Hello. Welcome to our curriculum and instruction committee meeting. My name is Carla Grigo. I want to welcome everyone who's here. And uh before we get started, we always begin with a
grounding question. So, give me a sec. I was saying hello to everyone and I forgot to take out my laptop. So, here we are. So, if you can uh we're today we're
speaking about inclusion in the uh classroom in the general ed classroom. So, as we're thinking about that, if we can put ourselves in our back in our school days and think about any barriers
that existed for you as a student in school and what is something that a teacher or or a teacher assistant, someone in school did to help you access the curriculum, access your school experience despite these barriers. So,
if you can take a moment to think about that any barrier and then what did someone do to support you to be able to to access and um I'm going to go ahead and start on my
right if you're ready and uh if you can state your name and your role if you're a parent, a teacher, a support staff, whatever. and then respond to the question. That would be great. Hi, it's lovely to see so many people
here today. My name is Cesley and I am a parent of two LUSD kiddos. One is at Irving Middle School and the other is at Gala. And I was actually thinking about this question as I was driving over. You know, what works because of course what works for special education is what
works for everybody. And yeah, for me I was thinking about um people power and specifically in second grade where there was just an extra set of hands um and it was Miss Alicia and she would do um back then it was called King of the Hill with
multiplication facts but just that she was able to kind of break up the day and it was with a smaller group and it felt very um personal and human and also I would say having explicit conversations you know what I'm saying when you have a teacher who's willing to say hey I want to acknowledge what's happening here or like stops in
the teachable moments. I think that's also a great practice. Wonderful. So, we will continue moving this way. I am sure new bill and um I too have two little children in the
district. I have a nine and a 12-year-old. So excited as well as the board member here. But I think for me, it's funny, second grade kind of stood out, too. had Miss Silverstein and I think it was just the opportunity that Miss Silverstein allowed that you could
speak in class. You know, there was a time after that was like, "Be quiet." But that you could have conversations and she would come around the class and just allow you to talk amongst the group, which often that wasn't the practice then. You had to be quiet and
so it was just I thought inclusive that you can have conversations with other peers at the table at that time, which for me really helped. So that was my practice. Wonderful. and I'll go ahead next since
we're moving. Uh again, my name is Carla Grigo. I am school board member for district 5 and I was also a special education teacher for 18 years and two years as a community school coordinator and I have a senior at Eagle Rock High
School who graduates this year. Yes, I'm so excited. Um and I guess for me I want to think back at first grade. I came here when I was five years old and I did kindergarten and I remember not knowing English and I couldn't understand anybody. But then in first grade my
teacher did not speak Spanish but there was an assistant there and that assistant would pull me and show me books and I remember that that was the year that I learned English and by the end of first grade I was translating for
my parents. So, I just remember being pulled aside and working one-on-one with this uh educator and I think he would just come in and out and uh so that really helped me a lot. People power like you said, Cesily. Thank
you. I really like this inclusion activity. Uh so for me is I was born with a disability so I couldn't walk and so I had a lot of difficulties. Um but in school my teachers were so supportive and of course uh I was out here and there because I had to you know deal with therapies and so on. But my um
adaptive PE teacher um my regular general ed teachers they all figured out a way to adapt the uh activities for me and eventually I everything turned out just fine. I'm just glad they never watered anything down. They still had high expectations for me. Um so I was eventually able to to run the laps and
do all the physical education activities, run the iron man and do everything I needed to do because the teachers believed in me. uh and they didn't see my disability as a uh something that would prevent me from participating. So, I just thank all of my teachers who uh adapted um and allowed me to to be me and to grow and
to to be able to fit in with all of my classmates. Hey everyone, I'm David Mets and I am a theater teacher at Santi Education Complex and um I'm going to cheat a little bit because this is an experience I had in college, but I think it applies
to any um K12 situation, but I was I was taking my first big English class, like college level. We were reading James Joyce's Ulisses, and I was really really nervous about this. And I thought I could understand it. I could get it, but I just wasn't comfortable with the writing
of the essay. But um and the teacher said, "Look, you can do whatever you want to let let me assess your knowledge. You want to do a dance?" Because there's it was a school of fine arts that I was in. You want to do a monologue about it? You want to do a
painting? And I chose, yeah, I'm going to do a painting. And so I remember and I still to this day in my classroom in my classroom it's anti I have this painting that I made to remind me it's it to remind me it represented stream of consciousness and it's this brain kind
of feeding into a typewriter and for me that was like something that let me you know identify and hold on to it. It really made the learning really meaningful for me and it reminds me of how I have to continue that for my students.
I'm Denise Harper and the first thing I want to say is va va va vista. I am um a 20-y year teacher from Vista and I am now an inclusion teacher in the math department and
um this is a hard question for me to answer because so much of um what I do in the classroom is based on my experience. So picking one thing but I'm going to go with the second grade um theme. So, I was at the opposite end of the spectrum. I was getting in trouble because I'd have all my work done and I
couldn't shut up. And so, uh, I had a fantastic teacher in second grade, Mrs. Sumner, and she told me that if I finished x number of books that she would let me lead my own book group. And so, I did. And I got to at lunchtime
lead my own book group. and um had a little group of se second graders and a couple first graders would come in and and we got to read and and look at some um different ways of looking at literature. Hi, I'm Lud Jam Sortis and I'm an administrator of instruction at Region
East. I feel like I can connect to every one of those stories that you've shared, but the one that connected uh that I connected with the most was was yours uh remember because the first thing that came to my mind is although I was born in this country, my parents only spoke to me in Spanish. So when I started
school in kindergarten, I knew no English and I was in a bilingual classroom. And then when I started first grade, um, Miss Bono took the initiative to to with a PAR educator or back then they called them TAs, sit me with her for a little part of the day to go over the phonics. And I still remember those
Dick and Jane books. And she would go over the phonics pieces. But she wanted me to learn how to read fluently. And because the school didn't have a lot of money, they couldn't afford to buy books on tape. So she would record herself reading the books to me. She would give me the little cassette with the
headphones to take home for homework and that helped me tremendously. By the time I got to second grade, I was a lot more fluent. But she went out of her way for that to do that to do that for me. And then with the TA in the space, uh, it made a difference.
Oh my god, all these stories. I love teachers. I'm biased, but no, it's just so beautiful how teachers can make such a difference in our lives. um as we're growing up and it's just beautiful. Thank you for sharing. So I'm welcoming Vicki Martinez and so we were just
introducing ourselves and our role and sharing an experience where um as in our schools where we had an obstacle or barrier but somehow somebody was able to help us uh in spite of that. So if you
can share an experience uh that you may have had in your educational period. Thank you. Hello everyone. My name is Vicki Martinez um product of Valley USD and I have very similar experiences but
I'm going to go to my fourth grade teacher uh Mr. Ramirez from Toland Way Elementary School. I still speak to him. Um he I it was a a little bit of an issue with some classmates because I had just switched over to this school. I I
was at Alama. We moved so I had to move over to this school and so there was a little conflict but he um really helped me work through it and in a way that was so caring that I like I said to this day I still speak to the man because he was
a great teacher and taught me so much and I just admire him for sure. Wow, thank you so much. Well, that was uh grounding. And today we're talking about the general ed setting and how do we make that space accessible to our
students with disabilities and everyone else, right? Because we're all on a spectrum of some need of support. So, how do we make that space accessible for all of our students? And so we're going to be hearing from the Department of
Special Education or the Division of Special Education. And I want to thank you all for doing this. We just had a meeting last week. I'm really making you guys work a lot. Sorry. But but I appreciate you putting in the time for this because this is very important to
so many of us. And then the beautiful part about today is that we actually get to hear from people who are doing this work. We'll hear from parents and we'll hear from educators and we might see a video of a student as well. So that just warms my heart because that's what makes
the committee meeting so uh fruitful to me is to hear from the folks who are doing the work on the ground. So without further ado, I'm going to go ahead and introduce uh Mr. Dr. Sto please.
check. Good afternoon everybody. Uh Jose Sto, executive director of special education. On behalf of Chief Tony Aguilar, uh special education and specialized programs, we are so thrilled to have this opportunity to present to this committee. Um, we're excited to
highlight the power of in inclusive instruction in the classroom across the Los Angeles Unified School District where equity, access, and high quality teaching are the heart of everything we do. Today, we'll take a closer look at three schools, Mosque Elementary School, Vista Middle School,
and Venice Senior High School that are leading the way in creating inclusive inclusive classrooms where all students, including those with disabilities, are fully supported and meaningfully engaged. Their work offers powerful examples of how thoughtful collaboration, targeted strategies, and a shared belief in every student's
potential can transform learning environments and outcomes. So, I'm happy to pass this off to Alicia Hos, our administrator of instruction, who will be co-presenting with Leela Rondo, administrative coordinator of instruction as well for the division of special education, and some of our
school site members who are here to present on the great work that's happening at their respective school sites. So without further ado, I'll pass it off to Alicia Hos. Hello and good afternoon board member Ggo. It's lovely to see you again. It just seems like yesterday, doesn't it?
