Good morning. Good morning, everyone. I would like to call to order this meeting, the Committee of the Whole on today, March 17. Happy Saint Patrick's Day for all those who recognize this wonderful day. Hope you're wearing your green. I see some green. I see a lot of green here. That's awesome. I have green in my earrings, so just, you know, right there. I wanna welcome my colleagues, acting superintendent Chait, and our staff, members of the public. Thank you all for being here and for the work behind today's presentations. Today's agenda reflects work that is central to our responsibility as a board, ensuring that
students graduate prepared with tangible opportunities, on demand skills, and a clear path forward. We will hear about efforts that connect learning to real world outcomes from hands on career pathways and inclusive programs for students with disabilities to expand access to college and credit, access expanded access in college credit and investments in systems like school nutrition that directly impact students' daily experience. As we engage in today's discussion, I wanna keep a few questions in mind.
First, how are we ensuring that access to these opportunities is consistent across all communities, especially for students who have been historically underserved? How are we measuring impact in a way that reflects real outcomes for students beyond participation? And lastly, and how are we building programs that are not only strong in design, but sustainable and scalable across the district? These presentations give us an opportunity to better understand how this work is taking shape across the district and where we can continue to strengthen it.
With that, I want to open the floor with remarks from any of our labor partners who are here present who would like to speak. Okay, Yiwi. I see you, TLA. Come on forward, miss Julie Van Winkle and guests. Yes. We brought a guest today. Two guests. Yes. Hi, everybody. My name is Julie Van Winkle. I am the AFT vice president for United Teachers Los Angeles. We're gonna start out. I wanted to cede some of my time to a parent, Ashley, from Valley Academy Arts and of Arts and Sciences, to talk a little bit about some charter issues
that are going on at that school. So Good morning. My name is Ashley. I am a public school teacher, a mom of past, present, and future students of Valley Academy of Arts and Sciences. My husband and I have eight minor children still in school, and two that have graduated from LAUSD. So decisions made about this campus aren't, some abstract thing. They'll shape our daily lives, and those of families like ours for years to come.
I am not someone who might be able to tell by looking at me at the moment. I'm not someone who goes to speak, anywhere besides reciting the clean your room song from the hallway at home, I don't even have the time to be here right now. The busy in our house beats all. To give you a picture, I have never once been to a movie theater with my husband, and I should be washing the dishes piled up high above the counter at home, topped only by the mountain of socks large enough to climb on top
of top of this, couch. My five year old patiently awaits my renewed efforts to find his left green shoe, but I am here this morning, hoping to protect our school's unique little atmosphere. I believe that it's worth rearranging all of that and more. My 16 year old son currently is a straight a student at Voss. He is genuinely thriving there. His older brother graduated last year and actually built a small business, stemming from an idea that he developed through a real project based, set of assignments at the school.
His younger sister, will attend next year and several sisters and brothers will follow, after that. Families like mine choose Voss very intentionally. The arts and science focus and the rigorous program offer a special big school feel, on a smaller, more personal campus and level that, students can reach their teachers. They trust the adults there at school and feel encouraged and comfortable to push themselves. They have access to AP classes, project based learning, robotics, dance, school leadership programs, and
sports. These opportunities prepare them for pathways into things like engineering, forensic science, visual arts, and, it's just endless. Students feel safe and supported at Voss, armed with the information and motivation to succeed in the futures of their choosing and design. My concern about, colocation of Magnolia's Charter School on this campus is a very real loss of instructional and program space, and access for students who are already here, including students with special needs.
If our dance team leaves, loses consistent studio space, or practices get shortened or pushed, to add hours and kids who, kids who stay engaged because of that program may, sort of pull away. Robotics isn't something you can pack into a backpack and take with you. If they lose their building space or have to share it, rush in and out, They lose real hands on learning time that prepares them for, careers in engineering and elsewhere. When two schools share one library, one computer lab, it doesn't just get busy.
Students end up waiting or rushing or missing out on the focus time that they need in those spaces. And if the gym and field time gets squeezed, student athletes end up losing chances to stay active, the motivation to try out for teams, and take on leadership roles that keep them connected to school. These types of changes chip away at the engagement and opportunities available to them as of now. Our school community has worked incredibly hard over the years to make this campus function well. Families, staff, and administrators have adjusted school schedules, moved classrooms, and reworked programs again and
again to get to a place where things finally run smoothly. Adding a second independent school onto a campus that's already carefully balanced would disrupt the stability and make it very difficult for the foreseeable future. Disrupt the stability and make it very difficult for the foreseeable future, increasing stress for both the students and the staff. And there are also real safety concerns. More students and more cars on the street, small campus means more chaos at drop off and pick up, and that's where accidents are more likely to happen, students coming and going in the morning. When you suddenly mix two separate student populations in tight locker areas and hallways, Tensions
and misunderstandings can also rise before staff members, have a chance to step in. And in an emergency on this campus, having two schools can slow communication and accountability where seconds would really count. I tried to think of everything, but it's hard to imagine. Beyond logistics, this proposal will change, how vast students feel about their school, and their efforts amidst so much disruption and distraction. So, many changes in operating so many changes in operating procedures, bell schedules to accommodate
different programs, and things like that just really don't make sense. More students means counselors and administrators administrators are also stretched thinner. Kids will begin to feel overlooked at a place that's really special. Having had kids at different schools, I can recognize the uniqueness of Ross' atmosphere. When students feel that they have to compete to share their classrooms, it feels unfair and frustration begins to replace pride. I've seen that, amongst the kids, my student and his friends, already. Rotating spaces, adjusting schedules adds stress, frustration, and takes, hours away from learning.
I believe that this is especially true for students with special needs. Last week, I heard that 200 parents came to speak out for Voss and Holmes. Students are emotional and deeply invested because they feel their school is being changed without their voice, and that is not the norm of what they expect, being at Valley Academy. Oh my goodness. They feel like forgive me, but they feel like these things are being addressed and changed by people who are old and disconnected, who care more about funding than about
money. They want to help protect what they helped build, this closeness campus where students, staff, and families feel connected and committed to one another. The campus is simply not designed to house two separate school communities. Trying to force that reality will not bring harmony, rather stressed division and resentment. I hope that Magnolia finds a place to grow and serve its students, but I do believe that the district has a deep responsibility and duty to the students already
here and thriving. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Oh, here. Oh my god. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. And I just yeah. So we're concerned about, charter encroachment and Voss and other schools, and we know that a lot of you on the board have been advocates to help us protect our public schools, and we're asking that you continue to do that, for for Voss. I wanted to shift gears also a little bit and talk about our bargaining. The district has been posting on social media that we already, that the district already
gave the teachers healthcare, they got a big raise a few years ago, and now the teachers have the audacity to ask for more. So I'm here to tell you today that, yes, we do have that audacity, and the reason is that even though we got a significant raise a few years ago, our wages have not kept pace with inflation. Our members aren't trying to buy one house in San Pedro and six houses in Florida. They're just trying to afford rent in the district in which they teach. We're being priced out of the district we serve, and so, yeah, we do have
the audacity to ask that our salaries are enough to allow us to live where we work, and yes, we are gonna keep demanding more resources for our students. Now more than ever, our students' mental health and attendance are really worrying us. Between the ICE raids and the horrible wars and destruction going on in our world. Our students need trusted adults on campus that are checking on them, and that we need to support them. That's why we keep insisting on more mental health staff. So, school board, you can see that amid all this chaos in the top district
offices, your district bargaining team does not feel the urgency to settle the contract. They're doubling and tripling down and that we are being ridiculous in our demands despite the fact that this district is projecting a budget that puts LAUSD billions of dollars over the state reserve caps in the next couple of years. Despite the fact that the current district administration has taken $10,000,000,000 in public funds and rerouted it to contracts with private companies since 2022. To us, UTLA members who pay taxes to public schools, that is what's ridiculous.
It's not a question of money. It's a question of priorities. Your district bargaining team seems intent on dragging this out and putting our schools through even more conflict and instability than we've experienced over the past couple years. Board members, you have the power to settle this contract. And so I wanna leave you with a question. A lot of you have kids. What what if your kid decides they wanna be an LA Unified teacher? Now there might be a little part of you that is, like, cringing because you're like, oh, man. I'm gonna have to, like, keep supporting them even after they're adults because teachers don't make enough money.
And you know that it's really hard and you know that our schools are under resourced, but there's probably also a part of you that's like, yeah, I hope you do be a teacher. And I think that's because, in part, you know that UTLA is gonna be there defending your kid when they try to be a teacher so that they can keep affording to live in this city. So I'm asking you, we can do this together, we can settle this contract before we have to go on strike if you all are active in that process. But if that doesn't happen, then we're still ready to go because we need to be able to afford to live in our cities and we need our schools to
have basic resources. So thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it. Thank you, miss Van Winkle. And thank you to our our parent who spoke from Vos. Thank you for coming and and little baby. Do we have any other labor partners who would like to speak? Very well. Seeing none, we will move on now to our first presentation, which is Project Reconnect at Perez Special Education Center. Do we have our presenters? Here they are. So I wanna take a moment to recognize a team at Perez, which is in
Board District 2. I've had the opportunity to see the impact of their work, and it's a strong example of what's possible when we create meaningful hands on opportunities for our students. We're joined here today by mister Anthony Aguilar, chief of special education and specialized programs, David Cooper, senior director of information technology, man, principal Manuela Hernandez of Perez Career Interiors Center, Jorge Cardoza, teacher, Alfredo Garcia, special education assistant, Nicole Douglas, specialist with the adult
transition division of special education. And students, Damien, Chavez, Matthew Galavis, and miss Ellen Mora. Hope I've I was able to name everyone that's here. If not, please let me know if I missed anyone. So, mister Anthony, mister, Aguilar, yeah, the floor is yours. Thank you. Thank you, board vice president, and good morning, board members. Good morning, acting superintendent Chait. Today, I am very pleased to introduce Project Reconnect, an innovative program that combines technology repair, career education, and inclusive learning environments for students with disabilities.
This program focuses on transforming students in technology into from technology users to into technology creators and technicians. Project this project brings together ITS, our information technology services, the division of special education, and Perez, our career transition center, which is where the project is currently located. The program was designed around the strengths and interests of students with disabilities who want real world technical experience. To make this possible, several divisions across the district came together to design the instructional and operational modes. First, Perez CTC identifies students interested in the program and provides them with that learning
environment. Next, our ITS team supplies equipment, repair tools, and devices that need repair. They also provide our on-site technical guidance. Support also comes from the division of special education to develop the instructional curriculum, pacing, and learning supports aligned to device repair. The future has us working with the division of adult and career education to provide career preparation court courses and workforce readiness for our training for our students. Together, this collaboration creates a career pathway that really blends a technical skill development with the industry preparation that it they need.
To help bring this program to life, we'd like to share a short video showing the work of what's happening in the lab. Every year, thousands of devices break. Chromebooks, laptops, screens, keyboards. Most of them could end up in storage or discarded as you waste. But what if broken technology could become an opportunity? Project Reconnect is built on a simple idea. With the right tools and guidance, students will turn curiosity into capability. At Perez Career Transition Center, students are doing exactly that. They diagnose devices, repair components, restore technology that can return to classrooms across the district.
But this program is about more than fixing hardware. It's about building confidence. Students are gaining real technical skills that can translate into employment opportunities. They learn diagnostics. They prepare for certification. They gain hands on experience using the same systems used in real IT environments. Each device repaired saves money. Each repair reduces e waste, and each student gains a pathway into the workforce. Project Reconnect connects two worlds, education and information technology. Together, they create something powerful. Students move from consumers of technology to creators, technicians, and problem solvers.
Because this work is not just about fixing devices, it's about fixing gaps between systems and sustainability, between education and careers, and most importantly, between students and their potential. When students learn to repair technology, they also strengthen their confidence in their own abilities. Project Reconnect, repairing technology, creating futures. So So beyond the student experience, the program creates a broad a broader ecosystem of shared value. For our students, they transition from passive technology users to creators, innovators, and technicians.
They build technical skills, agency, and confidence. For our teachers, they gain the instructional design tools that integrate computer science standards with real world world learning. For our administrators and partners, the program supports the district eco sustainability goals by repairing devices internally while training students. It creates a scalable model that can expand across additional sites. This is an example of how InnovationKepo supports student learning and operational efficiency. Let me let me now introduce our senior director in ITS, David Cooper, to take you inside the reconnect lab where the work happens.
David? Yeah. Thank you, members of the board and acting superintendent. Alright. This is our actual repair lab where our students work every day at Perez CTC. We built it to look and feel like a a real professional repairs, repair lab. We have 15 workstations, each with, the proper lighting, magnification tools, and the same equipment that you'll find in a professional lab. The environment is designed to accommodate a range of physical and cognitive needs and the goal was never just to simulate a job, it was to give them actual experience
doing one. Students are learning the full repair cycle, diagnosing what's wrong, replacing the actual components, screens, trackpads, motherboards, and documenting their work. We're building towards our students using a real ticketing system just like our own IT support department. We engineered this program around student needs. Every station has access to visual step by step instructions, so a student with no prior tech experience can still do real work from day one. None of what you've seen today happens without the right leadership at the school level.
I want to introduce you to principal Manuela Hernandez of Perez, CTC. She and the amazing staff at Perez CTC pushed for their students, secured their support, and made sure the lab you just saw was built for the students that actually walked through the halls. These students have unlimited potential and are working with curiosity and real aptitude toward their newly developed skill. Thank you for helping me introduce principal Hernandez. Alright. So when we were first invited to, Project Reconnect partnership, of course, we said yes.
