001[Music] e [Music] you [Music] for [Music] good morning the time is now 9:00 a.m. the date is June 18th 2024 and we will now begin the regular board meeting of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education uh I will Begin by taking role Dr McKenna Dr Ras pres Mr schmon pres Mr Melo here miss gones m Ortiz Franklin board president Goldberg here we have a quorum please stand for the pledge allegiance good morning everyone and welcome to a board meeting in which we intend to do a great number of things today and we have about 90 speakers so will be spending at least three hours hearing public comment on a variety of ways which in the point of the having an a a budget and having a LC cap is appropriate number of
002people at least uh we're going to start first however with the recognition of Austin onwu I hope I pronounced his name [Applause] correctly and my apologies if I didn't to present Austin with a proclamation um in honor of his uh impending retirement it's very long so I'm not going to read it all but I want to thank you Austin for your many many years of service to the office of the Inspector General most recently as the deputy Inspector General for Audits and Austin served in many many roles in our office and we're very grateful to him for the time he spent on behalf of the district the community and all of the stakeholders we wish you all the best in your retirement good health and happiness travel and Good Times all the best to you
003thank you very um it's been a long journey but um I'd like to thank the uh the IG and the executive management of the office of Inspector General and the incredible staff that we have some of them are here uh they have supported us all these years uh all the 24 years I've been here I've have incredible support from our professional staff and I'm very grateful for that they do the heavy lifting and it's a good thing I also want to thank all the department heads we've worked with over these years although we've uh once in a while we have disagreements but I've always responded in a very professional manner and that's I thank them for that and also finally I want to thank the board for their support right from the beginning of the
004office when the office was created the board has always given us 100% full support and that has helped us a lot in keeping our independence so I really appreciate all your support and I hope that uh going forward you continue to support the office as you've been thank you very much thank you very much and thank you for all of your years of service we all wish you a happy and healthy retirement all right labor partners are there any labor Partners who wish to be heard come on down good morning board members everyone congratulations to uh the gentleman um my name is Alex Osco I'm here the utla secondary vice president um happy to see a lot of media here today because there is something very very important that we want to discuss uh we
005want to talk about proposition 28 I understand that you all received a letter from all the partners uh as well as I understand that Dr um Scott schmon sent a letter to our Superintendent at the last meeting so this continues to uh be very very concerning to us hopefully the the news coverage today will pick up on some of the items around proposition 28 so let me just read up uh read a few bullets very important that I write go right off this list um the law is clear proposition 28 funds are to be used to increase Arts education at every school proposition 28 funds cannot be used to replace any existing spending at any school it is also clear that La unified has violated this law there have been no increases in arts education
006at every school prop 28 funds were used to replace existing spending at schools so as you discussed the budget today very important that we talk about the draft proposition 28 uh submitted by the district leadership must be redone to properly reflect what actually happened in schools in the 20 2023 2024 school year students are bearing the consequences of District leaderships misdeeds they are being deprived of a chance to participate in arts at school and and all of the benefits that provides them this proposition was passed by the voters of California to allow for Arts to be present at every School site and the district is failing our students also on the issue of the cell phone band I just want to make a brief comment we're looking forward to hearing more about this policy that
007you all will be discussing today looking forward to hearing how it's different than the current policy that we have in place uh but more importantly we're looking forward to how all stakeholders will be included in the decision uh will it be a collaborative transparent process because we know that good ideas are just good ideas but it's how you implement them and how you support them at the school site and how you resource them at the school sites that makes them successful so this needs to include a conversation with all stakeholders parents students uh obviously labor Partners community and so on and so on so looking forward to hearing more about that uh as you all elaborate on this later today thank you very much thank you very much any other labor Partners come on down
008I'll note very quickly that Dr McKenna is uh present good morning good morning board members Adriana Salazar avula president of Teamsters Local 572 and I want to start my comments off today by wishing everyone a happy pride month um June is always such a a happy month not just because it's pride month but because you know kids are getting ready to leave school and summertime is happening and um before I get into my comments I really would like to thank everyone at La USD from everyone here at this horseshoe our principals teachers classified staff thank you all for a wonderful school year for everything they do for the students of LAUSD and you know some of the things that's go unnoticed but um I think it's a good time to recognize everything that everyone does
009um we have been in negotiations with LA USD since March and a lot of our proposals are stemming around safety um safety for our members and safety for students and when we're talking today I would I know you're going to vote on the budget later but I'd like to just leave some information with you that you can keep in mind when we're talking about safety our members have reported an increase in crimes whether they're vandalism drug dealing prostitution surrounding the school sites now remember our members are the plant managers and the food service managers who get to schools first right they're the first ones there and plant managers have reported you know um an increase of drug paraphernalia being left on school campuses um obvious increases of of other things that are going on around
010school campuses um you know U-Hauls being used as mobile brothel and they're parked in front of schools this makes it unsafe it makes it unsafe for our members who are showing up um in the early morning hours but it also makes it unsafe for students right um when you have a decrease of patrols when you have a decrease of of presence around schools whether it's you know someone driving by at night um LAPD school police you have people who move in and start to you know do what they do at night but now it's just increased by tenfold it's vandalism it's break-ins it's theft and our members are are are telling us and we're telling the district schools are not as safe as we think they are especially not at night especially not in the
011early morning hours and especially not for our members who get there first thing in the morning they're the first ones there and they're the last ones to leave now that's just the safety component that doesn't start to talk about what happens when they get there and the work that needs to be done to make sure that those schools are in pristine condition when the kids get there and our members look at these schools these are their schools they have pride they have ownership in these schools and it takes a lot to get those schools to look like you want them to to be you know we talk about curb appal well what happens to curb appeal when there's you know parties going on at night and beer cans and prophylactics littering the littering the grass
012who gets to pick that up because it sure as heck isn't the city right it's our members who are there so I want to make sure we're talking about safety and that safety is really kept in mind um I know there has been a lot in the news about student safety and ways to increase student safety now obviously I'm not an educator so I don't know what's going on in the classrooms I just know that it's a concern for us when we read stories that talk about kids bringing weapons to campus because they don't feel safe Teamsters we have been an outspoken outspoken partner for our our friends over in the school Police Department we absolutely believe that the decrease in school police presence is leading to a decrease in safety surrounding our schools and
013we would like you to keep that in mind when you're talking about the budget um so I also wanted to take a moment to talk about negotiations and and I'm and I'm sorry if I'm going if I'm long-winded but when we talk about negotiations we talk at the table about things that are important to us things that um we think that the school district needs to know and the community needs to know and we talk about proposals surrounding you know hybrid work schedules where people are allowed to work from home or um allowed to have some type of hybrid schedule and I know the position of the district has been well that's not us because the Optics don't look great well the op there comes a point where you have to say we need to
014change course we need to be able to recruit and retain the best employees possible because that's what you want you want the best you want the best and the bright leading your students and that's what we hope you would want to recruit retain keep educate and I can't um underscore enough how important some of these proposals are these cost nothing to the district absolutely nothing to allow employees the ability to work from home or have a hybrid schedule and we really do hope that you will consider that last I do want to talk about prop 28 and I know um my colleague Alex from utla you know mentioned the concerns that are shared by the teamsters with prop 28 we were watching the documentary you know the last repair shop and I know that that
015is absolute source of Pride for LAUSD and you know again congratulations to the district and to the men and women who were in that documentary um one of them being our members the last repair shop was about music and about the ability for students who would normally not have access toic music being given access because of this program that the district has where they repair School instruments and they have them there and the lifechanging you know affirmation music gives to kids right it gives them something now imagine if you multiply that by music by art by drama imagine what you could do so we absolutely are are curious surrounding prop 28 and what's going on with prop 28 because I was out there I was out there advocating for prop 28 I stood on street
016corners in San Pedro I went to school sites and I said prop 28 is a great thing and it's a great thing because it's going to give more art to our kids more art more music more drama to kids it's not going to take away from the current programs it's going to give them more and that's what we want to see we want to see where is the more where is the more that the voters of California voted on thank you the other partners labor Partners last call last call okay uh next we'll have uh the chair report from The Greening committee if I could jump in real fast I also note that the other two board members are here and we are fully formed okay thank you go ahead Dr Rivas turn this on
017there you go met on Wednesday June 5th uh 2024 uh the topics we discussed included uh student Le Greening initiatives Board District 3 student advisory C Council presented on their efforts to enhance School environment through various Greening initiatives EOS sustainability office updates Christo cilio Chief ecos sustainability officer provided updates on the office's recent activities and progress towards sustainability goals uh The Greening uh committee funding working group updates I provided updates on the working groups progress in identifying and securing funding for green initiatives uh the equity working group updates uh Micha Randolph from Green schoolyards America presented on the working groups focus on ensuring Equitable access to Green spaces and sustainability resources Heroes for zero uh award ceremony was held the committee recognized schools and individuals who have demonstrated exceptional commitment to sustainability through Heroes to
018zero Awards uh the committee learned um about uh gained valuable insights into student Le and award-winning sustainability practices being implemented across the district progress of the ecos sustainability office the committee also learned about the office's ongoing projects achievements and challenges in advancing sustainability goals across the district and that is it well thank you very much and no other committees met between our last meetings so that will be it let me just say before we start on the agenda that covid is increasing and I encourage all of you to get the updated um vaccination because your old vaccinations are not too good for this particular strain of the virus summer solstice this week we actually start summer on the calendar and of course this is pride month uh so now I'm going to say that we're
019going to take things a bit out of order but before that I'm going to ask everybody to go through and tell me what they want on and off consent uh so what we do now in in the consent calendar is we say which items that we've all been see we get these large books we get them in advance we then have staff meetings with the senior staff of the superintendent and ask a lot of our questions if our questions have been really largely answered we you generally put the idea item on consent which means we will at the consent calendar after we've heard from people who've signed up to speak on items we will then then have one vote for all those items so let's first see what you want on consent if you're going
020to ask any questions I'm going to put it off consent okay item one amendment to uh IT services consent number two amendment to IT services execution plan Tech refresh for equipment consent item number three donations of money and material to the district consent item number four report of cash dispers dispersements request to issue expired reissue expired warrants consent item number five update of debt management policy consent item number six seven and eight by law cannot be on consent and they are the idea that we're going to do dealing with bonds obligation General obligation bonds refunding bonds and uh the uh judgment obligation notes number nine uh approval of routine Personnel actions consent number 10 approval of classified salary schedules for the and certificated salary schedules consent the reason we do that is because our contracts
021have raised salaries and we must approve the new list item number 11 provisional internships consent item number 12 update to La unified strategic plan goals social emotional Wellness item 13 annual report on Prop 28 discussion discussion item number 15 annual report on the Affiliated Charters prop 28 discussion item 15 early literacy blockr annual update and of Grant report consent item fif 16 approval of adult education CTE advisory committee consent item number 17 cceis action plan Amendment item number 19 uh special educ I'm sorry 18 excuse me special education local plan Sela plan consent item 19 approval of community advisory committee members consent item 20 fiscal year oig work plan that's the office of the Inspector General work plan consent uh item uh well we'll take the resolutions up in a second I'm going to skip
022to 25 appointment member to construction Bond citizen oversight committee consent item 26 reappointment of a member to the school construction Bond oversight commit incent uh special reports result of the April 26 go refunding Bond sale and comparison of good faith cost to the actual cost s item 29 receipt of debt report fiscal year that's L last year's 2223 sent public hearings these are things we have to hear which we will hear uh on at approximately 4 p.m. uh and uh well actually we will we will have the speakers at approximately 4 PM with the adoption of the proposed La unified budget it's not I'm sorry it's not it's really these are not for action but okay that's right so there's no action on 2930 and 31 because these are heard today the action will be
023a week from today on the 25th but this the budget the lcap and the Affiliated Charters um accountability plans approval of minutes item 32 item 33 adoption of the board meeting schedule sent all right initial announcements we don't do anything with okay there we are now board members uh Mr uh board member uh melvoin has asked for his resolution to be heard at 9:30 which is in about 7 minutes and I thought if no one objects I would just take all of the resolutions that are here and just do them right now uh so that we can get a get done with them and then move on uh to uh after that we will hear from daac CAC and Pac everybody good with that okay ready to go early are you ready to go now
024so we'll take item number 23 and item 23 has speakers do you want to hear them first or make your opening I'll do a quick intro um and then we'll hear from speakers so thank you Miss Goldberg and thanks to you and Miss Ortiz Franklin for your co-sponsorship as well and look forward to hearing from speakers and then my colleagues in a minute or two you know I like my colleagues on the board are in schools every week and prior to that was a teacher much like people here on the on the deis and I've been struck in the prior years just how our students are glued to their cell phones not unlike adults they're surreptitiously scrolling in school in class time they're have their head in their hands walking down the hallways they're not
025talking to each other or playing at lunch or recess because they have their airpods in and you know growing body of research now that smartphones have been more ubiquitous for about a decade is coming out it's crystallized ing these delerious effects the harmful effects on students academic achievement on their Mental Health on their physical health and when I talk to teachers and students and parents and principles uh I also hear the same which is that more and more time is being spent on policing student phone use there's not a coherent enforcement and they're looking for some support from the board and from the district and the the schools that have gone farther and that have already implemented a phone free school day uh report incredible results kids are happier they're talking to one another their
026academics are up and so really think this is an idea whose time has come just yesterday the Surgeon General of the United States called uh for social media companies to put warning labels for students um and I I hope that today we can update the 2011 policy which kind of predates the smartphone era uh to ensure that St schools are phone free and work with our labor partners and our obviously our superintendent and parents on the implementation whether that's cell phone lockers uh like um KJ stem Middle School in Westchester and I think we may hear from the principal uh Marina del re Middle School School uh also has pouches and we'll figure out the implementation that works uh at grade levels and across the district but you know again I think the research is
027clear the harmful effects on kids mental health the physical health their academics and I'd like to see Al the unified lead uh not just regionally but nationally on this issue so I appreciate the opportunity to discuss this look forward to hearing from our speakers and then a debate and a vote on this resolution today so thank you Miss Goldberg you want to move it uh I will move it yes thank you all right the motion has been moved and second and would you like to hear now from the board or from the speakers on let's hear from speakers if that's okay all right M Mr mle okay here we go speaking to tab 23 carara nson is on the line Cara nson if you're on the line please press star six to unmute yourself and
028you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin carara nerson good morning good morning uh my name is Karen adderson I'm a pediatrician podcast author of 10 parenting and middle- grade books about tween and Teen um development I'm the founder of a company that is dedicated to making the decade of puberty less awkward in school settings already grappling with post-pandemic learning loss cell phones add to the problem and this should not surprise any of us these devices are by Design maximally engaging if I am waiting in a techout line at a grocery store or sitting at a table at a restaurant waiting for someone to join me or even when I am driving and stopped in traffic it takes literally everything in me not to check my phone and I know that almost everyone listening
029grapples with the Same by allowing phones in schools we are asking kids to do better than we can do ourselves these kids have partially developed brains and limited capacity to put long-term consequential thinking ahead of short-term feel-good decisions it takes until there almost 30 years old for their brains to mature to a point where they can consistently make decisions that prioritize what's good for them over what feels good for them and yet they are expected to keep devices tucked away they're expected to sit down in a cafeteria and be comfortable with their social discomfort in ways that we aren't they are expected to manage devices designed to lure them in in ways that we don't demand of ourselves cell phones in schools are the least of it in today's classroom students are shopping gaming gambling
030and watching movies I feel so deeply for the teachers who don't stand a chance in this fight I would love to be making a statement about limiting access on all devices throughout the school day because that's really what our kids need if my car can tell me how to navigate LA traffic in real time or an airplane can deny me access to streaming without paying then surely we can Implement technology in scho schools that limits kids ability to be entertained instead of educated that's the next resolution I hope this one is the first baby step that gets us a little bit closer to the education thank you very much for your we appreciate your time thank you okay lra kilon I see you're on the line lra kilon please press star six to unmute yourself
031and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin uh lra kilon hello hi hello uh yeah I'm Lyra kilon I am a parent of a middle schooler in La USD and I wanted to support this proposal um the research is clear it's addictive and isolating it's absolutely terrible for teachers that I know and just think about what it does to kids' brains to jump onto Tik Tok as they're walking from class to class any thoughts about getting ready for their next class or what they need from their locker are destroyed um kids sit around not talking to each other all isolated on their devices I want to support the speaker before me about limiting all technology as the same thing is happening with Chromebooks and kids watching YouTube and playing video games during classes
032but I know this is about cell phones i' also like to say that as we consider what high school we want to send our children um in La USD we would absolutely prefer um and will be choosing schools that offer phone free campuses so and I'm I'm sure I'm not alone in that so 100% support thank you thank you for your time okay we've got Kyle hunsburger Kyle hunsburger please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Kyle hunsburger good morning members of the board this is Kyle hunsburger principal of Katherine Johnson STEM Academy a region West Middle School I'm calling to express my strong endorsement of a districtwide cell phone ban during school hours a policy that we have successfully implemented at Katherine Johnson STEM Academy
033since the spring of 2022 since implementing a phone-free school day at KJ STEM Academy our school has become a center of focused learning free from the disruption of cell phones we've seen a surge in student engagement and a decrease in cyber bullying leading to a more inclusive and secure atmosphere our students are now more Adept at in-person communication collaborative problem solving and creative thinking the success of this policy our Middle School is a clear indication of its potential District wide it's a scalable practical solution that can benefit all schools enhancing both academic and social emotional development I urge you to support this resolution let's Empower our students to excel in an environment that promotes concentrated learning and authentic connection finally once passed I'd love to continue the conversation with any interested about the logistics of
034a successful scalable implementation thank you for considering the significant step in advancing our educational standards across La unified thank you for your time okay Mark burkeman I see her on the line Mark burkman please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Mark burkeman hello my name is Mark burkman I'm the CEO of the organization for social media safety the first been leading Consumer Protection Organization focused exclusively on social media uh thank you to board member Mel voen for sponsoring this resolution to ensure the physical and mental well-being of L usd's students by finally updating lus policy on student smartphone use during the school day this resolution is incredibly timely it's just yesterday the Surgeon General called for warning labels on social media platforms advising parents that
035using the platforms might harm adolescent mental health as an organization that works with K through2 schools and hundreds of thousands of families across the country on social media safety including lausb schools and families the organization for social media safety knows well that student smartphone use during the school days leading to significant additional time spent on social media and negatively impacting learning and campus climate in our own research and partnership with uh UCL School of Education supported by the initiative to study hate including over 14,000 teens we found a staggering 53% of students self-reported using social media for more than five hours daily that is a lot of time and in that time time our children are being harmed it's well worth highlighting some study findings breathtaking 46% of teens self-report being a victim of cyberbullying
036cyberbullying victims are about two and a half times more likely to attempt suicide last year the FBI reported 12,600 sextortion victims at least 20 of whom died by Suicide the more time adolescent spend on social media the more likely they already exposed to drug related content and to experiment with substance use study conducted amongst 14-year-olds found that increased social media use correlated with for Sleep harassment lower self-esteem negative body image and higher rates of depression these findings among many many others indicate real ongoing harm from social media harm that could be substantially mitigated by reducing time on social media policy makers globally need to take action to protect our children and we are proud that our own local school district L USC is leading the way the organization Med safy stand thank you for your
037time we appreciate it uh Melinda Marcus are you on the line Melinda Marcus 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 Melinda Marquez okay hi good morning hope everyone can hear me um yes my uh my name is Melinda Marcus I am an eighth grade English teacher in the robotics magnet at moland middle school and co-chair of the English Department I don't claim to speak for all Educators however I can say with complete confidence that every teacher I've ever spoken to no matter the school no matter the student population has complained about the overuse of cell phones in schools and in classrooms my students know cell phones are not allowed in the room however I have actually had to create
038a technology monitoring position in my classroom to alert me when a child has a phone out during class time my students will resort to any means necessary to sneak a peek at their phones during class and since they are far from stealthy I catch them nearly 100% of the time I then have to tell them to put their phones in a special basket on my desk to prevent them from further phone use I have seen students become belligerent and defiant when having to part with their phones for a mere for 52 minutes the time I have spent policing phone use could have been better spent on helping students recover from covid learning loss through Reading essay writing and group projects our magnet department has included a section in our handbook regarding the prohibition of cell
039phones during the school day because its use has become so severe if the district is serious about increasing test scores and improving graduation rates it should begin with the removal of cell phone so students can learn in a distraction free environment thank you thank you thank you for your time okay we have a couple folks who are signed up to speak in the room uh Jessica Kell are you here Jessica Kell come on up you have two minutes to speak once you begin I'm a little short good morning um my name is Jessica quindell I am not necessarily the experts you've heard from but I am an LAUSD parent and I'm a first year math teacher at Venice High School um I've worked for 20 years as a teacher administrator and consultant but the last
040time I taught high school math was in 2010 at Berkeley High School this year coming back so much of teaching was similar students who struggled to learn math hated math needed that motivation to do hard things the new challenge was the widespread addiction to cell phones to smartphones particularly in my 10 years working at Berkeley High School I spent a minimal amount of time and energy getting students off their phones you know phone related interventions were like an occasional 100 meter dash they took energy but they were over very soon this year even with a very strict no cell phone policy in my classroom it was an uphill battle managing student use of smartphones is now like as a classroom teacher is now more like running a Non-Stop Marathon it takes a lot of energy
041and it's really hard to keep up and I tried to keep up I even joined a group of teachers at Venice High motivated to create better smartphone and headphone policy we facilitated multiple professional learning opportunities for teachers and implemented a schoolwide rollout of phone- free classrooms starting March 1st and I'm here representing our dedicated group of teachers who did our best to create a more engaged focused and socially connected and Screen free learning environment for our students and even with our best efforts without a districtwide policy it was difficult to change the culture of constant smartphone use yet there's hope one of my seniors this year said at the end of the year that his favorite part of class was the phone-free environment and I'm hopeful the district adopts this resolution involves stakeholders in the
042process and um stops us from becoming the phone police and having to be so Vigilant as teachers thank you so much for your time and attention I do have an um a letter that we shared with all students and staff as part of our roll out can I okay and then I want to highly recommend that everyone read the anxious generation thank you thank you for your time uh Neil ther Neil J ther or thear please come on up you have two minutes to speak when want you begin sorry good morning uh my name is Neil Tucker I'm a rising senior at ld's re Charter High School and as a high school student I am constantly surrounded by cell phones all the time mostly with my peers and other students and even if it's just
043sending emails or calling parents or scrolling mindlessly on Instagram and playing brawl stars or whatever video game we it's accustomed to being like a huge part of of a high schooler's life and it is really recognize that cell phones are a disease that have that have plagued high schoolers life as this resolution highlights that is a huge detriment not only to mental health but it's a distraction from the learning materials that we need that are vital to us having a successful future because cell phones are such a huge part of our life students are going to have a huge push back on this resolution despite the huge improvements that this resolution will have on our lives so because of that I strongly suggest that ald create a platform in which student can voice their concerns
044and opinions about this policy if it's implemented that way LD can not only have a platform to explain to students exactly how and why and to what scale this policy is helping students and increasing academic performance and increasing mental health but the district is also getting a policy on how this policy is affecting students in real time and it's getting a real life voice to say this is how I as a student am am affected by this policy so because this policy is affecting such a huge part of students life that's not exactly the best for us because this policy can improve mental health and because this policy can prevent distractions in the classroom I strongly suggest that LD moves forward with this resolution and creates a platform and creates means to enforce this platform
045so that we can have a better life thank you for your time I yield my time thank you for your time we have a couple more folks who signed up to speak remotely but who weren't signed in and I will call their names nevertheless just in case they happen to be in the room Dan Gordon are you here Dan Gordon you're not signed in online Denise tar you're signed up to speak remotely but I'm checking to see if you are in the room Denise tar and Katie pH Katie f are you here you signed up speak remotely but you are not signed in at the moment okay this concludes public comment uh for item 23 much Mr nvo thank you uh and um I'm always fine letting Neil have the last word he's in full
046disclosure on my youth advisory Council and has been a wonderful kind only example of our our incredible students and La unified but a real thought partner to me as well so I will actually turn over the superintendent who I know has a few words on the resolution and the impending policy so thank you superintendent thank you very much uh board member melvoin uh actually I had a brief conversation with uh the sponsor of this resolution and uh I remember uh at the beginning of this school year in advance of this school year uh at a convening at Disney Hall where we made an announcement that now is the time for this District uh to join a national movement that recognizes number one the deleterious impact that giant social media platforms are having on a social
047emotional mental well-being of students through their own design and architecture of platform that have algorithms that appeal to students get them addicted uh to these platforms uh where the consequences there are well known to us it is not by coincidence that now the uh Surgeon General of the United States of America Dr Vivic Murthy twice in the past six months has uh told the nation that uh mental uh conditions impacting young people generated solely on the basis of their addiction and use of these platforms has reached a crisis level that outpaces the physical impact that Co had on young people so I look at phones as a vehicle which is harmful but by itself uh insufficiently harmful coupled with the contents that you put into that vehicle platforms apps engineered to appeal to capture the
048attention and and addict young people to their use these are powerful algorithms that use known psychology to impact young people and they have no place in our schools so my first point is wholehearted support for this idea with all the caveats that the resolution provides meaning consultation with stakeholders with labor entities with parents with teachers even young people themselves and I would not leave out uh the leaders of these institutions but consistent with my pronouncement months ago I think it is time and my humble recommendation after having discussed it with the board member melvoin is to provide an amendment to the resolution that uses this resolution as a vehicle to do what we hinted at uh months ago which is to evaluate the impact that social media used by young people has on their mental
049health and formulate a Le legal strategy that contemplates but is not restricted to litigation against social media entities that operate platforms that use algorithms designed to directly appeal and eventually develop addiction to such platforms with a well documented mental and physical deleterious consequences to youth now is the time we know the impact that these social media entities are having on our children if we're going to adopt good policy specific to phone utilization we ought to take also a bold step and set of actions specific to the impact that the platforms that operate on these phones whether they are using school or not uh are having on our youth thank you very much for the opportunity so Mr Melo do you want to take as a friendly Amendment a resolution to evaluate the impact of social
050media particularly those designed to addict students to social media yeah and I'll note that in our final resolved we talk about uh legislation and also supporting litigation as appropriate that limits the use of social media platforms that disrupt learning and contribute to declining student mental health but I will definitely move to amend with the superintendent's added language and we I can work with Mr McLean on that as the board discusses so thank you superintendent is there a second adding this as a friendly amendment seconded by Dr Rivas all right board members now is the time for you to uh enter in discussion on this item anybody that want to be heard uh board member Ortiz Franklin thank you and thanks for the opportunity to co-sponsor we've heard why this is is such a significant opportunity
051for us as a district hearing from young people from staff from families and experts um you know I also talked to my student advisory Council you can imagine a room full of 10th through 12th graders saying don't take my cell phone away um and these were leaders and they raised a couple of issues that I do hope the team contemplates as we uh figure out implementation of them this um which is you know we've seen in classrooms sometimes kids will forget their Chromebook and they'll hop on their iPhone instead um so we need to make sure we've got plenty of Chromebook so that students are not relying on their personal iPhones to access school materials they can get schoolo on their phones but they shouldn't need to get schoolo on their phones and I know
052we do have them but we just want to make sure we've got plenty of resources so students are not relying on them but the other thing I thought was interesting from leaders is that they use text messaging to communicate about clubs and teams and uh events they're planning and things that need to change last minute and so it made me wonder if there were an app that could be on their Chromebooks where they could be texting and communicating with a school sponsored advisor a staff member who was supervising that group of text messaging um so that it was school related and not you know something else that has caused all of these other concerns so I I appreciate the intention of you know talking to young people about uh what they use their devices for
053that contribute to their holistic learning and I would argue that extracurriculars and Athletics is a big part of that so want to make sure they can still you know communicate on those pieces but of course when I walk campuses high schools in particular and see kids alone at lunchtime lined up in a row all by themselves on their phones just really missing opportunities to connect and learn with each other my heartbreaks for this culture we've created and we have to step away from that and so I'm excited to sponsor this uh with my colleagues um and the last point I'll make is on the implementation we definitely want to support staff we many of us know what it's like being in classrooms and schools and having one more thing added to our plate that we
054have to enforce and so to the extent possible let's really make it easy for staff to uh promote this culture of phones away and not create this tension of push and pull and I'm taking your device and no you don't have power over me um but I think there's a way we could all kind of elevate like we heard from the young people this is the culture we want to create we want to be here for each other present face to face without these devices that have caused so much challenges so excited to sponsor and support and looking forward to the support of our colleagues as well Mr schmon yes uh as we discussed the issue today I want to uh make sure we understand are we distinguishing between cell phone use during instructional time
055or non-instructional time what are we talking about and can we really justify restrictions if it's not on instructional time so if we're focused on instructional time I have some questions about who's going to enforce this program now Dr McKenna and I are the only administrators on this board and as you know for next year the number of Administrators at school has been reduced so there'll be maybe hopefully a principal at the school and that's it and that's it so is the principal's full-time job going to be arguing with students about cell phones I don't understand how it's going to happen because this single administrator is also supposed supposed to be visiting classrooms meeting with parents going to meetings and doing other things but I think it's going to be a full time job being the
056police of the phone that's just my opinion right now so I also hear uh parents who have concerns about being able to contact their children during the day and you know that happens and it's understandable so um my hope would be that if we study I don't know why we really need a a resolution but to study this issue uh we can consider supporting a student Le campaign as our student mentioned from your seat I think it's an excellent idea that would help students uh let us hear their voices and help them learn what adults actually know about phones and how students will be taught hopefully how to put their phones away during instructional time and uh keep it that way so it's a very very difficult thing uh teach teachers i i as a
057principal I encourage my teachers please don't take the phone away from the children if you do if you do you are responsible for that phone should you turn your back and it's gone you teacher are responsible for that and no teacher wants to be fighting with a kid over a phone nobody so I have more comments but I'll let it go around first okay thank you well I appreciate um board member m or Franklin and Goldberg bringing this resolution to the board um I think all of us have observed as Educators and as members of the board who visit schools regular just um kind of the toxicity and the negative impacts that social media and access to smartphones has created to students uniquely in this generation and as a parent of three young kids it's
058something I think about all of the time um I think the impacts to our adolescence are detrimental in a number of ways and we know that there's emerging research on brain brain health and cognitive development on Mental Health um as well as the academic impacts which I which I think are real as well and I think it's it's really important that we're having this discussion and that we're being proactive um to address these challenges for our students um I do have some questions and and maybe suggestions um I think one um major piece that's missing for me is uh parent education and engagement of our parents I know that there's there is a a mention of uh working with parents and getting their input as a policy developed but I think that some of the
059stakeholders we've heard from seem extremely well versed in in the research and in these negative impacts I don't know that that's true um in general for families and and that's how students are getting phones right um in most cases some might be able to pay for it on their own but um but parents are are paying for phones for their kids and and I think part of that is because for a long time the the messaging has been that access to technology is helpful it's beneficial um and that this is something that especially for our low-income students and families uh they're trying to catch up with peers who already have Rich access um to technology and so I think it might be um well maybe not immediately obvious to everyone counterintuitive to say that this
060technology could be harmful to you especially when in classrooms um we do utilize technology heavily we utilize screens I know my my kindergartner uses a tablet um to do coding in class which is great um so I I think that we just should be really thoughtful about how we're involving and educating our families as part of this process and doing so in you know the most culturally and linguistically appropriate ways um so I just wanted to offer that as as a suggestion that's something we should we should do proactively because I I don't think that um that this is necessarily widely spread information among all of the families that we serve um I I could pause if I don't know if you have feedback on that particular piece I have two other questions yeah no
061thank you I mean it's it is such a complex topic and I so am grateful for my colleagues comments and maybe I'll address Mr Schmelson quickly and then miss miss uh miss gonz you know I think we do have a 2011 policy again that predates the smartphone era that says cell phones should not be used shall not be used in class but I think as we heard from our speakers and uh we've been hearing from the field it is not enforced universally and the onus falls on teachers to police and as we heard from the one teacher from Mahal and middle school they now have to have technology monitors in class and so the idea with this policy is to ramp It Up Update it and and enforce it like through things uh cell phone
062lockers or pouches to really remove the responsibility from indidual teachers the schools like KJ stem or Marina del re you walk into school you put it in your locker or you put it in your pouch that's magnetically sealed and then it's done and yes there are some Growing Pains but but then it's done and those schools have reported tremendous uh results and teachers now don't have to do that policing so the whole idea is actually to get to that enforcement and then I think as we also heard from our student but other speakers it's not just instructional time because the kids are walking to class uh and they're sitting alone at lunch or they're not engaging with one another or uh their their phone is on and there's really compelling research now that shows even
063just a vibration and I'm sure we're all guilty of this too even a vibration that you don't check will distract you for minutes and so your phone might be on in your um backpack but you get a vibration and then you start thinking oh is it an emergency is it my friend am I missing out you know we hear a lot from our students about fomo the fear of missing out and so the idea is to remove the discretion from schools and from teachers um and then I think on in emergencies and with parent communication this is definitely where a lot of parents have expressed their concerns to me I think it's such a tragic sign of the times that that is what we initially think of and we all need to do better in
064this country when it comes to gun violence prevention and keeping our students safe but our Public Safety experts will agree that it's safer in emergency situations to let adults deal with communication whether that's with law enforcement ment with their school and the onus will be on schools to be better communicators when there is a lockdown situation uh and be less vague I know you know I I talk to region West and region north about messages that go out to parents that are maybe too vague to be helpful and so we'll have to start communicating better to parents uh to miss gonz completely appreciate the point and think it's key in the implementation to have that parent engagement you know it's interesting in some of the research and our teacher who's here brought brought Jonathan Height's
065book that I really do recommend the aist generation there's an interesting concept how the digital divide used to be about uh the inequities in access to technology and now it's evolving such that it's really inequities and protection from technology uh wealthier children more affluent schools have banned phones some of the most expensive uh schools in this city and in this country have phone free policies in place for years because they've seen those effects and to miss gonz's Point as we're expanding technology we're not talking enough about the detrimental effects and we're not differentiating in helpful technology like a kid on their Chromebook doing literacy or I ready or something of the sort and non-instructional Technology but I I completely agree that we need over the course of the next semester to build that buyin and
066one of the reasons the the resolution calls for implementation to start in January and not in August is so that not only can schools talk with their labor partners and others about how to enforce a locker versus a uh pouch but also to build that buy in because like you heard from principal hunsburger and others schools have Embrace this they would never go back to this and I hope that this is something that when it comes in January people are eager for has opposed to feel as some sort of punishment because the effects I think will be remarkable but that's helpful um and and then two two further questions one I think you sort of anticipated this question but just does the resolution Envision a policy that is the same across every school in the
067district or what are the opportunities for variation and flexibility I think there's a balance to be struck between wanting a consistent policy and that consistent enforcement um while also recognizing you know some schools are already leaders in this space and may not necessarily need the same things yeah and I welcome the superintendent's thoughts as well I mean the the current policy that's on the books from 2011 does all allow schools through their schools side councils to go farther uh and that is why we have some of these schools that have enforcement I do Envision in the resolution some discretion whether that's at the regional level or the school level to figure out what works best whether it's that uh cell phone Locker or that pouch I can Envision some elements El schools where parents and
068the community might decide we're just going to say don't bring your your phone at all we know that's much harder for middle and high school students like Miss Ortiz Franklin was talking about extracurricular activities internships jobs so I think in high school it's going to be more around lockers and pouches but I could see elementary schools just saying don't bring it uh you know look at um what are now called you know dumb phones or dumb watches so that a kid can potentially communicate with their parent on the bus but doesn't need the phone at school so I do uh anti anticipate more local decision-making and turning and choosing that enforcement but I think that enforcement is key because to Mr schon's point and to what we heard from from the field if it's up
069to individual teachers and uh principles more and more time is just going to be spent enforcing it and the idea is to remove the onus on the individual staff members let me call on myself here Mr schmon here's here's my problem with them having it at lunch I visited at least um three dozen times high schools in my Board District one of the times I happened to arrive at lunch and I saw a student sitting outside in a large round table and I asked if I could join them and they said yes and so I sat down I thought we could have a chance just to informally talk all of them took out their cell phones and all of them began discussing on their cell phones and I found out which was surprising I thought
070they were contacting other people they were talking to each other on their cell phones rather than with their voices and their mouths I I simply asked them because I assume they must be talking to other people or looking something up nope they were literally talking to each other using their cell phones rather than their voices this is an addiction that is serious and it is embracing children very young and the addiction I'm addicted to cigarettes I can tell you I quit 25 years ago if I had one cigarette today I'd be smoking a pack a day by the end of the week I understand addiction this is addiction and the way you stop addiction is to at least say that from the time you arrive at school until the time you leave school there'll be
071no cell phone period I agree there has to be enough devices so that there are other ways to do other things that need to be done all of those things are true but the resolution itself says that there should be options for how we storage it that won't be the same necessarily that we're to use and take a look at the what's appropriate at different ages this is a well written I didn't write a word of it this is a well-written resolution and I was happy to join on with it because it was so well written because it says yeah there'll be differences between schools there'll be different things but the idea is very simple if you bring your your phone to school at all you park it at the beginning not every teacher has
072to struggle with you no teacher has to struggle with you you'll put it in a locker or a pouch you'll do something and you'll pick it up on your way home if you're riding a bus you can use it all you want if your parents are picking you up or you're walking or you got it it's fine but this is serious and I'm ashamed at myself for not having thought that we should do something like this sooner I see it in my own family I'm sure everyone of you who has children between the ages of four and and 20 see it in your families drugs are sold online to kids at school bullying at school at lunchtime bullying other students at lunchtime all of that is going on widely and we can't stop a lot
073of things but we certainly can say you can't use your cell phone at our schools any longer to do any of that and we would really like you when you're sitting around at lunch actually to use your mouth and your ears and talk to each other I mean I really I have to say that was the most horrifying example of this that I saw and again I assumed absolutely that they were you know doing other things no they were actually talking to each other on their cell phones without using their voices or their faces or interacting with each other so I'm wholeheartedly with you on this and I do agree I agree particularly uh Miss gonz with the idea that parents need to hear more about why this is a problem we need to do
074a lot more educating of our parents because maybe we can convince them not to have their children use them so much at home as well but at least they'll know what the research is and I think we need an education I do think parents as students need to be involved but it says right there in the first resolve the policies and their implementation shall be informed by Best Practices by input from experts in the field labor Partners labor Partners labor Partners staff students and parents we want everybody to talk about this how best to do this but we want them to start with the understanding that it is the goal of this District not to have cell phone use anytime at the school during the day and I support it wholeheartedly anybody else wish to
075speak Dr Rivas um I Echo all of the uh comments and sentiments that have been U mentioned here today um and I thank you for elevating um this discussion it is a discussion that um I've had with my staff as we've been receiving um emails from different parents from both sides and also from as I'm you know visit schools and I see this and also with my son um as discussed uh the district does have a policy that prohibits cell phone use in our schools and there's ample evidence that suggest that excessive phone uh use um in schools does hinder focus it is affecting how um this generation is socializing with one another as you mentioned they're communicating via a cell phone so there are some detriments um that have been um very much impacting
076our youth now um and there social emotional well-being you know um body dysmorphia I mean I brought a resolution when I first started um on how cell phones are also affecting young girls right and how they see themselves through social media so that is something that um is very concerning to me um but I think overall the issue today is about implement ation um we do the district does have a policy but is not implemented with Fidelity um throughout um our regions even without within this the classrooms themselves um as a parent of a son who is about to enter High School um I worri a lot and we have discussions about cell phone use how it distracts him and you know we've had conversations um that you know paying attention and he's very good
