RBUSD Board Meeting 03/28/2023

001all right the meeting is now called to order good afternoon may I get a motion in second for approval of the March 28th agenda so moved all those in favor say aye the board will go into closed session after hearing any public comments uh does anyone have a public comment on item 3.3 which is conference with legal counsel existing litigation okay hearing none we're going to go into closed session we'll be back shortly thank you foreign [Music] ready all right good evening everybody quiet please all right it's good to see so many faces here um we'll try to make it entertaining but not too long um meeting us tonight in the Pledge of Allegiance will be Eileen luckenby please stand place your right hand over your heart ready begin I pledge allegiance to the flag

002of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all right um tonight's closed session was 3.3 conference with legal counsel and I have something to read out uh the board voted in the case of Redondo Beach Unified School District versus Jewel Labs the board voted 5-0 to accept the settlement offer so that is my report out of closed session may I get a motion in second for approval of the March 14th minutes so moved um all those in favor say aye aye student advisory vote okay tonight's agenda was approved at the 4 45 session with a motion by Mr Elder seconded by Ms Flynn and unanimously approved moving to reports to the board first we have Eileen luckenby excellent good

003evening board president Wicken members of the board Dr Wesley and cabinet I'm Eileen lechenby I'm the principal of Bernie Elementary and I'm joined here by Lauren Smith and some teachers from Bernie to talk about our tears of support for students social and emotional learning teaches students the skills to manage emotions feel empathy establish trusting relationships and make responsible decisions it advances educational equity and Excellence through school family and Community Partnerships this establishes learning environments that feature collaborative relationships rigorous curriculum and ongoing evaluation in working with students in K through 12th grade I've become extremely passionate about early prevention I've witnessed students experience social emotional and academic adversity adversity in all developmental levels from personally providing 13 different social emotional counseling lessons at Bernie to about 400 students and working with the redonda Union High School

004wellness center team to provide individual counseling services to over 800 students it's evident that our social emotional programs are increasing positive student outcomes there's a lot of agreement among Educators parents and future employers that social and emotional learning is important as you can see 92 percent of surveyed Executives say skills such as problem solving and communication are equal to more important than technical skills 93 of parents say it's important that schools teach social and emotional School skills and 90 of teachers agree that promoting social and emotional learning increases student academic achievement all right so the way we visualize delivering social emotional learning is through this pyramid and so at the bottom is tier one basically we know all students are going to benefit from social emotional lessons and so we deliver these to all students

005in their classrooms with Miss Smith pushing in and then some students are going to need a little bit more a little bit extra and so we have some supplemental programs or small groups or lunch bunches for students who just need a little bit more repetition or extra support and then at every point in someone's life they're going to go through a crisis or a trauma and we want to be there for our students with that intensive like tier three one-on-one counseling so I have an example of each of these tiers at Bernie Elementary for you so the first one is classroom lessons so Miss Smith has gone into each grade level 13 times this year from the beginning of the year to deliver a social and emotional tier one lesson this is what all students

006are getting we base those lessons based on teacher feedback about what students need what we see from surveys and data and then also just from talking to students about what's going on in their lives one of our major focuses this year was social problem solving so when you get in a fight with a friend or a disagreement on the playground how do we help solve it and so we've all gotten on the same page we have three problem solving strategies you can walk away you can talk it out or you can do rock paper scissors we're all consistent with implementing those and Miss Smith pushed in taught those to students and then she always assesses them at the end of those lessons to make sure that it was effective so you can see like from

007one of our sample grade levels 96 of our second graders were able to name those strategies okay some students are going to need more so we have an extra optional program that they can opt into and this is called Wednesday Wellness Warriors this started this year and we have a wonderful parent volunteer Jules Hogan sahai who comes in and we have 89 students they come to the field we love to invite students onto campus early they come to the field and she leads them in yoga and mindfulness it's a really great way we know students who start the day with moving their body they're set up to have a more successful day in the classroom and it helps them just with that mindfulness and emotional regulation and then finally if a student is in crisis

008and needs more intensive support Ms Smith does provide individual social emotional counseling sometimes it's called dis so designated instructional services for a student who has an IEP for special education but it could also just be a student who has something going on on at home in their family life and they need a little bit more support we also partner with an outside organization South Bay Children's Health Center and they've met with 19 students with one-on-one counseling and so we thought the best people to talk to you about our social and emotional supports would be the students and the parents and the teachers at Bernie so we have a video for you [Music] well why yoga helped you in class and school is because learning really how to calm yourself down when things are stressing when

009you get into a problem and then well say to yourself I just feel like a new person right now I think I'm ready thing hard that the day gives to me and then well go on with your dad what I like about Wellness orders is that she teaches us a lot of new what yoga poses and things like that right you should just stay calm and everyone and everything will be all right and sometimes that I might think about doing like a squishy goodness something like this [Music] study if you use talk it out rock paper scissors or even walk away you can have a more kind with someone and you guys can work out a problem if it's like really bad or it's kind of bad but still you should always use your online

010graduation to solve stuff yeah I think that having the counselor here at Bernie to provide social emotional Wellness with her videos the fact that the kids can go into Google classroom and check in with the counselor if they need to she's available on campus all the time all these things help students work through frustrations work through uh problems that they might have academically and they learn techniques such as deep breathing and how to work collaboratively with others and I think all those things work together to increase their achievement when they feel safe and when they feel like they have the tools to work through any frustrations or emotional issues they're dealing with then that will help them be more successful and focus on the lesson in yoga fantastic it's their breathing under control and starting

011at a relaxed day helps them deal with the different emotions the different big emotions and how to recover how to think about it there's a lot of growth here so getting it from many different angles great that's the end of our presentation thank you anyone have any questions or comments I do go ahead um this is fantastic and I've seen some recent um presentations in our conferences about this type of um tiered system and part of what I'm wondering is how do you check in well let me see are you able to check in with each student each day as to how they're feeling um can you clarify do you yeah like I know there's an emoji program where kids can check in as they come to school in the morning and then the counselor

012would get you know kind of a report where you can briefly look through it and see you know so and so is not feeling well today or let me check in on that kid yeah I know teachers can assess that during their morning meetings um and then we also use the Panorama platform for my uh my services that's what I used to check in with this Panorama yes okay and do you see a big difference um in terms of the fifth graders for example versus third grade and and how you're handling the kids um a big difference in like behaviors I would say no I think there's a lot of similarity in the in the behaviors that we see especially on the playground but our are most of the kids opting into tier two when

013they're given that opportunity or do you have kids who aren't opting in yeah okay occasionally like we always get parent consent it's like a lunch group sometimes parents are like no we're doing outside services so we don't want to confuse the student so once in a while we'll have an opt out but for the most part students are really really excited to work with Miss Smith like they're really jazzed when it's their Lunch Bunch day and so um most students are opting in that's great I think it's a really great model um so to share with everyone thank you thank you do all of our elementary schools follow the same protocol for services is that for you Dr Wiles they do yeah so tier one we have lessons going on in all of the classrooms