All right, so today we are here to talk about instruction in the inclusive classroom. I'm Alicia Hos. I'm the administrator of instruction for the division of special education. I'll be co-presenting today with my colleague Leela Rondo, our TK12 administrative coordinator for instruction in the
division of special education, as well as like Dr. Sodto shared, several of our school sites and a parent and student who are here to share their experience as well. So, we're very excited to provide you with an overview today. Um, that's what Leela and I are going to do for you, but then we're going to be
passing it off to our school teams to really get into what does it look like at a school site? how has this influenced the work that they do and what are the outcomes they're seeing for students and then we'll finish up with our parent and our student who are here to share their experience as well. So we're very excited to be here today and
thank you for the invitation. All right. Oh, it's me. Okay. So again, okay. So today as we begin it's important to understand that the work we do in this area is based in access and equity. The conversation about
increasing opportunities for students in the general education setting begins with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, what we refer to as IDEA or IDEIDA. This mandates that students with disabilities receive a free and
appropriate public education. We refer to that as FAPE in the least restrictive environment. Overall, LRE refers to the educational setting that allows students with disabilities to be educated with non-disabled peers to the maximum extent
appropriate. There are two variables that IDA looks at when we look at that. Number one is that all children with IEPs should be educated to the maximum extent appropriate with their non-disabled peers. The next piece of that is that when we are considering special classrooms,
separate schools or removal from a general education classroom, we should only do that once we have ensured that all supplementary aids and services cannot be provided in the general education setting. IDA also puts that responsibility of determining what is
the least restrictive environment for each student in the hands of the IEP team, which includes school team members and the family. The opportunity here is to heir on the side of opportunity or the the intention is to air on the side of opportunity versus the side of caution. We want to
make sure that we're giving our students every opportunity to participate in the general education setting with supports as appropriate before we make a determination that they need to be served in an alternate setting. There is a caveat here that I want to point out that I think is really important. We
talk about least restrictive environment. We use the acronym LRE very frequently and I want to point out that when we talk about LRE in reference to our deaf education students, it is slightly different. So I do want to call our attention to that. When we're speaking about deaf education students
or students with deaf ed deaf education needs, we're talking about LRE with languagerich environment. And that's a really important distinction to make. When we determine the LRE or or least restrictive environment for that student, we have to take into account
the need for a languagerich environment. And that means that we have to consider that individual language and communication needs and ensure that there's access to the primary language and their communication mode as well as opportunities to interact with other
peers and with professionals who can communicate in the same manner. So I just want to call that to our attention because I think sometimes um when we talk about LRE we we sort of talk about it with a blanket approach but we need to understand again that LRE and least
restrictive environment is going to be individualized based on the needs of the students and that includes our students with hearing impairments or deafness. Okay. All right. So IDA also calls for a continuum of services. That is something
that requires us to ensure that we are offering a variety of program needs to meet the variety of needs of our students that we serve. So you can see on the screen a trapezoid shape with a larger base at the bottom. Each of the levels that are indicated there from general education all the way up through
home hospital are different levels of support and pro and program that should be appointed and um presented for students based on the needs that they have. You're going to notice that there's two arrows, one on either side. The arrow on the left replies to the
level of restrictiveness of the environment with the point of the arrow being the most restrictive. So when we look at the level of restrictiveness of the environment, we should see that the highest point of the trapezoid, the home or hospital is the most restrictive
setting with the least restrictive setting being the base of the trapezoid, which is the general education setting. And when you look at the arrow on the right, you're going to see that the arrow points the opposite direction. This indicates the number of students that we should anticipate seeing served
in each different type of program. So the most number of students or the majority of our students in our district should be served in the general education setting with fewer students as we move up the trapezoid. So when we get to home hospital, we should see the least number of students in our district served and the most number of students
served in the general education setting. IDA requires that all school districts pro provide the continuum of options. And here in LUSD, we do just that. We provide options for students regardless of their need at every single level of that trapezoid to make sure that
wherever it is that their needs must be served, we provide that opportunity for them within our school district. I also want to point out that it's important to understand that our ability to support students in the general education program has strengthened as our practices have
developed due to the incredible work that's being done by the division of instruction and the division of special education. And as a result, we're able to serve more students than we had previously in the general education setting. That in and of itself is going to shift the numbers of different
program types that we need based on the needs of the students. So, as we're able to better support students in general education, we'll be able to serve more students in general education. Having said that, we recognize that there are still students that are going to require a higher level of support, more
structured systems and programs, and need the need to be served in a special day program. So, here in LA Unified, we offer special day programs for students, and we have every intention of continuing to offer every one of those areas on the continuum.
Okay. So, then what is inclusion? If we're talking about LRE, we're talking about least restrictive environment, we're talking about a free and appropriate education and FAPE, we're talking about IDEIDA. Um, then what is inclusion? Well, inclusion is a belief
system. It's not a placement. Inclusion is a belief that all students belong and have the right to access grade level peers in instruction. It's about creating a sense of belonging and a sense of rightful presence. And rightful presence is a term that we're going to be hearing more and more of. It's a term
that's being used quite widely nationally and it's a term that frames in um inclusion as an equity concept. It looks at students um and their civil rights rather than looking at inviting students to participate. So in the past there had been conversations nationally
around is a student ready or should a student be served and might we find an opportunity for a student to be served. Rightful presence looks at it through the lens of it's our obligation as a school district to provide those opportunities and to create those opportunities for students to
participate. And inclusive settings are those that look through that lens to make sure that as they're designed, they're designed intentionally to minimize those barriers and allow and encourage student participation. that we as IEP teams plan for each individual student and their needs to ensure that
we're maximizing the educational opportunities for them to be served in whatever that IEP team determines is that particular student's least restrictive environment. Okay. So, with that, I'm going to invite Leela over. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm
Leela Rondo. Um, okay. So time in general education for students with disabilities is monitored at the federal and the state levels. California developed new uh performance metric goals in 2020. And this slide shows you a little bit of those. If you look at um
the percentage of students in general education 80% or more of the day that's reflected in the green and the percentage of students in general education 40% or less of the day. That's blue. Those are two different percentages that both the uh state and
the feds monitor. The top two rows show the Californiawide percentages for students with disabilities. And the bottom two show the LUSD data. So we're going to start with those green rows. I know it's a lot of data on here. Um these show the percent of students in
gened for 80% or more of the day. In 2324, you can see that California had 59.1% of their students with disabilities in the general education class, more than 80%. And LUSD, if you jump down to our green, had
63.9%. And then moving to the blue rows, that's the percent of students in GenEd for 40% or less. In 2324, California had 17.1% and LAUSD had 23.93%. The goal for this year in that
metric is for both of us to bring that down to 13.5%. So, just wanted to give you some some general context of where we are. We monitor this on a district level as well. Superintendent Carvalo has been a strong advocate for this work and as
such we have it included in our strategic plan as a district. While the state has a goal of 70% of students served 80% or more of the day in general ed, LUSD has aimed higher for 80% of our students in GED, 80% or more of the day
by 2026. So, let's take a look at where our students with disabilities are served in LUSD. You'll note that there's three types of programs delineated here. Students in special day classes, students in the resource program, and
students who receive designated services only, such as speech. Students served in a special day class program spend the majority of the day without their general education peers. the norm of the classroom is lower and the class is taught by a special education teacher
rather than a content area teacher. You'll notice that there are two types of special day classes listed. There's those for students on the modified core curriculum and those for students on the core or general education curriculum. Just a note that modified core was
previously referred to as alternate curriculum, but modified core is a more precise term since all students are required to have access to the core curriculum. Um, but some require modifications. Students receiving resource services spend most of their
day in the general education classroom and may receive push-in support, pull out support, or both. Like Alicia said, inclusion is not a place, but a belief system. So, there are students with mild to moderate needs as well as those with extensive support needs that IEP teams have determined can
best be served in the general education classroom through specially designed instruction. And that could look a lot of different ways. Um, that could look like planning for the individualized needs of the students in their IEPs. That's with every single student, of course, crafting very meaningful and
targeted accommodations in the IEP. uh teachers using universal design for learning to remove instructional barriers when possible, structured literacy interventions um such as the 95% group, and the provision of a learning center at secondary schools
where students might spend a period of their day receiving support to help them meet their goals in English or math. Um this is also a place where executive functioning skills are worked on and where reading intervention might occur at the secondary level. For students with extensive support needs, we have
inclusion facilitators who provide support to the gened teachers. We have an opportunity to hear later from a parent of a student with extensive support needs about their experience being served in general education. So shifting to more inclusive classrooms requires staff support as
well. The Division of Special Education provides training opportunities for general education teachers to learn more about how to embed accommodations and how to read IEPs. Also opportunities for special education teachers to build on their intervention skills and opportunities
for paras to support smallroup instruction. We provide professional development on co-eing and co-planning. And the division of special education has provided funding for common planning time. Regional teams provide regular classroom visits, coaching and support.
And we host a principal advisory committee, professional development for school administrators, and lead teacher meetings to support the work of building inclusive practices at the school sites. We don't do this work alone. We are fortunate to have a lot of great
partners. Um, many of these are national recog nationally recognized partners including technical assistance organizations Cedar and Swift. We have regular meetings with them, plan PD with them and receive advice on best practices in shifting mindsets and
building skill sets to support this work. We are a grantee of supporting innovative practices uh which is also known as the SIP grant and we walk school sites with them to give direct coaching and feedback to select sites. They help us in our long-term planning
as well. Inclusion Matters is a longtime partner who facilitates celebrations of inclusive play. They actually facilitated an inclusive recess um at Anton Elementary this past week. Um and they also help us with our annual inclusive schools week celebration in
December. And of course, Sea Sun and Cal State LA along with many other institutes of higher education provide us with professional development opportunities for schools. So with all that said, we want to pass it over to our current practitioners and we're going to start with Stanley Mosque
Elementary. Uh, good afternoon. Uh, my name is Michelle Ratner and I'm the proud principal at Stanley Moss Steam School in Magnet Center. I'd also like to introduce our amazing assistant principal, David Barbara. And we are super excited to share our work around
inclusive practices at mosque with you. To kick it off, we do have a brief video uh which shows our um just culture of inclusion from our students point of view. Um and I do have to give credit to Mr. Barbara um for facilitating this
video. So enjoy. [Music] Inclusion is important because if you
would include someone, they can feel happy and it would be fun for both of you. [Music] Inclusion is important because if if
inclusion wasn't part of this world, then people the the society we have now wouldn't exist. [Music]
Inclusion is important because if kids don't have friends then once they grow up they could be depressed and [Music] yeah inclusion is important because
let's say you want to join a club and there's this one friend that's like left out. um you could encourage him to join with you, but versus if they're trying to look for people, it's going to be like really hard. Inclusion should should be happening at every school and many
people from outside the world and schools because inclusion makes other people feel connected, part of a group. So everyone could feel the same way and they could all have [Music]
fun because they will feel like they're not part of the school and they feel lonely inside. So we have to treat them nicely like other kids.