077of course you know and and um listening to me which I'm very grateful for um um but a cell phone can be used for you know also exposing students for bad influences and can as you mentioned outright bullying right then in that very moment where the school students are in their schools at the same time however as I've also heard from other sides it's a very divisive um issue for different reasons uh our cell phones also provide some comfort um as I can reach my son or we can reach our children and he can reach me during an emergency or when he needs me for instance um there was a school lockdown not too long ago at my son's school and um once the lockdown was over the you know um the teacher said you
078can contact your parents and let them know you're well so I received the the his message and I and my son doesn't send me messages during school hours so when I received it I was like why is he messaging me automatically I was you know stressed out and I was like what's wrong and he said mom we had a lot lock down and then his next next text is like but it's over and we're okay and immediately I felt so relieved right and now and then I received an email from his principal about the lockdown um and so that is the other thing that and I've mentioned it before how do we communicate with our with our parents with our community when there is a lockdown and when there is some sort of you know
079emergency where the students or the schools um are in danger in some in some way or form so I that is one area that I would like to be addressed in terms of um of you know have that safety or concern communication when something's happening because you know that if there's a an Emergency parents if they cannot reach you in the phone they're going to be right there in the school and they're posing themselves in danger or or other sort of you know concerns or issues that may arise from so that was one of the areas that I would like you know this study or this whatever may come out of this resolution to really address um so there are strong uh arguments on both sides uh there are many sides of this issue and
080rightly so students parents teachers and administrators feel strongly on the you know the excessive use of cell phones so I do agree with that um and I do also have some questions two of the questions have already been answered so I won't um I won't um repeat them but one of my concerns is enforcement I'm concerned about the dispara of impact of any punitive measures that may have on different students for black and brown students what are the safeguards to protect students and families from inequitable impacts where black and brown students may suffer from frequent and have suffered from frequent and harsher penalties than their white counterparts so that is one area that is concerning so I'm you know would I'm e I'm I'm voicing this so whatever study addresses any punitive measures or enforcement
081so they're all equal so we're talking about Equity so when and it has to be Equitable for all students um the resolution calls for a stud for after 120 120 days my question is will this board be able to vote or approve or um have a discussion of on this study um and any proposals or updates you know for the district to for us as as board members to um have discussions and view this plan so wondering if that will hopefully take place yes if I may thank you so much for those comments obviously disproportion impact specific to the approval policies that with all the best of intentions right sometimes the the results May not necessarily treat everybody fairly will be a a a a moral imperative that we will follow secondly within the timeline
082absolutely correct that uh staff would bring back a set of recommendations a recommended policy that the board would have an opportunity after appropriate consultation uh with teachers with students with advocacy entities with labor unions uh we would bring back that policy for the board's uh consideration of final approval wonderful good great to know the resolution also calls for a district update on cell phone usage and social media platform policies and I want to clarify whether this resolution intends to eliminate the voice of school Ty councils or discretion and adop and adopting policies at the school level so there are schools who have implemented this very well um the policy that stands and there schools that haven't there are some School site councils that I've been witnessing too that this is a conversation that they have
083all the time so I want to make sure that we're not eliminating those voices that have been um very active on this and for those School side councils that have not provide some you know some support or some training um so they can also be part of of this discussion or the implementation enforcement part of it um so overall there's other questions that was already answered but I you know wholeheartedly consider uh will be supporting the resolution um but I once again I just want to reiterate the public engagement make sure that it's um taken into consideration to inform the plan from um even our student Safety Committee uh the black student achievement planning steering committee the committee of the whole the other relevant District opportunities like town halls or surveys or whatever it is
084so that we're making sure that we're um including all voices and that we have a very good um feedback or sample of everyone in the district to have a say in in this um whatever may come out of the of the study the greatest extent possible the plan hopefully the plans to promote Local School site Council decision as I mentioned over one siiz fits all so I do agree that one we want to make sure that you know this is a very top- down approach but we also want to make sure that it's also top top up so we're listening to all voices but no um and strategies also to ensure Equitable policy implementation that does not like I mentioned disproportionately affect black and brown students who are often subject of harsher disciplinary measures and
085um Clarity and flexibility for our school communities to deal with school emergencies as I mentioned such as lockdowns and similar situations so um thank you so overall thank you so much for bringing this forward thank you Mr Schon George has any go ahead Dr McKenna thank you I appreciate being able to hear what people think before I speak Mr scherson pointed out the fact that only two of us up here have been administrators principles on a school and both of us have been at secondary schools he at middle schools myself being at high school and also assistant principes at middle schools I have a concern on both sides of this issue so I'm not sure how I'm going to vote but I have been made aware by people that I've spoken to I'm going to
086start with I think it's a perfect perfect CH task to assign to the school board member we have the student School Board member to reach out to her constituents and talk about what they think in an organized fashion that's just going to be one voice we had surveys already put out there about how people felt and there were four groups that we asked we asked parents teachers students and Community people after the decision was made to get rid of school police and diminish school police after and the survey said we did not none of those groups said we overwhelmingly agree with the need for no police on a campus but we still have people who believe that the police endanger the children we still spout that that uh position that the police criminalize the environment
087because they very much exist now cell phones exist they are people's private property when I was a principle they came into being and at the school I had to teach teachers say we would have no school no cell phones on during class time students that refused to comply with that I took care of that I confiscated the phone kept it in my office until the school students came to get it if they didn't come to get it I kept it until the parents came to get it and then I think they got my lecture etc etc why they shouldn't be using it there are lots of reasons not to have a cell phone and there are other reasons that you could have a cell phone sometimes it's misused even in emergencies parents will call their
088children what's the lockdown all about why don't you call the school itself call the front office your child may have a different version of what's going on because all the children don't know when there's a lockdown why are we locked down we don't say we're locked down because and tell you what the actual issue is we say stay in your lock you know shelter in place until we solve the problem and the police are on the perimeter internally we have people trying to help make sure the place is safe I know the distraction of cell phones but it's a civil right to have your cell phone have the ability to use your cell phone if the school says you can't use it I can hear a lawyer already saying why not uh why can't I
089use it during lunchtime and this one doesn't say we're going to study it starts off with I'll read it what it says social media policy prohibiting student use of cell phones and social media platforms during the school day it doesn't say during instructional time I'm not saying it should or should not be yet but I think all voices should be heard I have fortunately a member of my staff who has been a Dean at a high school and gave me great insight into what the the cell phones are often used for to organize a fight after school to break out your cell phone so you can take pictures of it actually take pictures of a child being killed recently that's what the cell phones were used for there was no police officer available because the
090decision up here was made School shouldn't have a police officer the police officer is a danger to the children how many of us went to that went to that funeral how dangerous was that to that dead body was killed by another student and there was no no police officer available and it was knowledgeable through the use of the social media that this was going to to take place two blocks from the school after school and a student had a weapon I have no problem with talking about the problem discussing it before we make a decision are coming up with a rubric that says all prohibit instead should we not study this do the students have a decision-making ability no they don't they have a voice in a h household how many children get to choose
091what goes on in the home they may have choices to make given to them by their parents the people are call parents they're not call siblings the parents give children choices so the children don't always have the decision to make if they did would they make the right decision sometimes they do sometimes they don't but right or wrong is often determined by outcomes and what's the impact of it I believe that everyone here is well intentioned and we should be those of us that have had the experience of administration know that it often falls on Administration you also know that every teacher is not capable not because they're not a good teacher but they can't control the class or command the the respect of the students say give me your phone now give it to
092me now and even if you have a policy somebody got to say well come get this phone and we know what the policy is a child is using the phone and refuses to give it up I learned a long time ago that children with the least amount of affluence are the first to resist you taking something from them that is very precious back in the day it was called a boom box and they walked around with a box whole big enough that they couldn't even balance it on their shoulders you be you better know who you are when you try to take that from that student and he's playing it when the rule says don't play it and I say give me your boom box he said I'm not giving it to you I said
093you're not giving it to me then you and I in the boom box are going to my office you may accompany your brother boom box with me and it became one of those if somebody else would approach that student he wasn't giving it up because it was the most precious thing he had was generally a boy with a boon box a young man he wasn't giving it up and he had to hold on to it because he either paid for it or it was a gift and therefore to give it up was something he was most proud of that's why he was carrying it around to show others I'm going to not only to defy the rule I want you to know I have a boom box now he couldn't afford it otherwise but he
094wasn't giving it up it's more precious to him than his shoes he give you his shoes wasn't giv up that boom box that experience says to me that children in different socioeconomic circles treasure things very differently than others I give you an example having attended many proms in my life senior proms you go to one hotel we always go to the Bon Aventure the various schools would use the bound Venture Hotel all on the same night it might have six proms going on in different rooms in the same night the children in my neighborhood had big beautiful prom gowns Tuxedos and Limousines The Others more affluent children from other school districts and even from our districts came in t-shirts and blue jeans and tennis shoes and that's the way they had a party and the
095question was why do our children with less resources Adorn themselves so especially and other children with many more resources don't do that and the faculty talked about it right there in the prom and enlightened me and believe this might be the only time those young ladies and those young men get to wear this outfit they're not going to have a big wedding they're not going to belong to a sorority or a fraternity they're not going to have a coming out party it may be the only time they had to wear this big gown they might not have a wedding at all nobody in their family had a big wedding in a church with this big beautiful gown and the young men in tuxedos some of the young men didn't know how to put a tuxedo
096on we had to go to the tuxedo rental place to show that so they didn't have the experience different communities have different responses to when you say don't bring this to school I don't have a problem with the limitations of cell phones I do have a problem with the exclusivity and the totality of the exclusivity because when something goes wrong at the school the parents will start calling they do it all the time have an earthquake watch what happens to the cell phone first of all the system will be overloaded you won't even be able to get through nobody will be able to call out nobody will be able to call I remember the earthquake 19 I just become a principal I had a phone in my car as was brand new in my own
097car my own personal phone because cell phones didn't exist at that point I was the only one I could get out nobody else even in the the uh the switchboard could not get out and I could communicate with downtown I could communicate with police to found out what was going on I'm sitting out in my car outside school the principal on his his personal cell phone in the car with the motor turned on so it didn't go off all right I no I'm just trying to see how much more you had to do I know you are I appreciate that that becomes for me that becomes redundant that I get asked how how much long I ask anybody that goes over five minutes everybody went over five minutes nobody did actually today everybody did okay
098I take respectful issue with that other than Scott he's not he didn't go beond five minutes I think this is a good start I think a study is necessary I think that you should not start with exclusion and people are celebrating the elimination of cell phones because our society is going to hell in the hand basket it's Chicken Little saying the sky is falling the cell phone's going to exist anyway then before you ban cell phone what's going to be next they're going to have it on their watch they going have a watch that tells them the same stuff and the same stuff you can do on the cell phone you can do from from your computer children will be children no matter what age they live in pre cell phone times pre-war times pre-
099laser be times pre- lots of things but they're going to be adolescence they're going to be children and it's up to us to set guidelines I have no problem with us discussing how we do that but I hope that we're doing it with an open mind and all inclusivity of other opinions and if we do make the decision then please have a plan of what you do when students violate the rule what do you do as someone said if you confiscate it and it gets stolen from you you're responsible for it the teacher is how many teachers want that responsibility some teachers say I'm not going to touch I'm going to call it the principal well you got one principal no assistant principal we made cutbacks on that that principal is going to be real
100busy dealing with cell phones when you when you ban them and I have no problem with that but you get get past that but in the beginning it will be somewhat resisted and chaotic so I don't know how I'm going to vote on this I can't vote on it because it's not for for approval yet but it is to ask for a study I think that's what it's trying to do and the superintendent has expressed his opinion which I appreciate and he's been a principal I understand that but we're not victimized by society as much as we victimize our ourselves if we don't take a proactive approach and I think it's appropriate to take a proactive approach and what goes on in schools doesn't have to go on in a regular Society even the music
101they listen to I wouldn't ask my music department to play that stuff and nobody can play an instrument and they call himself a singer I'm a musician I go what's the words of the song if I if I if if I repeat the words it's a vulgarity but that's what they buy is that good or bad I don't think it's good nobody's fine so I'll I'll uh I'll defer right now and thank you for the opportunity to finish my thank you very much Mr schmon yes just a couple uh things to add about the we talked about mental health too and I want to make sure that it's part of the the resolution so a few months ago uh Mr Chase mentioned one of the issues when it comes to mental health support for students
102is that they do not know what is available to them so can the district also help make clear what the district can do to help students who may be going through seriously phone or social media addiction which is a real mental health issue right so that's something to include um I believe that this should be an ongoing conversation within the district we need to ensure that a policy like this does not have any unintended consequences for students or staff such as the incident at the Madison High School in Houston where students protested over their phones uh School phones cell ban okay lastly I believe that we should try to teach students when it is appropriate to use the cell phone and when it's not appropriate to use the cell phone like during an interview while
103you're driving or while you're in the classroom children have to be taught that simply taking away the cell phone does not mean that every student's anxiety or addiction goes away and our students also need the tools to foster a healthy relationship with technology and that's to add on okay thank you thank you yes I'm sorry uh one other um kind of instructional use of technology or of cell phones that I wanted to raise is just that some of our newcomer students utilize phones for translation purposes obviously a a person is ideal but in sometimes in less common languages there's a utilization of phones and class for that purpose and so I wanted to offer a friendly Amendment um for uh the sponsor's consideration um just to consider uh consider the unique needs of newcomer students
104um who sometimes utilize phones for translation purposes yeah I'll happily AC accept and I think that's one of the things we can look at District approved devices for so that be a a friendly Amendment and be part of the motion and I just want to appreciate uh you know I think this conversation will make the superintendence implementation better I appreciate that Mr Chate is here as well uh you know just to to to conclude with what Miss Goldberg said earlier you know when the government put warning labels on cigarettes nearly 60 years ago 42% of adults in this country smoked now it's down to about 11% we are in the late 60s uh to analogize here when it comes to smartphone use and I I'm not saying this isn't consequential this isn't big this isn't
105scary uh but again 42% of us adults smoked we started to regulate it we started to not allow them in schools uh and it's dropped to 11% and so I think we're going to be on the Vanguard here and and students in this entire city and country are going to um benefit as a result so I would uh without further Ado call the question if that's okay with the to bother okay there's nobody else have ask just add me as a co-sponsor anybody else wish should be added as a co-sponsor hearing none uh the before us is item number 23 supporting student mental health with two amendments friendly amendments one is evaluate the impact of social media designed to addict students to social media and the other is to make sure that we understand the
106needs of students who are new immigrants to our communities our our newcomers have an access access to a phone for translation if that's the only way they can get their information with those in mind call the rooll please can I readit okay exactly uh Mr McAn will read the exact words into the record of the Amendments uh before we vote okay so this applies to the last there's been a resolved ad and this is the last resolved um of the original version resolved that within 120 days the Los Angeles Unified School District shall develop and present to the public at a board meeting updated cell phone and social media policies to prohibit student use of cell phones and social media platforms districtwide during the entire school day the policies and their implementation shall be informed
107by best practices and input from experts in the field labor Partners staff students and parents resolved further that the updated policies will go into eect no later than the second semester of the 2425 school year I don't believe you need to read the whole resolution just read the amendment okay and here there's an extra bullet point consider unique needs of newcomers who may utilize phones for translation purposes uh and then in the last resolved uh and supporting litigation as appropriate that limits the use of social media platforms has been omitted and the added languages the district shall also evaluate the impact of social media use by young people including on their mental health to formulate a strategy that contemplates but is not restricted to litigation against social media entities that operate platforms that use algorithms
108that appeal to students who develop addiction to such platforms with well documented mental and physical deletar consequences to youth that ends the Amendments and we'll take the role you're talking you said the the the final resolve about advocating for state and federal legislation has been removed oh there's been uh information added to the final results yes okay all right I got it everybody know what we're voting on all right call the roll please here we go Dr McKenna I'm going to vote no because there's a s phrase in here I'm not going to ask that an amendment be made I mean that's the author of The resolution can do it when it says prohibiting use of cell phones and social media platforms during the school day prohibiting means there's no discussion there's no option no
109uh I'm I'm voting against a that's a note from Dr McKenna uh Dr Ras yes uh Mr schmon no I need to know instructional versus non-instructional the answer is no uh Mr melne yes Miss gones yes Miss Ortiz Franklin yes for president Goldberg yes uh passes thank you thank you very much we'll now move to item number 21 in resolutions uh and I'm going to pass by uh Gabel to uh the vice chair so that I can move my motion so Mr schmon would you call on me please miss Goldberg thank you uh I want to move item number 21 which is an LUSD student ID for all students and basically the idea of this motion is to make sure that what we have is a ID for all students who are in District approved
110Charter Schools uh the use of this is to just simply make it easier I hope uh to be able to have students who move from charter schools to district schools or from district schools to Charter Schools to make sure that the information actually flows and that we don't continue to get calls from parents saying my kid's been in this school for five weeks and we still have no information from him that is the sole use of this it's internal it requires uh independent charter schools to do nothing they can choose to use this ID if they want they can also say no I like the way we've been doing it it's okay with us this is simply a step to hopefully make it more easy for communications to be passed between the two systems in
111a way as we see with declining enrollments I believe we're going to see more interactions of those type that's what we're for I need a second to my motion all right seconded by Mr schmon any discussion go ahead so appreciate that and I would love to co-sponsor if you would allow me and since you mentioned Charter Schools it's interesting when I go to visit my uh digit digitization Center there's a section of charter schools that nobody knows where these kids are or where these kids went and they're in BO the kids are not in boxes their records are in boxes in this in this Warehouse so that would certainly take care of that problem okay thank you Jackie yes I approve of this one I would like to ask enter as a co-sponsor thank thanks
112for raising um and for sharing I do have some questions just like logistically um sort of like do we have a sense of how big this this problem is of students you know transitioning from independent Charter to district schools I guess my first question is like why haven't we done this already like what has uh has it come up has it not come up um is it needed so I think you know sort of a little bit more if you could share what you've learned and then if the the superintendent team would like to comment that's my biggest question is like why is it needed and why haven't we done it yet it's it's been needed for a couple of reasons uh I've recently been contacted by a parent who had never had her kid
113in a district school now has the kid at a district school we have no information about this person or this family we have nothing we have no way of getting any information they don't have an ID in our system and this person has asked me to help for them to get enrolled and they're having trouble because they have no records nowhere anywhere nobody's sending them to we found out finally which Charter School it was the charter school said it didn't have an easy method of sending the materials we finally got that solved but that's the kind of thing is it common it's not that common but it happens and I'm saying if a simple thing of having an ID and telling the charter schools that they're welcome to use it or not I hope will
114in ease this problem my real concern is as both groups are having declining enrollment I suspect there's going to be more movement back and forth and that's why I want us to set this up so that if I'm right it happens more easily if I'm wrong it isn't much movement well then no harm no fall they got a number on file that's basically it's a very small idea but I'm concerned and this is part of my leaving I have to say I'm concerned as we see declining enrollment in both groups uh that there's going to be a more movement and I think the problem now is there's movement problem now if that's continued with a much larger number of people I think it'll get worse and so it's a an attempt to sort of predict
115a possible problem there is a little bit of a problem right now I'm sure most of you have been contacted by some some parent or another to say that they haven't been able to get the information from the previous school so it's an attempt to help immediately with the smaller problem but to be ready in case the problem grows that's really all it's about okay and the district would pay for it not the charter schools nobody pays for it it yeah they'll it's our our system we have ways of assigning an ID number to every student that's all yeah go ahead s yeah just in terms of the information I know because I recently completed the enrollment paperwork for my four-year-old um who's entering utk I mean there's a lot of information that's requested upon
116School enrollment so is this resolution contemplating solely the assignment of a student ID yep okay so you would still need the forms in order to all this does is say we want to make it easier if you're moving from one system to the other in either Direction that's all I'm trying to do it would say we will assign it or we know how to do that we assign IDs to everybody we will assign an ID to all of those who are in District operate District oversite of charter schools and if there are other uses it's there if there aren't then all we have is an internal ID number and we are going to tell Charters that what that number is and if they wish to use it they can and if they decide no we've
117already work this out and some have then we they don't have to use it at all but what they need like to also purchase myis and all the like platforms that we use because we couldn't open myis and see this ID if they are your student is it just sending it to us in an Excel sheet and then somehow like the systems are talking to each other basically each Charter School will get an ID for each of their students independent charter school and they will have that information they can choose to ever use it or never use it the idea is not to force it upon anybody good morning Madame board president board members Mr superintendent on behalf of the team that uh has given some input here maybe I'll add to some comments board
118president that's okay and first thank you for the conversation with with the group to further understand and unpack it a bit these are uh relevant questions certainly first some brief context when the district disengage from the modified consent decree it established a process by which independent Charter Schools would inter with the district through their system to provide uh information including some basic student information um through into our system not using myis directly but through an interface system that's in practice and certainly its could speak to any technical details should the board wish so that is established it's also part of the district's federal state uh District required language secondly as we understand it as the board president noted using those esta procedures and protocols with the data that are there then the its team again
119that that plan is still to be developed would assign an L USD ID with the information that's there for internal purposes at this time and should there be other opportunities to make it easier for transfers Etc uh then those can be further explored um so right now we're seeing that as that internal focus with those protocols and procedures that are in place certainly to be further fleshed out if this is approved by its in the plan as called last to address your question board member Ortiz Franklin Based on data from our data and accountability team last year we had about 10,000 students uh enroll from district schools to Independent charter schools and about 6,000 students vice versa from uh independent charter schools to district schools I'm not saying it's 100% real-time live but it gives
120you a sense um so there may be some more learning in this process but hopefully that helps provide some context and narrows the focus a bit that does help um, 1600 or 16,000 students moving between the two systems is you know something to pay attention to given our current protocols do you know how long it takes from uh that transfer of Records can I you know be at a charter school on Monday and be in a district school on Tuesday or vice versa or does it take longer it's a great question not withstanding the board president's comments and and feedback you may receive from constituents and over the years we've had this and had to follow up to ensure that both district and Charter Schools know of the Expediting those records uh transfers um usually
121I think within 10 days uh I think anecdotally we see that those records follow certainly there's communication prior um but whenever there's an issue we follow up most recently just checking with our team and officer data and accountability it hasn't been uh an extremely concerning issue in terms of a large number of students that aren't receiving the information however certainly there are some examples of it uh and should this be able to help that will be uh advantageous but that is to be determined yeah we did get the um operational impact statement and I don't know if as a follow-up we could get an understanding of like how long does it take because 10 days is very concerning to me that a kid would be out of instruction for two weeks if that's what's happening
122but I'm seeing Veronica saying maybe that's not what's happening not the enrollment it's about the paperwork phone the enrollment is is ised still immediate yes yeah I was I was looking at the paperwork and the no the enrollment is immediate great I haven't heard issues of uh many issues of of that uh as a concern uh it's making sure that the full file follows but the enrollment the enrollment is expected to be immediate and normally happens that way thank you for that okay thanks Miss Goldberg I'll just sorry no go um just Mr Coes could you just um One More Time explain so what you're you're referencing that basically this would utilize data that we already collect so it would require no additional collection of data that that's our understanding interpretation so for example we
123already collect student names who are enrolled at District uh approved Charter Schools yes and their grade levels yes and I mean is there information beyond that that would be part of the system or right now so based on the two that you mentioned that's all we that we collect there are some other pieces you would have for example uh language information inform it's a certain educational information including residential like their their home address I don't know I don't think that file captures all of the contact information there are other files that the district receives through the annual process census data information uh Etc if we need to get to more of the technical aspects its could speak to those but it gives you uh names of students grade levels language disability Etc got it yeah
124if applicable it's more I'm I'm trying to understand the uh how the data that we collect already serves to solve the problem that Miss Goldberg described which is like the need to en to fill out enrollment paperwork and again like I have a good sense of what the enrollment paperwork is and I'm trying to understand to what extent we collect those data that I mean it sounds like there would still be a number of elements that would be required in addition to what we already collect this is more basic information I would refer to the board president's comments we are not anticipating using this to collect more information than that we're already collecting this is really a little step say we've got 16,000 now transferring already all right what if that becomes 30,000 okay we
125may end up with needing more than one way to do this that's all I'm trying to accomplish is to say here is an ID number the schools will notice the charter schools will know they have that their choice if what they're doing now works continue doing it we're not trying to change them we're not requiring anything but we're saying maybe this will be easier because it puts them right into the system as opposed to transferring materials which then next have to go into the system okay I'm saying I think this is going to become more useful as time goes on if enrollments continue to decrease and so I'm saying so before I leave I'm trying to say can I set something up that will make it easier if in fact my prediction of more Mobility
126is correct that's all I'm trying to accomplish very limited very limited anybody else wish to be heard Dr Rivas yes thank you for this I would also like to co-sponsor um I support um as apart from everything that's been mentioned here I support the student IDs to track you know overall student mobility within and outside of L USD we all know we you know a lot of our families and students are leaving La due to high cost housing costs and rent burdens um so there's a lot of student migration I think this would also um eventually help in and identify in which students have if we don't have a record of them either within a charter school or within our um L USD um with our within our district then we can identify maybe the
127students have left so it's it's a good way to identify that a centralized database for all L USD um students and charter school students um identified by unique ID uh will be available it'll add on to add you know apart from what's mentioned already tracking ility um allocating resources better understanding where resources may be needed uh where maybe there's a shift of student populations and also informed policy uh use datadriven insights to advocate for housing educational and other educational policies that help support a more stable learning environments for our students so the challenges posed by student Mobility are complex but a pro comprehensive student ID system we can gain data that we need need to make informed decisions overall and as we know you know um there's a lot of Mobility there are charter schools
128that are closing we have three Kips so that would be um one example of where did those students oh did they remain within Charter did they come within so there's a lot of changes that are taking place with enrollment closures of schools and just overall Mobility so I think so thank you for bringing this forward and I'll sponsor I'll co-sponsor yeah most of my questions had been asked and answer so I'll just ask to be added as a co-sponsor as well if you have me and happy to support absolutely thanks all right calling the rooll on Tab 21 uh Dr McKenna yes Dr Ras yes Mr Schon yes Mr melne yes M gonz no M Ortiz Franklin yes Miss Goldberg yes six eyes passes all right we will take 22 and I'll call on uh
129Dr Rivas uh celebration of Play Day June 29th thank you um so I'm pleased to present to you today a resolution that speaks to the heart of our District's commitment of the well-being and development of every child celebration of Play Day on June 29th 2024 and promotion of play Equity is not just about recognizing one single day but it's about embracing the fundamental importance of play in students lives um and also play own lives so it's something that we definitely would love to promote for all of our families play is not merely a Pastime it's a catalyst for learning uh creativity social emotional growth and physical health this resolution commemorates June 29th as a play day and I encourage all district families to join the celebration in West Adams uh in this year to play
130together to ReDiscover the joy and power of unstructured time and uh in relation to the conversation we had about about cell phones put the cell phones away and this just play uh moreover this resolution serves as a call to action it urges the the district to be its Champion to play Equity actively seeking out policies and practices that ensure every child and reg every child regardless of the background or circumstances has access to enriching benefits of sports movement and play uh to offer deeper insights into the importance of play equity and I'm they I hope they still hear uh with us I'm honored to invite Mr James Lopez uh director of advocacy play Equity Fund um Gabby AR arisu arisu hopefully uh CEO students run LA and um Andre de laesa Chief strategy officer Woodcraft
131Rangers to just say a few words and please join me and welcome them to the podium so please come right ahead are they the signed up speakers on this item or are you adding them additionally to that I'm adding them additionally to them signed up as well signed up we are signed up all right so let's let's call they're signed up they're signed up these are the folks you are the three folks who signed up to speak and coincidentally you are the three three folks who Dr Ras also has invited you have 10 minutes sir identify yourself and go ahead thank you my name is James Lopez director of advocacy for the play Equity Fund at the l84 foundation thank you Dr Rivas for uh for the warm welcome and for introducing this resolution um
132the la84 found Foundation is the legacy of the 1984 Olympic games which were hosted here in Los Angeles and the la84 foundation has been working hard to make sure all kids uh in the region but especially in the city of La and our La USC students have access to Sport and play and the opportunity to move their bodies and reap those lifelong benefits uh that Sport and play has for our kids um thank you for building awareness for the what we call the play Equity Gap and uh our organizations the la4 found and the play Equity Fund are focused on closing that Gap and uh the reality of the situation is that there's a lot of barriers to play like a lack of play Space lack of awareness from parents on the importance of play
133and um kids are being denied the opportunity to play and move their bodies um and so they're being denied the opportunity to unlock the potential that they have through play through sport through movement and um the LAUSD beyond the bell program has been one of the key drivers in in play Equity he making sure kids have the opportunity um to play after school and we've seen the the outcomes of those programs yield great impact so um you know despite the well documented uh benefits of play we still see gaps in participation and we want to invite everybody to elevate the issue and join us on Play Day on June 29th in the West Adams neighborhood at the la84 campus uh you can register at La 84. org it's for all ages we'll have food music
134play representation from all the sports teams in LA and board memb members we thank you for um this resolution to celebrate Play Day on June 29th and um looking forward to working together to continue to work together to close the play Equity Gap thank you thank you very oh we got some shirts over here playday shirts all right next we'll hear from andrees De laesa you have two minutes sir good morning my name is andresan I'm the chief strategy officer at Woodcraft Rangers nonprofit expanded learning program that has EX existed and operated for over a hundred years dedicated to serving the Youth of Los Angeles and guiding them to Pathways of purposeful lives here to offer my support of the playday resolution and want to begin by thanking Dr revas um your vision leadership and
135advocacy for the impact play can have on the lives and futures of Youth as what brought us all to here um and provides us with this opportunity also want to thank the board of education for recognizing and uplifting the message around the transformative power of sport play and movement every year Woodcraft Ranger supports over 25,000 youth at more than 113 sites throughout Los Angeles providing access to free highquality before and after school enrichment and summer camp programming our program focuses on a youth Choice model that allows participants to choose from a portfolio of hundreds of clubs and amidst the Sea of options approximately 30% of total daily programming consists of Sports youth vote with their feet and the message has been heard loud and clear they want to play programs like Woodcraft Rangers students run
136la beyond the bell offer many students their first and potentially only opportunity to be part of a team historic and systemic structures had often made access to play difficult if not completely inaccessible and the impact this can have is being seen through both physical and mental health statistics establishing play days and further elevating the importance of sport and play in the lives of children is Paramount not only for their immediate well-being but for their future as well just like the District programs like ours are dedicated to creating lifelong Learners and setting our next generation of leaders up with the skills they need to be successful Sports offers a unique Avenue to support this as it teaches skills that translate into every sector of Life play stimulates the mind and prepares it to learn its impact
137on cognitive development and healing from traumatic stress are undeniable it is where we learn new skills it is where we practice being in stressful situations and it's where we build lifelong connections being in the classroom uh beyond the classroom Sports can influence how you see ourselves it gives you confidence in the sense of ability that you carry with you wherever you go I never played Sports professionally or collegially but the ability and desire to stay healthy is what helps me bike with my son play with our kids at per campus and pick up my daughter when I get home these Milestones may be years away from those we serve daily but they start with a single day of play thank you Dr Ras and the entire board good morning everyone my name is gabier viu
138I'm here on behalf of students from La I am here to speak in support of item 22 the play day resolution thank you Dr josa Jas for your leadership and for supporting the important role that play has for our youth schools uh and our communities uh it is so important that governing bodies like the LUSD Board of Education recognize and uplift the transformational power of sports access to Quality Sports and play opportunities is too often dictated by once's race and zip code and yet those at greatest risk for poor health and wellness outcomes often have the least access to Quality play opportunities this resolution will help us continue to build Collective awareness of what we call the play Equity Gap students R La is a school-based program that teaches middle and high school students uh
139the importance of goal setting and overcoming adversity through mentorship and improved Health outcomes by providing them with a truly life-changing experience and that's to train and complete compl the LA Marathon for the last 35 years students friend La has provided lowincome atrisk students with the opportunity to train for this Marathon not only do we see students complete this race 26.2 miles later 99% of our students finish it what's more is that out of all of our Marathon finishers 99% of them go on to graduate from high school and the majority of them go on to uh go on to college in fact over 95% of them including 75 5% that are the first in their family to go to college every year we see the connection between Sport and play and how it impacts the
140overall well-being of Youth this is why it was important for Sr LA to be here today in support of this incredible step for LA to continue to be a leader in this space thank you Dr zeas and the entire board for this resolution we look forward to working closely together to close a play Equity Gap happy play day thank you thank you so very much to all of our speakers any uh let's see it's moved by Dr Rivas and seconded by Mr mvo go ahead Dr McKenna and he would like to be Dr M like to be a co-sponsor and me too me too just want to uh say you know please visit La 84. org SL uh playday play uh- day to uh get more information and the location and please join me it's
141going to be a lot of fun thanks okay moved by Dr revas seconded by Mr Melo uh taking role Dr McKenna yes Dr revas yes Mr Schon yes Mr melin yes Miss GES Miss Ortiz Franklin yes for president Goldberg yes that's a six eyes passes and we'll hold the role open I assume yes hold the rooll open please uh okay uh we now move to item number 24 resolution brought forth by uh board member Tanya Ortiz Franklin and others go ahead Dr go ahead oh promoting to doctor I I get promoted all the time I'm I'm not a doctor either go ahead no thank you so much and I know there are a couple speakers on this so I'll be brief um I know we have a lot of budgeting tools and a lot of
142expertise on our team and I also know that for the last few years that I've been on the board and uh as an advocate before then there have been some lingering questions how do we find the answers to questions about our budget how do we not waste staff's time in developing PowerPoints or PDFs um but instead have a tool that is really available to the public the board and anybody who wants to access it to answer simple questions like how much should we spend per pupil at this school versus that school or are our investments in blank program resulting in the outcomes we would expect to see for student achievement um things that any other industry I feel like would be asking and answering to make data D data driven decisions about how to use
143their resources as wisely as possible to move the metrics they're hoping which for us are student achievement metrics um so I believe that we're living in a time where technology and uh AI should help us with these challenges and so I'm hoping that the staff will be able to get us to a better place where we don't look in multiple locations for answers to our budgeting questions but really it's all together it's synthesized it's easy and simple and we can type in questions and we can get visuals that answer the uh lingering questions we personally have and then ultimately as a board I hope that we use them to make better decisions um to reach our strategic plan you know every year going forward um so that is my my hope I look forward to
144the conversation with my colleagues I know there are a couple of speakers and I invite my colleagues to to think about how we can use data and really a tool that is um clear comprehensive you know customizable uh so that our budget process is easier and better for kids ultimately all right you want to move your motion oh yes please anybody want to Second it second all right thanks thank you it's been moved and seconded now let's hear from our speakers I mean from from the from the speakers let's hear from the speakers next and then we'll call on board members go ahead okay let's see we have Christian flag on the line calling in remotely Mr flag please press star six to unmute yourself and you left two minutes to speak once you begin
145Christian flag hello can you hear me uh we can if you could just speak up a little bit into whatever device you're using it would be very helpful is this any better say again is that better yeah that's better thank you is that better yes thank you so yes um good morning folks Christian flag from Community Coalition um and I'm calling in support of this um resolution to really improve the budget transparency um across lausb it's uh the the district has done a progressively better job over time right the community really pushing the district to give more insight behind the curtain so families students parents can really inform policy as y'all know we organize parents and students to really Elevate their voices inform policy and a lot of this is very contingent upon us being
146able to talk through budget allocations at school sites with our parents so they can really inform it um the need to keep it going after three and a half years the district now puts forth $125 million to Bap but still under spends by this year we're counting upwards of $40 million we need to be able to see this spending in real time for parents students and even uh faculty and staff to actually be able to utilize these dollars when we're working at school sites we're finding a large majority of Bap uh staff don't even know the full scope of allocations that schools get and then that really inhibits their ability to be creative and Innovative with how they would even attempt to support the unique needs of black students um so it's really important to
147have more transparency and we know when we're trying to really refine the the ways we improve student outcomes we have to see how the allocations are being spent at schools to ensure they're going toward the actual needs that we see at the schools right School some schools generate boosted budgets because of specific student population but we have we need a lot more accountability to see that those allocations are actually going toward very targeted uh strategies to improve those specific student populations so again thank you for your time technology thank you for your time okay uh Carlos Rodriguez I see you're on the line Carlos Rodriguez please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Carlos Rodriguez good morning uh can you hear me yes we can please
148go ahead good morning and happy summer to all uh Carlos Rodriguez Community organizing director for innovate public schools in La innovate organizers families across the district uh so that they can Advocate and Lead at their school sites uh districtwide and at the state level uh we're also proud members of the gpsm collective Action Coalition as innovate we deeply deeply believe in the importance of growing democracy and Civic engagement at school sites and districtwide uh we proudly collaborated on the Family Guide to the LUSD strategic plan as well we really really appreciate the steps the district has already taken to advance transparency through the adoption and implementation of the ready for the world strategic plan and are grateful to each board member here today and superintendent carvalo and his team I we really think it's an
149example for other districts uh this resolution continues to build build upon that commitment to transparency by ensuring all School stakeholders have access to budget information during times of fiscal uncertainty it is critical to provide budget transparency at every level aggregate or districtwide data can mask the realities and differences occurring amongst different schools and communities thank you to the co-authors of this resolution board members Ortiz Franklin and melin for your leadership on advancing budget transparency thank you in advance to the rest of the board for your support and to the superintendent and his team for their faithful implementation of this important resolution I have a beautiful rest of the board meeting thank you thank you for your time let's see Diana deor are you on the line Diana deor please press star six to unmute yourself
150and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Deana can you hear me yeah we sure can please go ahead perfect thank you so much good morning superintendent carvalo and members of the board my name is Diana theor and I'm senior manager of collective action with GSN a nonprofit intermediary organization dedicated to catalyzing Excellence in Los Angeles Public Schools for students of color and those living in poverty today I'm here on behalf of the organization GPS and activates through our Collective Action Group this group represents leaders and organizations across the district that come together because of their shared interest and commitment to advocating for better educational outcomes and opportunities for Los Angeles Unified students yesterday we submitted to your offices via email a letter collectively expressing our support for the modern budget transparency for
151student achievement resolution introduced by board members T Ortiz Franklin and Nick melvoin this resolution is an important step needed for advancing transparency to realize equity for all district students families and schools transparency facilitates good stewardship it also Ur all stakeholders have access to the information necessary to hold our public institutions accountable for delivering on its Mission we appreciate how the district's ready for the world strategic plan is already providing transparency and this resolution builds upon that great work additionally this resolution is timely as we understand that our state's fiscal challenges may result in difficult budget choices the proposed budget tool can help board members and the public and should understand the implications of those choices on their schools we hope this transparency also leads to welcoming of our Collective feedback and ideas together we can
152weather what may come our way many of us are La USD graduates live in the district and or are parents of District students we have firsthand knowledge of how board level decisions impact the everyday lives of students in schools we appreciate the willingness of the board to facilitate transparency in a meaningful way we extend our deep gratitude to board members Ortiz Franklin and Melvin for their leadership on this resolution we highly encourage you to uphold the full spirit and language of the resolution as published thank you in advance to to the full board for enacting this resolution and to District leadership for their faithful implementation thank you thank you for your time Dalia Basco dollia alasco are you on the line please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak
153once you begin dollia alasco good morning board members and superintendent carvalo my name is Zia Vasco and I live in board district one but today I'm here representing the alliance for a better Community ABC is a lapino advocacy organization focused on improving the experiences and outcomes of Latinos and Latinas in Los Angeles you can find a beautiful array of Latino communities in every corner of the district representing nearly 75% of La UniFi student population and about onethird of its employees on average ABC works with about 150 parents uh every year to discuss different issue areas like preschools parent leadership development and gov effort efforts one common theme across all these conversations is the need for greater budget transparency parents and students have no shortage of creative and innovative solutions for their schools and communities yet