014um kindergarten all the way through fifth grade and then tier two might look slightly different you may not have necessarily have yoga but you have um music therapy going on some it just really depends on the school but you always have small group whether it be Lunch Bunch whether it be there's even our middle schools you may see it may not be the counselors maybe the counselors always be a tosa who grabs a bunch of students and decides to go on just a walk to kind of walk it out and then tier three we offer one-on-one in addition to the counseling services we have South Bay Children's Health we have clear recovery we have a number of different outside entities to kind of really provide it when students are in crisis I was going to

015ask at the kind of the end of the year or the start of the year for like our fifth grade students our counselor is able to kind of have or in psychologists have the ability to talk to the next school up to kind of Ensure there's a smooth transition and no one falls through the cracks with maybe struggling in fifth grade absolutely we have great relationships with the middle schools and so we're in constant communication they've come out the model is so similar so especially students with like a 504 an IEP there's like a structured meeting for that but that also happens yeah for all students thank you thank you and the students Panorama data data will follow with them well Lauren thank you for what you do I think it's just awesome I've met

016our school counselor at Toledo and introduced her to Ramer today as well and do you guys have a chance to get together as you know in some kind of formal meeting where you're the school counselors maybe especially the elementary or do you blend with all the counselors and talk with each other and compare what's going on what you're trying what you're seeing yeah actually once a month all the elementary school counselors meet um we have the exact same lessons that we're pushing out at all the different elementary schools and then we also have time to collaborate or consult about specific things that are happening it's all counselors across all grades or is it just the elementary school counselors in our meetings but I know that that's at the middle school and the high school they

017do their own separate meetings monthly as well I believe and then for fifth graders do you do any kind of a handoff to the middle school counselors is there a process for that I doing speech Pizza yes or no yeah we could we'll consult with the middle school counselors before if they're students like we have um communication protocols Even in our sis system so power school where they can see like has a student received counseling support or what does that look like so there are things like built into the technology but also just those one-on-one conversations with staff thank you Rachel all right I have one more quick questions probably for Dr Wiles um do all of the teachers have access to the Panorama they do yeah they do thank you to it made sure

018that happens so they all have their own logins um and that's some ongoing training that's in our plan to provide to teachers so that they can go in and see the unique um with their classroom specifically looks like that was great thank you very much thank you thank you [Applause] next there's apparently an outgoing board member recognition apparently a apparently sit back haven't why don't you relax so all right well we would like to recognize David Witkin our current board president for eight incredible years of service and when I was thinking about what we wanted to say about David I went back through my photos and through my notes I met David Wicken in 2014 when he ran for school board the first time and there he is today I walked through Toledo and saw

019that little baby who was in third grade now that photo has my babies who are no longer those babies when he was running for that for office at the time and on the next slide I think is here I love this statement by the end of my term our teachers and students should be as comfortable with tablets and laptops as they are with textbooks that was a little while ago I mean we don't even think about that do we David and I totally did not come up with that I can admit it well I pulled it off your old campaign website so our campaign consultant but yeah what I just thought my goodness look at how you've accomplished the 2015. so um I have I do have a question for you before there's a bunch

020of people who want to recognize you but I am curious that little baby is in third grade I saw him today which is crazy to think so you've been with us when we first did measure q and had laptops in the classrooms you help you've always pushed us to be a better school district but you've always done it openly honestly and with humility and respect and I've really never met anyone quite like you who's able to speak whatever truth there may be but also do it in a way that is inspiring and respectful and it's certainly something that we're going to be that we're going to miss I know your our efforts because we ran together the second time we're always about providing just the preeminent education opportunities for our kids and in technology and

021I feel like you've got a lot to rest on your Loyals but my question is this how did a guy from Boston who was at Harvard University with Ben Allen end up being a politician in Southern California so I have I have someone to blame for that Todd Lowenstein okay was the only person I knew in Redondo Beach when I moved here like he convinced me to move to his neighborhood to have my kids go to his kids school and then I he had left the board or was leaving the board and he was like David why don't you just run like your kid will be in kindergarten next year you're interested in in the schools just run and I don't know what I was thinking that night but I I agreed to do it

022and here we are eight years later or nine years later nine years yeah well I know that um each of our support organizations want to come up and say something I think I'll call on RBF first Christy Bieber and we'll work our way through a Doris Doris Donnelly Richmond you've got a table David hello so I'm here tonight on behalf of the Redondo Beach Educational Foundation to thank you David for your eight years of service to the students and staff of rbusd as a school board member we recognize that your time on school board has been during one of the most difficult times possible so many decisions with the pandemic and trying to balance what was required with what all the stakeholders wanted and needed but what we appreciate most is that you faced all

023of this with a level head and always kept the kids and their education at the Forefront you've always been so supportive of RBF which we at the foundation deeply appreciate and so tonight we would like to present you with wow the coveted and very rare RBF hoodie so you can continue to represent us in the community [Applause] all right next up we've got Heather Willoughby from rvpta all right good evening president Witkin I would like to take this moment to thank you for your service to our community and to the children of Redondo Beach you have helped govern us through an absolutely unprecedented eight years leading us throughout the pandemic being a part of the hiring of our very first superintendent in 16 years bringing coding classes to the children of our community and then

024helping oversee some of the measure queue stuff and then really being an instrumental partner in creating and executing the lease of the Franklin property to the Friendship Foundation all while serving with dignity and respect we couldn't ask for a better partner and we appreciate your membership in our organization with that being said it's my honor on behalf of the Redondo Beach Council of ptas to present you with a very special person award for recognition for your volunteer service to PTA and the children of Redondo Beach this award is presented today March 27 8th I don't even know what day it is anymore um 2023 and it's signed by our California state PTA president Carol Green oh thank you [Applause] rbta yes Merlin land yeah oh sorry hello on behalf of rbta we want to thank

025you for your service and for your support of rbta and we wish you the best of luck and all of it you're going to do in the future and I did some research and somebody told me well now this confirmation right that you're a Red Sox fan so I got this cute hat oh River how cool it is fantastic thank you right yep yep this is great thank you [Applause] okay I think that biancho who will be joining us here at the next meeting in your spot would like to say a few words now good evening I don't think there's a need for this timer Miss uh president Witkin today for president Mr Wiccan board members Kaywood Flynn Nemeth Elder and strasenberg Dr Wesley Dr Wiles Dr Stephanie and members of our educational community and

026all our students here and Community Partners my name is biancho on behalf of my family and myself I'd like to say thank you to our fearless leader and friend Mr David Witkin we appreciate your staff fast leadership of our wonderful district for the last eight years you along with our dedicated board members and District leaders teachers staff and educational community members and partners improved what that is all that is Redondo Beach Unified School District for rbusd not only you led us through hopefully the first and the last pandemic in our memory not everything was perfect but we did our best with your leadership and guidance while keeping our mission of putting what is best for our students at rvust we also saw you at many Renaissance at baseball practices and games with your sons and