Not because we had every detail figured out, but because we believed in something bigger. We believe in our students and we believe in the credible staff who support them every day. Our district's vision challenges us to create real opportunities for students, and this project represents this exactly, an opportunity for students to gain technical skills, explore careers in the tech field, and begin to see themselves not just as students, but as future professionals and
leaders. At the beginning of this journey, we didn't fully know the how, but we know the why, and it is our students. Our students and staff embrace the challenge. Through dedication, patience, and a lot of learning, mister Cardoza and his three paraeducators and the students built something truly special. They didn't just participate in a program. They proved what we have always believed about our students. When our students are given the right tools, the right training, and people who believe
in them, they don't just meet expectations. They exceed them. Today, these students have shown us something powerful. They are capable. They are prepared, and most importantly, they are hireable. And this is exactly what happens when a school system believes in potential, invests in opportunity, and refuses to place limits on what our students can achieve. It is now my honor to introduce the incredible team who made this possible. Please join me in welcoming mister Cardoza. Good morning. My name is Jorge Cardoza, and I teach the project reconnect class, program at Perez
CTC. This pilot program began at the start of the school year and has been a valuable learning experience for both staff and students. At first, we focused on demonstrating the repair process, reviewing procedures, and introducing key terms before students began working on devices. By mid September, students began getting hands on experience and started making repairs. Since then, they have been confidently replacing screens, batteries, keyboards, and trackpads. It's been great to watch their confidence grow. I'm very proud of their dedication and the pride they take in learning to troubleshoot
and repair devices. I want to thank our instructional team and the ITS team for their ongoing support in making this program possible. I'd also like to thank our principal, miss Hernandez, for her leadership and vision in this program and for providing our team with the support to create meaningful opportunities. Programs like this help our students build real world skills, confidence and independence that can enhance their employability skills. Thank you. And now I bring up mister Alfredo. Hello. My name is Alfredo Garcia, and I participate in Project Reconnect to provide students with
meaningful exposure to computer repair beginning with Chromebooks. Many students enter the program with limited technical experience. Some had never used basic tools such as a screwdriver. Initially, this led to hesitation and anxiety around disassembling the devices. Through structured instruction, patience, and consistent encouragement, students gradually develop both technical skills and confidence. In truth, instruction progressed from direct modeling to guided hands on practice and ultimately independent
work with minimal prompting. Students now complete repairs independently while staff observe and provide support as needed. This growth demonstrates the program's effectiveness in building practical, transferable skills. Several students are now prepared to pursue internships or advanced training programs, positioning them for continued career development and technology related fields. And now I would like to do introduce Helen Mora. And what's your name? My name is Helen Morrow.
I'm 201 years old. I came to Perez from three months Three years? Three years. Okay. Why did you choose this class? The work in computers. Working on computers? And what do you repair in the class? Chromebooks. Chromebooks. What what parts of the Chromebook? Batteries and screens. Okay. And then, what do you why do you like fixing these Chromebooks? I didn't fix the Chromebooks to people use them. Okay. They get to use them again? Again. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you. And now we now we have Damien Chavez.
Alright. Hi. My name is Damien Chavez. I'm 21 years old, and I have been at Perez CTC for three years. I chose Project Reconnect because I wanna help out the school fix the Chromebooks. I I like this class because it teaches me how to fix Chromebooks. I have learned to I've I have learned how to remove the screen and take out the battery, and also I have learned how to I I have learned to remove the keyboards. Some of my favorite things to repair are the screens. I am also learning how to replace the motherboard and speakers.
In the future, I would like to have an internship at Google or in or tech related companies. I hope to use these skills to get a job and a career where I can repair technology. And, also, I would like to introduce you, Matthew. Hi. Good morning. My name is Matthew Galavis. I am 18 years old. This is my first year at Perez CTC. I chose Project Reconnect because I heard about this class around December. The class had my interest once I heard about the things that they do. Starting in January, I have really liked the class.
Over the past month, I have learned a lot. The things I have learned are how to replace a screen, replace the trackpad, replace the battery, and the keyboard. One thing I've really liked repairing is the screen. The hardest part to take apart is the bezel. The reason is because there's glue underneath the bezel. In the future, I would like to work as a computer technician. I chose computer technician because Project Reconnect has really taught me about repairing and diagnosing a Chromebook. I hope these skills will help me get that computer technician job.
Thank you. Good morning, members of the board, acting superintendent. My name is Nicole Douglas, and I am a school support administrator for the division of special education and the specialist that supports our career and transition centers. I am so proud to share how the Project Reconnect program supports our students as they integrate into the workforce and into the community. The program creates meaningful opportunities for collaboration with internal partners and community partners to explore
those career and employment pathways. Project Reconnect works closely with partners to identify internship options and entry level job opportunities. Through job shadowing and real world work experiences, students gain valuable exposure to the IT industry. The program also strengthens the intra district relationships, including our partnership with the division of adult education to connect students with training courses that will expand their educational and technical
skills in the IT field. In addition, collaborations with agencies that support individuals with disabilities, such as the Department of Rehabilitation and regional centers, all play a vital role. These partners offer programs that provide paid internships and supported employment services, thus increasing direct hire opportunities for our students within the community as they leave LAUSD to become more
productive, engaged members of the workforce and their communities. Thank you. And now introducing doctor Jose So to. Good morning, members of the board, acting superintendent. For education, for career. The goal of Project Reconnect is to provide an additional program for our students that offers technical job skills and hands on work experience to support future employment opportunities. It is well documented that adults with disabilities face significant challenges in securing employment. Research indicates that only approximately thirty percent of adults with disabilities are employed full time,
with this percentage decreasing significantly for adults with developmental disabilities. This is why expanding and creating new opportunities for our students is so important. This aligns with the why of this work. The why of Project Reconnect is to continue expanding opportunities for skill building and work experience for students attending our CTCs in preparation for life after LAUSD. Project Reconnect is one of several programs offered across the district to our CTCs to support student transition outcomes. These include Project Search, which provides students with internships, opportunities, and medical facilities, and the
Center for Advanced Transition Skills, a CATS program, where students receive job skills training and work experience at community colleges throughout the district. These programs are available in all regions and in most board districts. These initiatives and now with Project Reconnect, we are expanding meaningful opportunity for our students. In closing, I would like to thank Information Technology Services, the Division of Adult and Career Education, and the Division of Special Education for their collaboration and shared vision in bringing Project Reconnect to fruition. Most importantly, I'd like to extend my sincere appreciation to our students, teachers, support staff,
and principal Hernandez for opening the doors of Perez Career and Transition Center and helping make this idea a reality. We are excited in replicating this program at additional CTCs across the district to continue our students and supporting them for life after LAUSD. Thank you. We we will now take questions. Yes. Thank you, doctor Sotto. Appreciate that. What a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful way to start today. Thank you so much for everyone. The students, so proud of you. You have, gone beyond what I feel that you expected out of this course when
you first took it, and now you've surpassed, so many expectations. And I love that. I love that you reached higher, and thank you, principal Hernandez, for just saying yes. Yes to more opportunities for your students and being that example that other CTCs now are able to also explore and, and, you know, eliminate those limits that, you know, we impose on some of our students with, special needs. So thank you, mister Cardoza too and mister Garcia for, just, you know, doing this,
you know, this course and being the example than just just having those wonderful high expectations for your students. I really and miss Douglas as well. Everyone, thank you so much. Sorry. So now, I will open up the floor for my colleagues if there are any questions. Who would like to start? Mister Schmarlson? Yes. And then I'm gonna pass and let other people ask questions first, but I just have to say how proud I am of the students here and what you have accomplished and how proud I am of our two teachers over there, mister Cardoza, mister
Garcia, for having the patience and the skill to work with kids to be so successful. And, of course, to you, principal, Hernandez, also. Just so proud. I have a school similar. I have Miller. And every time I go to Miller, I I I see so many different things, but I've never seen this. So here's something new we're gonna be adding to Miller very soon. I'm just yeah. I'm gonna push. This is really, really a wonderful program. So I'll let others ask questions. Thank you so much. Well, I'll echo those sentiments to the students.
You all did an amazing job presenting. That it takes a lot of bravery to speak in front of the board, and I think you did a wonderful job. So just wanted to appreciate all of you and to the whole team, from Perez for your amazing work on this program. It's really exciting. And I I know that the why was clear from the get go. I am interested in the how and sort of how this project was funded, how it how it came about, as well as partnership opportunities that you all are looking into to help ensure that the learning and success continues for the students who are involved in this wonderful program.
Oh, I love the how. So the how was we had an idea. We heard from a teacher. The teacher wanted to start a repair studio, general education setting. And then we went to Baudry down to the cafeteria, and we saw the students there selling, the CTC students selling their products. Mary Lou Camacho, Jose Samuano that's back there immediately thought of the opportunity for our students, for, for students in the CTC programs. So that that that was the the how it how it became. We immediately involved, so many of our vendors, asked for some technical support, making sure
they had the right tools to do the job. And we started a collaborative effort with division of special education and the school about building out this program. So I feel like we're almost done with Project Reconnect, and I think we're just probably almost at ready for, for Connect. But, I think one of the things that we're very excited about is we built it to be scalable. So we know what we need to do in order to to go to number two, number three, and number four. So, coming soon. I wanted to add, the program costs are minimal. The devices used I'm sorry.
The devices used for hands on practice are sourced from LAUSD's existing, stock, and the students, so it's turning the district into similar an opportunity to to fix devices that have been submitted for refurbishment or that case, but the cost is minimal for for this program. Fantastic. And since you talked about scalability and I'm with mister Schmerlson, I have an amazing, special education and career transitional center in my district, Lohman. And, I would also love to see this program there. What are what are your plans for scaling?
Are there are there any plans in the works, and do you have a sense of, where project reconnect may go next? Leading question. I'm hoping you have a good answer for me. I I appreciate that question. I appreciate actually the energy of wanting to get this going. I think what we want to do from here is connect with our leadership team. I think what you you guys definitely noticed with, principal Hernandez, was really just an early adopter to this. I mean, it went from, like, mentioning it to her and she wanted to run with it. So I think it was finding that leadership. So whether it's working I know we have great leadership at Lohman and Miller and
at other CTCs to be able to expand this. And once we get that, we need space. Right? We need to allocate some space to make sure it's there. Our division of special education would then support in in planning those instructional pacing plans to get everything going. But, yeah, at this point, it's about connecting with our leaders and seeing who else wants to be this early adopter, maybe even taking them on a field trip to actually come and see it. Great idea. Thank you. I'll pause there. I also wanted to just appreciate the presentation and ask if there are similar programs at other schools. I have Willenberg in San Pedro, and we do a building and grounds training program
where students are then, you know, potentially eligible for employment. So it's great that we have tech. We have buildings and grounds. Are there other programs we have? And then also, what does that employment process look like? Are there any barriers? I know for the buildings and grounds, we collaborated to reduce the, reading test that was required for B and G workers. So just curious about, you know, the expansion across the district. So there are opportunities that the division of special education has been working, closely with personnel commission to provide, opportunities for our students.
You mentioned the building and grounds. Yes. We have also worked with personnel commission to, revise the the job code. Not not actually the job code. I'm sorry. The educational requirements for the early ed childhood education position in which, it actually accepts our students having work experience hours, to meet that requirement. And with that, we already have had two of our students hired into those positions.
And we we are so grateful, and we are looking forward to, working more with personnel commission, on removing any barriers that may exist. I know one barrier was the diploma requirement. But now our students are able to work toward earning their diploma, so that actually removes that barrier for them to be qualified to, apply for positions within our district.
That's great. That's really exciting. And, it's also helpful to hear the systemic approach because it's so awesome when it starts with one staff member, but we wanna make sure it's sustainable beyond the one person and that the system is really set up to support programs like this. So anything the board can do now or later, let us know because I think you've got big fans up here. Thank you. And I know there's also the culinary, right, industry. There's some cool at least at Perez, we have culinary, gardening, the warehouse. Right? And there's a cafe where the students make the coffee and serve it.
And it's it's there's a lot there's a lot going on at Perez and I'm sure at other CTC. So Yes. We would also like to work more with, personnel commission and food services division, to provide or open up some opportunities. Our students are very interested in culinary arts. That is one of our most, requested programs by our students. And so, any barriers to our students being able to actually have opportunities to apply
for those cafeteria worker positions, we would definitely appreciate that consideration. And I know for, I know there's, I did a I shadowed the work based learning program at at Perez, and, I did go to the infant center at Ramona, and we had our student there, from from Perez who was taking care of the babies. And, you know, it was just beautiful to see. I also went and shadowed a student who building in grounds. He was, you know, an assistant plant manager, and he was helping me such pride
in the work. And what I loved is it provided the students confidence, even taking the bus on their own to to their jobs and just, you know, I remember hearing from the the paraprofessionals how they first started and they were scared, and where they are now is just a whole different person. It's like the whole world has just opened up for them. And also the parents, so grateful to see that their their child, you know, is able to, you know, to, have the opportunities and the skills to have a live
an independent life, which something the parents didn't feel. They were also very scared. Right? But out of this program comes beautiful, beautiful opportunities. And so Absolutely. Yes. So thank you so much. Thank you. Any other questions, Sobeer? Miss Just wanted to make a comment and say thank you again for presenting and just appreciate our young people coming and sharing what we have in the district, which often I said is a hidden gem. There's so many things that this district will provide for us if we just continue to speak it and, flash a light on it because there's so many things there
that many of our families in the community do not know exist. And so I just appreciate you championing this and to my, colleague there that we can put it in the system that it can happen anywhere no matter who is there and that it can be duplicated. So really appreciate the work that you guys are doing. Well, congratulations. Sounds like you're all doing great work in such a high need area. I've spoken to teachers and to IT folks, and one of the highest needs is replacing those keys, those letters on the keyboard and the Chromebooks.
And it's so you're doing something that is really helping a lot, and it's gonna help our teachers. It's gonna help our students. So thank you. I'm glad that we're doing this work. I wanna congratulate the educators, for supporting our students. I can see through your way of communicating with them how you're right for this job. And thank you, principal, for being so open and welcoming. I'm wondering, regarding the, jobs, one of the things that was shared was that we have partnerships with some folks that can connect our students to some paid internships.
So I'm wondering what are some of these paid internships that our kids are already connected to or any other jobs that already they're already doing, like, they come out of Perez into what kind of work? If you can share some of that info. Yes. So one of the partnerships, that we have right now is our partnerships, through Project SEARCH. This is a partnership among regional center, LAUSD, a support agency in which it provides
our students with, a paid internship. We also partner with host businesses such as like right now, our one of our host business is Kaiser Permanente, and we are also partnered with Children's Hospital of LA. So students are provided with a ten week internships where they are actually, rotating through the different departments of the hospital, and they're learning all of those hard skills, soft skills, all of those technical skills.
Again, this partnership or or this opportunity is a ten week opportunity for our students, and it occurs during their last year with, the school district, in hopes that they will continue on into what we call the job development phase in which they are supported in job search, job coaching, job development until they actually find competitive integrated employment.
So that that is one internship, that we currently offer. We are actually working, again with Regional Center who is, one of our biggest supporters, one of our biggest partners. And we are working with them to, explore different internship opportunities for the device repair program, in which one of they offer a program, called the paid internship program, which will actually fund the internship hours for students.
They are funded for one thousand forty hours, and the employer does not pay anything. All of the funding comes from the regional center for our students to actually be in that business, do the job shadowing, actually do the work. The transitional. Do you have any data? Do we follow students after they leave these internship programs to see if they did get connected to a job, if they are able to sustain that job? Do we have any information on that? So what we do each year is, we actually conduct the indicator 14, and that's
follow-up calls to our students who have, currently matriculated out of the system, and we ask them all about their experiences in that moment. So we're asking about, them furthering their educational opportunities, whether or not they were still employed or seeking employment, and what of their future plans. So we actually collect that data and, doctor Jose So to may be able to
speak more to it, to our results. Yeah. So we we do collect data for a year after our students matriculate LAUSD. A lot of times, it's hard to get a hold of students once they leave because we do try to contact them at the best contact information. As far as data and jobs, I know that I asked that question to my team because I was curious to know what are we finding out. Right now, students with developmental disabilities are averaging about 15% of the job force. LAUSD has that has definitely placed higher percentage of our students leaving, the district in
jobs. I'm not sure exactly quite the percentage, but it but it is higher than 15%, which is the national like, the average in California. So that's some of the data that we collect as far as the the number of students that have stated, yes, I have a job, as we move forward. And the regarding this program, the Chromebooks that they're receiving, are they from our schools? So there are Yes. They're from the LAUSD inventory. Okay. And then they do do they get sent back to the to the district once they're fixed? Yeah. This is a this is a real repair studio.