154when they present these ideas to school leaders they often hear the all too familiar statement we don't have a budget for that parents and students metaphorically hit a wall when it comes to the budget a large elusive con construct that is rarely shared with them the resolution presented today provides parents and students with the tools to better understand the Investments made in their communities um to better advocate for timely and responsive Solutions we appreciate the steps the district has taken already to ad Advanced transparency through the adoption and implementation of the ready for the world strategic plan this resolution builds upon that commitment by ensuring all School St School stakeholders have access to a budget um to budget information families and partners will be able to better provide recommendations that are datadriven and Community centered
155during times of fiscal uncertainty it is critical to provide budget transparency at every level aggregate district-wide data can mask the realities and different occurring among different schools and communities uh thank you to the co-authors of this resolution board member Ortiz Franklin and melin for your leadership in advancing budget transparency thank you thank you for your time Maria Louisa Palma I see you out there come on up you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Maria Louisa Palmer good morning my name is Maria Luisa Palma and I'm here representing oada Inc the control of money equals power doesn't it and the secrecy that we currently have the aisc of the information of where the money is spent is puts our families and our communities at a at a disadvantaged Lo uh position when it comes
156to schoolside budgets let me give you some examples of what is something you could have the schools side budgets look like this format was presented to at the board retreat okay that you had in April this format is which does not currently exist out in the world in in terms of getting information in this format it at least has most of the funding sources that go across here uh funding sources such as seni Bap title one it shows us what's Norm what which funding sources are discretionary at the schools in the rows the positions by name are list in how many we are missing some items on this kind of a format we're missing additional funding sources breaking out title one parent funds Bap showing us exactly what is lcap and what is not lcap
157under Bap we don't have the Arts prop 28 funding source on here uh what we also need to have is all the magnets and dual language programs on one page we need additional schedules detailing the positions specifically by grade dollars and P we need to know what programs were purchased uh with school funds we need the allocations plus the beginning balance and the ending balance for each carryover group from seni and both general fund we also need to know other elop funded programs that are available out to schools we need principles to be required to present these budgets to the schools this isn't currently required at school site Council we only get the title one budget and that's an insult to the parents that are on those committees you can't just show them a little
158sliver when Title One funds are supposed to be supplemental to the full budget we need to see the full budget I'll leave these examples here for you thank you for your time that concludes the public com oh Diana guen I didn't see you in the room but I will call you just in case di guen are you out there okay that concludes public comment on this issue and we we can hear from I'll recheck I don't have a my information is incorrect all right so presentation from board member Ortiz Franklin no just exactly what I said in the beginning it's an invitation to budget better so we can use more data to make decisions um at this board uh we've had lots of PowerPoint presentations on the budget I would love for us to actually
159use a tool where we can dig in and finance aners to our questions in real time as opposed to send the team back for followup I I'm not sure it's the best use of Staff time the way that we have organized it so far in a day of uh technology and artificial intelligence that could do things more quickly for us so that we can make uh the best use of everyone's time and the better outcomes for kids is my ultimate goal but uh I would love to hear from my colleagues questions concerns ideas you know your own experiences with making uh big budget decisions with the tools that we currently have and the hopes that you might have for uh this next tool I I should add that an important part of this is iteration
160so bringing it back to the users the families that would use it for the lcap engagement process the staff like our board offices um to make sure that it is meeting the desires of our uh real questions and answers um that are presented before us every June so uh I'd really love to just turn it over to the the team here for a discussion to see where this might go board members I'll just I'll just thank M Ortiz Franklin for her partnership on this and and acknowledge that the district's come a long way on budget transparency since I joined the board in 2017 one of my first resolutions was an open data portal in the hope that we could create a shared um public set of facts about the district that would lead to more
161productive conversations on how best to serve kids in communities and the system's been online for several years provides an incredible amount of information about the budget and other information about how kids are doing uh and there's a team that's working on this and iterating like Mr orti Franken was saying um and I also appreciate that the budget team who hear from later today in the last couple years in particular under the superintendent has sought to share more information with the public in board conversations and the board book we see today which even has some new features and how to understand programmatic Investments and Staffing and yet I've also learned in my ten year that transparency is more than just providing access to information or PDFs um and there are nearly an infinite number of questions
162you can ask about an 18 billion budget with 1,000 school sub budgets and thousands of lenses that you can look to so in this next pH phase of transparency I hope we can figure out what questions are most important to answer and what view stakeholders seek uh clearly so that we can tailor our efforts um and if communities want to understand how we are providing Arts instruction or investing in safety or reading intervention the district needs to be able to answer those questions in a way that makes sense and builds trust uh if the data shows something is a Miss we need to be able to use that information more quickly course correct to make sure the kids are benefiting from our investments and so the resolution focuses not just on the data out there
163but more importantly the ongoing engagement and accessibility of information which will lead to the next phase of transparency and I know that there are parts of it that are aspirational uh the board's talked a lot about I think Dr Rivas has brought this up many times about how do we know what's working how do we connect budget to outcomes for students and I know that's tough and I see this as an attempt to try to get us there uh in addition to just having more iterative conversations with the public so appreciate your leadership and bringing this forward other board members I'll call on myself then I have some problem only with the resolve that talks about clearly connecting student outcomes and with the sentence in the last resolve that says that the budget tool and
164student achievement metrics and if you were to remove the resolved about the student outcomes and just the part of the sentence that says and student achievement metrics I could vote for this and let me tell you why I'm concerned I've spent a lot of my I'm a social scientist by training okay I taught history and I know a lot of history but it's social science and I've done a lot with Statistics it is very difficult to deal with causation when there are multiple funding sources for an item I would urge you if you take this out to bring back a resolution in which we begin to describe the problem and ask staff to help us figure out how we can make some attempts at connecting outcomes with budget it's clearly important that we be able
165to do so I just don't think we can right now and so for me to support this I I would be saying I think we can do this and I'm telling them that they have to do this and I can't do that so if that were removed and just the part of this last resolve that says and student achievement metrics I would be happy to support this and I congratulate you on bringing a great many items forward that I think will help us deal with the fact that it's a big budget it's difficult to do but we can certainly do a heck of a lot more to make it easier for the public to understand and to use so anyway that's my request I hear that and I think like Mr M said it it
166might be a bit aspirational particularly since the charges for this fall um we did get an operational impact statement that talked a lot about the first few reses so I don't know if staff might be prepared to share a little bit about the um feasibility of doing something this fall I I would be open to thinking through a timeline that might make more sense um because I do think it's so important that we connect our investments to our outcomes every industry does that that's how you know if you're doing a good job um and it would help us make different decisions I think about uh budgeting throughout the year and changes that might need to be made year-over-year um so if staff is willing I would invite you know any comments on your all's perspective
167on the feasibility I don't disagree with the goal I disagree with the idea of saying by October 2025 we have a way of doing it yeah that's fair I can just add on this one I think in discussing with our chief business officer and and chief strategy officer the timeline should be be extended and it should be more exploratory in terms of viability and how we would include these types of metrics and make stronger connections to resources um so to the extent that there is willingness to allow for additional kind of research uh providing a kind of plan on how we would actually incorporate those additional metrics that would be helpful to staff in order to prepare something that I think is more aligned to the spirit of the resolution I appreciate that Mr Carval
168did you want to add anything or is that fitting sorry about the feasibility of the timeline um um I think it can be done within that timeline but if you want to stretch a little bit more I think uh we would be well served as a district okay I I'd be open to um is it fair to say then maybe by October the budget tool like has a plan to connect to student outcomes uh because I know it's the direction we want to go I'm notag okay and I don't want to invest a lot in a tool that is not able to connect to student outcomes we want to make sure it's set up in the right direction okay so we'll add that the budget tool where there sorry I should have done this ahead
169of time but between tool and clearly we'll say has a plan that has a plan that and thanks for raising your concerns Miss Goldberg I I think they're absolutely valid and you know we had a community conversation a couple weeks ago after we had first introduced this and also heard that from school staff members Community Partners like is this really possible all of this so quickly and I think what most matters is that we uh you know get to this tool and we want to be realistic and so happy to you know hear from staff as things are being implemented I know there's already been a lot of movement in this direction and I'm grateful for that and I would like to be able to show the strength of the board behind the superintendent and
170getting to some of these really ambitious pieces about the budgeting tool student achievement AI technology um you know growing uh really where what you know Mr Melo said about being even more transparent in all of the ways that are beneficial to the various users of of these kind of budgeting tools that exist today um but I saw my colle oh go ahead if she could restate the the revised language she was yeah and the third resolve it says resolved further that by October 2025 the budget tool and then we'll add has a plan that has a plan plan that clearly connects to student outcomes describing how the Investments impact student outcomes and strategic plan goals so we're just adding instead of that it does it it has a plan that will get us there and
171maybe we're already there or maybe the plan needs a little bit more time what is the definitive date of your expected completion for the next budgeting cycle is the goal um but again if staff is you know working on things and needs to bring it back to us the idea is that you know this time next year instead of um you know just looking at the budget book or the PowerPoint we would have a tool that has been uh vetted with the community and gotten feedback such that we're able to use it for the next budgeting cycle the other thing I would add then on the final resolved will leave-in and student achievement metrics and I'll add be before are available we'll say when established are available when established great that way we're saying you
172know once you've got a way to do this yes we want to do all those things with it but we got to wait till we got we know how to do this great so in the fourth resolve that the budget tool and student achievement metrics are available when established I see Mr McLean's capturing this to be able to send it back around any other questions or comments on this go ahead Dr Rivas um no overall I do see the um the promising solution of of this your resolution and and enhancing transparency and Community engagement um in my prior comments about outcomes I from my my recollection it's mainly um been around our procurement or contracts I remember mentioning in terms of tutoring what are the outcomes of tutoring right and different you know um like
173I said outcome I mean um contracts that we have esta that the district has established and that we're voting on so my concern has been on that you know on procurement um but however um I you know on face value this initiative does align with the district's commitment to equity collaboration and operational effectiveness aiming to provide stakeholders with accessible and comprehensive budget so I do uh thank board member Goldberg for you know bringing in um some you know some friendly amendments or some changes because those were also my concerns um as we all know in order to we have priority schools and we're investing a lot and we need at least three to five years as we've all been briefed on seeing those outcomes so I want us to also be uh cognizant on on
174on those schools right because we're investing a lot and we need the schools need some time for for those outcomes I guess my overall uh concern uh or potential challenges for this is the the implementation the maintenance cost any AI limitations or biases that may come from them so I know we're going to explore that so I'm I'm I'm hopeful that that'll come to light on on any biases um also the complexity of budget data um data privacy and security concerns um so all of these you know for me I felt that these were challenges um that this could present but you know we're is it going to come it's going to come forward and we can have an ample discussion about this so I do appreciate you you bringing this forward so and thank
175you for your changes Miss Goldberg thank you and thanks for already raising some things that I hope would come up during the engagement process so that we are cautious of all the things that you just raised I appreciate that thank you well I appreciate um Miss ores Franklin and Mr Mel bringing this forward I think we hear a lot about the need for greater budget transparency in this room and it's incredibly important to ensure that we are being clear and open with our stakeholders as we utilize public monies um we have frequent conversations about the budget and provide a lot of information but transparency isn't the same as accessibility and so I appreciate you know the resolution's effort to really be iterative in gathering feedback from different stakeholders groups to ensure that um we're answering
176all of those core questions that they continue to raise and that the information we provide is actually usable um that being said and I think it has been raised you know what the resolution describes is quite a ways like we are at the very basic level I think in terms of um of the information we provide and the usability uh and this envisions I don't know like is it the Cadillac version is that the phrase people use um of what of what this could be the Tesla version sure um and one question uh and one question for me um especially on the utilization of the AI component I mean there are I think technology companies that develop AI over years and years and years and even then it is a a flawed tool in some
177ways um so I just wonder if staff can speak to an estimate around how much it might cost to build out a tool of this kind I think the timeline has been spoken to um and the information we were provided was that it would cost additional resources but in the interest of transparency around the trans areny resolution it'd be great to get any sense of of cost I think we're all hesitating because it's it's difficult to cost out from the day is right uh what this could possibly um amount to but what I can tell you is this based on our recent experience in building out very comprehensive tools that digest analyze massive amounts of data but attendance data academic uh performance data um I don't think it is an excessive cost so the the
178AI engine itself is one thing the code meaning the programming right to generate the information you want and then the universe from which this engine can fish the information from we can control that and this budget information does not require an AI engine using large language model that would search all Internet Resources it's really uh it's really an entity that fishes inwardly only budget information and it's tied to strategic plan LC cap Etc so I don't Envision I could be wrong but I don't think I don't Envision this to be necessarily a very costly effort in terms of the AI alignment uh to uh to to the question at hand that's helpful and I know sometimes in resolutions um particularly in ambitious ones we integrate like interim progress measures where we're where the staff is
179reporting back to the board on progress Andor costs and what what is the longterm plan look like so I don't know if it's possible to integrate some sort of component around reporting back to the board between now and July 1st like I see that there's the input being gathered in the second resoled but um maybe that because that's a big question for me um so that might help allay some of my concerns if there were some sort of interim report back prior to this tool being finalized in in a year yeah but i' almost rather have instead of like a board informative is like in our briefings or like schedule a briefing with you know two three offices at a time to share like here's what we're hearing you know what are you all seeing
180and actually use that as a way to get feedback from board offices because I would anticipate we would use the tool very often and so we would be included in those feedback sessions and so we could hear from staff during those times what they're hearing from the fields um so that would be my hope is that it's not just like a board informative and writing but that it's a conversation with each of our offices and I'm hoping that works with the staff fine for me we'll do that anybody else on this my item all right it's been slightly amended then we are uh voting on resolution number 24 and the changes are in the uh resolution starts that by October 25th the budget to School clear uh has a plan that clearly connects it to
181student outcomes and then the final resolve it leaves back in the student achievement metrics but it adds the words when established everybody understand what we're voting on call a rooll please and you accept those as friendly amendments okay all right here we go calling the rooll uh was moved by Mr orti Franklin seconded by Mr Schon Dr McKenna yes Dr Ras yes Mr schmon yes Mr melb yes M gones yes Mr Franklin yes president Goldberg yes I'm excited thanks everyone all right board members here's where we are I'm going to take up item 13 which is the annual report regarding proposition 26 and then we're going to hear from deac CAC and pack okay everybody understand where we are in the old system here all right so item 13 suggest oh 13 and 14 okay
182together right okay they're together all right so uh I believe we have a presentation on this item from the staff is that correct we have some slides some slides let's see those please for I'm taking this out of order so so don't be disturbed that it's taking us a couple of minutes to get all of the pieces in order this is would have been easier for them I'm sure if we had taken this item in order good morning good morning San Bravo Kimi uh senior Executive Director of Finance policy so we have a couple slides that are actually in the budget present ation you'll see them in the budget presentation but they are relevant to this item that the board is considering um and so we want to describe first kind of the status the
183current level of funding um for Arts as compared to last year so thanks to prop 28 and increases to other District art Investments so there were of course also increases to non propop 28 Investments the district budgeted over $6 million in arts funding in the current year and on this graph you'll see that that summary of 129 almost $130 million in non-rop 28 sources and almost $77 million in prop 28 sources that $77 million figure is determined by the state the total the per School amounts completely determined by the state and you'll see on the first bar uh how much was spent last year last year being as we discussed at previous board meetings kind of our Baseline level of funding that we're going to be held accountable to moving forward and that's about a
184little bit over $74 million in expenditures related to arts in 22 23 last year so you'll see that huge increase from one year to the next Arts education is of course a very high priority at L unified it's important not just for academic growth but personal development of our students their social emotional expression and of course just a general appreciation of diversity and culture so that exposure to the Arts is extremely important we also want to State again as we have previously that the district is complying with the rules related to prop 28 first as we've discussed previously the prop 28 funds are allocated in full to schools the amounts that each school gets that total that $77 million is determined by the state formula the per pupil amounts that are dictated by that formula
185and the district in turn allocates that exact amount to schools in support of art education second the supplement not supplant rule is determined at the district level and the district is in full compliance with that requirement and so the supplement supplant test is done at the district level and that is consistent with the information we've gotten from the CDE in in meetings we've had with them as well as in the audit guide itself most importantly and also even though we are in full compliance with those restrictions with the rules about how much schools get how much we're required to spend from nonprofit 28 sources uh in support of this commitment that the district has to ensure that our students are receiving those important Arts education and experiences $30 million of additional Arts funding for art
186teachers will be provided next school year to ensure that all elementary schools have the same base level of art teachers from nonpr 28 sources as they had last year and so what you'll see the impact that has on our staffing levels so going from left to right on in last school year there were about 20 there were 273 FTE art positions in the current year 520 this is from all sources and then given that additional $3 million of funding which you see in that green portion of 2425 that results in an additional FTE for well over 700 positions in 2425 but you'll see even without that additional 195 positions that are that $30 million additional Investments you'll still see a substantial increase from last year to this year and next year in arts positions in
187support of art education and so this is an important context the prop 28 annual report of course has a lot of additional requ requirements for information that's required to be reported you'll see that in that document but at a at a big picture level we thought it was important to stress not only the district's ongoing commitment to investing in arts education and arts experiences and exposure for our students but also an increasing and Staffing levels for those that are providing direct art instruction at our schools questions hey so thank you for allowing me to say a few words and asked some questions I had sent a letter to superintendent carvalo which he passed on to you about questions that I had and so these are not surprise questions these are not trick questions these are
188questions that you had a chance to see and I need you to know that neighborhood councils parent groups schools Arts teachers every single time I'm getting these calls and complaints that it's not happening like it should be happening at the schools so I know you're talking about the big District but I am interested in arts instruction at my schools okay I want to know about my schools and so do you want to know about your schools I want to know about the public schools that are receiving so so considering the the media tension and the Board District advocacy around this topic I'm glad to see that today we'll take a deeper dive into Arts funding I tried to have a committee the whole meeting but the calend only has so many days we just ran
189out of days so that's why I'm able to do it now and I appreciate that Miss Goldberg thank you so I want to know specifically how funds proposition 28 have been and will be allocated and as you know I met with your staff's multiple times to discuss and provide Schools staff parents and community members clear information on Arts instruction funding at the school site at the school because that's what they see at their own School site so I have yet to receive any information that I can easily share with constituents so here's a question did all the schools receive the approp the appropriate prop 28 allocation of $111 per student is that a true statement yes schools each receive the allocation uh amount determined by the state per statute $111 per enrolled student so the
190CD publishes the school by school allocations for districts across and schools across the state and those are the amounts that were allocated to each School in full the exact amount determined by the state we have no discretion to allocate uh a different amount to those schools and 78 additional dollars for each title one student so there is an amount a base level for all students and then a second amount for socioeconomically disadvantaged yes so you don't have a number but you said it should be had should have been allocated whatever it was in full State determines exactly the amount the answer is yes the answer is yes okay all right we got that down next one what is the past and current Arts instruction funding provided to the school site so they can see if
191prop 28 funds are being used approp appropriately sorry to add rather than replace prior arts program funding that's what they want to see so while School level funding may vary um on average schools saw an $882,000 increase in their total Arts budgets since last year comparing last year to this year so the school level allocations do vary for a number of fact reasons but but that is the average increase that schools that saw at L unified okay so so far the presentations in my opinion around prop 28 funding have not been really clear or really transparent and taxpayers and our constituents deserve clear and accessible information about how the district is out ating the funds so here's a couple of questions can La USD confirm that prop 28 funds were not used in any school
192to replace existing funding so as the prop 28 funds as I mentioned that are allocated in full the exact dollar amount determined by the state the the schools themselves determine the use of those funds and in terms of replacing existing funding per the CDE Guidance the ter the determination of the supplement suppli that that I mentioned before is done at the district level and so we are demonstrating an increase from those nonprofit 28 sources in uh full compliance with the cde's rules and again that's per the statute itself Mr schmon may I help just for a second with a question help some schools believed that they had non propop 28 funding and that this would just be added on top of it did that happen so School level funding amounts did vary and so if
193a school might have seen an increase in a certain type of funding like Cultural Arts passport and might have seen a decrease in a different type of Arts funding that does happen but what's important for compliance purposes is the total amount that the district is spend I don't think the issue is compliance that we're talking about sure what we're talking about is that schools may have had let's say $17 or $170 a kid already from non funds in their account and they expected that on top of that would be the prop 98 funds so that they would have what they originally had from last year or the year before plus the other on top is that what happened so in some cases schools did see a reduction in a certain type of nonprofit fund all
194right so here's here's the problem that we're facing as I see it schools anticipated that they would keep whatever they were already getting and get the additional money they think it's supplanting if that didn't happen it's not supplanting because the law that gave them the money under prop uh 28 is actually being carried out the additional money which is adding another 195 teachers FTE and teachers for 2425 is an additional $30 million every school won't get the same amount from that but they'll all be able and particularly elementary schools to be able to afford an actual art teacher right yes okay go ahead Mr superintend you want to explain that sure just one one additional and I appreciate the comments made by uh our board president there there's obviously a interpretation based on a piece
195of legislation that on one hand is clear about how the funds hit the schools in a very prescriptive manner that decides on a basis of poverty how much each student in each school will get on top of the general allocation per student the district has zero control over that uh CDE decides that we implement it that is the allocation but to board member schon's point there may be some degree of confusion the allocation the appropriation is very dis connected from the accountability the accountability test is not done at the school site the accountability test is done districtwide so are there is there the possibility of variance in schools absolutely does that happen absolutely in LA and across the state no doubt creates the possibility confusion that is why we decided considering the degree of confusion
196and because ultimately we believe in the benefit of our Arts education that's why we decided to create this additional fund and uh we placed $30 million into this appropriation to do something very different notwithstanding the letter of the law we decided to lean on the intent not just the letter but the intent how are people perceiving that and we're paying a a price for that so this $30 million is above and beyond full compliance with the letter of the law leaning more towards what we believe is the understanding of individuals in schools it's also to address Myriad circumstances in schools where for example a school may have benefited from a competitive grant program that competitive grant program ended naturally that program supported maybe half a teacher during the school year those $30 million will help
197ease that situation so this is an investment by the way that we cannot back away from because the way prop 28 reads is whatever the base level funding is established in one year becomes the floor of funding for the following year so this 30 million will enter into that equation but board member schron the commentary you're getting we understand it there's a disconnect between the appropriation and the then what the state is using is the measure of whether or not the district complied and that measure unfortunately is not school specific it's districtwide uh that's why we enabled this 30 million of additional funding to address the issues in these schools that saw some of that variance to make sure that there are no losers in the entire District going above and beyond the uh the
198requirement of prop 28 so saman when did the district formally consult with school communities about how prop 28 Arts would be distributed to principles and how to inform with their Community maybe that's where the whole problem started do we clearly explain what was going to happen with prop 28 funds did the principal have information did they present it to the communities so we did allocate These funds for the first time in the current school year and those allocation notices went out to schools during budget development over 12 months ago and something that's important to note is that when we did that this was over 12 months ago we had not yet received the allocation amounts from the state and so unlike some districts who said we're going to wait to know how much each school
199is getting before allocating funds to schools we knew that if we were to delay the allocation of those funds and it would have actually been until the middle of the current school year when we actually got the final amounts from the state that the funds would not be able to be well used for the benefit of students so we went way earlier before we knew what the amounts from the state estimated what we thought each school would get based on the formula and went ahead and allocated in advance of knowing the final amount from school so this was done around February of last school year the allocation letters also the allocation letters included whatever information and guidance we had from the CDE at that time which was somewhat limited um the CDE in their defense
200was this is a new voter approved proposition they were still working their their way through the the statute the rules how to implement it but we also again we wanted to make sure that the dollars were in the hands of our schools as early as possible even though we still didn't have very clear guidance and in some cases still do not um from the state and so those allocation letters did include some guidance about the use of those funds But ultimately within those guidelines within the restrictions that we know of from the statute the use of those funds is determined by the school um and that's also per statute I mean it's it's it's what's required that the schools determine the use of those funds except that 80% must be used for personnel exactly so
201within those rules within those guard rails um the schools determined but yes they do have to comply with those those so app appreciate getting the money ahead of time that was great board member Schon if we may also add I'd like uh Dr bias to also share the ongoing guidance that was given to schools around prop 28 just you know once they were receiving their monies what additional guidance that we also gave to principles and that we will so after the budget development season we also Prov provided um information to our principles through principal meetings through uh memorandums letting them know what proposition 28 was intended for uh letting them know that 80% was designated for teachers uh classified staff teachers assistance that would be uh supporting with Arts instruction and that 20% of that
202would be for um contracts related to Arts whether it's materials supplies contract with an Arts provider so all of that guidance came from uh the division of instruction so that principles would understand how to allocate those dollars and use them according to what the law required so that's the same time that the principles were getting all of those allocations for everything else in their school uh what's a poor principal to do getting all that information at once and how was the principal told to explain the prop 28 allocation system to the community were they told I don't know well as you heard um San say um we did have limited guidance from the CDE so throughout the year as we were going through budget development we knew that that uh schools needed to develop their
203plan incorporated into budget development throughout the year we've also been providing them information there was also a communication toolkit there was a one pager that described to them um what the allocation is what's the base and the difference and the intention for those dollars but board member I would agree that there is an opportunity to do even more and work with our Reg directors and our regions to further support how to engage the community in understanding how prop $28 are being utilized so we are leveraging that as an opportunity for next school year I think if I might again I think the problem is is that if you have less money in the Arts fund than you had last year you think you've been supplanted right that's that's the basic underlying concern the reality is
204you haven't been supplanted because you got exactly what the prop 28 required because we didn't make up the number the number came from the California Department of Education all right we didn't have a choice Mr schmon on whether or not to send them more or less we sent them what the state required under its plan and they told us the number we didn't make up the number they made up the number so yes there may have been schools who thought they lost money but now we have from the superintendent an additional $30 million to say to those schools and I would say in my opinion particularly elementary schools that instead of having uh 520 teachers paid for directly there'll now be 715 or an additional uh 195 teachers that that means that they will not
205only get the amount that the state required to be sent we didn't make that number up but they will get additional money in order to make sure that they have the proper teachers and and assistance in music available I think the important piece is with the additional $30 million that is included in the 2425 budget so we'll establish a hold harm lless that we kind of go back to those schools that did see a reduction in that nonpr 28 allocation of a Arts itinerant Personnel that we will make whole so the intent is to kind of do right from the perspective of level setting what the community how we're making Investments around the Arts but I need to be very clear this goes above and beyond what prop 28 requires um you know what we
206are implementing this year you know meets the letter of the law we want to make sure that as we move forward this is not a place of contention controversy or questioning we need to focus our investments in the right way and get the direction around the Arts in a place where we know our communities will see the positive impact of our Arts Investments and so you want to make sure that that's where the energy is at the excitement is focused around arts in expansion and La unified and we're very much committed to doing that I have some more questions for but you know it's so sad that uh this wonderful program this wonderful program of arts for the kids has caused so much confusion and turbulence in the school it's very sad I mean everybody
207should be thrilled that we have this extra money for prop 28 yet everybody's criticizing and everybody is investigating what's going on here so I think the role out was the problem but that's that's just my opinion okay let me ask you a question about um uh let's see about hiring yeah we have been told that there are 200 new art teachers that have been hired by the district so are these teachers new to the district or are these current Arts teachers that have been retitled do we know that answer so what you'll see on this slide that that's still up on the screen is an actual increase in FTE from so those are actual positions full-time equivalent positions that have increased from 273 and these are all art positions last year to 520 in the
208current year and then even before the hold harmless to 531 next year and then plus that additional $195 million 195 FTE that are the $30 million additional investment um of 726 total for next school year so that is a genuine increase in the number of FTE that are budgeted um so the assignments like who ends up filling those rules uh of course can change from one year to year but but that is a a Bonafide increase in the number of positions for Arts so for Francis this is a a question that keeps coming up why would the entire Cultural Arts passport expenditures designed to be a variety of cultural experiences be considered Arts when a great Ma well when a great majority of the approved programs are not Arts according to whom according to the
209art teachers I'm just telling you I give you example music teacher told me the kids went to Universal Studios and it was some kind of a coding part and that she asked what did you learn what what did you learn what' you do we went on rides and we had lots of fun now I don't know if they're going to regurgitate what they did but we had lots of fun and we went on Rise yeah you here okay all right so uh I want to explain that uh according to the culture arts passport field trip um information that we have the field trips that were the highest attendance were the Pantages Theater uh and just so that um just to give you a little bit of background in terms of the culture arts passport this
210was designed for students to have cultural experiences and that were connected to the arts schools developed the plan uh and the regions and the district approved those plans based on their connection to the art so I'll give you an example of one of the Arts um destinations Santa barbar Mission uh and Santa marara Museum of Natural History you might wonder what what what direct art connection does that have well students were able to create diaramas so it was the followup and the deepening of the activity that had that Arts connect connection so a student the students really uh learn a lot from building that prior knowledge when we talk about tapping into prior knowledge students don't have the experience to go to these locations on their own uh but the this culture arts passport provided
211students that experience so that when the teacher is now engaging in a lesson related to this to the missions they have something to remember about and now deepen their learning and then there's an artistic connection to it so as you know Arts is integrated it's not a standalone Arts is integrated into math it's integrated into Ste steam it's integrated into history language arts with that integration people might not understand the direct connection but it's integrated so if I'm learning about a particular historical time uh period in time I'm going to now uh develop a a field trip that is connected to that historical um topic or standard and then integrate in arts lesson into that topic so it's not a standalone Arts lives everywhere and so it may be difficult for people to understand but
212all of the lessons that I've seen all of the requests and the plans are all integrated to the Arts and so as I said Pantages was the highest um so despite this uh we are definitely looking into narrowing it down even further and making more direct connection so given that we have an adoption of core knowledge language arts we're going to look at all of the units and ensure that they have a destination that's connected to that so for example one is a a unit on mythology so if it's mythology that's a very difficult concept for students to understand so we're going to identify destinations that are connected and that will extend it uh extend the learning through an Arts activity so it's just U again like you said communication we are looking forward to
213developing a website that is clear on what is prop 28 what is a cultureal Arts passport and and what what does it mean to go to these destinations Arts is not a standalone experience it's an integrated experience that lives everywhere and so while something may be questionable we're happy to you we're going to provide that in the website to show how that there's a d direct connection to the Arts I believe you and I got lots of calls about how wonderful the Pantages was they went to see Mrs Doubtfire the they said the kids who never ever paid attention were enthralled and going to a live performance so you do wonderful things you do so do does the local no does the region approve a trip using these funds do they have to have a
214a rubric or do they have to say how this is going to affect so the kids at least know what they're should be expecting to see and do and know absolutely besides the rides you oh yeah absolutely and so the um the there's a plan that this uh principles developed and the region leadership has approved but we're going to con uh provide more support to the region directors as they're approving because the the destinations will be more narrow in scope and very connected to grade level standards in terms of the the unit of study in the classroom so we will be providing that as well thank Mr I'm going to go on to Dr McKenna now Dr McKenna thank you yeah thank you madam chair uh I'm not sure which of you knows the answer
215this but I I don't know where to go with it I was informed uh that now it's my understanding that all of the schools did not receive a dispersement of these funds for this current school year is that possible for prop 28 funds all schools did did receive the allocation they did yes so what would make a school maybe that's not your question your answer then why would a school believe it did not and they can't find it in a budget line or item I'm not sure why a school wouldn't wouldn't be aware where is this where is this information published is there a document yeah so originally it was around February of last school year when schools received their first notification of the amount and you said last school you talking about this current
216that's not all yeah so during budget development in advance of the current school year which was around February of 2023 and so schools as you know developed their budgets for the upcoming school year a few months before the start of the upcoming school year and so along with all the other allocations that they would normally receive a new one that they received was for prop 28 giving the amount the dollar amount and then all of the different rules associated with the allocation as board president Goldberg mentioned for example that 80% must be spent on Personnel related costs now this was done before we knew what the actual dollar amount per School the final dollar amount per school would be and so once we did receive the final amount in the basically the middle of the
217current school year we then allocated any difference between what was given to them before the school year started and what the actual final amount was so if there was an extra $330,000 for school a they would have received that additional allocation in in the current school year if a school person in some Authority at the school believes they did not receive how would I disabuse them of that that's inaccurate so schools are always encouraged to reach out to their fiscal Specialists who they work with very closely throughout the year not just during budget development to to know the amount the rules uh of the specific allocation in question also the public can always access the school uh spending report which includes not just prop 28 but every single allocation that a School receives and so
218this school would be able to see as with the community at large the amount of funding in total as well as the the things with uh that the funds were budgeted in the Personnel the the non-personnel ETC I almost create additional work but it may require that I don't know how conf comprehensive this is is there a written report that exists that would let me know from staff what proposition 28 funds dispersements were made to schools in Board District One this past year this current a report that summarizes only specifically prop 28 for all schools within the Board District for district one sure yeah we can provide that for me yeah we can follow up thank you that's thank you thank you very much anybody else Miss gones yes I just wanted to um make
219sure I understand the FTE part there some differences in the numbers in some different places and that that might be uh actuals versus budgeted but I wanted to just confirm so on slide 27 of the budget presentation there's the 520 number for the 23 20 for FTE for the 23 24 school year and then in the report um both the the staff report and then the the actual report the numbers are 342 certificated FTE 7 .72 I'm not sure what the 72 is but um we don't need to dig into that right now um classified and 46.88 uh Tas which is not 520 so the is the difference filled positions versus budgeted positions so one big difference is that for prop 28 the annual report our Affiliated charter schools are reported separately and so they
220would not be included they are included in what you see here because they are district schools but from the state's standpoint for at least a prop 28 report they do need to be reported separately the other thing to clarify for what you're seeing here on slide 27 is this includes Arts itinerant positions those that are funded with from TSP those Arts itinerant positions as well as any positions funded with the new prop 28 funds and then also any art itinerant purchases made by schools from other sources of funds for example Sen so anything that we is Arts itinerant mostly it's going to be in the tsp allocations that elementary schools receive from the district also prop 28 but in many cases schools also use their own C funds to purchase uh those positions so this
221is that whole universe um what you see here on slide 27 will be consistent with what you'll see in the uh the categories the but operational categor report in the budget book that's in section two of the budget book so the prop 28 report is is includes data that the state is requiring us to provide but doesn't tell the entire picture if that makes sense got it so the 520 number is inclusive not just of proposition 28 funded FTE and then the other issue reason for the discrepancy is the lack of inclusion of Affiliated Charter Staffing that's right and this would include any any position purchased with proper 28 given that the law prop 28 does not uh distinguish that 80% that needs to be spent on Personnel between certificated and classified there are cases
222where schools are using those funds to purchase for example instructional AIDs that are supporting Arts education at our schools um which is allowed by by the statute okay um and then one other question regarding kind of the contention or maybe confusion around the the supplement not a plan so um you know you mentioned the itinerant arts program in elementary schools um there's a a contention that there was a reduction in the itinerant Elementary Arts allocation um and that that is an example of supplanting essentially can you can you speak to like what is the status of funding for that program how does that compare year-over-year so that that is in fact what you see in the 195 FTE on this this table which is that approximate $3 million investment it's to ensure that elementary schools
223in 2425 next school year have the same amount of Arts itinerant days or FTE as they had last year so let's say School a had uh two days a week of Arts itinerant uh in 2223 that was provided by the district centrally uh this funding will ensure that this same school has that two days of Arts itinerant funding from nonpr ch8 sources kind of the base level of days of Art art itinerant as they had last year another thing that's important to note is as as I'm sure you can imagine those two days of Arts itinerant teacher is more expensive next year and so it's not that they're getting the same dollar amount they're actually getting more funding than they received last year because the the positions are more expensive for all the the reasons
224you're familiar with salary increases benefit cost increases so what's being held harmless is the number of days just to ensure again that they're they're receiving that same uh amount of of Arts instruction and not necessarily the dollar amount got it and sorry to make you repeat yourself if that's possible so the the the reason why we needed a hold harmless is due to like why was there such a significant reduction in the first place so there's not a a requirement for us to comply with the letter of the law as Deputy superintendent cedo mentioned that's not what's behind this it's just because there's been a lot of public concern and and confusion about these allocations and so the district is choosing to make these additional allocations next school year while not required just to maintain
225that base level of Arts itinerant Staffing at elementary schools from nonprompt 28 sources understood I guess the question was more what what necessitated that additional inter what caused that large discrepancy so there implicit in all this is that there were schools there are elementary schools many elementary schools where you did see less funding specifically in arts itinerant from TSP sources this year than they had last year not necessarily total Arts funding because that is not the whole picture I'm talking about a sliver of not a sliver but a portion of the nonpr 28 Arts funding but that's been the biggest source of of concern from the public and that's why this is being implemented to address soan I think the the question is why you know why was there a net eduction in those Arts
226itinerant positions for those schools so the there was other funds allocated in supportive Arts Cultural Arts passport and so there were variances at school level um in how much funding from nonprofit Tate sources schools received schools did all receive in combination of the tsp elementary schools tsp funds and and prop 28 funds no school received any less than would be necessary to maintain the exact same level of Staffing from Arts itinerant but um that's that's the background not sure that's the the clearest answer to the question um but you know we can pause there and and maybe Circle back on it I think they were trying to find out is the funding for those itinerant teachers reduced why yeah year-over-year changes in school allocation is kind of what's normal and by declining enrollment or does
227that have to do with yeah that we're that we're employing an equity based approach to the tsp funds and therefore some schools with smaller populations of targeted student populations are getting less like what yeah so Arts those Arts fund there was an equity index as we've mentioned before that was used to determine the level of Arts funding nonpr T8 sources and that drove a lot of the changes enrollment changes of course factor into funding levels from nonpr 28 sources um it's a number of factors Nick yeah appreciate the conversation and the clarity I think some things are being said for the first time publicly which is helpful and I think to miss gonz's question which I had as well I think we all had so in response to someone saying the $30 million that we're
228now holding harmless we're backfilling money that was prop 28 the district response is no because prop 28 is a district-wide allocation uh and there's differences of interpretation out there but but uh and then the question around um why did we have to back F why do we have to hold harmless is what Miss gona was getting at and I agree it could be clearer when it comes to enrollment and also Equity I know some of the schools that did quote unquote lose were in my Board District uh but they are not high need schools um but what I'm hearing you say this year is that we're going to go back in this budget action to 2022 2023 levels plus cap and there's some philosophical differences about whether that's arts or not I think we can
229agree we all support it for our schools Co to see Mrs Doubtfire is Arts exposure it's not necessarily Arts instruction there are coding and AI through ART but that reasonable people can disagree and then and then prop 28 on top of that is that correct that schools are getting their 2223 level plus cap plus prop 28 correct got it thank you and I know you know just for at least in the letter the board received today from a coalition of of concerned folks and there's legitimate concerns that we're discussing I just want to note some at least for the Board District Four schools the enrollment and numbers that are cited are wildly inaccurate like one of my elementary schools I wish it doubled in enrollment it has not so I hope that someone's factchecking at
230least those numbers um and then finally just on the Staffing you know because again I think we're all you got seven board members of superintendent who talk about the Arts we want to invest in the Arts we are investing in the Arts it's great to see us hiring more teachers maybe from uh Dr B is just what is the timeline in in getting these additional 195 FTS is like is and does the board need to do anything to expedite process so that in August those those teachers can be hired a hiring has been taking place so we've actually hired more teachers so um we are we're currently hiring and hopefully we'll be able to staff them all we know that this particular school year we did a few we did have a few vacancies uh