027family with ours you were harder coaching our young people with all of us and trying to make everything as normal as possible for our youth your focus on student achievement throughout your service as our board member is much appreciated and should be celebrated as we look to our future which is even brighter and exciting look at these people it's very bright and exciting at an opportunity to attend an educator leadership event recently the event had more than 60 education leaders all over Southern California many of them counterparts of our district leaders as well as the board I received several places of our district I thought they were just saying things nice I ask particular questions that were sincere admiration of our teamwork focused on what is best for students at RV USD I was both

028humble and proud to represent rbusd not that ranking is everything but they need to tell a story I I love numbers I know you do as well latest Niche ratings of our our district is fantastic even better than before they clearly demonstrate hard work put in by good and dedicated people like you Mr Witkin that put in the work you put in day in day after years for our students is you have inspired others to do more for our students like myself for our students and everyone in and around our district we know you'll be you'll continue to be part of our community we'll lean on you for your wisdom and experience we thank you for being kind to all of us and we also thank your family for sharing you with all of us

029thank you very much and represent representing the leadership team we have Anthony Brady thank you president withkin members aboard Dr Wesley and your cabinet thank you for having us today um David uh you know what this is about I just want to thank you on behalf of leadership for your tireless commitment um for our Learning Community as you can see I I didn't plan this but it'd be great if I could say could I get a Seahawk that'd be good could I get a oh yeah can I get a uh-huh all right r r u h s something like that all right that was a plan but that's for you all right I I know that you love baseball so we have a baseball hat for you for Dondo on behalf of leadership and I

030know you're going to be attending some Redondo events so we have a Redondo Union High School letter Letterman's jacket now we do have your name on it because you're going to be around a lot of us a lot of students with jackets so this is so you know it's yours you don't have to write your name in the tag thank you so again David just thank you for your leadership here in Redondo Beach [Applause] okay David on behalf of the school district we have two wonderful plaques to offer you one is for your services board president this last year you get to keep that gavel you've been banging yeah close to you as a memory of this at the second time you've served as a board member and you've we've also had made for you

031a plaque that says an award of appreciation presented to David whitkin Redondo Beach Unified School District Board of Education member April 2015 to March 2023 for your eight years of dedication and service to the students parents and staff of the Redondo Beach Unified School District we thank you on behalf of the entire family rbusd family and last but not least your board current board cabinet and former superintendent Dr Keller wanted to send you and your family off with something special now that you'll have extra time you'll have four tickets to the Red Sox Angels game with Premier Parking and the best possible seats you could have at Angel Stadium I will forward them to you once again [Applause] all right if I had known I would be getting so much attention I would not have

032run for re-election so that's that's enough for one night I I I will have uh surprisingly enough a board member report tonight but I'm gonna save it for the the board member reports at the end um so the next item on our agenda is the student report Chloe thank you so to start with the mood I would like to say thank you to Mr Witkin for welcoming me a student board member uh you've been a great president and the ASB and I would like to thank you and we will miss you um so moving on the past young leaders meeting we finalized the district spirit week which will be the last week of April the scenes are going to be minion Monday inclusion day which will be twin day on Tuesday Unity blue Wednesday decades

033day and then PJ day congratulations to the ruhs Drumline for getting second place in their competition this past weekend yesterday ruhs hosted the 5th and 8th graders for fitness day we've not had this event since 2019 it was great for it to happen again the students got to experience many different sports available at the high school when they come and we can't wait for the class of 2027 and 2030 to become Seahawks prom Expo will be this Friday the date location and prom court will be announced plus local businesses will be on campus for the students to see rohs Theater Arts or ruhs Theater Arts production of Les Mis had their first round of shows last weekend and we'll have their final shows this Friday and Saturday tickets are still available and you can buy

034them at the door online or with any cast or crew member and then finally spring sports are continuing all throughout this week with many games and for many sports however they may change due to some rain so just keep that in mind when scheduling that's all thank you Dr Wesley well I too want to begin by thanking you for all the support that you've given me personally especially as I moved into this new role and I'll always remember you remember you as a board member who helped me with my first contract so yeah thank you I really appreciate all of the support that you've had for me so I um have a couple of things I want to share during my superintendent report and one is that I just want everyone to know I sent

035a letter about this in February that in Redondo Beach we really want all students um to and staff to feel valued to feel respected and to feel safe on our campuses and I and I really love that Eileen and her her staff shared the social emotional three tiers and the ways in which we do that on our elementary campuses and we know that in our schools and in our community there are times when students are mistreated or incidents or actions occur that feel really horrible exclusive or and could be even intentionally hateful and we are always working to make sure that students feel safe and valued that is of the utmost importance regardless of who they are what they believe in what they represent every single student should walk through our school doors feeling proud

036of who they are and feeling accepted and and that's just really our non-negotiable in Redondo Beach so um the reality is though at times in us in our schools and in our community students are faced with again actions of mistreatment or hatred however we Define them and that could be different for all types of students we have students here tonight and sometimes that could be through a slur it could be through anti-Semitism it could be through fear-based comments Etc it's unfortunate and when it happens we address it we do not let it go unheard and so this is something that needs to be addressed together as a school Community Redondo Beach is not creating the issue we are here to be a part of the solution along with our Community Partners and other school districts

037and along with our students I mean actually we need to empower them but first um you know reaching out to parents and having conversations with their students again I'm a parent of a seventh grader I ask a lot of questions about what's happening at school and how does that feel Etc so these are conversations that families should be having at home um oftentimes these conversations could lead to remedies and solutions prior to it leading onto the school campuses we want students to feel empowered we want students to feel as though they can share any concerns they have any time they may have been mistreated or even just speak up and say hey that's not cool hey that's hurtful and so that's part of the work is really just empowering our students as leaders and giving

038them a voice and encouragement to in a very appropriate way explain to their peers that it's just not something that should be said or discussed on campus and last but not least um we are working as a school Community this work has been going on since I was principal years ago and it will continue to go on but just making sure that we have events and lessons and discussions fortunately Our Community Partners such as the Ed foundation and PTA and Beach Cities Health District have supported these events and will continue to do so so I think it's important for our community to know that the bottom line is the work is ongoing and it will continue on Beyond me and I plan on being here for a while so I don't like slides with a

039lot of words but I think it's important to at least share you know what are some of the things that we're doing this is not an inclusive list but one we need to learn first of all sometimes students aren't aware of their actions being hurtful they learn them from somewhere and don't realize the impact so it's important for us to teach along with our our parents and families we need to listen to all the voices and concerns and we need to lead and again that goes back to our students feeling empowered so some of the things that are going on in our schools is lessons you can read the lists but some to highlight is we are fortunate thanks to Ed Foundation to send all of our eighth graders to the Museum of Tolerance and

040given that buses are very expensive these these days that was a really big give we're also fortunate to partner to have the ability to have a holocaust Survivor come and speak to our students at Paris that happened yesterday and so that was really impactful um we are lucky that our PTA is supporting Multicultural nights at every single School site and the importance of that is when students feel that they can come again as they are and represent their culture they feel more confident in who they are and can really be proud of who they represent and who they are and that's what we want every student to feel um again we have Anonymous reporting tools we have restorative action practices you heard from one of our principals about the ways in which we have social