We're gonna take them back. We're gonna give them back to our to our schools that need them. Yeah. That because that is a real need. It it kids are like, I can't the eye doesn't work. You know? They have to figure out how to make the eye work. I don't know. And then, let me see here. Are there, prior to getting to this program, are is there any coursework that the students have to take at their high school before they transition into this program to get them ready for it? So one of the the key pathways is the pathway towards certification. I'm gonna ask, Jose Samuano to please come up here and talk about.
General generally, there is a certification required in the industry for certifications. I'll have him talk about what that certification is. Good morning, board members, acting superintendent. Yes. So industry standard, the CompTIA a plus certification is what we essentially look for when we're hiring technicians. So what this course, is really entry level to see if they're interested, if, if they're engaging with kind of with the right components, seeing if, how capable and how
they can expand those those skills, just to be able to go into the workforce. So this is the this is the first time they do it. And I have a question for the students because a few of them couple of them said that they love to change the screens. I'm curious why. Why is that so so interesting, and why do you like changing screens? Because, it's something I first started on in, that class, so I picked it up right away once, you know, I started that class sec the second semester in January.
Yes. Alright. Thank you. Thank you. What about you? Why do you like changing screens? So the reason why I like changing the screens because it satisfies me the way how the screen looks clean and the way how the the screen is fresh. Yeah. That's why I like the the screen. Love to see your end product, all your work. Thank you. Uh-huh. And what do you like to do? What's your favorite part of doing the work? I like to fix the the screen, the the battery, the bezel. I fix them.
It works, and I fix them, connected them, and fix fix them. Yeah. You make it work again. You bring it back to life. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Thank you for, presenting. Thank you so much. I'll just say most of my or all my questions have been, asked and answered about internships and placements and expansion. I I don't love how vague the response was to expansion. I think we all want more of these. I've got, Leechman, which I inherited from mister Schmerelson, which, we'd love to see it there. So I do hope there's actual follow-up about expanding the program.
But, again, thank you to our student presenters and our faculty and, just a a wonderful way to start the morning. Thank you. I have oh, go ahead, miss mister Schmelson. I have some questions for the teachers, if I may ask you. Because the students couldn't do this without you guys. Right? They couldn't do that. So I have a like in slide four, it says instruction is tailored to students' unique skills. So can you expand on, how you determine what the students actually need to work on? How do you determine that? What do they actually need to work on?
It was trial and error. I think we all are learning as we go. So sometimes we do have broken bezels, and it's okay. We're learning. And then I see they get really strong at it. Other students were stripping screws at the very beginning. And now that's not a problem whatsoever. So it's trial and error as we go, because, they've never like mister Garcia touched on earlier, most of our students have never held any tools in their hands. So this is the first time they ever do it. But they yeah. They've, picked it up so far. It's been pretty good. Yeah. I I was watching in the video, you have to have some kind of a
dexterity to operate a it's not so easy. It's not so easy. Right? But you do learn that. So it also you have virtual guides. So, what is your role in the classroom as far as working conjunction with the virtual guides? How do you do that? Do you observe what they do? How do you do that? Well, we're just we're guiding them as they're going on. Of course, it was hands on with them, showing them their sometimes hand over hand,
showing them the complexities just to open up, the Chromebook with a pick. I was watching that. Yeah. Yes. Exactly. I was watching that. Yeah. Sometimes, they didn't loosen up a screw just enough, so they have to go back and unloosen that screw to make sure it actually pops up. So it's just little details at at times that they just progressed to find out that how to do that properly. So when you see that one of the students really has the dexterity either to use a tool or open the screen or or or put on the bezel, as
you said. Do students help each other in the classroom too, or is it strictly you and one on one students? How does that work? So the, recently, yes. It's been the the students helping each other, which is really promising work to see them helping each other. It's like, yeah. Like Matthew was saying, the bezel is the most difficult part to take off, where you have before you get to the monitor. So you have to take this what they call a jimmy, slide it. It takes a little bit of force, but eventually, if you do it just steady
enough and just have some, patience. And that's the secret. Some force, but not too much force because you don't wanna bust it. Right? Yeah. So it's really nice. And you must be very proud of yourselves. Very proud. Okay. Thank you, Rocio. So sorry. I'll I'll I'll finish up with my questions. I I also wanted to know just kind of what are the outcomes we're tracking in terms of determining whether or not the the program is a success. I think everyone spoke kind of anecdotally to, you know, increased confidence and leadership skills for the students, the technical skills they're building.
But in terms of knowing, you know, we we met the goals that we laid out. What what outcomes are we are we tracking for Project Reconnect? So we definitely want to ensure that we're providing opportunity for our students with disabilities, particularly our students with developmental disabilities. One of the things that we're working towards is creating certification for our students to receive A plus certification. We're working with the division of adult and career education, for that. We're hoping we're anticipating that in the fall, our students will be able to get the the the practice of training and then eventually sit for, the test to receive
certification. So those are things that we're looking for, looking at. And in addition to that, I know that our goal is to be able to fix devices that come in and get them back out to schools. I'm not sure, I'll let mister Cooper speak on how they're tracking that data, but the goal would be to really start utilizing our students to support with those minor repairs and hopefully build build their knowledge so they can sit and actually get a certification for life after LAUSD. Yeah. I think the the right answer is the outcomes that have to come with it. Right? So we are tracking the number of devices that are repaired.
They're still in the learning phase. So, our goal by the end of this program is, you know, a couple 100 devices. But really, it's the practice necessary for the education that they're gonna have. I'm gonna invite Pia Sadakottmal up here to talk about what that partnership with division of adult education is gonna look like for this program. Thank you. So one of the key programs or pathways that we have that we offer through our division of adult ed is the A plus certification. So we're working with our division of special education to really look at getting these students to get their A plus certification one.
There's also two, three, and even an upgrade. At this time. One of the courses that we've been working with is the intro to I. T. Support Technician, which is the entrance qualification for the I. T. Support technician position to work in it. So more to come. Great. Super helpful. And, the final question, I think, maybe to miss Douglas, I believe you mentioned that, work with the regional center on a paid paid internship program. It was one of the things I'm really interested in is as our students in our CTC programs are doing labor, that they'd be compensated for that labor, because we
know that our students are economic providers for their family in many instances. Can you just share, like, is that, is that applicable to this program, or is that something that we're looking to do in the future, a paid, opportunity for students? Yes. This is very applicable in this program. Like I mentioned, Regional Center, is offering that particular program that supports the paid internship program. So, actually, how it works is that student has to be a client of regional
centers. So and that is one of our big goals at our CTCs is to ensure that students and families are connected to regional center, because they will be their biggest source of support after the students matriculate from LAUSD. With the paid internship, partnership program, Regional Center actually collaborates with the family, collaborates with us, to find a an internship opportunity.
Regions Old Center comes in. They work with that business or organization, and they actually fund, the the ten forty hours that students receive, each year they receive this. So it could be the same internship opportunity at the same business or or organization, or they can find another internship opportunity somewhere else. But regardless, Regional Center will fund up to a thousand forty hours each year for
each internship. Got it. So it's sort of, like, after maybe after completing this class, they might be able to find a a related internship. So Yes. In terms of paid work based learning as part of this program, that that does not yet I I might ask that we we contemplate whether or not that's possible and and whether there might be funding sources we can tap into. Perhaps not at the very beginning level, but maybe when students are more independent and and doing the work on their own, there could be an opportunity for compensation. Yes. We we are exploring, opportunities for students to be paid through our work based learning
program. More to come on that. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Two of my questions have already been asked and answered, so I appreciate that. Can I add on to that really quickly? Oh, yes. Go ahead. We are also working with some of our vendors who have seen our students firsthand. They would they're they're they're looking for all of the potential and talent of our students, and there is the potential for them to have, direct employment with the vendor as well. So that's one of our goals. And I know that doctor So to also wanted to discuss, if possible, some of the what we're doing right now to get ready for the expansion of the plan.
Is that is this a good time? Yeah. Sure. Go ahead. And as you're asked, maybe one question one of my questions, you can probably answer or in what you're gonna say right now. How I just wanted to know how students, are or if you're incorporating feedback from the students, in or you know, as you're as this program is evolving or is gonna expand, how are we incorporating feedback from them, from our first, graduating class right there. That is something that we'll definitely, make sure happens so that we can see what
are some of the things that are working well, what are some areas of opportunity. I think it's important to hear from our students as they are the ones that are participating in the work, so we'll work with, principal Hernandez to ensure that that happens. Just wanted to share a little bit about expansion. We are in the process of exploring additional CTC sites. There are some, limitations about space when we open the lab, so we're trying to find locations that will be amenable to opening additional labs, so it's not that we're trying to be vague in the answer, it's just that at this point we're still exploring, but the goal is to find additional sites throughout the district to replicate this
program because it is scalable. And my last question before we, move to, acting superintendent Chaney who wants to say some words is I wanna ask the students, if Matthew, Damien, and Helen can come up. My question is, what would you say to another student or some of your classmates who might be a little unsure about taking the course and joining the program like this? What would you say to them to encourage them to take the course? First, I would explain, like, how the class, goes and how process you start with
and then middle to the end, like, you know, processing the class. And I would let them know how the class works, what they do, and, help I'll probably would help them if I was in that class again. I would help the student figure out, where everything goes. You'd help them out. Thank you. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Damien, did you wanna hit or yeah. Basically, if I if I see a new student in our class, I will basically, teach them how to, fix the Chromebooks, and I would also teach them how to,
remove the bezel, the cream the screen, and also I will I will teach them how to, remove the battery and and the trackpad. That is just Be a mentor. We have mentors And, Helen, do you know what would you say to one of your classmates about taking the course? Help them help them take the the bezel, put the battery, and help them put take the keyboard for them and he do for themselves.
And, also, she's done. You connect them, charge them, and it works. Great. Wonderful. So we have some future instructors right here who can also teach, their classmates. Thank you, Helen. I appreciate that. I just wanna say that this is an area that is very close to my heart and a central part of my policy priorities, which is expanding opportunities for all of our students. What we're seeing here reflects what's possible when we are intentional about designing programs that meet students where they are and connect them to real opportunities and expanding their world.
So I wanna thank all of you for your presentation, all the work. And I love that this was an intra district collaboration. We're all working and building on our own strengths and knowledge to provide these opportunities. So acting superintendent Chait, do you wanna say something? Thank you, doctor Rivas. Just very briefly, wanted to really just commend the Perez CTC leadership team, principal Hernandez, our teachers. Thank you for the work you do. I know it can be hard sometimes even with great opportunities to be the first one out the gate. So thank you for taking that leap of faith with us. But primarily, I I just wanna commend, you know, Helen, Damien, and Matthew, as the
last question from doctor Rivas really highlighted. Not only are you amazing students, but you are leaders. You are future leaders in this space and leaders among your fellow students. So kudos to you. Thank you. We're very proud of you. Congratulations. Much success to you. Thank you to all. Well, on that, we are going now to move to our second presentation, dream it, achieve it. This work, essential to how we expand access to college and career pathways for our students, helping them see what's possible and take concrete steps towards their goals.
We're joined today by doctor Francis Baez, chief academic officer, and miss Pia Salatmar, chief of transitional programs. Thank you for for being here. We're excited to learn more about Dream It Achieve It. Miss Thank you. Miss Salatmar. Good morning, acting superintendent Cheat and board members. We're really thrilled to be here to share information about dream and achieve it. One key priority in our strategic plan is around championing multiple pathways for college and career readiness for all students. This matters because we want all our students to take advantage of all the opportunities
available for them. In alignment with the strategic plan, Dream and Achieve It is an initiative that shares the multiple pathways available to students. In today's presentation, you'll hear more about the options for students to take college courses while in high school, opportunities to earn industry certifications, applying for internships, and exploring a career in a trade through our division of adult and career education. What better way to share these opportunities than to hear from our very own student
board member, Jerry Yang. Throughout the month of March, we are featuring a student each day who's either taking a college course, a career training program, or both to promote the multiple pathways. Now let's hear from student board member, Jerry Yang. Hey, everyone. Did you know that you can literally start college while you're still in high school? I'm serious. You can even earn industry certifications in fields like health care, tech, or business. Through LAUSD's Dream It, Achieve It, you can take college level classes.
That counts toward your degree. Which means less time and money. Spent after graduation. Whether you're thinking about a university. Community college. Or jump straight into a career. This program has options for you. Check out. Dreamit..lausd.org. To see what's available. Your future self will thank you. Wonderful. Thank you, Jerry. Now along with the video that you just saw, we have shared a robust messaging toolkit with our school teams, which includes posters and flyers, promoting our website, sample social
media posts, and scripts to promote our programs. Our student advisory groups have also been key in helping us develop these resources. You know, they were the ones who shared the importance of having students tell their stories with other students. In addition, our collaboration with the Los Angeles Community College District has also been very instrumental. The passage of assembly bill two eighty eight authorized community college districts to start college and career access pathways with school district. This has led to the expanded collaboration with LAUSD and LA CCD and serve as
the groundwork for dream it, achieve it. The path to success in college and career varies for every student. After students graduate, options include joining the military, going in a college or university, taking courses in adult school, or going directly to a career. To illustrate the pathways available for students, one example of a high demand career is health care. So in this particular graphic, you'll see students in high school may decide to take a biotechnology pathway or patient care pathway, then decide to continue in adult school and
complete a certified nursing assistant program or licensed vocational nurse program. At that point, they may join the workforce where the average salary is 63,000 a year with a job growth of 3%. Student can also decide to get their associates of science in nursing or registered nurse licensure from any of our LA community college. They can continue to work where the average salary ranges from 93,000 to 125,000 per year with a 5% job growth. A student then continue their education and enroll in CSU or UC to work towards
their bachelor's, their master's, their doctorate, then become a nurse practitioner. This has a 35% job growth with the annual average salary ranging from $1.29 to 157,000. As you can see, there are multiple pathways to career in the health care field. Now to tell us more about the ways towards college and career readiness, please welcome doctor Frances Baez. Thank you very much, Pia. It's been great collaborating with the division of adult education, and Pia and both of our teams have really worked to improve, the access information to our schools and and
giving them those opportunities. Greetings, board members, acting superintendent Chait and deputy superintendents. I'll begin by explaining the dual enrollment progress in our district. Dual enrollment allows students to take college courses during the day led by professors, from the colleges in LA Community College District during the day in a high school setting. Students are able to earn college credit while in high school, which could lead to an associate's degree and a high school diploma at an end at the end of high school. Now this is a this is different than concurrent enrollment, which means that students can
take courses after school at an LACCD campus but with the public, and that's often a confusion point for people. So dual enrollment is on our school campus, and concurrent enrollment is at the college with the public. Any high school student in grades ninth through twelfth grade can enroll in a college course, including rising ninth graders in the summer. We have a Dolan Moment course guide designed to for counselors to provide guidance to students, and we provided an example earlier today, so our counselors are up to date about the courses that the colleges are offering and guide students when they're programming.