231but we do anticipate being able to fill we so we're we're interviewing we're interviewing and we're currently going through selection process great great and I do just want to and like the parents who reached out to my office too I just I do I appreciate the community concern and the advocacy are on arts and I just I know know it is has not been as clear in part because we're getting guidance from the state because there are different funding formulas whether it's CNY or tsp dollars or arts and so I think we can all acknowledge that the roll out could have been better and we iterating so I I I just want to acknowledge I wish it wasn't as um as contentious because I think we're all trying to get to the same thing and
232if we could be a little more collaborative through public conversations like this you know we're all and then Advocate at the state level because there was if I'm correct last year in Sacramento conversations about supplanting and not supplementing and so other funds were reduced and now they supplemented uh or supplanted with prop $28 and so we're trying to actually the state budget eliminated the state Arts funding and yet substituted it with prop 28 which also was not the intent exactly and that that's complete supplanting but they don't have to follow those rules only we have to follow those rules I remember the first time I got to Sacramento and found out that the brown act didn't affect uh us there there was no Brown act for the legislature the legislature enacted it for everybody else
233but not themselves so this is one of those examples yeah so I hope in Coalition we can continue to advocate for more art funding as we did in this District was one of the first to come out and support this board of prop 28 we remain supportive at least I remain supportive we would like to see more Arts funding and I appreciate the conversation um first of all I want to thank Mr schmon for you know elevating this discussion we're all receiving the same emails we're all seeing um the same lab letters from our labor partners and I'm to right now I'm still getting emails in in in regards to you know this year you our FTE was point2 and just wanted to they want clarification so without having to belabor the discussion I just
234from moving forward I want to make sure there you know that we're taking this as a lesson learned so that next year when we're allocating right or you know being more transparent and providing safeguards um more accountability and more explanation maybe a briefing on all of us on this is this was last year this year moving forward so that when we are confronted with these convers with these um questions and inquiries that we have the information rather than having to have it here so I just want us to just move forward being more transparent and I understand that you know we're um the district want to provide you know more of an equity based allocation however these are you know tax taxpayer dollars and are parents want to see it regardless of where the school
235is allocated um you know if it's a more affluent Community or not um and I and I agree as well so anyway so I just want to thank that we're having this discussion that is public and that um the you know our schools and our teachers and everyone um is re receiving the same information as we are and also and I'm I'm I'm very glad that we're Hiring Our Arts Educators our itinerants um because we definitely do want to see some more um Arts education taking place and I'm glad that we're also having more guidelines on you know the cap funds and how we spend it or not so I just want to say that moving forward let's not repeat the what we're having here today that's all thanks right I too want to thank
236you Mr Schmelson foray after this because basically it is a Communications problem uh the schools received exactly what the state said we were to send them uh and and and that therefore means that there was no supplanting but some schools ended up with less than they had before and when they end up with less than they had before they say well you're not doing prop 28 because under prop 28 we should have more than we had before in order to address the image that we have somehow supplanted we're adding $30 million not because we want to stop the conversation but because we want to make sure that even elementary schools if they got cut for the itinerant they're getting that money back and they're getting those itinerants back even at the increased cost at the
237expense of the Central District funding so I think that's very important that we just make sure that people understand what supplanting means in this legislation and what it doesn't mean but I would also like to say that I don't think you're ever going to to find enough art and music teachers and so I would like to see the district begin to talk about how we can take artists and musicians because a lot of our after school programs are doing this they don't need a credential to doing the after school programs so we've got a whole bunch of artists and musicians who are already connected to the district maybe we need to have a plan that says if they do these things we'll get help them get a credential and they can be a full-time teacher
238instead of just doing it after school so that would be my wish to you cuz when you don't hire an art or music teacher for 20 or 25 years because there's no funding for it and all the funding was cut nobody's going to get a credential who's an artist or a musician why would they or or visual artist I don't mean to just pick on those two a visual artist there are all kinds of artists that don't bother getting a credential because nobody was ever hiring him why would you bother now there's money to hire them I'm saying we should do something to see if we can get a credential program through the district that they can do it while they're already teaching in our classrooms and helping young people become more involved and engaged
239in the art so I want to thank you again Mr Schon for you're welcome and I hope we can get an informative maybe of the conversations that we had today yeah that would be good that would be very good excellent and board president Goldberg if I may we we are working with our Institutes of Higher Learning to develop residency programs to be able to recruit more folks into the Arts excellent to figure out how we can recruit people who do not have a credential yet because I know there are a lot of artists a lot of musicians a lot of visual artists who would love to be teachers but didn't bother getting a credential because who was hiring nobody okay hearing no other ideas I need a motion on oh no we have sorry speakers
240on Tab 13 Mr mle oh by the way before you do that we are not going to take a lunch break so if you see board members walking out it's because we have some sandwiches back here they're not avoiding you they're getting they're getting hungry okay but we are not going to take a lunch break so that's why we're going to see people walking in and out thank you Mr McLean okay here we go we have Wanda Marshall are you here Wanda Marshall come on up I'm here you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin hello I am a proud Elementary vocal music teacher in La USD since 2001 and uh I'm am here because I I want to be informed and I want to ask some questions I'm an Arts Advocate and I
241feel like I can best collaborate with my schools and also understand what's going on with the parameters of my job and the expectations so I have three questions for you and the first question has been addressed quite quite a bit regarding supplanting and supplementing and I do agree that there's a difference of interpretation but I would like to point out specifically where the CDE indicates on its website site in number 22 it does not talk about an amount of funding it explains that the funds should not be used to supplant or um already existing programs meaning that as a music teacher if my salary was in the general fund in 23 20 2223 then it should be in the general fund in 203 24 but since my my salary was taken out of the general
242fund and put into prop 28 that meant that my school did not have prop 28 money to spend for position and that is the problem uh with our perceptions there [Music] um It also says that in number 10 that the CDE is not approving or denying expenditures so that would call into question the district's decision to actually move our salaries from the general fund to the supplemental prop 28 fund I I just heard about this $30 million and I would prefer that my salary not be in a supplemental fund so that perhaps my salary could be moved back to the general fund and then we could have our um our money for prop 28 because my schools did not understand that they could buy extra position so my principal could actually have had another position
243so I it's hard for me to understand about the supplant rule based on what I've read with the CDC and lastly regarding the cap funds I did email you a copy of the cap field I apologize for interrupting but your your your time has elapsed okay thank you for your time and uh if you'll check your email you'll see that I found 676 listings with 147 that obviously reflect back to the Arts thank you so much thank you for your time Mr Mr superintendent can you have someone follow up with her to get the rest of what she was trying to say because I'm very interested in someone finalizing everything she member of the superintendent staff is going to follow up with you to get additional information okay now we will go to uh remote
244callers Ginger Rose Fox I see you're on the line Ginger Rose Fox please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have 2 minutes to speak once you begin Ginger Rose Fox please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin okay we will we will come back to you Miss Fox uh let's see Joanna kazuchi I see you're on the line Joanna kazuchi please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Joanna kazuchi hi my name is Joanna kazuchi and I'm an Elementary art teacher in another district and I'm a proud parent of a soon to be third grader at Baldwin Hill for art has transformed the lives of my students providing a sense of community and belonging and
245increasing their self-efficacy and self-esteem and I don't have to say this because we know that the Arts are powerful that's why we're all here that's why 60% of California voters approved prop 28 in the district where I work in other districts across California there was pre-planning that happened to where they were able to double the arts program my my team of art Educators doubled um and so did the music program they hired credentialed professional art teachers to fill these positions and kids got double the amount of art this could have happened in La USD but by contrast in La USD the district leaders chose to kind of pull a fast one and assumed wouldn't notice seems or that we were not smart enough to find out um at Balon Hills we had a point2 allocation
246FTE allocation for an arts arts teacher and 02 for music so 04 total before prop 28 and the exact same amount after what happened well they zeroed out their historic General funding allocation for the arts program and let the principal know hey if you want the art and music teacher go ahead and hire a with prop 28 funds what happened to that original general fund allocation that is the planting that's what's so frustrating about hearing this runaround is that we can see with our own eyes that art has not increased in our schools and that's the bottom line what are our kids getting this is beyond irresponsible this approach that you've taken so far and it communicates the disdain for the public for educators for leaders and most especially for our students our La USD
247students who deserve access to qual quity regular Arts instructure no matter what neighborhood they live in there's no confusion this is easy to understand L usd's implementation of prop 28 thus far is illegal the law is very clear prop 28 funds are thank you very much for your time appreciate your time okay Nicole fefferman Nicole fefferman 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 Nicole feferman good morning the superintendent and board function as stewards of and our schools I have two La USD students and um this year I have done a deep dive into the budget which is pretty scary because I'm a high school history teacher and numbers intimidate me but even I was able to looking at the
248budget availability reports see that our stte hours of art instruction stayed the same even with the infusion of prop 28 money it was supposed to double the amount of Arts instruction our children and our students received at the elementary level and at the secondary level um the tsp lines I looked in the budget the tsp lines were entirely zeroed out and the exact number in those budget lines that were PSP all of a sudden magically appeared in prop 28 lines the cap Arts expansion is sort of a funny phrase um going to see Mrs dfire is a beautiful art experience it's inspiring but it is not Arts instruction Arts instruction is is running a musical theater class at an elementary school at a secondary school and teaching students to put on their own version of
249Mrs dfire we know that we can do this Englewood and Long Beach Unified I saw them give testimony about how they have um adequately implemented top 28 I watched them on a CDE webinar at the end of May they clearly supplemented and did not supplant and they found people by adding classified Arts instructors who will then be a part of a pipeline internally to become certificated Arts inst structurers we can do this at L USU we are in the entertainment capital of the entire world and our students deserve and need more Arts thank you thank you very much for your time uh Nancy straight Nancy straight 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 Nancy stright Nancy strip please press
250star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin I see you're online with us Nancy please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin okay last time M stright okay we will return to Ginger Rose Fox I called on you uh at the outset didn't hear from you Ginger Rose Fox please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin oh hello can you hear me we sure can that sounds great please go ahead thank you my name is ginger Rose Fox and I'm an itinerate elementary dance teacher the chair of the utla Arts education committee and a member of lausd's Arts advisory Council established in 2022 the consensus of the Arts Council is
251that the prop 28 reports in items 13 and 14 are inaccurate and misleading because the information Lacks any detail about the types of Arts education programs funded by prop 28 required by Ed code 8820 and non propop $28 the Ed code also requires that each School site develop an expenditure plan for the funds allocated but we question whether each school has such a plan as you know Ed code 8820 requires leas to use prop 28 to supplement funding for Arts education programs and that using prop 28 is the plant funds that used for Arts education in the 22 23 school year violates the law we believe that LUSD is misusing the funds provided by prop 28 to supplant funds that have been historically provided by The District's general fund since at least 1999 the general
252fund has been used for I arts teacher positions for the elementary arts program that just celebrated its 25th year which Services every Elementary School districtwide whether Affiliated Charter or regular school in the 2223 school year the district provided approximately $28 million for 230 Elementary Arts FTE the number of itinerate FTE did not increase in 2324 also since 1999 L's general fund has provided a per people allocation for every Elementary and secondary school specifically for Arts materials and supplies the Arts materials allocations equal approximately $2 million during 2223 unfortunately far fewer if any funds were available during 2324 for Arts material supply since the 20% of prop 28 funds were not used at most schools to purchase art supplies instead 100% of prop 28 funds were used by the district this year without the ability to
253save those funds over three years to to replace the general fund that has historically thank you very much for your time we appreciate your time that concludes public comment on this tab and uh time for a motion and a vote very much a motion is in order on tabs 13 and 14 moved by Mr schmon second by Mr uh Melvin any more discussion just want to thank everybody and to realize that clarifying what this is all about is probably the biggest task before us a uh a document uh was requested by Mr schmon to all of us and informative about how we can better explain this to our constituents Mr superintendent is shaking his head he will make sure we get that and we want to thank all of you who've called in and raised
254issues and we're going to be sure to take up the ones that were mentioned today with that if there's nobody seeking recognition call the roles on both tab 13 and 14 okay uh do you want to take them as one or separate no I'll take them separately tab 13 first okay Dr McKenna yes Dr Ras Mr schmon no Mr Melo yes Miss gones uh Miss Ortiz Franklin yes Miss Goldberg yes one two that is four eyes but we have two more to take okay so it leave the roll open item 14 has been moved and seconded uh call the rooll please Dr McKenna yes uh Dr Ras Mr schmon no Mr melne yes Miss gones Miss Ortiz Franklin yes Miss Goldberg Yes again that's four eyes it passes roll open for that as well all
255right we will now move to uh the first one we're going to hear from is the community advisory committee the CAC uh Ariel Harmon Holmes is the chairperson and inred Ley is the public relations please come forward and make your presentation there a board item on here or is that this is just a separate they're just going to take a second to load the your presentation and let me let me just say that annually when we do the lcap and the budget we want to hear from our committees and we want them to have time to do that we've given them each 10 minutes for their presentations and they've done very good job of giving us materials so take it away is your mic on is the pro oh is the problem my my face
256isn't close enough wonder if I'm too short I'm like um anyway it's great to see all of you um some of you have seen more recently than others but um we really appreciate your time and attention and uh willingness to hear from our committee my name as um was stated is Ariel Harman Holmes I've been on the CAC for this is my fourth year I am the chair of uh the community advisory committee and I'm here today with ingred Levy who is our um public relations officer and I would say much more importantly the chair of our subcommittee for parent ambassadors um we have had uh a lot of interesting things happen this year procedurally with our committee so I think that what we would like to do today is um first and foremost raise
257up the suggestions of our members as to what uh priority should be for special education uh hopefully in the coming year but also generally going forward we also want to discuss a little bit of um some administrative hurdles that we have faced particularly this year year in trying to accomplish the work of educating ourselves and our committee members in order to give uh you know educated um coherent and helpful feedback that we would hope the board would actually incorporate into its special education uh policies procedures and practices so um I'm also going to just I guess point out this is our uh cic officers for the year uh that's me on the left chair I'm from region north my vice chair Mr Brian Davis uh is a full-time uh parent what is he a a
258parent a community representative a community representative from uh for a school um so he cannot be here today but uh he's our vice chair our secretary Erica labre from region South we have a student representative which is a new thing um you know we always say let's keep students first but we never actually had a student on the board until we uh just recently in the last couple of years changed our bylaws to require that we have the incredible Kelly Bedford as our training in education officer um I already introduced ingred Levy for our public relations officer and our parliamentarian Paul Rach who you also know as the chair of the PAC um I just want to have ingred Levy give you a very brief description of what her subcommittee does because I think that
259her subcommittee has really been the pride and joy of the work of the CAC in recent years thank you Ariel um yes so as Ariel mentioned I chair the parent Ambassador subcommittee and we kind of go deeper into how we can improve engagement between L USD families parents community and the district and is specifically special education um policies procedures um opportunities for workshops and other ways to be a more informed participant in their child's special education Journey um and access to the services and supports they need so over the last few years we've been working as a subcommittee to identify ways that we can best serve the families in our district as they are very have diverse needs we go you know there's Equity um issues that we want to be able to make sure
260we're addressing when we're speaking on special education because there's a lot of overlap between the needs of families from um the other Central committees that we also hope to collaborate more with so yes but in general like what what we're aiming to do and hoping we can get over some roadblocks is improving that two-way engagement between families and the district and getting all those messages to the ground level to school sites because I think that's what parent ambassadors can best do to serve students so yeah we're hoping that um in our presentation you will hear that and and kind of support our ideas yes um ingred and her predecessors have gone way Beyond I don't know how to use this you want me to click your click forward please click me forward sure thank you
261um you ready for yep I'm ready for the next slide thank you so uh we divided our um presentation about suggestions um into four sort of groups of suggestions this one um we called Equitable access to special education um so as I'm sure you you are very well aware at this point accessing special education is difficult even for the most Savvy educated privileged parents and it can be considerably more difficult for others for English learners for lowincome families for foster youth for homeless families and many other uh communities where uh the intersection between special education and their individual communities problems can really take a toll on the students and lead to much poorer outcomes for some rather than others so um to that end um one of the top priorities that uh we have heard
262our members and other special education families mention this year is timely translation of IEPs and IEP documents for uh English learner families including clearer policies on serving uh ESL special education students so uh we understand that that uh SB 445 is coming down the pike and we're very pleased that we have heard that LUSD did agree to use computer translation uh to improve Equitable access to IEP and IEP documents uh in the native language of uh the parents Andor students in the meantime that is amazing that's really a a huge step forward and we very much thank you for that um H but still we receive many reports of IEPs and assessments not being translated Timely so um we would just urge you to continue the the track that your support has been taking of
263trying to find Creative Solutions while uh s SP 445 makes its way through the legislature and hopefully gets adopted and implemented um and your continued use of Creative Solutions in the meantime uh another uh issue that has been ongoing for I've I've read reports that go back 20 or more years about this ongoing issue is the disproportional use of the emotional disturbance designation emotional disturbance is the one um idea designation for which students can um can receive special education eligibility that has a stigma and for various reasons while LAUSD has been improving overall uh we still have a risk ratio for black students that is greater than the CDE threshold for disab and for the emotional disturbance designation so uh we understand from um some presenters that we have had at the C itself that
264the roots of the problem include systemic RAC systemic racism and cultural dissonance failure to uniformly implement discipline policies and procedures lack of consistent intervention for traumatized students and a lack of partnership with black families now I understand that LUSD has been trying to take steps forward in all all of these measures we uh support you as the cic and we very much encourage your work to continue to do that we would like to partner with you to uh continue to grow and develop along those lines in the future as much as possible the next issue that uh we always want to uh raise up and bring to everyone's attention are some of our students who are generally uh they they are often lack the same voices and advocacy from families and community community members than
265others these include special education students who are homeless who are in foster care or who are incarcerated whether as adults over the age of 18 in um prisons and jails or in juvenile detention centers uh as I think you all know homeless students may be twice as likely to have learning disabilities and three times more likely to have emotional disturbances this makes sense uh considering the various different lifestyle factors that go along with having a family that does not have stable hous uh that makes it difficult to use that child fine function to identify them and even more difficult to provide continuous Services we understand this but there are also similar challenges that face youth in foster care we have not heard a presentation about how these communities are being serviced and I actually could
266not find much in the way of a stated policy about these things on um the LAUSD website so we would definitely love to have some presentations about that to the CAC next year so that we can figure out how we could best partner with you to support your efforts in this area um I also wanted to point out that the failure to properly support these populations does feed into the very thing that we are trying to um avoid which is creating that schoolto prison pip pipeline that exacerbates racial and income inequalities I think we all can agree that the school to prison pipeline is a bad thing and that it can be um avoided or ameliorated by uh further uh focus on how to provide that increased support so we look forward to hearing about
267lausd's plan and how we can best help you to achieve those goals the final uh thing that we are hearing is that there is a lot of confusion about funding streams for special education such that it seems like there are vastly different resources available from school to school I don't have numbers this is not based on you know like a comprehensive review of budgets from school to school I don't even know how I would do such a comprehensive review although I do think we should have uh such trainings for the CAC in the future but uh this is just anecdotal so uh our members are calling for um Empowering Families to understand funding streams in order to demystify special education and Foster trust between families and the district and to encourage Creative Solutions for distribution
268of limited funds because we do understand the idea is not funded and we are always operating using uh less uh funding than is necessary to actually meet the ideal of uh a fully funded idea uh the CAC would like to thank you uh L USD for supporting efforts to fully fund the idea uh we were all very thrilled that you had that as one of your legislative priorities so okay next could you do next slide please ingard thank you you're actually already at 11 minutes so could you just taper down your descriptions I don't want to cut you off we want to hear all of this absolutely thank you our next slide is about infrastructure and administration um specifically we understand that it's difficult to equitably fund all aspect of the special education system so
269uh we came up with a few priorities for um funding and attention and recommend the LA USD adopt these priorities in the future the first is increased funding for apis and sped coordinators at all grade levels because compliance varies greatly from school to school and having dedicated staff members at each and every school who are properly trained and not overworked is essential we see this on the ground level it is essential for ensuring that all special education students receive the best possible IEP within the limited resources that their school has uh we have a push to keep special education Cent open we see and recognize that L USD has a commitment to placing students in the least restrictive environment but this is an inappropriate environment for some students some need special day classes or special
270education placement in order to thrive we look forward to working collaboratively with the district to ensure every student receives the most appropriate placement for their individual needs we also want to maximize interaction between sped students and gened students this is not uh a conflict with the previous point because you can still have special education day classes and special education centers but also encourage uh mainstream socialization and other um overlapping activities between special education students and general education students um having such interaction results in reduced behavioral issues and increased engagement across the board for both populations uh related to the previous points we would also like to see an increase in oversight of special education compliance at every school that goes hand in hand with increasing funding and training for ais's and special education coordinators I'm
271going to turn it over to ingred to go over the next two slides okay I will summarize um to move forward faster so our uh main goal is to improve our collaboration to have better collaboration between the community advisory committee and all our LD supports um we have wonderful relationships in the past with the the teams that support us at the central level with our s support and with the division of special education um this year however we faced some challenges in um timing in the selection process that delayed our start for a few months which then had a domino effect of um of how much Outreach we could do this year and how much work we could do as a committee to really give meaningful feedback on the things we want to accomplish um
272this was a big year for Sela review and we did establish a committee that consisted of CAC members along with other um LUSD staff and administrators um our concerns were more that you know as an advisory committee we feel it's our duty and you know our duty under Education Code to be able to provide meaningful feedback that actually can be um like that can actually happen um to put it simply um a lot of times there are feedback we get from family we work with over the years where their lives would be changed if only you know the policy was slightly different and I didn't have to go to ADR or due process to get the student what they need so what we found is a lot of times in our feedback that we know
273would make a difference it was um not allowed for whatever reason and we think to in order to be better collaborators we need to understand the wise on a deeper level um usually um it's explained that it's not the practice of the district to do XYZ as an answer to one of our suggestions and I think it would help us as a committee to have a real answer versus it's not practice if it's not policy and if it's not Ed code then we want to know why it is not practice if it would serve students better so I think a better collaboration would mean um working really working together as a team as a committee that has students first with the district that has students first and that we all understand the reasons for the
274yeses and the NOS and how we can really impact students lives um also um because committee members many committee members spend a lot of their free time volunteering there's been a lot of feedback that um they feel their time would be shown as respected if there were some kind of stipend or some kind of acknowledgement of how much labor is put into serving students on these committees so I wanted to make sure to state that I know that could be a complicated thing to do but it's really more um to honor the work and the time that people put in to serve students um and then going along with that a lot of feedback we get every year in the CAC is that there's a need to have special education committees at school sites now
275if it's not an official committee linked to a budget then there needs to be some way to give uh 2-way feedback on what what is needed at particular School sites because there there's wonderful policies in place in the district we learn about them all the the time in the presentations we receive but then 20 families will say I've never heard of that I asked the principal about that and they didn't know um so we just need to figure out a way to fill in those gaps like there's wonderful potential it's not reaching the ground level everywhere and you know if there are schools where there are more um families that do not have the ability to access school meetings workshops to be able to speak face to face with school administrators and makes it all
276that much difficult to advocate for their students if there's not something in place officially and regularly and on the record um I'm improvising off of these slides but yes so um we would like to as parent ambassadors um the parent mentoring program would really help support those families who maybe don't have a knowledgeable administrator that they can easily access but there are plenty of very educated families that are more experienced in the ie world that could help them and fill in those gaps of support um our parent ambassador program started out great last year um this year we had a lot of hurdles to overcome in terms of our access to schools and meetings which we're hoping to work um more collaboratively with our support teams in DSC and sface this coming year so that
277we create the syllabus together get on the schedules at the beginning of the year and really access families so we can help them um our ambassador program was really um exciting last year and I think we maybe fell into some kind of um a gap between the region ambassador program that started this year and we really made attempts to collaborate so I'm hoping that we can really Empower all attempts to engage with families better this coming year um and then lastly make sure I don't forget anything oh um there is and related to the Foster and incarcerated youth um we've heard there was a surrogate parent program before that could help um support those students in families that maybe don't have their own family that can advocate for them and we'd like to hear more
278about that is there still a surrogate program and how do we get it off the ground and how do we educate our families and students that that exists um am I forgetting anything Ariel those are mainly our priorities like we really just want to collaborate with you all we want you to be involved please come to our CAC meetings we want to reach everyone better like we I just always want to keep growing and learning from all the experiences the hardships and make them into something good for students so if there's a way that we can do that with the support of you all that would be very much appreciated we even put it on the slide that we would love to have each of you visit the CAC next year well I will commit
279to being there thank you great thank you so much thank you for having us all right thank you very much it was 19 minutes but it was a good report and we really appreciate your information you want you really have questions no if you do let me know okay all right thank you here we go next we will hear from the district English learner advisory committee Carla Franco chairperson Carol K land sandal public relations officer and Abraham Romero parliamentarian I'm just going to pop in real fast so they're going to speak if if if the presentation is in Spanish you can hear it translated simultaneously while you're here in the room using these headsets so if you'd like to hear what these folks are saying in English as they're speaking in Spanish please put your
280hands up and we will get you these headsets uh members of the de and anyone back here um if you need to hear translated speech please use these headphones okay good afternoon members of the board and Mr superintendent this afternoon I am presenting on behalf of District English learner advisory committee I am here with Mr Abraham Romero our parliamentarian and Miss Caroland Verde who's our public relations representative so first of before anything I just want to thank everybody for the work we did this year 2324 where the parents this year worked in collaboration with all the Departments that came to present to give us the resources to support our English Learners and we've seen a true impact in the collaboration with parents and the involvement of parents and above all to hear those voices of
281recommendation which are the ones we are going to present today all right pardon I will be uh showing you our deac office officers I am your chairperson di Ganz our vice chair Norma Gonzalez secretary Abraham Romero parliamentarian and Carol K lde public relations at the current moment I will give the mic to our parliamentarian who will explain what we did in the master plan which was the first thing given in the presentation to support the English learners if it's fine with you guys um good afternoon all your beautiful people people I thank you for the opportunity that uh I've been working with you guys and the district it's been a challenge and um I'm going to talk about the master plan the district shall make sure that schools offer support and accommod ations to prepare
282for the elac exam to the English Learners Learners that have an individualized education plan EIP and show sh and shall ensure that these are reflected in the plan met should make sure to monitor students for four years after they have reclassified so that they do not lower their academic level the district policy shall allow for parents to continue practi participating in all committees at the school region re regions and District levels to ensure the achievement of English Learners during the mo monitoring of students that have reclassified I pass the uh time to point will be about the comprehensive needs assessment we made the recommendation because we have been doing a research about the implementation that the the district has implemented in the schools and have and their impact positively or negative in the school especially
283towards the students the English Learners so the committee uh says that the I ready assessment should not be considered as a prerequisite for English learner students to reclassify since this has caused a catastrophical impact because they're not preparing the students the way they're doing it with elpac so we're asking that you please consider that I ready not be a prerequisite since uh since it's a schoolwide since it's for all students in general another point that we mentioned was that the district should ensure that school coordinators present data to elocks in a way that parents can understand because a lot of times they do these presentations just to do them just to be in compliance and parents don't understand what is being explained the third Point says the committee cannot give relevant input because it does
284not have access to the connection with the regions there is no data and information this is referring to the fact that a lot of times we're asking for data so that we can give a recommendation and say what worked what didn't work how can we supplement it with something that could positively impact their students and not affect them negatively and the other point each elac delegate at the school level should receive formal training in their regions and this is so that they can grow with the knowledge and that way we can provide input to collaborate and have better results when it comes to the reclassification of English Learners so this point that is coming up these are the proposals or these are sorry the teacher authorizations that the department of met presented we ask for
285them because we'd like to know how many teachers are accredited how many are not how many are with credentialed how many are not you know because this is important for us parents to know if they are receiving adequate education that is appropriate for the students so the authorization plan should should show which teachers were able to meet the prerequisites that the district requires to meet the goals and objectives as well as show the obstacles faced to ensure that teachers are able to obtain their authorization so this is due to we had questions because we didn't have the specific process with which a teacher is a credited and and the process with which they can achieve their credentials and such so the committee would like to know if Med and the district can ensure that the
286process that the teachers undergo are accepted in time and what obstacles do these teachers have that still can't obtain that credential how can the district help those teachers so that they can obtain it and that way they can give the teachers appropriately to our English Learners or students also another point is School principles should provide a quarterly update report to the elac members on how they are progressing with the authorizations and this is in regards to how sometimes principles don't tell us that we have you know ta a or non- accredited teachers and then the school year's over and we weren't informed unless a parent that's truly involved and knows they have a teacher that is lacking a credential a lot of times people don't notice so we want you to make sure that the
287principles are updating during you know coffee with the principles or when they're informing parents every 3 months we would like to know if the teacher that was in that process a achiev their credential or they're still in the process so we're also up to date so that the teachers that are in our schools are in compliance now the district should consider hiring foreign teachers since their strategies enrich learning in the classrooms and this is in regards to a lot of times you can combine their Traditions that they have over there with these and it's a good combination I had teachers when I was in high school who were teachers in that way that that's how it was before in the district and I learned a lot and it helps English Learners too because they speak
288the native language that a person who just arrived here would speak and that would be support for the English Learners so the next point I will give to our parliamentarian Mr Romero I will continue with the proposals uh create a metal metal so that there is a con connection between elak and deac Regional elac committees uh number two elak delegates shall have a space on the agenda so that they can provide a report in each School uh three change the policy that the parents with children who have re reclassified and that enter the foure of monitoring please continue participating and the D committee uh number four change the reimbursement policy so the parents who participate and Central committies most of all and deac should receive a fix a fixed feet of 9990 for each of
289official meeting attended due to all of expenses generated because there is a lot of expensive when we make uh these meetings we come from far away I have to put my twoy year old two uh boy to uh pay for it and there is expensive so please if you could change that uh now I pass the time to uh Miss Franco thank you Mr pario the next issue is to create an utsman for uh ad eacy for parents a lot of times you see us as problem parents but in reality what we want to be is parent partners with you parents that are able to collaborate and work so that we are able to improve our school sites here the board is here the superintendent is here and you have the position of a student
290but in this puzzle there's something missing and that is parents so that we are able to complete that team that is required maybe sometimes you are fearful of us due to the way that we come but you have to understand the frustrations that we have as parents in our school sites and what we really want is to work as a team so that we're able to meet the goals and most of anything to be a successful District that we are representative for parents students in the district and most of all of all parents the next issue if we continue with the uh following proposals and there was no presentation on the lcap on the D committee this uh emerged because what the was asked of the department was not presented what we asked is that
291they could bring us numbers actions and miss Mr lward did not want to do so so we decided not to give him the space so that the lcap department did not present so no presentation was made about the uh lar can ability plan for the deac for the deac L USD does not have a way to measure the results and budget for goals with its 84 actions or something comparable due to this daac was left unable to give comments on the outc cap La USD should modify its required policies and practices so that the sface office can provide the adequate information to the delac and therefore the delac is able to fulfill its responsibilities like reviewing and comment commenting about the development and update date of the local control accountability plan and that's why it's
292very important that you bring the information that we request here you able to see that there was a lot of things that they did not present to you and how are you able to give recommendations or how are you able to improve if you're not given the transpar transparency that is required the next uh bullet point I will give it over to miss public relations officer Miss Land good morning everybody that are here in attendance today I want to thank God who is a um enables me to be here with parents thank you for choosing me here in this uh position it wouldn't be possible without their election and it's an honor to serve parents across the entire District it has not been easy and this is the issue that I have S as a
293public relations officer has not been easy to fulfill you there's a lot of people against you even though you don't like to fight but that is my job so I want to talk about the issue Delux supports that the school police return inside and outside of school sites more than anything you know what is happening across California and let's not say about other states we have high rates of uh crimes parents have come here before the board before you parents whose children have passed away violence within schools drugs inside of the schools and it's not just about violence inside of school but also principles abusing their Authority I ask at this time for the parents to be taken into consideration we have a very alarming High rate of crime if you review even today we
294are about to out of school but there are parents that are um damaged or hindered and school safety is so low so we as deac have requested that to be taken into consideration the support to return school police within and outside of the uh School sites thank you thank you Miss L Verde and the last bullet point here Dak is pending the review the presentation about conat the last meeting they did the presentation only about the intro about what is the consolidate application and just like I've always made sure that parents receive the information that is as precise as possible so that they're able to understand and be able to make the required recommendations this Thursday June 20th the department of conab who is Mr Hero will come and give the presentation about what is
295the Consolidated application he will explain to parents the importance of on the Consolidated application what is the role of deac with the Consolidated application and the importance of us to make those recommendations so that we can continue to give positive feedback for English Learners and not affect them and also we ask that the department of the cona gives a training that is more in depth where it explains to parents all of the titles that we have in our school set and in the district just like Title One title two title three and title 4 because many of us as parents we do not know what is what and what title one covers what is title two and sometimes they say oh well they're going to tell you in LC and sometimes in NSE they just
296give us a a sheet about the entire budget and do not want to give us what really what it really is so it's so very important that the parents get the ured information and that they are trained correctly so that in that way we are able to see enriching in information for our parents so that we can all work together so that we can see the results that we want to see inside and outside of our school sites thank you so much for the opportunity that you gave us to present and again if you have any questions please tell me fast gracias to you all as well we appreciate hearing your reports and particular when we have them in writing it's easier for us to follow up on them so thank you so much for
297your presentation yeah a little Applause okay I don't my right finally we will hear from the parent advisory committee uh chaired by Paul robach and the U let me get my paper out here the vice vice chair is Yolanda beckles I'll just note that uh Mr robach is appearing remotely and he should be po up on our screen uh any moment when he can uh activate his camera good morning everyone or as we say in the Philippines here mandang omaga I am calling from calling in from dumag City we are on vacation here I really wish I could be there with you all and I'm sitting in a dark uh Hotel kitchen so if you hear the sound of refrigerators in the background on my zoom I apologize for the background noise we are here
298representing the parent advisory committee uh I am here with my esteemed Vice chair yolan beckles and let's proceed with the slideshow from right to left our Pac officers first representing region South Parliament parliamentarian Anna Carion next moving over to the left representing region West public relations Dr Amber Marie Jones uh region East assistant secretary uvia SS another region Easter our secretary Wendy Minas again Yulan beckles are representing region West our vice chair and myself Paul robach representing region super South chairperson At Your Service and we are so glad to be here before you today next slide please I will turn it over to miss beckles our vice chair to handle this slide so good afternoon I've been here since 10 o'clock so I'm also having my tummy Rumble as I'm waiting for lunch um we're
299going to start by really setting the scene for you this year it's been a very interesting year on the PAC um we our role of the p as you know is to make recommendations based on the lcap and lcff on behalf of the parents of this District but we are afraid that we were unable to do that this year for a number of reasons um that we're going to share with you through this uh presentation you know we the 55 members and the 17 alternants in this year Pac have been involved with the work of the district some of us for over 10 years and we were informed by a number of conversations trainings that we attended around 10 years of the elcap this is 10 years of us having the elcap be available to
300us as members and we as a committee took some very serious positions this year that we wanted to be like some of the questions I heard you asked earlier on be transparent have data have the data connected to the budget have the budget connected to outcomes and those outcomes will then inform the kind of recommendations we wanted to have and we struggled to get that information from L USD in the early part of the year you know we started late we were only elected in October our first training was in November and then we started in December January so when you think of a year school starts J first 1 of July the system starts we weren't around for like six months to do any business of the PAC so I'm standing here to let
301you know that you're going to see on the screen three motions that were made by the members of the committee and voted unanimously by our membership the first one and you hear a lot from uh member Palmer she comes to the board regularly talking about issues around transparency um and her move of her recommendation and motion said I Maria Palmer move to call call L USD to present to all parent committee members on each lcap presentation and to the public how funds were spent for each goal and action item in the elcap including outcomes of each action and contact information for lausd's departments responsible we made that motion on the 1st the 8th of January 2024 and we're not there with getting all the information yet our second motion was made by another member Diana
302gilean and she said we proposed the motion to stop the meeting until remaining 33 actions of goal one are brought with each budget and their results and that was made on the 15th of February 2024 and then I made a motion to councel our Pac meetings until L usd's lcap team are prepared to present for each goal one to eight item actions the 1 to four detailed expenditures presented in the full Pac meetings for April and May before any comments can be made I'd like to say and I'd like to thank your budget team who created a series of working groups with us um Dr uh Elward and Dr Hansen both came with your budget team and sat with us us and try to get to what it is that we were really requesting what
303is it that the PAC needed so that we were going to be able to give you the kind of recommendations based on all of the things that you've seen listed in our motions and they are working on it you know let's give your team internally credit we were asking for a lot the superintendent came and spoke to us about this is not going to be a a one fix overnight strategy it's going to take us time to get to what you're requesting and asking but we felt as a committee we weren't able to do the business of the PAC without that documentation because how can you make a recommendation on a goal action like Bap without knowing the data without knowing the expenditures without knowing the outcomes we out known what worked and what didn't
304work it's not just about telling us and presenting us these wonderful drive by presentations without them being substance and quality and depth and we did not get that for the 23 24 school year so we were unable to give you those recommendations but we do know that the budget team in partnership with the lcap team and the Strategic initiative Department are working hard to design something along the lines we've already heard um board member Franklin asked for a transparency open budget system that we as parents community members can truly see where our money's going that our children generate those dollars in this District what it's been used for how effective it's being used and based on that we hope that next year because some of us are two-year terms you'll see my face again at
305my British accent we'll be back to give you some recommendations that will be based on true information on true strategy and true outcomes so I just wanted to share that with you Paul are you still there or do you want me to continue I am here next slide and we have it here thank you all right few more bullet points for you I'll expanding on these as I go along what we are suggesting for modifications or really improvements to the structure of our parent advisory committee are the following among others parent advisory committees should be formed at the school site region and region as well as the existing District level and I know look none of us want especially if we're a teacher or an admin none of us want have to deal with another
306committee at a school site we know they're already full of things to do and they have a lot on their plate but the thing is when we as Pac members go to our school site Council meetings and we attempt to give members a brief update on what the PAC is doing what are we always told oh that has nothing to do with our school uh maybe you can uh talk about it at the PTA meeting uh we have to move on with our agenda talk about parent alienation that's not what you want to be doing to welcome parents who take their time to serve on a voluntary basis as all all the all the all all the three committees do and tell them uh that that that's nothing to do with the school when it
307could not possibly have more to do within the school that that does uh that's so we need to have that connection between the parents at the school sites and us on the PAC for the past four or five years we've actually had one of our eight subcommittees is called the two-way communication subcommittee which was formed specifically for this purpose to connect the Pac through the region to parents at the school sites who by and large have absolutely no idea that the PAC even exist notot to mention the daac and the CAC all they're told by their principles is you only have to deal with the SSC and the elac and maybe the lslc all those other things they have nothing to do with us not true next this this is one of the concerns that
308crosses committees stipend for parents who serve at the regional and District levels to paraphrase the quote from Victor Hugo nothing can stop an idea who time has come I say again nothing can stop an idea whose Time Has Come other districts are doing this for parents so there's nothing you're not Reinventing the wheel there's nothing new Under the stun as far as this goes I'm so tired of being told that oh we cannot pay parents because they're not employees that's an intentional bit of misinformation that sort of pushes the issue off the off the table when that should be a conversation starter it's reasonable to ask for stiens for the dozens maybe hundreds of hours parents have put in to in into their what they call parent leadership career to be told no you cannot