041emotional learning on campuses I mentioned second step is at the middle school and we are a part of the South Bay Coalition against hate as well so we appreciate that resource just wanted to share again the Holocaust Survivor one of these seventh graders said I've never attended a an assembly where students were so respectful to the speaker I know Dr Wells was there Dr Toronto is there you could hear a pin drop that's how captivated the students were by the speaker who really shared some some horrific stories but yet very impactful and as I said there's more to come there's a lot of work to be done if you go to Adams you'll see that they have a big sign up and students can sign a pledge that they will not tolerate any mistreatment Etc

042that's going on this week after they've had lessons and we'll continue to have guest speakers and class lessons also want to put a plug-in for PTA again as a partner they're going to have a diversity equity and inclusion form coming up in April and so you should be getting Flyers about that and so at the end of the day we're part of a community and so we are really we want to make sure that everybody is aware of what we're doing as our part of the community but this is also an issue that's beyond rbusd I also wanted to share a little bit about what's been going on in our classrooms and on our school sites since the last board meeting that's always fun I did start a student advisory committee this is just the

043elementary portion so remember my student advisory is made up of third through 12th grade I meet with third through fifth first then I have a little bit of overlap and then I meet with the secondary Kids 6 through 12. so the third through fifth graders here I try to let them kind of lead the discussion they have a lot to say about the food so we will be exploring that more with our child nutrition services she's going to be coming to our May meeting and letting them sample Foods Etc but again really hearing from the voices of our students is important they are a key stakeholder so I'll share more about that another activity that happens on other campuses but again thanks to PTA and Beach Cities Health District through grant funding there's a program

044called culinary kids where students are actually this is a fourth grade class and they are doing a lesson that was tied into I can't remember the unit at the time it had something to do with the the movement through the west but it was tied into the lesson and he came in to sort of teach the types of foods that they were cooking at that time so that was a lot of fun um so the students at Alta Vista we're hoping to do a visit with a couple of board members and they're having a glow party now who wouldn't be excited about that every grade level attended this glow party um for a period of time because of the membership that they had at that school so the PTA brought some joy to them on

045that day so I'm there with Mrs hurkit experiencing some fun at the glow party every year Adams has a Renaissance Day and so this is fun they learn all about part of the seventh grade curriculum again bringing it to life very exciting the the city-states I mean just the whole shebang so that was fun to attend um and last but not least uh just yesterday we had an amazing program where all of our fifth graders and eighth graders were able to go to the high school and interact with our high school students for field day so here's some of the teams and then here's some other pictures I just want to give a shout out to Marvin Brown that's why I made sure to take a picture with him as well as Andy Saltzman who

046really put in all the time and effort to make this happen to make sure every one of those students had a t-shirt you know had three different activities they could be a part of it was just a fun day and students were saying I've never been on this campus so to be able to provide that opportunity well before they get there is very impactful and to engage with students who are older goes a long way so it's important to just highlight some of the many things that are occurring on our campus and with that that is my report thank you thank you the hearing section members of the audience May address the board on any topic regardless of whether it's listed on the agenda however due to Brand act regulations the board cannot engage in

047public discussions on items that are not on the agenda those topics which are brought to the board's attention may be investigated by the administration and a report made to the board either publicly or privately at a future meeting comments shall not exceed three minutes unless the time limit is waived by a majority of the board and the board shall limit the total time for public input on each item to 20 minutes with board consent the president may increase or decrease the time allowed for Public Presentation so I had four advanced written requests um the first was from Sydney winebaum and Morgan Garfield if they're here hi my name is Sydney and this is Morgan we are Jewish students at Adams Middle School we have both faced so much anti-Semitism recently and in the past school

048year we have filed countless incident reports and for a while things seem to go unrecognized recently there have been swastikas drawn in the walls someone said this directly to my face how did the gas chamber smell so one of my social studies class ended up saying I don't like Jews I just don't and all this talk about the Torah is making me uncomfortable I don't know if he meant it as a joke or not but it was extremely hurtful to me because he was disrespecting My Religion someone made the shape of a swastika and they were laughing about it I had to say something this time and after I did my heart was beating out of my chest my hands were shaking and I couldn't stop thinking about it in fifth period I went to

049the bathroom and I nearly started crying because it was an awful situation and I had to go through it as a 13 year old these are just some examples of what we go through at school every day it's a struggle whether we hear these comments or not recently I was sitting in science class my seat partner was talking to somebody in front of me about elements because we had a quiz on them he said that b stood for beryllium I knew that was not true and said to my seat partner I'm pretty sure it stands for Boron just to help him out he turned to me and said shut up you stupid Jew I was so caught off guard and sat quietly for the rest of class I then went to the bathroom and cried

050in the stall as well as took off my Star of David necklace this affected me for the rest of the day and I did not want to go to science at all the next day this is only one example of an incident that happens to Sydney and I which seems what seems like weekly at school for me my safe place is Camp I go to a Jewish Sleepaway Camp for kids our Jewish camp for kids not a Jewish a not a camp for Jewish kids there are many kids who are not Jewish no matter what I always feel like I belong I do not always feel like this at school and if you think about it it's really sad school should be a place for everybody that everyone has is a safe place and right

051now it's not people don't know how using these anti-semitic words make others feel we don't we know the district and the school is doing a lot that they can to help recently and teach us about this and we are very appreciative of that we wanted to inform you of our experiences as Jewish students at Adams so together we can learn and overcome from this thank you for your time thank you next is Lisa winebaum good evening everyone my name is Lisa weinbaum I am a Jewish resident of Redondo Beach I have two kids in RB USD we just met Sydney and I also have a kid at MiraCosta I know anti-Semitism exists I've been Jewish my whole life it's been around it's actually been around our entire existence as people um so some data we

052were talking earlier about liking numbers so according to some FBI data from 2020 Jews made up 57 percent of all religious based hate crimes Nationwide and 64 percent in California all while Jews actually only make up two percent of the population so you can see the math there ADL last week released their data from 2022 and if you haven't had a chance to look at it it is online and available their tracking shows that 2022 had the highest number of anti-Semitic reports since tracking began in 1979. it was up 36 percent from the previous year with California being the second highest state of reported incidents behind New York in K-12 schools there was a 49 increase from the previous year these all include harassment vandalism or assault those statistics are pretty staggering but we know

053they're low because what you heard Morgan and Sydney say weren't even a part of it those are just two kids experiences in one year so we can only imagine how many more go unreported or the kids don't feel empowered to say something which leads me to a couple of months ago I was really frustrated I knew that Sydney and Morgan had been reporting incidences what was happening to them what they saw around the school and I felt that nothing was being done however after quite a few conversations with staff and District staff and School staff I do stand here today with a different knowledge and I want to acknowledge the school district The District staff the school state the administration and the teachers involved for really taking these steps and whatever thing that Dr Wesley

