001this week we recognize fifth grade teacher Jake brusher for over 20 years of dedicated service to his students at baloa gifted High ability Magnet School Mr Brasher believes that fifth grade should not be an ordinary year of school it should be an experience to be remembered this philosophy has created a classroom environment that his students look forward to each and every day thank you Jake thank you for your commitment to our elementary school learners hi my name is Jake Brasher I'm a fifth grade teacher here at baloa gifted High ability magnet I've been teaching at L USD for 22 years now as a fifth grade teacher I get to have a great impact on their life I want to make sure that they're first and foremost learning academically I want to make sure they have
002a good foundation for the physical education skills that they're learning and also be powerful writers that's a huge part of their life communication he's the teacher that every student hopes to get in fifth grade because he makes learning so fun and he's just one of those teachers that once you're his student you're his student for life I always thought philosophically that the best way to teach is to use real life examples so I try to use real life skills as they move forward so in my class we do a lot of paper trading with market watch to learn about percentages and decimals we also buy a car digitally to work in the decimals we also write letters to corporations to teach the power of writing so overall that gives an experience for the students rather
003than just a moment year in school Mr brush is such a great teacher because he pushes me and encourages me to do well I think Mr brush is a great teacher cuz he makes his classroom feel like you're in middle school and he really prepares you and he really likes physical education being a teacher is an incredibly rewarding career I think that having a glimpse of a student's life because it's a small little moment is extremely important to go beyond the classroom and make it part of their life so that's why try to say they're having a brush your [Music] experience we had a lot of programs that came out of Washington to help students get connected that were part of pandemic era initiatives but now that those days are over we've got to reassess
004and so with the Federal Communications Commission we took a look at a program we have called rate that has been around for decades and just last month we made some changes to make sure every library and every school library can loan out wireless hotspots today that connectivity serves us well not only in providing access to high dosage tutoring digital resources attendance initiatives but also Family Academy and courses for the parents from their home when we talk about the classroom of 2030 this is the investment that we need to make today Wi-Fi for us is kind of pricey right now in these days and it's not easy with all the rent bills and all that it's hard a child in America cannot complete his or her own homework and compete with his or her peers unless
005they have access to the [Music] internet we operate in excess of 1300 school buses 2third of them are already operating uh through some sort of a cleaner type of fuel they are compressed natural gas or propane or electric buses it's an extremely exciting Endeavor and what that will mean is our students and our neighbors our our family members can breathe clean air so the Investments that the state is making we are so grateful for [Music] them very excited to see not only these Investments moving forward but much more to come and we could not be prouder of the partnership that is at play here that you see across the board it is so critical to clean our air and provide health benefits for our communities here in Los Angeles hello football fans please join us
006October 25th 2024 as Los Angeles UniFi is kicking off the first ever Friday Night Lights football game at Sofi Stadium it's the 89th annual East LA classic between Theodore Roosevelt High School versus James Garfield High since 1925 this matchup has been one of the most highly acclaimed and attended High School football games the East LA classic serves as the homecoming game for both high schools the mighty Rough Riders and Bulldogs will Vive for the Perpetual Trophy and year-long bragging rights and we're highlighting our newest competition flag football so buy your tickets in advance and get to the game by 6: p.m. to see our champions compete you are not going to want to miss this celebration of culture and tradition see you at the stadium [Applause] class today we are here to swear in anelli
007corz Lopez the newest L student for member for the 2024 2025 school year it's kind of a crazy position you're tasked with representing all La USD students during your senior year without any full-time staff support I stand before you today joined by my fellow past student board members to celebrate La unified's commitment to forge The Leaders of Tomorrow one of the biggest pieces of advice that I have for Nelly is just to believe that she belongs on the board and that confidence is going to help her advocate for herself advocate for the students listen and don't be afraid to speak up connect with as many students as you can find people that will love support and care for you while you embark on this incredible journey I'd like to say this is a position of
008promise not power I do solemnly swear I do not stand for my values alone but for the values of all the students of L USD hello this week we recognize fifth grade teacher Jay brusher for over 20 years of dedicated service to his students at baloa gifted High ability Magnet School Mr Brasher believes that fifth grade should not be an ordinary year of school it should be an experience to be remembered this philosophy has created a classroom environment that his students look forward to each and every day thank you Jake thank you for your commitment to our elementary school learners hi my name is Jake Brasher I'm a fifth grade teacher here at baloa gifted High ability magnet I've been teaching at L USD for 22 years now as a fifth grade teacher I get
009to have a great impact on their life I want to make sure that they're first and foremost learning academically I want to make sure they have a good foundation for the physical education skills that they're learning and also be powerful writers that's a huge part of their life communication he's the teacher that every student hopes to get in fifth grade because he makes learning so fun and he's just one of those teachers that once you're his student you're his student for life I always thought philosophically that the best way to teach is to use real life examples so I try to use real life skills as they move forward so in my class we do a lot of paper trading with market watch to learn about percentages and decimals we also buy a car digitally
010to work in the decimals we also write letters to corporations to teach the power of writing so overall that gives an experience for the students rather than just a momentary year in school Mr brusher is such a great teacher because he pushes me and encourages me to do well I think Mr brush is a great teacher cuz he makes his classroom feel like you're in middle school and he really prepares you and he really likes physical education being a teacher is an incredibly rewarding career I think that having a glimpse of a student's life because it's a small little moment is extremely important to go beyond the classroom and make it part of their life so that's why I try to say they're having a brush your [Music] experience we had a lot of programs
011that came out of Washington to help students get connected that were part of pandemic era initiatives but now that those days are over we've got to reassess and so with the Federal Communications Commission we took a look at a program we have called eate that has been around for decades and just last month we made some changes to make sure every library and every school library can blone out wireless hotspots today that connectivity serves us well not only in providing access to high dosage tutoring digital resources attendance initiatives but also Family Academy and courses for the parents from their home when we talk about the classroom of 2030 this is the investment that we need to make today Wi-Fi for us is kind of pricey right now on these days and it's not easy with
012all the rent bills and all that it's hard a child in America cannot complete his or her homework and compete with his or her peers unless they have access to the [Music] internet we operate in excess of 1300 school buses 2third of them are already operating uh through some sort of a cleaner type of fuel they are compressed natural gas or propane or electric buses it's an extremely exciting Endeavor and what that will mean is our students and our neighbors our our family members can breathe clean air so the Investments that the state is making we are so grateful for [Music] them very excited to see not only these Investments moving forward but much more to come and we could not be prouder of the partnership that is at play here that you see across
013the board it is so critical to clean our air and provide health benefits for our communities here in Los Angeles e e e [Music] he [Music] he [Music] got l I a [Music] got no [Music] w a [Music] n [Music] okay good morning the time is now 10:02 it's September 10th 2024 welcome to the 10: a.m. meeting of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education I'm going to take role Dr McKenna I got a hear from Dr McKenna Dr Ras present Mr schmon present Mr melvoin here miss gones here miss Ortiz Franklin present for president Goldberg here and student member Lopez present okay all accounted for all right the Pledge of Allegiance which I'll ask you all to rise with will be led by our student board member m Lopez well good morning
014everyone welcome to the September school board meeting and today we're a week away from starting Latino Heritage Month Hispanic Heritage Month which is from September 15th to October 15th during this time we honor the many contributions that Hispanic and Latino Community has made to our nation and to the world according to the 2020 census one of every four children in the United States is Hispanic Latino and here in Los Angeles 74% of the students who attend LAUSD schools are you might wonder why would Latino Hispanic Heritage Month start in the middle of the month that's because many Latin American countries observe their observe their independence day on September the 15th including Honduras El Salvador Guatamala e Costa Rica and Mexico they celebrate their independence known as ELO de la independencia on September 16th we'll have
015more recognitions and celebrations of this important community in the coming weeks but in the me meantime we extend our immense gratitude and respect for the Inu nerble contributions Latino Hispanic Community contributes to this District to this state to this country and to the world now we will hear from labor Partners do we have any labor Partners who wish to speak today come on up good morning board members my name is Georgia flowers Lee and I am here representing United teachers Los Angeles I want to start my remarks with an Ask um and the ask is that you as a board support item 15 on the agenda supporting meaningful teaching and learning in the LAUSD Community Schools initiative um this initiative um really is transformative for district and this is just a piece of that transformation
016I also want to speak to you today about the black student achievement plan the black student achievement plan was envisioned as a reparative plan a way to begin to repair the harm done to black students by the policies and practices of this District over more than two decades I'm an LA USD graduate and I'm also the parent of three adults who at various points in their K12 Journey were La USD students I can speak from the perspective of both student and parent and articulate what it's like and how it feels to be black in La USD the adoption of Bap felt like a bold move as if this District was finally motivated to seriously and comprehensively address the needs of the population it had systematically ignored and overlooked for far too long and now here
017we are in response to an inquiry from a far right Florida based AstroTurf parent group the district has figuratively folded its tent and given up the fight the black student achievement plan according to the district is now race neutral make that make sense how do you address the specific unique needs and repair the harm done to black students while simultaneously failing to Target those black students and yes I've heard the presentation about alternative metrics that will reach the same students but that absolutely misses the point harm has been and continues to be done specifically to our black students the healing also has to specifically Target the needs of our black students I want this board to direct L USD to reconsider their decision and to return this plan to the vision that it held to
018make things right for black student students in this District thank you very [Applause] much are there any other labor Partners here who wish to speak now come on down good morning distinguished board members and superintendent carvalo I am the very proud Relentless resilient and Unapologetic Allah president and I come to you to share a little bit of the realities of the first 20 days and opening of the school year I want to really start off with Grace and gratitude and appreciation to our executive leads here at bodre our chief of staffs for opening their doors and working with me to build collaborative structures open communication systems and transparencies within our district I thank you for your time as I know you are very busy and I thank you for listening to me writing notes down
019and now my hope is that we take action with the feedback that we are receiving from membership excuse me I want to share with you excuse me just for the record would you tell us your name into the record oh excuse me sir yes I I how how silly of me I know because I met with you sir let me start again I am Maria Nichols Allah president for those of you that don't know me thank you for that sir so I want to begin my conversation with you this morning regarding the theme of our working conditions and the unsustainable realities of our current existence and I know bringing 37 years of service and support to the district that we can do better I believe in this District I grew up in the district I
020love the district the people in it and I know that we are all well-intentioned with the practices that we provide and the service that we provide we began the year with concerns about our working hours contradict contradicting expectations of defined work hours from 7:30 to 4:30 where the negotiations and the current contract speaks to principles having flexibility with work hours this will be a topic of conversation and negotiations as we enter negotiations in 2025 it is very important to distinguish working hours versus office hours office hours are 7:30 to 4:30 and it is the responsibility of the leader School s leader to ensure that there is coverage at the school but it is the flexibility and their responsibility to determine how and what that looks like we had some success and I think again our
021labor partners and superintendent carvalo with moving the needle and ensuring A S letter was created to support the 450 assistant principles that were affected by the R2 realignment or the reduction in force and we had folks driving hours from the north to the south from the south to the north and we managed to serve and support approximately 50% of those assistant principles to get closer to home I also want to thank the board members for their advocacy with that unfortunately we couldn't safe all of them but we tried to do our very best best and we continue I continue to work with human resources and updating them on the current status so to see what changes there might occur but as a result of that it Sil lator came out ensuring that APS that were
022being assigned across the city were not going to be taken off the eligibility list for two years until we were able to maybe provide them a place closer to home within their region so I thank you for that additionally we had some success with our a through J units a differential came about uh with a pay increase and so th those were small victories but very very accomplished during a very short period of time and that is really a collaboration of our efforts collectively to ensure that we are meeting the members and their needs by the third week the article read a failure to plan is a plan to fail it was a very difficult going into week three we had big challenges with textbook delivery affecting our elementary schools more than secondary we had
023deliveries coming at the last moment of the week of textbook deliveries due Friday I had an Allah executive meeting that Wednesday and my own principes were receiving their pallets during the meeting so that left two days to get everything out one had 13 pallets working into the evening working into the following evening to ensure that the textbooks deliveries were done so that we could meet Williams compliance we don't even ask for EDP anymore but I do hope that these folks when they meet with their directors do get Flex time for their time they got it done because in my meeting with one of our leads this week I was told that we had 100% William certification so I thank the members and I thank you for listening and I know that this will not happen
024again because we will do a better job with our planning our organiz coherent distribution of materials and our progress monitoring systems to ensure that our members are getting the materials and resources they need to be able to distribute to be able to teach the curriculum and to be able to certify on time we have limited human capital let's keep that in mind please and these late deliveries tremendously impact the distribution at the school site with very limited human capital principles were hysterically rushing to unpack inventory delivered these books to the classroom and they did and they met the William certification but there really is no need to add this added stress we have skeletal Crews at schools please remember that many of our elementary schools are now single side administrators there is no team in
025me we must work towards solutions to better support our school leaders our teachers and students so that we can effectively distribute and plan and schedule so that we avoid and have foresight of what's to come then this week the article read you need to do better L USD it's only September 20 days into the school year I wake up with texts and calls and emails from all my members across the district feeling exhausted depleted overwhelmed unsupported and disrespected by the abundance of tasks deadlines demands of our district to get it all done and get it done now we are called beacons of light but our members are dim currently these are not coming from folks that are complaining these are coming from principles that are distinguished awardwinning administrators who are dying on the vine we
026need to stop talking about joy and wellness and how important that is and we need to replace these work with our actions there is inefficiencies and disconnects in central programming and planning and scheduling that is creating a huge impact on the implementation of practice and organizational effectiveness at the sites in addition it is also impacting the workload of our school support administrators those at administrators that work at bodre and the administrators that support region regions as well it is creating creating a huge impact on their workload as they have to manage and progress monitor these inefficiencies special Leed and over norming huge programming concerns over norming with the double size of sped especially in not core and alternate curriculum I asked myself how did this happen it should never have happened we need to have
027foresight in our planning in our programming so that we avoid these unnecessary challenges foresight planning scheduling progress monitoring communication systems internally checks and balances where is that within our district if I ran a school right now without a master calendar or a region as a director without a master calendar not seeing the conflicts of schedules meetings timelines due dates I would be written up and I would probably be seeking the help of aala I challenge you to do better I am asking for for the following to support the working conditions and make it doable for our members one I ask you to look within the organization and make some drastic and needed systemic changes I ask that you create a master calendar across all your departments so that you understand and see visually the demands
028that are being sent out for the principles with very limited human capital and school support administrators with very small teams to be able to complete that Master calendar will ensure that we have effective scheduling that we have that we spread out the due dates and that we support our members with their organizational effectiveness at their sites I urge you to please develop this the second ask is our special education programming we need a fix and we need it now we have classrooms that are overburdened and over normed where now principles are being grieved I know for some of us going through a grievance process is no big deal our folks show up to work every day they are professionals it means something to them and we are adding added stress in the system with staff
029relations now having to support these grievances that are coming down and it is just the pleading the spirit of our folks that are trying to do the hard work trying to do what's right for kids we need to clean that up we need a solution we need to fix it and the third thing I ask is that you not just only listen to the concerns because I'm meeting with all the executive leads in Bodi and again I thank you for your time I know how impacted your time ends and I know you listen and you take note but I we need to see action we need to see resolution and we need to see that you are currently understanding the working conditions that our members are living in now not 5 years ago not 10
030years ago but our current realities now in closing again I come to you not complaining but I come to you as a labor partner so that we can build again those transparency systems have open channels of communication and build collaborative structs collaborative structures for solution-based approaches I come to you unapologetically as the adla president with unwavering result result and with One Vision One Voice together stronger I look forward to our Collective and collaborative work and I look forward to hearing the systemic changes that are going to arise so that our members can be supported have operational effectiveness at their sites and be thriving and ready to do the work so that students do Achieve Beyond limits there is one more area that I want to discuss and that is the messaging going out on weekends
031at 700 P.M to send out from the principles a notice that we have a heatwave that is one task that you can take off the plates right now we are a centralized system the message that superintendent sent out and operations was sufficient that does not constitute an emergency that was the straw that broke the camels back after the 20 days of what the experiences was with opening the school please consider the difference between an emergency and the difference between Building Systems that go directly to our families and a communication it was hot last week and we knew it was going to be hot Monday so please please consider your actions and your impact and let the people rest on the weekends so that they can be ready and rejuvenated to serve their communities during their
032work days thank you very much for your time thank you very much so uh at this point uh I want to just make a a couple of quick announcements uh item 22 on the agenda which is the charter petitions public hearing will begin at 2 o'clock item number 15 which is a resolution uh regarding uh Community Schools will be heard at 3:00 item 16 which is uh a uh resolution regarding World several SE cerebral paly day will be heard at 12:30 no it says 1:30 here why do I have two different times well I'll got that I think it's 1:30 uh in any case let me tell you that we do this because certain board members who brought resolutions not want to notify people who wish to speak on them about approximately what time also
033uh I wanted to say that now we're going to go to something called the consent calendar now what that means is is that board members will tell me uh to put something either on consent or for discussion if it's for discussion it means they have questions and they want to have it taken off consent very often we have the majority of items on our agenda on the consent calendar and are voted on with one vote well you might say to yourself how does that happen it's because board members get the materials for this board meeting at least a week in advance they have an opportunity to ask the superintendent senior staff questions about each and every item if they're convinced that they're going to vote Yes we put it on consent because there's no reason
034to discuss things that have already been discussed and read so that's why we do this and you'll hear that also you'll hear that sometimes we take things out of order for example today we must adopt tab three uh uh and tab four before we adopt tab two why because it has to do with a new program to build rebuild a high school and the order in which we adopt things means we have to adopt the uh the negative decoration before we actually adopt the things so it's a it's a fluid situation but uh Mr McLean and I will try to keep everybody in formed as to where they are so now board members except for Resolutions if you're going to ask questions or make comments I want you to say discussion if you are content
035that you know everything you need to know about that particular item please let's put it on consent so item one is the approval of procurement actions discussion discussion item number two is facilities contracts actions including a designed build contract for Garfield High School major modernization project discuss discussion item three is the mitigated negative declaration for the Garfield event consent consent item number four project approval for the Garfield High School major modernization project consent item number five Define and approve 13 Board District priorities and region priority projects item number five donations of money and materials to the district item n I'm sorry that was six thank you sorry about that uh item number seven report of cash dispersements and corporate credit card charges item number eight un audited actual report for fiscal year that's a public
036hearing so when we get to that it will read that statement and that cannot be on consent so we will put that on discussion yes there will be a presentation is that correct yes yes that's what I thought okay uh item number nine approval of routine Personnel actions item number 10 provisional internship permits consent item number 11 textbooks and instructional materials this is a public hearing also and it will be heard I believe actually at 4:00 today or after or after 4:00 anytime after 4:00 so that will be not on consent uh item number 12 cceis action plan Amendment all right that will be on item 13 Environmental Protection Agency clean School Bus program notice of a big award to us you want that discussed question well that's on discussion then we take anything that
037there are questions off consent so that's a discussion uh uh resolution 14 ssrr those are the the people bringing it suicide awareness and prevention month consent item number 15th uh supporting meaningful teaching and learning that's at 3 pm. time certain and that will probably be a discussion item item 16 observing October 6 says World cerebral paly day that's a W of board rule 72 and will be heard at 1:30 so I'll put that on discussion as well item 17 a waiver of board rule 72 in order to begin the celebration of latinx Heritage Month in Los Angeles Unified I'm sure that will be on consent but you will be able to make statements when we get to it item 18 safe sustainable streets Walk and Roll to school consent I have a question oh well
038then it's not on consent okay uh item uh 19 is an initial announcement which we will not vote on today which is fostering healthy relationships through digital citizenship week item 20 reappointment of member of an appointment pardon me reappointment of member and appointment of an alternate member to the school construction Bond citizens oversight committee on consent item 21 appointment of member to the school construction Bond oversight committee item 25 which is the charter petitions for public hearing that will be heard at 2:00 today and that of course is not on consent because there's no action it's just hearing the uh petitions item 23 report of Correspondence including Williams uniform complaint quarterly report consent it's a public oh you're right public hearing okay it can still be on consent public hearing can also be on consent
039it can still be on consent and adoption uh item 24 was withdrawn prior to the meeting item 25 adoption of the board meeting schedule version two um I'm actually going to say we probably need to have me at least explain why it's been shifting around so I'm going to put that on discussion all right so on consent make sure we everybody agrees on consent is 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 14 17 20 21 and 23 everybody agree all right so that's what it is so what that means is what we will do is after we've had the report from the superintendent which is next on the agenda we will begin hearing from the people who've come to speak on these items which are on the consent calendar we got to go oh I'm
040sorry and I I I made a mistake and skipped a couple of things to go to the consent calendar so first we're going to have a report from one of our committees the IPM ad hoc committee all right that would be uh board member Schon I apologize Mr shurson I forgot my own notes okay thank you Jackie uh the uh IPM ad hoc committee met on Wednesday August the 27th at 9 a.m. the ad hoc committee is a procedural mechanism meant to get the integrated Pest management team back on course and in compliance with the 1999 board policy that was adopted and implemented the LAUSD integrated Pest Management policy so at this meeting we heard nominations of current ipmt members for a temporary 60-day term we also received an update from maintenance and operations regarding
041those recommendations the newly approved committee members were asked to submit a certification of confidentiality and no financial interest to the ethics office off as of now as of now we have all but four and we will soon be ready to submit candidates to the full board for approval lastly the meeting was recorded and posted for viewing on the board of education website so thank you I know that it has been an issue that we get it reorganized and I appreciate your efforts to make that happen thank you to all of the people on the committee Miss gones just a a point of inquiry regarding committees um the board voted on committee schedules and memberships last month and there have been excuse me there have been some changes since then so I was wondering if there
042will be a new updated version of that committee to to come before the board at some point yes uh we'll have it for the next meeting okay I just want to make sure that the public discussion ised with got by me you're right okay thank you thank you all right uh okay I think that was the item item that we had to I missed and then we will have any presentations from the superintendent oh I'm sorry I have to make an appointment uh I have been asked because uh board member uh Ortiz Franklin has been the board representative to the California school boards Association but due to personal necessity she's asked to step down and Dr Rivas has agreed to take that position so as board president I'm appointing her now to repres present this
043board at the California school boards Association and with our gratitude to miss Ortiz Franklin for her service up till now all right now I'm finally caught up I apologize all right now superintendent's report and then we'll go through the consent calendar thank you very much uh Madam president I'll be very brief as I will make introductory comment specific to the uh to the uh later item uh on the uh an audited report um so I'll hold on that on that until later but there are five quick points I'd like to make very briefly number one I want to thank our our board our labor force uh our labor partners and certainly the community for a a very smooth opening of schools um not without some challenges obviously we dealt with an earthquake magnitude 4.4 but
044uh the resilience of our Workforce and our students was clearly on this play since the beginning of the school year uh we are happy to report that this year uh we set an all-time record for fill rate uh of positions uh certificated and classified but particularly certificated ensuring that the class coverage uh with a certificated teacher has been achieved in this District we are at around 99.9% uh with a clear emphasis on the priority schools uh being staffed uh secondly uh we continue to look at performance data across the district and uh allocating and appropriating the right amount of support uh and resources in addition to increased monitoring and accountability um we know that Norm day is quickly approaching and that brings unfortunately some degree of disruption I want to be clear about one thing
045Norm day is is a necessity this is the time when the district school by school adjusts on the basis of enrollment uh we are a district that continues to be in declining enrollment uh compared to last year we're still about 6 to 7,000 students below where we were around this time that's within the range that we anticipated uh the unfortunate part is that sometimes it is difficult to predict accurately where that loss of enrollment is in what ZIP codes impacting what schools so with declining enrollment there are necessary adjustments that need to be made made specific to the teachers that are funded for those schools that's the process of norming we recognize that this is a very disruptive occurrence uh in some schools uh so uh our two Deputy superintendents and their staffs continue to
046work collaboratively with region superintendents to mitigate immediate impacts to schools affected in some cases we are working with principles utilizing additional revenues that exist to uh allow the uh the deployment of resources to support uh teachers within their schools based on their budget that may be above Norm in other instances based on exent conditions we as a district through the region May provide additional support we are dealing right now with a number of teachers impacted by Norm day significantly below what we were dealing with last year at this time but I want to express again that any change is disruptive and we are working to minimize those disruptions the next topic is one that U is not seen as uh as having an impact districtwide but it certainly is seen as having a very regionalized
047impact uh at a level of a number of schools we take pride in in the choice offerings that this District offers within our Public School environment we have terrific terrific uh um Affiliated Charter Schools we have terrific magnet programs uh we have terrific dual language programs terrific gifted and talented programs sometimes we are Duty bound to examine Statewide uh governance rules U Visa the practices that we use uh to implement some of these programs I recognize there's been some discussion districtwide at school levels regarding some perceived changes to the process of admission through the lottery or uh other processes for talent and gifted progr programs at a couple of schools we are pressing the pause button uh on moving forward on some of those practices as I have more questions I believe members of this
048board have additional questions we will strike a balance between at code what Sacramento requires and what is appropriate to do for our kids sometimes the pendulum swings too far in One Direction with unintended consequences that should be avoided if we can next uh we recognized and I heard this earlier today that there were some challenges specific to special education and the opening of new classes again this is often uh a function of IEP timing uh but it is also a function of enrollment we are reviewing the processes and protocols to create a better more seamless process particularly at the beginning of the year as I recognize and I think we all do that students deserve the best most adaptive environment particularly students with disabilities and secondly our teachers and support staff deserve an environment that
049too is protected recognizing sometimes that the ratios that teachers at the beginning uh of the work year deal with are excessively High we have moved aggressively in normalizing these situations lastly it's a topic that probably staff would advise me not to not to address you know who are we if we don't address the toughest issues this is the venue and the setting for us to do so um prop 28 has garnered a lot of uh conversation criticism misunderstandings and accusations a lot of accusations certainly thrown directly at me even though I have followed what I believe is staff's interpretation legal interpretation of the law of prop 28 but sometimes there is a disconnect or a distance between the letter of the law and the intent of the law and sometimes there's still a disconnect between
050the intent of the law and the implementation of the law which can vary from school to school we continue to look at this issue and certainly um towards a lot of part of uh of uh last school year as we were preparing for this school year we made augmented allocations Appropriations for schools to the tune of $30 million which this board approved to supplement on top of what we were required by law to appropriate additional funds so that there would be a hold harmless applicable throughout the school district I don't know of any other District in state of California that actually did this we've also sought to alleviate concerns regarding the utilization of cultural arts passport funding again a novel way of providing access and exposure to Artistic and cultural venues across Los Angeles our
051teachers our students our families appreciate cap so we will continue to fund it but what we did this year was to really segregate true cultural and artistic experiences under cap and create an additional fund that supports field trips that may not necessarily be directly or indirectly defined as artistic in nature no other district has gone that far but we want to dispel confusion regarding this matter without quite frankly impacting our students in our schools and the experiences that they get from cap where we are now is looking specifically at implications at the high school level particularly at the high school level in some cases middle schools but mainly high schools we have listened to some commentary we have disaggregated the data specific to previous enrollment current enrollment State allocation and then the implications at those
052schools and even though we've reached some degree of conclusion that for most of the allegations or the concerns these are in fact tied to shifts in enrollment that may may seem that result in a reduction in arts funding but when you look deeper that is not the case less enrollment or shifts in poverty impact prop 28 allocation secondly the measure is not one done on the basis of people or expenditures or allocations that is done on the basis of districtwide uh expenditure level with that said I believe we can once again as we've done in the past look deeply at schools impacted and come up with practicable solutions that are easily understood by our community that is where we are at this point in fact I've asked staff to look after conversations with some of
053the board members and I I would like to to detail significant conversations between staff and board members merlon as well as many others here uh at this days regarding this topic we need to assure the community that we've done our very best that we're using our dollars in the most effective efficient and legally acceptable way so we are entertaining um possibilities of engaging an independent entity to look specifically at this last case secondary schools to analyze the data school by school the appropriation the measures to ensure that we are living up not only that the letter of the law but its implementation complies with the expectation that we all have for a strong solid exposure to Arts programming so Madame President I take pride in the work that's done across this District every single day
054it is obviously is the second largest District in the country one that does not travel without some degree of controversy or challenge but the good by far outweighs the challenge and that is revealed in the progress that we've seen in terms of improved the tenants declining chronic absentismo results we've seen across all great levels in academic performance which by the way I recently heard a comment that how can we say this when the data has not been provided by the state that is true and shame on the state for delaying the release of the data I don't know of any other District where we start the next school year without having data from the previous school year we're not going to assess our way to academic Excellence assessment is important to the extent that it
055informs and allows for recalibration of the academic approach in schools why else would we assess that is why it is unacceptable that we are well into the first month of this school year and the state still has not released uh academic data to all districts across the state of California that puts is in a position of still having data because the data specific to schools is in the hands of principles and has been in hands of principles for a while so the data that we're speaking about is true and accurate data but we have had to do the work of actually compiling that data and examining it the truth of the matter is that every single grade level in reading and Mathematics this District made statistically significant gains in a vast majority of subgroups of
056students when you couple that with the improved ATT tennis and chronic absenteeism we are at a pivotal moment in terms of our District's Improvement one that cannot be ignored Are We There Yet absolutely not is there a long way to go absolutely there is but the progress that is being made is indeed impressive denying it is denying the hard work of our teachers our support staff and our principles is denying the commitment of this board it is working we need to do more of it so Madame President it is both with pride but also recognition of the challenges but embracing solutions for those that I conclude uh the superintendent report thank you very much thank you very much and now we will go to hearing from public speakers who've signed up to speak on items
057that are now on the consent calendar I believe the first list is item number nine that's correct so we have F four folks who signed up to speak remotely on Tab nine which is approval of routine Personnel actions go ahead and call your names Alex Brown I see you're on the line Alex Brown please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Alex Brown Alex Brown please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin I see you're online with us hi can you hear me be sure can go ahead you have two minutes amazing thank you so much uh I just wanted to start off by saying that I appreciate uh the work that you all do for the
058district um I am a parent of two students um ages nine and almost four at pona Avenue Elementary um I'm a big believer in public education um my mother was a school teacher teaching third grade for 30 years um I stand with teachers a million percent and I respect everything that everyone does um so I just wanted to start with a A Kind Overture because I you know what you guys do is is essential to to everything um but I am I am calling today today because I have been made aware of the situation that I think is unacceptable um especially in the context of the parents Bill of Rights um I have been told that my school is on the verge of losing two teachers because we are under enrolled by two students based
059on the normal the normalizing of the class levels that you have um one program in particular the Dual language Spanish Immersion program uh the reason why I selected the school for my older daughter to go there she's been going since kindergarten uh she's now in the fourth grade uh currently she's in a mixed fourth fifth grade classroom uh I'm under I'm told by the people that I've spoken to at my school that if these enrollment problems are not fixed by this Friday that they will lose a teacher in the Dual language program and my daughter's class will go from being at fourth and fifth grade class to a fourth fifth and sixth grade class I am appreciative of the positive elements of mixed grade classrooms uh I'm not going to extol on that here because
060I have a limited amount of time to talk um but I think that no one in this room or no one that works in education would agree that a mixed three-grade classroom is a good idea or that it would uh adhere to anything uh in the parents Bill of Rights in terms of the level of commitment and responsibility to the students education to the sir we appreciate your time thank you very much for calling in uh the next person to speak is Louisa perz you're signed up to speak remotely but I do not see you signed in are you in the room Lua pz not here okay Roston woo I see you're signed up to speak remotely Roston Ru please press star six to unmute yourself Mr Woo hello um am I unmuted yeah please
061go ahead you have two minutes can you hear me yes okay great thanks so much um yeah I think I'll just pick up where Alex left off um I am also a parent of two children at Lona Elementary um I also believe strongly in public education and do thank all of you for your commitment to you know what is obviously an increasingly difficult situation um you know I think I have two points I think one as Alex was in the midst of saying um the specifics of the the loss of the teachers in our school losing two teachers because we're under enrolled by two students um seems particularly brutal um and I think would significantly impair the operation of our school and and potentially lead to its closure essentially because I think it will just
062uh engender more and more unenrollment it seems like there's a certain kind of uh death spiral that's implied by um sort of losing teachers in this really chaotic way in the midst of a of a of a of of the situations already really difficult it's a small school so losing two teachers means a ton and and I think a fourth fifth sixth grade class with one teacher it just does not seem like it could possibly be a positive educational experience for students um so I just strongly urge you to if there is ways to um figure out um ways to make it work I I would I would strongly urge you to do so I think the second piece is bigger I just can't accept that the idea that Norm day is an absolute necessity
