001foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] good morning all the time is now 902 a.m welcome to the August 22nd 2023 meeting of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education meeting I will now take role Dr McKenna here Dr Rivas president Mr schmorelson President Mr Melvin here Ms Gomez Mr Ortiz Franklin board president Goldberg here okay we have a quorum uh the order of operations is we do roll call and we'll get into public comment but first I will read the purpose and Authority for the items that are heard in closed session and then we'll run right into all the public comment okay closed session under tab one Personnel under government code section 54957 employee dismissal discipline and release in the superintendent's evaluation under Tab 2 conference with legal counsel uh
002pending litigation and undergovernment code section 54956 1.9 D1 a r v l a USD Children's Health defense California chapter vla USD Health Freedom defense fund Incorporated at all vlausd freedom to choose at all vlausd Cardenas V LAUSD Deborah Mack V LAUSD Kristen Mitchell v-l-a-usd Amazon akala V LAUSD Jerry asselman V LAUSD Roberto Emerick vlausd geroma Bonner the LAUSD and Victoria Suarez v-l-a-usd Aaron hipsman v-l-a-usd and all of these case numbers are easily available on our website boe.lausd.net on the event page for today's 9 A.M meeting if you want to look those up under Tab 3 conference with labor negotiators under government code section 54957.6 negotiators are Dr Murphy and Mr de grazia employee organizations are associated administrators of Los Angeles California School Employees Association Los Angeles County building and trades building and constructs construction trades
003Council Los Angeles School Police Association Los Angeles school police management association service employees International Union SEIU Local 99 Teamsters United teachers Los Angeles and District representative employees and contract management Personnel okay getting right into general public comment uh Maria Luisa Palma I see you here come on up you'll have three minutes to speak once you begin good morning board members as you consider the superintendent's evaluation today I'd like to remind you of some of the other issues we've continuously brought up in this past school year including parent engagement efforts at the school site level and at the district level what is the School site committee what is an English learner advisory committee what's a d luck what's a pack now the superintendent has become Mr Carvalho has become a media public figure right he goes
004on the TV channels on Spanish language media on Channel 34 channel 52 Telemundo Univision and he is able to broadcast his message out there to the media to the Latino Community which makes up more than 70 percent of the students at this at this District why doesn't he promote the existence of these committees the School site Council the English learner advisory committee why doesn't he promote those on Spanish language and English language media that's what I would like to see if there is going to be a true commitment from this board and this District to really engage parents into the community in the Committees that exist at the school site level and at the district level why hasn't this been done in the past I believe that the media Outlets would be happy to oblige
005they they certainly show everything else Mr Carvalho wants to say why not this I would like to hear him say that he is providing his personal commitment to the families of this city that he will ensure that the parents will be respected that their voices will be heard that their families will have a voice that there will be a place for their voices to be heard that they will not be silenced when they come to these committees that these committees will be managed in accordance with state law within the spirit of the law because we have told you here a number of times I have told you personally that that is not what's happening at the school site committees the district committees now we have asked repeatedly that dlac has requested for Regional English learner
006committees to be established that's been part of these proposals for years there was a meeting two sets of meetings last week with the d-lac officials and the PAC officials where none of the committee members were invited and yet some showed up but they were not allowed to speak the question was how to increase parental involvement at the school site level and awareness of the El Cap the local control and accountability plan but yet no proposals were brought to the table it was just like a test for the parents for the officials to say hey what do you think would be good well the parents have said it in the past what do you think would be good they've made it very clear and yet apparently these officials Mr Eric Hansen and Eric Elward showed up
007without any proposals on the table so please have Mr Carvalho promote these committees to the public in the media and then we'll see if we can and have some true parent engagement thank you for listening thank you for your time Alyssa Sonora I see you here in person Alyssa Sonora Nueva I see you're here come on up rosalba you have three minutes to speak when you begin good morning and welcome back I know that yesterday was a little bit of a scary day for us all in LA but thank God we are all here healthy and in good in good spirits good morning Dr Dr McKenna good morning Dr Divas good morning Mr Schmelson um good morning president of the board Goldberg good morning Mr McLean good morning Mr Melbourne um and I'm not sure
008what your name is good morning my name is rosalba Villanueva and I'm here representing hundreds of certificated and classified staff Who as a result of the coveted vaccination policy dated August 2021 are not gainfully employed by the district um we are still active on active status however are not receiving up compensation or not do not have a placement in the district I for one have not had a placement for 13 months that means 13 months of pretty much no paycheck but I'm not here for just myself I'm here like I said for the hundreds of other classified and certificated staff members that includes teachers principals assistant principals bus drivers electricians teacher assistants that are in the same position as I am some were forced to retire forced to go to resign which makes sense because
009you know a lot of my friends have asked me why don't you get a job somewhere else right well I'm still employed with LAUSD just without a position and that is where I am other people may have chosen to resign and seek employment other places but it was not by choice same goes for the people who were what I would seek forced to retire early and and others were terminated however I am here to ask that um that the board and the superintendent please take another look at the policy dated August 2021 that's over two years ago like I said last time I was here many things have changed in the covid landscape but that policy has not we are healthy we are Highly Educated we are highly qualified and we are experienced I have