054just said as a family who's experiencing this thank you from the bottom of our hearts for bringing this taking it seriously and taking steps to help combat it there is so much more to still do and as a Jewish member I'm committed to fighting all hate not just anti-Semitism and I want to use this public meeting as our call to action I think it's important to name each incident as they're happening and not keep them General as it happens we need to address it and we need to confront it not naming things keeping it General ignores the specific harm and hurts that each targeted Community feels and it keeps us from having these real conversations at home so it's not up to just the school board it's great these lessons are happening at school let's

055go further bring it out to the community we are all here to help combat this hate thank you Karen call I'm sorry oh okay all right I'll I'll do that oh okay so I've actually only had those three written requests to comment does anyone else have any comments on agenda items or non-agenda items all right oh go ahead come out to the podium please and if you could just state your name okay um I'm Malia natividad I am a senior at Redondo Union High School and I obviously wasn't not planning on doing this but in light of the presentation that was just up about like hate um in rbosd um I wanted to bring attention to the sexism that my basketball team encountered during our season so I don't know if you guys know but

056we actually had a record-breaking season of being 10-0 this year and we made it all the way to the state semifinals so we were pretty successful and throughout the season I felt a lot of pushback and there was a lack of coverage there was a lack of support amongst our students and staff our home games were consistently basically empty besides the people that I'm directly friends with or people on the team are directly friends with are student um newspaper account uh actually posted six posts for boys basketball and never posted once about us even after I had made comments to them about that issue um I ended up addressing this with our news our staff the person who runs it and we've been trying to work on like expressing this to other people because for

057women in sports there's a lot of there's a lack of coverage and a lack of respect overall and I just wanted to bring light to the fact that our school is not sexism is a problem overall and our school isn't directly trying to perpetuate that but not being part of the solution is being part of the problem and I think we need to be taking more active steps to make Sports a more inclusive place and give our female athletes their respect and support that they deserve throughout their season thank you thank you okay any other public comment all right we'll move on to Communications is anyone from rbta here who would like to speak CSEA aft PTA rbef okay General consent does anyone oh sorry Doris [Laughter] uh good evening president Witkin the school board

058Dr Wesley in the cabinet I'm Doris Donnelly Richmond proud president of rbef and I have a few things to report today on behalf of the Board of Trustees in the foundation registration for High School summer sessions and Seahawks Sports Camps are in full swing and classes are already filling up our early bird discount for summer sessions ends on March 31st so we encourage everyone who hasn't signed up already to take advantage of that we're also excited to announce the reboot of Middle School summer sessions some of the unique classes being offered are economics on the stock market and creative writing for podcasts our Middle School parents will be hearing more about these classes later this week when registration opens up I also want to remind everyone that tickets are now available for our RBF light

059up the night spring event which will be happening on May 12th at the Portofino this will be a fun adult-only casino night event with food and dancing we hope to see you all there along with the rest of our community community to celebrate the end of another great year at rbusd and last but not least I'm pleased to report that at the last meeting of the RBF Board of Trustees our board approved a grant to rbusd for the 2023-24 school year in the amount of 1 million one hundred and five thousand dollars [Applause] our entire Board of Trustees were especially appreciative of the variety of programs presented so this funding is able to impact an even wider range of students across the district than ever before a very special thank you to Dr Susan Wilds

060for her hard work and collaboration to make this happen and thank you to the community and our business partners for always being supportive so we can do this for the students okay thank you uh General consent does anyone have any items they would like to pull I'd like to pull 10.4 please all right Motion in seconds to prove 10.133 and also 10.5 second all those in favor say aye aye student advisory vote emotions uh second to discuss 10.4 so I moved uh Ralph yeah so this is a great thing but reading through it the fourth whereas I just can't reconcile that one it reads whereas the Redondo Beach Unified School District is committed to preserve agricultural land and that really conflicts with just about everything else in this resolution aglan destroys everything you put on

061it except for what you're planning biodiversity goes from what was 100 to around two or three percent deforestation is happening at the rate of about an acre and a half per second worldwide 80 to 90 percent of that is the pursuit of AG land so even in the time we're talking about this a football field is about a little less than that about 1.3 Acres and I own anglad I grew up on a farm I know what it's about and everything I just it just does not fit with everything else here about Earth Day so what I'd like to propose is we just strike to preserve agricultural land leave the rest of it in there it would still read the Redondo Beach Unified School District is committed to encourage activities to support locally grown food

062which I don't know if we actually do that or not and that maybe you can ask I think we do with our lunch Pro our food purchase programs that we do have then which is great but the general AG land another aspect of Agland tobacco is AG land I don't think we should be supporting preserving tobacco land there's a lot of other aspects to this so if the board is willing to strike that one comment out of there that part of it man everything else is fine I don't have a problem removing it I mean it doesn't say gml monoculture or anything in there but agricultural land to mean just anywhere that we're growing food but I'm also fine removing it because that's not something we're really focused on either right yeah I I don't

063have a problem with that okay so with that it would make a motion to prove as amended all second okay in favor say aye aye aye student advisory vote motion passes as amended action items motion and second to discuss 12.1 foreign [Music] thank you staff is requesting the board award the to the lowest responsible bidder for the Jefferson CDC play area project to Dave bang Associates what quick question two bids on this two bids that seem wildly different four hundred and five thousand and a hundred and ten thousand almost a four to one ratio we've been we went back to both bidders to make sure that they understood the scope of what it was they were bidding for and they both stood by their bids it's unusual it's unusual well they they have different products

064so it's a it's a play structure um and so we had you know they had some different specs but it's unusual it's highly unusual you're right to see the range of from The Limited experience that Dan and I had on the Planning Commission the hundred and ten thousand for what they're doing even seems pretty low so we have worked with Dave bang before they do a lot of work on our playgrounds replacing like blacktop basketball backboards and poles and I think we haven't done a lot of business with them recently and there's a new play structure that's part of this too right yes that is that that's the bulk of the of the bid is that play structure and it's um it's being spent with CDC funds and the play structures in the CDC play

065area I think when maybe when maybe when we walked the campus when I think the two of you with the cdc's elected and we walked at Jefferson and both of you commented on the condition of the places at the CDC now we're spending the money so here we are yeah the thing that stood out to me was that wild and just two bids were receiving I'm taking it that's yes okay all right all those in favor say aye aye aye student advisory vote okay motion and second to discuss 12.2 so moved second Dr Alpert thank you the district this year received an additional 538 thousand one hundred ninety eight dollars for student transportation district provided student transportation this year that's in addition to our annual funding this year being 1.319 million um so with that

066additional funding districts are now required to provide a transportation plan there's a template for it I've attached the template to the board item um These funds when combined together account for approximately half of the costs that we expend annually for transportation services for our students with disabilities the legislature's intent in giving us this additional funding was to um expand our services for our unduplicated students Foster youth homeless students eligible for free and reduced lunch and so it is referenced in our transportation plan I think this is an area that will be a continued Focus for us it's an area of growth for us especially when these additional funds still only account for half of the costs um for our students with disabilities and their transportation services so we are looking at partnering with Metropolitan transportation