063to the way that LAUSD schools work it seems like a just a very poor planning mechanism and I really do urge you to try to think through how to do this in a more structured way if we had known a year from now or a year before that this was a possibility I mean there's so much we could have done to organize to figure out how to make um something change but because of the kind of rapidity of these changes um it really blindsides the whole school community and it's just very frustrating and it makes it feel like LUSD doesn't really care about um the outcomes of our school um it seems like a really rigid system that kind of uh seems overly punishing and it doesn't seem like it generates any positive so I
064just have to believe that there's a different way to do this there's a way to do it on a longer planning cycle so that people can actually adjust the changes and make some of these obviously hard decisions thank you very much for your time a more reasonable appreciate your time thank you and the next caller is Janet sonan I see you're on the line Janet please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Janet sonman Janet sonoman please press start six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin I see I see you're online with us hello yeah hi we can hear you hi um hi um board this is Janet FAA sonan my child is a new TK student at Cowen
065Avenue Elementary School I'm here to speak on item nine AKA approval of routine Personnel actions I want to call attention to the issue that's any butt routine the shuffling reconfiguration of personnel and teachers is really concerning to me at cow Elementary this was our first year having span Spanish language TK through the wli program in fact it's one of the main reasons our families chose to apply to the school through the choice program to ensure our multi-racial child had a diversity of staff and students and that he would go to a student that was dedicated to growth and that offer dual immersion starting at TK our CH our children have connected with Miss vianova who's been an amazing person and guide into their school Journey with Norms approaching our children are going to lose their
066teacher who's getting moved to fourth grade and our kids are loosing on TK education that balances two language we understand that TK at La USD is new and it's the first Year accountant to incorporate Spanish I want to express my concern about my child's education after hearing about this being collapsed due to low and rment similarly um missing one or two students as well as like us as parents trying to recruit new students and being able to and still being in this situation um I think that it should be anything but routine to shake up children in Personnel especially with programs like TK that are new um I'm asking myself what does it mean for the future of TK at LUSD what does it mean for dual immersion TK at L USD new programs take
067a while to connect with communities to spread the word to culture CH to happen and I would like a lot more Outreach to be done to um increase this enrollment numbers while we know that the numbers are decreasing and we are expecting it um I you I know that as parents we're very concerned and I want administrators and decision makers to protect TK programs as they were intended invest in the personnel and build the programs that we want to see we want to be partners we want to save TK education at Cowan TK dual emerging education at Cowen and it is within our power to do so thank you thank you very much for your time that concludes public comment on Tab uh the next consent item that has public comment is tab 14 I
068believe that's a board member Schmelson suicide awareness and prevention month and I think we have some updated language that uh this team wanted to bring yes and also I wanted to have Mr schls and census on consent to introduce his motion as well is this a Time certain where's my list no okay did everybody receive version three with the corrections correct I just want to make sure everyone has tab 14 and if you want to review that and let everyone know what the what the change was ready okay thank you uh today I'm introducing a resolution to acknowledge September as Suicide Prevention and awareness month according to the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health suicide is the third leading cause of Youth death among LA County residents and the eighth leading cause of premature
069death overall this is especially true for our African-American and lgbtq Q plus communities who suffer from worse mental health conditions than other groups all these suicides are preventable with proper attention and resources at Los Angeles Unified we are committed to ensuring that all students have access to Mental Health Resources this resolution calls for an update on District Mental Health Resource distribution progress within 120 days last year a presentation was given on strategic Community engagement where students expressed the need to make Mental Health Resources and access to materials more visible the district has proudly invested millions of dollars in these initiatives they are certainly needed but I do worry about where the disconnect is is it just visibility is it the stigma surrounding mental health I i' like some of those questions answered and these resources
070may be available but we must remember that availability does not equate to accessibility simply because they are there does not mean that our students can access them conveniently thank you for considering this resolution at this moment I'd like to invite my board colleague Dr Rosio Rivas who is co-sponsoring to say a few words thank you board member scharon um I whole wholeheartedly support T 14 recognizing suicide awareness and prevention month this serves as a crucial reminder that we must cultivate culture and Care within our schools and our communities recognizing that we may always be in the presence of someone who is suffering um even if their pain is invisible before moving forward I would like us I would like you all to join me in a brief silence 10 seconds at least to honor the
071lives lost to suicide and acknowledge and acknowledge the pain of those Left Behind thank you for that um to further our prevention efforts I have a few just a few question of our staff if someone here um who's present from our district leadership just to provide us a quick reminder on recognizing the signs of distress in our students or in ourselves and others um those signs that may um give us an indication that someone is suffering someone is depressed and could be probably facing or thinking of um suicide so I have here Mr Joel NEOS um just help us remind us of recognizing the signs of distress um what should a student do or a family member do if they see or they feel feeling depressed good morning board thank you Dr Reas Joel siso's
072executive director with senior mental health and wellness Services first thing families can do is make sure they ask for help let's just start there it's really important that families ask for help by dialing 988 they can text or call 24 hours 7 days a week I know there's stigma oftentimes attached but I think the most important thing is to ask for help and some of those signs may look at parents know their their their children best right so if there's anything unusual uh behaviors that have changed uh anything that looks out of the ordinary please make sure that they reach out and what resources are available currently for for those they currently you can go to LUSD SMH uh SMH School mental health and there are resources there also uh you can reach out to
073L USD shhs which is a website that we're still operating and there parents can ask for help you can go and uh request for mental health services we have a network of mental health providers we have tella Health Providers we have in-person uh Services being delivered at schoolid so that that's a good first stop but again for crisis go always 988 what other organizations besides you know the the resource that we provide can provide some support like the Department of Public Health or other organizations that we partner with to help yes so we actually partner with the Department of Al County Department of Mental Health uh with to provide services so they've been a wonderful partner but we also have over 50 Partnerships that are no cost to the district from community-based organizations um I
074know if I start naming a few some will feel excluded but we have we have a lot of community- based organizations that we can't do this work without thank you so much Mr cinos I appreciate it um and I wanted that reminder because I want to let everyone know you're not alone there's always hope and this resolution really brings an attention to something that our communities are suffering um we're all depressed in so many ways for so many reasons but we're not alone particularly our students if we can prevent a life to be lost and those that are left behind from the pain um that is left then we have done a lot so by equipping everyone with this knowledge we can create a safer and more supportive environment for all and I really want
075to thank Mr Schmelson for bringing this resolution forward thank you thank you very much let me just add uh Dr Rivas that at school of course we have counselors and psychiatric social workers and PSA workers but everybody everybody in school is monitoring kids for suicide prevention I'm talking about custodians I'm talking about the cafeteria people the campus AIDS everybody is looking and making sure that our kids are safe our kids are free to talk to anyone they want at school and that person will of course refer them for help so I just wanted to add that too thank you now for my board members comments for my board members I'm going to make a quick note that I just passed out some slight revisions to make sure that the change there's a change reflected in
076the on page two one two 3 four the fourth whereas it says an analysis of District data rather than I start incidents has been replaced and I just want to make sure everyone had that most recent copy um and we're going to post that to the website right now and we have some copies for the public if you're if you're so interested so please go proceed thanks first is our student board member anelli Lopez thank you this acknowledgement of Suicide Prevention month is a reminder that every conversation every act of kindness and every effort to create a supportive environment can save a life it is our Collective and it is our responsibility thank you and thank you other board members comments okay Mr Melvin sure just thank you both for bringing it I'd love to
077be ated as a co-sponsor um and even though you know as we get farther away from the pandemic it feels distant in our minds but the effects are still being felt including the severe mental health crisis in this country particularly among our kids um so we as we raise importance of um Suicide Prevention I just want to say to anyone who's listening and the audience and and our peers um uh and students who may be feeling overwhelmed or sadness depressed that you're not alone and that things get better and that you can always talk to a trusted adult to get the support you need whether that's your home or your school site and I appreciate that this resolution is going to be more explicit about how that support is provided so uh you know I
078also think this is an important reminder and I'm grateful to my colleagues for bringing this resolution that we never know what battles those around us uh what battle those people around us may be facing and you know random act of kindness or compassion can go a lot a long way in our schools so thank you and appreciate being added as a sponsor thank you Mr mvoy Miss Ortiz Franklin would just also love to be added as a sponsor and thank you all for bringing this um and I hope we will continue to talk about various ways we can keep our students safe as this is the number one incident that we all get our um daily incident reports about so thank you for elevating the importance and please accept my co-sponsorship and thank you also
079uh Miss Goldberg yes I think that it's it's very important uh resolutions like this because even though they seem oh would you bother it's reminder for everyone that we need to look out for each other we need to notice when there's a big change in the behavior of someone and that's usually the key that there's some issue that's important and so I appreciate you bringing this forward but of course it's always important for us to remind ourselves that we need to act if we see someone in trouble in emotionally and sometimes that's hard to do and sometimes you feel like you're embarrassed Ed or they're embarrassed but it saves a life and also isn't there our phone number is at 988 988 if you are yourself or you know someone who's in trouble if they
080dial 988 it'll take them directly to someone who will work with them on suicide prevention and I'd like to be a co-sponsor as well well thank you Miss Goldberg next Dr McKenna yes I want to say thank you for bringing the resolution forward I certainly would like to be a co-sponsor that's it thank you Dr McKenna okay Miss Goldberg now we'll hear from the public okay as is our usual practice I'll call on the folks who listed themselves as being in person to deliver their uh public comment on this tab um braxon Jordan are you here Braxton Jordan you're signed up to speak in person Braxton check online to see if Braxton tuned in remotely theu H Hutchinson I see your uh online remotely but listed in person we're going to call on you now
081siku Hutchinson please press star six to unmute yourself and you have two minutes to speak once you begin hi can you hear me we sure can please go ahead okay good afternoon my name is a Hinson I'm parent member of students deserve and the co-founder of the black lgbtq plus parent and caregiver group and the women's leadership project which provides prevention education programming for black girls and black queer youth according to the CDC while suicide rates among white people in the US declined from 2019 to 2020 there were no statistically significant declines in suicide rates for black Americans in fact among black youth and young adults suicide rates have climbed steadily over the past two decades from 2003 to 2019 suicide among black girls increased by 59% with the biggest increase occurring among 12 to
08214-year-old Middle School girls who along with black queer and gender expansive use are experiencing record rates of violence harassment and bullying these horrendous stats underscore the importance of targeted black student achievement plan prevention education and mental health support unfortunately the district's unilateral and anti-black decision to dilute bap's emphasis on targeted support for black students by expanding the number of schools that are eligible for bap a direct affront to black students and families it threatens to further undermine the considerable academic and social emotional gains black students have made since the initiative's implementation under the eges of daap black students have benefited significantly from culturally specific trauma informed Mental Health Resources and supports that redress the harm inflicted by systemic racism sexism and homophobia hence we as parents are calling on you to permanently expand bap funding
083by 100 million and demonstrate your commitment to black students by giving the Bap steering committee real decision-making power to spearhead collaboration on the growth and implementation of Bap black students and families will not tolerate your inaction and complicity with regimes of criminalization and impeachement that seek to erase us stop playing games with the mental health and academic futures of our children and stand on business thank you for your time uh joia are you here joia are you here you signed up to speak in person uh are you in the room in joa you're not online let's see and then we have Michelle Lindsay are you here you're listed to speaking in I mean actually remotely but you are not signed on are you in the room Lan Hall I see you're signed up to speak
084remotely and you are signed in remotely latan Hull please press start six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin latata Hull hello hello my name is lat Hull I'm a core parent from codre and I'm in the support of the suicide prevention of black mental health and awareness on Bap I would love for you guys to extend Bap and not take it away because and I would like for them to make Mental Health Mentor when children our children get into schools children and staff thank you very much thank you for your time uh let's see we have krie Irving Ki Irving you're signed up to speak remotely but I do not see you online Ki Irving are you in the room he that concludes public comment for tab 14
085all right I believe it's tab go down to tab 17 um m Miss gones did you have a time certain for that or did you want to go ahead now no we don't have a time certain that's um thank you and um Mr schmon sorry if I haven't missed my window I'd love to co-sponsor the suicide prevention um resolution as well thank you for bringing it Forward um it's always a great pleasure to bring a resolution in celebration of Lettin next heritage month at its heart um Lettin next heritage month is really about celebrating the contributions of our community on our schools our city and our nation really about ding the struggles and triumphs of our communities are not forgotten but are cherished as an important part of our Collective history a history that continues
086and lives on today in our stories and our families throughout the LA Unified School District it's about telling every student that their Heritage is valued and celebrated in La unified so that when our students leave our classrooms they can navigate an increasingly connected world with empathy empathy respect and pride in their culture it's about empowering our students to become the next generation of leaders um so with that I'm I'm happy to bring this resolution forward and I look forward to your support of the let the next Heritage Month resolution uh did you wish to have other board members speak to it now if others would like to speak I welcome them to speak all right I would just love to be added as a co-sponsor i Dr Rivas yes please also add me as a
087sponsor Mr shlon and me and me and you and probably Mr McKenna Dr McKenna yes and me so it's I think it's all of us all are welcome all right any of you wish to make any particular comments at this time okay when we do the consent calendar we will also have to move the waiver of board rule uh 72 at the same time so remind me Mr McLean that we do that so we can make this possible all right now uh I think we have lots of speakers so this is the time to hear from the public public speakers as well okay so the public speakers for tab 17 Marisol MOA are you here Marisol come on up you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin and then following Marisol will be Marita
088ridz can you hear me good okay can I start yeah pull up the microphone if if you could just yeah definitely don't want to miss anything you're saying like that is that good okay I'm ready good morning members of the board and superintendent my name is mar solora and I'm a proud member and student of esperansa college prep I'm here today to express my support and appreciation for board member gones resolution to recognize and celebrate lanx herment for me this is personal it is more than honoring the past it's about embracing who we are today and continuing to shape the future growing up in E with my mom who came here from sakas she always taught me to be proud of where I come from and celebrate what we've built from the strength of Our
089Roots It Is by being a part of the Balo program at esperansa today I'm probably wearing the traditional halis Rano dress that I perform this program has helped me connect with my Heritage in ways that go far beyond learning just steps and learning about different cultures and discovering the deeper stories of Latin X in the US like the Cho civil rights movement and the 1968 e walkouts those students stood up for an education that represented them and today through programs like Balo we continue to honor that Legacy our dance program was featured nationally on CBS highlighting the impact we've had on our community the most powerful moment for me is performing at local schools where young kids Li at us as Role Models seeing themselves in our dances and traditions it's the over 400 family
090and community members that showed up to our Los moros caraval and the Bora of our commun chanting at the East Parade at a is not just about dance it's about education access and opportunities through our core values such as Familia GH Cultura students build a stronger community and create a positive multigenerational change thanks to the strong academics and programs that connect us to our culture 100% of our graduates at esperansa are accepted into a fourar university in our community where less than 4% of adults hold college degrees that is transformative I support board member gness resolution this is not just for students like me but for all students staff and Families in the LA USD at espena is not just about celebrating our heritage for one month it's about acknowledging the Legacy contributions and achievement
091of latinx communities thank you thank you thank you for your [Applause] time okay Marita Ramirez are you here Marissa come on up you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin I yield my time to Kimberly Pacho okay um good afternoon my name is Kim Pacho and I'm a senior at USC hybrid high in innovate School in South La on behalf of our students and families I want to thank BB morones for continuing to honor and recognize Mr Cura and putting forth her resolution as we celebrate land next heritage month I want to share what this means to me and my community I was born and raised in South La and as a daughter of Salvadoran immigrants I have seen firsthand the sacrifices my parents have made in pursuit of a better future for our
092family they left their Homeland with hopes and dreams that were bigger than their circumstances and my school has given us a chance to rewrite our story my parents have always emphasized the importance of remembering our traditions and how our fam's recipes stories and language carry us and keep us connected to the land we come from LX heritage month is a time to honor our Rich histories cultures and contributions while also celebrating our resilience and the strength of our community with lck students representing over 73% of La USD populations and more than 93% of our n ofate student body the importance of this month is deeply felt UC hybrid high is more than just a school it's a Vibrant Community that believes in us and pushes us to achieve our best our commitment to PMC goes
093beyond academics we engage in discussions about current events and celebrate the unique identities that shape US during ladin X heritage month we reflect on the stories of our ancestors and recognize that we are their widest dreams you realized as a leader of our Spanish Honor Society at my school I'm excited to celebrate with the with the many events we are hosting like organizing a day where students can proudly wear or represent their cultures by wearing their colored Flags our teachers and staff not only understood our culture but also honor and embrace our Traditions creating a school environment where we feel seen valued and celebrated we also have strong Partnerships with lulac who advocacy for l x civil rights inspires and strengthens our community for me it's about empowering students to take our to take pride
094in our heritage and make a positive impact in the world from our ancestor stories that live within us to today's achievements and the vibrant traditions we continue to celebrate our culture is a testament to resilience pride and the enduring Spirit of our community thank you for supporting this resolution and giving us the opportunity to lift our voices in our school communities and fight on thank you for your time okay Juan Jose mandhi are you here Juan mandhi mandhi are you in the room you're not online either Kimberly Pacho are you here in the room Kimberly Pacho oh you just spoke sorry you signed in for something and Marita yielded her time okay uh now we have a number of folks who said that they were going to to call in but I don't have any
095callers uh signed in at the time so I'm I'm going to I'm going to say say their names just in case they happen to be in the room so Maria Daisy Ortiz are you here in the room Maria Daisy Ortiz come on up you're signed up to speak on this tab Miss Ortiz tab 17 uh board member going as his resolution um okay there she is and Miss Ortiz is going to speak in Spanish so if you'd like to hear what she's going to say in English please put your hands up and we'll hand out hand out these simultaneous translation devices so keep your hands up we'll pass those out to you good morning to all my name is Maria Daisy Ortiz and I am here I'm trying to make conscience to each and every
096one of you for for the celebration of Latin heritage month and as superintendent and as M members you are managing our children's education in a a very irresponsible way in a very negligent way and a very corrupt way because since you have removed parents from the decision making that shows that you are not transparent you are serving our children and our children's data are very low superintendent says beautiful words at the news and he's saying that we're going up with our numbers but nothing is showing that we're going up more than anything our Hispanic children to honor the latinx heritage month and our Latin students are the ones who represent 73% of the of the district and we need to give them better quality of Education better programs and the only ones who love these
097children are their parents no law has said to remove parents and for them not to be part of the decision making but because you have your political agendas you have your adult agenda therefore don't tell me rhetoric information or don't give me de demagogic words we need to make changes we need to make different changes include parents in the revision and the and include parents in the decision making based on the budgets and evaluate all the programs that are for the children education of our students is med mediocre thank you for your time just as you are uh Marcel Garcia your signning have to speak remotely but I'm calling to see if you in the room Marcela Garcia Nelly Mendes are you in the room Nelly Mendes Karina Lopez are you here Karina Lopez are
098you in the room Idan Morales are you in the room you signed up to speak remotely but you not online so I'm I'm calling on you just to make sure we're not missing you okay that concludes comment oh uh Miriam Esparza Miriam Esparza are you in the room you signed up to speak remotely but I do not see you online Miriam Esparza okay that concludes comment on Tab 17 um that would take us all the way down to uh tab 23 report of Correspondence including Williams uniform complaint quarterly report summary so we have some public comment on this I want to make a point of clarification so our board rules state that members of the public can give public comment one time per meeting uh for general public comment or item specific comment there's an
099exception to that rule when it comes to public hearings so public hearings someone who's already given general public comment or item specific comment may also give comment uh for each public hearing so if you are seeing folks more than once today and wondering why is that happening it's because under the law for a public hearing we must give folks the opportunity to speak at that even if they've given input on some other topic I don't want any lingering confusion about that so that will take us directly to uh tab 23 public comment um Maria Daisy Ortiz come on up you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin are you in the room Miss Ortiz you may have departed Marcela Garcia are you in the room Marcela Garcia you're on also not online Karina Lopez
100not online nor in the room Irene Morales again not online or in the room Nelly Mendes not signed in online norish in the room um Mr David tolkovsky I think I saw you earlier Mr tolkovsky anyone see him rushing through the door Mr toosi there he is he's making his way down you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin sir thank you thank you very much and thank you to Mr McLean for putting up the Williams compliance forms in the hallway uh here at this building that is required by a law that was offered authored and passed after a lawsuit from public Advocates by uh assembly woman Jackie Goldberg at the time that same form out there which if your school has an air conditioning problem instead of moaning and groaning or calling your
101board member there's a form that should be posted in every classroom in every school across the state of California and it is not being done that way uh the entire State not just this district is out of compliance and so as the superintendent said also if you have a uh a chemistry teacher teaching English or I should probably be the other way around is probably more likely although we could get a lot of chemistry teachers if we just went to the universities and helped grad students uh become a paired up with a a licensed teacher you could actually have some of content but I don't want to digress number two is that if you have a teacher right now anywhere in the schools that is misaligned with what they're supposed to be teaching it's a
102Williams complaint and thirdly as was mentioned earlier um every principal and every teacher in this item is saying that they have all the instructional materials they need in every subject they they've actually signed it and and that's very difficult because as was mentioned earlier the pallets of books arrive the Friday before school and I'm I'm not sure if that's the company's fault or the management of it but somebody and I know this superintendent would be on top of that make sure if that company delivered all of those new reading series that we've been training a little bit for on the last day and had the principles working in Saturday and Sunday some of them probably have put in complaints of physical ailments from lifting all that that company should be fined as per the contract
103for delivering so late so Williams compliance is fundamental and I thank you for starting a little bit Mr McLean you've set a standard that is not being done by any school in this District thank you it's now time appropriate for a motion on the consent calendar and motion is order to wave board rule 702 for item number 17 is there a motion to wave board rule 72 I'll move it moved and seconded now a motion including that to uh pass all of the items on consent move it been moved and seconded uh let me review quickly what those numbers are they are items number three four 5 6 7 9 10 14 17 20 21 and 23 everybody got that okay call the roll please uh I want to make read out who most moved
104in second so the move was Miss gones and the second was Mr schmon correct and I'm going to read the public statement for for tab 23 which I should have read prior to the comment thank you uh before action is taken on the report correspondence regarding the Williams uniform complaint quarterly report report summary from the director of the educational Equity compliance office a 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 sign up online speaker ERS were called by name so the speakers were part of the public hearing I apologize for not reading that earlier and now I'll take the roll
105call on the consent as well as the waiver of rule 72 Dr McKenna yes Dr Ras yes Mr schmon yes Mr melb yes Miss gones yes Mr Franklin yes Bo president Goldberg yes student member Lopez yes seven eyes seven up we will now go back and we will now start with item one and I believe it was taken off consent and so there must be questions so which board member would like to ask questions on item one Jackie I can start um Mr Melo yes I have questions on two and just a comment on on on one of them so a comment on uh tab or I guess Item B which is the trinis Corp I just want to thank the superintendent and Deputy superintendent cedo for bringing independent eyes to help improve our operational
106processes I know I've been calling out some concerns or just ideas for improvement around it around facilities around procurement and partially because that's the committee that I chair I think La unified is exceptional in a lot of ways but sometimes we use our exceptionalism to say oh we don't need to do things differently or we're so we're unique and and I I think that's true sometimes and sometimes it's not and we can improve our processes so I'm grateful that with this item that we have outside eyes looking at our it processes um creation of software Hardware all that and uh look forward to the report in a few months so I just want to thank you all for bringing that and I know we have I think ones around facilities coming as well soon so
107appreciate that um on uh item f um I just want to clarify given the large expenditure here and and maybe this is something uh Deputy superintendent you can just answer but um I want to clarify in this contract for pharmacy benefits that the district will continue to provide the same amount of benefits for all employees retirees and dependents under this contract this doesn't change anything about that correct and the contract includes additional cost savings from our prior uh agreement and prior contract with CVS so in this particular set yes we have particular cost savings especially in the KARK Health elements um I can have the team provide an update to the board to to highlight those savings and I also have uh Chris or son young who can speak to just the specifics yeah that
108would be great and and as you approach I just also want to clarify this money is from the previously allocated HBC right this looks this $530 million the health health benefits committee that the district is in collaboration with our labor Partners on allocating money for health benefits to active employees and retirees Independence and out of that this is obviously a big expenditure but for important Pharmacy coverage so so San Lee uh deputy chief business officer and I have with me pry kapor director of health benefits good morning board members good morning super in um in terms of savings yes we have more savings from the previous contract and what the savings are coming from there are coming from the negotiated minimum rebates and guarantees so of course the projected cost is higher than you know
109the previous contract amount but it's based on the trends and utilization and the cost of drugs but in terms of financial guarantees that that have been negotiated as a part of this contract in terms of rebate and guarantees they are better than the previous contract great thank you just one want to clarify publicly appreciate it and thanks to the team uh for working hard to support our staff and and realize cost savings can I ask one thing on this maybe just for the superintendent um well more for the superintendent government relations team to consider before December we haven't raised issues like this I don't think for a while but just the overwhelming cost of pharmaceuticals in this country is ridiculous and we're seeing just in our own 350 million contract today um there are so
110many things we need to advocate for on behalf of our students but maybe uh this is something we could take to the federal government thanks um yeah and then sorry just finally on item J just another big expenditure $330 million I just want to clarify because I appreciate that this is part of our larger refresh plan um and uh we were told and I know in a uh board informative that we got recently around central procurement and allocation to help schools with end of life devices but we're also hearing at the start of school from some the start of the school year from some schools that they're being asked to cover the cost of repairing uh and replacing broken or damaged devices and so can someone just clarify um what the policy is and for
111constituents who are listening if that happens with a tablet or with a computer how is this allocation how does this expenditure help and what is our policy right now so the contract actually creates the capacity for purchasing devices that are provided to schools um both for employee and students um when it comes to device deficit at school sites especially those driven by lost and damaged devices um historically those were actually purchased and replaced by school budgets central office would provide the initial allocation of devices and then schools are responsible for maintaining and ensuring that those devices actually return to site for the last three years as part of our eser investments we actually supported schools in that replenishment meaning in the replacement of those devices with S leaving the system we will be going back
112to that practice and so we anticipate as part of budget development for the 25 26 year you know this upcoming February that we will work with schools to forecast what their loss rate is and also budget those amounts so that they actually have that in place and we will leverage this contract to purchase those devices yeah and I would just love to advocate for some sort of central cushion for schools I mean given that now postco you know every kid every school has a device and we know that there's an inevitability to things breaking and getting damaged and it would be helpful if schools uh had some cush cushion I just want to stress for that for this year we know that there are deficits we are covering that we've put in the orders we
113are actually having them directly delivered to schools as they're communicated to us and has there um has there been any change to District policy around school autonomy over what devices to choose schools have have currently the autonomy to determine what type of devices what we have seen as a more significant shift to the Chromebook um rather than the iPad utilization um as students are utilizing them for for different things but if it's if a school chose iPads then like this this uh expenditure and our policy around helping them replace end of life devices refresh repair would apply to the iPads we wouldn't Force something else on them thank you that's it thanks thank you have questions on this item item one go ahead Mr superintendent thank you very much a quick comment U specific to
114uh this item even though this is being approved we reserve the right as a district considering the the scale of of this authorization uh to test the market um again uh based on what we see happening in the market in terms of new products cost variance Etc uh another way of saying this is that we believe we got a deal comparatively speaking to Deals landed by other districts that is favorable to the district if we see an opportunity in the near future we will revisit uh that and don't be surprised if we come up with another RFP specific to the same type of uh of product uh maybe even with the same specifications in light of more attractive pricing across the country thank you anybody else on Tab one miss Gomez uh yes I I
115just want to appreciate the addition of more um more folks onto our translation bench um as part of our multilingual learner resolution there was a big emphasis on the need for expanded translation and this includes not just um more ASL translation um but other languages besides Spanish including indigenous languages which was a big priority so I just wanted to appreciate the team for bringing that forward I want to join you in that and to say that uh we hope that we will see that there are more ways for schools to have people to do translations in both IEPs and in some cases in expulsion cases as well those are very important critical issues and they need to be having someone who is a person who's job it is to translate as opposed to someone filling
116in so I appreciate that as well anything else that on tab tab one well then Dr Rivas um yeah just uh expanding on um the translations item G um I just have a question on how does the district ensure the quality and accuracy of the translations and interpretations provided by the contracted vendors and what languages are being represented saying no other volunteer um so board member Reas as to the accuracy there's an editing process uh that's done consistently through individuals who professionally are proficient in the language um it is often also accompanied by U digital correction and editing software but it is always reviewed by a professional at the end of the day before it is published or it is used whether it's an IEP process or a district communication informative or a release uh
117as to the languages uh basically as many languages are spoken in this district and based on need and demand um we have the capacity to translate obviously as you know the vast majority of translated official documents such as presentations are done uh in the languages that are most reflected in our district uh so Spanish being one then regionally at a very localized level depending on the demographic profile of schools there may be different needs such as Armenian um certainly uh Korean or or other languages go ahead I think she just indicated that that's what she was going to say okay all right all right in particular the reason I ask is in my Board District and I'm sure in others um the indigenous languages um that really need to be represented particularly sapot and na
118um is is really needed uh particularly in MacArthur Park and Pico Union area so those are the the amilies and parents that really do need these um translations and and support um and the other question how will principles know how to reach how to which you know which contractor to where do they reach if they need someone or um some of these Services particularly for indigenous languages hi I'm Luc ran I'm director for translations unit um schools can always come to our website they can make a request um include as much information as possible about the type of request uh the type of language that the parent would like um interpretation in um and we will send it out uh to the vendors who have been vetted um and uh we will pair them up
119with the best interpreting or the best setup that uh we can so that the parent gets the interpretation service during the type of meeting that the school is going to hold far in advance do they need to request the service as far as Advance as we can just so that we are able to pair up the vest uh uh the vendor with the service um but you know a month in advance would be great two weeks in advance would be um like the minimum time that we would need so that we can uh best reassure that the service will be provided thank you you're welcome let me also mention that uh when I was principal at Cochran Middle School it was very hard to get a translator because everybody wanted one for a meeting at
120their school so what we wound up doing was buying a translation kind of unit that we had at our school with headsets like you have and uh try to find somebody who was as good as could be to interpret for our parents so the lack of interpreters is really uh really really very serious and espec you you talked about special languages but even in Spanish which is the most commonly spoken language in La USD it's hard to find a translator when everybody wants one on the same day so it's very hard which is why we're happy that we're expanding this you got it thank you Jack what we're doing we're expanding this and because we all need see the same need that's what's going on I also want to remind people that not everybody who
121applied was deemed uh uh qualified so what I'm saying is is that this is a process in which people are vetted as to their ability to actually provide the service that are needed anything else on Tab one by anybody I have item h u various venders for the partners for Student Success um my question is how do how much do the services provided cost and they are they affordable for schools now that they have very limited budgets and how can we promote all the vendors uh to the to our schools particularly those vendors that are uh less frequently selected greetings Antonio Placencia uh senior director of Engagement and Partnerships and I work with our office of development and Civic engagement um what we all uh do annually is that we have started offering a resource
122Fair where we invite all of our vendors to meet with our School site administrators so that there's equal access of information we don't want to prioritize any vendors over others so we do offer opportunities where our vendors are able to come in and interact with school leaders um we um also um in the budget development cycle we work with the region bi ERS as well as the supports that are available at the region offices to help principles be able to see what are the various providers the costs that are associated with various programs that are informed by that School site asset and needs assessment that they develop every year so as the school sites are determining how might um external Partners or vendors complement the services that are available here um they're able to look
123at the resources um and the partners available on this uh bench to look and see which ones are of best fit so School sit shop based on on their need of services that they're seeking to fill at their School site thank you and if um you can provide and I did ask us in the briefing um the list of schools who are connected with or have partnered with each of these vendors would be great just to to see where which schools are choosing which which resources yes we prepared that us um review for our school board our members and we'll be sending that your way okay thank thank you anybody else on this item or any part of tab one seeing waving of heads I we will now ask for a motion to adopt uh
124number one tab one so move it by Mr Schmelson oh I'm sorry excuse me you're right there are public speakers I apologize let's stop that no motion is in for for we have two speakers I believe I'm sorry thank you we do have two speakers signed up to speak um I do not sign them in they're not signed in to speak online though they're signed up to speak online but maybe they're in the room Talia Carmona Talia Carmona uh Jita Angel Jita Angel okay they are both not here that was for tab one um now comes the the motion a motion by okay moved by Mr Schmelson and seconded by Miss gonz Dr McKenna yes Dr Ras yes Mr schmon yes Mr melne yes Miss gones yes Miss Ortiz Franklin yes president Goldberg yes and