01023 years working for the district Elementary School teacher Title One coordinator instructional coach and I'm ready to return to serving my students my students at LAUSD I ask that that when considering sources for you know revisiting this policy that multiple sources um be considered not just those that may have a financial benefit like pharmaceutical companies but you know that it'd be seen as a whole thank you so much I appreciate your time thank you for your time [Applause] Carla Franco are you here Carla Franco you signed up to speak in person Carla Franco I don't see you online either we'll come back and call the folks who I didn't get to as soon as we get to the end of this list Viva genus Jones are you here Viva not here Anna marseilla are you
011here anna Marseille this is under tab one Personnel matters Anna Marcia you signed up to speak online but I don't see you checked in online you have just a few moments before we go to General Public comment uh Trisha O'Connell are you here in person Trisha O'Connell you signed up to speak in person okay I'm gonna come back to Alyssa did you walk in Alyssa Sonora are you here all right going to tab two David tokowsky David tokoski come on up you'll have three minutes to speak once you begin good morning it's nice to see everyone um so today you have a number of cases both class action and individuals with respect to your bold leadership on the health of our students our faculties and so on uh so if there's any settlements today it
012would be great to know if there's any change in the policy I know the superintendent has been talking that there will be something like that as well as the the when Mr McLean uh brings out the settlements if there are settlements the amounts of those settlements um specifically to each and every item that you'll have in in executive session if there are settlements as well as the cost to any uh outside lawyers with respect to the uh inclusion in the settlements and or anything else we know that unfortunately the superintendent of Culver City who was like you a bold leader uh somehow was forced to step down in the last weeks in Culver City and hopefully there's not a bad pattern going here with those who took leadership on these issues as well as the
013costs of uh any settlement that included health benefits or strs returning people to work that would be very interesting the number two uh item is I want to talk to you about the cops the 500 million half a billion dollars that were issued in very uh general terms although when it gets to Wall Street they'll have to be very specifically done uh with respect to the electric buses a noble gold capital item and cyber security which is not necessarily a capital item it could be it's very often software kind of like the Pearson software on the Apple Computers 500 million dollars is paid for principal and interest out of the general fund nobody knows that better than board president Goldberg who before we passed BBE krny we funded the massive growth in La unified with
014Bungalows paid out of cops two two issues that the president has been very vocal on as is the Bungalows and the removal of the Mongols 500 billion dollars is more than the crisis and the health benefits it's more than the crisis in the salaries that's 500 million plus interest okay so the this board and the superintendent hopefully will be planning for 2024 and the polling on the k-40 Pre-K 14 bond is polling tremendously High tremendously High the state is pursuing a 14 billion dollars you can defease or get rid of those 500 million dollars by putting something that matches that state Bond and find out what's in that state Bond and what's not in there is The Greening in the state Bond will it be in your bond is the playground equipment that you're doing
015this afternoon in that Bond find out what's in there and how the polling's going and bring forward your own match don't make us krny and cry let's keep the movement going on the modernization of our play fields and Greening and so on thank you very much thank you for your time moving on to General Public comment Monica arazola are you here Monica come on up you'll have three minutes to speak once you begin uh Monica is going to speak in Spanish so if you would like to hear what she's saying in English simultaneously with while she's speaking please put your hands up and we'll hand out these for simultaneous translation gracias we're just going to hand these out for a second um anyone who would like to hear what she's saying translated in English we'll
016hand these out gracias buenos dias good morning all members um board members I am Monica arasola I'm a I'm a parrot of two students of LAUSD one attending Hollywood High School and one elicon I am here well first and foremost thank you for taking the initiative to close schools yesterday is based on the hurricane earthquakes we didn't know what can happen thank you so much for taking that initiative we know that it was an academic day we know that we're all here as of now this is number one and number two as always I ask I want to know what happened with police at the schools this is the second week of school and my parents I have 130 signatures they've they're asking what happened with the police we've asked for the police we don't
017have police we don't have security at the schools this is why it's very important we're asking for this moment to get here we want a tragedy to happen so police can take action we need police physically at schools and the time that I've been here for the district which I've been a member I've been a voluntary mom at schools and it's been around 12 years I've never seen such dirt as the same as much as I've seen this year at PCS and I apologize I don't like speaking in this way but I've seen a lot of bad habits parents application have not been approved since the until the data certain occasions they vote it's only been people that have been selected and we've worked to make changes in regards to the bylaws and that didn't
018work they made us lose time hours and days we did not have an answer and all this trash is be it's very sad what this is sad what we're living at PCS and maybe you can speak to D leg or pack members uh parents that are being part of this committee it's sad that we have to look for parents that don't participate and parents that are not part of the district they have to invite other organizations that do it well they don't do it for love of the other they do it because of a necessity and everything has to do with money if there's no money involved nothing there are no changes and it's sad because they're not working from the bottom of their heart to help others and it is sad that we're seeing