309get anything all we can even ask for uh is nothing more than mileage reimbursement and childcare reimbursement what's it what's the reimbursement rate now yon $5 an hour for child care this is absurd so sty pens are an idea whose time has come and you heard you didn't hear he hear at first I credit our deac former chairperson Miss guen with bringing that to the Forefront and you will keep hearing it over and over and over until we can have a conversation where you can can actually make this a reality we're not we're not asking for extra money and we're not we're not trying to become what what we call Professional parents who do it for the money we are doing this for the love of our kids and love of our all kids in
310the district we deserve something Beyond mileage reimbursement and $5 an hour for child care my goodness other districts are doing it there's nothing elal about it so let's move forward with a conversation next one to become an executive officer at the regional or District level a parent must have served one full term before qualifying to be an executive officer yes that sort of it sort of intuitively makes sense but yet sometimes we've had on all three committees officers who were first year in the position who also happen to be first year on the committee they've done a bang up job they're doing just fine but we've also seen especially uh on the PAC how a firste member who is now the chairperson or the secretary or what have you they don't know what to do
311and that combined with this the lack of real meaningful ongoing training for officers and members has led to some really unfortunate outcomes where a chairperson who's leading a meeting and never took the training because they said oh I already know how to do that and there was no requirement to be trained at that time like there is now and you you can't you can't hope to be an officer to represent and lead your committee if you haven't taken a training and you don't understand the role you're in it's very critically important and I will connect this to the concern again that crosses all committees we're hearing about this all the time from parents all over the district what they're considering what I consider in part and with much respect to the the sface and the
312region face teams in many ways it's systemics failure the so-called driveby SS C and elac trainings that happen three and a half hours on a Saturday in October and then you have parents complaining all over the place oh my my principal is running the meetings the title One Design is doing this and that and I'm just the chairperson I just sit there because I don't know what's going on and you know board members respect much respect for you please let's not have anyone of you thinking thinking oh that doesn't happen to my board just yes it does it happens all over the place and the face units of the regions are very IL equipped to be monitoring elac meetings it's all they can do to get to monit to get the the Sams the sign
313up signin sheets agenda and minutes when you have parents calling in your department saying help can you please observe my meeting because it's not running right what are you going to do if you have 140 School sites to Monitor and you're getting multiple calls every month for that same issue we need to Bone up and accelerate and really take ssse and elect training to the next level and it must be ongoing not a oneandone and a three and a half hour session because heaven forbid if it goes to four hours gosh we have to feed these people lunch let's stop at three and a half hours talk about an insult to parents I beg you next par planning and calendaring to be held over summer break Pac meeting should be year round yes I know
314because because of the nature of the work we do it's it's easy enough to think that oh the school year is over we're all done okay see you next year those of you who are coming back or if you want to run for a position again but folks your board does not disappear and vanish Into Thin Air on midnight of June 30th we don't either and so it's particularly ging and frustrating to us and uh Madame Vice chair yolan Beckle could expound on this also if she wants we had nothing no we had no meetings from June through November of this committee we got started a full month later than we usually do which still on in that is is is usually was very late in November this past we started in December we've asked
315repeatedly why that was the case Zero answer from sface crickets no explanation of that CAC got started really late deac was not exactly on time either and it's not the fault of the committees or the parents who serve on them it's the fault of the department uh and the infrastructure that supports us which is doing us no favors by forcing us to wait and wait and wait and along that same line hold member and officer elections as early as possible in the school year we had our officer elections in mid November when do school start early to mid August August September October November yes we have the schools getting settled in we have Norm day we have a we have the school sites doing a lot of other things but my gosh we cannot be
316waiting to start up or restart this the PAC every year in November and have the first meeting in December when does the when does spring fall semester end be it WS at winter break so we've had one full meeting before winter break and then we've had the tremendous difficulties that Yolanda is more than qualified to speak to if she'd like to that that that caused us to give they're not really recommendations folks these are motions that were adopted to express the will of our committees that we are very upset about being told when we first asked in December M for Budget allocations budget expenditures and related student outcomes for each of the 84 elcap goal actions that we don't have the infrastructure to provide that information we cannot do it anyway even if we add
317the infrastructure and get this feel free to submit a public records act request Pac if you would like this information talk about an insult I don't even know what to how to describe our reaction but that led the first of three motions that were shown on the last slide this this is just absurd and I don't know how to describe it so I won't in in anything other than four-letter words honestly but we must get started earlier in the year I suggest that we get started with the PAC elections for members at the elap study groups no later than September yes that's only four to six weeks after school starts but honestly how much time do we need we're giving the system way too much time and then by the time we actually get started
318hitting the ground running ideally with the training and officer elections and orientations and all that we're almost done with the fall semester it doesn't make any sense and as we've seen this past year with all three committees I might add time has run out and and minutes on a 10-minute presentation so I'm going to ask you just not to stop but there should be a little briefer in your descriptions okay I appreciate that I appreciate that M Madam chairperson Madame President sorry so next I'll turn it over to Yolanda for member training and I'll keep it nice and sweet uh because I'm really getting hungry I'm sure all of you are as well so member training so you've heard a lot from our our chairperson and I'm just going to Summit up in a lovely
319quote from Rosa Parks to bring about change you must not be afraid to take the first step we will fail when we fail to try so we are asking the board and superintendent to really look at how we train uh parents in this District I know that technology has allowed us to move into uh webinars and zooms and all of that but really when you look our parents across the board particularly in the PAC we're representing English learner parents we're representing lowincome family parents we're representing Foster Youth and kinship and Guardians and then parent at large that's a vast array of parents and community that attend this district and to think that we can do everything on a webinar for an hour or 40 minutes is just not comparable it just does not work my
320life's work is training of parents and any good training of parents face to face is a minimum of 4 hours so we're saying to you that in the PAC to be able to do the work of the PAC realistically we're going to need leadership communication advocacy type training there's training that happens all across the country yesterday I was in New Orleans presenting to teachers and Math teachers so parents are learning this game in education and understanding that if they want to become much more effective parents in a system like public schools they need to be trained and we need to take training of parent leadership in these three committees to a much more higher level and I'm sure you can read the rest of the slide next slide Anna please thank you Yolanda next to
321elcap objectives first provide Pac members with timely and accurate data to better understand the current and year-over-year state of student academic achievement it's not enough to just show current current year we have to show some historical data so we can see especially with the mess of the pandemic several years back how long it's taking us to recover we're still in this hole as all of you know so just showing the current year data is not is is less less helpful than it could be we want to see a midyear lcap presentation to the PAC just as is to the board of education and we want to have all P Pac presentations including the following for each lcal goal in each action budget allocations budget expenditures and specific student outcomes to consider when making recommendations and
322this doesn't this sound eerily similar to the uh resolution that was put forward about transparent budgeting with all due respect to the board members involved in that I want to say we did it first that was the subject of our first motion back in January exactly what we're now seeing for transparent budgeting this came out of the Pac and to the extent that that idea was borrowed from us I would like to see quite with much respect get du due credit being given to the parent organ parent committee that originated it which I do believe is the PAC go ahead yolan okay next slide last slide people we can all grab some lunch okay so partnering with the board um we we want to see you more often I think yes you have a representative
323of yours on that sits on the PAC we're going to be asking those uh board representatives to ask you to come thank you uh Miss Franklin thank you Miss gones who came this year but we haven't seen any of any of the rest of you this is a committee that is an educational partner with you so we expect to see representation from our board members at the PAC meetings throughout the year um we're suggesting at least quarterly um so as we prepare for those midyear reports that we're all on the same Pages asking the same questions um we believe that you know student achievement is at the heart of who we are and what we do and family engagement and we understand that there are policies that are within the district that we think hinders
324uh family engagement and parental involvement to the kind of level that Professor Cara map with her dual capacity framework would be expecting us to use so we are encouraging you to sit with the PAC membership and start looking at that kind of high level family engagement and parental involvement work because there are those of us in these three committees who are at those high levels doing this work not just in schools at districts and at State levels and then ensure that Pac members are not just coming to at the end of the year we should be doing a midyear report to you on how things are going so that you don't get a surprise like this one this year we're here we are at the end of the year without a series of recommendations to
325give to you because we weren't able to get access to the kind of information that we required or needed to Be an Effective committee so I'd like to on behalf of my 55 members and 17 alternates and I carry on my parliamentarian myself and Paul from the Philippines oh my God how we are so jealous that you are there um thank you very much for allowing us to present to you today and let me let me Express are are you going to speak oh well in Spanish about what go ahead I guess emphasize more than anything that the members want to have a connection as a bridge of work but with all the board uh subcommittees because it is important that we have the connection of knowledge if you don't come to us we will
326just be here waiting always and our schools are the ones that are losing out and our students as well so I believe that we need to work as partners so that we can uh make the district success I am so proud of the superintendent of all of you who has demonstrated um of success and that he supports the community quite a bit so we also want to work as parents in the community and groups so that we are respected because at the end of the day the money are public funds we all pay taxes and we need to put our little grain of salts so for our students thank you so much thank you very much president Goldberg in closing let me just remind everyone that per bulletin 92.2 there is no such thing as
327a time limit on frequency or duration of classroom observations we are so tired as parents of being told sorry uh only 20 minutes or 10 minutes or we don't do that here or uh maybe next year principals should not have the discretion to determine whether parents observe in their kids' classroom rooms this is a board this is a district policy backed up by Ed code to the extent that parent principles don't know or claim they don't know about the policy aren't they responsible for reading this policy in order to run a school so enough of this 20 minute time limit for parents observing classroom it's not right and it's illegal thank you so much everyone appreciate your time and we thank you very much for your presentation and for your continued efforts uh the parent
328advisory committee is certainly a strategic part of the district's information and connection to parents uh before we move on to items six seven and eight uh we had members who were not present who were ones not present again uh but let's see if we get some votes caught up so Dr Ras on Tab 13 the annual report of LAUSD District proposition 28 uh how do you vote no and tab 14 annual report of the LAUSD uh Affiliated Charters proposition 28 report how do you vote no okay so it remains open just for board member gones all right thank you uh now uh we're going to go to items number six 7 and eight there are no speakers requesting to be heard so let's take up item six which is the authorization of a resolution for
329the approval of issuing not to exceed 1.21.1 billion doll in general obligation bonds you can just do it from there if you want I'm just gonna okay you'd like to sit here go ahead you like to stay there or come here okay so at this time uh vice president schmon is going to step in for president uh Goldberg as she takes a lunch break I think little quick lunch so as board member board president Goldberg said we have moved to six seven and 8 I'll move it I will second okay so board member Ortiz Franklin has moved and board member melvo is seconded for tab six uh there's no presentations on 67 or8 we can either have a discussion or uh we can we're prepared to vote on six it looks like right now okay
330okay here we go uh roll call vote Dr McKenna yes uh Dr Ras yes Mr schmon yes Mr melne yes Miss gones uh Miss Ortiz Franklin yes board president Goldberg all right well that's one two 3 four five eyes so it passes and would you like to keep the role open for uh board president Goldberg and gonz okay um so now we have tab seven second by Dr revas I'll call the rooll Dr McKenna yes Dr revas yes Mr schm yes Mr meloy yes Miss gonz Miss Ortiz Franklin yes for president Goldberg okay that's five eyes that also passes okay now on to tab eight what vice president schmon moves and Dr revas seconded uh Dr McKenna yes Dr revas yes Mr schmon yes Mr mvoy yes uh Miss gones Miss Ortiz Franklin yes board
331president Goldberg okay five eyes passes I'm still waiting on two votes for those three items so remaining we have uh some items on consent we can uh begin taking those uh public speakers to the consent items now if we want to use our time efficiently sure okay so tab looking for the speakers on Tab one hear the consent calendar I don't think welcome back board president Goldberg seven and eight too quickly take your time we can we'll be okay discuss on any of those but okay so now we're at the point in time where we're going to come up to the discussion of the public hearings on the budget on the lcap and on the Affiliated Charters lcap and I know that the superintendent has a presentation uh so I'm going to ask him to
332do that before we open these three items um we could yeah no most of them aren't here so they they thought that was should come closer to four so I thought we'll take up the big items now okay uh while we're waiting how do you vote um board president and yes yes yes and yes so that's uh yes for tab six yes for tab seven and yes for tab eight for board president Goldberg that's correct um ladies and gentlemen while they're getting ready to come forward on uh the three items that we have here for hearings the adoption of the actual budget will not take place until next Tuesday as will the adoption of the local control and accountability plans both for the district and the Affiliated Charters the week before we try to have
333a public hearing so that we can hear speakers and so that board members can ask any questions or raise any issues prior to the immed meeting where these items will be adopted which is next Tuesday so I want to make sure that everybody understands the reason that these are hearings and not to be voted on is because that's what they are they're hearings to hear from the public and from board members on these three items and we'll start first with the presentation uh by the superintendent right okay sorry fuing okay so I'll make some uh open brief opening remarks uh I think it's not lost to any one of us those of us who consume uh media both uh local state and National media regarding the state of uh education funding particularly um as we
334all uh grapple with the sunsetting of the federal uh covid recovery funding uh while other districts have been forced to lay off employees impose furlows we have in fact uh invested in staff with historic compensation increases via partnership and good work with labor Partners we take pride in the fact that we have maintained Health and Welfare costs and continue to offer um an incomparable benefits package not only to our employees to our retirees but also uh to dependants what you will see in today's presentation is not only are we maintaining core programs and funding for schools programs like seni Bap Community Schools we also expanding in a very significant way our investments in Residence subs for priority schools a continuation and expansion of intervention strategies as well as home internet connectivity despite some significant Federal
335reductions you will see that we are increasing intervention and student centered academic supports we're allocating as was discussed earlier today an additional $30 million of additional funding for Arts teachers to dispel uh ongoing misconceptions uh regarding this District's commitment to Arts education and we are expanding social and emotional resources which we believe are Central to student achievement and in fact reflect the priorities adopted by this board priorities rooted on Equity even during challenging economic conditions the district is also setting aside 875 million dollar over the next three years in a school stabilization fund to address specifically address the needs of our classified employees to specifically address a maintenance not only of the hours but the benefits associated with those hours worked by our classified employees you'll also see the establishment of a Workforce protection fund
336uh we've done this in the past and that fund is a reflection of the dollar equivalent to the cola at this point recommended by the state which we all recognize is wly low even with all these core Investments thanks in large part to a partially restored Cola and improve the tenance rate we retain a positive ending balance through 2627 which is key uh if in fact we want to ensure the independence of our district specific to our financial viability there are examples in EST State of California not only small districts but large District example of districts where their boards lost control over their budget because of their inability to manage through these difficult economic conditions so as we navigate these fiscal challenges Guided by our strategic plan we are absolutely confident in our ability to
337rise to the occasion and uphold our Collective commitment to educational Excellence our commitment to continue to invest in education not just as an obligation but as a moral imperative so I going to before I pass it on to our chief strategy officer Miss Veronica Arin I'd like to thank the board for the support and the counsel the advice and recommendations you provided also I would like to thank uh parent committees and Community committees and the voice of advocacy that has helped shape not only um not only the recommendations that ultimately we are bringing to the board whether it is the budget lcap uh and as well as every other uh specific uh recommendation that we feel is in the best interest of our students our schools and our community so the presentations that will uh
338follow emphasize our continued commitment our focus on alignment on coherence on Improvement on processes on effective planning and the budgets that are aligned to these elements the staff uh will be presenting an update on the district cell cap local indicators strategic plan as well as the 2425 budget and you will see through the presentation that our budget is in fact connected to the lcap and reflects the alignment of projected State local control funding formula spending towards goals and services for those will say we need more detail we need more ready access on a timely basis some of the board's discussion today uh indicates that we will get there very soon where at the Press of a button push of a button the community the board will be able to understand this deep connection between strategic
339plan goals functions budget and expenditures so with that said I'd like to turn it over once again to our chief strategy officer Miss Veronica igin before she begins let me say that some of this is to uh uh the uh pardon me let me get my numbers back up here some of this presentation is to item six the budget itself some of it is to the LC cap and some of it is to how they relate to each other so we're covering a lot of areas with this presentation but we will take the items up one at a time afterwards thank you please proceed superintendent and good afternoon board members um as the superintendent um has shared this presentation will cover the overview of the 2425 lcap and local indicators the Strategic plan and as
340well as as the board presentation for uh budget presentation for um today's presentation uh emphasizes the district's focus on aligning our systems and processes we ground our work in ongoing input and engagement with our communities as the elcap is aligned to the Strategic plan and communicates goals actions targets expenditures for the upcoming 2425 school year from here we will turn our attention to the 2226 strategic plan and then share from exciting updates from the second year of the plan after we review the lcap and finally for our Los Angeles Unified um our Los Angeles Unified budget Builds on the continuous engagement analysis of student outcomes um to to represent our financial commitments to our communities um the local control accountability plan is a state mandated three-year plan that is updated each year and describes the
341goals actions services and expenditures of the state local control funding formula funds this slide indicates a timeline for the Strategic plan and the lcap as you can see we are concluding a three-year cycle for the lcap and starting a new three-year cycle for the 2427 um school years in addition we are at the halfway point of our strategic plan so this just kind of helps create a visual as to what we are doing uh and what we are working with uh the local control funding formula is a large part of the district's budget but it is not the entire budget lcf lcff uh revenues funds um from the state and account for only 68.5% of the total General funds revenues for L USD in 2425 uh school year oops a little anxious there as part
342of the elcap engagement cycle the elcap team each year engages with educational Partners including student focus groups District level parent uh committees Community partner meetings District team meetings labor partners and Regent parent engagement meetings to inform the district elap the elcap team shared via email all of the planned presentations with the daac and Pac and the elcap team is collaborating with budget team and esface on additional budget information requested by the pack and daac committees we incorporated as much feedback that we could uh obtain from the Committees and the feedback um that we obtain from online um opportunities this year the team increased district-wide thought exchange participation to over 22,000 participants and as you can see we have exceeded met and exceeded the 2026 goal um 3D Point M4 and we will pivot to establish
343a new Target for 2026 on this particular Slide the district and school performance in the 10 in the 10 local control funding formula uh priority areas are measured using a combination of state and local indicators reported on the California school dashboard there are several lcff uh priority areas that do not meet the criteria um established for the state indicators that means a valid and reliable measures uh comparable state level data and the ability to desegregate data by student groups these remaining priority areas are considered local indicators district determin and self-report uh the district determines and self-report whether we have met not met or not met more two or more years on each of these local indicators local indicators only apply to the district level it is not desegregated any further Affiliated Charters report the same
344local indicator results as LUSD however Affiliated and independent Charters must submit their own loal local indicators to the state performance on the local indicators um that you have seen here are the standards for the local Performance Based on weather the district a measures for progress on the local performance indicator based on local available information report the results to the district's local governing board at regular regularly scheduled meetings of the local governing board and determine whether they have met not met or not met for more two years or more for each of the applicable applicable uh local performances indicators um District makes the determination by using self-reflection tools let's turn our attention to the 2425 lcap the first year of the new three-year lcap cycle as you can see those are the lcap goals on the
345first section and as part of the district emphasizes on building coherence and streamlining initiatives the elcap is aligned to the five strategic pillars in recognition of the voices and input of our communities the 2425 lcap also continues to highlight English learner supports and black student achievement plan implementation as separate lcap goals goal eight is a state mandated accountability goal based on the use of new state funding Equity multiplier funds to address student needs at 71 eligible uh district schools which is new this year um under the lcap metrics the 2425 lcap includes targets for both state mandated and local metrics to measure progress toward the pillars the elcap targets have been aligned to the 2026 targets included in the Strategic plan for applicable uh metrics and to explore these metrics and data please visit the
346open data elap dashboard at the link of at the bottom of the screen um there is a button on the open dashboard that is specifically for lcap goals and that and is disaggregated as necessary and in addition to the metrics contained within the elcap the district also reports the local indicators as well in the um as stated in the California dashboard under actions and expenditures while the elap reflects the five strategic pillars it is only in it only includes the lcff dollars not the entire LUSD budget and the lcap also includes all lcff carryover funding including Bas Baseline fund carryover trying to move this along because I think it's the budget that we're very interested in um next um we are excited to share some of the year 2 updates on the Strategic plan aligned
347to each of our five pillars and I will go through that um and only highlights so we'll start with pillar one and um and you'll see over the next few slides we will share some illustrative examples of initiatives for each of the pillars um however we wanted to acknowledge a few initiatives that were instrumental to the progress of the Strategic plan in year two um for example um we had a successful launch of eded a district developed learning acceleration platform which is powered by artificial intelligence under um pillar two um through a partnership with the laundry truck La we have supported School communities with uh mobile units that bring laundry services to those in need on a weekly basis so far this year we've provided a thousand loads of laundry supporting close to 300 families
348in various communities the laundry truck services will enable students and families experiencing homelessness a practical resources uh resource for clean clothes under our pillar three um under government relationship relations for example Coalition letters to date the office of government relation has um um obtained 833 signatures across 10 coalitions letters with two additional letters still being circulated for signatures in the current quarter um transportation for all the district provides transportation for all and we encourage families to give their children to take part in riding a bus to and from school and under professional development uh resources offer professional development for staff across the districts so that they can keep learning and growing uh their capacity to better support student students in school um and some of those include and not limited to for example our um
349micr credential programs for certificated staff um additionally under um pillar one I ready assessment programs for English uh English language arts and Mathematics was implemented during a year or two of the Strategic plan and provide fewer assessments while maintaining a high level of actionable student data um of which many of our principles that participated in data dialogues have are starting to see the value and have been very grateful for that opportunity to have a common uh language um excuse me I might ask somebody to forward this this a little slow um we expanded the success of I 10 initiative in year two increasing the frequency of iot 10 Outreach days um and adding monthly themes to help our schools promote a cultur um cultures of attendance this year we' deployed hundreds of employees and volunteers
350to support attendance and reduce chronic asteism in every Community with visits to over 30,000 homes across 10- monthly uh student Outreach days we have visited 43,149 homes since the start of the ien program two years ago um under this the Los Angeles uh unified established nine educational comp components under pillar three uh with the cities of Bill Carson cahay Huntington Park Los Angeles Maywood San Fernando Vernon and West Holly wood as we approach the summer months Los Angeles Unified staff will re-engage the various cities to discuss current implementation efforts and explore goals to pursue within the existing compacts for the 202 425 school year um improvements and green space upgrades over 400 facilities uh projects were completed across the district and hundreds of new projects are now underway to provide campus accessibility improvements enhance facilities
351create green spaces improve School sites to provide a conducive and modern learning environment for every student across the district and under pillar five this school year a total of 2,247 classroom teachers were hired resulting in a 99% % Fillin rate this was the third year in um a third year a hiring stiping was offered to newly hired credential teachers who committed to teaching and remaining at the district highest needs schools the hiring stiping uh dedicated staff support for priority schools and region collaboration and have all contributed to a high fill rate across the district including our high needs schools while we've made progress in these important areas we recognize that there is a lot more in the Strategic plan that schools and District teams are constantly working toward on behalf of our students and our
352large larger L USD committee as a reminder we will release um our comprehensive report for year two at mid year um just like we did for the year one report and we will now turn the presentation over over to our colleagues in the office of the chief business officer who will go over the budget components this is working really slow thank you good afternoon so the 2425 budget discussions with the board and the public have been happening over the last several months we've had several opportunities either through meetings with the committee of the whole budget work shs board Retreats special board meetings to uh get feedback to discuss details of not just the 2425 budget but also the multi-year projections and so a lot of the information that we're sharing should be familiar to you
353but we do want to highlight specific things of note with respect to the 2425 budget and in particular important Investments being made on behalf of our students before I get into that um as always there are many places to find important information about the district's budget and programs here are just a few here you'll see on the left hand side open data of course includes among other things really helpful information about the district's finances there's also the Strategic plan budget tracker which does align every dollar within the district's budget to different pillars and priorities within the Strategic plan and then of course the LC cap which Veronica just went through uh the the 2425 lcap there are many other resources many you can find on the home landing page for the LUSD website um as
354well as on the new budget Resource page which does include a lot of the information that you'll see today so first our guiding principles these will look familiar to you these are the same guiding principles that we shared with the board and the public when we adopted this year's budget about 12 months ago and so first of course most importantly aligning to the Strategic plan empowering student achievement budgeting with equity urgency investing in our important valued Workforce and then protecting fiscal sustainability so these are the things the principles that inform the development of not only the 2425 budget but decisions that we make throughout the year that impact programs and our finances so our budget as you know is very large and there are a lot of many important programs and Investments that are made
355on behalf of our students and here are just some of those highlights so first as we discussed previously all schools received class size reduction in 2425 so every TK through 12th grade school saw class sizes reduced by one student in the 24 25 school year and then in 2526 class sizes will re be reduced by an additional student so that's a very important investment being made across the district second our black student achievement plan maintained at the current levels of $125 million you'll remember that about two years ago uh there was a $20 million augmentation to Bap and this maintains that increased level of funding for Bap intervention strategies these are the interventionists and intervention AIDs that are supporting early literacy and numeracy and Middle School uh students as well as we've discussed before while
356these were funded with Esser in the current year and previously we did identify an ongoing funding source from restricted grants which is principally title one so this is an important investment to continue the progress being made by our students in literacy and numeracy dual language education this is the total cost of all those dual language programs you'll see at $162 million across the district um next you'll see CTE and Link learning resources for our schools at $55 million after school programs of nearly $900 million this is all after school programming which includes of of course elop or expanded learning opportunities grant-funded programs as well as Asus 21st century all of those important after school programs that our students participate in next you'll see tutoring for $94 million resident subs for $40 million and what resident
357Subs refers to is we have resident substitute teacher program for all of our priority schools and what these priority schools receive is a sub substitute teachers that that come to the school every day and it's a really important investment that's extremely popular with our priority schools because it allows for the release of teachers for professional development it ensures that classroom coverage is provided if there are absences and this is a very important investment that's being made uh at our priority schools that's being continued and it's $40 million next we have mental health supports and attendance counselors or PSAs for 33 4 million safe Passages at $14 million I do want to note that safe passages is a component of Bap but it's worth highlighting here given how important it is to our community stakeholders Cultural
358Arts passport that we've talked about a lot is being maintained at $80 million with all of those additional guidance and safeguards that Dr Bas mentioned earlier the Arts programming here is that $216 million encompasses all of the Arts Investments being made districtwide incluses inclusive of many of the different sources we discussed earlier um seni importantly maintained at $700 million total and as we discussed at the most recent special board meeting when we're maintaining a program at the same total dollar amount but we experienc declining enrollment what you do see is the per student allocation increasing um also important to note senny for the two year First Years where it was increased to $700 million was funded in part $300 of the $700 million from one time Esser funds um and since the expiration of Esser
359those funds have now been funded fully from TSP funds and that's also the case next year so sen maintained at $700 million Community School Investments at $39 million Greening this is primarily Bond funded projects but also inclusive of some elop funded projects at $88 million for the 2425 school year the home internet connectivity that superintendent mentioned earlier as well maintaining the access that our families and students currently experience for $10 million even though the previous reimbursement from the federal government is expiring there's this ongoing commitment from the from the district to continue to provide that access uh to our students and families of course the historic compensation increases $1.8 billion this is the cost attributable to those compensation increases but just in the 2425 school year and so obviously it's a huge investment in our
360Workforce also the superintendent mentioned earlier the school staff stabilization fund that's $50 million for the 2425 school year we're going to go into a little bit more detail on this Fund in a moment uh also New a Workforce protection fund which we'll also cover in a little bit more detail in a moment and then finally special education assistance at $593 million and the reason why we're highlighting the special education assistance is as part of the one of the recent agreements with SEIU these assistance were increased from 6 hours a day to 7 hours a day and so a huge investment on the part of of the district to increase the number of hours worked by our special at assistance and support of our of our students with disabilities so a lot as I mentioned a
361very large budget that we have with many many important Investments and programs on behalf of our students and these are just but a few of the important highlights that we wanted to share with you today so it's also important in addition to highlight the things that the budget does do the things that the budget is investing in our values it's also important to highlight the things that the budget does not do and so first as I mentioned this budget does not make any reductions to seni or Bap does not reduce art funding in fact increases art funding does not lay off any employees does not reduce supports for English Learners does not reduce investments in Community Schools does not reduce mental health supports for our students does not reduce adult education does not reduce supports
362for students with disabilities and lastly does not increase Health and Welfare costs for employees their dependence or retirees so again it's really important to also focus on the things that are not being done in this budget and if you look across the landscape in California and you look at what many other districts the tough choices that they're facing you'll see that many many districts Statewide are unable to make these same statements about what what what what their budget does not do so of course as always there's a focus on Staffing levels and so this is a graph that we've shared in different formats over over the last several uh board meetings and Retreats but you'll see here starting from 201819 all the way to next year 24 25 going from left to right you'll see
363first blue in the dark blue school-based positions and the light blue non-school-based positions and that orange line just superimposes student enrollment that's TK through 12th grade enrollment and so what you'll notice here going from 201819 to 2425 is that Staffing levels are substantially higher than pre-pandemic levels despite despite declining enrollment and of course this ensures more supports for our students but you'll see that over this time period we have about 10,000 more positions in 2425 next school year than we had in the pre-pandemic year of 201819 and all of that what you're seeing that that growth is actually in school positions because if you look at that light blue bar from 1819 to 2425 you'll see a reduction in the non-school positions of a little bit more than 200 positions and so this is just
364important while we do see higher levels of positions in the pandemic years where we had that huge influx of onetime covid relief funds in 2122 and 22 23 and 23 24 what you're still seeing again in 2425 is a substantially higher level of staff than we did have before the pandemic so we highlighted these earlier and the superintendent highlighted them but I want to give a little bit more information about these two new funds so funds are being reserved to protect our valued employees first there's a school staff stabilization fund and these funds are to support schools and restoring hours for employees and what we're specifically referring to is classified employees who saw reduction in hours from the current year into 2425 and so you'll see at the bottom the map being set aside these
365are mutually exclusive amounts they're cumulative amounts so in 2425 $50 million set aside for the school staff stabilization fund 2526 an additional $25 million and then in 2627 an additional $ 122.5 million second this Workforce protection fund these are funds that's the dollar equivalent of a 1.07% compensation increase this percentage will look familiar to you it matches the cola that we're receiving from the state in 2425 you'll see the dollar amounts there as well at the table below again mutually exclusive amounts $17 million ongoing in each of the next three school years so we covered these so I'll go over them a little bit more briefly this time but this again highlights the increase in arts funding from last year 22 23 and what was spent which was a little bit over $74 million compared
366to what actually has been allocated to schools in the current year of $26 million also again we mentioned that there's this $30 million of additional funds to be allocated to schools to ensure that elementary schools have the same base level of nonpr 28 funded art itinerant teachers next year as they had last year and what that results in is the Staffing levels that you see here on slide 27 so you'll see uh from last year about 20 273 FTE to this year 520 to next year uh 726 FTE and so 195 additional FTE from what was already happening due to those additional funds that $30 million that will be allocated to elementary schools so this is just an example of an individual school and what the school might experience with these additional funds and so
367this is an elementary school and you'll see that last year this is from all of those different art uh funds that we mentioned before 6 FTE that's about three days that is three days of of the equivalent of three days of a position you'll see in the current year just a little bit above that amount in FTE and then next year total of 1.2 because the additional funding that they'll receive what you see in that uh lined green bar is another almost 0.5 FTE bringing them again to the same base level of art itinerant teachers next year as they had last year and then of course in addition to that any other school determined Staffing levels that schools may be using prop 28 funds for so this is just to give you a an example
368of a how a school may be seeing these additional art art funds in their budgets so as always we want to highlight just some the most important some of the most important assumptions that uh we build our budget off of and you know these assumptions that we get are are principally coming from the Department of Finance and other state agencies so we are not coming up with the cola the cost of living adjustment that we're using in our in our Revenue assumptions these are coming from the Department of Finance and what you see at the top is the colas from the May revision they in the bottom row of that top table and what we're including is first the colas that we were expecting about 12 months ago so what we were expecting for 2425
36925 26 26 27 then when it was revised in January and then finally what we now know from the May revision so first starting with 2425 I do want to highlight that we were expecting originally I know we've covered this a lot but it's important to to discuss again 3.94% at Cola almost 4% Cola for the 2425 school year then of course in the January proposed budget that was reduced to7 6% and then finally the mayor revision uh 1.07% so while it is important to note that it's higher than we expected in January and so it's higher than also we reflected in our second interim financials it's still substantially lower than what we were expecting when we were originally expecting 3.94% so you'll see the other years also uh 25 26 originally expecting almost 3.3%
370uh and now getting 2.93% and then in the last year 26 27 expecting almost 3.2 and now getting 3.08 and so these colos will change that's another important thing I want to stress is that when we come up to let's say 12 months from now and we're adopting the 25 26 budget there's no guarantee that what we'll receive from the state is 2.93% now it's always possible that it could be higher than that but I think recent experience is that the opposite happened right the most recent experience is that we were expecting almost 4% and instead we're receiving only a little bit more than 1% and so that's something that we always need to keep in mind is that well we of course we'll always advocate for the state to fund us to the levels
371necessary at the federal government to fund us at what is necessary the cost of living adjustments can always be lower and in some cases substantially lower than what we expect uh for some good news on the bottom there you'll see our Ada percentage assumptions Ada percentage which is basically the equivalent of our attendance percentage at second interim we were assuming 90% because that was our recent 88 percentage in recent years and we were expecting 90% not only in 2425 but in each subsequent year and thankfully because of the hard work of our schools because of a lot a lot of the strategies put in place by the leadership um at the district uh the huge focus by the different teams here at the district on attendance we have seen a substantial Improvement in in in
372student attendance and so what we're seeing is 88% percentage at 92% which allows us to assume 92% not only this year and next year in 2425 but also in subsequent years so not only is this a huge benefit to our students uh academically B uh beneficial for their student and emotional uh their social and emotional well-being but of course has a huge financial benefit as well to our students and and to the district so that's a really piece of a big piece of good news so the multi-year projection is something that we always share and what we're showing here as always is the projection of our unassigned unappropriated ending balance what board president Goldberg has helpfully referred to as our true reserves those that can really really be used for any educational purpose what you'll
373see in the dark blue bars are what we were assuming what we were projecting as of second interim and then in the light blue bar is what we're now uh projecting as of this budget and so the good news is of course you see in the 26 27 school year what was projected to be a negative 700 $27 million unassigned unappropriate ending balance is now positive I mean only barely positive but is positive by $13 million and the reason why we're seeing this improvement from second interim is some of the things that I just mentioned so first of course moderately higher Cola than what we were seeing as of the January proposed budget of course the benefit of the higher 88 percentage that higher attendance and our students our student attendance um as well as
374the reserve for economic uncertainty that was previously at 2% of budget is now due to the successful lobbying by government relations by Martha Alvarez and her team as well as the district's leadership we're successful in having the state reduce the requirement for all unified from 2% to 1% so that's a huge benefit as well to what the numbers that you see here so a lot more work to be done moving forward as you can imagine this trajectory where you see these unassigned balances going down that downward slope is of course going to continue without further action so if we add additional fiscal years here 27 28 28 29 you will expect to see that ending balance go down but I still think it's important to note that due to the work the actions made by
375the board and by the district and our schools thus far we have seen this Improvement since second interim and so this is just a scenario that I do want to walk through because there's a lot of questions and and requests from the public and different stakeholders about with respect to our ending balances and something that we hear often from different stakeholders is you have these ending balances why don't you just spend them now right they say you know we we see these projections we see this trajectory over time but you have these balances why don't you just spend them now and so what this scenario demonstrates the light blue again is what we're projecting right now as of June for unassign and appropriated balance and you'll see that at the end of 2425 the budget
376year that's currently being adopted that unassigned ending balance is projected to be $225 million so the first thing I want to stress is uh in the current year the the projected ending balance for the end of 2324 is $826,000 so what this is showing you is already during 2425 $600 million of that unassigned balance is being used during 2425 so during 2425 we're projecting that 600 million of that 826 million balance will be used and so let's say in 2425 there's this $225 million n assign balance and let's say that we didn't in fact follow the advice of many of our stakeholders and spent it in full we spent $225 million more than what's currently included in the budget that's up for your adoption next week that would take our unassigned balances in 2425 down
377to zero right because we're spending $225 million more than what's in the budget so that would take us down to zero and what you'll notice is in 2526 that would put us at negative $199 million because it'd be lower by that same $225 million that was spent in 2425 and in 26 27 same thing lower by $225 million leaving us with a negative projected balance of$ 220 $22 million so this is a point that board president Goldberg mentioned at our last meeting that others also have brought up about what is the consequence what is the impact of spending those balances now instead of using them as we already need to in future years and so again this is just a scenario of what the impact would be uh if we didn't F spend those balances
378now beyond what we're already projecting so as always we highlight our components of ending balance and what you'll see here is a comparison of our projected ending balances as of second interum in the First Column for the current school year compared to our projected ending balance next year and so what you'll see here is the difference you'll see of course the spend down of some of these different balances as I mentioned before you'll see that almost $600 million reduction at our undesignated balances that second to last row and you'll see that not only are we projecting to spend down uh $600 million approximately of those balances but overall are total general fund ending balances uh using spending $1.7 billion of total general fund balances and so you'll see committed balances going down by over a
379billion restricted balances going down by almost $160 million and so this is just demonstrating again that in many cases what we're doing is doing already what folks are asking us to do which is using those ending balances to maintain our current levels of resources so again this is just showing that graphical format that we've shown in the last few board meetings showing again that not only are we spending that uh over billion dollars in ending balance almost $2 billion dollars from this year and next year but between now and 26 27 uh spending almost $4 billion of our total general fund ending balances finally this is also a representation of our ending balances that we've shared previously but instead of 2324 this is a version showing 2627 so again uh nonspendable reserve for economic uncertainty
380those are the things that we really have no discretion to to spend or to change uh restricted ending balance is substantially lower than the current year almost a billion dollars almost half of it is elop uh preschool grants other onetime and ongoing restricted grants our signed ending balances there you'll see the the biggest component there is our district program as you'll remember at second interim we did set aside sufficient funding to maintain uh School allocations uh districtwide and then finally our committed balances with only $380 million left of uh the the previous balances and commitments that you'll see was almost $3 billion at the end of the current year so the reason why this is important is one again it demonstrates not only are ending balances specified and assigned and committed for very specific purposes
381but they're already being depleted over this multi-year projection so as always we need to highlight the things that are not included here so I mentioned before we assume colas we don't know if those colas will come to pass they can certainly be lower as we just experienced but the other things that these multi-year projection does not include does not reflect our future changes in total compensation Beyond what's already set aside in the workforce protection fund also need potential further reduction in state and federal funding as I mentioned as well as any impact of liability costs that are not already reflected in the multi-year projection and that would include any additional opep trust contributions Beyond those that have already been reflected in our financials and so in conclusion uh the the we do feel that the
382budget is a reflection of the district's values we're making important Investments and maintaining important Investments to the benefit of our students um and now I will pause for any questions that you might have well that's a lot to take in uh okay uh board members this is the time for you to either ask questions or make statements or raise issues with the uh budget before we start that I want to just remind people of the definitions of certain words because it keeps coming up over and over again an assigned ending balance can be used for any purpose but have been designated for specific future use so that means we could change things that are called assigned ending balances but it means it would be taking something from here to put over there committed balances we've
383self-imposed as a board and in order to change those that are called committed balances it would take board action assigned balances it would not take board action committed balances it would take board action and then the uh so so I think it's important because when people look at balances they they don't see the difference between committed and assigned committed means we voted on how that money is to be spent and if we want to change it we can so it's not completely in stone but we'd have to vote again on assigned balances those are things that are in the budget and there're sign signed to specific purposes but if the board had four votes to change some of that that would be a lot easier to do okay any questions or comments on the budget