067services there's a TAP card that that is program that we're able to coordinate with and potentially provide to our high school age students but the transportation plan really wants us to look at what kinds of Transportation Services long term can we look at providing for um Elementary aged students and families who have a need so I've been working with with Dr Toronto and I know over the course of the next year we we're going to have more to offer but this this meets our requirement legally but I think it's probably not our best work and um and and I think we can do better and we will do better I don't remember us ever having approved a plan no no it was not required oh so this is the first change tag yes with the

068additional funds um they built in okay and these funds are ongoing then or is it yes these are not one time that is the expectation and um on an annual basis boards will be required there's been some discussion about like well what happens if a school district frankly districts like ourselves that don't have a transportation department um believed up until a month ago when we were told otherwise that we were not required to put together a transportation plan because we don't have a transportation department um we were told by L.A County Office of Education that everyone's required to if you don't have a transportation plan that's approved then next year we'll have an audit finding and then the state will take our money back is it correct that this is not the for the buses

069like for field trips and class trips it's correct this is like home to school transportation yeah okay Focus purely on that this is yeah I wanted to um clarify if I edited and we have no and then you flip to the page with the numbers on it um am I correct in that this is not costing us any additional money this is more of a formality that we're now doing but we'd already budgeted our share of this yes so we budgeted at the beginning of the year the 1.319 million um and we received additional funds that 538 thousand dollars we have now included in our second interim report we included that 538 000 additional dollars that we're receiving this year so it shows up as Revenue on our budget reports it in a nutshell What's

070the total take intake versus what we're spending out spend about four million dollars in special education Transportation costs annually okay so this is just a part of the bigger picture yes which is what makes you know it makes it challenging yeah yet we understand that you know students who are Foster youth or homeless or um whose parents may not have cars or the ability to be able to get their kids to and from school readily also needs support so um like I said we we recognize our departments recognize our staff recognizes that there's work to be done and are we able to get the services reliably yet because that's been a challenge in a lot of ways um more or less there and it's not unique to us it's school-wide for everywhere okay anyone else

071have questions or comments all those in favor say aye aye aye student advisory vote motion passes motion and second to discuss 12.3 so moved second so this is a request to approve a revision to a special board meeting that was originally scheduled on April 5th in the morning but we are requesting that we change that to Monday April 3rd at 5 30 pm at first we weren't sure if the city was going to be able to certify the election in time for us to be able to have it on April 3rd which is an ideal date because then we can have it in the evening and so it's because the city did certify the election we are in time for us to have it on Monday April 3rd we'd prefer to have it on April

0723rd at 5 30 p.m so we are asking the board to approve this revision we we must let the public know within 24 hours so we will certainly advertise it and put in our website and announce it here if should the board approve this this change and just as a point of reference the special board meeting is specifically to swear in our two board members that were elected by the city same questions or comments all those in favor say aye aye student advisory vote motion passes motion seconds to discuss 12.4 so moved socket Dr Wesley 12.4 is a request to work with a consultant called seventh floor digital they actually helped us create our logo that we currently have so they would serve as an outside consultant to assist us with internal and external Communications

073just to improve our communication with our school community in particular I would work with them to send out Communications to our parents and families monthly just sharing news about our school district things that are happening Etc just to increase that partnership with our school Community they're also you can look in the proposal going to be helping us standardize some templates Etc just so that we have more of a commonality with our branding as Redondo they're going to help us manage our Instagram page Etc they're not a public information officer we're not hiring anyone but they're going to be able to provide services such as helping us with press releases it's getting those out timely we want to announce great things newspaper advertisements when we want to advertise you know Kinder Etc this is their expertise

074so we would utilize them utilize their services based on this proposal so staff is recommending that you approve this agreement question I have like I see the dollar amount like how long is the contract is it one year or is it open-ended it's open-ended so in the contract it does spell out that uh either one of us can end it at any time and so at the point at which we decide there's not even a 30-day should have they done any work for us we'd pay them for those services and otherwise it could be at any time the idea would be to work with them for a year and reassess our need so we would start effectively April but it can be canceled at any time so it's just this 64.50 per month correct yeah

075so they would invoice us monthly and so for instance I shared I don't see a need summer so they wouldn't invoice us over the summer this it's a do not to exceed correct yeah so the assuming we worked with them for a year that would be the amount so that you could see that but given that this is my first go around we will we will recalibrate and see what our needs are yep does this include anything of the website or is that outside of the realm of this they said they can assist us with Consulting with the website I did ask them that question so they said that the the monthly fee is built in to help us with such work such as as I mentioned newspaper or sorry press releases newspaper ads and

076they can consult us on a website would they be the ones to create it no but they could provide some consultation on making changes okay don't we have seemed like there was a par consultant there was like 2 000 a month for somebody already that we pay are we oh so Aaron um she goes out and she takes pictures she's at our events so she's essentially the one who's capturing all of this information when we have events so she has a list of where she goes and she can't she it's for so many hours a month and then she helps us create um the verbiage that goes with those pictures that is posted on Instagram so but this one specifically includes Instagram as well correct so there's two gonna both be they don't they don't

077go out and get the content they're not out getting the pictures so we have to have somebody do that Aaron's the one who gets all of the content so for instance Field Day right she would come and take those pictures and write a caption and then that's pushed into Instagram but she's seventh um this consultant is not getting the content so Aaron is strictly getting content she's also the person who videotaped uh the Holocaust Survivor so any type of content then she does that monthly for us so she has a schedule of where to go she provides pictures she has a stock of pictures if we need them for presentations Etc so she's strictly about getting content okay and I'm curious how do we come across this entity and were there any other considerations of

078other entities to do this was it a down select at all or no so there was we worked with them we went uh through a whole process and worked with them when we redid our logo prior to covid so that's how we official initially developed a partnership with them um yes uh we considered another proposal which um I I didn't believe met the needs of our district so this is the one that I bet felt is going to best serve US based on what I believe would be the best way to communicate with our community Etc yeah this will end up being probably around 100 000 a year because there's a lot of incidental things that aren't included in the cost that will become part of this there's a whole list of them in here

079no the month so it's we're not going to charge more than a monthly fee so I'm not sure what you're referencing um yeah there's just there's no add-on costs under budget and schedule lists the things that would be add-ons estimate does not include third-party fees technology licensing hosting fees additional software technology fees applicable ship yeah that's simply them stating that they're not responsible for that but we're not utilizing them for those Services as you can see we have somebody who provides who gets the content for us so that's not the role that they're playing so the proposal is for the it's for the monthly fee that you see here and that's why we put the not to exceed amount there's no you know additional fees on top of that so I will share that most

080districts have a public information officer that is well over a hundred thousand dollars that's not what we're asking for we're asking for someone to help us improve the efficiency of communicating and editing Etc and a format that is well received and um well identified by our stakeholders how long do you see it going on do you have an initial estimate of well when I met with them I you know I said let's again reevaluate month to month and so I'd like to work with them for a year and really just have an understanding they you know they're they're working with us if we find that we don't need them as much then that monthly fee will come down but it won't go up so the only way to go up is if in a year