125student board member Lopez yes all right we now go to tab two uh which fortunately because on consent we did tab three and four we can actually do tab two now and I believe uh board member gones was the one who said she wanted to talk about that first go ahead yes um I have some questions on a specific item item a um as well as some broader questions um so I don't know if the team is able to speak on item a it's an HVAC replacement project um and my main question is uh this project was originally authorized by the board in May of 2016 and I there have been I think other examples of projects that have experienced long delays but this one seems quite significant um especially when it is an HVAC
126system and obviously HVAC is very top of mind um in the last week or so can you speak to you know any reasons for this particular delay as well as in general why we might be seeing these types of delays at some of our our critical repair projects sir good morning everyone Christina toes Chief facilities executive uh Riley highlights some of the challenges that we are seeing on our HVAC projects uh at specifically at Riley when we uh took this project to DSA for approval um what we found out was that they were 10 portable classrooms that were not certified and that DSA would require us to certify these Portables before they could approve the design of the HVAC project project the certification of these Portables required both uh upgrades to the structural um Foundation
127of these Portables as well as access compliance that required bringing an architect on to do now work for the certification of the Portables um which delayed both the DSA approval as well as the contractor work to do the certification of that work um then in addition we encountered delays by DWP in order to do this HVAC upgrade we had to upgrade the electrical systems at that campus to hire that additional um Power that was needed the design um required by uh DWP as well as their process for providing the design and upgrades to the power to the site also created delays so this was The Perfect Storm of both finding uncertified Portables as well as um delays from the utility that caused this delay would you say that these kinds of delays are abnormal like
128this was particularly acute in this situation or are we commonly running into those types of challenges for these projects I would say it's unfortunate that we encountered both of these at that school typically we do not um and we have you know since 2016 because of this school and other schools where we found that we didn't know exactly where all of our uncertified Portables are and wasn't on our records that we have gone back and before we do any project and now that's one of the things that we check as part of our due diligence is checking to see if we have any uncertified Portables both in our records the DSA records or out on site um and then also working very closely with our Utility Partners to ensure that we are proactively working with
129them so that there aren't or we're mitigating as many delays as possible got it so it sounds like on on that piece at least the Portables we're we we've taking care of that that challenge um now I guess more broadly on our HVAC systems uh you know obviously especially in the San Fernando Valley over the last several days there have been really concerning situations extremely high temperatures and you know while the district is ahead of many others and having air conditioning in all of our classrooms it's not it wasn't fully operational last week and that is even more so now over the last several days of multiple days of 105 Dee plus temperatures in our communities um we know that there's need needs in the HVAC um in our HVAC units I think I noted
130in our bond language that 50,000 HVAC units in the district need replacement now um so maybe you can help us Christina you know what or Miss toes excuse me what can we do um to address the systemic need for HVAC Replacements how can that be prioritized um because I think on the one hand we can discuss and improve our particular response on the heat emergency that we experienced over the last several days but ultimately you know the solution is is replacing those HVAC units and doing so with urgency and with a particular focus on the communities most impacted by extreme heat um so how do how do you forese a solution on that front um we do have the you know benefit of having um Bond dollars that we've used to replace HVAC systems um
131otherwise we would have just funds to repair it um and what we have done is prioritize schools with the most worn out systems in the hottest are areas um so we do plan on continuing with the funds that we have remaining in this current Bond those high priority schools and then if a bond is passed we would be able to continue to go down that list of schools with the most deficient systems in the hottest areas and that's how we prioritize the greatest need for HVAC total system Replacements with 50,000 units that need replacement now I mean is is there a a backlog that's going to take years to work through is that the implication there unfortunately yes um you know for many reasons we couldn't saturate the market with you know probably what would
132be um tens of billions of dollars of HVAC work um we do have mitigations that we use in school sites now so that's everything from currently we have projects that are under construction um and school sites are using existing systems or portable AC units until that construction is completed um we do have a maintenance team that makes repairs um so if we have specific equipment that is burned out Motors that have burned out chillers that are leaking um they're able to address those both with our in-house forces as well as with outside contractors to address the immediate needs like we're seeing after 5 days of an extreme heat event um while we work on this long-term solution the long term HVAC projects they do require a DSA design they do require that we use outside
133contractors to to the size so they are typically two or three years out while we work to implement um inum measures like we've experienced over this last week of Portables using swing space um or bringing generators if there are powder outages or power failures thank you um and and I appreciate you highlighting the DSA piece because that that might be one part of a strategy um to help FastTrack these these Replacements um and I would just say I mean I think the M team has been incredibly responsive that's what I've been hearing as as schools have experienced challenges but the number of outages at schools in my district is very concerning um it's just not safe for students and staff at those temperatures um so I would just ask the team um to to even
134enhance our response to these types of events more portable unit more temporary chillers more generators on hand um but also to see what we can do as a system to FastTrack these HVAC Replacements we've seen you know during covid when we had to replace all of our air filters we were able to to prioritize and to get that done on a much faster route than we would have when it comes to the secure entry systems at our elementary schools we said every school will get one and we did it on an extremely fast timeline um I think that the urgency of the extreme heat we've experienced and what we know will continue um calls for a similar type of approach and so I would just ask the superintendent and team um to prioritize this work
135yeah let me just add on to that Christina if I may I agree with everything you said Miss gonz but I just want to remind people that our HVAC technicians work like dogs to get things done I mean you have to appreciate how hot it is and they're working on these units they come out and they do their job as fast as they can many times there's not enough parts I mean there's so many factors involved with this and what I would like to know Christine I know you don't know in your head I want to know how many rooms are air conditioned in LUSD all the regions when you think of your own house okay think of how many School classrooms are air conditioned all over the district it must be a 100,000 it
136must be 100,000 rooms so think of that too and I agree with you we have to order uh very efficient HVAC equipment but we have to appreciate the guys and ladies who service our schools so thank you I I of course would be remiss if I didn't mention Bell high school so I've now mentioned Bell High School uh I mentioned Bell high school because it was the last school to come off of multitrack year round and it has had HVAC problems for decades really and I'm hopeful before I leave office to see that one actually get done um I did have a question on item e how were these schools selected and that's the I think the only question I had this is for video surveillance and monitoring systems good morning board members uh so
137I'm so cattle Chief Information officer these are the first group of a school as part of the cop project uh there are 100 priority schools and they were selected based on the as we call it TCI index which is condition of the technology at the school including camera uh intrusion which they reached end of life more than 20 years of age in some of our intrusion system but the camera system are new that being implemented in these schools thank you any other items on item two a tab two a motion is in order go ahead Dr Rivas one second let me find it um item I I it's just a comment is not necessarily a question I just want to commend uh Mr Christo chilio and Daniel Kang director of of um chief of um
138sustainability office and also Daniel Kang director of transportation for their work um their outstanding work and D driving forward initiative to provide cleaner and more sustainable ride to school for our students uh their leadership in addressing the transportation needs and also bringing about cleaner air uh demonstrates a deep commitment for both the well-being of our students and the environment in our city so thank you for your dedication for this Forward Thinking I know that many school districts are looking at um L USD as the leader in bringing about cleaner air and electrification of our bus Fleet so thank you so much I just wanted to thank them Mr superintendent just a quick comment specific to uh to the discussion just took place regarding the exceedingly high temperatures in uh across our district but certainly emphasizing
139the impacts particularly of schools in the valley a board member gonz and I had a u significant conversation just a couple days ago regarding this issue and uh I've tasked staff to uh do a number of things number one we can assure the community that we have sufficient number number of portable AC units however their distribution meaning where they're currently housed uh appears to be um not as as Nimble uh in terms of utilization as as it could be uh so we will be uh effectuating some changes regarding the rapid mobilization of those resources to most impacted areas in fact not just allocate those units on a basis of number of schools uh within regions but uh the demands for those Services um which is a different approach secondly um I am um we work
140through the weekend in terms of mobilizing and developing um communication strategies to uh schools that we anticipated would be facing very high temperatures again the vast majority of them in a valley vast majority of these schools uh not necessarily associated with the trend where there were failures before a combination of a excessive demand for electricity because of the all the air conditioning units in the area not just in schools but in the area uh that resulted in C catastrophic failure of power in certain areas but also catastrophic failure of HVAC systems within schools some without warning but as it was detailed uh all these units or a significant number of them are aging out so um the communication on a timely basis uh without waiting until just hours before the school day starts or uh
141halfway through the school day or something that we will perfect by establishing temperature thresholds on the basis of the forecasted temperature in areas that would trigger a limited school day in these impacted areas allowing uh our Workforce but also parents in the community to have greater level of awareness on a more timely basis as to what to expect uh the last point the third point is u in as much as you know we love the work that Christina is doing I do think that it is time for us to revisit the prioritization particularly of bond Revenue utilization considering some of our priorities but also the recurrence of these emergencies in light of climate change as it directly is impacting our community so I commit to the board that as we move forward particularly with the
142anticipated measure us that we will dedicate quite a bit of time and strategy to maybe reformatting um dollar allocation to address this issue thank you all right motions in order on tab two move it move by Mr schmon seconded by Miss gones call a roll the mooved by Mr schmon seconded by Miss gones so close close call Dr McKenna yes Dr Ras yes Mr schmon yes Mr melne yes M gones yes M Franklin yes for president Goldberg yes student member Lopez yes all right we now move to item number eight which is the UN audited actuals report for the fiscal year 20 324 and this is a public hearing you want to read the statement for the public hearing Mr McLean indeed I do okay so this is for tab eight un audited un audited
143actuals report for fiscal year 2324 and Gan limit resolution before action is taken on board report 040 d2425 un audited actuals report for fiscal year 2324 and again limit resolution a public hearing must be held this constitutes a public hearing un on the UN audited actuals report for fiscal year 2324 and a maximum of 15 individuals who wish to address the board on the item will be heard those who wish to speak should sign up online speakers will be called on name I believe we have a short intro from the superintendent and then a and then a presentation so once we begin that um following that we will uh take board member questions I believe and then and then public comment yes yes okay all right I want mind everyone we have a 12:30 time
144certain also oh okay well we'll do the best we can won't we all right Mr superintendant thank you very much uh Madam president so today um the board and the community will be presented with the anud UN audited actuals these actuals is they represent an update on actual expenditures and revenues for the 2324 school year as uh we all know revenues and expenditures certainly impact the ending balances which then become the beginning balances for the next school year which in this case is the 24 25 school year and so they impact our multi-year projections as well I had the privilege of having conversations with some of you where we recognize some variance in terms of uh in terms of expenditures dealing with anything from uh um litigation uh liabilities to uh unanticipated uh expenditures that
145exceed what had been forecasted as a result of a match faster consumption of U of in thee fund balancing schools uh and those all contribute uh to some degree of variance a budget is like an accordion it's not static uh there are abs and flows and it is a dynamic process uh also when reporting changes in revenues and expenditures as well as ending balances uh we highlight changes from the last time the financials were actually updated and reported in this case uh when the board adopted the 2425 budget in June of 20124 so this is the first look back to what we reported back uh in June of this year uh the year end numbers further emphasize the importance for a truly objective transparent and prudent fiscal planning as onetime dollars continue to be leveraged
146to support recurring EXP expenses although the Lion Share of those one-time dollars actually sunset this month uh September of 2024 we referencing Esser covid recovery Federal Appropriations which were Tim limited I'm happy to report to the community in this board that we are not in a need to seek extensions for the use of those unspent dollars as this District was judicious in its utilization of these time dollars meaning spent the money during the time that we needed to spend the money uh it is important to know that we are also regularly executing balancing strategies to help improve our fiscal Outlook uh Mr Chris Mount uh and noberto will highlight some of those strategies in this presentation so it is not unusual to see some negative balances in out of years nor is it necessarily a
147concern because this this report does not provide the strategy yet to address some of those issues with that said it is clear that across the state of California the Outlook is not rosing um and depending on uh the upcoming elections in November the Outlook could be worse depending on what happens with that 8% of federal investment that's made across the country from the the federal government what will happen with title one title two title three title four Ida funding any one variance of either stabilizing meaning no increase despite the inflationary pressures meaning the cost of living goes up but the federal investment Remains the Same that is in essence a reduction in funding for our districts so there are a lot of moving Parts uh we will uh anxiously await also the states on reporting
148of its Financial Outlook and we will have a richer conversation uh within the next couple of months to really materially uh change not only our Outlook but the strategy we need to remain a district that is balanced uh remember un audited actuals is nothing but an update to the 2324 financials our multi-year projections will be updated in December with the first interum report there will be the most substantial meeting regarding our current and future Financial condition I would now like to uh invite Mr Chris mound to the podium our chief business officer to provide an update on our 2324 and audited uh actuals and let me start by saying that it is very important to understand that in all districts and individual schools including the charter schools that are here the current budget is affected
149dramatically by the previous year's budget and that's why we take a good long look at what happened in the previous year people have said to me it's over why would you bother it's because the impact of dollars spent and unspent has an impact on the current year budget and so that's why we spend some time looking back instead of only looking forward Mr Mount thank you superintendent trustees colleagues and Community uh we are looking back as has been said at the status of last year's budget as we close out uh the fiscal year and then submit all of the financials for audit which of course we present on in December the next time we talk about this year's budget will be at the first interim as the superintendent mentioned which is in the December board
150meeting uh with that being said we have a short presentation and then we'll open it up for questions we have staff here to answer questions about a number of details that the board might want to ask so this is just a reminder of our statutory obligation to report out on the budget all of our report outs are because the budget is a changing document remember that budget and finance Aggregates all the thousands of departments and schools budgets which is their financial plann for the year into one budget for the board to approve every year and we're required to report out so many times because as has been mentioned the bud budget does change over time I frequently get asked why do the numbers change put it in in terms of your household budget you're always
151changing your anticipated expenses maybe how much is coming home we have to do the same thing except for thousands of departments and billions of dollars so if the numbers aren't changing I would suggest that there's something that we aren't doing uh in my department that you ought to ask about but the numbers should certainly change this is the last report out before the auditing of the financials for last fiscal year and as president Goldberg pointed out it's important also because whatever is left over from last year we reinvest for the current year the first two slides are just large graphical uh images that have become standard in the district to show all sources of fund revenues and expenses so the first one of is all of our different uh funds uh shown as a portion
152of the funding uh that's provided to the school district all of the funds are listed there and the second slide is all of the expenditures from all of those funds same funds and the expenditures aligned with each as well as percentages and this is again for last year to take a closer look we're going to look at a chart that illustrates this is all of our funds and what you're looking at over time looking left to right and I'm going to use the adult education fund as the example is the June adopted budget that's where we're going to use adult education again as the example then we're going to talk about some of them adult education received 167 million uh expenditures that they submitted to the financial department the budget Department to program for them
153in the system and then the board acted in June to adopt that spending plan the next column there shows the percentage difference in what was submitted and what we submitted to the board versus what they actually spent which is in the far right column so in the case of adult education what they submitted at the beginning of the year and what they spent only varied by 2% it's considered excellent in the budget world that they were that well able to predict uh cuz we do the budget development 18 months ahead of time uh how much they were going to spend so a good spending plan submitted you will see at the first interim which is the first major update we give the board that that spending plan changed a little bit and it narrowed their
154variance to the end of the year down to 1% so an even more improved spending plan uh from the adult education department and fund at second interim uh it's less than a half% variance so we record that as a a 0% variance uh from second interim which we present in March to the board uh till the end of the year till today that same reading can be read from left to right across all of the district's funds I will point out that the bottom two funds student body and Debt Service that is more of a pass through or custodial fund so in the case of student body funds we hold those for student groups we do not have them budget but we do disperse money to them when they have a need and so you
155can see for student body funds at the beginning of the year we we had in custodial ship about 24 million and at the end of the year about 39 million for all of our various student groups Debt Service funds this is just to pay internal debt uh and you'll notice that there is a variance there and I just want to point that that is from uh settlements liability settlements uh that we did not anticipate that happened throughout the year and the board has certainly been briefed on those cafeteria fund Capital project fund Child Development Fund you can look at the the way those are budgeted and the variants uh there are some interesting things to look at here and this is sort of a report card for my department to reflect on as well is
156how well are we vetting and challenging the spending plan submitted to us and the and and with how well it matches to the end of the year so I said adult education fund was very close but when we get into some of our other funds what's an acceptable variance from the beginning of the year to the end of the year and we want to see those even though it's a large amount of money we would like to see those under 6% that's our goal uh but you can see some of these were larger than 6% and that just tells us that we have to get better at challenging and vetting out the plan that's developed in January February and March for the following year with the Department's proposal and challenging perhaps how well they're spending
157that or whether their plan is reasonable maybe they're submitting a very ambitious plan and we need to have a conversation over whether they think it's reasonable or doable now to the most important fund of the school district and that's because it's our largest operating fund that's the general fund you can see that at the adoption we it shows a negative 9% variance and at first interim it goes to a 1% variance now 1% is excellent for the first interim however there is a shift that should be pointed out between June adopted and first interim when we aggregate everybody's budgets together that's a full 10% variance and that accounts for about a billion dollars of general fund both restricted and unrestricted and we really tighten that up with those departments at the first interim by vetting
158out their plan with their actual spending Trends and how well they're doing at executing on their spending plans so you can see we really tighten that up because a 1% variance from December all the way through the end of June is actually excellent but it does point out that we need to do a better job at vetting out that initial budget plan at the beginning of the year and we're going to go into the general fund in more detail there we go so this is a view of the general fund it's important to note this is both unrestricted and restricted dollars we're going to go into why that's important uh on the next slide when we just look at unrestricted but this is all funds in our main operating fund and you can see the
159beginning balance varies slightly throughout the year as we capture various uh various expenditures and acrs uh Vue changes a little bit this is where a a a budget to actuals can tell a story cuz you would sort of guess the expenditures change because we're vetting out Department spending plan versus what they actually do but in revenues the story can change as well so you can see we had a 7% variance in revenues last year and that's pretty significant because that means that the budget department when they're doing the plan gets 7% more than we estimated that we would get at the beginning of the year and so that's where it sort of tells the story of where the differences in these monies coming from and we should have an explanation for any of those large
160variances and I'm going to actually show you how this pans out in the general fund in in a little bit uh expenditures this shows again the variance the 10% variance from adoption to First interim and where we end up at unaudited actuals which is today and then the UN ending balance this is important to Gold Member uh to board member Goldberg's uh point this is the money that we are hoping to move to the next fiscal year so that we can spend this these are the additional monies that we are spending to balance the budget in the future and you can see that we anticipated having about $4 billion at June budget adoption in both restricted and unrestricted uh and by the end of the year it goes to 6.4 billion and so there has
161to be a story there and we're going to look at that a little bit more closely especially on the unrestricted side but you can see that it's a significant change almost a 60% change from adoption through today now we're going to look just at the unrestricted side this is the most important for community members for Trustees for managers to always keep their eye on this is the the view or the perspective depending upon which auditor you're talking about uh that they look at for oversight purposes so this is what the county spends a lot of time on this is what the state spends a lot of time on because this is our solvency fund this is the fund that is not committed through restriction to specific expenditures this is the fund where we have flexibility
162and this is the one that we need to maintain a a fluid balance in to be able to balance our books year-over-year and so the beginning balance revenues expenditures Etc are all in the general fund unrestricted and you can see again this is where expenditures vary however notice that the variance has gone down from 7% to 2% so there's only a 5% % variance in the unrestricted general fund that tells you the rest of that general fund variance is in restricted which means we can't impact it quite as much we can still ask those programs to budget better but the there is still a 5% variance in the unrestricted general fund which is the lifeblood of the district and its operating uh money the other thing to look at here uh is the unassigned ending
163balance and this again illustrates there is a financial story to be told here if we start with a plan taken into everybody's budget submissions that we are only going to end up with 114 million in our unrestricted general fund at the end of the year which is a very narrow margin but then we can see that at first interim it pops up by about 450 million and then in the second interim by another 225 million or so that should tell you that there's a story to be told in the uh unrestricted general fund uh that that the fiscal Department should be able to illustrate or document and that's what we're going to look at in this final slide so at the top in this chart again this is last year's financials it shows you at
164each of our major reporting periods are remaining unrestricted unassigned ending balance this is our uh uncommitted resources that we still have to spend for an unforeseen expense and you can see the changes that were Illustrated on the prior slide but then we actually give you the components of where those changes came came from so the changes that impacted this this uh unassigned uncommitted fund balance we have about $486 million in contract expenses that were on negotiations so those are expenses that we did not anticipate at the time of budget adoption that's a significant amount we have lower general fund expenditures using elop and Esser this was reference before these were funds that are restricted that we needed to spend down and we made the decision to spend them down last fiscal year instead of waiting
165for September 15th this year and scrambling so we spent them out last fiscal year and that help offset expenses in the general fund by 392 million so we moved those expenses over to these two resources to give us some more flexibility in our unrestricted general fund we also had a one-time FEMA reimbursement of $486 million we had higher interest than was anticipated in our County investment account uh for the general fund all others refers to all of the bits and pieces as it were of every individual department and schools budget of what they didn't spend versus what they told us they were going to spend at the beginning of the year and so if you add all of those up it accounts for the differences in the different interim fund balances up above the point
166of Interest here from a financial perspective the thing that uh makes me uh Curious raise my eye eyebrows a bit is that if we had not gotten the FEMA or we had not spent out Esser and elop to take over expenses in the general fund we would have ended at a negative general fund balance in our unassigned uncommitted unrestricted funds last year say that again say that again so so if you take out if you start at that 114 and you look at the 486 million of unanticipated expenses that would have caused us to go negative and it's only because we got the FEMA and then we moved expenses to the two funds that we knew we had to spend through the end of last year that we brought it back to the positive and
167then uh added a little bit to it so it was through the work of the fiscal Department constantly doing those moves we don't just do reporting we manage all these all these Department budgets every day to mitigate any negative impact to the school district uh but those significant differences could have put Us in negative balance this is just a review of our reporting periods and our budgetary periods just so that everybody has them top of mind and that's it and and I have the team here to answer any questions thank you very much for a very excellent ex description of how things changes I think one of the things that when when I first came on the board back in the 1980s that I didn't get was that the numbers kept changing and I kept
168kind couldn't figure out why and it turns out of course as I learned over years of looking at budgets that the reason that they change is because we guess how much will be spent by different groups and it's not 100% accurate and we guess how much revenue we're going to get but we didn't anticipate the FEMA money coming so things change it is a dynamic issue and I think that's important now questions from board members or comments really okay I was practicing practicing waight time wait time okay uh thanks um Mr M thanks to the budget team I'm glad to see preparations for next year's budget showing in October on that calendar and I hope the board and the public will have real opportunities to engage uh and Weighing on those decisions before February when
169school's budget um when school budget outlined the basic Contour of our spending so you know and this is the first unaudited actuals at least that I can remember where we've really looked at the outcome for the full year between adoption at the end of the year rather than peace Meal which I think helps us uh and the public understand the big picture more clearly um and so grateful for that and also glad we're quite close in terms of final expenditures and revenues to where we went were when we adopted next year's budget in June but I think there are some important questions this raised that I know we get from our constituents and the public and so some some of these are questions that I have for my own understanding and others I just think
170it's helpful to reiterate in a public forum and so the first big one is uh how is it possible that our Revenue was so significantly higher than our expenditures and yet say that we're in a deficit spending pattern because we hear this a lot and so in particular I think there's a shock factor in seeing a $65 billion doll ending balance from last year which was $2.5 billion more than we even budgeted for and at the same time we say we're in deficit spending pattern we don't have money for X Y and Z and so how do we justify that um and and what's our answer to our constituents right great question so it's just like a household budget right so you're bringing home however many thousands of dollars a month throughout the year and
171you budget for all of that whether you decide to save some or spend it all or maybe even spend more and take it out of savings or float it on a credit card same thing that the district does we have a really good idea of our revenues there's a very small variance on revenues uh but we take everybody's budget plan for the entire district and we do ask standard questions and make sure that it seems reasonable and then we publish that as an aggregate number for the board to approve and what that's telling you is that the amount of money that we are receiving in revenues people are budgeting more than what we're receiving in aggregate total and then throughout the year we poke at those spending plans more or people can't fill all the
172positions that they wanted or people people leave or retire and then there's breakage as we call it there's leftover money from people leaving and it takes us time to get a new person in all of that aggregated throughout the entire District that's what we're working on to make that spending plan better and there is a traditional shift when we dig into the budget at that first interim because people if they haven't been able to figure out how to execute on their spending plan or they aren't spending as quickly as they needed to to actually fulfill that plan we have a better idea of that in December now I still want it to be better but that's why you see a significant change at first interim it gives us the time to really interrogate those plans
173and see if there's a difference So currently you're correct we have a a deficit and we all got the letter from the county saying yes you have adopted a deficit budget and that's because currently people are planning on and we have the employee positions enough so that if everything is done it would be $1.8 billion in deficit spending it would exceed our revenues by $1.8 billion right so we have already started that process we started July 1st to start interrogating looking at spending patterns looking at unfilled positions to see what that difference is going to be which is why we give you a much better figure at the first interim when we can do an analysis of what has the beginning of the school year that first six months looked like and where are where
174are we uh by the end of October November and what are some of the you alluded to a few but what are some of the things we are doing to when you say you know get schools or departments to spend better um you know whether it's anticipate vacancies or hire more quickly and process that like are there can you share some things that the district's doing to try to get those that in more alignment number of things uh so I'm going to be encouraging uh more direct conversations this year between departments and their their financial advisor uh from their their budget person as they frequently call them in my department uh there need to be more direct conversations we need to interrogate plans and figures better the other side of this though is is when
175you aggregate all of those those pieces that people didn't spend in their Department up it has created so far enough of a savings that it offsets that anticipated negative so that we're still adding a little bit to our savings account every year however at some point when you say we if we want to make everybody spend more or spend better at some point if everybody spent to that degree we would be in worse Financial shape right so there is there is that that balancing we want people to spend like they plan on budgeting historically we can see that they don't always do so right so that's why we we need to tighten that up a little bit and that might mean that if you hypothetically have five positions that you've been saying for 10 years
176that you want to fill and you have haven't filled them maybe we need to interrogate that harder and take those positions off the books so that that difference shrinks up right I do and I I think that's one of the areas where I'm sympathetic to some of the concerns we hear because for folks who have been around the district for a while who say you know you under spend an X category every year so why are you still budgeting it when you could be using that then money for something else and I guess one area where we see consistant underspend his facilities and given that we're going out to voters for more of this funding I mean can you speak to that specific speically like how when there is an UND spend you know why
177is this the time to say we need more so so uh two different questions there so let me see if I can break those at at least two yeah that I caught uh so number one the the view that I just showed you is a single year all funds are required to be reported on annually but the only recognized fund that does multi-year budgeting is fund 21 fund 25 are facilities funds uh so looking at those funds in a single-ear picture when they are getting money in prioritizing budgeting over I there was an item today that somebody I heard said was taking eight years was that correct um so they aren't looking at a one-year picture they're looking at a 2 four 6 8-year picture and so to get an an accurate budget to actuals
178from facilities uh we would have to have them present on a budget to actual over the period of time that they're holding funds um the facilities needs in the district still far exceed the capital that's available to them that's been approved by voters uh we are of course as the board knows going to market for more issuance on current Bond measures uh but the need far exceeds currently the capital available in either Bond even if the new one is approved right then it still exceeds it it's it's a it's a massive district and there are many needs you just heard about HVAC tonight so so different different questions but to get an picture of their multi-year budget would have to be a separate presentation it's outside the scope of the UN audited actuals and that
179could be a great thing for our facilities and procurement committee which starts on October 1st just as a plug and maybe we'll be asking for for that because I think that is uh important and obviously we have the specifics on HVAC today I guess one thing that's in the materials but not the presentation is the impact of the UN audited actuals on the three-year balance which we go into negative uh on unassigned balances next year um and so again you know for the benefit of the public what does that negative balance mean I mean you alluded to that $ 1.8 billion deficit and what are we doing to address it and when this that's such a critical question and we have a Time certain I'm going to hold up right now sounds great great suspense
180for the right now and we're all going to have to wait with baited breath for the answer but we are going to take up item number 16 16 uh the observing October 6th as World cereal cerebral pry day so uh um what we're doing now for the audience May wonder why do we stop in the middle of this important discussion is because when we have a Time certain we try to have that item at that time and then we will resume back with our discussion of the UN audited un audited balances uh Mr Schmelson thankk you thank you president Goldberg uh today uh I have a resolution to commemorate and acknowledge World cerebral paully day now cerebral py is one of the most common physical disabilities in the United States and it affects hundreds of
181children every year in Los Angeles according to UCLA health Los Angeles Unified is currently performing various modernization upgrades to its facilities this includes more than state-of-the-art buildings and a new code of paint it means greater accountability for our disabled community however there is still a stigma within society that is why this resolution calls for awareness and informational campaigns Additionally the resolution calls for better training programs and greater access to inclusive activities during breaks during recess or during lunch now I'd like to introduce Miss Reena deis an advocate of people with saral paly who brought this critical issue to my attention and she will say a few words Mrs cees hi thank you so much um my video looks like it's unable to connect so I'll just use audio for the time being can you all
182hear me okay great I'm like oh I I got all done up for nothing I'm teasing okay I just this is Mike McLean we just got your uh video working so we see that you're all done up now I see I'm exing so thank you board vice president schen for introducing the resolution on world stable PA day as noted I'm Reena deis and I am a mother of a radiant four-year-old with cerebral paly and his name is Elijah soul I wholeheartedly support this resolution and I'm also the founder of inclusive Soul which is a dedicated cerebral py Hub that's committed to promoting inclusivity and Equitable access to resources for families caring for children with Cal paly or CP and earlier this year we also spearheaded the first ever seral poliy Motion in Los Angeles which
183the LA Board of Supervisors unanimously passed on March 6 and then since then we've partnered with the LA Department of Aging and disabilities and the Ellie County Commission on disabilities hosting the inaugural Cal poliy webinar last month which actually was the Department's most attended webinar uh inclusive soul is also a proud World superal policy day partner what I would like to share is that I Envision a future where families navigating the complexities of sweel pusley find only not only resources but also compassionate empowered empowered community and this resolution introduces much needed initiatives as well as being able to enhance inclusivity awareness and being able to tailor support for students with sual py and other disabilities of course and I urge the board to pass this resolution furthering our efforts towards Health Equity and disability advocacy
184and thank you for being so committed to this critical issue thank you so much now if you noticed D is wearing a green blouse as I am wearing a green shirt because green is the color to honor sybal paly week so rather day sorry on October the 6th so I just want to add a little note too also that uh we expanded the timeline so administrators at schools are not overburdened by this resolution you know resolutions are great but it causes work for people to do so I just want you to know we're going to extand the expand the timeline because I take concerns from the administrators uh very seriously okay do we do public Comon first or board members board members any board members like to speak our student board member oh thank very
185much i' would also like to be added as a co-sponsor for this resolution um for board member scharon suicide awareness and prevention month and board member gon is Latino heritage month I am I like this co-sponsor resolution because every member of the luac family enriches our district with their unique diversity this res resolution reaffirms the vital contributions of the individuals with cerebral poliy and commits to fostering inclusive environments where everyone is respected and valued thank you thank you for that I Echo your same sentiments and please add me as a co-sponsor to resolution thank you and me as well please thank you just one quick question thank you so much Mr schron and and to the speakers as well um I I know that there's a a new plan requirement regarding enhancing uh the inclusivity
186at recess and lunch um so I was just curious you know we heard from Miss Nichols at the beginning of the meeting regarding kind of all of the um responsibil ities of our principles and how they feel quite burdened I was curious whether our Central team might be able to provide some recommendations or best practices to our school sites um so that they can have some guidance in developing this plan successfully and that is an excellent idea I appreciate they thank you very much I wonder if I could um maybe burden the special ed Department also uh downtown to help us with ideas on how to uh expand this for October 6th thank you thank you okay as uh Dr stto comes down I think one of the things that I saw as an opportunity
187is potentially as we think about in our inclusion plans how this can be integrated into that as an opportunity to really expand welcoming School environments in all our schools and so maybe Mr so uh Dr Soto can share a little bit more of how that could be integrate into the inclusion plans yes thank you Jose stto executive director special ed definitely an opportunity to increase opportunities for our students with disabilities to be included during recess and lunch obviously there's an opportunity for us to support with planning when it comes to recess schedules to ensure that we're building an opportunity for there to be engagement Equity amongst recess and lunch for our most involved students particularly our students with cereal paly or those who are identified as Orthopedic impairment or even those who are identified as