384uh because we are voting on it next week and then we also have quite a number of speakers which we will hear as soon as the board members have had a chance to raise issues all right Miss Ortiz Franklin you're on okay I'll try to keep this short I emailed a bunch of my questions and thanks for the briefings we've had over the last couple weeks um I guess I'll just start to clarify on the slide 23 with the 81,000 FTE I was comparing that to the budget book on um the Staffing divisions so the 81 568 you said is TK through 12 so this doesn't include early Ed and Adult Ed this is all positions it is okay but the enrollment does not include early Ed or Adult Ed correct the enrollment is TK
385through 12th grade enrollment Norm day enrollment and then for 2425 it's of course projected because we don't have the actuals uh but the positions do include all all positions districtwide okay that's you know it's a bit of a mismatch there if we're talking about staff for uh all positions but then we're excluding the number of students so maybe we can right siize that the next time we we go through these kind of presentations I'd actually just love to dig into the budget book is where some of my questions are if that's okay sure um so in section two uh let's see on I'll just do a few on page 16 um there was a change in division of school operations by 13 people I was curious and I think I might have asked the staff
386this too but what's that growth of those 13 FTE in school operations and if some of these were still like figuring out then you can just tell me follow up yeah we can follow up okay great um sorry I skipped one on page 11 there's 17 FTE as senior adviser to superintendent are those all on the ecos sustainability team yeah so there's an increase due to the timing of when the positions were budgeted so in the current year they were created at the midpoint of the year and so that's why it looks like an increase just because in the current 23 24 uh fiscal year it was budgeted for half of the year or or less and so that's so it's not a growth of two and $2.2 million from year to year no it
387is it's actually a budget transfer from the facilities division to the office of the senior advisor in order to create the EOS sustainability office okay that's helpful because I do feel like there's a lot of this that lives somewhere else and mooved didn't necessarily just like increase that's right um okay great we're getting a lot of advocacy on the PSAs so um on page 17 of of that same section the Student Health and Human Services um went down by just 85 FTE I just want to make sure are those the PSAs psws that people have been asking about is that the change from section two yeah sorry no no no so that that 85 FTE reduction are those School staff or yeah go ahead sorry I see we did close some vacant PSW positions in
388order to align positions to what was purchased what was allocated so some vacancies have been closed and in addition there were some Esra positions that were not approved to continue into 2425 so that explains the Delta okay and then on the like highlights though it says you know 334 in mental health and PSA so I'm trying to square are we like maintaining the same level investment has it actually gone down cuz this doesn't tell us if things have gone down so there is if you'll notice the operating budget by category there is a subst of increase in the mental health category so even though there is an increase in the total dollar amount we did close some vacant positions that were not it's um it's an itinerate location right so it's dummy location where we
389hold staff and we point staff to assignments so we had some vacant dummy positions that were no longer needed the budget is actually increasing I know they're being be at school sites so I wouldn't see them here okay okay that's what I thought we had understood before so I just wanted to confirm there um and then I think this is still a followup too on the savings from the C basis uh change from B basis is the team still following up on um that change yes I see an odd okay great um on the same page beyond the bell that was a big drop off um of FTE I I think the staff tried to explain something happens with timing but thanks yeah the 6,000 I'm new J Ramen Deputy budget director okay so the
390um it's the same issue for beyond the bell we have P's work positions and they're also in dummy locations they are assigned to work sites during the school year so we had some vacancies in this dummy location that we closed um they may be reopened depending on where the needs are next year once we Implement carryovers for the Asus Grant or the 21st century Grant and elop is allocated out to school sites we may see some of those positions increase again but they I can assure you those are vacancies it's not a riff right right and and I appreciate the slide that was like no riffs I'm just trying to square that then we saw um I don't know what this is called this is the um lcap overview planned expenditures and for after school
391programs this is was in our elcap briefing yesterday we had planned this year 7 million from base funded after school but then what I'm hearing is the elop isn't in that that's correct so the lcap only refers to lcff funding and elop is a state restricted Grant so you won't see overlap there yeah I mean this is part of like what we'd love for our tool to be able to help with is like we've got different pockets in different places so we could just look it up all together like is after school programming staying the same or how many ftes do we have in Student Health and Human Services so like for us you know it's kind of putting a bunch of pieces together but I appreciate that the team you know is super well
392versed and knows where all these things are um okay then the last uh two big ones I'll ask on here is the sped reduction so back in the budget book same page 17 special education division reduced by uh maybe almost 200 positions um do we know why or or what that's reflecting yeah so there were a reduction in apis positions that's the largest change um from last year to this year as you remember there were a substantial number of apis positions funded with Esser funds um but the apis Staffing levels are still substantially higher than than pre-pandemic levels okay um and then on the next page 18 I hadn't realized this before but the regions are really different so like region West is almost half of the size of region north um is that just
393a reflection of the enrollments of the schools in those various regions I'd love as a follow like the enrollment by region um yeah I was surprised to see it like that maybe just because we hadn't seen it like that before it it's enrollment it's enrollment and number of schools so region north has significantly more schools in that region and then at the region itself I'd be curious if the number of positions are similar at the region or they proportion it to school size and and enrollment in the region there's some variant especially for the larger regions where we've allocated additional operation staff as well as director personnel and when it comes to principal supervision okay um okay I'll pause on budget book and turn it to my colleagues if we have a second round I'll
394take up lcap stuff thanks actually just following up on that same page because I I know I'm glad you asked about the special education because I had a question about that what is that page 17 so my question is on the um division of educational transformation we're moving from 123 to 66 is that is there a reason why since we still have uh 100 plus priority schools yeah so sorry no go ahead mbap schools go ahead so there were 54 interventionists in title one that have been redirected from the office location uh to School site directly um there was the interventionists who were moved yeah so that's the result the 123 to6 Al the intervention is they removed and they were moved where sorry to directly to the school sites oh to their school B
395sites so just kind of the location where you'll find them in the budget and they were moved to school sites um the priority schools or highest need schools or how would they allocate yeah so the ET office is that's it's in support of yes prior School Sy Y and um just wanting to know the language acquisition from 60 to 49 what um what exactly is the language acquisition office I need to follow up on on the change in that office um and also linked learning I know we're expanding our Pathways and I see that we are eight eight FTE less so that was concerning since we want to make sure that we're have adequate Staffing for link learning yeah we can follow up with more detail okay and beyond the bell was asked and sped
396um okay I think that was that and then on section three uh page 16 just on the operational supplies um I see all of the school I see Community adult schools continuation schools opportunity schools I don't see our Early Education Centers in terms of operational supplies um could they be be added here uh sure yeah why are they not added there is there a reason um yeah they're not included but I think in subsequent publishing of the document if if that yeah we can certainly add those schools and allocations as well yeah um it would be great to just um have an understanding of the budget for our Early Education Centers uh particularly and not only operational but school supplies because I know they um are a lot of our EC's run out their budget
397is really small like really tiny and uh they always run out of um funds and they have you know you know have to um resort to GoFundMe and you know reach out to parents which um parents are you know very happy to support and all of that but I think we really need to support our eecs a little bit more um particularly the ones that have a lot of um full Pals programs or you know or little little ones cuz they need diapers all of that so every time I go visit our eecs you know they stretch very thinly their budget throughout the whole year so just wanted to understand that and how we can support them a little bit more thanks um and then also on the following page on page 17 just wanting
398to know uh the bottom our research specialist program I see that teachers are normed for um 28 students so wanting to know um because I always hear that we a lot of my schools are losing an RSP teacher so just want to know um how are they normed how are they allocated and how many of our schools are losing RSP teachers great so Nero will help answer that thank you so yeah that is correct the CDE requires us to have a case load of 20 to1 um in some cases if a school has a case load between 14 to 28 they get a full RSP teacher if the case Lo is less than 14 then they may receive an itinerant to support and in some cases you know depending a school May request additional offn
399Norm resources to get the full FTE or they may they are allowed to purchase the resource position they can purchase their own resource Fe okay and uh what what is the process if they're over 28 how quickly can we get them either you know if they're over by one or five how what is the process then in either helping them with an itinerant or that's cor so if they go over um the case load of 28 then they can work with the special ed division to request an itinerant right away to support those additional students an itinerant itinerant yes thank you and I'll stop it there have a little bit more but I'll wait for the second round thank you thank you and I'll just Echo the Gratitude on answering I think like 75 of
400our questions in various briefings in the email I have two question questions for Miss arene I guess if we're still just on the lcap and strategic plan and then a few on budget or do you you want to just do budget first and then go prior okay so on budget um I guess on slide 21 um and I know you went through some of these I guess globally some on how many of these are new Investments versus ongoing ones so like the Dual language 162 million is that just our current dual language programs which we all support or are there new Investments there for exped programs or more supports so it's the existing dual language program it is a larger dollar figure than you'll remember from last year because of course the program does become
401more expensive their cost increases salaries have gone up um and so let me just try to summarize kind of the new versus kind of maintained right so some of these like Bap say maintained but I'm I'm curious for so you know intervention and dual language so the the things that are brand new of course are the school staff stabilization fund and the workforce protection fund those are two new uh funds that have been set up for the purposes I mentioned previously the home internet connectivity while it is an existing resource that families have access to it is still a new general fund investment because we were previously getting reimbursed um okay sorry about that so the home internet connectivity while it is an existing resource internet access that that families are are benefiting from now
402it is still a new general fund investment because we were being reimbursed previously and just on not to interrupt but on that note and I know ju I appreciate it's in the budget to kind of create that bridge funding for families but I know that one of our legislative priorities at the federal level through Miss Alvarez and the superintendent is advocating for that and maybe next week we can get a quick update because you know just for the public that is now that was Federal a federal program supporting families with internet connectivity that is expiring and so the district is spending District money to continue those programs for families but it would be great to get the federal program re instated so that we can reallocate that money but thank you yeah and so programs
403that are being actually expanded so intervention strategies of course as you know there are more priority schools than in the past and so there will be more schools receiving those intervention supports resident substitutes also been expanded also because principally because there are more priority schools and so that that program is being expanded Greening what you're seeing budgeted for the 2425 school year larger than what had been uh budgeted in the current year and then Arts of course we mentioned and highlighted previously the the additional allocation to our elementary school so those are some examples of things that are you are seeing not just cost increases but genuine increase of services and um supports CTE and Link learning is that one that is um again just a uh yeah there is an increase in in grant
404funding so you will see a large year-over-year increase in CTE and Link learning and then on Slide 23 um of the uh the um uh funded positions for for this school year how many uh are still vacant I know in the says TOS include both filled and vacant do you we can follow up I don't have it handy but uh you're right that this includes all budgeted positions this is not FTE this is positions yeah um but but yeah we can follow with that figure for the current year of course next year right that right so that 80 is the that penultimate column um and then I'm curious either from you or from the superintendent I know we've been discussing carryover uh the budget book and the coming documents don't really have a policy I
405know there's been some movement there so maybe we can just have an explanation of next steps for the next school year uh around carryover right uh thanks for the question so we made a number of decisions as it resulted in the reallocation of carryover funds uh back to schools um the plan at this point is to use that framework that we used for the reallocation back to schools which is one that is equity driven um and basically tiers that reallocation on the basis of school fragility C highest high priority 100 Etc uh we're going to test out that system for a little bit of time I think we have the time to do so get feedback from the principles from the school communities to see how it's working and if the feedback we get is
406is positive without any adjustments then we'll will bring back to the board the recommendation on the official carryover policy that will follow the format that we use this year I like that model I I think it was fair it was Equitable it restored the appropriate amount of funding to continued programs support staff and I think that is a very viable model but we have an opportunity to test it out before we we etge it in stone understood and I think to the extent that we can work on some of that in the fall and create the predictability for schools that would be helpful and my final question on budget I guess for now is just on the ELO P um you know it's the first time the board's seeing the proposed spending plan it's in
407section three and starts on page 24 um and there are incredibly important programs funded here after school support experiential and Outdoor Learning tutoring Summer School uh and maybe in in the next week um I know I'd like to understand the current year elop expenditures and get more information on some of these Investments you know a few that caught my eye are the after school expansion Investments the ID dream mobile lab the $90 million on robotics programs the elop funded field trip program so these are all things that in theory sound wonderful and it's just if there's another level of detail that the board could have before Tuesday so board member Mal we actually have planned a probably at an upcoming uh cow a presentation on The Encore we spent a lot of time uh providing
408detailed information reports presentations on core what happens uh between uh bells of instruction in schools but what happens before the first Bell after the last bell during um during the breaks spring break winter break break and and summer is of equal importance and usually the funding that's available to support students during those time periods uh is the same funding uh in large part Lop but also some additional funds so it is our goal to bring to the board the full plethora of offerings and the reason why they're ties to the Strategic plan number one secondly ties to academic needs and then enrichment we will also divide the presentation between those services that are provided by internal staff in addition to those services that are provided via partnership whether they are before after or during those
409intercession periods of time great I know I find that helpful so thank you and that's good for this first round yes and superintendent before school care is extremely important there are parents who are off to work at 5:00 a.m. in the morning and and at 5:00 a.m. they're dropping their kids off in front of school and uh they have to go somewhere and at the winter time it's dark maybe raining cold it's not safe for the kids so hopefully we're going to put some money into before uh school care and speaking of that um why is there such a big carryover of elop from um 2324 I think I read um uh $472 million what you can't spend that money so so each allocation of elop moving forward we do have two years to spend
410those funds and in the first couple years of elop funds we had even more more than those two years and so and this is true of many districts across the state there is a substantial amount of time to ramp up these brand new services and I'm sure you remember in the pandemic there were Staffing challenges um so so us like many districts did spend little in the early years and so what that meant is we each year we subsequently we got a new allocation plus the amounts of funding that carried over from the prior year and so substantial amounts of fundings did accumulate over that time period and so that's why you're seeing uh the carryover amount that that you're referenced um because I don't want the public to think we're not spending the money
411on the kids like we should be okay on the chart page 21 the slides um those special uh special ed assistants is that for new positions also or just for more hours for existing positions so the these are all sped assistants that dollar amount that you see there but it does include that that important increase from the 6 hours to the 7 hours for sped assistance but also new ones yes it includes every all yes all it's it's all three okay that the the incumbents the additional hours plus additional positions that's fine that's good thank you and last one uh home internet connectivity 10 million what about uh eate what about grants can we uh use that kind of money to pay for that so the district is certainly advocating for dedicated sources of funding
412for these Investments but I think given the importance of access to home internet connectivity for our students and families we are committing these general fund resources at this time okay I'll take advantage since board member melvo asked the same question similar question in fact the FCC commission was uh here in LA with us just uh this past week and actually sat for a few minutes uh during one of our data dialogues there is currently significant bipartisan support which is unusual uh in Congress for at least a partial continuation of universal connectivity support uh to provide families access to uh internet access at home um whether Congress gets to that this year that's another question but there is at this point political support than both sides of the aisle uh this $10 million commitment uh as
413it was stated earlier is since the federal funds at this point have Sunset it the program is not going to continue we made a decision to continue the program but fund it through general fund as opposed to uh as opposed to federal dollars to the extent that there is a federal reauthorization of connectivity funds then we'll back out the general fund dollars and put it back into reserve for other uses fa enough thank you I have a couple of questions on uh uh Roman 3 page 33 starting actually on 32 we begin to talk a little bit about collaborative leadership and we talk about contracts with different organizations and groups but I expected to see students run La in that list and I don't see them uh can we add them so yeah we're following
414with the program team to to answer the question that that you had asked about stud Ral we used to give them a flat rate of I think it was 50 ,000 until the pandemic when nobody was running but it didn't get reinstated and I want it to get reinstated because we got thousands of kids that do that every year and when they have to not get all the funding that they can need then kids start having to pay for things like shoes or in entrance fees we don't want them to pay for anything so I I would hope that we will get that fixed uh Madam president it's not listed there but it is uh it is funded and fundable not to general fund but elop funding can absolutely be used for that and uh
415you and I had had a conversation about that it will be funded okay um my next question has to do also with carryover uh on uh Roman 3 page 39 uh we have the English ler students attaining English proficiency to meet the challenges of State academic standards but we have almost as much carryover as we have new uh funds how come that carry over is so big so there has been a Confluence of of other funds that have been used over the recent years um but that's one main contributor to the carryover balance that you see but you'll see that there is an expectation that those funds get spent uh even though they have accumulated to your point that they get spent in the 24 25 year there there are several items in that section
416that have large carryovers right I'm wondering whether that means instead of using that we used onetime grant money or something for it to to so that we could on to this that's right that's what I was hoping the answer would be that's right so the the existence of those one-time grants like a good example is of course the co relief funds and I think that's a big contributor not just for these individual restricted grants that you've highlighted but our overall ending balances in general I think that's the main contributor to why you've seen our general fund ending balances increase so substantially over time even though moving forward they are projected to to to to do the opposite to be spent okay then on p uh Roman five page number 25 uh we are told that
417the failure to meet the uh 24 to1 in the TK K3 class size will jeopardize the entire grade span and we would get fine for all of them but the next sentence is on the other hand Charter Schools don't have to make or maintain or make progress to have the average class size of 24 how come how is it possible that we're held to 24 and char schools which are public schools are not held to 24 do we know what that's about I don't I don't know why but um we to your point like obviously the the All or Nothing um nature of the penalty is obviously very uh challenging for the district um so but but yeah I would like us to try and find out in Sacramento why it is that we get
418fined for one school out of maybe a hundred and they don't get fined even if they have 29 kids in the class I don't get that so maybe it's not so important to them because if it's not so important to them that they don't want to include Charters then they shouldn't be finding us I I I don't like a double standard is what I'm saying we should all be treated the same um all right I'm just about done with my first section here on page um five uh Roman 535 uh it says that on letter G that LUSD May charge fees to recover the cost of certain Services provided to Charter Schools LUSD fees Shall Set fees that cover the entire cost of the service provided including direct and indirect are we able to cover
419the entire cost including direct and indirect of the Charter School Division so there is a portion of the the division's budget that is covered by the general fund but we do assess the fee as Allowed by by by law not for tomorrow not for next Tuesday but I'd like to know what the fees would have to change to to cover all of our costs because the law says we can so I'd like to know what that is maybe we'll do it maybe we won't but at least know what it is okay that's my first round Miss Ortiz Franklin second round thank you I realized I didn't know where to ask this in the budget but um early ed student health and human services is that under Student Health and Human Services or early Ed in
420particular we got some advocacy around um PSAs and psws that do early eded programming uh that are not year round or that might be uh getting some reductions so I don't know where to find that information so jel say Naros with students Health and Human Services so uh we do have some psws that were part of the early Ed project it was a partnership with Ali County Department of Mental Health and so we're looking at funds to continue that program oh so no reductions as of yet or depending on if we get re reductions from the county so we're looking internally to see how we can continue carrying that program forward so that's the PSW side that's what I'm hearing yeah yeah yeah I I wasn't sure of that either is that the tree program
421correct okay okay and then the PSA uh for early Ed is that funded also through student health or that's early end that was through student support programs and that's a different program and there there's still still be in place they're just the basis was shifted so they will still be supporting the early Ed centers yeah that that was something that struck a a note for me we had some advocacy recently just because early EDS are yearr round they were asking for the um support staff to also be year round um and so I don't know how many people that would impact maybe that's a question of like what would it cost us to keep them on during the summer if they're able to do good work and the rest of the school is year round
422is it like a handful of people that we should just fund or is it you know not worth it so I'd love to follow that yeah that's a great question Miss Goldberg said what are the impacts of not having them okay so we'll get back to you on that yeah okay great um okay can I shift to the planned expenditures from the lcap questions sorry I don't know if this isap oh so still on the I miss they're they're sort of connected right so uh well yeah they're very connected um and maybe I just don't know where to find it in the budget book but gifted and talented what I could see in the lcat planned expenditures was a big jump for gate for next year and I don't know if there's in the budget
423book a jump for gate and if so why the big jump it was like a four million no$ three and a half million dollar jump friends are coming from all over yes aon's coming though so let me go go ahead and have uh Dr El Elward um who oversees who actually oversees the elcap for me to answer that question for you Eric Elward illc cap administrator uh as far as the increase in Gate uh largely due to the uh negotiated collective bargaining agreements uh as far as a salary increase and benefits um of classroom teachers for gate yes or coordinators or coordinators y okay so not classroom teachers correct okay yeah uh yeah it'd be helpful to know because this doesn't include FTE but maybe that's somewhere else the FTE for how many gifted and
424talented coordinators are there that's causing this increase but it sounds like there's one other person who wants to weigh in hi good afternoon Ain Yoshida armman uh director of gifted talented programs so it's my understanding that the estimated was 3.65 million and the actual is about 4 million um and that's central office gifted talented programs and then for next year it's uh planned for 7.2 million so that was my Curious curiosity is why is it growing for next year so there were some alignment shifts where we moved from one division to another and So based on where things are pointed that may be the the difference we're actually not growing in terms of the um the Ft or support in GI to talented programs at Central okay so just for school site's no uh yeah
425that's also not included with that um gate coordinators are funded from the school site got it I think we can sure you have gate coordinators of the region offices too or just in central yeah just in the central office how come you don't have any in the region offices that's closer to the schools um we have District coordinators we have seven district coordinators that support the entire district and we have 17 gate psychologists again supporting the entire District but we don't have anyone uh located in the Regional Offices okay okay can I shift to Community Schools um some of this is an lcff but then I understand there might be some also in a separate State Grant on the lcap it looks like the uh planned expenditures for next year is doubling what the actual
426expenditures are for this year and I that's sorry that's um goal number two action 8 I don't know if that is uh because then there are other sources this year that we weren't taking into account in the ELC cap maybe just a little explanation on the Community Schools how do we understand how that's being funded sure in terms of the the increase uh part of it is due to eight additional schools coming in line as of July 2024 so there's a cost associated with eight new community uh schools additional Beast to that is also the increase uh negotiated salary and benefits uh and so that's within lcff but there's additional funding for Community Schools that's outside so the 32 mli million of lcff funds and then the total that was shared um as far as
427the budget book is 39 million and those the additional funds on top of lcff so what Miss Goldberg was looking at on pages you know section three pages 32 through 34 that California Community Schools partnership program that is in addition to the uh lcap 32 million hi everybody uh I am Sarah chaval Deputy budget director and uh yes so the difference you're seeing there is the non-school portion of that uh Community Schools Grant so that is where we came up with that number we wanted to make sure we were capturing the uh portion of community schools that is of that grant that is not already been allocated back out so that's where the the Gap is driving oh is that staff members at the central office or the regional office or it's a combination of
428unallocated funds and then there's also a portion that is in within linked learning there's a portion within uh commu schools but that Grant is being leveraged by central office in a couple places okay happy to give you more detail as well as me um that's good for now uh okay maybe just a couple more um let's see on the budgeting and operations so this is uh goal four action for we had planned for 371 million but we only spent 51 million um and so I was just curious like why the big drop off what we had planned for versus what we spent sure so essentially what that was was uh the UT pla uh increase um was a kind of a hold account for the for the funds uh wasn't meant that that was the
429true budget for uh budgeting operations the budgeting expenditures for 23 24 so uh the monies were placed uh within the goal action so it's really a timing difference as far as when the monies are coming into uh the account and then when the salary uh increase was implemented in September of 2024 uh the monies were were out of that uh goal action so it's not a spend within actions and services for budgeting and operations it's really the timing difference associated with the utla uh negotiated salary increase was this like one of the protection funds that we had developed okay I'm seeing head NDS great that makes sense um okay the teacher pipeline support last last one on this round no I'm I'm glad you're doing that the teacher pipeline support we also underspent by a
430lot this year was C ious um why so in terms of um did you have a question yeah so goal five action two we had planned for 7 million but only spent less than two believe we have a program yeah office that's important we need our teachers coming in yes good afternoon board members and Mr superintendent Jacob Guthrie division of Human Resources um as it pertains to the teacher pipeline program that includes our PA professional to teacher career program we have to budget for the full allocation that would allow us to reimburse members at the highest levels uh for the program but they don't always necessarily use all of the funds in addition we were the recipient of a state Grant and we're doing our best to try and encumber the majority of these funds
431through the state Grant as it allows for additional flexibility to support folks all the way through attaining their credential goal whereas with our general funded program we are not able to continue supporting folks Beyond them being a pair of professionals so once they sign that certificated contract um and so we are working with the fiscal team to reconcile those so that we can move forward with supporting those folks but we do have quite a few number of people um getting support from the program and can provide you more detail yeah would' love to know if we're meeting our goals on that if we're like under or uh there's a way we can promote this more because we'd love to keep that pipeline going but thanks for the second round okay uh so on section one
432uh page 23 on the attachment D under um let's see board members discretionary funds I noticed that for 23 24 we have 1.8 but sub subsequent 3 years we we don't there are no allotments for board members for discretionary funds just wanted to know if that later will be added or sorry you're referring to the assigned balances uh assigned balances attachment D page 23 section one I think someone told me that was the IOU dispersement 1.8 mil board member discretionary funds so I think whenever the sign balance is going from a they're always one-time funds these are not ongoing budgets this is an assigned balance it's a onetime fund so whenever you're seeing it go from a balance of let's say 1.8 down to zero it's expected to just be expended over that time period
433it may not ultimately be expended in the way we're projecting um to the extent it's not fully expended by the end of 24 25 as currently projected then you'll see a positive balance in that year but we can certainly follow up with more detail on what those funds are for great and on that same page the teacher quality and Staffing um line item it has three for this year but nothing is that because of that Grant end for the staffing um so we can follow up with a detail on what on the use of those funds but yes it it's assuming that it's going to get expended by the end of the upcoming school year wanting to know if there was an evaluation of the um positive outcomes on that or how beneficial it was
434I'm assuming it is right because stories are teachers we want quality and Staffing of course just wanting to know we can follow up thanks great thank you and let's see really [Music] quick as that [Applause] okay so on page section three page 24 on the um elop so I am I'm very grateful as well in seeing the breakdown on the spending just just a comment on um the second one here assessment Management System Program assessment management tool to evaluate expanded learning programs such as summer school tutoring and spring um want to request that these reports be provided to board members um always wanting to know the evaluation of them and outcomes and how successful they are so just wanted to mention that and on here I want to um the Arts Fest I didn't see
435the art Arts Fest here um and how much was spent um line item or anything like that so I didn't see here I did see the um $80 million for carts art um the cap program Cultural Arts bbard but I didn't see the artfest and I also saw the steam Fest so just wanting to know where the artsfest funding allocation is throughout here so yeah we can we can follow up the program staff um you won't see what this report is showing this this these detail pages are the budget for 2425 so you won't see necessarily any expenditures yet uh for artfest for example from the current year but we can certainly follow up on where you would find uh any planned artfest for 2 right for this year or anything for last year I'm
436assuming it's going to be an annual is an annual thing and also for tutoring um you know we we're we allocated $94 million but again um this is the area would where I wanted to see the outcomes from of some of these procurement and contracts um so what was the outcomes based contracts and okay so on section four page 11 on um yeah so on measure q and RR on the capital projects funds I see that you know for 2425 and 24 no 24 yeah 2425 there are two line items here for 2425 so we have 67 million for both years I wanted to know if these funds are already committed for facilities projects construction projects or that is money that is yet to sort of be assigned or um connected with a construction or
437project so the budget Pages for our bond funds for our Capital funds if you see revenues and expenditures those relate to revenues where we would what we expect to issue in that 12-month period in that fiscal period um and the expenditures are are what would expect to actually be spent but what you could see during 2425 is expenditures related to a project that started two three years ago and that was previously approved by the board and so the the process for approving new projects is the one that you're familiar with it of course goes to the bond oversight committee and then to the board um but it's there's not a direct link to what's in 2425 because of just the different lead times so projects have uh in many cases many years uh to to
438complete and what you could see for one project is expenditures related to it in multiple fiscal years and so in the budget the financial pages that you're refer refering to for the capital uh budgets you would see those expenditures spread out so if there's a project that starts in 2026 then that's where the funds are going to be coming from that's where you would see the expenditures exes even if it was approved in 2024 exactly okay great um and also for internal Services funds for the workers compensation fund and liability if some of those funds are not spent um on any compensation um request is do those funds roll over or carry over yeah so it remains in the in the fund and so to the extent that there are funds that are contributed into
439it that are not expended you would see that they're in the ending balance and that would become the beginning balance of the following year okay so the following year okay that's right come back okay thanks um sorry to take us a little bit backwards but I had a follow-up question on the investment highlights box will it's already there um I know that there were already some questions asked to to clarify some of the Investments but in general can you share the source of funds um for these various Investments not everything is general fund I assume um so maybe you can highlight which are not maybe elop or Bond funded Investments that are included on this on this slide sure so starting with um so intervention strategies it's well general fund that is uh coming from
440restricted sources so not kind of general fund unrestricted it be Title One principally principally title one that's right after school program a combination of restricted grants including elop Asus 21st century of course tutoring similarly elop Cultural Arts passports elop arts does include of course restricted grants like uh prop 28 of course M community Community Schools includes uh of course general fund but also grants related to Community Schools Greening is PR mostly uh majority bond funds but there are some elop funds as well the historic compensation increases of course the the the funding source depends on where the position itself is budgeted so you will see that's all funds you'll see a um whenever you know a bond funded employee gets a salary increase and of course that is charged to the bond fund and special
441assistance is is uh you know restricted part of the general fund restricted budget thank you yep thank you and then are there any that are multi-year investments rather than single year or would you say that they are all just for for one year 24 25 the amounts are all the 2425 amounts but I think they all represent multi-year Investments and so even the even the school staff stabilization fund and the workforce protection fund do have amounts set aside for three years each um and then the rest are all also ongoing Investments but the dollar amounts that you see here are for 2425 understood okay thank you um and then I had a follow up on the school staff stabilization fund I I appreciate um just the responsiveness around the need to uh provide for stability
442for our classified employees and to negate um the detrimental impacts of previous budget decisions on our classified employees at school sites I was wondering if we could share just a a little bit more about how that fund will work how those funds will be distributed how much do we expect to be expended in in this upcoming year and by when sure so the $50 million that has been set aside is sufficient to cover the cost of restoring hours for schoolf funded classified positions who saw a reduction in hours from this year into next year and so any position that has an incumbent in it that is filled with employee um that did see a reduction in hours from a school funded position would would see a restoration to the hours that they had in the
443current year so for example let's say a staff there's a position that was reduced from four hours to three hours they would be restored to four hours if this other filled School purchase position classified position was reduced from 8 hours to 6 hours they would also be restored to eight hours as they had in the current year I'd like to add is if if if the reduction in hours which was agreed to at the school site uh resulted also in a decrease in Health and Welfare benefits then that is also restored so the reimbursement back to the school the support to the school includes both the hour or hours in addition to the associated benefits and is a retroactive uh look at at what was prior to School site budget man management and what we
444committed to doing uh there was a part of your question how much do we anticipate spending uh we provided a cushion but based on our latest projections probably the full restoration inclusive of those benefits uh will hit around $40 million and a and a key piece is there had to have been an incumbent in the position in the 23 24 school year that's all reduction in hours right okay um got it thank you thank you so much for that clarification um and then lastly sorry this is a bit all over the place catching up from earlier um on the tree program I hopefully Mr C netos is still in the room um I know that part of the reason the program is in Jeopardy is due to a reduction in funding from LA County dmh
445if you could just share kind of what is the gap in funding that we are trying to cover for in order to continue the program as it currently exists so correct so Joel Saros again student help and Human Services so we were receiving about 3.3 million from Ali County Department of Mental Health uh each year so that's roughly the approximate number but we're we're again working internally trying to figure out other ways to secure the funding uh through leveraging other funding sources as well okay and um are there advocacy opportunities for us to be able to support our work with you know LA County dmh obviously you know the tree program services our Early Education Centers these are families that are generally very high need and um probably eligible for for county Support um universally
446I would expect so are there any ways that we can be helpful in that effort to try to maintain the program I think these supports are really critical I agree yeah certainly very critical uh if there's ways to to engage an advocacy certainly I think there's that's that's that would be a good opportunity uh we've been in Communications with with the county and I I think part of their decision making was based on some some budget issues as well signic yeah um and then just I I understand that perhaps some funding has been identified within the district to cover programming in certain regions um it is 3.3 million the total amount we're still looking for or have has part of that amount been been previously identified already yeah I we need to work with the
447fiscal team around like figuring out exactly what are the gaps right now we still have some pending assignments and pending uh folks that we're trying to place in different programs so I think we can still figure that out and calculate that number okay great yeah I think it would be really helpful to be able to have a sense of that gap before next week's budget vote I as I said I think this program is really important there is not a lot of mental health support that exists at our Early Education Centers we know that they are staffed um much more lightly than at our comprehensive schools and um this is one of those Key Programs with great outcomes to show for it um which is supporting those families so if you can get back to
448us or the fiscal team on what that specific Gap is before next week that would be helpful I think superintend wants to say something yes board members so this is an issue of this is an issue of high priority agree wholeheartedly with the not only the need but uh the need for those students and those parents to have the continuity of support but also the need to advocate for the continuity of support from uh from from entities outside of Al Wesley the reason why you see a decrease in general funds because we need to this is a receivable that no longer is going to be there uh we have Solutions I this is one where we don't need to go into next week without certainty the program will be funded but it will be funded
449with at this point onetime money meaning supplemental Grant funds that we can sustain the program at least for the next year as we continue our advocacy efforts the concern there obviously is anytime we come up with a homegrown solution the previous partner bolts right they say well you you solved it that's why I want to be clear that our solution is going to be a bridge solution for one year uh with temporary funds that then we would need to uh engage uh the the current partner for long-term uh funding support but it will be funded for next year Well I'm sure that'll be uh a tremendous relief for the many folks who are reaching out about this program the psws in particular yes thank you so much yeah globally um and again thanks thanks for
450all the work um that went into it I know that this is the first year of the new three-year elcap cycle and I think in my my read um the goals and actions are almost the same as the as the previous l cap I think there's a new goal eight and a one small change to removal of action 31 the school Staffing Equity Grant Investments and I'm just you know I know there's been a lot of Engagement and with my student advisory committee with others and I'm curious just um given it's the start of this new three-year cycle and there's not many changes if you could just articulate to the public and the board you know why that is I can start off and if if I missed anything uh definitely uh Dr lward would
451um will interject given the fact that we've aligned the lcap with a strategic plan our goals are in that alignment of the 2026 outcomes so um and as we know every single year the elap can be uh you get an update but we could also make adjustments along the way so given that we haven't reached the 2026 uh year our lcap in alignment with the Strategic plan has set those goals in place yeah and I'm wondering I mean you know when lcff originally was enacted there was an expectation that we'd learn come up with new goals and iterate and the district at the time didn't have a strategic plan and and I wonder if if now we can potentially work with the state to make the process more feasible given the Strategic plan and also
452that you know even just looking at the budget book there's an increasing number of Grant programs so what started as this lcff is now lcff and this and this and that and so I know you do all this work we do all engagement and I don't know how impactful it is just candidly because of the Strategic plan and because of the way the state's funding schools so I wonder just as an advocacy priority if we want to re-evaluate and make sure no one's spinning their wheels uh just for the sake of it sure I think also with an advocacy piece is the elcab you know gets longer each year so for example um you know there's a new goal eight around Equity multiplier funds um and that really is very much of the state's um
453kind of move towards taking School level actions almost like a school plan for student M and moving that into the lcap so in future years it's really seeing the lcap as a a more robust document a more extensive document and unfortunately a longer document uh not as accessible and transparent for educational Partners um and then on the Strategic plan I mean the updates the um the that we have here in this presentation you know kind of a few under each pillars have been really helpful I know that we talked about some kind of open data live tracker for all the Strategic plan goals and I'm just curious if we can have an update on on that yes we can provide that and at a future meeting um the team is is working on that and
454the other piece is um on the on the open uh sorry open data tracker uh the team is working to actually uh make those alignments um currently in open data so we should see something real soon um on that platform and just to clarify so like on you know slide 13 and the next view that has uh pillar and then key accomplishments what we working on and that you'll update the board and the public about is like a live feed with every strategic plan goal and updates in real time is that correct yes great thank you thanks yeah along the same lines I'm definitely curious you know um progress to date on our goals um and even just from the the beginning like big District goals I know we just wrapped up the school year
455families are getting their espc scores many of us are eager to see how quickly we can find out how we're doing compared to these so I I wondered if the superintendent might say anything about when we might expect um to look at some student data because I know we're very eager to to see that um yes you and I are both impatient and eager to get our hands on definitive data and I say definitive data because we have um available to us already a significant amount of data uh however in some cases specific to some of the domains grade levels whether it's Ela reading math a variance still of outstanding data to the tune of 3 to 4% of a massive District could lead to some ultimately uh some some uh variation which would be
456hard to explain if we were to report it prematurely right so we will feel comfortable when we have in our hands 97 to 98% of student data for all grades across at least uh English uh language arts uh and and Mathematics I think we're probably at at most uh two weeks away from that point maybe less and uh I commit to you that as soon as we reach that point uh we will have a conversation with the board then we really want to go public uh with with that information as well um we already beginning to uh look retroactively back to the golden year of 2022 because that was Baseline year right and uh I tried to make uh trying to make at this point uh generate conclusions regarding the progress that we've seen But
457then also the Delta that still exists between where we are now and ultimately where we uh should be in 2026 but I anticipate that those conversations probably will be possible within the next couple of weeks just for clarification purpos and um because of our superintendent's advocacy the state actually has allowed in the last two years actually more so this year to share some preliminary data when in the past we were told to keep it um confidential until the state released the data so because of our superintendent's advocacy you will have data sooner than we normally would have which is usually October that's great yeah and I think um you know we'd love to see year-over-year what that progress has looked like and what the team you know contributes to those big growth uh I'm assuming
458we're going to get some big growth coming in so that's uh exciting to anticipate um so thank you in advance for that maybe just a couple quick questions on some of these um highlights from the various pillars and I think to Mr melo's Point once we have the tracker that will help um but on the Family Academy and I I was curious um are we tracking success by participation or are we tracking and or are we tracking particip success by um feedback on the the learnings that that parents are experiencing it's a it's okay um it's not just um the participation numbers and the sessions that we've offered and the number of parents that actually have participated but also the feedback that is provided and the number of parents that provide feedback in thought exchange
459um after every session I'd be curious to see what what kind of feedback we're getting from families about theis um and if there are any trends that we can be taking in our own leadership in our our board districts because I think sometimes the feedback is for the staff but sometimes board offices can also be more responsive to families and use some of that uh information you've already received to enhance like our own services to families so to the extent you're willing to share um on the operational effectiveness I might have asked this in the past but you know I'll explicitly asked for a followup on the um uh Transportation do we have a per pupil cost for transportation I know we had talked about uh you know transportation for all being a big goal
460we're currently serving about 15,000 students um we want to serve more but do we have that per people number yet or what we're hoping to get to yeah Alberto deputy chief business officer Finance so for this upcoming year we're anticipating a range between $6 to $8,000 per per writers ship per student writers ship and that's in anticipation of the upcoming goal as the previous um I believe at the committee of the whole there was a con a presentation regarding transportation for all so it's it's uh investing in that to get us to to uh launching that program okay six to eight per per student I think it's important to just clarify that 6 to8 is true ridership versus what we plan for and as you can see when we presented in April round trans the
461transportation efforts is we generally plan plan between 30 to 40,000 writers and when you actually account for that your cost per writer is lower but when you actually have true ridership of 15,000 then it drives up your per pupil cost right so we want to make sure we're maximizing that investment and that's why the goal is to get more ridership so we can drive drive down from a district perspective the amount spent per student so we can offer more for students okay and one of the goals if I may is to not only achieve that uh drive down the cost but drive down the cost through efficiency so better routing better systems but also uh if in fact we reach that that level of increased efficiency is less Reliance on supplemental providers meaning private sector
462providers for the transportation needs I think we have a golden opportunity I know Mr Sal and I discussed this of actually achieving both increasing ridership decreasing cost maximizing our own uh professional Talent as opposed to uh continuing to contract out at the levels that we have contracted historically all around great goals um and then my last comment I'll just make in case folks uh weren't aware but on the investing in staff the the the pathways for students and staff to get into Food Services Transportation you know it struck me nursing I didn't I don't know if folks knew but um there's a threat to one of the Community Hospitals in South Los Angeles Martin Luther King community hospital um first with potentially closing the Maternity Ward and then maybe even larger than that um which