019a lot of bad things at the schools and they're being lucrative with parents parents who are hard workers parents who work day and night to be able to pay for their rent be able to buy their food and this is the type of parent that they're being used and it's not fair that they're using these type of parents and it's not fair that they're not taking in consideration the people that have been elected by Pac or D like we are elective parents by other parents from other schools we know what is happening at our schools we know what's happening around us and inside the schools thank you so much and have a great day gracias come on up you have three minutes to speak when you begin my name is anahid malikin a mom of
020three and a product of LAUSD never in my wildest dreams did I believe I would be standing here in complete disagreement with the very people I trusted my children with LAUSD board members I am that parent that was standing alongside hundreds of sadokoi parents and grandparents while you and your LAUSD colleagues so graciously hid behind antifa Jackie Goldberg you lied on every platform available when you stated we were given an opt out when in reality it was never a real option one of the photographed LAUSD officials is district 6 representative Kelly Gomez satikoi parents had the opportunity to have a meeting with Kelly Gomez confronted with a photograph of her standing behind an antifa member who is giving the parents the middle finger and with no valid reason as to why parents were pushed back
021while antifa was was welcomed she replied there were proud boys at the satikoi protest we asked for a we asked for proof of proud boys at Saticoy and received an email response from Megan vanderbos Chief of Staff the email entitled responses to questions raised during our meeting sent on August 18 2023 cited two news articles the first article how far-right extremists are targeting pro-lgbt schools written in the Daily Mail dated June 8th that's six days after the Saticoy protest a quote from that article reads A Crowd that clashed with LGBT allies at a violent rally outside the Glendale Unified School District board meeting outside Los Angeles on Tuesday included a number of January 6 rioters and members of alt-right proud boys I am here to inform you this article is not about LAUSD or Saticoy
022Elementary it's a shame when LAUSD school officials can't identify their own schools however the second article entitled liberal La has become an epicenter of violent culture wars here's how dated July 10 2023 is about the satikoi protest a quote from that article reads the parents were so violent said Kelly Stewart a local photographer for those of you who are unaware Kelly Stewart is a well-known and documented antifa member she is known as skysfighter on Twitter so in response to the allegations by Alberto Carvalho that parents are over exaggerating and there is no agenda this parent is here standing in front of you waiting for a response as to why LAUSD chose to hide behind antifa on June 2nd on why they are adding insult to injury by citing articles quoting known antifa members you see
023parental rights are god-given rights and I am Mike child's greatest advocate I will end quoting Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto I feel all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with terrible resolve I alongside thousands of other LAUSD parents are those sleeping Giants we trusted you with our children and you took it for granted you broke that trust but I assure you it will not happen again thank you for your time I will note that board member Ortiz Franklin is here for the roll call thank you okay Marcela Garcia Marcelo Garcia are you on the line if you are press star six to unmute yourself just hang on for a second Marcela are you here in person I don't see you signed up online in front of me but we will come
024back to you to see if you're around uh Norma Gonzalez are you here in person Norma Gonzalez Miss Gonzalez is going to speak Spanish and then we're going to do the simultaneous translation again so um if you guys want to slap your headsets on and we'll be ready to go in just a moment okay members of the board Mr Carvalho my name is Norva Gonzalez and I have the honor of representing as a officer the parliamentarian for the dealer committee I thank you I think the opportunity to address you and share my concerns about a meeting that took place on August 17 of 2023 and on that date the officers the d-lock officers we were gathered for a meeting at the S phase office without really clearing what was the purpose of such a convening
025in that meeting there were two men that came Mr Eric Hansen their executive director of strategic initiatives in Mr Harvard and El Cap administrator as the two new designated members their presentation was brief and with lack of coherence where they reassured us of our objectives and to show the democratization the engagement of educational Partners in the entire district and to provide a wide Network for school community outreach that are served this affirmation that told me that because they did not mention the input of the l cap that came from or provided by the d-lac membership I considered that this result insults it is an insult to parents because for the last 10 years we have given input that have been ignored it is a little disconcerting that they use the word democratization but just only
026addressed to three officers the president the chairperson the vice chairperson and me as a parliamentarian even more so the members of the committee that were connected on Zoom were not given the opportunity to provide their comments this lack of inclusion results in a lack of respect to those parents that voluntarily give up our time and energy so that we can improve our students education Mr Eric should show a genuine engagement in professionalism and present uh proposals so that they are can be compared not only by the executive board but it can be shared with all of the d-lag parents this would truly be interest would have been interesting and of interest in the democratization but their actions democratizing everything is quite the contrary Daisy Ortiz I see her online Maria Daisy ortizes Board of Education
027my name is Maria Daisy Ortiz and I am a mother who also has a student in the district and I am here before you because we are beginning a new school year and I see the same practice of ignoring ignoring and not respecting the voice of the parents but what's most ugly of every one of you because you are the ones that execute of what will be happening in the news school year and parent engagement you just use it as uh you as convenient to you because it says here the title one law states that the schools that receive Title 1 funds 900 schools in the district receive Title 1 funds it says states that all of these schools need to have programs and activities with parent engagement authentic parent engagement and that also those