188multiple disabilities just providing an opportunity for activities and games and interaction with their typical peers will help to to a create an environment of inclusivity and also support the plan of inclusivity across the schools in in Al unified thank you Dr SoDo that warms our heart thank you so much thank you thank you and with that I'd love to co-sponsor as well thank you I had the opportunity as a student at Morningside High School we had a cbble paly unit literally walking distance from our school and so many of us had an opportunity to volunteer at that unit but all also to work with those students who were then in our high school and I will say that it takes some training because unfortunately this particular illness involves uh movements that are not typical in
189students and it's they're unable to control them if there is not sufficient teaching of students and teachers about the fact that these are perfectly fine kids there's nothing really wrong with them they just have some difficulties with muscle ular issues that others of us are lucky enough not to have then inclusion is not so easy so I appreciate you're bringing this but if we're going to enhance recess and inclusivity and in it's going to be through enhanced training particularly on the yard supervision staff but also to students because as a student I was helped to understand by this group that was nearby that let me understand who these young people were that were my age but were like me and not like me and so I'm just saying I think this is very important because
190it's easy for these students to be discriminated against to be bullied to be called names because they're different in a physical way and people are unfortunately not used to seeing it so I I think this is a wonderful resolution but I also want to make sure that the section under the resolves which talks about enhanced staff training particularly yard supervision staff but all staff I would also add and students because if students are going to understand that this is a person they can be friends with they have to understand that the differences are not what they appear to be and I thank you for that you know visiting schools I noticed I think kids are getting more and more kind I mean uh I really appreciate at uh when they're sitting by themselves they take
191a seat and sit down next to them so kids are are starting to really uh be kind to each other and we have to push that thank you Jackie I also want to add my name as a co-sponsor thank you Jackie anybody else on uh item number 16 hearing none a motions in order to wave board rule 72 second by schmon seconded by Miss gones and now a motion to uh adopt with the board waiver of board rule 72 the resolu resolution number item number 16 I'm going to jump in real quick here that um there were two small edits made okay um by uh board member schon's office I'm going to read them onto the record at least point it out so folks know what's happening it will be posted to the website I
192have copies for the public and copies have been distributed to the board and their surrogates all right so it is the fourth resolved um where where before it read uh that the district will instruct administrators at their respective schools to develop a plan by March 2025 to increase recess they've changed increase to enhance and the same sentence uh recess and lunchtime inclusivity through improved the word improved is being struck in the word enhanced in its place that's the only changes to the resolution copies will be available online shortly so we can now um take the motion to a motion is in order to adopt the resolution as thus amended move it all right the gonz schmon routine again call roll second by Mr schmon and roll call Dr McKenna yes yes to uh waving the
193472 and also yes to the resolu Dr Ras yes Mr schmon yes Mr melne yes Miss gonz yes Mr Franklin for president Goldberg yes student member Lopez yes leave the rooll open for uh Miss Ortiz Franklin uh let me say to you in the public you will see board members leave this dis and go away for a little while it's because we do not adjourn or recess for lunch and so board members will take some time away from it but the board meeting can be heard in the room where the lunch is so we're not missing anything that you're saying or doing now we will go back to item number eight and uh the question from I'm going to ask uh Mr Melo to ask is question again and hear the answer thank you very
194much great thank you Miss Goldberg so yeah my question was the one of the things that's in the the board materials but wasn't in the presentation is the impact of the United actuals actuals on our three-year balance and we go into negative next year and so my question was what does the negative balance mean what will we what will we do to address it and when will we take those actions so just like all the other portions of the budget and it's an important question every time that we adjust expenses up or down or Revenue news that impacts our projection of that ending balance but I would ask that when you look at those views do a couple of things and all the documents are attached to the board agenda uh we were just talking
195about the general fund so every fund listed has its own ending fund balance that we anticipate and you just want to pay attention for the overall health of the school district to the general fund and then there's always uh three views posted there's general fund both restricted and unrestricted and then they disaggregate those two into just general fund restricted and general fund unrestricted uh when we train cbos throughout the state we tell them to look at that unrestricted only because that's your fungible that's your liquid assets that go to keeping the school district solvent that is our measure of solvency right and so that's the important one to pay attention to so when people talk about these big balances they're often looking at multiple funds that they're a aggregating together and the one that we
196have to pay the most attention to because all the others are restricted is that general fund unrestricted now that does change throughout the year and what you're noting is that general fund unrestricted if we apply all the closing accounting puts some of the future years in a negative position uh as of June 30th right when the accounting closed out uh and we've been doing that accounting up until just a couple weeks ago uh and so that will be addressed in the first inum and what we do to balance that somebody mentioned balancing strategies earlier is we take all of the commitments and assignments that the board has put aside and we look at those and in the first interim we will bring back to the board here are the things that we are suggesting that
197you either use now a commitment or assignment or we dissolve a commitment or assignment in the unrestricted general fund to drop it to the bottom line so that we remain solvent now now what that means though is that some of those commitments or assignments might not be met because we have to dissolve them sooner to keep us in a positive status the other thing is is that once all those commitments and assignments are gone uh then you don't have anything left to draw from and that's where that's where you're in uh at risk uh financially as a school district uh but you got to read those commitments and assignments carefully right the the commitments are are items that board action has been taken on to set them aside sometimes for as many as 5 years
198so that is where we are setting setting aside enough money to maintain the burnt board's commitment on seni for example uh and other important programs so at what point are there no longer enough of those commitments or assignments to then true up the budget again so that's the longer term look that the the board has to take and that's what you pay attention to the multi-year projection for and the unrestricted general fund is the most important VI does that does that help it does it does and I think appreciate it for the edification of the public too um Miss Goldberg I have a few more questions but I don't know if you want to go ahead um so I guess there's a there's a note one that touches on what you just said Mr M
199about the fungibility of the budget but there's a note in here about putting School carry amounts School carryover amounts into a reserve can you explain what that means and what schools should be expecting in terms of last year's carryover uh well I so that so this is the this this is the work of of the finance and budget team every time beyond the commitments which are are which occur here through board action assignments occur because of a communication uh or a verbal commitment made by the board or uh another entity for the for the district making a financial commitment what that means is the financial team then has to go in and reflect it in the budget that's our responsibility so it's not just all the Departments aggregating things up it's when something is said
200even if it's not acted on in a board meeting and everybody is nodding yes or they put out a memo or an ioc we get lots of those in the district then we have to set aside those amounts so what you're referencing is a memo that came out I want to say last fiscal year I'm sorry I don't remember the date that said that the takeback of carry forward so the only program in the district that does carry forward right now is schools carry forward is not typically allowed in California this is a Los Angeles specific behavior carry forward being the same thing as carryover correct yeah right from year to year these are supposed to be one-year budgets used during that year for those students right so this is unusual that we do carry
201forward but we took back a portion of carry Ford I think it would I call it 70 6050 that's what we call it on the budget floor on the 26 floor and so the amount that was taken back was over 70% 60% or 50% of your car for depending upon the grouping of your school and that was set aside as an assignment of10 million in the budget because the memo indicated that that would be done I believe the wording was and you know what my memory is good but I'm going to screw something up it was for the future use of schools or fiscal necessity of the school district something along those lines so we put it as an assignment which will show up in the first interim and it the assignment will actually have
202that phraseology from the memo so so every everything that we hear and we try to hear everything and read everything I know we're not perfect we try to make sure that all of those things are reflected in the budget because the budget should reflect what we're saying in the district if that makes sense were you going to chime in well I was I mean one I think on the on the um the uh La unified being an outlier with carryover there are members of this board who have asked every year for some K or policy for us to kind of get in some sort of alignment and it's starting to happen I guess is this is the reserve related to the 70 6050 or is the reserve related to 100% of that one assignment of
203aund Victoria is not here I would ask for the exact amount yeah it is 190 uh so of the 190 million was set aside as an assignment which you'll see on our list of assignments at the first interim and I think the terminology was for future School use or for fiscal necessity of the school district so that's what the assignment will actually say when you get the first interim report now that's one of many assignments and commitments remember that the commitments have been done by board action we cannot change them without board action the assignments are just all the things that we're capturing through various other Communications but just to clarify the 70 60 50% is coming out of that Reserve or that's separate it was the amount that they had left at the end
204of the year that they had not spent they got to keep either 70 60 50 that aggregated up is to the 196 correct got it no 190 190 it's already growing 190 and then what is the plan for that uh just the language in the memo that's all we reflect in the assignment just a couple of points so the point that you just made is an important one yeah this is not a practice that's acceptable across uh any other District that we know of across the state of California or Across the Nation it's very very unique I think we will see a normalization of these carry overs very soon certainly the past three plus years as a result of that influx of federal resources allow for the district to centralize a lot of the liabilities
205and just send the good support positions to the schools in the absence of that 5 a. half billion dollars worth of additional funding directly or indirectly to schools it's going to eat up those carryover resources very quickly secondly and I really appreciate the way uh Mr Mount has deted detailed uh the presentation but also the the answers to your questions he is proposing and and I absolutely support a number of things number one there is considerable amount of work that needs to be done uh with our principles and our principal supervisors regional directors we understand that they are excellent in terms of uh School operations pedagogical uh management we've detected some degree of need of improved skill set in terms of multi-year financial planning for their schools um so one thing that Chris has done
206and and you sort of heard him speak about this is he is flattening the financial conversations between school leadership and his own executive team quite a bit so that the distance between what's said and what's implemented decreases secondly massive amount of uh additional professional development uh regarding Financial conditions in schools for principal supervisors as well as principles and and I know there are parent leaders here and parent leaders in the communities in appropriate languages so that everybody hopefully is on the same page regarding what those school budget reports reveal thirdly uh better analysis with periodic reports regarding budget to actuals during the year provided through Mr mount's Department over to the school so that the principles until we all collectively reach a certain level of skill set on budget management get these reports and they
207know what's being overspent UND spent and where they need to apply uh pressure I think those three elements alone will put coupled by the fact that we have a. half billion dollars less and will put us in a much more normalized condition regarding management of year-to-year budgets and the avoidance of the reduction of carryovers which by the way more commonly known as carry forward uh in in in terms of you know budget speak thank you thank you and I think you know again our interest is just in the predictability for principles in school communities and the ability to save if Justified and that's the Justified part that I know you're working on I guess because you mentioned the um in addition to the ending balance for the unassigned unrestricted portion of the budget looking at
208assignments and commitments because these dollars are counted for but they're ones that the superintendent and the board can change I think fungible is the word you used and so I I hope that going forward we can always look at those buckets and presentations because they're the ones that that we have more discretion over and I guess just two two discreet ones about these on the assignment side for the general fund school program the program 13027 for the 26 yeah the 26 and 27 school year has it zeroed out in the UN audited actuals and I was just hoping someone could explain that so it's fund it's program 13027 zeroed out so I I'm looking behind me because the person that speaks program code which is how we manage funds locally uh just stepped out so
209I so I can't do that but if it's if it's reflected as a as a dash in the Sachs report that means that it doesn't exist for that fiscal year that means it's already been spent right and so this one though is yet is for 26 27 school year general fund so I we can ask when that person comes in I guess the other one is textbooks had 50 million estimated assignment for 23 24 but in the UN audited actuals it shows nearly no money in that bucket and I was just curious if someone could speak to that um so same same question and then I guess last thing and then miss goldber you know I think there the and this is not as much for the budget team as it is around the programmatic
210and instructional team it's just around our elop plan um Extended Learning opportunity plan because you know in the materials that we have for this board meeting we can see that we're using elop funds wherever we can to pay for existing expenses uh to help you know offset our general fund which makes but I still don't think and I've asked a few times for a um it makes sense from a budget optimization standpoint from a programmatic standpoint for a strategic standpoint I'm not sure it makes sense and I still would love to see a better presentation on how we're using this I had brought a resolution that the board passed to look at before and after school spending and to call for a plan and we got some answers but we definitely didn't get a plan
211um you will be getting that budget as a part of first interim and I just want to clarify for all of our friends that are CPA and Auditors out there uh we have restricted principles on elop so it has to be for before and after school to make those days a 9-hour programming day in addition to our 6 and 1 half hours and if it's a weekend or summer the additional 30 days it still has to equate to 9 hours so those are the restrictions so it's not it is being used uh to offset what we had been doing in some general fund program but for example like beyond the bell or before and after school programs is where we're using instead of just spending general fund dollars which are less restricted that is actually
212what the elop money is intended for so it's being used appropriately right thank you for I offset legally offset appropriately and that's what I mean from a budget optimization which makes sense because it's a different fund and so if there's ways that we can say we're going to use uh elop funds for things that are out of the school day I just think there have been some discreet and there are some changes around the cap program that the superintend has alluded to and that we were getting some concerns about from schools what can they spend it on um I'm obviously interested in in before and after school plan and so okay it's coming as part of the first in you'll get the elop budget as part of the first inter room and hopefully a presentation
213where we can discuss it it'll be part of the presentation correct from when you look at 3027 which is your primary general fund School allocation to schools that's usually your Norm allocation um there is an assumption by year three that that is spent down right so that's why you you see that zero doar captured at that time okay and yeah exactly the and yep exactly so then there would have to be some active budgeting right so the idea or the the prediction is that we spend that down and then we'll have to figure out how to replenish within 18 yeah okay yeah the the year's allocation has to be spent within a window of time as a rolling window of time and that's audited for now so we have to spend it down in the
214in the time window that we are given the funds for thank you who's next LZ is next thank you um well Mr Mount thank you so much for the presentation I really appreciate uh the time and effort you took to provide additional Clarity for the public around you know our current financial situation and the reason for fluctuations throughout the year I think these are common questions and um maybe myths that exist about our budget and so I think it's really helpful to just be super clear about that um so thank you so much and then I look forward to December where we will'll take a look at our first interim report and just have a better sense of theate stes projections um the federal government um and as was discussed obviously there's a number of
215challenges with the expiration of our covid relief dollars um increase costs and and I see all of that forthcoming in future conversations um just a couple of followup questions from Mr mvoy um going back to it's on page eight of attachment a but the negative ending balance for the unrestricted general fund in the 2526 fiscal year if you could just share a little bit more about um how we got there um in terms of a change since our June adopted budget and then what are the biggest drivers of that change over such a short period of time sure so there's there's three significant areas uh one of them was paying out of liabilities and settlements uh that we were not aware of uh at the time uh that you adopted or that we closed but
216that acrew to that year because we became aware of them as as the year ended uh those are mostly uh uh insurance and Sam settlement that the that the board's been briefed on uh the second category is there are occasionally with all of those things that we have to catch and and account for there are occasionally items uh that are missed uh to be acred to a department so one of the ones that you'll see in the details and I think we discussed it during the briefing if I'm correct was that Transportation had a contract that was not accounted for in the tune of I want to say 23 or 24 million and then we also had a a larger portion of site funds were expended that we had planned at some point maybe we
217could have a little bit of extra Esser to offset them but we spent all the Esser and then some uh and so the sites spent more of their funds than we anticipated and so this is where previously we talked about you know sort of that planned spend and people always don't spend everything they said in this case uh they didn't spend any more that they had but they spent more than we thought that they would uh more than they historically had uh and so that meant that we didn't have as much to drop down to the bottom line in the general fund unrestricted which means that next year if we don't do anything then it would go into a negative balance which we're not allowed to do right so so that means we have to
218address it in the first interim and um certainly I'm not trying to say that this is a cause for alarm but I think it just illustrates that um yeah I mean changes will be necessary and I know we have our committed and assigned balances obviously those are for very important priorities of of the board and of the district and um there are implications and impacts of of releasing those perhaps early um in a way that could um that could have impacts in future years so I think it's an important thing to note not surprising that the schools would maybe spend more as their carryover like you know carryovers were threatened from so I that's what I would expect if if I were principle that's probably what I would do too um but I was a
219principle that's exactly what I did that's a that's a relatively normal it just highlights kind of the double-edged swort of the um you know I think it's a it's a great uh philosophically as a practice to tighten our alignment to what's planned but then in some ways there are um unintended consequences of that elsewhere in the budget um and then just uh one more piece for me on the carryover front I think as part of those conversations besides being clear with principles um I really want us to be talking about what are those underlying issues that are resulting in those carryovers we know that um in some places it is just harder to hire schools have more difficulty doing that and I think in in whatever ways we're working to create more uh consistency in
220that area that we want to ensure that we're addressing those disproportionate needs that certain schools have um because it may not be within their control um to fully to fully address those drivers um that's it for me thank you who would like to speak next would just like respond on that and it's it's one of the reasons when we looked at the carryover practice in this prior year to extend a 70% carryover to our higher need schools because that we know that that's those are the targeted schools where we have trouble hiring um and so we wanted to be responsive to that need but we are looking more closely at what are the Staffing challenges and are there particular positions um that we have to kind of set aside dollars or set aside practice in
221order to support schools um the other thing is just on needs so we talked a little bit about device replacement and replenishment how might carryover support that in the out years given it's somewhat of a one-time resource they usually are on site for five to seven years depending on the um the lifespan of the of the device so that's something that we'll be looking at just from a tiing of policy practice and support for schools go ahead I'll be brief um I really appreciated our briefing I mentioned to Mr Mount your teacher is showing um because we're getting a lot from the learner perspective that I I think is really helpful for us and for the public so thank you for bringing that um identity to this space um you know I'll just reiterate one
222of my suggestions during our briefing was about visuals whether it's graphs or manipulative um sort of interactive things online and this really does connect to our um budget transparency tool that we are also working on together for this year and so for the public there will be some opportunities to weigh in on tools that give us more accurate information timely information matching the budget to actuals for particular programs and school sites and so I think we're headed in the right direction already and so I just want to you know lift you up and thank you and your team for all the work that you did to prepare for our briefings and for today um and really for the public instill confidence that I'm hopeful you know with the board's resolution with your team's leadership we're
223really going to get to a place where people can deeply understand the um real budget uh challenges that are before us but also the real opportunities because we'll have numbers and visuals and all the accurate information so just much gratitude to you all thank you you anybody else Mr schmon yes so we're getting close to Norm day and uh many of my schools and many of your schools are just short just a few children to keep a teacher uh you know at their school or having to reorganize the whole grade level again and I was just curious um what what what do we do when who who's going to help us out when we have just a few students to keep a teacher what who helps us yes I'll I'll speak to that so the
224process is actually we work with Dr Estrada and our region superintendents to um assess where there is enrollment fluctuation um and make a determination where it makes sense to actually sustain staff um in order to have avoid combo classes and some of the impacts that result of the displacement of of an educator at the school site um but it's on a case-by Case basis um the other element is also from a resource perspective um understanding what are the available dollars that sit currently at the school site to actually sustain that additional staff member remember when we make these decisions there's an offsetting impact to a school that may actually see growth and have a need need for an educator right and so um we are working as a team to kind of develop that list
225develop the uh areas where we're seeing those impacts and we'll have some recommendations coming forward well thank you for that because they are sitting on pins and needles and uh they just need some guidance okay thank you Dr McKenna yeah I want to compliment the staff uh you in particular sir it's a very enlightening presentation not that there haven't been others but that was exceptionally so but when it comes to to the question that Mr spon asked having been in that position before being only a few students away from that norming number and you need a waiver you need a favor M you need a need some help um the challenge of that is more than just in that immediate Moment The Challenge is that is if you do it now will it bite you
226later and will you be over normed at the second semester and then the question comes shall we rorm at the second semester we have talked about that long as I've been in this District I don't think we've ever had the courage or maybe the wisdom not to do it because if you try to renor in the second semester and cut people loose that you depended upon all this time where do they go and what happens to the kids that are still there waiting for that particular teachers to stay there especially when you have these very uh unique courses like chemistry and physics and math analysis being a math science Maj I know about all and there's some others to when I was a superintendent not a superintendent I've been there too but a principal these
227upper level classes uh advanced placement literature and all of that you can't find that teacher easily you can open up the class but who's going who can teach that class and so that's that decision that you ask for that favor from central office and you beg and you plead you even threaten uh if you get it you have to hang on to it as best you can because the numbers might change as he says they're always adjusting numbers and the enrollment flux and ebb and flow it's it's a difficult situation so I just wanted to you know I that resonated with me especially what the deputy said about U the people that make that consideration and it takes experience to make that consideration you just can't be uh a nice person and he gave me
228a lumang pie last week so I I feel obligated to give you something this week uh it has to be an experienced person who knows well all of that pathos that goes with that there's some consequences to all of that and other people will feel the consequences as well other schools will feel the when when enrollment start shifting and all of that kind of thing kids start moving from here to there this is a very complicated situation but I really appreciate the fact that I think you very much understand that and it's good to have a person like you in this position you only have one head but you have to wear many hats and I understand that I appreciate you thank you for the time anybody else on this item um I just want
229to ask a couple of just definitional questions what's the difference between a committed balance and an assigned balance so a committed balance is one that the board has acted on uh in Open Session typically as a part of one of our financial reports and they are setting it aside for a specific person or purpose and if that purpose changes or we want that purpose to change we have to come back to the board and ask for action on it again an assignment is something that we in the budget and finance department are setting aside because we have received communication from the board or a statement in the board in Open Session that they didn't act on or a directive or a direction that we need to set aside to make that verbal or memo or
230ioc we have all sorts of different communication tools here uh to make that possible when the time comes but they don't have the weight of a board vote behind them is it possible that during the current school year we will have to make some budget reductions in order to end up next year not in the 29.7 uh million uh deficit so I would I would suggest a couple of things uh wait for the first interim report and look at the view which I will will be highlighting of general fund unrestricted in the multi-year listen to what we're suggesting for present year balancing uh possibilities suggestions recommendations uh but you're also asking a question which is will we always have those options we have built those options up because we've had four years of extra money
231from the federal government that we've spent very wisely and so everybody keeps talking about a $6.8 billion fund balance I just just want to point out to folks that the general fund unrestricted is $4 billion less than the number that everybody keeps saying and most of that is committed to priorities of the board and so at some point commitments might have to be sacrificed for solvency those are choices that the board might have to make or we might not have enough commitments that we're willing to sacrifice to balance the budget and at that point the board would say clear clearly that they want me to do something else which would require Cuts correct reason I raid this board members is because um the state isn't getting better financially and the amount of money that we've
232said in our budget right now shows that there's a negative ending balance already for next year not two years out but next year obviously we have a professional staff that will help us look at how not to end up next year with a negative balance much less the following year which is at $267 million in a negative balance and so I I want to say to all of us and to all of you in the public that this is not going to be an easy time for public schools in California any schools charter schools public schools private schools that get money anybody gets money from the state it's not going to be an easy time and the budget for the 25 26 school year is going to be a very complicated and difficult process which
233I unfortunately will not be here to join you with but I want you to understand though it's not too soon not too soon now to take a look at both committed and assigned balances and to see if things need to be changed where you might be willing to change them it's not too soon because what time of the first interum we're going to have to actually make some action I believe some action will need to be taken otherwise we're not going to end up at the end of the year with a balance that makes any sense okay so I that's really the most important thing I want to say is is that the going forward financial support from the state is not going to be better next year it'll probably be worse and we know
234that when we went from almost uh six % Cola to a 1% Cola well if you get a cola at all I think that would be lucky so knowing that I just saying to us and to the public it is not too soon to be looking at what you might change that you don't want to change but what are the things that you're most likely to be willing to change and both committed and assigned budget uh difficulties that's really all I wanted to say except to say thank you so very much uh I too enjoyed thoroughly uh being instructed again on how to look at this budget it's always a learning experience for me and I know for all of my colleagues and uh I thank you so much for for all of the information
235that you've given us and all of the ideas that you're presenting and to your whole staff as well Dr Rivas I'm sorry go ahead no I also want to reiterate um thank you for your the presentation and um answering all of my questions and making very um the chart was you know the way you explained it uh during budget briefing was was fairly help me understand it had a clear picture and I'm glad that the district and you're is going to be improving on um you know developing budgets and making sure that you know the money is spent accurately so we're not overspending or under spending so I do appreciate that but uh just a quick question is where is I I do happen to remember now that there was a$2 200 or $300 million
236inflation fund um how is that represented here in in the your report one of the board's commitments is an inflation commitment uh and that is specifically important because we saw the state cut its colas that they're giving us not just this year but all the projected coal has went down and the state's economic recovery is trailing by a couple of years The Rosy news that we get uh nationally because the state receipts are still down uh and so there's been money set decide by the board to help that a little bit it's a few hundred million dollar you're right uh but the cost of doing business that we're experiencing as an increase year-over-year is between 6 and 8% and we're getting 1% colas right so uh it needs to be even more than than that
237we need to so a couple hundred million are going to help a little bit but it won't solve the problem for us so it's still on the sign and we're still holding on to it until we we hear from the state okay thank you so much sure time now to hear from the public on item eight okay public comment on item eight Maria Louisa Palma you're signed up to speak in person there you are come on up you'll have two minutes to speak when you begin and then following Miss Palma will be Mr toosi and then Mr Juan Jose mandhi and then I will call the folks who listed themselves as uh be calling in to speak good after afternoon my name is mar Luisa Palma and last year I was a parent member of
238the parent advisory committee whose only purpose under state law is to provide comments for the lcap the local control and accountability plan that's part of the lcff the local control and funding formula now the elap and the lcff are financial documents yet at those committees at the pack and at the daac the other parent committee the parents there have not been provided with financial documents that cover the entire entire budget the entire revenues and the entire expenditures now I propose that you provide documents just like you had in the presentation today in this last presentation that go over that that explain to the parents where the general fund is what part is the lcap as part of the general fund to explain the differences between the budget and revenues which are very very different lcap
239budget and lcap revenues are not the same under lcff now the parents don't know this um they cannot provide meaningful comments when they're only shown the little tiny piece on the lcap part now to add to that injury during this last year at the parent advisory committee our primary comment that we made that we passed a formal motion for was to have us provided the detailed information on all the goals and actions including detailed financial information we did not get a formal response from Mr car although that is in state law that we're supposed to get a formal response responses were provided to us to comments that were made by someone else other potential uh members of the committee so the committee's voice was supplanted state law was subverted uh this becomes even more and
240more important for parents to get all of this information just like all of you have said here as state revenues continue to decline as our budget continues to probably have deficits in future years so please let's provide good financial information similar to what was provided to you today to the parent committees the parents will understand this if they're provided to if this is provided clearly thank you thank you for your time Mr to kovski come on up you have two minutes to speak when you begin thank you very much uh you're all very qualified although today you're not very positive which foreshadows the first interim dropping from a positive budget to a qualified which it probably should have been on June although I understand the spirit of being positive if you take the FEMA money
241$500 million Dr McKenna Mr schmon and you move it it was earned in 2020 you're spending it in 2026 if you move that some of that money forward you'll be able to cover all the crisis of Norm day it's a one-time solution it's onetime money you're spending it five years after it was earned second Cola came to education didn't come to anything else in the state budget reminder welcome to the new CBD um or whatever it it's called The the budget guy he's the budget guy he's not the policy guy he's not the uh vision of things you're asking questions to the guy who only tells you risks you should be asking where you going to raise money okay where's money going to come from why are there no Affiliated Charters growing why why are
242you uh not three month into Medicaid medical you're not reimbursing anything the program started the district was authorized in January thank goodness you put the defeasement of cops which are draining the general fund into the bond and hopefully that Bond will pass let me just say if you need to know what the Esser and the elop monies are doing you can always just ask the state about the elop money ask for them if you can't get a list here get it from the state and if you can't get the list of Esser money get it from the federal government they'll give it to you okay it's available get the list of committed and assigned have it the amount and what happened how did it get there you keep asking the same questions to the third
243in a row uh budget guy rather than deciding yourselves where is that money and what am I going to do with it tutoring Mr meloy that's the elot money ask what the productivity is on the tutoring find out what the money is thank you thank you for your time Mr Juan Jose Mandi are you here in the room uh you're signed up to speak in person uh but you are also not online so we'll go to the folks signed up is speaking remotely I'll note that I don't have anyone signed in to speak on Tab n just yet but they might be in the room Maria Daisy Ortiz you're signed up to speak remotely but I see you're here in the room come on up you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin tab
244eight I'm sorry tab eight my apologies um Mr Miss Ortiz is going to speak in Spanish so if you'd like to hear what she's saying in English as she's speaking in Spanish please put your hands up and we'll get you these translation headsets if you just give us a few moments to pass them out okay gracias good afternoon everybody my name is Maria Daisy Ortiz and I am in agreement with Miss Maria Palma uh really first of all I want to recognize that at least now it's in Spanish thank you so much but it is true to show this to the parents in a meeting so fast and to be able to break it down to be able to understand it's very fast and very cruel for us as parents but even so I was
245able to make a very quick analysis of it and first of all I want you to go to number page number two which is like the income single thing but that I saw there this addition is 34+ 77 so there's a 1% more here in this tally and then if I start to see in Greater detail I start finding many things one of the things that I want to say as a district a district when they're excellent where there's Excellence there's transparency and with the money I do like to know where the money goes and that's why it's so important that this is a little bit more transparent more accessible more visible for parents in the Committees in the schools because there's a lot of money that's returned that many times was not used because
246no one knew and the principles put priorities according to their own interest but not the students we need to train before you Ed to train parent how how to understand at least the budget for categorical funding that is only 10% another thing there should be here a budget subcommittee so that you're monitoring how the funds are spent so that we are not ending up in deficits you are bad at finances because you have income and you spend more than what's coming in and that means that really you are not working well and you're not working in a transparent manner we need transparency I know that you see me here and you might not like it but I'm sorry Marcela Garcia are you in the room Marcela Garcia you're signed up to speak remotely but you're
247not online Marcela Garcia Nelly Mendes are you here Nelly Mendes Karina Lopez are you here Karina Lopez araseli Cabrera are you in the room araseli and Irene Morales are you in the room all these folks signed up to speak remotely but they are not signed in to speak remotely so that concludes public comment for the public hearing on Tab 8 a motion to adopt the unaudited actuals report for fiscal year 2324 and the Gan limit resolution is now in order so moved so moved by Miss yes and seconded by Mr schmon call the rooll please Dr McKenna Dr Evas yes Mr schmon yes Mr melne yes Miss gonz yes Miss Ortiz Franklin yes board president Goldberg yes and student board members left the room for the time being so leave from now on because people
248are stepping out as I told you they would to have lunch leave the rolls open for them to be able to wrote when they come back that takes us now to item number 12 12 which is the 2024 cceis action plan Amendment U Miss Ortiz Franklin I don't think I got your vote for tab 16 I think you stepped out so that was a waiver of rule 72 as well as the um tab 16 cereal posy yes on both things okay thank you very much tab 11 is there a presentation or are we just going to ask question sorry 12 I'm sorry you're right 12 Mr uh schmon go ahead uh just one question can we get a breakdown of all the impacted students by region and by grade level sure so I have that
249information here so cus is comprised of 77 schools of which um 20 of which 31 are priority schools 51 are also Bap schools and then 26 are combination of both um in addition to that we have uh the highest number in region South which makes up uh 52 schools and region West makes up the the next 25 schools um they do vary from elementary and I'll give you the exact numbers here we currently have 23 Early Education Centers we have 27 elementary schools 15 middle schools 10 high schools and two span schools I hadn't raised my hand earlier but just because I think this is an opportunity for CIS and for Bap you know we've received a lot of community engagement around the change in language that's been requested by OCR for Bap and by
250from CDE for the CIS so I think if we could just you know publicly share our commitment to the students that we're serving um while complying with the legal changes in uh how we describe the students that we're serving so the complaint is we're not focusing on black students right how do we respond to that as a district how can we stand firm in supporting our black students through both cus and if the superintendent team would like to respond to Bap as well we go ahead Dr so to explain how cus does address the needs of our black we have definitely uh followed the guidance from the CDE and uh we're no longer calling the plan uh our black Scholars or our cesa SCH we're changing it to cesa Scholars rather than promising Scholars and
251we're calling it we're identified indicator groups students in the specific indicator group that's how we're identifying students in the CIS plan now in relation to Bap one of the things that uh the team has been very clear about our Bap plan is that we are remain absolutely committed to ensuring that we support our black students and meeting academic outcomes that remains a big Focus for us whether it's in our data conversations uh that the superintendent has with priority schools or that our region soups have with all schools we will also continue to adhere to the tenants of the Bap plan which are really important because they go from academic to social emotional supports as well as black identity and making sure that black Excellence is also considered in any kind of Investments and supports that