[Music] So, we want to tell you a little bit about Stanley Mosque and our demographics. We're a region north
school and we're located in Wanaka, California. We serve a diverse student population of approximately 500 students, the majority of whom come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Between 81 and 87% of our students qualify for free or reduced lunch price
school uh price lunch and 28% of our our students are emergent bilingual or English learners and tw% are students with disabilities. Stanley Mosque intervention and enrichment to to support the academic success and holistic development of all
of our students. Stanley Moss offers a variety of programs and extracurricular activities. We would like to promote innovation in science, technology, engineering, arts, math and which is called steam. So we have a ma a steam magnet center as well as our school is
steamcertified through the school the school district. So all of our classes are additionally enrichment opportunities include afterchool programs, Lego education, a reading garden, afterchool robotics club, gardening club, student council, and even a theater club. All of which aim to
engage students beyond the classroom and foster leadership, creativity, and collaboration. Furthermore, these programs are open to all of our students in the school. And then finally for me why we have we increase uh inclusive efforts. So for us
it's a commitment to equity and access ensuring stu ensuring students with disabilities have access to the same highquality instruction and social opportunities as their peers is a foundational principle at Stanley Mosque. Furthermore, we see it improves student outcomes. Inclusive environments
provide greater access to grade level curriculum, positive role models, which are key to long-term improvement for all of our students. So, let's talk about how we increased our inclusion efforts. Um, first off, uh, we've steadily increased the percentage of our students with
disabilities who are spending more than 80% of their school day in general education. So up on the screen you can see in 2021 73% of our students were spending 80% or more of their day in general education. Up until now we have
87% of our students. Um so we've made really great progress there. Also too we have reduced our students um in our highly restrictive settings um dropping them from 28% to 13% um in over four years. So that's um
spending that 40% uh in general ed. Um also too by promoting the inclusion um it's all about our school allowing more students access to the core curriculum with their peers alongside their peers which is super important. Um and additionally our average um special ed
instructional time is 14.4% compared to the region average of 26.2%. So when we think about those designated services such as speech, language, adaptive PE, um we have significantly uh
reduced that time so they have more access to that core curriculum. Um but they do get what they need as well. Um now our systems of support, we we do a lot to promote inclusive practices at Stanley Mosque. Um, first
off, in our bulletin, uh, we have a weekly bulletin that has a dedicated API section that provides updates, reminders, and celebrations in regards to special education and that goes out to our whole staff. Um, in addition, uh,
our APIs sends out monthly inclusive practices newsletters to highlight strategies, share success stories, and build a deeper understanding of inclusion across our campus. Also too, we have so many partnerships. Um, inclusion matters has been a
wonderful partnership for us. Um, last December we hosted Superintendent Carvalo and many district representatives um, for that teaming and it was fantastic. There were a couple pictures too in the slideshow that was from mosque as well. So, we're really proud of that partnership and how they
support our our work with inclusive matters. Also too, we utilize something called win time. Uh wind time stands for what I need time. Um it's our small group instructional time. Um and it's really neat because we do it kinder through
fifth grade. Um designated time throughout the school day. Um all students participate in it as well as our resource teachers. They deliver their service minutes during that win time in our classrooms. Um, so it's really important that we really
encourage a more push-in model. Um, so all of our students are learning alongside their peers. Now, our next steps at mosque as educators, we're always growing um, and we can always always continue um, to just really do do well by our students
and and increase just everything that we're doing to for their success. So, first off, we really want to expand the opportunity for our co-eing and planning amongst all of our teachers. Um, so our general education teachers as well as our teachers that uh work with our um
students with disabilities. So, we really need to increase that with all staff. We also want to present additional PD on UDL, so universal design for learning. Um, that's super important because we do want to design those learning experiences that are
accessible and inclusive for all of our students. Super important. Um, we want to host more workshops to educate families on inclusive practices and how to support their children. I think that's really important. Um, and then also too, we want to increase um the
participation of our students with disabilities in all of our clubs, our sports, our leadership uh activities. So we could always really increase that participation as well. And then also one thing that's not on that slide is we really want to continue and and really
hone our ongoing communication with our families regarding student progress and IEP goals. It's super important um that we work together. And I just want to thank you for learning about Stanley Mosque and our inclusive practices. And I'd like to
introduce my colleagues at Vista Middle School. Thank you so much. Hello. Uh my name is Aaron Quanka. I am also the proud principal but of Vista Middle School. And I'd like to introduce my uh APSCS Liam McConville and our uh
one of our special education teachers and also our um I always get this wrong, but she was our inclusion liaison and coach. So this is Lori Wilby. All right. So to start off with um our
just some data about our school, we have about 175 students, 151 of which are students with IEPs. And looking at the um types of oops, sorry, I'm just like clicking away here. Okay, there we go. Um our um types of programs that our
students um are participating in. We have about 22% of our students participating in our deaf and heart of hearing programs. Um, and one of the things that I think speaks to our um, inclusive practices at Vista Middle School that I think is actually one of our most unique programs and um,
inclusive practices is that we offer both our um, American Sign Language program as well as the listening um, and spoken language program which I understand is unique to among schools. Not sure if it's unique across the
district, but it is definitely um very rare if not unique to us specifically. So um it's one of those things that I think for being in a deaf and heart of hearing program, it's very rare to find both programs offered at the school. So when parents come to the school, they can see and experience both programs.
And when students are in the program, they get to see and experience both programs and students from both programs. So, it's a really inclusive practice as well that they're not limited to students from one program or another, but are included across in addition to students in the general education program, but students in other
types of deaf and heart of hearing programs as well, which is pretty um I think special. Um in addition, we've got um our students in specific learning disabilities, autism programs, and other health impairments. So, kind of a general mix of programs as well. So,
moving on. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you so much for this opportunity. It's been a real honor to run and implement this work at Vista and uh implementing this into the master schedule and making sure that our students had a truly inclusive experience. uh in 2022 in support of the
needs of our students but also with the motivation of the strategic plan uh 80% inclusion across the district we started getting ready uh we relied on our RSP teachers to start leading PD around co-eing practices high leverage practices for an inclusive classroom um
not only so co-teers were successful but that gened teachers who haven't previously worked with a special education assistant or a DHH interpreter knew how to immediately hit the ground running with those extra staff members ers in their classroom. Um, in 2023, we had a unique opportunity for our
students to move into science classes in an inclusive model. These students were previously uh together for science with an SDC teacher and they moved into a co-taught setting with a general education teacher and this was kind of our pilot year to see uh what our overall staff needs by might be to make
inclusion successful. Uh fortunately both our students had an amazing experience in this pilot run as did our teachers and from there we knew exactly how to scale up. Um this school year we have implemented inclusion uh across all content areas in
that high category of students receiving general education instruction uh at for 80% or more of their day. We have moved from last year at 43% of students uh to this year where 85% of our students are in a general education setting for um
80% or more of our school day. We are very excited about that and this year we've seen that shift towards rightful presence and teachers finding ways to start their thinking from that place of these students should be in my classroom. Why wouldn't they be in my classroom? And that has been really
wonderful to see. And we're really grateful uh for the support from special education division uh and Leela taking my neurotic phone calls uh month in and month out to make sure our program could be the best it can be. Hello.