028programs are to be evaluated by parents who have students in the program do you think that what you are doing as of now is truly the true parent engagement do you you supplant the voice of the parents you supplant the funds for parents because in reality you use all of these funds just to create positions so that you that they stop parents in reality if you really want it uh engagement and I challenge every single one of you to show me in the law where does it say that they should not have we shouldn't have Committee of parent advisory of with parents show me in the love where it says that it cannot be done because you say that it we cannot have those programs but what does in the in the law does it
029state that it couldn't that we can't because the federal government still sends Title One funds for parent engagement the academy the apparent Academy does not work it works for Mr Carvalho because it is the way that he likes for him to look good but how much does it does this program cost how much does it cost and what kind of an impact has it have had on parent engagement how have parents been benefited in learning strategies for Math and English and let's not say in the four domains for development for English language development please stop using the funds because in any case an hour later there will be an honor for you due to the supplanting of funds that you do for parent engagement because it is not it does not exist English Learners are
030only 20 percent and also low-income students is 80 and you do not want to do this because you don't want no anyone to ask questions how the funds that are used especially like Mr Cabello who found 40 million dollars for Title One funds to finance to fund for primary promise schools thank you for your time programs that you've lost very much gracias okay Marcela Garcia I see you joined us online Marcella Garcia please press star six to unmute yourself and you have three minutes to speak once you begin Marcela Garcia por favor Garcia okay we will come back to uh Marcella Diana Guillen are you here in person Diana Guillen I see you back there coming up you have three minutes to speak once you begin uh Mr magandi will you also line up against
031the wall for when Mr Guillen is done so that uh we can move swiftly thank you so much sir I appreciate it Miss Guillen is going to speak in Spanish so if you want to hear her in English please put on your translation headphones and we will begin uh in just a second gracias buenos dias members of the board my name is chairperson for the LA Unified School District today I think that you've heard uh quite a bit from the parents and not just one day but many times that we have been here to talk about how you are not engaging parents I think that it's time that this board of education takes matters into their hands and to really take us into account because it's because of us all of the employees in this
032District have good salaries as well as you due to poverty and the students that come here you have nice houses and live in places that are very nice in comparison to us and we're not complaining but you need to do your job so that the community can change we had a meeting just like other parents have stated with Mr Eric Hansen and supposedly now the executive director of a strategic initiative he was saying that well that he wanted to know our opinion and just three officers he asked us and how we would democratize the regions and what happened to all the work that this committee did the entire last school year he didn't take it into account he just did it to comply and I think those types of strategies were indicated by Mr Placencia
033because right now they have put another parent that supposedly will be the director of PCS or I don't like to say the new name because it does not represent us as parents it represents a lot of other people but not parents so we want since we have said it that the we want Regional committees just that the state law indicates because the state law indicates it says that we need to review school by school and this District does not review evaluate schools and that is why our student reclassification is very low the parents are not able to engage and they're not able to get information just like you said the parent Academy does not work the webinars are not adequate you cannot ask questions you don't know who comes in who goes out but people
034say that they have data that there has excellent numbers but that you are the only ones that know we don't know about that so what is this democratization and we have coming to talk wanting to have meetings with the superintendent so that there are changes and we have been ignored and so right now you want to have other parents that do not know what is this process but you do want their input and I we want here we want to work and who have been prepared for this you don't want to listen to us so that is how you do it with the students when there are many classes right now that don't have teachers and there's so many teachers that want to go back to work but since they don't have a vaccine just
035because of you you don't want to let them come to work my son doesn't have a teacher and due to you thanks to you because you have placed barriers for employees that do want to work in that you want to have new people that don't doesn't have experience I don't want to teach them without experience I want a teacher that wants to go back to work you'll have three minutes to speak once you begin we'll Diaz good morning I'm impressed by the indifference that there is you know when the parents talking you know Facebook WhatsApp everybody's checking all these different things what do they call that everyone that's not informed the Twitter and all that what I want to say is the following it's incredible how you all in your great indifference are taking this
036District into a disaster we're last in safety and you don't care you're saying you want to educate the poor people and when are you going to get educated on respecting poor people because you are doing a series of actions like you're doing all these schools that are Community Based with services but anyone can find them honestly here we have or not any kind of safety they go to these Community Services but we want to take them there because we want to finance you know and benefit from an amount of children that are supposedly there for Health Care reasons but you know it's a great business to have their dental and other things being held here and has have you and ever explained to the communities in La that where where all this money comes from