We currently have a 130 schools that offer dual enrollment out of the 180 comprehensive sites. This is the demographic breakdown by region and by board district. Since last year, we have created new student and family outreach materials, a course catalog, district wide summer dual enrollment program. We have secured college and career access pathway grants for 143 schools and an, middle school, program at three schools, and we've expanded CTE pathways as well.
And I'm gonna show you a poster that we've also provided our school sites. So this poster was let me take the memo. This poster was provided to our schools along with guidance so that, students are familiar with our Dream It Achieve It initiative and know where to go in terms of the website and also to go to the counselors to get information about either CTE, dual enrollment, or internships. We have updated the LAUSD and LA CCD course guide to better guide our counselors, and we have college and career access pathways and middle college early college grant support.
The current middle college, early college sites consist of the doctor Richard a. Vladovic Harbor Teacher Prep Academy at Harbor College. We have the Early College Academy at LA Trade Tech and the middle college at the Southwest LA College. Now they're called middle middle college because they're a transition between the high school and the college. These are, we all also established a communication toolkit, which has been shared with school teams as well as dual enrollment awareness month resources, which has been shared at schools to publicize. And I'm hoping that you're also seeing it in social media.
So we're also highlighting students who are participating in dual enrollment so we can highlight them and continue promoting that opportunity. We recently hosted the annual dual enrollment symposium for school counselors and administrators to deepen their knowledge about dual enrollment. One of the challenges we've worked to solve is the completion of the LACCD enrollment document. It's called, it so that application process could be a little challenging for families. So we go the extra mile to help our families with completing that form so people don't become intimidated by it. We're also collaborating with LACCD to give them feedback so we can make the application
more accessible for our families. The Golden State Pathways grant will launch 22 new CTE dual enrollment pathways and another 48 fueled by existing CTE grants. Now I'm going to, discuss the CTE program, which is part of our dream and achieve initiative. You may be asking yourself, so what is CTE? CTE is a program of study that involves a multiyear sequence of courses that integrates the core academic knowledge with technical and occupational knowledge to provide students with a pathway
to career and postsecondary education. And so the sequence is very important. There's a certain sequence that needs to be taken for students to reach that mastery and be able to be successful in the, exams that they need to take. There are 58 types of CTE career pathways in the 15 industry sectors. Sectors. So the 15 industry sectors, under those industry sectors, there are multiple branches that then will compile those 58 pathways. The CTE pathways are offered in a 108 schools that serve ninth to twelfth grade students. Our goal is to increase the number of schools offering CTE pathways from one Our goal is to increase the number of schools offering CTE pathways from 108 to 113
schools. And here you see the distribution of schools across the district by region and board district that have a CTE program. While this is baseline data, we are currently working towards increasing the number of schools by five each year until we reach all schools. And you may wonder what we're doing to get to that 180. So, when we have our symposiums with our counselors, we provide them information about how to open a CTE pathway. There's a memorandum that describes the steps that students need schools need to take. We have multiple professional development sessions and also sessions in the summer to guide the
schools in developing these pathways. In the twenty twenty twenty four twenty five school year, the 11/2029 industry recognized certifications were earned by high school students in the CTE and link learning pathways. This year, our goal is to increase to 11,500, and the way that they achieve that is to passing the exams in those in those particular fields. With respect to inter internships, which is the third branch of, our dream at Achieve It, internships are designed for students 16 until high school graduation, and our goal is for students to have work based experience to prepare them for a career.
In the school year 2425, we had about a thousand high school students enrolled, and our goal is to, place 1,500 students interns. And now we're speaking about the students that are in comprehensive high schools. So the way we collaborate with our division of adult and career education is they also offer those types of experiences, but for students that are not in the comprehensive high schools. So now I'm gonna pass it back over to Pia to share more about the work. So career technical education is also available in our adult schools. Our adult schools offer career pathways for students 18 years and older across 15 industry
sectors, including health care, construction, and information technology. The training programs are offered the training programs that are offered are tuition free. Let me repeat, tuition free. There are 36 different pathways, which provides job training opportunities along with newly launched training programs for high school seniors through our career empowerment program. We are proud that DACE is the LEA for the largest apprenticeship program in Southern California. The career training programs we offer for adults is across various fields from allied health
to information technology, as you just heard earlier from the Perez team, to the building and construction. Last year, we started a new program for rising high school seniors and graduating seniors through our summer earn and learn program. Through the Career Empowerment Academy, we offered summer career training programs in aviation, logistics, health care, and construction. With 170 students with 90% plus completion rate, not only did they receive elective credits and certificates, but also earned a thousand dollar scholarship for completing the program.
We continue to expand this through an after school career training program for students in our priority schools and continuation high schools. We offered 10 classes across all regions. And during the first cohort, a 172 students participated, and we're gearing up to start another cohort on April 6. DACE is also proud to offer a pre apprenticeship program designed as an on ramp to the world of apprenticeship. It's designed for students 18 years and over and is an apprenticeship preparation program in
partnership with LAOC Building and Construction Trades Council with the goal of expanding access to skilled trades, especially to members of historically underserved and underrepresented communities. This equity driven program is currently offered at five DACE sites. In addition, DACE is piloting pre apprenticeship programs to support careers in welders and pharmacy technicians. Registered apprenticeship programs are designed for students 18 years and older. The program combines trade specific academic instruction with paid on the job training.
Apprenticeships provide an opportunity to earn journey level person status in a trade, which means that they are placed in a union job with benefits. This is a debt free career pathway. DACE is the LEA for 30 state registered apprenticeships serving 8,000 to 10,000 apprentices annually. We offer four multicraft core apprenticeship preparation programs that lead directly to union apprenticeship programs. We invite you to visit our website, as you heard from Jeri Yang, dreamit.lauz.org,
with more information about our dream it, achieve it. Now I'll turn it back to you, doctor Reeves. Thank you. And, yes, and happy, dual enrollment month. I will, definitely be sharing the video and the website on my monthly, dual enrollment webinar that I collaborate with ELAC, East LA College. So thank you so much. That was wonderful. Thank you for the presentation and for the work you're leading to expand access and make sure students across the district are able to take advantage of these wonderful, wonderful,
pathways and these opportunities. So I'll open up the floor for any bombers. Yes. Scott. Just a comment for both, Francis and Pia. You know, I am so proud that we are actually making students feel good about taking courses and job opportunities other than going to a four year college. I really believe that we're kinda doing a disservice to many students who were not ready yet for college and who was were interested in a career. And we kinda played that down because if we didn't have all this college enrollment,
we weren't doing a good job, but we are doing a good job. Kids feel good. They feel good about their job opportunities. I'm really proud that we're making it so available. And for, adult ed, you know, adult ed was like here, and then it started fading, fading, fading, so we're coming back up again. And I appreciate that too. So thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. I know we've been talking a lot. We have a whole town hall on this topic coming up because our students elevated that careers were important, not only for the students, but for their families and wanting
to know exactly how to go about this, how do we get this information. And so we are gonna host that, and you guys are gonna speak for us on behalf of many of our families. And I think you mentioned it, as you were saying, just for some of our underrepresented communities that don't know this information. And I think that's the divide is having this information readily available for our families to be able to to to to gain access because many of them would have never gone a certain route had they not received it in school.
And so this is such a, a treat for our our communities to know that we are here at LAUSD is providing this, these avenues. So I had some questions, and, when you said dual enrollment, which I think often dual enrollment and concurrent enrollment, and I know we have a program within BD one, our NAI program, where our students get access to go to USC, and they are taking classes in the morning at that school site at USC. Now is that considered dual enrollment because they are taking classes, but they are going
to school. So that is the concurrent enrollment even though it's in the school day. So the neighborhood academic initiatives stem from a collaboration with USC and selected schools in LAUSD. So it it is a like a memorandum of understanding. It's a partnership, with specific goals in place. So it's not part of AB two eighty eight. It it wouldn't be considered dual enrollment. Possibly concurrent if they're taking courses, that are, at the school site with the public. We need to look exactly at the configuration of that, but it wouldn't be considered part of our a b two eighty eight and dual enrollment.
But it's very unique and a very, very good opportunity for students who are participating in Yes. And it's highly, thrived after many of our families. And now that they've expanded it, we're really appreciative for USC and that partnership there with them. The other question, you mentioned something about exams, and it's for the certification. Are those exams given throughout, at the community college? The, exams are for the CTE certifications in the industry sector.
So we provide, for example, Adobe certified Microsoft Office, Autodesk, and a number of others at the school site at the school site. They don't go to the college and take the exams. Our CTE teachers are there to administer those exams. Got it. And then, of course, we're always talking about expanding. Now if there is a pathway that is not currently existing at a school site, what would, an administrator or someone go about, to be able to create that particular pathway at their school site? We have a memorandum that just that delineates the process for creating those, those pathways.
And, of course, our counselors or our liaisons, would be able to provide them that information. Of course, we start with what is the student interest. Starting with student interest, and then at that point, if, it's something they wanna add to, then, of course, we provide them that support. Right now, the most popular ones are production and managerial arts, design, visual, and media arts, software and systems development, patient care, and engineering design. So those are the ones that we're finding are the most prominent and most of interest to our schools. But at at this time, we if there's schools that want an additional pathway from
the 58 that are available statewide, we ask that they provide a core sequence, that there's also, a justification, stakeholder input, that we have the staffing in place. So we guide them on all of those pieces to start a pathway. Got it. Thanks. Yeah. Shrelet had one or two of my questions. For the, for slide 12 with the list of, offerings, do we have anywhere on the website the list of every school that offers dual enrollment and, like, what the partner? Dual enroll pardon me. For dual enrollment, we, I believe we do.
Brenda, if you don't mind coming up just to answer that question. We do have a list of CTE schools and we have a website, but I need to confirm whether we have all of the schools listed that have the dual enrollment programs. Morning, everyone. We do have the list of the schools, but we do not have the specific programs because those belong to the school site. We work with the school sites to have that on their website because we believe it's a really good tool, and parents and families should really know what, the schools are offering. But we do have, also ways to, show the schools how to link their website
to, the Dream It, Achieve It, but we also have a dual enrollment website within the division of instruction. Got it. Okay. Thank you. That's it. Hi. Regarding the dual enrollment coursework, how many of or what percentage of our ninth through twelfth grade students are currently participating in that? Do you know? We don't have the percentage. I can get back to you on that. On the percentage of ninth through twelfth grade students, we don't have that yet. Okay. And then, anybody can can enter these programs. Right? So what supports do we have for students with disabilities, any of our English language
learners? How do we support them in completing these college courses? So we follow the students' IEP. If they have students IEP. We inform the instructor about that. We also provide some supports to students if they're English learners. So the same types of supports that we provide them in during the regular school and in their regular classes, we provide them similar supports, if they are participating in a dual enrollment program. So a student in RSP would continue getting RSP support for that particular course? That's correct. Okay. And then what about English language learners?
It's the same type of support. Whatever support they're receiving during their instructional day, we'd be able to provide them, like, vocabulary, the the front loading of the vocabulary, the strategies, any strategies that they they typically have access to in the regular class, they would have access to in the dual enrollment course. I'd be curious to know how many of our students complete the courses, the dual enrollment courses with a c or better. Okay. Because what I've heard is that it can be very challenging even for for students who are generally, you know, getting a's in their regular courses.
A dual enrollment class can be very it's a college level course. And and, in the way it's taught, it's different than a high school teacher would teach a course. So I've heard those are some of the challenges, so I'm curious to hear what you all, have Yeah. And we have, frequent, meetings with LACCD and we discuss anything that's bubbling up at the school sites, in terms of, maybe an instructional approach that may be a little different than what students are used to. But we also have an orientation for parents so that parents understand that the students
are about to enter into a college course and this is what the expectation is, this is what the level of rigor is. We want them to be successful because at the end of the day, they're earning college credits that goes on to a transcript. And and so we wanna make sure they're successful, and so we share all of the things that they need to know and be able to do prior to enrolling and, of course, giving them the supports. And so when we're meeting with LACCD, when things are bubbling up, we do, have conversations so that we can, provide our students access. We want them to be successful. Despite it being the intention is for it to be rigorous and a college level
experience, we want them to be successful. So if a student doesn't pass a course, what happens to their, GPA? Well Their high school GPA? Does it does it impact it? It would impact their college credits. Okay. And but that is not very likely. That's not something that They don't have to re do they have to report it? Well, no. I mean, it it goes on to their transcripts, so it does affect their GPA in particular if they wanna apply to college. So it's very unlikely that our students are failing because we give them support. So your question about how many students get a c or higher, we will look into that. Alright. But also knowing in terms of the participation and the grading, a lot of the
data does come from LACCD. So another project that we're working on with them is for us to receive the data right away to help us make informed decisions about where they're gonna be programmed for the following semester because this is, LACCD data that we would need to get from them. So we will work with them to get the grades, to be able to provide that for you. Okay. And then regarding CTE courses, how do the you mentioned it was, the comprehensive schools have a lot of these CTE programs. So what about option schools, continuation schools?
Yep. What are the there there are opportunities. So our option schools have an opportunity to attend the DACE programs even if they're under 18 years old? Yes. Do you wanna answer that question? Yes. With the passage of AB five forty two, which took effect on January 1, there's given flexibilities for continuation high schools to have work based training programs as part of the school day. So currently, we're piloting different work based learning programs for the division of adult ed in our continuation high schools. If they're interested in other CTE pathways, they also follow that same bulletin that doctor
Baez shared. And it depends, like I said, the interests, you know, what they want would like, but definitely connecting with our team is another way to open up a CT class. Okay. Great. And and our schools our options schools are aware of that because I think that's great that they can Yes. Access the adult ed. Absolutely. Okay. Great. Thank you. That's all I have for right now. Well, I wanted to thank you both. This is, very important work work that I'm very passionate about, and I I wanna say first, like, we have amazing work going on in our schools. I know we have a really robust partnership around dual enrollment in my district.