I really appreciate the opportunity opportunity to represent the dedication and passion that our Vista staff has brought to our inclus our new inclusion program. Part of our PDS, we focused on
intentional conversations around building cohesive uh teaching teams through challenging questions and conversations. We also had purposeful demonstrations about how to use uh accommodations and the difference between accommodations
and modifications to help prepare our general education teachers for this work. During our collaboration time this year, our co-eing teams uh found this as an excellent opportunity to uh share our
teaching strategies to try and better address the uh wide range of of challenge or of that our student learners have in the co-taught classrooms. In addition to that, because it was our first year for our eighth grade students
to be in Hi, Harper. Because it was our first year for our eighth grade students to be in inclusive classrooms, we provided a pilot program that provided additional supports for those students during home
room. And part of the learning involved was helping a child understand, hey, I I need more help and support. All right. what does that look like for you? And to help them use their voice to define what they needed and then we provided the
supports for them to uh have this additional tutoring and you know empowering student voice if if that's not the main drive of inclusion I don't know what is and so um our staff was very dedicated to all those kinds of
things. Cheers. um as a with our parents um they were understandably concerned about this change going from special day class to full inclusion. And so we wanted to make sure
that we pro provided as many opportunities as possible to have those conversations around these hard uh choices so that our parents could go into the the next year with as much knowledge as possible. So,
um, during the year before we went to that larger percentage of kids in inclusive classrooms, we had very intentional conversations during all of our IEPs because it was sixth, seventh, and eighth uh, across the board moving
into those classrooms. So, we um, really tried to prepare our families as as well as we could in those conversations. All right. Thanks. So, kind of wrapping it up and looking at our next steps, I think one of the things that is most
um most encouraging when thinking about inclusive practices, and I apologize, I have been kind of getting over being sick. Um so, I don't normally have this husky of a voice. um is that as we've been monitoring our data, it's been really encouraging to look at when we
look at our I Ready data, our students with disabilities have been performing above where they would normally be expected to be at for their mid-year data. They're progressing above where they should be expected to be performing based on um the metrics that we're using
with like I Ready in both math and reading. So they're making more than expected gains when they're being with their gened peers. And so the inclusion practice or the inclusive practices that we're using are showing definite improvements in student academic
performance. And so when we look towards what we're going to be doing for our next steps, we're looking at continuing to refine our master scheduling practices to make sure that we're um making sure that those pairings are solid, the pairings that the teachers have. We want to make sure that we're um
reducing the number of separate pairings so that teachers are having more solid and in um reducing the number of separate pairings so that they have uh individualized pairings, maybe less pairings per teacher so they can really focus on collaborative planning time
individualized as opposed to having um you know two to three pairs per teacher. they can have maybe more one set of pairings and they can focus on working together in a in a unique set um and working on strengthening their differentiation and planning skills so that they can more utilize that in-class
planning time. We have a 2 by8 schedule so we have 80 minutes period and we double block that time. So really using that time and strengthening strengthening those in-class skills and maximizing that in-class time that common planning time and in impactful structures within the week. We have
really strong skills with our teachers and our common planning time. So really making sure that we're building that time and including those co-teer times, making sure that those structures are in place not just for the department time but also for the co-teer time that the
co-teer um time is set up in that common planning structure as well. and we're setting that time up deliber del deliberately to really maximize the um inclusive practices with them as well because it really has been showing those gains um in based on our data. Um and
then again just really focusing on differentiated department PD. It's been identified with our um impact review um as something that we need to develop further. Um we've gotten really positive feedback from the ETO office and we're just going to keep pushing that even further because I think we're really
doing well as a department and as a school. Um, so we're really ready to move to that next level. So, thank you very much for your time. And, uh, now to introduce Venice High School. Good afternoon panel. We are grateful and honored to be here. My name is Miss Yavvanka Harrison Truid and I
consider myself the present and proud principal of Venice Senior High School. Here joining me is our special education support provider, also known as a special education coordinator, Mrs. Melissa Mueller. We're going to open up with a
video that can share a little bit about how we got here. Some of the smartest people that I know are in special ed. I have agorophobia. It's hard for me to store information in my head. I was born with a muscle weakness disease. Yeah, I feel embarrassed. I found out that I was
dyslexic in the third grade, but I never knew what it was. Some people need more help than other people. I don't like to do homework. I like to learn and I'm pretty chill. I've been a specialist since middle school. I get
it, but it takes me longer. I've been bullied a lot. I thought people were my friends and stuff, love issues, just all those shenanigans. The second semester of fifth grade, I um had surgery on my heart. I get angry, walk out, wouldn't
do the work at all. I don't tell people I'm in special ed because there's a stigma. I don't pay attention a lot. I get distracted easily. I'm the funniest person on earth. Sometimes I'm shy to answer like to answer a question or ask. Year. I didn't think I was going to
graduate at all cuz I had had a surgery twice. My grades were just like [Music] slipping. Everyone needs help in certain areas of their life and the kids in special ed just need help learning. And
there's nothing wrong with that. Ask questions. Okay, ask questions. I'm telling you. All right. Explaining more to me, you know. Well, I would want the teachers to know that I have accommodations and I have an IEP so they could help me out and work with me. I
think it better if I'm if I'm hearing it or if I see it or if I see it visually. They should figure out how to connect with us. take the time out to like really teach your students and get to know them because you're going to spend like basically almost like this is like our second home, okay? And if we don't
feel welcome, we're not going to participate or respect you. Teachers could like ask you more questions about yourself and get to know you more before they start like saying if you're bad or good or not cuz you don't know, they don't know what you have going on at home or a lot of the time. General
education teachers don't really understand that sometimes things take a little more time to go step by step. Sorry, it should not be a reason why you're failing. Okay. When you have all this help. Yeah. But anyway,
um I'm graduating in December cuz I already walked the stage in June. I'm going to go to college and I'm going to major in professional singing and cinematography. That was like the best day of my life. I want to go back. I want to graduate and I want to be a nurse. Of course I will graduate, man.
I'm going to be a massage therapist. I want to be a kindergarten teacher. I'm going to be an astrophysicist. I made this video. So, as you can see, the reason for our season, our students are excellent at advocating for their rightful opportunities to be in general
education. So, here's our school overview. As of today, Venice High School has 2,261 students enrolled. Of those 200 2,261 24 of our students are students with disabilities. Here on our graph, you see
our breakdown of our eligibility with our largest being our students with specific learning disabilities, second other health impairment, and third students with autism. Within that 88% of our students are primarily in general education for all
day, most of the day. As you can see, 224 of those students are in the general educa ed general education settings for the A throughG courses, including English, math, science, and history. Most of them are in at least more than
one inclusive setting where they have their co-eing opportunities going on. 30 of our students are currently participating in our modified core program in along with having their general education electives. Some of these students have one elective, some could have up to three. Some of them
even opt to have adaptive P later as an elective because they enjoy it. These students include programs such as the intellectually disabled moderate or intellectually disabled severe and our multiple disabled orthopedic students.
Other than that, we also have our developmental support classes. Um, by course title, we call them developmental read, developmental math. Many other people note them as the learning labs or the learning centers. We have 85 of our students taking those. Those are usually
determined as many of our most of our students that come to Venice come from special day programs. So, we provide this as the supplemental service support in their transition. um which is based which course or both is based on the individual IEP.
So why is Venice and doing this? So Venice began the transition to those co-eing and increasing those inclusive practices in the fall of 2019 because we strongly believe that all of our students deserve equitable access to rigorous instruction, meaningful
learning, and the same opportunities. not only for them to succeed at school but also to be successful in their post-secary careers. How did we do this? So, Venice provided um co-taught classes in all of
our A throughG courses. So in the four years of English, in the three years of history or two years of science. And what that means for Venice is our model consists of a general education teacher, a special education teacher and a paraprofessional in all of those A
throughG courses that they take. So the systems that we use to increase our inclusive practices is a lot of professional development. Um obviously scheduling collaboration time and then we still operate an inclusion steering committee that meets um on a monthly
basis through our professional development. We um really work on co-eing strategies such as parallel teaching, such as team teaching. We also bring in other school sites that want to increase their inclusive practices and we've been doing a lot of that as well.
We also do summer institute um with those co-eing where at the end of the year if teams uh change partners or they want to reflect we do that through the summer um through a summer institute. So what's the data show in terms of the
impact? So rightful presence means that our students have their social access to their peers. So right here on the left you might notice the students with disability progress towards the LA USD district goals. This uh data is being pulled from the school experience
survey. So in this area you can see that Venice is the dark blue. In all five of these categories Venice is superseding the district in social awareness. Our students are scoring higher in post-secary in growth mindset in
self-efficacy and self-management all since we have converted to a fully inclusive practice. On the right just to extend how far we are going, what was really important for us is for our students with disabilities to feel more
prepared to apply and attend four-year institutions. So you can see here since we started in 2019 and our first full grade level making it heading towards college by 2021. You see the continued growth where we're outscoring LA USD in
postsecary A throughG ready graduating and prepared. So more of our students with uh disabilities are now attending applying and completing four-year institutions. Next steps for Venice, increasing
students on the four-year college track. So, we want to continue that movement. We want to expand that even further. So, we work closely with the teachers on our campus from the division of uh transition to assist in getting more opportunities for exposure to where to
continue to grow the uh the confidence. We like to we need to increase skill set for our general education teachers and supporting all learners. So we are very excited as the department of instruction and the division of special ed continue to guide and expand the variety of
professional opportunities for the co-parents to get together and train together instead of in silo. So we we're really grateful for these opportunities. So we're also looking to build the capacity of our co-eing teams. As we stated when we design our uh master
schedule they all have shared conference periods. However, sometimes we don't get as much time for our liaison to get out. So, we are designing more opportunities for our liaison to guide the growth of the co of the co-eing teams. Lastly is
developing our new ideas, our new parent inclusion ambassadors. As we have done a large movement in gathering more community families to come back to our school and take this opportunity and take this adventure with us, we are looking to get them to be the ambassadors to help support both us and
the district. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Thank you. And now I'd like to introduce uh May Mari who's here with her son Devon. and um they're going to share a little bit about their experience um as
a family within LA USD. Good afternoon. My name is May Mari and I'm here with my son Devvin. Thank you to this committee and to the division of special education for inviting Devon and I to speak today and to share our
inclusion journey. As background, Devon is my middle child of three. He has an older brother, Jake, and a younger sister, Mimi. He's 19 years old and currently a super senior
at the LA Zoo Magnet. We live in Studio City and Devon has been fully included at each of our home schools, LA USD home schools, from kindergarten to present, a total of 14 years.
And you might ask, why did I choose inclusion? Obviously, the concept was different 14 years ago than it is today. Um, and I think it was I had to think back. It's a long time ago, but I think it was really two things. One was a
comment that the geneticist said to me when we were in the hospital, when I had delivered Devon, um, that stuck with me. And um what she said was that Devon was never going to be like his brother. And as a mom, I think that
poked the mama bear in me and made me say, "Why not?" Um and um secondly, when Devon was 3 years old, there was an organization that opened its doors called Club 21. It's a learning and uh
resource center located in Pasadena. And their mission statement, Club 21's mission statement was to provide educational tools and resources that enable individuals with Down syndrome to be fully included. Um they were a big part of I
think why we chose inclusion for Devon because they shared the vision before I I knew the vision and what it was about. In terms of how inclusion has worked for us there throughout the entire time I
only had one ask and that was to have the support of the IEP team in terms of our vision and to put play uh Devon in a classroom where he was wanted.
Um, it didn't matter if the teacher didn't have special education training. It didn't matter if she'd never worked with a student with Down syndrome. It didn't matter um if um the teacher or educator wasn't sure how it was going to
work. As long as uh their heart was open to inclusion, that was all that mattered. And that was the only thing I asked for all these years. And and it worked. Um, I think it's important also to
emphasize that Devon being fully included. So, he took regular classes from kindergarten, the the normal English, math, history, science all throughout. Um, and the
expectation has never been for him to keep up. that wouldn't be fair to him nor anyone else, the teachers, no one, if the expectation was to keep up. Um, I only wanted Devon to have access. I
wanted him exposed to things that I grew up like reading and learning about the diary of Anne Frank. We all did that. I wanted Devon to have that opportunity um to learn Shakespeare and and and and that and
and no matter what was being covered in the classroom, there was always something that Devon was able to get out of it, something meaningful um in terms of of whatever curriculum. And I want to say that um based
on him being included all these years, what I've noticed is that where he thrived and where he was most successful were in the classrooms where he was the most integrated. It was the classrooms where they were working collaboratively
with his peers in group settings um and where he was an active participant in the class. Lastly, and I think the most important um piece why I was asked to speak was to talk about the benefits of inclusion for
not only Devon um but also his his peers and and his classmates. Um and I wanted to this was too late of a thought to share photos because as everyone knows a photo speaks a thousand words. I captured through these years many
beautiful moments that basically affirm that we did the right thing and that inclusion is a beautiful a beautiful um a beautiful thing when it works. Um but we weren't able to bring the photos
and so I wanted to describe I wanted to describe things that I've captured throughout the years. Um, one of them, one of them was a picture of Devon when he was young in elementary school. And um, there was something special going on where at the school that day, a fair or
something. But I have a photo of him. It's just the backside of him and his classmate um, sitting on the sideline and he's got his arm around his classmate, a friend of his, and and that was it.