252we do so that what continues to be an ongoing Focus for us we will have we will remain Relentless in that and just knowing that uh we did have to make adjustments to how schools were formally identified but quite clearly we were able to identify data points that ensure that those areas that our black communities and students are most impacted by continue to be represented in the school selection process so that has continued to be and we were able to confirm that with our data as well as being able to ensure that if there are students who want to access other pieces that they're able to as well uh that um we make available through Bap I appreciate that and I know we'll continue to get advocacy advocacy to make sure that we're supporting our
253students of diverse identities but particularly for cesis and Bap our black students and I think you know when we reach our goals is really how we can demonstrate our commitment when we close those gaps academically and social emotionally then we can say with confidence to our community that we are serving black students to the best of our ability so I appreciate the team's efforts toward Wards the student outcomes that we're all aiming to reach anyone else have questions or comments Dr Rivas two questions and some comments so beyond the identified root causes what other systemic factors might contribute to the disproportionality in special education identification and disciplinary outcomes for African-American and black students so I have U our director cus here who can share your light on that hi good afternoon board my name is
254Dixon deut director in the division of special education um so just to answer your question board member um so the last few years of the C's action plan we've actually had five root causes that have remained largely the same uh that's where the focus of support has been built around um for the 24 CIS action plan we actually uh worked with our stakeholder groups and added an additional root cause it's a six root cause which talks about the systems at a districtwide level so certainly um overidentification of students with uh disabilities is not just something specific in region south or region West and so looking at it from a district-wide perspective is something that's going to be critically important to exit us out of dis and what specific strategies will be used to build trust
255and establish meaningful Partnerships with black parents and families so thank you for the question we're really committed to partnering with our parents especially our parents for our CA Scholars so we provide plenty of opportunities for our parents to engage with the cesis team and the School site team to receive professional development professional development topics range from social emotional support support at home with instructional uh initiatives also we really spend a lot of time in ensuring that we provide courses on stress relief things that can really help the parents last year alone we had 62 workshops that were highly attended by parents at our specific C of site so we are really making an effort to partner with our parents to push this work forward you so my comments are that um this action plan demonstrates
256a commitment to confronting systemic inequities and fostering a more a more just and supportive education environment B I'll applaud I applaud the these efforts the current efforts I urge us to do more to build trust and establish real true authentic Partnerships with our blacks parents and families as well as go further and exploring the the underlying root causes of these issues and I understand we there there are some we're adding one more but um it's essential to acknowledge the long history of institutional mistrust and systemic bias that has impacted black communities and we must actively work to dismantle these barriers and create authentic collaborative relationship with families this means not only inviting their participation but also valuing their perspective and expertise additionally we must delve deeper into the systemic factors that contribute to the disproportionality
257only then will we start to see really to progress and to Echo the um sentiments and comments of um Miss Ortiz Franklin is really in Bap um and really strengthening that program and I think that we're doing a a real disfavor to our black students uh when we are not really focusing a program that addresses their specific needs and um and demands really on on our educational system so thank you anyone else being wished to be heard on Tab 12 I just had one question as I read through these many many many many pages uh it doesn't actually say whether we've been making progress have we been making progress we have where would that be found so we have a actual uh every plan we have the season start in 2020 so there's a plan
258an action plan submitted every year so the plans build off of each other so each year there might have been this initiative and then it might have changed the year following but what we have seen which has been conston is a definite reduction of the referral of disciplinary referrals for for our students we've also seen a reduction in suspension to the tune of 43% of disciplinary referrals and 3% of uh suspensions in addition to that we've also seen an increase of the use of ss sspt platform to support students as opposed to going straight to special education referral we had a 25% increase of using the sspt in lie of going straight to special referral and again the parent partnership has also been something that we've been very successful in engaging parents to help to
259help bring them along uh we've had an increase of participation every year and last year we were able to provide again 62 workshops that were attended by parents throughout both region the regions of of our students so West and and South it would be nice Mr superintendent for us to get that kind of information as well because as I read through all of this it doesn't really tell us whether we've been making progress and I understand that we have anybody else on this if not a motion is in order we have a number I'm sorry we have speakers I'm sorry we certainly do okay public comment on Tab 12 I'll take the in-person folks first as is our usual practice Amir Whitaker are you here Amir Whitaker T 12 Amir Whitaker uh Julio Lozano right
260here Julio loano are you here Carla Franco Carla G Franco are you here come on up you have two minutes to speak Miss Franco is going to speak in Spanish on Tab 12 so if you'd like to hear what she's saying in English please put your hands up and we'll get these headsets to you so you can experience simultaneous translation we just have a few moments I would try to SP in English but it's okay oh no no I'm better in Spanish I want to still practice my English no I just want to continue practice my English you know sometimes I it's hard to pronounce it but I do my best okay I'm here for um talking to the um Point number 12 and more of my focus is about the volunteering uh at the
261schools you know this is at a taking action and I just see the Ballentine this morning and all the new uh items they adding in the bulletin is not like I think the superintendent and the boards they need to check this before implementing um to the schools I work so hard to try to bring parents to volunteering into the school I talk to the parents directly you know and let them know how important is to invol to the education to the our kids educations because the most important piece in that is the parent I just tell him if you want to have a a student graduate be parent to you check this item this bulletin because what I see and what I read it's a lot a lot of concerns that we need to take
262in before implementing to the schools okay I check a lot of issues in this um B this morning and I want to you to make sure that you're going to check before to sending to the schools because it's a very critical to see the schools is not a lot of U volunteering especially in Middles middle schools and high schools thank you so much thank you for your time uh Josh Henderson are you here josi Henderson okay we now transition to callers uh Christian flag I see you're on the line Christian flag please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Christian flag can you hear me we sure can you go you have uh two minutes good afternoon folks my name is Christian flag uh with Community
263Coalition also a part of the police free L USD Coalition I'm going to speak today um first acknowledging that this is an important effort that La is is doing to address one of the many harms that black student experience in La USD right but again this is just one of many uh furthermore I'm going to say that one might say right there's a lot of overlap in the support um that is offered at the cceis schools and the 53 group one schools for black students but I'm going to call out that this program is only projected to serve approximately 2,800 students there's tens of thousands of black students that are in crisis at these schools so that is the need of a program like Bap uh furthermore I want to I want to continue on
264by saying essentially looking at the documentation right you guys site that the individual with disabilities Education Act reserves funds particularly but not exclusively for children in those groups that are significantly overidentified that's black students so you're essentially doing the exact same thing in one program that you eliminated and took out of another program that's unacceptable right there's a basis to stand on the reality that you have to strategically prioritize black students and you can do that I want to go on to say that um furthermore you also identify the schools the 77 cciis schools by looking at a a percentage of that student population representing the indicator student group that's other words for saying black students so you have another component that you just eliminated from Bap that you're actively doing in another program again
265this is not to diminish what's happening with this program it's necessary but you're talking about 2800 students as opposed to tens of thousands of black students that are in crisis we must stand up for what has to happen to address the historic and ongoing needs you see that systemic racism thank you for your time sir we appreciate your time sir thank you okay Eric Morrison Smith you're signed up to speak remotely but I do not see you online in front of me are you here Mr Smith uh Gabriel regalad Gabriel are you here you're signed up to speak remotely but I do not see you signed in Derek steel you signed up to speak remotely but you're also not signed in Derek steel are you in the room no Derek uh Alejandro Banuelos Alejandro Banuelos
266I see you're on the line please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Alejandro Banuelos hey hey what's up folks can y'all hear me we sure can go ahead you got two minutes amazing thank you uh hello folks my name is Alejandro um I'm an organizer with a a coalition for boys and men of color uh based in LA county um and I just want to you know acknowledge the importance of a of a program um any program that seeks to support not only um students with disabilities just avoid like net widening right um and especially black students with disabilities um yeah like um someone before me was naming I I I also find it deeply problematic that um you know one instance we're finding creative
267ways to um you know um target funds for black students um but on the other hand in another instance we completely gutted Bap of its um of its significance and its ability to serve black students in this District um we fought hard uh alongside with Community alongside with black students currently at La USC and black student alumni who really had to deal with the intensity of the district um playing U or or not paying enough attention to antiblackness in his schools and I want to say around 2013 right that's when the district started to turn the plane around right and there was like a an explicit commitment to quote unquote dismantle the school to prison pipeline but what we're seeing today is there's not enough energy around implementation folks are down to make these proclamations
268when black young people die in the streets of this country die in the streets of our city you know what I mean so we could think about Trayvon which happened in 2012 when we think of 2020 we could think of um George Floyd Banna Taylor Tony McDade but after that hype has passed we see the political will really lessened you know what I mean but at the same time folks want to parade around the country thank you for your time sir we appreciate your time thank you very much that concludes public comment on Tab 12 um so we can take a a motion and then a vote if you like who would like to move this I move Dr revas moves second and board member orti Franklin seconds I'll take a vote uh Dr McKenna
269Dr Ras yes Mr Schmelson yes Mr Melo yes Miss gz Miss Ortiz Franklin yes board president Goldberg and Miss Lopez has stepped away so that's four eyes should we hold the roll open until they return okay we'll hold the roll open until they return uh but it passes nevertheless okay moving on to tab I have a question from you uh board member schmon on Tab yes okay okay okay Mr Kang okay very good so let me just say that um I had the honor of riding one of the electric buses uh from bodry to the Disney Center when we had our opening superintendent meeting and it was a exciting event I mean air condition seat belts yeah I'm telling you and uh everything everything everything so I'm just so happy to ride that so let
270me here's my question with the addition of the uh electric school buses can you more or less tell us the total number of electric buses throughout the district and where are most of these buses operating to pick up students that's the first question um again my name is Daniel Kang director of transportation and Mr Schmelson today we have 56 electric buses starting October we will be receiving 180 electric buses for Sun Valley and then this EPA round one will purchase I believe 50 buses and then we have another uh 12 million e marked for I'm sorry 6 million earmarked for 12 additional electric buses so uh I can add that up to you um so the where these will be located is primarily Sun Valley and then the other 62 uh transportation is currently planning
271with ecos sustainability office and Facilities yeah so I I would hope that we try to use among all the regions these electric buses so everyone has a chance to uh to have the pleasure of riding on an electric bus so thank you so much thank you any other questions board members no thank you very much just a not a question comment comment again I want to thank um you the Mr Daniel K Chris cilio and Christina toes and the entire team for all of the hard work in electrifying our Fleet uh with the 19.75 million awarded by the US EPA we're replacing diesel buses with 50 as you mentioned electric ones cutting over 530 tons of co uh two annually a carbon um carbon right car that an reducing operational costs and advancing our goal
272towards 100% clean energy your efforts are making a significant impact in our students and the environment so thank you again just wanted to reiterate that appreciate the kind words thank you very much and now we're ready for public comment on this tab that's right on Tab 13 we have one caller Jasmine Vargas signed up to speak remotely but she is not signed in Jasmine Vargas okay so uh that concludes public comment on the item and it's now appropriate for a move and a vote okay I'll move move it moved by Dr revas seconded by board member Ortiz Franklin thank you uh Dr McKenna Dr Ras yes Mr schmon yes Mr melne yes Miss gonz Miss Ortiz Franklin yes Miss Goldberg the student board member is not here so that's four eyes the item passes will
273hold the rooll open I assume until they return right now item 22 we have a 2:00 uh time certain so we'll go to which item um okay we'll move to tab 18 all righty super excited to introduce a resolution that came from the board district 7 Community um it is entitled safe sustainable streets Walk and Roll to school which the country has been celebrating for years and I'm excited to dedicate uh the Tuesday in October oober um every year this year it's October 9th to Walk and Roll to school um and unfortunately it's it's a hard reason why we bring this you heard earlier traffic collisions are the number one leading cause of death for children ages four to 14 and it's so close to my heart because just in board district 7 we've lost
274several students to collisions um children who were walking to school who got hit by cars and that is something we're aiming to stop with this resolution by raising awareness by creating safer streets we're asking our team to deepen our analysis of how we get to school more safely um to work with uh legislators and Advocates across the state uh local municipalities and the country to make sure that this is a top priority for our communities um and just to make sure that our kids can get to and from school safely and I know we're doing lots of things around that so I know there are a few speakers and there's another item coming up soon I'll just invite my colleagues to help us uh Walk and Roll to school this October and every October um
275to make sure that our kids can get there safely um and home safely so with that I know you have a bunch of speakers maybe um I thought we might have a question from a board member oh yeah Mr smon had a question oh yes thank you very much so um students have to be safe inside the schools of course but also on the way to school and last week the outside temperature was over 100° in Los Angeles and by the way in vanise it was 118 for real 118 so I'm proud to Advocate not just for protected bike lanes and safer sidewalks but also for a healthier environment so the city must do more to help alleviate unsafe temperatures by planting more trees establishing natural shade to protect our students and the entire la
276the community as they walk through the streets so that is my comment thank you just a comment as well uh first I'd like to be added to your resolution so thank you for bringing this res resolution forward it's a fantastic step towards creating safer and healthier communities for our children uh by promoting walking and rolling to school and actively working to improve safety conditions we're sending a clear message um to the city and to all our communities at the well-being of our students is top priority so we must continue to Champion uh Safe Streets for all so thank you so much thank you for joining and co-sponsor for me too welcome all right thank you go to public comment we have uh Pastor James Thomas are you here Pastor James Thomas come on up you
277have two minutes to speak once you begin Pastor James Thomas are you here okay how about Sakina Madan Sakina madian are you here I'm checking online to see if these folks signed up to are speaking remotely no they're not here okay uh kishan are you here kishan LEL white are you here white uh Dr Molina Abdullah are you here Dr Molina Abdullah uh Baba Akili are you here Baba Akili I'm checking online uh I don't have these folks signed up to speak remotely uh let's see uh Carl B or Carly B I see you're on the line please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin hello um my name is Carly brunelly and I'm the mother of an LA USB teacher and the grandmother of uh
278children in Us La USC I think it's really great that you're going to have the uh walk enroll and I hopefully it will be the beginning of an annual event held safely but the fact is many children go to school to feel safe and they walk to school sometimes without parents because their parents are too busy not every child is dropped off in front of the school with volunteer parent greeting them most days in fact many live in a very dangerous areas of LA and I see Miss Ortiz Franklin you have the 49th Elementary School 40 years ago there was a mass shooting there and I was a nurse in the operating room that helped take care of one of the people one girl was killed right away the person we operated on died two
279months later another little girl was critical the only reason they got taken they got responded to was because LAPD was cruising the Streets back then 10 years after that a little boy brought a gun he was 10 sat on the school steps as people were going in and then shot himself in the head and a fatal injury I'm asking that you buy your you arm your teachers with critical incident button badges like the teachers wore in W Georgia that save students and other teachers from being fa Al wounded it's also the response as well as prevention that is critical in incidents and I have been sending emails to your District nobody answers them about this the NBC and fox La tried to contact the superintendent he did not answer what is your answer on thank
280you very much for your time we appreciate your time thank [Music] you uh thank you for your time let's see we have Kathy goon are you here Kathy goon you signed up to speak remotely but you are not here Kathy G Kiri Jordan you're signed up to speak remotely but I don't see you signed in Kiri Jordan or Kyrie and lastly Anton rank you signed up to speak remotely but I do not see you signed in are you in the room Anton Ranken no okay that concludes public comment on Tab 18 before we vote uh I'll just share for folks who might be interested in issues of school safety as Mr melvoin plugged the facilities and procurement committee we do have a school safety and climate committee meeting uh this Thursday at 3M and uh
281we'll have it five times throughout the year discussing issues like this safety on campus around campus and some of the things that you heard raised by our public comment speakers safety is of course our number one priority and it's so multifaceted there's so many uh things we need to discuss and and actions we need to take so we would invite you all to join us Thursday at three will'll be right here and also online awesome okay I I forgot to mention the waiver of board rule 72 on this so for the audience that just it's a waiver of a particular board rule that allows a resolution to be heard for action on the same day that it is uh introduced and so we seek that waiver from the board um can I have a move
282it yeah so that's moved by Mr schmon seconded by Dr Ras and um board president uh Goldberg has been combining both the votes so we'll continue in her tradition uh Dr McKenna sorry can I ask to co-sponsor before we vote I wasn't in the room but I am very supportive thank you so for co-sponsors I have Dr revas U Mr Malvo Mr schmon and miss gonez and um some folks may wish to add later I suppose uh okay call vote Dr McKenna Dr Ras yes Mr schmon yes Mr mvo Miss gones yes Miss Ortiz Franklin yes board president Goldberg and Miss Lopez is not here uh should we keep the roll open to come back to this sure all right uh and it looks like we just about nailed the time certain for tab 22
283I have a statement to be read for tab 22 uh um this constitutes a public hearing for the following schools Global education Academy ednovate USC hybrid height College Prep ICF View Park Preparatory middle uh citizens the of the world Charter School Silver Lake ednovate Brio College Prep ednovate esparanza College Prep BOS noo Charter New West Charter downtown value equitus Academy number two Gabriella Charter 2 monor Oscar Charter School Santa Monica Boulevard Community Charter Synergy Charter Academy Fenton Avenue Charter and Fenton primary Charter um a maximum of 16 individuals who wish to address the board and this item will be heard those who wish to speak should sign up online um because of the interest in this particular topic we have I think about 23 speakers today actually uh who have written in or asked to
284be heard um so without delay I believe shall we take the um public speakers absolutely uh did I miss any votes yeah can yes okay we'll wait till everybody's back from lunch and we'll take all the votes okay let's hear from the speakers okay tab 22 there's been a tremendous amount of switching around of names in such which we do our very best to accommodate and most folks have clearly communicated to us which names are going where if we made a mistake please don't get nervous that we're trying to Omit your voice just let us know oh hey there was another change or something like that and we'll we'll keep things moving so uh as is our policy I'll I'll call on folks who are in person and then um we have a number of
285callers as well and sometimes I'll intersperse them for a little bit of variety okay uh and I'll call on the first four folks so with with the first person coming to the podium and the following three waiting in the wings uh ready in the offing uh Carla Aguilar um looks like you yielded your time but I don't quite have to Mid mcau is that right mid mcau are you here come on up you'll have two minutes and then following that is Alejandra Chavez then Yasmin Alvarez and then we have Claudia Cortez so everyone has two minutes to speak um the time is yours all right good afternoon board members my name is mid mcau I'm the proud chief of schools here at of a Char of schools um after 11 years in wats community serving
286in Market middle school and lock high school I had the opportunity to transfer over to start USC hybrid high in partnership with edn no University of Southern California under the guidance of the Los Angeles Unified School District with me today I have Miss Rachel dadis the proud principal of USC hybrid High who's done amazing work there um many years ago edn was founded on a simple yet powerful Vision to create schools that Empower students to succeed in college and Beyond while fostering positive multigenerational change in the communities that we serve from the beginning we set out to redefine what it means to prepare students for the future by focusing not just on academic Excellence but also on nurturing leadership Civic and Community engagement and a strong sense of purpose we serve the communities of South
287La downtown La Korea Town Pico Union Lincoln Heights and East Los Angeles our students come from diverse backgrounds each bringing their own unique stories cultures and dreams to our schools at edn no we believe that these differences are our strength we strive to create a learning environment where every student feels seen heard and valued our commitment to personalized learning real world problem solving and Innovative use of Technology equips our students with the skills that need to thrive not only in college but in life we tell our students we don't want you to just be great academics but we want you to actually also be great human beings serving our world since our founding we've had successful successful grad uation rates with 99% College acceptance rates we've also been recognized as California distinguished schools and rated
288among the top schools by US News and World Report the story of ednovate is not just about the work that we do but it's also about the collaboration that we've had with the Los Angeles Unified School District the success of ednovate schools is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our students families Teachers Community Partners and staff together we've built a community that celebrates learning values diversity and believes in the power of Education with the guidance of the Los Angeles UniFi Unified School charter schools Division and various departments we've been able to do this work better together for your the board members to support Brio College Prep USC hybrid high and asanza College Prep in approving our renewals thank you thank you for your time Alejandra Chavez come on up Alejandra travez good
289afternoon board members my name is Alejandra Chavez and I'm the proud principal of esperansa college prep home of the Guerreros it's an honor to be here as I used to watch these meetings on the PBS channel growing up as a immig as a daughter of immigrants from Mexico my story is deeply rooted in the resilience of sacrifice and the power of Education like many other parents in Pursuit for a better life my parents worked long hours and although they knew little about the educational Pathways of available they instilled in US pride in our culture and the gas to never give up and the belief in the CIS attitude I'm the proud graduate of LUSD I grew up in South Central and attended figuro Elementary School Bret Hart Middle School and lock high school and I
290am fortunate to have had teachers and community members who believed in me and guided my path and inspired me to become an educator in 2017 I met aansa College prep's leader founding leader who shared a dream to open a school where 100% of students would be accepted to college and and since its founding graduating class we have fulfilled that dream I am proud of the high quality unique High School option we are able to offer families in the east side esperansa is dedicated to helping our students find their purpose and celebrating their Roots by embracing our history and culture we honor the past generations and Inspire our students to drive positive multigenerational change for example our seniors lead a fical dance program offering free fical dance classes and we perform at schools across Los Angeles
291bringing together hundreds and families and to connect and celebrate as one Community as a California distinguished School 100% of our graduates have been admitted to fouryear competitive universities many as the first in their families our rigorous academic programs like FICO dance inspired students to excel in 2020 the CBS This Morning a more perfect union featured our program and we've also been highlighted Onis tundo the East cider LA and laion on behalf of all of our parents students alumni teachers and community members I respectfully ask for your support and renewing esperansa college prep so we can continue making a difference in our community one student at a time thank you so much thank you for your time Jasmine Alvarez Yasmin Alvarez come on up you have two minutes to speak once you begin good morning honorable
292board member superintendent garv and District staff I would like to thank you all for allowing us to speak today my name is Sab Ramos and this is Jasmine Alvarez we are here to share a little bit of our story and support of global educationmy renewal we are proud Daughters of immigrant parents from Guatemala and like many others Spanish was our first language we attended GAA for elementary school and one of the unique programs GA offered was the Korean and Spanish language program learning Korean and Spanish grinded us at many more students ahead and opening to diversity from then from there on our experience at G shaped who we are today in ways we could have never imagined when I first started at GA I was shy and anxious but I quickly found a community that
293welcomed me with open arms I felt safe I felt seen and I felt supported by teachers who went above and beyond to make sure I had what I needed to succeed Miss Linda Lee who was a teacher in second grade and is currently the principal of GA was one educator who had a significant impact on us and many other students she has truly transformed so many lives including ours thank to the foundation I bu at GA I'm proud to say I now attend one of the top universities in the world UC San Diego this opportunity means everything to me and it's proof of what can happen when a student feels supported and believed in GAA isn't just a school it's a high track School serving some of the highest need students in South La and
294it's a community that cares deeply about every student my little brother Jeremiah is now in the first grade at GA and it means so much to me that he's growing up in the same supportive environment that helped me Thrive I know he is safe he is learning and he has cared for just like I was we truly believe that without GA we wouldn't be who we are today I am now pursuing a career in international business with a passion for supporting communities of color and I am pursuing a career in animal Sciences we also much of that to the foundation GA gave to us please we encourage you to visit the school and see the impact firsthand we urge you to renew Global education Academy so that our siblings and many more students can have
295the same opportunities we had thank you so much for your time and consideration time FIA Cortez Claudia Cortez Claudia come on up you have two minutes to speak once you begin yes thank you very much uh good afternoon LD L USD board members I would like to first thank Miss Salah tenorio here our uh amazing principal from uh Brio college prep for giving me her time to speak to you today on behalf of the parents and families for our school I'm using this opportunity to please kindly U urge you to renew Brio college prep so it can continue to be an AET to our community transforming lives and creating opportunities for future Generations my name is Claudia I am a proud mom of three and two of my kids um are Brio alumni so I
296was born in raised in El Salvador and then I moved to the us as a young adult and when I came here I knew very little about the American education system and I was determined to find better opportunities for my children I explore many schools around Los Angeles because I was searching for two things I was searching for uh College acceptance rates and high school graduation rates and Brio stood out above all my daughter Sarah began her um High School Journey at uh at Brio in 2018 and my son Daniel joined her two years later um Brio recognized their talents and helped them to reach their full potential uh both my kids graduated with full right scholarships my daughter is right now at USC studying business in her third year and my son moves to
297UC Davis um next week um because he's going to be uh studying applied physics and I'm very proud of them Brio's dedication to Preparing the students for the next level through positive multi-generational changes goes beyond academics it transforms families and communities Bri a California distinguished School recognized for its achievements and outstanding Ela performance exceeding of that um that of the state this fall ovor School received the Community Schools Grant and I'm proud that I was part of the community school council that helped uh shape this Vision this grant enables Brio to continue providing a student Support Services deepen family engagement and enhanc Community Partnerships Brio will be better with to address the academic social um emotional needs I thank you for your time and I encourage you to please renew Brio thank you thank you
298for your time all right I'm to to call another four folks with Monica Montiel please come to the podium Monica Montiel you'll have two minutes to speak when you begin then Lydia Lopez then Lindy olag and then Dwayne Washington so Monica Montiel then Lydia Lopez then Lindy olag and Dwayne Washington uh the two minutes is yours here La leaders my name is Monica Montiel and I am here to represent the Trinity community consisting of students parents teachers alumni and the community we believe it is our utmost urgency and importance to continue to voice what our students and Community need to reach for the possibility of success our school is black and brown in one of the roughest areas of Los Angeles and we are here to voice the concerns affecting the community school we are
299requesting for district leaders to stop the collocation of charger schools on community school campuses so that they may be given the opportunity to thrive and succeed Trinity Elementary School has a long and mutual respectful relationship with the community it serves it has served the South Central Community for nearly 120 years and was a mother school to all our surrounding elementaries and primary centers we have many students who are multigenerational students and the alumni of Trinity our students in community school should not be sacrificed or accommodated in an entitled charges school gcs2 it is disheartening for all the Trinity Community to feel that those who should be looking for the best interest of our public school students and Community are the ones who are facilitating and pushing for our de demise making back room deals with
300outside entities and then choose to ignore our concerns our students have been repeatedly sacrificed one bad deal after another how do you think that makes our family feel about the school district leaders when the need of their students are not prioritized we have lost our special needs students and the need for our students have been put aside to gift our much needed learning space to overallocated coo located Chargers to the depent of our students meanwhile the charger will only have to pay over allocation fees if they pay at all as the community school we believe our students should come first this is our home and we have been fighting for the rights of our students in our community since June of 2021 we have been forced into an exceeding difficult situation with different hands around
301the neck of the Trinity School Community slowly attempting to check choke it out in existence we want to grow our school and be able to serve our special education students once again with sld and autism classes if we don't advocate for those most in need what does that say about our values and community and about the leaders who we voice our concerns but choose not to thank you for your time thank you for your time Lydia Lopez Lydia Lopez are you out there Lydia Lopez how about um to Cindy sto Cindy sto are you here come on up speaking in in place of uh Lydia L Cindy Soo please go ahead good afternoon La USD board members and superintendent my name is Soo and I'm here representing Fenton Charter Public Schools I would like to
302tell you why I support specifically Fenton Primary Center Fenton Primary Center also known as FPC became home in 2018 I was driving from home from the San Fernando Valley to the South Central Los Angeles to drop off my son to a trustworthy caregiver we did not have family living in the San Fernando Valley nor anyone we could trust then before I knew it it was time for my son to start school without touring FPC and knowing it was a TK to second grade I enrolled him because it was convenient and they had a before and after school program I observed what I could during kindergarten orientation that occurred days before school began in August 2018 I then decided to tour the school and my mind my mind was blown away to see how the school
303was tailored to Perfection to children to in TK to second grade you should all visit this school the school is amazing my son had an extraordinary experience at FPC my son now beginning is beginning middle school this year this past summer he was able to volunteer at FPC FPC has the best summer school and my son was excited to volunteer in his with with his former kindergarten teachers and in her class Miss Salazar he also helped Miss re's transitional kindergarten classroom and the them together after school program he was able to see work see and work with some of the same staff he that helped him as a student when he attended FPC FPC has such a positive environment that their employment retention rate is so high that my son was able to work Al
304see and work alongside the same people that helped him as a young student in 2023 it was time to register my daughter in transitional Kinder and without hesitation I knew what her academic path would be enroll at FPC over the years I have actively participated in school committees parent trainings school meetings and I volunteer when my work schedule permits FPC is a great place for children because their staff are very professional courageous courteous dedicated teachers are attentive to parents questions to to provide prompt responses they welcome everyone in the community during their events thank you for your attention thank you for your time Lindy o Lindy o ol Lindy o are you here Lindy o to who Patricia come on down and ple please state your name again so I can get it right thank
305you good afternoon respectable board members of LUSD my number is Patrice my name is Patricia Morphin and I am a mother and member of Santa Monica Boulevard Community sh school I'm here today to estess the excellent work of this school in Los Angeles County all my childrens and other family members have attend Santa Monica school and I'm proudly say they are valuable students people and citizens both academically and humanly combined with the volumes instilled in my home and the education gain in Santa Monica I know how valuable it is to be part of this school Community you can verify this by looking at the staties that California Department of Education provides to the school year after year compared to other schools today I ask you to continue giving Santa Monica School a yes to his
306Charter renewal contract to continue providing quality education and services in our community which needs so much thank you very much for your time and attention I over a huray for the parents of the fanton family thank you thank you for your time Dwayne Washington Dwayne Washington come on up you have two minutes to speak once you begin I do have some information for the great I I'll pick that up uh when you're when you're completed with your all right good afternoon uh members of the board and superintendent Calo my name is Dwayne Washington and I'm the proud principal of ISF um viart Preparatory Middle School where I am where I have the honor of serving approximately 260 brilliant Scholars our population is approximately 92% African-American and about 7% Hispanic we take pride in the fact
307that our African-American population is one of the highest of any public school in the city of Los Angeles as well as in the state of California 99% of our Scholars are socially economically disadvantaged and 18% are Scholars with disability at ISF public schools and vew Par Middle School our mission is to educate and Empower courageous leaders to embrace their full potential for college career and life we believe that this mission is essential to close both the achievement and opportunity gaps that have persistent in communities of color for Generations over the last Charter term we have made significant growth in both our Ela and math asack scores most recently with a 13.4 DFS Point gain in ela and a 20.1 point gain in math in our spring espect 2024 data furthermore viart middle school has consistently
308outperformed its resident schools and similar student groups across the city and state we are extremely proud of the success that we've made when asked have we been able to create such success I immediately respond with by building a strong Community we've accomplished this through our leader and me initiative ISF embrace the Mind student wellness program and our community schools model an emphasis on building a strong Community is woven into everything that we do our community our our community needs leaders ISF public um schools and ISF viart Middle School is creating these leaders who are academically proficient emotionally secure and socially conscious within our school community and Beyond thank you for your continued support of iset public schools and vpart prep M middle school thank you for your time okay I'm going to call the next
309four folks to come up so the first person come up if you just leave that on the little banister I'll come get it thank you uh I'm going to call on the next four folks of the first person coming to the podium and the following three waiting in the wings Selena Lea are you here Selena Lea all right com on up to the podium and then I have a couple of switches so we've got um Ronda baldenegro signed up but Maria Maldonado is going to speak in her place and then Brittney Figaroa signed up but cynia ernandez is going to speak in her place and then after that is yira Perez so uh first will be Selena Lea yes all right please go ahead the two minutes is yours okay hi good afternoon my name
310is Selena Lea and I'm a fifth grade educator at Trinity Street Elementary School I'm here today to speak for the countless number of parents students alumni and Trinity staff who could not be here today today we're hearing one side of Gabriella Charter School Story a very posy and poama type but as you know there are many sides to a story their impact on Trinity has been detrimental to all Comm all of our community despite what you may have been hearing Gabriella's collocation has negatively impacted Trinity Street Elementary School the fabric of our school has been stretched to the Breaking Point by the giving away of our space and the compromising of our programs Trinity students educational rights have been taken away L USD claims it wants to prioritize and support schools like Trinity we're a
311school that's almost all students of color we're a community school we serve one of the most vulnerable students and families within L USD but Al usd's actions have undermined our school Al USD has followed CH Gabriella Charter's takeaway has allowed them to take away um so many of our classrooms that our students did not have proper learning spaces one of our fifth grade classrooms was teaching in an auditorium a second grade classroom was also in the library two other second grade classrooms were displaced from our campus and moved to a neighboring School our special education students were displaced from our school our itinerant staff did not have appropriate workspace which impact the services they provide to our students Gabriel Charter was fined over $992,000 for taking more space than it legally qualifies for a practice
312they continue to do Gabriel a charter does doesn't have the appropriate authorization to enroll seventh and eighth grade students or to even be in this neighborhood now that they're also at West Vernon the middle school students come to Trinity School after and vandalize and tear apart our school but still La USD gives G the charter school more space and our students are paying the price now at three different locations as a teacher I care about every single student I believe in every single student and I work really hard every day because I believe that they matter and their education matters but the district is sending the opposite message here by failing to even provide them with adequate learning space how can we close the educational Gap when we don't have students to teach we have
313have students being taught in the auditorium in the library how are students supposed to believe in their education matters when L has taken away their classrooms thank you for your time thank you for your time Maria Maldonado come on up and then after Maria is cynia Hernandez and then Yaya Perez okay so please put your hands up if you'd like to hear simultaneous uh Spanish to English translation and we'll get started after we're done okay good afternoon Mr superintendent and members of the board my name is Maria Mado I'm a mother of students and I'm here to say thanks to Charter Elementary School I'm very proud of all the progress my children have made they've been a part of this these schools and my road started with my eldest who was enrolled and subsequently the