081from now I'm coming back to you to ask for it to increase it so that's why we have that that threshold but I would like to work with them for a year and then reassess I think having the consistent communication and also proactive communication is something that that is certainly going to be helpful I know that's something parents and students a lot of people ask for one one piece I'd be interested in is it's there's some pieces that are specific just to Instagram but if we want to explore other social media Outlets I think that would be relatively trivial in most cases so um branching out a little bit potentially but um yeah I do think that communication is critical uh particularly you know with we have a lot of over communication because parents are

082buried under things so having it very concise but also this is the important stuff out there that's really going to help parents students families teachers staff everyone understand what's going on without being buried yeah and identifiable that's part of this as well thank you so there are metrics for success or is it just kind of how you see it going whether or not you continue or so they help us with the messaging and the content but they're not sending it out for us we're doing that through it I want to have the ability to approve all messaging before it goes out right and then be in control uh so they will not have any access to any of our emails Etc they just strictly work on the actual messaging that is going out I understand

083I'm just asking if there's how do you measure whether or not this is worth it it sounds like it's just basically up to you and how it's going I would say feedback I mean feedback from our parent Community I don't they're not receiving a a monthly email from the superintendent at this time so you know hearing from our stakeholders trying to figure out whether or not it's helpful or if it's useful but I think it's a way to try to connect with our stakeholders and really share information that they may not receiving from a district level okay anyone else questions comments all right all those in favor say aye aye student advisory vote and our recorders will know okay motion passes four one Motion in second to discuss 12.5 so moved uh Dr Wesley yeah

084this is um yeah do you want to take the podium sure hello my name is Karen Cole and I am one of your two Representatives on the Southwest selper Community advisory committee um in this packet of board policies you have the first two pages which refer to the board policy on your membership of a selper and um so I'm just really taking the opportunity to talk to you about your membership of Southwest selper since it's coming across your table it doesn't do it come across your table very often um I'm very proud of our district having moved towards more inclusive practices I don't necessarily see that in the other 11 districts in Southwest Delta um I know that for many of you you don't really know what selper does or why it's there what I

085want you to know is that you do have an influence on how Southwest selper is designed it's constructed and how it spends its money Southwest selper is governed by a board which is called the Council of superintendence your superintendent sits on that it's a brown act meeting doesn't always occur every month it's very difficult for the public to attend and it's not televised um a second thing you may not know is that Southwest celpra is a funding agency it receives the funds from the California Department of Education the funds that they send for special education and um up to a few years ago that was that ranged from 400 per Ada to 900 per Ada the governor over the last three and four years has tried to equalize that amount so now each supper gets

086at least 820 dollars per Ada now if you think that that's per Ada but only about 12 percent of your Ada is students with disabilities so that's quite a lot of money that he has increased but that money goes to selper and then selper gives it to you so are you getting your 820 dollars I'd like you to find out I'd like you to ask if that money that increased money is going to increase spending on special education or if it's going to reduce what we used to call the encroachment right and I'd like you to find out if it's not coming here and if it's not going to special education where it is going and is it going on students in other districts not having inclusive practices thank you very much okay thank you

087very much [Music] yes can I just speak to the agenda um I serve on the finance committee for this elpa and so should the board have questions about the special ed bunny that is coming to the supper and then coming to the district I'd be happy to answer your questions okay all right does anyone have any comments or questions on these regulations or board policies I just thank Dr Wesley or an ace whoever took care of the changes to be be uh board by law 9220 yeah um cleaned it up that's taken care of animals I didn't know whether changes were made this is just second reading for everything yeah we called and verified with the city and is called and verified with the city and then we made that change so that'd be Miss

088campus did that okay all those in favor say aye aye aye student advisory vote all right attendance reports Dr alpern I'm happy to report once again that attendance is improving um I know that not every parent or student is necessarily pleased to get these parent letters at their home about how important attendance is but it is changing behavior and we like to see that and um I think that the investment that we made with the partnership of a2a the company that we're working with to really focus on Improvement attendance is having an impact and it is paying off and it's great to highlight that positive news and I just wanted to highlight because I was curious the 113th day that you see that's Friday February 24th and so we need all students to come to

089school on Fridays even though we know that there's a lot of snow in Mammoth but it does make a difference and so that just wanted to point that out those dips are the same yes [Laughter] all right um I'm glad you brought up the letters because um I cannot tell you how many complaints I hear about these letters from parents and you know clearly if it affects you then read the letter and take it to heart if it doesn't it can go in the circular file but um thank you for at least bringing that up because we did retain the company to help us bring this under control we should say yes [Laughter] the greatest in hacked at the elementary schools which is good because that's we have them for longer so establishing those habits

090when they're in elementary school is important work for seniors we're kind of getting past the leftovers of covid too I mean it's still out there but that's really tapering off but to see us back up in that high 90s rather than below 95 is good news for many reasons okay moving on does anyone have any correspondence they would like to share okay board member reports Mr Elder well since it's your last meeting uh I just want to say I'm sorry we didn't get to spend more time serving together you're a man of a few words but you're always led by example one of the things I found is there's no ego you don't think about yourself you think about what's best for students with every decision you're laser focused on this good to Great philosophy

091and that's that's you know exactly what a leader should be every everything you do is driven by how do we support our students in the best way possible with the resources we have and so I really appreciate that um you know there's this quiet determination about you to get the job done um you know whatever it takes and that that's going to be missed so really really appreciate your leadership and everything you've done for us on the board and for our students most importantly yeah it's very kind thank you um beyond that though on the legislative side uh Senate Bill 381 this is this bill to have a traffic study for e-bike safety that was in the Senate Transportation committee today there was a hearing tried to dial in didn't quite work but they had

092didn't have Quorum for a while it was a bit of a mess but uh our Senator Ben Allen did vote Yes to advance this so from what I understand I think it's moving forward it is excellent perfect excellent so that was good thank you Dr Wesley for the letter of support I was also shared with Senator Allen's office so you know it's always good to get connected with those things other things that have happened when on a data center tour with Mrs Garcia it's very good to see because there's a lot of modernization that we may want to look at so we have both a more resilient and less costly environment ultimately as well as more secure so there's a lot of opportunities to improve there and and kind of move the district forward and

093we'll go through that I'm sure more in the future but I appreciate all the School site visits we've been able to go on and see kids in classrooms learning that's what we're all here for a couple of things though that I just wanted to highlight the Lincoln stem week and their science night was just outstanding it's amazing to see what these students came up with each of these robotics was there showing off the robot they have at the high school for our elementary kids and really getting them excited about what comes next and you know going to see Les Mis this past weekend just an incredible performance what they're doing on stage off stage and saw led by students you know just amazing and fitness day same thing you have these student athletes leading our

094fifth and eighth graders through there and really showing them you know ultimately our students are capable of so many incredible things if we give them the opportunities and that's that's what our job is here is to to give all of you the opportunity to be as successful as possible so I really appreciate all of our teachers our staff our parent volunteers our ptas at foundations everyone is working so hard to make that happen um because you know our students are worth it you know we're here to see you grow and flourish and Thrive so thank you to everyone staying focused on that and thank you Mr Witkin for your service to the board and for all of our students great thank you Ms Flynn all right I will echo my thanks for the last four