And the the photo was touching to me um because I later learned that this classmate was sad. Um I don't remember why, but he was sad and that Devon was there to offer him comfort. There were probably no words exchanged that day between the two of
them, but it was a simple display of care and friendship. Devon sensing that his friend was having a hard day and the and taking a break from the school festivities to offer support. I have countless pictures of Devon working on projects, assignments,
labs in collaborative groups in the classroom. Um, and it always seemed Devon always had a task. So whenever he worked in groups, they always gave him a job and it was always the perfect one for him. And it
wasn't I had nothing to do with it. It wasn't the teacher. It was the students who amongst themselves would determine, you know, what and it was always the perfect role or task for Devon. Um, I
have tons of pictures of Devon with Juliana. Juliana is a friend that he met in middle school at Reed. Um and they had from that time
developed a meaningful and special relationship that is withtood time and distance. Um at Reed during middle school, Juliana was Devon's desk partner. She was she showed up for everybody lunch on Fridays when they would integrate um the special education
students with the typical the gened students. Um, Juliana attended school functions and events with Devon and they they separated in high school. They went on to different schools. Um,
Juliana is now in a different state uh in Oregon, I believe, in college. But to this day, whenever Devon calls her, she answers the phone. I've heard her answer the phone in class. I've heard her answer the phone, I think, out on a
Saturday night. Um, but you know, even though they haven't attended the same school since middle school, um, she at the time they developed a special friendship and like I said, she continues to be someone really special to
him. Another um, picture I wanted to share was from Devon's 18th birthday and graduation party last year. It was a mix. It was a mix of friends from school as well as friends from club 21 and the down syndrome community. The picture
captured the full circle of what our inclusion journey has been. Just Devon and his friends with and without disabilities dancing and having a good time together. Finally, the last picture I wanted to share on our inclusion journey
is one that hasn't been taken yet. And this picture is going to be the one of Devon holding his diploma this June. The alternate pathway to the diploma is going to open up the door to a world of possibilities for Devon and
thousands of other students with disabilities. For us, Devon receiving a diploma is also symbolic of all the hard work that he has demonstrated these past 14 years. his bravery and his courage to be
different, to teach others to embrace differences, and to always ask for a seat at the table. Thank [Applause] you. Thank you so much. My goodness, what a beautiful story. Thank you for
sharing your journey. Thank you Devin for sharing your story with us and congratulations on the upcoming celebration. So happy for you. Yes. Um wow. Uh do we are we done with the
presentation? Okay. I'm still taking it all in. This was such a beautiful uh presentation from everyone. very much inspired by all the work that you all are doing. And um I'm going to open it
up for some questions. Uh but before I do that, I I forgot to say that if the committee can stay afterwards, I have some nice certificates for you in appreciation for your volunteerism coming out here um to to participate in
the committee. So, um, but I would like to open it up to some comments, some questions, and I also have my discussion question that I'd like to put out. Um, if you would like to respond to this and this is in your experience, what are some strategies that work in an
inclusive classroom as or or even as a parent, right? What are some some things that have worked for you and what supports do you need to make these strategies work? I think a lot of our presenters today shared the strategies
and also shared the supports that you need to make it work right. Um so that's one of the questions that we can discuss here and like you know I always take notes so that we can take this back uh and see what we can do to to affect
change and make things you know more uh inclusive but appropriate. Right? So for our students um so I'd like to open it up for any questions or comments. Yes. So exciting. Thank you for all your
work. And the first question I have is teacher burnout. They so much is expected. I was talking about how we're miracle workers as teachers in the classroom what they're doing and teaching is
challenging you know as is. So I am wondering you know your question about what makes it work. So class size I also think about salary that we have to pay everybody double. So what would you say are the things that feed your teachers
like if you can make what what top two or three changes would you make? Because also I think about relationships and people, you know, because when teachers stay and are are feeling good, then you know a kid, right? You know, a student from the time they're in kindergarten to
the time that they graduate. Um, so what do you want? What are the things that feed the teachers to be able to really provide um high quality instruction? Um, I think it's super important that
you have a culture of collegiality and um, just understanding and support. Um, those times that you give our teachers to collaborate, to get to know each other. Um, Miss Grego, you mentioned those that inclusive activity you had in
the beginning. Those are important to build into professional development to meetings. Um you know so they do get to know each other and know how to support each other. Um that's super important. Um that time together building that in
um to co-plan to teach co-e and then just to get to know each other because we all bring strengths to the table. We really do. Um, and so, and then lastly too, um, those fun activities that you plan for after hours that teachers get to go do and you just have fun and get
to know each other because I think building all of that together really makes them a strong team. Um, because you know, things go ary sometimes, right? But you have lots of successes, too. So, it's really great to celebrate and and support each other through all that.
Because I saw you have like a summer institute. I mean, what do you do? Co-eing is I mean, human personalities, right? And um so I'm wondering what do you do if if you do have two people who are reluctant to work together or their visions of management are totally
different? Um you know, I'm just wondering again how you set them up for success. So uh Venice was very clear that at least 80% except when we have new teachers come in are authentic
chosen by each other which is why I want to bring back the the idea of the inclusion liaison's value um for all those who really are familiar with how the district um opened up with their inclusion initiative it was
designed by them and so we've carried this role um and you know on our own backs at the school to ensure that we have the inclusion liaison. Um and they're the ones who get out that check in on the partners. Um and we do we have had
partners that maybe kind of went ary and they just their personalities had trouble and we use restorative practices in those cases. Um I have ran small circles for those teachers to get them back on course. Um, and that usually happens when it is when the partnership
was developed because they're new to the school and we just needed the course. So, they did not get to choose each other. But in most cases, we start in January reviewing the partnerships in time for the matrix and the master schedule in order to see if there's some
shifting that needed to occur or intentionally needs to occur. So that's where the liaison gets out and runs around class to class meets with them and then gets back to us and the APS and says this is what we got this this is what's new this is what's going to be
consistent so yes um it does it does require strong relationship building and that is why we continue to ensure that our master schedule they have shared conference I don't know that they're going to do it so I'm incredibly proud that sitting behind me not only are
three school teams but three school principles who are here representing that work and so I really want to call out there's also a leadership component to that um every one of us in every aspect of our life and every club we're in department committee we sit on every
everything we have an opportunity to have a common shared goal and vision and when we have a leader who instills that and brings that from the top and says to us this is what we believe at our school um I think that there are people that may not always get along. We all have
had experiences with people that we definitely preferred or people that perhaps given another setting and another opportunity we might have made a different choice. But together we work as a team and we work in it. And I just want to call out our three princip I mean all of our amazing presenters but our three principal leaders that are
here today because they have set a tone and an expectation at their school site that the only thing that should happen and be at the center of everything are students. And because that is the vision they've brought forward, their staffs and their teams have come and rallied together around that to sort of look
beyond whatever minor issues or obstacles that may come up to find solutions because they're all there to support the students. So, I just really want to take a moment to commend our amazing three principles that are here today. Thank you. Thank you. Is it working?