You know, the Northeast Valley was one of the first areas that I think really built a strong partnership with our community colleges on this front as well as wonderful CTE programs. I I do feel like in looking at the materials, there's a bit of a disconnect for me. The two for one for everyone, which I think is a really, like, a nice slogan, kind of setting the goal of every student has an opportunity to graduate with a high school diploma and an associate's degree or complete a career certification, feels like a really ambitious, goal or expectation that we're setting out there versus the reality of,
like, we do not have universality of access to these programs across our district. So I and and, of course, whenever we're setting, creating a plan to expand, we want it to be realistic. We have to acknowledge there are staffing constraints. There are scheduling constraints. There, there are different barriers that we have to think about, and we want implementation to be successful. That being said, you know, the goal of of maybe growing the CTE sorry. I'm trying to look for the the CTE expansion going from a 108 schools, I think it was, to a 113 schools.
Like, that is marginal growth, I think, especially when we're setting this, this hope and dream that all of our kids will have access and opportunity to be able to do this, as well as the contemplation that the board has been discussing around how do we uplift career readiness as part of our new strategic plan. I'm just feeling like there's a there's a bit of a disconnect in terms of ambitiousness and expectations and how do we make this into a reality. So, I don't know if that's just commentary or a question, but maybe you all
can speak to, you know, if we need to dramatically grow our programs in order to ensure that all kids in our secondary schools or our high schools have access, what's that going to take? Resources, staffing? Absolutely. So the the, two for one for everyone really helped us to focus in on the gaps we need to close and the partnerships we need to strengthen. And so our partnership with LACCD has been strengthened in the past few years, the collaboration. We just we have a new memorandum of understanding so our middle schools can also
have access. It also helped us to see where we can partner with others, where we could create CTE hubs. So there are goals that we have, and we're working towards developing opportunity and and access where there is not one so that we have a 100% guarantee that there is that two for one for everyone, but there is an infrastructure for that. And what we need yes. We do need additional funding because we do, offer the CCAP grants and those dollars help us with, the dual enrollment expansion. We're also working with LACCD with expanding our CTE offering.
So if a school doesn't have a CTE pathway, they can actually access it through the community college as well. So there's that opportunity to get that sequa the course sequence that's required for them to, get that certification. So while there are opportunities, there and there it also has helped to see that the gaps that exist and what we need to do to close them. It hasn't been as comprehensive as it is now. The partnership, the collaboration, the interest that we're finding from outside organizations to help us strengthen this has really scaled up significantly.
So the fact that we have the two for one for everyone, it's a possibility. We have students who graduate with an AA and with their high school diploma, and in some cases, they've been part of a CTE pathway or even JROTC. So it's, the the visual that, Pia showed earlier is that these are all the opportunities available. It's ensuring that every single school has this, and and prioritizing it for schools who feel that maybe they're not ready for it, but showing them why it's important to offer these CTE pathways. So while it's ambitious, it's important to be ambitious.
We need to aim high, and we have a lot of systems in place to do that. And every day, it's just getting better and better in terms of the offering and and the publicity and and the awareness for our students and ensuring that there's access for them. That makes sense. And, I mean, I think it makes a a lot of sense to work in partnership with LACCD. We know that they they also have an interest. You know, these are future students, future and potentially current students of theirs as well. And then I I guess I just wonder in terms of the the CTE work, for the schools that do not currently have access to a a CTE pathway on
their campuses, what are we what are we doing, like, just looking to next school year to support them in in bringing coursework online? It's, number one, we had the, the recent symposium for the liaisons to show them how to open a CTE pathway. We've publicized the memo. We've met with the counselors. We've had bank time Tuesday. We've had, six additional professional developments outside of that to guide them in opening those CTE pathways to get them prepared for that next year, showing them how to use the CCAP grant.
In addition to that, while while schools prepare to open those CTE pathways, again, encouraging them to take those CTE classes at the community college or or even, at DACE, so that they can have immediate access while we open up those pathways at the school sites. And and for smaller high schools, like, are there, staffing challenges that we might or scheduling challenges that we might anticipate that that might be barriers to to schools being able to offer these types of pathways? Yeah. Definitely. So when there is a an interest in opening the pathway, the vi we definitely
examine the viability and support them with identifying staff or hiring staff to teach those those, classes. Right? Because existing staff probably don't have the background in that industry to teach, so we need we need to hire a CTE teacher for that program. So we guide them in doing that and examining their schedules. All of that is supported by our offices so that they're that it becomes a reality at their school site despite their, the size of their school. Thank you. And then in terms of the dual enrollment opportunities, I I think it's great that
we're setting a goal to to continue to expand the number of schools offering that. Are the numbers here, like, comprehensive high schools, or does it include middle schools? Like, is it an all secondary school number? The the dual enrollment, this represents our comprehensive schools. Okay. Comprehensive high schools. Yeah. I think one area that I have heard from principals in my district is around, middle school access to dual enrollment coursework. And, I think some of, my schools and board districts has had piloted this opportunity but have faced feel like they have faced some recent barriers to continue that work. So, I think there is excitement and interest to ensure that our middle schools as
well, can offer these opportunities to to students. And we successfully were able to, confirm that our MOU has been approved. So our our middle school programs can move forward for the next few years under that MOU. That's fantastic. And then, last piece, I mean, I think, building awareness of what we already offer is really important, and I think it's great that we're highlighting that, you know, these opportunities are available even to incoming ninth graders. I'm curious about, our, parent engagement and parent outreach efforts, and are we starting those
at the middle school level so that even before a student, enrolls in high school The guide. They're they're thinking about the paths that are available. So this guide does go out to our middle school families so that they see the pathways that are offered, and then they can select the school where the pathways are offered for, for the CTE programs. And also, of course, doing a lot of publicity, for our counselors so they, the students are aware about dual enrollment. That's great to hear. Sorry. Lied one more. I promise. And then, I have a great deal of interest in the MC three pre apprenticeship
coursework. I think it's wonderful that we're offering it at our, our occupational centers. I hear a lot of interest from high school students around the trades and wanting to ensure that they have exposure and readiness to be able to enter an apprenticeship upon graduation. Have we considered or are we making any efforts to open up those courses on our comprehensive high schools? Yes. We started off with the summer, Career Empowerment Academy, and one of the pathways that we actually opened up is a construction pathway.
And so in the last summer, we are we opened hold on. Let me just find out the number. Please. Last summer, we offered a total of 232 participants actually participated in that. And that was a great opportunity for rising seniors and graduating seniors to get exposure across all the trays. We're continuing to evaluate and figure out how we can continue to expand. We've started to expand with our North Valley Occupational Center and our continuation high schools as well to really see what this may look like from a course offering, from
a scheduling perspective in collaboration with our DOI team. Good to know that we've we've piloted some efforts, and I think the work around option schools is really exciting. The that's, those are students who I think can really benefit from these opportunities. I will say, like, I hope that you you don't have to struggle with with credit coursework to the point where you end end up in options before you get access to like, we want this exposure to happen early on, because students should have awareness and access to all the pathways that are available to them. So I think however we can, expand these opportunities to more of our students, as
early on as possible is great. Yeah. And, Bernard, just to follow-up on, the inquiry about the middle school offering of dual enrollment, I definitely wanna thank our chancellor, the LACCD chancellor, the deputy chancellor, doctor Lancaster. They have been instrumental in helping us to reach, reach our goals. Our our collaboration has really increased and improved significantly through the years. Just wanted to make that point. Really quickly. And are the MOU, for dual enrollment for middle school, that just of Oh, December. In December. So when will our middle schoolers begin to take these courses?
Is it in for the next following academic year? Or There were some schools that were ready to go for the spring, and so we're moving forward. And, of course, we wanna raise awareness so that we can expand this to more. But we're also being very cautious as well because we want our students to succeed. And as mentioned earlier, the level of rigor is pretty high. So we'll have parent meetings, inform them about what they're going to be, expecting, because we want them to succeed. We want them to pass these classes. Yeah. Thanks. Ruth Franklin. I'll I'll pick up on the middle school as well. I think I have three in my district that are currently doing it, had done
it before. A lot of parent advocacy and and gratitude for where we are today. But one concern that came up was about middle schoolers not earning high school credit. So they earned middle school and college credit, but it didn't count for the high school credit. Is that still a problem, or is it something we're working on? I'll ask, miss Brenda Pensemia to to come up and respond to that question. Doctor Wright, thank you for that question. So it's not that they're not earning credits. Middle school students don't earn don't earn high school credits. They earn credits for middle school. Right. But in the Lote, which is the languages other than, English and in math, those
courses actually, help so that they can be placed at a higher, level when they get to high school. But we haven't we've never had, high school numerical credits. And I know it sounds very confusing, but that is, you know, part of high school graduation. You can start your journey for languages and for math, and we want our students to do that. But that doesn't count as numerical credit for high school. So it's not, it doesn't contribute to their a through g either for high school? It does not numerical, meaning that you start at a higher level, but it doesn't
give them the actual credit for high school. Okay. That makes sense. And we can tell families you're starting at a higher level, which is exciting for their students too. So appreciate that. I had a couple questions maybe building on what miss Gomez had asked. On slide 12, that slide we had up earlier with the number of comprehensive high schools offering dual enrollment, does the number on the most right column, equate to number of is it a a full AA pathway or is it simply if they have one dual enrollment offering, one course that it counts?
That's right. It's it's a any school that is offering a dual enrollment. So they won't have, like, all of the course sequences to offer in AA necessarily, but it's that they at least offer one course. Could we get that as a follow-up, you know, where there are the full pathways? Really excited to see, you know, Harbor teacher prep shouted out as getting a lot of award but it's literally on the campus of Harbor College. And those graduations are very exciting because many of the kids do get two, three, and four. But to the point of access, we wanna make sure that students who are at all, you know, campuses can complete an AA, and that we're not just saying two
for one, but that we're actually making it possible. And then two other quick questions. Who pays for the professors, for dual enrollment? That would be the CCAP grant. The the, does that come to us or does that go to LACCD? Brenda, would you like to come up with Sorry. I hear her saying I'll answer the beginning from that. And I wish it were more simple sometimes to explain to doctor Baez. The professors come from LACCD, but you're correct. They also have, grants for dual enrollment. And then we have separate grants that supports the program itself.
It could be textbooks. It could be additional time for our teachers to support the students when the the days of the professors don't come. But the professors are paid by LACCD. Okay. That's helpful. I have one more money question. I'm not sure if this is you or not. But on the pamphlet, which I think is really helpful, there is a note about AP courses. So maybe this is not. It says there's a fee for AP exams, though some schools may cover the cost. But we just did an AP press conference where we said AP exams are free in LAUSD. So I just wanted to clarify. Is it free or might there be a fee? They're absolutely free for LA Unified.
Okay. So I don't know if that means we need to update this booklet so that, people are aware of that. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. I have, I'll have one question. Oh, great questions. Thank you, colleagues, for asking all of those great questions. Can you say more about how outreach and communication is provided to families and caregivers, particularly in terms of language access and which language which languages, materials, and engagement efforts are currently available in? So our materials are in multiple languages, and they are, offered through our counselors, through
our school sites. So for example, the the booklets that we, have prevent presented to you, those were mailed to the schools and they're provided to the to the parents. Of course, there's parent meetings. There's coffee with the principal. Counselors are encouraged to meet with parents as well to inform them about these dual enrollments, and, of course, everything we've been recently promoting as well, so there are ways that we're reaching out to families. Great. Thank you. Next one last question. Although you mentioned training and communication toolkits are available in every region, I continue to
hear or see that, at the site level, implementation varies widely. What expectations or accountability structures are in place for schools to ensure students are actively being connected to these opportunities? And where do we, see inconsistency or how can we address that? Yeah. So we definitely as we're meeting with our our counselors and we meet with the counseling coordinators at the regions and they are the ones tailoring the support, the individual support to schools, we also know which schools need a little bit more help and
so we send them out to provide that support. There are many goals that we have in place. So for example, the financial aid, application process where we've had success in terms of our, application and submission, and they've been integral for that. So when we find that maybe schools are not performing at that same rate, we go in there and support, and then we ask, of course, about other initiatives related to counseling, dual enrollment, CTE, programming of students. We do a lot of transcript analysis where we're able to see where there may be some inconsistencies or variability in implementation, and we go in there and support.
So our region support the school sites whenever we're seeing that there may be a gap in the implementation or in the the information. We'll probably go and spot check as well at the central level going to see if the initiatives that we have been implementing are or that we've been, providing are implemented at the school site with fidelity. Wonderful. And and now that I remember the, a workplace readiness resolution that was recently passed with mister Schmussen and myself and who else was Carla, was it you? Sorry. I forget who other cons who the other cosponsor was. But the resolution that was passed for workplace readiness, for students to, be aware of
their labor rights, how are we incorporating that into this the CTE program that you can see? That is part of the preparation for students. So they need to learn about the AB 800. They need to, also receive, training on how to, number one, write their resume, application, but also their their, work experience as well. So interns that are going to be placed, they will also learn about their, their rights, and we have the posters that are also, available, and they're posted at the council. Expectation is that they're posted at the counseling office as well.
So we have the, posters at counseling. Any other information that's provided to students for Take I mean, is there, Yeah. There's there's a there's a lot of training. There's a lot of training. From the CTE office for our students that are enrolled in those programs. Great. Great to know. Well, thank you very much, miss Alekmal and miss doctor Baez for, the update on on dual enrollment and CTE pathways and also our pre apprenticeship programs of MC three. That's one area that I know our students are really eager to learn more about.
I had two career fairs just concentrating all on on our trades, and I'll let you know that students were excited. They were getting all kinds of information. There was a panel that was sharing, their ex their experience in in in different trades and wanna, also make, you know, commend the work there. It's we need to definitely expand that. So I appreciate that. Thank you so much. Now we're moving to our last presentation. So as we have our presenters come forward, our presentation is on the central manufacturing
kitchen. This is an important investment that connects directly to student health and daily experience in our schools, as well as how we think about efficiency and long term sustainability across this district. We are joined today by doctor Deborah Bryant, acting chief of school operations, mister Esam Abdul, director of facilities planning and development. And I also see mister Manish here as well. So, doctor Bryant, the floor is yours. Thank you, and good morning, members of the board and acting superintendent Shade.