463is a a real challenge in South La where a lot of maternity Wards 17 in fact have been closed in the last several years um and we have a pregnant and parenting school really close by two miles within and so I just wanted to take this moment to say that hospital is really important for our students at Maxine Waters are who are doing the LVN pathway um which is something that is reallyu crucial to our pillar in uh you know cultivating those those long uh Partnerships for our students and and their eventual career Pathways so um you know fingers crossed the assembly comes through with some money here uh definitely you know grateful for the support that we've gotten around advocacy there um but we can't do this alone when we're trying to create these
464pipelines we uh rely on a lot of Partnerships as well so I just wanted to make a point of advocacy there thanks board member orti Eric Hanson wanted to add to the Family Academy just from our notes on on Family Academy with Central and region office Family Academy engaged over 35,000 participants in academic social emotional Career Development Civic engagement workshops that were both online and in person and some of the feedback uh that sface shared the Family Academy uh attendees reported that they'll put their learning into practice in some of the following ways uh using the strategies to communicate with their schools and teachers also celebrating multi- uh cultural um and sharing District Resources with others and also taking time to practice self-care just some of the quick feedback great yeah if you have any
465of that like synthesized to share back with us we'd love to see that I got an email ready for you appreciate it thanks I'm not online nobody ever said they couldn't hear me um that's what I said nobody's there there going near me uh so right now what we're going to do is we're going to go back and here because we have a four o'clock for the other speakers we're going to go back and hear the speakers on the items that are on the consent calendar take a vote on the consent calendar and then begin to hear the speakers that have signed up either for the budget or IAP or for just public comment okay so let's hear from I think that my first one that I had was uh item number can we can
466we record um board go as's votes take take take votes goad okay so uh I'm just going to run through the tabs for board member gones uh how do you vote on Tab six yes that is a yes on six how do you vote on Tab seven also yes yes uh and tab eight yes yes all right tab uh 13 yes T 14 yes AB 22 um yes and I know it's very late but I'd like to be a co-sponsor Dr Rivas if you'll have me okay and co-sponsoring tab 22 so all all those missing votes are now recorded okay we going to start with tab one uh the items having to do with informational technology service and we have speakers Mr McLean yeah someone should move the consent calendar Mr schmon moved it Miss
467gon seconds it go ahead outstanding okay we have two speakers speaking to tab number one Amendment to the it strategic execution plan to approve the audiovisual communication system modernization at Marlton High School we implore you if you have signed up to speak on action item that is specific that is opposed to General Public comment that you speak directly to that action item or you risk being ruled out of order as per our rules okay so item number one uh nisrin Amin are you here if you are come on up you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin are you making your way down I can't tell nine okay uh is someone identified solely as Monique are you here to speak on Tab one Monique okay both speakers are not here we'll move on to
468tab three donations of money and materials to the district we have one speaker signed up to speak that's Mar kadet Absalon and that individual is not online are you in the room uh sir no okay we're going to go to tab nine approval of routine Personnel actions which I have a readout for we have one one public comment um Shan Luciano are you on the line Shan Luciano is not on the line are you in the room Mr Luciano okay so at before we move on from tab nine uh approval of routine Personnel actions uh read the following script presented the board for approval as part of the routine agenda item are the employment agreements for three certificated employees appointed on May 7th and June 4 um it's it's more than three it's several uh
469government code section 54953 requires the board prior to making final action to provide an oral summary of a recommendation for final action on the salary salary schedule or compensation paid in the form of fringe benefits of a local agency executive including certificated employees during an open meeting in which the final action is to be taken the following certificated employees the board is considering will rece will receive regular Health and Welfare benefits accorded to 12- month certificated administrative employees of the district standard Senior Management District vac vacation and illness days which are 24 vacation days 13 full pay illness days and 87 half pay illness days use of District automobile or monthly car allowance of $250 a term commencing on July 1 2024 and ending June 30th 2026 unless specified otherwise with an annual salary as
470follows Keith Abrams is executive director of student integration Services $ 20749 Anthony agalar chief of special education and specialized programs with attorne ending 63025 at $272,700 Veronica Arin Chief strategy officer at $272,700 David Baka Regional Superintendent at $283,400 Francis Bas Chief academic officer at $272,700 Andress eate chief of school operations at $272,700 Derek Chow senior executive director strategy and Innovation at $223 $ Peter Hastings executive director Human Resources staff relations with a term ending 63025 $21,000 $449 josea Regional superintendent $283,400 reny Ela executive director adult and Career Education $7,495 Lydia Costa Stevens executive director multilingual and Multicultural education $7,495 Dean tagawa executive director early childhood education $27,400 John vladic executive director of secondary education $2,449 Alonso Webb senior director School culture climate and safety $233,800 uh H ceros executive director student mental health and wellness
471services with a term ending 63025 $2,449 76 Gerardo Gerardo cantes executive director Federal and State education programs $2,449 76 Jose sto executive director of special education $2,449 76 carav Estrada Deputy uh superintendent of instruction $ 37,7 36 plus memberships of professional organizations acsa C MAA AAP paa c o baa I apologize I don't know the name the those organizations I can't read them out right now Kristen Murphy associate uh superintendent Talent $327,000 before the Board of Education takes actions are there any speakers to this item there's one I called on him Sean Luciano are you here it's on another item um so he's not here um so this this is on consent and we'll we'll move on I I I see that uh a speaker from a prior item Mr maridet absolon are you here
472I thought I saw you walk in okay let me find out what tab you were speaking to so you're speaking to tab three okay so Mr abson is going to speak in Spanish so if you'd like to hear what he's saying in English please put your hands up and we'll hand out these headsets so you can experience simultaneous translation so just keep your hands up we'll come pass them out and this is to tab three donations of money and materials to the district graas yeah good afternoon I love your way of presenting yourself it's very good although we are in disagreement because us parents are more and they will notice I thank the few members of the board the support that you have given parents in all sense of the word the donations that L
473USD receives come from many organizations that are quite powerful the quantity you do not say specifically unfortunately but the parents have woken up they have opened their eyes and they are not the ones from before they are not those uh Farmers that come from the fields to continue working on the same here we see here in different uh chairs here we see we saw a few people that are Sons and Daughters of immigrants who have uh made it but who have forgotten where they come from where they are and where they are going tomorrow people who are above those that are the ones below will pay for the consequences and it's not a threat the consequences in the sense that many are able to vote now and they will vote in favor of those that
474are in favor of people of students of parents that those donations that that L USD get to I hope that it is for a lot but for it to be of benefit to be of service for students to be of service for teachers you have fired a couple teachers because they have rebelled against L USD because you've been wanting to silence them in the morning someone spoke thank you thank you very much for your time okay speaking to tab 12 we have Dr L price Sanford On the Line tab 12 Dr Sanford P please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin speaking to tab 12 hi can you hear me okay we can maybe if you speak up a little bit we'll be able to hear
475you better okay sorry about that fellow school board members president Goldberg and superintendent Alberto Faro my name is Dr L Sanford I'm the owner of the one by one solution I'm trying to read this off the paper and the subject I'm speaking about pertains to plan goal four social emotional Wellness I grew up in Los Angeles having attended Normandy elementary caringa junior high school and I graduated from Phineas Banning High School I've been in education for 27 years including School District management under student support services and many students are struggling as we know more than ever with behavioral challenges we as a team need to utilize as many resources as possible to assist students the goal of my company one by one Solutions provide services to marginalized students for presenting with behavioral personal social and
476need help with Wellness we offer a myri of support including School site based mentoring counseling that specifically addresses social emotional personal social topics character building restorative practices and consultations with teachers and administrators on positive School culture and climate Los Angeles Unified School District families the community organizations we need to strengthen our alliance in order to teach students the skills they need to create and sustain healthy relationships critically think and problem solve care about others right wrongs effectively communicate so that they find success in school and positively advocate for their needs this will ultimately increase School attendance graduation rates and contribute to safer schools where teachers can teach and students can learn in safe environment I apologize as this board meeting may not have been the proper channel to discuss one by one solution but it's
477more it's more than that it's my desire to helped by partnering with LA USD to improve the social emotional Wellness of students and I felt it important to introduce myself Los Angeles is a big place for students to thrive in and can be overwhelming and challenging from my experience of school district administrator and growing up in Los Angeles there's never enough help to address every challenge that students are faced with one by one by one Solutions is more than happy to be another resource in meeting your elap goals and support student wellness thank you so much for your time thank you for your time okay we're going on to tab 16 of approval of adult education CTE advisory committee there's one speaker to this tab anakaren are you here anna C anakaren and there is
478no anakaren on the line okay so we will go on to tab tab 18 special education local area local plan 2425 um I have three speakers Mr Peron I think is erroneously signed up twice for this tab so um uh Mr Peron are you here in the room Mr per I see he's online uh Mr Peron please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak when you begin John Peron please press star six to unmute yourself and you have two minutes to speak once you begin Mr prone you've been on the line for a while I note uh please press star six there might be a delay uh and then you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin otherwise we are going to move on to other callers okay
479I have Mr David tolkovsky signed up to speak to this item uh to speak remotely Mr to kovski you're signed up to speak remotely uh but you're not signed in are you in the room Mr toosi Mr toosi is not in the room okay moving on to tab 19 approval of community advisory committee um Mr prone has also signed up to speak under that but that violates our board rules I will check in and see if he's available to talk now to tab 19 since he actually didn't speak on Tab 18 uh Mr Peron please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin hi can you hear me I can so you're Mr Peron very quickly you're signed up to speak under both 18 and 19 could
480you please say which item you plan to speak on uh 18 18 please it was my wife who signed up for 19 it came must have came in as both the same I understand so please go ahead you have two minutes to speak on tabby 18 thank you so much hi um first of all I want to thank the board and uh the superintendent for having improved the appointment uh committee for the CAC members and I I firmly believe that that it took me and and all of you to to get that done I just wanted to mention one small thing um I think it slipped by all of us the uh the the Sela committee G the CAC 30 days to review the revisions and amendments and the and the draft of the plan
481um but this year and I'm sure in previous years they did not give the committee it says the the committee which is 32 members and then there's a quorum and the committee as a whole in uh we didn't get a chance to actually review it they sent it out to all individuals and individuals you know made their own comments but that is not a committee each individual is not a committee it is an opinion and uh basically the chair Ariel who you you heard from today asked for any any accommodation including a special meeting um at the last CAC meeting the the selfa was going to be delivered to the board the next day and they had promised at that CAC meeting during the agenda planning that they would cover and review the revisions all
482they did was threw up uh a page sharing of the new Sala with no identifiable revisions and changes you would have to have read all of it and done a comparison to understand what were the revisions were and um I I'm not doing that as a complaint I want this to be approved today I just hope that we can there's a special meeting of the CAC on the 21st for approval of bylaws and I hope that we can put something in and I am a member of that ad hoc um Emeritus um member of that that group that we put in into the bylaws that we have at least within that 30-day meeting there will that 30-day period there will be a CAC meeting thank you very much required that we review it with the
483Quorum that's it thank you so much you guys are great thanks for your time we appreciate it okay moving on to tab 20 tab 20 that is the fiscal year 2025 oig work plan there's three individuals signed up to speak in person I'll read all three of your names and if you could make your way up to the podium once you hear it it will affect an efficient uh transition uh Isabelle Gonzalez are you here Isabelle Gonzalez and then Juan mandhi and then Dian guen so miss Isabel Gonzalez are you here okay so folks uh she's going to speak in Spanish so if you would like to hear what she's saying translated into English in real time please put your hands up for these headphones and we'll get them to you okay gracias why do
484I think this is but I'm for me as a mom of a student in the district I'm here to tell you that I feel very embarrassed and not even in my country did I have that class uh or that type of security in the schools that is seen today in the audit that was done in 1920 it was determined that there were many obstacles that made the LUSD schools non-safe in this school year to 2425 there will be a continuation for what was determined in those years and we're hoping that this time you act so that the schools are safe for our children because if parents knew the deficiencies that exist in security in schools they would not send their children to the schools like uh shing's mom they would send the kids practically to
485a slaughterous it's the TR it's the truth because the audit that was done had points that signaled all the things that were happening I don't know if you're aware or not or why you let it slide as if nothing this is very embarrassing for us as parents we don't want this insecurity in our schools this lack of safety and I want to to read some of the points that were dis uh established then the doors the in the perimeters were open during the school day some of the gates were had accessible uh op was open and there was access and whoever wanted to go in could go in with these the the situation also the anti-panic bar is enclosed with imagine if there is a fire and the kids can't leave these are certain points
486that you also need to see and take action in regards to this this is embarrassing that there is no safety thank you very much for your time we appreciate your time children Juan mandhi Juan mandhi are you here Juan mandhi okay di guen come on up I saw Miss guen U miss gan's going to speak in Spanish so if you didn't get a chance to get a a headset for translation please let us know put your hand up and we'll get one to you graas uh good afternoon members of the board I'm de guen I represent the network of parents that are here for the school safety we have been revising this audit that was done and there's a lot of important points that were established and I if you don't want to see or
487read the results of that audit you are covering your eyes to not see and we are watching in this audit how and there was only 24 schools that were evaluated that this is not a significant number a significant number would be at least 10% of the schools but they didn't do it the Board needs to provide more funds so that the inspector general office can conduct cond uh these implementations so that they can properly analyze the schools for what's happening and another thing we're seeing in the data that you're providing is that in September there were data and I only will mention some of them where it states that in 2023 there was 5,680 fights but there were other there was other information provided in the month of March of this year or sorry April
488and you said 4569 okay there is a big discrepancy here we've heard what the principles are saying and the teachers about how What's Happening Here is that you're hiding incidents and we do not want that we want to be shown the truth all us parents of what's happening and we don't want your political agenda that some of these members have like Miss Tanya like Miss gones where they're not willing to support police in the schools and since this is an indispensable service and it's not the solution for all this problem but it's part of the solution as well as the parent participation that is active because we don't want parents to come here to just succumb to you and say okay we're here to beg for you we're not here to begol be safe thanks
489okay we are going to return to tab n where Mr sha Luciano has uh arrived Mr Luciano tab n please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have 2 minutes to speak once you begin this is to tab n approval of routine Personnel actions please go ahead Mr Luciano yeah good afternoon can you hear me sir we sure can maybe speak up a little bit more yes sir yes sir uh good afternoon board my name is Sean luchano I'm a currently a police Sergeant with the Los Angeles school police department and I've been with the district for uh in the capacity of the police department for over 21 years now um unfortunately um well fortunately I've had a good uh long career there never getting any real Trouble Never Getting uh any complaints from
490the citizens uh School member staff administrators teachers or the like uh and unfortunately I found myself in a situation where um where I believe you'll have a recommendation for my termination on your desk I believe it's uh there today um the Genesis of that is that I currently have a restraining order um actually two restraining orders in two different court systems um preventing me from contacting my daughter um the restraining order precludes me from carrying a firearm uh my daughter has severe mental health issue she's filed complaints on both my wife and me and um you know unfortunately I do have to carry a gun in order to be a police officer uh one of the court systems has found it appropriate for me to have a firearm exemption while the other court system is
491um hearing my case on August 6th um I was told at the beginning of this when this all went down um this process would take a year and about September would be the year mark So August puts me just a little bit before um you know I I I just asked for a little bit of Grace and compassion um and giving me until that time to try to secure the firearm exemption uh since then my daughter has gone into a mental hospital um and re received multiple treatments um various therapies and medications and whatnot um again this is a very unfortunate incident I've never been convicted of any crime at all um this is just a a very sad mental health case for my daughter and you know I know L USC um they tout
492we tout um ourselves on being compassionate and you know really helping those with mental health uh issues and right now that issue is falling in my family thank you very much for your time we appreciate your time sir thank you very much okay that concludes public comment for Action uh specific items all right so the consent calendar has been moved and seconded and with that we will now be voting with one vote on items number 1 through five 9 10 11 12 15 16 17 18 19 20 25 26 27 28 32 and 33 okay okay call the roll please here we go Dr McKenna yes Dr Ras yes Mr schmon yes Mr melin Miss gones yes Mr P Franklin yes board president Goldberg yes that's six eyes waiting for one all right it is
493402 and we are ready for speakers all right so we're going to start with the items that speakers who signed up for items 29 30 and 31 lcap and public hearings and as soon as we finish that list of 37 people we will go next to the list for uh just regular uh public comment which is 20 so that's about 57 people so we're going to be here for a couple of hours listening to you we want to hear from you about the issues you care about particularly we hope today to hear from you about the budget and LC cap and issues that we are going to be voting on in a week thank you very much Mr McLean okay here we go I have something to read out as these next three items are
494public hearings tab 2930 and 31 this constitutes a public hearing for adoption of the proposed Los Angeles Unified School District 2024 2025 budget the adoption of the 2024 LUSD local control and accountability plan and presentation of the 2024 State accountability dashboard local indicators file in the adoption of La USD Affiliated Charters 2024 local control and accountability plans and presentation of the 24 State accountability dashboard local indicators for Affiliated Charters file a maximum of 45 individuals who wish to address the board on these items will be heard each speaker will be able to make a two-minute presentation those who wish to PE speak should sign up um online as you already have done okay so let me switch over and find out who's here for tabs 29 30 and 31 uh as is our usual practice
495um out of respect we'll call the folks who are in the room and then we'll transition to those who are speaking remotely so if you're at home and wondering why your name isn't being called in the ordinal order it's because you were uh remote and not here so I'll call the first four folks with the first person please coming up to the podium and the following three waiting in either either Wing uh ready to speak dayon please come on up to the podium dayon come up to the podium Maria Louisa Palma is second Monica Ola is third and Nathan Cabrera is fourth so deson Maria Luisa Palma Monica Rosa and Nathan Caba and you'll each have two minutes to speak the floor is yours good afternoon my name is Da Suns your manager of K2
496policy at Catalyst California I'm also here on behalf of the equity Alliance for LA's kids which also includes Community Coalition inner city struggle and the partnership for La schools and we are once again at a critical juncture where budgets are tight and the state's economic Outlook uncertain and history has shown us who loses out in times like this students and families facing the greatest needs and challenges and in light of this we appreciate the district's recent budget decision that includes a differentiated approach to carryover where carryover funds to Sun High and highest need schools increased from 30% to 60% and we also applaud the board for unanimously passing the modern budget transparency for student achievement resolution prudent equity-based decision-making requires transparent accessible budget data for all stakeholders especially for students families and community members making
497decisions in a challenging budget context is never easy yet what is needed for racial equity in this moment is clear as LUSD commits to equity in its strategic plan we urge the district to deepen its commitment and be bold as an equity leader in the State we call upon the district to protect full carryover of funds for sending high and highest need schools and Bap funds especially for Bap group one schools these schools and communities need sustained Investments and support and in a timely manner not destabilizing Cuts or funds delivered belatedly when staff and programs are harder to put in place as LUSD comes upon the 10th anniversary of senny this month now is not the time to go backwards amidst a decade of progress as senny sets a model of equity center decision-making that
498accounts for the holistic needs of a child we must continue to deepen Investments that address the complex needs of our students and nurture their potential and thriving thank you very much thank you for your time Louisa Palma good afternoon my name is Maria Luisa Palma representing oada Inc so this morning we had a conversation on the resolution for the School site budgets that I described that would be ideal for parents to have now if parents were familiar with those budgets on that basis if they were transparent then they would begin to be qualified to begin training to be in an advisory capacity to the board and the superintendent by becoming members of the parent advisory committee or the deac but still at that point as stakeholders those parents would need training on first of all
499overview on the total budget so that they could then understand how the lcff and the l cap fit into there I can't tell you how many parents I speak to who incorrectly believe that they know what the lcap covers and they are incorrect they we need information there on each goal and action item in much further detail than has been provided we need to know what programs have been purchased at the school site and at the central level with those funds when we asked you to bring us transparency at the PAC committee you asked us first you said well Mr Elward said that the board doesn't even get the kind of information we asked for they said they didn't have to give us the information they said to do a PR request and then they
500came back afterwards and said okay what do you guys want and set up a working group this is a complete farce because parents in these committees have various levels of education and backgrounds and they don't even have access to the basics at the school site level so you're asking them basically for parents to tell you what they imagine that they want so that then you can give it to them and when it's garbage and ineffective you can say well we gave the parents what they asked for this is sad when you developed the Strategic plan and came up with these kinds of metrics who told you how to do this who told you how to structure it I bet you did it internally or you contracted with with the consultant because this is your job
501to know how to be transparent how to show the information the lcap is a state requirement you're supposed to be transparent the budget tool as it stands right now as it's been developed is garbage here's an example thank you thank you for your timea are you there come on up you have two minutes to speak once you begin I am a mother of three La unified one that has already graduated she's at college and I still have two that will get to that goal I come because I know that the budget right now for the scoi $65 million and I ask for you to increase more than $65 million because no child is worth 65 million it they are more worth more and it is important as a mother that the schools are safe and
502the schools are not safe as much as as can never as they can be they will not be able to focus because we do not have safety and because we have seen it has not been the double of the um what has happened in the school that has been tripled of all the violence in the schools and as a mother I am a mother who is concerned about what is happening in schools and due to the experiences that I've had in my school and that's why I am always here as a mother because my children are underage and they don't have voice or they cannot vote because it's I who decides where I put my students where they're assigned and what's most important is the academic I have been fighting so that my children are
503able to graduate and it is something concerning where we know that there was a shooting in a school and to know that we do not know how to get there to take out the children because of those parents that are working if we parents were not working believe me that this would be full of parents and parents right now are working in the morning evening nights and the parents are always working because right now you cannot just live with minimum wage minimum they need to have two jobs so that we our students can succeed our students need a lot from us as parents and our children will not come to decide how we can give them so much Liberty when they have been so rude and um and that they have mistreated their parents and
504the teacher it's because you are giving them way too much Liberty they're you're opening the door so that they don't focus on what's the academic and it's so sad what we are living in this world of so much suicide thank you for your time see Nathan [Music] [Applause] Caba hi my name is Nathan Cabrera a rising Junior at mstm at theer Rosevelt high school and I'm a part of inner city struggle United students Club on campus I'm here today to advocate for the district to provide 100% s carryover dollars alongside the urgency to act now rather than later in the efforts of our school to provide a wide variety of classes to take they gave options like Academic Decathlon Esports game design biotech food sciences and more to give students the freedom to explore their
505interests however these classes aren't in danger of being cut if we don't have enough teachers for them cutting classes and staff is harmful to students because offering these classes are great way to level the playing field and prepare students of color for these high paying career fields many schools utilize title one/ sending carryover dollars to offer these classes purchase and renew critical academic wellness and socio emotional programs due to limited funds and budget cuts some schools aren't unable to cover the cost for per per purchase or renewal of these Services despite receiving matching funds from the district now as I'm going into 11th grade I have finished a lot of my coure classes and I want to have these electives that can support my not only my learning but my decision on what I want
506to major in in my college Years I urge you to change your views think about every disadvantaged student that depends on Equitable budget decisions protect equity in our budget and help us get the funding we need to not only succeed now rather than never giving us a chance to be successful in our four short years of high school please provide the highest need schools with 100% carryover funds for the 2425 school year and we hope for your immediate actions to allocate this money while School schools still have the opportunity to secure beneficial programs for students and staff we hope for your full commitment to students in the highest need schools thank you thank you for your time all right I'm going to call the next four folks to come on up so the first person
507please come to the podium and then the following three weight in the wings erinda Morita come on up erinda Isabel Gonzalez Maria Daisy Ortiz and then Dianna guen so erinda Maria Isabel and Diana if anyone just walked in you'd like to experience simultaneous translation uh please put your hands up and we'll pass out these headsets to you if you there's a couple in the center back I miss my name is erita Morita and can I already yes yeah please please good afternoon my name erina Morita and we want more funds for school police from for L USD our children deserve more it is time to bring the school police back to the schools as Steam members of the board members and citizens we find ourselves here to make a an fundamental decision about the welfare
508and safety of our students in La USD the recent occurrences have highlighted the urgency in this matter of our children they deserve something better and it is time to really consider to have the police back in school in our school sites there is an increase in violence the uh consuming drugs and the safety concerns have only increased in California schools affecting not only the inst public institutions as well as the uh private ones our students deserve an environment you can hear me the violence the drug consumption drug consumption and the safety concerns have only increased in California schools affecting the public institutions as well as private ones our students deserve an environment where they are able to learn and succeed without fear our plan of action needs to consider all of the student Latino students
509African-American students and other students of color giving the also academically and social with collaboration with parents and students it is fundamental I ask you please that we want safety in our schools because there is a lot of violence within as well as outside outside you can't even walk on the bus there's a lot of violence our students are taking the buses and so I ask you for safety thank you so much for allowing me that minute okay uh Maria Daisy Ortiz come on up you have two minutes to speak once you begin can the can the members of the audience hear from the podium what folks are saying or no okay good thank you very much I just want to verify that for the for the record appreciate itas good afternoon my name is Maria
510Daisy Ortiz first of all I'd like to say that right now is when I was given this and I would like to express to Mr superintendent who said who he was going to have this translated it's not translated since from from this point you can see that we're not friendly with our parents and the data is a little inflated 70% of graduates but with the prerequisites are very few so I feel like it's inflated another thing that it says here that they are Consulting lcap through thought exchange that puts parents at a disadvantage that don't have technology that's not in that's not Consulting parents that needs to be done with a little more compassion in that regard so it's also a falsity that you're giving information regarding lcap so this this is something that you're
511putting together to look pretty but that's not what's going on really and the Investments okay what part of these Investments do you have the categorical funds I don't see that where is the parent involvement in the pillars Mr superintendent okay I want to say that intervent strategic intervention 51 million but in tutoring 94 tutoring are Caregivers for for kids they're not expert and they don't help kids okay let's know what intervention is it's with someone who is capable of teaching strategies to children so why are you putting investing Less in intervention rather than tutoring it's a way to to spend money and it's not associated with the goals that are what our academic goals are for our kids acceleration days that doesn't work how do you want to say that in two acceleration days a
512child is going progress when they should have quality instruction and a leader leads with example you had an increase of 25% in your thank you very much for your time we appreciate your time in your salary so please be empathetic with all the rest of the district Isabelle Gonzalez example Isabelle Gonzalez good afternoon once again members of the board the last time I went to the lcap meeting Miss Kelly gonz Miss Ortiz also were asked a question on whether or not they were going to support school police in the schools Miss Franklin ores Franklin said that she basically said no she did a roundabout way of saying no and miss gonz last time also said she feels very concerned because she also has kids in the district but it seems like she doesn't because she
513also said that she will not support that so that is a mask that she applies because she says she's concerned but it's not really the case um so us parents care and our the lives of our kids matter and we don't want more deaths so in the audit it was very clear where all the negative points are that need to be addressed in the schools since last time since 22 23 24 how many more years do you need to go by before safety comes back how many more deaths would you like before you take action so that school police can come back to the schools in the LA USD schools so in this office of the Inspector General there's where you will be able to see all the answers that's where all the deficits exists
514to prove safety for our schools for our kids that's all we ask safety because we do not want more deaths I ask of you also in that audit you can see that there isn't even a security camera when someone goes to the door there is no camera to see who is wanting to go in there isn't even a surveillance camera in the school sometimes the phones don't even work in the schools how are you going to be able to call teachers if some if something happens in the school how are you going to call police if not even the phone's work [Applause] sometimes okay di again Dian okay okay good afternoon members of the board once again I'm representing the network of parents that are here on behalf of the case of school safety who
515and we have recollected more than 500 signatures that in which they sayate that they want school police to come back to the schools and here we're talking about the budget about school uh police and we can't leave it in the hands of minors that say oh we're not interested in school police because I don't I feel bad about them so the data doesn't matter only feelings are matter here if a student comes to say that they feel bad about how math makes them feel so are we going to take away math because it makes them feel bad because they can't pass because only 9% of our students passed that grade that subject so we're also seeing here that in the budget that the English Learners last year were given $158 million and now they're they've
516been assigned 34 million so what results are based are are going to be the ones that are based on this decision for the English Learners and on top of that we don't know where there's $158 million because we haven't been given the budget in deac we were asking that information and we were not given it so there is a lack of transparency and that's why a lot of organizations come here organizations that do not represent the community voice they do not represent the parent voice because they have an agenda an agenda where they will gain benefits if there is a lack of safety so if there is mental health problems they benefit because they're here to get funds for those things not to support us we are the parents we are the network of parents
517for school safety and we're here on behalf of the district we you need to hear our grievances not just hear the people that have agendas that are outside our communities so we want to know where the money is that is uh supposed to be assigned to our English learner and we are the 76 of the district thank you so thanks okay I'm going to call on the next four folks who are here in person uh Julio tsol or Julio tsol and then uh let's see Marsha Doss Jane Tyler and then Ashley Edwards so Jana I'm so sorry I keep mispronouncing that name so Julio then Marsha Doss Jana and then Ashley we're ready list gracias listo okay good afternoon members of the board my name is Julio I'm a parent of two students in the
518district and also part of this network of parents in favor of school safety um as parents we want to have the budget be increased for school police since there's so many incidents fights gangs drugs and the service that school police provides is very important so that the safety of our students and the district has money to support these Ser all the services at least they should allow every school decide for themselves if they want school police and take in consideration the parents of each school and not leave this decision to the students since the parents and administrators it's our right to and our our duty to protect our students and express our our voice because we're the ones who should be involved in the decision- making of some matters so it's not wait for some
519members uh for things to increase in terms of incidents in this year the violence has increased and we really don't want like we're seeing you guys outside have police if it's not that important I would think you wouldn't have some here but of course of course you need Safety and Security there's there's police here so us being adults here that could defend ourselves so who's defending the innocent smaller students please think about that and how we do need school police in the schools and around them we asked we ask you to please consider this thank you very much thank you for your time Marsha Doss are you here Marsha Marsh hi my name is mar and I yield my time to Alejandro hello hello good afternoon my name is Alejandro shipa harez I work at
520inner city struggle which is a nonprofit in the east side and I'm here today to fight and ask that you continue the funding for syi and when I say what do we want you say SNY when do we want it now what do we want when do we want it what do we want when do we want it now syny is integral and important to our schools our highest need schools we need you to continue this funding because it is integral to make sure that our students succeed that they are safe that they are seen and we need y'all to make sure that senny is safe it's the 10 year anniversary and we need y'all to improve on the first one that y'all did I'm also here to speak on behalf of Bap we must
521continue to fund Bap do not cun cut bap bap is super important for our communities here and I have something to share I know there's a lot of parents here speaking on safety uh when I was a student I was arrested and harassed by police school police in middle school and as well as in high school when I was in school they basically slammed me and they put me on the ground and they basically handcuffed me when in reality instead of school police I needed Mental Health Resources I needed Housing Services I needed Mental Health Services and much more and mentors but instead I was greeted with criminalization at the time the police didn't know right but I was basically we lost our houses and my father passed away as well as my brother was
522incarcerated but nowhere anytime in between middle school or high school did they ask me if I was okay instead they greeted me police police do not keep us safe you know who kept me safe the teachers in my community my mentors and my family right my indigenous roots and culture police don't provide any of that they only criminalize us so to all the parents here I want you to think beyond what is safety safy is not just police you think cameras and police with guns are going to keep us safe no Mental Health Services keep us safe right we keep each other safe the community here today keep us safe I'm tired of seeing parents up here saying that they speak for all Latino parents but they don't that's saying we have our own interest
523we're here to fight for our students and to make sure they're safe and they come and they know that they're loved and police do not provide that thank you thank you for your time [Applause] okay Jana Tyler Jana Tyler I'm getting there I'm getting there greetings board greetings superintendent carvalo my name is Jana Tyler and I have the privilege of being all three I'm an LUSD employee I'm an LUSD parent and have been for the past 17 years and I'm also a Community member I live and breathe for these children not just mine and so to hear other parents stand up here and continue to say that we're not parents that we're some people that work for organizations that somehow will get some type of financial gain for thinking that police keep our kids safe
524is just outrageous to me we've already proven through statistics through data through over 177,000 testimonies from students from staff members from parents from psws that school police do not keep us safe it's not their job to break up fights it's their job to protect property we have school climate Advocates embedded in our program that's come out through Bap we've given the blueprint for what communitybased safety looks like we have campus safety AIDS we have supervision AIDS and and now thanks to a truly community-based safety plan and strategy that should be fully implemented by next year in the district we also have community-based safety Partners practitioners from our communities that look like us that have our same background our same cultural context that are on certain campuses in LAUSD already being highly effective in keeping our
525kids safe so when we have parents that come here that are on campuses that unfortunately those resources haven't reached to yet I would beg for them to come here and demand for those resources on their campuses and not call for school police back to continue to traumatize our students and to attack us as parents every other month is not fair just because you represent a certain faction of parents we represent parents through out La USD and we will not have our voices negated either thank you for your time thank you okay Ashley Edwards Ash Ashley Edwards are you here Ashley all right okay so we the next four folks come on down Ernesto Perez come to the podium uh let's see Paulina Medina and then Emily baltier so Ernesto Perez are you here Ernesto Ernesto
526Perez Ernesto he's coming I know never mind never good afternoon um I'm a LD student and I want to have a safe safe place where I can study and learn and pursue my my education but there are a bunch of things that stop from that for example like there's a bunch of fights at school that that a bad stereotype when I first went into Middle School I heard the stereotype about fighting in gangs and that which is actually true now that I think about it that's why we need someone to protect our school there's also many other things like of recently there was a lockdown at my school where someone was making threats outside of like some weapon but now um with a police I think or like just someone who could just protect the
527school could like stop all of this and could have and so all students could have a safe environment so where they can learn and educate themselves um there's also a bunch of things like homeless like I hav't had a bunch of bad encounters with homeless which um which kind of scares me sometimes but also for example something bad happens like like also like um doors are open like at the school there's nobody uh there's nobody um basically stopping anybody from going inside of the school usually like the doors are open and anybody could get in like the gates are not even closed during the day of school which really makes the school vulnerable that's why we need to have someone to protect the school and to to Really um like have all students to have
528a safe learning environment where they can all learn and not have any distress for example with the lockdown everybody was scared which really um which really brought down everybody um everybody was scared of now like more threats and lockdowns which which now basically everybody's like talking about like I do not want this to happen again like I almost everybody in my school wants someone to prce school and and have a safe learning environment for the school and also there's a bunch of people there basically do nothing um for example the staff members they basically do nothing so someone better put protect the scho thank you for your time okay uh I think I may have gone out of order is J Janet gindo right there Janet gindo Janet gindo are you here is there a
529no okay uh Paulina Medina it's a pleasure to be here good afternoon members of the board my name is minina and I am my mom from M Elementary School I am here today to ask you help more help for resources for public schools life skills for example counseling and instruction and to improve skills in school facing emotions stress looking after the wellness of uh colleagues or classmates healthy relationships and of course help for teachers and no more Cuts good afternoon my name is aneli Solis and I am a mother of Mariana I have six children and I come to appeal from you about miss campo's work as assistant principal of Marana School through the community and parents in Mariana we ask for Dr Rosio to reconsider the work of Miss compos thank you my name
530is Elena Hernandez and I I have one student at Mariana in a respectfully Manner and conscious manner I ask that there are no more cuts for students in special education just like the assistant principal of special education Mr Tolen all of the resources are being are being taken away and I think that that is unfair thank you [Music] thank you for your time okay Emily baltier hello my name is Emily B and I'm a rising Junior at Roosevelt High School I a youth leader with any City struggles youth program United students I am here to urge you to make decisions that benefit and support the high and highest need schools throughout La USD because we have historically been at a disadvantage as a result of B budget cuts budget cuts at my school affect me
531mentally and physically because they require additional effort to account for the resources that I'm not receiving I am here to demand that 100% of the S carryover dollars be accessible and without barriers Roosevelt students and I walked in solidarity at at the Mendes high school walkouts for Budget transparency on May 31st the walk out led me to reflect on the current reality as an LA USD student we demand to be able to keep the resources that senny has fought so hard to bring to our schools Roosevelt has been a model for restored Justice in California however your budget decisions have put my school in a difficult situation unfortunately we are using our restorative justice teacher Miss Nikki next school year this is one example of what happens when budget cuts are made without the consideration
532of equity and Community students in the community have loved Miss Nikki for many years and she has been a great resource to our school and I am very sad she will be she won't be returning restorative justice empowers students to resolve conflicts on their own and in small groups it gives students a second chance they severely need I was taught to facilitate RJ circles and to create a safe environment for students to be able to be vulnerable without about their needs this is why I aware of the negative influence that would occur without the full funding of these resources these Necessities allow students to F to focus on solely being students without the constant fear of being policed or punished I would like to reiterate and demand that you approach decision making in an equitable
533way we want schools to feel safe and fully funded and the release of 100% of syi and Bap carryover funds today you can make decisions that allow for this is to be a reality thank you thank you for your time okay so will the next person come up to the podium and then the next three wait in the wings maret Absalon please come on up to the podium marisette and then Ezekiel Mitchell Jose Alona and then Epi Alona so first uh Mr meret Absalon then e I'm sorry Ezekiel Mitchell then Jose Alona and then EP Alona please begin I want to congratulate the memb that are here present because Miss toris she left I don't know where she might have gone and Mr Scott it's very strange I thought that in the afternoon they met
534uh and regularly because in the morning one comes in one comes out in any case thank you for the Youth that spoke those that said that they did not feel comfortable with the police thank you why because I have three generation of children and all three of them have been felt comfortable and they are partners with the police it's not LAPD it is different different to the school police that is different they say and you speak about M mothers students colleagues members that they talk about mental health where's mental health they don't want the uh police because it influences mental health and what happens are they stick more now than before are they worse off are they now better we want the school police because where is the help for mental health where's psychology where
535is the support from the counselors where are those that are working in schools are they being truly trained and I can speak hours for hours and we can never finish that here but I will leave it up to your conscious and you parents that are over there representing the students because the students will come and take those those places and the places of authorities when they finish at the University thank you for listening to us we are parents that we represent ourselves we don't receive funds from anybody we don't receive funds from anybody are coming here and talking here is free it's for the benefit of our children we are from the community I have not forgotten where I came from many do and tell me whoever is here that they're original that they're genuine
536that they're Native Americans there's none thank you thank you for your time okay Ezekiel Mitchell Ezekiel Mitchell are you here I think [Applause] he hi my name is Ezekiel Mitchell and I'm a junior at George Washington prep I have seen the way C has impacted schools and it's amazing I was enrolled in crinch offer the majority of high school until I recently transferred to Washington Washington has so many resources and programs that crenchaw doesn't and is great and sad at the same time seeing what crenchaw was lacking while I was enrolled at Washington made me realize how impactful cine is and how helpful it is we need cine to give schools like crch out more resources classes and opportunities to students so they can reach their full academic potential cine is very important because it
537opens so many career doors for students like cooking coding and theater I hope that you continue to fund Sinny because when you fund C you're funding all of ld's students Futures thank you thank you for your time Jose Alona Jose Alona [Music] hello hello my name is hosal fona and I'm I just graduated from Washington Prep High School uh well I just wanted to talk about uh is like my experiences over the years you know I came from achter school for two years and then I came to Washington prep for two more years to graduate and finish my my school year and I just want to talk about the differences like the technology and um how schools don't have the the great technology the stuff we need I mean if y'all going to fund so
538much money police why can't y'all fund at least programs and and uh technology and stuff we need to better our education I mean if y' like I said y'all can yall can fund so much about the police stuff but I mean y'all can do both at the same time so I just wanted to talk about how we can do better funding on at least our education if y'all can't stop the police funding thank you for your time all right I'm going to call up the next four folks with the first one please coming to the podium and then the following three just just be ready when that person's done epie Alona epie and then Jamon Frasier then Jaden Frasier and then Channing Martinez so epie Jamon Jaden and Channing epie is sick and he yielded
539his time to Amora Jones okay let's do it [Applause] hello my name is Amora Jones I'm assumed to be senior at man Arts High School and a youth leader at Community Coalition I'm here to talk about my experience as a LZ student and why it's important to protect High new schools like Manual Arts my school Bap program only works as well as it does because the staff make an effort to understand and help the students through the Bap program I have been given numerous opportunities including an out of state trip to visit different HBCU opportunities like this are very important for students like me because they allow us to see what our futures may look like I mention all of this to say that our schools need funding for opportunities like this to be possible