Yeah. Well, thank you so much. But I mean not but and uh Venice High School is a community school. So happy to hear that. And and also I heard so many beautiful things about how you uh deal when there is an
issue uh that arises among staff. You said restorative practices and you do circles with your staff to try to address the issues before they get even worse. I love that. Um, I also heard uh
common planning time and how you work with your counselor to make sure or your uh AP for counseling to make sure that somehow that happens and the liaison who is there to support the whole process. I
mean, I think that when I'm thinking about strategies, but what supports do you need? That's what I'm thinking about because I know what I've heard from teachers who are in some schools that are implementing inclusion is that they
don't have planning time that that makes it difficult to co-e and then all of a sudden it's not an inclusive classroom per se but rather the special ed teacher is like an aid an assistant you know and so but those those are very key I think
and I I appreciate I think all of you actually said that and I appreciate appreciate also what you said about um about just making things um joyful for them having inclusion activities because really we're in education is about
relationship building right a a teacher builds relationship with students and so we need to do the same thing with our own staff they need to build relationship and it has to be intentional um I'm going to open up more space yes uh Victoria Vicki and and then
yes, Denise, and I apologize I have to look at your names. Thank you so much. I have a couple questions. Um, everything I'm hearing is amazing. Thank you. I I I appreciate everything all of you do for our students, but I am really concerned with
all these budget cuts, right, coming down the pipe from federal funds. What do you foresee as that being an issue for your school site? And then that comes back to here. are we supporting them so that they don't suffer and how are we doing that? That's
one. So, regarding the the funding component, I think that as we're receiving this this information, we're still in the process of of understanding what the impact's going to be. So, we may not have an answer in terms of what that's going to look like, but that's definitely something that the superintendent will be engaging the board and and the school communities and
everyone and and the district about what that impact's going to be. um specifically, he did make an announcement at a recent board meeting about the the executive orders that have been um introduced. And so we're just at this point trying to decipher all of that and then be able to understand what that impact's going to be and of course
ensuring that everyone knows and that we do some something about it like some kind of advocacy to ensure that our schools have what they need to continue the programs that they have. Thank you. Um, the other question that I had was
around the schedule for the middle school, if I'm not mistaken, or was a high school that uses the block schedule. Is it the middle school? Has that always been this the the case? And how has it worked? And then I
want to know if that continues on to the high school to Venice as well. Hi. Um, so the uh 2 by8 block schedule for us, this is our second year. Um, it's my first year as the principal at Vista. So, um, but it's the second year
uh of the block schedule. It depends on which high school they go to, whether or not they're going to continue on with a block schedule. So, when they move on to the high school, they do have some options to choose, whether they choose a magnet school, whether they choose one of their resident feeder schools, um, whether they end up in another block,
um, or they might end up in a 4x4. There's a lot of different choices in the um feeder schools that are nearby us. So, it just kind of depends on what the parent wants as their choice. Um but we are currently moving into um we're keeping our 2 by8 going forward. Um but
it's been working for us, but it's a relatively new experience, but so far it's been doing well. Um I think that 80minute block has been serving the students well. How we've been able to utilize the time blocking the ELA and math I think has been beneficial. It's allowed us to incorporate intervention in ELA and math, which I think has
definitely shown growth for us um in um definitely we've seen it for our special education students, but also just in general across the board for our gened students as well. So, yeah, it's been it's been real helpful for us. Thank you so much. Of course. Thank you for all of the wonderful
information, especially the data. I always appreciate seeing the data. Um, couple things before I even get into it. I think that we need to make a shift in the educational community. We need to stop differentiating on credentials
between a special educator and a general ed educator. When we do that, then teachers will be getting credentialed with this idea of inclusion already. You are a teacher. What works for special ed, as Cesley said before, works for
everybody. And as long as we continue to differentiate between these two areas, there's always going to be a sense of conflict and not the unity that we need to be fully inclusive moving forward. Um, what do I need as an inclusion
teacher besides time? I love the idea of fun. I think that's really important. And not all relationships work just like in the real world. And so there needs to be a freedom to make changes when they need to be done. When you've done those restorative practices or you've tried to
look at it alternative ways, no one should feel bad about that relationship not working. It needs to be an option and the students have to be at the center of it. When it comes to um support for students, we at Vista, I'm
very proud of the support we give our students for math and English, but I would also like to see the district supporting science and history uh with an a co-teer because history is about reading and writing. And if you already are at a
grade two or three in your reading and writing skills and then you're expected to go into a history class and compete and even with your accommodations still are falling short of that ability and you only have a pair professional some
of the time to support you, you're not getting the full opportunity. If there's a co-teer there, it's a different experience for a student. And when I'm working with my students, I am not just co-eing my students with IEPs. I'm
coaching my gened teach students also. And our students view us as we are both teachers in there. And we are just as capable of answering their questions and supporting them. And it doesn't they don't differentiate. Oh, I'm I've got to
go to Harper or I've got to go to Martinez or you know, whatever. And that that needs to be what happens for those students. um they really need more support. Uh I would like to see that on a district level because of course it's all about
money too and um you know traditionally resource has always supported only English and math but hello history is just another name for an English class and uh I think that's it. Thank
you. Thank you. Um anybody else? Yes, David. Hi. So, you know, I'm a theater teacher at TNT and uh I have the the privilege of teaching students who uh are uh moderate
who have uh moderate to severe disabilities uh in an inclusion setting with my gened students. And um at first it was kind of, you know, lonely trying to figure out how to do it because I didn't get a whole lot of extra support or training.
In fact, I didn't really have any. But um I started to figure out that theater wound up being an amazing tool to help create a sense of community. And I know that, you know, when when you have a hammer,
everything's a nail. But um there's something about theater that seemed to uh connect with everyone. And this is the idea of universal design for learning because there's a story underneath every every theater piece. And so I started doing storytellers
theater and I started to figure out, you know, that there was something for everyone to to do no matter what their ability. They could be building props. Um they could be making costumes. They could be designing costumes, uh drawing costumes, making doing the makeup. I
mean, there's so many uh different ways of supporting a production that it wound up being a perfect vehicle to include these students. Um, and so I guess what my question is, um, did did any of these three wonderful schools experience, um, the benefits of
arts, uh, inclusion programs? And if so, especially theater in terms of like project-based learning, um, or just any kind of performing arts um, and and what might you be able to share about your experience with that?
Hello. Um, so at Venice, we have uh students um with extensive needs that are participating, not just students with extensive needs, but all of our students who have disabilities um in various arts programs, whether that's art, theater, uh graphic design, um
automotive shop, we have autoshop that they seem to really like. So wide variety, right, of of courses. um we have screen printing and things like that that they really love. But in terms of theater for our students with extensive needs, it has given them access and a voice and being able to
collaborate with their with their peers. Um with the beauty of Venice and our ability is we have heavily supports through pair professionals who come and can support general education teachers but also they're provided similar collaboration time with those student uh
teachers who teach that modified core. So those teachers um classes line up. I'm sorry that they can collaborate together and so they're able to do that um and develop. When I was teaching in the classroom as the intellectually disabled severe teacher
at Venice, I worked with the music teacher. I worked with the theater teacher. Um sometimes some of our students or difficulty um with monologues, right? heavy based reading that needed to be modified or accommodated to support them. And so we
work together to develop that and our teachers are doing that now. Each student has specific needs and needs that. But we're fortunate enough that we have pair of professionals um if that period it's second period theater for instance and the teacher can't go with
them obviously to support during that time that those pair of professionals um have those skill sets to support that accommodating work or helping it bring back and in collaborating with the teacher for modifications and things like that. So hope that answers your question. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome.
Anybody else? Uh let me get Go ahead. Yes, you go first and then Well, I want to say thank you um for the presentation. Uh wonderful. And thank you Devon again for sharing your story with us. And I wanted to add to the
leaders as we mentioned before. You guys have come in in different spaces. One have been there for a longer time, one has just come in to the point of talking about co-eing and how to get the buy in for the staff to to embrace this concept
and once it's already there I think Vista you shared it was there before you got there and how you transition into that space to continue it and then those that had already been there can you share a little bit to the strategy into that piece and then the other part was
to the class sizes um that we were talking about earlier as far as having a special ed as well as uh general ed um combined. What do those class sizes look like? So those are two two things.
Yeah. So okay co-eing. So let me re can you restate the question because I think and as I came up with the co-eing as a leader of the campus and we mentioned just the work that you have done to bring it here and so some groups have grown um in that um started small as a
pilot then it grew some was like 50% increase real quick and then for you having so many co-eing and not that the partnership always works but how do you continue to encourage that buyin from the from the from the gate? for schools
that may not already have that and are looking to figure out how do I do it? What are some of the strategies on that end to make it successful? Thank you for that question. So, we're really talking about the mind shift that took place and what needed to take place. So, we
started out touring. So, at the be at at that time in 2019, LA High was the mover and shaker. That was really the place to be for high school. So we took our interested teachers both in gen ed and
sped over there to tour to sit down with their their teachers their administrator. I sat down we got to learn like what does it really look like? So I want to give credence to what the work that was going on at LA High at that time. Um they were really true guiding factor. Then we decided we were
ready but what we needed to do was take it one course and one grade at a time. So we started out with nth grade with an English with English and math which is not uncommon um with teachers that were interested in taking this adventure. So we started with them then every year we
had them present. They would present throughout the school year as well as our SPE does their annual various presentations of how to provide supports, how to understand IEPs, etc. But these are the times where we would use to spread the knowledge. So when they would speak to their own colleagues
about their successes, their passion, how important, how valuable it actually has been even to have a partner in the room, I wish I had that for my 15 plus years in the classroom. Um when we when they were able to do that, then they
began to volunteer on their own. And as they begin to continue to watch it grow, that is really they they're doing it themselves. the teachers are being able to speak to their work, their opportunities, their experience, the the supports they're given because I can't
sell it by myself. So it's we continue to let it sell itself. So by the third year um the district said you are officially in our inclusive transition. So that is how we leaped from 9th to adding 10th and within our third year we went full 11th and 12th we incorporated
within one year. Okay. So our classes are at standard uh class sizes as appropriate as deemed by the contract. Um we keep what we do is we have clear when we when we enroll our students we make sure that we try we have our
average percent. So we try to average no more than 30% of students in that classroom that are currently receiving that service. So there could be students in that classroom that have an IEP, but they're not there for the service so that we can manage it per period. And I
hope that helps. Thank you. I'll just add in a little bit. Um, you've heard a lot about co-eing today, which is a fabulous strategy. However, it's not the only way that we have students with disabilities included. And what we know is that we would love to have two teachers in every single
classroom in this district, but we do not have the bandwidth or capacity at this time to do that. We would love to. Um, so with that said, a lot of it has to be co-planning uh the general education teacher and the special ed teacher getting together and planning out what supports do we anticipate the
student needing? What barriers do we see not just for this student but for other students who are in the classroom? Um, something that we like to point out to schools too is that when they're in a special day class, that is a far smaller ratio, but those teachers can go with those students into those GenEd classes.
Something that schools might not always realize is that when students are served in gened for 50% or more of the day, that student now begins to draw down additional general education teachers for that school. So, for example, if a school is moving their students who were
previously served in a special day class setting into gened, that school is going to generate additional gened teachers, um they'll earn more gened teachers as an as part of the norm. So, just something else to think about all the tricks. Um, thank you. Uh, let's see any
Oh, yes, Cesy. And then somebody else want Did somebody else want to share? Okay, why don't you come up? Sorry. If I if I get the gist of your question appropriately, stepping out of your own classroom and into someone else's space
and trying to build that team, there's nothing easy about that. But when you have an admin team that gives teachers voice, just like we want to prepare our students to have voice, that changes everything because how you are in that
moment matters to everyone that has something at stake in this uh arrangement. So we we had our conversations, we had our restorative practices, we had our divorces, but it was it was what the situation required
because there's never one sizefits-all and as long as we um are reasonable about what we ask people to do at Vista, our science team, giving them a shout out, it it should be at
full volume. They stepped up hugely to just take that lead role without any complaining. And as they got deeper into the first phase of inclusion, they drove the conversation for all the other
teachers because they had questions about the day-to-day and how to meet the needs of students. And then the other teachers were came along for the ride, right? We had a lot of new teachers last year when we started or this
year. This year when we started because this is our first year. Oh dear. Okay. This is our first year full inclusion. That felt longer. Yeah, it felt well let me tell you about length of time, right? Okay. So, um uh we had a lot of new
teachers and it we shared the wealth. Everybody got a taste of what inclusion is and uh we we as a special ed team were kind of spread thin but it was really equitable and that's the driving force too, right? Voice and equity.