314rest and my eldest have received support and I'm so proud that my kids are professionals and graduates of UC David stay and UC Berkeley also currently my two little ones that are assisting are brilliant and motivated one on the road to University and the other one who loves school thanks to the support they've received continuously since they were in Early Education in Caruso up until today each one of my children have been impacted positively through their experiences as kids they've learned so much and they have been able to take advantage of these to follow their dreams that's why today please support schools for the kidsos if not for them I wouldn't know where we would be I'm proud to be a part of this community and to be a very committed mom in these schools
315that have been supporting my kids towards their support So respectfully I ask for your support support to maintain the school and have it open for the next 5 years we're talking about the future of our children their dreams and their right to a quality education that prepares them to confront tomorrow's um issues thank you thank you Cynthia Hernandez Cynthia Hernandez Cynthia Hernandez Kamala what's hi good afternoon my my name is Cynthia Hernandez and I am representing Synergy charteris and Synergy acmy um I migrated here from um Guatemala 1983 I attended local La USD schools and fast forward a couple years I'm a proud mother of uh two children that are attending synergy cies synergy Charter Academy and Synergy Quantum 14 and uh six years old both of my kids are extremely proud of being students
316at synergy acad emies and I'm a proud parent of being um attached to Synergy acmy as well um growing up I attended um LAUSD and you know I'm obviously a proud member of the community and once I became a mother I started looking at the schools around the area and I said okay well let me see what's you know what's being offered I stumbled upon synergies and let me tell you that's the best thing I could have ever stumbled upon um I know the staff there's amazing I've never seen a school where I could literally call the principal or text the principal or email the teachers and they're very attentative their response is really quick like I'm very amazed even at work when I'm at work I I don't get that quick response so um
317this is something that I know is very important for all parents like in case of any emergency how are we able to get a hold of Staff members or what's going on with our kids and I think that Synergy acmy has an amazing thing going on where they have you know the technology available for the parents and the students for communications um they have great Report with um their staff in the community they have parent um ambassadors as well they have great representatives were you know they bridge the gap between the community and the parents and the schools and they represent um a lot of um the parents very well when they have events and they're able to pass along information to where where I feel like I don't have to like worry about what's
318going on um I am very proud to being uh a parent of synergy and my children love the schools and I'm wishing that you know it it extends further just because it's an amazing um Charter Academy um for all grade levels thank you very much for your time we appreciate sir I appreciate it okay yayz good afternoon board members and superintend carvalo my name is jirra Perez and I'm a proud parent of Hazel Hernandez a seventh grade scholar at equitus Academy number two Middle School in board president Goldberg's Board District number five today I stand before you to urge you to vote in favor of renewing our school's Charter IU is more than just a school it's a place that feels more like family a family that not only nurtures and supports our kids but
319is also passionate driven passionately driven to help our Scholars fulfill their dreams after the pandemic one Maj challenge my daughter faced was a lack of motivation so I knew that hesel needed a school that could provide both academic and social emotional support eq2 teachers have provided hael the extra academic support she needs eq2 staff are committed to helping every scholar set academic goals for the year Hazel's goals for the year are to improve her grades and achieve her biggest goal yet which is to reclassify this fall semester what makes E2 so special is the relationships teachers and staff create with students eq2 finds unique ways to connect with each scholar through various extracurricular activities such as volleyball basketball and student leadership eq2 teachers and staff coach and teams help students like hael develop self-confidence and
320teamwork eq2 also sees parents and partners and students know that we are working together with the staff to help them be successful as parents we trust that e2's teachers are taking good care of our skids our kids at school and we reinforce the same support at home eq2 principal Miss press includes our parents and encourages us to voice our opinions and advocate for what our kids need I feel confident that knowing as a parent that I made the right choice for hael to attend a school that prioritizes both academics and well-being as a parent I feel enormous gratitude for the warmth and love that eq2 staff gives our Scholars every day in closing I ask you to renew e2's Charter so that it can continue to serve as a Beacon of Hope and opportunity for
321Hazel and more than 400 students and families who love our school the opportunities and experiences that eq2 provides are appraisable and Incredibly beneficial to my family and our entire Community thank you for your time and consideration thank you for your time okay so for the next four folks would uh IET kingberg please come to the podium and then following kingberg is Margarita Rodriguez then Sharon Weir and Gloria Lynn please go ahead the floor is yours good afternoon board president um Goldberg honorable board members and superintendent cavalo um my name is Evette kingberg I'm the executive director of M senior Oscar Mar Charter School mors a ypi charter school my senior Oscar Romero seeks to prepare students for academic success in high school and post-secondary education and career ready preparation we serve approximately 285 middle school
322students and their families in the Pico Union Korea Town area where most residents are form born from Central America and now um southeast Asia 92% of our students qualify for free lunch 38% are English Learners and 14% have a learning disability and our growing number of both du identified English Learners and disability um students with disabilities continues to grow the school is named in honor of and inspired by my senior Oscar Romero now St Oscar Romero we named the school after him to provide a beacon of light and hope for our school Community which honors his life of service by teaching Service Learning and through learning through service projects Manor was designed to meet the wide range of needs for new immigrants and disadvantaged students by serving as a community Hub to direct families to
323resources to support health and well-being of its members there continues to be a strong and vibrant immigrant population who are drawn to M Senor for its reputation in the community we are seeking we are seeing tremendous growth and success among our students globally our calf scores for 23 24 um Ela and math will show um that Scholars have increased tremendously and our local indicators from um I results in math and Ela also show Improvement and the biggest point for us is that we have begun to close the lower Gap by 22% we're very proud of that as noted in our oversight report morx has transformed its School climate and culture through integrated approach to Community Schools by consolidating our mtss process and expanding learning in um under Community Schools we provide holistic quality wraparound service
324supports to families to drive student social emotional growth and success this has increased parent engagement decrease chronic absenteeism and suspension and there are about three points I just like to say we have a cell platform s to grow which allows our teachers to know immediately what's happening with kids and provide support and intervention our high Achievers get to participate in the youth C project and we e look forward to graduates who have received a $40,000 scholarship to attend film school we partner with counseling agencies and we've been working with you for 17 years and we look forward to five more years appreciate your time thank you thank you uh Sharon and Margarita Rodriguez Margarita come on up you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin margar Rodriguez then Sharon we and then Gloria Lynn
325good afternoon board members my name is Margarita Rodriguez I am a proud parent of two boys one who is currently thriving at Gabriella charter school too I am here to share my heartfelt support for this exceptional school and to urge you to consider its continuous excellence and impact on our community I am delighted to share that my son Hector was able to skip a grade due to the outstanding educational environment and support he has received at Gabriella charer school too this remarkable achievement speaks volumes at the school's dedication for to fostering each child's potential what makes Gabriella Charter School 2 Stand Out is just not its academics but also its nurturing atmosphere the teachers at gcs2 are dedicated and caring providing a supportive environment that encourages both academic and personal growth their commitment is evident
326in the way they engage with students meet IND individual needs and helping each child reach their full potential Gabriella charter school too offers a diverse range of extracurricular activities that enrich the students educational experience my children have had the opportunity to explore their interest in Dance Art and music the end of the year dance recital in particular has been a highlight for my family showcasing the talent and hard work of the students while bringing the community together in celebration I sincerely believe believe that the continued support and recognition of this school and are crucial for the ongoing success and growth of our children I urge you to vote in favor of gabera charter school too ensuring that it can continue to provide the outstanding education and support that has made such a positive difference in
327Hector's life and the lives of many other students unlike have you unlike you have heard from Trinity gcs2 has given up space and and they're not in the library since two years ago thank you for your time and consideration thank you for your time uh Miss Sharon we yeah good afternoon board members my name is Dr Sharon Weir executive director of New West Charter School joining me is Dr Tanisha Barnett director of our middle school and Dr laica Clark leader of our high school New West is a high performing Charter School that has successfully operated for over 21 years authorized unanimously by the California State Board of Education we are was approved and have been named as a California distinguished school three times the Hallmarks of our long-term success includes proactive governance sound fiscal stability
328extensive experience in educational leadership Innovation and differentiated best practices found in our classrooms to ensure we deliver a high quality educational experience that leads to success for every student the results speak for themselves the hard work of New West Charter students from the sixth grade through the 12th grade are the reason we have a proven track record of exceptional academic achievement as outlined in almost every official metric applied to public schools in addition New West seniors many of whom are the first in their family to attend college are collectively offered hundreds of college acceptances each year and we're so proud to have Gra graduates at every UC Cal St and Ivy League school along those with those who chose to pursue amazing Partnerships in our local and community colleges although not everyone May here may
329be familiar with our school we are located in our own school facilities within Board District 4 overall we serve students from over 73 zip codes across the city our geographical appeal results in a school Community with exceptional cultural ethnic and socioeconomic diversity as our doors are open to every family the public school choice that new West offers to families across the city of La generates significant interest and as a result we are continuously in very high demand simply put we want to continue our decades worth of hard work for the generations of families to seek the opportunities that are found at New West and as such we respectfully request a seven-year renewal of her petition under the designation of a hi trck public charter school thank you thank you thank you for your time um
330Gloria Lynn Gloria Lynn come on up and then after Gloria will be sigfredo and then Anna Chavez who looks like she may have yielded her time but I don't have oh to Deli Mattias Maas I yield my time to Jonathan Jackson outstanding all right greetings and good afternoon members of the board and superintendent carvio my name is John Jackson and I'm a proud parent at citizens of the world Silver Lake my wife Brandy and I have two children currently attending the school CWC Jedi in third grade and uh our son Jupiter is in kindergarten our oldest son Jackson is currently doing his first year at Howard University and he also attended CWC uh I stand before you today to urge you to renew our schools Charter citizens of the world Silver Lake this community is
331more than just a school this place has new has nurtured supported and inspired our children beyond all the ways we've imagined when we chose for our kids to attend CWC Silver Lake we were looking for a place that would not only provide a socially relevant high quality education but also a safe space that would support their emotional development and provide them the opportunity to interact with a beautiful kind of diversity that is reflected in the world around them I can tell you firsthand as SE being someone who has seen dozens of countries worldwide four different continents that kind of thing will reap dividends on their uh on their self-awareness Journeys when I've attended many of their events I've I've had great great conversations with the teachers and the students and I'm telling you the impact
332the impact of this diverse by Design environment is clearly evident I believe the community feels inspired to connect and invest in the school because they feel seen celebrated and included the school's dedicated team of teachers staff and School leaders has gone above and beyond to meet the needs of all our students our kids feel seen they genuinely love going to school every day I'm sure that a fun Innovative Hands-On curriculum has plenty to do with that when making your decision today I implore you to consider the profound impact the school has done and had on my family and the hundreds of students that call CWC their home please thank you for your consideration and consider this thank you thank you for your time Sig sigfredo Lopez sigfredo Lopez are you here up you'll have two
333minutes to speak once you begin good afternoon board members I am sigfredo Lopez and it makes me happy to see Dr smon Scott and you Jackie because I care for you I've cared for you for more than 40 years participating in Sacramento bringing money so that we can by a parent Ambassador when we were we were president all of District employees parents that have been paid by my person this afternoon I'm here to tell you that we are here to make a petition for fentom Primary Center Miss Dr ortis you I voted for for you I apologize Miss Rivas I voted for you you my representative as of now I live in East LA and I would like for to speak with you one day because I have a lot of information to give you
334in regards to the parents and want I give this to the district I participated as a parent an activist for more than 35 years not a district employee when I tell you about the Fenton schools and this one in particular I I can testify of the good time and good security for the students and as a taxpayer I asked all you seven board members to support this petition for the for Phantom school thank you Jackie for everything and I I wish that you'd stay more long that you stay longer please think about this before voting how is it that you're going to vote for these schools children would really appreciate this another important thing I'm here since 8 in the morning when these Moms come here and they leave their children at the schools and
335they're here since early and for them to be the first one to speak because they want to pick up their children from schools if we're talking about school security let's talk about parent security don't abuse of these mothers please don't have them waiting for a long time and thank you for your time waiting for your call all right our final in-person speaker is Deli Matias come on up you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin intendent members of the board my name is Deli Moran I'm a mother I'm the mother of Camila Moran a seventh grade student in Dr Brien School a few years for me and my daughter it's been a new experience here at the schools in the United States two years ago my daughter spoke Spanish only and with the help
336of the teachers ELD my daughter was able to surpass her language barrier and passed her exam she reclassified in 8 months knowing that from the beginning of her initiative this is a school that helps us a lot of values in which my daughter have felt very comfortable it's an institution that has many programs that allows us parents to participate programs as PTO ssse and elac for me this school has to continue functioning we need this school it's been in our community for 20 years help us please help us conserve this and re renovate this for five more year five more years to renovate professional futures for this country thank you thank you for your time okay we have three folks who signed up to speak remotely with three callers to call in um Manuel Santana
337please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Manuel Santana andw Santana please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin okay we're going to move on from Mr Santana uh Sandra Banuelos I see you're on the line Sandra Banuelos please press star six to unmute yourself and you have two minutes to speak once you begin hello hi we can hear you okay awesome um good afternoon board members I am here representing the Trinity Street Community School consisting of students parents alumni and staff my name is Sandra Vanos RSP at Trinity Street I have been at Trinity for 19 years I am a proud product of La USD first generation immigrant parent of La USD students um and also
338have been honored to teach the Next Generation I truly believe in Al USC and all that its public schools have to offer Trinity has endured seven years of collocation at the expense of our students needs by gcs2 many of our Personnel um have had no space to work with our students instead two of our much needed classrooms were being used by gcs2 as Jam classes which is simply unbelievable many of you have teaching experience and know what it means to be in the classroom you have shared that Al USD believes in educational equity for all its students show our brown and black students they are important too by making decisions that reflect that prove to our Trinity School community that they too deserve to be part of our of your strategic plan our focus should
339be on strengthening public schools to provide equal opportunities for all students not undermining them through forced collocation L usd's decision to collocate us with another school is not just hurting our academics it's also limiting our ability to grow our school Services as a community school we want to expand programming but we need more space we request that Trinity Street Elementary Community School not be collocated by gcs2 or any other charter school so that we can fulfill our goals as a community school and concentrate on our growth and acceleration please give us the opportunity opportunity to exist in our own space and provide our community with opportunities they desperately need our families and our entire School Community is ready to work together to accomplish a successful successful community school and create greater academic gains for our
340students please make the right choice for for our students and Community the Trinity Community matter matters too thank you for your time and consideration thank you for your time Tanya Flores Tanya Flores please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Tanya Flores hello can you hear me we sure can hi good afternoon everyone my name is t Flores I am the brow the the proud Trinity Street Elementary parent educator and utla vice chair a proud product of LA USD I am here to express my opposition of charter schools with Public Schools uh Trinity Street Elementary is proud to have become a community school and we'd like to continue to expand and enhance opportunities not only for our students but for our entire Community we need La
341USD to follow through with its commitments to Community Schools as a community school we're committed to providing resources and enrichment programs to our students and families to ensure that the wraparound services and learning experience of students and families need to succeed however the district's decision to collocate us continues to hurt our current programming and academics it also continues to limit our ability to grow our services while they have class space for dance and art we continue to lack space for itinerant such as our school psychologists spee Pathologists and counselors that service our students we continue to lack space for our after school activities such as Robotics and and Crown Jewel Club H location has forced our schools to share the same buildings having to share the cafeteria restrooms Library parent Center and Auditorium in our
342case that has led for an increased stress in resources we're often having to deal with vandalism on our campus graffiti broken and torn school property due to after school programs conducted by charter school then having to fund those repairs and restocking supplies Charter Schools often receive additional funding and resources while Public Schools already under are underfunded so from these shared spaces let's not forget about the time our second graders were evicted from our campus and sent to another school to accommodate Charter additional classrooms have to be have um are needed to be conduct additional classes had to be conducted out of the library and Auditorium collocation disrupts School culture it affects student morale and can lead to conflict between different School communities so let's focus on strengthening public schools and not undermining them thank you
343for your time thank you for your time we'll try one more time for Mr Manuel Santana please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin I can you hear me yeah we can go ahead you have two minutes good afternoon L leaders my name is Manuel Santana I am the community school coordinator at Trinity Street Elementary School I am here to highlight our needs and how being collocated by Gabriela has been detal to the Trinity Community but but first our vision for our community school is to offer more services and clubs for our school Community we have been proud to offer runnner club soccer club and some Mental Health Services we can't wait to provide a plethora of services to our community however we cannot do this
344to the best of our ability if we don't have the access to our classrooms we look forward to building more Partnerships that will benefit everyone in our school Community therefore we need to be given the opportunity to bring to fruition these important goals rather than wasting our energy sending off a parasitic Invasion that keeps grading our school of valuable resources and spaces Trinity student population is 99% children of color of which 97% qualify for free or reduced lunch La is the ranks Trinity in its highest concentration of meat category it is among the top eight highest needs elementary schools in Local District East LA USD says it cares about Equity but taking away classrooms and cutting back door deals is the opposite of educational Equity Gabriela has don't consistently that they don't care about the
345detrimental impact they cause on their collocated schools from Logan West Veron and Trinity they continually overstate their numbers so they can take away more rooms from Trinity and have rooms to do dance Trinity Street Elementary School is a community school and thus should not be collocated our utility contract States any school that is designated a community school transformational school shall be protected from Constitution no new Charter collocation or renewed Charter collocation unless prohibited by law in addition Gabriella's Charter petition was not written on or approved for our neighborhood South Central Los Angeles the petition is for a different neighborhood altogether La USD policies and procedures for charter school state if a new charter school is approved by La board and sub subsequently seeks to locate in a community different from the community the charter school
346was originally authorized Ser the charter school operator must submit a material rision for approval with and updated Community impact assessment prior to change and location to our knowledge Gaba never engaged in the material thank you for your time sir we have two more callers who signed up to speak remotely but I do not have them signed in I'm going to mention their names State their names just in case they happen to be in the room uh Tanya Lewis are you in the room Tanya Lewis you're not you're signed up to speak remotely but I do not have you online mrao also not here okay so that concludes public comment on this item I'm going to read this part of the public hearing statement and then we'll be done with this following public speakers the board
347will be taking action on the charter petitions at a subsequent meeting petitions denied may be submitted directly to the Los Angeles County Office of Education or directly to the state for Action so that concludes tab 22 all right thank you very much no action will be taken today on your petitions but we appreciate all of you coming to speak and give us your impressions of your schools thank you very much and if I could can I take some of the go ahead some of the votes that we missed earlier so um Dr McKenna I I need to call on you for Tab 8 a vote on the unaudited actuals report for fiscal year yes that's a yes okay I also so I'm going to move to tab 12 for you Dr McKenna the 2024 cceis
348action plan Amendment yes it's a yes from Dr McKenna um board president Goldberg you were also out of the room at that time yes that's a yes from board president Goldberg and Miss gonz has stepped out so we will return to her um moving to tab 13 uh Dr McKenna on the uh US EPA clean School Bus program notice of award how do you vote yes that's a yes from Dr McKenna in board president Goldberg yes all right and we will await the return of Miss gones for that and on to tab 18 uh Dr McKenna for tab 18 uh safe sustainable streets resolution from board member Ortiz Franklin yes uh Mr mvo yes you took that you took it was taken up I didn't hear it yet I couldn't hear it in the other
349room okay and board president Goldberg yes but I'd like to be a co-author and I all right so Mr melin and board president Goldberg are also added as co-sponsors yeah you had added Mr Mel already all right so that cleans up that bit of business except for we're going to wait for uh we have um well let's do item 25 let's go to item 25 so we can't do the other for another six minutes item 25 is the uh item which changes some what are meeting times and places and so forth and uh board members let me just say that the reason uh the reason that item 25 is here is because uh I had originally uh been asked to try to start us at 10:00 a.m. uh uh but that would get public speaking
350to be at 2:30 and we got a lot of push back from a lot of places so we tried to split the baby or I don't want to ever split a baby split split the item in half split the item in half and so instead of making it 4 or two we made it 3:30 which means we will start our meetings from now on board meetings will start at 11: there will be 20 speakers as usual not the 40 because we were trying to combine that and that didn't work so so much for a good effort and uh so the item that is before you that says version two changes the board meetings only from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. start everything else uh Remains the Same a motion is an order to adopt item
351oh no I think we have speakers yeah we had three speakers on item we have a yes we have speakers on Tab 25 so um I'll call in the folks who are listed as being here in person Anna Caren Anna C are you here I think so all right come on up you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin and then after Miss Ken is Monique Edwards uh and then Mr Mandi hi good afternoon I was speaking Spanish I don't know if there's interpretation very well good afternoon I came since early to see the entire meeting one of the very important issues in fact the Miss Franklin's project how will you carry this out as a volunteer or how will that um item be done because we have seen the bulletin parent bulletin which
352is 46.5 where there are a lot of irregularities that you need to first see this year you are enrolling parents so that they sign before being trained and I think that a salad there there's a miscoordination of the general office we were not called upon as parents I think that this bulletin needs to be or should have been consulted with a specific parents in the regions and to call upon those volunteers so that they are able to provide those recommendations about this bulletin because in some spaces it says that we can help and in other ones it says that we cannot help we are at the mercy of the principle if it's okay or not what we're doing so you are devaluing the work that we are doing or that parents parent volunteers are doing
353right now I was just told oh it's because your community now it doesn't matter if I'm Community the community has always been important because we pay taxes in fact the uh proposition 28 that you're saying work through the community so that it could be approved and all that investment that came about from proposition 28 that is for Arts is being implemented in schools the proposition 33 that is for the uh uh Greening jobs was promoted also with the community parents in the community the voters that pay taxes and I hope that you're able to see this and take this into consideration the review of this document thank you for your time Monique Edwards are you here Monique come on up you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin okay thank you and good afternoon
354welcome back and I hope that everyone enjoyed their summer um I would like to start by saying this the past week we witnessed the California legislative Black Caucus floored two bills s SP 1403 and SP 1331 two important reparations bills to address the descending class of cadow slavery who resides in the state of California for more than five decades black students in California have and are considered students with the lowest academic performance lower performing test scores according to the State Board um school board that black students have a history of the highest mental um health issues concerns and disorders highest homeless student populations and high and lowest attendance rate often referred to as the community of students with the chronic absentee and or treny rates according to the data black male students are performing below
355fifth grade reading levels and Performing below of sixth grade math levels yet the California legislative Black Caucus who Tony Thurman is also a member and the California state superintendent of public instruct instructions has not presented any legislative proposals to strateg to strategically tackle these issues within the black student population in California therefore we are requesting that the Los Angeles Unified School Board increase Bap budget to $100 million to complete a plan of execution providing an aggressive Progressive approach to programming the implementation of sound academic methodology that will academically enrich black students in subjects for example English language arts with the emphasis on multilingual language learning STEM related mathematics scientific studies AI certification with the implementation of certifications and goals set for 2025 through 2026 school year thank you very much for your time we appreciate
356your time much appreciate your time okay uh Jose mandhi Juan Jose Mandi are you here not here you call I'm going to go to the folks who listed as being remote uh there are no folks signed up currently to speak remotely though they listed themselves is hoping to attend I will read their names out just in case they're in the room Tim Miller are you in the room Tim Miller Norma Gonzalez Renee deisi yeses Reena okay those folks are not here so that concludes tab 25 is now in order to adopt tab 25 second move by schmon second by gonz call the roll please okay Dr McKenna Dr revas yes Mr schmon yes Mr Mel yes M gz yes Mr T Franklin yes for president Goldberg yes all right can I return to um get
357Miss gonz's votes okay and then after that we will go to item number 15 let me just review my notes go ahead go ahead Miss gonz I have tab 12 for you to vote on that's the cceis action plan Amendment yes I also have uh tab 133 that's the US EPA clean School Bus program notice of award excitement and yes an excitement and a yes all right and then um that's it that's it thank you thank you all right it's only three minutes late we will now go to item number 15 uh a you should rece be receiving a new version of item number 15 yet again so for the Public's awareness I have copies of some amendments that were made to tab 15 resolution they've been passed out to the board and will be
358posted online shortly all right let me see if I can get the most recent tab 15 myself here it is all right uh so uh members um or do we have speakers on Tab 15 yeah I guess we do uh the changes though are on the um first uh the second resolve uh it says that schools that participate in the five CSI cohorts will be eligible to to apply and then the end of that paragraph adds and will be open to up to 10 schools the Second Amendment is in the resolve right below it which is in instead of saying will be authorized to hire it will say be authorized to select a community schools Grant funded School leader then skip the next resol resolve then the F next resolve says that the schools will
359demonstrate a team commitment that includes at a minimum the principal School staff and the local school Leadership Council and other bodies inclusive of student and parent leadership will commit to participating in the co for three years and then the next to the last resolve on that it says that the schools will work in collaboration with the division of instruction to develop and pilot Innovative authentic rigorous and relevant assessments to provide information to teachers and parents regarding students areas of strength and areas of need once established schools will be excused from standardized testing with the exception of the state federally M mandated assessments the final resolve removes the words unite La staff and instead adds after parners will form a team in the second semester of school year 2425 uh we've taken out the words of
360develop a plan for how the initiative is to be implemented and it's calls that the new initiative will commence on July 1 2025 for the 20 5 26 school year so um this resolution um is one of the things that I had hoped to do before I left office and now I'm not so sure but we'll see and and that is to begin to change how we look at student assessment I taught for 18 years in two states and in three uh and in three school districts and in that time uh I did assessment continuously uh I knew where my students were what they could read what they understood what they didn't because that's what you do when you teach you're continuously assessing sometimes it's formal with a quiz or an exam other times it's
361in conversations other times it is in discussions other times it is in projects but you find out what they're learning and what they're not learning you assess them continuously I have believed for about 25 years that there has come to be what is known as the testing industry billions not millions billions of dollars are spent every year to continuously find ways to continue to increase by a few points here and there scores on standardized tests when I first began teaching in 19 I want to tell you how long ago that was in the 1960s no it wasn't either yeah it was it was in the 1960s uh when I first started teaching um we had a once a year assessment the end of the year by the state okay that was fine once it became
362high stakes and that was the intent was to say oh well now we're going to talk about what are good schools and bad schools and not good schools and terrible schools and rotten schools and wonderful schools and excellent schools we began to say that the way you're going to Define that is not by how much the kids come to school and learn or excited about learning but by what they do on a specific test score once that became the goal of what the fol folks in Corporate America and I was in Sacramento when they were doing it once they decided that that should be the be all and judge all of what's going on in schools we began to have an industry providing enormous amount of materials tests practice tests practice practice tests original test
363Middle School school year test end of the year test test to take when you're on the way to school test when you're in the bathroom test wherever you could because the whole goal of life became not the love of learning not the enjoyment of Education not the exchange of ideas but whether or not your school could move up on its test scores for at least 20 years I have found that repugnant and so one of the things I had hoped we would do with Community Schools was to give them an opportunity to try to show that you can do assessments continuously I'm not against assessments I assess my students all the time when I was teaching continuously because if I didn't know what they didn't know I didn't know where we had to go next
364so I'm not against assessment I am against this forced notion that you have to have a beginning of the year a middle of the year the end of the year if we can have a few more exciting times to try testing we'll do a few more practice tests we we get everybody ready all the time for testing and I think we're doing great harm and this is an attempt to say that perhaps because we have Community Schools who have an additional group of leadership on it that we can begin to help teachers and students and parents and administrators devise ways to do what I think most teachers are frankly already doing which is continuously assessing but how do you do that in a way that helps parents and teachers and others understand whether or not
365their children are doing well this is an attempt to say it is time for us to practice and see if this is a better way right now we have beginning of the year middle of the year the end of the year but now we have all kinds of things with I ready that continuously test and I think I'm not putting down already I'm not putting anything down actually but it's the next to the last resolve that means the most to me they will work in collaboration with the division of instruction to develop and pilot Innovative authentic rigorous and relevant assessments to provide information to teachers and parents regarding students areas of strength and areas of need once established these schools will be excused from standardized testing with the exception of the state and federally manded
366mandated assessments I think this is I hope the beginning of the fight back against the corporate America who has decided that this is a multi-billion dollar program and that they want to get in on the money by making this the most important thing that you can ever know about any school is not how happy the kids are not how much they're learning not how they're inspired each other how their teachers are inspiring them but what their score is on one particular test at the end of the year and I know that this is a lot to ask but I'm asking anyway and I thank uh both uh board member gonz and board member Dr Rivas uh for joining me in this and I urge all of you to join me as well uh and now
367I'm going to ask my co- uh sponsors if they would like to speak before we hear from everybody else Dr Rivas then miss gones thank you board member Goldberg I share your sentiments um and I just want to just add a few things and um read some stat stat ments here so this resolution is one step one more step towards transforming education and or LUSD Community Schools emphasizing student centered learning equity and the vital role of community engagement is essential and makes an attempt in addressing test-based accountability Community Schools represents a long-term strategy and is not new and not a quick fix in teaching and learning a well-implemented Community School leads to Improvement in school student and school outcomes and contributes to meeting the educational needs and our educational achievement in high poverty communities it's
368heartening to see the focus on cultural relevant curriculum project based learning and empowering Educators to create meaningful Innovative learning experiences that extend beyond the limitations of traditional standardized assessments this resolution is important because it addresses the concerns and frustrations communicated to me personally by very important stakeholders in my board district teachers principes parents and most importantly students since the implementation if anything of I ready the board was informed that I ready would actually reduce the number of Assessments conducted in actuality it's actually adding more time and test prepping uh which is limiting the time spent in teaching and learning and creating Innovative Innovative instructional strategies and more time spent on in facing the commu the computer screen and the reason I I say this is because a lot of teachers have been coming up to
369me and letting me know that it's just it's taking away time from their ability to teach the students because they have to been spending time on um end of beginning of the year middle of the year and end of the year so they provided me some of the documents that they receive and it says we have to do 30 minutes 40 minutes instruction sessions with the I ready um anyway so the one thing I really do want to just communicate with you all is what I'm hearing from students and these are students from a community school dual language with a dual language program this is what our students are enduring dear Dr Ras I'm writing to you as my elected official and hopes that you can help advocate for me and my fellow classmates I
370realize testing is important but don't you think seven weeks and let alone eight weeks is a lot of testing if we already take five State tests Ela math science CSA elpac in the end of the year why why do we take the end of the year I they both are the same reason to show you what we know also this testing can stress some students out also may I ask why the middle schoolers and high schoolers are tested in fifth and eth but in elementary were tested in three 3 fourth and fifth tell me how this is fair my personal experience with this year's testing they're talking about last year was that I was really stressed out worrying about all of these tests I also gained a lot of anxiety since testing started and I
371could not focus on my own life because I was so stressed out about the tests also during the Spanish test I went to the office and I cried because how hard it was for me I hope you can take my words into consideration and maybe get rid of the I ready and all of the tests that we have to take particularly the end of the year State tests I would it would mean the world to me and my class here's another and that was from Stephanie this is from Victoria my personal experience with years the this year's testing was that it took me all five days to finish each test she goes on to say then we would have to do it all over again with I ready three weeks have now become six weeks
372seven in the in fifth in fifth grade if you add the L pack that's even more please cut our load we are still kids and why the heavy workload here's another one from another student fifth grader my personal experience with this year's testing was really bad during the I ready Spanish and math test I burst out crying because because it caused anxiety it didn't help that I wasn't even halfway through those tests and I knew we still had weeks of testing ahead one more this is from Paloma I realize testing is important however I believe that the seven weeks is way too long if we already have to do the um beginning of the year and the middle of the Year why do we have to do more and then we have to do the
373actual test espc and vice versa pick one both is too much my personal experience with this year's testing was endless endless boredom and dreading school for more than a month I usually love learning my eyes are always hurting and I only get a 3 five minute break I am also a dual language student so in addition to English I have to do Spanish as well I hope that somehow we can shorten testing to get rid of I ready end of end of the year for testing so and then these are all letters that I received if you want to take a look at them I I welcome you so these are students from Community School dual language and this is just one small example of what I've been hearing during throughout last year and also
374this year as I visit schools or just when teachers meet me or see me and also as principles so the reason I bring this up because is this resolution is going to help us see what is also possible and on our community schools in reducing test prepping and overall just reducing the amount of tests our students have to endure so with what this while this resolution prioritizes ongoing assess through Project based learning I would love to see that there is um evaluation to track student progress and identify areas where additional support may be needed and in closing I'd like to underscore the significant transformational change at Community Schools model in addressing the whole child Community Schools not only promote academic Excellence but also provide critical Health and Social Services Youth Development programs and so much
375other that provides Community engagement by fostering strong Partnerships with schools community and or Community organizations we can change what schooling is about and we can bring back the joy of learning and there are examples out there of other school districts who are doing this particularly Anaheim School District they have eliminated uh or the Reliance of testing so the reason I bring this up and I read these letters is because we have to do something different and the overreliance of testing and test prepping is is killing our kids so I will thank you for um indulging me in this and thank you for bringing this resolution forward and once you leave Miss for member Goldberg I will make sure to follow up on this resolution and making sure that we bring transformative change through our community