So this morning, as was stated, we are presenting on our central manufacturing kitchen. I will discuss the need and purpose. We'll discuss site selection, implement implementation plan, and timeline and next steps. So but oh, is there a clicker? Oh. The clicker. Oh, it's right here. Look at that. Okay. So why a central manufacturing kitchen is needed? The purpose is to elevate nutrition with fresher, healthier, and more appealing options informed by
family and student feedback. And in the 2024 food services master plan, we identified the need for a new CMK, which is central manufacturing kitchen, to support fresh, healthy, and appealing meals. So a new central manufacturing kitchen would modernize operations and align with LA Unified sustainability goals. And developing one central manufacturing kitchen is more cost effective than multiple kitchens. So the priorities are to transition the 170 schools currently served by Newman Nutrition Centers
to the CMK to enable approximately 60,000 students to receive fresh meals. We wanna expand the capacity to provide fresh meals and products prepared at the CMK for schools across the district. We wanna prepare raw proteins from scratch for district recipes, create sauces, dressings, and condiments, and process fresh produce from local farmers and bake fresh products. We wanna provide hands on training facility for our kitchen and kitchen employees, for culinary
students, and adult learners. We also want to maximize our eight hour workday for more workers to elevate nutrition and menu choices. Again, I have to reiterate that our priorities will be refined based on cost and feasibility. So now I'd like to turn it over to Isam Dadoul. He is our director of facilities and planning, and he will continue with the presentation. Good morning, members of the board and acting superintendent Chape. My name is Asam Nadol. I'm the director of facilities, planning, and development. I'm gonna walk through let me just go to the next slide. So thanks to the passage of Measure US, Measure US includes, funding for school cafeteria
upgrades. And of the funds that were identified, some of those funds, $240,000,000, are allocated for a project to develop a kitchen to prepare fresh, healthier student meals and support our schools. And so we've been working very closely with the food services division, between facilities and food services so that we can collaborate on initiating the planning that needs to take place in order to identify where we're going to build a central manufacturing kitchen, what the program and, what will it entail, what are the needs of a central manufacturing
kitchen, space needs, and then also evaluate potential sites for feasibility so we can identify where we might be able to build it, and, ultimately, to develop a project scope that we would be bringing forward to the board for project approval. So the goal, in terms of, identifying a site is to use district land. So we did not wanna necessarily go out and purchase land. We wanted to see if we could identify existing land within the district that we could utilize. And so we set criteria and considerations as we went through to identify what sites
that the district already owns might be suitable for a central manufacturing kitchen. So we looked at, obviously, district owned property within district boundaries. We know that from preliminary analysis that we need approximately four acres minimum, so we looked at that. And then, obviously, when we have a central manufacturing kitchen, you're gonna have transportation of food coming in, food coming out, and so transportation being close to major corridors are important, as well as the proximity to our current facilities where, we have the Pico Rivera warehouse.
And then, obviously, being centrally located without within the district would obviously be helpful as well, as we, have a large swath of area to cover. Looked at land use, and then one of the big factors we looked at as well is when we identified where we could potentially put, a new a new central kitchen is to minimize the amount of money that we would have to spend on any relocation of existing users in any particular location. We want to use as much of the funding for the actual construction as possible
and minimize that. And then last but not least is, integration with the division of adults and career ed, programs, and you'll see a little bit more about that in a second as well. So utilizing all those factors that I just mentioned, we started with district owned property and we layered on all of these. I won't read through all this because it's, what I had just indicated. And, ultimately, we got down to one particular site that I'd like to share today. So the site that we're, proposing to utilize, and initiate additional studies is the Richard
Slauson Southeast Occupational Center and Bell Storage Yard. This is there's an area, and I'll get to it. You'll see an aerial in a second, but it's approximately four miles from the Pico Rivera warehouse. The site is close to major transportation corridors. It's got approximately five acres of usable space, where you additional space in the parking lot that we might be able to utilize. And it's within an industrial area already, so we're trying to minimize any disruption to surrounding community members as well. And there's we believe that there's minimum relocation or demolition that would be required as
part of this. And the additional benefit of this is being housed adjacent to the Slauson, or on the Slauson Southeast occupational site is an opportunity to work with DACE, to expand culinary arts, potential internships, and job opportunities for LA U USD students. We believe there's a great synergy that can be had, with educational training, skill development for students. So a little bit more about the Southeast Occupational Center. You can see here it was built in 2011. The portion of the site that we're, looking to potentially utilize is the area you
see dashed in red. There's approximately three acres in the parking lot, and then two acres, which is what we call the Bell Storage Yard, which is also part of that same, same same, property, which is use currently just has, some storage, being used at this time. So the planning considerations we considered, and are gonna have to continue to consider is school operations and student safety. Obviously, we're going to have to work with adult ed to provide parking spaces for the student continue to park provide parking spaces for the students, during construction as well
as afterwards, and so we'll work together. Truck routing and deliveries and make sure that there's safety for all as trucks are coming in and out because, obviously, we'll be increasing, the need for that. So in terms of how we plan to implement this, so the first, phase of the project is what we call our programming site analysis phase. So we do not build new central manufacturing kitchens every day, so we want to go through an extensive programming effort. So we're, next month, we'll be bringing to the board a contract with an architect and culinary arts, sorry, not culinary arts, a kitchen specialist, to provide an analysis of
the site itself, to look at infrastructure, to look at programming of what could fit on the site, test fit, and what the needs of the, of it of the programming effort will require. And so we once we get board approval in April, we would take about five to seven months to go through that process, develop a preliminary project scope, cost estimate, and then return back to the board for project approval. At that point, we would then begin the actual design of a new central manufacturing kitchen, go through all our environmental reviews, any, agency approvals as necessary, and then once
we get agency approvals, we can then begin construction. So the timing of all this, the the key milestones in 2026, as I mentioned, we'll be bringing forward to the board, a site analysis contract, with an architect to look at programming. It's and once we do that, we will then come back, in December we're hoping to come back in December, 2026, for project definition for the scope, schedule, and budget of the new central manufacturing kitchen. Once the board approves the project definition, we would then proceed, as I mentioned, with design, environmental reviews, etcetera.
I would like to go to questions, but I do wanna mention that, Manish Singh, director of food services, is here if in case there's any, questions that are specific to food services. Thank you. Thank you for that preview. So Slauson, so what will happen with the Newman Center? Is any is that's gonna be still remain operable for other, sort of food preparation, the very task? The the, the plan is to eventually phase out Newman. And so the plan would be to obviously, as during construction, Newman will have to
continue to run, but the goal for the central manufacturing kitchen is to consolidate the food preparation and the packaging, all in the new central kitchen and then phase out Newman. We will then, obviously, as we start to progress, start to identify what other uses Newman might have for the district. Because I have a school right across the street, Bravo Medical Magnet, and they definitely need some space. So I'll be talking to you about that. So Yeah. Are you just Where is your teaching? Okay. So questions. Can I just thank you?
Why don't you just rehab the Neumann Center and expand it and modernize it? I mean, what's the purpose? So we looked into that, and one, rehabbing an existing building is very costly and can sometimes cost just as much as, building new construction, especially when you're when you're considering something as intricate as a food services, building. And I also know that it also impacts operational practices that are happening. You know, if you're doing rehabs, it also limits the ability to actually use the
Newman Center for daily operations. This allows us to continue with operations at Newman as we build a new kitchen. And, mister Singh, did you wanna add anything to the presentation? I know this has been something when I visited Newman, you were, letting it you know, let me know about so that this dream of you had a whole new kitchen, place. Yes. Thank you for asking that question and, you know, thank you for inviting me to answer some questions. The one thing which I would say is, you know, a long time ago, and
I'm talking about more than five because, you know, this question came up, that if there's one thing you'd ask for, what is it that you'd ask for? And I said, if there's one thing you'd say, then I would say give us a central manufacturing kitchen. We do not have one. You know that the Newman Center is not a manufacturing kitchen. It is a packaging facility, which has stood us well. But if you want to elevate meals for students, I mean, we want to really say, you know, everything we are doing, then we have to have a facility where we can do that.
This will not only provide freshly prepared meals for a 170 Newman sites, because those kitchens, if you go and see, you know, some of them are, you know, makeshift rooms which are converted into a kitchen at one point of time and they stayed the same way. Or they have very limited storage facilities. So how do we get these students and these schools also to have what everybody else is doing? And the only way to do that is this.
Now when you have a central manufacturing kitchen, we can determine what flavor profiles go into our food which matches the needs and the asks of our students. Right now, presently, we do have recipes, which we do, but you know that these days, the thing of cooking everything from scratch is a very different thing. When I went to hotel school, we did all that. We made every sauce from scratch.
In today's reality, with the expansion of programs and also, labor, then you have to be realistic about it. So speed scratch is one of those things, but having one facility where we can even do our own proteins, we cook them from scratch, they can go to schools and be served within forty eight to seventy two hours. You know, if you need and you make an extra portion, you can flash freeze it and then send it to schools. It changes the total dynamic of what we'd be able to serve our students.
And parents in our forums that we've talked to them, they've said in addition to food, in addition to education, food is a very important thing for us. And you know that about eighty five percent of our kids qualify for free and reduced, so we have a large percentage of students who belong to families who may be food facing food insecurity. This is one way of solving that. Wonderful. Thank you so much. Questions to my left. Miss miss Grego.
Yes. Thank you for this presentation. There's several things that excite me about this. One, that it's gonna be in the city of Bell, which is in my district at the Slauson Center. And then two, you're right. A lot of parents and students, when I've met with them, they talk about food and that they want better tasting food. Parents want healthier meals, fresh vegetables and fruits and just better food. So it's I'm glad that we are addressing that, that request and that need. Regarding, you said that you we were gonna move folks from the Newman to this
new location. So does that mean that we're not increasing labor, the the number of folks that need to to do this work? So the idea is that the packaging capability at Newman transfers to the new facility, but the new facility will have a cooking facility too. So of course we need more people for that. So in addition to the people who move from Newman to support what they already do, you'll have added people working to prepare the meals from scratch.
That's gonna be a totally new part of the business. And as we mentioned, this will also give us the opportunity to give more people the eight hour work day, which people have been asking for. Yes. They have. And it's at a facility, so it's all in one place. Wonderful. Thank you. I love to hear that. And then have we reached out to the city of Bell about this proposal? Have we been engaging them in any conversations? We we have not at this point, but we definitely can and let them know that, we're planning to expand the current site at Slauson with this new central manufacturing
kitchen. I think that that would be good to do that. Yes, ma'am. Then, let's see here. So can you, also, have you have you talked to labor partners about this? So I think at this point of time, we are in the early stages of the thing. You know that we had our food truck, and we're getting additional food trucks, so they're aware of that. They probably have a understanding or awareness that this is coming up. But it wasn't time for us to be able to, you know because we need
some more information details of what we'd be able to do. That will come from the study, which we are asking for. And at that point of time because from the concept to the execution when it's ready, it's gonna be a little time. Alright. So, yeah, at one point, I hope that we can have those conversations with labor partners. And then, regarding the, the quality of food, so you were mentioning that it's we expect it to be better quality, right, because it's fresher. And then cost regarding, what is the, is there gonna be, is it gonna be
costlier for us to have fresh food or not, or is it gonna be about the same? Just So there is a bit of a price advantage. The reason is, for example, if you cook food at home and you go to a restaurant and eat, there is definitely a price differential. So when we get all the raw product and you know that for our fruits and vegetables, we are purchasing from local farms, so we are looking to increase that volume, so that will come into play.
Of course, when we cook from scratch, the cost per meal is going to go down, but there's gonna be an added labor cost which will come into play. We think that overall, in the study which was done, there is a price differential, which is to the advantage that it'll actually overall come down a little bit. Awesome. And then I know we have some farms in LAUSD. It would be so nice. I know. That's a big one, but that's another dream to have a big farm that we can have our own crops that we can. Those conversations have come up.
You know, has such a beautiful thing. They do. So does, Sylmar. You know, I mean, great gardens developed by a person who works for us now, Steve List. So we definitely are sensitive and we have that in mind. But if we can determine a facility, I would also say on the flip side, given the size that we have, we would have to be strategic in what we grow over there, which can support the whole district because to imagine that we'd have a farm which would be able to do everything for us, That's possibly not there,
but we are looking at some alternate ways in which we could support the district at large. Thank you. Well, this is very exciting. I feel like this is an area I don't know too much about, so I'm I've enjoyed learning a little bit about about the work and, the benefits, and I agree with board member Griego. I think food is one of the the top things that I hear from constituents, whether it is parents or students. Frankly, I hear a lot whenever I ask students, like, what could I do to help make your learning experience better? They, frequently mention the food, and I know that we've taken steps to to improve
quality, and to bring student voice in as part of this process, but it seems like this is, important infrastructure that that would really help us advance those goals. I was curious, you know, the the terminology of a central kitchen, like, seems a bit of a challenge in a district that is so geographically large. So just curious how we how we thought how we think about that concept in a in a district of our size. And, obviously, the valley is extremely not geographically proximate to this location, which is fine.
But I'm just I'm trying to understand, you know, how we ensure, equity of of options for our students, with this facility. So a few things I would add on this. You're right that, you know, we did have a study done to see is a one kitchen model good for us, or should we look at two or even four? Because we have four regions. And when we looked at the cost structure, you know, it was the one kitchen model which was more cost effective, also putting all the resources at one place instead
of distributing it around, and also in terms of managing and developing a product and producing a product which can be distributed district wide, which is consistent, it pointed to that one read. Now if you look at it this at this point of time, Pico Rivera from the proposed facility is about four miles. And right now Pico Rivera supports the whole district in terms of distribution. Even the Newman Center, while it's there, the schools it supports is, you know, district wide.
So, yes, it is from one perspective, you know, it's gonna be more in one area, but the effect and the benefit is gonna be district wide. That's helpful. Maybe at some point you all could share which which schools it's anticipated that this would serve, since I know they're not all necessarily located nearby this this facility. Yeah. The idea is it serves every school. Okay. So it, of course, helps the schools, which are the Newman Center because they get packaged food. So we basically are buying from different vendors.
We put it into a package, and then it gets packaged and sent to schools. Here, those schools will come to you, but now they get fresh food as opposed to packaged. The second one is the bulk that we create, we package it, and then we send it to schools. The idea is some of the stuff gets processed and, you know, put into the meal within forty eight to seventy two hours. Certain overages, we can flash freeze and send it to schools so they can use when they need it. I I think Manish hits on on a very important piece around quality control and
assurance, when we actually own the baking. So think about the the breakfast muffin or doughnut that we provide during breakfast in the classroom. And so do or the coffee cake. Right? But when we talk about the muffin, many of those we actually procure through vendors. Right? And they're prepackaged. They're delivered either at Newman or at sites. Here, we would actually be producing that muffin. And we'll have greater control in terms of what we're actually producing, consistency, as well as how we actually manage for that. And so, one of the opportunities is, yes, it's actually growth in employment opportunities, but
also reducing our reliance on kinda contracted services. I know that that's an area of interest on where are we leaning in. This is one of those areas that we could actually realize some savings there. That's really exciting. And then I did want to learn more about the, possible integration with, our DACE culinary and DACE and other culinary programs. I don't know if that's I know we are maybe several years away from anything like that happening, but anything you can share on that front. So you know that we did our first, student culinary showdown.