095years have been interesting it's one way to put it challenging so you will be missed thank you for your service and I am honored and humbled to be re-elected to serve with Mr Cho on the school board and look forward to working with all of you that's it yes uh Mr strasenberg David thank you eight years is a lot to give looking back the property seems really quick I feel like we had board meetings that were longer than eight years at different times um but that's a that's a huge amount of service I appreciate that my respect for you really shot up even before I was elected when I was watching the board meeting where you were having a discussion whether or not to reopen schools and that was a tough discussion and I believe

096you were in a 3-2 minority but you held your ground and made your case and that was great to see that um I think Rachel and Dan and I all thought yay that's all over we're good we're in that it didn't exactly pan out that way but we're through that and we're stronger for the next challenges that come up whatever they may be but sincerely thank you for your eight years it's it's a lot to give to your community and that's appreciated um on the SoCal Rock front I'll just report out we happy to report we have 33 high school students from ruhs going to a site visit SoCal Rock tomorrow will be the first that we've done that I think that's a great turnout for the first one these will be 9 10th and

09711th graders going to see the facility and check it out in person also that's tomorrow afternoon and the earlier afternoon also tomorrow afternoon starting I think at 4 30 it is is the real competition which is r e e l where students from all the different jpa high schools the area high schools that are members of SoCal Rock were invited to come and make their own video documentaries of what happens at SoCal Rock interview the students see the facilities put it into video format that can be put out pleased to announce that Redondo leads in that with three individual and two teams signs up to do that there it is a competition with a thousand dollars and a 500 prize those will be announced at the uh night of All-Stars for SoCal Rock which will

098be the next month on the evening of the 27th I believe so great to see that and the support going on that uh also on the SoCal Rock front the superintendent Search application window has closed the board will meet Monday morning this coming Monday to consider all the applicants and which ones will proceed forward to interviews so that process is moving along and that's it thank you Rachel yeah um I it's been briefly said and I cannot say enough if you have not gone to see Les Mis you have to go this production was fantastic Dr Wesley and I got to go together and I brought my niece who I thought would be bored out of her mind she loved it maybe the gummy bears too but she loved it and um just as I

099was with Mamma Mia I was blown away by the talent that we have at Redondo not just the kids on the stage but the orchestra and behind the scenes and how many it was like over a hundred kids were involved in this production the orchestra was student-led it was all live music it was fantastic so if you haven't gone or if you're going you have something to look forward to David I've been sitting next to you for two years now I'm gonna really miss you um I won't miss you banging your gavel in my ear but besides that someone else you know I'm sure I'm sure um but thank you for everything and all your support thank you very much all right so I am gonna break from my own tradition and actually give a

100report tonight at my final meeting um first I'll I'll start with some thank yous and then a few observations from the last eight years so thank you of course to the people in this room um obviously my fellow board members I'm honored to have served with all of you in particular Ramer who is around through covid with me and demonstrated true leadership and Grace in tough times I'll miss all of you I also want to thank Dr Wesley Dr alpern Dr Wilds Dr Stephanie uh Inez Susanna uh I've become friends with you uh over the years I I will miss you but we'll we'll be in touch Annette and I will be sharing book ideas for for years to come I'm sure Dr Toronto I'm assuming is somewhere in the building I still owe you

101lunch um thank you to all the principals and teachers who've supported me over the years especially Marvin Brown RB USD is a special community and many of the people I mentioned will be my friends for life also thank you to some very important people who aren't here uh Dr Stephen Keller of course the incomparable Ricardo Gallegos former board members Anita avric Mike Christensen Brad Waller and Brad surkin your love for the district rubbed off on me years ago and you were my role models and mentors on the board also to others who left an indelible mark on the district and whom I consider friends Kenny Pearson Tom steckel Sarah Robinson Monica Joyce Karen Moore Todd Lowenstein Derek Kinsey and Janet ridella and if I left anyone out please forgive me thank you to my family

102for loaning me out every other Tuesday for eight years to the voters who elected me and to the many parents and students for whom I advocated and who supported me so a few observations from eight years when I was first elected I was frequently told three things by other board members and people in the community one of them I believe to be false and the other two I confirm are true the first thing that many told me is that being a school board member gives one power or influence I disagree a seat on the board only entitles someone to one out of five votes most of which are not controversial anyhow for the votes that really matter having a vote is better than having no say at all but really A Lone vote has no

103practical impact if the board member can't bring others around to support his or her view in my opinion I was part of two very consequential votes during my tenure in the first one which I think was my proudest individual moment on the board I voted to reopen schools made what I thought were factual logical and compassionate arguments and lost that vote one to four what being a board member really gets you is access people will listen to you whether they're the superintendent principals teachers parents or other board members they'll listen even if what you're saying isn't very smart they'll pick up your calls but getting one's Vision enacted requires cajoling sometimes nagging persistence and patience on that note I found that this access is not exclusive to board members some advice I have for the

104public too is that real change happens outside of board meetings everyone in the district office and in Administration in rbusd is incredibly responsive and accessible to parent and student Outreach making the leap from ideas emails and calls though to actually enacting change is the real work for board members and interested parents the second observation is that board members get out of the role what they put into it I agree with this 100 I'd put it a different way though every board member has a different vision and objective for what they want out of their term my focus was student achievement at first being an elected official was also exciting but that lasted about two weeks for the next seven years and 50 weeks the true satisfaction I gained was working behind the scenes to obtain

105tangible results and wins for students our Middle School enrichment and computer science classes are two examples of this in part these arose out of collaboration between me and another parent at Paris in several meetings we had with Dr Wilds the lesson from this and other experiences is that the leadership at rbusd is absolutely willing to work with parents and students to achieve positive change but I highlight the word work it is not easy finally the third observation is that by far the most important job of a board member is the hiring and oversight of a superintendent I agree with this a thousand percent and if I have one Legacy after eight years it is having been board president when we oversaw the transition from Dr Keller who spent 16 years taking rbusd to new heights

106as a district to the selection and appointment of Dr Wesley who like me has unapologetically made Student achievement her number one priority for the district I assure every parent now and future rbusd parent that as long as Dr Wesley is superintendent of schools you have an ally in providing the best possible education and preparation for your kids life and Career Success I mentioned I had two consequential votes as a board member I lost one of them but I was on the right side of this one the hiring of Dr Wesley and for me to have been instrumental in that vote was by far the most impactful thing I did in my eight years and I thank my fellow board members for that honor so congratulations to biang who will join the board next week and

107thank you everyone for these great eight years foreign with that um calendar of events we have the swearing-in April 3rd spring break April 10th through 14th and then our first regular board meeting after spring break is April 25th does anyone have any future agenda items or information they would like to request okay motion and second to adjourn so moved all those in favor say aye aye student advisory vote meetings adjourned