376schools which hopefully will translate into all the rest of the district thank you well thank you so much board president Goldberg for bringing the solution for it and um in the grand scheme I'm just uh so grateful and proud to have several Community Schools in Board District 6 um they are doing amazing work and I really appreciate the continued work of the steering committee all of those who are involved in the community schools movement who I know are so committed to the Community Schools model and and doing more to really deepen that work in the district and to bring even more Fidelity um I think I have an interesting perspective on this because in addition to being a classroom teacher I've worked in education policy I was in Washington during the last reauthorization of the
377elementary and secondary Education Act then No Child Left Behind um and I would say that really the test regime and the focus on testing emanates from from Washington I mean that is that is what creates the high stakes testing and accountability environment that our schools in America operate under and um I actually had a very interesting conversation my student advisory cabinet this year was focused on joy and learning um and right after I was with them I was on a panel led by a Civil Rights group on the new reauthorization of Esa which is coming in 2025 and what they said and what I I shared as well is you know we want to focus on authentic rigorous education and building relationships and critical thinking which is not measured by standardized tests um and as
378a science teacher I was incredibly frustrated because you know I don't think science is taught with textbooks and multiple choice assessment that just is such a short changing of the type of education that we want to see our children receive um and as you said board president Goldberg great teachers are assessing constantly in every moment in conversations with kids and observing their work and seeing them present and hearing them have conversations with each other and I feel that there is so much space um to be able to partner with our Educators um to hear their voices and to really rethink assessment in a way that does Justice to the high expectations that we have for our kids um but also in a recognition that that they are more than you know fill in the bubble
379tests um so I know that this is just one step but I really look forward um to the way this resolution will be implemented um to see what innovative ideas are I know that our teachers have and see how we may be able to Pilot a more joyful education a transformative education which really brings the Community Schools model to full fruition so I thank everyone who was a part of this effort all of The Advocates and partners and and to board president Goldberg for providing this opportunity for us anyone else wish to speak Miss Ortiz Franklin thanks yeah I just uh have some questions I do appreciate the most recent version I think it was really responsive to some of the impact statements we received so um that makes a lot of sense to me
380I guess my big question is when we adopted I ready in May of 23 we were told that assessments were being reduced by 40 %c and so I guess I'm wondering like what does the assessment Suite look like right now and what would um these 10 you know up to 10 schools really be exempt from I love you know authentic assessments I agree wholeheartedly with ongoing formative assessments that really guide instruction I think the the culture of anxiety around testing is absolutely something we can address I think my question is just practically like which ones will these schools no longer participate in uh in my view they would participate in no testing during the school year other than the things that are coming out of them which is to uh which is to develop these
381uh pilot Innovative authentic rigorous and relevant assessments to provide information so in other words they would be uh exempt from any other types of testing they could choose to do them so let's say a community school decided to be in this 10 pilot school or less group and they wanted to continue using I ready uh beginning middle and year they could end of year they could they would have a choice now would be the difference and they would have that choice when they have presented authentic alternatives to how they intend to measure progress during the school year so what are we required to do El or and maybe Dr sha can say it just so I don't like mess anything up because I know there are a lot that are required by a state and
382federal government that's correct so elpac would still be required absolutely the espa would continue to be required so those kind of state and federally required assessments uh would continue for our students including for example in special education and for their IEP to be able to demonstrate progress there certain things in the IEP we would still obviously be required to adhere to what would those be well so for some of our the Woodcock Johnson things like that are necessary for to demonstrate progress in the I um but probably most of concern is always you know our English Learners and that would be the lpac and that would still be required what about Dibbles Dibbles uh so it depends so for an English learner one of the criteria would need to be our academic assessment that we
383use so for an English learner for example they would still have to take the I ready assessment to demonstrate that progress because that's required by that's one of our criteria for state law oh I'm sorry for Dibbles so it depends if they're an English learner who's reclassifying then yes but if not no they would not be required under the the guidance as and as um uh president Goldberg highlighted unless the school chose to select to do that right and then I guess I think a lot of assessments are also just teacher quizzes and final exams and those kinds of things so um I guess this would still be up to the school I think maybe just from our perspective um you know I was really excited when we adopted I because it was going to
384give us some ongoing information throughout the year and let us know how schools were making progress before we waited for the summit of Assessments of you SBA coming we don't even have it still for last year um but I know we were going to end the eii next year too so I guess I'm I'm trying to understand like from a district-wide perspective as it relates to data digs and impact reviews and all of this progress monitoring like what are we doing now that is the most helpful in terms of ongoing assessments as a district um and if 10 schools opted out of it how would that impact their support if they were a priority school or really needed some you know Common Language around their progress throughout the course of the year I don't know
385I the I think the language of the resolution speaks to you know that the pilot schools would be ones they're they're we're looking at the quality of implementation of the Community Schools framework and also evidence of strong academic progress for all student groups so I think that that speaks to you know these are schools that have a positive track record of success already um not that that could not necessarily be a priority school but but um I don't know I think that that provides a a bar for academic quality that would as measured by esac or like and which resolve is that I'm sorry maybe that would be the second resolve top of the second or the back of the first page eligible to they're only eligible to apply based on established criteria that it
386could include the framework and strong academic progress and that could be esack that could be something else that lets us know they're already making good progress a lot of the issues that you're talking about are why we extended when this actually goes into effect which I think is great yeah so there are going to be things we don't know and uh that's really the answer that's why I said I don't know uh we don't know we we hope uh at least I hope as one of the last things I do on the board I think the point is also is because this is a pilot program so that's why you know we want to test things out see how we're doing at first year address some of those changes and then we have a team
387that's going to be you know uh working on um the implementation plan so and then we also have to you know really because it's a community school and one of the pillars is innovative learn teaching and and you know we want to rely also on our teachers on their expertise so a lot of the assessment all of this work is going to be coming from from the community schools that are participating and also working with the community and parents so it's a pilot program we're going to learn from it and that's the whole point of the resolution is to create this sort of space for this to happen mam this will not surprise you I have a different perspective on this having taught in the classroom for over 10 years and supervised instruction directly for
388over 30 and supervis schools for more than 60 years I have no problem with assessment I'll just start with the end result if the students were doing well on every one of these tests wouldn't they be proud to take those grades home and show their parents what they were doing as opposed to saying we need to stop testing them because they're not doing well you don't do well when you're poorly taught if you're well taught you don't wind up in fifth grade and you still don't know your multiplication tables having taught math I found out of an Abomination and that's only wrot memory that's that's all it is wrot memory the multiplication tables between 1 and and 12 and the multiplication tables are repetitions 7 * 6 is the same as 6 * 7 so
389you don't have that many uh different combinations as you have letters in the alphabet and we memorize that in some random order why does B come before Q because we memorize it that way now look when you start throwing it out it seems like that's a solution in search of a problem as opposed to saying can we amend this how many assessments are too many well we don't know but the kids are saying and we have a testimony here written down that is too much for me I'm having problems adjusting to this is messing with my psyche it's affecting my equilibrium it's affecting my uh my perception of self we can a lot of things people come and testify and say a lot of things of which I'm greatly skeptical I'm greatly skeptical and you
390were all intelligent well-meaning people we all went to school we all took tests I went all the way through school every school that I went to from high school when I first had to take my first entrance exam through universities multiple through graduate schools through law school through other places I never had to pay tuition because I did well on those testes I did well on the tests was I smarter than everybody else no but I knew how to study for a test there's a whole series a Barren series on how to study for a test and people pay money they have two come and teach their children how to raise their SAT scores and PSAT scores can they really do it they pay to believe it and say they don't have to cheat and
391say I'm going to get a a counselor up there to fudge my grades I think children can be taught some people don't believe they can be taught so they said let's not test them that's what's happening now at the Collegiate level let's not test them to enter community colleges don't test them at all people even even when toying with the idea you don't need to test them especially the the black children because we have so few let's stop testing them to enter the you the fouryear systems is that racism it is based upon some belief that the black child is harder to teach so why test them let them in they're not going to graduate but we let them in because we can measure the number of African-Americans we've allow to come in so we
392get paid for the enrollment not for the matriculation all the way through because the university professors are not going to water it down and not test them you get you have to take tests to work in the post office and that's not that's not a knock on the post office but they don't give you a test on go carry a mail and we'll see if you can make it back here on time that's not the test they give you they give you a written test and so this notion of test of the enemy and use the term what's the term they use test uh High stage testing every test is a high stage test depends on what it means to you and what the teacher does to tell you what's it worth sure teachers can
393make up tests very few teachers are psychometrist and know how to give how to make a test so we do rely on the the the national standards and without the standards how do you know if you're competitive or not well I made an a I'm I'm a 3.8 student at this particular high school you know don't you know are you blind and I don't mean that as an insult that when people begin to assess can you can you qualify for IV or tier one schools what what actually High School you want to is a 3.8 worth the same schedule here at an IV school I mean or at at a high school in the shall we say the inner city and a high school in a private area private well-to-do uh affluent people is that
3943.8 meaning the same thing they don't believe that they know that so gifting children with the absence of assessment is not a gift to Children it is also a political statement that says we don't want our teachers being exposed as to they're not really teaching our children to be competitive because the standardized test says all children in the country at the same time take the same test now this child over here in my school does extremely well on my tests it's those standardized test out of the problem we know it's on a standardized test and I hear this notion that you can't you shouldn't be teaching to the test what else you going to teach to you don't have the real test in front of you but you know the subjects that are going to
395be on the test if you were told that there's a great reward or a great consequence if you can't play the Moonlight Sonata uh at the end of the year you never played the piano in your life you never even heard the Moonlight sinada you know how to play you know what rap is but you don't know how to play the Moonlight sonada you don't even know who composed it depending upon what the reward and the consequence was you might learn the Moonlight Sonata or you say well give me some music teach me how to play the piano and I will try to play the Moonlight Sonata but if it doesn't make a difference whether you play it or not I don't have to play it all my buddies we don't play it we go
396after school and we just shoot hoops we don't play the Moonlight in order because there's no consequence if I don't play it am I going to be what fired am I going to be shot am I going to be incarcerated what's the penalty what's the reward what if I do it how about a million dollars if you learn how to play it you play it what a million satisfy you what $100,000 satisfy what would satisfy you look we talked about ways to enthusiastically inspired children the best inspiration for a child is a is a competent teacher a teacher is the difference between success and failure in the classroom when I would do professional development one of the things I say to teachers let's take let's take a subject organiz in a secondary school They Do
397by subject matter so let's take the teachers in one subject area mathematics that's my area and science that's my area and I can do English too I have an English mind I said look when we meet as a faculty let's talk about the children there three things you need to talk about what what are we going to teach within the next two weeks secondly how are we going to teach what methodology are we going to use what strategies are we going to use and thirdly what are you going to do differently for the children who don't get it do you even know that they don't get it how do you measure they don't get it or you just turn the page and keep going because I have to cover these chapters don't I and he's
398failing us when he failed chapter one he failed chapter two what do you expect him to do about chapter 7even because you don't know how to catch him up a tutor and I did tutoring to private tutoring I'm good at it you catch up with the teacher and get ahead of the teacher so that the teacher is teaching the student a secondary time after the tutor has exposed it to him because you don't have to go get all the background information first because he can't retake those tests but you can explain the information so that he's ready for what the teacher is going to come with if you have a syllabus if the teacher has prepared a syllabus most teachers look at the at the at the questions in the book and they call that
399the test they make up their own test from the book and why not if you taught it you should be able to test it you can test what you taught if you really taught it not just presented material do you test for Mastery do you know if the student is not getting it and what do you do differently when they don't get it do you know what to do do you share with each other what to do and if you don't know what to do if the teacher said we don't know what to do with George account he just he's the dumbest thing in the class we can't teach him then call for help downtown somebody can teach that child but he won't pay attention why because he's always laughing and joking and telling jokes
400he won't pay attention maybe he's bored we can come with all kinds of excuses I do not believe that we actually going to say we can stop testing them what does the language say and I respect the authors we be excused from any standardized from standardized testing except except required by the state the state doesn't have to be the almighty you should give students ways to prove their Brilliance but if you never test them they can't prove it and you don't want to know it because he said well look at what your children are doing teacher then they can't keep up and there are many teachers who can't keep up let's not talk about that let's not talk about that we can make other assessments that this whole department needs to be disbanded that's what
401we did with school police let's get rid of them we didn't want to reform it got to get rid of it this eliminated it oh that's wonderful and people come in celebrate and cheer and then people get killed right day on the street we're running a little a field of the topic Mr M of the topic we're talking about how to deal with the difference between a solution and a problem how are we finding a solution when there's no problem is the problem that the children are not performing and what are they not performing what about in the classroom what about what goes on their report card if they never took a standardized test what grade would the teacher give them they give it to him for effort what would be the best grade if
402you never take a stand ardz test never take a standardized test what would your grade be well first of all Dr McKenna nobody's talking about them not taking the district State tests they're not talking about that we're saying excuse me Jackie excuse me Jackie we're on the verge of talking about not taking tests no we're not sure we are we're talking about assessments of a variety of types that are not all pencil paper fill in the blanks with dots on multiple choice tests that's what we're talking nobody said anything about multiple choice tests here well that's what they are but that's the way you're talking about all tests not multiple test if you give a math test you got to do your work nobody suggesting that we don't test students or or I am not
403saying we're not testing out I'm not saying you're saying that but the fact that we're discussing the ways not to test we're not suggesting ways we're talking about ways to limit certain types of hours spent in why would we want to have students spends four to seven weeks I don't know any I don't know who's spending four to seven weeks just we are we are and I don't believe they for7 we're just being tested when you show up in the in the room you don't start getting tested I no I don't believe that I don't believe I don't think that's what happens in the classroom they have to present some material and then test and then assess and and a and a and a and a test result is a is a guideline for the
404the teacher to do something differently for everybody who didn't get an A now that's that's those little cliches I can use but if all your kids didn't get an A then that's then then some people don't understand what do you do for the children who don't get AIDS what do you do for the ones who fail regularly they fail and they fail and they fail and they're expected to fail because I can't teach that child no but you don't say that you say that child can't learn that's two different concepts oh people say it all the time miss miss go absolutely that child can't learn so we find a place to put him not in my class give him special ed give him someplace up but my class he can't pass geometry so he can't
405go to trigonometry sure you can pass geometry did you pass algebra why not who was a teacher the same teacher that failed a whole bunch of kids and then get them for summer school and fail them again I've been in secondary schools where testing becomes important Beyond just play as children do in in in the primary grades where they actually have to write down and and use pencil and paper or the computer or something else I know you want to cut me off oh no I was just going to offer that there remains a plethora of of standardized tests I mean grades three through eight in reading and in math um for the for the Dual language there's the Science assessment there's the grade 11 assessment there will continue to be grades as well and
406and we you know we have our Equitable Mastery grading initiative which is hopefully uh are you okay now sorry something was happening over here um that will hopefully be uh enhancing our calibration of grades so that grades are actually more tightly aligned with the standards because right now there is some deviation between grades and are you actually mastering the standards the standards will continue to exist because that's those are federal and state requirements I think what this is saying is that more of the same is not necessarily better it's about the quality of the assessments and I think that what this allows us to do in a very um for a very limited subset of schools um working with the division of instruction where we have experts in pedagogy and curriculum and instruction and assessment
407to create better assessments than what currently exists because I think often times we're trying to fit to the lowest common denominator and that doesn't necessarily align with the great potential and ability that our students have okay let me stop you there I was done so that's right Al let me let me stop you you talk about the quality of the assessment that's the end result what about the quality of the teaching if you input nothing and and limited teaching skills you're not going to expect the student to be at high quality but we say the student is the the assessment is the problem and we already know what the assessment is they give us the guidelines they give us the outlines they give us the subject areas and the subjects inside of which they don't
408give us the exact test but you you can do that and therefore look a tragic thing happened to me when I was in Compton a tragic thing happened I was I was a deputy in charge of instruction and they were giving the uh the heart law test then Gary Hart had this test the exit exam and you could give the ex exit exam multiple times times during the year and the district was required to give the test it didn't come from Sacramento it didn't come from educational testing services and so you could give it 10th grade 11th grade multiple times 12th grade six seven times here comes May graduation is in June I'm the deputy in charge of instruction at the secondary schools okay and there were 35 students that had never passed the test
409failed it every time they took it multiple times they give this test this one time all 35 of these students passed the test and not just passed the test they had almost perfect papers now people are celebrating I said wait a minute I was born some time ago but not yesterday I know these kids don't know this this information so I told the board and it was in receivership so the board didn't have the authority the state administrator did I want to retest these students and I did well how can you produce a give a test I said trust me I can give him a test which is similar to this test I gave them the test and of the 35 32 of them failed it failed it now they were making almost perfect papers
41032 of them failed now why am I telling you this when the board brought me before Dr mcken you have to explain yourself what test did you give them I said I gave them the same test I just rearranged the order of the answers CU somebody had given them the answers to the test to begin with because it was a district test and they've been given that same test for over 10 years we have lots of ways when the people in Atlanta decided they had to cheat and test and these are all black kids and black teachers and they sent them some of them to jail because they conceded we can't teach these children these poor little children we can't teach them so we going to fake these grades and sou now we say now
411don't even test them to get into Community College the chancellor said that at at at at a meeting at the Chamber of Commerce in my presence and I asked him let's talk about it he never called me back well Dr McKenna I'm going to I am going to ask you to try to conclude because you're get iude right now but I can come right back too because I'm telling you that I have to oppose this go right ahead I'm not suggesting you not to I'm going to because I can't understand why understand why we are backing off of assessing children that's how life is as we're helping these children we've had different experiences and we have different different opin same kids we had the same kids we had exactly the same kids spent 17 years
412teaching in Compton all right anybody else wish to get into this I I'll be brief uh I do I um appreciate what you're trying to do and I do appreciate the improvements I think responsive to staff and um support the idea of Community Schools support the idea of improvement in our assessment I would offer I know there's a date that this pilot commences I would suggest and maybe it's up to the superintendent and his team to let the board know when the pilot will conclude and when we would learn um from from this experiment I think that's that's one of thing that's missing and that I would offer I think ultimately and I I kind of echo the concerns of uh M Ortiz Franklin one of the challenges is the um the t a few
413various tensions within the district right now you know I do think you can't manage what you can't measure and we have some initiatives that the board has supported like Mastery grading and calibration actually when I was sitting in with the superintendent on data digs a week or two ago one of the challenges is still how all over our assessments are we have a lot of kids who are getting A's but they're far below basic we have a lot of kids who are uh way above standard but getting fs and so we're trying to Norm to that Mastery grading initiative which is still behind I think where it needs to be we also are entering a period of limited resources and um and uh declining enrollment and trying to understand what works and having that common
414language uh about what works and you know on the other hand we have the autonomy we have the joy we have the discretion that I think is in ttention with poor performance districtwide we're still not serving our kids nearly well enough District goals that we're trying to achieve again accountability and all this variance and so I think that there is a balance that needs to be struck some of that's been struck with I um I think as Miss gones was saying trying to develop better assessments I still I I'm just not sure that this is the way to do it which is my concern and why I'm an no on this but I I appreciate it and I do look forward if it passes to you know to use a loaded word but to see
415the assessment that comes back from this pilot and see how we can expand on that that so uh that's all for me I think it's a noble experiment I think uh uh I am going to support this I just would like to see how the 10 schools are going to use some kind of assessment at the end portfolios or however they do it to decide what the the students have actually accomplished and learned that would be important for me but I do support it I do support it anybody else sorry yeah I'm just I just want to be very clear like so this is saying that the 10 schools will not do Dibbles or beginning of year I ready or middle of your I ready no it says once they've achieved alternative ways of making
416those same assessments they don't have to do that right but it's just those three right Dibbles beginning of year I ready middle of year I ready that's it because everything else we require is State mandated or ferally because we're required by state and federal law to do anything required by state and federal law we're obviously not touching we're saying there are lots of other things that go on many of whom believe they are not authentic and I'm one of them authentic assessments I don't think bubbling in answers is an authentic assessment I guess but but other people disagree clearly other people disagree yeah well so on that for 10 schools once they've said we've determined that we have another way of making these same kinds of Assessments that these other things do I ready in
417Dibbles they will then use them instead of I ready and Dibbles if they don't do beginning of year I ready can they still do the activities in I because right now they're choose to do beginning of the year already but if they don't like this is sort of a logistical question for staff because right now we do what like 45 minutes in ela and math every week if they don't do the beginning of year assessment can they still do the lessons aligned to where they are and choose to do anything that they think will make the achievement of their students better this is not prohibiting them from doing anything this is saying you have a chance to do other ways of finding out the same types of information though perhaps in Greater depth because some
418of us believe for example project-based learning is a greater depth than the kinds of learning that most of us was doing when I was first teaching okay that we believe that other people don't believe that other people do not like Project based learning I get that this is not telling them what they have to do they still have to do the same tests everybody else does it says are there things that in your use of understanding what a community school is that you believe that you have other ways of assessing the same kinds of things that we're assessing other ways that are better and deeper and perhaps provide even more information maybe they can't maybe they can but it says that up to 10 schools will get that opportunity that's really all it does doesn't
419expand it to any other school doesn't require them to give up or not give up for example they may find that the beginning of the year for I ready is actually better than anything they can think of fine but it's a choice instead of a requirement if they think they have a better way that's what we're trying to do is to say is there a better way can we deepen this Beyond a multiple choice test can we deepen this behind a person sitting oneon-one with a kid and asking them questions over and over again maybe not maybe those 10 schools will after a year or two say you know what we're going to go back the other way we can't figure out anything any better that's fine with me too but before I leave this
420board I want to have an opportunity for schools to find that out that's what I'm trying to accomplish today that's all I'm trying to accomplish today well no we have speakers oh let's okay we have nine speakers slated to speak to this we'll call in the folks who are here listed in person and then we'll go to the um folks who listed themselves as calling in uh Maria Miranda come on up you have two minutes to speak once you begin right after that is Mr David tolkovsky and then Vicky Martinez good afternoon my name is m Manda I'm the utla elementary vice president and the point officer on Community Schools the supporting meaningful teaching and learning initiatives is the first step in moving forward towards a more meaningful and evidence-based approach to learning teachers will
421be more Innovative when creating more engaging instruction and will also be better able to address student needs research shows that teacher retention rates increase when teachers um decision-making professionalism and knowledge of their students and communities is acknowledged investing in community schoolly teachers is an important component in providing adequate supports that teachers and students need to transition to Project based learning coaches and experts in the field would train Community School leads so that they can take that learning back to the school site and problem solve as needed this means that Educators and students will not be left alone to figure it out on their own it is equally important for students to be provided the resources and materials needed for them to demonstrate their learning performance assessments require that students show their learning in a variety
422of ways and value the assets that students bring to school students will demonstrate their knowledge creativity and skills because they will be assessed with full and appropriate accommodations modifications exceptions and flexibilities for multilingual students and students with disabilities in addition ensuring an anti-racist approach in the design and administration of lessons and assessments secures fairness in the creation Administration and evaluation of assessment student learning across sites lastly teachers can tell you that standardized tests don't accurately measure student learning and growth often we spend too much time dedicated to test prep and testing that steals time from learning evidence from Anaheim New Hampshire New York and Massachusetts shows us that our overemphasis on test prep and testing isn't that what students need we need to move towards something more meaningful and evidence-based by passing this resolution you
423are once more demonstrating that you're invested in fulfilling the promise of Community Schools as transformative for teaching and learning please vote Yes thank you for your time let's see uh David toosi I think you're out there com on up you have two minutes to speak once you begin and then following Mr trovi is Maria Nichols Maria Nichols thank you very much I I appreciate opportunity to speak and some of you have been in here all day and you don't know that the Dodgers have agreed to allow San Diego to win the game tonight they're not going to keep score they know they're a little bit behind in the standings six six games behind so they're just going to let them come up five games um thank you um let me just say I agree with
424what you're saying Jackie and what you're doing and I think it's best always if your conversation came through the superintendent and the eight of you came together around it rather than have two on here and one over here and four over there this is a great idea that ought to come through your committee on instruction and then back to the board in one month we don't know everyone in here voted for I you voted for uh the Strategic plan you honor and fund the data digs on a regular basis you get charter schools that come in and then you start analyzing their data and saying hey that Charter School shouldn't be approved based off P their data what if that Charter School comes in as a community school Under the same guidelines are we going
425to extend it to them maybe we should maybe shouldn't everybody believes that being for Community Schools and being for a new vision of what a school for is for not against other things is the best thing we could be doing in public schools from Ry wein Garten to David Goldberg in Sacramento CTA and to this board when they're all together the superintendent's motion is always the best way to go I learned that with full day kindergarten which we've implemented with Fidelity very quickly because it wasn't my motion that I shoved through we brought it together and we had eight people the whole child shouldn't be spelled h o l e okay when you take your children to the pediatrician they measure them they check their growth rate they check their height they don't say you've
426been a bad parent cuz the the kid is and growing but they give you the feedback about that shouldn't be a top- down decision it should be authentic the the the motion quotes some studies from 20 years ago which are all about principles principal leadership and this motion I believe changes the working conditions of principles which legal councel should also be in this month ahead making sure that there's not a perb violation of changing the working conditions of sou thank you for your time thank you for your time Maria Nichols come on on up you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin then we'll take the folks who are who call who are calling in good afternoon again I am Maria Nichols the AA president this resol this discussion brings a lot of inquiry
427even with the Board of Education yourselves I have more questions than than than anything uh when we're talking about this resolution today and the biggest question is again how is this going to impact leadership it is very clear that you require extensive leadership knowledge to implement such a major task of backwards mapping design understanding priority clusters and standards having a very very refined approach to professional learning communities and building capacity with your leaders at the school site information on and really deep understanding of progress monitoring systems so that you can then do cycles of professional learning communities pdsa and whatnot it goes really against what you already have in place which is a strategic plan which I feel is a very powerful tool we have of teacher behaviors that we use as measures when we
428Implement instruction around the teaching and learning framework focused on the elements of teacher Behavior we have those tools already assessment is necessary our children need to be able to be prepared to be able to demonstrate knowledge across our society I have four children myself I live in Valencia my children are privileged and you know my beginning I'm an immigrant child and here I am we do not water down expectations for students like me We increase them an assessment is a part of that I urge you to examine this deeply in a com in a committee and really understand that this will impact leadership and schools and the work that you're asking team to do is tremendous amount of work thank you for your time okay we'll go to callers Lisa I see you're on the
429line please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Lisa hello can you hear me yeah we can hear you can you speak up a little bit into whatever device you're using yes can you hear me better now yeah yeah a little bit better we'll turn up the volume please go ahead okay yes uh good afternoon to the board um my concern I was a re a tutor at an inner city school last semester and I certainly hope that I'm not out of order but this topic was the one that was closest to the question that I would like to ask the board I had the most deeply heartbreaking experience of watching my students be I knew that they were going to be passed to the next
430grade and I would like to understand how this initiative um Works in concert with a policy that allows students to be passed from grade to grade to grade when they cannot read they're in third grade fifth grade and they can not read they cannot do basic math and when I say basic I'm talking counting on your fingers for a problem like 11- 5 or 8 - 3 and you're counting on your fingers in third and fifth grade and I would just like to know how the board is working to integrate a policy like this or an initiative when there is a policy in existence that guarantees the failure of our children a caller I believe identified yourself as Lisa they the board isn't free to respond to your direct question but the uh they hear
431they can hear the question and then maybe you could reach out directly to the board member or the board in general and you could possibly have a discussion with them in that context but due to the format of this meeting and the kind of laws that we have to work with and they're not they're not freely permitted to ask answer questions that are directed to them in this context so uh we appreciate your time oh okay well I'm I'm yeah I'm certainly willing to do that who do I who do I email or who do I reach out to I have your email address and I will send that stuff to you is that okay yeah that's fine thank you so much and thank you for your time take care same to you have a
432great day okay now let's see ingred vietta ingred V I see you're on the line please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin ingred V good afternoon board members my name is ingred DEA and I'm the proud community school coordinator at 93rd Street Elementary I'm here today to ask for your support for item 15 supporting meaningful teaching and learning in the LA USD Community Schools initiative at 93rd we know that data has a place when guiding our instructions we also know that data some data helps us monitor some student progress however that same data doesn't give us the full picture when it comes to student academic ability we have faced many teaching and learning challenges post pandemic and although currently we continue to make progress and
433refine structures and skills with our teachers and students we know that performance assessments are the next step we have a an amaz aming principle guiding our academic instruction and we are committed to also implementing Project based learning this resolution would allow for a pathway to be developed so that we can get to the next step aligning our assessments with community-based learning our students learn best when the subject matter is interesting and engaging project-based learning allows our students to demonstrate critical thinking skills problem solving collaboration and the application of Real World Knowledge authenticity matters as we tackle attendance at at the school level we all know that students come to school when they feel connected to the subject matter and they have ecosystems in which they feel supported and loved this resolutions helps us get one
434step closer to ensuring the spaces of learning are optimal for our students I urge you to continue to support the community school initiative as we trans transform our schools and vote Yes on this resolution our students cannot wait thank you for your time uh Grant Schuster or Grant Shuster please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Grant Schuster please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin yeah thank you uh my name is Grant Schuster I was a 22-year middle school classroom teacher in Anaheim followed by six years as the local Teachers Association president working with our district on uh assessments and building Community Schools um I am incredibly excited about this opportunity that LAUSD uh can take
435here as a leader in education and and a lighthouse for districts across the country to build more authentic assessments through parents students teach and teacher develop projects uh soapbox speeches and capstones that use critical thinking communication and collaboration skills developed in classrooms that recognize and encourage student passion this builds capacity and Trust around learning um and using the development of these skills for projects as a driver rather than standardized assessment has ended up actually increasing state test scores and brought Community to campuses to see our students present projects and exhibit their growing skills want to acknowledge Dr revas mentioning uh Anaheim when she was speaking and in the district we have eliminated all standardized tests with the exception of those that are State mandated at any of the 20 schools in our district over the
436past five years our students who are from very similar Dem graphic backgrounds as LUSD have been admitted to our local U uc's at a higher rate while staying longer and graduating at a higher rate than students from our surrounding districts who score uniformly higher on standardized tests our own teacher and student created projects and assessments are more accurate than Statewide standardized tests um so bringing the teacher lead sites to facilitate the implementation of this program and help teachers students and parents and communities build assignments and projects based on the desires of the community will bring incredible growth to your students in La USC thank you thank you for your time Marty reik I see you signed up to speak remotely but I don't have you signed in online are you in the room Marty reic
437okay Anna Garcia are you in the room Anna Garcia okay Vicki Martinez on Tab 15 Vicki Martinez let's see she's signed up to speak remotely that's right Vicky Martinez please press star six to unmute yourself and you have two minutes to speak once you begin Vicky Martinez can you hear me yeah we sure can he now we can't Vicki Martinez please press star six to unmute yourself Vicki okay can you hear me now yes we can please go ahead you thank you thank you okay good afternoon everybody my name is Vicki Martinez I'm a parent of children at uh Franklin Joel language Magnet Academy and Franklin High School I'm a longtime member of claim our schools Los Angeles and I'm calling today in support of supporting teaching and learning in the LA USC Community School
438initiative resolution being put forward by board member president Goldberg and board members rias and gones thank you so much for this I sit on La usd's uh curriculum committee where I regularly get to hear about our efforts to improve the way our students learn I was in that committee where I heard a presentation from the Anaheim School District Anaheim Union in school district which I very much appreciated um they presented about their Community School model that focuses on teaching and learning and has new and Innovative assessment metrics for students that actually get them ready for Life After High School that presentation blew me away and I even joked about selling my house and moving to Anaheim I am thrilled that we are piloting a program that has similar goals this pilot program will not only