037where you get all these services from all that money and also enabling marijuana in these encampments all these different people that are getting sick in casinos the gambling that's what you can do but that's good because all that amount of you know people that corrupt society and with the liquor and tobacco marijuana they all fund education so is that for Education really or your privileges I was there recently in one of the meetings for where the parents of delac were there there was only three parents I did the math and sitting down between all those employees 2.5 million dollars that was what was being collected if not more with the the higher salaries now given who is taking note of this nobody what you care about is that money sure for children but for these
038these unions really because what they want is to have the teachers and other personnel you know as slaves with these with these different incomes and they can go to passes for Disneyland and whatever but who is regulating all this who is monitoring this look at all these things that are happening in the schools all the principles that are they're getting rid of students just because they feel like it meanwhile the charters are growing and they're getting better and they're having academic progress and where are we we still have so many Old School principles that don't care about parents or students they just care about their check Carl Peterson I see you're signed up to speak online Carl Peterson please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have three minutes to speak once you begin
039Mr Carl Peterson good morning before I begin I would like to make note for the record that I attended the protest at Saticoy Elementary Mr Mr Peterson I remember I'm not going to count this against your time I'm going to turn your volume up and I also want to ensure that you're speaking directly into whatever microphone you're using to communicate right now so let me turn up the volume a little bit because we can you're coming in very soft one moment is this better much better please proceed before I begin I would like to note for the record that I attended the protest at santaquoia elementary school and was personally assaulted by members of the anti-lgbtq plus hate group later today you will be voting on approving a list of candidates for the community advisory
040committee or CAC having this committee is mandated by the California Ed code and it's supposed to guide your policies for special education services to accomplish this Mission this committee must be given the opportunity to act independently from The District's bureaucracy unfortunately this Independence has been compromised by methods used to create the list that you will vote on under its bylaws the CAC is supposed to establish an appointed commitment committee to create the rubric that would be used to score applicants instead the office of student family and Community engagement essays hijack the process since the resulting recommendations for not creating accordance with the bylaws may have not been chosen by the committee's peers as required by the California Ed code this less this list must be rejected I ask you to vote accordingly also on this
041afternoon's agenda as a resolution to finally address the many problems faced by the implementation of prop 39. while this proposal represents an important first step I hope that the following will be addressed in the final document one currently rooms used to provide special education services music classes and parent centers are considered to be empty when determining the space a public school must give up to the charter school this prevents families from getting the services that they deserve the district has a policy of providing charter schools that are co-locating with brand new furniture and computers why is this mandated by the where is this mandated by the proposition it seems to go against the warning in the proposition that states a district cannot be made to create space that does not have to fulfill the requirements
042of the law three District bond funds are used to prepare rooms that are being given to the Charter Schools prop 39 was simply supposed to ensure the public space was shared why isn't the space provided as is or the North Valley military institute's co-location of Sun Valley votes campus highlighted the safety issues that are caused by co-locations nvmi has had an administrator who was accused of sexual offenses against the students but it appears that the host school was never informed another staff member who left due to the same incident later returned to the public school pay the school's payroll without any warning to the host School public school principals need to be given the information needed to protect the students under their care five Charter Schools currently owe three million seven hundred and eight and
043thousand and six dollars in overdue over allocation fees why has the district not insisted on immediate payment why are schools with debt allowed to operate and continue to take space on public school campuses six the above amount does not include the seven million six hundred and seventy eight thousand and twenty two dollars that was suddenly wiped off the balance sheet in April of last year without any explanation to the public the oig should be directed to investigate this write-off to determine if it was legal and proper thank you thank you for your time okay we're gonna try uh Miss Marcela Garcia again please press star six to unmute yourself and you have three minutes to speak once you begin Marcella Garcia star six to unmute yourself you have three minutes to speak once you begin
044good morning members foreign 23rd of August of 2023 where all the members of that committee as parents we were never sent a link to go in I called the the membership and they gave me that information but we as parents are never given the microphone to hear us because three parents for the whole District to be the only ones to speak it's like you're laughing at the fact that you're just listening to three and you you hear them because this is something that you only hear briefly because these are things that also need to be heard over the years five six years when are all the members going to be able to express what they have to say there's parents that we want to still keep learning we want to know what is being said
045about everything that's been planned so that we can understand and learn we are never invited to meet only the three representatives and of those three people only two on the side of the parents because one of them is always just giving friction towards the district saying yes yes yes because to her everything is fine but honestly it's not and what are you gonna do to organize meetings for this year so that more parents can be involved as members it's a joke to have 35 members in a committee that is this important such as delac for English learners what will this group of people do in order to invite more parents why not advertise in these presentations that you have on Zoom that are at the the group studies and things like that so that parents