Equitab equity. Thank you. What time is it? Yeah. Uh and so [Music] um everyone had the experience and these were hard things. We had to be adults,
right? We had to have hard conversations with one another. We didn't agree, my coach teacher and I, we didn't agree about a lot of stuff. And um I I'd like to tell you something that was very surprising. When I first started inclusion, I knew my eighth graders
because I had taught them in SDC the year before. And I found that I had to completely ignore them. I had to normalize that I was in that space to provide support and teach kids. But yeah, I know you, you know me, but you
don't want anybody to know that we know each other. And I've always respected that with my students. I normalized co-eing in the classroom and then everybody felt comfortable asking for support. I I found that surprising
as our first layer, but it was a very important one. All right. Cheers. Thanks. Thank you so much. And we're almost nearing the but no, please come on up. I'm sorry. It'll be so fast. I promise. Just two things. I want it a thumbs up HT. When people see it
happening, they want it. How am I going to get a co-teer next year? We also built an instructional rounds looking at high leverage practices for students with disabilities using the look for to tool from DSSE. Um, and finally, something really special of this is because we have the new teachers, we see
that the experienced RSp former SEC teachers coming into inclusion, they're leading instruction more. The new teachers are watching them teach the IM lesson that they're struggling with. The mentorship that has been built into the process because of those pairings has been really, really awesome to see.
Thank you. I have to add one more thing. And I know Oh, yes. Go ahead. From Oh, I'm so sorry. From an elementary perspective, um we've had an experience that's been amazing uh with our teacher in our modified core. Um she has really
tapped into student interests um to bring our general education students to her classroom. Um which is really neat. Um so she actually um invites our general education teachers to sign up their class to come into her classroom
where they co-e on an interest that is just really interesting to all the students. Um you know so those highinterest things not only is it going from her classroom to a general education classroom but it's a general education classroom moving to her
classroom as well. And our students feel so comfortable, all of our students, and they know that this is all of their classrooms, which is really a wonderful experience for them. So wonderful. Um, Cesy, yes, this is my last burning request. I think it's all
coming together. Um, to Miss Mari's point, an image teaches you so much. When you see it, you want it. You brought a great video at Venice. You have a student who makes videos. This is what I'm wondering, right? Because you've got when you've got a co-eing situation that really works. I'm
thinking about history, seventh grade world history, right? You have a 100 minute block. I would love to watch a video. Do you know what I'm saying? Where the teacher breaks down. All right. This is the amount of time for whole group instruction where we're laying out, you know, the goal of today. To your point earlier, right, it's group
work that's often most effective because students can co-e other. So that's my request, my thought that it's all coming together is a video. You know how it helps like you David you're saying when it's given to you you're like what does it look
like? That's my request. Even a five minute 10-minute video of this is how we break down this 100 minutes in a seventh grade history class um in ways that work. So I just I know we're closing up. I just want to address that and I want to give a gratitude. Um so as a division of special education that those are the
types of things that we're working with our school sites to produce for next year. We really want to bring the vision to life. Um, and I understand and I know that we all as district staff are embedded and ingrained in this work. We all believe that all students should
have opportunity. All students can learn and we're here to do that. But I really want to take a moment to thank the committee because it is a it is a gift to be able to come and speak to a committee that isn't just the special education committee, but is the committee where we should be talking about how are we providing instruction
for all students and all diverse learners. And so I just really want to commend and and show gratitude to this team and this committee for inviting us here and inviting all of us here today to share our stories and the work that we're all doing to support students with disabilities and without because the
truth of the matter is is that this work benefits not just students with disabilities. It benefits all students. All students are learning empathy. All students are learning understanding. All students are under are learning respect. All of our adults are doing the same. So by being invited here today and
recognizing that work, that is a huge step for all of our students and all of our school teams to promote the work and move the work forward. So I just want to say thank you very much from the division of special education. Thank you. Um but you know I do have one last question though. We talked about
professional development and also the summer institute I think it was at Venice. So I want to know the professional development that you provide at your school around inclusions. um all of the things that you shared are those um where where do
those professional developments come from? Are they do is it the special ed teachers who are doing it? Are they collaborating with gened? Are you getting it from the district or do you have a company who does it? anybody. I want to first say because she's going
to get more in depth about being specific about that, but I want to give credit and kudos also to the Division of Special Education who has been in our corner and supporting us the whole time. So when we talked a little bit about how we began, I realized I left out mentioning that they would come to our
school that Leela Rondo has attended multiple meetings with our team to help them see the bigger picture and they came and visited us and so they have been in support. So I want to also and they do provide a lot of resources that we use during our institute. So you can
be a little more in depth. So our summer institute kind of just recently started last year um because our teachers were collaborating together and then you know summer hits and then they would take their own time um and sometimes pairs couldn't meet or um we'd have new pairs
and you know maybe their contract didn't start yet you know so there was variables. So we said, how do we get them together to reflect on their year like their glows and grows and things like that? And then also, how do they because when you have pairs that have never worked together, how do they know
how to build instruction for students? How do um we also start at this time building um let me use an acronym um for special education. Special education teachers have what we call SEESACs. And so those are students on their SESACs um that
they'll have for the year that they're providing instruct uh services for monitoring, writing IEPs, those things. So those special education teachers are collaborating with their co-teer pair. They already know a bulk of who their students are going to be for the new year. And when they have those new
pairs, this is the time that they do instruction. Um and then we also we built our own internally. We don't have a company that comes. We use some of the resources that the division of special education has had but we also do a lot of time for reflecting and then um what are we going to change how would that
look um we use data I ready data there's a lot of uh grade data we look at grade data there's a lot of pieces that we use during that summer institute this year we have a um not asked but we have opened our doors if the other schools that came uh for instance like Jordan
High School Fairfax High School if they start pro um utilizing some of the strategies that we are doing if they would like to come and partake in our summer institute. So, we're not sure yet if they'll be joining, but we have opened it up to other schools and we build it from the inside. Um, and it's
teacher driven. Um, and then it just goes from there and it's led by teachers. And it's led by teachers. Absolutely. Thank you. Makes me happy. Oh my goodness. Would Yes. I just was going to share for Vista. Um we have um worked in combination and I think would
continue to work in combination with um the division of special ed for both deepening um our professional development around the strategies that our co-teers use around um the co-eing strategies in terms of like the types of co-eing they do in the classroom to just
continue to strengthen those strategies that they use in terms of parallel teaching you know uh the different styles of co-eing as well as we have really fantastic instructional coaches. We are a tier three school. Um so we have our um the educational
transformation office support as well as the division of instruction. So we have a lot of professional development around curriculum and instruction um as well as our instructional coaches. So we have those supports as well for professional development around just the curriculum and instructional side and really digging deeper. So some of our focus
elements this year are really getting deeper into rigor and um discourse. So, we're going to build some instruction and support around those and then just kind of having it be teacherled while providing those um instructional supports there. So, kind of putting those strategies and structures in place
and then letting the teachers just dig in with the resources that we provide them. So, that's our strategy for us. Thank you. Wonderful. Thank you so much. Wow. I didn't even realize it was already 619. Like I had to remind myself this is such a good conversation, right?
So, thank you all. You all made it. so powerful and so informative and I learned and it just makes me so proud and I want this for all of our schools. I always say that when I get folks here. Some of the beautiful things I heard
were co-eing um touring schools and taking your time to really learn about it, get your teachers on board, your staff on board and ease into it. And I heard that a lot from everybody how it's a team effort,
right? Not just the teachers in the classroom, but the counseling staff and the admin and the para educators. It's and it's a mindset shift, right? We have to I really appreciate what you said, Denise, about how we we just need to be
all teachers for all students. As a special ed teacher, I always felt that way like you know. Um so and I loved also I learned a lot about restorative practices for repairing uh harm or relationships you know uh amongst
adults. I think we need to use that more often. Uh and then teacher created and teacherdriven uh professional development makes me very happy as well. And of course hearing mom uh speak about your commitment to ensuring that Devon was
included in all of his education and how you've celebrated every step of the way and you're uh a very key part of that of of giving him access to to everything. So thank you for that. you're a model
for a lot of parents and I'm I'm really grateful to you for doing that and Devin too and I'm so excited for his diploma. I just can't wait. But anyway, I'm going to um close um this meeting just to remind you this is our last meeting of the year, but I'm hoping to continue
chairing this uh committee next year. And if you'd like to continue participating, let us know. we will follow up with what the process is going to be. And um I think that's it. I'm gonna hand it over to Mike for some
public comment and then please don't leave because we have some certificates for you. Thank you. Okay, here we go. Uh I'll call on the folks who listed themselves as being here in person. I can't quite see if they're here, but I think I'll know when they're standing at the podium. Erin Stutter, are you here?
Or Erin Stutter, are you here? Come on up. You'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. This is dangerous public comment holding us back from dinner. Um my name is Aaron Stutter. I'm the executive director at Chime Institute uh in Los Angeles. And
uh chairperson Grigo, board member new bill. Uh Dr. Bayz, distinguished committee. Thank you so much for letting me say a few words. I I won't read a ton of this other than to say chime stands for community honoring inclusive model education and it started as a federal
grant project in 1987 at California State University Northridge to create a fully inclusive preschool program which we still operate to this day. Uh we have a a regional center vendor program to provide intervention student children birth to age three. Uh as well as our TK
through 8 charter school. All of our programs are 100% inclusion. 100% of the children we serve are included 100% of the time and we actually partner in many ways with LUSD. And I just I I'm going to stop rambling for a second. So well
done. You guys are awesome. I just was so I loved hearing about all the progress of these schools. That is amazing. Uh I'm so excited about the work that LUSD is doing around this. Um, and we uh continue to partner with LUSD.
We're a technical assistance site for the supporting inclusive practices statewide grant. Uh, and we actually had uh folks from LA USD out with us last week uh doing a site visit at our program. Uh, I thought it was three minutes, it's two minutes. I'm way
behind. I'm also just going to cite that there is another innovation that happens at LAUSD called charter operated programs option three within the special education SULPA. And I just want to talk for maybe 10 seconds about how important that is in ensuring that the charter
partners within LA USD have the resources they need to support students with special needs as well. It's been a little over decades since that started. And the key metric that I I hope this committee uh tracks is that the number of students with disabilities in charter
schools has increased, including students with significant disabilities. such an important and innovative move on behalf of LUSD. So, thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Let's see. Uh we have Nita Mendes. Are you here?