Right? We you know that we went to San Francisco, and we beat San Francisco. Right? You do know that we are going to have another culinary showdown, this time four districts in LA, for Super Bowl twenty seven. So having said that, we do have a ongoing partnership with CTE. Also having said this, this is gonna open the pathways for all our students because in this facility, we want to have a training facility. And the training facility will also have a kitchen, which is a training kitchen for
our staff. But in addition to that, since we are there right on the campus with Slauson, you know, From our perspective, we look upon them as potential, you know, employees for us. Also, secondly, they're people who we develop for the real world because we actually have operations going on. So can we do internships with them and send them to our schools so that they experience what the real world is as opposed to the theory part of it? We can support that as well.
Also, I would say to you that many of us have degrees in the culinary arts and all. I am a graduate of hotel school so I know how that part of it runs, in addition to other things. So we have a very experienced chef, Jamie Ginsberg, who is a CIA graduate. Not only is she a CIA graduate, but she's a certified CIA chef, which means what? Means that she can take a concept from concept to bulk production.
She's certified on that. So there's so many aspects that we can work with them. You know, with CTE, we are talking about doing something at Polytechnique for the students over there. We have culinary programs across the district. We can call them in and we can also train them because we do have relationships with chefs. So there's so many areas and avenues that we can develop on and, you know, as opportunity comes, we will definitely look for it. And I think adding to that, day CTC, we just saw present you know, the
reconnect, but I know that a lot of our CTCs also have a culinary pathway, So it'd be also really great to, integrate our CTC programs into that pathway. Thank you. So thank you, miss Gonis, for that question. I have that question, so taking notes on that. So appreciate that. So I know, mister Daudel and and, Doctor Bryant, you have walked us with some of the timeline and the keys, the key milestones. How when will we will the board be, updated again? How how will you engage us and, sort of keep us in the loop and
as, this this progresses? Great great question. So the first step is, next month, we'll be bringing forward a, a request to authorize the site analysis. And so it's a contract with an architect who's going to then do a full site analysis, feasibility analysis of the site. Does it work at that site? Is there enough infrastructure? Can we do a test fit? What can we build? What can we afford? And so once we get to that so that's the first step. Once we work with that architect and, consultant, then we'll figure out what the true
project scope, schedule, and budget is and come back to the board at the end of the year with a request for, moving forward with the project and a project definition. And so that would happen at the end of this, 2026. Okay. Any other, mister Schmose? And then Mick? So did you ever think of this, mister Singh, as a money making, proposition where perhaps this kitchen would be able to supply other than LA USC schools, other entities.
Well, no. I meant things like, maybe hospitals that don't have that kitchen, possibility component or, nursing homes or other events where you may have if you're working twenty four hours a day, you may have all those shifts making the food. So it's maybe something to think about. I don't know if that's possible. I don't know if it's legal. I don't know anything, but I just thought it's a great way to be able to, make some money for the district. We have definitely thought of that.
Not necessarily in the hospital world and that, but other school districts we had thought of it because there is that possibility. You know that, for example, a coffee cake is extremely popular. Right? Can we package the mix and make it available to others? The answer is yes. So we would look, but first, of course, we wanna focus on our district and see what we can do for our students. Then once we've got that stabilized, then we look at what other opportunities and possibilities may exist. Thank you. This is very exciting.
It's something I've been advocating for for years. And, miss doctor Brian, it's nice to see you in yet another role serving the district. A lot of my questions, the kind of the the list of schools directly serviced and regional versus central have been answered. It would be I don't know. Do we ever see that study that that, with the benefits of essential kitchen versus the regional ones? Was that something that was shared with the board? We do have the study, and we can make it available.
That'd be great. And then also, I mean, you know, a 170 schools and 60,000 students would still be larger than almost every district in the country. So even though there's I'm excited as this is a first step. I just wanna note that and, you know, cosign on the great work you're doing. One question is I know that in the presentations as recently as a few months ago to the board, we had a $300,000,000 figure. And so I'm curious, was it that the scope has gone down or and, like, what are we doing with the other 60,000,000? So the 300,000,000 is before, the indirect so for all the bond funds, we have
indirect funds as well as program reserve that's that's taken. So the 300,000,000 is before the indirect cost as well as the program reserve. 300 so we say that in layman's terms. Sure. So when we have $300,000,000 that's identified as allocated for a specific project or program, we we reserve some of that money for overall program reserve in case there's cost overruns on the overall bond projects themselves. So as specific projects go over budget, then there's a a pot of money, which is the reserve that we can dip into.
And so that's why we don't although that we've allocated 300,000,000, we don't identify that full 300,000,000 to the specific project. We identify 240,000,000 to cover indirect costs throughout for the bond program as well as reserve in case other projects and this project go over budget. And is a 20% reserve typical? This is standard for all of the the the bond, yes. And then because I know this is a question that's come up when we've talked about shade structures or school modernizations or, what happens when, like, if that reserve is not where does the 60,000,000 if we are at costs, and we don't need to
tap into the reserve? Where does that money get repurposed? The reserve would cover all other programs throughout the bond program. So it would come back for the board to be reallocated or you would come up like, how does it work in practice? Like That is something I'd have to get back to you on. Okay. I'd be curious because I think too, I mean, we one of the challenges with the larger I mean, this is this is not where I was gonna go with this question, but with the larger cost is that when schools are funding things or parent groups are budgeting, they they don't think they have the money. And then when they realize that, oh, there's this 20% reserve, it's always a question
of, well, you know, do we have to raise for it? And what if we don't use it? And where does that go? And so in this instance, just because we've seen a lot of presentations with 300,000,000, how may I see miss Tokes as maybe coming down? But if we you know, if this ends up costing $2.50, I'm curious, like, does that 50 go into things that are approved but not funded? Or, like, does the board because with all these projects on a $9,000,000,000 bond, there's we're talking about hundreds of millions that would potentially be in these reserves. Like, how does that come back to the board for conversation about any reallocation? Sure.
So, Christina Tokes, chief facilities executive. Let me distinguish between a program reserve and a project reserve. So within each of the projects that we bring towards the board we have essentially a project reserve which is a contingency because we know there might be unforeseen conditions, there might be things that we're unaware of, and that essentially diminishes over the time of the project. If we go out to bid and there is still some reserve left, we decrease it, it goes back to the pot that it came from.
So if it came from the food services category, it goes back to food services. If it came from the major mod category, it goes back to the major mod category. We experienced about a 39%, construction cost escalation over the last three years. Many of our projects reserves did not account for that 39% just cost escalation in construction. So when we hap we also have a program reserve. So that kind of weathers the district when we see these big ebb and flows
in districts that are above and beyond just the project reserve. Project reserve is really we found black iron pipe or there was, I'm trying to think of the last project we found that there were, prehistoric shark shells and we had to excavate that on San Pedro or whatever those are. The big program reserve is for those big ebbs and flows. And so one example I'll just give is that we know that we're probably hitting more volatility in the construction market now that we're, are under or experiencing war and
that is gonna create a level of uncertainty not only because of gas prices but because of all the petroleum products that are in plastics or asphalt, etcetera, so we're expecting to see an uptick as our contractors who are bidding work are gonna have to forecast what is the cost of petroleum per barrel in three years when we start construction. So that's what our program reserve is for. Our program reserve typically you look at an industry standard of how much you have to go out to bid. We have about $8,000,000,000 of projects that we have not put out to bid.
You wanna keep that at about 15 to 20% of what your total, project worth that hasn't gone out to bid yet. If we got to a point where we were closing down this program, we would free up that reserve to undertake new projects. We've done that with the board in the past numbers of years ago about how to reallocate. So in general, project reserve is put back into the category. Program reserve protects like the entire program. And that's why we haven't ever brought to the board a project that you've all
approved that we've said, I'm sorry, we've run out of money for because construction costs are too high. We're gonna have to cancel that project. You know, one of my responses to mitigate costs is don't start construction in three years. Start construction in three weeks. I mean, which I say only a little facetiously. I mean, I think one of the reasons that we have to have that reserve is because the board has approved projects as recently as maybe last week that we don't have a construction start date of, like, four or five years. So it just seems like we should either start construction earlier or approve those later for a number of reasons. So we can talk about that later as I know we will.
I also might agendize this for our committee just to understand more of the reserve because I think it on smaller scale projects, I know school sites and fundraising or or donations, there's always this question of of what do they have to raise raise the reserve and that could be then prohibitively expensive and so they limit the scope. We're seeing this as greening projects too. And then if they don't use their like, so just understanding this a bit better and kind of I think what you're saying makes sense in terms of the need for the two reserves and where it goes back with cost escalations, but, I might have more questions. So but that's helpful in this instance because I know until even a few months
ago, we've been saying 300. I see $2.40. So, okay. Thank you. I was also thinking of agendizing this for the greening, schools and climate resilience because I would love for the design to be, incorporating, you know, sustainable energy efficiency, electric powered appliances, waste management, indoor quality, all everything that, you know, that the district is, spearheading in in terms of climate resilience and sustainable construction or, like, a greens a
green kitchen will be great. So just we'd love to, when you know, we'll we'll connect with you to see where where you are in design, what are y'all are thinking. But Great. Thank you. Okay. Miss miss Hendy, yes. Question. As we were talking, obviously, I was thinking revenue too. How do we bring revenue? But the other question was, are there other schools or entities within the county that has these CMKs that are operating and functioning that would be at this scale? Not in our county, but they for example, Sacramento has a full central manufacturing kitchen.
Oakland has one. There are two smaller districts, I would say, in the Greater LA circle, which just opened central manufacturing kitchens. Be happy to provide that information. Yes. We actually did provide that information to, facilities, and they actually went and had a look at those facilities as well. But in our direct LA County, I can't think of one as of now. Riverside does have. Long Beach does have. Okay. Good good to know. And I know we talked about time frame, and I was thinking the same thing,
like you're gonna bring it back to us. But before it gets back to us, we I noticed that it just boiled down from 46 to one site. In the event that this, site selection, the study does not go in our way of favor, going back to the 46, is there one that ranks higher, or how does that go? Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. When we've looked at the other sites, there were probably two other sites that we looked at, but there was a lot of relocation that would probably be necessary.
So we're the plan is to focus on this particular site, hope that we can, move forward with this site if for any reason there is, a red flag that does not allow us to move forward, then we'd go back and evaluate, the other two sites that we'd be looking at potentially that rose to the top. Got it. And then, again, the question when, obviously, it comes back to us. And to Nick's point, like, would it be sooner than later, obviously?
And what would time frame be to build something this expansive? Great question. So a typical, project of this magnitude would take four to five years from start of design, going through the the approval process, through DSA or in this case, potentially the city of Bell. More likely, actually, DSA. I'm gonna backtrack on that. It would be DSA because it's on a school site. And then getting, construction contractors on board and the construction process takes about a couple of years. So in totality, it's four to five years. And that would start in December when we've finalized the the project and are moving
forward with an actual project definition. Got it. And when I was thinking of revenue, because I know there's, you know, folks that are that do ghost kitchens and they use these kitchens. Is that something that's feasible looking forward if that would be a use for this space as well? So, you know, as, what president Schmilsson talked about, that, we could have shifts around. We definitely are looking at having multiple shifts. It's not gonna be a one shift kitchen. So, definitely two, you know, if we have the need, we could look at a
third one as well. Do remember that in between, we have to clean, sanitize the kitchen daily because food safety is our number one thing. So we have to provide time for that as well, but we're gonna maximize it to the best opportunities that are available to us. One of the challenges with kind of the revenue generating, because it is something that is of interest, is the majority of our program is run through our CAFE program. And so there are restrictions on the fund source and how that's utilized.
And so we'd have to come up with other fund sources to allow us to, pursue something like that. So it'll take time. I think what, Manish speaks to is, you know, the focus is building competency and effectiveness, serving our schools first so that we learn and we get a a system in place, and then we would, explore these options around revenue generation. Well, thank you. I, it just came as you were mentioning that it's also in the city of Bell, and so we would have to go through other processes as well with other
cities. Or how does that work? So the the so it's a school site now. Okay. And the district owns the property. We would go through the division of state architects for any approval of, our design on that property. So we don't have to seek City of Bell's approval for the construction of the site. If there's any off-site improvements, if we have to do, you know, driveway or anything that's in the right of way in the in the street or in the sidewalk, then we would go to the city of Bell and ask for approval for something like that. But the building itself and the development goes through the division of state architect. Got it. Thanks.
Well, thank you again for this, presentation and a little preview of what's to come in four to five years, but we're looking forward to it. So this is a significant and promising investment for our students, and we're excited about the potential impact on their daily meal experience, in the near future. So we look forward to continuing this engagement as we move forward. Thank you again. Appreciate it. So now this takes us to a public comment portion of today's meeting. Mister McLean? Here we go. Most of the folks are calling in remotely.
So I'll call on the folks who listed themselves as being here in person, and then I will call on those who signed up to speak remotely. Monica Arasola, I see you signed up to speak in person. I do not see you in the room, and I do not have you online. The next in person individual is Diana Guillen, also signed up to speak in person. Not here and not on the line. Mister David Tolkovsky coming up. You'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Thank you very much for an intriguing Committee of the Whole.
Of course, the focus right now should be about the May revision, getting the $5,600,000,000 or most of it into the budget to help you with negotiations. And with the one time money, which is always pooped on here, that's the cola money. That's how you improve your cola. So otherwise, let me just say I believe, the land great questions on the on the food service, mister Smirelson. The land is owned by the federal government and there's an agreement with the LA Unified.
We obtained that land when I was on the board for $1. Okay. $1 to build everything and facilities forgot to say something like, let's get 40 acres. So instead, most of the land went to the city of Bell, which we've read about in many newspapers before on what they did with their things. So let's be very clear. You need that report. You need to know what they say in business, the return on investment. Mister Schmerleston's right. Montebello Unified is right there. It's attached on the same land, the same Fort Shelley land, Linwood, Paramount.
And then we heard that there's no other in LA County, and then we hear that Long Beach has one. Last time I checked, Long Beach is part of LA County. And in fact, we have a school in Long Beach that they sued us over, but we built it because it's in our district. So there's a lot of collaboration if it's about return on investment, not another boondoggle. So let me just move on a little bit more to say that you only get $3 a kid or less from the federal government for a meal. So unless you're unless you're gonna change the eating habits, and we know at the high school level, the the number of kids that are eating is really low.
Okay? Really quite low. Also, you also know that, the kids of parents, unless they come to you every morning, doctor Rivas, and say, give me money to buy the meal. Okay? That the kids who have money aren't buying the meal, which tells you a little bit about the market no matter how much sugar, spice, and everything else nice we put in there. Lastly, great questions on, you know, where are our labor partners? In this case, and in the case of the career path, where were the labor partners of HERE? Maria Elena D'Orazo, who leads that and has led everything from Build Back Better from
Mr. Biden, is about these things. Why don't we have those things in those career paths? And finally, let let me just say a little bit about the dual enrollment. You should have seen the numbers. You should see see them by ethnicity and by school areas, because you may find some disturbing data that was not presented about who's dual I'm very glad that over 30% of Asian Americans are in dual enrollment, but I don't know about the rest of the district. Okay? Thank you for your time. Thank you for your questions on that very much. Alright. That's all the in person comments. The next speaker is Thakur Singh.