046are involved or are you just trying to have people attend and that is that please I beg you we need more voices more parents because we do have parents that are concerned and want to have the information about these meetings where they can express their opinions and they don't want to not be considered so thank you thank you for your time [Music] okay this is spelled last name is spelled e-o-d-s but I think it's probably Woods is Denise Woods here okay I thought that was a typo thank you come on up you have three minutes to speak once you begin good morning I'm here to speak on the criminalization of the miseducation of black students in La unified district one which falls under George McKenna's District uh sir you have been in that seat since
0472014 and the digression of the black student education has done nothing but go down and I watched this from afar but today it was time to come down here and talk to you face to face and try to figure out what is the plan however we know that you're not running for re-election but I'm talking about the 14 years that you've been there with in the last year of the school year of 21 to 2022 where 20 000 students came out of La unified twenty thousand black students the remainder of these students that are still in under District One 80 percent of them are not at reading level math level from third to fourth grade to eighth grade they do 80 percent of black students in high school do not have what it takes to
048get into a UC or even some Community College levels This falls on your doorstep because we have entrusted you to run our district in a certain manner in which you have failed to do that for us Crenshaw High School is a school that I've went to I graduated from my whole family attended Crenshaw High School from the time it was open Crenshaw from what I'm understanding may be on the verge of closing I don't know I'm hoping that you'll have somebody in your office or a clerk here who can talk to some of these entities that are inquiring about what's going on with Crenshaw High School we do understand that the student level is down to 500. or right at 500 uh the school is not being utilized certain floors anyway it just sounds like
049it's a big mess and we need some clarity of that so we can stop all the different stories from traveling around what's going on into regards to Crenshaw High School that's an entity of yourself and I'm hoping that the young lady who approached me about who I was my name is Denise Francis Woods I'm just representing empowered to serve La we are a neighborhood organization that is very very concerned about what's going on with Crenshaw but I'm gonna fall back I'm gonna digress on Crenshaw I want to just really go back to the education of our black students every school Under district one from Crenshaw to Dorsey to Hillcrest Elementary to Coliseum Street School you're talking horse all of these schools have the same situation where these kids are not up to par who's going
050to get in the room with us on this this is not our if you want to include the parents I'm sure we would be but to let this go on and actually the whole black community should be ashamed of themselves if we've allowed you to sit there for 14 years and take these schools down to the degree that they're at I'm very very serious I have to put it on you because you're you're the board member for that District the last thing I'm going to say is Alberto you're the new superintendent don't you guys talk to each other do you are you aware of what goes on in South L.A our schools as far as the black students are concerned because that's what I'm here to representing at this particular time are you guys do
051you guys talk to each other how could this be it's unacceptable thank you for your time Dr Rhonda Washington James are you here come on up you'll have three minutes to speak once you begin good morning good morning all good to be here first I would like to say thank you for my community coming out for Crenshaw High School I am an Alum and I I'm also the board president for Crenshaw High School alumni we have a mantra that we adopted this year save our students save our staff save our school thank you Chris all means a lot to me it means a lot so my question is what can we do to get you all to help us help Crenshaw our school is in trouble the rumor mill is it's being closed Crenshaw is
052not going to close Crenshaw will not close it's too much valuable and it's there we need a school that's beautiful we need our website to say that I go on the website what parent would want to extend their child to Crenshaw Hive when all the the um the nature the Naches says zero zero zero zero it's not up to date the the school enrollment is not up to date we are over 600 students now this school year over six and that is a big big plus for us this year we are striving to get better we need that website updated we need some beautification on that campus we need to let people see what's their Crenshaw instead of the negativity that's being put out only you all can do that what can we do to
053help you help us we need there are class assignments all the class assignments on the website zero zero zero zero no class assignment I looked at other schools and it doesn't say the same Dorsey Crenshaw manual they have the same report card it's impossible for all these schools to have the same report card and nothing is being done to save our school we need better teachers we need full-time teachers we don't need subs all the time to save our schools we need you all to come out and see what's going on put out the news that Crenshaw has a beautiful campus not only at campus we have a good teaching staff we have good staff we have good parents we have a wonderful community that have come out here today to say we are not
054going to let Crenshaw go down alone and Crenshaw will not go down alone as long as I stand as the president of the alumni board I'm gonna do whatever it takes to fight for Crenshaw High School they fought for me in the 70s I graduated in 1976 and I'm going to fight for my school I came back to Los Angeles after being married to a marine for 30 years and after I came back home he passed away and I said my calling was to come here to help my community and help my school so again I'm going to ask you what can we do to get you to help us thank you for your time Victoria Garcia are you here in person Victoria Garcia okay Joyce Mebane Joyce Mebane come on up if you're here