540at my school we have non-permanent staff and a lot of the staff are unqualified for their positions adequate funding will fix this issue we also do not have enough supplies and the campus is always dirty whether we're talking about something good or bad about our schools budget cuts will only make our situation worse youth education is extremely important so it only makes sense that we are learning in a suitable environment it only makes sense that we have staff that actually care for us and that are qualified for their jobs it only makes sense that we have the supplies needed for our education and it only makes sense to give us the funding that we need so I'm asking you as board members to protect Sy thank you [Applause] thank you for your time Jamon good
541afternoon my name is Jon faser and I'm a youth leader at Community Coalition syi is important to me because I go to one of the schools that are considered uh low needs which means we don't have the things the bigger schools have like having teachers in every classroom and textbooks up to date it is important because it gives schools like mine money to pay for things like extracurriculars and teachers so we don't have Subs every day which could mess up our education we also need to protect sy so that students in the future won't have to worry about having their teacher not having their teacher losing not having a teacher in every class and losing out on their education I know you said you care about C but can you promise to care about it
542the next year and the year after that thank you for your time thank you for your time Jaden come on up my name is Jayden Fraser wait hold up my name is Jayden Fraser I'm a senior at crell high school and I'm a youth leader at Community Coalition I will be talking about s and why it is important s is important because it helps black and brown students feel important and we need you to keep that because without it we feel like y'all don't care about us s shows that s shows that La USD actually cares about us like at CAW we we seen how much for how much more funding could help our schools with more money we could have our whole floor cuz our third floor we don't have no teachers or nothing
543but with the money we could have that so we could open our computer lab and our brand new computer teachers to be there but we are not allowed to use that because there's not enough teachers for s cuz s don't have no about money all right can I restart bro just keep going you're good you're good it's all right take all right but okay so I'm talk so but we're not allowed to use the computer labs because they're not enough teachers and with the money from Sandy we could have enough teachers so they could actually pay for us to learn and learn more stuff like [Applause] that all right all right I can either keep coming back to I can either keep coming back here and speaking or y'all can help us feel important like
544actually bring it back syy like keep it on cuz we need years and years of syy we need more and more so keep it up and stop don't take it away thank you there thank you for your time all right Channing Martinez Channing I don't see you out there Channing okay I'm going to call out the next couple of folks who are listed as being in the room sometimes people sign up and list themselves as calling remotely so if you're here and you haven't heard your name yet it's it's just because I have you listed as speaking remotely for one reason or another so Yolandi beckles we saw you earlier today Miss beckles Joselyn kyz or chyz Miss chyz are you here come on up you have two minutes to speak why don't you begin
545good afternoon my name is Joselyn chides and I would like to talk about my life and how CU I'm already graduated and I have been in L USD my Elementary middle school and a little bit of my high school years and uh yeah I still I'm still going to always say it like we need Securities in the schools and I know that some of you guys don't want Securities in the schools and I feel like it's a very good Advantage because in the school that I attended for two years there were there were Securities and they were very friendly they weren't mean and and then just like the students they were actually friendly so I feel like there should be Securities in the schools and for you guys I didn't graduated I think I wouldn't
546graduate as as honors as an a3g requirement and as a medical assistant no I had to do that by myself with other districts not with you guys I end up getting my success with other District not you guys I feel like you guys need to like look for something for you guys could upgrade you guys' level of education because your guys are not not working like some students do succeed their education with your guys' District because their parents help them aside like my mother she helped me aside and I thank her and I will thank her again and again because for you guys I wouldn't have achieved nothing that I have achieved now thank you thank you for your time okay that's the all the inperson folks as listen listed I'm going to call through
547folks who are um listed as being remote uh Nelly Mendes Nelly Mendes you signed up to speak remotely but oh here you are in person okay good afternoon can hear you good afternoon my name is is left over because you know me but Nell thez is my name and I'm here because I'm seeing that Miss Kelly gones is against school police being that Kelly gones sent me three police to my home so I don't understand how that's the case when there's police at home it's a security uh that leaves one okay my daughter had an incident at school that only today I found out about and where was security where was police I found out cuz my daughter was lost and the miss melin the principal uh Miss Nelly which and I forgot the aid
548but the purse the Personnel was looking for yanelli and there were no school police and my daughter was lost it lasted an hour that she was completely un lost and they were doing construction and they found her behind Fain there was no police that only another student could find her and what did my daughter say Mom and I said uh she's been uh having issues since the pandemic and I said we're going to put you in school so that you can go in person because she's been online since since the pandemic and she said Remember the vi the of another person was who was assigned to me she oh touched me and until now I found out and I said no uh for a daughter I don't know what I would do right so I
549don't know if Miss Kelly gones is stupid and I'm very upset and angry because it seems like everyone's a puppet and Mr superintendent you're the dumbest one here because you didn't protect my daughter she was sexually abused and today I was I just realized this and Mr Martinez what he did was was he changed schools and Mr Martinez is still getting away with it and that's not fair I just today found out of what happened to my daughter Marcel Marcel are you here in person you're signed up to speak remotely but you're not signed in Marcel someone who is listed as jce okay that person's not here Karina Lopez are you here you're listed as calling in Karina Lopez you signed up speak remotely but you're not signed in okay arel Caba I see you're
550uh signed in to speak remotely and you are online right now arel Cabrera please press star six to unmute yourself um hear okay good afternoon my name is so I'm here to communicate the the deficiencies in the budget that isn't being communicated in the schools before you approve it it is not happening also for the budget you need to inform all the parents in order to have their participation in the Committees so that our advocacy be effective and complete So currently our it's not so the district needs to improve their best practices when it comes to parent involvement and if this isn't happening in reality we're just being used I'm not in agreement with this I've heard a lot of times that we're you know equal Partners our finances are being administered or being arranged
551by you alone so I'm just asking that you please be aware of what you're putting in place in practice since it's not working as parents are feeling isolated and like I said already in many occasions I've heard that we are equal Partners so we'd like to be treated like that une equal partner so we would need to have better information that is understandable and parent groups be better informed so that they can explain to the other parents all these other matters so I think there needs to be more responsibility taken on behalf of yours and the uh Spanish speakers are saying live in Translation you put on the headsets and they'll come over the speakers because we're we're doing it slightly differently whereas we would have translation someone else's voice simultaneously we're now hearing the
552speaker actual voices and if you want to hear the translation use the headsets and that's applies for the folks in the audience and those here at the deas okay the next speaker is Juan magandi I see you're on the line Mr mandhi please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Mr Juan mandhi hello hello hi please go ahead Miss okay thank you good afternoon Mr L board I just wanted to say that all of these uh demands that you see is a CA due to what it is as a result as what I called incompetency cultural incompetency to be able to work with a community that is majority in the district who are the immigrants Sons and Daughters of immigrants and first generation immigrants so we
553are seeing here that there's two worlds the world of what is called the um mon U Monopoly dictator that controls the that is Uta that controls all of L USD with their accomplices who are all those groups that are with organ organizations guaranteeing through the uh pain of poor Latinos hispan Hispanics and that is the greatest problem the mediocrity that that the other interest from other um unions like PT and PTO that do nothing but to be div divisive to be manipulative and to um disappoint parents and also to accept our children that are Latinos that is the Great problem that we have today that our children are not receiving a quality education and even though that the money that comes for Education it's a sign for privileges for uh raises and to maintain keep
554our Latina community in the poor and in disgrace and that is the greatest here is there those organizations are just parasite that live off the pain of the budget because they're not able to have uh training and to really help the community today the greatest business is mental health before it was covid-19 and now comes again the drugs and drugs today are the other business because there's a pandemic of uh addictive behaviors that are being pushed by the responsibility of those groups that are just interested in money that are just all right Irene Morales you're signed up to speak remotely but are you in the room cuz you're not signed in right now Irene Morales Norma Gonzalez Norma Gonzalez are you here you're signed up to speak remotely but you're not signed in are you
555in the room Norma Gonzalez no okay Michelle churner I see you're on the line Michelle Cher please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Michelle churner please press star six Michelle and you'll have two minutes to speak when you begin yes hi can you hear me we sure can okay thank you hi hi there um I'm facing displacement in about eight days due to the budget cuts I has emailed the board I'm on the autism spectrum um I'm also a district intern and I was also told that if I don't find a job in eight days I'm pretty much out of luck in the district I love the school that I'm at they're cutting the special ed provider and she's bumping me out of my role
556this is terrible for me to experience only in my first year of really teaching um I was PR original last year I also got displaced I love my kids more than anything and I understand I'm just one single person but there really should be more consideration for the kids the kids were crying upset not happy over the budget issues it was due to the low amount that our school got um I personally think that all special ed provider position should be funded in the Middle School level uh there should be no reasons for that should be cut um yeah um especially being someone who is disabled and working in the district I feel like I'm getting poorly treated um I just feel so discouraged about my situation and um just being a teacher it's it's
557terrible you know to have this happen to me twice it's not good I know it happens and seniority and everything but I just hope that the the board just find our positions fund positions More Money More Everything I just I don't know just you know put yourselves in our shoes as being new teachers and having kids bald crying I have one kid that I worked with every Thursday in the morning spoke with him oneon-one built that Rapport and he's Beyond devastated I won't be there and it's really messing up my district intern program I have to find a job in eight days and jobs don't fall out of the sky so yeah it's just I don't think with he cares and um it's unfortunate I don't know I might be a number but I'm a
558person who has built relationships with the kids and it's all about the kids at the end of the day that's all I say so thank you for your time thank you for your time okay Christian flag 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 Christian flag who the last speaker Christian flag are you there please press yes hello we can hear you all right uh good afternoon folks Christian flag with Community Coalition also coming to you today as a part of an organization that's a core member of the police free LA USD Coalition uh we're lifting up four core budget demands this year as it relates to vaap uh number one uh full carryover of unspent Bap dollars and carry
559over for Bap group one schools we're demanding protection of General school-based position and hours at Bap group one schools semi high and highest KN schools and priority schools uh we want to eliminate the misappropriation of Bap resources and dollars and formally require that Bap group one schools include uh a mechanism for black students and parents to actually be included in Bap budget decision is similar to the way schools side councils operate um looking at this year's annual lcap update we have a 40 million plus dollars again going unspent that's three years in a row now that that much money has been unspent 39 million in 2122 54 million in 2223 and now 41 million this uh this year this is a sign of institutional barriers that is blocking the implementation of Bap it is not
560a a a signifier of a lack of need right I'm a community partner that's been a part of the implementation process since before the district even adopted it and we've seen things from a procurement process that was highly inaccessible I know that you guys updated your website definitely uh some uh good progress there's widespread internal resistance from lausb administrators faculty staff up and down throughout the whole uh organization there's a lot of work that has to be done to address this um you have principles refusing literally refusing to use budget line items that can only be spent for Bap resources because they don't believe in the work um you have L usd's legal council advising you guys thank you very much for your time sir thank you thank you sir right Miriam aspara Miriam aspara
561you're signed up to speak remotely but you're not signed in Miriam aspara and Mr David tolkovsky you're signed up to speak remotely but you're not signed in are you here are you here in the room you are not okay that concludes the sorry that concludes the public hearing for items 29 30 and 31 and we'll be moving on to the general public comment period hello sorry there's one person left for tab 29 do I do not want to um Miss speaker uh so Marcela you are signed up to speak remotely please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Marcela board for vote PR good afternoon members of the board my name is Marcel Garcia as a mother I want to know how you measure mental health
562what evidence do you have that the services for mental health are working according to the data and in because incre suicides there are in youth we want transparency and budgets safety in schools Parent engagement in schools that is effective and authentic training on how to understand the budget for lcff funds and categorical funding please listen to us we are parents please listen to our leaders that are here every single day that you have meetings dat no one pay them there have been signatures gathered but please do not ignore those signatures we are parents and all of us we are out to gather signatures and the parents say yeah I'll sign it and how many times can I sign and I said only one time and in one of those the child said Mom sign please
563a student said remember last year uh a block from the school they wanted to uh assault me and there was no police and thankfully somebody saw him and helped him here in Highland Park at Alama but we need police please do not take away the funds for the police just as a mother said previously our students are worth more than those $65 million that you have cut so please do not take away any more funds from English Learners why because when students English Learners are in elementary school they don't suffer as much as when they get to secondary because they victims of bullying and those children do not they come they get to they don't go to high school because they're victims of bullying please understand that that students that are English Learners need our
564support they need our help and we need safety with inside of the schools inside within the schools thank you and our principal at Franklin we need to choose our principal okay we will now move on to General general public comment as I did the first time we'll proceed with the folks who are here in person so I'll call out the first name please come up to the podium and then the following three names please wait in the wings uh Helen ho you're up first then Vivian Freeman Melanie Cruz and then Lorena zoria so Helen ho Vivian Freeman Melanie Cruz and lurena zoria you have two minutes to speak once don't you begin oh hi my name is Helen a student leader with student deserves and a rising Junior at narbon high school today we urge
565you to divest in laspd and invest in safe passage and communitybased safety um to rectify School conflicts and engage in a proactive measure that rather than a reactive criminalization criminalization um approach coding the 50 vacancies to La School Police Department is one step to ensure a full fully defund defund of La school police we're calling on you to continue this work and commit to making a plan to fully defund LBD and instead reallocate that money towards support programs that do not criminalize and harm black brown indigenous Muslim and agent students um and programs like safe passes and deescalation um trainings we are in solidarity with u utla and Local 99 fighting against staff um Staffing cuts um superintendent carvalo despite L USD projecting 6.27 billion in reserved in July why are schools facing Cuts in
566their budgets and staff cuts to pivotal programs and services like psws PSAs Librarians PE teachers art teachers and so many other staffs that make will make our school Staffing that will make um our schools safe especially in high need schools this indoctrinates students of color and infringes on our rights invest in community safe P passage now and uplift student voices and continue on non continue preaching non-resistant forms of violence on LUSD school campuses thank you Vivian Freeman Vivien thank you sir Melanie Cruz Melanie come on up you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin yes good afternoon my name is Melanie Juan Cruz I am a leader with students reserve and a 2024 graduate of La High attending Georgetown um nothing Stell USD and its lack of resources though after years of demanding safe
567passage be implemented I finally got safe passage at my school funny enough it was a Tuesday as I was waiting to come to a school board meeting that I noticed people wearing vests knowing the hard work I had been putting in I knew they were safe passage workers as I was waiting a situation between two boys began to escalate and in a matter of seconds they were swinging at each other but at the same speed the fight had started the fight ended the safe passage workers instantly intervened and the quote unquote fight did not even last a second I say this to highlight the importance of safe passage it usually takes staff two to three minutes even to notice a fight is happening let alone to come and intervene and we know that in instances
568of fights police choose violence being brutal with kids and showing they don't know how to work with them only harming kids in the process this is why we demand and expect community- based safety be implemented at all LUSD schools however this is not the only program we expect funding for safe passage deescalation training for staff not cops conflict prevention and intervention peace building peer counseling and mediation programs are all programs we dem demand be funded and implemented although La high was underfunded and lacked in ways I cannot even begin to describe one of the highlights was peer counseling junior year is considered to be one of the most stressful years of high school thankfully I had peer counseling to help me navigate peer counseling truly became my safe my safe place I remember having hard
569times at home and in school and thinking that I just had to make it to peer counseling where I knew could de-stress and receive help having peer counseling my senior year would have helped so much but unfortunately not having enough peer counseling classes it could not fit into my schedule instead I was left having mental breakdowns in the halls in my school because I had no safe place to go and express my feelings or navigate them like I had in peer counseling peer counseling was a fun fundamental class in my development and journey in high school all these programs have the same incredible impact on students and that's why I urge you to fund and Implement them thank you Rea Zaria Lorena zoria come on up you have two minutes to speak when you begin
570Hi how are you I will be brief I am here to ask Mr Melbourne uh you received several letters from my students and they were requesting that you help them get their classes online and your office did nothing to help these students and you only believe what administration told you um this is a disgrace because these are mothers these are people um of color they need these classes and you chose to take them away believing what the administration was telling you um changes were discriminatory and sensitive forcing students out out of the program completely many women young and old many of them of color and force between attending a school or taking care of their families um as for me I feel I have been retaliated against for advocating for my students I am a
571CTE teacher after 20 years of impeccable teaching um tenure well career no tenure because I teach CT um I have been discriminated and actually made up all these stories about fraud if someone did fraud is them and I want you guys to investigate okay thank you thank you for your time I'm going to call the next four people in the room with the first person please coming up to the podium Alicia baltazar Alicia baltazar and then Emmanuel then Grace Cabrera and then Ian kiry so Alicia Emanuel Grace and Ian please go ahead it's your floor is yours thank you everybody my name is Alicia balazar I'm a member parent leader with reclaim our schools Los Angeles as well as Ace and I'm here today to talk to you about the police the school police um
572my son is now attending Banning High School in Wilmington and just recently we had a student commit suicide just days before graduation and that is a really sore spot for me because the first time I attempted suicide I was 12 I was in the sixth grade and I was 12 years old luckily I wasn't smart enough to know how to actually do it because obviously I wasn't successful but my second time I was almost 15 and so for me it's really really crucial that we put these these programs on our campuses that allow our students to have access to Mental Health Services and see if somebody would have talked to me at a teenager about what anxiety was what Depression was and how to actually combat that I wouldn't have gone all the way into
573my 30s with the drug problem problem being in abusive relationships and stuff like that these are the things that I'm trying desperately to save our students from happening see you can put all the police you want on that campus but not one of those cops could have saved that little girl's life in fact I went to school in the 90s when there was school police there was Securities there was the the metal detectors and all that stuff and even though that was all there I still had a barrier my friend in the seventh grade due to gang violence so the police have been present there's been fights there's been bullying all that has been happening and police have been present how is that being stopped it hasn't what hasn't been present is mental health services
574programs that actually help students see I went to nine nine different high schools and in all of those institutions not one helped me not one instead they expelled me out of the district they just kept kicking me to the next school to the next school to the next school and like I said I was well into my 30s before I finally got help and that shouldn't be happening happing see if that student had help when she was in junior high she might have not gone to high school and committed suicide days before graduation and the sad thing is she wasn't the only one there were two other students so thank you thank you for your time so Emanuel has yielded to eloisa Galindo is that right Emanuel has yielded time to eloa gindo thank you
575please go ahead you have two minutes to speak when you begin bu my name is Elisa Galindo I have a daughter in Garfield High School I'm here today with the parents of Maria venan Elementary to have their uh assistant principal returned and you have the signatures with you and we are not going to beat around the bush in the schools of Los Angeles they're criminalizing the students that's the truth because as mothers we were fighting for the privatization we we were also victims of school police being uh us uh being victims of their effects and there should be resources to help uh uh succeed through these mental health issues and more teachers and more counselors more psychologists and one example that I have is I will speak about caritos East LA a child who was
576in toris uh that school and he was saying that the police uh was hitting him that he was uh bruised in purple and they took him to the east LA and that's how he was incarcerated and after that they sent him to he was suspended from the school estan Torres and they told his mom if you make a complaint then you might have issues because we going to say that he had drugs so that is parent censorship and and that is manipulating a parent and and then they took him out of the school he went to different schools until now that he is working as a security officer in USC and that is part of what's going on when it comes to criminalization in the schools and we have a one step from schools to
577jails and there's money to be made uh from incarceration so more gra Caba Grace Cabrera are you here Grace Cabrera are you here Grace okay I'm going to call in the next four folks Maria Daisy Ortiz are you here Maria Daisy Ortiz and then Ian kiry Joseph Williams and Amir Casmir so Maria Daisy Ortiz Ian kiry Joseph Williams and Amir are we ready good afternoon to everybody my name is Maria Daisy Ortiz I am a member of the community Community because I have my uh business office in the in Highland Park that's why I'm here first of all I want to show you this bulletin that says that it's for the employees uh the parents you know it's a bulletin that is about the uh committees and this is this is is not what is
578being given to the parents to inform them about the Consolidated forms and this is a school plan and this is in violation of the district rules because they're not translated in the sections that have to do with parents and the English Learners another thing here it says that there could be an establishment a uniform but that isn't talked about in the schools they don't even know how to fill out a UCB form which doesn't even work but the more important part is that in certain calendar days there needs to be a distribution and a notification for parents legal Guardians and the committees but it says that only deac is the one that's endorsing the Consolidated uh form and and the Leah meeting that was formally done with the parent involvement that is also in connection
579with the goals of 1152 and involving parents in a positive way in the education of their children another thing that needs to be included is the parent education for the strategies and curriculum to have Student Success and establish efficient communication that is consistent between the school and lastly to uh educate the parents the Educators so that they can communicate with the parents in an efficient way how many times have you uh assisted parents so that they can communicate with between administrators and parents that's a violation because you it hasn't been done and there's so many things and this doesn't even speak to parents thank you very much for your time being Consulting parent it's a false thank you have a great afternoon I I don't care thank you very much for your time okay Ian
580kiry are you out there Ian kiry come on up you have two minutes to speak once you begin good afternoon uh my name is Ian kiry and I'm an organizer with students deserve I'm going to be reading uh comments on behalf of Emanuel noi a student leader from narbon high school and a leader on board district 7 student advisory Council 6.3 billion this is the estimate of how much money is reportedly projected to be sitting in the LA USD reserves by the end of July and if not then this immense amount of money is probably already there as we speak according to L elest A news Outlet uh with updates on prevalent issues centering the world today a whopping $84 million sits unassigned out of the 6.3 billion it is evident the LA USD already
581has and will have a great amount of money sitting in reserves this vast amount of money would not be best utilized by having all allocated and saved for a rainy day or mishap I emphasize this uh that this rainy day is now and every day that more and more psychiatric uh social workers and other staff are being transferred from schools because their school's inability to uh be able to afford them being there to add to this centering on centering on a community based safety perspective despite this immense amount of money that LUSD is projected to have in its reserves why are our schools facing cuts to their budgets and staff these budget cuts that are being implemented Target the school support services and staff like psws PSAs Librarians PE teachers art teachers and so and
582so many other staff of members these budget cuts will make our schools less safe especially schools and under underrepresented underrepresented and underprivileged communities to the LA USD board I emphasize the impact uh the impact that having psws on school campuses has had on students of these schools I myself speaking for Emanuel uh have seen the positive impacts of PSW services at my school the Comfort uh in knowing that I have an adult uh that I can talk to about grievances or situations going on in my life and give me a chance gives me a chance to understand my emotions and adjust to them I think that not only is not only sad for students in other schools that don't have this uh is also unfair because of the fact that they have no one to
583go to and address their problems additionally the fact that 1% of the extensive amount of money that 800 $4 million of unassigned money if if allocated towards schools without psws would allow for the employment of hundreds of more psws in schools to continue to Aid uh on more school campuses 1% specifically 1% to get more psws appreciate your time thank you Joseph Williams come on up Joseph Williams you have two minutes to speak once don't you begin hello hello uh my name is Joseph Williams I am the director of student deserve and I'm here in solidarity with the vast majority of the people who are out here today um you've heard folks talk about a lot of different issues that are connected and I'm going to talk about my own experiences as well as some
584of our other folks um do a lot of these parents think that we don't know and we don't care about student safety but we absolutely do I work with students every single day in these District students that I love deeply as if they were my own siblings my own children um and I'm also a person who was um a low-income public school student who was experiencing houselessness who was experiencing mental health uh issues who was experiencing family trauma who started self-medicating with substances when I was 11 years old um who ultimately did not have counselors in my school that cared about me um I was incarcerated and charged with assault and battery when I was 13 years old and spent much of my freshman in sophomore year incarcerated or on house arrest being pushed out
585of school over and over and over again until my school decided to start a program for black male youth a program that connected us with more resources that connected us with mentors that connected us with counselors that connected us with uh support in school and outside of school and it changed my entire life it changed my entire life and my trajectory so when we talk about the things that students need the things that students who are being criminalized who are being expelled who are being suspended who are getting in fights who are using substances we say we don't need police because we know they don't need police we say they need counselors because we know they need counselors and they need love and they need support it was not a good thing for me to
586be separated from my home my family put into a cell put in cages treated by adults as if I was a dangerous criminal because I was a young person experiencing houselessness experiencing mental health abuse exper uh substance abuse mental health issues and neglect and Trauma I needed care I needed love and that's what we are asking and demanding that you all actually invest in care and love and support these are children they do not need police we do not need to be spending 50 million education dollars to criminalize to surveil and to incarcerate young people who at the end of the day need care need support need love need resources we're telling you this because we know from our own personal experiences and because these are children that we deeply love and care about defund
587school police invest in and protect Bap Sy Community Based safety and all of the other resources that these students deserve thank you Amir Amir Casmir are you here come on up Amir what's Happ folks my name is Amir Casmir I'm an alumni of L USD and and I'm on staff with students deserve and really I'm here as a member of the community to say I know y'all listening I think it's really obvious and apparent that the carceral strategies that have been in place at our schools and in our communities are abysmally ineffective we've heard from parents from since the '90s that these systems that we've had in our schools are uneffective we're hearing that students coming up and offering Alternatives offering that we need mental health guide uh Mental Health Counselors we need advisors we
588need school in school support we need a safe passage these are things that you guys should be able to promote things that you should be saying hey what if we did this and instead we see you promoting constantly over and over again policing and carcel reproaches and honestly it makes me ask why I see the extreme lack of transparency and the lack of honesty with the school board and with the administration in general I need this to change it's going to change at the end of the day I'm tired but I see the folks that come before me and I'm reinvigorated I'm never going to stop coming to this board I'll be in your seats if you do not change this I'll will make sure that people are being safe safety is being enforced by
589folks in their own Community not by police not by the folks that you deem to be the powers that be it's absolutely vital for my safety and for the safety of my peers that we are surrounded by folks that love us that care about us this is why I chose my career path today this is why I'm a community organizer and not trying to be a politician this is why I'm a community organizer and I'm not trying to be in schools right now because it's the goal and my and my dream that I see students getting the respect and the education and the support that they deserve thank you thank you for your time okay I'm going to call up the next four people ma tro please come on up to the podium ma tro
590W I think I saw Mr TR there uh Al Duncan I'm yielding my time to Brennan okay so uh after Brenan will be Al Duncan then uh Juan Maldonado then Monica arzola and Yasmin Baria hello my name is Brenan Higgins I'm a rising senior at dorsy high school and a leader in students deserve I'm here to share demands for superintendent carvalo and the school board Community Based safety needs to be implemented across all L USD School schools fund to implement Community Based safety programs such as safe passage deescalation training for staff not cops conflict prevention and intervention peer counseling and more we need a community- based safety plan from superintendent carvalo that includes a policy for dedicated Personnel to ensure schools connect with Community Partners develop and Implement Community Based safety plans and coordinate necessary
591training to ensure faculty and staff can prevent or deescalate conflict we also need our staff and support services because they help make schools safer Staffing cuts are not what's best for students my school uses the library and the wellness center which includes psws and Bap I enjoy being a part of Bap because I have gained many experiences such as traveling out of state to learn about black history and connecting with like-minded individuals and my culture I've benefited from my school's library as a space to Foster productivity and gather research use the projected $6 billion in reserves towards a plan on how Community Based safety will be implemented across all La USD schools instead of for Staffing Cuts two safe passage workers are insufficient dorsy has two and there are not enough because students who walk
592to and from school like myself need more safe passage workers surrounding the school because safe passage actually makes students feel safe unlike school police to be clear we don't want police put back on campuses not in these last few weeks of school as you tried to do and I expect to not see school police back on campus in August if you put police back on campus it shows you don't understand the experiences black students have faced with school police work with us to keep our schools safe without school police students and parents are reporting school police are not what they believe is best in overring numbers yet you superintendent carvalo continue to station them on campuses even after you stady you remove them why is that if you cared about L USD schools much you
593listen to the majority of students parents and staff within them fighting for the removal of school police across all campuses invest in community based safety and safe passage programs we want a thoroughly implemented plan on how Community Based safety will be applied across all La USD schools put a comprehensive safe we appreciate we appreciate it thank you very much for your time in place at dorsy and all schools this will mean not just two safe passage workers but a but at a school like dorsy five to six safe passage workers what we need is a compr comprehensive program not a limited cheap version thank you thank you for your time Al Duncan are you out there Al Al Duncan all right Juan Maldonado me good afternoon members of the board I know that each one
594of you leaves home leaving and activated along har and most of you do not leave in the live in the area that we live where we come across uh bad elements maybe one of you did live there and have left and now are safe this country this great nation was founded by immigrants immigrants and each one of them gave or put their little grain of salt so that this nation is this great and I know that there are many good actors Bad actors uh good students bad students good parents bad parents good leaders bad leaders and I do not who considers them themselves what I can't judge I can't be the judge of that but we see your intention if you have honest uh schols and to be a Citizens we need to read history
595we need to love our country to be loyal to that flag back there that don't you don't care about you armed yourself with that arm that for us is a threat do you see what you do with loss look at your arms We the People thank you for your time Monica Rosa and then Jasmine Barilla good afternoon we are talking about safety mental health safety and I see that in 2017 2018 when we used to have the police SU besides there were only 9,364 in 2223 there's 11,553 suicides so what is this about mental health instead of mental health you should put sports that students jump sweat run that they do other things instead of being or saying about mental health they say that with the sports you can and activate the happiness hormones where
596they feel safe when they feel um self-confident 100% And I think that you should Place more have more Sports you talk about safety passages and I would like to know safety passages when my neighbor Steve from leant middle school he was beat up where's that safety path when he was hit when he was assaulted when he had to have he had 12 stitches on his ey they broke his glasses and to buy another pair of glasses to replace them by Medico he had to pay $500 where can I get 500 pay uh dollars when we live paycheck to paycheck safety is not a luxury it's a necessity as a mother of three I know the importance of to be safe in school and for many I want you to know that there's two very different
597things and I continue to say this school police not every single person can be a school police school police police needs to go through a very lengthy process to be a to be a school police officer LAPD is those are in the city LAPD those police is missb so you can go and say what is happening with the school police with the regular police but school police is something special where parents did not give the opportunities to feel safe that our students are in school for whatever that there's a shooting they're able to respond for our children thank you for your time Jasmine burilla Jasmine B are you here Jasmine B is not here okay I'll go to the uh folks who are listed as calling in uh Amelia Lara I see you're on the
598line Amelia Lara please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Emelia Lara Miss La please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin hello yeah hi we can hear you oh thank you for allowing me to speak anyways good afternoon my name is Emilia L I'm the pride owner of buy little fingers preschool in RCI I hired the majority of my teachers from West Valley Occupational centers early childhood education program I have been hiring them from this program for many many years I myself am a graduate of the program West value operational Center program is approved by the state of California I have just been informed that the Early Childhood Program at West Valley Occupational Center has been
599cancelled and I want to know why this successful program will no longer exist I have several assistants assistant teachers that need to complete their requirement credits West value Occupation Center offered and they are they can no longer do this this makes no sense to me please help me to understand why this successful program is been counil thank you thank you for your time Michelle Chang I see you're on the line Michelle Chang please press star six to unmute yourself you have two minutes to speak once you begin Michelle Chang Michelle Chang please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin hi I'm Michelle Chang calling in as a Clinical Psychology graduate student mental health provider at schools and member of the stop LPD spying coalition to demand
600the immediate end to the lasar app the laser app is La USC's new app for allowing anyone to anonymously report students for mental health incidents drug use and quote unquote safety issues these reports go straight to the armed La school police LA USD is unjustly withholding publicly requested records on the use and development of this app and is now being sued for these records I want to focus on the concerning mental health implications of lasar healing is rooted in mutually constituted relationships of trust and safety we know that overwhelmingly youth under 18 who are in need of mental health support first attempt to access care at this developmental stage and youth are often only able to access care through school settings due to barriers such as stigma and Family Insurance this app sets a dangerous
601precedent for youth that mental health issues in La USD should be resolved through police encounters that can turn fatal particularly for black youth if it weren't clear enough the lasar app betrays its intentions as a tool of social control and policing rather than providing support because even it's reporting interface askes for detail to further surveil students such as asking for visual descriptions of students GPS coordinates and photos of the incident as police continue to be delegitimized this app is an attempt to Outsource policing to community members the very teachers counselors administrators and peers who are tasked to make schools nurturing environments of learning are negating that mission when they're being deputized to surveil and criminalize students and force encounters with school police to be clear we're not asking for reforms or Chang to the lasar
602app or a more trusting relationship with LA school police we demand the dismantling of this lasar app immediately and anyone concerned with students with mental health challenges being put in the crosshairs of death dealing police should be demanding the end of lasar as well thank you thank you for your time okay Norma Gonzalez you're listed is speaking remotely but uh you're not signed in are you in the room Norma Gonzalez I don't think so okay and let's see Nelly Mendes you're listed as speaking remotely but you're not signed in Nelly Mendes I believe they're I believe they're get someone is getting Miss Mendes right now so we will wait about 20 seconds we're waiting please don't run just walk just walk please yes thank you good afternoon once again these are public comments Mr superintendent
603for the case that my daughter said what happened today I was informed and I already did a police report of course but I need a meeting with you that never in my life would have thought this but uh because this is not good there's my daughter traumatized if you ask her that uh she will tell you so I would like some solutions and another thing I'm not asking I am demanding that this her last year go to school and I was recommended a bi from cars that I want to work with my daughter because my friend's daughter worked with her and she's an excellent worker so my daughter this year in summer will also go to summer school in person and I want that woman called G estada I would like her to work with
604my daughter her last year because she lived through something not good and I want to meeting Mr superintendent with a police officer because Miss GES who's against school police if she'd like send me 50 I have no fear even you can go with her because you sent three and you're against them so why do you need them if you don't want them school police is very important in school sites school police helps more than you all in fact Mr superintendent who supposedly works for students the third part or whatever raise you got should be given to school police so that school students would have more support and I'm not asking I am demanding we have a meeting for what happened to my daughter because she told me if she had told me the day of
605I don't know what I would have done to Mr Martinez you know what Mr super Martinez thank you very much for your time to keep doing more damage I'm waiting an answer this concludes general public comment and board members thank you we have just one vote to record for by well we have a couple of adjourning motions too yes I just need to record my yes vote on the consent calendar so Mr mean is a yes as to the consent calendar all right before we close and have a adjourning motions I just want to express my personal gratitude to my colleagues on the board we had more than 1,500 pages of materials to go through you went through them you were ready and prepared with questions and we were able to I believe have good
606discussions on all these issues because all of us were here and I am especially grateful to all of you who made arrangements to make that happen uh I believe first we have an adjourning motion that Mr uh that uh pardon me uh Dr McKenna and I are both bringing and I'll start and then I'll ask him to make his comments when I'm done this last week we lost a true giant of the Civil Rights Movement Reverend James Lawson passed away last Sunday at the age of 95 a lifelong Champion for equity and civil rights Reverend Lawson was an early advocate of nonviolent resistance and worked alongside other civil rights luminaries such as Dr Martin Luther King Jr and the late representative John Lewis and Diane Nash Dr King called him quote the leading theorist and
607strategist of nonviolence in the world Reverend Lawson taught generations of young activists how to affect change through nonviolent resistance he spearheaded the nonviolent Lunch Counter desegregation protest which helped rally black churches to support Brown versus Board of Education which led to the attempt to desegregate our schools he served as the southern Christian leadership conference director of nonviolent education and as a mentor for the student non-violent Coordinating Committee we used to call Snick Lawson was also a driving horse force behind the freedom rights of 196 1 which I was turned back from only being 17 they were afraid I would not be able to get out of jail once I was arrested so I had to go home his lifelong commitment to nonviolence as a tool for social change resulted in arrests imprisonment and expulsion from
608Vanderbilt University Reverend Lawson moved to Los Angeles in 1974 and served as the pastor of Holman United me Methodist Church until 1999 he continued teaching students students methods of nonviolent resistance and champing a host of social justice issues well into his 90s he was president of the Los Angeles chapter ofc from 79 to 93 and in January of this year a mile long stretch of Adams Boulevard was named for Reverend James Lawson mile one of Reverend Lawson's last speaking engagements was at this year's County Federation of Labor annual MLK breakfast and student board member Karen Ramirez was able to join board district one at this historic event Reverend Lawson's work with youth civil rights activists unions immigrant rights organizations and so many others across our city our nation and world as a professor and as
609a mentor continues to lead new generations to use strategic nonviolence to build a more just Society we are eternally grateful to Reverend Lawson for his immense contributions and our hearts go out to his family and loved ones and really to all of us who had any opportunity to be impressed mentored LED and taught by this great man Dr McKenna thank you president uh Goldberg I too knew uh Reverend Lawson for many many years personal ways and professional ways in proactive ways uh Miss Goldberg gave you an accurate summary but there's so much more we could talk longer about him he was a true hero he was a true icon was a man of principle I was was a member of the Southern Christian leadership conference board during the time he was the president of the
610Southern Christian leadership conference a pastor always had to be the president and the day-to-day operation was run by a l person at that time it was mares Bakin following that was Mark re Thomas and other people came in after that after Mark decided to run for public office and knew James Lawson very well um he encouraged me to do my work in the in the educational field where I already was as an administrator in other unified when he went to homman United Methodist Church he had many events that ratted the community he was not afraid to stand up to the power Brokers he was not afraid to go to jail and be um incarcerated When Miss Goldberg said in ' 61 she wanted to go but she wasn't old enough I was already in college
611and was ready to graduate and I was I had a friend of mine named Rudy Lumbard who's since passed away he was an icon in New Orleans and I was ready to go but my father wouldn't let me go uh he said I was too young cuz in those days you had to be at least 21 to be an adult I was still not an adult and I had my senior year coming up he wouldn't let me go but I wanted to and I know how the enthusiasm exuberance of Youth can look at look at be different when you're young and when you get older you said maybe maybe I shouldn't have gone in the first place cuz what was I going to gain and what did I have to lose but he taught us
612about a number of things and his love for his community he never moved out of the community he spoke this year at Al count federations of Labor annual Martin Luther King Day breakfast and Karen mirez was able to join board district one at this historic event I because of my condition now I've been injured and I was not able to attend but he loved this community and I can tell you when I saw him walking through the neighborhood because we didn't live too far from each other on his walk his energetic walk when he could walk yes very enthusiastic about staying alive even when those around him were leaving when you get old enough schol we not facing that now we lose a lot of friends we lose a lot of colleagues and what we
613have are memories and they serve to embolden us for a period of time I wish he was still here but all of us have a time and his time did come but he left us a legacy that I will never forget so in his memory and with his legacy that he left behind and all the things that we admire about Humanity I offer him up to you for your consideration when my closing remarks and he was my friend he really was my friend not just my acquaintance uh we talked regularly M Goldberg tried to get well she did make a motion to have a school named after him but that process does require a school to come forward and say we like him and a school Community never came forward but it's not too late
614I mean people that have deceased have had schools named after them um so anyway that that's my that's my input I have two others go right ahead thank you uh I'd like to adjourn in memory of a dear friend of mine Miss Sylvia Graham who's a retired ELD unified teacher who passed away on May 15th of this year she was a lifelong educator who worked for L USD for 48 years and she was my dear friend she was a teacher at Hawaiian Avenue figuro 68th Street Elementary Bradley Global awareness magnet and gers Middle School on behalf of the Board of Education I would like to express my deepest sorrow I want to just enom this uh reiterate the schools where she worked as a teacher um she started out in 1972 as a day-to-day substitute
615and then she worked at Arlington Heights for many years Evan Elementary and Hawaiian Elementary for many years Figaroa for a few years 68th Street Elementary Bradley Global awareness man and ended up at gas's middle school she retired and was planning to move to Las Vegas because of her health but she never made it there I knew her very well and I teased her a lot I called her B bet the Builder because she was always trying to build something she wasn't afraid to try anything I said not another project and she was wonderful with her flower arrangements and she was a volunteer and so many things and she'd go to schools and helped them when they had events and she' do it Grace she didn't ask anybody for anything and this this one really hurt
616me and sadly I was there when she passed uh she was my caregiver in my condition now I needed someone to transport me back and forth and we were in her home and she fell down she had a stroke and died right there in front of me I never experienced something like that but uh I'm still traumatized we will miss her I will miss her the the children will miss her and the faculty of those other schools were miss her as well because she stayed in touch with them and Bradley Elementary was trying to get her to come back as a retired e but the wheels of the bureaucracy turned so slowly she never got past the hurdles of filling out forms and waiting for responses etc etc the last one I'd like to adjourn
617today's meeting in memory of another good friend of mine Grace B ster who passed away on June 10th of this year Grace served the district for more than 30 years including as an assistant principal at carneg middle school and Grant High School principal of Jordan High School cluster administrator and Local District superintendence where she retired in 1997 she moved to Arizona after retirement and spent quality time with her family and serving a number of community and Civic organizations including Kappa Alpha Alpha Kappa Alpha sor sorry uh she was a 65 plus year member and previously served on the board of directors for the Sor from 1996 to 2000 in her role as Far Western Regional director Grace is survived by her daughter Karen son Craig grandchildren and host of relatives will miss her dearly I
618will also miss her dearly so I'm speaking on behalf of three people who I knew intimately and I know that the world is better for them having passed this way but less well off because they're now gone thank you thank you [Music]