Nita. I do not see Nolita. How about Maria Torres? Are you here? Miss Torres either and the rest are remote uh via Zoom. Let's go to uh concerned educator.
Concerned educator, please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Concerned educator, I see you. Hi, I'm con I'm confirming Dr. Fetzer's Sandy Hook promise issue. may be evaluated in August by your
school safety and climate committee. So, he may be given an agenda item regarding it. Uh, L USD's Sandy Hook promise is earning millions in donations. And if the incident was manipulated for something that it wasn't, do you agree
it must be reviewed? I hold a masters in fine arts and theater from Sarah Lawrence College and I was a sag after actor in TV and film for over 25 years many a background actor scenes so you might see me as a
kind of expert and Dr. Professor showed two photos back to back and one photo had children in a line and the next photo had the same line but some of those children were in different positions. Most of them were calm in demeanor yet one was out of place
physically and emotionally and and this wasn't natural. I sense she was acting and even if she wasn't the fact Dr. Fetszer was denied his constitutional right of a trial by jury and unable to give his evidence. This reason, this is
reason for concern and also because people are instantly labeled and silenced if they question this leads me to believe something is off. Dr. Fester graduated Princeton University Magna Kumlad. He was a
captain in the Marine Corps and resigned to earn his PhD. As a professor of philosophy, he's won many teaching and research awards. You would want him to teach our students. So, I see him as acting in good faith. He has contacts and documents to support it and I'm
looking forward to Dr. Fetszer and our supporters on this matter speak today including a former LUSD student. I thank you for this empowerment meeting. It made me feel empowered. Thanks. Thank you for your time. Let's see. The
next caller is concerned parent. Concerned parent, please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. concerned parent. Good afternoon, committee members. First and foremost, I want to congratulate um
Devon and family for this huge accomplishment. I'm pretty sure that it wasn't easy, but I want to remind you that in 2022, the Office of Civil Rights found that LUSD failed to accur accurately track services, limited
services, failed to inst institute a learning plan, and informed staff that the district was not responsible for providing compensatory education. The LUSD violated students with disabilities civil rights to an education. Now, Miss
uh board member Grego, you mentioned that the division of special education has a lot of trust to um to regain and restore. So, I ask, can it be restored when the same staff that f that violated students with disabilities rights are still staffed in
the division of special education? Now what we have learned is that and I hope that you paid attention to what students were saying in the presentation that it seems that their place has to be earned in an inclusive environment such as general education. While yes, students
are entitled to a continuum of services and most importantly the least restrictive environment, they are also entitled to spend to the maximum of extent possible time with their typical peers which oftentimes is not possible
in special education classes. So I hope that you look into the implementation of how inclusive practices are being provided and opportunities that are being provided because general education access and access to typical peers should not be dependent on teacher
choice. It should be an IEP team decision which is formed by parents and oftentimes our concerns are very dismissed. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Okay, our next caller is Isabelle. Please press star
six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Isabelle, good afternoon. My name is Isabelle. My worry with the district ultimately is or recently is how you are doing the service locks and you're telling us that
students are receiving services when in reality they're not h it's not happening. You're li they're lying to us in a very bad way and there's no justice for that. It's not right because our children have valuable time that they can be using. They can be benefiting from these services. You as our
representatives have the responsibility to secure that the department of educa special education are following the laws and that the students are receiving the services appropriately which have to do with IP knowing that if they're not doing it they're vi violating the law
and it's not fair for our students. Now when it has to do with inclusion I would like for I would like for it to be more diverse. I would like for it not to be certain students that need to be there. All of our students have the right to
spend time with regular students because the reality of the world, that's how it is. Thank you. Great day. Miriam Hane. I am an investigative journalist best known for directing the award-winning film Vanishing of the
Bees, narrated by Elliot Page. I've been a journalist. I was living in California for 23 years. And I'm uh coming here to stand for uh Dr. Jim Fetzer, a
colleague um who I've done shows with and state that as a United States citizen and human and especially a journalist um that he deserves to have a jury and
that I could be him. I recently have written a very controversial book on George Floyd and that I would invite all people who are uh questioning him uh to
consider that these events are very multi-layered and complex and that if you were to look at the Alex Jones trial for instance, I'll just give you a little piece of education that if you do
a sidebar. Usually, of course, always actually the sidebar is silence. The whole point of a sidebar is that people don't get to hear what's being discussed, except in the case of Alex Jones, it was broadcast to the people at
home like a show trial. So um my my colleagues have uh I know people who have gone to jail have been falsely accused by the government and that I believe that we are a lot of
times um criminalizing good people and glorifying criminals and so I would just invite Thank you for your time. The next caller is SJ Rollins. SJ Rollins, I see
you're on the line. Please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. SJ Rollins. SJ Rollins, please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Okay, moving on. Uh let's see. We
have Uh, Dr. James Fetzer, you're listed as speaking remotely, but I do not have you signed in. Are you in the room? I do not see him in the room. Uh, we called them. Maria Daisy Ortiz, I see you're on
the line. Please press star six to unmute yourself. And you have two minutes to speak once you begin. Mr. Ortiz is going to speak in Spanish. So, if you have those headsets handy, slap them on and you will experience simultaneous translation. Maria Daisy Ortiz, I see you're on the line. Please press star
six to unmute yourself. Yes. Good afternoon to everybody. My name is Maria Dei Ortiz and first of all I wanted to talk to this committee to to help improve the
services provided the service for exceptional needs for for kids with dyslexia for example and there's a children that are exceptional Right. Um, children with
dyslexia learn with through action, but the teachers have to give that instruction and a lot of teachers don't give that instruction and they're in regular classes and this isn't being done so our kids
are falling behind. Um, I wasn't in agreement with the cell phone band because my because of that my daughter's in college and she has an instrument that records the class so she
can rewatch it and help her stay um updated. So technology can help us have a fluid understanding and but the district is behind in that sense. So, I would like for this committee to
reconsider uh having a an elective class for emotional intelligence for kinder through 12 so that they can be educated on this topic because
teachers after school are exhausted and not as efficient. They need to do this class too in the morning so that the professional development is fresh and they start and their day this way. And if you
reconsider this, it could assist changes. So, thank you and may you be well. Okay, let's see. We have uh Marcela Garcia, are you on the line? Marcela Garcia, have you calling in? Are you in the room?
No. Raquel Diaz. Raquel Diaz. No. Raquel Diaz. Like we have Mr. Dave Tokovski on the line. Daveki, please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two
minutes to speak once you begin. Thank you for the opportunity to speak and um I totally applaud the chair's uh summation that it requires a mind shift. that that is as good as it gets. The the
actual uh piece is to remove hostility. That was the language of the 20-year consent decree was that the school district retained a structure and delivery that had hostility at every level to special needs kids. And so the
vocabulary that we heard today was, "Oh, he's not in a normal class. He's not in a regular class. they have disabilities. I think we need to start looking at the vocabulary that we're still using. Now, this committee is
instruction. So, it's for all four 500,000 kids in charters and in the district. Today's discussion, today's discussion was around 3,000 kids, which is roughly a half of 1% of the kids. And hopefully as you forward with this
committee, you will combine it so that they're not two segregated committees, special ed instruction, and that you can cover big topics, the arts, social studies, reading, writing, creating thinkers, and the shortage of certain
employees to help instructional leads, the Williams violations. And finally, just wanted to say to Vicki, I think um the key key piece here is not that there's going to be cuts in special ed. It's whether it's going to be block granted. And we should be fighting for a block grant, special ed, and federal
money because in California that works well. We will cut out the 10% of special ed money retained by Sacramento and it would come directly to the school district. It is one of the only is one of the only bipartisan issues left in America is
special ed. And I don't think even the most uh insensitive Republicans are going to be cutting special ed. That kind of rhetoric is wrong. It's about how they're going to restructure it. And the district needs to be advocating for a block grant that keeps the funding at
the high level and increases to the 40%. And so I thank you for the committee. It does take a mind shift, but most importantly, it's about a hostile environment and the number of loss. Thank you, Mr. Tokovski. Uh, let's see. Marcela Garcia just arrived online, so
Marcela Garcia, please press star six to unmute yourself, and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Miss Garcia is going to speak in Spanish. So, if you'd like to hear what she's saying in English, please put on those headphones. Good afternoon. My name is Marcela Garcia. Good
afternoon. I have two children in the district. I'm only calling because in the Alama school, we have dual dual language. So, we want it to continue and it does continue, but the principal has
certain applications to open a new class and we need those funds. Please don't minimize these applications that we have that the principal has because they're children. that want to be in the dual program. The
district, if I remember correctly, 13 years ago, we're promoting the dual program quite a bit. So now we need those funds so that we can have a new teacher for the dual program or if she's there, we would like
the district to have those funds for the school. That school has fought so much so that they can continue that program, that dual program. My kids have benefited from that program, so they can
speak and write and read Spanish academically proficiently. And where they need to have that and learn that is in school. So please don't ignore these applications that the
principal has obtained. We need another class and you need to find the sufficient funds to do so. You need to have a reserve for this type of class. Please, I thank you very much for listening to me, but please consider
what the principal at Aldama is doing. And please don't ignore those applications because just how kids go, some from other countries come and they need these programs. Thank you very much. And also, please
consider why you're taking tutoring away from high school. Time. We appreciate your time. That concludes public comment. All right. Wonderful. Well, once again, thank you to everyone. Special thanks to Dr. Bayas for supporting this work. Dr.
Lures Ramirez Ortiz, thank you so much. And of course, all of you here who volunteer your time in the afternoons for this very special work. And we're going to pass out some certificates of appreciation. And I'd love to take a photograph with you all here. And if our
friends uh would like to come and take a picture with us, I'd love that. Thank you so much.