreciation for your leadership your compassion your courage particularly Under Fire uh for anyone who thought that on the

434last board meeting as you come to an end of your terms you would slow down uh today was proof positive that that didn't happen a number of strong pronouncements risky pronouncements not for self but for everybody else so thank you with that I would like to adjourn this meeting today in memory of Quincy Jones who passed away on November 3rd at the of 91 he helped rewrite the soundtrack of American culture and was a tireless advocate for the right of all children to have access to education in music and music in education Quincy Delight Jones Jr was born in 1933 to parents who moved from Charleston South Carolina to Chicago Illinois during the Great M migration his and if you don't know what Great Migration is look it up um his family later moved to

435the state of Washington and it was in Seattle Public Schools where Jones became a musician playing trumpet and studying music theory he attended Berkeley College of Music in Boston at age 20 Quincy Jones was T touring Europe with Lionel Hampton and from that point on Quincy Jones made an impact in every era of American popular music the list of the greats that he worked with as a musician a ranger producer is staggering Dizzy Gillespie count basy Elvis Presley Sarah vaugh Charley Mangus my own personal favorite Miles Davis Ray Charles artha Franklin Lil Richard lesle Gore or just a few all of this was before he produced Thriller the highest selling album of all time and brought dozens of stars together to record We Are the World which raised almost 90 million to addressed the 1983

43685 famine in Ethiopia he went on to be a film and television producer working on the color purple The Fresh Prince of belir and other Productions but in closing I want to quote him directly from his speech that he gave at Harvard University in 1997 he said quote every day you have a choice to make between love and fear as much as you can choose love thank you very [Applause] much and The Time Is Now 5:51 p.m want to thank all of thank you meeting a Jour well [Music]