055okay you'll have three minutes to speak once you begin thank you morning my name is Joyce Mebane and I am an alumni of Crenshaw High School class of 1973. I am also a resident neighbor for more than 50 years even before there was a school there I'm here to talk about the tarp that's on the fence on the back side of the school where the baseball and football fields are located along with the Horticulture area this would be 8th Avenue this entire School is located in a residential neighborhood this tarp has been up for well over 10 years for no reason and you'll understand momentarily The Neighbors on this block had enough and to prove it I have a petition that Hunter 100 of them signed to have it removed after at least three principles
056in that short period of time this is what took place the first of the three stated he had no idea why it was there but it must be for a good reason so he wouldn't take it down the second one stated the football coach wanted it there and that was good enough for him we then decided to document these talks with a letter dated 821 I'm sorry August 20 2021 to the current principal and LAUSD the current principal decided to address the situation sort of he set up a zoom meeting with the district West appointees and they stated the tarp was on the baseball fence to protect the residents on 8th Avenue from balls going through the fence impossible unless you use a cannon not even a golf ball can make it through Common Sense
057the football field so people can't take pictures of what common sense why bother addressing the Horticulture area because it could only get even more ridiculous the current principal decided to chime in and said that it was up there to protect the kids again we asked protect them from what no answer after hearing all this we were too embarrassed to think what nonsense is going on inside the school they are in complete denial of kids ditching school we see it often prior to the tarp and since one girl was badly injured and her parents sued and won this is a 13-foot drop from the top to the sidewalk more recently two girls did it were hurt but managed to hobble away all caught on video no worries it's there for the kids protection right Common Sense
058other than some of the things I just described to you the so-called bad things happen in front of the school that is wide open if the tarp is there on the back side of the school for the so-called protection why not tarp the school in its entirety Common Sense anything that happens it goes through the front door without being stopped because they are too busy protecting the back of the school I have the support of my senior lead officer of the Southwest Southwest Police Department to which he is willing to talk to you about the situation Crenshaw recently painted the School prison gray well it certainly looks like one now coupled with the tarp torn ripped and graffiti all over the place if you treat these kids like animals going in how do you think
059they will behave when they leave we are taxpayers and should have a voice in where that tarp is concerned in closing it seems Common Sense left the building and the people in there saw it Go and said close the door so I can't get back in thank you for your time Dora Vasquez are you here in person Dora Vasquez you're signed up also to speak online I don't see you online so are you in the building looks like no door to Vasquez Melinda Newhouse I see you're signed up to speak remotely please press star six to unmute yourself then you have three minutes to speak once you begin Melinda Newhouse Ms Newhouse please press star six to unmute yourself I see you're still muted and you'll have three minutes to speak once you begin okay
060good morning am I unmuted no you're unmuted go ahead thank you good morning to you too oh great okay uh greetings board members I'm Melinda new on behalf of the United steelworkers Union LAUSD put out a public bid for 120 electric school buses this is the largest single purchase of electric school buses in the U.S this is a large investment of public dollars which is why job and Workforce considerations should be part of the process I want to tell you about Bluebird bus company in Fort Valley Georgia in May a group of 1400 determined workers made history when they voted by an overwhelming majority to join the United steelworkers this was one of the largest Union organizing victories in the U.S South in decades workers now have a voice at Bluebird and can work with
061management to solve problems we are in the process of bargaining our first contract and having good discussion around key issues such as health and safety civil rights fairness as well as economic issues we firmly believe that when public investment is made it should be done in a way that takes into account more than just the bottom line you all serve a very important role supporting and nurturing students literally the future of our country so you know that to do the job right it often takes analyzing data and looking at the common good when it comes to this type of public investment making companies compete on job quality drives wages benefits and jobs upwards something that benefits the common good adopting a U.S employment plan scoring model is an attempt is an important step in holding
062companies accountable to their communities we are proud to be working through key issues that led workers to organize a union at Bluebird we think there is real value in this and we think LAUSD should take an approach that scores Bluebird on its willingness to partner with their workers to bargain a first contract building job quality Provisions into the procurement process has the power to positively impact generations of workers and build stronger communities As Leaders you have a unique role to play in leading the way to raise standards and you have the power to do it thank you for your time thank you for your time I understand there's a couple of folks who came in under tab one that concludes general public comment but I'm going to return to tab one for the folks who
063I called out who did not answer or who we're not here uh yes Mr Cavallo two quick comments to the parents who spoke so eloquently about uh Crenshaw Senior High School I want to be clear there are no plans nor will ever nor will there ever be plans to shut down Crenshaw Senior High School um I appreciate the fact that uh that the community rose up to convey what is nothing more nothing less than some degree of rumor and innuendo but again I want to repeat there are no plans nor will there be any plans that would consider in any way shape or form the closure of Crenshaw secondly through the identification of some of the schools in our district that represent fragility in terms of academic performance social economic status and the like we