439create the space for educators and administrators to be Innovative and creative in their curriculum but also give them the resources necessary to be successful I urge you to vote Yes on this pilot because I am confident that this program will lead to even more continued success for our La USC Community Schools I thank you so much for your time thank you for your time all right Anna Garcia I see you're on the line Anna Garcia please press star six to unmute yourself and you have two minutes to speak once you begin Anna Garcia ohcia okay good afternoon my name is Anna Garcia I a mother of a community schools in Carver Middle School and I'm a member of reclaimed schools La I believe that being part of this community school initiative has made a big
440difference in my daughter's school many opportunities have been created for us as parents knowing that we are involved at the schools there are many services and resources for the students and for families now we have more opportunities to grow to teach learning to have a better academic experience for our students this is why I'm calling and I'm supporting this resolution I'm supporting the teaching the learning for this school initiative Community Schools for LUSD and I believe that this program will create a better Ambience a very necessary one and provide resources that the teachers need within our learning and within the schools and this is why I'm asking for you to vote in favor and let's continue supporting the children's learning because it is very important they are the future of this country and as a
441mother of Community Schools I've learned much and I've obtained much resources based on this therefore please support it thank you Dr re he beat outson okay Ben second call the roll please all right roll call vote on Tab 15 Dr McKenna I want this to pass because it has some promise but I'm not sure who's going to implement this and I'm not sure that I'll be around and I wish I could be to make sure that they're really focusing on the quality of instruction as opposed to lamenting the quality of the assessment and faulting the assessment whatever it is and refusing even to give it so and uh out of caution I'm going to vote no it won't make a difference but I want to support it because I think it has a promise if
442in fact all the rhetoric that heard from the the people and there there's no there's no backup to these words that they're saying but I do know it's going to take a lot of effort in detail to know what a good assessment looks like and how frequently you give it and after you give it what do you do with it and how do you reteach so that the child and one final thing I have to say this the way you get better grades from students is to give them what I call cumulative testing the test you give in September that's the child didn't do well on when you give a test in October you can include some of the stuff you gave in September to see if they've learned it later so that they can
443get cumulative credit for what they've learned over time as opposed to you didn't know it then so you had a fail then and you put a fail with a with this grade you still get fails you can't catch up but if you keep questioning again and again and again the AHA will come on if you're teaching it so I'm going to vote no and you heard my comments okay it's a note from McKenna Dr Divas yes Mr schmon yes Mr melin no Miss gonez yes M Ortiz Franklin no for president Goldberg yes that is four eyes three and I'd like to be a co-sponsor and a co-sponsor from for member shlon so it [Applause] passes okay this brings us promptly to General Public comment we have a full boat I will call on the folks
444who are here in person and then we'll go to the callers who are speaking remotely uh so I'll call Four folks with the first person come up to the podium and the other three please be waiting in the wings ready ready to deliver their remarks so the first speaker is Dian guen second speaker is Maria Louisa Palma third speaker is Lydia Lopez in and the fourth speaker is Channing Martinez so first Dian guen then Maria Louisa Palma then Lydia Lopez and then Channing Martinez um Miss gin's gonna deliver her remarks in Spanish so uh please put your hands up if you'd like to have a headset so that you can experience simultaneous translation and as soon as we have those passed out we'll go ahead Miss Guan are are you here oh there you are
445is anyone in the mezzanine want the headsets for translation you guys are good okay of course all right okay listas my name is di Gan and I have been the chair for the English language advisory committee for the district for 4 years and we are concerned truly because I imagine how many the millions of dollars the I ready exam was and to implement it and now that you want to take it away from some schools I feel like that's racism in my opinion why because you're saying that those students cannot do it cannot completed so you want to say that you want to implement other types of things I think that you could but we as parents want to know how our students are doing how what they're learning if they're really what they're learning
446is standardized or if it's just you're just giving them a grade I have proof that students they've been giving an A and they don't even go to school so that is what the assessments do it's important for us as parents and also we need that safety you have not giving us an answer Miss ril right now came to talk and said that because two students feel very bad because they were very stressed due to the assessments that they were taking and they even made a resolution but we have gathered almost 5,000 parent signatures adults people that know how the world works and you cannot make any kind of decision about it why don't you leave for every single school for every single school to decides if they want the police or not why do you
447have to be so radical and that no there's been so many shootings in other states there's students that have been leaving the states and have been uh hurt in other states will you wait for this to happen will you wait for more students to be stabbed because there's no safety and the safety that you are doing with the school police in the outside that's a matter for LAPD you are responsible for what happens within the school you're not responsible what happens outside so please take your responsibility and please bring back the thank you for your time Maria Louisa Palma come on up you'll have 2 minutes to speak once you begin good afternoon my name is Mar Lisa Palma and this afternoon this last resolution that you all just passed I have to say I
448think it's the saddest thing I've heard here I cannot imagine how something like this would go down at a high achieving School the high achieving parents which are majority white and Asian parents let's just be real about this they would never accept something like this they want standardized test scores they want as many as they can get their hands on they want their kids to be prepared for the further assessments that are coming in their kids' lives like the SAT the bar exam working for any government agency we will have standardized tests that these kids will be exposed to so I'm very concerned about this direction that you heading approving this resolution does it have something to do with the fact that I ready actually tells you how many grade levels the student is behind
449we can actually see if a senior somebody in 12th grade could technically be at a first grade level in certain areas in math or reading so is this what we're trying to keep our parents in the worst schools in the community schools in the bario in the worst ghettos of our district is this what you want our parents not to see we don't have the I ready data out here for the parents to look at parents tell me that they can't even get the family report much less the diagnostic report because that information would tell them this score would tell them exactly what grade level their kids are at so I believe you all are trying to hide this information from our families from our communities from our students that need the help the tutoring
450so if we leave it up to the teachers because that's what you're saying oh the teachers are going to come up with a different assessment but their parents aren't going to know so if the parents don't show up to the school if if you give a parent the information and you tell them that your fifth grade student is reading at a first grade level I think that maybe that parent may show up and may demand some changes at that school so Mr carvalo I don't know they're getting rid of your system here that you told us was this great thing the I ready I don't get it I'm I'm sad that you didn't comment on this resolution before the board voted thank you thank you for your time Lydia Lopez on up Lydia Lopez Lydia
451is there Lydia Lopez here okay uh Mr Channing Martinez Channing Martinez come on [Music] up well I'm here to talk about the black student achievement it's so surprising that I'm having to do so after such an anti-black public comment which uh just alleged that none of the high achieving students are black that's really interesting and it speaks to more why we have to save the black student achievement program as you know they just in August basically took away the rights of black students by taking out black from black student achievement so let me get straight to the point we would like this board to introduce a motion one uh the motion could do four things one to call on um the board to reaffirm Bap as a reparative program as the previous com public comment
452alleged black students aren't achieving as well right that comes from 20 years of disinvestment 20 years of targeting going after black and latinx students and families there are adults that are coming into our community right now into our strategy and so who are still affected from LUSD policies 20 years ago so one number one reaffirm that Bap is a restorative project uh number two write a letter to the OCR resending their decision I think their decision was over correction not just that of a civil rights violation and racist against black students uh number three expand Bap by $100 million $125 million is great but we know that's not enough to actually take care of more than two decades of uh just going after black students so $100 million and and then number three make an
453apology to Community Partners to the members of the Bap steering committee to the members of the police free LA USD uh coalition to the students to the parents to the black community for more than I don't know how many decades of just outright going after black students and black families I think this board can do better and you see what some folks in the in the uh District think that's why we need Bap thank you for your time all right I'm going to call the next four folks with the first person coming to the podium and the following three just ready to go yah pz come on up to the podium it's your time to shine YZ okay would Joseph Bernie come on up Joseph Bernie then after Mr Bernie Emanuel no nooi Emanuel are
454you here and then after Emanuel will be uh Joyce meban floor is yours thank you 60 years for 60 years the Los Angeles Unified School District had not taken a single comprehensive step towards addressing the systemic barriers that black students have to go through in order to get a quality education for 60 years the Los Angeles Unified School District failed to to put concentrated effort towards the betterment of underprivileged underresourced underserved black students in the schools they attend for 60 years black students 7% of the student stakeholders of this District refused the aid that they needed in 2021 something changed supposedly in the 2021 2022 school year I walked into a school in which I for the first time felt I was being recognized for who I was and it was being acknowledged that unlike
455my non-black peers the communities and places I come from are different the resources I need are different I felt comfort that in my school my school district this is being recognized that lasted for what three years before that promise was taken away the establishment of the black student achievement plan is one of the only steps you've taken in the history of this District to provide needed resources for us black students and you're looking at our faces diluting it and taking it away nearly 30,000 black students were touched by BP yet all it took was one summer away from the public eye one decision not to consult the Bap steering committee and one racist lawsuit from the state of Rhonda santis to frankly butcher the program the state in which the superintendent served before coming here
456is where they attack diversity Equity inclusion where they ban teaching by students about black history and where they cave to brace his pressures but why are you thank you thank you for your time Emanuel come on up you have two minutes to speak once you begin hello everyone my name is Emanuel noi a singor at Emanuel can I ask you just lift the microphone up as there you go now we can hear everything you're saying hello everyone my name is emmanu noi a singer at nathangel narbon high school and a student leader for students deserve as well as a member of Tanya Ortiz Franklin's board district 7 student advisory Council according to La usd's website it states when we learn from the black community and bring the lived experiences of our black students and families
457into our instructional planning then we will demonstrate multi-year increases in black student achievement yet recently LD has removed a race as a criteria for targeting resources through the black student ACH aent plan Bap this is outrageous yet not disappointing nor unpredictable as I and my students deserve team like to call it l USD is actively taking the black out of Bap I call on the LAUSD Schools board and superintendent carvalo to pass a motion to reaffirm that the Bap program is a reparative program specifically to address more than 20 years irreparable harm caused by L usd's racially discriminatory policies against the civil rights of black students additionally I asked the superintendent carvalo to consult the full consideration of not just himself on and his personal board but the entirety of the hundreds of thousands of
458students in La that he has held to a position of power to represent also I demand more psychiatric social workers psws are implemented in schools and more funds are allocated towards psws in schools as well as the organizations that they represent the concern of the lack of psws in schools will forever be an issue so as so much as long as L USD continues to make it one do more do better thank you for your time Miss meban are you there miss meban I think I saw you earlier today Joyce meban okay all right I'm goingon to speak about the next speak to the next three or four folks who are here in person eron Henry are you here Erin Henry come on up to the podium and then after Mr Henry Let's see we
459have Kila Williams or kalila Williams are you here and then after Kila is Gina Viola uh okay you have two minutes to speak thank you you're going to hear two of my friends Mia and Tiana call in about the unique obstacles their heard enrollment at changa Elementary this year I'd like to speak about the genuine mistake and the ongoing damage of collapsing one of our Kinder classes 20 students would be dispersed in our youngest class the etk which by a district mandate has a lower enrollment cap would be maxed out that means if we get one single etk student to come and enroll we must send a kid back to our mixed class reduce its cap from 26 down to 20 send six kindergarteners back to the exclusively Kinder class and theyby exceed its enrollment
460cap that's crazy right one four-year-old would put us in the position to reform a class we just dissolved and replace a teacher we just let go and it is not easy for us to get good teachers into p we are a remote school with a special and devoted staff the alternative would be that we turn that student away along with any siblings that might have joined our school the point is that this moment in our enrollment created by unique obstacles that my friends will speak to but that includes a literal landslide in our community is an outlier the district projection from the ecast was far more accurate we need these four positions just yesterday we enrolled another TK kid and today while this meeting took place three families with entry-level students took tours of our
461campus we need these classrooms that's the real picture of our school if we dissolve this class we damage the public faith in Tanga Elementary the only La USD School in the area we struggle at a deficit to get back to the Staffing we really need and it could hurt us for years to come the district is set to renovate some of our oldest facilities thank you let's not turn our back on that investment dissolving this class could hurt us for years and it doesn't reflect the reality of our needs please grant us our exemption to keep our kindergarten teacher thanks very much thank you for your time khila Williams come on up you have two minutes to speak once you begin hi um I'm speaking for her today my name is chise Thomas hello Schoolboard
462members I am Chenise Thomas 11th grader at King Drew and a student leader within students reserve and I am greatly disappointed in you disappointed in you why did LA USD administrators make this decision about Bap without without without the decision of the community you cannot you cannot say you support black and brown students then go back on the one good thing you've done for us you constantly act as if you support us and then do stupid stuff and act like we're supposed to support you we fought for this program you constantly fail me and my peers and you know why you do it because we are black and brown W because we are black and brown Youth and Lord forbid you educate us we need La USD to take back their decision y'all have taken
463so much from us and have done so much Injustice and damage with our within our community is the least you could do from us we demand an apology try and take my resources from me like try and take my resources from me because what does it matter to you you already have your education already Yes take away be the black and Bap and take away my resources so you can family like the school system fil my mother and her mother and her mother and every generation of black home before me whose dream was cursed by the fact that they had The Misfortune of Being Born black let alone a woman thank you thank you for your time Gina Viola Gina are you here okay thank you of course good afternoon my name is Braxton Jordan
464I am a senior at dorsy high school and a leader in students deserve I find it appalling that superintendent carvalo intends to remove the be the black from Bap it is not fair to the students involved in the police free LAUSD Coalition who have not only fought for Bap to be implemented but these students have also won a divestment of 25 5 million annually from LAPD then expanded Bap to a 120 million annual program which didn't come easily thanks to everyone sitting in front of me if everyone was getting the equal amount of resources needed to be comfortable graduate or simply prep for college then there would be no need for Bap but Bap exists in order to correct the years of anti-black practices that have been kept that have kept black students from access
465accessing quality public education everyone can benefit from Bap counselors is simply called Bap to appeal to black students the black student achievement plan without the beat is just school I find it hilarious how parents defending education can dictate what happens in our district from Florida but when students from your District are here every meeting every month telling the Schoolboard and the superintendent carvalo that police are toxic for our environment we want them out and over and over for years and little to no results I wonder why that is school board members and superintendent carvalo you need to do better rethink your decision and put the be back in Bap thank you thank you for your time I hear that you all called my I hear that you all called my name my name is Dr
466James Thomas I'm president of NAACP and I've come here because I want to I want to understand why is it that you you're removing Bap and and there are black students that are being attacked and bullied racial based violence and nothing is being done I came here on behalf of a student who filed a complaint with me who is suicidal now because for two years he has had to deal with the fact that nobody is listening to black people there ain't no black people up here right so I know what I said so Mr Mr is it Mr Thomas yes all right you you were signed up for tab 18 thank you for making your appearance well thank you thank you very much and so I'm hoping I'm hoping I have told you that one
467of your students is suicidal because of race-based violence if you are concerned about the quality of Education you're concerned and I I I I understand what you're saying Mrs revas about the about the testing killing students the racial violence is killing black students and so I need you all to do something about it [Applause] okay Cheryl koono I see you're on the line Cheryl koono please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Cheryl koono Cheryl cono I see yes we can hear you please go ahead Miss con can you we'll restart your time we can't hear you right now can you give us a little sound check ask me if we can hear you or something can you hear me now that's great that's great we'll
468restart the timer so just give me one second for my staff to restart the timer and then and and then go ahead okay please go ahead okay this is a call to act nowy has significantly underfunded our pssw for this school year resulting in schools and Clinics having a significant disruption of services and losing the continuity of care of critical PSW services and students having no access to these Mental Health Services I'm now going to defer to Delila in my opinion I think psws who do not have a permanent School placement or who have not been returned to their previous placement last year can cause a lot of emotional strain because building relationships with students only to be moved last minute can be emotionally taxing psws invest time and energy into understanding the unique needs
469of each student which can make sudden transitions difficult professional challenges constantly adapting to new environments can hinder the ability of PSW to provide consistent and effective support especially when some psws aren't even given an office and they just have have them in not a settled place for them to work it disrupts the continuity of care and can impact their professional growth and satisfaction it affects them because like trust issues students who especially require support often form strong bonds with their PSW sudden changes can lead to trust issues and feelings of Abandonment disrupt learning consistency is key in education particularly for students with mental health and needs changing psws can disrupt their learning process and progress increase anxiet families rely on psws to provide stability and support for their children sudden changes can cause anxiety and
470concern about the quality of their care for their child that will receive temporary placements have significant negative impacts on PS do students families and schools finding ways to minimize these descriptions and provide more stability will be beneficial for all parties involved thank you for your time Jennifer Lupo I see you're on the line Jennifer Jennifer Lupo please press St six to unmute yourself and you have two minutes to speak once you begin Jennifer Lup Jennifer Lupo press star six to unmute yourself please and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin hi we can hear you great okay great good afternoon my name is Jennifer Lupo and I am a school-based psychiatric social worker I am speaking on behalf of 24 of my colleagues who were placed in temporary assignments at at the beginning
471of the year to date 11 of them are still without a permanent assignment this has had a detrimental impact on our students schools and staff these psws have been placed at lusc priority schools for an unknown duration of time which leaves their previous school without mental health support and makes it extremely difficult for adequate services to be provided at these temporary assignments many of my colleagues are without basic supplies for them to do their job effectively many of these priority schools did not know they would be getting a PSW this school year and thus had nothing ready for them no confidential space for counseling students printer access or even a desk how is it that last year you said psws would be placed at priority schools and that is where the funding would go yet
472failed to properly organize and communicate to these schools that they would be getting a PSW the district is now giving the rationale that you don't know where the funding will come from to pay for these PSW positions please remember you guaranteed funding for all of these positions in March of 2024 this lack of planning organization and preparation tells us that you do not take our students mental health needs seriously and disrespects the valuable services that we provide our students you have broken your promise to provide the funds for every school to have a PSW prioritize our students mental health needs do the right thing fund all our psws and place them at permanent assignments so that we can appropriately meet the needs of our students thank you very much thank you for your time all
473right Lexus Ramos signed up and then seated her time to Delilah Irwin are either of you here in the room with us right now uh neither are online at the moment um let's see we're trying to find the next person Glenda Mahia Glenda Mahia I see you're on the line please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Glenda Mahia hello can you hear me yeah we can please go ahead um my name is Glenda and I'm a PSW in the clinic program I'm here to represent the family we serve and highlight the critical need for in-person mental health services in our clinics we provide individual and family therapy we work directly with parents and utilize evidence-based programs such as parent child interactive therapy and neuro feedback
474therapy the students we serve are tier two and three for 30 years the district has invested in our Clinic program by building new clinics and funding operations last school year our program generated $10 million for the district from our our dmh contract and we are poised to grow our dmh contract because our Mental Health Services are proven effective yet in the past two years we've seen significant Cuts Roybal and Bell clinics closed five specialist positions were eliminated and four Clinic PSW positions were cut this has caused gaps in our program's infrastructure jeopardizing the operation of our current 14 clinics for instance cruna clinic now operates only two days a week uh due to a lack of administrative support despite these challenges we continue to provide essential services to our most vulnerable students however there is
475a troubling Trend towards promoting Hazel health and online service over our in-person clinics Hazel health is not suited for our students with higher needs who require the depth of care only face-to-face interactions can provide families overwhelmingly prefer in-person Services when given the choice but the choice is being withheld as a District directs School Personnel to refer only to Hazel Health as a clinic PSW I feel our work is undervalued with possible future Cuts we may soon have only 12 clinics I urge the school board to consider the 30-year history of our program visit our clinics reinstate four Clinic PSW positions and two specialist positions so that we can keep our 14 clinics operational your support is crucial to ensure that we can continue to serve our students thank you thank you for your time s
476Maria Joe I see you're on the line s Maria Joe please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak W don't you begin s media Joe please press star six to unmute yourself you'll have two minutes to speak once you can hi thank you can you hear me we sure can please go ahead okay thank you my name is Mia I'm speaking on behalf of Tanga Elementary as Aron said earlier we are a small community school in a remote rural area uh before Co we had about 320 students after covid we hit a low of 179 but it's been improving last year we had about 245 we know many schools are affected by Norm day but we have unique challenges on March 9th toena Canyon was blocked by a massive
477landslide in April the Department of Transportation said it would not be cleared until fall school starts so that discouraged enrollment on May 3rd the governor declared a state of emergency and Disaster Assistance was offered to toang of businesses the canyon has reopened but we're still affected uh we now have lean closures for ongoing construction work that will continue through 2025 and all of this affected our enrollment so essentially Tanga Elementary needs disaster ass assistance since the landslide enrollment dropped for the first time since the pandemic the district forecast 200 57 but we only have 231 we are about to lose two beloved teachers and uh we are asking for a norm day exemption for our school for this year so that we have time for enrollment to recover we had four families tour yesterday we
478are so close we just need more time and we need to keep the classrooms open as Aon said so that we will have room we also have a zoning glitch um two of the Tanga neighborhoods with the most kids are zoned for Woodland Hills so many local families were weight listed this year and they were incorrectly told that they would not get in so in addition to the exemption we are also asking the district to change our zoning so that all homes in 90290 have Tanga Elementary as their home school Tanga families should not have to lottery in they should not have to be weight listed if this is fixed we are confident that we will have the numbers that we need to keep the two teachers we are asking to keep this year thank
479you so much for your time thank you for your time okay siai Khalil saai Khalil I see you're on the line and please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin siai khil Denai khil please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin hello hi we can hear you okay good afternoon board members my name is siai khil and I'm an 11th grader at lasis and the leader with students deserve I'm calling in to speak on the black student achievement plan which was more than just a policy to me but rather a vital part of my academic Journey as a black high school student Bap represented a critical opportunity for Equitable support in my education this support was not
480just about academic help it was also about feeling seen and valued in a school system where I was often where I often felt overlooked and underrepresented the recent actions of LD have been a profound disappointment and a betrayal of the principles Bap was founded on instead of maintaining a focus on supporting black students LUSD has allowed resources to be spread thinly across schools where they did not address our unique challenges this violation not only undermines the support I was promised but also gets rid of the essential resources that have been critical to my success the decision to remove brace as a criteria for allocating resources through Bap is a complete failure by the LD board your actions reveal a deep-seated unwillingness to fully support and invest in the success of black students by undermining Bap
481you have not only broken the promises made to us but also perpetuated a system that fails to adequately address the very issues the plan sto to fix your response is a blatant disregard for our needs and a disservice to the students Bap is meant to support we demand LUSD to actively address the disparities faced by black students and Ensure that future policies and decisions reflect a genuine decision a genuine dedication to our success put the be back and be stop thank you thank you for your [Applause] time okay Sakina Madan are you on the line Sakina Madan please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin can you hear me we can please go ahead hello hi my name is teina madun and I am a l
482USD parent as well as a parent member of the students deserve currently I have some questions for a superintendent and I would like to know why did LA USD administrators make this decision about Bap without cons consultation of the Community Partners on the Bap steering committee we fought for this program and it was a direct response to L usd's lack of care and support for black students as well this decision did undermines the trust and the work we put in into building a program that is meant to uplift black students who have been neglected for far too long as a parent at Hamilton High School I've seen firsthand the impact of L usd's failure to prioritize black students many students struggle with the lack of resources mentorship and academic support problems that this program was
483designed to address we've experienced what happens when policies are made without understanding the real needs on the ground this is why Bap steering committee was formed to ensure the voices of students parents and Community Partners are at the table driving the solutions that directly affect our Our Lives by sidelining us in this decision L USD is repeating the very harm the Bap was created to heal we fought for this program because L USD showed for years a lack of care and commitment to black students Now by excluding us from this process they are sending the message that our voices still don't matter we will not allow that black students deserve a program that was built by our community for our community LUSD needs to engage with the steering committee and the communities who have poured
484their heart into this we cannot afford decisions that are made for us without us La USC listen to the people who know these students best those of us on the ground fighting every day for a better future good afternoon I stand here today with a call for justice a call for the L USD school board and Bron and carvalo to pass a motion to reaffirm that the black student achievement plan is not just a program but a necessary repetitive measure to redress Decades of harm caused by lafd racially discriminatory policies against black students for more than 20 years our black students have been failed excluded undeserved and subjected to policies thank you very much for your time we appreciate your time thank you okay Herman Jones I see you're on the line Herman Jones I
485see you're on the line please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once don't you begin Herman Jones this is Herman Jones can you hear me yeah we can please go ahead sir yes thank you my name is Herman Jones and I am a parent of a la USD student when I heard about bap program I was very excited and I took the word and spread it to local demm clubs and churches and community members that we finally have something that's going to address the inequities that this country has set upon us I know we were bought here is uh to to to to do work and build an economy I know that we weren't considered a whole human this is a horrible evil uh system that this country
486was built on and for whatever reason they impose it on blacks so here we are in 2024 finally you know dealing with something that's going to help address those issues and you guys let a letter not a lawsuit a letter scare you enough to take away something that was specifically for the for the race that is underperforming and making your school system look ineffective they have stolen everything look from Black Wall Street to Jazz to even hip hop others monetize and take what we created and and and and benefit generationally from it and now Bap is the same thing you guys have a steering committee in Bap that is from the community that is educationally sharp work with them stop putting figureheads to plate and pacify us and then make a decision like this and
487not even consult that is so disrespectful let me tell you something I'm G to go right back to those same Community organizations and churches and schools and y'all gonna have a national problem on your hands and this is not a threat do what's right do you know what karmic Justice is when one person is suffering everybody is suffering and if you think you and your family'll hello I didn't cut off I'm here can you hear me thank you look you got about five seconds since you cut out sir thank you if one is not doing good nobody's doing good do the right thing restore the black and Beast app please our our moral Spirits depend on it thank you for your time sir appreciate it okay Tiana sardav Tiana sardav please press star six to
488unmute yourself and you have two minutes to speak once you begin Tiana s good afternoon can you hear me yeah we can absolutely thank you good afternoon to the board I'm here to request the Staffing exemption for Tanga Elementary they say all press is good press however in the case of Tanga Canyon the Press we repeatedly received last year for the catastrophic rock slide that occurred on our major Gateway had very negative consequences as a parent myself who drives in from West Hills commuting to and from the school last year was nothing short of a daily nightmare there's a new traffic and work vehicle congestion this year believe it or not it's actually worse the ongoing Canyon construction now at the top of the canyon has been sitting in still traffic sometimes for 30 minutes
489it could be a 10-minute drive I love to bang at elementary so for me it's worth it but if I was a prospective family from what I've heard and I attempted to navigate a drive to school and I was met with an arduous Journey both there and back it might seriously change my decisions the commu especially coming from Beyond the canyon this has to be taken into consideration when determining our current teacher allotment based on our current enrollment we have had everything working against us with no special allowances where I believe they are more than deserved Tanga also has a zoning problem where for some reason entire neighborhoods within Tanga are redirected to a school in Woodland Hills this is Antiquated this hinders the progress of Tanga Elementary and leaves us always grasping for non-district
490families uh this is a major flaw in the system that works against us right now my fourth Vaders and the classroom with 31 other students under one teacher compared to 22 last year this is a failure of multiple systems that led to this point our school needs exemptions that directly correlate to our special circumstances we need support and honest logical changes on a systematic level from the district if you let this flip through the cracks of reason and don't Grant an exemption based on these undeniable truths this will cause irreversible and detrimental shock waves to the school and the entire community of children in serves for years to come losing teachers is a gut punch to a school that has already dealt with so many hardships in the past year hardships that have not been
491properly assessed or addressed by the district please consider our very distinct and unique situation and do what is right for our kids here in changa Canyon thank you so much for listening thank you for your time we have one more caller thank you who was unable to connect earlier Delilah Irwin Delila Irwin please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Delila Irwin hello hello hi can you hear me we sure can please go ahead good afternoon I am referring my time to Armani please thank you hi my name is Armani and I am in 11th grade the absence of apsw due to fing issues can lead to student disappointments and frustration affecting their emotional academic well-being a temporary P PSW without uh confidential spaces Rises concerns
492about safety trust safety and Trust causing students to hesitate and seeking help these challenges highlight the need for student advocacy for better resources and support the presence of pssw is essential for a support educational environment I would be heartbreaking if my PSW transferred to another uh school for financial reasons my PSW and I enjoy developing personal connections so just you know life wouldn't be the same without them they have made a h significant influence on my life and they're always there for me when I need them so please fund these schools so we can send these psws back to the school they were originally from good afternoon my name is Selma personally speaking if the school district did not return our PSW to our school this year we would still lost and alone our PSW
493PSW is not just a staff member but a friend who listens to all our problems and helps us nagate the challenges of school without them we would struggle to understand our classwork manage our emotions and deal with conflicts with other students our PSW has always been there for us providing a safe space to talk and offering support when we needed the most losing them would be like losing a part of our school family we need our school family we need our PSW to help us succeed in thriving school please provide funding to return all psws to the original School sites from last year and fill all of the BAM PSW positions so all students will have a PSW at their School site right thank you so much for your time thank you for your time
494that concludes general public comment we just have tab 11 left uh we have left 11 which is the public hearing on textbook and instructional materials I'm going to read the public hearing statement before action is taken on board report 332 24-25 textbooks and instructional materials certification resolution public hearing must be held this constitutes a public hearing on that report uh a maximum of 15 individuals who wish to address the board on the item will be heard those who wish to speak should sign up online speakers will be called by name all right we have eight speakers uh Maria Daisy Ortiz I see you're there come on up you have two minutes to speak once you begin uh Miss Ortiz is going to speak in Spanish so if you'd like to hear what she's saying in
495English as she's speaking Spanish please put your hands up if you don't already have these translation headsets good afternoon to everyone my name is Maria Dei Ortiz and yes I am here I am looking at the textbooks information this is a resolution and I like to focus on this a lot with the textbooks because inside our schools especially the libraries inside the schools many of the times there aren't enough books and also the books that identify or reflect our culture we also o need for their for them to be books for every type of children children with different learning disabilities for example we have children with dyslexia we have children with autism and we have children with attention deficit different types of learning therefore many of the times these type of materials are not accessible
496in the libraries and this is why you should be more sensible to this and empathetic to this and make sure that these materials are at the reach of our students which are the ones that we serve also there should you are doing professional development now for the teachers with the methol methodology of Ortho Willingham there should all you should also have materials that should that backs up the instruction because even though you do professional development and there are are no instructional materials so that you can support this inside the classrooms that means we are disconnected lastly there should also be books for example right now students are starting with the science of reading you should have those in kindergarten primarily it should be from kinder to third grade and these type of materials should be
497available I have a question for you all I heard that you were saying that you were going to buy so many electric buses I would like to know what are you going to do with the existing buses that are not electric will you donate them will you given them away or will will they be out in a raffle because everything was bought with public money and we need to know what you will do with them thank you and have a thank you for your time Marcel Garcia are you here I'll note that no one has signed in online to speak um the following speakers all decided to speak remotely but I do not have them signed in right now but I'll read their names just in case they're in the audience Marcela Garcia Araceli Cabrera
498Karina Lopez Nelly Mendes Irene Morales I'm reading these names very quickly because I recognize them pretty quickly when they're when they're here um and they're not in the room Miriam aspara here's a new name David Tok kovski are you here Mr Tok kovski typically does not miss a spot Mr tokofsky are you out there in the blue room or in the okay uh that concludes public comment on Tab 11 now it's time for a motion I'll move it moved by Mr melin seconded by Mr schmon Dr McKenna Dr Ras yes Mr schmon yes Mr Melo yes Miss gones absent M orti Franklin absent board president Goldberg yes all right that is five eyes you had questions on the textbook I'm sorry I didn't know that uh I mean there's nothing stopping us from hearing questions
499on you can you can you can ask now did you vote Yes yes but the the publicans still have the questions couple of things with textbooks and I guess it's going to be with um Kim I guess will answer the answer the question um so when I visit my schools I always find boxes and boxes and boxes of unopened textbook boxes because they didn't order them or they don't need them or they didn't use them and it's very hard to get them picked up and sent somewhere you could imagine how hard it is what do my principles do in order to get these boxes out of their school and go to where you need to take them hello Kimberly balala administrative coordinator for library and textbook support um we have actually uh reduced our tickets
500from eight because they would submit a ticket so we have a ticket a help desk for textbook Library pickups um and we've dropped them down from we had 800 tickets and now we're down to about 200 ex we did a ton over the summer we have a a great staff at the warehouse who are working with the schools and picking them up in uh much quicker more efficient fashion thank you and one more question yes I I don't know if there's a system where schools operate how textbooks are distributed I have seen a 100,000 different ways in my school it was the office staff who did it in other schools it's the campus AIDS who do that there really is not a designated textbook person at the school I believe right there's no such thing
501as a textbook Clerk and the old days there was but not now right right um we have uh a couple we have a memorandum A Williams memorandum for elementary and secondary and we also have a bulletin um 6210 I think that goes over textbook procedures and in it it kind of says you know the administrator or design and they gives them a list of what to do and in the Williams memorandums we actually give them um suggestions on how to do a more efficient uh textbook distribution at the beginning of this but not who to do it kind of we say administrator design okay okay thank you all right thank you you she board president asking if there's any adjourning motions caring none we're adjourned at told to grab superintendent carvalo one minute e e
502e