Please press 6 to unmute yourself, and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Thakur Singh. Mister Singh, I see you're online. Please press 6 to unmute yourself, and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Thakur Singh. Hey, mister Singh. We will be, coming back to you. Alright. Christopher Estella. Christopher Estella, please press 6 to unmute yourself, and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Christopher Estella, I see you're online with us. Please press 6 to unmute yourself, and you'll have two minutes to speak once you
begin. Hello? Hi. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. Hello. I hope that you're all having a blessed day. My name is Christopher Stella Torres. I'm a student at the leadership and public service Virtual Academy. I am back to speak about how students and parents are increasingly supporting an independent graduation. In terms of our concern, first, students like Salatorians have never been able to speak in the past. I am sure that you would agree they've earned their spot to speak after all their hard work. But virtual attending leadership disagrees. We could easily give our salutatorian and even other students a chance to speak if
we had our own ceremony. For a district that values inclusion isn't this common sense. The ceremony also lasts hours longer than what would be the case if if it were just our school. It also feels incredibly uninviting to be surrounded by by schools other than your own. We've taken the initiative on advocating for this despite the lack of transparency and clear communication from virtual academy leadership. Now we're being told that the only barrier preventing us from having our own ceremony is is that it is, quote, too late. Clearly, it is not too late for the virtual academy leadership to change the date
of the graduation for hundreds of parents and students when it is convenient for them. Plus, this is something we've raised the leadership months previously but never heard back about. How is it right for us to lose the rights of an independent graduation just because we we never received follow-up information? Also, importantly, how is it right for us that students and parents were never included in these discussions in the first place? Had they been, this entire situation would have been avoided when we would have made it clear we want our own ceremony. Now the ball is in LAUSD's court.
We ask that you, the school board, please help us support the request of us as students and our parents for an independent graduation. You will have made a major difference in the lives of so many students who would know that it is thanks to this school board event that we could have our own graduation, a first in LA USC history. Thank you so much, and goodbye. Thank you for your time. Jamila Fantua. Are you on the line? Jamila, I see you're signed up to speak remotely. Are you with us? Do not see you in the room. Okay. The next speaker is Brianna Hernandez.
Brianna Hernandez, are you on the line? I do not have Brianna Hernandez, and there's no Brianna Hernandez in the room. Alright. The next speaker is Gabriel. Gabriel, are you on the line? I do not see a Gabriel. Is there a Gabriel in the room ready to speak? That's a no. And then let's see. Next speaker is Johanna Galvez. I see you are on the line. Please press 6 to unmute yourself, miss Galvez, and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Hey. Hi. Can you hear me? Yes. We can. Please go ahead. Good afternoon, and happy Tuesday.
I am Joanna Gardames. I am a senior from the Leadership and Public Service Virtual Academy. The math the vast majority of our seniors at the Leadership and Public Service Virtual Academy support an independent graduation for our school. Despite this, our voices are currently being ignored. We've been told that it is impossible to have our own graduation due to logistics and fundraising, but that's not true. The master's degree, and we already have much of the details figured out. Furthermore, virtual academy leadership announced plans for a senior dinner and awards night. Planning for that hasn't even started yet. How does it make sense that the awards night is all good to plan within
two months, but we can't have our own graduation because it's, quote, too late? Especially when we found the school that will host us. We feel that this is not a matter of listening to student voices, but simply a matter of convenience for Virtual Academy Leadership. Also, it's important to question why students and parents weren't included in graduation discussions previously. Virtual academy leadership and the six principles never reached out for input, yet have still made decisions impacting us. Part of LUSD's mission is inclusivity and hearing student voices. Why then are we not granted our own graduation despite the overwhelming majority of us
supporting such? Why then have salutatorians never been permitted to speak at past graduations? Is that inclusive? I hope that you all all understand the injustice we are facing. Every day, more and more students and parents at our school are questioning this injustice as well. We hope that you stand with us as students and our parents. Thank you so much for your time. We hope you can gain this support. Thank you for your time. The next speaker is Isabella Telles. I see your assigned to speak remotely, but I do not have you online in front of me. And Isabella Tellez is not in the room. The next speaker is Maria Daisy Ortiz.
Maria Daisy Ortiz, please press 6 to unmute yourself, and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Miss Ortiz is gonna speak in Spanish, so if you'd like to hear what she's saying in English. Good afternoon to all. My name is Maria Daisy Ortiz. And, honestly, while this meeting are just to look good, you should create presentations. Well, you do make presentations that look good in person and on paper, but it's not what's happening. The children with special needs and many of the times are the ones who are left behind, and they don't get supported with the accommodations or the appropriate accommodations with
that transition and the appropriate transition. And they should have brought who knows how many children from the district that have graduated or obtained the certification and to see how what their life is is going as an adult. And many of them are depressed, and they can't be they can't be independent in many times the district. They they use the students don't work adequately, and we want them to be productive students because these are intelligent students. They are students that can learn, but they also have a different way of learning.
And beginning with an IEP, knowing that there are no no there is no interpreter, no professional interpreter. But because parents don't know the rights, they place someone else to interpret parents or and they aren't and if they do parents do receive the evaluation, they're not translated. Therefore, we are talking about lives here. But the only people you want you like to bring is the same people that give the same rhetoric so that everything could look polished.
This is not what should happen. In reality, even the regular students graduate, lean at reading at a eighth grade level because the unions and all these labors All these unions that are paid, this is how they negotiate. How will you graduate? Even though students aren't trained and prepared. Stop lying to people. Stop frustrating the dreams for our children. In reality, be more responsible, honestly, be more equitable, and have justice. Thank you for your time. Alright. The next speaker is Alejandra Tejeda. You signed up to speak remotely.
I do not have you signed in in front of me. Alejandra Tejeda. Alright. Karina Lopez. Are you on the line? Karina Lopez, also not on the line nor in the room. Let's see. Diana Guillen, I see you are online. Please press 6 to unmute yourself, and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Diana Guillen. You're unmuted, miss Guillen. Okay. We'll come back to you, miss Guillen. Let's see. The next speaker is Abigail De La Torre. Are you in the room? You are signed up to speak remotely, but I do not have you online. I do not see you in the room. And then we have concerned parent.
I see you are on the line. Concerned parent, please press 6 to unmute yourself, and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Concerned parent. Good afternoon, board members. Thank you for the presentations, and thank you to some of some of the questions were actually pretty, good this time. So, I wanna point out a couple of things. I agree that the presentations should have numbers. You are coming into a meeting to see to show how how these programs are
working, but you're not showing the numbers. I wonder if that's intentional or if that's just something that wasn't oversight. But it's pretty common during their presentations that numbers are often not included. And in terms of the the breakdown of those numbers, how many of those students are students with disabilities that are able to be, placed in dual enrollment courses, so that they're able to also be, included in in, in that inclusive environment that the district is planning to move towards in addition to the equity piece of the district.
What I what I have a child who is an eighth grader who will be culminating soon. There was no mention of dual enrollment classes. He also has an IEP. So there is a fax a planning sheet that students fill out so that they can choose their courses. So I wonder if the if that could be included. Dual enrollment classes for students and, that way parents are informed. Because I myself wasn't, so I wonder if the professional development that that's being provided to counselors is actually working and that they are in fact implementing with fidelity.
So if you can please look at that. Thank you very much. Thank you for your time. The next caller is Isabel Aguirre. I see you're on the line. Miss Aguirre, please press 6 to unmute yourself, and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Isabel Aguirre. Isabel Aguirre. Good afternoon. Hi. My name is Isabel Aguirre. And as far as the presentations, as far as CTE, I have a son who just graduated last year in June. I think it's a stupendous idea to implement this new project because, normally, children with
disabilities, the first thing people think of putting them in is cleaning. And they're so much more capable of doing so many other things. And they are students that need hands on activities. So it's wonderful that you guys are implementing these things that expand, their opportunities. Once students graduate, there's very few activities for them as far as, work. So it is important that you as a district, perhaps, with some exceptions, can create
jobs for these students that unfortunately maybe were not able to graduate with a diploma for high school. So it's important that you implement these these courses with fidelity so that the students can have a better life and future. As far as charter schools, I would like if you could visit more schools so that you're not just depending on comments from different people that only want, selective student
vocal points. So I think it's it would be great if you went yourselves to see all the productive things they do for the students. Thank you very much, and have a great day. Who I called on have now showed up. Let's go to, Sakur Singh. Please press 6 to unmute yourself, and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Thakur Singh. Can you hear me? We sure can. Please go ahead. Great. Thank you. Good afternoon, members of the boo board and, acting superintendent Scheid. I'm Sikore Singh.
I'm a student from the Leadership and Public Service Virtual Academy, and I'm here again today to speak in support of an independent graduation for our school. One of my peers had something really nice to say in her speech last time. Imagine, I mean, imagine a time in which you were told that you couldn't do something. Maybe, you know, when you were running for election, you were told that you couldn't win, but you ended up doing it because it you knew it was possible. And that's the same position we are in here today. For many months, we reached out to virtual academy administration.
Director Latasha Buck told us that we couldn't have our own graduation for quote, unquote tradition, which, of course, is not a valid reason. So we and then we we kept being run-in circles. So we we have been collecting, signatures for a petition, and we have nearly a 100 signatures already. We have, I believe, 95 currently. This is from students. This is from parents. This is clearly what, students and families want, and we can do it. We just need your help.
So we please ask that you reach out to virtual academy administration and ask them. And, I did send an email last week with some things they might provide they might say to you to, to paint this effort as impossible, but it isn't impossible. And I will make sure to resend that email to all of you, and I ask that you please review it when you get a chance because it does have some points that they may bring up and the response that we have. They may say it's impossible, but we know it is possible. We just ask for your support in this. Thank you so much for your time.
Have a great day. Thank you for your time. The next speaker is Jamia Fontua. Jamia, please press 6 to unmute yourself, and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Jamia. I see you're with us, miss Fontua. Please press 6 to unmute yourself, and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes. Please go ahead. K. Thank you. Members of the school board and acting and active and acting superintendent, happy Tuesday. My name is Jamila Fontua, and I am a student of the Leadership and Public Service Berkshire Academy and a resident of board member, Nudo Stryp. I'm here again today to speak publicly and vocal support of our school having our
own graduation ceremony. We, as students, have called for an independent graduation since last year. The number received transparent communication sent back to us. Now virtual academy leadership tells us the reason we can have our own graduation is because it's too late. However, it appears to us that virtual academy administration never attended to to provide us for our own ceremony. Previously, we were told that it was a simple it was simply a matter of, quote, tradition that we can't conduct our own graduation. There are several students who have witnessed this being stated. Graduation is a major milestone for students and their families.
Now it's actually being demolished. Each day that Vocational Academy Leadership does not grant our school the right to have a own graduation, the voices of students and parents will later. In fact, today has been talks of a walkout at the graduation if the current plans continue. We are appealing to the board of education because we have nowhere else to go. Every return, we are told that it's it's impossible that we have to or that we have to agree to a false optimizes. But now we know but now we know that this can be done. We already have teachers who signed up for a graduation community. We already have much of the details figured out, including our location.
Students and parents are already with students and students and parents are already waiting for us to have their own graduation. We just need to ring flags. We are more than willing to to connect with you if you have any questions. We can provide you with all the information that shows as possible. You have our email address in your inboxes. We hope that we can attend your support. Thank you, and have a good day. Thank you for your time. The next speaker is Gabriel. Gabriel, please press star six to unmute yourself, and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Gabriel. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes. I can. Please go ahead.
Hello. Members of the school board, my name is Gabriel Winneken. I'm a senior at the Leadership and Public Service Virtual Academy who will be graduating with the class of twenty twenty twenty six. As a student, I've always wanted a graduation ceremony that is personal between me, my family, my friends, and my teachers. Instead, virtual academy administration has taken away has taken that chance away from us. Virtual academy administration has forced leadership, virtual academy students, and families into a gigantic graduation ceremony with five other schools against the wishes of us and their parents.
They never eve they never even asked for our input, yet now say it's too late to change things, but it isn't too late. Contrary to what Virtual Academy administration claims, this can be done. Their only reason is that it is, quote, final. But we already have a location. Teachers who have signed up for the graduation committee and parents and students are strongly in support of this. Imagine your child in our shoes, not having the right to a special graduation that are special with strict limits on student speakers and limited time between you, your child, and your teacher.
Once you support them having an independent sir, ceremony, we please ask that you instruct virtual academy leadership to respect the wishes of students and parents and grandmas the chance to have a meaningful graduation. Thank you. Thank you for your time. The last speaker is Diana Guillen. We're coming back to you, miss Guillen. Please press star six to unmute yourself, and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Diana Guillen. Hello? Okay. Good afternoon, members of the board. My name is Diana Guillen. I represent. And I was listening to these presentations, and I'm in agreement with some of the
speakers who were talking about how, yes, our students for special education need more support. But I think for this type of careers, the our children that are not going to the university also need technical careers. I know when you were selling these things to teachers that all kids are going to university. Well, I don't know how you made that decision if the statistics are only one or 2% that wind up in with the university pathway, but we need resources for
all our students, not just, them. So we're we're failing in special education, and the project for the community is an idea that when we were and there's disconnection with the speakers. So when we were working with them, we were hoping that this project I don't know how the other ones are, but there'd be transparency and that we have information on the other companies because sometimes there's a lot of questions that parents have, and
we invent things because we're not provided answers. Like the budget, how are things gonna be managed? These are things that our community need. They need better food. And if I also implore you to work with the parent community and stop ignoring us since it's us who are the voice of so many other parents that cannot be here today. They don't know that this information exists, and the teachers union don't allow them to steer their children's education because they're just looking for better salaries and people working, but
they don't care about the academic improvement. And that's something you should focus on. Have a great day. Time that includes public comment. Mister Clean. And, once again, thank you to all of our presenters, our students, especially, and teams for the thoughtful presentations and for the work you're leading across the district. What we heard today reflects a strong commitment to supporting students in meaningful ways from expanding access to college and career pathways to creating inclusive hands on learning opportunities to improving the systems that shape their daily life while also reinforcing the importance of ensuring
access across all communities, measuring impact through real student outcomes, and building efforts that can be sustained and expanded over time. As and as we continue through dual enrollment month, it's a reminder of the importance of expanding access to early college, career, and technical opportunities, and making sure students and families are able to take full advantage of them. Our next committee of the whole meeting will take place on Tuesday, April 28. And with that, once again, happy, Saint Patrick's Day to all our Irish Americans, and
this meeting is adjourned.