064created the educational transformation office to provide additional resources additional support but also some additional accountability this is one of those schools we remain committed to addressing these issues whether it is the curb appeal that the school should have the interior of the school the academic programming of the school and the support and funding that the school deserves moving on to a different issue I want to be very clear to the individuals also that eloquently spoke about the approval of the community advisory committee membership that item was withdrawn from today's meeting agenda and the reason why the item was withdrawn is because I have some concerns about process about process and until those concerns are addressed we will not be bringing this item for the board's approval so we are reviewing it we will listen to
065all voices prior to proceeding thank you very much Madam president okay we'll continue with the folks who may have come in under tab one Personnel matters Alyssa Sonora did you come in in the intervening time Alyssa Sonora Carla Franco are you here in person okay Carla's coming up Carla is going to speak in Spanish so please if you want to hear what she's saying in English as she is speaking please put on the headphones for listen and when she's given the go ahead we'll begin um and based on the comments that we're giving previously in regards to school security we know that everything is out of control since the police was removed from schools based on my experience the experience I've had with my children that is why I'm here I want school police to
066go back to schools and I want to add the lack of respect that parents are receiving at the schools with principals in which this has been reported and they've taken in consideration they say that they want to work in regards to policies they want to work to better schools insecurity and honestly there's a huge problem the principal from Southgate High School came to and presented and it was beautiful everyone agreed with it and you don't know how many demands he has there are there's a lack of parent involvement there's a lack of support from you from the board members like as a superintendent you're not taking a consideration the comments that we are giving to you here and we are at the eyes of you we are your eyes and if we bring to you
067what's happening at the schools is not to give gossip is to let you know that we have serious problems Southgate Middle School a student stabbed another student and you're acting as if nothing is happening there were explosions and you're acting as if nothing is happening you're taking us as if we're gossipers and we're problem people until something happens that is when you take action that is where you want to take action things don't work that way if you honestly want to make changes at school levels you need to listen come to you and show you and tell you everything that's happening you make a lot of promises while you're in campaign I've noticed Mr Gallardo is doing everything possible to buy votes he's now presenting himself at the schools he now wants to do this
068to France but everything that has been presented to Mr Gallardo is just being bounced back and they say to call the district why did Mr Yaki why didn't Mrs Jackie so that he can just show off and take vacations and problems are still happening and if we are here to let you know what is happening it's because we honestly want action last Tuesday we had PCS meeting it was worse it was bad the way we were disrespected how they laugh at us they think that we are here to give them our time we don't get paid please take action thank you for your time I'll note that board member Gomez arrived about 50 minutes ago so thank you sorry about not announcing that earlier uh Viva Janice Jones are you here in person just want
069to run through this list um Anna Marseille is not online and Trisha O'Connell are you here in person did you come okay and I believe we have one last caller who arrived uh Dora Vasquez Dora Vasquez please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have three minutes to speak once you begin Dora Vasquez por favor Dora Vasquez please press star six to unmute yourself you have three minutes to speak once you begin I see you're online with us and you've just unmuted yourself escucha um good morning I am Dora Vazquez I am a parent of a student that attends LAUSD schools and today I am here to speak to you and continue to speak in regards to the Committees dlac and the subcommittees that require d-la committee which was a subcommittee of bylaws and
070during this time we've been ignored we haven't been paid attention to and the office of S phase that was pcas previously they've made lots of changes one of them is Mr blessencia we have a different director and he's deviating from his responsibilities once again I I can tell you that they're violating parents rights and they need to give seriousness to what parents are asking for please don't ignore what is being worked on within this office and as my colleague said previously they are doing things that are that they shouldn't be doing please pay attention to this office and if possible supervise them especially when they're in front of parents they take the Liberty to make decisions that don't belong to them I make a call to superintendent please get closer to parents we have a
071lot of worrisome in regards to our students that are at risk of academically and safety and this is not this is something that's not being validated we are being ignored and they're taking our time based on what benefits them I hope that you take care of this matter so that these type of changes aren't happening knowing that our time is required and we are not being taken into consideration I thank you to all the board members please listen to our voice to our calling and please stop ignoring us thank you so much thank you for your time this concludes uh item specific and general public comment the time is now 1008 the board is going to recess into closed session and we will resume promptly at one o'clock for the regular board meeting thank you
072very much for attending this morning foreign perfect goodness foreign welcome back the time is now 106 P.M on August 22nd 2023 we are reconvening from the closed session portion of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education meeting I have a few items to report out then we'll adjourn the meeting and begin the 1pm session under tab 1 Personnel the Board of Education authorized the dismissal of two classified employees and the initiation of dismissal of one certificated employee the vote with seven Eyes under Tab 2 conference with legal counsel the Board of Education authorized the settlement of RV Los Angeles Unified School District terms and conditions will be available upon the finalization of the agreement the vote also was seven eyes and um we're going to now adjourn this meeting switch over to the
0731pm zoom that will be about maybe four minutes of transition before we begin the next meeting thank you for your patience the time is now 107.